out from the Creation of the World there could not be engaged a considerable number to frame a Society for the profession of it It hath died with the Person that started it and vanish'd as soon as it appeared To conclude this is it not folly for any man to deny or doubt of the being of a God to dissent from all mankind and stand in contradiction to humane Nature What is the general dictate of Nature is a certain Truth 'T is impossible that Nature can naturally and universally lie And therefore those that ascribe all to Nature and set it in the Place of God contradict themselves if they give not credit to it in that which it universally affirms ‖ Cicero A general consent of all Nations is to be esteemed as a Law of Nature Nature cannot plant in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity for then the Laws of Nature would be destructive to the reason and minds of men How is it possible that a falsity should be a perswasion spread through all Nations engraven upon the minds of all men men of the most towring and men of the most creeping understanding that they should consent to it in all places and in those places where the Nations have not had any known commerce with the rest of the known World A Consent not settled by any Law of Man to constrain People to a belief of it And indeed 't is impossible that any Law of man can constrain the Belief of the mind Would not he deservedly be accounted a fool that should deny that to be gold which hath been tryed and examined by a great number of knowing Goldsmiths and hath past the test of all their touch-stones what excess of folly would it be for him to deny it to be true gold if it had been tryed by all that had skill in that metal in all Nations in the World Secondly 2. It hath been a constant and uninterrupted consent It hath been as Ancient as the first age of the World no man is able to mention any time from the beginning of the World wherein this Notion hath not been universally owned t is a old as man-kind and hath run along with the course of the Sun nor can the date be fixed lower than that 1. First In all the changes of the World this hath been maintained In the overturnings of the Government of States the alteration of Modes of Worship this hath stood unshaken The reasons upon which it was founded were in all Revolutions of time accounted satisfactory and convincing nor could absolute Atheism in the changes of any Laws ever gain the favour of any one Body of people to be established by a Law When the Honour of the Heathen Idols was laid in the dust this suffered no impair The being of one God was more vigorously owned when the unreasonableness of multiplicity of Gods was manifest and grew taller by the detection of counterfeits When other parts of the Law of nature have been violated by some Nations this hath maintained its standing The long series of Ages hath been so far from blotting it out that it hath more strongly confirmed it and maketh further progress in the confirmation of it Time which hath eaten out the strength of other things and blasted meer inventions hath not been able to consume this The discovery of all other Impostures never made this by any society of men to be suspected as one It will not be easy to name any Imposture that hath walked perpetually in the world without being discovered and whipped out by some Nation or other Falsities have never been so universally and constantly owned without publick controul and question And since the world hath detected many errors of the former age and learning been increased this hath been so far from being dimm'd that it hath shone out clearer with the increase of natural knowledge and received fresh and more vigorous confirmations 2. The fears and anxieties in the Consciences of men have given men sufficient occasion to root it out had it been possible for them to do it If the Notion of the Existence of God had been possible to have been dasht out of the minds of men they would have done it rather than have suffered so many troubles in their Souls upon the Commission of sin since there did not want wickedness and wit in so many corrupt ages to have attempted it and prospered in it had it been possible How comes it therefore to pass that such a multitude of profligate persons that have been in the world since the fall of man should not have rooted out this principle and dispostest the minds of men of that which gave birth to their tormenting fears How is it possible that all should agree together in a thing which created fear and an obliligation against the Interest of the Flesh if it had been free for men to discharge themselves of it No man as far as corrupt nature bears sway in him is willing to live contrould The first Man would rather be a God himself than under one * Gen. 3.5 Why should men continue this Notion in them which shackled them in their vile inclinations if it had been in their power utterly to deface it If it were an Imposture how comes it to pass that all the wicked ages of the world could never discover that to be a cheat which kept them in continual alarums Men wanted not will to shake off such apprehensions As Adam so all his Posterity are desirous to hide themselves from God upon the Commission of sin * Gen. 3.9 and by the same reason they would hide God from their Souls What is the reason they could never attain their will and their wish by all their endeavours Could they possibly have satisfied themselves that there were no God they had discarded their fears the disturbers of the repose of their lives and been unbridled in their pleasures The wickedness of the world would never have preserved that which was a perpetual molestation to it had it been possible to be rased out But since men under the turmoils and lashes of their own Consciences could never bring their hearts to a setled dissent from this Truth it evidenceth that as it took its birth at the beginning of the world it cannot expire no not in the ashes of it nor in any thing but the reduction of the Soul to that nothing from whence it sprung This conception is so perpetual that the nature of the Soul must be dissolved before it be rooted out nor can it be extinct whiles the Soul endures 3. Let it be considered also by us that own the Scripture that the Devil deems it impossible to root out this sentiment It seems to be so perpetually fixed that the Devil did not think fit to tempt man to the denial of the Existence of a Deity but perswaded him to beleive he might ascend to that Dignity and become a God himself Gen. 3.1 Hath
Traditions against the Will of God are said to make his Law of none effect to strip it of all its Authority as the word signifies Mat. 15.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. We have the greatest slight of that Will of God which is most for his Honour and his greatest Pleasure 'T is the Nature of Man ever since Adam to do so Hos 6.6.7 God desired Mercy and not Sacrifice the Knowledge of Himself more than burnt Offering but they like men as Adam have transgressed the Covenant invade Gods Rights and not let him be Lord of one Tree We are more curious Observers of the Fringes of the Law than of the greater concerns of it The Jews were diligent in Sacrifices and Offerings which God did not urge upon them as Principals but as Types of other things but negligent of the Faith which was to be established by him Holiness Mercy Pity which concerned the Honour of God as Governour of the World and were imitations of the Holiness and Goodness of God they were Strangers to This is Gods Complaint Isa 1.11 12. and 16 17. We shall find our hearts most averse to the observation of those Laws which are Eternal and Essential to Righteousness such that he could not but command as he is a Righteous Governour in the observation of which we come nearest to him and express his Image more clearly As those Laws for an inward and spiritual Worship a supreme Affection to him God in regard of his Righteousness and Holiness of his Nature and the Excellency of his Being could not command the contrary to these But this part of his Will our hearts most swell against our corruption doth most snarle at whereas those Laws which are only positive and have no intrinsick Righteousness in them but depend purely upon the Will of the Law-giver and may be changed at his pleasure which the other that have an intrinsick Righteousness in them cannot we better comply with than that part of his Will that doth express more the Righteousness of his Nature * Psal 5◠6.17 19. such as the Ceremonial part of Worship and the Ceremonial Law among the Jews We are more willing to observe Order in some outward attendances and glavering devotions than discard secret affections to evil crucify inward lusts and delightful thoughts A hanging down the head like a bulrish is not difficult but the breaking the heart like a Potters vessel to shreds and dust a sacrifice God delights in whereby the excellency of God and the vileness of the Creature is owned goes against the grain To cut off an outward branch is not so hard as to hack at the root What God mosts loaths as most contrary to his Will we most love No sin did God so severely hate and no sin were the Jews more enclined unto than that of Idolatry The Heathen had not changed their God as the Jews had changed their glory Jer. 2.11 And all men are naturally tainted with this sin which is so contrary to the holy and excellent nature of God By how much the more defect there is of purity in our respects to God by so much the more respect there is to some Idol within or without us to humor custom and interest c. Never did any Law of God meet with so much opposition as Christianity which was the design of God from the first promise to the exhibiting the Redeemer and from thence to the end of the World All people drew Swords at first against it The Romans prepared Yokes for their Neighbors but provided Temples for the Idols those people Worshipped But Christianity the choicest design and most delightful part of the Will of God never met with a kind entertainment at first in any place Rome that entertained all others persecuted this with Fire and Sword tho sealed by greater Testimonies from Heaven than their own Records could report in favour of their Idols 4. In running the greatest hazards and exposing our selves to more trouble to cross the Will of God than is necessary to the observance of it T is a vain charge men bring against the Divine precepts that they are rigorous severe difficult When besides the contradiction to our Saviour who tells us his Yoke is easy and his Burthen light they thwart their own calm reason and Judgment Is there not more difficulty to be Vicious Covetous Violent Cruel than to be Vertuous Charitable Kind Doth the Will of God enjoyn that that is not conformable to right reason and secretly delightful in the exercise and issue And on the contrary what doth Satan and the world engage us in that is not full of molestation and hazard Is it a sweet and comely thing to combat continually against our own Consciences and resist our own light and commence a perpetual quarrel against our selves as we ordinarily do when we sin They in the Prophet Mich. 6.6 7 8. would be at the expence of thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyl if they could compass them yea would strip themselves of their Natural affection to their first-born to expiate the sin of their Soul rather then to do Justice love mercy and walk humbly with God things more conducible to the Honour of God the welfare of the world the security of their Souls and of a more easie practice than the offerings they wished for Do not men then disown God when they will walk in ways hedged with thorns wherein they meet with the Arrows of Conscience at every turn in their sides and slidedown to an everlasting punishment sink under an intolerable slavery to contradict the Will of God When they will prefer a sensual satisfaction with a combustion in their Consciences violation of their reasons gnawing cares and weary travels before the Honour of God the dignity of their Natures the happiness of peace and health which might be preserved at a cheaper rate than they are at to destroy them 5. In the unwillingness and awkardness of the heart when it is to pay God a service Men do evil with both hands earnestly * Mich. 7.3 but do good with one hand faintly no life in the heart nor any diligence in the hand What slight and loose thoughts of God doth this unwillingness imply T is a wrong to his providence as tho we were not under his Government and had no need of his assistance A wrong to his excellency as tho there were no aimableness in him to make his service desirable An injury to his goodness and power as if he were not able or willing to reward the Creatures obedience or careless not to take notice of it T is a sign we receive little satisfaction in him and that there is a great unsutableness between him and us 1. There is a kind of constraint in the first engagement We are rather prest to it than enter our selves Volunteers What we call service to God is done naturally much against our Wills t is not a delightful food but
with hatred The beneficence and patience of God and his readiness to pardon men is the reason of the honour they return to him And this is so evident a motive that generally the Idolatrous world rankt those Creatures in the number of their Gods which they perceived useful and neficial to man-kind as the Sun and Mooâ— the Aegyptians the Ox c. And the more beneficial any thing appeared to mankind the higher station men gave it in the rank of their deities and bestowed a more peculiar and solemn worship upon it Men worshipped God to procure or continue his favour which would not have been acted by them had they not conceived it a pleasing thing to him to be merciful and gracious Sometimes his Justice is proposed to us as a motive of worship Heb. 12.28 29. Serve God with Reverence and Godly fear for our God is a consuming fire which includes his holiness whereby he doth hate sin as well as his wrath whereby he doth punish it Who but a mad and totally brutish person or one that was resolved to make war against heaven could behold the effects of Gods anger in the world consider him in his Justice as a consuming fire and despise him and rather be drawn out by that consideration to blasphemy and despair than to seek all ways to appease him Now tho the infinite power of God his unspeakable wisdom his incomprehensible goodness the holiness of his nature the vigilance of his Providence the bounty of his hand signifie to man that he should love and honour him and are the motives of worship yet the Spirituality of his nature is the rule of worship and directs us to render our duty to him with all the powers of our Soul As his goodness beams out upon us worship is due in Justice to him and as he is the most excellent nature veneration is due to him in the highest manner with the choicest affections So that indeed the Spirituality of God comes chiefly into consideration in matter of worship All his perfections are grounded upon this He could not be infinite immutable omniscient if he were a Corporeal being * Amirald dissert 6. disp 1. pa. 11. We cannot give him a worship unless we Judge him worthy excellent and deserving a worship at our hands And we cannot Judge him worthy of a worship unless we have some apprehensions and admirations of his infinite vertues And we cannot apprehend and admire those perfections but as we see them as causes shining in their effects When we see therefore the frame of the world to be the work of his power the order of the world to be the fruit of his wisdom and the usefulness of the world to be the product of his goodness We find the motives and reasons of worship and weighing that this power wisdom goodness infinitely transcend any corporeal nature we find a rule of worship that it ought to be offered by us in a manner sutable to such a nature as is infinitely above any bodily Being His being a Spirit declares what he is his other perfections declare what kind of Spirit he is All Gods perfections suppose him a Spirit all center in this His wisdom doth not suppose him merciful or his mercy suppose him omniscient There may be distinct notions of those but all suppose him to be of a spiritual nature How cold and frozen will our devotions be if we consider not his omniscience whereby he discerns our hearts How carnal will our services be if we consider him not as a pure Spirit * Amyraut de Relig. In our offers to and transactions with men we deal not with them as meer Animals but as rational Creatures and we debase their natures if we treat them otherwise And if we have not raised apprehensions of Gods spiritual nature in our treating with him but allow him only such frames as we think fit enough for men we debase his spirituality to the littleness of our own Being We must therefore possess our Souls with this we shall else render him no better than a fleshly service We do not much concern our selves in those things of which we are either utterly ignorant or have but slight apprehensions of That is the first Proposition The right exercise of worship is grounded upon the spirituality of God Propos 2. This spiritual worship of God is manifest by the light of Nature to be due to him In reference to this consider 1. The outward means or matter of that worship which would be acceptable to God was not known by the light of Nature The Law for a Worship and for a spiritual worship by the faculties of our Souls was natural and part of the Law of Creation though the determination of the particular acts whereby God would have this homage testified was of positive institution and depended not upon the Law of Creation Though Adam in Innocence knew God was to be worshipped yet by Nature he did not know by what outward acts he was to pay this respect or at what time he was more solemnly to be exercised in it than at another This depended upon the directions God as the soveraign Governour and Law-giver should prescribe You therefore find the positive institutions of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil and the determination of the time of worship Gen. 2.3.17 Had there been any such notion in Adam naturally as strong as that other that a worship was due to God there would have been found some reliques of these modes universally consented to by Mankind as well as of the other But though all Nations have by an universal consent concurred in the acknowledgment of the Being of God and his right to adoration and the obligation of the Creature to it and that there ought to be some publick rule and polity in matters of Religion for no Nation hath been in the world without a worship and without external acts and certain ceremonies to signifie that worship yet their modes and rites have been as various as their climates unless in that common notion of sacrifices not descending to them by nature but tradition from Adam and the various ways of worship have been more provoking than pleasing Every Nation suted the kind of worship to their particular ends and polities they designed to rule by How God was to be worshipped is more difficult to be discerned by Nature with its eyes out than with its eyes clear * King on Jonah P. 63. The pillars upon which the worship of God stands cannot be discerned without revelation no more than blind Sampson could tell where the pillars of the Philistians Theatre stood without one to conduct him What Adam could not see with his sound eyes we cannot with our dim eyes He must be told from Heaven what worship was fit for the God of Heaven 'T is not by Nature that we can have such a full prospect of God as may content and quiet us This is the noble
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
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
it Good It had been inconsistent with the Supream Goodness of his Nature to have Created only Murderous Ravenous Injurious Creatures To have Created a Bedlam rather than a World A meer heap of Confusion would have been as inconsistent with his Divine Goodness as with his Divine Wisdom Again when his Goodness had moved him to make a Creature his Goodness would necessarily move him to be beneficial to his Creature not that this necessity results from any Merit in the Creature which he had framed but from the Excellency and Diffusiveness of his own Nature and his own Glory the end for which he form'd it which would have been obscure yea nothing without some degrees of his Bounty What occasion of acknowledgments and praise could the Creature have for its Being if God had given him only a miserable Being while it was innocent in action The Goodness of God would not suffer him to make a Creature without providing conveniencies for it so long as he thought good to maintain its Being and furnishing it with that which was necessary to answer that End for which he Created it And his own Nature would not suffer him to be unkind to his Rational Creature while it was Innocent It had been injustice to inflict Evil upon the Creature that had not offended and had no relation to an offending Creature The Nature of God could not have brought forth such an act †Cocceii sum Theolog. p. 91. And therefore some say that God after he had Created Man could not presently annihilate him and take away his Life and Being As a Soveraign he might do it as Almighty he was able to do it as well as Create him but in regard of his Goodness he could not Morally do it For had he annihilated Man as soon as ever he had made him he had not made Man for himself and for his own Glory to be loved worshipped sought and acknowledged by him He would not then have been the end of Man He had Created him in vain and the VVorld in vain which he assures us he did not * Isa 45.18 19. And certainly if the Gifts of God be without Repentance Man could not have been annihilated after his Creation without Repentance in God without any Cause had not Sin entred into the World If God did not say to Man after Sin had made its entrance into the World seek ye me in vain he could not because of his Goodness have said so to Man in his Innocence As God is necessarily Mind so he is necessarily Will as he is necessarily Knowing so he is necessarily Loving He could not be Blessed if he did not know Himself and his own Perfection Nor Good if he did not delight in Himself and his own Perfections And this Goodness whereby he delights in Himself is the source of his delight in his Creatures wherein he sees the footsteps of Himself If he loves Himself he cannot but love the Resemblance of Himself and the Image of his own Goodness He loves himself because he is the highest Goodness and Excellency and loves every thing as it resembles Himself because it is an efflux of his own Goodness And as he doth necessarily love Himself and his own Excellency so he doth necessarily love any thing that resembles that Excellency which is the Primary Object of his Esteem But 5. Though he be necessarily Good yet he is also freely Good The necessity of the Goodness of his Nature hinders not the liberty of his Actions The matter of his acting is not at all necessary but the manner of his acting in a good and bountiful way is necessary as well as free * Gilbert de Dei Dominio p. 6. He Created the World and Man freely because he might choose whether he would Create it but he Created them good necessarily because he was first necessarily good in his Nature before he was freely a Creator When he Created Man he freely gave him a positive Law but necessarily a Wise and Righteous Law because he was necessarily Wise and Righteous before he was freely a Lawgiver When he makes a Promise he freely lets the Word go out of his Lips but when he hath made it he is necessarily a faithful Performer because he was necessarily True and Righteous in his Nature before he was freely a Promiser God is necessarily good in his Nature but free in his Communications of it To make him necessarily to communicate his Goodness in the first Creation of the Creature would render him but impotent good without liberty and without will If the Communications of it be not free the Eternity of the VVorld must necessarily be concluded which some Anciently asserted from the Naturalness of Gods Goodness making the VVorld flow from God as Light from the Sun God indeed is necessarily good Affectivé in regard of his Nature but freely good Effectivé in regard of the Effluxes of it to this or that particular Subject he pitcheth on He is not so necessarily communicative of his Goodness as the Sun of his light or a Tree of its cooling shade that chooseth not its Objects but enlightens all indifferently without any variation or distinction This were to make God of no more Understanding than the Sun to shine not where it pleaseth but where it must He is an understanding Agent and hath a Soveraign Right to choose his own Subjects It would not be a Supream Goodness if it were not a voluntary Goodness 'T is agreeable to the Nature of the highest Good to be absolutely free to dispence his Goodness in what methods and measures he pleaseth according to the free determinations of his own VVill guided by the VVisdom of his Mind and regulated by the Holiness of his Nature He is not to give an account of any of his matters †Job 33.13 He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion * Rom. 9.15 And he will be good to whom he will be good When he doth act he cannot but act well so it 's necessary yet he may act this good or that good to this or that degree so it is free As it is the Perfection of his Nature 't is necessary as it is the communication of his Bounty 't is voluntary The Eye cannot but see if it be open yet it may glance upon this or that colour fix upon this or that object as it is conducted by the VVill. God necessarily loves Himself because he is good yet not by constraint but freedom because his affection to Himself is from a knowledge of Himself He necessarily loves his own Image because 't is his Image yet freely because not blindly but from motions of understanding and will VVhat necessity could there be upon him to resolve to communicate his Goodness It could not be to make Himself better by it for he had a Goodness uncapable of any addition He confers a goodness on his
neither one nor other can be denied him without a sordid and disingenuous ingratitude God therefore aggravates the Rebellion of the Jews from the cares he had in the bringing them up * Isaiah 2.2 and the miraculous deliverance from Egypt †Jer. 11.7 8. implying that those Benefits were strong Obligations to an ingenuous observance of him 2. It is Establisht upon this That God can enjoin the observance of nothing but what is good He may by the Right of his Soveraign Dominion command that which is indifferent in its own Nature As in positive Laws The not eating the Fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil which had not been evil in it self set aside the Command of God to the contrary and likewise in those Ceremonial Laws he gave the Jews But in regard of the transcendent Goodness and Righteousness of his Nature he will not he cannot Command any thing that is evil in it self or repugnant to the true interest of his Creature And God never oblig'd the Creature to any thing but what was so free from damaging it that it highly conduced to its good and welfare and therefore it is said * 1 Joh. 5.3 That his Commands are not grievous Not grievous in their own Nature nor grievous to one possest with a true Reason The Command given to Adam in Paradise was not grievous in it self nor could he ever have thought it so but upon a false supposition instill'd into him by the Tempter There is a pleasure results from the Law of God to a holy Rational Nature a sweetness tasted both by the Understanding and by the Will for they both rejoice the heart and enlighten the Eyes of the Mind * Psal 19.8 God being Essentially Wisdom and Goodness cannot deviate from that Goodness in any Orders he gives the Creature whatsoever he Enacts must be agreeable to that Rule and therefore he can Will nothing but what is good and excellent and what is good for the Creature As a Heathen Maximus Tyrius Dissert 22. p. 220. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For since he hath put Originally into Man a Natural Instinct to desire that which is good He would never Enact any thing for the Creatures observance that might controul that desire imprinted by himself but what might countenance that Impression of his own hand for if God did otherwise he would contradict his own Natural Law and be a Deluder of his Creatures if he imprest upon them desires one way and order'd directions another The truth is all his Moral Precepts are Comely in themselves and they receive not their goodness from Gods positive Command but that Command supposeth their goodness If every thing were good because God loves it or because God wills it i. e. That Gods loving it or willing it made that good which was not good before then as Camero well argues somewhere Gods goodness would depend upon his loving himself He was good because he loved himself and was not good till he loved himself whereas indeed Gods loving himself doth not make him good but supposeth him good He was good in the Order of Nature before he loved himself and his being good was the ground of his loving himself because as was said before if there were any thing better than God God would love that For it is inconsistent with the Nature of God and Infinite Goodness not to love that which is good and not to love that supreamly which is the Supream Good Further to understand it you may consider If the Question be askt Why God loves himself You would think it a reasonable Answer to say Because he is good But if the Question be askt Why God is good You would think that Answer because he loves himself would be destitute of Reason but the true Answer would be Because his Nature is so and he could not be God if he were not good Therefore Gods goodness is in order of our conception before his self-love and not his self-love before his goodness So the Moral things God Commands are good in themselves before God Commands them and such that if God should Command the contrary it would openly speak him evil and unrighteous Abstract from Scripture and weigh things in your own Reason Could you conceive God good if he should Command a Creature not to love him Could you preserve the Notion of a good Nature in him if he did Command Murder Adultery Tyranny and Cutting of Throats You would wonder to what purpose he made the World and fram'd it for Society if such things were order'd that should deface all Comeliness of Society The Moral Commands given in the Word appeared of themselves very beautiful to meer Reason that had no knowledge of the Written Law they are good and because they are so his goodness had moved his Soveraign Authority strictly to enjoyn them Now this goodness whereby he cannot oblige a Creature to any thing that is evil speaks him highly worthy of our Observance and our Disobedience to his Law to be full of unconceivable Malignity That is the last thing 2. Use is a Use of Comfort He is a Good without mixture Good without weariness none good but God none good purely none good inexhaustibly but God because he is good we may upon our speaking expect his instruction * Psal 25.8 Good is the Lord therefore will he teach Sinners in his way His goodness makes him stoop to be the Tutor to those Worms that lie prostrate before him and though they are Sinners full of filth he drives them not from his School nor denies them his Medicines if they apply themselves to him as a Physician He is good in removing the Punishment due to our Crimes and good in bestowing Benefits not due to our Merits because he is good Penitent Believers may expect forgiveness * Psal 86.5 Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive He acts not according to the rigor of the Law but willingly grants his Pardon to those that flie into the Arms of the Mediator His goodness makes him more ready to forgive than our necessities make us desirous to enjoy He charged not upon Job his impatient Expressions in Cursing the day of his Birth his goodness passed that over in silence and extolls him for speaking the thing that is right right in the main * Job 42.7 when he charges his Friends for not speaking of him the thing that is right as his Servant Job had done He is so good that if we offer the least thing sincerely he will graciously receive it If we have not a Lamb to offer a Pigeon or Turtle shall be accepted upon his Altar He stands not upon Costly presents but sincerely tender'd Services All Conditions are sweeten'd by it whatsoever any in the World enjoy is from a redundancy of this goodness but whatsoever a good Man enjoys is from a propriety in this goodness 1. Here is Comfort in our Addresses to him If
the Moral Law was publisht had been a vain exhortation had there been no revelation of the mind of God in all Ages 2. The dominion of God is manifest in the extent of his Laws As he is the Governour and Soveraign of the whole World so he Enacts Laws for the whole World One Prince cannot make Laws for another unless he makes him his Subject by right of conquest Spain cannot make Laws for England or England for Spain But God having the supream Government as King over all is a Lawgiver to all to irrational as well as rational Creatures The Heavens have their Ordinances Job 38.33 All Creatures have a Law imprinted on their beings Rational Creatures have Divine Statutes Copied in their heart For men it is clear Rom. 2.14 Every Son of Adam at his coming into the World brings with him a Law in his nature and when reason clears it self up from the Clouds of sence he can make some difference between Good and Evil discern something of fit and just Every man finds a Law within him that checks him if he offends it Noâ—◠〈◊〉 without a legal indictment and a legal Executioner within them God 〈…〉 was the Author of this as a Soveraign Lord in establishing a Law iâ— man at the same time wherein as an Almighty Creator he imparted a being This Law proceeds from God's general power of governing as he is the Author of nature and binds not barely as it is the reason of man but by the Authority of God as it is a Law engraven on his Conscience And no doubt but a Law was given to the Angels God did not Govern those intellectual Creatures as he doth brutes and in a way inferior to his rule of Man Some sinned all might have sinned in regard of the changeableness of their nature Sin cannot be but against some rule Where there is no Law there is no Transgression what that Law was is not reveal'd but certainly it must be the same in part with the Moral Law so far as it agreed with their spiritual natures a love to God a Worship of him and a love to one another in their Societies and Persons 3. The dominion of God is manifest in the reason of some Laws which seem to be nothing else than purely his own Will Some Laws there are for which a reason may be rendered from the nature of the thing enjoyned as to Love Honour and Worship God For others none but this God will have it so such was that positive Law to Adam of not eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Gen. 2.17 which was meerly an asserting his own dominion and was different from that Law of Nature God had written in his heart No other reason of this seems to us but a resolve to try mans Obedience in away of absolute Soveraignty and to manifest his right over all Creatures to reserve what he pleased to himself and permit the use of what he pleased to man and to signifie to man that he was to depend on him who was his Lord and not on his own will There was no more hurt in it self for Adam to have eaten of that than of any other in the Garden the Fruit was pleasant to the Eye and Good for Food but God would shew the right he had over his own goods and his Authority over man to reserve what he pleases of his own Creation from his touch that since man could not claim a propriety in any thing he was to meddle with nothing but by the leave of his Soveraign either discovered by a special or general License Thus God shewed himself the Lord of Man and that man was but his Steward to act by his Orders If God had forbidden man the use of more Trees in the Garden his command had been just Since as a Soveraign Lord he might dispose of his own Goods and when he had granted him the whole compass of that pleasant Garden and the whole World round about for him and his posterity it was a more tolerable exercise of his dominion to reserve this one Tree as a mark of his Soveraignty when he had left all others to the use of Adam He reserv'd nothing to himself as Lord of the Manour but this and Adam was prohibited nothing else but this one as a sign of his subjection Now for this no reason can be rendered by any man but meerly the Will of God this was meerly a fruit of his Dominion For the moral Laws a reason may be rendred to Love God hath reason to enforce it besides Gods Will viz. The Excellency of his Nature and the greatness and multitudes of his benefits To love our Neighbour hath enforcing reasons viz. the Conjunction in blood and the preservation of humane Society and the need we may stand in of their love our selves But no reason can be assign'd of this positive command about the Tree of knowledge of good and evil but meerly the pleasure of God It was a branch of his pure dominion to try mans Obedience and a mark of his Goodness to try it by so easie and light a precept when he might have extended his Authority further Had not God given this or the like order his absolute dominion had not been so conspicuous 'T is true Adam had a Law of Nature in him whereby he was obliged to perpetual Obedience and though it was a part of God's dominion to implant it in him yet his supream dominion over the Creatures had not been so visible to man but by this or a precept of the same kind What was commanded or prohibited by the Law of Nature did bespeak a comeliness in it self it appear'd Good or Evil to the reason of man but this was neither Good nor Evil in it self it receiv'd its sole Authority from the absolute Will of God and nothing could result from the fruit it self as a reason why man should not tast it but only the sole Will of God And as God's dominion was most conspicuous in this precept so man's obedience had been most eminent in observing it For in his obedience to it nothing but the sole power and Authority of God which is the proper rule of obedience could have been respected not any reason from the thing it self To this we may referre some other Commands as that of appointing the time of solemn and public Worship the seventh day though the Worship of God be a part of the Law of Nature yet the appointing a particular day wherein he would be more formally and solemnly acknowledged than on other days was grounded upon his absolute right of Legislation For there was nothing in the time it self that could render that day more Holy than another though God respected his finishing the work of Creation in his institution of that day Gen. 2.3 Such were the Ceremonial Commands of Sacrifices and Washings under the Law and the Commands of Sacraments under the Gospel The one to last till the first
other things in conjunction with this the nature of God the way to Worship him the manner of the Worlds Existence his own state We may resonably suppose him to have a good stock of knowledge what is become of it It cannot be supposed that the first man should acquaint his posterity with an object of Worship and leave them ignorant of a Mode of Worship and of the end of Worship we find in Scripture his immediate posterity did the first in Sacrifices and without doubt they were not ignorant of the other how come Men to be so uncertain in all other things and so confident of this if it were only a Tradition how did debates and irreconcilable questions start up concerning other things and this remain untouch'd but by a small number whatsoever Tradition the first Man left besides this is lost and no way recoverable but by the Revelation God hath made in his Word How comes it to pass this of a God is longer liv'd than all the rest which we may suppose Man left to his immediate descendents How come men to retain the one and forget the other What was the reason this surviv'd the ruin of the rest and surmounted the uncertainties into which the other sunk Was it likely it should be handed down alone without other attendants on it at first Why did it not expire among the Americans who have lost the account of their own descent and the Stock from whence they sprung and cannot reckon above eight hundred or a thousand years at most Why was not the manner of the worship of a God transmitted as well as that of his Existence How came men to dissent in their Opinions concerning his Nature whether he was corporeal or incorporeal finite or infinite omnipresent or limited Why were not men as negligent to transmit this of his Existence as that of his Nature No reason can be rendred for the security of this above the other but that there is so clear a tincture of a Deity upon the minds of men such traces and shadows of him in the creatures such indelible instincts within and invincible arguments without to keep up this universal consent The Characters are so deep that they cannot possibly be rased out which would have been one time or other in one Nation or other had it depended only upon Tradition since one Age shakes off frequently the Sentiments of the former I cannot think of above one which may be called a Tradition which indeed was kept up among all Nations viz. Sacrifices which could not be natural but instituted What ground could they have in Nature to imagin that the blood of Beasts could expiate and wash off the guilt and stains of a rational Creature Yet they had in all places but among the Jews and some of them only lost the knowledg of the reason and end of the Institution which the Scripture acquaints us was to typifie and signifie the Redemption by the Promised Seed This Tradition hath been superannuated and laid aside in most parts of the World while this Notion of the Existence of a God hath stood firm But suppose it were a Tradition was it likely to be a meer intention and figment of the first Man Had there been no reason for it this Posterity would soon have found out the weakness of its Foundation What advantage had it been to him to transmit so great a falshood to kindle the fears or raise the hopes of his Posterity if there were no God It cannot be supposed he should be so void of that natural affection men in all ages bear to their Descendents as so grosly to deceive them and be so contrary to the simplicity and plainness which appears in all things nearest their Original 2. Neither was it by any mutual Intelligence of Governours among themselves to keep people in subjection to them If it were a political design at first it seems it met with the general nature of Mankind very ready to give it entertainment I. It is unaccountable how this should come to pass It must be either by a joynt Assembly of them or a mutual Correspondence If by an Assembly who were the persons let the name of any one be mentioned When was the time Where was the place of this appearance By what Authority did they meet together Who made the first motion and first started this great Principle of Policy By what means could they assemble from such distant parts of the World humane Histories are utterly silent in it And the Scripture the antientest History gives an account of the attempt of Babel but not a word of any design of this nature What mutual Correspondence could such have whose Interests are for the most part different and their designs contrary to one another How could they who were divided by such vast Seas have this mutual Converse How could those who were different in their Customs and Manners agree so unanimously together in one thing to gull the People If there had been such a Correspondence between the Governours of all Nations what is the reason some Nations should be unknown to the world till of late times How could the business be so secretly managed as not to take Vent and Issue in a discovery to the World Can reason suppose so many in a joynt Conspiracy and no mans Conscience in his life under sharp Afflictions or on his death bed when Conscience is most awakened constrain him to reveal openly the Cheat that beguil'd the World How came they to be so uanimous in this Notion and to differ in their Rites almost in every Country why could they not agree in one Mode of Worship throughout all the World as well as in this universal Notion If there were not a mutual intelligence it can not be conceived how in every Nation such a state-Engineer should rise up with the same trick to keep people in aw What is the reason we cannot find any Law in any one Nation to constrain men to the beleif of the Existence of a God since politick Stratagems have been often fortified by Laws Besides such men make use of Principles received to effect their Contrivances and are not so impolitick as to build designes upon Principles that have no Foundation in nature Some Heathen Law-givers have pretended a converse with their Gods to make their Laws be received by the people with a greater veneration and fix with stronger obligation the observance and perpetuity of them but this was not the introducing of a new Principle but the supposition of an old received Notion that there was a God and an application of that Principle to their present designe The pretence had been vain had not the notion of a God been ingrafted Politicians are so little possessed with a Reverence of God that the first Mighty one in the Scripture which may reasonably gain with the Atheist the credit of the Ancientest History in the World is represented without any fear of God * Gen.
