Interpretation God repented that is he did not bring the punishment upon them according to those days the Prophet had exprest and therefore forty natural days are to be understood and if it were meant of forty years and they were destroyed at the end of that term how could God be said to repent since according to that the punishment threatned was according to the time fixed brought upon them And the destruction of it forty years after will not be easily evinced if Jonah lived in the time of Jeroboam the second King of Israel as he did * 2 Kings 14 2â— And Niniveh was destroyed in the time of Josiah King of Judah But the other Answer is plain God did not fulfil what he had threatned because they reformed what they had committed When the threatning was made they were a fit Object for Justice but when they repented they were a fit Object for a merciful Respite To threaten when sins are high is a part of Gods Justice not to execute when sins are revok'd by Repentance is a part of Gods Goodness And in the Case of Hezekiah * 2 Kings 20.1 5. Isaiah comes with a Message from God that he should set his house in order for he shall dye that is the Disease was mortal and no outward Applications could in their own nature resist the Destemper Behold * Isa 38.1 5. I will add to thy days fifteen years I will heal thee It seems to me to be one intire Message because the latter part of it was so suddenly after the other committed to Isaiah to be delivered to Hezekiah for he was not gon out of the Kings house before he was ordered to return with the news of his health by an extraordinary indulgence of God against the power of Nature and force of the Disease Behold I will add to thy Life noting it as an extraordinary thing He was in the second Court of the Kings House when this word came to him * 2 Kings 20.4 the Kings House having three Courts so that he was not gon above half way out of the Palace God might send this message of Death to prevent the Pride Hezekiah might swell with for his deliverance from Senacherib As Paul had a Messenger of Satan to buffet him to prevent his lifting up * 2 Cor. 12.7 and this good Man was subject to this sin as we find afterwards in the Case of the Babylonish Embassadors And God delayed this other part of the Message to humble him and draw out his Prayer and as soon as ever he found Hezekiah in this temper he sent Isaiah with a comfortable message of recovery So that the Will of God was to signify to him the mortality of his distemper and afterwards to relieve him by a message of an extraordinary Recovery 5. Proposition God is not changed when of loving to any Creatures he becomes angry with them or of angry he becomes appeased The change in these cases is in the Creature according to the alteration in the Creature it stands in a various relatition to God an innocent Creature is the Object of his Kindness an offending Creature is the Object of his Anger there is a change in the dispensations of God as there is a change in the Creature making himself capable of such dispensations God always acts according to the immutable nature of his Holiness and can no more change in his Affections to good and evil than he can in his Essence When the Devils now fallen stood as glorious Angels they were the Objects of Gods love because holy When they fell they were the objects of Gods hatred because impure the same reason which made him love them while they were pure made him hate them when they were criminal The reason of his various dispensations to them was the same in both as considered in God his immutable holiness but as respecting the Creature different the nature of the Creature was changed but the Divine holy nature of God remain'd the same * Psal 18.26 With the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure and with the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward He is a refreshing light to those that obey him and a consuming fire to those that resist him Tho the same Angels were not always loved yet the same reason that moved him to love them moved him to hate them It had argued a change in God if he had loved them alway in whatsoever posture they were towards him It could not be counted love but a weakness and impotent fondness the change is in the object not in the affection of God For the object loved before is not beloved now because that which was the motive of love is not now in it So that the Creature having a different state from what it had falls under a different affection or dispensation It had been a mutable affection in God to love that which was not worthy of love with the same love wherewith he loved that which had the greatest resemblance to himself Had God loved the fallen Angels in that state and for that state he had hated himself because he had loved that which was contrary to himself and the image of his own holiness which made them appear before good in his sight The Will of God is unchangeably set to love righteousness and hate iniquity and from this hatred to punish it And if a righteous Creature contracts the wrath of God or a sinful Creature hath the Communications of Gods love it must be by a change in themselves Is the Sun changed when it hardens one thing and softens another according to the disposition of the several subjects Or when the Sun makes a flower more fragrant and a dead carcass more noysome There are divers effects but the reason of that diversity is not in the Sun but in the subject the Sun is the same and produceth those different effects by the same quality of heat So if an unholy Soul approach to God God looks angrily upon him If a holy Soul come before him the same immutable perfection in God draws out his kindness towards him As some think the Sun would rather refresh than scorch us if our bodies were of the same nature and substance with that Luminary As the Will of God for Creating the world was no new but an Eternal Will tho it manifested it self in time so the Will of God for the punishment of sin or the reconciliation of the sinner was no new Will Tho his wrath in time break out in the effects of it upon sinners and his love flows out in the effects of it upon penitents Christ by his death reconciling God to man did not alter the Will of God but did what was consonant to his Eternal Will He came not to change his Will but to execute his Will Lo I come to do thy Will oh God * Heb. 10.7 And the grace of God in Christ was not a new grace but an old grace in a
of a spiritual life Did not all lie wallowing in their own filthy blood and what could the steam and noysomness of that deserve at the hands of a pure Majesty but to be cast into a sink furthest from his sight Were they not all considered in this deplorable posture with an equal proportion of poyson in their nature when God first took his pen and singled out some Names to write in the Book of life It could not be merit in any one peice of this abominable Mass that should stir up that resolution in God to set apart this person for a Vessel of Glory while he permitted another to putrifie in his own gore He loved Jacob and hated Esau though they were both parts of the common Mass the Seed of the same Loyns and lodg'd in the same Womb. 2. Nor could it â—e any foresight of works to be done in time by them or of Faith that might determine God to choose them What good could he foresee resulting from extream corruption and a nature alienated from him What could he foresee of good to be done by them but what he resolved in his own will to bestow an ability upon them to bring forth His choice of them was to a Holiness not for a Holiness preceding his determination Eph. 1.4 He hath chosen us that we might be Holy before him he ordained us to good works not for them Eph. 2.10 What is a Fruit cannot be a moving cause of that whereof it is a fruit Grace is a stream from the spring of electing love the branch is not the cause of the Root but the Root of the Branch nor the stream the cause of the spring but the spring the cause of the stream Good works suppose Grace and a good and right habit in the person as rational acts suppose reason Can any man say that the rational acts man performs after his Creation were a cause why God Created him This would make Creation and every thing else not so much an act of his will as an act of his Understanding God foresaw no rational act in man before the act of his will to give him reason nor foresees faith in any before the act of his will determining to give him Faith Eph. 2.8 Faith is the gift of God In the Salvation which grows up from this first purpose of God he regards not the works we have done as a principal motive to settle the top-stone of our happiness but his own purpose and the Grace given in Christ 2 Timothy 1.9 Who hath saved us and call'd us with a holy Calling not according to our own works but according to his own purpose and Grace which was given to us in Christ before the World began The honour of our Salvation cannot be challeng'd by our works much less the honour of the Foundation of it It was a pure gift of Grace without any respect to any spiritual much less natural perfection Why should the Apostle mention that circumstance when he speaks of God's loving Jacob and hating Esau when neither of them had done good or evil Rom. 9.11 if there were any foresight of mens works as the moving cause of his love or hatred God regarded not the works of either as the first cause of his choice but acted by his own Liberty without respect to any of their actions which were to be done by them in time If Faith be the fruit of Election the prescience of Faith doth not influence the Electing act of God Tit. 1.1 'T is called the Faith of Gods Elect. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ according to the Faith of Gods Elect. i. e. Setled in this Office to bring the Elect of God to Faith If men be chosen by God upon the foresight of Faith or not chosen till they have Faith they are not so much God's Elect as God their Elect they choose God by Faith before God chooseth them by love It had not been the Faith of Gods Elect i. e. Of those already chosen but the Faith of those that were to be chosen by God afterwards * Dalle in loc Election is the cause of Faith and not Faith the cause of Election Fire is the cause of heat and not the heat of Fire the Sun is the cause of the day and not the day the cause of the rising of the Sun Men are not chosen because they beleive but they beleive because they are chosen The Apostle did ill else to appropriate that to the Elect which they had no more interest in by vertue of their Election than the veriest Reprobate in the World If the foresight of what works might be done by his Creatures was the motive of his choosing them why did he not choose the Devils to Redemption who could have done him better service by the strength of their Nature than the whole Mass of Adam's posterity Well then there is no possible way to lay the original Foundation of this act of Election and preterition in any thing but the absolute Soveraignty of God Justice or Injustice comes not into consideration in this case There is no debt which Justice or Injustice always respects in its acting If he had pleased he might have chosen all if he had pleased he might have chosen none It was in his supream power to have resolved to have left all Adam's posterity under the rack of his Justice if he determined to snatch out any it was a part of his dominion but without any injury to the Creatures he leaves under their own guilt Did he not pass by the Angels and take man And by the same right of Dominion may he pick out some men from the common Mass and lay aside others to bear the punishment of their Crimes Are they not all his Subjects All are his Criminals and may be dealt with at the pleasure of their undoubted Lord and Soveraign This is a work of arbitrary power Since he might have chosen none or chosen all as he saw good himself 'T is at the liberty of the Artificer to determine his Wood or Stone to such a figure that of a Prince or that of a Toad and his materials have no right to complain of him since it lies wholly upon his own liberty They must have little sence of their own vileness and God's infinite excellency above them by right of Creation that will contend that God hath a lesser right over his Creatures than an Artificer over his Wood or Stone If it were at his liberty whither to redeem Man or send Christ upon such an undertaking 't is as much at his liberty and the prerogative is to be allow'd him what persons he will resolve to make capable of enjoying the fruits of that Redemption One Man was as fit a subject for Mercy as another as they all lay in their orginal guilt Why would not Divine Mercy cast its eye upon this Man as well as upon his Neighbour There was no cause in the Creature but all in God it
himself is an infinite Mirror of Goodness and ravishing Loveliness He is infinitely good and so universally good and nothing but good and is therefore so agreeable to a Creature as a Creature that it is impossible that the Creature while it bears itself to God as a Creature should be guilty of this but thirst after him and cherish every motion to him As no man wishes the destruction of any Creature as a Creature but as it may conduce to something which he counts may be beneficial to himself so no man doth nor perhaps can wish the cessation of the Being of God as God for then he must wish his own Being to cease also But as he considers him clothed with some perfections which he apprehends as injurious to him as his Holiness in forbidding Sin his Justice in punishing Sin And God being judged in those perfections contrary to what the revolted Creature thinks convenient and good for himself he may wish God stript of those perfections that thereby he may be free from all fear of trouble and grief from him in his fallen State In wishing God deprived of those he wishes God deprived of his Being because God cannot retain his Deity without a love of Righteousness and Hatred of Iniquity and he could not testifie his love to the one or his loathing of the other without encouraging Goodness and witnessing his Anger against Iniquity Let us now appeal to ourselves and examin our own Consciences Did we never please our selves sometimes in the thoughts how happy we should be how free in our vain pleasures if there were no God Have we not desired to be our own Lords without controle subject to no Law but our own and be guided by no Will but that of the Flesh Did we never rage against God under his afflicting Hand Did we never wish God stript of his Holy Will to command and his Righteous Will to punish c. Thus much for the general For the proof of this many considerations will bring in Evidence Most may be reduced to these two Generals Man would set himself up First as his own Rule Secondly as his own End and Happiness 1. Man would set himself up as his own Rule instead of God This will be evidenced in this Method 1. Man naturally disowns the Rule God sets him 2. He owns any other Rule rather than that of Gods prescribing 3. These he doth in order to the setting himself up as his own Rule 4. He makes himself not only his own Rule but would make himself the Rule of God and give Laws to his Creator 1. Man naturally disowns the Rule God sets him 'T is all one to deny his Royalty and to deny his Being When we disown his Authority we disown his God-head 'T is the Right of God to be the Soveraign of his Creatures and it must be a very loose and trivial assent that such men have to Gods Superiority over them and consequently to the Excellency of his Being upon which that Authority is founded who are scarce at ease in themselves but when they are invading his Rights breaking his Bands casting away his Cords and contradicting his Will Every man naturally is a Son of Belial would be without a Yoke and leap over Gods Inclosures and in breaking out against his Soveraignity we disown his Being as God For to be God and Soveraign are inseparable He could not be God if he were not Supreme nor could he be a Creator without being a Law-giver To be God and yet inferior to another is a Contradiction To make Rational Creatures without prescribing them a Law is to make them without Holiness Wisdom and Goodness 1. There is in Man naturally an unwillingness to have any acquaintance with the Rule God sets him Psal 14.2 None that did understand and seek God The refusing Instruction and casting his Word behind the back is a part of Atheism * Psal 50 1â— We are heavy in hearing the Instructions either of Law or Gospel * Heb. 5.11 12. and slow in the Apprehension of what we hear The people that God had hedged in from the Wilderness of the World for his own Garden were foolish and did not know God were sottish and had no understanding of him * Jer. 4.22 The Law of God is accounted a strange thing * Hos 8.12 a thing of a different Clymate and a far Country from the heart of Man wherewith the mind of Man had no natural acquaintance and had no desire to have any or they regarded it as a sordid thing What God accounts great and valuable they account mean and despicable Men may shew a Civility to a Stranger but scarce contract an Intimacy There can be no Amicable Agreement between the holy Will of God and the heart of a depraved Creature One is holy the other unholy one is universally good the other stark naught The purity of the Divine Rule renders it nauseous to the impurity of a carnal heart Water and Fire may as well friendly kiss each other and live together without quarrelling and hissing as the holy Will of God and the unregenerate heart of a fallen Creature The nauseating a Holy Rule is an Evidence of Atheism in the heart as the nauseating wholesome Food is of putrified Flegm in the Stomack 'T is found more or less in every Christian in the Remainders though not in a full Empire As there is a Law in his Mind whereby he delights in the Law of God so there is a Law in his Members whereby he wars against the Law of God Rom. 7.22 23 25. How predominant is this loathing of the Law of God when corrupt Nature is in its full strength without any Principle to controul it There is in the Mind of such a one a Darkness whereby it is ignorant of it and in the Will a Depravedness whereby it is repugnant to it If Man were naturally willing and able to have an intimate acquaintance with and delight in the Law of God it had not been such a signal favour for God to promise to write the Law in the heart A man may sooner engrave the Chronicle of a whole Nation or all the Records of God in the Scripture upon the hardest Marble with his bare finger than write one Syllable of the Law of God in a spiritual manner upon his heart For 1. Men are negligent in using the means for the knowledge of Gods Will. All natural men are Fools who know not how to use the price God puts into their hands * Pro. 17.16 They put not a due estimate upon opportunities and means of Grace and account that Law-Folly which is the Birth of an infinite and holy Wisdom The knowledge of God which they may glean from Creatures and is more pleasant to the natural gust of men is not improved to the Glory of God if we will believe the Indictment the Apostle brings against the Gentiles * Rom. 1.21 And most of those that have
as his own Knowledge God having an Infinite Knowledge of himself can only have an Infinite Love to himself and consequently an Infinite Holiness without any defect because he loves himself according to the vastness of his own Amiableness which no finite Being can Therefore though the Angels be exempt from Corruption and Soil they cannot enter into comparison with the Purity of God without acknowledgment of a dimness in themselves Besides He charges them with folly and puts no trust in them because they have the power of sinning though not the act of sinning They have a possible Folly in their own Nature to be charged with Holiness is a quality separable from them but it is inseparable from God Had they not at first a mutability in their Nature none of them could have sinned there had been no Devils but because some of them sinned the rest might have sinned And though the standing Angels shall never be changed yet they are still changeable in their own Nature and their standing is due to Grace not to Nature and though they shall be for ever preserved yet they are not nor ever can be Immutable by Nature for then they should stand upon the same bottom with God himself but they are supported by Grace against that Changeableness of Nature which is essential to a Creature The Creator only hath Immortality that is Immutability ‖ 1. Tim. 3.16 'T is as certain a Truth that no Creature can be naturally Immutable and Impeccable as that God cannot create any thing actually polluted and imperfect 'T is as possible that the highest Creature may sin as it is possible that it may be annihilated It may become not holy as it may become not a Creature but Nothing The Holiness of a Creature may be reduc'd into Nothing as well as his Substance But the Holiness of the Creator cannot be diminish'd dimm'd or overshadowed James 1.17 He is the Father of lights with whom is no variableness or shadow of turning 'T is as impossible his Holiness should be blotted as that his Deity should be extinguish'd For whatsoever Creature hath essentially such or such qualities cannot be stript of them without being turned out of its Essence As a Man is essentially Rational and if he ceaseth to be Rational he ceaseth to be Man The Sun is essentially Luminous if it should become dark in its own Body it would cease to be the Sun In regard of this absolute and only Holiness of God 't is thrice repeated by the Seraphims Isai 6.3 The Threefold Repetition of a word notes the Certainty or Absoluteness of the thing or the Irreversibleness of the Resolve as Ezek. 21.27 I will overturn overturn overturn notes the Certainty of the Judgment also Revel 8.8 Woe woe woe Three times repeated signifies the same The Holiness of God is so absolutely peculiar to him that it can no more be exprest in Creatures than his Omnipotence whereby they may be able to create a World or his Omniscience whereby they may be capable of knowing all things and knowing God as he knows himself 3. God is so holy that he cannot possibly approve of any Evil done by another but doth perfectly abhor it it would not else be a glorious holiness Psal 5.3 He hath no pleasure in wickedness He doth not only love that which is just but abhor with a perfect hatred all things contrary to the Rule of Righteousness Holiness can no more approve of sin than it can commit it To be delighted with the evil in anothers act contracts a Guilt as well as the Commission of it for approbation of a thing is a consent to it Sometime the approbation of an evil in another is a more grievous Crime than the act it self as appears in Rom. 1.32 who knowing the Judgment of God not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do it Where the not only manifests it to be a greater guilt to take pleasure in them Every sin is aggravated by the delight in it to take pleasure in the evil of anothers Act on shews a more ardent affection and love to sin than the Committer himself may have This therefore can as little fall upon God as to do an evil act himself yet as a man may be delighted with the Consequences of anothers sin as it may occasion some publick good or private good to the guilty person as sometimes it may be an occasion of his repentance when the horridness of a fact stares him in the face and occasions a self-reflection for that and other Crimes which is attended with an indignation against them and sincere remorse for them so God is pleased with those good things his Goodness and Wisdom bring forth upon the occasion of sin But in regard of his Holiness he cannot approve of the evil whence his Infinite Wisdom drew forth his own glory and his Creatures good His Pleasure is not in the sinful act of the Creature but in the act of his own goodness and skill turning it to another end than what the Creature aimed at 1. He abhors it necessarily Holiness is the glory of the Deity therefore necessary The Nature of God is so holy that he cannot but hate it Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity He is more opposite to it than light to darkness and therefore it can expect no countenance from him A love of holiness cannot be without a hatred of every thing that is contrary to it As God necessarily loves himself so he must necessarily hate every thing that is against himself And as he loves himself for his own excellency and holiness he must necessarily detest whatsoever is repugnant to his holiness because of the evil of it Since he is infinitely good he cannot but love goodness as it is a resemblance to himself and cannot but abhor unrighteousness as being most distant from him and contrary to him If he have any esteem for his own Perfections he must needs have an implacable aversion to all that is so repugnant to him that would if it were possible destroy him and is a point directed not only against his glory but against his life If he did not hate it he would hate himself For since Righteousness is his Image and Sin would deface his Image if he did not love his Image and loath what is against his Image he would loath himself he would be an Enemy to his own Nature †Turretin de satisfact p. 35.36 Nay if it were possible for him to love it it were possible for him not to be holy it were possible then for him to deny himself and will that he were no God which is a palpable Contradiction Yet this necessity in God of hating sin is not a brutish necessity such as is in meer Animals that avoid by a natural Instinct not of choice what is prejudicial to them but most free as well as necessary arising from an infinite
knowledge of his own Nature and of the evil nature of Sin and the contrariety of it to his own Excellency and the order of his works 2. Therefore intensely Nothing do men act for more than their glory As he doth infinitely and therefore perfectly know himself so he infinitely and therefore perfectly knows what is contrary to himself and as according to the manner and measure of his knowledge of himself is his love to himself as infinite as his knowledge and therefore unexpressible and unconceivable by us So from the perfection of his knowledge of the evil of Sin which is infinitely above what any Creature can have doth arise a displeasure against it sutable to that knowledge In Creatures the degrees of affection to or aversion from a thing are suted to the strength of their apprehensions of the good or evil in them God knows not only the workers of wickedness but the wickedness of their works ‖ Job 11.11 for he knows vain men he sees wickedness also The vehemency of this hatred is exprest variously in Scripture he loaths it so that he is impatient of beholding it the very sight of it affects him with detestation Hab. 1.13 he hates the first spark of it in the imagination Zach. 8.17 with what variety of expressions doth he repeat his indignation at their polluted Services Amos 5.21 22. I hate I detest I despise I will not smell I will not accept I will not regard take away from me the noise of thy Songs I will not hear So Isai 1.14 My Soul hates they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them 'T is the abominable thing that he hates Jer. 44.4 he is vexed and fretted at it Isai 63.10 Ezek. 16.43 He abhors it so that his hatred redounds upon the Person that commits it Psal 5.5 He hates all workers of Iniquity Sin is the only primary Object of his Displeasure He is not displeas'd with the Nature of man as man for that was derived from him but with the Nature of man as sinful which is from the sinner himself When a man hath but one Object for the exercise of all his Anger 't is stronger than when diverted to many Objects A mighty Torrent when diverted into many Streams is weaker than when it comes in a full Body upon once place only The Infinite anger and hatred of God which is as infinite as his love and mercy has no other Object against which he directs the mighty force of it but only Unrighteousness He hates no Person for all the penal Evils upon him though they were more by ten thousand times than Job was struck with but only for his sin Again Sin being only evil and an unmixt evil there is nothing in it that can abate the detestation of God or ballance his hatred of it there is not the least grain of goodness in it to encline him to the least affection to any part of it This hatred cannot but be intense for as the more any Creature is sanctified the more is he advanc'd in the abhorrence of that which is contrary to Holiness therefore God being the Highest most Absolute and Infinite Holiness doth infinitely and therefore intensly hate unholiness being infinitely righteous doth infinitely abhor unrighteousness being infinitely true doth infinitely abhor falsity as it is the greatest and most deformed evil As it is from the righteousness of his Nature that he hath a content and satisfaction in righteousness Psal 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth righteousness So it is from the same righteousness of his Nature that he detests whatsoever is morally evil As his Nature therefore is Infinite so must his abhorrence be 3. Therefore universally because necessarily and intensly He doth not hate it in one and indulge it in another but loaths it wherever he finds it not one worker of Iniquity is exempt from it Psal 5.5 Thou hatest all workers of iniquity For it is not sin as in this or that person or as great or little but sin as sin is the Object of his hatred And therefore let the person be never so great and have particular Characters of his Image upon him it secures him not from God's hatred of any evil action he shall commit He is a jealous God jealous of his Glory * Exod. 20.5 a Metaphor taken from jealous Husbands who will not indure the least Adultery in their Wives nor God the least defection of man from his Law Every act of sin is a spiritual Adultery denying God to be the chief Good and giving that Prerogative by that Act to some vile thing He loves it no more in his own People than he doth in his Enemies he frees them not from his Rod the testimony of his loathing their Crimes Whosoever sows Iniquity shall reap Affliction It might be thought that he affected their Dross if he did not refine them and loved their filth if he did not cleanse them because of his detestation of their sin he will not spare them from the Furnace though because of love to their persons in Christ he will exempt them from Tophet How did the Sword ever and anon drop down upon David's Family after his unworthy dealing in Vriah's Case and cut off ever and anon some of the Branches of it He doth sometimes punish it more severely in this Life in his own People than in others Upon Jonah's Disobedience a Storm pursues him and a Whale devours him while the Prophane World lived in their Lusts without controul Moses for one act of Unbelief is excluded from Canaan when greater Sinners attained that happiness 'T is not a light punishment but a vengeance he takes on their Inventions †Psal 99 8. to manifest that he hates sin as sin and not because the worst persons commit it Perhaps had a prophane Man touched the Ark the hand of God had not so suddenly reach'd him But when Vzzah a man zealous for him as may be supposed by his care for the support of the tottering Ark would step out of his place he strikes him down for his disobedient Action by the side of the Ark which he would indirectly as not being a Levite sustain †2 Sam. 6.7 Nor did our Saviour so sharply reprove the Pharisees and turn so short from them as he did from Peter when he gave a carnal advise and contrary to that wherein was to be the greatest manifestation of God's Holiness viz. the Death of Christ ‖ 〈…〉 He calls him Satan a name sharper than the title of the Devil's Children wherewith he marked the Pharisees and given besides him to none but Judas who made a profession of love to him and was outwardly rank'd in the number of his Disciples A Gardiner hates a Weed the more for being in the bed with the most pretious Flowers God's hatred is universally fixed against sin and he hates it as much in those whose Persons shall not fall under his eternal Anger as being secured in
it self that it cannot be conceived to fall within the Compass of the Divine Nature †Deut. 32.4 who is a God without iniquity because a God of truth and sincerity just and right is he To bestow excellent Faculties upon Man in Creation and incline him by a suddain impulsion to things contrary to the true end of him and induce an inevitable ruin upon that Work which he had composed with so much Wisdom and Goodness and pronounced good with so much delight and Pleasure is inconsistent with that love which God bears to the Creature of his own framing To incline his Will to that which would render him the Object of his hatred the Fuel for his Justice and sink him into deplorable Misery 't is most absurd and unchristian-like to imagine 3. Nor can God necessitate man to sin Indeed sin cannot be committed by force there is no sin but is in some sort voluntary Voluntary in the root or voluntary in the branch voluntary by an immediate act of the Will or voluntary by a general or natural inclination of the Will That is not a Crime to which a man is violenc'd without any concurrence of the Faculties of the Soul to that act 't is indeed not an act but a passion a man that is forced is not an Agent but a Patient under the force But what necessity can there be upon Man from God since he hath implanted such a Principle in him that he cannot desire any thing but what is good either really or apparently and if a man mistakes the Object 't is his own fault for God hath endowed him with Reason to discern and liberty of Will to choose upon that Judgment And though 't is to be acknowledged that God hath an Absolute Soveraign Dominion over his Creature without any Limitation and may do what he pleases and dispose of it according to his own Will as a Potter doth with his Vessel Rom. 9.21 according as the Church speaks Isa 64.8 We are the Clay and thou our Potter and we all are the work of thy hand Yet he cannot pollute any undefiled Creature by virtue of that Soveraign Power which he hath to do what he will with it because such an act would be contrary to the Foundation and Right of his Dominion which consists in the excellency of his Nature his immense Wisdom and unspotted Purity If God should therefore do any such act he would expunge the right of his Dominion by blotting out that nature which renders him fit for that Dominion and the exercise of it * Amyrald disert pa 103 104. Any Dominion which is exercis'd without the Rules of goodness is not a true Soveraignty but an insupportable Tyranny God would cease to be a rightful Soveraign if he ceased to be good and he would cease to be good if he did command necessitate or by any positive operation incline inwardly the heart of a Creature directly to that which were morally evil and contrary to the eminency of his own Nature But that we may the better conceive of this let us trace Man in his first fall whereby he subjected himself and all his Posterity to the Curse of the Law and hatred of God we shall find no foot-steps either of Precept outward force or inward impulsion †Amyrald defens de Calvin p. 151. 152 The plain story of Man's Apostacy dischargeth God from any interest in the Crime as an incouragement and excuseth him from any appearance of suspicion when he shewed him the Tree he had reserved as a mark of his Soveraignty and forbad him to eat of the Fruit of it He backt the Prohibition with the threatning the greatest Evil viz. Death which could be understood to imply nothing less than the loss of all his happiness and in that couch'd an assurance of the perpetuity of his felicity if he did not rebelliously reach forth his hand to take and eat of the Fruit * Gen. 2.16 17 'T is true God had given that Fruit an excellency a goodness for food and a pleasantness to the eye †Gen. 3.6 He had given Man an appetite whereby he was capable of desiring so pleasant a Fruit but God had by Creation rang'd it under the Command of Reason if man would have kept it in its due Obedience he had fixed a severe Threatning to bar the unlawful Excursions of it He had allowed him a multitude of other Fruits in the Garden and given him liberty enough to satisfie his Curiosity in all except this only Could there be any thing more obliging to Man to let God have his reserve of that one Tree than the grant of all the rest and more deterring from any disobedient Attempt than so strict a Command spirited with so dreadful a Penalty God did not sollicite him to rebel against him A sollicitation to it and a command against it were inconsistent The Devil assaults him and God permitted it and stands as it were a Spectator of the issue of the Combat There could be no necessity upon Man to listen to and entertain the Suggestions of the Serpent He had a power to resist him and he had an answer ready for all the Devils Arguments had they been multiplied to more than they were the opposing the Order of God had been a sufficient Confutaion of all the Devils plausible reasonings That Creator who hath given me my being hath ordered me not to eat of it Though the pleasure of the Fruit might allure him yet the force of his Reason might have quell'd the liquorishness of his Sense The perpetual thinking of and sounding out the command of God had silenc'd both Satan and his own Appetite had disarm'd the Tempter and preserved his Sensitive part in its due subjection What inclination can we suppose there could be from the Creator when upon the very first offer of the Temptation Eve opposes to the Tempter the Prohibition and Threatning of God and strains it to a higher peg than we find God had delivered it in For in Gen. 2.17 't is you shall not eat of it but she adds Gen. 3.3 neither shall you touch it which was a Remark that might have had more influence to restrain her Had our first Parents kept this fixed upon their Understandings and Thoughts that God had forbidden any such act as the Eating of the Fruit and that he was true to execute the Threatning he had uttered of which Truth of God they could not but have a natural Notion with what ease might they have withstood the Devils attack'd and defeated his Design And it had been easie with them to have kept their Understandings by the force of such a thought from entertaining any contrary Imagination There is no ground for any jealousie of any Encouragements inward Impulsions or necessity from God in this Affair A discharge of God from this first sin will easily induce a freedom of him from all other sins which follow upon it God doth not then
