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
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
for our selves What are we dead Dogs that he should behold us with so gracious an Eye This Goodness is thus inhanced if you consider the State of Man in his first Transgression and after 4. This Goodness further appears in the high advancement of our Nature after it had so highly offended By Creation we had an affinity with Animals in our Bodies with Angels in our Spirits with God in his Image but not with God in our Nature till the Incarnation of the Redeemer Adam by Creation was the Son of God * Luke 3.38 but his Nature was not one with the Person of God He was his Son as Created by him but had no affinity to him by vertue of union with him But now Man doth not only see his Nature in multitudes of Men on Earth but by an astonishing Goodness beholds his Nature united to the Deity in Heaven That as he was the Son of God by Creation he is now the Brother of God by Redemption for with such a Title doth that Person who was the Son of God as well as the Son of Man honour his Disciples †Joh. 20.17 And because he is of the same Nature with them he is not ashamed to call them Brethren Heb. 2.11 Our Nature which was infinitely distant from and below the Deity now makes one Person with the Son of God What Man sinfully aspired to God hath graciously granted and more Man aspired to a likeness in knowledge and God hath granted him an affinity in union It had been astonishing Goodness to Angelize our Natures but in Redemption Divine Goodness hath acted higher in a sort to Deifie our Natures In Creation our Nature was exalted above other Creatures on Earth in our Redemption our Nature is exalted above all the Host of Heaven We were higher than the Beasts as Creatures but lower than the Angels * Psal 8.5 But by the Incarnation of the Son of God our Nature is elevated many steps above them After it had sunk it self by Corruption below the Bestial Nature and as low as the Diabolical the fulness of the Godhead dwells in our Nature Bodily †Colos 2.9 but never in the Angels Angelically The Son of God descended to dignifie our Nature by assuming it and ascended with our Nature to have it crown'd above those standing Monuments of Divine Power and Goodness * 1 Ephes 20.21 That Person that descended in our Nature into the Grave and in the same Nature was raised up again is in that same Nature set at the right hand of God in Heaven far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named Our Refined Clay by an indissoluble union with this Divine Person is honoured to sit for ever upon a Throne above all the Tribes of Seraphims and Cherubins and the Person thâ—t wears it is the head of the good Angels and the conqueror of the bad The one are put under his Feet and the other commanded to adore him that purged our Sins in our Nature †Heb. 1.3 6. That Divine Person in our Nature receives Adoration from the Angels but the Nature of Man is not order'd to pay any Homage and Adorations to the Angels How could Divine Goodness to Man more magnifie it self As we could not have a lower descent than we had by Sin How could we have a higher ascent than by a substantial participation of a Divine Life in our Nature in the unity of a Divine Person Our Earthly Nature is joyned to a Heavenly Person our undone Nature united to one equal with God * Phil. 2.6 It may truly be said that Man is God which is infinitely more glorious for us than if it could be said Man is an Angel If it were Goodness to advance our Innocent Nature above other Creatures the advancement of our degenerate Nature above Angels deserves a higher Title than meer Goodness 'T is a more gracious act than if all Men had been transformed into the pure Spiritual Nature of the loftiest Cherubins 5. This Goodness is manifest in the Covenant of Grace made with us whereby we are freâ—d from the rigor of that of Works God might have insisted upon the terms of the old Covenant and requir'd of Man the improvement of his Original Stock but God hath condescended to lower terms and offer'd Man more gracious Methods and mitigated the rigor of the first by the sweetness of the second 1. 'T is Goodness that he should condescend to make another Covenant with Man To Stipulate with Innocent and Righteous Adam for his Obedience was a stoop of his Soveraignty Though he gave the Precept as a Soveraign Lord yet in his Covenanting he seems to descend to some kind of equality with that Dust and Ashes with whom he treated Absolute Soveraigns do not usually Covenant with their People but exact Obedience and Duty without binding themselves to bestow a Reward and if they intend any they reserve the purpose in their own breasts without treating their Subjects with a solemn declaration of it There was no obligation on God to enter into the first Covenant much less after the violation of the first to the settlement of a new If God seem'd in some sort to equal himself to Man in the first he seem'd to descend below himself in treating with a Rebel upon more condescending terms in the second If his Covenant with Innocent Adam was a stoop of his Soveraignty this with Rebellious Adam seems to be a stripping himself of his Majesty in favour of his Goodness As if his happiness depended upon us and not ours upon him 'T is a Humiliation of himself to behold the things in Heaven the glorious Angels as well as things on Earth mortal Men †Psal 113.6 much more to bind himself in gracious bonds to the glorious Angels and much more if to Rebel Man In the first Covenant there was