'T is true Christ gave himself but by the order of Divine Goodness he that begat him pitcht upon him and call'd him to this great work †Heb. 5.5 He is therefore call'd the Lamb of God as being set apart by God to be a propitiating and appeasing Sacrifice He is the Wisdom of God since from the Father he reveals the Councel and Order of Redemption In this regard he calls God his God in the Prophet * Isaiah 49.4 and in the Evangelist †Joh. 20.17 though he was big with affection for the accomplishment yet he came not to do his own will but the will of Divine Goodness His own will it was too but not principally as being the first Wheel in Motion but subordinate to the eternal will of Divine Bounty It was by the will of God that he came and by his will he drank the dreggy Cup of Bitterness Divine Justice laid upon him the iniquity of us all but Divine Goodness intended it for our Rescue Divine Goodness singled him out and set him apart Divine Goodness invited him to it Divine Goodness commanded him to effect it and put a Law into his heart to biass him in the performing of it Divine Goodness sent him and Divine Goodness moved Justice to bruise him and after his Sacrifice Divine Goodness accepted him and caressed him for it So earnest was it for our Redemption as to give out special and irreversible Orders Death was commanded to be endured by him for us and Life commanded to be imparted by him to us * John 10.10 18. If God had not been the Mover but had received the proposal from another he might have heard it but was not bound to grant it His Soveraign Authority was not under any obligation to receive anothers Sponsion for the miserable Criminal As Christ is the head of Man so God is the head of Christ †1 Cor. 11.3 He did nothing but by his directions as he was not a Mediator but by the Constitution of Divine Goodness As a liberal Man deviseth liberal things * Isaiah 2.8 so did a bountiful God devise a bountiful act wherein his kindness and love as a Saviour appeared He was possessed with the resolutions to manifest his Goodness in Christ in the beginning of his way †Prov. 8.22 23. before he descended to the act of Creation This intention of Goodness preceded his making that Creature Man who he foresaw would fall and by his fall disjoynt and entangle the whole Frame of the World without such a provision 2. In Gods giving Christ to be our Redeemer he gave the highest gift that it was possible for Divine Goodness to bestow As there is not a greater God than himself to be conceiv'd so there is not a greater Gift for this great God to present to his Creatures Never did God go farther in any of his excellent Perfections than this 'T is such a Dole that cannot be transcended with a choicer He is as it were come to the last Mite of his Treasure And though he could Create Millions of Worlds for us he cannot give a greater Son to us He could abound in the expressions of his Power in new Creations of Worlds which have not yet been seen and in the lustre of his Wisdom in more stately Structures but if he should frame as many Worlds as there are Mites of Dust and Matter in this and make every one of them as bright and glorious as the Sun Though his Power and Wisdom would be more signalized yet his Goodness could not since he hath not a choicer Gift to bless those brighter Worlds withall than he hath conferr'd upon this Nor can Immense Goodness contrive a richer means to conduct those Worlds to Happiness than he hath both invented for this World and presented it with It cannot be imagin'd that it can extend it self farther than to give a Gift equal with himself a Gift as dear to him as himself His Wisdom had it studied millions of Eternities excuse the Expression since Eternity admits of no Millions it being an interminable duration it could have found out no more to give this Goodness could have bestow'd no more and our necessity could not have requir'd a greater offering for our relief When God intended in Redemption the manifestation of his highest Goodness it could not be without the Donation of the choicest Gift As when he would ensure our Comfort he swears by himself because he cannot swear by a greater * Heb. 6.13 So when he would ensure our Happiness he gives us his Son because he cannot give a greater being equal with himself Had the Father given himself in Person he had given one first in order but not greater in Essence and glorious Perfections It could have been no more than the life of God that should then have been laid down for us and so it was now since the Humane Nature did not subsist but in his Divine Person 1. 'T is a greater Gift than Worlds or all things purchased by him What was this Gift but the Image of his Person and the brightness of his Glory †Heb. 1.3 What was this Gift but one as rich as Eternal Blessedness could make him What was this Gift but one that possessed the fulness of Earth and the more Immense Riches of Heaven 'T is a more valuable Present than if he presented us with thousands of Worlds of Angels and inferior Creatures because his Person is incomparably greater not only than all conceivable but inconceivable Creations We are more obliged to him for it than if he had made us Angels of the highest Rank in Heaven because it is a Gift of more value than the whole Angelical Nature because he is an infinite Person and therefore infinitely transcends whatsoever is finite though of the highest Dignity The Wounds of an Almighty God for us are a greater Testimony of Goodness than if we had all the other Riches of Heaven and Earth This Perfection had not appeared in such an astonishing grandeur had it pardon'd us without so rich a satisfaction that had been pardon to our Sin not a God of our Nature God so loved the World that he pardon'd it had not sounded so great and so good as God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son Est aliquid in Christo formosius Servatore There is something in Christ more Excellent and Comely than the Office of a Saviour the greatness of his Person is more Excellent than the Salvation procured by his Death It was a greater Gift than was bestow'd upon innocent Adam or the holy Angels In the Creation his Goodness gave us Creatures for our use In our Redemption his Goodness gives us what was dearest to him for our Service our Soveraign in Office to benefit us as well as in a Royalty to govern us 2. It was a greater Gift because it was his own Son Not an Angel It had been a mighty
righteous person to keep the truth Isa 26.2 And it is as positively said that he that abides not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God 2 Epist John 9. but he that doth hath both the Father and the Son So much of uncertainty so much of nature so much of firmness in duty so much of Grace We can never honour God unless we finish his work as Christ did not glorifie God but in finishing the work God gave him to do * John 17.4 The nearer the world comes to an end the more is Gods immutability seen in his promises and predictions and the more must our unchangeableness be seen in our obedience Heb. 10.23 25. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering and so much the more as you see the day approaching The Christian Jews were to be the more tenacious of their faith the nearer they saw the day approaching the day of Jerusalems destruction prophesied of by Daniel * Dan. 9.26 which accomplishment must be a great argument to establish the Christian Jews in the profession of Christ to be the Messiah because the destruction of the City was not to be before the cutting off the Messiah Let us be therefore constant in our profession and service of God and not suffer our selves to be driven from him by the ill usage or flatter'd from him by the Caresses of the world 1. T is reasonable If God be unchangeable in doing us good it is reason we should be unchangeable in doing him service If he assure us that he is our God our I am he would also that we should be his people His we are If he declare himself constant in his promises he expects we should be so in our obedience As a spouse we should be unchangeably faithful to him as a Husband As subjects have an unchangeable allegiance to him as our Prince He would not have us faithful to him for an hour or a day but to the death * Rev. 2.10 And it is reason we should be his and if we be his Children imitate him in his constancy of his holy purposes 2. T is our glory and interest To be a reed shaken with every wind is no commendation among men and t is less a ground of praise with God It was Jobs glory that he held fast his integrity * Job 1.22 In all this Job sinned not In all this which whole Cities and Kingdoms would have thought ground enough of high exclamations against God And also against the temptation of his Wife he retained his integrity Job 2.9 Dost thou still retain thy integrity The Devil who by Gods permission stript him of his goods and health yet could not strip him of his grace As a Traveller when the wind and snow beats in his face wraps his cloak more closely about him to preserve that and himself Better we had never made profession than afterwards to abandon it such a withering profession serves for no other use than to aggravate the crime if any of us fly like a coward or revolt like a Traytor What profit will it be to a Souldier if he hath withstood many assaults and turn his back at last If we would have God Crown us with an immutable glory we must Crown our beginnings with a happy perseverance Rev. 2.10 Be faithful to the Death and I will give thee a Crown of life Not as tho this were the cause to merit it but a necessary condition to possess it Constancy in good is accompanied with an immutability of Glory 3. By an unchangeable disposition to good we should begin the happiness of Heaven upon Earth This is the perfection of blessed Spirits those that are nearest to God as Angels and glorified Souls they are immutable Not indeed by nature but by grace yet not only by a necessity of grace but a liberty of Will Grace will not let them change and that grace doth animate their Wills that they would not change an immutable God fills their understandings and affections and gives satisfaction to their desires The Saints when they were below tried other things and found them deficient But now they are so fully satisfied with the beatifick vision that if Satan should have entrance among the Angels and Sons of God 't is not likely he should have any influence upon them he could not present to their understandings any thing that could either at the first glance or upon a deliberate view be preferrable to what they enjoy and are fixed in Well then let us be immoveable in the Knowledge and Love of God 'T is the delight of God to see his Creatures resemble him in what they are able Let not our Affections to him be as Jonah's Goard growing up in one Night and withering the next Let us not only fight a good Fight but do so till we have finished our course and imitate God in an unchangeableness of holy purposes and to that purpose examin our selves daily what fixedness we have arrived unto And to prevent any temptation to a revolt let us often possess our minds with thoughts of the immutability of Gods Nature and Will which like Fire under Water will keep a good matter boiling up in us and make it both retain and increase its heat 4. Let this Doctrin teach us to have recourse to God and aim at a near conjunction with him When our Spirits begin to flag and a cold aguish temper is drawing upon us let us go to him who can only fix our hearts and furnish us with a Ballast to render them stedfast As he is only immutable in his Nature so he is the only Principle of Immutability as well as Being in the Creature Without his Grace we shall be as changeable in our appearances as a Chamelion and in our turnings as the Wind. When Peter trusted in himself he changed to the worse It was his Masters recourse to God for him that preserved in him a reducing Principle which changed him again for the better and fixed him in it * Luke 22.32 It will be our Interest to be in conjunction with him that moves not about with the Heavens nor is turned by the force of Nature nor changed by the accidents in the world but sits in the Heavens moving all things by his powerful Arm according to his infinite Skill While we have him for our God we have his Immutability as well as any other Perfection of his Nature for our advantage The nearer we come to him the more stability we shall have in our selves the further from him the more lyable to change The Line that is nearest to the place where it is first fixed is least subject to motion the further it is stretched from it the weaker it is and more liable to be shaken Let us also affect those things which are nearest to him in this perfection the righteousness of Christ that shall never wear out and the graces of the Spirit that shall never burn
that Redemption to us the order of the Persons had also been inverted The Spirit then who was third in order had been second in Operation The Son would then have received of the Spirit as the Spirit doth now of Christ and shew it unto us Joh. 1.15 As the Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son so the proper Function and Operation of it was in order alter the Operations of the Father and the Son Had the Spirit been sent to redeem us and the Son sent by the Father and the Spirit to apply that Redemption to us the Son in his acts had proceeded from the Father and the Spirit the Spirit as sender had been in order before the Son whereas the Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ as sent by Christ from the Father Gal. 4.6 Joh. 15.27 But as the order of the Works so the order of the Persons is preserved in their several Operations Creation and a Law to govern the Creature precedes Redemption Nothing or that which hath no being is not capable of a redeemed being Redemption supposeth the existence and the misery of a Person redeemed As Creation precedes Redemption so Redemption precedes the application of it As Redemption supposeth the being of the Creature so application of Redemption supposeth the efficacy of Redemption According to the order of these Works is the order of the Operations of the three Persons Creation belongs to the Father the first Person Redemption the second work is the Function of the Son the second Person Application the third work is the Office of the Holy Ghost the third Person The Father orders it the Son acts it the Holy Ghost applies it He purifies our Souls to understand believe and love these Mysteries He forms Christ in the womb of the Soul as he did the Body of Christ in the womb of the Virgin As the Spirit of God moved upon the waters to garnish and adorn the World after the Matter of it was formed Gen. 1.2 so he moves upon the heart to supple it to a complyance with Christ and draws the Lineaments of the new Creation in the Soul after the Foundation is laid The Son pays the price that was due from us to God and the Spirit is the earnest of the Promises of Life and Glory purchased by the Merit of that Death * Amyraâ—t Moral Tom. 5. p. 478 479 480. 'T is to be observed that the Father under the dispensation of the Law proposed the Commands with the Promises and Threatnings to the Understandings of Men and Christ under the dispensation of Grace when he was upon the Earth proposeth the Gospel as the Means of Salvation exhorts to Faith as the Condition of salvation but it was neither the Function of the one or the other to display such an efficacy in the Understanding and Will to make men believe and obey and therefore there were such few Conversions in the time of Christ by his Miracles But this work was reserved for the fuller and brighter appearance of the Spirit whose Office it was to convince the World of the necessity of a Redeemer because of their lost Condition of the Person of the Redeemer the Son of God of the sufficiency and efficacy of Redemption because of his righteousness and acceptation by the Father The Wisdom of God is seen in preparing and presenting the Objects and then in making impression of them upon the Subjects he intends And thus is the order of the three Persons preserved 2. The second Person had the greatest congruity to this work He by whom God created the World was most conveniently imployed in restoring the defaced World Who more fit to recover it from it s lapsed state John 1.4 than he that had erected it in its primitive state Hebr. 1.2 He was the light of men in Creation and therefore it was most reasonable he should be the light of men in Redemption Who sitter to reform the Divine Image than he that first formed it Who fitter to speak for us to God than he who was the Word Joh. 1.1 Who could better intercede with the Father than he who was the only begotten and beloved Son Who so fit to redeem the forfeited Inheritance as the Heir of all things Who fitter and better to prevail for us to have the right of Children than he that possessed it by Nature We fell from being the Sons of God and who fitter to introduce us into an adopted state than the Son of God Herein was an expression of the richer Grace because the first sin was immediately against the wisdom of God by an ambitious affectation of a wisdom equal to God That that Person who was the wisdom of God should be made a Sacrifice for the expiation of the sin against Wisdom 3. The wisdom of God is seen in the two Natures of Christ whereby this Redemption was accomplished The Union of the two Natures was the Foundation of the Union of God and the fallen Creature 1. The Vnion it self is admirable The Word is made Flesh Joh. 1.14 One equal with God in the form of a Servant Phil. 2.7 When the Apostle speaks of God manifested in the flesh he speaks the wisdom of God in a Mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 That which is incomprehensible to the Angels which they never imagined before it was revealed which perhaps they never knew till they beheld it I am sure under the Law the Figures of the Cherubims were placed in the Sanctuary with their faces looking towards the Propitiatory in a perpetual posture of Contemplation and Admiration Exod. 37.9 to which the Apostle alludes 1 Pet. 1.12 Mysterious is the wisdom of God to unite Finite and Infinite Almightiness and Weakness Immortality and Mortality Immutability with a Thing subject to Change to have a Nature from Eternity and yet a Nature subject to the Revolutions of Time a Nature to make a Law and a Nature to be subjected to the Law to be God blessed for ever in the bosom of his Father and an Infant exposed to Câ—lâ—mities from the Womb of his Mother Terms seeming most distant from union most uncapable of conjunction to shake hands together to be most intimately conjoyned Glory and Vileness Fulness and Emptiness Heaven and Earth the Creature with the Creator he that made all things in one Person with a Nature that is made Immanuel God and Man in one That which is most Spiritual to partake of that which is Carnal flesh and blood * Heb. 2.14 One with the Father in his Godhead one with us in his Manhood The Godhead to be in him in the fullest Perfection and the Manhood in the greatest Purity The Creature one with the Creator and the Creator one with the Creature Thus is the incomprehensible Wisdom of God declared in the Word being made Flesh 2. In the manner of this Vnion A Union of two Natures yet no Natural Union It transcends all the Unions visible among Creatures †Savana triâ—mp
crucis Lib. 3 cap. 7. p. 211. It is not like the Union of Stones in a Building or of two pieces of Timber fastned together which touch one anotâ—er only in their Superficies and outside without any intimacy with one another By such a kind of Union God would not be man The Word could â—ot so be made Flesh Nor is it a Union of Parts to the whole as the Members and the Body the Members are Parts the Body is the whole for the whole results from the Parts and depends upon the Parts But Christ being God is independent upon any thing The parts are in order of Nature before the whole but nothing can be in order of Nature before God Nor is it as the Union of two Liquors as when Wine and Water are mixed together for they are so Incorporated as not to be distinguish'd from one another no man can tell which Particle is Wine and which is Water But the Properties of the Divine Nature are distinguishable from the Properties of the Humane Nor is it as the Union of the Soul and Body so as that the Deity is the form of the Humanity as the Soul is the form of the Body For as the Soul is but a part of the Man so the Divinity would be then but a part of the Humanity as a Form or the Soul is in a state of Imperfection without that which it is to inform so the Divinity of Christ would have been Imperfect till it had assumed the Humanity And so the perfection of an Eternal Deity would have depended on a Creature of Time This Union of two Natures in Christ is incomprehensible And it is a mystery we cannot arrive to the top of How the Divine Nature which is the same with that of the Father and the Holy Ghost should be united to the Human Nature without its being said that the Father and the Holy Ghost were united to the Flesh but the Scripture doth not encourage any such Notion It speaks only of the Word the Person of the Word being made Flesh And in his being made Flesh distinguisheth him from the Father as the only begotten of the Father Joh. 1.14 The Person of the Son was the term of this Union 1. This Vnion doth not confound the Properties of the Deity and those of the Humanity They remain distinct and entire in each other The Deity is not changed into Flesh nor the Flesh transform'd into God They are distinct and yet united They are conjoined and yet unmixt The Dues of either Nature are preserved 'T is impossible that the Majesty of the Divinity can receive an alteration 'T is as impossible that the meaness of the Humanity can receive the Impressions of the Deity so as to be changed into it and a creature be metamorphos'd into the Creator and Temporary Flesh become Eternal and Finite mount up into Infinity As the Soul and Body are united and make one Person yet the Soul is not changed into the perfections of the Body nor the Body into the perfections of the Soul There is a change made in the Humanity by being advanced to a more Excellent Union but not in the Diety as a change is made in the Air when it is enlightned by the Sun not in the Sun which communicates that brightness to the Air. Athanasius makes the burning Bush to be a type of Christs Incarnation Exod. 3.2 The Fire signifying the Divine Nature and the Bush the human The Bush is a branch springing up from the Earth and the Fire descends from Heaven as the Bush was united to the Fire yet was not hurt by the slame nor converted into Fire there remained a difference between the Bush and the Fire yet the properties of the Fire shined in the Bush so that the whole Bush seemed to be on Fire So in the Incarnation of Christ the Human Nature is not swallowed up by the Divine nor changed into it nor confounded with it But so united that the properties of both remain firme Two are so become one that they remain two still One person in Two Natures containing the glorious perfections of the Divine and the weaknesses of the Humane The fulness of the Deity dwels bodily in Christ Col. 2.9 2. The Divine Nature is vnited to every part of the Humanity The whole Divinity to the whole Humanity so that no part but may be said to be the Member of God as well as the Blood is said to be the Blood of God Acts 20.28 By the same reason it may be said the Hand of God the Eye of God the Arm of God As God is infinitely present every where so as to be excluded from no place so is the Deity hypostatically every where in the Humanity not excluded from any part of it As the light of the Sun in every part of the Air as a sparkling splendor in every part of the Diamond Therefore it is concluded by all that acknowledge the Deity of Christ that when his Soul was separated from the Body the Deity remained united both to Soul and Body as light doth in every part of a broken Christal 3. Therefore perpetually united Coloss 2.9 The fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily It Dwels in him not lodges in him as a Traveller in an Inn It resides in him as a fixed habitation As God describes the perpetuity of his presence in the Ark by his habitation or dwelling in it Exod. 29.44 so doth the Apostle the inseparable duration of the Deity in the Humanity and the indissoluble Union of the Humanity with the Deity It was united on Earth it remains united in Heaven It was not an Image or an Apparition as the Tongues wherein the Spirit came upon the Apostles were a Temporary Representation not a thing united perpetually to the person of the Holy Ghost 4. It was a personal Vnion It was not an union of persons though it was a personal union So Davenant expounds Col. 2.9 Christ did not take the Person of Man but the Nature of Man into subsistence with himself The Body and Soul of Christ were not united in themselves had no subsistence in themselves till they were united to the Person of the Son of God If the Person of a Man were united to him the Human Nature would have been the Nature of the Person so united to him and not the Nature of the Son of God Heb. 2.14 16. Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham He took flesh and blood to be his own Nature perpetually to subsist in the Person of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must be by a Personal Union or no way The Deity united to the Humanity and both Natures to be one Person This
