this attribute of mercy we that have been the sinners are the greatest sharers and therefore I dare not say it is an errour of charity to assert that the Blessed Virgin had no sin to be forgiven her I may say it is an errour for it is against the Text Death passed upon all for that all had sinned Rom. 5. 12. nay I may say it is in some sort an uncharitable errour against the charity that is due to the blessed Virgin for though this doctrine may seem to adde to her honour yet it must needs detract and diminish from her joy since her self hath proclaimed these words My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour and we know what his salvation was whom she calls her Saviour even that which gave him his name Jesus S. Mat. 1. 21. which was to save his people from their sins so that if she had no sin how could she have this Jesus for her Saviour and I dare not say that she had him not for her Saviour when I see her so rejoycing in his salvation wherefore the errour must be contented to go without the charity for there is no charity in denying the mother of God the greatest interest in God the interest in his mercy no charity in denying the mother of our Saviour the best interest in her own Son the interest in his salvation I dare not then exclude the blessed Virgin out of that number of which S. Paul hath spoken these words Even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you and can but wonder that some who have phansied her more tender-hearted then Christ himself should ascribe so much tender-heartedness to so little need of forgiveness for it is not unknown to travellers that in some Christian Churches where this doctrine of the Immaculate conception is maintained our blessed Saviour is pictured as one ready to pursue and smite the sinner when as his mother is pictured as one ready to shelter and to receive him which false representation seems to have proceeded from as false an imagination broached by Gabriel upon the canon of the Mass Lect. 8. Sibi reservavit justitiam Virgini Mariae concessit misericordiam there being two principal boons of the heavenly kingdome justice and mercy the King of heaven hath reserved the justice to himself but the mercy he hath bestowed on the blessed Virgin 't is very unsound and unsafe divinity that robs the King of Saints of the fairest slower in his Crown to make a garland for his mother but besides the unsoundness and unsafeness whereby it may destroy us there is also in it some unreasonableness whereby it destroys it self for all inclination to mercy in the creature is meerly from receiving it as in the Creatour meerly from giving it God being mercy in himself at first hath mercy because he will have mercy and at last will have mercy because he hath had mercy on us so that in him giving or shewing mercy is the onely cause of mercy because he cannot repent him of his own gifts but man being misery in himself learns to shew mercy by having first received it and continues to shew mercy because he still expects it so that in him receiving mercy is the onely cause of shewing mercy for that he will not be unthankfull to God for the free gift of his mercy wherefore this supposition that the Blessed Virgin needed no mercy cannot be agreeable with this position that she is most ready to shew mercy unless we will grant a non sequitur in the Apostle who thus argues concerning Christ himself the onely fountain of mercy as God to give it the onely channel of mercy as men to derive and to convey it that because he was tempted in all points as we are therefore he is the more to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Heb. 4. 15. And the same doctrine which he preacheth concerning the head he enforceth concerning the members advising them therefore to forgive because they had been forgiven therefore to be kinde tender-hearted to their brethren because God for Christs sake had been kinde and tender-hearted to them he maketh choice of the best Topick that can be for an argument to perswade them to mercy even the infinite and undeserved mercies of God the Father Son and holy Ghost Forgive one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you here are the two first persons of the most holy blessed and glorious Trinity and if we look back upon the 30. verse we may see the third person and grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of Redemption how shall they not grieve that holy Spirit even by doing what follows in the next words v. 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kinde one to another c. this bitterness and malice least grieves your spirits but it most grievs Gods Spirit which cannot enter into a malicious soul and much less will dwell there wherefore you must put away all bitterness wrath and anger if you would have this heavenly guest come into your souls and you must keep them away if you would have him make any stay and abode when he is come the Apostle reckons up three several kindes or degrees of that fury which opposeth and grieveth Gods holy Spirit the first is bitterness a light distaste or dislike of the minde the second is wraths a violent commotion and disaffection of the heart both these contain themselves within doors and are to be rectified not by Aristotle's but by Christs Ethicks which alone reach to the inward man the third is anger an outward exorbitant passion that expresses it self in clamour and evil speaking and malicious doing not one of these but is against some act of true mercy and