it They had curtail'd it and diminish'd part of its Authority cutting off its empire over the least Evil and left its power only to check the grosser Practises But Christ restores it to the due extent of its Soveraignty and shews it in those dimensions in which the Holy Men of God considered it as exceeding broad Psal 119.96 reaching to all Actions all Motions all Circumstances attending them full of inexhaustible Treasures of Righteousness And though this Law since the Fall doth irritate Sin 't is no disparagement but a Testimony to the Righteousness of it which the Apostle manifests by his Wherefore Rom. 7.8 Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence and repeating the same sense verse 11. subjoyns a Wherefore verse 12. Wherefore the Law is holy The rising of Mens sinful hearts against the Law of God when it strikes with its Preceptive and Minatory parts upon their Consciences evidenceth the Holiness of the Law and the Law-giver In its own Nature it is a Directing Rule but the malignant Nature of Sin is exasperated by it as an hostile quality in a Creature will awaken it self at the appearance of its Enemy The Purity of this Beam and Transcript of God bears witness to a greater clearness and beauty in the Sun and Original Undefiled Streams manifest an untainted Fountain 2. It is seen in the manner of its Precepts As it prescribes all Good and forbids all Evil so it doth enjoyn the one and banish the other as such The Laws of Men command Vertuous things not as Vertuous in themselves but as useful for Human Society which the Magistrate is the Conservator of and the Guardian of Justice ‖ Ames de Consc lib. 5 cap. 1. queâ—t â— The Laws of Men contain not all the Precepts of Vertue but only such as are accommodated to their Customes and are useful to preserve the Ligaments of their Government The design of them is not so much to render the Subjects good Men as good Citizens They order the Practise of those Vertues that may strengthen Civil Society and discountenance those Vices only which weaken the Sinews of it But God beâ—â—â— the Guardian of Vniversal Righteousness doth not only enact the Observance of all Righteousness but the observance of it as Righteousness He Commands that which is Just in it self enjoyns Vertues as Vertues and prohibits Vices as Vices as they are profitable or injurious to our selves as well as to Others Men command Temperance and Justice not as Vertues in themselves but as they prevent Disorder and Confusion in a Common Wealth And forbid Adultery and Theft not as Vices in themselves but as they are Intrenchments upon Property Not as hurtful to the Person that commits them but as hurtful to the Person against whose Right they are committed Upon this account perhaps Paul applauds the Holiness of the Law of God in regard of its own Nature as considered in it self more than he doth the Justice of it in regard of Man and the goodness and conveniency of it to the World Rom. 7.12 the Law is Holy twice and Just and Good but once 3. In the Spiritual extent of it The most Righteous Powers of the World do not so much regard in their Laws what the Inward Affections of their Subjects are The External Acts are only the Objects of their Decrees either to encourage them if they be useful or discourage them if they be hurtful to the Community And indeed they can do no other for they have no Power proportioned to Inward Affections since the Inward disposition falls not under their Censure and it would be foolish for any Legislative Power to make such Laws which it is impossible for it to put in Execution They can prohibit the Outward Acts of Theft and Murder but they cannot command the Love of God the Hatred of Sin the Contempt of the World they cannot prohibit Vnclean Thoughts and the Atheism of the Heart But the Law of God surmounts in Righteousness all the Laws of the best regulated Common Wealths in the World It restrains the Licentious Heart as well as the Violent Hand it damps the very first bubblings of Corrupt Nature orders a Purity in the Spring commands a clean Fountain clean Streams clean Vessels It would frame the Heart to an Inward as well as the Life to an Outward Righteousness and make the Inside purer than the Outside It forbids the first Belchings of a Murderous or Adulterous intention It obligeth Man as a Rational Creature and therefore exacts a conformity of every Rational Faculty and of whatsoever is under the Command of them It commands the Private Closet to be free from the least Cobweb as well as the Outward Porch to be clean from Mire and Dirt. It frowns upon all stains and pollutions of the most retired Thoughts Hence the Apostle calls it a Spiritual Law Rom. 7.14 as not Political but extending its force further than the Frontiers of the Man placing its Ensigns in the Metropolis of the Heart and Mind and curbing with its Scepter the Inward motions of the Spirit and commanding over the Secrets of every Mans Breast 4. In regard of the perpetuity of it The Purity and perpetuity of it are link'd together by the Psalmist Psal 19.9 The fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever the Fear of the Lord that is that Law which commands the Fear and Worship of God and is the Rule of it And indeed God values it at such a rate that rather than part with a tittle or let the honour of it lie in the Dust he would not only let Heaven and Earth pass away but expose his Son to death for the reparation of the wrong it had sustain'd So holy it is that the Holiness and Righteousness of God cannot dispence with it cannot abrogate it without despoiling himself of his own Being 'T is a Copy of the Eternal Law Can he ever abrogate the command of Love to himself without shewing some contempt of his own Excellency and very Being Before he can enjoyn a Creature not to love him he must make himself unworthy of Love and worthy of Hatred this would be the highest Vnrighteousness to order us to hate that which is only worthy of our highest Affections †Suarez So God cannot change the first Command and order us to worship many Gods this would be against the Excellency and Unity of God For God cannot constitute another God or make any thing worthy of an Honour equal with himself Those things that are good only because they are Commanded are alterable by God Those things that are intrinsically and essentially Good and therefore Commanded are unalterable as long as the Holiness and Righteousness of God stand firm The intrinsick Goodness of the Moral Law the concern God hath for it thâ— perpetuity of the Precepts of the first Table and the care he hath had to imprint the Precepts of the Second upon the
Will because there was a flaw contracted in that Nature that came right and true out of his hand And as he that winds up his disordered Watch is in the same manner the cause of its motion then as he was when it was regular yet by that act of his he is not the cause of the false motion of it but that is from the deficiency of some part of the Watch it self So though God concurs to that Action of the Creature whereby the Wickedness of the Heart is drawn out yet is not God therefore as Unholy as the Heart 5. God hath one End in his Concurrence and Man another in his Action So that there is a Righteous and often a gracious End in God when there is a base and unworthy End in Man God concurs to the substance of the Act Man produceth the circumstance of the Act whereby it is Evil. God orders both the Action wherein he concurs and the Sinfulness over which he presides as a Governour to his own Ends. In Josephs case Man was sinful and God merciful his Brethren acted Envy and God design'd Mercy Gen. 45.4 5. They would be rid of him as an Eyesore and God concurr'd with their Action to make him their Preserver Gen. 50.20 Ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good God concur'd to Judas his action of betraying our Saviour he supported his Nature while he contracted with the Priests and supported his Members while he was their Guide to apprehend him God's end was the manifestation of his choicest love to Man and Judas his end was the gratification of his own Covetousness The Assyrian did a Divine Work against Hierusalem but not with a Divine end * Isa 10.5.6 â— He had a mind to enlarge his Empire enrich his Coffers with the Spoil and gain the Title of a Conqueror he is desirous to Invade his Neighbours and God employs him to punish his Rebels but he means not so nor doth his heart think so He intended not as God intended The Axe doth not think what the Carpenter intends to do with it But God used the rapine of an Ambitious Nature as an Instrument of his Justice As the exposing Malefactors to wild Beasts was an ancient Punishment whereby the Magistrate intended the execution of Justice and to that purpose used the natural fierceness of the Beasts to an end different from what those ravaging Creatures aim'd at God concur'd with Satan in spoiling Job of his Goods and scarifying his Body God gave Satan license to do it Job 1.12 21. and Job acknowledges it to be God's act But their ends were different God concurred with Satan for the clearing the Integrity of his Servant when Satan aim'd at nothing but the provoking him to Curse his Creator The Physician applies Leeches to suck the superfluous blood but the Leeches suck to glut themselves without any regard to the intention of the Physician and the welfare of the Patient In the same act where men intend to hurt God intends to correct so that his concurrence is in a holy manner while men commit unrighteous actions A Judge commands the Executioner to execute the Sentence of Death which he hath justly pronounced against a Malefactor and admonisheth him to do it out of love to Justice the Executioner hath the Authority of the Judge for his Commission and the protection of the Judge for his Security The Judge stands by to countenance and secure him in the doing of it but if the Executioner hath not the same intention as the Judge viz. a love to Justice in the performance of his Office but a private hatred to the Offender the Judge though he commanded the fact of the Executioner yet did not command this Error of his in it and though he protects him in the Fact yet he owns not this corrupt disposition in him in the doing of what was enjoyn'd him as any act of his own To Conclude this Since the Creature cannot act without God cannot lift up a Hand or move his Tongue without God's preserving and upholding the Faculty and preserving the power of Action and preserving every Member of the Body in its actual Motion and in every circumstance of its Motion we must necessarily suppose God to have such a way of concurrence as doth not intrench upon his Holiness We must not equal the Creature to God by denying its dependence on him Nor must we imagine such a concurrence to the sinfulness of an act as stains the Divine Purity which is I think sufficiently salv'd by distinguishing the matter of the act from the evil adhering to it For since all evil is founded in some good the evil is distinguishable from the good and the deformity of the action from the action it self which as it is a created act hath a dependance on the will and influence of God And as it is a sinful act is the product of the will of the Creature 6. Proposition The holiness of God is not blemisht by proposing Objects to a man which he makes use of to sin There is no Object propos'd to man but is directed by the Providence of God which influenceth all motions in the World and there is no Object propos'd to man but his active Nature may according to the goodness or badness of his disposition make a good or an ill use of That two men one of a charitable the other of a hard-hearted disposition meet with an indigent and necessitous Object is from the Providence of God yet this indigent person is relieved by the one and neglected by the other There could be no action in the World but about some Object there could be no Object offer'd to us but by Divine Providence the active Nature of man would be in vain if there were not Objects about which it might be exercis'd Nothing could present it self to man as an Object either to excite his Grace or awaken his Corruption but by the conduct of the Governour of the World That David should walk upon the Battlements of his Palace and Bathsheba be in the Bath at the same time was from the Divine Providence which orders all the affairs of the World * 2 Sam. 117. and so some understand Jer. 6.21 Thus saith the Lord I will lay stumbling blocks before this People and the Fathers and Sons together shall fall upon them Since they have offered Sacrifices without those due qualifications in their hearts which were necessary to render them acceptable to me I will lay in their way such Objects which their Corruption will use ill to their further sin and ruin so Psal 105.25 He turned their heart to hate his people that is by the multiplying his People he gave occasion to the Egyptians of hating them instead of caressing them as they had formerly done But God's Holiness is not blemisht by this for 1. This proposing or presenting of Objects invades not the liberty of any man The Tree of the Knowledge of Good
Throne * Rev. 4.8 10. a Metaphor taken from the triumphing Generals among the Romans who hung up their victorious Laurels in the Capitol dedicating them to their Gods acknowledging them their Superiors in strength and Authors of their victory This self-emptiness at the consideration of Divine Purity is the note of the true Church represented by the 24 Elders and a note of a true Member of the Church whereas boasting of Perfection Merit is the property of the Antichristian tribe that have mean thoughts of this adorable Perfection think themselves more righteous than the unspotted Angels What a self annihilation is therein a good man when the sense of Divine Purity is most lively in him yea how detestable is he to himsel There is as little proportion between the holiness of the Divine Majesty and that of the most righteous Creature as there is between a nearness of a Person that stands upon a Mountain to the Sun and of him that beholds him in a Vale one is nearer than the other but it is an advantage not to be boasted of in regard of the vast distance that is between the Sun and the elevated Spectator 3. This would make us full of an affectionate Reverence in all our approaches to God By this Perfection God is rendred venerable and fit to be reverenc'd by his Creature and magnificent thoughts of it in the Creature would awaken him to an actual reverence of the Divine Majesty Psal 111.9 Holy and reverend is his name a good opinion of this would engender in us a sincere respect towards him we should then serve the Lord with fear as the Expression is Psal 2.11 that is be afraid to cast any thing before him that may offend the eyes of his Purity Who would venture rashly and garishly into the presence of an eminent Moralist or of a righteous King upon his Throne The fixedness of the Angels arose from the continual prospect of this What if we had been with Isaiah when he saw the Vision and beheld him in the same glory and the heavenly Quire in their reverential Posture in the Service of God would it not have barred our wandrings and stak'd us down to our Duty Would not the fortifying an Idea of it in our Minds produce the same effect 'T is for want of this we carry our selves so loosely and unbecomingly in the Divine Presence with the same or meaner Affections than those wherewith we stand before some vile Creature that is our Superiour in the World as though a piece of filthy Flesh were more valuable than this Perfection of the Divinity How doth the Psalmist double his Exhortation to men to sing Praise to God Psal 47.6 Sing praise to God sing praises sing praise to our King sing praise because of his Majesty and the Purity of his Dominion And verse 8. God reigns over the Heathen God sits upon the Throne of his Holiness How would this elevate us in Praise and prostrate us in Prayer when we praise and pray with an understanding and insight of that Nature we bless or implore as he speaks verse 7. Sing ye praise with understanding The holiness of God in his Government and Dominion the holiness of his Nature and the holiness of his Precepts should beget in us an humble respect in our Approaches The more we grow in a sense of this the more shall we advance in the true performance of all our Duties * Amyrald Moral Tom. 5. p. 462. Those Nations which ador'd the Sun had they at first seen his Brightness wrapped and maskt in a Cloud and paid a veneration to it how would their Adorations have mounted to a greater point after they had seen it in its full brightness shaking off those Vails and chasing away the Mists before it what a profound reverence would they have paid it when they beheld it in its Glory and Meridian Brightness Our reverence to God in all our Addresses to him will arrive to greater degrees if every act of Duty be usher'd in and season'd with the thoughts of God as sitting upon a Throne of Holiness we shall have a more becoming sense of our own Vileness a greater ardor to his Service a deeper respect in his Presence if our Understanding be more clear'd and possessed with Notions of this Perfection Thus take a view of God in this part of his Glory before you fall down before his Throne and assure your selves you will find your hearts and services quickned with a new and lively Spirit 4. A due sense of this Perfection in God would produce in us a fear of God and arm us against Temptations and Sin What made the Heathens so wanton and loose but the representations of their Gods as vitious Who would stick at Adulteries and more prodigious Lusts that can take a Pattern for them from the Person he adores for a Deity Upon which account Plato would have Poets banish'd from his Commonwealth because by dressing up their Gods in wanton garbs in their Poems they encourag'd wickedness in the People But if the thoughts of Gods holiness were imprest upon us we should regard sin with the same eye mark it with the same detestation in our measures as God himself doth So far as we are sensible of the Divine Purity we should account sin vile as it deserves we should hate it intirely without a grain of love to it and hate it perpetually Psal 119.104 Through thy Precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way He looks into God's Statute-Book and thereby arrives to an understanding of the Purity of his Nature whence his hatred of Iniquity commenc'd This would govern our Motion check our Vices it would make us tremble at the hissing of a Temptation When a Corrup ion did but peep out and put forth its head a look to the Divine Purity would be attended with a fresh Conâ—oy of Strength to resist it There is such Fortification as to be wrapped up in the sense of this This would fill us with an awe of God we should be asham'd to admit any filthy thing into us which we know is detestable to his pure Eye As the approach of a grave and serious Man makes Children hasten their Trifles out of tâ—e way so would a Consideration of this Attribute make us cast away our Idols and fling away our ridiculous thoughts and designs 5. A due sense of this Perfection would inflame us with a vehement desire to be conform'd to him All our Desires would be ardent to regulate our selves according to this Pattern of Holiness and Goodness which is not to be equalled the Contemplating it as it shines forth in the Face of Christ will transform us into the same Image †2 Cor. 3.19 Since our lapsed state we cannot behold the holiness of God in it self without affrightment nor is it an Object of Imitation but as tempered in Christ to our view When we cannot without blinding our selves look upon the Sun
the ground of our love to God Not because he is gracious to us but holy in himself As God honours it in loving himself for it we should honour it by pitching our Affections upon him chiefly for it What renders God amiable to himself should render him lovely to all his Creatures Isa 42.21 The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sakâ— If the hatred of evil be the immediate result of a love to God then the peculiar object or term of our love to God must be that Perfection which stands in direct opposition to the hatred of evil Psal 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil When we honour his holiness in every stamp and impression of it his Law not principally because of its usefulness to us its accommodateness to the order of the World but for its innate Purity and his People not for our interest in them so much as for bearing upon them this glittering mark of the Deity we honour then the Purity of the Law-giver and the Excellency of the Sanctifier 2. We honour it when we regard chiefly the illustrious appearance of this in his Judgments in the World In a case of Temporal Judgment Moses celebrates it in the Text In a case of Spiritual Judgments the Angels applaud it in Isaiah All his Severe proceedings are nothing but the strong breathings of this Attribute Purity is the flash of his revenging sword If he did not hate evil his Vengeance would not reach the Committers of it He is a Refiners fire in the day of his Anger * Mal. 3 â— By his separating Judgments he takes away the wicked of the earth like Dross Psal 119.119 How is his holiness honoured when we take notice of his sweeping out the rubbish of the World How he sutes punishment to sin and discovers his hatred of the matter and circumstances of the Evil in the matter and circumstances of the Judgment This Perfection is legible in every stroke of his Sword we honour it when we read the syllables of it and not by standing amaz'd only at the greatness and severity of the Blow when we read how holy he is in his most terrible Dispensations For as in them God magnifies the greatness of his Power so he sanctifies himself that is declares the Purity of his Nature as a Revenger of all Impiety Ezek. 38.22 23. And I will plead against him with Pestilence and with Blood and I will rain upon him and upon his bands and upon the people that are with him an overflowing Rain and great Hail-stones Fire and Brimstone Thus will I magnifie my self and sanctifie my self 3. We honour this Attribute when we take notice of it in every accomplishment of his Promise and every grant of a Mercy His Truth is but a branch of his Righteousness a slip from this Root He is glorious in Holiness in the account of Moses because he led forth his People whom he had redeemed Exod. 15.13 His People by a Covenant with their Fathers being the God of Moses the God of Israel and the God of their Fathers Verse 2. My God and my Fathers God I will exalt thee For what for his faithfulness to his Promise The holiness of God which Mary Luke 1.49 magnifies is summ'd up in this the help he afforded his Servant Israel in the remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our Fathers to Abraham and his Seed for ever Verse 54 55. The certainty of his Coâ—enant Mercy depends upon an unchangeableness of his holiness What are * Isa 55.3 sure mercies are holy mercies in the Septuagint and in Acts 13.34 which makes that Tr nslation Canonical His nearness to answer us when we call upon him for sucâ— Mercies is a fruit of the holiness of his Name and Nature Psal 145.17 The Lord is holy in all his works the Lord is nigh to all them that call upon him Hannah after a return of Prayer sets a particular mark upon this in her Song 1 Sam. 2.2 There is none holy as the Lord separated from all Dross firm to his Covenant and righteous in it to his Suppliants that confide in him and plead his Word When we observe the workings of this in every return of Prayer we honour it 't is a sign the Mercy is really a return of Prayer and not a Mercy of course bearing upon it only the Characters of a common Providence This was the Perfection David would bless for the Catalogue of Mercies in Psal 103.1 c Bless his holy Name Certainly one reason why sincere Prayer is so delightful to him is because it puts him upon the exercise of this his beloved Perfection which he so much delights to honour Since God acts in all those as the Governour of the World we honour him not unless we take notice of that Righteousness which sits him for a Governour and is the inward Spring of all his Motions Gen. 18.25 Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right It was his design in his pity to Israel as well as the Calamities he intended against the Heathens to be sanctified in them that is declared holy in his Merciful as well as his Judicial procedure †Ez. 36.21 â—3 Hereby God credits his Righteousness which seemed to be forgotten by the one and contemned by the other ‖ Sanct. in loc he removes by this all suspicion of any unfaithfulness in him 4. We honour this Attribute when we trust his Covenant and Promise against outward Appearances Thus our Saviour in the Prophecy of him * Psal 22 2 3.4 when God seemed to bar up the Gates of his Palace against the entry of any more Petitions This Attribute proves the support of the Redeemers Soul But thou art holy Oh thou that inhabitest the Praises of Israel As it refers to what goes before it has been twice explain'd as it refers to what follows it is a ground of trust Thou inhabitest the Praises of Israel Thou hast had the Praises of Israel for many Ages for thy holiness How Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou didst deliver them They honoured thy holiness by their trust and thou didst honour their Faith by a deliverance thou alwaies hadst a Purity that would not shame nor confound them I will trust in thee as thou art holy and expect the breaking out of this Attribute for my good as well as my Predecessors Our Fathers trusted in thee c. 5. We honour this Attribute when we shew a greater Affection to the marks of his holiness in times of the greatest Contempt of it As the Psalmist Psal 119.126 127. They have made void thy Law therefore I love thy Commandments above Gold While they spurn at the Purity of thy Law I will value it above the Gold they possess I 'le esteem it as Gold because others count it as Dross By their scorn of it my love to it shall be the warmer and my hatred of iniquity shall be the sharper The disdain of others
SEVERAL DISCOURSES UPON THE EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. By that late Eminent Minister of Christ Mr. STEPHEN CHARNOCKE B. D. And sometimes Fellow of New-Colledge in Oxon. LONDON Printed for D. Newman T. Cockerill Benj. Griffin T. Simmons and Benj. Alsop M DC LXXXII TO THE READER THIS long since promised and greatly expected Volume of the Reverend Authour upon the Divine Attributes being Transcribed out of his own Manuscripts by the unwearied diligence of those worthy Persons that undertook it Mr. J. Wichens Mr. Ashton is now at last come to thy hands Doubt not but thy Reading will pay for thy waiting and thy satisfaction make full compensation for thy patience In the Epistle before his Treatise of Providence it was intimated that his following Discourses would not be inferiour to that and we are perswaded that ere thou hast perused one half of this thou wilt acknowledge that it was modestly spoken Enough assure thy self thou wilt find here for thy entertainment and delight as well as profit The sublimeness variety and rareness of the Truths here handled together with the elegancy of the Composure neatness of the Style and whatever is wont to make any Book desirable will all concur in the recommendation of this What so high and noble a Subject what so fit for his Meditations or thine as the highest and noblest Being and those transcendently glorious Perfections wherewith he is clothed A meer Contemplation of the Divine Excellencies may afford much pleasure to any man that loves to exercise his Reason and is addicted to speculation But what incomparable sweetness then will holy Souls find in viewing and considering those Perfections now which they are more fully to behold hereafter and seeing what manner of God how wise and powerful how great and good and holy is he in whom the Covenant interests them and in the enjoyment of whom their happiness consists If rich men delight to sum up their vast Revenues to read over their Rentals look upon their Hoords if they bless themselves in their great Wealth or to use the Prophets words Jer. 9.23 glory in their Riches well may Believers rejoyce and glory in their knowing the Lord vers 24. and please themselves in seeing how rich they are in having an immensely full and All-sufficient God for their Inheritance Alas how little do most men know of that Deity they profess to serve and own not as their Soveraign only but their Portion To such this Author might say Acts 17.23 as Paul to the Athenians Whom you ignorantly worship him declare I unto you These Treatises Reader will inform thee who he is whom thou callest thine present thee with a view of thy chief good and make thee value thy self a thousand times more upon thy interest in God than upon all external Accomplishments and worldly Possessions Who but delights to hear well of one whom he loves God is thy Love if thou be a Believer and then it cannot but fill thee with delight and ravishment to hear so much spoken in his Praise David desired to dwell in the House of the Lord that he might there behold his beauty How much of that beauty if thou art but capable of seeing it mayest thou behold in this Volume which was our Author's main business for about three years before he died to display before his hearers True indeed the Lord's Glory as shining forth before his heavenly Courtiers above is unapproachable by mortal Men but what of it is visible in his Works Creation Providence Redemption falls under the cognizance of his Inferiour Subjects here and this is in a great measure presented to view in these Discourses and so much we may well say as may by the help of Grace be effectual to raise thy Admiration attract thy Love provoke thy Desires and enable thee to make some guess at what is yet unseen and why not likewise to clear thy Eyes and prepare them for future sight as well as turn them away from the contemptible Vanities of this present Life Whatever is glorious in this World yet as the Apostle in another case hath no glory by reason of the glory that excels 2 Cor. 3.10 This excellent Glory is the Subject of this Book to which all Created Beauty is but meer shadow and duskyness If thy Eyes be well fixed on this they will not be easily drawn to wander after other Objects If thy heart be taken with God it will be mortified to every thing that is not God But thou hast in this Book not only an excellent Subject in the general but great variety of Matter for the employment of thy Understanding as well as enlivening thy Affections and that too such as thou wilt not readily find elsewhere many excellent things which are out of the rode of ordinary Preachers and Writers and which may be grateful to the Curious no less than satisfactory to the Wise and Judicious It is not therefore a Book to be play'd with or slept over but read with the most intent and serious Mind for though it afford much pleasure for the Phancy yet much more work for the heart and hath indeed enough in it to busie all the Faculties The Dress is compt and decent yet not garish nor Theatrical the Rhetorick masculine and vigorous such as became a Pulpit and was never borrowed from the Stage the Expressions full clear apt and such as are best suted to the weightiness and spirituality of the Truths here delivered 'T is plain he was no empty Preacher but was more for sense than sound filled up his words with matter and chose rather to inform his Hearers Minds than to claw any itching Ears Yet we will not say but some little things a Word or a Phrase now and then he may have which no doubt had he lived to Transcribe his own Sermons he would have altered If in some lesser matters he differ from thee it is but in such as Godly and Learned Men do frequently and may without breach of Charity differ in among themselves in some things he may differ from us too and it may be we from each other and where are there any two Persons who have in all especially the more disputable Points of Religion exactly the same Sentiments at least express themselves altogether in the same terms But this we must say that though he treat of many of the most abstruse and mysterious Doctrines of Christianity which are the Subjects of great Debates and Controversies in the World yet we find no one material thing in which he may justly be called Heterodox unless old Heresies be of late grown Orthodox and his differing from them must make him faulty but generally delivers as in his * Treatise of Providence and of Thoughts former Pieces what is most consonant to the Faith of This and other the best Reformed Churches He was not indeed for that Modern Divinity which is so much in vogue with some who would be counted the
10.9 Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. An Invader and Oppressor of his Neighbors and reputed the Introducer of a new Worship and being the first that built Cities after the flood as Cain was the first Builder of them before the flood built also Idolatry with them And erected a new Worship and was so far from strengthing that Notion the people had of God that he endeavoured to corrupt it The first Idolatry in common Histories being noted to proceed from that part of the World the Ancientest Idol being at Babylon and supposed to be first invented by this Person Whence by the way perhaps Rome is in the Revelations called Babylon with respect to that similitude of their Saint-Worship to the Idolatry first set up in that place * Or if we understand it as some think that he defended his invasions under a pretext of the preserving Religion it assures us that there was a notion of an object of Religion before since no Religion can be without an object of Worship T is evident Politicians have often changed the Worship of a Nation but it is not upon record that the first thoughts of an object of Worship ever entred into the minds of people by any trick of theirs But to return to the present Argument the Being of a God is owned by some Nations that have scarce any form of policy among them T is as wonderful how any wit should hit upon such an Invention as it is absur'd to ascribe it to any humane device if there were not prevailing Arguments to constrain the consent Besides how is it possible they should deceive themselves What is the reason the greatest Politicians have their fears of a Deity upon their unjust practices as well as other men they intended to befool How many of them have had forlorn Consciences upon a Death bed upon the consideration of a God to answer an account to in another world Is it credible they should be frighted by that wherewith they knew they beguiled others No man satisfying his pleasures would impose such a deceipt upon himself o render and make himself more miserable than the Creatures he hath dominion over 2. It is unaccountable how it should indure so long a time That this Policy should be so fortunate as to gain ground in the Consciences of men and exercise an Empire over them and meet with such an universal success If the Notion of a God were a a State-Engine and introduced by some Politick Grandees for the ease of Government and preserving people with more facility in order how comes it to pass the first broachers of it were never upon record there is scarce a false opinion vented in the World but may as a stream be traced to the first head and fountain The Inventors of particular forms of worship are known and the reasons why they prescribed them known but what Grandee was the Author of this who can pitch a time and person that sprung up this Notion If any be so insolent as to impose a cheat he can hardly be supposed to be so successful as to deceive the whole world for many ages Impostures pass not free through the whole world without Examination and discovery Falsities have not been universally and constantly owned without controul and question If a cheat imposeth upon some Towns and Countries he will be found out by the more peircing enquiries of other places and it is not easy to name any Imposture that hath walked so long in its disguise in the World without being unmasked and whipped out by some Nation or other If this had been a meer trick there would have been as much craft in some to discern it as there was in others to contrive it No Man can be imagined so wise in a Kingdom but others may be found as wise as himself And it is not conceivable that so many clear sighted men in all ages should be ignorant of it and not endeavour to free the world from so great a falsity * Fotherby a Theomastix p. 64. It cannot be found that a trick of State should always beguile men of the most piercing insights as well as the most credulous That a few crafty men should befool all the wisemen in the world and the world lie in a beleif of it and never like to be freed from it What is the reason the succeeding Politicians never knew this Stratagem since their Maxims are usually handed to their Successors And there is not a Richlieu but leaves his Axioms to a Mazarine This perswasion of the Existence of God ows not it self to any Imposture or subtelty of Men If it had not been agreable to common Nature and Reason it could not so long have born sway The imposed yoke would have been cast off by Multitudes Men would not have charged themselves with that which was attended with consequences displeasing to the Flesh and hindred them from a full swing of their rebellious Passions such a shackle would have mouldred of it self or been broke by the extravigances humane nature is enclin'd unto The wickedness of men without question hath prompted them to endeavour to unmask it if it were a Cosenage but could never yet be so successful as to free the world from a perswasion or their own Consciences from the tincture of the Existence of a Deity It must be therefore of an ancienter Date than the Craft of States-men and descend into the world with the first appearance of humane nature Time which hath rectified many Errors improves this Notion makes it shock down its roots deeper and spread its branches larger It must be a natural Truth that shines clear by the detection of those Errors that have befooled the World and the wit of Man is never able to name any humane Author that first insinuated it into the beleifs of men 3. Nor was it Fear first introduced it Fear is the Consequent of Wickedness As Man was not created with any inherent sin so he was not created with any terrifying fears the one had been against the Holiness of the Creator the other against his Goodness Fear did not make this Opinion but the Opinion of the Being of a Dâ—ity was the cause of this Fear after his sense of angring the Deity by his Wickedness The Object of Fear is before the Act of Fear there could not be an Act of Fear exercised about the Deity till it was beleived to be existent and not only so but Offended For God as existent only is not the Object of Fear or Love 't is not the Existence of a thing that excites any of those Affections but the Relation a thing bears to us in particular God is good and so the object of Love as well as just and thereby the object of Fear He was as much called Love * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mens or Mind in regard of his Goodness and Understanding by the Heathens as much as by any other Name Neither