us and how ignorant they are of what they possess It will cause us to reflect upon the deeper Impressions of Wisdom in the frame of our own Bodies and Souls an excellency far superiour to theirs this would make us admire the magnificence of his Wisdom and Goodness and sound forth his Praise for advancing us in dignity above other Works of his hands and stamping on us by Infinite Art a Nobler Image of himself And by such a Comparison of our selves with the Creatures below us we should be induced to act excellently according to the nature of our Souls not brutishly according to the nature of the Creatures God hath put under our feet 5. By the Contemplation of the Creatures we may receive some assistance in clearing our knowledge in the Wisdom of Redemption Though they cannot of themselves inform us of it yet since God hath revealed his Redeeming Grace they can illustrate some particulars of it to us Hence the Scripture makes use of the Creatures to set forth things of a higher orb to us Our Saviour is called a Sun a Vine and a Lion the Spirit likened to a Dove Fire and Water The Union of Christ and his Church is set forth by the Marriage Union of Adam and Eve God hath placed in Corporeal things the Images of Spiritual and wrapped up in his Creating Wisdom the representations of his Redeeming Grace Whence some call the Creatures Natural Types of what was to be transacted in a new formation of the World and Allusions to what God intended in and by Christ 6. The Meditation of Gods Wisdom in the Creatures is in part a beginning of Heaven upon Earth No doubt but there will be a perfect opening of the Model of Divine Wisdom Heaven is for clearing what is now obscure and a full discovering of what seems at present intricate Psal 36.9 In his light shall we see light All the Light in Creation Government and Redemption The Wisdom of God in the New Heavens and the New Earth would be to little purpose if that also were not to be regarded by the Inhabitants of them As the Saints are to be restored to the state of Adam and higher so they are to be restored to the employment of Adam and higher But his employment was to behold God in the Creatures The World was so soon depraved that God had but little joy in and Man but little knowledge of his Works And since the Wisdom of God in Creation is so little seen by our Ignorance here would not God lose much of the glory of it if the glorified Souls should lose the understanding of it above When their Darkness shall be expelled and their Advantages improved when the Eye that Adam lost shall be fully restored and with a greater clearness when the Creature shall be restored to its true End and Reason to its true Perfection * Rom. 8.21 22. when the Fountains of the depths of Nature and Government shall be opened Knowledge shall increase and according to the increase of our Knowledge shall the admiration of Divine Wisdom increase also The Wisdom of God in Creation was not surely intended to lie wholly unobserved in the greatest part of it but since there was so little time for the full observation of it there will be a time wherein the Wisdom of God shall enjoy a resurrection and be fully contemplated by his understanding and glorified Creature II. Exhortation Study and admire the Wisdom of God in Redemption This is the Duty of all Christians We are not called to understand the great depth of Philosophy we are not called to a skill in the Intricacies of Civil Government or understand all the methods of Physick but we are called to be Christians that is Studiers of Divine Evangelical Wisdom There are first Principles to be learned but not those Principles to be rested in without a further progress Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on to perfection Duties must be practised but knowledge is not to be neglected The study of Gospel Mysteries the harmony of Divine Truths the sparkling of Divine Wisdom in their mutual combination to the great ends of Gods Glory and Mans Salvation is an Incentive to Duty a Spur to Worship and particularly to the greatest and highest part of Worship that part which shall remain in Heaven the Admiration and Praise of God and Delight in him If we acquaint not our selves with the Impressions of the glory of Divine Wisdom in it we shall not much regard it as worthy our observance in regard of that Duty The Gospel is a Mystery and as a Mystery hath something Great and Magnificent in it worthy of our daily inspection we shall find fresh Springs of New wonders which we shall be invited to adore with a Religious Astonishment It will both raise and satisfie our Longings Who can come to the depths of God manifested in the flesh How amazing is it and unworthy of a slight thought that the Death of the Son of God should purchase the happy Immortality of a Sinful Creature and the glory of a Rebel be wrought by the Ignominy of so great a Person That our Mediator should have a Nature whereby to Covenant with his Father and a Nature whereby to be a Surety for the Creature How admirable is it that the Fallen Creature should receive an advantage by the Forfeiture of his Happiness How Mysterious is it that the Son of God should bow down to Death upon a Cross for the satisfaction of Justice and rise Triumphantly out of the Grave as a declaration that Justice was contented and satisfied That he should be exalted to Heaven to Intercede for us and at last return into the World to receive us and invest us with a Glory for ever with himself Are these things worthy of a Careless regard or a Blockish amazement What Understanding can pâ—erce into the depths of the Divine Doctrine of the Incarnation and Birth of Christ the indissoluble Union of the two Natures What Capacity is able to measure the miracles of that Wisdom found in the whole Draught and Scheme of the Gospel Doth it not merit then to be the Object of our daily Meditation How comes it to pass then that we are so little curious to concern our Thoughts in those Wonders that we scarce taste or sip of these Delicacies That we busie our selves in Trifles and consider what we shall eat and in what fashion we shall be drest please our selves with the ingeniousness of a Lace or Feather admire a Moth-eaten Manuscript or some Half-worn piece of Antiquity and think our time Ill-spent in the contemplating and celebrating that wherein God hath busied himself and Eternity is design'd for the perpetual expressions of How Inquisitve are the Blessed Angels with what vigour do they renew their daily Contemplations of it and receive a fresh Contentment from it still learning and still enquiring 1 Pet. 1.12 their Eye is
†Heb. 7.26 so they must be in us 2. In his Christ As the Law is the Transcript so Christ is the Image of his Holiness The glory of God is too dazling to be beheld by us The acute eye of an Angel is too weak to look upon that bright Sun without covering his Face We are much too weak to take our Measures from that Purity which is infinite in his Nature But he hath made his Son like us that by the imitation of him in that temper and shadow of human Flesh we may arrive to a resemblance of him ‖ 2 Cor. 3.18 Then there is a conformity to him when that which Christ did is drawn in lively Colours in the Soul of a Christian when as he died upon the Cross we dye to our sins as he rose from the Grave we rise from our Lusts as he ascended on high we mount our Souls thither When we express in our lives what shined in his and exemplifie in our hearts what he acted in the world and become one with him as he was separate from sinners The holiness of God in Christ is our ultimate pattern As we are not only to believe in Christ but by Christ in God * John 14.1 so we are not only to imitate Christ but the holiness of God as discovered in Christ And to enforce this upon us let us consider 1. 'T is this only wherein he commands our imitation of him We are not commanded to be mighty and wise as God is mighty and wise but be holy as I am holy The declarations of his power are to enforce our subjection those of his wisdom to encourage our direction by him but this only to attract our imitaâ—ion When he saith I am holy the immediate inference he makes is be yee so too which is not the proper instruction from any other Perfection †In 〈◊〉 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man was created by Divine Power and harmoniz'd by Divine Wisdom but not after them or according to them as the true Image this was the Prerogative of Divine Holiness to be the Pattern of his Rational Creature ‖ Eph. 4.24 Col. 3 1â— Wisdom and Power were subservient to this the one as the Pensil the other as the Hand that mov'd it The condition of a Creature is too mean to have the communications of the Divine Essence the true Impressions of his Righteousness and Goodness we are only capable of 'T is only in those moral Perfections we are said to resemble God The Devils those impure and ruin'd Spâ—rits are nearer to him in strength and knowledge than we are yet in regard of that natural and intellectual Perfection never counted like him but at the greatest distance from him because at the greatest distance from his Purity God values not a natural Might nor an acute Understanding nor vouchsafes such Perfections the glorious Title of that of his Image * Eugub 〈◊〉 de perenni Philos. Lib. 6. cap 6. Plutarch saith God is angry with those that imitate his Thunder or Lightning his works of Majesty but delighted with those that imitate his Vertue In this only we can never incur any reproof from him but for falling short of him and his glory Had Adam endeavour'd after an imitation of this instead of that of Divine Knowledge he had escap'd his fall and preserv'd his standing And had Lucifer wish'd himself like God in this as well as his Dominion he had still been a glorious Angel instead of being now a ghastly Devil To reach after a Union with the Supream Being in regard of holiness is the only generous and commendable Ambition 2. This is the prime way of honouring God We do not so glorifie God by elevated Admirations or eloquent Expressions or pompous Services of him as when we aspire to a conversing with him with unstained Spirits and live to him in living like him The Angels are not called holy for applauding his Purity but conforming to it The more perfect any Creature is in the rank of Beings the more is the Creator honoured As it is more for the honour of God to create an Angel or Man than a meer Animal because there are in such clearer Characters of Divine power and goodness than in those that are Inferiour The more perfect any Creature is morally the more is God glorified by that Creature t is a real declaration that God is the best and most amiable Being that nothing besides him is valuable and worthy to be the Object of our imitation 'T is a greater honouring of him than the highest acts of Devotion and the most religious bodily Exercise or the singing this Song of Moses in the Text with a triumphant spirit As it is more the honour of a Father to be imitated in his Vertues by his Son than to have all the glavering Commendations by the Tongue or Pen of a vicious and debauch'd Child By this we honour him in that Perfection which is dearest to him and counted by him as the chiefest glory of his Nature God seems to accept the glorifying this Attribute as if it were a real addition to that holiness which is infinite in his Nature and because infinite cannot admit of any increase And therefore the word sanctified is used instead of glorified Isa 8.13 Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread And Isa 29.23 They shall sanctifie the holy One of Jacob and fear the God of Israel This sanctification of God is by the fear of him which signifies in the Language of the Old Testament a reverence of him and a righteousness before him He doth not say when he would have his Power or Wisdom glorified empower me or make me wise but when he would have holiness glorified by the Creature 't is sanctifie me that is manifest the purity of my Nature by the holiness of your lives But he expresseth it in such a term as if it were an addition to this infinite Perfection so acceptable it is to him as if it were a contribution from his Creature for the inlarging an Attribute so pleasing to him and so glorious in his Eye 'T is as much as in the Creature lies a preserving the life of God since this Perfection is his Life and that he would as soon part with his Life as part with his Purity It keeps up the Reputation of God in the World and attracts others to a love of him whereas unworthy carriages defame God in the eyes of men and bring up an ill report of him as if he were such a one as those that profess him and walk unsutably to their Profession appear to be 3. This is the excellency and beauty of a creature The title of beauty is given to it in Psal 110.3 beauties in the plural number as comprehending in it all other beauties whatsoever What is a Divine excellency can not be a Creatures Deformity The natural beauty of
sense and those that have life and sense are made for those that are endued with reason When the Psalmist admiringly considers the Heavens Moon and Starrs he intimates man to be the end for which they were Created Psal 8.3 4. What is man that thou art mindful of him He expresseth more particularly the Dominion that Man hath over the beasts of the field the fowl of the Air and whatsoever passes through the paths of the Sea vers 6.7.8 and concludes from thence the excellency of Gods Name in all the Earth All things in the World one way or other Center in an usefulness for man some to feed him some to clothe him some to delight him others to instruct him some to exercise his wit and others his strength Since man did not make them he did not also order them for his own use If they conspire to serve him who never made them they direct man to acknowledge an other who is the joynt Creator both of the Lord and the Servants under his Dominion And therefore as the inferior natures are ordered by an invisible hand for the good of man so the nature of man is by the same hand ordered to acknowledge the Existence and the glory of the Creator of him This visible order man knows he did not constitute he did not settle those Creatures in subserviency to himself they were placed in that order before he had any acquaintance with them or Existence of himself which is a question God puts to Job to consider of Job 38.4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding All is ordered for Mans use the Heavens answer to the Earth as a roof to a floor both composing a delightful habitation for man vapors ascend from the Earth and the Heaven concocts them and returns them back in welcome showers for the supplying of the Earth * Jer. 10.13 The light of the Sun descends to beautifie the Earth and imploys its heat to midwife its fruits and this for the good of the community whereof Man is the head and though all Creatures have distinct natures and must act for particular ends according to the Law of their Creation yet there is a joynt combination for the good of the whole as the common end just as all the Rivers in the world from what part soever they come whether North or South fall into the Sea for the supply of that mass of waters which loudly proclaims some infinitely wise nature who made those things in so exact an harmony * Morn de verit cap. 1. pag. 7. As in a Clock the hammer which strikes the bell leads us to the next Wheel that to another the little wheel to a greater whence it derives its motion this at last to the spring which acquaints us that there was some Artist that framed them in this subordination to one another for this orderly motion 4. This order or Subserviency is regular and uniforme Every thing is determined to its peculiar nature * Amiraut The Sun and Moon make day and night months and years determine the seasons never are defective in coming back to their station and place they wander not from their Roads shock not against one another nor hinder one another in the functions assigned them From a small grain or seed a Tree springs with body root bark leaves fruit of the same shape figure smell tast that there should be as many parts in one as in all of the same kind and no more and that in the Womb of a sensitive Creature should be formed one of the same kind with all the due members and no more and the Creature that produceth it knows not how it is formed or how t is perfected If we say this is nature this nature is an intelligent being if not how can it direct all causes to such uniforme ends If it be intelligent this nature must be the same we call God Who ordered every herb to yeild seed and every fruit-Tree to yeild fruit after its kind and also every Beast and every creeping thing after its kind Gen. 11 12 24. And every thing is determined to its particular season The sap riseth from the Root at its appointed time enlivening and cloathing the branches with a new Garment at such a time of the Suns returning not wholly hindered by any accidental coldness of the weather it being often colder at its return than it was at the Suns departure All things have their Seasons of flourishing budding blossoming bringing forth fruit they ripen in their seasons cast their leaves at the same time throw off their old cloaths and in the spring appear with new Garments but still in the same fashion * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 77. The Winds and the Rain have their seasons and seem to be administred by laws for the profit of man No satisfactory cause of those things can be ascribed to the Earth the Sea to the Air or Stars Can any understand the spreading of his clouds or the noise of his Tabernacle Job 38.29 The natural reason of those things cannot be demonstrated without recourse to an infinite and intelligent being Nothing can be rendred capable of the direction of those things but a God This regularity in Plants and Animals is in all Nations The Heavens have the same motion in all parts of the world all men have the same Law of nature in their mind all Creatures are stampt with the same law of Creation In all parts the same Creatures serve for the same use and though there be different Creatures in India and Europe yet they have the same subordination the same subserviency to one another and ultimately to man which shows that there is a God and but one God who tunes all those different strings to the same notes in all places Is it nature meerly conducts these natural causes in due measures to their proper effects without interfering with one another Can meer nature be the cause of those musical proportions of time You may as well conceive a Lute to sound its own strings without the hand of an Artist a City well Governed without a Governor an Army keep its Stations without a General as imagine so exact an order without an Orderer Would any Man when he hears a Clock strike by sit intervals the hour of the day imagine this regularity in it without the direction of one that had understanding to manage it He would not only regard the motion of the Clock but commend the diligence of the Clock-Keeper 5. This order and Subserviency is constant Children change the customes and manners of their Fathers Magistrats change the Laws they have received from their Ancestors and enact new ones in their room But in the world all things consist as they were created at the beginning The Law of nature in the Creatures hath met with no change * Petav. ex Athanas Tâ—eol Dog tom 1. lib. 1.