accordingly the Apostle prescribes three acts of mercy which will expell them all for first he requires us to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 benigni kinde or courteous that 's against the bitterness in the distaste or dislike of the minde Secondly he requires us to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 misericordes tender-hearted or mercifull that 's against the wrath the strong inward impression of anger in the heart Thirdly he requires us to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 donantes or condonantes forgiving or pardoning that 's against the anger or fury the outward expression of exorbitant passion either in our words or works and as a sufficient motive to all this notwithstanding it is so contrary to flesh and bloud he onely wills us to consider how much kindness tender-heartedness and forgiveness we have all found from God and then we shall never think it much to be kinde and tender-hearted and to forgive one another and to this motive though enough of it self we may further adde another argument for we have need of arguments more then enough to confute
trembling but as we have out-passed those ten Lepers in our uncleanness so we may not come short of them in their holy fear and faith for as their fear made them stand afar off so their faith made them lift up their voices and say Jesus Master have mercy on us S. Luc. 17. 12 13. then will he give us such a purity as will not onely make us shew our selves to the Priest but also to our God such a purity as will wash our eyes to see him and much more our hearts to love him for so saith S. Peter Act. 15. 9. purisying their hearts by faith not a faith which costs the purse no alms the body no fasting the soul no praying for no true Israelite will ever offer that unto the Lord which cost him nothing 2 Sam. 24. 24. but a faith which so purifies the soul by knowing the truth as much more by obeying it for so saith the same Apostle Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently 1 S. Pet. 1. 22. this is the purity of the true Religion it purifies the soul not onely by faith but also by obedience and by love which yet are now generally farthest from many men who would fain be thought to come nearest Purity Thus we have seen Gods truth in his understanding his goodness in his will and his purity in his action it still remains that we consider his Liberty as belonging to them all for Liberty being nothing else but the dominion and power of action must needs be originally in the understanding which alone is able to judge and deliberate of what is to be done what not formally in the will which resolves to do or not to do but effectually 't is onely in the action which is the product of the said deliberate resolution this liberty is now briefly to be handled First as it is in God and then as it is in Religion for being the service of God Gods Liberty is seen in five respects in that he is free from sin free from misery free from obligation free from servitude and free from coaction which is the reason that he can both will and do what and when and where himself pleaseth I need not insist on the proof of these for to name them is to prove them nor can any man deny Gods Liberty in any of these respects but he must deny him to be God and in all these same respects we may see and must acknowlege the Liberty of Religion and to deny it to be free in any of these is to deny it to be Religion that is to say the service of God and to make it to be state policy that is to say the service of men First Religion is free from sin for the superstition and faction and profaneness and other sins that are so rife among Christians to the dishonour of Christ and the reproach of Christendome is a rust that cleaves to the men who are little better then iron not to the Religion which is as pure as the Refiners fire and therefore it is not safe nor fit to say of any order or kinde of Christians that their Religion is rebellion and their faith is faction though we cannot deny of too too many orders and kindes of men who profess Religion that they are both rebellious and factious Secondly Religion is free from misery ask the three children in the fiery furnace they will say their Religion had made them persecuted they will not say that it had made them miserable they profess that they were delivered into the hands of lawless enemies most hatefull apostates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning sure those of their own brethren which had renounced the Law of Moses and their Religion and helped the Babylonians to persecute and infest Jerusalem and to an unjust King and the most wicked in all the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus those blessed Martyrs will tell you they were in persecution the greatest that ever was but they will not tell you they were in misery nay it seems they told the quite contrary for none else could have told it but from their mouths that the angel of the Lord came down into the oven and smote the flame of fire and made the midst of the furnace as it had been a moist whistling wind but you will say these men were partial witnesses in their own cause therefore ask their persecutors they will tell you the same for the Princes Governours and Captains and the Kings Counsellours being gathered together saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power nor was an hair of their head singed neither were their coats changed nor the smell of fire had passed