10.9 Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. An Invader and Oppressor of his Neighbors and reputed the Introducer of a new Worship and being the first that built Cities after the flood as Cain was the first Builder of them before the flood built also Idolatry with them And erected a new Worship and was so far from strengthing that Notion the people had of God that he endeavoured to corrupt it The first Idolatry in common Histories being noted to proceed from that part of the World the Ancientest Idol being at Babylon and supposed to be first invented by this Person Whence by the way perhaps Rome is in the Revelations called Babylon with respect to that similitude of their Saint-Worship to the Idolatry first set up in that place * Or if we understand it as some think that he defended his invasions under a pretext of the preserving Religion it assures us that there was a notion of an object of Religion before since no Religion can be without an object of Worship T is evident Politicians have often changed the Worship of a Nation but it is not upon record that the first thoughts of an object of Worship ever entred into the minds of people by any trick of theirs But to return to the present Argument the Being of a God is owned by some Nations that have scarce any form of policy among them T is as wonderful how any wit should hit upon such an Invention as it is absur'd to ascribe it to any humane device if there were not prevailing Arguments to constrain the consent Besides how is it possible they should deceive themselves What is the reason the greatest Politicians have their fears of a Deity upon their unjust practices as well as other men they intended to befool How many of them have had forlorn Consciences upon a Death bed upon the consideration of a God to answer an account to in another world Is it credible they should be frighted by that wherewith they knew they beguiled others No man satisfying his pleasures would impose such a deceipt upon himself o render and make himself more miserable than the Creatures he hath dominion over 2. It is unaccountable how it should indure so long a time That this Policy should be so fortunate as to gain ground in the Consciences of men and exercise an Empire over them and meet with such an universal success If the Notion of a God were a a State-Engine and introduced by some Politick Grandees for the ease of Government and preserving people with more facility in order how comes it to pass the first broachers of it were never upon record there is scarce a false opinion vented in the World but may as a stream be traced to the first head and fountain The Inventors of particular forms of worship are known and the reasons why they prescribed them known but what Grandee was the Author of this who can pitch a time and person that sprung up this Notion If any be so insolent as to impose a cheat he can hardly be supposed to be so successful as to deceive the whole world for many ages Impostures pass not free through the whole world without Examination and discovery Falsities have not been universally and constantly owned without controul and question If a cheat imposeth upon some Towns and Countries he will be found out by the more peircing enquiries of other places and it is not easy to name any Imposture that hath walked so long in its disguise in the World without being unmasked and whipped out by some Nation or other If this had been a meer trick there would have been as much craft in some to discern it as there was in others to contrive it No Man can be imagined so wise in a Kingdom but others may be found as wise as himself And it is not conceivable that so many clear sighted men in all ages should be ignorant of it and not endeavour to free the world from so great a falsity * Fotherby a Theomastix p. 64. It cannot be found that a trick of State should always beguile men of the most piercing insights as well as the most credulous That a few crafty men should befool all the wisemen in the world and the world lie in a beleif of it and never like to be freed from it What is the reason the succeeding Politicians never knew this Stratagem since their Maxims are usually handed to their Successors And there is not a Richlieu but leaves his Axioms to a Mazarine This perswasion of the Existence of God ows not it self to any Imposture or subtelty of Men If it had not been agreable to common Nature and Reason it could not so long have born sway The imposed yoke would have been cast off by Multitudes Men would not have charged themselves with that which was attended with consequences displeasing to the Flesh and hindred them from a full swing of their rebellious Passions such a shackle would have mouldred of it self or been broke by the extravigances humane nature is enclin'd unto The wickedness of men without question hath prompted them to endeavour to unmask it if it were a Cosenage but could never yet be so successful as to free the world from a perswasion or their own Consciences from the tincture of the Existence of a Deity It must be therefore of an ancienter Date than the Craft of States-men and descend into the world with the first appearance of humane nature Time which hath rectified many Errors improves this Notion makes it shock down its roots deeper and spread its branches larger It must be a natural Truth that shines clear by the detection of those Errors that have befooled the World and the wit of Man is never able to name any humane Author that first insinuated it into the beleifs of men 3. Nor was it Fear first introduced it Fear is the Consequent of Wickedness As Man was not created with any inherent sin so he was not created with any terrifying fears the one had been against the Holiness of the Creator the other against his Goodness Fear did not make this Opinion but the Opinion of the Being of a Dâ—ity was the cause of this Fear after his sense of angring the Deity by his Wickedness The Object of Fear is before the Act of Fear there could not be an Act of Fear exercised about the Deity till it was beleived to be existent and not only so but Offended For God as existent only is not the Object of Fear or Love 't is not the Existence of a thing that excites any of those Affections but the Relation a thing bears to us in particular God is good and so the object of Love as well as just and thereby the object of Fear He was as much called Love * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mens or Mind in regard of his Goodness and Understanding by the Heathens as much as by any other Name Neither
of the Heaven c. How could this great heap be brought into being unless a God had framed it Every plant every Atome as well as every Star at the first meeting whispers this in our Ears I have a Creator I am witness to a Deity who ever saw Statues or Pictures but presently thinks of a Statuary and Limner Who beholds Garments Ships or Houses but understands there was a Weaver a Carpenter an Architect * Philo. ex Petav. Theolo Dog Tom 1. li. 1. cap. 1 pa. 4. somewhat changed Who can cast his eyes about the world but must think of that power that formed it and that the goodness which appears in the formation of it hath a perfect Residence in some Being those things that are good must flow from somthing perfectly good that which is chief in any kind is the cause of all of that kind Fire which is most hot is the cause of all things which are hot There is some being therefore which is the cause of all that Perfection which is in the Creature and this is God Aquin. 1 qu. 2. Artic. 3. All things that are demonstrate something from whence they are All things have a contracted perfection and what they have is Communicated to them Perfections are parcelled out among several Creatures Any thing that is imperfect cannot exist of it self We are led therefore by them to consider a fountain which bubbles up in all perfection a hand which distributes those several degrees of Being and Perfection to what we see we see that which is imperfect our minds conclude somthing perfect to exist before it our eye sees the streams but our understanding riseth to the head as the eye sees the shadow but the understanding informs us whither it he the shadow of a man or of a beast God hath given us Sense to behold the objects in the World and Understanding to reason his Existence from them the understanding cannot conceive a thing to have made it self that is against all reason * Rom. 1.20 As they are made they speak out a Maker and cannot be a trick of chance since they are made with such an immense Wisdom that is too big for the grasp of all humane understanding Those that doubt whither the Existence of God be an implanted Principle yet agree that the effects in the world lead to a supream and universal cause And that if we have not the knowledge of it rooted in our Natures yet we have it by discourse since by all Masters of reason a Processus in Infinitum must be accounted impossible in subordinate causes This will appear in several things First I. The World and every Creature had a beginning The Scripture Ascertains this to us * Gen. 1. By Faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God c. David who was not the first man gives the praise to God of his being curiously wrought c. Psal 139.14.15 God gave being to Men and Plants and Beasts before they gave being to one another He gives being to them now as the Fountain of all being though the several Modes of being are from the several natures of second causes * Heb. 11.3 T is true indeed we are ascertained that they were made by the true God that they were made by his word that they were made of nothing and not only this lower world wherein we live but according to the Jewish division the world of Men the the world of Stars and the world of Spirits and Souls We do not waver in it or doubt of it as the Heathen did in their disputes we know they are the workmanship of the true God of that God we adore not of false Gods By his Word without any instrument or engin as in earthly Sâ—ructures of things which do not appear without any preexistent matter as all Artificial works of men are framed Yet the proof of the beginning of the world is affirmed with good reason and if it had a beginning it had also some higher cause than it self Every effect hath a cause * Daille 20. Serm. Psa 102.26 pa. 13. 14. The World was not Eternal or from Eternity The matter of the world cannot be Eternal Matter cannot subsist without form nor put on any form without the action of some cause this cause must be in being before it acted that which is not cannot act The cause of the world must necessarily exist before any matter was endued with any form that therefore cannot be Eternal before which another did subsist if it were from Eternity it would not be subject to mutation If the whole was from Eternity why not also the parts what makes the changes so visible then if Eternity would exempt it from mutability 1. Time cannot be infinite and therefore the World not Eternal * Daille ut Supra All motion hath its beginning if it were otherwise we must say the number of Heavenly revolutions of days and nights which are past to this instant is actually infinite which cannot be in nature If it were so it must needs be granted that a part is equal to the whole because infinite being equal to infinite the number of days past in all Ages to the beginning of one year being Infinite as they would be supposing the World had no beginning would by consequence be equal to the number of days which shall pass to the end of the next whereas that number of days past is indeed but a part and so a part would be equal to the whole 2. Generations of Men Animals and Plants could not be from Eternity * Petar Theo. Dogmat. tom 1. lib. 1. cap. 2. pag. 15. If any Man say the world was from Eternity then there must be propagations of living Creatures in the same manner as are at this day For without this the World could not consist what we see now done must have been perpetually done if it be done by a necessity of nature But we see nothing now that doth arise but by a mutual propagation from another If the world were Eternal therefore it must be so in all Eternity take any particular species suppose a man if men were from Eternity then there were perpetual generations some were born into the World and some died Now the natural condition of generation is that a man doth not generate a man nor a Sheep a Lamb as soon as ever it self is brought into the World but get strength and vigour by degrees and must arrive to a certain stated age before they can produce the like for whilst any thing is little and below the due age it cannot increase its kind Men therefore and other Creatures did propagate their kind by the same Law not as soon as ever they were born but in the interval of some time and Children grew up by degrees in the Mothers Womb till they were fit to be brought forth If this be so then there could not be an Eternal
of God in the Earth as if one heart acted every Man in the world The great Apostle cites the Text to verefie the charge he brought against all mankind * Rom. 3.9 10.11.12 In his interpretation the Jews who owned one God and were dignified with special priviledges as well as the Gentiles that maintained many Gods are within the compass of this Character The Apostle leaves out the first part of the Text the fool hath said in his heart but takes in the latter part and the verses following He charges all because all every man of them was under sin There is none that seeks God and ver 19. He adds what the law saith it speaks to those that are under the Law That none should imagine he included only the Gentiles and exempted the Jews from this description The Leprosie of Atheism had infected the whole Mass of human nature No Man among Jews or Gentiles did naturally seek God and therefore all were void of any spark of the practical sence of the Deity The effects of this Atheism are not in all externally of an equal size Yet in the fundamentals and radicals of it there is not a hairs difference between the best and the worst men that ever traversed the world The distinction is laid either in common Grace bounding and suppressing it or in special Grace killing and crucifying it T is in every one either triumphant or militant reigning or deposed No Man is any more born with sensible acknowledgments of God than he is born with a clear knowledge of the nature of all the Stars in the Heavens or Plants upon the Earth None seeks after God * Coccei None seek God as his rule as his end as his happiness which is a debt the Creature naturally owes to God he desires no communion with God He places his happiness in any thing inferior to God He prefers every thing before him glorifies every thing above him he hath no delight to know him he regards not those paths which lead to him he loves his own filth better than Gods Holiness his actions are tinctured and dyed with self and are void of that respect which is due from him to God The noblest Faculty of Man his Understanding wherein the remaining Lineaments of the Image of God are visible the highest Operation of that Faculty which is Wisdom is in the Judgment of the Spirit of God Devilish whiles it is earthly and sensual * Jam. 3.15 and the Wisdom of the best man is no better by Nature a legion of impure Spirits possess it Devilish as the Devil who though he believe there is a God yet acts as if there were none and wishes he had no Superior to prescribe him a Law and inflict that punishment upon him which his Crimes have merited Hence the Poyson of Man by Nature is said to be like the Poyson of a Serpent alluding to that serpentine temptation which first infected Mankind and changed the nature of Man into the likeness of that of the Devil * Psal 58.4 So that notwithstanding the Harmony of the World that presents men not only with the Notice of the Being of a God but darts into their minds some remarks of his Power and Eternity yet the thoughts and reasonings of Man are so corrupt as may well be called Diabolical and as contrary to the Perfection of God and the original Law of their Nature as the actings of the Devil are For since every natural Man is a Child of the Devil and is acted by the Diabolical Spirit he must needs have that Nature which his Father hath and the Infusion of that Venom which the Spirit that acts him is possessed with though the full Discovery of it may be restrained by various Circumstances Eph. 2.2 To conclude though no man or at least very few arrive to a round and positive Conclusion in their hearts that there is no God yet there is no man that naturally hath in his heart any reverence of God In general before I come to a particular Proof take some Propositions Proposition 1. Actions are a greater discovery of a Principle than Words The Testimony of Works is louder and clearer than that of Words and the Frame of mens hearts must be measured rather by what they do than by what they say There may be a mighty distance between the Tongue and the Heart but a Course of Actions is as little guilty of lying as Interest is according to our common saying All outward Impieties are the branches of an Atheism at the root of our Nature as all pestilential sores are expressions of the Contagion in the Blood Sin is therefore frequently called Ungodliness in our English Dialect Mens Practices are the best Indexes of their Principles The Current of a Mans Life is the counter-part of the Frame of his Heart Who can deny an Error in the Spring or Wheels when he perceives an Error in the hand of the Dial Who can deny an Atheism in the Heart when so much is visible in the Life The Tast of the water discovers what Mineral 't is strained through A practical Denial of God is worse than a verbal because deeds have usually more of deliberation than words words may be the fruit of a Passion but a set of evil actions are the fruit and evidence of a predominant evil Principle in the Heart All slighting words of a Prince do not argue an habitual Treason but a succession of overt treasonable Attempts signifie a setled treasonable disposition in the Mind Those therefore are more deservedly termed Atheists who acknowledge a God and walk as if there were none than those if there can be any such that deny a God and walk as if there were one A Sense of God in the Heart would burst out in the Life Where there is no reverence of God in the Life 't is easily concluded there is less in the Heart What doth not influence a Man when it hath the addition of the Eyes and censures of outward Spectators and the care of a Reputation so much the God of the world to strengthen it and restrain the action must certainly have less power over the Heart when it is single without any other concurrence The Flames breaking out of a house discover the Fire to be much stronger and fiercer within The Apostle judgeth those of the Circumcision who gave heed to Jewish Fables to be Denyers of God though he doth not tax them with any notorious Prophaness Tit. 1.16 They profess that they know God but in works they deny him he gives them Epithites contrary to what they arrogated to themselves * Illyric They boasted themselves to be holy the Apostle calls them abominable They bragged that they fulfilled the Law and observed the Traditions of their Fathers the Apostle calls them disobedient or unperswadable They boasted that they only had the Rule of Righteousness and a sound Judgment concerning it the Apostle said they had a
as is inconsistent with his nature Better to deny his Existence than deny his perfection No wise Man but would rather have his memory rot than be accounted infamous and would be more obliged to him that should deny that ever he had a Being in the world than to say he did indeed live but he was a Sot a debaucht Person and a man not to be trusted When we apprehend God deceitful in his promises unrighteous in his threatnings unwilling to pardon upon repentance or resolved to pardon notwithstanding impenitency These are things either unworthy of the Nature of God or contrary to that Revelation he hath given of himself Better for a man never to have been born than be for ever miserable so better to be thought no God than represented impotent or negligent unjust or deceitful which are more contrary to the Nature of God than Hell can be to the greatest Criminal In this sense perhaps the Apostle affirms the Gentiles Eph. 2.12 to be such as are without God in the World as being more Atheists in adoring God under such Notions as they commonly did than if they had acknowledged no God at all 2. This is evident by our natural desire to be distant from him and unwillingness to have any acquaintance with him Sin set us first at a distance from God and every new act of gross Sin estrangeth us more from him and indisposeth us more for him It makes us both afraid and ashamed to be neer him Sensual men were of this frame that Job discourseth of Job 21.7 8 9 and 14 and 15. verses Where grace reigns the neerer to God the more vigorous the motion The neerer any thing approaches to us that is the Object of our desires the more eagerly do we press forward to it But our blood riseth at the approaches of any thing to which we have an aversion We have naturally a loathing of Gods coming to us or our return to him We seek not after him as our happiness and when he offers himself we like it nor but put a disgrace upon him in chusing other things before him God and we are naturally at as great a distance as Light and Darkness Life and Death Heaven and Hell The stronger impression of God any thing hath the more we fly from it The glory of God in reflection upon Moses his face scar'd the Israelites they who had desired God to speak to them by Moses when they saw a signal impression of God upon his Countenance were afraid to come neer him as they were before unwilling to come neer to God * Exod. 34.30 Not that the blessed God is in his own Nature a frightful Object but our own guilt renders him so to us and our selves indisposed to converse with him As the light of the Sun is as irksome to a distemper'd eye as it is in its own Nature desirable to a sound one The Saints themselves have had so much frailty that they have cried out that they were undone if they had any more than ordinary discoveries of God made unto them as if they wished him more remote from them Vileness cannot endure the splendor of Majesty nor Guilt the glory of a Judge We have naturally 1. No desire of remembrance of him 2. or converse with him 3. or thorough return to him 4. or close imitation of him As if there were not any such Being as God in the world or as if we wished there were none at all so feeble and spiritless are our thoughts of the Being of a God 1. No desire for the remembrance of him How delightful are other things in our minds How burdensome the Memorials of God from whom we have our Being With what pleasure do we contemplate the Nature of Creatures even of Flyes and Toads while our minds tire in the search of him who hath bestowed upon us our knowing and meditating Faculties Though God shews himself to us in every Creature in the meanest Weed as well as the highest Heavens and is more apparent in them to our reasons than themselves can be to our sense yet though we see them we will not behold God in them We will view them to please our sense to improve our reason in their natural perfections but pass by the consideration of Gods perfections so visibly beaming from them Thus we play the Beasts and Atheists in the very exercise of reason and neglect our Creator to gratifie our sense as though the pleasure of that were more desireable than the knowledge of God The desire of our Souls is not towards his Name and the Remembrance of him * Isa 26.8 when we set not our selves in a posture to feast our Souls with deep and serious meditations of him have a thought of him only by the by and away as if we were afraid of too intimate acquaintance with him Are not the thoughts of God rather our Invaders than our Guests seldome invited to reside and take up their home in our hearts Have we not when they have broke in upon us bid them depart from us * Job 22.17 and warned them to come no more upon our ground sent them packing as soon as we could and were glad when they were gone And when they have departed have we not often been afraid they should return again upon us and therefore lookt about for other inmates things not good or if good infinitely below God to possess the room of our hearts before any thoughts of him should appear again Have we not often been glad of excuses to shake off present thoughts of him and when we have wanted real ones found out pretences to keep God and our hearts at a distance Is not this a part of Atheism to be so unwilling to imploy our faculties about the giver of them to refuse to exercise them in a way of a grateful remembrance of him as though they were none of his gift but our own acquisition as though the God that truly gave them had no right to them and he that thinks on us every day in a way of Providence were not worthy to be thought on by us in a way of special Remembrance Do not the best that love the remembrance of him and abhorr this natural aversness find that when they would think of God many things tempt them and turn them to think elsewhere Do they not find their apprehensions too feeble their motions too dull and the impressions too slight This natural Atheism is spread over humane nature 2. No desire of converse with him The word remember in the command for keeping holy the Sabbath-Day including all the duties of the Day and the choicest of our lives implies our natural unwillingness to them and forgetfulness of them Gods pressing this Command with more reasons than the rest manifests that man hath no heart for Spiritual Duties No spiritual duty which sets us immediately Face to Face with God but in the attempts of it we find naturally a resistance
than a Rock can carve it self into the Statue of a man or a Serpent that is an Enemy to Man could or would raise it self to the Nobility of the humane Nature That Soul that by Nature would strip God of his Rights cannot without a Divine Power be made conformable to him and acknowledg sincerely and cordially the Rights and Glory of God 7. We may here see the reason why there can be no justification by the best and strongest works of Nature Can that which hath Atheism at the root justifie either the action or person What strength can those works have which have neither Gods Law for their Rule nor his Glory for their End that are not wrought by any spiritual strength from him nor tend with any spiritual affection to him Can these be a foundation for the most holy God to pronounce a Creature righteous They will justifie his Justice in condemning but cannot sway his Justice to an Absolution Every natural man in his works picks and chuses he owns the Will of God no further than he can wring it to sute the law of his Members and minds not the honour of God but as it justles not with his own glory and secular ends Can he be righteous that prefers his own Will and his own Honour before the Will and Honour of the Creator However mens actions may be beneficial to others what reason hath God to esteem them wherein there is no respect to him but themselves whereby they dethrone him in their thoughts while they seem to own him in their religious works Every day reproves us with something different from the Rule Thousands of wandrings offer themselves to our eyes Can Justification be expected from that which in it self is matter of despair 8. See here the cause of all the apostacy in the World Practical Atheism was never conquered in such They are still alienated from the Life of God and will not live to God as he lives to himself and his own honour * Eph. 4.17 18. They loath his Rule and distaste his Glory are loth to step out of themselves to promote the ends of another find not the satisfaction in him as they do in themselves They will be Judges of what is good for them and righteous in it self rather than admit of God to judge for them When men draw back from Truth to Error 't is to such opinions which may serve more to foment and cherish their Ambition Covetousness or some beloved Lust that dispates with God for precedency and is designed to be served before him John 12.42.43 They love the praise of men more than the praise of God A preferring man before God was the reason they would not confess Christ and God in him 9. This shews us the excellency of the Gospel and Christian Religion It sets man in his due place and gives to God what the Excellency of his Nature requires ∴ It lays man in the dust from whence he was taken and sets God upon that Throne where he ought to si◠Man by Nature would annihilate God and deisie himself the Gospel glorifies God and annihilates Man In our first revolt we would be like him in knowledge in the means he hath provided for our recovery he designs to make us like him in Grace The Gospel shews our selves to be an Object of Humiliation and God to be a glorious Object for our Imitation The Light of Nature tells us there is a God the Gospel gives us a more magnificent report of him The light of Nature condemns gross Atheism and that of the Gospel condemns and conquers spiritual Atheism in the hearts of men Use 2. Of Exhortation 1. Let us labour to be sensible of this Atheism in our Nature and be humbled for it How should we lye in the Dust and go bowing under the humbling thoughts of it all our days Shall we not be sensible of that whereby we spill the blood of our Souls and give a stabb to the heart of our own Salvation Shall we be worse than any Creature not to bewail that which tends to our destruction He that doth not lament it cannot challenge the Character of a Christian hath nothing of the divine Life and Love planted 〈◊〉 his Soul Not a man but shall one day be sensible when the Eternal God shall call him out to Examination and charge his Conscience to discover every Crime which will then own the Authority whereby it acted when the heart shall be torn open and the secrets of it brought to publick view and the World and Man himself shall see what a viperous Brood of corrupt Principles and Ends nested in his Heart Let us therefore be truly sensible of it till the consideration draw tears from our Eyes and sorrow from our Souls Let us urge the thoughts of it upon our hearts till the Core of that Pride be eaten out and our Stubborness changed into Humility Till our Heads become Waters and our Eyes Fountains of tears and be a spring of Prayer to God to change the heart and mortifie the Atheism in it and consider what a sad thing it is to be a practical Atheist And who is not so by Nature 1. Let us be sensible of it in our selves Have any of our hearts been a Soyl wherein the Fear and Reverence of God hath naturally grown Have we a desire to know him or a will to embrace him Do we delight in his Will and love the remembrance of his Name Are our respects to him as God equal to the speculative knowledge we have of his Nature Is the heart wherein he hath stampt his Image reserved for his Residence Is not the world more affected than the Creator of the world as though that could contribute to us a greater happiness than the Author of it Have not Creatures as much of our love fear trust nay more than God that framed both them and us Have we not too often relyed upon our own strength and made a Calf of our own wisdom and said of God as the Israelites of Moses As for this Moses we wot not what is become of him Exod. 32.1 and given oftener the glory of our good success to our Dragg and our Net to our Craft and our Industry than to the wisdom and blessing of God Are we then free from this sort of Atheism * Lawson body of Divinity pa. 153. 154. 'T is as impossible to have two Gods at one time in one heart as to have two Kings at one time in full power in one Kingdom Have there not been frequent neglects of God Have we not been deaf whilst he hath knocked at our doors slept when he hath sounded in our Ears as if there had been no such Being as a God in the world How many struglings have been against our approaches to him Hath not folly often been committed with vain imaginations starting up in the time of Religious Service which we would scarce vouchsafe a look to at another time