He Created the world for his glory a people for himself that he might have the Honour of his works That since we live and move in him and by him we should live and move to him and for him It was the condemnation of the Heathen world that when they knew there was a God they did not give him the Glory due to him * Rom. 1.21 He that denyes his being is an Atheist to his essence He that denyes his worship is an Atheist to his Honour 5. If it be a folly to deny the being of God It will be our Wisdom then since we acknowledge his being often to think of him Thoughts are the first issue of a Creature as reasonable * Pro. 4.23 He that hath given us the faculty whereby we are able to think should be the principal object about which the power of it should be exercised T is a Justice to God the Author of our understandings a Justice to the nature of our understandings that the noblest faculty should be imployed about the most excellent object Our minds are a beam from God and therefore as the Beams of the Sun when they touch the Earth should reflect back upon God As we seem to deny the being of God not to think of him we seem also to unsoul our Souls in misimploying the activity of them any other way like Flies to be oftner on Dunghils than Flowers T is made the black mark of an ungodly Man or an Atheist that God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 What comfort can be had in the being of God without thinking of him with Reverence and delight A God forgotten is as good as no God to us A DISCOURSE UPON PRACTICAL ATHEISM Psalm 14.1 Doct. 2. PRACTICAL Atheism is natural to Man in his depraved state and very frequent in the hearts and lives of Men. The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God He regards him as little as if he had no being He said in his heart not with his tongue nor in his head He never firmly thought it nor openly asserted it Shame put a Bar to the first and natural reason to the second Yet perhaps he had sometimes some doubts whether there were a God or no He wished there were not any and sometimes hoped there were none at all He could not rase out the Notion of a Deity in his mind but he neglected the fixing the sence of God in his heart and made it too much his business to deface and blot out those Characters of God in his Soul which had been left under the ruines of original nature Men may have Atheistical hearts without Atheistical heads Their reasons may defend the Notion of a Deity while their hearts are empty of affection to the Deity Jobs Children may curse God in their hearts tho not with their lips * Job 1.5 There is no God Most understand it of a denial of the Providence of God as I have said in opening the former Doctrine He denies some essential Attribute of God or the exercise of that Attribute in the world * So the Chalde reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non potestas denying the authority of God in the world He that denies any essential Attribute may be said to deny the being of God Whosoever denies Angels or men to have Reason and Will denies the human and Angelical nature because Understanding and Will are essential to both those Natures there could neither be Angel nor Man without them No Nature can subsist without the perfections essential to that Nature nor God be conceived of without His The Apostle tells us Eph. 2.12 that the Gentiles were without God in the World So in some sence all unbelievers may be termed Atheists for rejecting the Mediator appointed by God they reject that God who appointed him But this is beyond the intended scope Natural Atheism being the only subject Yet this is deducible from it That the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not only belong to those who deny the Existence of God or to those who contemn all sence of a Deity and would root the Conscience and Reverence of God out of their Souls But it belongs also to these who give not that Worship to God which is due to him Who Worship many Gods or who Worship one God in a false and superstitious manner when they have not right conceptions of God nor intend an adoration of him according to the excellency of his Nature All those that are unconcerned for any particular Religion fall under this Character Though they own a God in general yet are willing to acknowledge any God that shall be coined by the powers under whom they live The Gentiles were without God in the world without the true Notion of God not without a God of their own framing This general or practical Atheism is natural to men 1. Not natural by Created but by corrupted Nature T is against nature as nature came out of the hand of God But universaly natural as nature hath been sophisticated and infected by the Serpents breath Inconsideration of God or misrepresentations of his nature are as agreeable to corrupt nature as the disowning the being of a God is contrary to common reason God is not denied naturâ sed vitiis * Augustin de Civit. Dei 2. T is universally natural The wicked are estranged from the Womb Psa 58.3 They go astray as soon as they be born their poyson is like the poyson of a Serpent The wicked And who by his birth hath a better title They go astray from the dictates of God and the rule of their Creation as soon as ever they be born Their poyson is like the poyson of a Serpent which is radically the same in all of the sames species T is seminally and fundamentally in all men though there may be a stronger restraint by a Divine hand upon some men than upon others This principle runs through the whole stream of Nature The natural bent of every mans heart is distant from God When we attempt any thing pleasing to God t is like the climbing up a Hill against nature when any thing is displeasing to him t is like a Current running down the Channel in its natural course When we attempt any thing that is an acknowledgment of the Holiness of God we are fain to rush with Armes in our hands through a multitude of natural passions and fight the way through the oppositions of our own sensitive appetite How softly do we naturally sink down into that which sets us at a greater distance from God There is no active potent efficacious sence of a God by nature The heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Eccl. 8.11 The heart in the singular number as if there were but one Common heart beat in all mankind and bent as with own pulse with a joynt consent and force to wickedness without a sence of the Authority
a posture to be his Mate Other sins Adultery and Theft c. could not be committed by him at that time but he immediatly puts forth his hand to usurp the power of his Maker This Treason is the old Adam in every man The first Adam contradicted the Will of God to set up himself The second Adam humbled himself and did nothing but by the Command and Will of his Father This principle wherein the venom of the Old Adam lies must be Crucified to make way for the Throne of the humble and obedient principle of the New Adam or quickning Spirit Indeed sin in its owns nature is nothing else but a willing according to self and contrary to the Will of God Lusts are therefore called the Wills of the flesh and of the mind * Eph. 2.3 As the precepts of God are Gods Will So the violations of these precepts is mans Will And thus man usurps a God-head to himself by giving that Honour to his own Will which belongs to God appropriating the right of rule to himself and denying it to his Creator That Servant that acts according to his own Will with a neglect of his Masters refuseth the duty of a Servant and invades the right of his Master This Self-love and desire of Independency on God has been the root of all sin in the World The great controversy between God and man hath been whether he or they shall be God whether his Reason or theirs his Will or theirs shall be the guiding principle As Grace is the union of the Will of God and the Will of the Creature so sin is the opposition of the Will of self to the Will of God Leaning to our own understanding is opposed as a natural evil to trusting in the Lord * Pro. 3.5 a supernatural grace Men commonly love what is their own their own inventions their own fancies therefore the ways of a wicked man are called the ways of his own heart * Eccl. 11.9 and the ways of a superstitious man his own devices Jer. 18.11 We will walk after our own devices We will be a law to our selves And what the Psalmist saith of the tongue our tongues are our own who shall controul us is as truly the language of mens hearts our Wills are our own who shall check us 2. This is eviden in the dissatisfaction of men with their own Consciences when they contradict the desires of self Conscience is nothing but an actuated or reflex knowledg of a superior power and an equitable law a law imprest and a power above it impressing it Conscience is not the law-giver but the remembrancer to mind us of that law of nature imprinted upon our Souls and actuate the considerations of the duty and penalty to apply the rule to our acts and pass Judgment upon matter of fact T is to give the charge urge the rule enjoyn the practice of those notions of Right as part of our duty and obedience But man is much displeased with the directions of Conscience as he is out of love with the accusations and condemning sentence of this officer of God We cannot naturally endure any quick and lively practical thoughts of God and his Will and distast our own Consciences for putting us in mind of it They therefore like not to retain God in their knowledge * Rom. 1.28 that is God in their own Consciences they would blow it out as it is the Candle of the Lord in them to direct them and their acknowledgments of God to secure themselves against the practice of its principles They would stop all the avenues to any beam of light and would not suffer a sparkle of Divine knowledge to flutter in their minds in order to set up another directing rule suited to the fleshly appetite And when they cannot stop the light of it from glaring in their faces they rebel against it and cannot endure to abide in its paths * Job 24.13 He speaks not of those which had the written word or special Revelations but only a natural light or traditional handed from Adam Hence are all the endeavors to still it when it begins to speak by some carnal pleasures as Sauls evil Spirit with a fit of Musick or bribe it with some fits of a glavering devotion when it holds the Law of God in its commanding Authority before the mind They would wipe out all the impressions of it when it presses the advancement of God above self and entertain it with no better Complement than Ahab did Elijah hast thou found me O my Enemy If we are like to God in any thing of our natural fabrick t is in the superior and more Spiritual part of our Souls The resistance of that which is most like to God and instead of God in us is a disowning of the Soveraign represented by that Officer He that would be without Conscience would be without God whose Vicegerent it is and make the sensitive part which Conscience opposes his Law-giver Thus a man out of respect to sinful self quarrels with his natural self and cannot comport himself in a friendly behaviour to his internal implanted principles He hates to come under the rebukes of them as much as Adam hated to come into the presence of God after he turned Traytor against him The bad entertainment Gods deputy hath in us reflects upon that God whose cause it pleads T is upon no other account that men loath the upright Language of their own reasons in those matters and wish the eternal silence of their own Consciences but as they maintain the rights of God and would hinder the Idol of self from usurping his God-head and prerogative Tho this power be part of a mans self rooted in his nature as essential to him and inseparable from him as the best part of his being yet he quarrels with it as it is Gods Deputy and stickling for the honour of God in his Soul and quarrelling with that sinful self he would cherish above God We are not displeased with this faculty barely as it exerciseth a self-reflection but as it is Gods Vice-gerent and bears the mark of his Authority in it In some cases this self-reflecting act meets with good Entertainment when it acts not in contradiction to self but sutable to natural affections As suppose a man hath in his passion struck his Child and caused thereby some great mischeif to him the reflection of Conscience will not be unwelcome to him will work some tenderness in him because it takes the part of self and of natural affection But in the more Spiritual concerns of God it will be rated as a busy body 3. Many if not most actions materially good in the world are done more because they are agreeable to self than as they are honourable to God As the word of God may be heard not as his word * 1 Thes 2.13 but as there may be pleasing Notions in it or discourses against an opinion or
well pleasing The first is from nature the second from sin the third from Grace The first is implanted by Creation the second the fruit of Corruption and the third is by the powerful operation of Grace This Carnal self-love is set up in the stead of God as our last end like the Sea which all the little and great streams of our actions run to and rest in And this is 1. Natural It sticks as close to us as our Souls it is as natural as sin the foundation of all the evil in the world As self-abhorrency is the first stone that is laid in Conversion So an inordinate self-love was the first in let to all iniquity As Grace is a rising from self to Center in God so is sin a shrinking from God into the mire of a Carnal selfishness Since every Creature is nearest to it self and next to God it cannot fall from God but must immediatly sink into self Mâ—râ— Dial. 2. § 17. pa. 274. And therefore all sins are well said to be branches or modiâ—â—â—ations of this fundamental passion What is wrath but a defence and strengthning self against the attempts of some real or imaginary evil Whence springs envy but from a self love grieved at its own wants in the midst of anothers enjoyment able to supply it What is impatience but a regret that self is not provided for at the rate of our wish and that it hath met with a shock against supposed merit What is pride but a sense of selfworth a desire to have self of a higher Elevation than others What is drunkenness but a seeking a satisfaction for sensual self in the spoils of reason No sin is committed as sin but as it pretends a self-satisfaction Sin indeed may well be term'd a mans self because it is since the loss of original righteousness the form that overspreads every part of our Souls the understanding assents to nothing false but under the Notion of true and the Will embraceth nothing evil but under the Notion of good but the rule whereby we measure the truth and goodness of proposed objects is not the unerring word but the inclinations of self the gratifying of which is the aim of our whole lives Sin and self are all one What is called a living to sin in one place * Rom. 6. is called a living to self in another * 1 Cor. 5.15 That they that live should not live unto themselves And upon this account it is that both the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in Scripture to express sin properly signifie to miss the mark and swerve from that white to which all our actions should be directed viz. the glory of God When we fell to loving our selves we fell from loving God And therefore when the Psalmist saith Psal 14.2 there were none that sought God viz. as the last end he presently adds they are all gone aside viz. from their true mark and therefore become filthy 2. Since t is natural T is also universal * Psa 14.1 The not seeking God is as universal as our ignorance of him No Man in a state of nature but hath it predominant no renewed Man on this side Heaven but hath it partially The one hath it flourishing the other hath it strugling If to aim at the glory of God as the chief end and not to live to our selves be the greatest mark of the restauration of the Divine Image * 1 Cor. 5.15 and a conformity to Christ who glorified not himself * Heb. 1.5 but the Father * Joh. 17.4 then every man wallowing in the mire of Corrupt nature pays a homage to self as a renewed Man is byast by the honour of God The Holy-Ghost excepts none from this Crime Phil. 2.21 All seek their own T is rare for them to look above or beyond themselves Whatsoever may be the immediate subject of their thoughts and enquiries yet the utmost end and stage is their profit honour or pleasure Whatever it be that immediatly possesses the Mind and VVill self sits like a Queen and sways the Scepter and orders things at that rate that God is Excluded and can find no room in all his thoughts Psa 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his Countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts The whole little World of Man is so overflowed with a Deluge of self that the Dove the Glory of the Creator can find no Place where to set its Foot and if ever it gain the favour of Admittance 't is to disguise and be a Vassal to some carnal Project as the Glory of God was a Mask for the murdering his Servants 'T is from the Power of this Principle that the difficulty of Conversion ariseth As there is no greater pleasure to a believing Soul than the giving it self up to God and no stronger desire in him than to have a fixed and unchangeable Will to serve the designs of his Honour So there is no greater torment to a wicked Man than to part with his carnal Ends and lay down the Dagon of self at the feet of the Ark. Self-Love and Self-Opinion in the Pharisees way-layd all the entertainment of Truth John 5.44 They sought Honour one of another and not the Honour which comes from God 'T is of so large an Extent and so insinuating Nature that it winds it self into the exercise of moral Virtues mixeth with our Charity Matt. 6.2 and finds nourishment in the Ashes of Martyrdom 1 Cor. 13.3 This making our selves our End will appear in a few things 1. In frequent self Applauses and inward overweening Reflections Nothing more ordinary in the Natures of Men than a dotage on their own Perfections Acquisitions or Actions in the World Most think of themselves above what they ought to think Rom. 12.3 4. Few think of themselves so meanly as they ought to think This sticks as close to us as our Skin And as Humility is the Beauty of Grace this is the filthiest Soyl of Nature Our thoughts run more delightfully upon the track of our own Perfections than the excellency of God And when we find any thing of a seeming worth that may make us glitter in the eyes of the World how chearfully do we grasp and embrace our selves When the grosser Prophanesses of Men have been discarded and the Flouds of them damm'd up the Head of Corruption whence they sprang will swell the higher within in self-applauding speculations of their own Reformation without acknowledgements of their own weaknesses and desires of Divine Assistance to make a further Progress I thank God I am not like this Publican * Luke 18.11 A self-reflection with a contempt rather than compassion to his Neighbor is frequent in every Pharisee The vapors of self-affections in our clouded understandings like those in the Air in misty mornings alter the appearance of things and make them look
* â—â—r 20. Their Fathers Worshipping in that Mountain and the Jews affirming Jerusalem to be a place of worship She pleads the Antiquity of the worship in this place Abraham having built an Altar there Gen. 12.7 and Jacob upon his return from Syria And surely had the place been capable of an exception such persons as they and so well acquainted with the Will of God would not have pitched upon that place to Celebrate their worship Antiquity hath too too often bewitched the minds of Men and drawn them from the revealed Will of God Men are more willing to imitate the outward actions of their famous Ancestors than conform themselves to the revealed Will of their Creator The Samaritans would imitate the Patriarchs in the place of worship but not in the faith of the worshippers Christ answers her that this question would quickly be resolved by a new state of the Church which was neer at hand and neither Jerusalem which had now the precedency nor that Mountain should be of any more value in that concern than any other place in the world * ver 21. But yet to make her sensible of her sin and that of her Country-men tells her that their Worship in that Mountain was not according to the Will of God he having long after the Altars built in this place fixed Jerusalem as the place of Sacrifices besides they had not the knowledge of that God which ought to be worshipped by them but the Jews had the true object of Worship and the true manner of worship according to the declaration God had made of himself to them * ver â—â— But all that service shall vanish the vail of the Temple shall be rent in twain and that Carnal worship give place to one more Spiritual shadows shall fly before substance and truth advance it self above figures and the worship of God shall be with the strength of the Spirit such a worship and such worshippers doth the Father seek * ver 23. For God is a Spirit and those that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in truth The design of our Saviour is to declare that God is not taken with external worship invented by men no nor Commanded by himself and upon that this reason because he is a Spiritual essence infinitely above gross and Corporeal matter and is not taken with that pomp which is a pleasure to our Earthly imaginations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate it just as the words lie Spirit is God * Vulgar lat Illyrc Clav. But it is not unusual both in the old and new Testament languages to put the predicate before the subject as Psal 5.9 Their throat is an open Sepulchre in the Hebrew a Sepulchre open their throat So Psa 111.3 His work is honourable and glorious Heb. Honour and glory his work And there wants not one example in the same Evangelist Joh. 1.1 And the word was God Greek and God was the word In all the predicate or what is ascribed is put before the subject to which it is ascribed One tells us and he an head of a party that hath made a disturbance in the Church of God * Eâ—â—â—â—â—p Institut lib. 4. cap. 3. that this place is not aptly brought to prove God to be a Spirit And the reason of Christ runs not thus God is of a Spiritual Essence and therefore must be worshipped with a Spiritual worship for the Essence of God is not the Foundation of his worship but his Will for then we were not to worship him with a Corporal worship because he is not a body but with an invisible and Eternal worship because he is invisible and eternal But the nature of God is the foundation of worship the Will of God is the Rule of worship the matter and manner is to be performed according to the Will of God But is the nature of the object of worship to be excluded No as the object is so ought our Devotion to be Spiritual as he is Spiritual God in his Commands for worship respected the discovery of his own nature in the Law he respected the discovery of his mercy and justice and therefore Commanded a worship by Sacrifices a Spiritual worship without those institutions would not have declared those Attributes which was Gods end to display to the world in Christ And tho the nature of God is to be respected in worship yet the obligations of the Creature are to be considered God is a Spirit therefore must have a Spiritual worship The Creature hath a body as well as a Soul and both from God and therefore ought to worship God with the one as well as the other since one as well as the other is freely bestowed upon him The Spirituality of God was the foundation of the change from the Judaical carnal worship to a more Spiritual and Evangelical God is a Spirit That is he hath nothing Corporeal no mixture of matter not a visible substance a bodily form * Melancton He is a Spirit not a bare Spiritual substance But an understanding willing Spirit holy wise good and just Before Christ spake of the Father * ver 23. the first person in the Trinity Now he speaks of God Essentially The word Father is personal the word God essential So that our Saviour would render a reason not from any one person in the blessed Trinity but from the Divine nature why we should worship in Spirit and therefore makes use of the word God the being a Spirit being Common to the other persons with the Father This is the reason of the proposition verse 23. Of a Spiritual Worship Every nature delights in that which is like it and distasts that which is most different from it If God were Corporeal he might be pleased with the victims of beasts and the beautiful Magnificence of Temples and the noyse of Musick But being a Spirit he cannot be gratified with carnal things He demands something better and greater than all those that Soul which he made that Soul which he hath endowed a Spirit of a frame sutable to his nature He indeed appointed Sacrifices and a Temple as shadows of those things which were to be most acceptable to him in the Messiah but they were imposed only till the time of Reformation * Heb. 9.10 Must Worship him Not they may or it would be more agreeable to God to have such a manner of worship But they must T is not exclusive of bodily worship for this were to exclude all publick worship in societies which cannot be performed without reverential postures of the body * Terniti The Gestures of the body are helps to worship and declarations of Spiritual acts We can scarcely worship God with our Spirits without some tincture upon the outward-man But he excludes all acts meerly Corporeal all resting upon an external service and devotion which was the Crime of the Pharisees and the general persuasion of the Jews