builds an House or makes a Watch but he hath the Idea or Copy of it in his own head This beautiful world bespeaks an Idea of it or a model Since there is such a magnificent wisdom in the make of each Creature and the proportion of one Creature to another this model must be before the World as the patern is always before the thing that is wrought by it This therefore must be in some intelligent and wise agent and this is God Since the reason of those things exceed the reason and all the art of Man who can ascribe them to any inferior cause Chance it could not be the motions of Chance are not constant and at set seasons as the motions of Creatures are That which is by Chance is contingent this is necessary Uniformity can never be the birth of Chance Who can imagine that all the parts of a Watch can meet together and put themselves in order and motion by Chance * Lactant. Nor can it be nature only which indeed is a disposition of second causes If nature hath not an understanding it cannot work such effects If nature therefore uses Counsel to begin a thing reason to dispose it art to effect it vertue to compleat it and power to Govern it why should it be called nature rather than God Nothing so sure as that that which hath an end to which it tends hath a cause by which it is ordered to that end Since therefore all things are ordered in subserviency to the good of man they are so ordered by him that made both man and them And man must acknowledge the wisdom and goodness of his Creator and act in subserviency to His glory as other Creatures act in subserviency to His good Sensible objects were not made only to gratifie the sense of man but to hand somthing to his mind as he is a rational Creature to discover God to him as an object of love and desire to be enjoyed * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 63.64 If this be not the effect of it the order of the Creature as to such an one is in vain and falls short of its true end To conclude this As when a Man comes into a Palace built according to the exactest rule of art and with an unexceptionable conveniency for the Inhabitants he would acknowledge both the being and skill of the Builder So whosoever shall observe the disposition of all the parts of the World their connexion comelines the variety of seasons the swarms of different Creatures and the mutual offices they render to one another cannot conclude less than that it was contrived by an Infinite Skill effected by Infinite Power and governed by Infinite Wisdom None can imagine a Ship to be orderly conducted without a Pilot Nor the parts of the World to perform their several functions without a wise guide considering the Members of the Body cannot perform theirs without the active presence of the Soul The Atheist then is a fool to deny that which every Creature in his constitution asserts and thereby renders himself unable to give a satisfactory account of that constant uniformity in the motions of the Creatures Thirdly III. As the production and harmony so particular Creatures pursuing and attaining their ends manifest that there is a God All particular Creatures have natural instincts which move them for some end The intending of an end is a property of a rational Creature since the lower Creatures cannot challenge that title they must act by the understanding and direction of another And since man cannot challenge the honor of inspiring the Creatures with such instincts it must be ascribed to some nature infinitely above any Creature in understanding No Creature doth determine it self Why do the fruits and grain of the Earth nourish us when the Earth which instrumentally gives them that fitness cannot nourish us but because their several ends are determined by one higher than the world 1. Several Creatures have several Natures How soon will all Creatures as soon as they see the light move to that whereby they must live and make use of the natural arms God hath given their kind for their defence before they are grown to any maturity to afford them that defence The Scripture makes the appetite of Infants to their milk a foundation of the divine Glory Psal 8.3 Out of the Mouths of Babes and Sucklings hast thou ordained strength that is matter of praise and acknowledgment of God in the natural appetite they have to their milk and their rellish of it All Creatures have a natural affection to their young ones all young ones by a natural instinct move to and receive the nourishment that is proper for them Some are their own Physitians as well as their own Caterers and naturally discern what preserves them in life and what restores them when sick The Swallow flies to its Celendine and the Toad hastens to its Plantain Can we behold the Spiders Nets or Silkworms Web the Bees Closets or the Ants Granaries without acknowledging a higher Being than a Creature who hath planted that Genius in them The consideration of the nature of several Creatures God commended to Job Chap. 39. where he discourseth to Job of the natural instincts of the Goat the Ostrich Horse and Eagle c. to perswade him to the acknowledgment and admiration of God and humiliation of himself The Spider as if it understood the art of weaving fits its web both for its own Habitation and a Net to catch its prey The Bee builds a Cell which serves for Chambers to reside in and a repository for its provision Birds are observed to build their Nests with a clammy matter without for the firmer duration of it and with a soft moss and down within for the conveniency and warmth of their young The Stork knows his appointed time Jer. 8.7 And the Swallows observe the time of their coming they go and return according to the seasons of the year This they gain not by consideration it descends to them with their nature They neither gain nor increase it by rational deductions T is not in vain to speak of these How little do we improve by Meditation those objects which daily offer themselves to our view full of instructions for us And our Saviour sends his disciples to spell God in the Lillies * Mat. 6.28 T is observed also that the Creatures offensive to man go single If they went by troops they would bring destruction upon man and beast This is the nature of them for the preservation of others 2. They know not their end They have a Law in their natures but have no rational understanding either of the end to which they are appointed or the means fit to attain it They naturally do what they do and move by no Counsel of their own but by a Law imprest by some higher hand upon their natures What Plant knows why it strikes its root into the earth Doth it
office We must come to some supream Judge who can Judge Conscience it self As a man can have no surer evidence that he is a being than because he thinks he is a thinking being So there is no surer evidence in nature that there is a God than that every man hath a natural principle in him which continually cites him before God and puts him in mind of him and makes him one way or other fear him and reflects upon him whether he will or no A man hath less power over his Conscience than over any other faculty He may choose whether he will exercise his understanding about or move his will to such an object but he hath no such Authority over his Conscience he cannot limit it or cause it to cease from acting and reflecting and therefore both that and the law about which it acts are settled by some supream Authority in the mind of man and this is God Fourthly IV. The evidence of a God results from the vastness of desires in man and the real dissatisfaction he hath in every thing below himself Man hath a boundless appetite after some Soveraign Good As his understanding is more capacious than any thing below so is his Appetite larger This affection of desire exceeds all other affections Love is determined to something known Fear to something apprehended but Desires approach nearer to Infiniteness and pursue not only what we know or what we have a glimps of but what we find wanting in what we already enjoy That which the desire of man is most naturally carryed after is Bonum some fully satisfying good We desire knowledge by the sole impulse of reason but we desire Good before the excitement of reason and the desire is always after Good but not always after Knowledge Now the Soul of man finds an imperfection in every thing here and cannot scrape up a perfect satisfaction and felicity In the highest fruitions of worldly things t is still pursuing something else which speaks a defect in what it already hath The world may afford a felicity for our dust the body but not for the inhabitant in it t is two mean for that Is there any one Soul among the Sons of men that can upon a due enquiry say it was at rest and wanted no more that hath not sometimes had desires after an immaterial Good The Soul follows hard after such a thing and hath frequent looks after it Psal 63.8 Man desires a stable Good but no sublunary thing is so And he that doth not desire such a Good wants the rational nature of a man This is as natural as Understanding Will and Conscience Whence should the Soul of man have those desires How came it to understand that something is still wanting to make its nature more perfect if there were not in it some notion of a more perfect being which can give it rest Can such a capacity be supposed to be in it without something in being able to satisfie it If so the noblest Creature in the world is miserablest and in a worse condition than any other Other Creatures obtain their ultimate desires they are filled with good Psal 104.28 And shall man only have a vast desire without any possibility of enjoyment Nothing in man is in vain He hath objects for his affections as well as affections for objects Every Member of his body hath its end and doth attain it Every affection of his Soul hath an object and that in this World and shall there be none for his desire which comes nearest to infinite of any affection planted in him This boundless desire had not its original from man himself Nothing would render it self restless something above the bounds of this world implanted those desires after a higher Good and made him restless in every thing else And since the Soul can only rest in that which is infinite there is something infinite for it to rest in Since nothing in the world though a man had the whole can give it a satisfaction there is something above the world only capable to do it otherwise the Soul would be always without it and be more in vain than any other Creature There is therefore some infinite being that can only give a contentment to the Soul and this is God And that goodness which implanted such desires in the Soul would not do it to no purpose and mock it in giving it an infinite desire of satisfaction without intending it the pleasure of enjoyment if it doth not by its own folly deprive it self of it The felicity of human nature must needs exceed that which is allotted to other Creatures 4. And last Reason Fourth Reason As t is a folly to deny that which all Nations in the World have consented to which the frame of the world evidenceth which man in his Body Soul Operations of Conscience witnesseth to So t is a folly to deny the Being of God which is witnessed unto by extraordinary occurrences in the world 1. In extraordinary Judgments When a just revenge follows abominable crimes especially when the Judgment is suted to the sin by a strange Concatenation and succession of Providences methodized to bring such a particular punishment When the sin of a Nation or person is made legible in the inflicted Judgment which testifies that it cannot be a casual thing The Scripture gives us an account of the necessity of such Judgments to keep up the reverential thoughts of God in the World Psal 9.16 The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes the wicked is snared in the work of his own hand And Jealousy is the name of God Exod. 34.14 Whose name is Jealous He is distinguisht from false Gods by the Judgments which he sends as men are by their names Extraordinary Prodigies in many Nations have been the Heralds of extraordinary Judgments and presages of the particular Judgments which afterwards they have felt of which the Roman Histories and others are full That there are such things is undeniable and that the events have been answerable to the threatning unless we will throw away all human Testimonies and count all the Histories of the World Forgeries Such things are evidences of some invisible Power which orders those affairs And if there be invisible Powers there is also an efficacious cause which moves them A Government certainly there is among them as well as in the world and then we must come to some supream Governour which presides over them Judgments upon notorious offenders have been evident in all ages The Scripture gives many instances I shall only mention that of Herod Agrippa which Josephus mentions * Lib. 19. Antiq. Act. 12.21.22.23 He receives the flattering applause of the people and thought himself a God But by the suddain stroak upon him was forced by his torture to confess another I am God saith he in your account but a higher calls me away The will of the Heavenly Deity is to be endured The Angel
a humane way and not in a divine Is not this to impose Laws upon God To esteem our selves wiser than he To think him negligent of his own service and that our feeble brains can find out ways to accommodate his honour better than himself hath done Thus do men for the most part equal their own imaginations to Gods oracles As Solomon built a high place to Moloch and Chemoch upon the Mount of Olives to face on the East part Hierusalem and the Temple * 1 Kings 11.7 This is not only to impose Laws on God but also to make self the Standard of them 8. 'T is evidenc'd in suting interpretations of Scripture to their own minds and humors Like the Lacedemonians that drest the Images of their Gods according to the fashion of their own Countrey We would wring Scripture to sâ—rve our own designs and Judge the Law of God by the law of sin and make the Serpentine seed in us to be the interpreter of Divine Oracles This is like Belshazar to drink healths out of the sacred Vessels As God is the Author of his Law and Word so he is the best interpreter of it the Scripture having an impress of divine Wisdom Holiness and Goodness must be regarded according to that impress with a submission and meekness of Spirit and Reverence of God in it But when in our enquiries into the word we enquire not of God but consult flesh and blood the temper of the times wherein we live or the satisfaction of a party we side withal and impose glosses upon it according to our own fancies it is to put Laws upon God and make self the rule of him He that interprets the law to bolster up some eager appetite against the Will of the law-giver ascribes to himself as great an authority as he that enacted it 9. In falling off from God after some fair compliances when his Will grateth upon us and crosseth ours They will walk with him as far as he pleaseth them and leave him upon the first distast as tho God must observe their humors more than they his Will Amos must be suspended from Prophecying because the Land could not bear his words and his discourses condemned their unworthy practices against God * Amos. 7.10 c. The Young man came not to receive directions from our Saviour but expected a Confirmation of his own rules rather than an imposition of new * Mark 10.17 22. He rather cares for Commendations than instructions and upon the disappointment turns his back He was sad that Christ would not suffer him to be rich and a Christian together and leaves him because his Command was not suitable to the Law of his Covetousness Some truths that are at a further distance from us we can hear gladly But when the Conscience begins to smart under others if God will not observe our Wills we will with Herod be a Law to our selves * Mark 6 2â—.27 More instances might be observed Ingratitude is a setting up self and an imposing Laws on God T is as much as to say God did no more than he was obliged to do as if the Mercies we have were an Act of Duty in God and not of bounty Insatiable desires after wealth Hence are those speeches Jam. 4.13 We will go into such a City and buy and sell c. to get gain As tho they had the Command of God and God must Lacquey after their Wills VVhen our hearts are not contented with any supply of our wants but are craving an overplus for our lust When we are unsatisfied in the midst of plenty and still like the Grave cry give give Incorrigibleness under affliction c. Secondly 2. The second main thing As Man would be a Law to himself So he would be his own end and happiness in opposition to God Here four things shall be discoursed on 1. Man would make himself his own End and Happiness 2. He would make any thing his End and Happiness rather than God 3. He would make himself the End of all Creatures 4. He would make himself the End of God First 1. Man would make himself his own End and Happiness As God ought to be esteem'd the first cause in point of our dependance on him so he ought to be our last end in point of our enjoyment of him When we therefore trust in our selves we refuse him as the first cause and when we act for our selves and expect a blessedness from our selves we refuse him as the Chiefest good and last End which is an undeniable piece of Atheism For man is a Creature of a higher rank than others in the world and was not made as Animals Plants and other works of the Divine power materially to glorifie God but a rational Creature intentionally to Honour God by obedience to his Rule dependance on his goodness and zeal for his glory T is therefore as much a slighting of God for man a Creature to set himself up as his own End as to regard himself as his own Law For the discovery of this observe that there is a three-fold self-love 1. Natural which is common to us by the Law of nature with other Creatures Inanimate as well as Animate and so closely twisted with the nature of every Creature that it cannot be dissolved but with the dissolution of nature it self It consisted not with the wisdom and goodness of God to Create an unnatural nature or to Command any thing unnatural Nor doth he for when he Commands us to Sacrifice out Selves and dearest lives for himself t is not without a promise of a more noble state and being in exchange for what we lose This self-love is not only commendable but necessary as a Rule to measure that duty we owe to our Neighbour whom we cannot love as our selves if we do not first love our selvs God having planted this self-love in our nature makes this natural principle the measure of our affection to all Mankind of the same blood with our selves 2. Carnal self-love when a man loves himself above God in opposition to God with a contempt of God when our thoughts affections designs Center only in our own fleshly interest and rifle God of his honour to make a present of it to our selves Thus the natural self-love in it self good becomes Criminal by the excess when it would be superior and not subordinate to God 3. A Gracious self-self-love VVhen we love our selves for higher ends than the nature of a Creature as a Creature dictates Viz. in subserviency to the Glory of God This is a reduction of the revolted Creature to his true and happy order A Christian is therefore said to be Created in Christ to good works * Eph. 1 10. As all Creatures were Created not only for themselves but for the honour of God so the Grace of the new Creation carries a man to answer this end and to order all his operations to the Honour of God and his
your self take other courses you will smut your Reputation and be despicable you will destroy your Estate and commence a Beggar your Family will be undone and you may rott in a Prison Not laying close to them the Duty they owe to God the Dishonour which accrues to him by their unworthy courses and the ingratitude to the God of their mercies Not that the other motives are to be laid aside and slighted Mint and Cummin may be tithed but the weightier concerns are not to be omitted But this shews that self is the Byas not only of men in their own course but in their dealings with others What should be subordinate to the Honour of God and the Duty we owe to him is made superior 3. 'T is evident In performing Duties meerly for a selfish Interest Making our selves the End of Religious Actions paying a Homage to that while we pretend to render it to God Zach. 7.5 Did you at all fast unto me even unto me Things ordained by God may fall in with carnal ends affected by our selves and then Religion is not kept up by any interest of God in the Conscience but the interest of self in the Heart We then sanctifie not the Name of God in the Duty but gratifie our selves God may be the Object self is the End and a Heavenly Object is made subservient to a Carnal Design Hypocrisie passes a Complement on God and is called Flattery Psal 78.36 They did flatter him with their lips c. They gave him a parcel of good words for their own preservation Flattery in the old Notion among the Heathens is a Vice more peculiar to serve our own turn and purvey for the Belly They knew they could not subsist without God and therefore gave him a parcel of good words that he might spare them and make Provision for them Israel is an empty Vine * Hos 10.1 a Vine say some with large Branches and few Clusters but brings forth Fruit to himself while they professed Love to God with their lips It was that God should promote their covetous designs and preserve their Wealth and Grandeur * Ezek. 33.31 In which respect an Hypocrite may be well termed a Religious Atheist an Atheist maskt with Religion The chief Arguments which prevail with many men to perform some Duties and appear Religious are the same that Hamor and Shechem used to the people of their City to submit to Circumcision viz. the ingrossing of more Wealth Gen. 34.21 22. If every Male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised shall not their Cattel and their Substance and every Beast of theirs be ours This is seen 1. In unweildiness to Religious Duties where self is not concern'd With what lively thoughts will many approach to God when a Revenue may be brought in to support their own ends But when the Concerns of God only are in it the Duty is not the Delight but the Clogg such feeble Devotions that warm not the Soul unless there be somthing of self to give strength and heat to them Jonah was sick of his work and run from God because he thought he should get no honour by his Message Gods Mercy would discredit his Prophecy * Johuah 4.2 Thoughts of disadvantage cut the very sinews of service You may as well perswade a Merchant to venture all his Estate upon the inconstant Waves without hopes of Gain as prevail with a natural man to be serious in Duty without expectation of some warm Advantage What profit should we have if we pray to him is the natural Question Job 21.15 What profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my Sin Job 35.3 I shall have more good by my sin than by my service 'T is for God that I dance before the Ark saith David therefore I will be more vile 2 Sam. 6.2 T is for self that I pray saith a natural Man therefore I will be more Warm and quick Ordinances of God are observed only as a point of interest and Prayer is often most fervent when it is least Godly and most selfish Carnal Ends and Affections will pour out lively Expressions If there be no delight in the means that lead to God there is no delight in God himself Because Love is appetitus unionis a desire of Union and where the Object is desireable the means that brings us to it would be delightful too 2. In calling upon God only in a time of necessity How officious will men be in affliction to that God whom they neglect in their Prosperity When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and inquired after God and they remembred that God was their Rock Psal 78.34 They remembred him under the Scourge and forgate him under his Smiles They visit the Throne of Grace knock loud at Heavens Gates and give God no rest for their early and importunate Devotions when under Distress But when their desires are answered and the Rod removed they stand aloof from him and rest upon their own bottom as Jer. 2.31 We are Lords we will come no more unto thee When we have need of him he shall find us Clients at his Gate and when we have served our turn he hears no more of us Like Noahs Dove sent out of the Ark that returned to him when she found no rest on the Earth but came not back when she found a footing else where How often do men apply themselves to God when they have some business for him to do for them And then too they are loath to put it solely into his hand to manage it for his own honour but they presume to be his Directors that he may manage it for their glory Self spurrs men on to the Throne of Grace they desire to be furnisht with some Mercy they want or to have the Clouds of some Judgments which they fear blown over This is not affection to God but to our selves As the Romans worshipped a Quartane Ague as a Goddess and Timorem Pallorem Fear and Paleness as Gods not out of any affection they had to the Disease or the Passion but for fear to receive any hurt by them Again when we have gained the Mercy we need how little do we warm our Souls with the consideration of that God that gave it or lay out the Mercy in his service We are importunate to have him our friend in our necessities and are ungratefully careles of him and his injuries he suffers by us or others When he hath discharged us from the Rock where we stuck we leave him as having no more need of him and able to do well enough without him As if we were petty Gods our selves and only wanted a lift from him at first This is not to glorifie God as God but as our Servant not an honouring of God but a self seeking He would hardly begg at Gods door if he could pleasure himself without him 3. In begging his Assistance to our own Projects When we
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
from no other cause but the unchangeableness of his Nature The reason why Men stand not to their Covenant is because they are not always the same I am that is I am the same before the Creation of the World and since the creation of the World before the entrance of Sin and since the entrance of Sin before their going into Egypt and whiles they remain in Egypt * Spanhe Synta part 1. p. 39. The very Name Jehovah bears according to the Grammatical Order a mark of Gods Unchangeableness It never hath any thing added to it nor any thing taken from it It hath no Plural Number no Affixes a Custom peculiar to the Eastern Languages It never changes its letters as other words do * Petav. Theol Dogmat. Tom. 1. cap 6. § 6.7 8. That only is a true being which hath not only an eternal Existence but stability in it That is not truly a Being that never remains in the same state All things that are changed cease to be what they were and begin to be what they were not and therefore cannot have the title truly applied to them they are they are indeed but like a River in a continual Flux that no man ever sees the same let his eye be fixed upon one place of it the water he sees slides away and that which he saw not succeeds in its place let him take his eye off but for the least moment and fix it there again and he sees not the same that he saw before All sensible things are in a perpetual stream that which is sometimes this and sometimes that is not because it is not always the same whatsoever is changed is something now which it was not alway But of God it is said I am which could not be if he were changeable for it may be said of him he is not as well he is because he is not what he was If we say not of him he was nor he will be but only he is whence should any change arrive He must invincibly remain the same of whose Nature Perfections Knowledge and Will it cannot be said it was as if it were not now in him or it shall be as if it were not yet in him But he is because he doth not only exist but doth alway exist the same I am that is I receive from no other what I am in my self He depends upon no other in his Essence Knowledge Purposes and therefore hath no changing Power over him 2. If God were changeable He could not be the most perfect Being God is the most perfect Being and possesses in himself infinite and essential Goodness Mat. 5.48 Your heavenly Father is perfect If he could change from that Perfection he were not the highest Exemplar and Copy for us to write after If God doth change it must be either to a greater Perfection than he had before or to a less mutatio perfectiva vel amissiva If he changes to acquire a Perfection he had not then he was not before the most excellent Being necessarily He was not what he might be there was a defect in him and a privation of that which is better than what he had and was and then he was not alway the best and so was not alway God and being not alway God could never be God for to begin to be God is against the Notion of God Not to a less perfection than he had that were to change to imperfection and to lose a perfection which he possessed before and cease to be the best Being for he would lose some good which he had and acquire some evil which he was free from before So that the soveraign Perfection of God is an invincible Bar to any change in him For which way soever you cast it for a change his supream Excellency is impaired and nulled by it For in all change there is something from which a thing is changed and something to which it is changed so that on the one part there is a loss of what it had and on the other part there is an acquisition of what it had not If to the better he was not perfect and so was not God if to the worse he will not be perfect and so be no longer God after that change If God be changed his change must be voluntary or necessary if voluntary he then intends the change for the better and chose it to acquire a Perfection by it The Will must be carried out to any thing under the notion of some Goodness in that which it desires Since Good is the Object of the desire and will of the Creature Evil cannot be the Object of the desire and will of the Creator And if he should be changed for the worse when he did really intend the better it would speak a defect of Wisdom and a mistake of that for good which was evil and imperfect in it self and if it be for the better it must be a motion or change for something without himself that which he desireth is not possessed by himself but by some other There is then some good without him and above him which is the end in this change for nothing acts but for some end and that end is within it self or without it self If the end for which God changes be without himself then there is something better than himself Besides if he were voluntarily changed for the better why did he not change before If it were for want of Power he had the imperfection of weakness If for want of knowledge of what was the best Good he had the imperfection of Wisdom he was ignorant of his own Happiness If he had both Wisdom to know it and Power to effect it it must be for want of Will He then wanted that love to himself and his own Glory which is necessary in the supream Being Voluntarily he could not be changed for the worse he could not be such an Enemy to his own Glory there is nothing but would hinder its own Imperfection and becoming worse Necessarily he could not be changed for that necessity must arise from himself and then the difficulties spoken of before will recurr or it must arise from another He cannot be bettered by another because nothing hath any good but what it hath received from the hands of his bounty and that without loss to himself nor made worse if any thing made him worse it would be Sin but that cannot touch his Essence or obscure his Glory but in the design and nature of the Sin it self Job 35.6 7. If thou sinnest what dost thou against him Or if thy Transgressions be multiplyed what dost thou unto him If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receives he at thy hand He hath no addition by the Service of Man no more than the Sun hath of Light by a multitude of Torches kindled on the Earth nor any more impair by the Sins of Men than the Light of the Sun hath by mens
any Creature is from Grace and Gift Naturally we tend to nothing as we come from nothing This Creature-mutability is not our sin yet it should cause us to lye down under a sense of our own nothingness in the presence of the Creator The Angels as Creatures though not corrupt cover their faces before him And the Arguments God uses to humble Job though a fallen Creature are not from his Corruption for I do not remember that he taxed him with that but from the greatness of his Majesty and excellency of his Nature declared in his Works * Job 38.39 40.41 And therefore Men that have no sense of God and humility before him forget that they are Creatures as well as corrupt ones How great is the distance between God and us in regard of our inconstancy in good which is not natural to us by Creation For the mind and affections were regular and by the great Artificer were pointed to God as the Object of Knowledge and Love We have the same faculties of Understanding Will and Affection as Adam had in Innocence but not with the same Light the same Bias and the same Ballast Man by his fall wounded his head and heart the wound in his head made him unstable in the Truth and that in his heart unstedfast in his Affections He changed himself from the Image of God to that of the Devil from Innocence to Corruption and from an ability to be stedfast to a perpetual Inconstancy His Silver became Dross and his Wine was mixed with Water * Isa 1.22 He changed 1. To inconstancy in Truth opposed to the Immutability of Knowledge in God How are our Minds floating between Ignorance and Knowledge Truth in us is like those Ephemera Creatures of a days continuance springs up in the Morning and expires at Night How soon doth that fly away from us which we have had not only some weak flashes of but which we have learned and have had some relish of The Devil stood not in the Truth * John 8.44 and therefore manages his Engines to make us as unstable as himself Our Minds reel and corrupt reasonings oversway us like Spunges we suck up Water and a light compression makes us spout it out again Truths are not engraven upon our hearts but writ as in Dust defaced by the next puff of Wind carried about with every Wind of Doctrin Eph. 4.14 Like a Ship without a Pilot and Sails at the courtesy of the next Storm or like Clouds that are Tenants to the Wind and Sun moved by the Wind and melted by the Sun The Galatians were no sooner called into the Grace of God but they were removed from it * Gal. 1.6 Some have been reported to have menstruam fidem kept an Opinion for a Month and many are like him that believed the Souls Immortality no longer than he had Plato's Book of that Subject in his hand * Sedgwick Christs Counsel p. 230. One likens such to Children they play with Truths as Children do with Babies one while embrace them and a little after throw them into the Durt How soon do we forget what the Truth is delivered to us and what it represented us to be * James 1.23.24 Is it not a thing to be bewailed that Man should be such a Weathercock turned about with every Breath of Wind and shifting Aspects as the Wind shifts Points 2. Inconstancy in Will and Affections opposed to the Immutability of Will in God We waver between God and Baal and while we are not only resolving but upon motion a little way look back with a hankring after Sodom Sometimes lifted up with heavenly intentions and presently cast down with earthly cares like a Ship that by an advancing Wave seems to aspire to Heaven and the next fall of the Waves makes it sink down to the Depths We change Purposes oftner than Fashions and our Resolutions are like Letters in water whereof no mark remains We will be as John to day to love Christ and as Judas to morrow to betray him and by an unworthy levity pass into the Camp of the Enemies of God resolv'd to be as holy as Angels in the Morning when the Evening beholds us as impure as Devils How often do we hate what before we loved and shun what before we longed for And our Resolutions are like Vessels of Christal which break at the first knock are dasht in pieces by the next Temptation Saul resolved not to persecute David any more but you soon find him upon his old game Pharaoh more than once promised and probably resolved to let Israel go but at the end of the storm his purposes vanish * Exod. 8.27 32. When an Affliction pincheth Men they intend to change their course and the next news of ease changes their intentions Like a Bow not fully bent in their inclinations they cannot reach the Mark but live many years between resolutions of Obedience and affections to Rebellion * Psal 78.17 And what promises men make to God are often the fruit of their Passion their Fear not of their Will The Israelites were startled at the terrors wherewith the Law was delivered and promised obedience * Exod. 20.19 but a Month after forgat them and make a Golden Calf and in the sight of Sinai call for and dance before their Gods * Exod. 32. Never people more unconstant Peter who vowed an Allegiance to his Master and a Courage to stick to him forswears him almost with the same breath Those that cry out with a zeal the Lord he is God shortly after return to the service of their Idols * 1 Kings 18.39 That which seems to be our pleasure this day is our vexation to morrow A Fear of a Judgment puts us into a religious pang and a Love to our Lusts reduceth us to a rebellious inclination As soon as the danger is over the Saint is forgotten Salvation and Damnation present themselves to us touch us and ingender some weak wishes which are dissolved by the next allurements of a carnal interest No hold can be taken of our promises no credit is to be given to our resolutions 3. Inconstancy in practice How much beginning in the Spirit and ending in the Flesh one day in the Sanctuary another in the Stews clear in the morning as the Sun and clouded before noon in Heaven by an excellency of Gifts in Hell by a course of prophanness Like a Flower which some mention that changes its colour three times a day one part white then purple then yellow The Spirit lusts against the Flesh and the Flesh quickly triumphs over the Spirit In a good man how often is there a Spiritual Lethargy Tho he doth not openly defame God yet he doth not alwayes glorifie him He doth not forsake the truth but he doth not alwayes make the attainment of it and settlement in it his business This levity discovers it self in religious duties when I would do