effect of Divine Revelation He only knows himself and can only make himself known to us It could not be supposed that an infinite God should have no perfections but what were visible in the works of his hands and that these perfections should not be infinitely greater than as they were sensible in their present effects This had been to apprehend God a limited Being meaner than he is Now 't is impossible to honour God as we ought unless we know him as he is and we could not know him as he is without divine revelation from himself for none but God can acquaint us with his own nature And therefore the nations void of this conduct heapt up modes of worship from their own imaginations unworthy of the Majesty of God and below the nature of man A rational man would scarce have owned such for signs of honour as the Scripture mentions in the services of Baal and Dagon Much less an infinitely wise and glorious God And when God had signified his mind to his own people how unwilling were they to rest satisfied with Gods determination but would be warping to their own inventions and make Gods and wayes of worship to themselves * Amos 5.26 As in the matter of the Golden Calf as was lately spoken of 2. Tho the outward manner of worship acceptable to God could not be known without revelation and those revelations might be various yet the inward manner of worship with our Spirits was manifest by nature And not only manifest by nature to Adam in Innocence but after his fall and the scales he had brought upon his understanding by that fall When God gave him his positive institutions before the fall or whatsoever additions God should have made had he persisted in that state or when he appointed him after his fall to testifie his acknowledgment of him by Sacrifices there needed no Command to him to make those acknowledgments by those outward wayes prescribed to him with the intention and prime affection of his Spirit This nature would instruct him in without revelation For he could not possibly have any semblance of reason to think that the offering of beasts or the presenting the first fruits of the increase of the ground as an acknowledgment of Gods Soveraignty over him and his bounty to him was sufficient without devoting to him that part wherein the Image of his Creator did consist He could not but discerne by a reflection upon his own being that he was made for God as well as by God For it is a natural principle of which the Apostle speaks Rom. 11.36 For of him and through him and to him are all things c. That the whole whereof he did consist was due to God and that his Body the dreggy and dusty part of his nature was not fit to be brought alone before God without that nobler principle which he had by Creation linkt with it Nothing in the whole law of nature as it is informed of Religion was clearer next to the being of God than this manner of worshipping God with the mind and Spirit And as the Gentiles never sunk so low into the mud of Idolatry as to think the Images they worshipped were really their Gods but the representations or habitations of their Gods so they never deserted this principle in the Notion of it that God was to be honoured with the best they were and the best they had As they never denyed the being of a God in the Notion tho they did in the practise so they never rejected this principle in Notion tho they did and now most men do in the inward observation of it It was a maxime among them that God was mens animus mind and Spirit and therefore was to be honoured with the mind and Spirit That religion did not consist in the Ceremonies of the body but the work of the Soul Whence the speech of one of them * Menander Grot. de veritat relig lib. 4. § 12. Sacrifice to the Gods not so much clothed with purple garments as a pure heart And of another God regards not the multitude of the Sacrifices but the disposition of the Sacrificer T is not fit we should deny God the Cream and Flower * Jamblick and give him the flotten part and the stalks And with what Reverence and intention of mind they thought their worship was to be performed is evident by the Priests crying out often hoc age Mind this let your Spirits be intent upon it This could not but result 1. From the knowledge of our selves T is a natural principle God hath made us and not we our selves Psal 100.1 2. Man knows himself to be a rational Creature As a Creature he was to serve his Creator and as a rational Creature with the best part of that rational nature he derived from him By the same act of reason that he knows himself to be a Creature he knows himself to have a Creator That this Creator is more excellent than himself and that an honour is due from him to the Creator for framing of him and therefore this honour was to be offered to him by the most excellent part which was framed by him Man cannot consider himself as a thinking understanding being but he must know that he must give God the honour of his thoughts and worship him with those faculties whereby he Thinks Wills and Acts. * Amiraut Mor. Tom. 1. pa. 309. 310. He must know his faculties were given him to act and to act for the glory of that God who gave him his Soul and the faculties of it and he could not in reason think they must be only active in his own service and the service of the Creature and idle and unprofitable in the service of his Creator With the same Powers of our Soul whereby we contemplate God we must also worship God We cannot think of him but with our Minds nor love him but with our Will and we cannot worship him without the acts of thinking and loving and therefore cannot worship him without the exercise of our inward faculties How is it possible then for any man that knows his own nature to think that extended hands bended knees and lifted up eyes were sufficient acts of worship without a quickned and active Spirit 2 From the knowledge of God As there was a knowledge of God by nature so the same nature did dictate to Man that God was to be glorified as God The Apostle implies the inference in the charge he brings against them for neglecting it We should speak of God as he is said one * Bias. Rom. 1.21 and the same reason would inform them that they were to act towards God as he is The excellency of the Object required a worship according to the dignity of his Nature which could not be answered but by the most serious inward affection as well as outward decency and a want of this cannot but be judged to be unbecoming
less vain must it be when the Bodies of Men are presented to supply the place of their Spirits As an omission of duty is a contempt of Gods Soveraign Authority so the omission of the manner of it is a contempt of it and of his amiable excellency and that which is a contempt and mockery can lay no just claim to the title of Worship Reason 4. There is in worship an approach of God to Man It was instituted to this purpose that God might give out his blessings to Man And ought not our Spirits to be prepared and ready to receive his communications We are in such acts more peculiarly in his presence In the Israelites hearing the Law it is said God was to come among them * Exod. 19.10 11. Then men are said to stand before the Lord * Deut. 10.8 God before whom I stand that is whom I worship And therefore when Cain forsook the worship of God setled in his Fathers Family * Kings 1.17 he is said to go out from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4.16 God is essentially present in the world graciously present in his Church The name of the Evangelical City is Jehovah Shammah * Ezek. 48.35 the Lord is there God is more graciously present in the Evangelical institutions than in the Legal He loves the Gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob * Psal 87.2 His Evangelical Law and Worship which was to go forth from Zion as the other did from Sinai Mic. 4.2 God delights to approach to Men and converse with them in the worship instituted in the Gospel more than in all the dwellings of Jacob. If God be graciously present ought not we to be spiritually present A liveless Carcass service becomes not so high and delectable a presence as this 'T is to thrust him from us not invite him to us 'T is to practise in the Ordinances what the Prophet predicts concerning mens usage of our Saviour Isa 53.2 There is no form no comeliness nor beauty that we should desire him A slightness in worship reflects upon the excellency of the object of worship God and his worship are so linkt together that whosoever thinks the one not worth his inward care esteems the other not worth his inward affection How unworthy a slight is it of God who profers the opening his Treasure the reimpressing his Image conferring his blessings admits us into his presence when he hath no need for us who hath millions of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise He that worships not God with his Spirit regards not Gods presence in his Ordinances and slights the great end of God in them and that perfection he may attain by them We can only expect what God hath promised to give when we tender to him what he hath commanded us to present If we put off God with a Shell he will put us off with a Husk How can we expect his heart when we do not give him ours or hope for the blessing needful for us when we render not the glory due to him It cannot be an advantagious worship without spiritual graces for those are uniting and Union is the ground of all Communion Reason 5. To have a spiritual worship is Gods end in the restoration of the Creature both in Redemption by his Son and Sanctification by his Spirit A fitness for spiritual Offerings was the end of the coming of Christ * Mal. 3.3 He should purge them as Gold and Silver by Fire a Spirit burning up their dross melting them into a holy compliance with and submission to God To what purpose That they may offer to the Lord an Offering in Righteousnes a pure Offering from a purified Spirit He came to bring us to God * 1 Pet. 3.18 in such a Garb as that we might be fit to converse with him Can we be thus without a fixedness of our Spirits on him The offering of spiritual Sacrifices is the end of making any a spiritual Habitation and a holy Priest-hood * Pet. 2.5 We can no more be Worshippers of God without a Worshippers nature than a man can be a man without humane nature As man was at first created for the honour and worship of God so the design of restoring that Image which was defaced by Sin tends to the same end We are not brought to God by Christ nor are our services presented to him if they be without our Spirits Would any man that undertakes to bring another to a Prince introduce him in a slovenly and sordid habit such a garb that he knows hateful to him Or bring the Clothes or Skin of a Man stuft with straw instead of the Person To come with our Skins before God without our Spirits is contrary to the design of God in Redemption and Regeneration If a carnal worship would have pleased God a carnal heart would have served his turn without the expence of his Spirit in Sanctification He bestows upon man a spiritual nature that he may return to him a spiritual service He enlightens the Understanding that he may have a rational service and new moulds the Will that he may have a voluntary service As it is the Milk of the Word wherewith he feeds us so it is the service of the Word wherewith we must glorifie him So much as there is of confusedness in our understanding so much of starting and levity in our Wills so much of slipperiness and skipping in our affections so much is abated of the due qualities of the worship of God and so much we fall short of the end of Redemption and Sanctification Reason 6. A spiritual worship is to be offered to God because no worship but that can be acceptable We can never be secured of acceptance without it He being a Spirit nothing but the worship in Spirit can be sutable to him What is unsutable cannot be acceptable There must be something in us to make our services capable of being presented by Christ for an actual acceptation No service is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ but as it is a spiritual Sacrifice and offered by a spiritual heart 1 Pet. 2.5 The Sacrifice is first spiritual before it be acceptable to God by Christ When it is an offering in righteousness it is then and only then pleasant to the Lord Mal. 3.3 4. No Prince would accept a gift that is unsutable to his Majesty and below the condition of the person that presents it Would he be pleased with a bottle of water for drink from one that hath his Cellar full of wine How unacceptable must that be that is unsutable to the Divine Majesty And what can be more unsutable than a withdrawing the operations of our Souls from him in the oblation of our Bodies We as little glorifie God as God when we give him only a corporeal worship as the Heathen did when they represented him in a corporeal shape * Rom. 1.21
of thankfulness in arrear He renders himself doubly unworthy of the mercies he wants that doth not gratefully acknowledge the mercies he hath received God scarce promised any deliverance to the Israelites and they in their distress scarce prayed for any deliverance but that from Egypt was mentioned on both sides by God to encourage them and by them to acknowledge their confidence in him The greater our dangers the more we should call to mind Gods former kindness We are not only thankfully to acknowledge the mercies bestowed upon our persons or in our age but those of former times Thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations Moses was not living in the former Generations yet he appropriates the former mercies to the present age Mercies as well Generations proceed out of the loyns of those that have gon before All Man-kind are but one Adam the whole Church but one Body In the second verse he backs his former consideration 1. By the greatness of his Power in forming the world 2. By the boundlesness of his duration From everlasting to everlasting As thou hast been our dwelling place and expended upon us the strength of thy power and riches of thy love so we have no reason to doubt the continuance on thy part if we be not wanting on our parts For the vast Mountains and fruitful Earth are the works of thy hands and there is less power requisite for our relief than there was for their Creation and though so much strength hath been upon various occasions manifested yet thy Arm is not weakned for from everlasting to everlasting thou art God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong * Amyrald in loc Thou hast always been God and no time can be assigned as the beginning of thy Being The mountains are not of so long a standing as thy self they are the effects of thy power and therefore cannot be equal to thy duration since they are effects they suppose a precedency of their cause If we would look back we can reach no further than the beginning of the Creation and account the years from the first foundation of the world but after that we must lose our selves in the Abyss of Eternity we have no Cue to guide our thoughts we can see no bounds in thy Eternity But as for Man he traverseth the world a few days and by thy order pronounced concerning all men returns to the Dust and moulders into the Grave By Mountains some understand Angels as being Creatures of a more elevated Nature By Earth they understand humane Nature the Earth being the habitation of Men. There is no need to divert in this place from the Letter to such a sense The description seems to be Poetical and amounts to this He neither began with the beginning of Time nor will expire with the End of it * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret in loc He did not begin when he made himself known to our Fathers but his Being did precede the Creation of the World before any created Being was formed and any time setled Before the Mountains were brought forth Or before they were begotten or born The word being used in those senses in Scripture before they stood up higher than the rest of the earthly Mass God had created It seems that Mountains were not casually cast up by the force of the Deluge softning the Ground and driving several parcels of it together to grow up into a massy body as the Sea doth the Sand in several places but they were at first formed by God The Eternity of God is here described 1. In his Priority Before the world 2. In the extension of his duration From everlasting to everlasting thou art God He was before the world yet he neither began nor ends He is not a Temporary but an Eternal God It takes in both parts of Eternity what was before the Creation of the world and what is after Though the Eternity of God be one permanent state without succession yet the Spirit of God suiting himself to the weakness of our conception divides it into two parts one past before the foundation of the world another to come after the destruction of the world as he did exist before all ages and as he will exist after all ages Many Truths lye coucht in the verse 1. The World hath a beginning of being It was not from Eternity it was once nothing had it been of a very long duration some Records would have remained of some memorable actions done of a longer date than any extant 2. The world owes its Being to the creating Power of God Thou hadst formed it out of nothing into being Thou that is God it could not spring into being of it self it was nothing it must have a Former 3. God was in being before the world The Cause must be before the Effect that Word which gives Being must be before that which receives Being 4. This Being was from Eternity From Everlasting 5. This Being shall endure to Eternity To Everlasting 6. There is but one God one Eternal From everlasting to everlasting thou art God None else but one hath the Property of Eternity the Gods of the Heathen cannot lay claim to it Doct. God is of an eternal duration The Eternity of God is the foundation of the stability of the Covenant the great comfort of a Christian The design of God in Scripture is to set forth his dealing with men in the way of a Covenant * Gen. 1.1 The Priority of God before all things begins the Bible In the beginning God created His Covenant can have no foundation but in his duration before and after the world * Calv. in loc And Moses here mentions his Eternity not only with respect to the Essence of God but to his faederal Providence As he is the dwelling place of his People in all Generations The duration of God for ever is more spoken of in Scripture than his Eternity à parte ante though that is the foundation of all the comfort we can take from his Immortality If he had a beginning he might have an end and so all our happiness hope and being would expire with him but the Scripture sometimes takes notice of his being without beginning as well as without end * Psal 93.2 Thou art from everlasting * Psal 41.13 Blessed be God from everlasting to everlasting * Prov. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting If his Wisdom were from everlasting himself was from everlasting Whether we understand it of Christ the Son of God or of the essential wisdom of God 't is all one to the present purpose The Wisdom of God supposeth the Essence of God as habits in Creatures suppose the being of some power or faculty as their Subject The Wisdom of God supposeth Mind and Understanding Essence and Substance The notion of Eternity is difficult as Austin said * Confes lib. 11. Confes 14. of Time If no man will ask me the
every thing * Maccor loc commun cap. 19. p. 153. He is really out of the World in himself as he was in himself before the Creation of the World As because God was before the Foundation of the World we conclude his Eternity so because he is without the bounds of the World we conclude his Immensity and from thence his Omnipresence The World cannot be said to contain him since it was Created by him it cannot contain him now who was contained by nothing before the World was as there was no place to contain him before the World was there can be no place to contain him since the World was God might create more Worlds circular and round as this and those could not be so contiguous but some spaces would be left between as take three round Balls lay them as close as you can to one another there will be some spaces between none would say but God would be in these spaces as well as in the World he had created tho' there were nothing real and positive in those spaces Why should we then exclude God from those imaginary spaces without the World God might also create many Worlds and separate them by distances that they might not touch one another but be at a great distance from one another and would not God fill them as well as he doth this if so he must also fill the spaces between them For if he were in all those Worlds and not in the spaces between those Worlds his Essence would be divided there would be gaps in it his Essence would be cut into parts and the distance between every part of his Essence would be as great as the space between each World The Essence of God may be conceived then well enough to be in all those infinite spaces where he can erect new Worlds I shall give one place more to prove both these Propositions viz. That God is Essentially in every part of the World and Essentially above ours without the World * Isa 66.1 The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Foot-stool He is Essentially in every part of the World he is in Heaven and Earth at the same time as a man is upon his Throne and his Foot-stool God describes himself in a Human Shape accommodated to our Capacity as if he had his Head in Heaven and his Feet on Earth doth not his Essence then fill all intermediate spaces between Heaven and Earth as when the head of a man is in the upper part of a Room and his Feet upon the floor his body fills up the space between the Head and his Feet this is meant of the Essence of God 't is a Similitude drawn from Kings sitting upon the Throne and not their Power and Authority but the Feet of their persons are supported by the Foot-stool so here it is not meant only of the Perfections of God but the Essence of God Besides God seems to tax them with an erroneous conceit they had as tho' his Essence were in the Temple and not in any part of the World therefore God makes an Opposition between Heaven and Earth and the Temple Where is the House that you built unto me and where is the place of my Rest Had he understood it only of his Providence it had not been any thing against their mistake for they granted his Providence to be not only in the Temple but in all parts of the World Where is the House that you Build to me to Me not to my Power or Providence but think to include Me within those Walls Again It shews God to be above the Heavens if the Heavens be his Throne he sits upon them and is above them as Kings are above the Thrones on which they sit so it cannot be meant of his Providence because no Creature being without the Sphere of the Heavens there is nothing of the Power and the Providence of God visible there for there is nothing for him to employ his Providence about For Providence supposeth a Creature in actual being It must be therefore meant of his Essence which is above the world and in the world And the like proof you may see Job 11.7 8. 'T is as high as heaven what canst thou do deeper than Hell what canst thou know the measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea Where he intends the unsearchableness of Gods wisdom but proves it by the infiniteness of his Essence Hebr. He is the height of the Heavens he is the top of all the Heavens so that when you have begun at the lowest part and traced him through all the Creatures you will find his Essence filling all the Creatures to be at the top of the World and infinitely beyond it 5. Fifth Proposition This is the property of God incommunicable to any Creature As no Creature can be eternal and immutable so no Creature can be immense because it cannot be infinite nothing can be of an infinite nature and therefore nothing of an immense Presence but God It cannot be communicated to the Humane Nature of Christ tho' in Union with the Divine * Rivet 110. Psal p. 301. Col. 2. some indeed argue that Christ in regard of his humane nature is every where because he sits at the right hand of God and the right hand of God is every where His fitting at the right hand of God signifies his Exaltation and cannot with any reason be extended to such a kind of arguing The Hearts of Kings are in the hand of God are the heart of Kings every where because Gods hand is every where The Souls of the Righteous are in the hand of God is the Soul therefore of every Righteous man every where in the World The right hand of God is from Eternity is the Humanity of Christ therefore from Eternity because it sits at the right hand of God The right hand of God made the World did the Humanity of Christ therefore make Heaven and Earth the Humanity of Christ must then be confounded with his Divinity be the same with it not united to it All Creatures are distinct from their Creator and cannot inherit the Properties Essential to his Nature as Eternity Immensity Immutability Omnipresence Omniscience no Angel no Soul no Creature can be in all places at once before they can be so they must be Immense and so must cease to be Creatures and commence God this is impossible II Reasons to prove Gods Essential Presence 1st Reason Because he is infinite As he is infinite he is every where as he is Simple his whole Essence is every where for in regard of his Infiniteness he hath no bounds in regard of his Simplicity he hath no parts And therefore those that deny Gods Omnipresence tho' they pretend to own him Infinite must really conceive him Finite 1. God is Infinite in his Perfections None can set bounds to terminate the greatness and excellency of God * Psal 145.3 His greatness
manifestation of himself If by his dwelling in heaven be meant his whole essence why is it not also to be meant by his dwelling in the Ark It was not sure part of his essence that was in heaven and part of his essence that was on earth his essence would then be divided and can it be imagined that he should be in Heaven and the Ark at the same time and not in the spaces between Could his essence be split into fragments and a gap made in it that two distant spaces should be fill'd by him and all between be empty of him So that Gods being said to dwell in Heaven and in the Temple is so far from impairing the truth of this doctrine that it more confirms and evidences it 2. Nor do the Expressions of God's coming to us or departing from us impair this Doctrine of his Omnipresence God is said to hide his face from his People * Psal 10.1 to be far from the Wicked and the Gentiles are said to be afar off viz. from God †Prov. 15.29 and upon the manifestation of Christ made near †Eph 2.17 These must not be understood of any distance or nearness of his Essence for that is equally near to all persons and things but of some other special way and manifestation of his Presence Thus God is said to be in Believers by Love as they are in him * 1 Joh. 4.15 He that abides in love abides in God and God in him He that loves is in the thing beloved and when two love one another they are in one another God is in a Righteous man by a special grace and far from the Wicked in regard of such special Works and God is said to be in a place by a special manifestation as when he was in the Bush * Exod. 3. or manifesting his Glory upon Mount Sinai †Exod. 24.16 The Glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai God is said to hide his face when he withdraws his comforting Presence disturbs the repose of our hearts flasheth Terror into our Consciences when he puts men under the smart of the Cross as tho' he had ordered his Mercy utterly to depart from them or when he doth withdraw his special assisting Providence from us in our affairs so he departed from Saul when he withdrew his direction and Protection from him in the concerns of his Government * 1 Sam. 16.14 The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul i. e. the Spirit of Government God may be far from us in one respect and near to us in another far from us in regard of Comfort yet near to us in regard of Support when his Essential Presence continues the same this is a necessary consequent upon the infiniteness of God the other is an act of the Will of God so he was said to forsake Christ in regard of his obscuring his Glory from his Humane Nature and inflicting his Wrath tho' he was near to him in regard of his Grace and preserved him from contracting any spot in his Sufferings We do not say the Sun is departed out of the Heavens when it is be-misted it remains in the same part of the Heavens passes on its course tho' its Beams do not reach us by reason of the Bar between us and it The Soul is in every part of the Body in regard of its Substance and constantly in it tho' it doth not act so spritely and vigorously at one time as at another in one and the same Member and discover it self so sensibly in its Operations so all the various effects of God towards the Sons of men are but divers Operations of one and the same Essence He is far from us or near to us as he is a Judg or a Benefactor when he comes to Punish it notes not the approach of his Essence but the stroak of his Justice when he comes to Benefit 't is not by a new access of his Essence but an efflux of his Grace he departs from us when he leaves us to the Frowns of his Justice he comes to us when he encircles us in the Arms of his Mercy but he was equally present with us in both dispensations in regard of his Essence And likewise God is said to come down * Gen. 11.5 And the Lord came down to see the City when he doth some signal and wonderful Works which attract the minds of men to the acknowledgment of a Supream Power and Providence in the World who judg'd God absent and careless before 3. Nor is the Essential Presence of God with all Creatures any disparagement to him Since it was no disparagement to Create the Heaven and the Earth 't is no disparagement to him to him to fill them if he were Essentially present with them when he created them 't is no dishonour to him to be Essentiall present with them to support them if it were his Glory to Create them by his Essence when they were nothing Can it be his disgrace to be present by his Essence since they are something and something good and very good in his Eye * Gen. 1.31 God saw every thing and behold it was very good or mighty good all ordered to declare his Goodness Wisdom Power and to make him adorable to man and therefore took complacency in tehm There is a Harmony in all things a Combination in them for those glorious Ends for which God Created them and is it a disgrace for God to be present with his own Harmonious composition Is it not a Musicians Glory to touch with his fingers the Trebble the least and tenderest string as well as the strongest and greatest Base Hath not every thing some Stamp of Gods own Being upon it since he eminently contains in himself the Perfections of all his Works whatsoever hath Being hath a Foot-step of God upon it who is all Being every thing in the Earth is his Foot-Stool having a mark of his Foot upon it all declare the Being of God because they had their Being from God and will God account it any disparagement to him to be present with that which confirms his Being and the glorious Perfections of his nature to his intelligent Creatures the meanest things are not without their Vertues which may boast Gods being the Creator of them and rank them in the midst of his Works of Wisdom as well as Power Doth God debase himself to be present by his Essence with the things he hath made more than he doth to know them by his Essence Is not the least thing known by him How not by a faculty or act distinct from his Essence but by his Essence it self How is any thing disgraceful to the Essential Presence of God that is not disgraceful to his Knowledge by his Essence Besides would God make any thing that should be an invincible reason to him to part with his own infiniteness by a contraction of his own Essence into a less compass than
before it was Immense before it had no bounds and would God make a World that he would be ashamed to be present with and continue it to the diminution and lessening of himself rather than annihilate it to avoid the disparagement This were to impeach the Wisdom of God and cast a blemish upon his infinite Understanding that he knows not the consequences of his Work or is well contented to be impaired in the immensity of his own Essence by it No man thinks it a dishonour to Light a most excellent Creature to be present with a Toad or Serpent and tho' there be an infinite disproportion between Light a Creature and the Father of Lights the Creator Yet * Gassend God being a Spirit knows how to be with Bodies as if they were not Bodies And being jealous of his own Honor would not could not do any thing that might impair it 4. Nor will it follow That because God is Essentially every where that every thing is God God is not every where by any conjunction composition or mixture with any thing on Earth when Light is in every part of a Chrystal Globe and encircles it close on every side do they become one No the Chrystal remains what it is and the Light retains its own nature God is not in us as a part of us but as an efficient and preserving Cause 't is not by his Essential Presence but his efficacious Presence that he brings any person into a likeness to his own Nature God is so in his Essence with things as to be distinct from them as a Cause from the Effect as a Creator different from the Creature preserving their Nature not communicating his own his Essence touches all is in conjunction with none Finite and Infinite cannot be joyn'd he is not far from us therefore near to us so near that we live and move in him * Acts 17.27 Nothing is God because it moves in him any more than a Fish in the Sea is the Sea or a part of the Sea because it moves in it Doth a man that holds a thing in the hollow of his hand Amyrald de Trinit p. 99. 100. transform it by that action and make it like his hand The Soul and Body are more straitly united than the Essence of God is by his Presence with any Creature The Soul is in the Body as a form in matter and from their Union doth arise a man yet in this near conjunction both Body and Soul remain distinct the Soul is not the Body nor the Body the Soul they both have distinct natures and essences the Body can never be changed into a Soul nor the Soul into a Body no more can God into the Creature or the Creature into God Fire is in heated Iron in every part of it so that it seems to be nothing but Fire yet is not Fire and Iron the same thing But such a kind of arguing against Gods Omnipresence that if God were Essentially present every thing would be God would exclude him from Heaven as well as from Earth By the same reason since they acknowledge God essentially in Heaven the Heaven where he is should be chang'd into the nature of God and by arguing against his Presence in Earth upon this ground they run such an inconvenience that they must own him to be no where and that which is no where is nothing Doth the Earth become God because God is Essentially there any more than the Heavens where God is acknowledged by all to be Essentially present Again if where God is Essentially that must be God then if they place God in a Point of the Heavens not only that Point must be God but all the World because if that point be God because God is there then the Point touched by that Point must be God and so consequently as far as there are any Points touched by one another We live and move in God so we live and move in the Air we are no more God by that than we are meer Air because we breathe in it and it enters into all the Pores of our Body Nay where there was a straiter Union of the Divine Nature to the Humane in our Saviour yet the Nature of both was distinct and the Humanity was not chang'd into the Divinity nor the Divinity into the Humanity 5. Nor doth it follow that because God is every where therefore a Creature may be worshipt without Idolatry Some of the Heathens who acknowledged Gods Omnipresence abus'd it to the countenancing Idolatry because God was resident in every thing they thought every thing might be Worshipped and some have usd it as an Argument against this Doctrine the best Doctrines may by mens corruption be drawn out into unreasonable and pernicious conclusions Have you not met with any That from the Doctrine of Gods Free Mercy and our Saviours satisfactory Death have drawn Poyson to feed their Lusts and consume their Souls a Poyson compos'd by their own corruption and not offer'd by those Truths The Apostle intimates to us that some did or at least were ready to be more lavish in sinning because God was abundant in Grace Rom. 6.1 2.15 Shall we Sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound when he prevents an Objection that he thought might be made by some But as to this Case since tho' God be present in every thing yet every thing retains its nature distinct from the Nature of God therefore it is not to have a Worship due to the Excellency of God As long as any thing remains a Creature 't is only to have the respect from us which is due to it in the rank of Creatures When a Prince is present with his Guard or if he should go Arm in Arm with a Peasant is therefore the Veneration and Honor due to the Prince to be paid to the Peasant or any of his Guard would the Presence of the Prince excuse it or would it not rather aggravate it he acknowledged such a person equal to me by giving him my Rights even in my Sight Tho' God dwelt in the Temple would not the Israelites have been accounted guilty of Idolatry had they Worshipped the Images of the Cherubims or the Ark or the Altar as objects of Worship which were erected only as means for his Service Is there not as much reason to think God was as Essentially present in the Temple as in Heaven since the same Expressions are used of the one and the other the Sanctuary is called the Glorious High Throne * Jer. 17.13 and he is said to dwell between the Cherubims †Psal 80.1 i. e. the two Cherubims that were at the two ends of the Mercy Seat appointed by God as the two sides of his Throne in the Sanctuary Exod. 25.18 where he was to dwell ver 8. and meet and commune with his people ver 22. Could this excuse Manasseh's Idolatry