31.3 the Egyptians are Flesh and not Spirit And our Saviour gives us the notion of a Spirit to be something above the nature of a Body Luke 24.39 not having flesh and bones extended parts loads of gross matter 'T is also taken for those things which are active and efficacious because activity is of the nature of a Spirit Caleb had another Spirit Num. 14.24 an active affection The vehement motions of sin are called Spirit Hos 4.12 the Spirit of Whoredoms in that sense that Pro. 29.11 a Fool utters all his mind all his Spirit he knows not how to restrain the vehement motions of his mind So that the notion of a Spirit is that it is a fine immaterial substance an active being that acts it self and other things A meer Body cannot act it self as the Body of Man cannot move without the Soul no more than a Ship can move it self without Wind and Waves So God is called a Spirit as being not a Body not having the greatness figure thickness or length of a Body wholly separate from any thing of flesh and matter We find a Principle within us nobler than that of our Bodies and therefore we conceive the Nature of God according to that which is more worthy in us and not according to that which is the vilest part of our Natures God is a most spiritual Spirit more spiritual than all Angels all Souls * Gerhard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he exceeds all in the nature of Being so he exceeds all in the nature of Spirit He hath nothing gross heavy material in his Essence 2. When we say God is a Spirit 't is to be understood by way of Negation There are two ways of knowing or describing God By way of affirmation affirming that of him in a way of eminency which is excellent in the Creature as when we say God is wise good The other by way of negation when we remove from God in our conceptions what is tainted with imperfection in the Creature * Gamacheus Tom. 1. q. 3. Cap. 1. P. 42. The first ascribes to him whatsoever is excellent the other separates from him whatsoever is imperfect The first is like a Limning which adds one Colour to another to make a comely Picture the other is like a Carving which pares and cuts away whatsoever is superfluous to make a compleat Statue This way of negation is more easie we better understand what God is not than what he is and most of our knowledge of God is by this way As when we say God is infinite immense immutable they are negatives He hath no limits is confined to no place admits of no change * Coccei sum Theol. Cap. 8. When we remove from him what is inconsistent with his Being we do more strongly assert his Being and know more of him when we elevate him above all and above our own capacity And when we say God is a Spirit 't is a negation he is not a Body he consists not of various parts extended one without and beyond another He is not a Spirit so as our Souls are to be the form of any Body A Spirit not as Angels and Souls are but infinitely higher we call him so because in regard of our weakness we have not any other term of excellency to express or conceive of him by We transfer it to God in honour because Spirit is the highest excellency in our nature Yet we must apprehend God above any Spirit since his Nature is so great that he cannot be declared by human speech perceived by human sense or conceived by human understanding The second thing That God is a Spirit * Thes Sedan Part. 2. P. 1â—â—â— Some among the Heathens imagined God to have a Body some thought him to have a Body of Air some a Heavenly Body some a human Body * Vossius Idolol lib. 2. cap. 1. Forbes Instrument l. 1. c. 36. And many of them ascribed bodies to their Gods but bodies without blood without corruption bodies made up of the finest and thinnest Atomes such bodies which if compared with ours were as no bodies The Saddures also who denied all Spirits and yet acknowledged a God must conclude him to be a Body and no Spirit Some among Christians have been of that opinion Tertullian is charged by some and excused by others And some Monks of Egypt were so fierce for this Error that they attempted to kill one Theophilus a Bishop for not being of that Judgment * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the wiser Heathens were of another mind and esteemed it an unholy thing to have such imaginations of God * Plutarch incorporalis ratio divinus spiritus Seneca And some Christians have thought God only to be free from any thing of body because he is omnipresent immutable he is only incorporeal and spiritual all things else even the Angels are clothed with bodies though of a neater matter and a more active frame than ours a pure spiritual Nature they allowed to no Being but God Scripture and Reason meet together to assert the spirituality of God Had God had the Lineaments of a Body the Gentiles had not fallen under that accusation of changing his Glory into that of a Corruptible Man * Rom. 1.23 This is signified by the name God gives himself Exod. 3.14 I am that I am a simple pure uncompounded Being without any created mixture as infinitely above the being of Creatures as above the conceptions of Creatures Job 37.23 Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out He is so much a Spirit that he is the Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 The Almighty Father is not of a Nature inferior to his Children The Soul is a Spirit it could not else exert actions without the assistance of the body as the act of Understanding it self and its own nature the act of willing and willing things against the incitements and interest of the Body It could not else conceive of God Angels and immaterial substances It could not else be so active as with one glance to fetch a compass from Earth to Heaven and by a sudden motion to elevate the understanding from an earthly thought to the thinking of things as high as the highest Heavens If we have this opinion of our Souls which in the nobleness of their acts surmount the Body without which the Body is but a dull unactive piece of clay we must needs have a higher conception of God than to clogg him with any matter though of a finer temper than ours We must conceive of him by the perfections of our Souls without the vileness of our Bodies If God made Man according to his Image we must raise our thoughts of God according to the noblest part of that Image and imagine the Exemplar or Copy not to come short but to exceed the thing copyed by it God were not the most excellent substance if he were not a Spirit Spiritual substances are more excellent than bodily
was a Type of Christ and a look to him is necessary in every spiritual Sacrifice As there must be Faith to make any act an act of obedience so there must be Faith to make any act of worship spiritual That service is not spiritual that is not vital and it cannot be vital without the exercise of a vital Principle All spiritual life is hid in Christ and drawn from him by Faith * Gal. 2.20 Faith as it hath relation to Christ makes every act of worship a living act and consequently a spiritual act Habitual unbelief cuts us off from the Body of Christ Rom. 11.20 Because of unbelief they were broken off and a want of actuated belief breaks us off from a present communion with Christ in Spirit As unbelief in us hinders Christ from doing any mighty work so unbelief in us hinders us from doing any mighty spiritual duty So that the exercise of Faith and a confidence in God is necessary to every duty 2. Love must be acted to render a worship spiritual Though God commanded love in the Old-Testament yet the manner of giving the Law bespoke more of Fear than Love The dispensation of the Law was with Fire Thunder c. proper to raise horror and benum the Spirit which effect it had upon the Israelites when they desired that God would speake no more to them Grace is the Genius of the Gospel proper to excite the affection of Love The Law was given by the disposition of Angels with signs to amaze the Gospel was usher'd in with the songs of Angels composed of peace and good-will calculated to ravish the Soul Instead of the terrible voice of the Law do this and live The comfortable voice of the Gospel is Grace Grace Upon this account the principle of the Old testament was Fear and the Worship often exprest by the Fear of God The principle of the New-testament is Love The Mount Sinai gendreth to Bondage * Gal. 4.44 Mount Sion from whence the Gospel or Evangelical Law goes forth gendreth to Liberty and therefore the Spirit of Bondage unto Fear as the Property of the Law is opposed to the State of Adoption the principle of Love as the property of the Gospel * Rom. 8.15 And therefore the worship of God under the Gospel or New-testament is oftner exprest by Love than Fear as proceeding from higher principles and acting nobler passions In this State we are to serve him without fear * Luke 1.74 without a Bondage-fear not without a fear of unworthy treating him with a fear of his goodness as it is prophesied of * Hos 9.9 Goodness is not the object of terror but reverence God in the Law had more the garb of a Judge in the Gospel of a Father The name of a Father is sweeter and bespeaks more of affection As their services were with a feeling of the thunders of the Law in their Consciences so is our worship to be with a sense of Gospel-grace in our Spirits Spiritual worship is that therefore which is exercised with a spiritual and heavenly affection proper to the Gospel The heart should be enlarged according to the liberty the Gospel gives of drawing neer to God as a Father As he gives us the nobler relation of Children we are to act the nobler qualities of Children Love should act according to its nature which is desire of Union desire of a moral union by Affections as well as a mystical union by Faith as flame aspires to reach flame and become one with it In every act of worship we should endeavour to be united to God and become one Spirit with him This Grace doth spiritualize Worship In that one word Love God hath wrapt up all the devotion he requires of us 'T is the total sum of the first Table Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 'T is to be acted in every thing we do But in Worship our hearts should more solemnly rise up and acknowledge him amiable and lovely since the Law is stript of its cursing power and made sweet in the blood of the Redeemer Love is a thing acceptable of it self but nothing acceptable without it The gifts of one man to another are spiritualized by it We would not value a Present without the affection of the Donor Every man would lay claim to the love of others though he would not to their Possessions Love is Gods right in every service and the noblest thing we can bestow upon him in our adorations of him Gods gifts to us are not so estimable without his love not our services valuable by him without the exercise of a choice affection Hezekiah regarded not his deliverance without the love of the Deliverer In love to my Soul thou hast delivered me * Isa 38.17 So doth God say in love to my honour thou hast worshipped me So that Love must be acted to render our worship spiritual 3. A spiritual sensibleness of our own weakness is necessary to make our worship spiritual Affections to God cannot be without relentings in our selves When the eye is spiritually fixed upon a spiritual God the heart will mourn that the worship is no more spiritually sutable The more we act love upon God as amiable and gracious the more we should exercise grief in our selves as we are vile and offending Spiritual worship is a melting worship as well as an elevating worship It exalts God and debaseth the Creature The Publican was more spiritual in his humble address to God when the Pharisee was wholly carnal with his swelling language A spiritual love in worship will make us grieve that we have given him so little and could give him no more 'T is a part of spiritual duty to bewail our carnality mixed with it as we receive mercies spiritually when we receive them with a sense of Gods goodness and our own vileness in the same manner we render a spiritual worship 4. Spiritual desires for God render the service spiritual When the Soul follows hard after him * Psal 63.8 pursues after God as a God of infinite and communicative goodness with sighs and groans unutterable A spiritual Soul seems to be transformed into hunger and thirst and becomes nothing but desire A carnal Worshipper is taken with the beauty and magnificence of the Temple a spiritual Worshipper desires to see the glory of God in the Sanctuary * Psal 63.2 He pants after God As he came to worship to find God he boyls up in desires for God and is loth to go from it without God the living God Psal 42.2 He would see the Vrim and the Thummim the unusual sparkling of the stones upon the High-priests Breast-plate That deserves not the title of spiritual worship when the Soul makes no longing inquiries saw you him whom my Soul loves A spiritual worship is when our desires are chiefly for God in the worship As David desires to dwell in the House of the Lord but his desire is not terminated
Plea from it in the mouth of Adam he knew as much as any man ever since knew of the nature of God as discoverable in Creation he could not in Innocence fancy an ignorant God a God that knew nothing of future things he could not be so ignorant of his own action but he must have perceived a force upon his Will had there been any had he thought that Gods Prescience impos'd any necessity upon him he would not have omitted the Plea especially when he was so daring as to charge the Providence of God in the Gift of the Woman to him to be the cause of his Crime Gen. 3.12 How come his Posterity to invent new charges against God which their Father Adam never thought of who had more knowledg than all of them He could find no cause of his Sin but the liberty of his own Will he charges it not upon any necessity from the Devil or any necessity from God nor doth he alledg the gift of the Woman as a necessary cause of his Sin but an occasion of it by giving the Fruit to him Judas knew that our Saviour did foreknow his Treachery for he had told him of it in the hearing of his Disciples John 13.21 26. yet he never charg'd the necessity of his Crime upon the foreknowledg of his Master if Judas had not done it freely he had had no reason to repent of it his Repentance justifies Christ from imposing any necessity upon him by that foreknowledg No man acts any thing but he can give an account of the motives of his action he cannot father it upon a blind necessity the Will cannot be compelled for then it would cease to be Will God doth not root up the foundations of Nature or change the order of it and make men unable to act like men that is as free Agents God foreknows the actions of irrational Creatures this concludes no violence upon their nature for we find their actions to be according to their nature and spontaneous 3. Gods foreknowledg is not simply considered the cause of any thing It puts nothing into things but only beholds them as present and arising from their proper causes The knowledg of God is not the Principle of things or the cause of their existence but directive of the action nothing is because God knows it but because God Wills it either positively or permissively God knows all things possible yet because God knows them they are not brought into actual existence but remain still only as things possible Knowledg only apprehends a thing but acts nothing 't is the rule of acting but not the cause of acting the Will is the immediate Principle and the Power the immediate cause to know a thing is not to do a thing for then we may be said to do every thing that we know But every man knows those things which he never did nor never will do Knowledg in it self is an apprehension of a thing and is not the cause of it A Spectator of a thing is not the cause of that thing which he sees that is he is not the cause of it as he beholds it We see a man Write we know before that he will Write at such a time but this foreknowledg is not the cause of his Writing We see a man Walk but our vision of him brings no necessity of Walking upon him he was free to Walk or not to Walk Rawley of the World lib. 1. cap. 1. sect 12. We foreknow that Death will seize upon all men we foreknow that the Seasons of the Year will succeed one another yet is not our foreknowledg the cause of this succcession of Spring after Winter or of the Death of all men or any man We see one man fighting with another our sight is not the cause of that contest but some Quarrel among themselves exciting their own Passions As the knowledg of present things imposeth no necessity upon them while they are acting and present so the Knowledg of future things imposeth no necessity upon them while they are coming We are certain there will be men in the World to morrow and that the Sea will Ebb and Flow but is this knowledg of ours the cause that those things will be so I know that the Sun will rise to morrow 't is true that it shall rise but 't is not true that my foreknowledg makes it to rise If a Physician Prognosticates upon seeing the Intemperances and Debaucheries of men that they will fall into such a distemper is his Prognostication any cause of their Disease or of the sharpness of any Symptoms attending it The Prophet foretold the cruelty of Hazael before he committed it but who will say that the Prophet was the cause of his Commission of that evil And thus the foreknowledg of God takes not away the liberty of mans Will no more than a foreknowledg that we have of any mans actions takes away his liberty We may upon our knowledg of the temper of a man certainly foreknow that if he falls into such Company and get among his Cups he will be Drunk but is this foreknowledg the cause that he is Drunk no the cause is the liberty of his own Will and not resisting the Temptation God purposes to leave such a man to himself and his own ways and man being so left God foreknows what will be done by him according to that corrupt nature which is in him tho' the Decree of God of leaving a man to the liberty of his own Will be certain yet the liberty of mans Will as thus left is the cause of all the extravagancies he doth commit Suppose Adam had stood would not God certainly have foreseen that he would have stood yet it would have been concluded that Adam had stood not by any necessity of Gods foreknowledg but by the liberty of his own Will Why should then the foreknowledg of God add more necessity to his falling than to his standing * Rivet in Isa 53.1 p. 16. And though it be said sometimes in Scripture that such a thing was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled as John 12.38 that the saying of Esaias might be fulfilled Lord who hath believed our report the word That doth not infer that the Prediction of the Prophet was the cause of the Jews unbelief but infers this that the Prediction was manifested to be true by their unbelief and the event answered the Prediction this Prediction was not the cause of their Sin but their foreseen Sin was the cause of this Prediction and so the Particle That is taken Psal 51.6 against thee thee only have I sinned that thou mightest be justified c. the justifying God was not the end and intent of the Sin but the event of it upon his acknowledgment 4. God foreknows things because they will come to pass but things are not future because God knows them Foreknowledg presupposeth the object which is foreknown a thing that is to come to pass
Shall we take only here with a limitation as some that are no Friends to the Deity of Christ would and say God only knows the hearts of men from himself and by his own infinite vertue Why may we not take only in other places with a limitation and make nonsence of it as Psal 86.10 Thou art God alone Is it to be understood that God is God alone from himself but other Gods may be made by him and so there may be numberless infinites As God is God alone so that none can be God but himself so he alone knows all the hearts Of all the Children of men and none but he can know them this knowledg is from his nature Placaeus de deitate Christi The reason why God knows the hearts of men is rendered in the Scripture double because he created them and because he is present every where Psal 33.13 15. these two are by the Confession of Christians and Pagans universally received as the proper Characters of Divinity whereby the Deity is distinguish'd from all Creatures Now when Christ ascribes this to himself and that with such an Emphasis that nothing greater than that could be urg'd as he doth Rev. 2.23 we must conclude that he is of the same Essence with God one with him in his Nature as well as one with him in his Attributes God only knows the hearts of the Children of men there is the unity of God Christ searches the Hearts and Reins there is a distinction of Persons in an oneness of essence he knows the hearts of all men not only of those that were with him in the time of the Flesh that have been and shall be since his Ascension but of those that lived and died before his coming because he is to be the Judg of all that lived before his humiliation on earth as well as after his exaltation in Heaven It pertains to him as a Judg to know distinctly the merits of the Cause of which he is to Judg and this excellency of searching the hearts is mention'd by himself with relation to his judicial Proceeding I will give to every one of you according to your Works And tho' a Creature may know what is in a mans heart if it be revealed to him yet such a knowledg is a knowledg only by report not by inspection yet this latter is ascrib'd to Christ John 2.24.25 he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man for he knew what was in man he looked into their hearts The Evangelist to allay the amazement of men at his relation of our Saviours knowledg of the inward falsity of those that made a splendid Profession of him doth not say the Father revealed it to him but intimates it to be an unseparable Property of his nature No covering was so thick as to bound his eye no pretence so glittering as to impose upon his understanding Those that made a Profession of him and could not be discerned by the eye of man from his faithfullest Attendants were in their inside known to him plainer than their outside was to others and therefore he committed not himself to them tho' they seemed to be perswaded to a real belief in his name because of the Power of his Miracles and were touched with an admiration of him as some great Prophet and perhaps declared him to be the Messiah ver 23. 4. He had a foreknowledg of the particular inclinations of men before those distinct inclinations were in actual Being in them This is plainly asserted John 6.64 but there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him When Christ assured them from the knowledg of the hearts of his followers that some of them were void of that Faith they profest The Evangelist to stop their amazement that Christ should have such a power and vertue adds that he knew from the beginning that he had not only a present knowledg but a foreknowledg of every ones inclination he knew not only now and then what was in the Hearts of his Disciples but from the beginning of any ones giving up their Names to him he knew whether it were a pretence or sincere he knew who should betray him and there was no mans inward affection but was foreseen by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the beginning whether we understand it from the beginning of the World as when Christ saith concerning Divorces from the beginning it was not so that is from the beginning of the World from the beginning of the Law of Nature or from the beginning of their attending him as it is taken Luke 1.2 he had a certain prescience of the inward dispositions of mens hearts and their succeeding sentiments he foreknew the treacherous heart of Judas in the midst of his splendid Profession and discern'd his resolution in the root and his thought in the confus'd Chaos of his natural corruption he knew how it would spring up before it did spring up before Judas had any distinct and formal conception of it himself or before there was any actual preparation to a resolve Peters denyal was not unknown to him when Peter had a present resolution and no question spake it in the present sincerity of his Soul never to forsake him he foreknew what would be the result of that Poyson which lurkt in Peters nature before Peter himself imagin'd any thing of it he discern'd Peters Apostatizing heart when Peter resolved the contrary our Saviours Prediction was accomplisht and Peters valiant resolution languisht into Cowardice Shall we then conclude our Blessed Saviour a Creature who perfectly and only knew the Father who knew all Creatures who had all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg who knew the inward motions of mens hearts by his own Vertue and had not only a present Knowledg but a Prescience of them Inform. 2. The second Instruction from this position That God hath an infinite Knowledg and Understanding Then there is a Providence exercis'd by God in the World and that about every thing As Providence infers Omniscience as the guide of it so Omniscience infers Providence as the end of it What Exercise would there be of this Attribute but in the Government of the World To this this infinite Perfection refers Jer. 17.10 I the Lord search the heart I try the Reins to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings He searches the heart to reward he rewards every man according to the rewardableness of his actions his Government therefore extends to every man in the World there is no heart but he searches therefore no heart but he governs to what purpose else would be this Knowledg of all his Creatures for a meer Contemplation of them no What pleasure can that be to God who knows himself who is infinitely more excellent than all his Creatures Doth he know them to neglect all care