on them nay ask Nebuchadnezzar himself who was the authour of the persecution and he will tell you that though he had caused these holy men to be so much afflicted yet he could not cause them to be miserable for at that instant when he had thought they had been burnt to ashes he heard them sing in the flames as saith the Greek Translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that probably made him look about to see whence that melody proceeded and finding so sweet a breath to come from the blast of his fire he was astonied and rose up in haste and went to the mouth of the furnace which before bade him keep his distance in that it consumed his officers and called forth the holy and blessed Martyrs who having been delivered from a present death could not be looked on but as men newly risen from the dead Thirdly Religion is free from obligation there is no greater humane obligation then that of nature and there is no greater natural obligation then that which we owe to our Parents yet that may not be alledged to keep us from serving God so Aquinas determines the case Si ergo cultus parentum abstrahat nos a cultu Dei non jam esset pietatis parentum insistere cultui contra Deum ideo in tali casu dimittinda sunt officia pietatis in parentes propter divinum Religionis cultum 22 ae qu. 101. art 4. If our duty to our Parents take us away from our duty to our God as if the Father should command his son to turn rebel or Idolater or the like we must forsake our parents and cleave to God and shew the prevalency of that duty we owe to God by being undutifull to our parents in such a case again there is no civil obligation greater then that we owe to our Governours yet if they command us to sin against God by not speaking nor teaching by not praying nor preaching in the Name of Iesus we have our answer put into our mouths and God put it into our hearts lest atheism get possession there in stead of Christ whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken
or to gossip and tattle like idle auditours but he sends all to learn the lessons that he there teacheth them and not so much to learn the words of those lessons as their meaning Go ye and learn what that meaneth that is go learn it intellectually to understand it cordially to love it practically to perform it that mercy is the chiefest ingredient of your Religion and ought to be the first of your sacrifices for he that will have mercy rather then sacrifice surely will accept of no sacrifice without mercy and this appears from the very occasion of citing the Text for it is cited S. Mat. 9. 13. to confute those that out of a mistaken zeal would needs be factious and turn Separatists accounting themselves too good to keep company with sinners It is cited S. Mat. 12. 7. to confute those that would needs be superstitious making an idol of the Sabbath and condemning the disciples for plucking the ears of corn on the Sabbath-day when they were an hungred and much more is it still to be cited against them amongst us who in the same practises are both factious and superstitious men that most talk of Religion yet least care for mercy for we see that we have now a Religion without sacrifice but we can never have a Religion without mercy Sow to your selves in Righteousness and reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you Hos. 10. 12. there cannot be righteousness without mercy for both these make but one exhortation of seeking the Lord whom we must seek no less by mercy then by righteousness or we shall so seek him as not to finde him for even at his own altar will he not be found of us if we come thither to seek him without mercy before we are reconciled to our brother and therefore in this case we are plainly told it is in vain to offer our gifts which is in effect to say that God will not be there for to receive them S. Mat. 5. 23 24. nay even in heaven which is his throne will he not be found by us unless we come with mercy to seek him there and therefore the benediction of purity Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God presupposeth the benediction of mercy Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtain mercy for were it possible for a soul to be in heaven and there to see God which had not obtained mercy which had not its sins forgiven that soul could not be truly blessed First because it could not love God looking upon him as not reconciled in Christ and therefore not as a loving Father but as an impartial Judge for if to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little S. Luk. 7. 47. then by the same rule of proportion where is no forgiveness there can be no love supposing that there is sin which needs to be forgiven Secondly because that soul could not love it self as being odious and abominable whilest under the guilt of sin for even the damned souls in hell though they do not contract the guilt of new sins for then unrighteousness would be immortai yet forasmuch as they are still under the guilt of their old sins which could not be washed away but onely by that bloud which they trampled under their feet and by that repentance which they would not let come near their hearts and being not washed away still remains upon their souls cannot but be eternally odious and abominable to themselves because they cannot but be eternally under the guilt of sin so that we may infer with good Logick and better Divinity that if the reward of the pure in heart which is to see God without the reward of the mercifull which is to obtain mercy be no blessedness then surely purity without mercy is no righteousness for it is not possible that true righteousness should be without a reward And indeed it is not possible that true righteousness should be without mercy whence it is that the Seventy Interpreters do render the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is mercies by the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is holinesses as appears Isa. 55. 