could not be blessed Nothing can have any complacency in it self without the Knowledg of it self Nothing can in a rational manner enjoy it self without understanding it self The Blessedness of God consists not in the knowledg of any thing without him but in the knowledg of himself and his own excellency as the principle of all things If therefore he did not perfectly know himself and his own happiness he could not enjoy a happiness for to be and not to know to be is as if a thing were not He is God blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 and therefore for ever had a Knowledg of himself 3. Without the Knowledg of himself he could Create nothing For he would be ignorant of his own Power and his own Ability and he that doth not know how far his Power extends could not act If he did not know himself he could know nothing and he that knows nothing can do nothing he could not know an Effect to be possible to him unless he knew his own Power as a Cause 4. Without the Knowledg of himself he could govern nothing He could not without the knowledg of his own Holiness and Righteousness prescribe Laws to men nor without a knowledg of his own nature order himself a manner of Worship sutable to it All Worship must be congruous to the dignity and nature of the object worshipped he must therefore know his own Authority whereby Worship was to be enacted his own Excellency to which Worship was to be suited his own Glory to which Worship was to be directed If he did not know himself he did not know what to punish because he would not know what was contrary to himself not knowing himself he would not know what was a contempt of him and what an adoration of him what was worthy of God and what was unworthy of him In fine he could not know other things unless he knew himself unless he knew his own Power he could not know how he created things unless he knew his own Wisdom he could not know the beauty of his Works unless he knew his own Glory he could not know the end of his Works unless he knew his own Holiness he could not know what was evil and unless he knew his own Justice he could not know how to punish the Crimes of his offending creatures And therefore 1. God knows himself because his Knowledg with his Will is the cause of all other things that can fall under his cognizance he knows himself first before he can knovv any other thing that is first according to our conceptions for indeed God knovvs himself and all other things at once He is the first Truth and therefore is the first object of his ovvn understanding There is nothing more excellent than himself and therefore nothing more known to him than himself As he is all Knovvledg so he hath in himself the most excellent object of Knovvledg To understand is properly to knovv ones self No object is so intelligible to God as God is to himself nor so intimately and immediately joined vvith his Understanding as himself for his Understanding is his Essence himself 2. He knows himself by his own Essence He knovvs not himself and his ovvn Povver by the effect because he knovvs himself from Eternity before there vvas a World or any effect of his Povver extant 'T is not a knovvledg by the Cause for God hath no cause nor a knovvledg of himself by any species or any thing from vvithout If it vvere any thing from vvithout himself that must be created or uncreated if uncreated it vvould be God and so vve must either ovvn many Gods or ovvn it to be his Essence and so not distinct from himself If created then his knovvledg of himself vvould depend upon a creature he could not then knovv himself from eternity but in time because nothing can be created from eternity but in time God knovvs not himself by any faculty for there is no composition in God he is not made up of parts but is a simple being some therefore have called God not intellectus understanding because that savours of a faculty but intellectio intellection God is all act in the knovvledg of himself and his knovvledg of other things 3. God therefore knows himself perfectly comprehensively Nothing in his ovvn nature is concealed from him he reflects upon every thing that he is Magalaneus There is a positive comprehension so God doth not comprehend himself for vvhat is comprehended hath bounds and vvhat is comprehended by it self is finite to it self and there is a negative comprehension God so comprehends himself nothing in his ovvn nature is obscure to him unknovvn by him For there is as great a perfection in the understanding of God to knovv as there is in the Divine nature to be knovvn The Understanding of God and the Nature of God are both infinite and so equal to one another his Understanding is equal to himself he knovvs himself so vvell that nothing can be knovvn by him more perfectly than himself is knovvn to himself He knovvs himself in the highest manner because nothing is so proportion'd to the Understanding of God as himself He knovvs his ovvn Essence Goodness Povver all his Perfections Decrees Intentions Acts the infinite capacity of his ovvn Understanding so that nothing of himself is in the dark to himself And in this respect some use this expression That the Infiniteness of God is in a manner finite to himself because it is comprehended by himself Thus God transcends all Creatures thus his Understanding is truly Infinite because nothing but himself is an infinite Object for it What Angels may understand of themselves perfectly I know not but no Creature in the World understands himself Man understands not fully the excellency and parts of his own nature upon Gods knowledg of himself depends the Comfort of his People and the Terror of the Wicked this is also a clear Argument for his Knowledg of all other things without himself he that knows himself must needs know all other things less than himself and which were made by himself When the knowledg of his own Immensity and Infiniteness is not an object too difficult for him the knowledg of a finite and limited Creature in all his actions thoughts circumstances cannot be too hard for him Since he knows himself who is Infinite he cannot but know whatsoever is Finite this is the Foundation of all his other Knowledg the knowledg of every thing present past and to come is far less than the knowledg of himself He is more incomprehensible in his own nature than all things Created or that can be Created put together can be If he then have a perfect comprehensive knowledg of his own nature any knowledg of all other things is less than the knowledg of himself this ought to be well considered by us as the Fountain whence all his other knowledg flows 2. Therefore God knows all other things whether
the things known were the cause of his Knowledg and so before his knowledg and therefore before his action Bradward lib. 1. cap. 15. God would not then be the first in the order of knowing Agents because he would not act by Knowledg but act before he knew and know after he had acted and so the Creature which he made would be before the act of his Understanding whereby he knew what he made Again since Knowledg is a Perfection if Gods knowledg of the Creatures depended upon the Creatures he would derive an excellency from them they would derive no excellency from any Idea in the Divine mind he would not be infinitely perfect in himself if his Perfection in Knowledg were gained from any thing without himself and below himself he would not be sufficient of himself but be under an indigence which wanted a supply from the things he had made and could not be eternally perfect till he had created and seen the effects of his own Power Goodness and Wisdom to render him more wise and knowing in Time than he was from Eternity Who can fancy such a God as this without destroying the Deity he pretends to adore for if his Understanding be perfected by something without him why may not his Essence be perfected by something without him that as he was made knowing by something without him he might be made God by something without him How could his Understanding be infinite if it depended upon a finite object as upon a cause Is the Majesty of God to be debas'd to a Mendicant condition to seek for a supply from things inferior to himself Is it to be imagin'd that a Fool a Toad a Fly should be assistant to the knowledg of God that the most noble Being should be perfected by things so vile that the supream cause of all things should receive any addition of knowledg and be determin'd in his Understanding by the notion of things so mean To conclude this particular all things depend upon his knowledg his knowledg depends upon nothing but is as independent as himself and his own Essence Proposition 4. God knows all things distinctly His understanding is infinite in regard of clearness God is light and in him is no darkness at all John 1.5 he sees not through a Mist or Cloud there 's no blemish in his Understanding no mote or beam in his eye to render any thing obscure to him Man discerns the surface and outside of things little or nothing of the Essence of things we see the noblest things but as in a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13.12 the too great nearness as well as the too great distance of a thing hinders our sight the smallness of a mote escapes our eye and so our knowledg also the weakness of our understanding is troubled with the multitude of things and cannot know many things but confusedly But God knows the forms and essence of things every circumstance nothing is so deep but he sees to the bottom he sees the mass and sees the motes of Beings his Understanding being infinite is not offended with a multitude of things or distracted with the variety of them he discerns every thing infinitely more clearly and perfectly than Adam or Solomon could any one thing in the Circle of their knowledg What knowledg they had was from him he hath therefore infinitely a more perfect knowledg than they were capable in their natures to receive a communication of All things are open to him Heb. 4.13 the least fibre in its nakedness and distinct frame is transparent to him as by the help of Glasses the mouth feet hands of a small Insect are visible to a man which seem to the eye without that assistance one intire piece not diversified into parts All the causes qualities natures properties of things are open to him he brings out the Host of Heaven by number and calleth them by Names Isa 40.26 he numbers the Hairs of our heads what more distinct than number thus God beholds things in every unity which makes up the heap He knows and none else can every thing in its true and intimate causes in its original and intermediate causes in himself as the cause of every particular of their Being every Property in their Being Knowledg by the causes is the most noble and perfect Knowledg and most suited to the infinite excellency of the Divine Being he created all things and ordered them to a universal and particular end he therefore knows the essential Properties of every thing every activity of their nature all their fitness for those distinct ends to which he orders them and for which he governs and disposeth them and understands their darkest and most hidden qualities infinitely clearer than any eye can behold the clear Beams of the Sun He knows all things as he made them he made them distinctly and therefore knows them distinctly and that every individual therefore God is said Gen. 1.31 to see every thing that he had made he took a review of every particular Creature he had made and upon his view pronounced it good To pronounce that good which was not exactly known in every Creek in every Mite of its nature had not consisted with his veracity for every one that speaks truth ignorantly that knows not that he speaks Truth is a Liar in speaking that which is true God knows every act of his own Will whether it be positive or permissive and therefore every effect of his Will We must needs ascribe to God a perfect Knowledg but a confus'd Knowledg cannot challenge that Title To know things only in a heap is unworthy of the Divine Perfection for if God knows his own ends in the Creation of things he knows distinctly the means whereby he will bring them to those ends for which he hath appointed them No Wise man intends an end without a knowledg of the means conducing to that end an ignorance then of any thing in the World which falls under the nature of a means to a Divine end and there is nothing in the World but doth would be inconsistent with the Perfection of God it would ascribe to him a blind Providence in the World As there can be nothing imperfect in his Being and Essence so there can be nothing imperfect in his Understanding and Knowledg and therefore not a confus'd Knowledg which is an Imperfection Darkness and Light are both alike to him Psal 139.12 he sees distinctly into the one as well as the other what is Darkness to us is not so to him Proposition 5. God knows all things infallibly His Understanding is infinite in regard of certainty every Tittle of what he knows is as far from failing as what he speaks our Saviour affirms the one Math. 5.18 and there is the same reason of the certainty of one as well as the other his Essence is the measure of his Knowledg whence it is as impossible that God should be mistaken in the knowledg of the least
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
Instruments He needs no Matter to work upon because he can make something from nothing all Matter owes it self to his Creative Power He needs no time to work in for he can make Time when he pleases to begin to work He needs no Copy to work by Himself is his own Pattern and Copy in his Works All created Agents want Matter to work upon Instruments to work with Copies to work by Time to bring either the births of their Minds or the works of their hands to perfection But the Power of God needs none of these things but is of a vast and Incomprehensible nature beyond all these As nothing can be done without the compass of it so it self is without the compass of every Created Understanding 4. This Power is of a distinct conception from the Wisdom and Will of God They are not really distinct but according to our Conceptions We cannot discourse of Divine things without observing some proportion of them with humane ascribing unto God the Perfections sifted from the Imperfections of our Nature In Us there are three Orders of Understanding Will Power and accordingly three Acts Counsel Resolution Execution which though they are distinct in Us are not really distinct in God In our Conceptions the Apprehension of a thing belongs to the Understanding of God Determination to the Will of God Direction to the Wisdom of Gâ—d Execution to the Power of God The Knowledge of God regards a thing as possible and as it may be done the Wisdom of God regards a thing as fit and convenient to be done the Will of God resolves that it shall be done the Power of God is the application of his Will to effect what it hath resolved Wisdom is a fixing the Being of things the measures and perfections of their several Beings Power is a conferring those Perfections and Beings upon them His Power is his ability to act and his Wisdom is the Director of his action His Will orders his Wisdom guides and his Power effects His Will as the spring and his Power as the worker are exprest Psal 115.3 He hath done whatsoever he pleased He commanded and they were created Psal 140.5 and all three exprest Eph. 1.11 Who works all things according to the counsel of his own will So that the Power of God is a Perfection as it were subordinate to his Understanding and Will to execute the results of his Wisdom and the orders of his Will to his VVisdom as directing because he works skilfully to his Will as moving and applying because he works voluntarily and freely The exercise of his Power depends upon his Will His Will is the supream cause of every thing that stands up in Time and all things receive a Being as he wills them His Power is but Will perpetually working and diffusing it self in the season his Will hath fixed from Eternity 't is his Eternal Will in perpetual and successive springs and streams in the Creatures 't is nothing else but the constant efficacy of his Omnipotent Will This must be understood of his Ordinate Power But his Absolute Power is larger than his Resolving Will for though the Scripture tells us He hath done whatsoever he will yet it tells us not that he hath done whatsoever he could He can do things that he will never do Again His Power is distinguisht from his Will in regard of the Exercise of it which is after the act of his Will His Will was conversant about Objects when his Power was not exercis'd about them Creatures were the objects of his VVill from Eternity but they were not from Eternity the effects of his Power His Purpose to Create was from Eternity but the execution of his Purpose was in Time Now this execution of his VVill we call his Ordinate Power His VVisdom and his VVill are supposed antecedent to his Power as the Counsel and Resolve as the Cause precedes the performance of the Purpose as the effect * Gamacheus Some distinguish his Power from his Understanding and VVill in regard that his Understanding and VVill are larger than his Absolute Power for God understands Sins and wills to permit them but he cannot himself do any Evil or Unjust action nor have a power of doing it But this is not to distinguish that Divine Power but Impotence for to be unable to do Evil is the perfection of Power and to be able to do things Unjust and Evil is a weakness imperfection and inability Man indeed wills many things that he is not able to perform and understands many things that he is not able to effect he understands much of the Creatures something of Sun Moon and Stars he can conceive many Suns many Moons yet is not able to create the least Atom But there is nothing that belongs to Power but God understands and is able to effect To sum this up The VVill of God is the Root of all the VVisdom of God is the Copy of all and the Power of God is the Framer of all 5. The Power of God gives activity to all the other perfections of his Nature and is of a larger extent and efficacy in regard of its Objects than some perfections of his Nature I put them both together 1. It contributes Life and Activity to all the other perfections of his Nature How vain would be his Eternal Counsels if Power did not step in to execute them His Mercy would be a feeble pity if he were destitute of Power to relieve and his Justice a slighted Scarecrow without Power to punish his Promises an empty sound without Power to accomplish them As Holiness is the Beauty so Power is the Life of all his Attributes in their exercise and as Holiness so Power is an Adjunct belonging to All a Term that may be given to All. God hath a powerful Wisdom to attain his Ends without interruption He hath a powerful Mercy to remove our Misery a powerful Justice to lay all Misery upon Offenders He hath a powerful Truth to perform his Promises an Infinite Power to bestow Rewards and inflict Penalties 'T is to this purpose Power is first put in the two things which the Psalmist had heard Psal 62.11 12. Twice have I heard or two things have I heard first Power then Mercy and Justice included in that expression Thou rendrest to every man according to his work In every perfection of God he heard of Power This is the Arm the Hand of the Deity which all his other Attributes lay hold on when they would appear in their Glory this hands them to the World by this they act in this they triumph Power framed every stage for their appearance in Creation Providence Redemption 2. 'T is of a larger extent in regard of its Objects than some other Attributes Power doth not alway suppose an Object but constitutes an Object It supposeth an Obiect in the act of Preservation but it makes an Object in the act of Creation but Mercy supposeth an object Miserable
acknowledgment of the Immensity of Divine Power Miracles are such effects as have been wrought without the assistance and cooperation of Natural Causes yea contrary and besides the ordinary course of Nature above the reach of any Created Power Miracles have been and saith Bradwardine * Lib. 1. cap. 1. p. 38. To deny that ever such things were is uncivil 'T is inhuman to deny all the Histories of Jews and Christians whosoever denies Miracles must deny all possibility of Miracles and so must imagine himself fully skill'd in the extent of Divine Power How was the Sun suspended from its Motion for some hours Josh 10.13 The Dead raised from the Grave Those reduc'd from the brink of it that had been brought near to it by prevailing Diseases and this by a word speaking How were the famisht Lions bridled from exercising their rage upon Daniel Dan. 6.22 expos'd to them for a Prey The activity of the Fire curb'd for the preservation of the Three Children Dan. 3.15 Which proves a Deity more powerful than all Creatures No power upon Earth can hinder the operation of the Fire upon combustible Matter when they are united unless by quenching the Fire or removing the Matter But no created Power can restrain the Fire so long as it remains so from acting according to its Nature Exod. 3.2 This was done by God in the case of the Three Children and that of the Burning Bush It was as much miraculous that the Bush should not consume as it was natural that it should burn by the efficacy of the Fire upon it No Element is so obstinate and deaf but it hears and obeys his Voice and performs his Orders though contrary to its own Nature All the violence of the Creature is suspended as soon as it receives his Command †Damianus in Petar He that gave the original to Nature can take away the necessity of Nature He presides over Creatures but is not confin'd to those Laws he hath prescrib'd to Creatures He framed Nature and can turn the Channels of Nature according to his own pleasure Men dig into the bowels of Nature search into all the Treasures of it to find Medicines to cure a Disease and after all their Attempts it may prove Labour in vain But God by one Act of his Will one Word of his Mouth overturns the Victory of Death and rescues from the most desperate Diseases * Fauch in Acts Vol. 2. §. 56. All the Miracles which were wrought by the Apostles either speaking some Words or Touching with the Hand were not effected by any virtue inherent in their Words or in their Touches For such Virtue inherent in any created finite Subject would be created and finite it self and consequently were incapable to produce effects which required an infinite Virtue as Miracles do which are above the power of Nature So when our Saviour wrought Miracles it was not by any quality resident in his humane Nature but by the sole Power of his Divinity The Flesh could only do what was proper to the Flesh but the Deity did what was proper to the Deity God alone doth wonders Psal 136.4 Excluding every other cause from producing such things He only doth those things which are above the power of Nature and cannot be wrought by any Natural causes whatsoever He doth not hereby put his Omnipotence to any stress 'T is as easie with him to turn Nature out of its setled course as it was to place it in that station it holds and appoint it that course it runs All the Works of Nature are indeed Miracles and Testimonies of the Power of God producing them and sustaining them But Works above the Power of Nature being Novelties and unusual strike Men with a greater admiration upon their appearance because they are not the products of Nature but the convulsions of it I might also add as an Argument The Power of the Mind of Man to conceive more than hath been wrought by God in the World And God can work whatsoever Perfection the Mind of man can conceive Otherwise the reaches of a created Imagination and Fancy would be more extensive than the Power of God His Power therefore is far greater than the conception of any Intellectual Creature else the Creature would be of a greater capacity to conceive than God is to effect The Creature would have a power of Conception above Gods Power of Activity and consequently a Creature in some respect greater than himself Now whatsoever a Creature can conceive possible to be done is but finite in its own nature and if God could not produce what Being a created Understanding can conceive possible to be done he would be less than Infinite in Power nay he could not go to the extent of what is Finite But I have touched this before That God can create more than he hath created and in a more perfect way of Being as considered simply in themselves III. The Third general thing is to declare How the Power of God appears in Creation in Government in Redemption 1. In Creation With what Majestick Lines doth God set forth his Power in the giving Being and Endowments to all the Creatures in the World Job 38. All that is in Heaven and Earth is his and shews the greatness of his Power Glory Victory 1 Chro. 29.11 and Majesty The Heaven being so Magnificent a piece of work is called emphatically The Firmament of his Power * Psal 150.1 his Power being more conspicuous and unvail'd in that glorious Arch of the World Indeed God exalts by his Power †Job 36.22 that is exalts himself by his Power in all the Works of his hands in the smallest Shrub as well as the most glorious Sun All his Works of Nature are truly Miracles though we consider them not being blinded with too frequent and customary a sight of them yet in the neglect of all the rest the view of the Heavens doth more affect us with astonishment at the Might of Gods Arm These declare his Glory and the Firmament shews his handy work Psal 19.1 Psal 8.3 And the Psalmist peculiarly calls them His Heavens and the work of his Fingers These were immediately created by God whereas many other things in the World were brought into Being by the Power of God yet by the means of the influence of the Heavens 1. His Power is the first thing evident in the story of the Creation In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth Gen. 1.1 There 's no appearance of any thing in this declaratory Preface but of Power The Characters of Wisdom march after in the distinct formation of things and animating them with suitable qualities for an Universal good By Heaven and Earth is meant the whole mass of the Creatures By Heaven all the Aery Region with all the Host of it by the Earth is meant all that which makes the intire inferior Globe The Jews observe that in the
make them march in the same order to their Confusion as they did in their Creation Who can jumble the whole Frame together and by a Word dissolve the Pillars of the World and make the Fabrick lie in a ruinous heap 2. In effecting his Purposes by small Means In making use of the Meanest Creatures As the Power of God is seen in the creation of the smallest Creatures and assembling so many perfections in the little body of an Insect as an Ant or Spider So his Power is not less magnified in the use he makes of them As he magnifies his Wisdom by using ignorant Instruments so he exalts his Power by employing weak Instruments in his service The Meaness and Imperfection of the matter sets off the Excellency of the Workman so the weakness of the Instrument is a foyl to the Power of the principal Agent When God hath effected things by Means in the Scripture he hath usually brought about his Purposes by weak Instruments Moses a Fugitive from Egypt and Aaron a Captive in it are the Instruments of the Israelites Deliverance By the motion of Moses his Rod he works Wonders in the Court of Pharaoh and summons up his Judgments against him He brought down Pharaohs stomack for a while by a squadron of Lice and Locusts wherein Divine Power was more seen than if Moses had brought him to his own Articles by a multitude of Warlike Troops The fall of the Walls of Jericho by the sound of Rams horns was a more glorious Character of Gods Power than if Joshuah had batter'd it down with an hundred of Warlike Engines Josh 6.20 Thus the great Army of the Midianites which lay as Grasshoppers upon the ground were routed by Gideon in the head of Three hundred Men and Goliah a Giant laid level with the ground by David a Stripling by the force of a Sling A Thousand Philistines dispatcht out of the World by the Jaw Bone of an Ass in the hand of Sampson He can master a stout Nation by an Army of Locusts and render the Teeth of those little Insects as destructive as the Teeth yea the strongest Teeth the Cheek Teeth of a great Lion * Joel 1.6 7. The Thunderbolt which produceth sometimes dreadful effects is compacted of little Atoms which fly in the Air small Vapors drawn up by the Sun and mixt with other Sulphurous matter and petrifying Juice Nothing is so weak but his Strength can make victorious nothing so small but by his Power he can accomplish his great ends by it nothing so vile but his Mâ—ght can conduct to his glory and no Nation so mighty but he can waste and enfeeble by the Meanest Creatures God is great in Power in the greatest things and not little in the smallest his Power in the minutest Creatures which he uses for his service surmounts the force of our Understanding III. The Power of God appears in Redemption As our Saviour is called the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 so he is called the Power of God The Arm of Power was lifted up as high as the designs of Wisdom were laid deep As this way of Redemption could not be contriv'd but by an Infinite Wisdom so it could not be accomplish'd but by an Infinite Power None but God could shape such a design and none but God could effect it The Divine Power in Temporal deliverances and freedom from the slavery of humane Oppressors vails to that which glitters in Redemption whereby the Devil is defeated in his designs stript of his spoils and yok'd in his strength The Power of God in Creation requires not those degrees of Admiration as in Redemption In Creation the World was erected from Nothing as there was Nothing to act so there was Nothing to oppose no victorious Devil was in that to be subdued no thundring Law to be silenced no Death to be conquer'd no Transgression to be pardoned and rooted out no Hell to be shut no Ignominious death upon the Cross to be suffered It had been in the nature of the thing an easier thing to Divine Power to have created a new World than repair'd a broken and purified a polluted one This is the most admirable Work that ever God brought forth in the World greater than all the Marks of his Power in the first Creation And this will appear 1. In the Person Redeeming 2. In the publication and propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption 3. In the application of Redemption I. In the Person Redeeming First In his Conception 1. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin Luke 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee Which act is exprest to be the effect of the Infinite Power of God and it expresses the supernatural manner of the forming the Humanity of our Saviour and signifies not the Divine Nature of Christ infusing it self into the Womb of the Virgin for the Angel refers it to the manner of the operation of the Holy Ghost in the producing the Humane Nature of Christ and not to the Nature assuming that Humanity into union with it self The Holy Ghost or the Third Person in the Trinity overshadowed the Virgin and by a Creative act fram'd the Humanity of Christ and united it to the Divinity It is therefore exprest by a word of the same import with that used Gen. 1.2 The Spirit moved upon the face of the face of the Waters which signifies as it were a Brooding upon the Chaos shadowing it with his Wings as Hens sit upon their Eggs to form them and hatch them into Animals or else it is an allusion to the Cloud which covered the Tent of the Congregation when the Glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle * Exod. 40 34 It was not such a Creative Act as we call Immediate which is a production out of Nothing but a Mediate Creatâ—on such as Gods bringing things into form out of the first Matter which had nothing but an Obediential or Passive disposition to whatsoever stamp the Powerful Wisdom of God should imprint upon it So the substance of the Virgin had no active but only a passive disposition to this work The Matter of the Body was Earthy the substance of the Virgin the forming of it was Heavenly the Holy Ghost working upon that Matter And therefore when it is said Mat. 1.18 that she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost 't is to be understood of the Efficacy of the Holy Ghost not of the Substance of the Holy Ghost The matter was Natural but the manner of Conceiving was in a Supernatural way above the methods of Nature In reference to the Active Principle the Redeemer is called in the Prophecy †Isai 4.2 The Branch of the Lord in regard of the Divine hand that planted him In respect to the Passive Principle The Fruit of the Earth in regard of the Womb that bare him and therefore said to be made
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