Man if he stand thy Bounty will be eminent yet there is no room for Mercy to act unless by the Commission of sin he exposeth himself to Misery and if sin enter into another World I have little hopes to be heard then if I am rejected now Worlds will be perpetually created by Goodness Wisdom and Power Sin entring into these Worlds will be perpetually punished by Justice and Mercy which is a Perfection of thy Nature will for ever be commanded silence and lye wrapt up in an eternal Darkness Take occasion now therefore to expose me to the knowledge of thy Creature since without Misery Mercy can never set foot into the World Mercy pleads if man be ruined the Creation is in vain Justice pleads if man be not sentenced the Law is in vain Truth backs Justice and Grace abets Mercy What shall be done in this seeming Contradiction Mercy is not manifested if man be not pardoned Justice will complain if man be not punished 3. An expedient is found out by the wisdom of God to answer these Demands and adjust the Differences between them The wisdom of God answers I will satisfie your Pleas. The Pleas of Justice shall be satisfied in punishing and the Pleas of Mercy shall be received in pardoning Justice shall not complain for want of Punishment nor Mercy for want of Compassion I will have an infinite Sacrifice to content Justice and the Vertue and Fruit of that Sacrifice shall delight Mercy Here shall Justice have punishment to accept and Mercy shall have Pardon to bestow The Rights of both are preserved and the Demands of both amicably accorded in punishment and pardon by transferring the punishment of our Crimes upon a Surety exacting a Recompence from his Blood by Justice and conferring life and salvation upon us by Mercy without the expence of one drop of our own Thus is Justice satisfied in its Severities and Mercy in its Indulgences The riches of Grace are twisted with the terrors of Wrath. The bowels of Mercy are wound about the flaming Sword of Justice and the Sword of Justice protects and secures the bowels of Mercy Thus is God righteous without being cruel and merciful without being unjust his Righteousness inviolable and the World recoverable Thus is a resplendent Mercy brought forth in the midst of all the Curses Confusions and Wrath threatned to the Offender This is the admirable temperament found out by the wisdom of God His Justice is honoured in the Sufferings of Man's Surety and his Mercy is honoured in the application of the Propitiation to the Offender Rom. 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Had we in our Persons been Sacrifices to Justice Mercy had for ever been unknown had we been solely fostered by Mercy Justice had for ever been secluded had we being guilty been absolved Mercy might have rejoyced and Justice might have complained had we been solely punished Justice would have triumphed and Mercy grieved But by this medium of Redemption neither hath ground of Complaint Justice hath nothing to charge when the Punishment is inflicted Mercy hath whereof to boast when the Surety is accepted The Debt of the Sinner is transferred upon the Surety that the Merit of the Surety may be conferred upon the Sinner so that God now deals with our sins in a way of consuming Justice and with our Persons in a way of relieving Mercy 'T is highly better and more glorious than if the Claim of one had been granted with the exclusion of the Demand of the other It had then been either an unrighteous Mercy or a merciless Justice 'T is now a righteous Mercy and a merciful Justice 2. The Wisdom of God appears in the Subject or Person wherein these were accorded The second Person in the blessed Trinity There was a congruity in the Sons undertaking and effecting it rather than any other Person according to the order of the Persons and the several functions of the Persons as represented in Scripture The Father after Creation is the Law-giver and presents man with the Image of his own Holiness and the way to his Creatures happiness But after the Fall man was too impotent to perform the Law and too polluted to enjoy a Felicity Redemption was then necessary not that it was necessary for God to redeem man but it was necessary for man's happiness that he should be recovered To this the second Person is appointed that by Communion with him man might derive a happiness and be brought again to God But since man was blind in his Vnderstanding and an Enemy in his will to God there must be the exerting of a Vertue to enlighten his mind and bend his Will to understand and accept of this Redemption And this work is assigned to the third Person the Holy Ghost 1. It was not congruous that the Father should assume Human Nature and suffer in it for the Redemption of man He was first in order he was the Law-giver and therefore to be the Judge As Lawgiver it was not convenient he should stand in the stead of the Law-breaker and as Judge it was as little convenient he should be reputed a Malefactor That he who had made a Law against sin denounced a Penalty upon the commission of sin and whose part it was actually to punish the sinner should become sin for the wilful Transgressor of his Law He being the Rector how could he be an Advocate and Intercessor to himself How could he be the Judge and the Sacrifice A Judge and yet a Mediator to himself If he had been the Sacrifice there must be some Person to examine the validity of it and pronounce the Sentence of acceptance Was it agreeable that the Son should sit upon a Throne of Judgment and the Father stand at the Bar and be responsible to the Son That the Son should be in the place of a Governour and the Father in the place of the Criminal That the Father should be bruised * Isa 53.10 by the Son as the Son was by the Father †Zach. 13 70. that the Son should awaken a Sword against the Father as the Father did against the Son that the Father should be sent by the Son as the Son was by the Father * Gal. 4.4 The order of the Persons in the blessed Trinity had been inverted and disturbed Had the Father been sent he had not been first in order the Sender is before the Person sent As the Father begets and the Son is begotten Joh. 1.14 so the Father sends and the Son is sent He whose order is to send cannot properly send himself 2. Nor was it congruous that the Spirit should he sent upon this Affair If the Holy Ghost had been sent to redeem us and the Son to apply
that is none can The Text is a lofty declaration of the Divine Power with a particular note of Attention Loe. 1. In the expressions of it in the works of Creation and Providence Loe these are his ways Ways and Works excelling any created strength referring to the little summary of them he had made before 2. In the Insufficiency of these ways to measure his Power but how little a portion is heard of him 3. In the Incomprehensibleness of it The thunder of his Power who can understand Doct. Infinite and Incomprehensible Power pertains to the Nature of God and is exprest in part in his Works or Though there be a mighty expression of Divine Power in his Works yet an Incomprehensible Power pertains to his Nature The thunder of his Power who can understand His Power glitters in all his Works as well as his Wisdom Psal 62.11 Twice have I heard this that Power belongs unto God In the Law and in the Prophets say some But why Power twice and not Mercy which he speaks of in the following Verse He had heard of Power twice from the voice of Creation and from the voice of Government Mercy was heard in Government after Man's Fall not in Creation Innocent man was an object of Gods goodness not of his Mercy till he made himself miserable Power was exprest in both or Twice have I heard that Power belongs to God that is it is a certain and undoubted Truth that Power is essential to the Divine Nature 'T is true Mercy is essential Justice is essential but Power more apparently essential because no acts of Mercy or Justice or Wisdom can be exercised by him without Power The repetition of a thing confirms the certainty of it Some observe that God is called Almighty Seventy times in Scripture * Lessius de perfect Divin lib. 5. cap. 1. Though his Power be evident in all his Works yet he hath a Power beyond the expression of it in his Works which as it is the glory of his Nature so it is the comfort of a Believer To which purpose the Apostle expresseth it by an excellent Periphrasis for the honour of the Divine Nature Eph. 3.20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think unto him be glory in the Churches We have reason to acknowledge him Almighty who hath a Power of acting above our power of understanding Who could have imagin'd such a powerful operation in the propagation of the Gospel and the Conversion of the Gentiles which the Apostle seems to hint at in that place His Power is exprest by Horns in his hands Hab. 3.4 because all the Works of his hands are wrought with Almighty strength Power is also used as a Name of God Mark 14.62 The Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power that is at the right hand of God God and Power are so inseparable that they are reciprocated As his Essence is Immense not to be confin'd in Place as it is Eternal not to be measur'd by Time so it is Almighty not to be limited in regard of Action 1. 'T is Ingeniously illustrated by some by a Vnit †Fotherby Atheomastic p. 306 307. all Numbers depend upon it it makes Numbers by Addition Multiplies them unexpressibly when one Unit is removed from a Number how vastly doth it diminish it It gives perfection to all other Numbers it receives perfection from none If you add a Unit before 100 how doth it multiply it to 1100 If you set a Unit before twenty Millions it presently makes the Number swell up to an hundred and twenty Millions and so powerful is a Unit by adding it to Numbers that it will infinitely inlarge them to such a vastness that shall transcend the capacity of the best Arithmetician to count them By such a Meditation as this you may have some prospect of the Power of that God who is only Unity the Beginning of all things as a Unit is the beginning of all Numbers and can perform as many things really as a Unit can numerically that is can do as much in the making of Creatutes as a Unit can do in the multiplying of Numbers The Omnipotence of God was scarce denied by any Heathen that did not deny the Being of a God and that was Pliny and that upon weak Arguments 2. Indeed we cannot have a conception of God if we conceive him not most Powerful as well as most Wise He is not a God that cannot do what he will and perform all his pleasure If we imagine him restrain'd in his Power we imagine him limited in his Essence As he hath an infinite Knowledge to know what is possible he cannot be without an infinite Power to do what is possible As he hath a Will to resolve what he sees good so he cannot want a Power to effect what he sees good to decree As the Essence of a Creature cannot be conceiv'd without that activity that belongs to his nature as when you conceive Fire you cannot conceive it without a power of burning and warming and when you conceive Water you cannot conceive it without a power of moistning and cleansing So you cannot conceive an Infinite Essence without an Infinite Power of activity And therefore a Heathen could say If you know God you know he can do all things and therefore saith Austin Give me not only a Christian but a Jew not only a Jew but a Heathen that will deny God to be Almighty A Jew a Heathen may deny Christ to be Omnipotent but no Heathen will deny God to be Omnipotent and no Devil will deny either to be so God cannot be conceiv'd without some Power for then he must be conceiv'd without Action Whos 's then are those products and effects of Power which are visible to us in the World to whom do they belong who is the Father of them God cannot be conceiv'd without a Power suitable to his Nature and Essence if we imagine him to be of an Infinite Essence we must imagine him to be of an Infinite Power and Strength In particular I shall shew 1. The Nature of God's Power 2. Reasons to prove that God must needs be Powerful 3. How his Power appears in Creation in Government in Redemption 4. The Vse I. What this Power is or the Nature of it 1. Power sometimes signifies Authority And a Man is said to be Mighty and Powerful in regard of his Dominion and the right he hath to Command multitudes of other persons to take his part but Power taken for Strength and Power taken for Authority are distinct things and may be separated from one another Power may be without Authority as in successful Invasions that have no just foundation Authority may be without Power as in a Just Prince expell'd by an unjust Rebellion the Authority resides in him though he be over-power'd and is destitute of Strength to support and exercise that Authority The Power
of a Woman ‖ Gal. 4 4. That part of the Flesh of the Virgin whereof the Humane Nature of Christ was made was refin'd and purifi'd from Corruption by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost as a skilful Workman separates the Dross from the Gold Our Saviour is therefore called that Holy thing * Luke 1.35 though born of the Virgin He was necessarily some way to descend from Adam God indeed might have created his Body out of Nothing or have formed it as he did Adams out of the Dust of the Ground But had he been thus extraordinarily formed and not propagated from Adam though he had been a Man like one of us yet he would not have been of kin to us because it would not have been a Nature deriv'd from Adam the Common Parent of us all †Amyrald in Symbol p. 103 c. It was therefore necessary to an affinity with us not only that he should have the same Humane Nature but that it should slow from the same Principle and be propagated to him But now by this way of producing the Humanity of Christ of the Substance of the Virgin He was in Adam say some Corporally but not Seminally of the Substance of Adam or a Daughter of Adam but not of the Seed of Adam And so he is of the same Nature that had sinned so what he did and suffered may be imputed to us which had he been created as Adam could not be claim'd in a Legal and Judicial way 2. It was not convenient he should be born in the Common order of Nature of Father and Mother For whosoever is so born is polluted A Clean thing cannot be brought out of an unclean ‖ Job 14.4 And our Saviour had been uncapable of being a Redeemer had he been tainted with the least Spot of our Nature but would have stood in need of Redemption himself Besides it had been inconsistent with the Holiness of the Divine Nature to have assumed a tainted and defiled Body He that was the Fountain of Blessedness to all Nations was not to be subject to the Curse of the Law for himself which he would have been had he been conceiv'd in an ordinary way He that was to overturn the Devils Empire was not to be any way captive under the Devils Power as a Creature under the Curse nor could he be able to break the Serpents head had he been tainted with the Serpents breath Again supposing that Almighty God by his Divine Power had so order'd the matter and so perfectly sanctified an Earthly Father and Mother from all Original spot that the Humane Nature might have been transmitted Immaculate to him as well as the Holy Ghost did purge that part of the flesh of the Virgin of which the Body of Christ was made yet it was not convenient that that Person that was God blessed for ever as well as Man partaking of our Nature should have a Conception in the same manner as ours but different and in some measure conformable to the Infinite dignity of his Person which could not have been had not a supernatural Power and a Divine Person been concern'd as an active Principle in it Besides such a Birth had not been agreeable to the first Promise Gen. 1.15 which calls him The Seed of the woman not of the Man and so the Veracity of God had suffer'd some detriment The seed of the woman only is set in opposition to the seed of the Serpent 3. By this manner of Conception the Holiness of his Nature is secur'd and his fitness for his Office is assur'd to us 'T is now a pure and unpolluted Humanity that is the Temple and Tabernacle of the Divinity The Fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily and dwells in him Holily His Humanity is supernaturaliz'd and elevated by the activity of the Holy Ghost hatching the Flesh of the Virgin into Man as the Chaos into a World Though we read of some sanctified from the Womb it was not a pure and perfect Holiness it was like the Light of Fire mixed with Smoak an infus'd Holiness accompanied with a Natural tâ—int But the Holiness of the Redeemer by this Conception is like the Light of the Sun pure and without spot The Spirit of Holiness supplying the place of a Father in a way of Creation His Fitness for his Office is also assur'd to us for being born of the Virgin one of our Nature but conceived by the Spirit a Divine Person the guilt of our Sins may be imputed to him because of our Nature without the stain of Sin inherent in him because of his Supernatural Conception he is capable as one of Kin to us to bear our Curse without being toucht by our Taint By this means our sinful Nature is assum'd without Sin in that Nature which was assum'd by him Flesh he hath but not Sinful flesh Rom. 8.3 Real Flesh but not really Sinful only by way of Imputation Nothing but the Power of God is evident in this whole Work By the ordinary Laws and course of Nature a Virgin could not bear a Son nothing but a Supernatural and Almighty Grace could intervene to make so holy and perfect a Conjunction * Amyrant sâ—r â—imole p. 292. The generation of others in an ordinary way is by Male and Female But the Virgin is overshadow'd by the Spirit and Power of the Highest Man only is the product of Natural generation this which is born of the Virgin is the Holy thing the Son of God In other generations a Rational Soul is only united to a Material Body But in this the Divine Nature is united with the Humane in one Person by an indissoluble Union II. The Second Act of Power in the Person Redeeming is the Union of the two Natures the Divine and Humane The designing indeed of this was an act of Wisdom but the accomplishing it was an act of Power 1. There is in this Redeeming Person a Union of two Natures He is God and Man in one Person Heb. 1.8 9. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever God even thy God hath anointed thee with the Oil of Gladness c. The Son is called God having a Throne for ever and ever and the Unction speaks him Man The Godhead cannot be Anointed nor hath any Fellows Humanity and Divinity are ascrib'd to him Rom. 1.3 4. He was of the Seed of David according to the Flesh and declared to be the Son of God by hiâ— Resurrection from the dead The Divinity and Humanity are both Prophetically joyn'd Zach. 12.10 I will pour out my Spirit the pouring forth the Spirit is an Act only of Divine Grace and Power And they shâ—ll look upon me whom they have pierced the same Person pours forth the Spirit as God and is pierced as Man The Word was made Flesh John 1.14 Word from Eternity was made Flesh in time Word and Flesh in one Person a great God and a little Infant 2. The
proper subsistence by it self which now it borrows from its union with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Word but that doth not belong to the Constitution of its Nature Now let us Consider what a wonder of Power is all this The knitting a Noble Soul to a Body of Clay was not so great an exploit of Almightiness as the espousing Infinite and Finite together Man is further distant from God than Man from Nothing What a wonder is it that two Natures infinitely distant should be more intimately united than any thing in the World and yet without any confusion That the same Person should have both a Glory and a Grief an infinite Joy in the Deity and an unexpressible Sorrow in the Humanity That a God upon a Throne should be an Infant in a Cradle the Thundering Creator be a weeping Babe and a suffering Man are such expressions of mighty Power as well as condescending Love that they astonish Men upon Earth and Angels in Heaven 3. Power was evident in the progress of his life In the Miracles he wrought How often did he expel malicious and powerful Devils from their habitations hurl them from their Thrones and make them fall from Heaven like Lightning How many Wonders were wrought by his bare Word or a single Touch Sight restored to the Blind and Hearing to the Deaf Palsie Members restored to the exercise of their functions a dismiss given to many deplorable Maladies impure Leprosies chas'd from the Persons they had infected and Bodies beginning to putrifie rais'd from the Grave But the mightiest Argument of Power was his Patience That he who was in his Divine Nature elevated above the World should so long continue upon a Dung-hill endure the contradiction of Sinners against himself be patiently subject to the Reproaches and Indignities of Men without displaying that Justice which was essential to the Deity and in especial manner daily merited by their provoking Crimes The Patience of Man under great Affronts is a greater Argument of power than the Brawnyness of his Arm A Strength employ'd in the revenge of every Injury signifies a greater infirmity in the Soul than there can be ability in the Body 4. Divine Power was apparent in his Resurrection The unlocking the belly of the Whale for the deliverance of Jonas the rescue of Daniel from the Den of Lions and the restraining the Fire from burning the Three Children were signal declarations of his Power and types of the Resurrection of our Saviour But what are those to that which was represented by them That was a power over Natural causes a curbing of Beasts and restraining of Elements But in the Resurrection of Christ God exercis'd a power over himself and quencht the flames of his own Wrath hotter than Millions of Nebuchadnezzars Furnaces unlockt the Prison doors wherein the Curses of the Law had lodg'd our Saviour stronger than the Belly and Ribbs of a Leviathan In the rescue of Daniel and Jonas God overpowered Beasts and in this tore up the strength of the Old Serpent and pluckt the Scepter from the hand of the Enemy of Mankind The Work of Resurrection indeed considered in it self requires the efficacy of an Almighty Power Neither Man nor Angel can create new dispositions in a Dead Body to render it capable of lodging a Spiritual Soul nor can they restore a dislodged Soul by their own power to such a Body The restoring a Dead Body to life requires an Infinite Power as well as the Creation of the World But there was in the Resurrection of Christ something more difficult than this while he lay in the Grave he was under the Curse of the Law under the execution of that dreadful Sentence Thou shalt die the death His Resurrection was not only the re-tying â—he Marriage knot between his Soul and Body or the rouling the Stone from the Grave but a taking off an infinite weight the Sin of Mankind which lay upon him So vast a weight could not be removed without the strength of an Almighty Arm. 'T is therefore ascrib'd not to an ordinary operation but an operation with Power †Rom. 1.4 and such a Power wherein the Glory of the Father did appear Rom. 6.4 Rais'd up from the dead by the glory of the Father that is the glorious Power of God As the Eternal Generation is stupendous so is his Resurrection which is called a new begetting of him Acts 13.33 'T is a wonder of Power that the Divine and Humane Nature should be joyn'd and no less wonder that his Person should surmount and rise up from the Curse of God under which he lay The Apostle therefore adds one expression to another and heaps up a variety signifying thereby that one was not enough to represent it Eph. 1.19 Exceeding greatness of power and working of mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead It was an hyperbole of Power the excellency of the Mightiness of his Strength the loftiness of the expressions seems to come short of the apprehension he had of it in his Soul Secondly This Power appears in the Publication and Propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption The Divine Power will appear if you consider 1. The Nature of the Doctrine 2. The Instruments employed in it 3. The Means they us'd to propagate it 4. The Success they had I. The Nature of the Doctrine 1. It was contrary to the common received reason of the World The Philosophers the Masters of Knowledge among the Gentiles had Maxims of a different stamp from it Though they agreed in the Being of a God yet their Notions of his Nature were confus'd and embroil'd with many Errors the Unity of God was not commonly assented unto They had multiplied Deities acâ—ording to the Fancies they had received from some of a more elevated Wit and refin'd Brain than others Though they had some notion of Mediators yet they placed in those Seats their publick Benefactors Men that had been useful to the World or their particular Countries in imparting to them some profitable Invention To discard those was to charge themselves with Ingratitude to them from whom they had received signal benefits and to whose Mediation Conduct or Protection they ascrib'd all the Success they had been blessed with in their several Provinces and to charge themselves with Folly for rendring an Honour and Worship to them so long Could the Doctrine of a Crucified Mediator whom they had never seen that had conquer'd no Country for them never enlarg'd their Territories brought to light no new profitable Invention for the increase of their Earthly welfare as the rest had done be thought sufficient to balance so many of their reputed Heroes How ignorant were they in the foundations of the True Religion The belief of a Providence was staggering nor had they a true prospect of the nature of Vertue and Vice Yet they had a fond Opinion of the strength of their own Reason and the Maxims that had