3. cited by S. Paul Act. 13. 34. the prophet had said I will give you the mercies but the Septuagint and from them S. Paul did say I will give you the holy or just things they both did mean the same gift though the one called it mercy the other called it holiness and indeed in the Hebrew the same is the good and the mercifull men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and S. Paul tels us that peradventure for such a good man some would even dare to dye Rom. 5. 7. scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die by the righteous man he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man rigorously just that would do no wrong but by the good man he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man piously mercifull that would do all manner of good and this man he accounts so obliging that peradventure some would not stick to lose their own lives so they might save his and by thus comparing the righteous man and the good man he shews that our Saviours love to us was beyond compare who was pleased to die for us when we were yet sinners that is so far from being good men that we were not so much as righteous men so far from having the positive righteousness of doing good that we had not so much as the privative righteousness of not doing evil Thus doth the Apostle prefer him that is righteous according to the rules of mercy before him that is righteous according to the rules of Justice from the example of God himself who delighted in the righteousness of mercy above the righteousness of justice and therefore was not so zealous to commend his love of justice in destroying us as his love of mercy in saving us go and do thou likewise is the use that the best Preacher that ever was either in heaven or in earth makes of this doctrine S. Luk. 10. 37. when the answer had been made that he was the neighbour to the wounded man who had shewed him mercy it follows presently then said Jesus go and do thou likewise and they that do willingly hear this Preacher do as readily obey him having a desire that mercy may rejoyce against judgement in them here because they have a hope that mercy shall rejoyce against judgement for them hereafter and this is the reason of the Apostles inference Eph. 4. 32. Be ye kinde one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you this priviledge and prerogative we men have above the angels that God hath forgiven us very much when as he hath forgiven them nothing they share equally with us in all Gods other attributes but in
this sin to their charge And I doubt not but that prayer of our own Church That it may please thee to forgive our enemies persecutours and slanderers and to turn their hearts will yet in Gods good time work the conversion of some of those men who now think they do God good service by denying others to serve him and God forbid that we should ever cease thus to pray even for those that most resist and oppose our prayers though thereby they do also resist and oppose their own conversion The Church of Christ may in times of persecution lose its power but may not lose its mercy for it can be no longer Christian then it is mercifull Mercifull in giving freely ye have received freely give S. Matth. 10. 8. Mercifull in forgiving not untill seven times but untill seventie times seven Saint Matth. 18. 22. Deus semper miseretur puniendo citra condignum praemiando ultra condignum saith the Schole God is always mercifull in punishing less in rewarding more then we deserve so is God Church always mercifull both in its rewards and in its punishments The dispensations of Baptismal and of Penitential grace both such acts of mercy that they fall under an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no sufficient retribution no sufficient amends can be made for them yet both these acts of mercie are so proper to the Christian Church that among all the sects of the world we cannot find one which comes near the Christian Religion in the zeal of bringing those that are born in sin to Baptisme and of those that have lived in sin unto Repentance It was a question in S. Cyprians time whether infants might be admitted to baptism before the eighth day and Fidus the Presbyter thought not because the law of Circumcision required a stay till the eighth day and Baptism succeeded in the place of Circumcision but S. Cyprian and the orthodox Clergy of the Church of Carthage were of another opinion and the sixtie six good Bishops give this as the chiefest reason for it in their Epistle to Fidus the Presbyter Cypr. epist. 