good evil is present with me * Rom. 7.21 Never more present than when we have a mind to do good and never more present than when we have a mind to do the best and greatest good How hard is it to make our thoughts and affections keep their stand place them upon a good Object and they will be frisking from it as a Bird from one bough one fruit to another We vary postures according to the various objects we meet with The course of the World is a very airy thing suted to the uncertain motions of that Prince of the power of the Air which works in it * Eph. 2.2 This ought to be bewail'd by us Tho we may stand fast in the truth tho we may spin our resolutions into a firm web tho the Spirit may triumph over the flesh in our practice yet we ought to bewail it because inconstancy is our nature and what fixedness we have in good is from grace What we find practised by most men is natural to all * Lawrence of Faith p. 262. As face answers to face in a glass so doth heart to heart * Pro. 27.19 a face in the glass is not more like a natural face whose image it is than one mans heart is naturally like another 1. 'T is natural to those out of the Church Nebuchadnezzar is so affected with Daniels prophetick Spirit that he would have none accounted the true God but the God of Daniel * Dan. 2.47 How soon doth this notion slip from him and an image must be set up for all to worship upon pain of almost cruel painful death Daniels God is quite forgotten The miraculous deliverance of the three Children for not worshipping his Image makes him settle a Decree to secure the Honour of God from the reproach of his Subjects * Dan. 3.29 yet a little while after you have him strutting in his Palace as if there were no God but himself 2. 'T is natural to those in the Church The Israelites were the only Church God had in the World and a notable Example of inconstancy After the Miracles of Aegypt they murmured against God when they saw Pharaoh marching with an Army at their Heels They desired food and soon nauseated the Manna they were before fond of when they came into Canaan They sometimes worshipped God and sometimes Idols not only the Idols of one Nation but of all their Neighbours In which regard God calls this his Heritage a Speckled Bird * Jer. 12.9 a Peacock saith Hierom inconstant made up of varieties of Idolatrous colours and Ceremonies This levity of Spirit is the root of all mischeif it scatters our thoughts in the Service of God it is the cause of all revolts and Apostacies from him it makes us unfit to receive the communications of God whatsoever we hear is like words writ in sand ruffled out by the next gale whatsoever is put into us is like precious liquor in a palsie hand soon spilt It breeds distrust of God when we have an uncertain judgment of him we are not like to confide in him an uncertain judgment will be followed with a distrustful heart In fine where it is prevalent it is a certain sign of ungodliness to be driven with the wind like chaffe and to be ungodly is all one in the judgment of the Holy Ghost Psal 1.4 the ungodly are like the chaff which the wind drives away which signifies not their destruction but their disposition for their destruction is inferred from it ver 5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgment How contrary is this to the unchangeable God who is alwayes the same and would have us the same in our religious Promises and Resolutions for good 4. If God be immutable 't is sad news to those that are resolved in wickedness or careless of returning to that duty he requires Sinners must not expect that God will alter his will make a breach upon his nature and violate his own Word to gratifie their lusts No 't is not reasonable God should dishonour himself to secure them and cease to be God that they may continue to be wicked by changing his own nature that they may be unchanged in their vanity God is the same goodness is as amiable in his sight and Sin as abominable in his eyes now as it was at the beginning of the world Being the same God he is the same Enemy to the Wicked as the same Friend to the Righteous He is the same in Knowledge and cannot forget sinful acts He is the same in Will and cannot approve of unrighteous Practices Goodness cannot but be alway the Object of his Love and Wickedness cannot but be alway the Object of his Hatred And as his aversion to Sin is alway the same so as he hath been in his Judgments upon Sinners the same he will be still for the same perfection of Immutability belongs to his Justice for the punishment of Sin as to his Holiness for his disaffection to Sin Though the Covenant of Works was changeable by the crime of man violating it yet it was unchangeable in regard of Gods justice vindicating it which is inflexible in the punishment of the breaches of his Law The Law had a preceptive part and a minatory part When man changed the observation of the Precept the righteous nature of God could not null the execution of the threatning He could not upon the account of this perfection neglect his just word and countenance the unrighteous transgression Tho there were no more rational Creatures in being but Adam and Eve yet God subjected them to that death he had assured them of and from this immutability of his Will ariseth the necessity of the suffering of the Son of God for the relief of the apostate Creature His Will in the second Covenant is as uncâ—aâ—â—eable as that in the first only repentance is settled as the condition of the second which was not indulged in the first and without repentance the sinner must iâ—â—voâ—â—bly pâ—rish or God must change his nature There must be a change in man there can be nâ—â—â—e in God his bow is bent his arrows are ready if the wicked do not turn * Psal 7.11 There is not an Atheist an hypocrite a prophane person that ever was upon the Earth but Gods Soul abhorred him as such and the like he will abhor for ever While any therefore continue so they may sooner expect the Heavens should roul as they please the Sun stand still at their order the Stars change their course at their beck than that God should change his nature which is opposite to prophaness and vanity Who hath hardned himself against him and hath prospered * Job 9.4 Use 2. Of comfort The immutability of a good God is a strong ground of consolation Subjects wish a good Prince to live for ever as being loath to change him but care not how soon they are rid of an Oppressor
improperly knowledg because it belongs to the Will and not to the Understanding only it is radically in the understanding because affection implies knowledg men cannot approve of that which they are ignorant of Thus knowledg is taken Amos 3.2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth And 2 Tim. 2.19 The Lord knows who are his that is he loves them he doth not only know them but acknowledg them for his own it notes not only an exact understanding but a special care of them and so is that to be understood Gen. 1. God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good that is he saw it with an eye of approbation as well as apprehension This is grounded upon Gods knowledg of Vision his sight of his creatures for God doth not love or delight in any thing but what is actually in being or what he hath decreed to bring into being On the contrary also when God doth not approve he is said not to know Mat. 25.12 I know you not and Mat. 7.23 I never knew you he doth not approve of their Works 't is not an ignorance of Understanding but an ignorance of Will for whiles he saith he never knew them he testifies that he did know them in rendring the reason of his disapproving them because he knows all their Works so he knows them and doth not know them in a different manner he knows them so as to understand them but he doth not know them so as to love them We must then ascribe an universal knowledg to God If we deny him a speculative knowledg or knowledg of intelligence we destroy his Deity we make him ignorant of his own Power if we deny him Practical knowledg we deny our selves to be his creatures for as his creatures we are the fruits of this his discretion discovered in Creation if we deny his knowledg of Vision we deny his governing Dominion How can he exercise a Sovereign and uncontroulable Dominion that is ignorant of the nature and qualities of the things he is to govern If he had not Knowledg he could make no Revelation he that knows not cannot dictate we could then have no Scripture To deny God Knowledg is to dash out the Scripture and demolish the Deity God is describ'd in Zech. 3.9 with seven eyes to shevv his perfect Knovvledg of all things all Occurrences in the World and the Cherubims or vvhatsoever is meant by the Wings are described to be full of Eyes both before and behind Ezek 1.18 round about them much more is God all Eye all Ear all Understanding The Sun is a natural Image of God if the Sun had an Eye it vvould see if it had an Understanding it vvould knovv all visible things it vvould see vvhat it shines upon and understand vvhat it influenceth in the most obscure Bovvels of the Earth Doth God excell his Creature the Sun in Excellency and Beauty and not in Light and Understanding certainly more than the Sun excels an Atome or grain of Dust We may yet make some representation of this Knowledg of God by a lower thing a Picture which seems to look upon every one tho' there be never so great a multitude in the Room where it hangs no man can cast his Eye upon it but it seems to behold him in particular and so exactly as if there were none but him upon whom the eye of it were fixt and every man finds the same cast of it shall Art frame a thing of that Nature and shall not the God of Art and all Knowledg be much more in reality than that is in imagination Shall not God have a far greater capacity to behold everything in the World which is infinitely less to him than a wide Room to a Picture II. The second thing what God knows how far his Understanding reaches 1. God knows himself and only knows himself This is the first and original knowledg wherein he excells all Creatures No man doth exactly know himself much less doth he understand the full nature of a Spirit much less still the Nature and Perfections of God for what proportion can there be between a finite faculty and an infinite object Herein consists the Infiniteness of Gods Knowledg That he knows his own Essence that he knows that which is unknowable to any else It doth not so much consist in knowing the Creatures which he hath made as in knowing himself who was never made 'T is not so much infinite because he knows all things which are in the World or that shall be or things that he can make because the number of them is finite but because he hath a perfect and comprehensive knowledg of his own infinite Perfections * Moulin Tho' it be said that Angels see his Face Math. 18.10 that sight notes rather their immediate Attendance than their exact Knowledg they see some signs of his Presence and Majesty more illustrious and express than ever appear'd to man in this Life but the Essence of God is invisible to them hid from them in the secret place of Eternity none knows God but himself 1 Cor. 2.11 what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man so the things of God knows no man but the spirit of God the spirit of God searches the deep things of God searcheth that is exactly knows throughly understands as those who have their eyes in every Chink and Crevis to see what lies hid there the word search notes not an Enquiry but an exact Knowledg such as men have of things upon a diligent scrutiny as when God is said to search the Heart and the Reins it doth not signify a precedent ignorance but an exact Knowledg of the most intimate corners of the hearts of men As the Conceptions of men are unknown to any but themselves so the depths of the Divine Essence Perfections and Decrees are unknown to any but to God himself he only knows what he is and what he knows what he can do and what he hath Decreed to do 1. For first If God did not know himself he would not be perfect 'T is the Perfection of a Creature to know it self much more a Perfection belonging to God If God did not comprehend himself he would want an Infinite Perfection and so would cease to be God in being defective in that which intellectual Creatures in some measure possess As God is the most perfect Being so he must have the most perfect Understanding If he did not understand himself he would be under the greatest Ignorance because he would be ignorant of the most excellent object Ignorance is the Imperfection of the Understanding and ignorance of ones self is a greater Imperfection than ignorance of things without If God should know all things without himself and not know himself he would not have the most perfect Knowledg because he would not have the knowledg of the best of objects 2. Without the Knowledg of himself he
Heb. 4.12 As a Critick discerns every Letter Point and Stop he is more intimate with us than our Souls with our Bodies and hath more the Possession of us than we have of our selves he knows them by an inspection into the heart not by the Mediation of second causes by the looks or gestures of men as men may discern the Thoughts of one another 1. God discerns all good motions of the Mind and Will These he puts into men and needs must God know his own act he knew the Son of Jeroboam to have some good thing in him towards the Lord God of Israel 1 Kings 14.13 and the integrity of David and Hezekiah the freest motions of the Will and Affections to him Lord thou knowest that I love thee saith Peter John 21.17 Love can be no more restrain'd than the Will it self can A man may make another to grieve and desire but none can force another to Love 2. God discerns all the evil motions of the Mind and Will Every imagination of the Heart Gen. 6.5 the vanity of mens thoughts Psal 94.11 their inward darkness and deceitful disguises No wonder that God who fashion'd the heart should understand the motions of it Psal 33.13 15. He looks from Heaven and beholds all the Children of men he fashioneth their hearts alike and considers all their Works Doth any man make a Watch and yet be ignorant of its motion Did God fling away the Key to this secret Cabinet when he framed it and put off the power of unlocking it when he pleased He did not surely frame it in such a posture as that any thing in it should be hid from his Eye he did not fashion it to be Priviledged from his Government which would follow if he were ignorant of what was Minted and Coined in it He could not be a Judg to punish men if the inward frames and Principles of mens actions were concealed from him an outward action may glitter to an outward eye yet the secret spring be a desire of applause and not the Fear and Love of God If the inward frames of the heart did lye covered from him in the secret recesses of the heart those plausible acts which in regard of their Principles would merit a Punishment would meet with a Reward and God should bestow Happiness where he had denounced Misery As without the knowledg of what is just he could not be a Wise Law-giver so without the knowledg of what is inwardly committed he could not be a Righteous Judg acts that are rotten in the spring might be judged good by the fair colour and appearance This is the glory of God at the last day to manifest the secrets of all hearts 1 Cor. 4.5 and the Prophet Jeremiah links the power of Judging and the Prerogative of trying the Hearts together Jer. 11.20 but thou O Lord of Hosts that Judgest Righteously that tryest the Reins and the Heart and Jer. 17.10 I the Lord search the Heart I try the Reins to what end even to give every man according to his way and according to the fruit of his doings And indeed his binding up the whole Law with that command of not coveting evidenceth that he will Judg men by the inward affections and frames of their hearts Again God sustains the mind of man in every act of thinking In him we have not only the Principle of Life but every motion the motion of our minds as vvell as of our members In him we live and move c. Acts 17.28 Since he supports the vigor of the faculty in every act can he be ignorant of those acts vvhich spring from the faculty to vvhich he doth at that instant communicate povver and ability Novv this knovvledg of the Thoughts of men is 1. An incommunicable Property belonging only to the Divine Vnderstanding Creatures indeed may knovv the thoughts of others by Divine Revelation but not by themselves no Creature hath a Key immediately to open the minds of men and see all that lodgeth there no Creature can Fathom the heart by the Line of Created Knowledge Daille serm Part 1. p. 230. Devils may have a conjectural Knowledg and may guess at them by the acquaintance they have with the Disposition and Constitution of men and the Images they behold in their Fancies and by some marks which an inward imagination may stamp upon the Brain Blood Animal Spirits Face c. But the knowing the Thougnts meerly as Thought without any Impression by it is a Royalty God appropriates to himself as the main secret of his Government and a Perfection declarative of his Deity as much as any else Jer. 17.9 10. the heart of man is desperately wicked who can know it yes there is one and but one I the Lord search the Heart I try the Reins Man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks upon the Heart 1 Sam. 16.7 where God is distinguisht by this Perfection from all men whatsoever others may know by Revelation as Elisha did what was in Gehazi's heart 2 Kings 5.26 But God knows a man more than any man knows himself What person upon earth understands the windings and turnings of his own heart what reserves it will have what contrivances what inclinations all which God knows exactly 2. God acquires no new Knowledg of the thoughts and heart by the Discovery of them in the actions He would then be but equal in this part of Knowledg to his Creature no man or Angel but may thus arrive to the Knowledg of them God were then excluded from an absolute Dominion over the prime work of his lower Creation he would have made a Creature superior in this respect to himself upon whose Will to discover his knowledg of their inward intentions should depend and therefore when God is said to search the heart we must not understand it as if God were ignorant before and was fain to make an exact scrutiny and enquiry before he attained what he desired to know but God condescends to our capacity in the expression of his own Knowledg signifying that his Knowledg is as compleat as any mans Knowledg can be of the designs of others after he hath sifted them by a strict and through examination and wrung out a discovery of their intentions that he knows them as perfectly as if he had put them upon the rack and forced them to make a discovery of their secret Plottings Nor must we understand that in Gen. 22.12 where God saith after Abraham had stretched out his hand to Sacrifice his Son Now I know that thou fearest God as though God was ignorant of Abrahams gracious disposition to him did Abrahams drawing his Knife furnish God with a new Knowledg no God knew Abrahams pious inclinations before Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will command his Children after him c. Knowledg is sometimes taken for approbation then the sense will be now I approve this Fact as a Testimony of thy fear of me since thy
man that understands the disposition of his Child or Servant knows before what he will do upon such an occasion may not God much more who knows the inclinations of all his Creatures and from Eternity run with his eyes over all the works he intended Our Wills are in the number of causes and since God knows our Wills as causes better than we do our selves why should he be ignorant of the effects God determines to give Grace to such a man not to give it to another but leave him to himself and suffer such temptations to assault him now God knowing the corruption of man in the whole mass and in every part of it is it not easy for him to foreknow what the future actions of the Will will be when the Tinder and Fire meet together and how such a man will determine himself both as to the substance and manner of the action Is it not easy for him to know how a corrupted Temper and a Temptation will suit God is exactly privy to all the gall in the hearts of men and what Principles they will have before they have a Being He knows their thoughts afar off Psal 139.2 as far off as Eternity as some explain the words and thoughts are as voluntary as any thing he knows the power and inclinations of men in the order of second causes he understands the corruption of men as well as the Poyson of Dragons and the Venom of Asps this is laid up in store with him and sealed among his Treasures Deut. 32.33 34. Among the Treasures of his foreknowledg say some What was the cruelty of Hazael but a free act yet God knew the frame of his heart and what acts of murder and oppression would spring from that bitter fountain before Hazael had conceived them in himself 2 Kings 8.12 as a man that knows the Mineral through which Waters pass may know what rellish they will have before they appear above the earth so our Saviour knew how Peter would deny him he knew what quantity of Powder would serve for such a Battery in what measure he would let loose Satan how far he would leave the Reins in Peters hands and then the issue might easily be known and so in every act of man God knows in his own Will what measure of Grace he will give to determine the Will to good and what measure of Grace he will withdraw from such a person or not give to him and consequently how far such a person will fall or not God knows the inclinations of the Creature he knows his own Permissions what degrees of Grace he will either allow him or keep from him according to which will be the degree of his Sin This may in some measure help our Conceptions in this tho' as was said before the manner of Gods foreknowledg is not so easily explicable 3. Gods foreknowledg of mans voluntary actions doth not necessitate the Will of man The foreknowledg of God is not deceived nor the liberty of mans Will diminisht I shall not trouble you with any School distinctions but be as plain as I can laying down several Propositions in this case Proposition 1. 'T is certain all necessity doth not take away liberty Indeed a compulsive necessity takes away liberty but a necessity of immutability removes not liberty from God why should then a necessity of Infallibility in God remove liberty from the Creature God did necessarily create the World because he Decreed it yet freely because his Will from Eternity stood to it he freely Decreed it and freely created it as the Apostle saith in regard of Gods Decrees who hath been his Councellor Rom. 11.34 so in regard of his actions I may say who hath been his compeller he freely decreed and he freely created Jesus Christ necessarily took our flesh because he had covenanted with God so to do yet he acted freely and voluntarily according to that Covenant otherwise his Death had not been efficacious for us A good man doth naturally necessarily love his Children yet voluntarily 'T is part of the happiness of the Blessed to love God unchangeably yet freely for it would not be their happiness if it were done by compulsion What is done by force cannot be called felicity because there is no delight or complacency in it and tho' the Blessed love God freely yet if there were a possibility of change it would not be their Happiness their Blessedness would be dampt by their fear of falling from this Love and consequently from their nearness to God in whom their happiness consists God foreknows that they will Love him for ever but are they therefore compell'd for ever to love him If there were such a kind of constraint Heaven would be rendered burdensome to them and so no Heaven Again Gods foreknowledg of what he will do doth not necessitate him to do he foreknew that he would create a World yet he freely created a World Gods foreknowledg doth not necessitate himself why should it necessitate us more than himself We may instance in ourselves When we Will a thing we necessarily use our faculty of Will and when we freely Will any thing 't is necessary that we freely Will but this necessity doth not exclude but include liberty or more plainly when a man writes or speaks whilst he writes or speaks those actions are necessary because to speak and be silent to write and not to write at the same time are impossible yet our writing or speaking doth not take away the power not to write or to be silent at that time if a man would be so for he might have chose whether he would have spoke or writ So there is a necessity of such actions of man which God foresees that is a necessity of infallibility because God cannot be deceived but not a coactive necessity as if they were compelled by God to act thus or thus 2. No man can say in any of his voluntary actions that he ever found any force upon him When any of us have done any thing according to our Wills can we say we could not have done the contrary to it were we determin'd to it in our own intrinsick nature or did we not determine our selves Did we not act either according to our reason or according to outward allurements did we find any thing without us or within us that did force our Wills to the embracing this or that Whatever action you do you do it because you judg it fit to be done or because you will do it What tho' God foresaw that you would do so and that you would do this or that did you feel any force upon you did you not act according to your nature God foresees that you will Eat or Walk at such a time do you find any thing that moves you to Eat but your own appetite or to Walk but your own Reason and Will If Prescience had impos'd any necessity upon man should we not probably have found some kind of
derive all good to us Had he not been Man we had had no share or part in him A Satisfaction by him had not been imputed to us If he were not God he could not communicate to us Divine Graces and Eternal Happiness he could not have had power to convey so great a good to us had he been only Man and he could not have done it according to the Rule of inflexible righteousness had he been only God As Man he is the way of Conveyance as God he is the spring of Conveyance From this Grace of Union and the Grace of Unction we find Rivers of Waters flowing to make glad the City of God Believers are his Branches and draw Sap from him as he is their Root in his Human Nature and have an endless duration of it from his Divine Had he not been Man he had not been in a state to obey the Law Had he not been God as well as Man his Obedience could not have been valuable to be imputed to us How should this Mystery be studied by us which would afford us both Admiration and Content Admiration in the incomprehensibleness of it Contentment in the fitness of the Mediator By this Wisdom of God we receive the props of our Faith and the fruits of Joy and Peace Wisdom consists in chusing fit means and conducting them in such a method as may reach with good success the variety of Marks which are aimed at Thus hath the Wisdom of God set forth a Mediator suted to our wants fitted for our supplies and ordered so the whole Affair by the union of these two Natures in the Person of the Redeemer that there could be no disappointment by all the bustle Hell and hellish Instruments could raise against it 4. The Wisdom of God is seen in this way of Redemption in vindicating the Honour and Righteousness of the Law both as to Precept and Penalty The first and irreversible design of the Law was Obedience The Penalty of the Law had only entrance upon Transgression Obedience was the design and the Penalty was added to enforce the observance of the Precept Gen. 2.17 Thou shalt not eat there is the Precept In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye There is the Penalty Obedience was our Debt to the Law as Creatures Punishment was due from the Law to us as Sinners We were bound to endure the Penalty for our first Transgression but the Penalty did not Cancel the Bond of future Obedience The Penalty had not been incurr'd without transgressing the Precept yet the Precept was not abrogated by enduring the Penalty Since Man so soon revolted and by his Revolt fell under the threatning the Justice of the Law had been honoured by Man's sufferings but the holinesse and equity of the Law had been honoured by mans Obedience The Wisdom of God finds out a Medium to satisfie both The Justice of the Law is preserved in the Execution of the Penalty and the Holiness of the Law is honoured in the observance of the Precept The Life of our Saviour is a Conformity to the Precept and his Death is a Conformity to the Penalty the Precepts are exactly performed and the Curse punctually executed by a voluntary observing the one and a voluntary undergoing the other It is obeyed as if it had not been transgrest and executed as if it had not been obeyed It became the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God as the Rector of the World to exact it Heb. 2.10 and it became the holiness of the Mediator to fulfill all the righteousness of the Law †Rom. 8.3 Matth. 3.15 And thus the Honour of the Law was vindicated in all the parts of it The Transgression of the Law was Condemned in the Flesh of the Redeemer and the Righteousness of the Law was fulfilled in his Person And both these acts of Obedience being counted as one Righteousness and imputed to the believing sinner render him a subject to the Law both in its preceptive and minatory part By Adams sinful acting we were made sinners and by Christ's righteous acting we are made righteous Rom. 5.10 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous The Law was obeyed by him that the righteousness of it might be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.4 'T is not fulfilled in us or in our actions by inherency but fulfilled in us by imputation of that righteousness which was exactly fulfilled by another As he died for us and rose again for us so he lived for us The Commands of the Law were as well observed for us as the Threatnings of the Law were endured for us This justification of a sinner with the preservation of the holiness of the Law in truth in the inward parts in sincerity of intention as well as conformity in action is the wisdom of God the Gospel-wisdom which David desires to know Psal 51.6 Thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom or as some render it the hidden things of wisdom Not an inherent wisdom in the acknowledgments of his sin which he had confest before but the wisdom of God in providing a Medicine so as to keep up the holiness of the Law in the observance of it in Truth and the averting the Judgment due to the sinner In and by this way methodiz'd by the wisdom of God all doubs and troubles are discharg'd Naturally if we take a view of the Law to behold its Holiness and Justice and then of our hearts to see the contrariety in them to the command and the pollution repugnant to its holiness and after this cast our eyes upward and behold a flaming Sword edg'd with Curses and Wrath Is there any matter but that of terrour afforded by any of these But when we behold in the life of Christ a conformity to the Mandatory part of the Law and in the Cross of Christ a sustaining the minatory part of the Law this wisdom of God gives a well-grounded and rational dismiss to all the horrours that can seize upon us 5. The wisdom of God in Redemption is visible in manifesting two contrary Affections at the same time and in one act The greatest hatred of Sin and the greatest love to the Sinner In this way he punishes the sin without ruining the sinner and repairs the ruins of the sinner without indulging the sin Here is eternal love and eternal hatred a condemning the sin to what it merited and an advancing the sinner to what he could not expect Herein is the choicest love and the deepest hatred manifested An implacableness against the sin and a placableness to the sinner His hatred of sin hath been discovered in other ways in punishing the Devil without remedy sentencing Man to an expulsion from Paradise though seduced by another in accursing the Serpent an irrational Creature though but a misguided Instrument The whole tenor of his Threatnings declare
his loathing of sin and the sprinklings of his Judgments in the World and the horrible expectations of terrified Consciences confirm it But what are all these Testimonies to the highest evidence that can possibly be given in the sheathing the Sword of his wrath in the heart of his Son If a Father should order his Son to take a mean Garb below his Dignity order him to be dragg'd to Prison seem to throw off all Affection of a Father for the severity of a Judge condemn his Son to a horrible Death be a Spectator of his bleeding Condition withhold his hand from asswaging his Misery regard it rather with Joy than Sorrow give him a bitter Cup to drink and stand by to see him drink it off to the bottom dregs and all and sâ—ash frowns in his face all the while and this not for any fault of his own but the Rebellion of some Subjects he undertook for and that the Offenders might have a pardon seal'd by the Blood of the Son the sufferer all this would evidence his detestation of the Rebellion and his affection to the Rebels his hatred to their Crime and his love to their Welfare This did God do He delivered Christ up for our Offences Rom. 8.32 the Father gave him the Cup John 18 18. the Lord bruised him with pleasure Isa 53.10 and that for sin â—e transfer'd upon the shoulders of his Son the pain we had merited that the Criminal might be restored to the place he had forfeited He hates the sin so as to condemn it for ever and wrap it up in the Curse he had threatned and loves the sinner believing and repenting so as to mount him to an expectation of a happiness exceeding the first state both in glory and perpetuity Instead of an Earthly Paradise lays the Foundation of an Heavenly Mansion brings forth a weight of Glory from a weight of Misery separates the comfortable light of the Sun from the scorching heat we had deserved at his hands Thus hath Gods hatred of sin been manifested He is at an eternal Defiance with sin yet nearer in alliance with the sinner than he was before the Revolt As if man's miserable Fall had endeared him to the Judge This is the wisdom and prudence of Grace wherein God hath abounded Eph. 1.9 A wisdom in twisting the happy restoration of the broken Amity with an everlasting Curse upon that which made the breach both upon sin the Cause and upon Satan the Seducer to it Thus is hatred and love in their highest glory manifested together Hatred to sin in the death of Christ more than if the torments of Hell had been undergone by the sinner and love to the sinner more than if he had by an absolute and simple Bounty bestowed upon him the possession of Heaven because the gift of his Son for such an end is a greater token of his boundless Affections than a reinstating Man in Paradise Thus is the wisdom of God seen in Redemption consuming the sin and recovering the sinner 6. The wisdom of God is evident in overturning the Devil's Empire by the Nature he had vanquish'd and by ways quite contrary to what that malicious Spirit could imagine The Devil indeed read his own doom in the first Promise and found his ruin resolved upon by the means of the Seed of the Woman but by what Seed was not so easily known to him * And indeed the 〈◊〉 â—â—racles managed by the Devils declared that they were not long to hold their Scepter in the World but the Hebrew Child should vanquish them And the methods whereby it was to be brought about was a Mystery kept secret from the malicious Devils since it was not discovered to the obedient Angels He might know from Isa 53. that the Redeemer was assured to divide the Spoil with the strong and rescue a part of the lost Creation out of his hands and that this was to be effected by making his Soul an offering for sin But could he imagine which way his Soul was to be made such an Offering He shrewdly suspected Christ just after his Inauguration into his Office by Bapism to be the Son of God But did he ever dream that the Messiah by dying as a reputed Malefactor should be a Sacrifice for the expiation of the sin the Devil had introduced by his subtilty Did he ever imagine a Cross should dispossess him of his Crown and that dying groans should wrest the Victory out of his hands He was conquer'd by that Nature he had cast headlong into ruin A Woman by his subtilty was the occasion of our death and a Woman by the conduct of the only wise God brings forth the Author of our Life and the Conquerour of our Enemies The Flesh of the old Adam had infected us and the Flesh of the new Adam cures us 1 Cor. 15.21 By man came death by man also came the resurrection from the dead We are killed by the old Adam and raised by the new As among the Israelites a fiery Serpent gave the wound and a brazen Serpent administers the Cure The Nature that was deceived bruiseth the Deceiver and razeth up the Foundations of his Kingdom Satan is defeated by the Counsels he took to secure his Possession and loses the Victory by the same means whereby he thought to preserve it His tempting the Jews to the sin of Crucifying the Son of God had a contrary success to his tempting Adam to eat of the Tree The first death he brought upon Adam ruined us and the death he brought by his Instrumâ—nts upon the second Adam restored us By a Tree if one may so say he had Triumphed over the World and by the fruit of a Tree one hanging upon a Tree he is dischâ—â—ged of his power over us Heb. 2.14 Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death And thus the Devil ruins his own Kingdom while he thinks to confirm inlarge it And is defeated by his own policy whereby he thought to continue the World under his chains and deprive the Creator of the World of his purposed honour What deeper Counsell could he resolve upon for his own security than to be instrumental in the death of him who was God the terror of the Devil himself and to bring the Redeemer of the World to expire with disgrace in the sight of a multitude of men Thus did the Wisdom of God shine forthin restoring us by methods seemingly repugnant to the end he aimed at above the suspition of a subtle Devil whom he intended to baffle Could he Imagine that we should be healed by stripes quickned by death purified by blood crowned by a cross advanced to the highest honour by the lowest humility comforted by sorrows glorified by disgrace absolved by condemnation and made rich by poverty That the sweetest hony should at once spring out of the belly of a dead Lion the Lion of the tribe of Judah and out of the bosom of the living God