of God Righteousness a Perfection as referred to others in his Actions towards them and upon them In Particular This Property of the Divine Nature is First An essential and necessary Perfection He is essentially and necessarily Holy 'T is the essential glory of his Nature His Holiness is as necessary as his Being as necessary as his Omniscience As he cannot but know what is right so he cannot but do what is just His Understanding is not as Created Understandings capable of Ignorance as well as Knowledge so his Will is not as Created Wills capable of Unrighteousness as well as Righteousness There can be no contradiction or contrariety in the Divine Nature to know what is right and to do what is wrong If so there would be a diminu ion of his Blessedness he would not be a God alway blessed Blessed for ever as he is * Rom. 9 5. He is as necessarily Holy as he is necessarily God as necessarily without Sin as without Change As he was God from Eternity so he was Holy from Eternity †Turreâ—in de Satisfact p. 28. He was Gracious Merciful Just in his own Nature and also Holy though no Creature had been framed by him to exercise his Grace Mercy Justice or Holiness upon If God had not created a World he had in his own Nature been Almighty and able to Create a World If there never had been any thing but himself yet he had been Omniscient knowing every thing that was within the verge and compass of his Infinite Power so he was Pure in his own Nature though he never had brought forth any Rational Creature whereby to manifest this Purity These Perfections are so necessary that the Nature of God could not subsist without them And the acts of those ad intra or within himself are necessary for being Omniscient in Nature there must be an act of knowledge of himself and his own Nature Being Infinitely Holy an act of Holiness in Infinitely loving himself must necessarily flow from this Perfection ‖ Ochino Predic part 3. Bodic 51. p. 347 348. As the Divine Will cannot but be perfect so it cannot be wanting to render the highest Love to it self to its Goodness to the Divine Nature which is due to him Indeed the acts of those ad extra are not necessary but upon a condition To love Righteousness without himself or to detest Sin or inflict Punishment for the committing of it could not have been had there been no Righteous Creature for him to love no Sinning Creature for him to loath and to exercise his Justice upon as the Object of Punishment Some Attributes require a Condition to make the Acts of them necessary As it is at Gods liberty whether he will create a Rational Creature or no But when he decrees to make either Angel or Man 't is necessary from the Perfection of his Nature to make them Righteous 'T is at Gods liberty whether he will speak to Man or no but if he doth 't is impossible for him to speak that which is false because of his Infinite Perfection of Veracity 'T is at his liberty whether he will permit a Creature to Sin but if he sees good to suffer it 't is impossible but that he should detest that Creature that goes cross to his Righteous Nature His Holiness is not solely an Act of his Will for then he might be Unholy as well as Holy he might love Iniquity and hate Righteousness he might then command that which is good and afterwards command that which is bad and unworthy For what is only an Act of his Will and not belonging to his Nature is indifferenr to him As the positive Law he gave to Adam of not eating the Forbidden Fruit was a pure Act of his Will he might have given him liberty to eat of it if he had pleased as well as prohibited him But what is Moral and good in its own Nature is necessarily willed by God and cannot be changed by him because of the transcendent Eminency of his Nature and Righteousness of his Will As it is impossible for God to command his Creature to hate him or to dispence with a Creature for not loving him for this would be to command a thing intrinsically Evil the highest Ingratitude the very Spirit of all Wickedness which consists in the hating God Yet though God be thus necessarily Holy he is not so by a bare and simple necessity as the Sun shines or the Fire burns but by a free necessity not compelled thereunto but inclined from the fulness of the Perfection of his own Nature and Will so as by no means he can be Unholy because he will not be Unholy 't is against his Nature to be so 2. God is only absolutely Holy There is none Holy as the Lord. 1 Sam. 2.2 'T is the peculiar glory of his Nature As there is none Good but God so none Holy but God No Creature can be essentially Holy because Mutable Holiness is the substance of God but a Quality and Accident in a Creature God is Infinitely Holy Creatures Finitely Holy He is holy from Himself Creatures are holy by derivation from him He is not only Holy but Holiness Holiness in the highest degree is his sole Prerogative As the highest Heaven is called the Heaven of Heavens because it embraceth in its Circle all the Heavens and contains the Magnitude of them and hath a greater vastness above all that it incloseth so is God the Holy of Holies He contains the Holiness of all Creatures put together and Infinitely more As all the Wisdom Excellency and Power of the Creatures if compar'd with the Wisdom Excellency and Power of God is but Folly Vileness and Weakness so the highest created Purity if set in parallel with God is but Impurity and Uncleaness Revel 15.4 Thou only art Holy 'T is like the light of a Glow-worm to that of the Sun †Job 15.15 The Heavens are not pure in his sight and his Angels he charged with folly Job 4 18. Though God hath Crowned the Angels with an unspotted Sanctity and placed them in a habitation of Glory yet as Illustrious as they are they have an Unworthiness in their own Nature to appear before the Throne of so Holy a God Their holiness grows dim and pale in his Presence 'T is but a weak shadow of that Divine Purity whose Light is so glorious that it makes them cover their faces out of weakness to behold it and cover their Feet out of shame in themselves They are not pure in his sight because though they love God which is a Principle of Holiness as much as they can yet not so much as he deserves They love him with the intensest degree according to their Power but not with the intensest degree according to his own Amiableness For they cannot infinitely love God unless they were as Infinite as God and had an understanding of his Perfections equal with himself and as immense
Encourage or Excite or Incline to sin How can he excite to that which when it is done he will be sure to condemn How can he be a Righteous Judge to sentence a sinner to Misery for a Crime acted by a secret Inspiration from himself Iniquity would deserve no reproof from him if he were any way positively the Author of it Were God the Author of it in us what is the reason our own Consciences accuse us for it and convince us of it that being God's Deputy would not accuse us of it if the Soveraign Power by which it acts did incline us to it How can he be thought to excite to that which he hath enacted such severe Laws to restrain or encline Man to that which he hath so dreadfully punished in his Son and which it is impossible but the excellency of his Nature must encline him eternally to hate We may sooner imagine that a pure Flame shall engender Cold and Darkness be the Off-spring of a Sun-beam as imagine such a thing as this What shall we say is there unrighteousness with God God forbid The Apostle execrates such a thought Rom. 9.14 6. God cannot act any Evil in or by himself If he cannot approve of sin in others nor excite any to iniquity which is less he cannot commit Evil himself which is greater What he cannot positively will in another can never be willed in himself he cannot do evil through Ignorance because of his Infinite Knowledge nor through Weakness because of his Infinite Power nor through Malice because of his Infinite Rectitude He cannot will any unjust thing because having an infinitely perfect Understanding he cannot judge that to be true which is false or that to be good which is evil his Will is regulated by his Wisdom If he could will any unjust and irrational thing his Will would be repugnant to his Understanding there would be a disagreement in God Will against Mind and Will against Wisdom He being the highest Reason the first Truth cannot do an unreasonable false defective Action 'T is not a defect in God that he cannot do Evil but a fulness and excellency of Power As it is not a weakness in the Light but the perfection of it that it is unable to produce Darkness God is the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness James 1.17 Nothing pleases him nothing is acted by him but what is beseeming the Infinite excellency of his own Nature The voluntary necessity whereby God cannot be unjust renders him a God blessed for ever He would hate himself as the chief Good if in any of his Actions he should disagree with his Goodness He cannot do any unworthy thing not because he wants an Infinite Power but because he is possessed of an Infinite Wisdom and adorn'd with an Infinite Purity and being infinitely pure cannot have the least mixture of impurity As if you can suppose Fire infinitely hot you cannot suppose it to have the least mixture of Coldness The better any thing is the more unable it is to do evil God being the only Goodness can as little be changed in his Goodness as in his Essence The Second thing 2. The next enquiry is The Proof that God is holy or the manifestation of it Purity is as requisite to the blessedness of God as to the Being of God As he could not be God without being blessed so he could not be blessed without being holy He is called by the title of blessed as well as by that of holy Mark 14.61 Art thou the Christ the Son of the Blessed Unrighteousness is a misery and turbulency in any Spirit wherein it is For it is a privation of an excellency which ought to be in every intellectual Being and what can follow upon the privation of an excellency but unquietness and grief the moth of Happiness An unrighteous man as an unrighteous man can never be blessed though he were in a local Heaven Had God the least Spot upon his Purity it would render him as miserable in the midst of his Infinite Sufficiency as Iniquity renders a man in the confluence of his earthly Enjoyments The Holiness and Felicity of God are inseparable in him The Apostle intimates that the Heathen made an attempt to sully his Blessedness when they would liken him to corruptible mutable impure man Rom. 1.23 25. They changed the Glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to Corruptible Man And after he entitles God a God blessed for ever The Gospel is therefore called The glorious Gospel of the blessed God 1 Tim. 1.11 In regard of the holiness of the Gospel Precepts and in regard of the Declaration of the holiness of God in all the Streams and Branches wherein his Purity in which his Blessedness consists is as illustrious as any other Perfection of the Divine Being God hath highly manifested this Attribute in the state of Nature in the Legal Administration in the dispensation of the Gospel His Wisdom Goodness and Power are declared in Creation his Soveraign Authority in his Law his Grace and Mercy in the Gospel and his Righteousness in all Sutable to this threefold state may be that ternal Repetition of his Holiness in the Prophecy Isai 6.3 holy as Creator and Benefactor holy as Law-giver and Judge holy as Restorer and Redeemer 1. His holiness appears as he is Creator in framing man in a perfect Vprightness Angels as made by God could not be evil for God beheld his own Works with pleasure and could not have pronounced them all good had some been created pure and others impure Two Moral Contrarieties could not be good The Angels had a first estate wherein they were happy * Jude 6. and had they not left their own habitation and state they could not have been miserable But because the Scripture speaks only of the Creation of man we will consider that the Humane Nature was well strung and tun'd by God according to the Note of his own Holiness Eccl. 7.29 God hath made man upright He had declared his Power in other Creatures but would declare in his Rational Creature what he most valued in himself and therefore created him upright with a Wisdom which is the rectitude of the Mind with a Purity which is the rectitude of the Will and Affections He had declared a purity in other Creatures as much as they were capable of viz. in the exact tuning them to answer one another And that God who so well tun'd and compos'd other Creatures would not make Man a Jarring Instrument and place a crackt Creature to be Lord of the rest of his earthly Fabrick God being holy could not set his Seal upon any Rational Creature but the Impression would be like himself pure and holy also He could not be created with an Error in his Understanding that had been inconsistent with the Goodness of God to his Rational Creature if so the erronious motion of the Will which was to follow the dictates of the
into his heart which forced that Terrible cry from him My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he adores this Perfection of Holiness v. 3. But thou art holy Thy Holiness is the Spring of all this sharp Agony and for this thou Inhabitest and shalt for ever inhabit the Praises of all thy Israel Holiness drew the Vail between Gods Countenance and our Saviours Soul Justice indeed gave the stroke but Holiness order'd it In this his Purity did sparkle and his Irreversible Justice manifested that all those that commit Sin are worthy of death this was the perfect Index of his Righteousness †Rom 3 2◠that is of his Holiness and Truth then it was that God that is Holy was sanctified in Righteousness Isai 5.16 It appears the more if you consider 1. The Dignity of the Redeemers Person One that had been from Eternity had laid the Foundations of the World had been the Object of the Divine Delight He that was God blessed for ever becomes a Curse He who was blessed by Angels and by whom God blessed the World must be seiz'd with Horrour The Son of Eternity must bleed to death Where did ever Sin appear so irreconcileable to God Where did God ever break out so furiously in his detestation of Iniquity The Father would have the most Excellent Person one next in order to himself and Equal to him in all the glorious Perfections of his Nature * Phil 2.6 Die on a Disgraceful Cross and be exposed to the flames of Divine Wrath rather than Sin should live and his Holiness remain for ever disparaged by the Violations of his Law 2. The near Relation he stood in to the Father He was his own Son that he delivered up Rom. 8.32 His Essential Image as dearly beloved by him as himself yet he would abate nothing of his Hatred of those Sins imputed to one so dear to him and who never had done any thing contrary to his Will The strong Cries utter'd by him could not cause him to cut off the least Fringe of this Royal Garment nor part with a Thred the Robe of his Holiness was woven with The Torrent of Wrath is open'd upon him and the Fathers Heart beats not in the least notice of Tenderness to Sin in the midst of his Sons Agonies †Lingend Tom. 3. p. 699 700. God seems to lay aside the Bowels of a Father and put on the garb of an Irreconcileable Enemy Upon which account probably our Saviour in the midst of his Passion gives him the Title of God not of Father the Title he usually before Addrest to him with Math. 27.46 My God my God not My Father my Father why hast thou forsaken me He seems to hang upon the Cross like a disinherited Son while he appear'd in the garb and rank of a Sinner Then was his Head loaded with Curses when he stood under that Sentence of Cursed is every one that hangs upon a Tree Gal. 3.13 and look'd as one forlorn and rejected by the Divine Purity and Tenderness God dealt not with him as if he had been one in so near a Relation to him He left him not to the Will only of the Instruments of his Death he would have the chiefest blow himself of bruising of him Isai 53.10 It pleased the Lord to bruise him the Lord because the power of Creatures could not strike a blow strong enough to satisfie and secure the Rights of Infinite Holiness It was therefore a Cup temper'd and put into his hands by his Father a Cup given him to drink In other Judgments he lets out his Wrath against his Creatures in this he lets out his Wrath as it were against Himself against his Son One as dear to him as himself As in his making Creatures his Power over Nothing to bring it into Being appear'd but in pardoning Sin he hath power over himself so in punishing Creatures his Holiness appears in his Wrath against Creatures against Sinners by inherency But by punishing Sin in his Son his Holiness sharpens his Wrath against him who was his Equal and only a reputed Sinner As if his Affection to his own Holiness surmounted his Affection to his Son For he chose to suspend the breakings out of his Affections to his Son and see him plunged in a sharp and Ignominious Misery without giving him any visible Token of his Love rather than see his Holiness lie groaning under the Injuries of a Transgressing World 3. The Value he puts upon his Holiness appears further in the Advancement of this Redeeming Person after his Death Our Saviour was Advanc'd not barely for his Dying but for the respect he had in his Death to this Attribute of God Heb. 1.9 Thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity therefore God even thy God hath Anointed thee with the Oil of Gladness c. By Righteousness is meant this Perfection because of the opposition of it to Iniquity Some think Therefore to be the final Cause as if this were the sense Thou art anointed with the Oil of Gladness that thou mightest love Righteousness and hate Iniquity But the Holy Ghost seeming to speak in this Chapter not only of the Godhead of Christ but of his Exaltation the Doctrine whereof he had begun in Verse 3. and prosecutes in the following Verses I would rather understand Therefore For this cause or reason hath God anointed thee not to this end Christ indeed had an Unction of Grace whereby he was fitted for his Mediatory Work He had also an Unction of Glory whereby he was rewarded for it In the first regard it was a qualifying him for his Office in the second regard it was a solemn Inaugurating him in his Royal Authority And the Reason of his being setled upon a Throne for ever and ever is because he loved Righteousness He suffered himself to be pierced to Death that Sin the Enemy of Gods Purity might be destroy'd and the Honour of the Law the Image of Gods Holiness might be repair'd and fulfilled in the Fallen Creature He restored the Credit of Divine Holiness in the World in manifesting by his Death God an irreconcileable Enemy to all Sin in abolishing the Empire of Sin so hateful to God and restoring the rectitude of Nature and new framing the Image of God in his chosen Ones And God so valued this Vindication of his Holiness that he confers upon him in his Humane Nature an Eternal Royalty and Empire over Angels and Men. Holiness was the great Attribute respected by Christ in his dying and manifested in his Death and for his Love to this God would bestow an Honour upon his Person in that Nature wherein he did vindicate the Honour of so dear a Perfection In the Death of Christ he shewed his Resolution to preserve its Rights In the Exaltation of Christ he evidenced his mighty pleasure for the Vindication of it In both the Infinite value he had for it as dear to him as his Life and Glory 4. It