59. cum Pamel Universi poitùs judicavimus nulli bominum nato misericordiam Dei gratiam denegandam nam cùm Dominus in Evangelio suo dicat Filius hominis non venit animas hominum perdere sed salvare quantum in nobis est si fieri potest nulla anima perdenda est We all with one consent agreed that the mercy and grace of God was to be denied to none for since our Lord and Master himself hath professed in his Gospel that he came not to destroy mens souls we translate lives but the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 souls but to save them 't is our duty as much as lyes in us to keep all souls from the danger of destruction This was that Councils main argument why children should be baptized in case of necessity before they were eight days old though we have now a generation that will not baptize them till almost twice that number of years But Solomons judgement stands upon record whereby still to discern which is the true mother and which the false for she who hath the tender bowels is certainly the true mother not she who cares not what becomes of the childe 1 King 3. so is it still Faction is merciless and cruel fears not to see the sword drawn to be not onely bathed but also sheathed in bloud whereas the true Religion is of tender bowells would have none of her children perish or be in danger of perishing therefore since baptism is the onely ordinary means of saving children by taking away the guilt of their original sin and repentanee is the onely ordinary means of saving men by taking away their actual sins the true Christian Church never yet thought fit to delay the one nor to deny the other but even in the strictest discipline that ever was exercised against notorious offenders they that returned to the bosome of the Church were admitted to penance and those penitents that were in danger of death were also admitted to the holy Communion we have Presidents or rather precepts for both in the first Council of Nice the 11. Canon admitting the offenders to penance the 13. Canon admitting the penitents to the holy Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the 11. Canon those that under Licinius had denied the Christian faith being not compelled thereunto by the violence of persecution though they were unworthy of mercy yet they were not excluded from it but the Council admitted them to penance Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the 13. Canon those that were under penance if they were in any imminent danger of death were presently permitted to receive the holy Communion as the provision necessary for their last journey though if they recovered of their sickness they were to be reduced back again to the order of penitents till they had fully accomplished their enjoyned penance and this relaxation or indulgence saith the same Canon was the ancient and Canonical Law of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like may be proved from the Epistle of the Clergy of Rome to S. Cyprian Cyp. cum Pamel Epist. 31. wherein they profess a relaxation of penance to those that by sickness were summoned to Gods Tribunal though they were resolved that the rest should stay till they had a new Bishop Thus we see it was the Law of the Church in the times of the severest discipline that mercy should be above justice and the holy communion administred in case of necessity even to those whom the ecclesiastical censures did still exclude from it against this Law of the Church Novatus was peccant in the defect for he would admit none to penance that had once fallen away but Novatianus was peccant in the excess for he would needs have all promiscuously admitted without any penance And S. Cyp. mightily opposed them both which may shew us the antiquity of this discipline for he lived within 230 years after the passion of our blessed Saviour as well Novatus his inhumanity in admitting none as Novatianus his facility in admitting all for Novatianus was so zealous of encreasing his party that what heretick or apostate soever would come to him and be rebaptized might be received into his Congregation without any recantation of his errour or of his apostasie but Novatus on the other side was so rigid and severe that he would not receive those that had recanted and made earnest suit to undergo their penance that they might be again fully reconciled to the Church S. Cyprian in many of his Tracts especially in his Epistles complaineth frequently of the petulancy of both these Sectaries and their Adherents advising all Christians that had a care of their souls to abstain from their company and much more from their communion and to keep themselves to the well grounded and well setled discipline of the Church which as it refused no penitents so it durst not
by a gracious dependance on Gods truth and faithfulness and expecting in his good time a comfortable issue of his promises Such waiters whose God is the Lord Jehovah in whom they trust on whom they depend and whom they constantly obey not departing from his precepts when he seems to have forsaken them in their greatest distresses such men are the prime the onely Christians who have in their soul the seal of Gods grace to assure them of their future happiness O thou whose Name is the great Jehovah and rulest all things in heaven and earth send down from heaven the habitation of thy glory thine Holy Spirit into our hearts and so possess our souls with an awful fear of thy Majesty and a filial love of thee for thy goodness and mercy that we abhorring all things that may displease thee and obeying thy precepts may in the end of our days obtain the end of our hopes and the fruit of thy promises which is the salvation of our souls and eternal bliss through the merits of our blessed Redeemer our Lord Christ Jesus The tenth and last Name of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 schaddai by which God often stiled himself when he spake unto the Patriarchs to uphold their spirits and sustain their faith in the midst of their troubles Gen. 17. 