Terms of this Union were infinitely distant What greater distance can there be than between the Deity and Humanity between the Creator and a Creature Can you imagine the distance between Eternity and Time Infinite Power and Miserable Infirmity an Immortal Spirit and Dying Flesh the Highest Being and Nothing yet these are espous'd A God of unmixt Blessedness is linkt personally with a Man of perpetual Sorrows Life uncapable to Die joyn'd to a Body in that Oeconomy uncapable to live without dying first Infinite Purity and a reputed Sinner Eternal Blessedness with a Cursed Nature Almightiness and Weakness Omniscience and Ignorance Immutability and Changableness Incomprehensibleness and comprehensibility that which cannot be comprehended and that which can be comprehended that which is intirely Independent and that which is totally Dependant the Creator forming all things and the Creature made met together to a Personal Union the Word made flesh †John 1.14 the Eternal Son the Seed of Abraham ‖ Heb. 2.16 What more Miraculous than for God to become Man and Man to become God That a Person possessed of all the Perâ—ections of the Godhead should inherit all the Imperfections of the Manhood in one Person Sin only excepted A Holiness uncapable of sinning to be made Sin God blessed for ever taking the properties of Humane Nature and Humane Nature admitted to a Union with the Properties of the Creator The Fulness of the Deity and the Emptiness of Man united together * Colos 2.9 not by a shining of the Deity upon the Humanity as the light of the Sun upon the Earth but by an inhabitation or indwelling of the Deity in the Humanity Was there not need of an Infinite Power to bring together Terms so far asunder to elevate the Humanity to be capable of and disposed for a conjunction with the Deity If a clod of Earth should be advanced to and united with the Body of the Sun such an advance would evidence it self to be a work of Almighty Power The Clod hath nothing in its own nature to render it so glorious no power to climb up to so high a dignity How little would such a Union be to that we are speaking of Nothing less than an incomprehensible Power could effect what an Incomprehensible Wisdom did project in this affair 3. Especially since the Vnion is so strait 'T is not such a Vnion as is between a Man and his House he dwells in whence he goes out and to which he returns without any alteration of himself or his House nor such a Vnion as is betwen a Man and his Garment which both communicate and receive warmth from one another nor such as is between an Artificer and his Instrument wherewith he works nor such a Vnion as one Friend hath with another All these are distant things not one in Nature but have distinct subsistences Two Friends though united by love are distinct Persons a Man and his Cloaths an Artificer and his Instruments have distinct subsistences But the Humanity of Christ hath no subsistence but in the Person of Christ †Lessius de Perf. divin lib. 12. cap. 4. p. 104. The straitness of this Vnion is exprest and may be somewhat conceiv'd by the union of Fire with Iron Fire pierceth through all the parts of Iron it unites it self with every particle bestows a light heat purity upon all of it you cannot distinguish the Iron from the Fire or the Fire from the Iron yet they are distinct Natures So the Deity is united to to the whole Humanity seasons it and bestows an excellency upon it yet the Natures still remain distinct And as during that union of Fire with Iron the Iron is uncapable of rust or blackness so is the Humanity uncapable of Sin And as the operation of Fire is attributed to the red-hot Iron as the Iron may be said to heat burn and the Fire may be said to cut and pierce yet the imperfections of the Iron do not affect the Fire so in this Mystery those things which belong to the Divinity are ascribed to the Humanity and those things which belong to the Humanity are ascribed to the Divinity in regard of the Person in whom those Natures are united yet the Imperfections of the Humanity do not hurt the Divinity The Divinity of Christ is as really united with the Humanity as the Soul with the Body The Person was one though the Natures were two so united that the Sufferings of the Humane Nature were the Sufferings of that Person and the dignity of the Divine was imputed to the Humane by reason of that Unity of both in one Person Hence the Blood of the Humane Nature is said to be the Blood of God ‖ Acts 20.28 * Lessius p. 103 104. All things ascrib'd to the Son of God may be ascrib'd to this Man and the things ascrib'd to this Man may be ascrib'd to the Son of God as this Man is the Son of God Eternal Almighty And it may be said God suffered was Crucified c. for the Person of Christ is but one most simple the Person suffered that was God and Man united making One Person 4. And though the Union be so strait yet without confusion of the Natures or change of them into one another †Lessius ut antea p. 103 104. Amyrald Irenic p. 284. The two Natures of Christ are not mixed as Liquors that incorporate with one another when they are poured into a Vessel the Divine Nature is not turned into the Humane nor the Humane into the Divine one Nature doth not swallow up another and make a third Nature distinct from each of them The Deity is not turned into the Humanity as Air which is next to a Spirit may be thickned and turned into Water and Water may be rarifi'd into Air by the power of Heat boyling it The Deity cannot be chang'd because the Nature of it is to be unchangeable It would not be Deity if it were Mortal and capable of Suffering The Humanity is not chang'd into the Deity for then Christ could not have been a Sufferer If the Humanity had been swallowed up into the Deity it had lost its own distinct Nature and put on the Nature of the Deity and consequently been uncapable of Suffering Finite can never by any mixture be chang'd into Infinite nor Infinite into Finite This Union in this regard may be resembled to the Union of Light and Air which are strictly joyn'd for the Light passes through all parts of the Air but they are not confounded but remain in their distinct essences as before the union without the least confusion with one another * Amyrald Irenic p. 282. The Divine Nature remains as it was before the Union intire in it self only the Divine Person assumes another Nature to himself The Humane Nature remains as it would have done had it existed separately from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except that then it would have had a
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
embrace it whence the Prophet Isaiah after the Prophecy of the Death of Christ Isai 53. calls upon the Church to enlarge her Tents and lengthen out her Cords to receive those Multitudes of Children that should call her Mother Isai 54.2 3. for she should break forth on the right hand and on the left and her seed should inherit the Gentiles The Idolaters and Persecutors should list their Names in the Muster-Roll of the Church Presently after the Descent of the Holy Ghost from Heaven upon the Apostles you find the hearts of Three thousand melted by a plain declaration of this Doctrine who were a little before so far from having a Favourable thought of it that some of them at least if not all had exprest their Rage against it in Voting for the Condemning and Crucifying the Author of it †Acts 2.41 42. But in a moment they were so altered that they breath out Affections instead of Fury neither the respect they had to their Rulers nor the honour they bore to their Priests not the derisions of the People nor the threatning of Punishment could stop them from owning it in the face of multitudes of Discouragements How wonderful is it that they should so soon and by such small Means pay a reverence to the Servants who had none for the Master that they should hear them with patience without the same Clamor against them as against Christ Crucifie them Crucifie them But that their hearts should so suddenly be enflam'd with Devotion to him dead whom they so much abhorred when living It had gained footing not in a Corner of the World but in the most famous Cities in Jerusalem where Christ had been Crucified in Antioch where the Name of Christians first began in Corinth a place of Ingenious Arts and Ephesus the Seat of a noted Idol In less than Twenty years there was never a Province of the Roman Empire and scarce any part of the known World but was stor'd with the Professors of it Rome that was the Metropolis of the Idolatrous World had multitudes of them sprinkled in every Corner whose Faith was spoken of throughout the World * Rom. 1.8 The Court of Nero that Monster of Mankind and the cruellest and sordid'st Tyrant that ever breathed was not empty of sincere Votaries to it there were Saints in Caesars house while Paul was under Nero's Chain ‖ Phil. 4. And it maintain'd its standing and flourish'd in spite of all the force of Hell 250 years before any Soveraign Prince espoused it The Potentates of the Earth had conquer'd the Lands of Men and subdued their Bodies these vanquisht Hearts and Wills and brought the most beloved Thoughts under the Yoke of Christ So much did this Doctrine overmaster the Consciences of its Followers that they rejoyced more at their Yoke than others at their Liberty and counted it more a glory to die for the honour of it than to live in the profession of it Thus did our Saviour Reign and gather Subjects in the midst of his Enemies in which respect in the first discovery of the Gospel he is describ'd as a Mighty Conqueror Revel 6.2 and still conquering in the greatness of his strength How great a Testimony of his Power is it that from so small a Cloud should rise so glorious a Sun that should chase before it the Darkness and Power of Hell Triumph over the Idolatry Superstition and Prophaness of the World This plain Doctrine vanquisht the Obstinacy of the Jews baffled the Understanding of the Greeks humbled the Pride of the Grandees threw the Devil not only out of Bodies but Hearts tore up the foundation of his Empire and planted the Cross where the Devil had for many Ages before established his Standard How much more than a humane Force is illustrious in this whole Conduct Nothing in any Age of the World can parallel it it being so much against the Methods of Nature the Disposition of the World and considering the Resistance against it seems to surmount even the Work of Creation Never were there in any Profession such multitudes not of Bedlams but Men of Sobriety Acuteness and Wisdom that expos'd themselves to the fury of the Flames and challenged Death in the most terrifying shapes for the Honour of this Doctrine To conclude This should be often meditated upon to form our Understandings to a full assent to the Gospel and the Truth of it the want of which Consideration of Power and the Customariness of an Education in the outward Profession of it is the ground of all the Prophaneness under it and Apostacy from it the disesteem of the Truth it declares and the neglect of the Duties it enjoyns The more we have a prospect and sense of the Impressions of Divine Power in it the more we shall have a Reverence of the Divine Precepts III. The Third thing is The Power of God appears in the application of Redemption as well as in the Person Redeeming and the publication and propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption 1. In the planting Grace 2. In the Pardon of Sin 3. In the preserving Grace 1. In the planting Grace There is no Expression which the Spirit of God hath thought fit in Scripture to resemble this Work to but argues the exerting of a Divine Power for the effecting of it When it is exprest by Light it is as much as the Power of God in creating the Sun when by Regeneration 't is as much as the Power of God in forming an Infant and fashioning all the Parts of a Man when it is called Resurrection 't is as much as the rearing of the Body again out of putrified Matter when it is called Creation 't is as much as erecting a comly World out of meer Nothing or an inform and uncomly Mass As we could not contrive the Death of Christ for our Redemption so we cannot form our Souls to the Acceptation of it the Infinite efficacy of Grace is as necessary for the one as the Infinite Wisdom of God was for laying the Platform of the other 'T is by his Power we have whatsoever pertains to Godliness as well as Life * 2 Pet. 1.3 He puts his Fingers upon the handle of the Lock and turns the Heart to what Point he pleases the Action whereby he performs this is exprest by a word of Force †Colos 1.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath snatcht us from the power of Darkness the Action whereby it is perform'd manifests it In reference to this Power it is called Creation which is a production from Nothing and Conversion is a production from something more uncapable of that state than meer Nothing is of Being There is a greater distance between the Terms of Sin and Righteousness Corruption and Grace than between the Terms of Nothing and Being The greater the distance is the more Power is requir'd to the producing any thing As in Miracles the Miracle is the greater where the Change is the greater
and the Change is the greater where the Distance is the greater As it was a more signal mark of Power to change a Dead Man to life than to change a Sick Man to health so that the change here being from a Term of a greater distance is more Powerful than the Creation of Heaven and Earth Therefore whereas Creation is said to be wrought by his Hands and the Heavens by his Fingers or his Word Conversion is said to be wrought by his Arm ‖ Isai 53.1 In Creation we had an Earthly by Conversion a Heavenly state In Creation Nothing is changed into Something in Conversion Hell is transform'd into Heaven which is more than the turning Nothing into a glorious Angel In that Thanksgiving of our Saviour for the revelation of the knowledge of himself to Babes the simple of the World he gives the Title to his Father of Lord of Heaven and Earth †Mat. 11.5 intimating it to be an act of his Creative and Preserving Power that Power whereby he formed Heaven and Earth hath preserved the standing and governed the motions of all Creatures from the beginning of the World 'T is resembled to the most Magnificent Act of Divine Power that God ever put forth viz. that in the Resurrection of our Saviour * Eph. 1.19 wherein there was more than an ordinary impression of Might 'T is not so small a Power as that whereby we speak with Tongues or whereby Christ opened the Mouths of the Dumb and the Ears of the Deaf or unloosed the Cords of Death from a Person 'T is not that Power whereby our Saviour wrought those stupendous Miracles when he was in the World but that Power which wrought a Miracle that amaz'd the most knowing Angels as well as ignorant Man The taking off the weight of the Sin of the World from our Saviour and advancing him in his Humane Nature to rule over the Angelical Host making him Head of Principalities and Powers as much as to say as great as all that Power which is display'd in our Redemption from the first foundation to the last line in the superstructure 'T is therefore often set forth with an Emphasis as Excellency of power †2 Cor. 4.7 and Glorious power ‖ 2 Pet. 1.3 To glory and vertue we Translate it but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Through glory and vertue that is by a glorious vertue or strength 2. The Instrument whereby it is wrought is dignified with the title of Power The Gospel which God useth in this great affair is called The Power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 and the Rod of his strength Psal 110.2 And the day of the Gospel's appearance in the heart is emphatically called The day of Power verse 3. wherein he brings down strong holds and towring Imaginations * Grotlus in Luke 1.19 And therefore the Angel Gabriel which Name signifies the Power of God was always sent upon those Messages which concerned the Gospel as to Daniel Zechary Mary The Gospel is the Power of God in way a of Instrumentality but the Almightiness of God is the Principal in a way of Efficiency The Gospel is the Scepter of Christ but the Power of Christ is the Mover of that Scepter The Gospel is not as a bare Word spoken and proposing the thing but as back'd with a higher efficacy of Grace As the Sword doth instrumentally cut but the Arm that wields it gives the blow and makes it successful in the stroak But this Gospel is the Power of God because he edgeth this by his own Power to surmount all resistance and vanquish the greatest Malice of that Man he designs to work upon The Power of God is conspicuous 1. In turning the Heart of Man against the strength of the Inclinations of Nature In the forming of Man of the Dust of the Ground as the Matter contributed nothing to the Action whereby God formed it so it had no Principle of resistance contrary to the design of God But in Converting the Heart there is not only wanting a principle of Assistance from him in this work but the whole strength of Corrupt Nature is alarm'd to combat against the Power of his Grace When the Gospel is presented the Understanding is not only ignorant of it but the Will perverse against it the one doth not relish and the other doth not esteem the Excellency of the Object The Carnal wisdom in the Mind contrives against it and the Rebellâ—ous Will puts the orders in execution against the Counsel of God which requires the invincible Power of God to enlighten the dark Mind to know what it slights and the fierce Will to embrace what it loaths The stream of Nature cannot be turned but by a Power above Nature 'T is not all the Created Power in Heaven and Earth can change a Swine into a Man or a venemous Toad into a holy and illustrious Angel Yet this work is not so great in some respect as the stilling the fierceness of Nature the silencing the swelling Waves in the heart and the casting out those brutish Affections which are born and grow up with us There would be no or far less resistance in a meer Animal to be chang'd into a Creature of a higher rank than there is in a Natural Man to be turned into a serious Christian There is in every Natural Man a stoutness of heart a stiff-neck unwillingness to good forwardness to evil Infinite Power quells this stoutness demolisheth these strong holds turns this wild Ass in her course and routs those Armies of turbulent Nature against the Grace of God To stop the Flouds of the Sea is not such an act of Power as to turn the Tyde of the Heart This Power hath been employ'd upon every Convert in the World What would you say then if you knew all the Chanels in which it hath run since the days of Adam If the alteration of one Rocky heart into a Pool of Water be a wonder of Power what then is the calming and sweetning by his Word those One hundred forty four Thousand of the Tribes of Israel and that numberless Multitude of all Nations and People that shall stand before the Throne * Revel 7.3 which were all naturally so many raging Seas Not one Converted Soul from Adam to the last that shall be in the End of the World but is a Trophy of the Divine Conquest None were pure Volunteers nor listed themselves in his Service till he put forth his strong Arm to draw them to him No mans Understanding but was chain'd with Darkness and fond of it no Man but had Corruption in his Will which was dearer to him than any thing else which could be propos'd for his True happiness These things are most evident in Scripture and Experience 2. As 't is wrought against the Inclinations of Nature so against a multitude of Corrupt habits rooted in the Souls of Men. A distemper in its first invasion may more
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
cause of the evil actions of men God acts nothing but withholds his Power he doth not enlighten their minds nor encline their wills so powerfully as to expel their darkness and root out those evil Habits which possess them by Nature God could if he would savingly enlighten the minds of all men in the World and quicken their hearts with a new Life by an invincible Grace but in not doing it there is no positive act of God but a cessation of Action We may with as much reason say that God is the Cause of all the sinful Actions that are committed by the Corporation of Devils since their first Rebellion because he leaves them to themselves and bestows not a new Grace upon them As say God is the Cause of the sins of those that he overlooks and leaves in that state of Guilt wherein he found them God did not pass by any without the consideration of sin so that this act of God is not repugnant to his Holiness but conformable to his Justice 4. Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by his secret will to suffer sin to enter into the World God never willed sin by his preceptive Will It was never founded upon or produced by any word of his as the Creation was He never said Let there be sin under the Heaven as he said Let there be Water under the Heaven Nor doth he will it by infusing any Habit of it or stirring up Inclinations to it no God tempts no man James 1.13 Nor doth he will it by his approving Will 't is detestable to him nor ever can be otherwise He cannot approve it either before Commission or after 1. The Will of God is in some sort concurrent with sin He doth not properly will it but he wills not to hinder it to which by his Omnipotence he could put a bar If he did positively will it it might be wrought by himself and so could not be evil If he did in no sort will it it would not be committed by his Creature Sin entred into the World either God willing the permission of it or not willing the permission of it The latter cannot be said for then the Creature is more powerful than God and can do that which God will not permit God can if he be pleased banish all sin in a moment out of the World He could have prevented the Revolt of Angels and the Fall of Man they did not sin whether he would or no He might by his Grace have stept in the first Moment and made a special impression upon them of the Happiness they already possessed and the Misery they would incur by any wicked attempt He could as well have prevented the sin of the fallen Angels and confirmed them in Grace as of those that continued in their happy state He might have appeared to man informed him of the Issue of his Design and made secret impressions upon his heart since he was acquainted with every avenue to his Will God could have kept all sin out of the world as well as all Creatures from breathing in it he was as well able to bar sin for ever out of the World as to let Creatures lye in the Womb of nothing wherein they were first wrapped To say God doth will sin as he doth other things is to deny his Holiness to say it entred without any thing of his Will is to deny his Omnipotence If he did necessitate Adam to fall what shall we think of his Purity If Adam dâ—d fall without any concern of God's Will in it what shall we say of his Soveraignty The one taints his Holiness and the other clips his Power If it came without any thing of his Will in it and he did not foresee it where is his Omniscience If it entred whether he would or no where is his Omnipotence Rom. 9.19 Who hath resisted his Will There cannot be a lustful Act in Abimelech if God will withhold his Power Gen. 20.6 I withheld thee Nor a cursing word in Balaam's Mouth unless God give power to speak it Numb 22.38 Have I now any power at all to say any thing The Word that God puts in my mouth that shall I speak As no Action could be sinful if God had not forbidden it so no sin could be committed if God did not will to give way to it 2. God doth not will sin directly and by an efficacious Will He doth not directly will it because he hath prohibited it by his Law which is a discovery of his Will So that if he should directly will sin and directly prohibite it he would will good and evil in the same manner and there would be Contradictions in God's Will To will sin absolutely is to work it Psal 115.3 God hath done whatsoever he pleased God cannot absolutely will it because he cannt work it * Rispolis God wills good by a positive decree because he hath decreed to effect it He wills evil by a privative decree because he hath decreed not to give that Grace which would certainly prevent it †Bradward lib. 1 cap. 34. God wills it secundum quid God doth not will sin simply for that were to approve it but he wills it in order to that Good his Wisdom will bring forth from it He wills not sin for it self but for the event To will sin as sin or as purely evil is not in the capacity of a Creature neither of Man nor Devil The Will of a Rational Creature cannot will any thing but under the appearance of good of some good in the sin it self or some good in the issue of it Much more is this far from God ‖ Aquin. cont Gent. l. 1. c. 95. who being infinitely good cannot will evil as evil and being infinitely knowing cannot will that for good which is evil Infinite Wisdom can be under no Errour or Mistake To will sin as sin would be an unanswerable blemish on God but to will to suffer it in order to good is the glory of his Wisdom It could never have peep'd up its head unless there had been some decree of God concerning it And there had been no decree of God concerning it had he not intended to bring good and glory out of it If God did directly will the discovery of his Grace and Mercy to the World he did in some sort will sin as that without which there could not have been any appearance of Mercy in the World For an Innocent Creature is not the Object of Mercy but a Miserable Creature and no Rational Creature but must be sinful before it be miserable 3. God wills the permission of sin He doth not positively will sin but he positively wills to permit it And though he doth not approve of sin yet he approves of that act of his Will whereby he permits it For since that sin could not enter into the World without some concern of God's Will about it that act of his Will that gave way
appear that God was bound to those Additional Acts when he had already lighted up in him a Spirit which was the Candle of the Lord Prov. 20.27 whereby he was able to discern all if he had attended to it It was enough that God did not necessitate Man to sin did not counsel him to it that he had given him sufficient warning in the Threatning and sufficient strength in his Faculties to fortifie him against Temptation He gave him what was due to him as a Creature of his own framing he withdrew no help from him that was due to him as a Creature and what was not due he was not bound to impart Man did not beg Preserving Grace of God and God was not bound to offer it when he was not Petition'd for it especially Yet if he had begg'd it God having before furnish'd him sufficiently might by the right of his Soveraign Dominion have denied it without any Impeachment of his Holiness and Righteousness Though he would not in such a case have dealt so bountifully with his Creature as he might have done yet he could not have been impleaded as dealing Unrighteously with his Creature The single word that God had already utter'd when he gave him his Precept was enough to oppose against all the Devils Wiles which tended to invalidate that Word The Understanding of Man could not imagine that the Word of God was vainly spoken and the very suggestion of the Devil as if the Creator should envy his Creature would have appear'd ridiculous if he had attended to the Voice of his own Reason God had done enough for him and was obliged to do no more and dealt not Unrighteously in leaving him to act according to the Principles of his Nature To Conclude If Gods Permission of Sin were enough to charge it upon God or if God had been obliged to give Adam Supernatural Grace Adam that had so capacious a Brain could not be without that Plea in his Mouth Lord thou mightest have prevented it the commission of it by me could not have been without thy permission of it Or Thou hast been wanting to me as the Author of my Nature No such Plea is brought by Adam into the Court when God Tried and Cast him No such Pleas can have any strength in them Adam had reason enough to know that there was sufficient Reason to over-rule such a Plea Since the Permission of Sin casts no Durt upon the Holiness of God as I think hath been cleared we may under this Head consider Two things more 1. That Gods Permission of Sin is not so much as his Restraint or Limitation of it Since the entrance of the First sin into the World by Adam God is more a hinderer than a permitter of it If he hath permitted that which he could have prevented he prevents a world more that he might if he pleased permit The Hedges about Sin are larger than the Outlets they are but a few Streams that glide about the World in comparison of that mighty Torrent he dams up both in Men and Devils He that understands what a Lake of Sodom is in every Mans Nature since the universal Infection of Humane Nature as the Apostle describes it Rom. 3.9 10 c. must acknowledge That if God should cast the Reins upon the Necks of Sinful men they would run into Thousands of abominable Crimes more than they do The impression of all Natural Laws would be raz'd out the World would be a publick Stews and a more bloody Slaughter-house Humane Society would sink into a Chaos no Star-light of commendable Morality would be seen in it the World would be no longer an Earth but an Hell and have lain deeper in Wickedness than it doth If God did not limit Sin as he doth the Sea and put Bars to the Waves of the Heart as well as those of the Waters and say of them Hitherto you shall go and no further Man hath such a furious Ocean in him as would over-flow the Banks and where it makes a breach in one place it would in a Thousand if God should suffer it to act according to its impetuous Current As the Devil hath Lust enough to destroy all Mankind if God did not bridle him deal with every Man as he did with Job ruine their Comforts and deform their Bodies with Scabs infect Religion with a Thousand more Errors fling Disorders into Common-wealths and make them as a Fiery Furnace full of nothing but Flame If He were not Chain'd by that Powerful Arm that might let him loose to fulfil his Malicious Fury what Rapines Murders Thefts would be committed if he did not stint him Abimelech would not only Lust after Sarah but deflow'r her Laban not only pursue Jacob but rifle him Saul not only hate David but murder him David not only threaten Nabal but root him up and his Family did not God girdle in the Wrath of Man * Psal 76 1â— aâ— tâ—â— word Restrain signifies A greater remainder of Wrath is pent in than flames out which yet swells for an Outlet God may be concluded more Holy in Preventing Mens sins than the Author of Sin in Permitting some since were it not for his Restraints by the pull-back of Conscience and infus'd Motions and outward Impediments the World would swarm more with this Cursed Brood 2. His Permission of Sin is in order to his own Glory and a greater Good 'T is no reflection upon the Divine Goodness to leave Man to his own Conduct whereby such a Deformity as Sin sets foot in the World since he makes his Wisdom illustrious in bringing Good out of Evil and a Good greater than that Evil he suffer'd to spring up Maâ—us bonum â—aith Bradward God did not permit Sin as Sin or permit it barely for it self As Sin is not lovely in its own Nature so neither is the Permission of Sin intrinsically good or amiable for it self but for those ends aimed at in the Permission of it God permitted Sin but approved not of the Object of that Permission Sin because that considered in its own Nature is solely Evil Nor can we think that God could approve of the Act of Permission considered only in it self as an Act but as it respected that Event which his Wisdom would order by it We cannot suppose that God should permit Sin but for some great and glorious End for it is the manifestation of his own glorious Perfections he intends in all the Acts of his Will Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath wrought all things which is not only his act of Creation but Ordination For Himself that is for the discovery of the Excellency of his Nature and the Communication of himself to his Creature Sin indeed in its own Nature hath no tendency to a good End the Womb of it Teems with nothing but Monsters 't is a spurn at Gods Soveraignty and a slight of his Goodness It both deforms and
Hosannas because without some such conceit it was not probable they should so soon change their note and vote him to the Cross in so short a time after they had applauded him as if he had been upon a Throne but their being defeated of strong Expectations usually ended in a more ardent Fury This turbulent and seditious humour God directs in another Chanel suppresseth all Occurrences that might excite them to a Rebellion against the Romans which if he had given way to the crucifying Christ which was God's design to bring about at that time had not probably been effected and the Salvation of Mankind been hindred or stood at a stay for a time God therefore orders such Objects and Occasions that might direct this seditious Humour to another Chanel which would else have run out in other Actions which had not been conducing to the great Design he had then in the World Is it not the right of God and without any blemish to his Holiness to use those Corruptions which he finds sown in the Nature of his Creature by the hand of Satan and to propose such Objects as may excite the exercise of them for his own service Sure God hath as much right to serve himself of the Creature of his own framing and what Natures soever they are possessed with and to present Objects to that purpose as a Faulconer hath to offer this or that Bird to his Hawk to exercise his courage and excite his ravenousness without being termed the Author of that ravenousness in the Creature God planted not those Corruptions in the Jews but finds them in those Persons over whom he hath an absolute Soveraignty in the right of a Creator and that of a Judge for their sins And by the right of that Soveraignty may offer such Objects and Occasions which though innocent in themselves he knows they will make use of to ill purposes but which by the same decree that he resolves to present such Occasions to them he also resolves to make use of them for his own glory * This I have spoken of before but it is necessary now 'T is not conceivable by us what way that Death of Christ which was necessary for the Satisfaction of Divine Justice could be brought about without ordering the evil of some mens hearts by special Occasions to effect his purpose we cannot suppose that Christ can be guilty of any Crime that deserved Death by the Jewish Law had he been so a Criminal he could not have been a Redeemer A perfect Innocence was necessary to the design of his coming Had God himself put him to that Death without using Instruments of Wickedness in it by some remarkable hand from Heaven the Innocence of his Nature had been for ever eclipsed and the voluntariness of his Sacrifice had been obscur'd The strangeness of such a Judgment would have made his innocence incredible he could not reasonably have been propos'd as an Object of Faith What to believe in one that was struck dead by a hand from Heaven The propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption had wanted a Foundation and though God might have raised him again the certainty of his Death had been as questionable as his Innocence in dying had he not been raised But God orders every thing so as to answer his own most wise and holy ends and maintain his Truth and the fulfilling the Predictions of the minutest Concerns about them and all this by presenting Occasions innocent in themselves which the Corruptions of the Jews took hold of and whereby God unknown to them brought about his own Decrees And may not this be conceived without any taint upon God's Holiness for when there are Seeds of all sin in mans Nature why may not God hinder the sprouting up of this or that kind of Seed and leave liberty to the growth of the other and shut up other ways of sinning and restrain men from them and let them loose to that Temptation which he intends to serve himself of hiding from them those Objects which were not so serviceable to his purpose wherein they would have sinned and offer others which he knew their Corruption would use ill and were serviceable to his ends since the depravation of their Natures would necessarily hurry them to evil without restraining Grace as a Scale will necessarily rise up when the weight in it which kept it down is taken away 7. Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by withdrawing his Grace from a sinful Creature whereby he falls into more sin That God withdraws his Grace from men and gives them up sometimes to the fury of their Lusts is as clear in Scripture as any thing Deut. 29.4 Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear c. Judas was delivered to Satan after the Sop and put into his power for despising former Admonitions He often leaves the Rains to the Devil that he may use what efficacy he can in those that have offended the Majesty of God he withholds further influences of Grace or withdraws what before he had granted them Thus he withheld that Grace from the Sons of Eli that might have made their Fathers pious Admonitions effectual to them 1 Sam. 2.25 They hearkned not to the voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them He gave Grace to Eli to reprove them and withheld that Grace from them which might have enabled them against their natural Corruption and obstinacy to receive that Reproof But the Holiness of God is not blemisht by this 1. Because the act of God in this is only negative †Testard d◠natur grat Thes 150 151. Amy. on divers Texts p. 311. Thus God is said to harden men Not by positive hardning or working any thing in the Creature but by not working not softening leaving a man to the hardness of his own heart whereby it is unavoidable by the depravation of mans Nature and the fury of his Passions but that he should be further hardned and increase unto more ungodliness as the Expression is 2 Tim. 2.16 As a man is said to give another his life when he doth not take it away when it lay at his mercy so God is said to harden a man when he doth not mollifie him when it was in his power and inwardly quicken him with that Grace whereby he might infallibly avoid any further provoking of him God is said to harden men when he removes not from them the Incentives to sin curbs not those Principles which are ready to comply with those Incentives withdraws the common assistances of his Grace concurs not with counsels and admonitions to make them effectual flasheth not in the convincing light which he darted upon them before If hardness follows upon God's withholding his softening Grace 't is not by any positive act of God but from the natural hardness of Man If you put Fire near to Wax or Rosin both will melt but