order and fit every Stone in the Building make all things in weight and measure to let them afterwards run at hap hazard Would he bring forth his Power to view in the Creation and let a more glorious perfection lye idle when it had so large a Field to move in Infinite wisdom is inconsistent with inactivity All Prudence doth illustrate itself in untying the hardest knots and disposing the most difficult Affairs to a happy and successful Issue All those various Arts and Inventions among men which lend their assisting hand to one another and those various Employments their several Genius's lead them to whereby they support one anothers welfare are Beams and instincts of Divine wisdom in the Government of the World He that made all things in wisdom †Psal 104.24 would not leave his works to act and move only according to their own folly and idly behold them jumble together and run counter to that end he designed them for we must not fancy a Divine Wisdom to be destitute of Activity 3. Here we may see a ground of God's patience The most impotent persons are the most impatient when un-foreseen Emergencies arise or at Events expected by them when their feeble Prudence was not a sufficient match to contest with them or prevent them But the wiser any man is the more he bears with those things which seem to cross his Intentions because he knows he grasps the whole Affair and is sure of attaining the end he proposeth to himself yet as a finite wisdom can have but a finite patience so an infinite wisdom possesses an infinite patience The wise God intends to bring glory to himself and good to some of his Creatures out of the greatest evils that can happen in the World He beholds no exorbitant Afflictions and monstrous Actions but what he can dispose to a good and glorious end even to work together for good to them that love God * Rom. 8.28 and therefore doth not presently fall foul upon the Actors till he hath wrought out that temporary Glory to himself and Good to his People which he designs The times of Ignorance God winkt at till he had brought his Son into the World and manifested his wisdom in Redemption and when this was done he presseth men to a speedy repentance †Acts 17.30 that as he forebore punishing their Crimes in order to the displaying his wisdom in the design'd Redemption so when he had effected it they must forbear any longer abusing his Patience 4. Hence appears the Immutability of God in his Decrees He is not destitute of a Power and Strength to change his own Purposes but his Infinite Perfection of Wisdom is a bar to his laying aside his Eternal Resolves and f rming new ones Isai 46.10 He resolves the end from the beginning and his couâ—sel stands stands immovable because it is Counsel 'T is an impotent Counsel that is subject to a daily thwarting it self Inconstant Persons are accounted by Men destitute of a due measure of Prudence If God change his Mind 't is either for the better or the worse if for the better he was not wise in his former Purpose if for the worse he is not wise in his present Resolve No alteration can be without a reflect on of Weakness upon the former or present determination God must either cease to be as Wise as he was before or begin to be Wiser than he was before the change which to think or imagine is to deny a Deity If any Man change his Resolution he is apprehensive of a flaw in his former Purpose and finds an Inconvenience in it which moves him to such a change which must be either for want of fore-sight in himselâ— or want of a due consideration of the object of his Counsel Neither of whicâ— can be imagined of God without a denial of the Deity No tâ—ere are no blots and blemishes in his Purposes and Promises Repentance indeed is an act of Wisdom in the Creature but it presupposeth Folly in his former Actions which is inconsistent with Infinite Perfection Men are often too rash in Promising and therefore what they promise in haste they perform at leasure or not at all They consider not before they Vow and make After-enquiries whether they had best stand to it The only wise God need not any After-game As he is Soveraignly Wise he sees no cause of râ—versing any thing and wants not expedients for his own Purpose and as he is Infinitely Powerful he hath no Superiour to hinder him from executing his Will and making his People enjoy the effects of his Wisdom If he had a recollection of Thoughts as Man hath and saw a necessity to mend them he were not Infinitely Wise in his first Decrees As in Creation he looked back upon the several Pieces of that goodly Frame he had erected and saw them so exact that he did not take up his Pensil again to mend any Particle of the first Draught so his Promises are made with such Infinite Wisdom and Judgment that what he writes is Irreversible and for Ever as the Decrees of the Medes and Persians All the words of God are Eternal because they are the Births of Righteousness and Judgment Hos 2.19 I will betroth thee to me for ever in Righteousness and Judgment He is not of a wavering and flitting Discretion If he Threatens he wisely considers what he Threatens if he Promises he wisely considers what he Promises and therefore is Immutable in both 5. Hence it follows thâ—t God is a fit Object for our Trust and Confidence For God being Infinitely Wise when he Promises any thing he sees every th ng which may hinder and every thing which may promote the execution of it so that he cannot discover any thing aftâ—rwards that may move him to take up After thougâ—ts He hath more Wisdom than to promise any thing hand over head or any thing which he knows he cannot accomplish Thougâ— God as True be the Object of our Trust yet God as Wise is the Foundation of our Trust We trust him in his Promise the Promise was made by Mercy and 't is perform d by Truth but Wisdom conducts all Means to the accomplishment of it There are many Men whose Honesty we can confide in but whose Discretion we are diffident of But there is no defect eith r of the one or the other which may scare us from a depending upon God in our concerns The words of Mans wisdom the Apostle entitles Enticing 1 Cor. 2.4 in opposition to the words of Gods wisdom which are firm stable and undeniable demonstrations As the Power of God is an encouragement of Trust because he is able to effect so the Wisdom of God comes into the rank of those Attributes which support our Faith To put a Confidence in him we must be perswaded not only that he is Ignorant of nothing in the World but that he is Wise to manage the whole course of Nature
Minds and Consciences of Men as the Author of Nature for the preservation of the World manifests the Holiness of the Law-maker and Governour 2. His Holiness appears in the Ceremonial Law In the variety of Sacrifices for Sin wherein he writ his detestation of Vnrighteousness in bloody Characters His Holiness was more constantly exprest in the continual Sacrifices than in those rarer sprinklings of Judgments now and then upon the World which often reached not the worst but the most moderate Sinners and were the occasions of the questioning of the Righteousness of his Providence both by Jews and Gentiles In Judgments his Purity was only now and then manifest By his long Patience he might be imagin'd by some reconcil'd to their Crimes or not much concern'd in them but by the Morning and Evening Sacrifice he witness'd a perpetual and uninterrupted Abhorrence of whatsoever was Evil. Besides those the occasional Washings and Sprinklings upon Ceremonial Defilements which polluted only the Body gave an evidence that every thing that had a resemblance to Evil was loathsom to him Add also the Prohibitions of eating such and such Creatures that were filthy as the Swine that wallowed in the Mire a fit Emblem for the prophane and brutish Sinner which had a Moral signification both of the loathsomness of Sin to God and the aversion themselves ought to have to every thing that was filthy 3. This Holiness appears in the Allurements annex'd to the Law for keeping it and the Affrightments to restrain from the breaking of it Both Promises and Threatnings have their Fundamental Root in the Holiness of God and are both Branches of this peculiar Perfection As they respect the Nature of God they are Declarations of his hatred of Sin and his love of Righteousness the one belong to his Threatnings the other to his Promises both joyn together to represent this Divine Perfection to the Creature and to excite to an imitation in the Creature In the one God would render Sin odious because dangerous and curb the practice of Evil which would otherwise be Licentious In the other he would commend Righteousness and excite a love of it which would otherwise be cold By these God sutes the two great Affections of Men Fear and Hope both the branches of Self-love in Man The Promises and Threatnings are both the Branches of Holiness in God The end of the Promises is the same with the Exhortation the Apostle concludes from them 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God As the end of Precepts is to direct the end of Threatnings is to deter from Iniquity so that of the Promises is to allure to Obedience Thus God breaths out his Love to Righteousness in every Promise his Hatred of Sin in every Threatning The Rewards offerd in the one are the Smiles of pleased Holiness and the Curses thundred in the other are the Sparklings of enraged Righteousness 4. His Holiness appears in the Judgments inflicted for the violation of this Law Divine Holiness is the Root of Divine Justice and Divine Justice is the Triumph of Divine Holiness Hence both are expressed in Scripture by one word of Righteousness which sometimes signifies the rectitude of the Divine Nature and sometimes the vindicative stroak of his Arm Psal 103.6 The Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgment for all that are oppressed So Dan. 9.7 Righteousness that is Justice belongs to thee The Vials of his Wrath are filled from his implacable aversion to Iniquity All Penal Evils showred down upon the heads of Wicked men spread their root in and branch out from this Perfection All the dreadful Storms and Tempests in the World are blown up by it Why doth he rain Snares Fire and Brimstone and a horrible Tempest because the righteous Lord loveth Righteousness Psal 11.6 7. And as was observed before when he was going about the dreadfullest Work that ever was in the World the overturning the Jewish State hardening the Hearts of that Unbelieving People and casheiring a Nation once dear to him from the honour of his Protection His Holiness as the Spring of all this is applauded by the Seraphims Isai 6.3 compared with Vers 9 10 11 c. Impunity argues the approbation of a Crime and Punishment the abhorrency of it The greatness of the Crime and the Righteousness of the Judge are the first Natural Sentiments that arise in the Minds of Men upon the appearance of Divine Judgments in the World by those that are near them †Amirant Moral Tom. 5. p. 388. As when Men see Gibbets erected Scaffolds prepared Instruments of Death and Torture provided and grievous Punishments inflicted the first reflection in the Spectators is the malignity of the Crime and the detestation the Governours are possessed with 1. How severely hath he punish'd his most Noble Creatures for it The once glorious Angels upon whom he had been at greater cost than upon other Creatures and drawn more lively Lineaments of his own Excellency upon the Transgression of his Law are thrown into the Furnace of Justice without any Mercy to pity them Jude 6. And though there were but one sort of Creatures upon the Earth that bore his Image and were only fit to publish and keep up his Honour below the Heavens yet upon their Apostacy though upon a Temptation from a subtile and insinuating Spirit the Man with all his Posterity is sentenc'd to Misery in Life and Death at last and the Woman with all her Sex have standing Punishments inflicted on them which as they begun in their Persons were to reach as far as the last Member of their successive Generations So Holy is God that he will not endure a Spot in his choicest Work Men indeed when there is a crack in an excellent piece of Work or a stain upon a rich Garment do not cast it away they value it for the remaining Excellency more than hate it for the contracted Spot But God saw no Excellency in his Creature worthy regarding after the Image of that which he most esteemed in himself was defaced 2. How detestable to him are the very Instruments of Sin For the Ill use the Serpent an Irrational Creature was put to by the Devil as an Instrument in the Fall of Man the whole brood of those Animals are Curst Gen. 3.14 Cursed above all Cattle and above every Beast of the field Not only the Devils Head is threatned to be for ever bruised and as some think render'd irrecoverable upon this further Testimony of his Malice in the Seduction of Man who perhaps without this new Act might have been admitted into the Arms of Mercy notwithstanding his first Sin though the Scripture gives us no account of this only this is the only Sentence we read of pronounc'd against the Devil which puts him into an irrecoverable state by a Mortal bruising of his Head But I say He is not only punish'd but the
may be further considered that in this way of Redemption his Holiness in the hatred of Sin seems to be valued above any other Attribute He proclaims the value of it above the Person of his Son since the Divine Nature of the Redeemer is disguised obscur'd and vail'd in order to the restoring the Honour of it And Christ seems to value it above his own Person since he submitted himself to the Reproaches of Men to clear this Perfection of the Divine Nature and make it Illustrious in the eyes of the World You heard before at the beginning of the handling this Argument It was the Beauty of the Deity the Lustre of his Nature the Link of all his Attributes his very Life he values it equal with Himself since he swears by it as well as by his Life And none of his Attributes would have a due Decorum without it 'T is the glory of Power Mercy Justice Wisdom that they are all Holy So that though God had an Infinite tenderness and compassion to the Fallen Creature yet it should not extend it self in his relief to the prejudice of the Rights of his Purity He would have this triumph in the Tenderness of his Mercy as well as the Severities of his Justice His Mercy had not appeared in its true colours nor attain'd a regular End without Vengeance on Sin It would have been a Compassion that would in sparing the Sinner have encourag'd the Sin and affronted Holiness in the Issues of it Had he dispersed his Compassions about the World without the regard to his Hatred of Sin his Mercy had been too cheap and his Holiness had been contemn'd His Mercy would not have Triumph'd in his own Nature whilst his Holiness had suffered He had exercised a Mercy with the impairing his own Glory But now in this way of Redemption the Rights of both are secured both have their due lustre The Odiousness of Sin is equally discovered with the greatest of his Compassions an Infinite Abhorrence of Sin and an Infinite Love to the World march hand in hand together Never was so much of the Irreconcileableness of Sin to him set forth as in the moment he was opening his Bowels in the Reconciliation of the Sinner Sin is made the chiefest Mark of his Displeasure while the Poor Creature is made the highest Object of Divine Pity There could have been no motion of Mercy with the least Injury to Purity and Holiness In this way Mercy and Truth Mercy to the Misery of the Creature and Truth to the Purity of the Law have met together the Righteousness of God and the Peace of the Sinner have kissed each other Psal 85.10 II. The Holiness of God in his Hatred of Sin appears in our Justification and the Conditions he requires of all that would enjoy the benefit of Redemption His Wisdom hath so temper'd all the Conditions of it that the Honour of his Holiness is as much preserved as the Sweetness of his Mercy is experimented by us All the Conditions are Records of his exact Purity as well as of his condescending Grace Our Justification is not by the Imperfect works of Creatures but by an exact and Infinite Righteousness as great as that of the Deity which had been Offended It being the Righteousness of a Divine Person upon which account it is call'd the Righteousness of God not only in regard of Gods appointing it and Gods accepting it but as it is a Righteousness of that Person that was God and is God Faith is the Condition God requires to Justification but not a dead but an active Faith such a Faith as purifies the heart †James 2.22 Acts 15.9 He calls for Repentance which is a Moral retracting our Offences and an approbation of contemn'd Righteousness and a violated Law an endeavour to regain what is lost and to pluck out the heart of that Sin we have committed He requires Mortification which is called Crucifying whereby a Man would strike as full and deadly a blow at his Lusts as was struck at Christ upon the Cross and make them as certainly die as the Redeemer did Our own Righteousness must be condemned by us as impure and imperfect We must disown every thing that is our own as to Righteousness in reverence to the Holiness of God and the valuation of the Righteousness of Christ He hath resolved not to bestow the Inheritance of Glory without the Root of Grace None are partakers of the Divine Blessedness that are not partakers of the Divine Nature There must be a renewing of his Image before there be a vision of his face * He◠12.14 He will not have Men brought only into a Relative state of Happiness by Justification without a Real state of Grace by Sanctification And so resolved he is in it that there is no admittance into Heaven of a starting but a persevering Holiness Rom. 2.7 a patient continuance in well doing Patient under the sharpness of Affliction and continuing under the Pleasures of Prosperity Hence it is that the Gospel the restoring Doctrine hath not only the motives of Rewards to allure us to Good and the danger of Punishments to scare us from Evil as the Law had but they are set forth in a higher strain in a way of stronger engagement the Rewards are Heavenly and the Punishments Eternal And more powerful Motives besides from the choicer Expressions of Gods Love in the Death of his Son The whole Design of it is to re-instate us in a resemblance to this Divine Perfection whereby he shews what an Affection he hath to this Excellency of his Nature and what a detestation he hath of Evil which is contrary to it 3. It appears in the actual Regeneration of the Redeemed Souls and a carrying it on to a full perfection As Election is the effect of Gods Soveraignty our Pardon the fruit of his Mercy our Knowledge a stream from his Wisdom our Strength an impression of his Power so our Purity is a beam from his Holiness The whole work of Sanctification and the preservation of it our Saviour begs for his Disciples of his Father under this Title John 17.11 17. Holy Father keep them through thy own name and sanctifie them through thy Truth as the proper Source whence Holiness was to flow to the Creature As the Sun is the proper Fountain whence Light is derived both to the Stars above and Bodies here below Whence He is not only called Holy but the Holy One of Israel Isai 43.15 I am the Lord your Holy One the Creator of Israel Displaying his Holiness in them by a new Creation of them as his Israel As the rectitude of the Creature at the first Creation was the effect of his Holiness so the Purity of the Creature by a New Creation is a draught of the same Perfection He is called the Holy One of Israel more in Isaiah that Evangelical Prophet in erecting Zion and forming a People for himself than in the whole Scripture
many Leagues behind any resemblance to God he stript off that which was the glory of his Nature and was the only means of glorifying God as his Creator The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle uses is very significant Postpon'd by Sin an infinite distance from any imitation of Gods Holiness or any appearance before him in a garb of Nature pleasing to him Let us lament our Fall and distance from God 3. Information All Vnholiness is vile and opposite to the Nature of God 'T is such a loathsom thing that the Purity of Gods eye is averse from beholding Hab. 1.3 'T is not said there that he will not but he cannot look on Evil there cannot be any amicableness between God and Sin the Natures of both are so directly and unchangeably contrary to one another Holiness is the Life of God it endures as long as his Life He must be Eternally averse from Sin he can live no longer than he lives in the hatred and loathing of it If he should for one instant cease to hate it he would cease to live To be a Holy God is as Essential to him as to be a Living God and he would not be a living but a dead God if he were in the least point of Time an Unholy God He cannot look on Sin without loathing it he cannot look on Sin but his Heart riseth against it It must needs be most odious to him as that which is against the glory of his Nature and directly opposite to that which is the lustre and varnish of all his other Perfections 'T is the Abominable thing which his Soul hates Jer. 44.4 the vilest terms imaginable are used to signifie it Do you understand the loathsomness of a miry Swine or the nauseousness of the vomit of a Dog These are Emblems of Sin †2 Pet. 2.22 Can you endure the steams of putrified Carkasses from an open Sepulchre * Rom. 3.23 Is the smell of the stinking sweat or Excrements of a Body delightful the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in James 1.21 signifies as much Or is the sight of a Body overgrown with Scabs and Leprosie grateful to you So vile so odious is Sin in the sight of God 'T is no light thing then to fly in the Face of God to break his Eternal Law to dash both the Tables in pieces to trample the Transcript of Gods own Nature under our feet to cherish that which is inconsistent with his Honour to lift up our heels against the glory of his Nature to joyn Issue with the Devil in stabbing his Heart and depriving him of his life Sin in every part of it is an opposition to the Holiness of God and consequently an envying him a Being and Life as well as a Glory If Sin be such a thing ye that love the Lord hate Evil. 4. Information Sin cannot escape a due Punishment A hatred of Unrighteousness and consequently a will to punish it is as Essential to God as a love of Righteousness Since he is not as an Heathen Idol but hath Eyes to see and Purity to hate every Iniquity he will have an Infinite Justice to punish whatsoever is against Infinite Holiness As he loves every thing that is amiable so he loaths every thing that is filthy and that constantly without any change his whole Nature is set against it he abhors nothing but this 'T is not the Devils knowledge or activity that his Hatred is terminated in but the Malice and Unholiness of his Nature 't is this only is the Object of his Severity 'T is in the recompence of this only that there can be a manifestation of his Justice Sin must be punish'd for 1. This Detestation of Sin must be manifested How should we certainly know his loathing of it if he did not manifest by some act how ungrateful it is to him As his love to Righteousness would not appear without rewarding it so his hatred of Iniquity would be as little evidenc'd without punishing it His Justice is the great Witness to his Purity The Punishment therefore inflicted on the Wicked shall be in some respect as great as the Rewards bestow'd upon the Righteous Since the hatred of Sin is natural to God 't is as natural to him to shew one time or other his hatred of it And since Men have a conceit that God is like them in Impurity there is a necessity of some manifestation of himself to be Infinâ—tely distant from those Conceits they have of him Psal 50.21 I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes He would else encourage the Injuries done to his Holiness favour the Extravagances of the Creature and condemn or at least slight the Righteousness both of his own Nature and his Soveraign Law What way is there for God to manifest this Hatred but by Threatning the Sinner and what would this be but a vain Affrightment and ridiculous to the Sinner if it were never to be put in execution There is an indissoluble connexion between his Hatred of Sin and Punishment of the Offender Psal 11.5 6. The wicked his Soul hates Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone c. He cannot approve of it without denying himself and a total Impunity would be a degree of Approbation The Displeasure of God is Eternal and Irreconcileable against Sin for Sin being absolutely contrary to his holy Nature He is Eternally contrary to it If there be not therefore a way to separate the Sin from the Sinner the Sinner must lie under the Displeasure of God no displeasure can be manifested without some marks of it upon the Person that lies under that Displeasure The Holiness of God will right it self of the wrongs done to it and scatter the Prophaners of it at the greatest distance from him which is the greatest Punishment that can be inflicted to be removed far from the Fountain of Life is the worst of Deaths God can as soon lay aside his Purity as always forbear his Displeasure against an Impure Person 't is all one not to hate it and not to manifest his Hatred of it 2. As his Holiness is natural and necessary so is the punishment of Vnholiness necessary to him 'T is necessary that he should abominate Sin and therefore necessary he should discountenance it The Severities of God against Sin are not vain Scare-crows they have their foundation in the Righteousness of his Nature 't is because he is a Righteous and Holy God that he will not forgive our Transgressions and Sins Josh 24.19 that is that he will punish them The Throne of his Holiness is a fiery flame Dan. 7.9 there is both a pure light and a scorching heat Whatsoever is contrary to the Nature of God will fall under the Justice of God he would else violate his own Nature deny his own Perfection seem to be out of love with his own Glory and Life He doth not hate it out of choice but from the
because he doth not act for his own profit but for his Creatures welfare and the manifestation of his own Goodness He sends out his Beams without receiving any addition to himself or substantial advantage from his Creatures 'T is from this Perfection that he loves whatsoever is good and that is whatsoever he hath made For every Creature of God is good * 1 Tim. 4.4 Every Creature hath some Communications from him which cannot be without some Affection to them Every Creature hath a Footstep of Divine Goodness upon it God therefore loves that goodness in the Creature else he would not love himself †Cajetan in secund ' secundae Qu. 34. Ar. 3. God hates no Creature no not the Devils and Damn'd as Creatures he is not an Enemy to them as they are the Works of his Hands He is properly an Enemy that doth simply and absolutely wish Evil to another but God doth not absolutely wish Evil to the Damned that Justice that he inflicts upon them the deserved Punishment of their Sin is part of his Goodness as shall afterward be shewn This is the most pleasant Perfection of the Divine Nature His Creating Power amazes us His Conducting Wisdom astonisheth us His Goodness as furnishing us with all Conveniencies delights us and renders both his amazing Power and astonishing Wisdom delightful to us As the Sun by effecting things is an Emblem of Gods Power by discovering things to us is an Emblem of his Wisdom but by refreshing and comforting us is an Emblem of his Goodness And without this refreshing Vertue it communicates to us we should take no pleasure in the Creatures it produceth nor in the Beauties it discovers As God is Great and Powerful he is the Object of our Understanding but as Good and Bountiful he is the Object of our Love and Desire 6. The Goodness of God comprehends all his Attributes All the Acts of God are nothing else but the Effluxes of his Goodness distinguisht by several names according to the Objects it is exercised about As the Sea though it be one Mass of Water yet we distinguish it by several names according to the Shores it washeth and beats upon as the Brittish and German Ocean though all be one Sea When Moses long'd to see his Glory God tells him he would give him a prospect of his Goodness †Exod. 33.19 I will make all my goodness to pass before thee His Goodness is his Glory and Godhead as much as is delightfully visible to his Creatures and whereby he doth benefit Man I will cause my Goodness or Comeliness as Calvin renders it to pass before thee what is this but the Train of all his lovely Perfections springing from his Goodness * Exod. 34.6 The whole Catalogue of Mercy Grace long-suffering abundance of truth summed up in this one word All are Streams from this Fountain he could be none of this were he not first Good When it confers Happiness without Merit 't is Grace when it bestows Happiness against Merit 't is Mercy when he bears with provoking Rebels ' its long-suffering when he performs his Promise 't is Truth when it meets with a person to whom it is not oblig'd 't is Grace when he meets with a person in the World to which he hath obliged himself by Promise 't is Truth * Herle upon Wisdom cap. 5. p. 41. 42. when it Commiserates a Distressed Person 't is Pity when it supplies an Indigent Person 't is Bounty when it succours an Innocent Person 't is Righteousness and when it pardons a Penitent Person 't is Mercy all summ'd up in this one name of Goodness And the Psalmist expresseth the same Sentiment in the same words †Ps 145.7 8. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works He is first Good and then Compassionate Righteousness is often in Scripture taken not for Justice but Charitableness This Attribute saith one †Ingelo Bentivolio Vran Book 4. p. 260 261. is so full of God that it doth defie all the rest and verifie the Adorableness of him His Wisdom might contrive against us His Power bear too hard upon us one might be too hard for an Ignorant and the other too mighty for an Impotent Creature His holiness would scare an impure and guilty Creature but his goodness conducts them all for us and makes them all amiable to us Whatever Comeliness they have in the Eye of a Creature whatever Comfort they afford to the Heart of a Creature we are oblig'd for all to his goodness This puts all the rest upon a delightful Exercise this makes his Wisdom design for us and this makes his Power to act for us This Vails his Holiness from affrighting us and this Spirits his Mercy to relieve us †Daille Melang part 2. p. 704 705. All his acts towards Man are but the Workmanship of this What moved him at first to Create the World out of nothing and erect so noble a Creature as Man endow'd with such excellent gifts was it not his goodness What made him separate his Son to be a Sacrifice for us after we had endeavoured to raze out the first marks of his favour Was it not a strong bubling of goodness What moves him to reduce a Fallen Creature to the due sense of his Duty and at last bring him to an Eternal Felicity is it not only his goodness This is the Captain Attribute that leads the rest to act This attends them and Spirits them in all his ways of acting This is the Complement and Perfection of all his Works had it not been for this which set all the rest on work nothing of his Wonders had been seen in Creation nothing of his Compassions had been seen in Redemption The Second thing is some Propositions to explain the Nature of this Goodness 1. He is good by his own Essence God is not only good in his Essence but good by his Essence The Essence of every created thing is good so the unerring God pronounced every thing which he had made * Gen. 1.31 The Essence of the worst Creatures yea of the impure and Savage Devils is good but they are not good per essentiam for then they could not be bad Malicious and Oppressive God is good as he is God and therefore good by himself and from himself not by participation from another He made every thing good but none made him good Since his goodness was not received from another he is good by his own Nature He could not receive it from the things he Created they are later than he Since they received all from him they could bestow nothing on him and no God preceded him in whose Inheritance and Treasures of Goodness he could be a Successor He is absolutely
God cannot will any thing as his End of acting but himself without undeifying himself Gods Will being Infinitely Good cannot move for any thing but what is Infinitely Good and therefore whatsoever God made he made for himself †Prov. 16.4 that whatsoever he made might bear a badge of this Perfection upon it and be a discovery of his wonderful Goodness For the making things for himself doth not signifie any indigence in God that he made any thing to encrease his Excellency for that is capable of no addition but to manifest his Excellency God possessing every thing eminently in himself did not Create the World for any need he had of it Finite things were unable to make any accession to that which is Infinite Man indeed builds a House to be a shelter to him against Wind and Weather and makes Clothes to secure him from Cold and Plants Gardens for his Recreation and Health God is above all those little helps he did not make the World for himself in such a kind but for himself i. e. the manifestation of himself and the Riches of his Nature Not to make himself Blessed but to discover his own Blessedness to his Creatures and communicate something of it to them He did not garnish the World with so much Bounty that he might live more happily than he did before but that his Rational Creatures might have fit conveniencies As the end for which God demands the performance of our Duty is not for his own advantage but for our good * Deut. 10.13 so the end why he conferr'd upon us the excellency of such a Being was for our good and the discovery of his Goodness to us For had not God Created the World he had been wholly unknown to any but himself He produced Creatures that he might be known As the Sun shines not only to discover other things but to be seen it self in its beauty and brightness God would Create things because he would be known in his Glory and Liberality Hence it that he Created Intellectual Creatures because without them the rest of the Creation could not be taken notice of It had been in some sort in vain for no Nature lower than an Understanding Nature was able to know the Marks of God in the Creation and acknowledge him as God In this regard God is good above all Creatures because he intends only to communicate his Goodness in Creation not to acquire any Goodness or Excellency from them as Men do in their framing of things God is all and is destitute of nothing and therefore nothing accrues to him by the Creation but the acknowledgment of his Goodness This Goodness therefore must be the Motive and End of all his Works The third thing That God is good 1. The more excellent any thing is in Nature the more of goodness and kindness it hath For we see more of love and kindness in Creatures that are endued with Sense to their Descendents than in Plants that have only a Principle of Growth Plants preserve their Seeds whole that are enclosed in them Animals look to their young only after they are dropt from them yet after some time take no more notice of them than of a Stranger that never had any Birth from them But Man that hath a higher Principle of Reason cherisheth his Offspring and gives them Marks of his goodness while he lives and leaves not the World at the time of his Death without some testimonies of it Much more must God who is a higher Principle than Sense or Reason be good and bountiful to all his Offspring The more perfect any thing is the more it doth communicate it self The Sun is more excellent than the Stars and therefore doth more sensibly more extensively disperse its liberal Beams than the Stars do And the better any Man is the more charitable he is God being the most excellent Nature having nothing more excellent than himself because nothing more ancient than himself who is the ancient of days There is nothing therefore better and more bountiful than himself 2. He is the cause of all Created Goodness he must therefore himself be the Supream Good What Good is in the Heavens is the Product of some Being above the Earth and those varieties of Goodness in the Earth and several Creatures are some where in their fulness and union That therefore which possesses all those scattered Goodnesses in their fulness must be all Good All that Good which is display'd in Creatures therefore Soveraignly best Whatsoever Natural or Moral Goodness there is in the World in Angels or Men or Inferiour Creatures is a line drawn from that Center the bublings of that Fountain God cannot but be better then all since the Goodness that is in Creatures is the fruit of his own If he were not good he could produce no good he could not bestow what he had not If the Creature be good as the Apostle says every Creature is * 1 Tim. 4.4 he must needs be better than all because they have nothing but what is derived to them from him And much more goodness then all because Finite Being are not capable of receiving into them and containing in themselves all that goodness which is in an Infinite Being When we search for good in Creatures they come short of that satisfaction which is in God †Psal 4.6 As the certainty of a first Principle of all things is necessarily concluded from the being of Creatures and the upholding and sustaining Power and Virtue of God is concluded from the mutability of those things in the World whence we infer that there must be some Stable Foundation of those tottering things some firm Hinge upon which those changeable things do move without which there would be no Stability in the Kinds of things no order no agreement or union among them So from the goodness of every thing and their usefulness to us we must conclude him Good who made all those things And since we find distinct Goodnesses in the Creature we must conclude that one Principle whence they did slow excels in the Glory of Goodness All those little glimmerings of Goodness which are scattered in the Creatures as the Image in the Glass Represent the Face Posture Motion of him whose Image it is but not in the fulness of Life and Spirit as in the Original 'T is but a Shadow at the best and speaks something more excellent in the Copy As God hath an Infiniteness of Being above them so he hath a Supremacy of Goodness beyond them What they have is but a Participation from him what he hath must be infinitely super-eminent above them If any thing be good by it self it must be Infinitely Good it would set it self no bounds we must make as many Gods as particulars of Goodness in the World But being Good by the bounty of another that from whence they flow must be the chief Goodness * Fiâ—inus in Con. Amor. Orat 2. cap.