much of Soveraignty as well as Goodness In the second there is less of Soveraignty and more of Grace In the first there was a Righteous Man for a Holy God In the second a polluted Creature for a pure and provoked God In the first he holds his Scepter in his hand to Rule his Subjects In the second he seems to lay by his Scepter to Court and Espouse a Beggar * Hosea 2.18 19 20. In the first he is a Lord in the second a Husband and binds himself upon Gracious Conditions to become a Debtor How should this Goodness fill us with an humble astonishment as it did Abraham when he fell on his face when he heard God speaking of making a Covenant with him †Gen. 17.2.3 And if God speaking to Israel out of the Fire and making them to hear his voice out of Heaven that he might instruct them was a Consideration whereby Moses would heighten their admiration of Divine Goodness and engage their affectionate Obedience to him * Deut. 4.32 36 40. How much more
righteous person to keep the truth Isa 26.2 And it is as positively said that he that abides not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God 2 Epist John 9. but he that doth hath both the Father and the Son So much of uncertainty so much of nature so much of firmness in duty so much of Grace We can never honour God unless we finish his work as Christ did not glorifie God but in finishing the work God gave him to do * John 17.4 The nearer the world comes to an end the more is Gods immutability seen in his promises and predictions and the more must our unchangeableness be seen in our obedience Heb. 10.23 25. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering and so much the more as you see the day approaching The Christian Jews were to be the more tenacious of their faith the nearer they saw the day approaching the day of Jerusalems destruction prophesied of by Daniel * Dan. 9.26 which accomplishment must be a great argument to establish the Christian Jews in the profession of Christ to be the Messiah because the destruction of the City was not to be before the cutting off the Messiah Let us be therefore constant in our profession and service of God and not suffer our selves to be driven from him by the ill usage or flatter'd from him by the Caresses of the world 1. T is reasonable If God be unchangeable in doing us good it is reason we should be unchangeable in doing him service If he assure us that he is our God our I am he would also that we should be his people His we are If he declare himself constant in his promises he expects we should be so in our obedience As a spouse we should be unchangeably faithful to him as a Husband As subjects have an unchangeable allegiance to him as our Prince He would not have us faithful to him for an hour or a day but to the death * Rev. 2.10 And it is reason we should be his and if we be his Children imitate him in his constancy of his holy purposes 2. T is our glory and interest To be a reed shaken with every wind is no commendation among men and t is less a ground of praise with God It was Jobs glory that he held fast his integrity * Job 1.22 In all this Job sinned not In all this which whole Cities and Kingdoms would have thought ground enough of high exclamations against God And also against the temptation of his Wife he retained his integrity Job 2.9 Dost thou still retain thy integrity The Devil who by Gods permission stript him of his goods and health yet could not strip him of his grace As a Traveller when the wind and snow beats in his face wraps his cloak more closely about him to preserve that and himself Better we had never made profession than afterwards to abandon it such a withering profession serves for no other use than to aggravate the crime if any of us fly like a coward or revolt like a Traytor What profit will it be to a Souldier if he hath withstood many assaults and turn his back at last If we would have God Crown us with an immutable glory we must Crown our beginnings with a happy perseverance Rev. 2.10 Be faithful to the Death and I will give thee a Crown of life Not as tho this were the cause to merit it but a necessary condition to possess it Constancy in good is accompanied with an immutability of Glory 3. By an unchangeable disposition to good we should begin the happiness of Heaven upon Earth This is the perfection of blessed Spirits those that are nearest to God as Angels and glorified Souls they are immutable Not indeed by nature but by grace yet not only by a necessity of grace but a liberty of Will Grace will not let them change and that grace doth animate their Wills that they would not change an immutable God fills their understandings and affections and gives satisfaction to their desires The Saints when they were below tried other things and found them deficient But now they are so fully satisfied with the beatifick vision that if Satan should have entrance among the Angels and Sons of God 't is not likely he should have any influence upon them he could not present to their understandings any thing that could either at the first glance or upon a deliberate view be preferrable to what they enjoy and are fixed in Well then let us be immoveable in the Knowledge and Love of God 'T is the delight of God to see his Creatures resemble him in what they are able Let not our Affections to him be as Jonah's Goard growing up in one Night and withering the next Let us not only fight a good Fight but do so till we have finished our course and imitate God in an unchangeableness of holy purposes and to that purpose examin our selves daily what fixedness we have