it is a representation of the Divinity and a holy man ought to esteem himself excellent in being such in his measure as his God is and puts his principal felicity in the possession of the same purity in Truth This is the refin'd Complexion of the Angels that stand before his Throne The Devils lost their comliness when they fell from it It was the honour of the humane Nature of our Saviour not only to be united to the Deity but to be sanctified by it He was fairer than all the Children of men because he had a holiness above the Children of men Grace was poured into his lips Psal 45.2 It was the Jewel of the reasonable Nature in paradise Conformity to God was mans original happiness in his created state and what was naturally so cannot but be immutably so in its own Nature The beauty of every copyed thing consists in its likeness to the Original Every thing hath more of loveliness as it hath greater impressions of its first Pattern In this regard holiness hath more of beauty on it than the whole Creation because it partakes of a greater excellency of God than the Sun Moon and Stars No greater glory can be than to be a conspicuous and visible Image of the invisible and holy and blessed God As this is the splendor of all the Divine Attributes so it is the flower of all a Christians Graces the Crown of all Religion 'T is the glory of the Spirit In this regard the Kings Daughter is said to be all glorious within * Psal 45.13 'T is more excellent than the soul itself since the greatest soul is but a deformed piece without it A Diamond without lustre †Vaughan p. 4 5. What are the noble faculties of the Soul without it but as a curious rusty Watch a delicate heap of Disorder and confusion 'T is impossible there can be beauty where thâ—re are a multitude of spots and wrinkles that blemish a Countenance ‖ Eph. 5.27 It can never be in its true brightness but when it is perfect in Purity when it regains what it was possessed of by Creation and dispossessed of by the fall and recovers its primitive temper We are not so beautiful by being the work of God as by having a stamp of God upon us Worldly greatness may make men honourable in the sight of creeping worms Soft lives ambitious reaches luxurious pleasures and a pompous Religion render no man excellent and noble in the sight of God This is not the excellency and nobility of the Deity which we are bound to resemble Other lines of a Divine Image must be drawn in us to render us truly excellent 4. 'T is our life What is the life of God is truly the life of a rational Creature * Amirald in Heb. p. 101 102. The life of the body consists not in the perfection of its Members and the integrity of its Organs these remain when the body becomes a Carcass but in the presence of the Soul and its vigorous animation of every part to perform the distinct offices belonging to each of them The life of the Soul consists not in its being or spiritual substance or the excellency of its Faculties of understanding and will but in the moral and becoming operations of them The spirit is only life because of righteousness * Rom. 8.10 The Faculties are turned by it to acquit themselves in their functions according to the will of God the absence of this doth not only deform the Soul but in a sort annihilate it in regard of its true essence and end Grace gives a Christian being and a want of it is the want of a true being Cor. 1.15.10 When Adam devested himself of his original righteousness he came under the force of the threatning in regard of a spiritual death Every person is morally dead whiles he lives an unholy life †1. Tim. 5 6. What life is to the body that is righteousness to the Spirit and the greater measure of holiness it hath the more of life it hath because it is in a greater nearness and partakes more fully of the fountain of life Is not that the most worthy life which God makes most account of without which his life could not be a pleasant and blessed life but a life worse than death What a miserable life is that of the men of the World that are carried with greedy inclinations to all manner of unrighteousness whither their interests or their lusts invite them The most beautiful body is a Carcass and the most honorable person hath but a brutish life ‖ Psal 49.20 miserable Creatures when their life shall be extinct without a Divine rectitude when all other things will vanish as the shadows of the night at the appearance of the Sun Holiness is our life 5. 'T is this only fits us for Communion with God Since it is our beauty and our life without it what Communion can an excellent God have with deformed Creatures a living God with dead Creatures Without Holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 The Creature must be stript of his Unrighteousness or God of his Purity before they can come together Likeness is the ground of Communion and of Delight in it The opposition between God and unholy Souls is as great as that between light and darkness * 1 John 1.6 Divine fruition is not so much by a union of Presence as a union of Nature Heaven is not so much an outward as an inward life the foundation of Glory is laid in Grace a resemblance to God is our vital happiness without which the Vision of God would not be so much as a cloudy and shadowy happiness but rather a torment than a felicity unless we be of a like nature to God we cannot have a pleasing fruition of him Some Philosophers think that if our Bodies were of the same nature with the Heavens of an Ethereal Substance the nearness to the Sun would cherish not scorch us Were we partakers of a Divine nature we might enjoy God with delight whereas remaining in our unlikeness to him we cannot think of him and approach to him without terrour As soon as sin had stript man of the Image of God he was an Exile from the comfortable presence of God unworthy for God to hold any correspondence with He can no more delight in a defiled person than a man can take a Toad into intimate converse with him he would hereby discredit his own Nature and justifie our Impurity The holiness of a Creature only prepares him for an eternal conjunction with God in glory Enoch's walking with God was the cause of his being so soon wafted to the place of a full fruition of him he hath as much delight in such as in Heaven it self one is his Habitation as well as the other The one is his habitation of Glory and the other is the house of his Pleasure If he dwell in Zion it must be
from Though by Creation God was declared Good yet he was not made Good by any or by all the Creatures He partakes of none but all things partake of him He is so Good that he gives all and receives nothing Only Good because nothing is Good but by him Nothing hath a Goodness but from him 2. God only is Infinitely Good A boundless Goodness that knows no limits a Goodness as infinite as his Essence not only Good but best not only Good but Goodness it self the Supream unconceivable Goodness All things else are but little Particles of God small Sparks from this Immense Flame Sips of Goodness to this Fountain Nothing that is good by his influence can equal him who is good by himself Derived goodness can never equal Primitive goodness Divine Goodness communicates it self to a vast number of Creatures in various degrees to Angels Glorifi'd Spirits Men on Earth to every Creature and when it hath communicated all that the present World is capable of there is still less display'd than left to enrich another World All possible Creatures are not capable of exhausting the Wealth and Treasures that Divine Bounty is filled with 3. God is only perfectly good because only Infinitely good He is good without indigence because he hath the whole Nature of goodness not only some beams that may admit of increase of degree As in him is the whole Nature of Entity so in him is the whole Nature of Excellency As nothing hath an absolute perfect Being but God so nothing hath an absolutely perfect goodness but God As the Sun hath a perfection of heat in it but what is warm'd by the Sun is but imperfectly hot and equals not the Sun in that perfection of heat wherewith it is naturally endued The goodness of God is the measure and rule of goodness in every thing else 4. God only is Immutably good Other things may be perpetually good by Supernatural Power but not Immutably good in their own Nature Other things are not so good but they may be bad God is so good that he cannot be bad * Eugubin Peren. Philos lib. 5. cap. 9. p. 97. col 1. It was the Speech of a Philosopher That it was a hard thing to find a good Man yea impossible but though it were possible to find a good Man he would be good but for some moment or a short time For though he should be good at this instant it was above the Nature of Man to continue in a habit of goodness without going awry and warping But the goodness of God endureth for ever †Psal 52.1 God always glitters in goodness as the Sun which the Heathens call'd the visible Image of the Divinity doth with light There is not such a perpetual light in the Sun as there is a fulness of goodness in God no variableness in him as he is the Father of Lights * 1 James 17. Before I come to the Doctrine that is the chief scope of the words some remarks may be made upon the Young-mans Question and Carriage What must I do to inherit Eternal Life 1. The opinion of gaining Eternal Life by the outward observation of the Law will appear very unsatisfactory to an inquisitive Conscience This Ruler affirm'd and certainly did confidently believe that he had fulfill'd the Law Vers 20. All this have I observed from my youth yet he had not any full satisfaction in his own Conscience his heart misgave and started upon some Sentiments in him that something else was requir'd and what he had done might be too weak too short to shoot Heavens lock for him And to that purpose he comes to Christ to receive Instructions for the piercing up whatsoever was defective Whosoever will consider the Nature of God and the Relation of a Creature cannot with reason think that Eternal Life was of it self due from God as a Recompence to Adam had he persisted in a State of Innocence Who can think so great a Reward due for having perform'd that which a Creature in that Relation was oblig'd to do Can any Man think another oblig'd to convey an Inheritance of 1000 l. per annum upon his payment of a few Farthings unless any compact appears to support such a conceit And if it were not to be expected in the integrity of Nature but only from the goodness of God how can it be expected since the Revolt of Man and the Universal Deluge of Natural Corruption God owes nothing to the holiest Creature what he gives is a present from his Bounty not the Reward of the Creatures Merit And the Apostle defies all Creatures from the greatest to the least from the tallest Angel to the lowest Shrub to bring out any one Creature that hath first given to God * Rom. 11.35 Who hath first given to him And it shall be Recompenced to him again The Duty of the Creature and Gods gift of Eternal Life is not a Bargain and Sale God gives to the Creature he doth not properly repay For he that repays hath received something of an equal value and worth before When God Crowns Angels and Men he bestows upon them purely what is his own not what is theirs by Merit and Natural Obligation Though indeed what God gives by virtue of a Promise made before is upon the performance of the Condition due by gracious Obligation God was not indebted to Man in Innocence but every Mans Conscience may now mind him that he is not upon the same level as in the State of Integrity And that he cannot expect any thing from God as the Salary of his Merit but the free gift of Divine Liberality * Amyraut Morale Man is oblig'd to the practice of what is good both from the Excellency of the Divine Precepts and the Duty he owes to God and cannot without some Declaration from God hope for any other Reward than the satisfaction of having well acquitted himself 2. 'T is the Disease of Humane Nature since its Corruption to hope for Eternal Life by the tenor of the Covenant of Works Though this Rulers Conscience was not throughly satisfy'd with what he had done but imagin'd he might for all that fall short of Eternal Life yet he still huggs the imagination of obtaining it by doing †Vers 17. What shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life This is natural to Corrupted Man Cain thought to be accepted for the sake of his Sacrifice and when he found his mistake he was so weary of seeking Happiness by doing that he would court Misery by Murdering All Men set too high a value upon their own Services Sinful Creatures would fain make God a Debtor to them and be Purchasers of Felicity They would not have it conveyed to them by Gods Sovereign Bounty but by an obligation of Justice upon the value of their Works The Heathens thought God would treat Men according to the Merit of their Services and it is no wonder they should have
or Wisdom to have let Man perpetually wallow in that Sink wherein he had plung'd himself since he was Criminal by his own will and therefore Miserable by his own fault Nothing could necessitate this Reparation If Divine Goodness could not be obliged by the Angelical Dignity to repair that Nature he is further from any Obligation by the meaness of Man to repair Humane Nature There was less necessity to restore Man than to restore the fallen Angels What could Man do to oblige God to a Reparation of him since he could not render him a Recompence for his Goodness manifested in his Creation He must be much more impotent to render him a Debtor for the Redemption of him from Misery Could it be a salary for any thing we had done Alass we are so far from Meriting it that by our daily Demerits we seem ambitious to put a stop to any further Effusions of it We could not have complain'd of him if he had left us in the Misery we had courted since he was bound by no Law to bestow upon us the Recovery we wanted When the Apostle speaks of the Gospel of Redemption he giveth it the Title of the Gospel of the Blessed God †2 Tim. 1.11 It was the Gospel of a God abounding in his own Blessedness which receiv'd no addition by Mans Redemption If he had been blessed by it it had been a goodness to himself as well as to the Creature It was not an Indigent Goodness needing the receiving any thing from us but it was a pure Goodness streaming out of it self without bringing any thing into it self for the Perfection of it There was no Goodness in us to be the Motive of his Love but his Goodness was the Fountain of our Benefit 3. It was a distinct Goodness of the whole Trinity In the Creation of Man we find a general Consultation * Gen. 1.26 without those distinct Labours and Offices of each Person and without those rais'd Expressions and Marks of Joy and Triumph as at Mans Restoration In this there are distinct Functions The Grace of the Father the Merit of the Son and the Efficacy of the Spirit The Father makes the Promise of Redemption the Son Seals it with his Blood and the Spirit applies it The Father Adopts us to be his Children the Son Redeems us to be his Members and the Spirit Renews us to be his Temples In this the Father testifies himself well pleased in a Voice The Son proclaims his own delight to do the will of God and the Spirit hastens with the Wing of a Dove to fit him for his work And afterwards in his apparition in the likeness of Fiery Tongues manifests his zeal for the propagation of the Redeeming Gospel 4. The Effects of it proclaim his great Goodness 'T is by this we are deliver'd from the Corruption of our Nature the Ruine of our Happiness the deformity of our Sins and the punishment of our Transgressions He frees us from the Ignorance wherewith we were darkned and from the Slavery wherein we were fetter'd When he came to make Adams Process after his Crime instead of pronouncing the Sentence of Death he had merited he utters a Promise that Man could not have expected His Kindness swells above his provoked Justice and while he chaseth him out of Paradise he gives him hopes of regaining the same or a better Habitation and is in the whole more ready to prevent him with the Blessings of his Goodness than charge him with the horrour of his Crimes †Gen. 3.17 'T is a Goodness that pardons us more Transgressions than there are Moments in our Lives and overlooks as many Follies as there are Thoughts in our Heart He doth not only relieve our wants but restores us to our Dignity 'T is a greater Testimony of Goodness to instate a Person in the highest Honour than barely to supply his present Necessity 'T is an admirable Pity whereby he was inclin'd to Redeem us and an incomparable Affection whereby he was resolv'd to exalt us What can be desir'd more of him than his Goodness hath granted He hath sought us out when we were lost and Ransom'd us when we were Captives He hath Pardon'd us when we were Condemn'd and rais'd us when we were Dead In Creation he rear'd us from nothing in Redemption he delivers our Understanding from ignorance and vanity and our Wills from impotence and obstinacy and our whole Man from a Death worse than that nothing he drew us from by Creation 5. Hence we may consider the height of this Goodness in Redemption to exceed that in Creation He gave Man a Being in Creation but did not draw him from unexpressible Misery by that act His Liberality in the Gospel doth infinitely surpass what we admire in the Works of Nature His Goodness in the latter is more astonishing to our belief than his Goodness in Creation is visible to our Eye There is more of his Bounty exprest in that one Verse * Joh. 3.16 So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son than there is in the whole Volume of the World 'T is an incomprehensible so a so that all the Angels in Heaven cannot Analyze and few Comment upon or understand the dimensions of this so In Creation he form'd an Innocent Creature of the Dust of the Ground in Redemption he restores a Rebellious Creature by the Blood of his Son It is greater than that Goodness manifested in Creation 1. In regard of the difficulty of effecting it In Creation meer nothing was vanquisht to bring us into Being In Redemption sullen Enmity was conquer'd for the enjoyment of our Restoration In Creation he subdued a Nullity to make us Creatures In Redemption his Goodness overcomes his Omnipotent Justice to restore us to Felicity A word from the Mouth of Goodness inspir'd the Dust of Mens Bodies with a living Soul but the Blood of his Son must be shed and the Laws of Natural Affection seem to be overturn'd to lay the Foundation of our renew'd Happiness In the first Heaven did but speak and the Earth was form'd In the second Heaven it self must sink to Earth and be clothed with dusty Earth to reduce Mans Dust to its Original State 2. This Goodness is greater than that manifested in Creation in regard of its Cost This was a more expensive Goodness than what was laid out in Creation The redemption of one Soul is pretious †Psal 49.8 much more costly than the whole Fabrick of the World or as many Worlds as the understandings of Angels in their utmost extent can conceive to be Created For the effecting of this God parts with his dearest Treasure and his Son Eclipses his choicest Glory For this God must be made Man Eternity must suffer Death the Lord of Angels must weep in a Cradle and the Creator of the World must hang like a Slave he must be in a Manger in Bethlehem and die upon a Cross on
Understanding greatness of Power all the Sons of Men they were more capable to praise him more capable to serve him and because of the Acuteness of their Comprehension more able to have a due Estimate of such a Redemption had it been afforded them yet that Goodness which had Created them so Comely would not lay it self out in restoring the Beauty they had defaced The Promise was of bruising the Serpents head for us not of listing up the Serpents head with us Their Nature was not assum'd nor any command given them to believe or repent Not one Devil spar'd not one Apostate Spirit recover'd not one of those eminent Creatures restor'd Every one of them hath only a prospect of Misery without any glimps of Recovery They were ruin'd under one Sin and we repair'd under many All his Redeeming Goodness was laid out upon Man Psal 144.3 What is Man that thou takest knowledge of him and the Son of Man that thou makest account of him Making account of him above Angels As they fell without any tempting them so God would leave them to rise without any assisting them I know the Schools trouble themselves to find out the reasons of this peculiarity of Grace to Man and not to them because the whole Humane Nature fell but only a part of the Angelical The one Sinned by a Seduction and the other by a sullenness without any Tempter Every Angel Sinned by his own proper will whereas Adams Posterity Sinned by the will of the first Man the common Root of all God would deprive the Devil of any glory in the satisfaction of his envious desire to hinder Man from attainment and possession of that Happiness which himself had lost The weakness of Man below the Angelical Nature might excite the Divine Mercy And since all the things of the lower World were Created for Man God would not lose the honour of his Works by losing the immediate End for which he framed them And finally because in the Restoration of Angels there would have been only a Restoration of one Nature that was not comprehensive of the Nature of Inferior things But after all such Conjectures Man must sit down and acknowledge Divine Goodness to be the only Spring without any other Motive Since Infinite Wisdom could have contrived a way for Redemption for Fallen Angels as well as for Fallen Man and restor'd both the one and the other Why might not Christ have assumed their Nature as well as ours into the unity of the Divine Person and suffer'd the Wrath of God in their Nature for them as well as in his Humane Soul for us 'T is as conceivable that two Natures might have been assum'd by the Son of God as well as three Souls be in Man distinct as some think there are 3. To Enhance this Goodness yet higher It was a greater Goodness to us than was for a time manifested to Christ himself To demonstrate his Goodness to Man in preventing his Eternal Ruine he would for a while with-hold his Goodness from his Son by exposing his Life as the price of our Ransom not only subjecting him to the Derisions of Enemies Desertions of Friends and Malice of Devils but to the unexpressible bitterness of his own Wrath in his Soul as made an offering for Sin The Particle so John 3.16 seems to intimate this Supremacy of Goodness He so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son He so loved the World that he seem'd for a time not to love his Son in comparison of it or equal with it The Person to whom a Gift is given is in that regard accounted more valuable than the Gift or Present made to him Thus God valued our Redemption above the worldly Happiness of the Redeemer and sentenceth him to an Humiliation on Earth in order to our Exaltation in Heaven He was desirous to hear him groaning and see him bleeding that we might not groan under his Frowns and bleed under his Wrath He spared not him that he might spare us refused not to strike him that he might be well pleased with us drencht his Sword in the Blood of his Son that it might not for ever be wet with ours but that his Goodness might for ever triumph in our Salvation He was willing to have his Son made Man and die rather than Man should perish who had delighted to ruine himself He seem'd to degrade him for a time from what he was * Lingend de Eucharist p. 84 85. But since he could not be united to any but to an intellectual Creature he could not be united to any viler and more sordid Creature than the Earthly Nature of Man And when this Son in our Nature prayed that the Cup might pass from him Goodness would not suffer it to shew how it valued the manifestation of it self in the Salvation of Man above the preservation of the Life of so dear a Person In particular wherein this Goodness appears 1. The first Resolution to Redeem and the means appointed for Redemption could have no other inducement but Divine Goodness We cannot too highly value the Merit of Christ but we must not so much extend the Merit of Christ as to draw a value to Eclipse the Goodness of God Though we owe our Redemption and the Fruits of it to the Death of Christ yet we owe not the first Resolutions of Redemption and assumption of our Nature the means of Redemption to the Merit of Christ Divine Goodness only without the association of any Merit not only of Man but of the Redeemer himself begat the first purpose of our Recovery He was singled out and predestinated to be our Redeemer before he took our Nature to Merit our Redemption God sent his Son is a frequent Expression in the Gospel of St. John †John 3.34 Joh. 9.24 Joh. 17.3 To what end did God send Christ but to Redeem * Lessius The purpose of Redemption therefore preceded the pitching upon Christ as the means and procuring Cause of it i. e. of our actual Redemption but not of the Redeeming purpose the end is always in intention before the means God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son The love of God to the World was first in Intention and the Order of Nature before the will of giving his Son to the World His Intention of saving was before the Mission of a Saviour So that this Affection rose not from the Merit of Christ but the Merit of Christ was directed by this Affection It was the Effect of it not the Cause Nor was the union of our Nature with his Merited by him All his Meritorious acts were performed in our Nature The Nature therefore wherein he performed it was not Merited that Grace which was not could not Merit what it was He could not Merit that Humanity which must be assumed before he could Merit any thing for us because all Merit for us must be offer'd in the Nature which had offended
'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
Goodness to have given one of the lofty Seraphims A greater Goodness to have given the whole Corporation of those glorious Spirits for us those Children of the most high But he gave that Son whom he commands all the Angels to Worship * Heb. 1.6 and all Men to adore and pay the lowest Homage to †Psal 2.12 that Son that is to be honoured by us as we honour the Father * Joh. 5.23 that Son which was his delight his delights in the Hebrew †Prov. 8.30 wherein all the delights of the Father were gathered in one as well as of the whole Creation and not simply a Son but an only begotten Son upon which Christ lays the stress with an Emphasis †Joh. 3.16 He had but one Son in Heaven or Earth one Son from an unviewable Eternity and that one Son he gave for a degenerate World this Son he Consecrated for evermore a Priest * Heb. 7 28. The word of the Oath makes the Son The peculiarity of his Sonship heightens the Goodness of the Donor It was no meaner a Person that he gave to empty himself of his glory to fulfil an obedience for us that we might be rendred happy partakers of the Divine Nature Those that know the natural affection of a Father to a Son must judge the affection of God the Father to the Son infinitely greater than the affection of an Earthly Father to the Son of his Bowels It must be an unparallell'd Goodness to give up a Son that he loved with so ardent an Affection for the Redemption of Rebels Abandon a glorious Son to a dishonourable Death for the security of those that had violated the Laws of Righteousness and endeavoured to pull the Soveraign Crown from his head Besides being an only Son all those Affections center'd in him which in Parents would have been divided among a multitude of Children So then as it was a Testimony of the highest Faith and Obedience in Abraham to offer up his only begotten Son to God * Heb. 11.17 So it was the Triumph of Divine Goodness to give so great so dear a Person for so little a thing as Man and for such a piece of nothing and vanity as a Sinful World 3. And this Son given to Rescue us by his Death It was a gift to us For our sakes he descended from his Throne and dwelt on Earth For our sakes he was made Flesh and infirm Flesh For our sakes he was made a Curse and scorcht in the Furnace of his Fathers Wrath For our sakes he went naked arm'd only with his own Strength into the Lists of that Combat with the Devils that led us Captive Had he given him to be a Leader for the conquest of some Earthly Enemies it had been a great Goodness to display his Banners and bring us under his Conduct but he sent him to lay down his Life in the bitterest and most inglorious manner and exposed him to a cursed Death for our Redemption from that dreadful Curse which would have broken us to pieces and irreparably have crusht us He gave him to us to suffer for us as a Man and Redeem us as a God to be a Sacrifice to expiate our Sin by translating the Punishment upon himself which was merited by us Thus was he made low to exalt us and debased to advance us made poor to enrich us * ◠Co◠8.9 and Eclipsed to brighten our sullied Natures and Wounded that he might be a Physician for our languishments He was ordered to taste the bitter Cup of Death that we might drink of the Rivers of Immortal Life and pleasures To submit to the frailties of the Humane Nature that we might possess the Glories of the Divine He was order'd to be a Sufferer that we might be no longer Captives and to pass through the Fire of Divine Wrath that he might purge our Nature from the dross it had contracted Thus was the Righteous given for Sin the Innocent for Criminals the Glory of Heaven for the Dregs of Earth and the Immense Riches of a Deity expended to re-stock Man 4. And a Son that was exalted for what he had done for us by the order of Divine Goodness The Exaltation of Christ was no less a signal Mark of his miraculous Goodness to us than of his Affection to him since he was obedient by Divine Goodness to die for us his advancement was for his obedience to those Orders †2 Phil. 8 9. The Name given to him above every Name was a repeated Triumph of this Perfection Since his Passion was not for himself he was wholly Innocent but for us who were Criminal His advancement was not only for himself as Redeemer but for us as Redeem'd Divine Goodness center'd in him both in his Cross and in his Crown for it was for the purging our Sins he sat down on the Right hand of the Majesty on high * Heb. 1.3 And the whole blessed Society of Principalities and Powers in Heaven admire this Goodness of God and ascribe to him Honour Glory and Power for advancing the Lamb slain †Revel 5.11 12 13. Divine Goodness did not only give him to us but gave him Power Riches Strength and Honour for manifesting this Goodness to us and opening the passages for its fuller conveyances to the Sons of Men. Had not God had thoughts of a perpetual Goodness he would not have setled him so near him to manage our Cause and testified so much Affection to him on our behalf This Goodness gave him to be debas'd for us and order'd him to be Enthron'd for us As it gave him to us Bleeding so it would give him to us Triumphing that as we have a share by Grace in the Merits of his Humiliation we might partake also of the glories of his Coronation that from first to last we may behold nothing but the Triumphs of Divine Goodness to fallen Man 5. In bestowing this Gift on us Divine Goodness gives whole God to us Whatsoever is great and excellent in the Godhead the Father gives us by giving us his Son The Creator gives himself to us in his Son Christ In giving Creatures to us he gives the Riches of Earth In giving himself to us he gives the Riches of Heaven which surmount all understanding 'T is in this Gift he becomes our God and passeth over the Title of all that he is for our use and benefit that every Attribute in the Divine Nature may be claim'd by us not to be imparted to us whereby we may be deified but employ'd for our welfare whereby we may be blessed He gave himself in Creation to us in the Image of his Holiness but in Redemption he gave himself in the Image of his Person He would not only communicate the Goodness without him but bestow upon us the infinite Goodness of his own Nature That that which was his own End and Happiness might be our End and Happiness viz.