Judgments upon some to form a new Generation for himself He destroy'd an old World to raise a new one more Righteous As a Man pulls down his old Buildings to erect a sounder and more stately Fabrick To sum up what hath been said in this particular How could God be a Friend to Goodness if he were not an Enemy to Evil How could he shew his enmity to Evil without revenging the abuse and contempt of his Goodness God would rather have the Repentance of a Sinner than his Punishment but the Sinner would rather expose himself to the severest frowns of God than pursue those Methods wherein he hath setled the conveyances of his kindness You will not come to me that you might have Life saith Christ How is Eternity of Punishment inconsistent with the Goodness of God Nay how can God be good without it If Wickedness always remain in the Nature of Man Is it not fit the Rod should always remain on the Back of Man Is it a want of goodness that keeps an incorrigible Offender in Chains in a Bridewell While Sin remains it 's fit it should be Punished Would not God else be an Enemy to his own Goodness and shew favour to that which doth abuse it and is contrary to it He hath threatned Eternal Flames to Sinners that he might the more strongly excite them to a Reformation of their Ways and a Practice of his Precepts In those Threatnings he hath manifested his Goodness And can it be bad in him to defend what his Goodness hath Commanded and Execute what his Goodness hath Threatned His Truth is also a part of his Goodness for it is nothing but his Goodness performing that which it oblig'd him to do That is the first thing Severe Judgments in the World are no Impeachments of his Goodness 2. The Afflictions God inflicts upon his Servants are no violations of his Goodness Sometimes God aflicts Men for their Temporal and Eternal good for the good of their Grace in order to the good of their Glory which is a more excellent Good than Afflictions can be an Evil. The Heathens reflected upon Vlysses his hardship as a Mark of Jupiters goodness and love to him that his Virtue might be more conspicuous By strong Persecutions brought upon the Church her Lethargy is Cur'd her Chaff Purg'd the glorious Fruit of the Gospel brought forth in the lives of her Children The number of her Proselytes multiply and the strength of her weak ones is increased by the Testimonies of Courage and Constancy which the stronger present to them in their Sufferings Do those good Effects speak a want of goodness in God who brings them into this condition By those he cures his People of their Corruptions and promotes their Glory by giving them the honour of suffering for the Truth and raiseth their Spirits to a Divine pitch The Epistles of Paul to the Ephes Philip. and Colos wrote by him while he was in Nero's Chains seem to have a higher strain than some of those he wrote when was at liberty As for Afflictions they are Marks of a greater measure of Fatherly Goodness than he discovers to those that live in an uninterrupted Prosperity who are not dignifi'd with that glorious Title of Sons as those are that he chasteneth * Heb. 12.6 7. Can any question the goodness of the Father that Corrects his Child to prevent his Vice and Ruine and breed him up to Vertue and Honour It would be a Cruelty in a Father leaving his Child without Chastisement to leave him to that Misery an ill Education would reduce him to God judges us that we might not be condemned with the World †1 Cor. 11.32 Is it not a greater Goodness to separate us from the World to Happiness by his Scourge than to leave us to the condemnation of the World for our Sins Is it not a greater Goodness to make us smart here than to see us scorcht hereafter As he is our Shepherd it is no part of his Enmity or ill will to us to make us feel sometimes the weight of his Shepherds Crook to reduce us from our Stragling The visiting our Transgressions with Rods and our Iniquities with Stripes is one of the Articles of the Covenant of Grace wherein the greatest lustre of his Goodness appears * Psal 89.33 The advantage and gain of our Afflictions is a greater Testimony of his Goodness to us than the pain can be of his Unkindness The Smart is well recompenced by the accession of clearer Graces It is rather a high Mark of his Goodness than an Argument for the want of it that he treats us as his Children and will not suffer us to run into that Destruction we are more ambitious of than the Happiness he hath prepared for us and by Afflictons he fits us for the partaking of by imparting his Holiness together with the inflicting his Rod †Heb. 12.10 That is the third thing God is Good The Fourth thing is The manifestation of this Goodness in Creation Redemption and Providence 1. In Creation This is apparent from what hath been said before That no other Attribute could be the Motive of his Creating but his Goodness His Goodness was the Cause that he made any thing and his Wisdom was the Cause that he made every thing in Order and Harmony He pronounced every thing good i. e. such as became his Goodness to bring forth into Being and rested in them more as they were Stamps of his Goodness than as they were Marks of his Power or Beams of his Wisdom And if all Creatures were able to answer to this Question What that was which Created them The Answer would be Almighty Power but employed by the Motion of Infinite Goodness * Cusan p. 228. All the varieties of Creatures are so many Apparitions of this Goodness Though God be one yet he cannot appear as a God but in variety As the greatness of Power is not manifest but in variety of Works and an Acute Understanding not discover'd but in variety of Reasonings so an Infinite Goodness is not so apparent as in variety of Communications 1. The Creation proceeds from Goodness 'T is the Goodness of God to extract such multitude of things from the depths of nothing Because God is Good things have a Being If he had not been Good nothing could have been Good Nothing could have imparted that which it possessed not Nothing but Goodness could have communicated to things an Excellency which before they wanted Being is much more Excellent than nothing By this Goodness therefore the whole Creation was brought out of the dark Womb of Nothing This formed their Natures this beautified them with their several Ornaments and Perfections whereby every thing was enabled to act for the good of the Common World God did not Create things because he was a Living Being but because he was a Good Being No Creature brought forth any thing in the World meerly because it is
Provision he had made for him in the World and the Commission given him to Increase and Multiply and to Rule as a Lord over his other Works whereas he could not so easily have imagined himself capable of being expos'd to such an extraordinary Calamity as an Eternal Death without some signification of it from God 'T is easily concludable that Eternal Life was supposed to be promised to be conferr'd upon him if he stood as well as Eternal Death to be inflicted on him if he Rebell'd * Suarez de Gratia Vol 1. p. 126 127. Now this Eternal Life was not due to his Nature but it was a pure Beam and Gift of Divine Goodness For there was no proportion between Mans Service in his Innocent Estate and a Reward so great both for Nature and duration It was a higher Reward than can be imagined either due to the Nature of Man or upon any Natural Right claimable by his Obedience All that could be expected by him was but a Natural Happiness not a Supernatural As there was no necessity upon the account of Natural Righteousness so there was no necessity upon the account of the Goodness of God to elevate the Nature of Man to a Supernatural Happiness meerly because he Created him For though it be necessary for God when he would Create in regard of his Wisdom to Create for some End yet it was not necessary that End should be a Supernatural End and Happiness since a Natural Blessedness had been sufficient for Man And though God in Creating Angels and Men intellectual and Rational Creatures did make them necessary for himself and his own Glory yet it was not necessarily for him to order either Angels or Men to such a Felicity as consists in a clear Vision and so high a Fruition of himself for all other things are made by him for himself and yet not for the Vision of himself God might have Created Man only for a Natural Happiness according to the Perfection of his Natural Faculties and had dealt Bountifully with him if he had never intended him a Supernatural Blessedness and an Eternal Recompence But what a largeness of Goodness is here to design Man in his Creation for so rich a Blessedness as an Eternal Life with the Fruition of himself He hath not only given to Man all things which are necessary but design'd for Man that which the poor Creature could not imagine He garnisht the Earth for him and garnisht him for an Eternal Felicity had he not by slighting the Goodness of God stript himself of the present and forfeited his future Blessedness 2. The second thing is the manifestation of this Goodness in Redemption The whole Gospel is nothing but one entire Mirror of Divine Goodness The whole of Redemption is wrapt up in that one Expression of the Angels Song Luke 2.14 Good will towards Man The Angels Sang but one Song before which is upon Record but the Matter of it seems to be the Wisdom of God chiefly in Creation Job 38.7 compar 9. v. 5 6 8 9. The Angels are there meant by the Morning Stars The visible Stars of Heaven were not distinctly form'd when the Foundations of the Earth were laid And the Title of the Sons of God verifies it since none but Creatures of understanding are dignifi'd in Scripture with that Title There they Celebrate his Wisdom in Creation here his Goodness in Redemption which is the intire Matter of the Song 1. Goodness was the Spring of Redemption All and every part of it owes only to this Perfection the appearance of it in the World This only excited Wisdom to bring forth from so great an Evil as the Apostacy of Man so great a Good as the Recovery of him When Man fell from his Created Goodness God would evidence that he could not fall from his Infinite Goodness That the greatest Evil could not surmount the ability of his Wisdom to contrive nor the Riches of his Bounty to present us a Remedy for it Divine Goodness would not stand by a Spectator without being Reliever of that Misery Man had plung'd himself into but by astonishing Methods it would recover him to Happiness who had wrested himself out of his hands to fling himself into the most deplorable Calamity And it was the greater since it surmounted those Natural Inclinations and those strong Provocations which he had to shower down the Power of his Wrath. What could be the Source of such a Procedure but this Excellency of the Divine Nature Since no Violence could force him nor was there any Merit to perswade to such a Restoration This under the name of his Love is render'd the sole cause of the Redeeming Death of the Son It was to commend his Love with the highest Gloss and in so singular a manner that had not its parallel in Nature nor in all his other Works and reaches in the brightness of it beyond the manifested extent of any other Attribute * Rom. 5.8 It must be only a miraculous Goodness that induced him to expose the Life of his Son to those difficulties in the World and Death upon the Cross for the freedom of sordid Rebels His great End was to give such a demonstration of the liberality of his Nature as might be attractive to his Creature remove its shakings and tremblings and encourage its approaches to him 'T is in this he would not only manifest his Love but assume the name of Love By this Name the Holy Ghost calls him in relation to this good will manifested in his Son †1 John 4.8 9. God is love In this is manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him He would take the Name he never exprest himself in before He was Jehovah in regard of the truth of his Promise so he would be known of old He is Goodness in regard of the grandeur of his Affection in the Mission of his Son And therefore he would be known by the Name of Love now in the days of the Gospel 2. It was a Pure Goodness He was under no obligation to pity our Misery and repair our Ruines He might have stood to the terms of the first Covenant and exacted our Eternal Death since we had committed an infinite Transgression He was under no tie to put off the Robes of a Judge for the Bowels of a Father and erect a Mercy-seat above his Tribunal of Justice * Rada Controvers Part. 3. p. 363. The reparation of Man had no necessary connexion with his Creation It follows not that because Goodness had extracted us from nothing by a mighty Power that it must lift us out of wilful Misery by a mighty Grace Certainly that God who had no need of Creating us had far less need of Redeeming us For since he Created one World he could have as easily destroyed it and rear'd another It had not been unbecoming the Divine Goodness
Himself By giving his Son he hath given himself and in both Gifts he hath given all things to us The Creator of all things is eminently all things He hath given all things into the hands of his Son * Joh. 3.35 and by consequence given all things into the hands of his Redeem'd Creatures by giving them him to whom he gave all things Whatsoever we were invested in by Creation whatsoever we were depriv'd of by Corruption and more he hath deposited in safe hands for our enjoyment And what can Divine Goodness do more for us What further can it give unto us than what it hath given and in that Gift design'd for us 3. This Goodness is enhanc'd by considering the State of Man in the first Transgression and since 1. Mans first Transgression If we should rip up every Vein of that first Sin should we find any want of Wickedness to excite a just Indignation What was there but ingratitude to Divine Bounty and Rebellion against Divine Soveraignty The Royalty of God was attempted the Supremacy of Divine knowledge above Mans own knowledge envied the Riches of Goodness whereby he lived and breathed slighted There is a discontent with God upon an unreasonable Sentiment that God had denied a knowledge to him which was his right and due when there should have been an humble acknowledgment of that unmerited Goodness which had not only given him a Being above other Creatures but placed him the Governor and Lord of those that were inferior to him What alienation of his understanding was there from knowing God and of his will from loving him A Debauch of all his Faculties A Spiritual Adultery in preferring not only one of Gods Creatures but one of his desperate Enemies before him thinking him a wiser Counsellor than Infinite Wisdom and imagining him possessed with kinder affections to him than that God who had newly Created him Thus he joyns in League with Hell against Heaven with a Fallen Spirit against his Bountiful Benefactor and enters into Society with Rebels that just before commenc'd a War against his and their common Soveraign He did not only falter in but cast off the Obedience due to his Creator endeavoured to purloin his Glory and actually murder'd all those that were vertually in his Loyns * Rom. 5.12 Sin enter'd into the World by him and Death by Sin and passed upon all Men taking them off from their Subjection to God to be Slaves to the damn'd Spirits and Heirs of their Misery And after all this he adds a foul imputation on God taxing him as the Author of his Sin and thereby stains the Beauty of his Holiness But notwithstanding all this God stops not up the Floodgates of his Goodness nor doth he entertain Fiery Resolutions against Man but brings forth a healing Promise and sends not an Angel upon Commission to Reveal it to him but Preaches it himself to this Forlorn and Rebellious Creature †Gen. 3.15 2. Could there be any thing in this Fallen Creature to allure God to the Expression of his Goodness Was there any good action in all his Carriage that could plead for a readmission of him to his former State Was there one good quality left that could be an Orator to perswade Divine Goodness to such a gracious Procedure Was there any Moral Goodness in Man after this Debauch that might be an Object of Divine Love What was there in him that was not rather a provocation than an allurement Could you expect that any Perfection in God should find a Motive in this ungrateful Apostate to open a Mouth for him and be an Advocate to support him and bring him off from a just Tribunal Or after Divine Goodness had begun to pity and plead for Man is it not wonderful that it should not discontinue the Plea after it found Mans Excuse to be as black as his Crime * Gen. 3.12 and his Carriage upon his Examination to be as disobliging as his first Revolt It might well be expected that all the Perfections in the Divine Nature would have entered into an association eternally to treat this Rebel according to his deserts What attractives were there in a silly Worm much less in such compleat Wickedness inexcusable Enmity infamous Rebellion to design a Redeemer for him and such a Person as the Son of God to a Fleshy Body an Eclipse of Glory and an ignominious Cross The meaness of Man was further from alluring God to it than the dignity of Angels 3. Was there not a World of demerit in Man to animate Grace as well as Wrath against him We were so far from deserving the opening any Streams of Goodness that we had merited Floods of devouring Wrath. What were all Men but Enemies to God in a high manner Every offence was infinite as being committed against a Being of Infinite Dignity it was a stroke at the very Being of God A resistance of all his Attributes it would degrade him from the height and Perfection of his Nature it would not by its good will suffer God to be God If he that hates his Brother is a Murderer of his Brother he that hates his Creator is a Murderer of the Deity * Joh. 1.3.15 and every Carnal mind is Enmity to God †Rom. 8.7 Every Sin envies him his Authority by breaking his Precept and envies him his Goodness by defacing the Marks of it Every Sin comprehends in it more than Men or Angels can conceive That God who only hath the clear apprehensions of his own Dignity hath the sole clear apprehensions of Sins Malignity All Men were thus by Nature those that Sinned before the coming of the Redeemer had been in a State of Sin those that were to come after him would be in a State of Sin by their Birth and be Criminals as soon as ever they were Creatures All Men as well the Glorifi'd as those in the Flesh at the coming of the Redeemer and those that were to be born after were consider'd in a State of Sin by God when he bruis'd the Redeemer for them All were filthy and unworthy of the Eye of God All had employ'd the Faculties of their Souls and the Members of their Bodies which they enjoyed by his Goodness against the interest of his Glory Every Rational Creature had made himself a Slave to those Creatures over whom he had been appointed a Lord subjected himself as a Servant to his Inferior and strutted as a Superior against his Liberal Soveraign and by every Sin rendred himself more a Child of Satan and Enemy of God and more worthy of the Curses of the Law and the Torments of Hell Was it not now a mighty Goodness that would surmount those high Mountains of Demerit and elevate such Creatures by the Depression of his Son Had we been possessed of the highest Holiness a Reward had been the natural effect of Goodness It was not possible that God should be unkind to a Righteous and Innocent Creature
admirable is it for God to speak so kindly to us through the pacifying Blood of the Covenant that silenc'd the terrours of the old and setled the tenderness of the new 2. His Goodness is seen in the Nature and Tenor of the new Covenant There are in this richer Streams of Love and Pity The language of one was die if thou Sin that of the other live if thou believest †Turreti ser p. 33. The old Covenant was founded upon the obedience of Man the new is not founded upon the inconstancy of Mans Will but the firmness of Divine Love and the valuable Merit of Christ The head of the first Covenant was Humane and mutable the head of the second is Divine and immutable The Curse due to us by the breach of the first is taken off by the indulgence of the second * Rom 8.1 We are by it snatcht from the Jaws of the Law to be wrapt up in the bosom of Grace †Rom. 6.14 For you are not under the Law but under Grace from the Curse and condemnation of the Law to the sweetness and forgiveness of Grace Christ bore the one being made a Curse for us * Gal. 3.13 that we might enjoy the sweetness of the other By this we are brought from Mount Sinai the Mount of Terrour to Mount Sion the Mount of Sacrificing the Type of the great Sacrifice †Heb. 12.18 22. That Covenant brought in Death upon one offence this Covenant offers Life after many offences * Rom. 5.16 â—7 That involved us in a Curse and this enricheth us with a Blessing The breaches of that expell'd us out of Paradise and the embracing of this admits us into Heaven This Covenant demands and admits of that Repentance whereof there was no mention in the first That demanded Obedience not Repentance upon a failure and though the exercises of it had been never so deep in the fall'n Creature nothing of the Laws severity had been remitted by any vertue of it Again the first Covenant demanded exact Righteousness but conveyed no cleansing vertue upon the contracting any filth The first demands a continuance in the Righteousness conferr'd in Creation the second imprints a gracious heart in Regeneration I will pour clean Water upon you I will put a new Spirit within you was the voice of the second Covenant not of the first Again as to Pardon Adams Covenant was to punish him not to pardon him if he fell That threatned Death upon Transgression this remits it That was an Act of Divine Soveraignty declaring the will of God this is an Act of Divine Grace passing an Act of Oblivion on the Crimes of the Creature That as it demanded no Repentance upon a failure so it promised no Mercy upon guilt That convened our Sin and condemned us for it this clears our guilt and comforts us under it The first Covenant related us to God as a Judge every transgression against it forfeited his indulgence as a Father The second delivers us from God as a condemning Judge to bring us under his Wing as an affectionate Father In the one there was a dreadful frown to scare us in the other a healing Wing to cover and relieve us Again in regard of Righteousness That demanded our performance of a Righteousness in and by our selves and our own strength This demands our acceptance of a Righteousness higher than ever the standing Angels had The Righteousness of the first Covenant was the Righteousness of a Man the Righteousness of the second is the Righteousness of a God †2 Cor. 5.21 Again in regard of that Obedience it demands it exacts not of us as a necessary condition the Perfection of Obedience but the sincerity of Obedience an uprightness in our intention not an unspottedness in our action an integrity in our aims and an industry in our compliance with Divine Precepts * Gen. 17.1 Walk before me and be thou perfect i. e. sincere What is hearty in our actions is accepted and what is defective is over-looked and not charg'd upon us because of the Obedience and Righteousness of our surety The first Covenant rejected all our services after Sin the services of a Person under the sentence of Death are but dead services This accepts our imperfect services after Faith in it That administred no strength to obey but supposed it This supposeth our inability to obey and confers some strength for it †Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes Again in regard of the Promises * Heb. 8.6 The old Covenant had good but the new hath better Promises of justification after guilt and sanctification after filth and glorification at last of the whole Man In the first there was provision against guilt but none for the removal of it Provision against filth but none for the cleansing of it Promise of happiness implied but not so great a one as that Life and Immortality in Heaven brought to light by the Gospel †2 Tim. 1.10 Why said to be brought to light by the Gospel because it was not only buried upon the fall of Man under the Curses of the Law but it was not so obvious to the conceptions of Man in his Innocent State Life indeed was implied to be promised upon his standing but not so glorious an immortality disclosed to be reserved for him if he stood As it is a Covenant of better Promises so a Covenant of sweeter Comforts Comforts more choice and Comforts more durable An everlasting Consolation and a good hâ—pe are the fruits of Grace i. e. the Covenant of Grace * 2 Thes 2.16 In the whole there is such a love disclosed as cannot be exprest The Apostle leaves it to every Mans mind to conceive it if he could what manner of love the Fâ—ther hath bâ—stowed upon us that we should be call'd the Sons of God †1 Joh. 3.1 It inâ—â—ates us in such a manner of the love of God as he bears to his Son the Image of his Person * John 17 2â— That the World may know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me 3. This Goodness appears in the choice gift of himsâ—lf which he hath made over in this Covenant You know how it runs in Scripture I will be their God and they shall be my People †Gen. 17.7 A propriety in the Deity is made over by it As he gave the Blood of his Son to Seal the Covenant so he gave himself as the Blessing of the Covenant He is not ashamed to be called their God * Jer. 32.38 Though he be environ'd with Millions of Angels and presides over them in an unexpressible glory he is not ashamed of his condescensions to Man and to pass over himself as the propriety of his People as well as to take them to be his 'T is a diminution of the sense of the place to understand it of
them and the Provisions that were made for them Divine Bounty was the Motive to Erect Altars and present Sacrifices though they mistook the Object of their Worship and offer'd the dues of the Creator to the Instruments whereby he conveyed his Benefits to them And you find that the Religion instituted by him among the Jews was enforc'd upon them by the consideration of their miraculous deliverance from Egypt the preservation of them in the Wilderness and the infeoffing them in a Land flowing with Milk and Honey Every act of bounty and success the Heathens received moved them to appoint new Feasts and repeat their adorations of those Deities they thought the Authors and Promoters of their Victories and Welfare The Devil did not mistake the common Sentiment of the World in Divine Service when he alledg'd to God that Job did not fear him for nought i. e. worship him for nothing * Job 1.9 All acts of Devotion take their rise from Gods liberality either from what they have or from what they hope Praise speaks the Possession and Prayer the Expectation of some Benefit from his Hand Though some of the Heathens made fear to be the prime Cause of the acknowledgment and worship of a Deity yet surely something else besides and beyond this Establisht so great a thing as Religion in the World an ingenuous Religion could never have been born into the World without a Notion of Goodness and would have gaspt its last as soon as this Notion should have expir'd in the minds of Men. What encouragement can fear of Power give without sense of Goodness just as much as Thunder hath to invite a Man to the place where it is like to fall and crush him The nature of fear is to drive from and the nature of goodness to allure to the Object The Divine Thunders Prodigies and other Armies of his Justice in the World which are the Marks of his Power could conclude in nothing but a slavish Worship Fear alone would have made Men blaspheme the Deity instead of serving him they would have fretted against him they might have offer'd him a trembling Worship but they could never have in their minds thought him worthy of an Adoration they would rather have secretly complain'd of him and cursed him in their heart than inwardly have admir'd him The issue would have been the same which Job's Wife advis'd him to when God withdrew his Protection from his Goods and Body Curse God and die * Job 2.9 'T is certainly the common sentiment of Men that he that acts Cruelly and Tyrannically is not worthy of an integrity to be retain'd towards him in the hearts of his Subjects But Job fortifies himself against this Temptation from his Bosom Friend by the consideration of the good he had received from God which did more deserve a worship from him than the present evil had reason to discourage it Alass what is only fear'd is hated not ador'd Would any seek to an irreconcilable Enemy Would any person affectionately list himself in the service of a Man void of all good disposition Would any distressed person put up a Petition to that Prince who never gave any experiment of the sweetness of his Nature but always satiated himself with the Blood of the meanest Criminals All affection to service is rooted up when hopes of receiving good are extinguisht There could not be a spark of that in the World which is properly call'd Religion without a Notion of Goodness The Existence of God is the first Pillar and the Goodness of God in rewarding the next upon which coming to him which includes all acts of Devotion is established * Heb. 11.6 He that comes unto God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him If either of those Pillars be not thought to stand firm all Religion falls to the ground 'T is this as the most agreeable Motive that the Apostle James uses to encourage Mens approach to God because he gives liberally and upbraideth not * James 1.5 A Man of a kind heart and bountiful hand shall have his gate throng'd with suppliants who sometimes would be willing to lay down their lives For a good Man one would even dare to die when one of a niggardly or tyrannical temper shall be destitute of all free and affectionate applications What Eyes would be lifted up to Heaven What hands stretched out if there were not a knowledge of goodness there to enliven their hopes of speeding in their Petitions Therefore Christ orders our Prayers to be directed to God as a Father which is a Title of tenderness as well as a Father in Heaven a Mark of his greatness The one to support our confidence as well as the other to preserve our distance God could not be ingenuously ador'd and acknowledged if he were not liberal as well as powerful The Goodness of God is the foundation of all ingenuous Religion Devotion and Worship 6. The sixth Instruction The Goodness of God renders God amiable His Goodness renders him beautiful and his Beauty renders him lovely both are linkt together * Zach. 9.17 How great is his Goodness And how great is his Beauty This is the most powerful Attractive and masters the affections of the Soul 'T is goodness only supposed or real that is thought worthy to demerit our affections to any thing If there be not a reality of this or at least an opinion and estimation of it in an Object it would want a force and vigor to allure our Will This Perfection of God is the Loadstone to draw us and the Center for our Spirits to rest in 1. This renders God amiable to himself His Goodness is his Godhead * Rom. 1.20 By his Godhead is meant his Goodness If he loves his Godhead for it self he loves his Goodness for it self He would not be good if he did not love himself And if there were any thing more Excellent and had a greater goodness than himself he would not be good if he did not love that greater Goodness above himself For not only a hatred of goodness is evil but an indifferent or cold affection to goodness hath a tincture of evil in it If God were not good and yet should love himself in the highest manner he would be the greatest Evil and do the greatest evil in that act for he would set his love upon that which is not the proper Object of such an affection but the Object of a version His own Infinite Excellency and Goodness of his Nature renders him lovely and delightful to himself without this he could not love himself in a commendable and worthy way and becoming the purity of a Deity and he cannot but love himself for this For as Creatures by not loving him as the Supream Good deny him to be the choicest good so God would deny himself and his own goodness if he did not love himself and that for his