arrived unto And to prevent any temptation to a revolt let us often possess our minds with thoughts of the immutability of Gods Nature and Will which like Fire under Water will keep a good matter boiling up in us and make it both retain and increase its heat 4. Let this Doctrin teach us to have recourse to God and aim at a near conjunction with him When our Spirits begin to flag and a cold aguish temper is drawing upon us let us go to him who can only fix our hearts and furnish us with a Ballast to render them stedfast As he is only immutable in his Nature so he is the only Principle of Immutability as well as Being in the Creature Without his Grace we shall be as changeable in our appearances as a Chamelion and in our turnings as the Wind. When Peter trusted in himself he changed to the worse It was his Masters recourse to God for him that preserved in him a reducing Principle which changed him again for the better and fixed him in it * Luke 22.32 It will be our Interest to be in conjunction with him that moves not about with the Heavens nor is turned by the force of Nature nor changed by the accidents in the world but sits in the Heavens moving all things by his powerful Arm according to his infinite Skill While we have him for our God we have his Immutability as well as any other Perfection of his Nature for our advantage The nearer we come to him the more stability we shall have in our selves the further from him the more lyable to change The Line that is nearest to the place where it is first fixed is least subject to motion the further it is stretched from it the weaker it is and more liable to be shaken Let us also affect those things which are nearest to him in this perfection the righteousness of Christ that shall never wear out and the graces of the Spirit that shall never burn
crucis Lib. 3 cap. 7. p. 211. It is not like the Union of Stones in a Building or of two pieces of Timber fastned together which touch one anotâ—er only in their Superficies and outside without any intimacy with one another By such a kind of Union God would not be man The Word could â—ot so be made Flesh Nor is it a Union of Parts to the whole as the Members and the Body the Members are Parts the Body is the whole for the whole results from the Parts and depends upon the Parts But Christ being God is independent upon any thing The parts are in order of Nature before the whole but nothing can be in order of Nature before God Nor is it as the Union of two Liquors as when Wine and Water are mixed together for they are so Incorporated as not to be distinguish'd from one another no man can tell which Particle is Wine and which is Water But the Properties of the Divine Nature are distinguishable from the Properties of the Humane Nor is it as the Union of the Soul and Body so as that the Deity is the form of the Humanity as the Soul is the form of the Body For as the Soul is but a part of the Man so the Divinity would be then but a part of the Humanity as a Form or the Soul is in a state of Imperfection without that which it is to inform so the Divinity of Christ would have been Imperfect till it had assumed the Humanity And so the perfection of an Eternal Deity would have depended on a Creature of Time This Union of two Natures in Christ is incomprehensible And it is a mystery we cannot arrive to the top of How the Divine Nature which is the same with that of the Father and the Holy Ghost should be united to the Human Nature without its being said that the Father and the Holy Ghost were united to the Flesh but the Scripture doth not encourage any such Notion It speaks only of the Word the Person of the Word being made Flesh And in his being made Flesh distinguisheth him from the Father as the only begotten of the Father Joh. 1.14 The Person of the Son was the term of this Union 1. This Vnion doth not confound the Properties of the Deity and those of the Humanity They remain distinct and entire in each other The Deity is not changed into Flesh nor the Flesh transform'd into God They are distinct and yet united They are conjoined and yet unmixt The Dues of either Nature are preserved 'T is impossible that the Majesty of the Divinity can receive an alteration 'T is as impossible that the meaness of the Humanity can receive the Impressions of the Deity so as to be changed into it and a creature be metamorphos'd into the Creator and Temporary Flesh become Eternal and Finite mount up into Infinity As the Soul and Body are united and make one Person yet the Soul is not changed into the perfections of the Body nor the Body into the perfections of the Soul There is a change made in the Humanity by being advanced to a more Excellent Union but not in the Diety as a change is made in the Air when it is enlightned by the Sun not in the Sun which communicates that brightness to the Air. Athanasius makes the burning Bush to be a type of Christs Incarnation Exod. 3.2 The Fire signifying the Divine Nature and the Bush the human The Bush is a branch springing up from the Earth and the Fire descends from Heaven as the Bush was united to the Fire yet was not hurt by the slame nor converted into Fire there remained a difference between the Bush and the Fire yet the properties of the Fire shined in the Bush so that the whole Bush seemed to be on Fire So in the Incarnation of Christ the Human Nature is not swallowed up by the Divine nor changed into it nor confounded with it But so united that the properties of both remain firme Two are so become one that they remain two still One person in Two Natures containing