1. the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said unto him I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the same words he bespake Jacob Gen. 35.11 hence it was that they also when they were to speak or make mention of God often used that Name or word Thus Isaac when he blessed Jacob Gen. 28.3 said the God whose Name is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bless thee and make thee to encrease and multiply so Jacob said to Joseph the God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appeared to me in Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me As for the notion or meaning of the Name Galatinus l. 2. c. 17. out of R. Moses the Egyptian and Algazel determines it that it is a compounded term and made up of these two parts or particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in composition the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies sufficient and sufficiency so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the whole latitude or acception of it denotes the alsufficiency of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui in se à se sufficientiam abundantiam omnimodam habet it a ut nullius ope indigeat i. e. who in himself and from himself hath a sufficiency and abundance of all good things and needs not the help of any creature There is in God a fallness of power whereby he can do what he will his will being the onely rule and bound of his power therefore the Septuagint do often render this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Job 8.3 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that doth or worketh all things so in our English Translation doth the Almighty pervert justice As there is in many a man an empty fullness when bladder-like his soul is blown up with windy fancies of having what he hath not or of more knowledge then he truly hath so in God there is a fullness without any the least defect or degree of emptiness in God and Christ who is God and man in one person there is as the Schools speak Plenitudo repletiva and diffusiva or plenitudo abundantiae and redundantiae and abounding fullness because no good thing no gift nor grace is wanting in him and a redounding fullness because what gifts or graces soever be in us they are all derived to our souls from him the ever-living and overflowing fountain and spring of them from whom they slow into our souls per Spiritum tanquam per canalem through the spirit as it were a conduit-pipe without any loss of them in him or without any the least diminution and of his fullness have we all received Joh. 1. 16. a fullness without any want argues a great perfection quod plenè habetur perfectè totalitèr habetur Aquin Now if men through the door of faith opened by Gods blessed Spirit did see the fullness the excellency and alsufficiency of God it would so fill them with admiration joy and content that having a communion with God by his sanctifying spirit they would care for nothing else they considering what the Lord is and beholding his glorious face in the glass of his Attributes viz. his Wisedom Power and Justice c. upon this consideration they would say with the Prophet David The Lord is on our side or with us we will not therefore fear what man can do unto us Psa 118. 6. the Lord is ours therefore we can lack nothing that is good for us and if the Lord be thine then his Power is thine to sustain thee under any cross to redeem thee from troubles to help thee in distress to succour thee in the greatest needs and to support thy weakness in the performance of any duties his Wisedom too is thine thou hast an interest in it it is thy portion so that if thou desirest to be instructed in the knowledge of his word to understand those hidden mysteries which are contained in it if thou openest thy mouth to him in prayer he will open thine eyes that thou shalt see mirabilia leg is the wondrous things of his Law Psa. 119. 18. and be also wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. his Justice likewise is thine to vindicate thee when thou art injured if thou committest thy cause unto him and to clear thine innocency when thou art falsly traduced by the malevolent and to deliver thee out of the hands of the oppressour so for his Truth and Holiness the former is thine to make good his promises of blessings in this life and of happiness in that to come if by faith and full affiance thou dependest on him so the latter i. e. his Holiness is thine to sanctifie thy corrupt nature and to free thee as from the guilt so from the power of sin This is the portion of all the Sons and servants of God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God al-sufficient who can and will do for us more then either we desire or deserve if we wholly rest and rely upon his goodness Happy is the man who is in such a case in so blessed a condition as to have a close union and near communion with the great God of heaven or to speak in the Prophet Davids phrase who hath the Lord for his God Psa. 144. 15. whose alsufficiency they atterly deny who worship any other God as did the Gentiles who multiplied Deities and sacrificed to more then one such are Polutheists who divide the glory of Gods excellencies amongst those petty Numens even as they are no other then practical Athiests and truly worship none who through infidelity question Gods alsufficiency for if he be God he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