goodness But the Apostle tells us That God cannot deny himself * 2 Tim. 2.13 self-Self-love upon this account is the only Prerogative of God because there is not any thing better than himself that can lay any just claim to his affections He only ought to love himself and it would be an injustice in him to himself if he did not He only can love himself for this An Infinite Goodness ought to be infinitely loved but he only being Infinite can only love himself according to the due Merit of his own Goodness He cannot be so amiable to any Man to any Angel to the highest Seraphim as he is to himself because he is only capable in regard of his Infinite Wisdom to know the infiniteness of his own Goodness And no Creature can love him as he ought to be loved unless it had the same infinite capacity of Understanding to know him and of Affection to embrace him This first renders God amiable to himself 2. It ought therefore to render him amiable to us What renders him lovely to his own Eye ought to render him so to ours and since by the shortness of our Understandings we cannot love him as he Merits yet we should be induc'd by the measures of his Bounty to love him as we can If this do not present him lovely to us we own him rather a Devil than a God If his Goodness moved him to frame Creatures his Goodness moved him also to frame Creatures for himself and his own glory 'T is a mighty wrong to him not to look with a delightful Eye upon the Marks of it and return an Affection to God in some measure sutable to his liberality to us We are descended as low as Brutes if we understand him not to be the Perfect Good and we are descended as low as Devils if our Affections are not attracted by it 1. If God were not Infinitely Good he could not be the Object of Supream Love If he were Finitely Good there might be other things as good as God and then God in justice could not challenge our choicest Affections to him above any thing else It would be a defect of goodness in him to demand it because he would despoil that which were equally good with him of its due and right to our affections which it might claim from us upon the account of its goodness God would be unjust to challenge more than was due to him for he would claim that chiefly to himself which another had a lawful share in Nothing can be supreamly loved that hath not a Triumphant Excellency above all other things Where there is an equality of goodness neither can justly challenge a Supremacy but only an equality of Affection 2. This Attribute of Goodness renders him more lovely than any other Attribute He never requires our Adoration of him so much as the strongest or wisest but as the best of Beings He uses this chiefly to constrain and allure us Why would he be fear'd or worshipt but because there is forgiveness with him * Psal 130.4 'T is for his goodness sake that he is sued to by his People in distress †Psal 25.7 For thy goodness sake O Lord. Men may be admir'd because of their knowledge but they are affected because of their goodness The will in all the variety of Objects it pursues centers in this one thing of good as the term of its appetite All things are belov'd by Men because they have been better'd by them or because they expect to be the better for them Severity can never conquer enmity and kindle love Were there nothing but wrath in the Deity it would make him be fear'd but render him odious and that to an innocent Nature As the Spouse speaks of Christ * Cant 5.10 11. s◠we may of God Though she commends him for his Head the excellency of his Wisdom his Eyes the extent of his Omniscence his Hands the greateness of his Power and his Legs the swiftness of his Motions and ways to and for his People yet the sweetness of his Mouth in his gracious Words and Promises closes all and is follow'd with nothing but an Exclamation that he is altogether lovely Verse 16. His Mouth in pronouncing Pardon of Sin and justification of the Person presents him most lovely His Power to do good is admirable but his Will to do good is amiable This puts a gloss upon all his other Attributes Though he had knowledge to understand the depth of our necessities and power to prevent them or rescue us from them yet his knowledge would be fruitless and his power useless if he were of a rigid Nature and not touched with any sentiments of kindness 3. This Goodness therefore lays a strong Obligation upon us 'T is true he is lovely in regard of his absolute goodness or the goodness of his Nature but we should hardly be perswaded to return him an affection without his Relative goodness his Benefits to his Creatures We are oblig'd by both to love him 1. By his Absolute Goodness or the Goodness of his Nature Suppose a Creature had drawn its Original from something else wherein God had no influx and had never received the least mite of a benefit from him but from some other hand yet the infinite Excellency and goodness of his Nature would merit the love of that Creature and it would act sordidly and disingenuously if it did not discover a mighty Respect for God For what ingenuity could there be in a Rational Creature that were possessed with no esteem for any Nature fill'd with unbounded goodness and Excellency though he had never been oblig'd to him for any favour That Man is accounted odious and justly despicable by Man that reproaches and disesteems nay that doth not value a Person of a high Vertue in himself and an universal goodness and Charity to others though himself never stood in need of his Charity and never had any benefit conveyed from his hands nor ever saw his face or had any commerce with him A value of such a Person is but a just due to the natural claim of Vertue And indeed the first Object of Love is God in the Excellency of his own Nature as the first Object of Love in Marriage is the Person the Portion is a thing consequent upon it To love God only for his Benefits is to love our selves first and him secondarily To love God for his own Goodness and Excellency is a true love of God a love of him for himself That flaming Fire in his own Breast though we have not a Spark of it hath a right to kindle one in ours to him 2. By his Relative Goodness or that of his Benefits Though the Excellency of his own Nature wherein there is a combination of Goodness must needs ravish an apprehensive Mind yet a reflection upon his imparted Kindness both in the Beings we have from him and the support we have by him must enhance this
Estimation When the Excellency of his Nature and the Expressions of his Bounty are in conjunction the Excellency of his own Nature renders him estimable in a way of Justice and the greatness of his Benefits renders him valuable in a way of Gratitude The first ravisheth and the other allures and melts He hath enough in his Nature to attract and sufficient in his Bounty to engage our Affections The Excellency of his Nature is strong enough of it self to blow up our Affections to him were there not a Malignity in our hearts that represents him under the Notion of an Enemy therefore in regard of our Corrupt State the consideration of Divine Largesses comes in for a share in the Elevation of our Affections For indeed 't is a very hard thing for a Man to love another though never so well qualified and of an eminent Vertue while he believes him to be his Enemy and one that will severely handle him though he hath before received many good turns from him The Vertue Valour and Courtesie of a Prince will hardly make him affected by those against whom he is in Arms and that are daily pilfer'd by his Souldiers unless they have hopes of a Reparation from him and future security from injuries Christ in the Repetition of the Command to love God with all our mind with all our heart and with all our Soul i. e. with such an ardency above all things which glitter in our Eye or can be Created by him considers him as our God * Mat. 22.37 And the Psalmist considers him as one that had kindly employ'd his power for him in the eruption of his love Psal 18.1 I will love thee Oh Lord my strength And so in Psal 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications An esteem of the Benefactor is inseparable from gratitude for the received Benefits And should not then the unparallell'd kindness of God advance him in our thoughts much more than slighter Courtesies do a Created Benefactor in ours 'T is an obligation on every Mans Nature to answer Bounty with gratitude and Goodness with love Hence you never knew any Man nor can the Records of Eternity produce any Man or Devil that ever hated any Person or any thing as good in it self 'T is a thing absolutely repugnant to the Nature of any Rational Creature The Devils hate not God because he is good but because he is not so good to them as they would have him because he will not unlock their Chains turn them into liberty and restore them to Happiness i. e. because he will not desert the Rights of abus'd Goodness But how should we send up flames of love to that God since we are under his direct Beams and enjoy such plentiful influences If the Sun is comely in it self yet 't is more amiâ—ble to us by the light we see and the warmth we feel 1. The greatness of his Benefits have reason to affect us with a love to him The Impress he made upon our Souls when he extracted us from the darkness of nothing The Comeliness he hath put upon us by his own Breath The Care he took of our Recovery when we had lost our selves The Expence he was at for our Regaining our defac'd Beauty The gift he made of his Son The Affectionate Calls we have heard to over-master our Corrupt Appetites move us to Repentance and make us disaffect our beloved Misery The loud sound of his Word in our Ears and the more inward knocking 's of his Spirit in our Heart The offering us the Gift of himself and the Everlasting Happiness he Courts us to besides those common favours we enjoy in the World which are all the Streams of his rich Bounty The voice of all is loud enough to sollicite our love and the Merit of all ought to be strong enough to engage our love There is none like the God of Jesurun who rides upon the Heaven in thy help and in his Excellency on the Sky * Deut. 33.26 2. The unmeritedness of them doth inhance this 'T is but reason to love him who hath loved us first * 1 John 4.19 Hath he placed his delight upon were nothing and after they were Sinful and shall he set his delight upon such vile Persons and shall not we set our love upon so Excellent an Object as himself How base are we if his goodness doth not constrain us to affect him who hath been so free in his favour to us who have merited the quite contrary at his hands If his tender Mercies are over all his Works * Psal 145.9 He ought for it to be esteem'd by all his Works that are capable of a Rational Estimation 3. Goodness in Creatures makes them estimable much more should the Goodness of God render him lovely to us If we love a little spark of goodness in this or that Creature if a drop be so delicious to us shall not the immense Sun of Goodness the ever-flowing Fountain of all be much more delightful The Original Excellency always out-strips what is deriv'd from it If so mean and contracted an Object as a little Creature deserves Estimation for a little Mite communicated to it so great and extended a goodness as is in the Creator much more merits it at our hands He is good after the infinite methods of a Deity A weak Resemblance is lovely much more amiable then must be the incomprehensible Original of that Beauty We love Creatures for what we think to be good in them though it may be hurtful And shall we not love God who is a real and unblemisht Goodness And from whose hand are pour'd out all those Blessings that are conveyed to us by second Causes The Object that delights us the Capacity we have to delight in it are both from him Our love therefore to him should transcend the Affection we bear to any Instruments he moves for our welfare Among the Gods there is none like thee O Lord neither are there any Works like unto thy Works * Psal 86.8 Among the pleasantest Creatures there is none like the Creator nor any Goodness like unto his Goodness Shall we love the Food that Nourisheth us and the Medicine that Cures us and the Silver whereby we furnish our selves with useful Commodities Shall we love a Horse or Dog for the benefits we have by them And shall not the Spring of all those draw our Souls after it and make us aspire to the honour of loving and embracing him who hath stor'd every Creature with that which may pleasure us But instead of endeavouring to parallel our Affection with his Kindness we endeavour to make our Disingenuity as extensive and towring as his Divine Goodness 4. This is the true end of the manifestation of his Goodness that he might appear amiable and have a Return of Affection Did God display his Goodness only to be thought of or to be loved 'T is the want of
such a return that he hath usually aggravated from the Benefits he hath bestow'd upon Men. Every thought of him should be attended with a Motion sutable to the Excellency of his Nature and Works Can we think those nobler Spirits the Angels look upon themselves or those Frames of things in the Heavens and Earth without starting some practical Affection to him for them Their knowledge of his Excellency and Works cannot be a lazy Contemplation 'T is impossible their Wills and Affections should be a thousand Miles distant from their Understandings in their Operations 'T is not the least part of his condescending Goodness to Court in such Methods the Affections of us Worms and manifest his desire to be beloved by us Let us give him then that Affection he deserves as well as demands and which cannot be with-held from him without horrible Sacriledge There is nothing worthy of love besides him Let no Fire be kindled in our hearts but what may ascend directly to him 7. The seventh Instruction is this This renders God a fit Object of trust and confidence Since none is good but God none can be a full and satisfactory Ground or Object of confidence but God As all things derive their beings so they derive their helpfulness to us from God they are not therefore the principal Objects of trust but that Goodness alone that renders them fit Instruments of our support They can no more challenge from us a stable Confidence than they can a Supream Affection 'T is by this the Psalmist allures Men to a trust in him * Psal 34.8 Taste and see how good the Lord is What is the consequence Blessed is the Man that trusts in thee The Voice of Divine Goodness sounds nothing more intelligibly and a taste of it produceth nothing more effectually than this As the Vials of his Justice are to make us fear him so the Streams of his Goodness are to make us rely on him As his Patience is design'd to broach our Repentance so his Goodness is most proper to strengthen our assurance in him That Goodness which surmounted so many difficulties and conquer'd so many motions that might be made against any repeated Exercise of it after it had been abus'd by the first Rebellion of Man That Goodness that after so much contempt of it appeared in such a Majestick tenderness and threw aside those impediments which Men had cast in the way of Divine Inclinations This Goodness is the foundation of all reliance upon God Who is better than God And therefore Who more to be trusted than God As his Power cannot act any thing weakly so his Goodness cannot act any thing unbecomingly and unworthy of his Infinite Majesty And here consider 1. Goodness is the first motive of trust Nothing but this could be the encouragement to Man had he stood in a State of Innocence to present himself before God The Majesty of God would have constrain'd him to keep his due distance but the Goodness of God could only hearten his Confidence 'T is nothing else now that can preserve the same temper in us in our lapsed Condition To regard him only as the Judge of our Crimes will drive us from him but only the regard of him as the Donor of our Blessings will allure us to him The principal Foundation of Faith is not the Word of God but God himself and God as consider'd in this Perfection As the Goodness of God in his Invitations and Providential Blessings leads us to Repentance * Rom. 2.4 so by the same reason the Goodness of God by his Promises leads us to Reliance If God be not first believed to be good he would not be believed at all in any thing that he speaks or swears If you were not satisfied in the goodness of a Man though he should swear a thousand times you would value neither his Word nor Oath as any security Many times where we are certain of the goodness of a Man we are willing to trust him without his promise This Divine Perfection gives Credit to the Divine Promises they of themselves would not be a sufficient ground of trust without an apprehension of his truth nor would his truth be very comfortable without a belief of his good will whereby we are assured that what he promises to give he gives liberally free and without regret The truth of the Promiser makes the Promise Credible but the goodness of the Promiser makes it chearfully relied on In Psal 73. Asaphs Penitential Psalm for his distrust of God he begins the first Verse with an assertion of this Attribute v. 1. Truly God is good to Israel and ends with this fruit of it Verse 28. I will put my trust in the Lord God 'T is a mighty ill Nature that receives not with assurance the Dictates of Infinite Goodness that cannot deceive or frustrate the hopes we conceive of him that is unconceivably more abundant in the breast and inclinations of the Promiser than expressible in the words of his Promise All true faith works by love * Gal. 5.6 and therefore necessarily includes a particular eying of this Excellency in the Divine Nature which renders him amiable and is the Motive and Encouragement of a love to him His Power indeed is a foundation of trust but his Goodness is the principal Motive of it His Power without good Will would be dangerous and could not allure Affection and his good Will without Power would be useless and though it might merit a love yet could not create a Confidence both in conjunction are strong grounds of hope Especially since his Goodness is of the same infinity with his Wisdom and Power and that he can be no more wanting in the effusions of this upon them that seek him than in his Wisdom to contrive or his Power to effect his Designs and Works 2. This goodness is more the foundation and motive of trust under the Gospel than under the Law They under the Law had more evidences of Divine Power and their trust eyed that much though there was an eminency of goodness in the frequent deliverances they had yet the Power of God had a more glorious dress than his Goodness because of the extraordinary and miraculous ways whereby he brought those deliverances about Therefore in the Catalogue of Believers in Heb. 11. you shall find the Power of God to be the Center of their Rest and Trust and their Faith was built upon the extraordinary Marks of Divine Power which were frequently visible to them But under the Gospel goodness and love was intended by God to be the chief Object of trust suitable to the Excellency of that Dispensation he would have an Exercise of more ingenuity in the Creatures Therefore 't is said Hosea 3.5 A promise of Gospel-times They shall fear God and his goodness in the later days when they shall return to seek the Lord and David their King 'T is not said they shall fear God and his Power but
neither one nor other can be denied him without a sordid and disingenuous ingratitude God therefore aggravates the Rebellion of the Jews from the cares he had in the bringing them up * Isaiah 2.2 and the miraculous deliverance from Egypt †Jer. 11.7 8. implying that those Benefits were strong Obligations to an ingenuous observance of him 2. It is Establisht upon this That God can enjoin the observance of nothing but what is good He may by the Right of his Soveraign Dominion command that which is indifferent in its own Nature As in positive Laws The not eating the Fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil which had not been evil in it self set aside the Command of God to the contrary and likewise in those Ceremonial Laws he gave the Jews But in regard of the transcendent Goodness and Righteousness of his Nature he will not he cannot Command any thing that is evil in it self or repugnant to the true interest of his Creature And God never oblig'd the Creature to any thing but what was so free from damaging it that it highly conduced to its good and welfare and therefore it is said * 1 Joh. 5.3 That his Commands are not grievous Not grievous in their own Nature nor grievous to one possest with a true Reason The Command given to Adam in Paradise was not grievous in it self nor could he ever have thought it so but upon a false supposition instill'd into him by the Tempter There is a pleasure results from the Law of God to a holy Rational Nature a sweetness tasted both by the Understanding and by the Will for they both rejoice the heart and enlighten the Eyes of the Mind * Psal 19.8 God being Essentially Wisdom and Goodness cannot deviate from that Goodness in any Orders he gives the Creature whatsoever he Enacts must be agreeable to that Rule and therefore he can Will nothing but what is good and excellent and what is good for the Creature As a Heathen Maximus Tyrius Dissert 22. p. 220. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For since he hath put Originally into Man a Natural Instinct to desire that which is good He would never Enact any thing for the Creatures observance that might controul that desire imprinted by himself but what might countenance that Impression of his own hand for if God did otherwise he would contradict his own Natural Law and be a Deluder of his Creatures if he imprest upon them desires one way and order'd directions another The truth is all his Moral Precepts are Comely in themselves and they receive not their goodness from Gods positive Command but that Command supposeth their goodness If every thing were good because God loves it or because God wills it i. e. That Gods loving it or willing it made that good which was not good before then as Camero well argues somewhere Gods goodness would depend upon his loving himself He was good because he loved himself and was not good till he loved himself whereas indeed Gods loving himself doth not make him good but supposeth him good He was good in the Order of Nature before he loved himself and his being good was the ground of his loving himself because as was said before if there were any thing better than God God would love that For it is inconsistent with the Nature of God and Infinite Goodness not to love that which is good and not to love that supreamly which is the Supream Good Further to understand it you may consider If the Question be askt Why God loves himself You would think it a reasonable Answer to say Because he is good But if the Question be askt Why God is good You would think that Answer because he loves himself would be destitute of Reason but the true Answer would be Because his Nature is so and he could not be God if he were not good Therefore Gods goodness is in order of our conception before his self-self-love and not his self-love before his goodness So the Moral things God Commands are good in themselves before God Commands them and such that if God should Command the contrary it would openly speak him evil and unrighteous Abstract from Scripture and weigh things in your own Reason Could you conceive God good if he should Command a Creature not to love him Could you preserve the Notion of a good Nature in him if he did Command Murder Adultery Tyranny and Cutting of Throats You would wonder to what purpose he made the World and fram'd it for Society if such things were order'd that should deface all Comeliness of Society The Moral Commands given in the Word appeared of themselves very beautiful to meer Reason that had no knowledge of the Written Law they are good and because they are so his goodness had moved his Soveraign Authority strictly to enjoyn them Now this goodness whereby he cannot oblige a Creature to any thing that is evil speaks him highly worthy of our Observance and our Disobedience to his Law to be full of unconceivable Malignity That is the last thing 2. Use is a Use of Comfort He is a Good without mixture Good without weariness none good but God none good purely none good inexhaustibly but God because he is good we may upon our speaking expect his instruction * Psal 25.8 Good is the Lord therefore will he teach Sinners in his way His goodness makes him stoop to be the Tutor to those Worms that lie prostrate before him and though they are Sinners full of filth he drives them not from his School nor denies them his Medicines if they apply themselves to him as a Physician He is good in removing the Punishment due to our Crimes and good in bestowing Benefits not due to our Merits because he is good Penitent Believers may expect forgiveness * Psal 86.5 Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive He acts not according to the rigor of the Law but willingly grants his Pardon to those that flie into the Arms of the Mediator His goodness makes him more ready to forgive than our necessities make us desirous to enjoy He charged not upon Job his impatient Expressions in Cursing the day of his Birth his goodness passed that over in silence and extolls him for speaking the thing that is right right in the main * Job 42.7 when he charges his Friends for not speaking of him the thing that is right as his Servant Job had done He is so good that if we offer the least thing sincerely he will graciously receive it If we have not a Lamb to offer a Pigeon or Turtle shall be accepted upon his Altar He stands not upon Costly presents but sincerely tender'd Services All Conditions are sweeten'd by it whatsoever any in the World enjoy is from a redundancy of this goodness but whatsoever a good Man enjoys is from a propriety in this goodness 1. Here is Comfort in our Addresses to him If
he be a Fountain and Sea of Goodness he cannot be weary of doing good no more than a Fountain or Sea are of flowing All goodness delights to communicate it self Infinite goodness hath then an infinite delight in expressing it self 't is a part of his goodness not to be weary of shewing it He can never then be weary of being sollicited for the effusions of it If he rejoyces over his People to do them good he will rejoyce in any opportunities offer'd to him to honour his Goodness and gladly meet with a fit Subject for it He therefore delights in Prayer Never can we so delight in addressing as he doth in imparting He delights more in our Prayers than we can our selves Goodness is not pleased with shyness To what purpose did his immense Bounty bestow his Son upon us but that we should be accepted both in our Persons and Petitions * Eph. 1.6 †Psal 34.15 His Eyes are upon the Righteous and his Ears are open to their Cry He fixes the Eye of his Goodness upon them and opens the Ears of his Goodness for them He is pleased to behold them and pleased to listen to them as if he had no pleasure in any thing else He loves to be sought to to give a vent to his Bounty * Job 22.21 Acquaint thy self with God and thereby good shall come unto thee The word signifies to accustom our selves to God The more we accustom our selves in speaking the more he will accustom himself in giving He loves not to keep his Goodness close under lock and key as Men do their Treasures * Matth. 7.7 If we knock he opens his Exchequer His Goodness is as flexible to our importunities as his Power is invincible by the Arm of a silly Worm He thinks his Liberality Honour'd by being apply'd to and your Address to be a Recompense for his Expence There is no reason to fear since he hath so kindly invited us but he will as heartily welcome us The Nature of Goodness is to compassionate and communicate to pity and relieve and that with a heartiness and chearfulness Man is weary of being often sollicited because he hath a finite not a bottomless goodness He gives sometimes to be rid of his Suppliant not to encourage him to a second approach But every Experience God gives us of his Bounty is a Motive to sollicit him afresh and a kind of Obligation he hath laid upon himself to renew it * 1 Sam. 17.37 'T is one part of his goodness that it is boundless and bottomless We need not fear the wasting of it nor any weariness in him to bestow it The Stock cannot be spent and infinite Kindness can never become niggardly When we have enjoyed it there is still an infinite Ocean in him to refresh us and as full Streams as ever to supply us What an encouragement have we to draw near to God We run in our straights to those that we think have most good will as well as power to relieve and protect us The oftner we come to him and the nearer we approach to him the more of his influences we shall feel As the nearer the Sun the more of its heat insinuates it self into us The greatness of God joyned with his goodness hath more reason to encourage our approach to him than our flight from him because his greatness never goes unattended with his goodness and if he were not so good he would not be so great in the apprehensions of any Creature How may his goodness in the great gift of his Son encourage us to apply to him since he hath set him as a days-Man between himself and us and appointed him an Advocate to present our Requests for us and speed them at the Throne of Grace and he never leaves till Divine Goodness subscribes a Fiat to our believing and just Petitions 2. Here is Comfort in Afflictions What can we fear from the conduct of infinite Goodness Can his hand be heavy upon those that are humble before him They are the hands of infinite Power indeed but there is not any motion of it upon his People but is order'd by a Goodness as infinite as his Power which will not suffer any Affliction to be too sharp or too long By what ways soever he conveys Grace to us here and prepares us for glory hereafter they are good and those are the good things he hath chiefly obliged himself to give * Psal 84.11 Grace and glory will he give and no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly This David comforted himself with in that which his devout Soul accounted the greatest Calamity his absence from the Courts and House of God Verse 2. Not an ill will but a good will directs his Scourges He is not an idle Spectator of our Combats His thoughts are fuller of kindness than ours in any case can be of trouble And because he is good he wills the best good in every thing he acts in Exercising Vertue or Correcting Vice There is no Affliction without some apparent mixtures of goodness When he speaks how he had smitten Israel * Jer. 2.30 He presently adds †Verse 31. Have I been a Wilderness to Israel a Land of darkness Though he led them through a Desert yet he was not a desert to them He was no Land of darkness to them While they marched through a Land of barrenness he was a Caterer to provide them Manna and a place of broad Rivers and Streams How often hath Divine Goodness made our Afflictions our Consolations Our Diseases our Medicines and his gentle Strokes reviving Cordials How doth he provide for us above our deserts even while he doth punish us beneath our Merits Divine Goodness can no more mean ill than Divine Wisdom can be mistaken in its End or Divine Power over-rul'd in its Actions Charity thinks no evil * 1 Cor. 13.5 Charity in the Stream doth not much less doth Charity in the Fountain To be afflicted by a hand of Goodness hath something comfortable in it when to be afflicted by an Evil hand is very odious Elijah who was loth to die by the hand of a Whorish Idolatrous Jezabel was very desirous to die by the hand of God * 1 Kings 19.2 3 4. He accounted it a misery to have died by her hand who hated him and had nothing but Cruelty and therefore fled from her when he wished for death as a desirable thing by the hand of that God who had been good to him and could not but be good in whatsoever he acted 3. The third Comfort flowing from this Doctrine of the Goodness of God is 'T is a ground of assurance of Happiness If God be so good that nothing is better and loves himself as he is good he cannot be wanting in love to those that resemble his Nature and imitate his Goodness He cannot but love his own Image of goodness where ever he finds
it he cannot but be bountiful to it for it is impossible there can be any love to any Object without wishing well to it and doing well for it If the Soul loves God as its chiefest good God will love the Soul as his pious Servant As he hath offer'd to them the highest allurements so he will not with-hold the choicest communications Goodness cannot be a deluding thing It cannot consist with the nobleness and largeness of this Perfection to invite the Creature to him and leave the Creature empty of him when it comes 'T is inconsistent with this Perfection to give the Creature a knowledge of himself and a desire of enjoyment larger than that knowledge a desire to know and enjoy him perpetually yet never intend to bestow an Eternal Communication of himself upon it The Nature of Man was erected by the goodness of God but with an enlarg'd desire for the highest Good and a Capacity of enjoying it Can Goodness be thought to be deceitful to frustrate its own Work be tired with its own Effusions to let a gracious Soul groan under its burthen and never resolve to ease him of it To see delightfully the aspirings of the Creature to another State and resolve never to admit him to a happy issue of those desires 'T is not agreeable to this unconceivable Perfection to be unconcern'd in the longings of his Creature since their first longings were placed in them by that Goodness which is so free from mocking the Creature or falling short of its well grounded Expectations or Desires that it infinitely exceeds them If Man had continued in Innocence the goodness of God without question would have continued him in Happiness And since he hath had so much goodness to restore Man would it not be dishonourable to that goodness to break his own Conditions and defeat the believing Creature of Happiness after it hath complied with his terms He is a Believers God in Covenant and is a God in the utmost extent of this Attribute as well as of any other and therefore will not communicate mean and shallow Benefits but according to the grandeur of it Soveraign and Divine such as the gift of a happy Immortality Since he had no obligation upon him to make any promise but the sweetness of his own Nature the same is as strong upon him to make all the words of his Grace good They cannot be invalid in any one tittle of them as long as his Nature remains the same And his goodness cannot be diminisht without the impairing of his Godhead since it is inseparable from it Divine Goodness will not let any Man serve God for nought He hath promised our weak Obedience more than any Man in his right Wits can say it Merits * Matth. 10.42 A Cup of cold Water shall not lose its Reward He will manifest our good actions as he gave so high a testimony to Job in the face of the Devil his Accuser It will not only be the happiness of the Soul but of the Body the whole Man since Soul and Body were in conjunction in the acts of Righteousness it consists not with the goodness of God to reward the one and to let the other lie in the ruines of its first nothing To bestow joy upon the one for its being principal and leave the other without any Sentiments of joy that was instrumental in those good Works both commanded and approv'd by God He that had the goodness to pity our Original Dust will not want a goodness to advance it And if we put off our Bodies 't is but afterwards to put them on repair'd and fresher From this Goodness the Upright may expect all the Happiness their Nature is capable of 4. It is a ground of Comfort in the midst of publick dangers This hath more sweetness in it to support us than the malice of Enemies hath to deject us because he is good he is a strong hold in the day of trouble * Nah. 1.7 If his goodness extends to all his Creatures it will much more extend to those that honour him If the Earth be full of his goodness that part of Heaven which he hath upon Earth shall not be empty of it He hath a Goodness often to deliver the Righteous and a Justice to put the Wicked in his stead * Prov. 11.8 When his People have been under the power of their Enemies he hath chang'd the Scene and put the Enemies under the power of his People He hath clapt upon them the same Bolts which they did upon his Servants How comfortable is this Goodness that hath yet maintain'd us in the midst of dangers preserved us in the mouth of Lyons quencht kindled Fire Hitherto rescued us from design'd ruine subtilly hatcht and supported us in the midst of Men very passionate for our destruction How hath this watchful goodness been a Sanctuary to us in the midst of an upper Hell 3. The third Use is of Exhortation 1. How should we endeavour after the enjoyment of God as good How earnestly should we desire him As there is no other Goodness worthy of our supream love so there is no other Goodness worthy our most ardent thirst Nothing deserves the name of a desirable good but as it tends to the attainment of this Here we must pitch our desires which otherwise will terminate in nullities or unconceivable disturbances 1. Consider nothing but good can be the Object of a Rational Appetite The Will cannot direct its motion to any thing under the notion of evil evil in it self or evil to it whatsoever Courts it must present it self in the quality of a good in its own nature or in its present Circumstances to the present state and condition of the desire it will not else else touch or affect the Will This is the language of that faculty Who will shew me any good * Psal 4.6 And good is as inseparably the Object of the wills motion as truth is of the understandings inquiry Whatsoever a Man would allure another to comply with he must propose to the Person under the notion of some beneficialness to him in point of honour profit or pleasure To act after this manner is the proper Character of a Rational Creature And though that which is evil is often embrac'd instead of that which is good and what we entertain as conducing to our felicity proves our misfortune yet that is from our ignorance and not from a formal choice of it as evil for what evil is chosen it is not possible to choose under the conception of evil but under the appearance of a good though it be not so in reality 'T is inseparable from the Wills of all Men to propose to themselves that which in the opinion and judgment of their understandings or imagination is good though they often mistake and cheat themselves 2. Since that Good is the Object of a Rational Appetite the purest best and most universal good such as God