the glorious perfections of the Divine and the weaknesses of the Humane The fulness of the Deity dwels bodily in Christ Col. 2.9 2. The Divine Nature is vnited to every part of the Humanity The whole Divinity to the whole Humanity so that no part but may be said to be the Member of God as well as the Blood is said to be the Blood of God Acts 20.28 By the same reason it may be said the Hand of God the Eye of God the Arm of God As God is infinitely present every where so as to be excluded from no place so is the Deity hypostatically every where in the Humanity not excluded from any part of it As the light of the Sun in every part of the Air as a sparkling splendor in every part of the Diamond Therefore it is concluded by all that acknowledge the Deity of Christ that when his Soul was separated from the Body the Deity remained united both to Soul and Body as light doth in every part of a broken Christal 3. Therefore perpetually united Coloss 2.9 The fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily It Dwels in him not lodges in him as a Traveller in an Inn It resides in him as a fixed habitation As God describes the perpetuity of his presence in the Ark by his habitation or dwelling in it Exod. 29.44 so doth the Apostle the inseparable duration of the Deity in the Humanity and the indissoluble Union of the Humanity with the Deity It was united on Earth it remains united in Heaven It was not an Image or an Apparition as the Tongues wherein the Spirit came upon the Apostles were a Temporary Representation not a thing united perpetually to the person of the Holy Ghost 4. It was a personal Vnion It was not an union of persons though it was a personal union So Davenant expounds Col. 2.9 Christ did not take the Person of Man but the Nature of Man into subsistence with himself The Body and Soul of Christ were not united in themselves had no subsistence in themselves till they were united to the Person of the Son of God If the Person of a Man were united to him the Human Nature would have been the Nature of the Person so united to him and not the Nature of the Son of God Heb. 2.14 16. Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham He took flesh and blood to be his own Nature perpetually to subsist in the Person of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must be by a Personal Union or no way The Deity united to the Humanity and both Natures to be one Person This
us and how ignorant they are of what they possess It will cause us to reflect upon the deeper Impressions of Wisdom in the frame of our own Bodies and Souls an excellency far superiour to theirs this would make us admire the magnificence of his Wisdom and Goodness and sound forth his Praise for advancing us in dignity above other Works of his hands and stamping on us by Infinite Art a Nobler Image of himself And by such a Comparison of our selves with the Creatures below us we should be induced to act excellently according to the nature of our Souls not brutishly according to the nature of the Creatures God hath put under our feet 5. By the Contemplation of the Creatures we may receive some assistance in clearing our knowledge in the Wisdom of Redemption Though they cannot of themselves inform us of it yet since God hath revealed his Redeeming Grace they can illustrate some particulars of it to us Hence the Scripture makes use of the Creatures to set forth things of a higher orb to us Our Saviour is called a Sun a Vine and a Lion the Spirit likened to a Dove Fire and Water The Union of Christ and his Church is set forth by the Marriage Union of Adam and Eve God hath placed in Corporeal things the Images of Spiritual and wrapped up in his Creating Wisdom the representations of his Redeeming Grace Whence some call the Creatures Natural Types of what was to be transacted in a new formation of the World and Allusions to what God intended in and by Christ 6. The Meditation of Gods Wisdom in the Creatures is in part a beginning of Heaven upon Earth No doubt but there will be a perfect opening of the Model of Divine Wisdom Heaven is for clearing what is now obscure and a full discovering of what seems at present intricate Psal 36.9 In his light shall we see light All the Light in Creation Government and Redemption The Wisdom of God in the New Heavens and the New Earth would be to little purpose if that also were not to be regarded by the Inhabitants of them As the Saints are to be restored to the state of Adam and higher so they are to be restored to the employment of Adam and higher But his employment was to behold God in the Creatures The World was so soon depraved that God had but little joy in and Man but little knowledge of his Works And since the Wisdom of God in Creation is so little seen by our Ignorance here would not God lose much of the glory of it if the glorified Souls should lose the understanding of it above When their Darkness shall be expelled and their Advantages improved when the Eye that Adam lost shall be fully restored and with a greater clearness when the Creature shall be restored to its true End and Reason to its true Perfection * Rom. 8.21 22. when the Fountains of the depths of Nature and Government shall be opened Knowledge shall increase and according to the increase of our Knowledge shall the admiration of Divine Wisdom increase also The Wisdom of God in Creation was not surely intended to lie wholly unobserved in the greatest part of it but since there was so little time for the full observation of it there will be a time wherein the Wisdom of God shall enjoy a resurrection