Goodness to himself and his own Honour he had cast that off had he not insisted on this Condition of Faith it being the lowest he could condescend to with a salvo for his Glory And it was a Goodness to us 't is nothing else he requires but a willingness to accept what he hath contrived and acted for us And no Man can be happy against his will without this belief at least Man could never voluntarily have arriv'd to his Happiness The Goodness of God is evidenced in that First 'T is an easie Condition not impossible 1. It was not the Condition of the old Covenant The Condition of that was an entire Obedience to every Precept with a Mans whole strength and without any flaw or crack But the Condition of the Evangelical Covenant is a sincere though weak Faith He hath suited this Covenant to the Misery of Mans fall'n Condition He considers our weakness and that we are but Dust and therefore exacts not of us an entire but a sincere Obedience Had God sent Christ to expiate the Crime of Adam restore him to his Paradise Estate and repair in Man the ruin'd Image of Holiness and after this to have renewed the Covenant of Works for the future and settled the same Condition in exacting a compleat Obedience for the time to come Divine Goodness had been above any accusation and had deserv'd our highest admiration in the pardon of former Transgressions and giving out to us our first Stock But Divine Goodness took larger strides He had tried our first Condition and found his mutable Creature quickly to violate it Had he demanded the same now 't is likely it had met with the same issue as before in Mans disobedience and fall we should have been as Men as Adam * Hos 6.7 transgrâ—ssing the Covenant and then we must have lain groaning under our Disease and wallowing in our Blood unless Christ had come to die for the Expiation of our new Crimes for every Transgression had been a violation of that Covenant and a forfeiture of our Right to the benefits of it If we had broke it but in one tittle we had rendred our selves uncapable to fulfil it for the future that one Transgression had stood as a bar against the pleas of after Obedience But God hath wholly laid that Condition aside as to us and setled that of Faith more easie to be perform'd and to be renew'd by us 'T is infinite Grace in him that he will accept of Faith in us instead of that perfect Obedience he requir'd of us in the Covenant of Works 2. It is easie not like the burdensom Ceremonies appointed under the Law He exacts not now the legal Obedience expensive Sacrifices troublesom Purifications and Abstinencies that Yoak of Bondage †Gal. 5.1 which they were not able to bear * Acts 15.10 He treats us not as Servants or Children in their Nonage under the Elements of the World nor requires those innumerable bodily Exercises that he exacted of them He demands not 1000 of Lambs and Rivers of Oyl but he requires a sincere Confession and Repentance in order to our absolution an unfain'd Faith in order to our Blessedness and elevation to a Glorious Life He requires only that we should believe what he saith and have so good an opinion of his Goodness and Veracity as to perswade our selves of the reality of his Intentions confide in his Word and rely upon his Promise cordially embrace his Crucified Son whom he hath set forth as the means of our Happiness and have a sincere Respect to all the discoveries of his Will What can be more easie than this Though some in the days of the Apostles and others since have endeavoured to introduce a multitude of legal Burthens as if they envied God the Expressions of his Goodness or thought him guilty of too much Remissness in taking off the Yoak and treating Man too favourably 3. Nor is it a clear knowledge of every Revelation that is the Condition of this Covenant God in his kindness to Man hath made Revelations of himself but his Goodness is manifested in obliging us to believe him not fully to understand him He hath made them by sufficient Testimonies as clear to our Faith as they are incomprehensible to our Reason He hath reveal'd a Trinity of Persons in their distinct Offices in the business of Redemption without which Revelation of a Trinity we could not have a right Notion and Scheme of Redeeming Grace But since the clearness of Mens understanding is sullied by the fall and hath lost its Wings to fly up to a knowledge of such sublime things as that of the Trinity and other Mysteries of the Christian Religion God hath manifested his Goodness in not obliging us to understand them but to beleive them and hath given us reason enough to believe it to be his Revelation both from the Nature of the Revelation it self and the way and manner of propagating it which is wholly Divine exceeding all the Methods of Humane Art though he hath not extended our understandings to a capacity to know them and render a reason of every Mystery He did not require of every Israelite or of any of them that were stung by the fiery Serpents that they should understand or be able to discourse of the Nature and Qualities of that Brass of which the Serpent upon the Pole was made or by what Art that Serpent was formed or in what manner the sight of it did operate in them for their Cure it was enough that they did believe the Institution and Precept of God and that their own Cure was assured by it It was enough if they cast their Eyes upon it according to the direction The understandings of Men are of several sizes and elevations one higher than another If the Condition of this Covenant had been a greatness of knowledge the most acute Men had only enjoyed the benefits of it But it is Faith which is as easie to be performed by the ignorant and simple as by the strongest and most towring Mind 'T is that which is within the compass of every Mans understanding God did not require that every one within the Verge of the Covenant should be able to discourse of it to the reasons of Men He requir'd not that every Man should be a Philosopher or an Orator but a Believer What could be more easie than to lift up the Eye to the Brazen Serpent to be Cur'd of a fiery Sting What could be more facile than a glance which is done without any pain and in a moment 'T is a Condition may be perform'd by the weakest as well as the strongest Could those that were bitten in the most Vital part cast up their Eyes though at the last gasp they would arise to health by the expulsion of the Venom 2. As 't is Easie so 't is Reasonable Repent and Believe is that which is requir'd by Christ and the Apostles for the injoyment of
happiness This he doth not only in his general proclamations but in his particular wooings those inward courtings of his Spirit solliciting them with more diligence if they would observe it to their happiness than the Devil tempts them to the ways of their Misery As he was first in Christ reconciling the World when the World looked not after him so he is first in his Spirit wooing the World to accept of that Reconciliation when the World will not listen to him How often doth he flash up the Light of Nature and the Light of the Word in Mens hearts to move them not to lie down in sparks of their own kindling but to aspire to a better happiness and prepare them to be subject to a higher Mercy If they would improve his present intreaties to such an end And what are his Threatnings design'd for but to move the Wheel of our Fears that the Wheel of our Desire and Love might be set on Motion for the embracing his Promise They are not so much the Thunders of his Justice as the loud Rhetorick of his good Will to prevent Mens Misery under the Vials of Wrath. 'T is his kindness to feare Men by threatnings that Justice might not strike them with the Sword 'T is not the destruction but the preserving Reformation that he aims at He hath no pleasure in the death of the Wicked This he confirms by his Oath * Ezek. 33.11 His threatnings are gracious Expostulations with them Why will ye die O house of Israel They are like the noise a favourable Officer makes in the Street to warn the Criminal he comes to seize upon to make his escape He never used his Justice to crush Men till he had used his Kindness to allure them All the dreadful descriptions of a future Wrath as well as the lively descriptions of the happiness of another World are designed to perswade Men The Honey of his Goodness is in the Bowels of those roaring Lyons such pains doth Goodness take with Men to make them Candidates for Heaven 2. How readily doth he receive Men when they do return We have Davids Experience for it †Psal 32.5 I said I will confess my Transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my Sin Selah A sincere look from the Creature draws out his Arms and opens his Bosom he is ready with his Physick to heal us upon a resolution to acquaint him with our Disease and by his Medicines prevents the putting our Resolution into a Petition The Psalmist adds a Selah to it as a special Note of Thankfulness for Divine Goodness He doth not only stand ready to receive our Petitions while we are speaking but answers us before we call * Isai 65.24 listening to the Motions of our Hearts as well as to the supplications of our Lips He is the true Father that hath a quicker pace in meeting than the Prodigal hath in returning Who would not have his Embraces and Caresses interrupted by his Confession †Luke 15.20 21 22. The Confession follows doth not precede the Fathers Compassion How doth he rejoyce in having an opportunity to express his Grace when he hath prevail'd with a Rebel to throw down his Arms and lie at his Feet and this because he delights in Mercy * Mic. 7.18 He delights in the Expressions of it from himself and the acceptance of it by his Creature 3. How meltingly doth he bewail Mans wilful refusal of his Goodness 'T is a mighty Goddness to offer Grace to a Rebel a mighty Goodness to give it him after he hath a while stood off from the terms An astonishing Goodness to regret and lament his wilful perdition He seems to utter those words in a sigh †Psal 81.13 Oh that my People had hearkned unto me and Israel had walked in my way 'T is true God hath not Humane Passions but his Affections can not be exprest otherwise in a way intelligible to us The Excellency of his Nature is above the Passions of Men but such Expressions of himself manifest to us the sincerity of his Goodness and that were he capable of our Passions he would express himself in such a manner as we do And we find incarnate Goodness bewailing with tears and sighs the ruine of Jerusalem * Luke 19.42 By the same reason that when a Sinner returns there is joy in Heaven upon his obstinacy there is sorrow in Earth The one is as if a Prince should Cloth all his Court in Triumphant Scarlet upon a Rebels Repentance And the other as if a Prince should put himself and his Court in Mourning for a Rebels obstinate refusal of a Pardon when he lies at his Mercy Are not now these affectionate invitations and deep bewailings of their perversity high Testimonies of Divine Goodness Do not the unwearied repetitions of Gracious Encouragements deserve a higher name than that of meer Goodness What can be a stronger Evidence of the sincerity of it than the sound of his saving voice in our enjoyments the motion of his Spirit in our hearts and his grief for the neglect of all These are not Testimonies of any want of Goodness in his Nature to answer us or willingness to express it to his Creature Hath he any mind to deceive us that thus entreats us The Majesty of his Nature is too great for such shifts or if it were not the despicableness of our condition would render him above the using any Who would charge that Physician with want of kindness that freely offers his Soveraign Medicine importunes Men by the love they have to their health to take it and is dissolved into tears and sorrow when he finds it rejected by their peevish and conceited humor 7. Divine Goodness is eminent in the Sacraments he hath affixt to this Covenant especially in the Lords Supper As he gave himself in his Son so he gives his Son in the Sacrament He doth not only give him as a Sacrifice upon the Cross for the Expiation of our Crimes but as a Feast upon the Table for the noâ—â—ishment of our Souls In the one he was given to be offer'd in this he gives him to be partaked of with all the Fruits of his Death Under the Image of the Sacramental Signs every Believer doth eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the great Mediator of the Covenant The words of Christ This is my Body and this is my Blood are true to the end of the World * Matth. 26.26 28. This is the most delicious Viand of Heaven the most exquisite Dainty Food God can feed us with the delight of the Deity the admiration of Angels A Feast with God is great but a Feast on God is greater Under those Signs that Body is presented that which was conceived by the Spirit inhabited by the Godhead bruised by the Father to be our Food as well as our Propitiation is presented to us on the Table That Blood which satisfied Justice washt
evident in encouraging any thing of Moral Goodness in the World Though Moral Goodness cannot claim an Eternal Reward yet it hath been many times rewarded with a Temporal Happiness He hath often signally rewarded acts of honesty justice and fidelity and punisht the contrary by his Judgments to deter Man from such an unworthy practice and encourage others to what was Comely and of a general good report in the World Ahab's humiliation put a demurrer to Gods Judgments intended against him and some ascribe the great Victories and success of the Romans to that justice which was observed among themselves Baruch was but an Amanuensis to the Prophet Jeremy to write his Prophesy and very despondent of his own welfare * Jer. 45.13 God upon that account provides for his safety and rewards the industry of his service with the security of his Person He was not a States-Man to declare against the corrupt Counsels of them that sat at the Helm nor a Prophet to declare against their prophane practices but the Prophets Scribe and as he writes in Gods service the Prophesies revealed to the Prophet God writes his name in the Roll of those that were design'd for preservation in that deluge of Judgments which were to come upon that Nation Epicurus complain'd of the administration of God that the Vertuous Moralist had not sufficient smiles of Divine Favour nor the Swinish Sensualist frowns of Divine Indignation But what if they have not always that confluence of outward Wealth and Pleasures but remain in the common level Yet they have the happiness and satisfaction of a clear Reputation the esteem of Men and the secret applauses of their very Enemies besides the inward ravishments upon an exercise of Vertue and the commendatory subscription of their own hearts a dainty the Vicious Man knows not of They have an inward applause from God as a Reward of Divine Goodness instead of those Racks of Conscience upon which the Prophane are sometimes stretch'd He will not let the worst Men do him any service though they never intended in the act of service him but themselves without giving them their Wages He will not let them hit him in the teeth as if he were beholding to them If Nebuchadnezzar be the instrument of Gods Judgments against Tyrus and Israel he will not only give him that rich City but a richer Country Egypt the granary for her Neighbours a wages above his work In this is Divine Goodness eminent since in the most Moral actions as there is something beautiful so there is something mixt hateful to the infinitely exact Holiness of the Divine Nature yet he will not let that which is pleasing to him go unrewarded and defeat the expectations of Men as Men do with those they employ when for one flaw in an action they deny them the reward due for the other part God encourag'd and kept up Morality in the Cities of the Gentiles for the entertainment of a further goodness in the Doctrine of the Gospel when it should be publisht among them 4. Divine Goodness is eminent in providing a Scripture as a Rule to guide us and continuing it in the World If Man be a Rational Creature governable by a Law can it be imagin'd there should be no revelation of that Law to him Man by the light of Reason must needs confess himself to be in another condition than he was by Creation when he came first out of the hands of God and can it be thought that God should keep up the World under so many Sins against the light of Nature and bestow so many providential influences to invite Men to return to him and acquaint no Men in the World with the means of that return Would he exact an Obedience of Men as their Consciencies witness he doth and furnish them with no Rules to guide them in the darkness they cannot but acknowledge that they have contracted No Divine Goodness hath otherwise provided This Bible we have is his Word and Rule Had it been a falsity and imposture would that Goodness that watches over the World have continued it so long That Goodness that overthrew the burdensom Rites of Moses and expell'd the foolish Idolatry of the Pagans would have discover'd the imposture of this had it not been a transcript of his own Will Whatever mistakes he suffers to remain in the World what goodness had there been to suffer this anciently amongst the Jews and afterwards to open it to the whole World to abuse Men in Religion and Worship which so nearly concern'd himself and his own Honour that the World should be deceiv'd by the Devil without a remedy in the morning of its appearance It hath been honour'd and admir'd by some Heathens when they have cast their Eyes upon it and their natural Light made them behold some footsteps of a Divinity in it If this therefore be not a Divine Praescript let any that deny it bring as good Arguments for any Book else as can be brought for this Now the publishing this is an argument of Divine Goodness 'T is design'd to win the affections of beggarly Man to be espous'd to a God of Eternal Blessedness and immense Riches It speaks words in season No doubts but it resolves No Spiritual Distemper but it Cures No Condition but it hath a Comfort to suit it 'T is a Garden which the hand of Divine Bounty hath planted for us In it he condescends to shadow himself in those Expressions that render him in some manner intelligible to us Had God wrote in a loftiness of Style sutable to the greatness of his Majesty his Writing had been as little understood by us as the brightness of his Glory can be beheld by us But he draws Phrases from our affairs to express his mind to us He incarnates himself in his Word to our Minds before his Son was incarnate in the Flesh to the Eyes of Men He ascribes to himself Eyes Ears Hands that we might have from the consideration of our selves and the whole Humane Nature a conception of his Perfections He assumes to himself the Members of our Bodies to direct our Understandings in the knowledge of his Deity This is his Goodness Again Though the Scripture was written upon several occasions yet in the dictating of it the Goodness of God cast his Eye upon the last Ages of the World * 1 Cor. 10 11. They are written for our admonition upon whom the endâ— of the World are come It was given to the Israelites but Divine Goodness intended it for the future Gentiles The old Writings of the Prophets were thus design'd much more the later Writings of the Apostles Thus did Divine Goodness think of us and prepare his Records for us before we were in the World These he hath written plain for our instruction and wrapt up in them what is necessary for our Salvation 'T is clear to inform our Understanding and rich to comfort us in our Misery 'T is a Light
not to own it but erect an Idol in its place Ezra was of another mind when he ascribed to the good hand of God the providing Ministers for the Temple and not to his own care and diligence * Ezra 8.18 And Nehemiah the success he had with the King in the behalf of his Nation and not solely to his favour with the Prince * Neh. 2.8 or the arts he used to please him 2. The second Information is this If God be so good 't is a certain Argument that Man is fallen from his Original State 'T is the complaint of Man sometimes that other Creatures have more of Earthly Happiness than Men have live freer from cares and trouble and are not rackt with that sollicitousness and anxiety as Man is Have not such distempers to embitter their lives 'T is a good ground for Man to look into himself and consider whether he hath not some ways or other disobliged God more than other Creatures can possibly do We often find that the Creatures Men have need of in this State do not answer the expectation of Man Cursed be the ground for thy sake * Gen. 3.17 A fruitful Land is made barren Thorns and Thistles triumph upon the face of the Earth instead of good Fruit. Is it like that that Goodness which is as infinite as his Power and knows no more limits than his Almightiness should imprint so many scars upon the World if he had not been hainously provoked by some miscarriage of his Creature Infinite Goodness could never move Infinite Justice to inflict Punishment upon Creatures if they had not highly Merited it We cannot think that any Creature was blemisht with a Principle of Disturbance as it came first out of the hand of God All things were certainly settled in a due order and dependance upon one another Nothing could be ungrateful and unuseful to Man by the Original Law of their Creation If there had it had not been Goodness but Evil and Baseness that had Created the World When we see therefore the Course of Nature overturn'd the Order Divine Goodness had placed disturb'd and the Creatures pronounced good and useful to Man employ'd as Instruments of Vengeance against him We must conclude some horrible blot upon Humane Nature and very odious to a God of Infinite Goodness And that this blot was dasht upon Man by himself and his own fault for it is repugnant to the Infinite Goodness of God to put into the Creature a Sinning Nature to hurry him into Sin and then punish him for that which he had imprest upon him The Goodness of God inclines him to love goodness wherever he finds it and not to punish any that have not deserved it by their own Crimes The Curse we therefore see the Creatures groan under the disorders in Nature the frustrating the expectations of Man in the Fruits of the Earth and plentiful Harvests the trouble he is continually expos'd to in the World which tedders down his Spirit from more generous Employments shews that Man is not what he was when Divine Goodness first Erected him but hath admitted into his Nature something more uncomely in the Eye of God and so hainous that it puts his Goodness sometimes to a stand and makes him lay aside the Blessings his hand was fill'd with to take up the Arms of Vengeance wherewith to fight against the World Divine Goodness would have secur'd his Creatures from any such invasions and never us'd those things against Man which he design'd in the first frame for Mans service were there not some detestable disorder risen in the Nature of Man which makes God with-hold his Liberality and change the dispensation of his numerous Benefits into Legions of Judgments The Consideration of the Divine Goodness which is a Notion that Man naturally concludes to be inseparable from the Deity would to an unbyast Reason verifie the History of those Punishments settled upon Man in the third Chapter of Genesis and make the whole seem more probable to Reason at the first Relation This instruction naturally flows from the Doctrine of Divine Goodness If God be so good it is a certain Argument that Man is fallen from his Original State 3. The third Information is this If God be infinitely good there can be no just complaint against God if Men be punisht for abusing his Goodness Man had nothing nay it was impossible he could have any thing from infinite Goodness to disoblige him but to engage him God never did nay never could draw his Sword against Man till Man had had slighted him and affronted him by the strength of his own Bounty 'T is by this God doth justifie his severest proceedings against Men and very seldom charges them with any else as the matter of their provocations * Hosea 2.9 Therefore will I return and take away my Corn in the time thereof and my Wine in the season thereof and will recover my Wool and my Flax. And in Ezek. 16. after he had drawn out a Bill of Complaint against them and inserted onâ—y the abuse of his Benefits as a justification of what he intended to do He concludes Verse 27. Behold therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee and dimâ—nisht thy ordinary food and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee When Men suffer they suffer justly they were not constrained by any Violence or forced by any necessity nor provok't by any ill usage to turn head against God but broke the bands of the strongest Obligations and most tender Allurements What Man what Devil can justly blame God for punishing them after they had been so intolerably bold as to fly in the face of that Goodness that had oblig'd them by giving them beings of a higher elevation than to inferior Creatures and furnishing them with sufficient strength to continue in their first Habitation Man seems to have less reason to accuse God of rigor than Devils since after his unreasonable Revolt a more express Goodness than that which Created him hath sollicited him to Repentance Courted him by melting Promises and Expostulations added undeniable Arguments of Bounty and drawn out the choicest Treasures of Heaven in the gift of his Son to prevail over Mens perversity And yet Man after he might arrive to the height and happiness of an Angel will be fond of continuing in the meanness and misery of a Devil and more strongly link himself to the Society of the damn'd Spirits wherein by his first Rebellion he had incorporated himself Who can blame God for vindicating his own Goodness from such desperate contempts and the extream ingratitude of Man * Petav. Theolog. Dogmat Vol. 1. p. 407. If God be good 't is our happiness to adhere to him If we depart from him we depart from Goodness and if Evil happen to us we cannot blame God but our selves for our departure Why are Men happy Because they cleave to God Why are Men miserable Because they
his moral Power whereby it is lawful for him to do what he will Among men Strength and Authority are two distinct things A Subject may be a Giant and be stronger than his Prince but he hath not the same Authority as his Prince Worldly Dominion may be seated not in a brawny Arm but a sickly and infirm Body As knowledge and wisdom are distinguisht knowledge respects the matter being and nature of a thing Wisdom respects the harmony order and actual usefulness of a thing Knowledge searcheth the nature of a thing and Wisdom employs that thing to its proper use A man may have much Knowledge and little Wisdom so a man may have much Strength and little or no Authority A greater strength may be setled in the Servant but a greater Authority resides in the Master strength is the natural vigor of a Man God hath an infinite strength he hath a strength to bring to pass whatsoever he decrees he acts without fainting and weakness Isaiah 40.28 and impairs not his strength by the exercise of it As God is Lord he hath a right to Enact as he is Almighty he hath a power to Execute His strength is the executive power belonging to his Dominion In regard of his Soveraignty he hath a right to Command all Creatures In regard of his Almightiness he hath power to make his Commands be obey'd or to punish men for the violation of them His power is that whereby he subdues all Creatures under him his Dominion is that whereby he hath a right to subdue all Creatures under him This Dominion is a right of making what he pleases of possessing what he made of disposing of what he doth possess whereas his power is an ability to make what he hath a right to Create to hold what he doth possess and to execute the manner wherein he resolves to dispose of his Creatures 2. All the other Attributes of God referre to this perfection of Dominion They all bespeak him fit for it and are discovered in the exercise of it which hath been manifested in the discourses of those Attributes we have passed through hitherto His Goodness fits him for it because he can never use his Authority but for the good of the Creatures and conducting them to their true end His Wisdom can never be mistaken in the exercise of it his power can accomplish the Decrees that flow from his absolute Authority What can be more rightful than the placing Authority in such an infinite Goodness that hath Bowels to pity as well as a Scepter to sway his Subjects That hath a mind to contrive and a will to regulate his contrivances for his own Glory and his Creatures good and an arm of power to bring to pass what he Orders Without this Dominion some perfections as Justice and Mercy would lie in obscurity and much of his Wisdom would be shrouded from our sight and knowledge 3. This of Dominion as well as that of Power hath been acknowledged by all The High Priest was to wave the Offering or shake it to and fro Exod. 29.24 which the Jews say was customarily from East to West and from North to South the four quarters of the World to signifie Gods Soveraignty over all the parts of the World And some of the Heathens in their Adorations turned their Bodies to all quarters to signifie the extensive Dominion of God throughout the whole Earth That Dominion did of right pertain to the Deity was confest by the Heathen in the name Baal given to their Idols which signifies Lord and was not a name of one Idol adored for a God but common to all the Eastern Idols God hath interwoven the notion of his Soveraignty in the Nature and Constitution of Man in the noblest and most inward acts of his Soul in that faculty or act which is most necessary for him in his converse in this World either with God or Man 'T is stampt upon the Conscience of Man and flashes in his face in every act of self Judgment Conscience passes upon a Man Every reflection of Conscience implies an obligation of man to some Law written in his Heart Rom. 2.15 This Law cannot be without a Legislator nor this Legislator without a Soveraign Dominion these are but natural and easie consequences in the mind of Man from every act of Conscience The indelible Authority of Conscience in Man in the whole exercise of it bears a respect to the Soveraignty of God clearly proclaims not only a supream being but a supream Governor and points man directly to it that a man may as soon deny his having such a reflecting principle within him as deny Gods Dominion over him and consequently over the whole World of rational Creatures 4. This notion of Soveraingty is inseparable from the notion of a God To acknowledge the Existence of a God and to acknowledge him a Rewarder are linkt together Heb. 11.6 To acknowledge him a Rewarder is to acknowledge him a Governor Rewards being the marks of Dominion The very name of a God includes in it a supremacy and an actual rule He cannot be conceived as God but he must be conceived as the highest Authority in the World 'T is as possible for him not to be God as not to be supream Wherein can the exercise of his excellencies be apparent but in his Soveraign rule To fancy an infinite power without a supream Dominion is to fancy a mighty senseless Statue fit to be beheld but not fit to be obey'd as not being able or having no right to give out Orders or not caring for the exercise of it God cannot be supposed to be the cheif being but he must be supposed to give Laws to all and receive Laws from none And if we suppose him with a perfection of Justice and Righteousness which we must do unless we would make a lame and imperfect God we must suppose him to have an intire Dominion without which he could never be able to manifest his Justice And without a supream Dominion he could not manifest the supremacy and infiniteness of his Righteousness 1. We cannot suppose God a Creator without supposing a Soveraign Dominion in him No Creature can be made without some Law in its Nature if it had not Law it would be Created to no purpose to no regular end it would be utterly unbecoming an infinite Wisdom to create a lawless Creature a Creature wholly vain much less can a rational Creature be made without a Law if it had no Law it were not rational For the very notion of a rational Creature implies reason to be a Law to it and implies an acting by rule * Maccov Colleg. Theolog 10. Disput 18. p. 6 7. or thereabout If you could suppose rational Creatures without a Law you might suppose that they might blaspheme their Creator and Murder their fellow Creatures and commit the most abominable villanies destructive to humane Society without sin for where there is no Law there is no