we cannot love so obliging a God as much as he deserves to be loved by us It would make us humble before Men. Who would be proud of a meer Gift which he knows he hath not Merited How ridiculous would that Servant be that should be proud of a rich Livery which is a Badge of his Service not a Token of his Merit but of his Masters Magnificence and Bounty which though he wear this day he may be stript of to morrow and be turn'd out of his Masters Family 3. A sense of the Divine Goodness would make us faithful to him The Goodness of God obligeth us to serve him not to offend him The freeness of his Goodness should make us more ready to contribute to the advancement of his Glory When we consider the Benefits of a Friend proceed out of kindness to us and not out of self ends and vain applause it works more upon us and makes us more careful of the honour of such a Person 'T is a pure Bounty God hath manifested in Creation and Providence which could not be for himself who being Blessed for ever wanted nothing from us It was not to draw a profit from us but to impart an advantage to us Our goodness extends not to him * Psal 16.2 The service of the Benefactor is but a Rational return for Benefits whence Nehemiah aggravates the Sins of the Jews * Neh. 9.35 †They have not served thee in thy great goodness that thou gavest them i. e. which thou didst freely bestow upon them How should we dare to spend upon our Lusts that which we possess if we consider'd by whose liberality we came by it How should we dare to be unfaithful in the Goods he hath made us Trustees of A deep sense of Divine Goodness will enoble the Creature and make it act for the most glorious and noble end It would strike Satans Temptation dead at a blow It would pull off the false Mask and Vizor from what he presents to us to draw us from the service of our Benefactor We could not with a sense of this think him kinder to us than God hath and will be which is the great motive of Men to joyn hands with him and turn their backs upon God 4. A sense of the Divine Goodness would make us patient under our Miseries A deep sense of this would make us give God the honour of his Goodness in whatsoever he doth though the reason of his actions be not apparent to us nor the event and issue of his proceedings foreseen by us 'T is a stated case that goodness can never intend ill but designs good in all its acts to them that love God * Rom. 8.28 Nay he always designs the best when he bestows any thins upon his People he sees it best they should have it and when he removes any thing from them he sees it best they should lose it When we have lost a thing we loved and refuse to be comforted a sense of this Perfection which acts God in all would keep us from misjudging our sufferings and measuring the intention of the hand that sent them by the sharpness of what we feel What Patient fully perswaded of the affection of the Physician would not value him though that which is given to purge out the Humours racks his Bowels When we lose what we love perhaps it was some outward lustre tickled our apprehensions and we did not see the Viper we would have harm'd our selves by but God seeing it snatcht it from us and we mutter as if he had been Cruel and depriv'd us of the good we imagin'd when he was kind to us and freed us from the hurt we should certainly have felt We should regard that which in goodness he takes from us at no other rate than some guilded Poyson and lurking Venom The sufferings of Men though upon high provocations are often follow'd with rich Mercies and many times are intended as preparations for greater goodness When God utters that Rhetorick of his Bowels * Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Oh Ephraim I will not execute the fierceness of my anger he intended them Mercy in their Captivity and would prepare them by it to walk after the Lord. And it is likely the Posterity of those Ten Tribes were the first that ran to God upon the publishing the Gospel in the places where they lived He doth not take away himself when he takes away outward Comforts While he snatcheth away the Rattles we play with he hath a Breast in himself for us to suck The consideration of his Goodness would dispose us to a compos'd frame of Spirit If we are sick 't is Goodness it is a Disease and not a Hell 'T is Goodness that it is a Cloud and not a total Darkness What if he transfers from us what we have He takes no more than what his Goodness first imparted to us And never takes so much from his People as his Goodness leaves them If he strips them of their lives he leaves them their Souls with those faculties he furnisht them with at first and removes them from those Houses of Clay to a richer Mansion The time of our Sufferings here were it the whole Course of our Life bears not the proportion of a moment to that endless Eternity wherein he hath design'd to manifest his Goodness to us The Consideration of Divine Goodness would teach us to draw a Calm even from Storms and distil Balsom from Rods If the Reproofs of the Righteous be an excellent Oyl * Psal 145.5 we should not think the Corrections of a good God to have a less Vertue 5. A sense of the Divine Goodness would mount us above the World It would damp our appetites after meaner things we should look upon the World not as a God but a Gift from God and never think the Present better than the Donor We should never lie soaking in muddy Puddles were we always fill'd with a sense of the richness and clearness of this Fountain wherein we might bath our selves Little petty Particles of good would give us no content when we were sensible of such an unbounded Ocean Infinite Goodness rightly apprehended would dull our desires after other things and sharpen them with a keener edge after that which is best of all How earnestly do we long for the presence of a Friend of whose good will towards us we have full experience 6. It would check any Motions of Envy It would make us joy in the prosperity of good Men and hinder us from envying the outward felicity of the Wicked We should not dare with an evil Eye to censure his good Hand * Matth. 20.15 but approve of what he thinks fit to do both in the matter of his Liberality and the Subjects he chooseth for it Though if the disposal were in our hands we should not imitate him as not thinking them Subjects fit for Bounty Yet since it is in his hands
Vitals He can never want weapons who is Soveraign over the thunders of Heaven and stones of the Earth over every creature and can by a Soveraign word turn our greatest comforts into curses 3. This Punishment must be terrible How doth David a great King sound in his body prosperous in his Crown and successful in his conquests setled in all his Royal conveniencies groan under the wrathful touch of a greater King than himself Psal 6. Psal 38. and his other Paenitential Psalms Not being able to give himself a writ of ease by all the delights of his Palace and Kingdom If the wrath of a King be as the roaring of a Lyon to a poor subject Prov. 19.10 how great is the wrath of the King of Kings that cannot be set forth by the terror of all the amazing vollies of thunder that have been since the Creation if the noise of all were gather'd into one single crack As there is an unconceivable ground of joy in the special favour of so mighty a King so is there of terror in his severe displeasure Psal 76.12 He is terrible to the Kings of the earth with God is terrible Majesty What a folly is it then to rebel against so mighty a Soveraign III. USE of Comfort The Throne of God drops hony and sweetness as well as dread and terror All his other attributes afford little relief without this of his dominion and Universal command When therefore he speaks of his being the God of his people he doth often preface it with the Lord thy God His Soveraignty as a Lord being the ground of all the comfort we can take in his federal relation as our God Thy God but Superior to thee thy God not as thy Cattle and Goods are thine in a way of sole propriety but a Lord too in a way of Soveraignty not only over thee but over all things else for thee As the end of God's setling Earthly Governments was for the good of the communities over which the Governours preside So God exerciseth his Government for the good of the World and more particularly for the good of the Church over which he is a peculiar Governour 1. His love to his people is as great as his Soveraignty over them He stands not upon his Dominion with his people so much as upon his affection to them He would not be call'd Baali my Lord i. e. he would not be known only by the name of Soveraignty but Ishi my Husband a name of Authority and sweetness together Hos 2.16.19 c. He signifies that he is not only the Lord of our spirits and bodies but a Husband by a Marriage knot admitting us to a nearness to him and Communion of goods with him Though he Majestically sits upon a high Throne yet it is a Throne encircled with a Rainbow Ezek. 1.28 To shew that his Government of his people is not only in away of absolute Dominion but also in a way of federal relation He seems to own himself their Subject rather than their Soveraign when he gives them a Charter to command him in the affairs of his Church Isa 45.11 Ask of me things to come concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands command you me Some read it by way of question as a corrective of a sawcyness Do you ask of me things to come and seem to command me concerning the works of my hands as if you were more careful of my interest among my people than I am who have form'd them But if this were the sense it would seem to discourage an importunity of Prayer for publick deliverance And therefore to take it according to our Translation 't is an exhortation to Prayer and a mighty encouragement in the management and exercise of it Urge me with my promise in a way of humble importunity and you shall find me as willing to perform my word and gratifie your desires as if I were rather under your Authority than you under mine As much as to say if I be not as good as my word to satisfie those desires that are according to my promise implead me at my own Throne and if I be failing in it I will give Judgment against my self Almost like Princes Charters and gracious grants we grant such a thing against us and our heirs giving the subject power to implead them if they be not punctually observ'd by them How is the love of God seen in his condescension below the Majesty of Earthly Governours He that might command by the absoluteness of his Authority doth not only do that but intreats in the quality of a subject as if he had not a fulness to supply us but needed something from us for a supply of himself 2 Cor. 5.20 As though God did beseech you by us And when he may challenge as a due by the right of his propriety what we bestow upon his poor which are his Subjects as well as ours he reckons it as a loan to him as if what we had were more our own than his Prov. 19.17 He stands not upon his Dominion so much with us when he finds us Conscientious in paying the duty we owe to him He rules as a Father by Love as well as by Authority He enters into a peculiar Communion with poor Earthly Worms plants his gracious Tabernacle among the troops of sinners instructs us by his word invites us by his benefits admits us into his presence is more desirous to bestow his smiles than we to receive them And acts in such a manner as if he were willing to resign his Scepter into the hands of any that were possessed with more love and kindness to us than himself This is the comfort of Believers 2. In his being Soveraign his pardons carry in them a full security He that hath the Keyes of Hell and Death pardons the crime and wipes off the guilt Who can repeal the act of the chief Governour What tribunal can null the decrees of an absolute Throne Is 43.25 I even I am he that blots out thy transgressions for my names sake His soveraign dominion renders his mercy comfortable The clemency of a Subject though never so great cannot pardon people may pity a criminal while the Executioner tortures him and strips him of his Life but the clemency of the supream Prince establisheth a pardon Since we are under the dominion of God if he pardons who can reverse it If he doth not what will the pardons of men profit us in regard of an eternal state If God be a King for ever then he whom God forgives he in whom God reigns shall live for ever Else he would want Subjects on Earth and have none of his lower Creatures which he form'd upon the Earth to reign over after the dissolution of the World if his pardons did not stand secure he would after this Life have no voluntary subjects that had formerly a being upon the Earth he would be a King only over the damn'd Creatures 3
glory Pag. 83 Resignation of our selves would flow from consideration of God's Wisdom Pag. 414 415 Should from that of his Soveraignty Pag. 775 Restraint of Men and Devils by God in mercy to man Pag. 357 451 452 527 528 650 744 745 Resolutions good how soon broken Pag. 232 Resurrection of the Body no incredible Doctrine Pag. 319 320 479 480 The Power of God in that of Christ Pag. 460 Of Men ascribed to Christ Pag. 476 Reverence necessary in the worship of God Pag. 150 151 Revelations of God are not to be censured Pag. 403 404 Riches inordinate desire after them a hindrance to Spiritual worship Pag. 177 God exercises a Soveraignty in bestowing them Pag. 740 Rivers how useful Pag. 349 Rome why called Babylon Pag. 13 S. SAcraments the goodness of God in appointing them Pag. 639 Salvation of men how desirous God is of it Pag. 636 637 638 808 809 810 Sanctification deserves our thanks as much as Justification Pag. 698 Vide Holiness Satisfaction of the Soul only in God Pag. 36 37 127 128 200 Necessary for sin Pag. 549 550 Scepticks must own a first Cause Pag. 21 Scoffing at Holiness a great sin Pag. 543 544 And at Convictions in others Pag. 553 Scriptures are wrested and abused Pag. 58 59 79 Ought to be prized and studied Pag. 107 The not fulfilling some Predictions in them doth not prove God to be changeable Pag. 226 227 Of the Old Testament give credit to the New and of the New illustrate those of the Old Pag. 334 335 All Truth to be drawn thence ibid. Of the Old Testament to be studied ibid. Something in them sutable to all sorts of men Pag. 354 355 Written so as to prevent foreseen Corruptions Pag. 355 356 To study Arguments from them to defend sin a contempt of God's Holiness Pag. 542 543 The goodness of God in giving them as a Rule Pag. 652 653 654 Sea how useful Pag. 23 The Wisdom of God seen in it Pag. 349 And his Power Pag. 419 446 447 Searching the Hearts of Men how to be understood of God Pag. 287 Seasons the variety of them necessary Pag. 350 Secrecy a poor refuge to sinners Pag. 335 Secret sins cause stings of Conscience Pag. 35 313 Known to God Pag. 263 265 334 335 Shall be revealed in the Day of Judgment Pag. 318 319 Prayers and Works known to God Pag. 331 Security Men abuse God's blessings to it Pag. 668 Self man most opposite to those Truths that are most contrary to it Pag. 60 Man sets up as his own Rule Pag. 70 Dissatisfied with Conscience when it contradicts its desires Pag. 71 72 Meerly the agreeableness to it the spring of many materially good Actions Pag. 72 73 90 ad 94 153 154 Would make it the rule of God Pag. 74 ad 80 And his own end and the end of all Creatures and of God vid. End Applauding thoughts of it how common Pag. 82 Men ascribe the glory of what they have or do to it Pag. 82 83 Desire Doctrines pleasing to it Pag. 83 Highly concern'd for any injury done to it ibid. Obey it against the light of Conscience Pag. 84 How great a sin this is Pag. 84 85 The giving mercies pleasing to it the only cause of many mens love to God Pag. 90 91 Men unweildy to their duty where it is not concern'd Pag. 91 How sinful this is Pag. 94 The great Enemy to the Gospel and Conversion Pag. 101 102 Self-love threefold Pag. 80 81 The cause of all sin and hindrance of Conversion Pag. 81 82 Service of God how unwilling men are to it Pag. 63 64 Slight in the performance of it Pag. 64 65 Shew not that natural vigor in it as they do in their worldly business Pag. 65 Quickly weary of it Pag. 65 66 Desert it Pag. 66 The presence of God a comfort in it Pag. 268 Hypocritical pretences for avoiding it a denial of God's Knowledge Pag. 328 A sense of God's Goodness would make us faithful in it Pag. 681 Some called to and fitted for more eminent ones in their Generation Pag. 739 ad 744 Omissions of it a contempt of God's Soveraignty Pag. 762 763 Sin founded in a secret Atheism and Self-love Pag. 50 81 Reflects a dishonour on all the Attributes of God Pag. 50 Implies God is unworthy of a Being Pag. 50 51 Would make him a foolish impure and miserable Being Pag. 51 52 More troublesom than Holiness Pag. 63 To make it our end a great debasing of God Pag. 87 88 No excuse but an aggravation that we serve but one Pag. 87 Abstinence from it proceeds many times from an evil Cause Pag. 90 91 325 326 God's name word and mercies made use of to countenance it Pag. 94 542 543 668 669 815 Spiritual to be avoided Pag. 128 'T is folly Pag. 193 Past ones we should be humbled for Pag. 197 336 †Hath brought a Curse on the Creation Pag. 207 Vide Creatures Past known to God Pag. 282 283 All known to him and how Pag. 287 288 289 336 †337 †A sense of God's Knowledge and Holiness would check it Pag. 337 338 †554 555 Bounded by God Pag. 357 God brings glory to himself and good to the Creature out of it Pag. 358 ad 366 God hath shewn the greatest hatred of it in redemption Pag. 384 385 A contempt of God's Power Pag. 480 481 Abhorred by God Pag. 501 502 503 547 In God's People more severely punisht in this World than in others Pag. 502 503 God cannot be the Author of in others or do it himself Pag. 504 505 506 God punishes it and cannot but do so Pag. 511 547 548 549 The Instruments of it detestable to God Pag. 512 Opposite to the Holiness of God Pag. 540 To charge it on God or defend it by his word a great sin Pag. 542 543 Entrance of it into the World doth not impeach God's goodness Pag. 594 595 Those that disturb Societies most signally punisht in this life Pag. 651 A contempt of God's Dominion Pag. 752 753 754 How much God is daily provoked by it Pag. 806 807 808 823 An abuse of God's Patience Pag. 815 816 Sincerity required in Spiritual worship Pag. 143 Cannot be unknown to God Pag. 330 331 Consideration of God's Knowledge would promote it Pag. 338 339 †Sinful times in them we should be most holy Pag. 558 Sinners God hath shewn the greatest love to them and hatred to their sins Pag. 384 385 Every thing in their possession detestable to God Pag. 512 Society the goodness of God seen in the preservation of it Pag. 649 ad 652 Could not subsist without restraining Grace v. Restraint Soul the vastness of its capacity and quickness of its motion Pag. 32 33 Its union to the Body wonderful ibid. God only can satisfie it v. Satisfaction They only can converse with God Pag. 127 Should be the Objects of our chiefest care Pag. 128 We should worship God with them Pag. 132 133 The Wisdom and
the Spirit * 2 Cor. 7.1 By the one we defile the Body by the other we defile the Spirit which in regard of its Nature is of kin to the Creator To wrong one who is neer of kin to a Prince is worse than to injure an inferior Subject When we make our Spirits which are most like to God in their Nature and framed according to his Image a stage to act vain imaginations wicked desires and unclean affections we wrong God in the excellency of his Work and reflect upon the nobleness of the Patern we wrong him in that part where he hath stampt the most signal Character of his own spiritual nature we defile that whereby we have only converse with him as a Spirit which he hath ordered more immediately to represent him in this Nature than all corporeal things in the world can and make that Spirit with whom we desire to be joyned unfit for such a knot Gods Spirituality is the root of his other perfections We have already heard he could not be infinite omnipresent immutable without it Spiritual sins are the greatest root of bitterness within us As grace in our Spirits renders us more like to a spiritual God so spiritual sins bring us into a conformity to a degraded Devil * Eph. 2.2 3. Carnal sins change us from men to brutes and spiritual sins devest us of the Image of God for the Image of Satan We should by no means make our Spirits a Dung-hill which bear upon them the Character of the spiritual Nature of God and were made for his residence Let us therefore behave our selves towards God in all those ways which the spiritual nature of God requires us A DISCOURSE OF Spiritual Worship HAVING thus dispatcht the first proposition God is a Spirit It will not be amiss to handle the inference our Saviour makes from that proposition which is the second observation propounded Doct. That the Worship due from us to God ought to be Spiritual and Spiritually performed Spirit and Truth are understood variously Either we are to Worship God 1. Not by legal ceremonies The Evangelical administration being called Spirit in opposition to the legal ordinances as carnal and Truth in opposition to them as typical As the whole Judaical service is called flesh so the whole Evangelical service is called Spirit Or Spirit may be opposed to the worship at Jerusalem as it was carnal Truth to the worship on the Mount Gerizim because it was false They had not the true object of worship nor the true Medium of worship as those at Jerusalem had Their worship should cease because it was false and the Jewish worship should cease because it was carnal There is no need of a Candle when the Sun spreads it beams in the Air no need of those Ceremonies when the Sun of righteousness appeared They only served for Candles to instruct and direct men till the time of his coming The shadows are chased away by the displaying the substance so that they can be of no more use in the worship of God since the end for which they were instituted is expired and that discovered to us in the Gospel which the Jews sought for in vain among the baggage and stuff of their Ceremonies 2. With a Spiritual and sincere frame In Spirit i. e. with Spirit with the inward operations of all the faculties of our Souls and the cream and flower of them And the reason is because there ought to be a worship sutable to the nature of God And as the worship was to be Spiritual so the exercise of that worship ought to be in a Spiritual manner * Lingend Tom. 2. p. 777. It shall be a worship in Truth because the true God shall be adored without those vain imaginations and phantastick resemblances of him * Taylors Exemplar Preface § 30. which were common among the blind Gentiles and contrary to the glorious nature of God and unworthy ingredients in Religious services It shall be a worship in Spirit without those carnal rites the degenerate Jews rested on Such a posture of Soul which is the life and ornament of every service God looks for at your hands There must be some proportion between the object adored and the manner in which we adore it It must not be a meer Corporeal worship because God is not a body but it must rise from the Center of our Soul because God is a Spirit If he were a body a bodily worship might sute him Images might be fit to represent him but being a Spirit our bodily services enter us not into communion with him Being a Spirit we must banish from our minds all carnal imaginations of him and separate from our Wills all cold and dissembled affections to him We must not only have a loud voice but an elevated Soul not only a bended knee but a broken heart not only a supplicating tone but a groaning Spirit not only a ready ear for the word but a receiving heart and this shall be of greater value with him than the most costly outward services offered at Gerizim or Jerusalem Our Saviour certainly meant not by worshipping in Spirit only the matter of the Evangelical service as opposed to the legal administration without the manner wherein it was to be performed T is true God always sought a worship in Spirit he expected the heart of the worshipper should joyn with his instituted rights of adoration in every exercise of them But he expects such a carriage more under the Gospel administration because of the clearer discoveries of his nature made in it and the greater assistances conveyed by it I shall therefore 1. Lay down some general propositions 2. Shew what this Spiritual worship is 3. Why we must offer to God a Spiritual service 4. The Vse 1. Some general propositions Proposition 1. First The right exercise of worship is founded upon and riseth from the Spirituality of God * Ames medul lib. 2. cap. 4. § 20. The first ground of the worship we render to God is the infinite excellency of his nature which is not only one attribute but results from all For God as God is the object of worship and the Notion of God consists not in thinking him wise good just but all those infinitely beyond any Conception And hence it follows that God is an object infinitely to beloved and honoured His goodness is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as a motive of our homage Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Fear in the Scripture dialect signifies the whole worship of God Acts 10.35 But in every Nation he that fears him is accepted of him * So 2 Kings 17.32 33. If God should act towards men according to the rigors of his Justice due to them for the least of their Crimes there could be no exercise of any affection but that of despair which could not engender a worship of God which ought to be joyned with love not
with hatred The beneficence and patience of God and his readiness to pardon men is the reason of the honour they return to him And this is so evident a motive that generally the Idolatrous world rankt those Creatures in the number of their Gods which they perceived useful and neficial to man-kind as the Sun and Mooâ— the Aegyptians the Ox c. And the more beneficial any thing appeared to mankind the higher station men gave it in the rank of their deities and bestowed a more peculiar and solemn worship upon it Men worshipped God to procure or continue his favour which would not have been acted by them had they not conceived it a pleasing thing to him to be merciful and gracious Sometimes his Justice is proposed to us as a motive of worship Heb. 12.28 29. Serve God with Reverence and Godly fear for our God is a consuming fire which includes his holiness whereby he doth hate sin as well as his wrath whereby he doth punish it Who but a mad and totally brutish person or one that was resolved to make war against heaven could behold the effects of Gods anger in the world consider him in his Justice as a consuming fire and despise him and rather be drawn out by that consideration to blasphemy and despair than to seek all ways to appease him Now tho the infinite power of God his unspeakable wisdom his incomprehensible goodness the holiness of his nature the vigilance of his Providence the bounty of his hand signifie to man that he should love and honour him and are the motives of worship yet the Spirituality of his nature is the rule of worship and directs us to render our duty to him with all the powers of our Soul As his goodness beams out upon us worship is due in Justice to him and as he is the most excellent nature veneration is due to him in the highest manner with the choicest affections So that indeed the Spirituality of God comes chiefly into consideration in matter of worship All his perfections are grounded upon this He could not be infinite immutable omniscient if he were a Corporeal being * Amirald dissert 6. disp 1. pa. 11. We cannot give him a worship unless we Judge him worthy excellent and deserving a worship at our hands And we cannot Judge him worthy of a worship unless we have some apprehensions and admirations of his infinite vertues And we cannot apprehend and admire those perfections but as we see them as causes shining in their effects When we see therefore the frame of the world to be the work of his power the order of the world to be the fruit of his wisdom and the usefulness of the world to be the product of his goodness We find the motives and reasons of worship and weighing that this power wisdom goodness infinitely transcend any corporeal nature we find a rule of worship that it ought to be offered by us in a manner sutable to such a nature as is infinitely above any bodily Being His being a Spirit declares what he is his other perfections declare what kind of Spirit he is All Gods perfections suppose him a Spirit all center in this His wisdom doth not suppose him merciful or his mercy suppose him omniscient There may be distinct notions of those but all suppose him to be of a spiritual nature How cold and frozen will our devotions be if we consider not his omniscience whereby he discerns our hearts How carnal will our services be if we consider him not as a pure Spirit * Amyraut de Relig. In our offers to and transactions with men we deal not with them as meer Animals but as rational Creatures and we debase their natures if we treat them otherwise And if we have not raised apprehensions of Gods spiritual nature in our treating with him but allow him only such frames as we think fit enough for men we debase his spirituality to the littleness of our own Being We must therefore possess our Souls with this we shall else render him no better than a fleshly service We do not much concern our selves in those things of which we are either utterly ignorant or have but slight apprehensions of That is the first Proposition The right exercise of worship is grounded upon the spirituality of God Propos 2. This spiritual worship of God is manifest by the light of Nature to be due to him In reference to this consider 1. The outward means or matter of that worship which would be acceptable to God was not known by the light of Nature The Law for a Worship and for a spiritual worship by the faculties of our Souls was natural and part of the Law of Creation though the determination of the particular acts whereby God would have this homage testified was of positive institution and depended not upon the Law of Creation Though Adam in Innocence knew God was to be worshipped yet by Nature he did not know by what outward acts he was to pay this respect or at what time he was more solemnly to be exercised in it than at another This depended upon the directions God as the soveraign Governour and Law-giver should prescribe You therefore find the positive institutions of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and the determination of the time of worship Gen. 2.3.17 Had there been any such notion in Adam naturally as strong as that other that a worship was due to God there would have been found some reliques of these modes universally consented to by Mankind as well as of the other But though all Nations have by an universal consent concurred in the acknowledgment of the Being of God and his right to adoration and the obligation of the Creature to it and that there ought to be some publick rule and polity in matters of Religion for no Nation hath been in the world without a worship and without external acts and certain ceremonies to signifie that worship yet their modes and rites have been as various as their climates unless in that common notion of sacrifices not descending to them by nature but tradition from Adam and the various ways of worship have been more provoking than pleasing Every Nation suted the kind of worship to their particular ends and polities they designed to rule by How God was to be worshipped is more difficult to be discerned by Nature with its eyes out than with its eyes clear * King on Jonah P. 63. The pillars upon which the worship of God stands cannot be discerned without revelation no more than blind Sampson could tell where the pillars of the Philistians Theatre stood without one to conduct him What Adam could not see with his sound eyes we cannot with our dim eyes He must be told from Heaven what worship was fit for the God of Heaven 'T is not by Nature that we can have such a full prospect of God as may content and quiet us This is the noble