and be fully contemplated by his understanding and glorified Creature II. Exhortation Study and admire the Wisdom of God in Redemption This is the Duty of all Christians We are not called to understand the great depth of Philosophy we are not called to a skill in the Intricacies of Civil Government or understand all the methods of Physick but we are called to be Christians that is Studiers of Divine Evangelical Wisdom There are first Principles to be learned but not those Principles to be rested in without a further progress Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on to perfection Duties must be practised but knowledge is not to be neglected The study of Gospel Mysteries the harmony of Divine Truths the sparkling of Divine Wisdom in their mutual combination to the great ends of Gods Glory and Mans Salvation is an Incentive to Duty a Spur to Worship and particularly to the greatest and highest part of Worship that part which shall remain in Heaven the Admiration and Praise of God and Delight in him If we acquaint not our selves with the Impressions of the glory of Divine Wisdom in it we shall not much regard it as worthy our observance in regard of that Duty The Gospel is a Mystery and as a Mystery hath something Great and Magnificent in it worthy of our daily inspection we shall find fresh Springs of New wonders which we shall be invited to adore with a Religious Astonishment It will both raise and satisfie our Longings Who can come to the depths of God manifested in the flesh How amazing is it and unworthy of a slight thought that the Death of the Son of God should purchase the happy Immortality of a Sinful Creature and the glory of a Rebel be wrought by the Ignominy of so great a Person That our Mediator should have a Nature whereby to Covenant with his Father and a Nature whereby to be a Surety for the Creature How admirable is it that the Fallen Creature should receive an advantage by the Forfeiture of his Happiness How Mysterious is it that the Son of God should bow down to Death upon a Cross for the satisfaction of Justice and rise Triumphantly out of the Grave as a declaration that Justice was contented and satisfied That he should be exalted to Heaven to Intercede for us and at last return into the World to receive us and invest us with a Glory for ever with himself Are these things worthy of a Careless regard or a Blockish amazement What Understanding can pâ—erce into the depths of the Divine Doctrine of the Incarnation and Birth of Christ the indissoluble Union of the two Natures What Capacity is able to measure the miracles of that Wisdom found in the whole Draught and Scheme of the Gospel Doth it not merit then to be the Object of our daily Meditation How comes it to pass then that we are so little curious to concern our Thoughts in those Wonders that we scarce taste or sip of these Delicacies That we busie our selves in Trifles and consider what we shall eat and in what fashion we shall be drest please our selves with the ingeniousness of a Lace or Feather admire a Moth-eaten Manuscript or some Half-worn piece of Antiquity and think our time Ill-spent in the contemplating and celebrating that wherein God hath busied himself and Eternity is design'd for the perpetual expressions of How Inquisitve are the Blessed Angels with what vigour do they renew their daily Contemplations of it and receive a fresh Contentment from it still learning and still enquiring 1 Pet. 1.12 their Eye is
of a Woman ‖ Gal. 4 4. That part of the Flesh of the Virgin whereof the Humane Nature of Christ was made was refin'd and purifi'd from Corruption by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost as a skilful Workman separates the Dross from the Gold Our Saviour is therefore called that Holy thing * Luke 1.35 though born of the Virgin He was necessarily some way to descend from Adam God indeed might have created his Body out of Nothing or have formed it as he did Adams out of the Dust of the Ground But had he been thus extraordinarily formed and not propagated from Adam though he had been a Man like one of us yet he would not have been of kin to us because it would not have been a Nature deriv'd from Adam the Common Parent of us all †Amyrald in Symbol p. 103 c. It was therefore necessary to an affinity with us not only that he should have the same Humane Nature but that it should slow from the same Principle and be propagated to him But now by this way of producing the Humanity of Christ of the Substance of the Virgin He was in Adam say some Corporally but not Seminally of the Substance of Adam or a Daughter of Adam but not of the Seed of Adam And so he is of the same Nature that had sinned so what he did and suffered may be imputed to us which had he been created as Adam could not be claim'd in a Legal and Judicial way 2. It was not convenient he should be born in the Common order of Nature of Father and Mother For whosoever is so born is polluted A Clean thing cannot be brought out of an unclean ‖ Job 14.4 And our Saviour had been uncapable of being a Redeemer had he been tainted with the least Spot of our Nature but would have stood in need of Redemption himself Besides it had been inconsistent with the Holiness of the Divine Nature to have assumed a tainted and defiled Body He that was the Fountain of Blessedness to all Nations was not to be subject to the Curse of the Law for himself which he would have been had he been conceiv'd in an ordinary way He that was to overturn the Devils Empire was not to be any way captive under the Devils Power as a Creature