34.12 How despicable is a Judge that wants Innocence As Omniscience fits God to be a Judge so Holiness fits him to be a Righteous Judge Psal 1.6 The Lord knows that is loves the way of the Righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish 9. Information If Holiness be an eminent Perfection of the Divine Nature The Christian Religion is of a Divine Extraction It discovers the Holiness of God and forms the Creature to a conformity to him It gives us a prospect of his Nature represents him in the Beauty of Holiness Psal 110.3 more than the whole Glass of the Creation 'T is in this Evangelical Glass the Glory of the Lord is beheld and rendred amiable and imitable †2 Cor. 3.18 'T is a Doctrine according to Godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 directing us to live the Life of God a life worthy of God and worthy of our first Creation by his hand It takes us off from our selves fixeth us upon a Noble End points our Actions and the scope of our lives to God It quells the Monsters of Sin discountenanceth the Motes of Wickedness and it is no mean Argument for the Divinity of it that it sets us no lower a Pattern for our Imitation than the Holiness of the Divine Majesty God is exalted upon the Throne of his Holiness in it and the Creature advanc'd to an Image and resemblance of it 1 Pet. 1.16 Be ye holy for I am holy Vse 2. The Second use is for Comfort This Attribute frowns upon Lapsed Nature but smiles in the Restorations made by the Gospel Gods Holiness in conjunction with his Justice is Terrible to a guilty Sinner but now in conjunction with his Mercy by the Satisfaction of Christ 't is sweet to a Believing Penitent In the first Covenant the Purity of his Nature was joyned with the Rigours of his Justice In the second Covenant the Purity of his Nature is joyned with the Sweetness and Tenderness of his Mercy In the one Justice flames against the Sinner in the right of Injur'd Holiness In the other Mercy yearns towards a Believer with the consent of Righted Holiness To rejoyce in the Holiness of God is the true and genuine Spirit of a Renewed Man My heart rejoyceth in the Lord what follows There is none holy as the Lord 1 Sam. 2.1 2. Some Perfections of the Divine Nature are Astonishing some Affrighting but this may may fill us both with Astonishment at it and a Joy in it 1. By Covenant we have an Interest in this Attribute as well as any other In that Clause of Gods being our God entire God with all his Glory all his Perfections are past over as a portion and a gracious Soul is brought into Union with God as his God Not with a part of God but with God in the Simplicity Extent Integrity of his Nature and therefore in this Attribute And upon some account it may seem more in this Attribute than in any other for if he be our God he is our God in his Life and Glory and therefore in his Purity especially without which he could not live he could not be happy and blessed Little comfort will it be to have a dead God or a vile God made over to us And as by this Covenant he is our Father so he gives us his Nature and communicates his Holiness in all his Dispensations and in those that are severest as well as those that are sweetest Heb. 12.10 But he corrects us for our profit that we might be partakers of his Holiness Not simply partakers of Holiness but of his Holiness to have a Portrayture of it in our Nature a Meddal of it in our hearts a spark of the same Nature with that Immense splendor and flame in himself The Holiness of a Covenant Soul is a resemblance of the Holiness of God and formed by it As the Picture of the Sun in a Cloud is a fruit of his Beams and an Image of its Author The fulness of the Perfection of Holiness remains in the Nature of God as the fulness of the Light doth in the Sun yet there are transmissions of Light from the Sun to the Moon and it is a Light of the same Nature both in the one and in the other The Holiness of a Creature is nothing else but a reflection of the Divine Holiness upon it and to make the Creature capable of it God takes various methods according to his Covenant Grace 2. This Attribute renders God a fit Object for Trust and Dependance The Notion of an Unholy and Unrighteous God is an uncomfortable Idea of him and beats off our hands from laying any hold of him 'T is upon this Attribute the Reputation and Honour of God in the World is built What encouragement can we have to believe him or what Incentives could we have to serve him without the lustre of this in his Nature The very thought of an Unrighteous God is enough to drive Men at the greatest distance from him As the Honesty of a Man gives a reputation to his Word so doth the Holiness of God give credit to his Promise 'T is by this he would have us stifle our Fears and fortifie our Trust Isai 41.14 Fear not thou worm Jacob and ye men of Israel I will help thee saith the Lord and thy Redeemer the holy one of Israel He will be in his Actions what he is in his Nature Nothing shall make him defile his own Excellency Unrighteousness is the ground of Mutability but the Promise of God doth never fail because the rectitude of his Nature doth never languish Were his Attributes without the conduct of this they would be altogether formidable As this is the glory of all his other Perfections so this only renders him comfortable to a Believing Soul Might we not fear his Power to crush us his Mercy to overlook us his Wisdom to design against us if this did not influence them What an oppression is Power without Righteousness in the hand of a Creature destructive instead of protecting The Devil is a mighty Spirit but not fit to be trusted because he is an Impure Spirit When God would give us the highest Security of the sincerity of his Intentions he swears by this Attribute †Psal 8.35 His Holiness as well as his Truth is laid to pawn for the Security of his Promise As we make God the Judge between us and others when we swear by him so he makes his Holiness the Judge between himself and his People when he swears by it 1. 'T is this renders him fit to be confided in for the answer of our Prayers This is tâ—e ground of his readiness to give * Matth. 7.11 If you being evil know how to give good gifts how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good thâ—ngâ— to them that ask him Though the holiness of God be not mention'd yet it is to be understood the Emphasis lies in those words if you being evil
God is then considered in a disposition contrary to this which can be nothing but his Righteousness If you that are unholy and have so much Corruption in you to render you cruel can bestow upon your Children the good things they want how much more shall God who is holy and hath nothing in him to check his mercifulness to his Creatures grant the Petitions of his Suppliants 'T was this Attribute edg'd the siduciary importunity of the Souls under the Altar for the revenging their blood unjustly shed upon the Earth Rev. 6.10 How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth Let not thy holiness stand with folded Arms as careless of the eminent Sufferings of those that fear thee we implore thee by the holiness of thy Nature and the truth of thy Word 2. This renders him fit to be confided in for the comfort of our Souls in a broken condition The reviving the hearts of the spiritually afflicted is a part of the holiness of his Nature Isa 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble He acknowledgeth himself the lofty One they might therefore fear he would not revive them but he is also the holy One and therefore he will refresh them he is not more lofty than he is holy besides the argument of the immutability of his Promise and the might of his Power here is the holiness of his Nature moving him to pity his drooping Creature His Promise is usher'd in with the name of power high and lofty One to bar their distrust of his strength and with a declaration of his holiness to check any despair of his Will There is no ground to think I should be false to my word or misemploy my Power since that cannot be because of the holiness of my Name and Nature 3. This renders him fit to be confided in for the maintenance of grace and protection of us against our spiritual Enemies What our Saviour thought an argument in Prayer we may well take as a ground of our confidence In the strength of this he puts up his sute when in his mediatory Capacity he intercedes for the preservation of his People John 17.11 Holy Father keep through thy own Name those that thou hast given me that they may be one as we are Holy Father not merciful Father or powerful or wise Father but holy and Verse 25. righteous Father Christ pleads that Attribute for the performance of God's Word which was laid to pawn when he past his word For it was by his Holiness that he swore That his seed should endure for ever and his Throne as the Sun before him †Psal 89.36 which is meant of the perpetuity of the Covenant which he made with Christ and is also meant of the preservation of the mystical Seed of David and the perpetuating his loving kindness to them ‖ Vers 32 33. Grace is an Image of God's holiness and therefore the holiness of God is most proper to be used as an Argument to interest and engage him in the preservation of it In the midst of Church provocations he will not utterly extinguish because he is the holy One in the midst of her * Hos 11.9 Nor in the midst of Judgments will he condemn his people to death because he is their holy one †Hab. 1.12 but their Enemies shall be ordained for Judgment and established for Correction One Prophet assures them in the Name of the Lord upon the strength of this Perfection and the other upon the same ground is confident of the protection of the Church because of Gods holiness engag'd in an inviolable Covenant 3. Comfort Since holiness is a glorious Perfection of the Nature of God he will certainly value every holy Soul 'T is of a greater value with him than the Souls of all men in the World that are destitute of it Wicked men are the worst of vilenesses meer dross and dunghil ‖ Psal 12.8 The vilest mâ—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Purity then which is contrary to wickedness must be the most precious thing in his esteem he must needs love that quality which he is most pleas'd with in himself as a father looks with most delight upon the child which is possess'd with those dispositions he most values in his own nature His Countenance doth behold the upright Ps 11.7 He looks upon them with a full and open Face of favour with a countenance clear unmaskt and smiling with a Face full of delight Heaven it self is not such a pleasing Object to him as the Image of his own increated holiness in the created holiness of Men and Angels As a man esteems that most which is most like him of his own Generation more than a piece of Art which is meerly the product of his wit or strength And he must love holiness in the Creature he would not else love his own Image and consequently would undervalue himself He despiseth the Image the wicked bears * Psal 73.20 but he cannot disesteem his own stamp on the godly he cannot but delight in his own work his choice work the Master-piece of all his works the new Creation of things that which is next to himself as being a Divine Nature like himself †2 Pet. 1.4 When he overlooks strength parts knowledge he cannot overlook this He sets apart him that is godly for himself Psal 4.3 as a peculiar Object to take pleasure in he reserves such for his own complacency when he leaves the rest of the World to the Devils power he is choice of them above all his other works and will not let any have so great a propriety in them as himself If it be so dear to him here in its imperfect and mixt condition that he appropriates it as a peculiar Object for his own delight how much more will the unspotted purity of glorified Saints be infinitely pleasing to him So that he will take less pleasure in the material Heavens than in such a Soul Sin only is detestable to God and when this is done away the Soul becomes as lovely in his account as before it was loathsome 4. 'T is comfort upon this account That God will perfect holiness in every upright Soul We many times distrust God and despond in our selves because of the infinite holiness of the Divine Nature and the dunghil Corruptions in our own but the holiness of God engageth him to the preservation of it and consequently to the perfection of it as appears by our Saviour's Argument Joh. 17.11 Holy Father keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me to what end that they may be one as we are one with us in the resemblances of Purity And the holiness of the Soul is used as an Argument by
a lower measure much more will he love it in a higher degree because then his Image is more illustrious and beautiful and comes nearer to the lively lineaments of his own Infinite Purity Perfection in any thing is more lovely and amiable than Imperfection in any state and the nearer any thing arrives to Perfection the further are those things separated from it which might Cool an affection to it An increase in holiness is attended with a manifestation of his love Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keeps them he it is that loves me and he shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and I will manifest my self to him T is a testimony of love to God and God will not be behind hand with the Creature in kindness He loves a holy man for some resemblance to him in his Nature but when there is an abounding in Sanctified dispositions sutable to it there is an increase of savour The more we resemble the Original the more shall we enjoy the blessedness of that Original As any partake more of the Divine likeness they partake more of the Divine happiness 5. Exhortation Let us carry our selves holily in a spiritual manner in all our religious approaches to God Psal 93.5 Holiness becomes thy house O Lord for ever This Attribute should work in us a deep and reverential respect to God This is the reason rendred why we should worship at his foot-stool in the lowest posture of humility prostrate before him because he is holy †Psal 99.5 Shooes must be put off from our feet Exod. 3.5 that is Lusts from our Affections every thing that our souls are clogged and bemired with as the Shooe is with dirt He is not willing we should offer to him an impure soul mired hearts rotten carcasses putrified in vice rotten in iniquity Our Services are to be as free from prophaness as the sacrifices of the Law were to be free from sickliness or any blemish Whatsoever is contrary to his Purity is abhorred by him and unlovely in his sight and can meet with no other success at his hands but a disdainful turning away both of his eye and ear ‖ Isa 1.15 Since he is an Immense purity he will reject from his presence and from having any communion with him all that which is not conformable to him as light chases away the darkness of the night and will not mix with it If we stretch out our hands towards him we must put iniquity farr away from us * Job 11.13 14. the fruits of all Service will else drop off to nothing Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord When when the heart is purged by Christ sitting as a purifier of silver †Mal. 3.3 4. Not all the Incense of the Indies yield him so sweet a Savour as one spiritual act of worship from a heart estranged from the vileness of the World and ravisht with an affection to and a desire of imitating the Puririty of his Nature 6. Exhortation Let us address for holiness to God the fountain of it As he is the Author of bodily life in the Creature so he is the Author of his own life the life of God in the soul By his holiness he makes men holy as the Sun by his light enlightens the Air. He is not only the Holy One but our holy One ‖ Isa 43.15 The Lord that sanctifies us Levit. 20.8 As he hath mercy to pardon us so he hath holiness to purify us the excellency of being a Sun to comfort us and a Shield to protect us giving Grace and Glory * Psal 84.11 Grace whereby we may have Communion with him to our comfort and strength against our spiritual enemies for our defence Grace as our preparatory to glory and Grace growing up till it ripen in Glory He only can mould us into a Divine frame The great Original can only derive the excellency of his own Nature to us We are too low too lame to lift up our selves to it too much in love with our own Deformity to admit of this Beauty without a heavenly power inclining our desires for it our affections to it our willingness to be partakers of it He can as soon set the beauty of Holiness in a deformed heart as the beauty of Harmony in a confused mass when he made the World He can as soon cause the light of Purity to rise out of the darkness of Corruption as frame glorious spirits out of the insufficiency of nothing His beauty doth not decay he hath as much in himself now as he had in his eternity He is as ready to impart it as he was at the Creation only we must wait upon him for it and be content to have it by small measures and degrees There is no fear of our sanctification if we come to him as a God of holiness since he is a God of peace and the breach made by Adam is repaired by Christ Thes 1.5.23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly c. He restores the sanctifying spirit which was withdrawn by the Fall as he is a God pacified and his holiness righted by the Redeemer The beauty of it appears in its smiles upon a man in Christ and is as ready to impart it self to the reconcil'd Creature as before Iustice was to punish the rebellious one He loves to send forth the streams of this perfection into created Chanels more than any else He did not design the making the Creature so powerfull as he might because power is not such an excellency in its own Nature but as it is conducted and managed by some other excellency Power is indifferent and may be used well or ill according as the possessor of it is righteous or unrighteous God makes not the Creature so powerful as he might but he delights to make the Creature that waits upon him as holy as it can be beginning it in this world and ripening it in the other 'T is from him we must expect it and from him that we must begg it and draw Arguments from the holiness of his Nature to move him to work holiness in our Spirits We cannot have a stronger plea. Purity is the favourite of his own Nature and delights itself in the resemblances of it in the Creature Let us also go to God to preserve what he hath already wrought and imparted As we cannot attain it so we cannot maintain it without him God gave it Adam and he lost it When God gives it us we shall lose it without his influencing and preserving Grace The chanel will be without a Stream if the Fountain do not bubble it forth and the streams will vanish if the Fountain doth not constantly supply them Let us apply our selves to him for holiness as he is a God glorious in holiness By this we honour God and advantage our selves A DISCOURSE UPON THE Goodness of God Mark 10.18 And Jesus
and gathers strength by the blowing of the Wind. While the Gardener commands his Servant to shake the Tree he intends to fasten its Roots and settle it firmer in its place And is this an ill will to the Plant 5. His Goodness is seen in Temptations in preventing Sin which we were likely to fall into Pauls Thorn in the Flesh was to prevent the pride of his Spirit and let out the windiness of his heart * 2 Cor. 12.7 lest it should be exalted above measure The Goodness of God makes the Devil a Polisher while he intends to be a Destroyer The Devil never works but sutably to some Corruption lurking in us Divine Goodness makes his fiery Darts a means to discover and so to prevent the treachery of that perfidious inmate in our own hearts Humility is a greater benefit than a putrifying pride If God brings us into a Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil 't is to bring down our loftiness to starve our Carnal Confidence and expell our rusting security * Deut. 8.2 We many times fly under a Temptation to God from whom we sat too loose before Is it not Goodness to use those means that may drive us into his own Arms 'T is not a want of goodness to Soap the Garment in order to take away the Spots We have reason to bless God for the Assaults from Hell as well as pure Mercies from Heaven and it is a Sin to overlook the one as well as the other since Divine Goodness shines in both 6. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations in fitting us more for his Service Those whom God intends to make choice Instruments in his Service are first season'd with strong Temptations as Timber reserved for the strong Beams of a Building is first expos'd to Sun and Wind to make it more compact for its proper use By this Men are brought to answer the end of their Creation the Service of God which is their proper Goodness Peter was after his foil by a Temptation more Courageous in his Masters Cause than before and the more fitted to strengthen his Brethren Thus the Goodness of God appears in all parts of his Government I shall now come to the VSE First Of Instruction 1. If God be so Good how unworthy is the contempt or abuse of his Goodness 1. The contempt and abuse of Divine Goodness is frequent and common it began in the first Ages of the World and commenced a few moments after the Creation it hath not to this day diminisht its affronts Adam began the Dance and his Posterity have follow'd him The injury was directed against this when he entertain'd the Seducers Notion of Gods being an envious Deity in not indulging such a Knowledge as he might have afforded him * Gen. 3.5 God doth know that you shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil. The charge of Envy is utterly inconsistent with pure Goodness What was the language of this Notion so easily entertain'd by Adam but that the Tempter was better than God and the Nature of God as base and sordid as the Nature of a Devil Satan Paints God with his own Colours Represents him as Envious and Malicious as himself Adam admires and believes the Picture to be true and hangs it up as a beloved one in the Closet of his heart The Devil still drives on the same Game fills Mens hearts with the same Sentiments and by the same means he Murder'd our first Parents he redoubles the Stabs to his Posterity Every violation of the Divine Law is a contempt of Gods Goodness as well as his Soveraignty because his Laws are the Products both of the one and the other Goodness animates them while Soveraignty enjoys them God hath Commanded nothing but what doth conduce to our happiness All disobedience implies that his Law is a snare to entrap us and make us miserable and not an act of Kindness to render us happy which is a disparagement to this Perfection as if he had Commanded what would promote our Misery and prohibited what would conduce to our Blessedness To go far from him and walk after vanity is to charge him with our Iniquity and Unrighteousness Baseness and Cruelty in his Commands God implies it by his Speech * Jer. 2.5 What iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone far from me and walked after vanity As if like a Tyrant he had consulted Cruelty in the composure of them and design'd to Feast himself with the Blood and Misery of his Creatures Every Sin is in its own Nature a denial of God to be the chiefest Good and Happiness and implies that it is no great matter to lose him 't is a forsaking him as the Fountain of Life and a preferring a crackt and empty Cistern as the chief Happiness before him * Jer. 2.13 Though Sin is not so Evil as God is Good yet it is the greatest Evil and stands in opposition to God as the greatest Good Sin disorders the Frame of the World it endeavour'd to frustrate all the Communications of Divine Goodness in Creation and to stop up the way of any further Streams of it to his Creatures 2. The abuse and contempt of the Divine Goodness is base and disingenuous 'T is the highest Wickedness because God is the highest Goodness pure Goodness that cannot have any thing in him worthy of our contempt Let Men injure God under what Notion they will they injure his Goodness because all his Attributes are summ'd up in this one and all as it were Deified by it For whatsoever Power or Wisdom he might have if he were destitute of this he were not God The contempt of his Goodness implies him to be the greatest Evil and worst of Beings Badness not Goodness is the proper Object of Contempt As Respect is a propension of Mind to something that is Good so Contempt is an alienation of the Mind from something as Evil either simply or supposedly Evil in its Nature or base or unworthy in its action towards that Person that contemns it As Men desire nothing but what they apprehend to be Good so they slight nothing but what they apprehend to be Evil Since nothing therefore is more Contemned by us than God nothing more spurn'd at by us than God it will follow that we regard him as the most loathsom and despicable Being which is the greatest Baseness And our Contempt of him is worse than that of the Devils they injure him under the inevitable strokes of his Justice and we slight him when we are surrounded with the Expressions of his Bounty They abuse him under Vials of Wrath and we under a plenteous Liberality They malice him because he inflicts on them what is hurtful and we despise him because he Commands what is profitable holy and honourable in its own Nature though not in our Esteem They are not under those high Obligations as we they abuse his Creating and we his Redeeming Goodness