as his own peculiar for his own glory and service By this Redemption there results to God a right over our bodies over our Spirits over our services as well as by Creation and to shew the strength of this right the Apostle repeats it you are bought a purchase cannot be without a price paid but he adds price also bought with a price To strengthen the Title purchase gave him a new right and the greatness of the price established that right The more a man pays for a thing the more usually we say he deserves to have it he hath paid enough for it It was indeed price enough and too much for such vile Creatures as we are III. The third thing is The Nature of this Dominion 1. This Dominion is Independent His Throne is in the Heavens the Heavens depend not upon the Earth nor God upon his Creatures Since he is Independent in regard of his Essence he is so in his dominion which flows from the excellency and fulness of his Essence As he receives his Essence from none so he derives his dominion from none All other dominion except paternal Authority is rooted originally in the wills of men * Raynaud Theolog. Natural p. 760 761 762. The first Title was the consent of the People or the conquest of others by the help of those People that first consented And in the exercise of it Earthly dominion depends upon assistance of the Subjects and the Members being joyn'd with the head carry on the work of Government and prevent Civil dissentions in the support of it it depends upon the Subjects Contributions and Taxes The Subjects in their strength are the Arms and in their Purses the Sinews of Government But God depends upon none in the foundation of his Government he is not a Lord by the Votes of his Vassals Nor is it successively handed to him by any Predecessor nor constituted by the power of a Superior Nor forced he his way by War and conquest nor precariously attained it by suit or flattery or bribing promises He holds not the right of his Empire from any other he hath no Superior to hand him to his Throne and settle him by Commission He is therefore called King of Kings and Lord of Lords having none above him A great King above all Gods Psal 95.3 Needing no Licence from any when to act nor direction how to act or assistance in his action He owes not any of those to any person he was not ordered by any other to Create and therefore receives not orders from any other to rule over what he hath created He received not his power and wisdom from another and therefore is not Subject to any for the rule of his Government He only made his own Subjects and from himself hath the sole Authority his own will was the cause of their beings and his own will is the director of their actions He is not determined by his Creatures in any of his motions but determins the Creatures in all His actions are not regulated by any Law without him but by a Law within him the Law of his own Nature 'T is impossible he can have any rule without himself because there is nothing Superior to himself Nor doth he depend upon any in the exercise of his Government he needs no Servants in it when he uses Creatures it is not out of want of their help but for the manifestation of his wisdom and power What he doth by his Subjects he can do by himself The Government is upon his Shoulder Isaiah 9.6 To shew that he needs not any supporters All other governments flow from him all other Authorities depend upon him Dei Gratiâ or Dei Providentiâ is in the style of Princes As their being is deriv'd from his power so their Authority is but a branch of his dominion They are governors by Divine Providence God is Governour by his sole nature All motions depend upon the first Heaven which moves all but that depends upon nothing The Government of Christ depends upon God's increated dominion and is by Commission from him Christ assum'd not this honour to himself But he that said unto him thou art my Son bestow'd it upon him He put all things under his feet but not himself 1 Cor. 15.27 When he saith all things are put under him he is excepted which did put all things under him He sits still as an independent Governour upon his Throne 2. This dominion is Absolute If his Throne be in the Heavens there is nothing to controul him If he be independent he must needs be â—bsolute since he hath no cause in conjunction with him as Creator that can share with him in his right or restrain him in the disposal of his Creature His Authority is unlimited in this regard the Title of Lord becomes not any but God properly Tiberius thoâ—ght none of the best though one of the subtilest Princes accounted the Title of Lord a reproach to him Since he was not absolute * Sueton. de Tiberio cap. 27. 1. Absolute in regard of Freedom and Liberty 1. Thus Creation is a work of his meer Soveraignty he Created because it was his pleasure to Create Rev. 4.11 He is not necessitated to do this or that He might have chosen whether he would have fram'd an Earth and Heavens and laid the foundations of his Chambers in the Waters He was under no obligation to reduce things from nullity to existence 2. Preservation is the fruit of his Soveraignty When he had called the World to stand out he might have ordered it to return into its dark den of nothingness ript up every part of its foundation or have given being to many more Creatures than he did If you consider his absolute soveraignty why might he not have devested Adam presently of those rational perfections wherewith he had endow'd him And might he not have metamorphos'd him into some Beast and elevated some Beast into a rational nature Why might he not have degraded an Angel to a Worm and advanc'd a Worm to the nature and condition of an Angel Why might he not have revokt that grant of dominion which he had passed to man over all Creatures It was free to him to permit sin to enter into the Earth or to have excluded it out of the Earth as he doth out of Heaven 3. Redemption is a fruit of his Soveraignty By his absolute Soveraignty he might have confirmed all the Angels in their standing by Grace and prevented the revolt of any of their members from him and when there was a revolt both in Heaven and Earth it was free to him to have call'd out his Son to assume the Angelical as well as the humane nature or have exercised his dominion in the destruction of Men and Devils rather than in the Redemption of any he was under no obligation to restore either the one or the other 4. May he not impose what terms he pleases May he not impose what Laws
subject to God not in regard of the Divine Nature wherein there is an equality and consequently no Dominion of jurisdiction nor only in his humane nature but in the Oeconomy of a Redeemer considered as one design'd and consenting to be incarnate and take our flesh so that after this agreement God had a soveraign right to dispose of him according to the Articles consented to In regard of his undertaking and the advantage he was to bring to the Elect of God upon the Earth he calls God by the solemn Title of his Lord in that prophetick Psalm of him Psal 16.2 Oh my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my Goodness extends not unto thee but unto the Saints that are in the Earth It seems to be the speech of Christ in Heaven mentioning the Saints on Earth as at a distance from him I can add nothing to the glory of thy Majesty but the whole fruit of my Mediation and Sufferings will redound to the Saints on Earth and it may be observed that God is call'd the Lord of Hosts in the Evangelical Prophets Isaiah Haggai Zachary and Malachy more in reference to this affair of Redemption and the deliverance of the Church than for any other works of his Providence in the World 1. This Soveraignty of God appears in requiring satisfaction for the sin of man Had he indulg'd man after his fall and remitted his offence without a just compensation for the injury he had received by his Rebellion his Authority had been vilified man would always have been attempting against his jurisdiction there would have been a continual succession of Rebellions on mans part and if a continual succession of indulgences on Gods part he had quite disown'd his Authority over man and stript himself of the flower of his Crown satisfaction must have been requir'd sometime or other from the person thus rebelling or some other in his stead and to require it after the first act of sin was more preservative to the right of the Divine soveraignty than to do it after a multitude of repeated revolts God must have laid aside his Authority if he had laid aside wholly the exacting punishment for the offence of man 2. This Soveraignty of God appears in appointing Christ to this work of Redemption His soveraignty was before manifest over Angels and Men by the right of Creation there was nothing wanting to declare the highest charge of it but his ordering his own Son to become a mortal Creature the Lord of all things to become lower than those Angels that had as well as all other things receiv'd their being and beauty from him and to be reckon'd in his death among the dust and refuse of the World He by whom God created all things not only became a man but a crucified man by the Will of his Father Gal. 1.4 Who gave himself for our sins according to the Will of God to which may referre that expression Prov. 8.22 of his being possessed by God in the beginning of his way Possession is the Dominion of a thing invested in the possessor he was possessed indeed as a Son by eternal Generation He was possessed also in the beginning of his way or works of Creation as a Mediator by special constitution to this the expression seems to referre if you read on to the end of verse 31. wherein Christ speaks of his rejoycing in the habitable part of his Earth the Earth of the great God who had design'd him to this special work of Redemption He was a Son by Nature but a Mediator by Divine Will in regard of which Christ is often call'd Gods servant which is a relation to God as a Lord. God being the Lord of all things the Dominion of all things inferior to him is inseparable from him and in this regard the whole of what Christ was to do and did actually do was acted by him as the Will of God and is exprest so by himself in the Prophesie Psal 40.7 Lo I come verse 8. I delight to do thy will which are put together Heb. 10.7 Lo I come to do thy Will O God The designing Christ to this work was an act of mercy but founded on his soveraignty His compassionate bowels might have pitied us without his being soveraign but without it could not have releived us It was the Counsell of his own will as well as of his Bowels None was his Counsellor or perswader to that mercy he shew'd Rom. 11.34 Who hath been his Counsellor for it refers to that Mercy in sending the deliverer out of Sion verse 26. as well as to other things the Apostle had been discoursing of As God was at liberty to create or not to create so he was at liberty to Redeem or not to Redeem and at his liberty whither to appoint Christ to this work or not to call him out to it In giving this order to his Son his soveraignty was exercised in a higher manner than in all the orders and instructions he hath given out to Men or Angels and all the employments he ever sent them upon Christ hath names which signifie an Authority over him He is called an Angel and a Messenger Mal. 3.1 An Apostle Heb. 3.1 Declaring thereby that God hath as much Authority over him as over the Angels sent upon his Messages or over the Apostles commission'd by His Authority as he was consider'd in the quality of Mediator 3. This Soveraignty of God appears in transferring our sins upon Christ The Supream Power in a Nation can only appoint or allow of a commutation of punishment 'T is a part of Soveraignty to transferr the penalty due to the crime of one upon an other and substitute a sufferer with the sufferers own consent in the place of a criminal whom he had a mind to deliver from a deserv'd punishment God transferr'd the sins of men upon Christ and inflicted on him a punishment for them He summ'd up the debts of man charg'd them upon the score of Christ imputing to him the guilt and inflicting upon him the penalty Isa 53.6 The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all He made them all to meet upon his back He hath made him to be sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made so by the Soveraign pleasure of God A punishment for sin as most understand it which could not be Righteously inflicted had not sin been first Righteously imputed by the consent of Christ and the order of the Judge of the World This imputation could be the immediate act of none but God because he was the sole Creditor A Creditor is not bound to accept of another's suretiship but it is at his liberty whither he will or no and when he doth accept of him he may challenge the Debt of him as if he were the Principal Debtor himself Christ made himself sin for us by a voluntary submission and God made him sin for us by a full imputation and treated him penally
as he would have done those sinners in whose stead he suffer'd Without this Act of Soveraignty in God we had for ever perished For if we could suppose Christ laying down his life for us without the pleasure and order of God he could not have been said to have born our punishment What could he have undergone in his Humanity but a temporal death but more than this was due to us even the wrath of God which far exceeds the calamity of a meer bodily death The Soul being principal in the crime was to be principal in the punishment The wrath of God could not have dropt upon his Soul and render'd it so full of Agonies without the hand of God A creature is not capable to reach the Soul neither as to comfort nor terror and the Justice of God could not have made him a sufferer if it had not first consider'd him a sinner by imputation or by inhaerency and actual commission of a crime in his own person The latter was far from Christ who was holy harmless and undefiled He must be considered then in the other state of imputation which could not be without a Soveraign appointment or at least concession of God For without it he could have had no more Authority to lay down his life for us than Abraham could have had to have sacrific'd his son or any man to expose himself to death without a call Nor could any Plea have been entred in the Court of Heaven either by Christ for us or by us for our selves And though the death of so great a person had been meritorious in it self it had not been meritorious for us or accepted for us Christ is deliver'd up by him Rom. 8.32 in every part of that condition wherein he was and suffer'd and to that end that we might become the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 That we might have the Righteousness of him that was God imputed to us or that we might have a Righteousness as great and proportion'd to the Righteousness of God as God requir'd It was an act of Divine Soveraignty to account him that was Righteous a sinner in our stead and to account us who were sinners Righteous upon the merit of his death 4. This was done by the command of God by God as a Law-giver having the supream Legislative and Praeceptive Authority In which respect the whole work of Christ is said to be an answer to a Law not one given him but put into his heart as the Law of nature was in the heart of man at first Psal 40.7 8. Thy Law is within my heart This Law was not the Law of Nature or Moral Law though that was also in the heart of Christ but the command of doing those things which were necessary for our Salvation and not a command so much of doing as of dying The Moral Law in the heart of Christ would have done us no good without the Mediatory Law We had been where we were by the sole observance of the Precepts of the Moral Law without his suffering the penalty of it The Law in the heart of Christ was the Law of suffering or dying the doing that for us by his death which the blood of Sacrifices was unable to effect Legal Sacrifices thou would'st not thy Law is within my heart i. e. thy Law ordered me to be a Sacrifice It was that Law his obedience to which was principally accepted and esteem'd and that was principally his passive his obedience to death Phil. 2.8 This was the special command received from God that he should dye John 10.18 'T is not so clearly manifested when this command was given whither after the incarnation of Christ or at the point of his constitution as Mediator upon the transaction between the father and the son concerning the affair of Redemption The promise was given before the World began Tit. 1.2 Might not the Precept be given before the World began to Christ as consider'd in the quality of Mediator and Redeemer Precepts and Promises usually attend one another Every Covenant is made up of both Christ consider'd here as the Son of God in the Divine Nature was not capable of a command or promise but consider'd in the relation of Mediator between God and Man he was capable of both Promises of Assistance were made before his actual incarnation of which the Prophets are full why not Precepts for his obedience since long before his incarnation this was his speech in the Prophet thy Law is within my heart However a command a law it was which is a fruit of the Divine Soveraignty That as the Soveraignty of God was impeached and violated by the disobedience of Adam it might be own'd and vindicated by the obedience of Christ That as we fell by disloyalty to it we might rise by the highest submission to it in another head infinitely superior in his person to Adam by whom we fell 5. This Soveraignty of God appears in exalting Christ to such a Soveraign dignity as our Redeemer * Lessius de perfect divin lib. 10. p. 65. Some indeed say that this Soveraignty of Christ's Humane Nature was natural and the right of it resulted from its Union with the Divine as a Lady of mean condition when Espous'd and Marryed to a Prince hath by virtue of that a natural right to some kind of jurisdiction over the whole Kingdom because she is one with the King But to wave this the Scripture placeth wholly the conferring such an Authority upon the pleasure and will of God As Christ was a gift of God's Soveraign will to us so this was a gift of God's Soveraign will to Christ Matt. 28.28 All power is given me And he gave him to be head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.22 God gave him a name above every name Phil. 2.9 And therefore his Throne he sits upon is call'd the Throne of his Father Rev. 3.21 And he committed all Judgment to the Son i. e. All Government and Dominion An Empire in Heaven and Earth Joh. 5.22 and that because he is the son of Man v. 27. which may be understood that the Father hath given him Authority to exercise that Judgment and Government as the son of man which he Originally had as the son of God or rather because he became a servant and humbled himself to death he gives him this Authority as the reward of his Obedience and Humility conformable to Phil. 2.9 This is an act of the high Soveraignty of God to obscure his own Authority in a sence and take into association with him or vicarious subordination to him the Humane Nature of Christ as united to the Divine Not only lifting it above the heads of all the Angels but giving that person in our nature an Empire over them whose nature was more excellent than ours Yea the Soveraignty of God appears in the whole management of this Kingly Office of Christ for it is managed in every part of it
and from every Creature to the great Landlord since all are Tenants and hold by him at his Will Every Creature in Heaven and Earth under the Earth and in the Sea were heard by John to ascribe blessing honour glory and power to him that sits on the Throne Rev. 5.13 We are as much bound to the soveraignty of God for his preâ—â—rvation of us as for his Creation of us We are no less oblig'd to him that preservs our beings when exposed to dangers than we are for bestowing a being upon us when we were not capable of danger Thankfulness is due to this Soveraign for publick concerns Hath he not preserved the Ship of his Church in the midst of whistling winds and roaring waves in the midst of the combats of men and Devils and rescued it often when it hath been near ship-wrackt 3. How should we be induc'd from hence to promote the honour of this Soveraign We should advance him as supream and all our actions should concur in his honour We should return to his Glory what we have receiv'd from his Soveraignty and enjoy by his mercy He that is the superior of all ought to be the end of all This is the harmony of the Creation that which is of an inferiour nature is order'd to the service of that which is of a more excellent nature thus water and earth that have a lower being are employ'd for the honour and beauty of the plants of the earth who are more excellent in having a principle of a growing life These plants are again subservient to the beasts and birds which exceed them in a principle of sense which the others want Those beasts and birds are order'd for the good of man who is superior to them in a Principle of reason and is invested with a Dominion over them Man having God for his superior ought as much to serve the glory of God as other things are design'd to be useful to man Other Governments are intended for the good of the Community the chief end is not the good of the Governours themselves But God being every way Soveraign the Soveraign being giving being to all things the Soveraign Ruler giving order and preservation to all things is also the end of all things to whose glory and honour all things all creatures are to be subservient Rom. 11.36 For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Of him as the efficient cause through him as the preserving cause to him as the final cause All our actions and thoughts ought to be addrest to his glory our whole beings ought to be consecrated to his honour though we should have no reward but the honour of having been subservient to the end of our Creation So much doth the excellency and Majesty of God infinitely elevated above us challenge of us Subjects use to value the safety honour and satisfaction of a good Prince above their own David is accounted worth 10000 of the people and some of his Courtiers thought themselves oblig'd to venture their lives for his satisfaction in so mean a thing as a little water from the Well of Bethlehem Doth not so great so good a Soveraign as God deserve the same affection from us Do we swear saith a Heathen * Arrian in Epicter to prefer none before Caesar and have we not greater reason to prefer none before God 'T is a Justice due from us to God to maintain his Glory as it is a Justice to preserve the right and property of another As God would lay aside his Deity if he did deny himself so a creature acts irregularly and out of the rank of a creature if it doth not deny it self for God He that makes himself his own end makes himself his own Soveraign To napkin up a gift he hath bestow'd upon us or to employ what we possess solely to our own Glory to use any thing barely for our selves without respect to God is to apply it to a wrong use and to injure God in his propriety and the end of his donation What we have ought to be us'd for the honour of God He retains the Dominion and Lordship though he grants us the use We are but Stewards not Proprietors in regard of God who expects an account from us how we have employ'd his goods to his honour The Kingdom of God is to be advanced by us we are to pray that his Kingdom may come we are to endeavour that his Kingdom may come that is that God may be known to be the chief Soveraign that his Dominion which was obscur'd by Adam's fall may be more manifested that his Subjects which are supprest in the World may be supported his Laws which are violated by the rebellions of men may be more obeyed and his enemies be fully subdued by his final judgment the last evidence of his Dominion in this State of the World that the Empire of sin and the Devil may be abolish'd and the Kingdom of God be perfected that none may rule but the great and rightful Soveraign Thus while we endeavour to advance the honour of his Throne we shall not want an honour to our selves He is too gracious a Soveraign to neglect them that are mindful of his Glory those that honour him he will honour 1 Sam. 2.30 4. Fear and reverence of God in himself and in his actions is a duty incumbent on us from this Doctrine Jer. 10.7 Who would not fear thee O King of Nations The ingratitude of the World is taxt in not reverencing God as a great King who had given so many marks of his Royal Government among them The Prophet wonders there was no fear of so great a King in the World Since among all the wise men of the Nations and among all their Kings there is none like unto this No more reverence of him since none ruled so wisely nor any ruled so graciously The dominion of God is one of the first sparks that gives fire to Religion and Worship consider'd with the goodness of this Soveraign Psal 22.27.28 All the Nations shall worship before thee for the Kingdom is the Lord's and he is Governour among the Nations Epicurus who thought God careless of humane affairs leaving thâ—â— at hap-hazard to the conduct of mens wisdom and mutability of fortune yet acknowledged that God ought to be worshipped by man for the excellency of his nature and greatness of his Majesty How should we reverence that God that hath a Throne encompast with such Glorious Creatures as Angels whose faces we are not able to behold though shadow'd in assum'd bodies How should we fear the Lord of Hosts that hath so many Armies at his command in the Heavens above and in the Earth below whom he can dispose to the exact obedience of his will how should men be afraid to censure any of his actions to sit judge of their Judge and call him to an account to their Bar How should such
when he describes him in his Wrath and Fury and is Furious Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord of hot Anger God will vindicate his own Glory and have his right on his Enemies in a way of punishment if they will not give it him in a way of Obedience * Ribera in loc 'T is three times repeated to shew the certainty of the judgment And the name of Lord added to every one to intimate the Power wherewith the Judgment should be executed 'T is not a Fatherly correction of Children in a way of Mercy but an offended soveraigns destruction of his Enemies in a way of vengeance There is an anger of God with his own people which hath more of Mercy than Wrath in this his Rod is guided by his bowels There is a fury of God against his Enemies where there is sole Wrath without any tincture of Mercy when his Sword is all edge without any Balsom-drops upon it Such a fury as David deprecates Psal 6.1 Oh Lord rebuke me not in thy Anger nor chasten me in thy sore displeasure with a fury untempered with Grace and insupportable Wrath. He reserves Wrath for his Enemies He lays it up in his Treasury to be brought out and expended in a due season Wrath is supplied by our Translators and is not in the Hebrew He reserves what that which is too sharp to be exprest too great to be conceiv'd A vengeance it is And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He reserves it He that hath an infinite Wrath he reserves it that hath a strength and power to execute it VERSE 3. The Lord is slow to Anger Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of broad Nostrils The Anger of God is exprest by this word which signifies Nostrils As Job 9.13 If God will not withdraw his Anger Heb. his nostril And the Anger whereby the wicked are consum'd is called the breath of Nostrils Job 4.9 and when he is angry smoak and fire are said to go out of his Nostrils 2 Sam. 2.9 and in the 74th Psalm 1. Why doth thy anger smoak Heb. Why do thy Nostrils smoak So the rage of a Horse when he is provokt in battle is call'd the Glory of his Nostrils Job 39.20 He breaths quick fumes and neighs with fury And slowness to anger is here exprest by the phrase of long or wide Nostrils Because in a vehement anger the blood boyling about the heart exhales mens Spirits which fume up and break out in dilated Nostrils But where the passages are straiter the spirits have not so quick a vent and therefore raise more motions within Or because the wider the Nostrils are the more cool Air is drawn in to temper the heat of the heart where the angry spirits are gather'd And so the passion is allay'd and sooner calm'd God speaks of himself in Scripture often after the rate of Men Jeremy prays Jer. 15.15 That God would not take him away in his long-suffering Heb. in the length of his Nostrils i. e. Be not slow and backward in thy anger against my Persecutors as to give them time and opportunity to destroy me The Nostrils as well as other members of a humane Body are ascribed to God He is slow to anger he hath anger in his nature but is not always in the execution of it And great in Power This may referre to his Patience as the cause of it or as a barr to the abuse of it 1. He is slow to anger and great in power i. e. his power moderates his Anger he is not so impotent as to be at the command of his passions as men are He can restrain his anger under just provocations to exercise it His power over himself is the cause of his slowness to wrath As Numb 14.17 Let the power of my Lord be great saith Moses when he pleads for the Israelites pardon Men that are great in the World are quick in passions and are not so ready to forgive an injury or bear with an offender as one of a meaner rank 'T is a want of a power over a mans self that makes him do unbecoming things upon a provocation A Prince that can bridle his passion is a King over himself as well as over his Subjects God is slow to Anger because great in Power He hath no less power over himself than over his Creatures He can sustain great injuries without an immediate and quick revenge He hath a power of Patience as well as a power of Justice 2. Or thus he is slow to Anger and great in Power He is slow to Anger but not for want of Power to revenge himself his Power is as great to punish as his Patience to spare It seems thus that slowness to Anger is brought in as an objection against the revenge proclaimed What do you tell us of vengeance vengeance nothing but such repetitions of vengeance As though we were ignorant that God is slow to Anger 'T is true saith the Prophet I acknowledge it as much as you that God is slow to Anger but withall great in Power His Anger certainly succeeds his abus'd Patience he will not always bridle in his Wrath but one time or other let it march out in fury against his Adversaries The Assyrians who had captiv'd the Ten Tribes and been victorious a little against the Jews might think that the God of Israel had been conquered by their Gods as well as the People professing him had been subdued by their arms That God had lost all his power and the Jews might argue from Gods Patience to his Enemies against the credit of the Prophets denouncing revenge The Prophet answers to the terror of the one and the comfort of the other That this indulgence to his Enemies and not accounting with them for their Crimes proceeded from the greatness of his Patience and not from any debility in his power As it refers to the Assyrian it may be rendered thus You Ninivites upon your Repentance after Jonahs thundring of Judgments are Witnesses of the slowness of God to Anger and had your punishments deferr'd But falling to your old sins you shall find a real punishment and that he hath as much Power to execute his ancient threatnings as he had then compassion to recall them His Patience to you then was not for want of power to ruine you but was the effect of his goodness towards you As it refers to the Jews it may be thus paraphrased do not despise this threatning against your Enemies because of the greatness of their might the seeming stability of their Empire and the terror they posseâ—s all the Nations with round about them It may be long before it comes but assure your selves the threatning I denounce shall certainly be executed though he hath Patience to endure them a hundred thirty five years for so long it was before Nineveh was destroy'd after this threatning as * p. 359. col 1â— Ribera in loc computes from the years of the reign of the Kings of Judah
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