under the Curse nor could he be able to break the Serpents head had he been tainted with the Serpents breath Again supposing that Almighty God by his Divine Power had so order'd the matter and so perfectly sanctified an Earthly Father and Mother from all Original spot that the Humane Nature might have been transmitted Immaculate to him as well as the Holy Ghost did purge that part of the flesh of the Virgin of which the Body of Christ was made yet it was not convenient that that Person that was God blessed for ever as well as Man partaking of our Nature should have a Conception in the same manner as ours but different and in some measure conformable to the Infinite dignity of his Person which could not have been had not a supernatural Power and a Divine Person been concern'd as an active Principle in it Besides such a Birth had not been agreeable to the first Promise Gen. 1.15 which calls him The Seed of the woman not of the Man and so the Veracity of God had suffer'd some detriment The seed of the woman only is set in opposition to the seed of the Serpent 3. By this manner of Conception the Holiness of his Nature is secur'd and his fitness for his Office is assur'd to us 'T is now a pure and unpolluted Humanity that is the Temple and Tabernacle of the Divinity The Fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily and dwells in him Holily His Humanity is supernaturaliz'd and elevated by the activity of the Holy Ghost hatching the Flesh of the Virgin into Man as the Chaos into a World Though we read of some sanctified from the Womb it was not a pure and perfect Holiness it was like the Light of Fire mixed with Smoak an infus'd Holiness accompanied with a Natural tâ—int But the Holiness of the Redeemer by this Conception is like the Light of the Sun pure and without spot The Spirit of Holiness supplying the place of a Father in a way of Creation His Fitness for his Office is also assur'd to us for being born of the Virgin one of our Nature but conceived by the Spirit a Divine Person the guilt of our Sins may be imputed to him because of our Nature without the stain of Sin inherent in him because of his Supernatural Conception he is capable as one of Kin to us to bear our Curse without being toucht by our Taint By this means our sinful Nature is assum'd without Sin in that Nature which was assum'd by him Flesh he hath but not Sinful flesh Rom. 8.3 Real Flesh but not really Sinful only by way of Imputation Nothing but the Power of God is evident in this whole Work By the ordinary Laws and course of Nature a Virgin could not bear a Son nothing but a Supernatural and Almighty Grace could intervene to make so holy and perfect a Conjunction * Amyrant sâ—r â—imole p. 292. The generation of others in an ordinary way is by Male and Female But the Virgin is overshadow'd by the Spirit and Power of the Highest Man only is the product of Natural generation this which is born of the Virgin is the Holy thing the Son of God In other generations a Rational Soul is only united to a Material Body But in this the Divine Nature is united with the Humane in one Person by an indissoluble Union II. The Second Act of Power in the Person Redeeming is the Union of the two Natures the Divine and Humane The designing indeed of this was an act of Wisdom but the accomplishing it was an act of Power 1. There is in this Redeeming Person a Union of two Natures He is God and Man in one Person Heb. 1.8 9. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever God even thy God hath anointed thee with the Oil of Gladness c. The Son is called God having a Throne for ever and ever and the Unction speaks him Man The Godhead cannot be Anointed nor hath any Fellows Humanity and Divinity are ascrib'd to him Rom. 1.3 4. He was of the Seed of David according to the Flesh and declared to be the Son of God by hiâ— Resurrection from the dead The Divinity and Humanity are both Prophetically joyn'd Zach. 12.10 I will pour out my Spirit the pouring forth the Spirit is an Act only of Divine Grace and Power And they shâ—ll look upon me whom they have pierced the same Person pours forth the Spirit as God and is pierced as Man The Word was made Flesh John 1.14 Word from Eternity was made Flesh in time Word and Flesh in one Person a great God and a little Infant 2. The
proper subsistence by it self which now it borrows from its union with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Word but that doth not belong to the Constitution of its Nature Now let us Consider what a wonder of Power is all this The knitting a Noble Soul to a Body of Clay was not so great an exploit of Almightiness as the espousing Infinite and Finite together Man is further distant from God than Man from Nothing What a wonder is it that two Natures infinitely distant should be more intimately united than any thing in the World and yet without any confusion That the same Person should have both a Glory and a Grief an infinite Joy in the Deity and an unexpressible Sorrow in the Humanity That a God upon a Throne should be an Infant in a Cradle the Thundering Creator be a weeping Babe and a suffering Man are such expressions of mighty Power as well as condescending Love that they astonish Men upon Earth and Angels in Heaven 3. Power was evident in the progress of his life In the Miracles he wrought How often did he expel malicious and powerful Devils from their habitations hurl them from their Thrones and make them fall from Heaven like Lightning How many Wonders were wrought by his bare Word or a single Touch Sight restored to the Blind