transgression But those things are accounted sins by all mankind and sins against the supream being So that a Dominion and the exercise of it is so fast linkt to God so intirely in him so intrinsick in his Nature that it cannot be imagined that a rational Creature can be made by him without a stamp and mark of that Dominion in his very nature and frame 't is so inseparable from God in his very act of Creation 2. 'T is such a Dominion as cannot be renounced by God himself 'T is so intrinsick and connatural to him so inlaid in the nature of God that he cannot strip himself of it nor of the exercise of it while any Creature remains ' Tâ—â— preserv'd by him for it could not subsist of its self 't is govern'd by him it could not else answer its end 'T is impossible there can be a Creature which hath not God for its Lord. Christ himself though in regard of his Deity equal with God yet in regard of his created state and assuming our nature was God's servant was govern'd by him in the whole of his office acted according to his command and directions God calls him his servant Isaiah 42.1 And Christ in that Prophetick Psalm of him calls God his Lord. Psal 16.2 Oh my Soul Thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord. It was impossible it should be otherwise Justice had been so far from being satisfi'd that it had been highly incensed if the order of things in the due subjection to God had been broke and his terms had not been complied with It would be a Judgment upon the World if God should give up the Government to any else as it is when he gives Children to be Princes Isaiah 3.4 i. e. Children in understanding 3. 'T is so inseparable that it cannot be communicated to any Creature No Creature is able to exercise it every Creature is unable to perform all the offices that belong to this Dominion No Creature can impose Laws upon the Consciences of men Man knows not the inlets into the Soul his pen cannot reach the inwards of man What Laws he hath power to propose to Conscience he cannot see executed because every Creature wants omniscience he is not able to perceive all those breaches of the Law which may be committed at the same time in so many Cities so many Chambers Or suppose an Angel in regard of the height of his standing and the insufficiency of Walls and darkness and distance to obstruct his view can behold mens actions yet he cannot know the internal acts of mens minds and Wills without some outward eruption and appearance of them And if he be ignorant of them how can he execute his Laws If he only understand the outward fact without the inward thought how can he dispense a Justice proportionable to the crime He must needs be ignorant of that which adds the greatest aggravation sometimes to a sin and inflict a lighter punishment upon that which receives a deeper tincture from the inward posture of the mind than another fact may do which in the outward act may appear more base and unjust and so while he intends Righteousness may act a degree of injustice * Mâ—â—â—ii Colleg. Theoloâ— Disp 18. p. 12 13. Besides no Creature can inflict a due punishment for sin that which is due to sin is a loss of the Vision and sight of God but none can deprive any of that but God himself nor can a Creature reward another with Eternal Life which consists in Communion with God which none but God can bestow II. Thing Wherein the Dominion of God is founded 1. On the Excellency of his Nature Indeed a bare excellency of Nature bespeaks a fitness for Government but doth not properly convey a right of Government Excellency speaks aptitude not Title A Subject may have more Wisdom than the Prince and be fitter to hold the Reins of Government but he hath not a Title to Royalty A man of large capacity and strong vertue is fit to serve his Countrey in Parliament but the Election of the People conveys a Title to him Yet a strain of Intellectual and Moral abilities beyond others is a foundation for Dominion And it is commonly seen that such eminences in men though they do not invest them with a Civil Authority or an Authority of Jurisdiction yet they create a veneration in the minds of men their vertue attracts reverence and their advice is regarded as an Oracle Old men by their age when stored with more Wisdom and Knowledge by reason of their long experience acquire a kind of power over the younger in their Dictates and Counsels so that they gain by the strength of that excellency a real Authority in the minds of those men they converse with and possess themselves of a deep respect from them God therefore being an incomprehensible ocean of all perfection and possessing infinitely all those vertues that may lay a claim to Dominion hath the first foundation of it in his own nature His incomparable and unparalell'd excellency as well as the greatness of his work attracts the voluntary Worship of him as a Soveraign Lord. Psal 86.8 Among the Gods there is none like unto thee neither are there any works like unto thy work All Nations shall come and Worship before thee Though his benefits are great engagements to our Obedience and Affection yet his infinite Majesty and perfection requires the first place in our acknowledgements and adorations Upon this account God claims it Isaiah 46.9 I am God and there is none like me I will do all my pleasure And the Prophet Jeremy upon the same account acknowledgeth it Jer. 10.6 7. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee Oh Lord thou art great and thy name is great in might who would not fear thee O King of Nations For to thee doth it appertain Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee And this is a more noble Title of Dominion It being an uncreated Title and more eminent than that of Creation or Preservation * 〈◊〉 Thâ—olog Nat. pag. 757. This is the natural order God hath plac'd in his Creature 's that the more excellent should rule the inferior He committed not the Government of lower Creatures to Lions and Tygers that have a delight in blood but no knowledge of vertue but to man who had an eminence in his nature above other Creatures and was formed with a perfect rectitude and a height of reason to guide the reins over them In man the Soul being of a more sublime nature is set of right to rule over the Body the Mind the most excellent Faculty of the Soul to rule over the other Powers of it and Wisdom the most excellent habit of the Mind to guide and regulate that in its determinations and when the Body and sensitive Appetite controul the Soul and Mind 't is an Usurpation against Nature not a rule according to Nature the excellency therefore of
give ability and Grace to receive Well then what reason but the Soveraign pleasure of God can be alledged why Christ forbad the Apostles at their first Commission to Preach to the Gentiles Matth. 10.15 But at the second and standing Commission orders them to Preach to every Creature Why did he put a demurr to the resolutions of Paul and Timothy to impart light to Bithynia or Order them to go into Macedonia Was that Country more worthy upon whom lay a great part of the bloud of the world shed in Alexanders time Acts 16.6 7 9 10. Why should Corazin and Bethsaida enjoy those means that were not granted to the Tyrians and Sidonians who might probably have sooner reached out their Arms to welcome it Matth. 11.21 Why should God send the Gospel into our Island and cause it to flourish so long here and not send it or continue it in the furthest Eastern parts of the World Why should the very profession of Christianity possess so small a compass of ground in the world but five parts in Thirty the Mahometans holding six parts and the other nineteen overgrown with Paganism where either the Gospel was never planted or else since rooted up To whom will you refer this but to the same cause our Saviour doth the Revelation of the Gospel to Babes and not to the wise even to his Father For so it seemed good in thy sight Matth. 11.25 26. For so was thy good pleasure before thee as in the original 'T is at his pleasure whither he will give any a clear Revelation of his Gospel or leave them only to the light of Nature He could have kept up the first beam of the Gospel in the promise in all Nations among the Apostasies of Adam's posterity or renewed it in all Nations when it began to be darkned as well as he first publisht it to Adam after his fall But it was his Soveraign pleasure to permit it to be obscur'd in one place and to keep it lighted in another 4. His Soveraignty is manifest in the various influences of the means of Grace He saith to these waters of the Sanctuary as to the Floods of the Sea Hitherto you shall go and no further Sometimes they wash away the filth of the flesh and outward man but 〈◊〉 thâ—â— of the Spirit The Gospel Spiritualizeth some and only moralizeth others some are by the power of it struck down to Conviction but not rais'd up to Conversion Some have only the gleams of it in their Consciences and others more powerful flashes some remain in their thick darkness under the beaming of the Gospel every day in their face and after a long insensibleness are rouz'd by its light and wâ—rmth Sometimes there is such a powerful breath in it that it levels the haughty imaginations of men and lays them at its feet that before strutted against it in the pride of their Heart The foundation of this is not in the Gospel it self which is always the same nor in the Ordinances which are Channels as sound at one time as at another but divine Soveraignty that Spirits them as he pleaseth and blows when and where it lists It has sometimes conquered its thousands Acts 2.41 At another time scarce its tens sometimes the Harvest hath been great when the Labourers have been but few at another time it hath been small when the Labourers have been many Sometimes whole sheaves at another time scarce gleanings The Evangelical Net hath been sometimes full at a cast and at every cast at another time many have laboured all night and day too and catched nothing Acts 2.47 The Lord added to the Church daily The Gospel Chariot doth not alwayes return with Captives chain'd to the sides of it but sometimes blur'd and reproached wearing the marks of Hells spite instead of imprinting the marks of its own beauty In Corinth it triumph'd over many people Acts 18.10 In Athens 't is mockt and gathers but a few clusters Acts 17.32.34 God keeps the Key of the heart as well as of the Womb. The Apostles had a power of publishing the Gospel and working miracles but under the Divine conduct It was an instrumentality durante bene placito and as God saw it convenient Miracles were not upon every occasion allow'd to them to be wrought nor success upon every Administration granted to them God sometimes lent them the Key but to take out no more Treasure than was alloted to them There is a variety in the time of Gospel operation some rise out of their Graves of Sin and Beds of sluggishness at the first appearance of this Sun others lie snorting longer Why doth not God Spirit it at one season as well as at another but set his distinct periods of time but because he will show his absolute freedom And do we not sometimes experiment that after the most solemn preparations of the Heart we are frustrated of those incomes we expected Perhaps it was because we thought Divine returns were due to our preparations and God stops up the Channel and we return dryer than we came that God may confute our false opinion and preserve the honour of his own Soveraignty Sometimes we leap with John Baptist in the Womb at the appearance of Christ sometimes we lie upon a lazy bed when he knocks from Heaven Sometimes the Fleece is dry and sometimes wet and God withholds to drop down his dew of the morning upon it The dews of his word as well as the droppings of the Clouds belong to his Royalty Light will not shine into the Heart though it shine round about us without the Soveraign order of that God who commanded Light to shine out of the Darkness of the Chaos 2 Cor. 4.6 And is it not seen also in regard of the refreshing influences of the word sometimes the strongest arguments and clearest promises prevail nothing towards the quelling black and despairing imaginations when afterwards we have found them frighted away by an unexpected word that seem'd to have less vertue in it self than any that passed in vain before it The reasonings of Wisdom have dropt down like arrows against a brazâ—n wall when the speech of a weaker person hath found an efficacy 'T is God by his Soveraignty spirits one word and not another Sometimâ—s a sâ—cret word comes in which was not thought of before as dropt from Heaven and gives a refreshing when emptiness was found in all the rest One word from the lips of a Soveraign Prince is a greater Cordial than all the Harang 〈◊〉 of subjâ—â—â—â— without it What is the reason of this variety but that God woâ—lâ— encrease 〈◊〉 proof of his own Soveraignty That as it was a part of his Dominion to Create the beâ—uty of a World so it is no less to Create the peace as well as the Graâ—e of â—he heart Isaiah 57.19 I create the fruit of the lips peace Let us learn from hence to have adoring thoughts of not murmuring fanciâ—s against the Soveraignty of God To
is exercised by his concurring Power as well as every moment of our Life supported by his preserving Power What an infinite variety of motions is there in the whole World in universal Nature to all which God concurs all which he conducts even the motions of the meanest as well as the greatest Creatures which demonstrate the indefatigable Power of the Governour 'T is an Infinite Power which doth act in so many varieties whereby the Soul forms every Thought the Tongue speaks every Word the Body exerts every Action What an Infinite Power is that which presides over the birth of all things concurs with the motion of the Sap in the â—ree Rivers on the Earth Clouds in the Air every drop of Rain fleece of Snow crack of Thunder Not the least motion in the World but is under an actual influence of this Almighty Mover And lest any should scruple the Concurrence of God to so many Varieties of the Creatures motion as a thing utterly unconceivable let them consider the Sun a natural image and shadow of the Perfections of God doth not the power of that finite Creature extend it self to various Objects at the same moment of time How many Insects doth it animate as Flies c. at the same moment throughout the World How many several Plants doth it erect at its appearance in the Spring whose Roots lay mourning in the Earth all the foregoing Winter What multitudes of Spires of Grass and nobler Flowers doth it Midwife in the same hour It warms the Air melts the Blood cherishes Living Creatures of various kinds in distinct places without tiring And shall the God of this Sun be less than his Creature 3. And since I speak of the Sun consider the Power of God in the Motion of it * A Lapide in 1. cap. Gen. 16. Lessius de Perfect divin p. 90 91. The vastness of the Sun is computed to be at the least 166 Times bigger than the Earth and its distance from the Earth some tell us to be about Four Millions of Miles whence it follows that it is whirl'd about the World with that swiftness that in the space of an Hour it runs a Million of Miles which is as much as if it should move round about the surface of the Earth Fifty times in one hour * Lessius de Providen p. 633. Voss de Idol lib. 2. cap. 2. which vastness exceeds the swiftness of a Bullet shot out of a Canon which is computed to fly not above Three mile in a Minute So that the Sun runs further in one Hours space than a Bullet can in Five thousand if it were kept in motion so that if it were near the Earth the swiftness of its motion would shatter the whole frame of the World and dash it in pieces so that the Psalmist may well say It runs a race like a strong Man Psal 19.5 What an Incomprehensible Power is that which hath communicated such a strength and swiftness to the Sun and doth daily influence its Motion especially since after all those years of its motion wherein one would think it should have spent it self we behold it every day as vigorous as Adam did in Paradice without limping without shattering it self or losing any thing of its natural Spirits in its unwearied motion How great must that Power be which hath kept this great body so intire and thus swiftly moves it every day Is it not now an Argument of Omnipotency to keep all the strings of Nature in tune to wind them up to a due pitch for the harmony he intended by them to keep things that are contrary from that Confusion they would naturally fall into to prevent those Jarrings which would naturally result from their various and snarling qualities to preserve every Being in its true nature to propagate every kind of Creature order all the Operations even the meanest of them when there are such innumerable Varieties But let us consider that this Power of preserving things in their station and motion and the renewing of them is more stupendous than that which we commonly call Miraculous We call those Miracles which are wrought out of the track of Nature and contrary to the usual stream and current of it which Men wonder at because they seldom see them and hear of them as things rarely brought forth in the World when the truth is there is more of Power exprest in the ordinary station and motion of Natural causes than in those extraordinary exertings of Power Is not more Power signaliz'd in that whirling motion of the Sun every hour for so many Ages than in the suspending of its motion one Day as it was in the days of Joshua That Fire should continually ravage and consume and greedily swallow up every thing that is offer'd to it seems to be the effect of as admirable a Power as the stopping of its appetite a few moments as in the case of the Three Children Is not the rising of some small Seeds from the ground Faucher sur Act. Vol. 2. p. 47. with a multiplication of their numerous posterity an effect of as great a Power as our Saviours seeding many Thousands with a few Loaves by a secret augmentation of them Is not the Chimical producing so pleasant and delicious a Fruit as the Grape from a dry Earth insipid Rain and a sour Vine as admirable a token of Divine Power as our Saviours turning Water into Wine Is not the cure of Diseases by the application of a simple inconsiderable Weed or a slight Infusion as wonderful in it self as the Cure of it by a powerful word What if it be naturally design'd to heal what is that Nature who gave that Nature who maintains that Nature who conducts it cooperates with it Doth it work of it self and by its own strength why not then equally in all in one as well as another Miracles indeed affect more because they testifie the immediate operation of God without the concurrence of second Causes not that there is mere of the Power of God shining in them than in the other II. This Power is evident in Moral Government 1. In the restraint of the Malicious nature of the Devil Since Satan hath the Power of an Angel and the Malice of a Devil what safety would there be for our Persons from destruction what security for our Goods from rifling by this invisible potent and envious Spirit if his Power were not restrain'd and his Malice curb'd by one more Mighty than himself How much doth he envy God the glory of his Creation and Man the use and benefit of it How desirous would he be in regard of his passion how able in regard of his strength and subtilty to overthrow or infect all Worship but what was directed to himself to manage all things according to his lusts turn all thing topsie-turvy plague the World burn Cities Houses plunder us of the supports of Nature waste Kingdoms c. if he were not held in
a Chain as a ravenous Lion or a furious wild Horse by the Creator and Governour of the World What remedy could be used by Man against the activity of this unseen and swift Spirit The World could not subsist under his Malice he would practise the same things upon All as he did upon Job when he had got leave from his Governour turn the Swords of Men into one anothers bowels send Fire from Heaven upon the Fruits of the Earth and the Cattle intended for the use of Man Raise Winds to shake and tear our Houses upon our Heads daub our Bodies with Scabs and Boils and let all the humors in our Blood loose upon us He that envied Adam a Paradise doth envy us the pleasure of enjoying its out-works If we were not destroyed by him we should live in a continued vexation by Spectrums and Apparitions affrighting sounds and noise as some think the Egyptians did in that three days Darkness He would be alway winnowing us as he desired to winnow Peter Luke 22.31 But God over-masters his strength that he cannot move a hairs breadth beyond his Tedder not only he is unable to touch an Upright Job but to lay his fingers upon one of the Unbelieving Gadarens forbidden and filthy Swine without special licence Mat. 8.31 When he is cast out of one place he walks through dry places seeking rest Luke 11.24 new objects for his Malicious designs but finding none till God le ts loose the reins upon him for a new employment Though Satans Power be great yet God suffers him not to tempt as much as his Diabolical appetite would but as much as Divine Wisdom thinks fit And the Divine Power tempers the others active Malice and gives the Creature victory where the Enemy intended spoil and captivity How much stronger is God than all the Legions of Hell Luke 11.22 as he that holds a strong man from effecting his purpose testifies more ability than his Adversary How doth he lock him up for a Thousand years in a Pownd which he cannot leap over Rev. 20.3 and this restraint is wrought partly by blinding the Devil in his designs partly by denying him concourse to his motion As he hindered the active quality of the Fire upon the Three Children by withdrawing his power which was necessary to the motion of it and his power is as necessary for the motion of the Devil as for that of any other Creature Sometimes he makes him to confess him against his own interest as Apollo's Oracle confest †Caeteâ—â—â— deos aeâ—eos esse c. Grot. â—eâ—it reâ— lib. 4. And though when the Devil was cast out of the possessed person he publickly owned Christ to be the Holy one of God Mark 1.24 to render him suspected by the People of having commerce with the Unclean Spirits yet this he could not do without the leave and permission of God that the power of Christ in stopping his mouth and imposing silence upon him might be evidenced and that it reaches to the Gates of Hell as well as to the quieting of Winds and Waves This is a part of the Strength as well as the Wisdom of God Job 12.16 that the deceived and the deceiver are his Wisdom to defeat and Power to over-rule his most Malicious designs to his own glory 2. In the restraint of the Natural Corruption of Men. Since the impetus of Original Corruption runs in the Blood conveyed down from Adam to the Veins of all his Posterity and universally diffus'd in all Mankind what wrack and havock would it make in the World if it were not supprest by this Divine Power which presides over the hearts of Men Man is so wretched by Nature that nothing but what is vile and pernicious can drop from him Man drinks Iniquity like water Job 15.16 being by Nature abominable and filthy He greedily swallows all matter for Iniquity every thing suitable to the mire and poyson in his Nature and would sprout it out with all fierceness and insolence God himself gives us the description of Mans Nature Gen. 6.5 that he hath not one good imagination at any time Rom. 3.10 c. And the Apostle from the Psalmist dilates and comments upon it There is none righteous no not one their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood c. This Corruption is equal in all natural to all 't is not more poysonous or more fierce in one Man than in another The Root of all Men is the same all the Branches therefore do equally possess the Villanous nature of the Root No Child of Adam can by Natural descent be better than Adam or have less of baseness and vileness and venom than Adam How fruitful would this loathsom Lake be in all kind of steams What unbridled Licentiousness and head-strong Fury would triumph in the World if the Power of God did not interpose it self to lock down the Floud-gates of it What rooting up of Humane society would there be how would the World be drencht in Blood the number of Malefactors be greater than that of Apprehenders and Punishers How would the prints of Natural Laws be raz'd out of the heart if God should leave Humane nature to it self Who can read the first Chapter to the Romans 24 25 26 27 28 29 Verses without acknowledging this Truth where there is a Catalogue of those Villanies which followed upon Gods pulling up the Sluces and letting the malignity of their Inward Corruption have its natural course If God did not hold back the fury of Man his Garden would be over-run his Vine rooted up the Inclinations of Men would hurry them to the worst of Wickedness How great is that Power that curbs bridles or changes as many head-strong Horses at once and every minute as there are Sons of Adam upon the Earth The floods lift up their waves Psal 93.3 4. the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many Waters yea than the mighty waves of the Sea that doth hush and pen in the turbulent Passions of Men. 3. In the ordering and framing the hearts of Men to his own ends That must be an Omnipotent hand that grasps and contains the Hearts of all Men the Heart of the Meanest person as well as of the most towring Angel and turns them as he pleases and makes them sometime ignorantly sometime knowingly concur to the accomplishment of his own purposes When the Hearts of Men are so numerous their Thoughts so various and different from one another yet he hath a Key to those Millions of Hearts and with Infinite Power guided by as Infinite Wisdom he draws them into what Chanels he pleases for the gaining his own ends Though the Jews had embrued their hands in the Blood of our Saviour and their Rage was yet reeking-hot against his Followers God bridled their Fury in the Churches Infancy till it had got some strength and cast a Terror