and Hearing to the Deaf Palsie Members restored to the exercise of their functions a dismiss given to many deplorable Maladies impure Leprosies chas'd from the Persons they had infected and Bodies beginning to putrifie rais'd from the Grave But the mightiest Argument of Power was his Patience That he who was in his Divine Nature elevated above the World should so long continue upon a Dung-hill endure the contradiction of Sinners against himself be patiently subject to the Reproaches and Indignities of Men without displaying that Justice which was essential to the Deity and in especial manner daily merited by their provoking Crimes The Patience of Man under great Affronts is a greater Argument of power than the Brawnyness of his Arm A Strength employ'd in the revenge of every Injury signifies a greater infirmity in the Soul than there can be ability in the Body 4. Divine Power was apparent in his Resurrection The unlocking the belly of the Whale for the deliverance of Jonas the rescue of Daniel from the Den of Lions and the restraining the Fire from burning the Three Children were signal declarations of his Power and types of the Resurrection of our Saviour But what are those to that which was represented by them That was a power over Natural causes a curbing of Beasts and restraining of Elements But in the Resurrection of Christ God exercis'd a power over himself and quencht the flames of his own Wrath hotter than Millions of Nebuchadnezzars Furnaces unlockt the Prison doors wherein the Curses of the Law had lodg'd our Saviour stronger than the Belly and Ribbs of a Leviathan In the rescue of Daniel and Jonas God overpowered Beasts and in this tore up the strength of the Old Serpent and pluckt the Scepter from the hand of the Enemy of Mankind The Work of Resurrection indeed considered in it self requires the efficacy of an Almighty Power Neither Man nor Angel can create new dispositions in a Dead Body to render it capable of lodging a Spiritual Soul nor can they restore a dislodged Soul by their own power to such a Body The restoring a Dead Body to life requires an Infinite Power as well as the Creation of the World But there was in the Resurrection of Christ something more difficult than this while he lay in the Grave he was under the Curse of the Law under the execution of that dreadful Sentence Thou shalt die the death His Resurrection was not only the re-tying â—he Marriage knot between his Soul and Body or the rouling the Stone from the Grave but a taking off an infinite weight the Sin of Mankind which lay upon him So vast a weight could not be removed without the strength of an Almighty Arm. 'T is therefore ascrib'd not to an ordinary operation but an operation with Power †Rom. 1.4 and such a Power wherein the Glory of the Father did appear Rom. 6.4 Rais'd up from the dead by the glory of the Father that is the glorious Power of God As the Eternal Generation is stupendous so is his Resurrection which is called a new begetting of him Acts 13.33 'T is a wonder of Power that the Divine and Humane Nature should be joyn'd and no less wonder that his Person should surmount and rise up from the Curse of God under which he lay The Apostle therefore adds one expression to another and heaps up a variety signifying thereby that one was not enough to represent it Eph. 1.19 Exceeding greatness of power and working of mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead It was an hyperbole of Power the excellency of the Mightiness of his Strength the loftiness of the expressions seems to come short of the apprehension he had of it in his Soul Secondly This Power appears in the Publication and Propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption The Divine Power will appear if you consider 1. The Nature of the Doctrine 2. The Instruments employed in it 3. The Means they us'd to propagate it 4. The Success they had I. The Nature of the Doctrine 1. It was contrary to the common received reason of the World The Philosophers the Masters of Knowledge among the Gentiles had Maxims of a different stamp from it Though they agreed in the Being of a God yet their Notions of his Nature were confus'd and embroil'd with many Errors the Unity of God was not commonly assented unto They had multiplied Deities acâ—ording to the Fancies they had received from some of a more elevated Wit and refin'd Brain than others Though they had some notion of Mediators yet they placed in those Seats their publick Benefactors Men that had been useful to the World or their particular Countries in imparting to them some profitable Invention To discard those was to charge themselves with Ingratitude to them from whom they had received signal benefits and to whose Mediation Conduct or Protection they ascrib'd all the Success they had been blessed with in their several Provinces and to charge themselves with Folly for rendring an Honour and Worship to them so long Could the Doctrine of a Crucified Mediator whom they had never seen that had conquer'd no Country for them never enlarg'd their Territories brought to light no new profitable Invention for the increase of their Earthly welfare as the rest had done be thought sufficient to balance so many of their reputed Heroes How ignorant were they in the foundations of the True Religion The belief of a Providence was staggering nor had they a true prospect of the nature of Vertue and Vice Yet they had a fond Opinion of the strength of their own Reason and the Maxims that had
may be further considered that in this way of Redemption his Holiness in the hatred of Sin seems to be valued above any other Attribute He proclaims the value of it above the Person of his Son since the Divine Nature of the Redeemer is disguised obscur'd and vail'd in order to the restoring the Honour of it And Christ seems to value it above his own Person since he submitted himself to the Reproaches of Men to clear this Perfection of the Divine Nature and make it Illustrious in the eyes of the World You heard before at the beginning of the handling this Argument It was the Beauty of the Deity the Lustre of his Nature the Link of all his Attributes his very Life he values it equal with Himself since he swears by it as well as by his Life And none of his Attributes would have a due Decorum without it 'T is the glory of Power Mercy Justice Wisdom that they are all Holy So that though God had an Infinite tenderness and compassion to the Fallen Creature yet it should not extend it self in his relief to the prejudice of the Rights of his Purity He would have this triumph in the Tenderness of his Mercy as well as the Severities of his Justice His Mercy had not appeared in its true colours nor attain'd a regular End without Vengeance on Sin It would have been a Compassion that would in sparing the Sinner have encourag'd the Sin and affronted Holiness in the Issues of it Had he dispersed his Compassions about the World without the regard to his Hatred of Sin his Mercy had been too cheap and his Holiness had been contemn'd His Mercy would not have Triumph'd in his own Nature whilst his Holiness had suffered He had exercised a Mercy with the impairing his own Glory But now in this way of Redemption the Rights of both are secured both have their due lustre The Odiousness of Sin is equally discovered with the greatest of his Compassions an Infinite Abhorrence of Sin and an Infinite Love to the World march hand in hand together Never was so much of the Irreconcileableness of Sin to him set forth as in the moment he was opening his Bowels in the Reconciliation of the Sinner Sin is made the chiefest Mark of his Displeasure while the Poor Creature is made the highest Object of Divine Pity There could have been no motion of Mercy with the least Injury to Purity and Holiness In this way Mercy and Truth Mercy to the Misery of the Creature and Truth to the Purity of the Law have met together the Righteousness of God and the Peace of the Sinner have kissed each other Psal 85.10 II. The Holiness of God in his Hatred of Sin appears in our Justification and the Conditions he requires of all that would enjoy the benefit of Redemption His Wisdom hath so temper'd all the Conditions of it that the Honour of his Holiness is as much preserved as the Sweetness of his Mercy is experimented by us All the Conditions are Records of his exact Purity as well as of his condescending Grace Our Justification is not by the Imperfect works of Creatures but by an exact and Infinite Righteousness as great as that of the Deity which had been Offended It being the Righteousness of a Divine Person upon which account it is call'd the Righteousness of God not only in regard of Gods appointing it and Gods accepting it but as it is a Righteousness of that Person that was God and is God Faith is the Condition God requires to Justification but not a dead but an active Faith such a Faith as purifies the heart †James 2.22 Acts 15.9 He calls for Repentance which is a Moral retracting our Offences and an approbation of contemn'd Righteousness and a violated Law an endeavour to regain what is lost and to pluck out the heart of that Sin we have committed He requires Mortification which is called Crucifying whereby a Man would strike as full and deadly a blow at his Lusts as was struck at Christ upon the Cross and make them as certainly die as the Redeemer did Our own Righteousness must be condemned by us as impure and imperfect We must disown every thing that is our own as to Righteousness in reverence to the Holiness of God and the valuation of the Righteousness of Christ He hath resolved not to bestow the Inheritance of Glory without the Root of Grace None are partakers of the Divine Blessedness that are not partakers of the Divine Nature There must be a renewing of his Image before there be a vision of his face * He◠12.14 He will not have Men brought only into a Relative state of Happiness by Justification without a Real state of Grace by Sanctification And so resolved he is in it that there is no admittance into Heaven of a starting but a persevering Holiness Rom. 2.7 a patient continuance in well doing Patient under the sharpness of Affliction and continuing under the Pleasures of Prosperity Hence it is that the Gospel the restoring Doctrine hath not only the motives of Rewards to allure us to Good and the danger of Punishments to scare us from Evil as the Law had but they are set forth in a higher strain in a way of stronger engagement the Rewards are Heavenly and the Punishments Eternal And more powerful Motives besides from the choicer Expressions of Gods Love in the Death of his Son The whole Design of it is to re-instate us in a resemblance to this Divine Perfection whereby he shews what an Affection he hath to this Excellency of his Nature and what a detestation he hath of Evil which is contrary to it 3. It appears in the actual Regeneration of the Redeemed Souls and a carrying it on to a full perfection As Election is the effect of Gods Soveraignty our Pardon the fruit of his Mercy our Knowledge a stream from his Wisdom our Strength an impression of his Power so our Purity is a beam from his Holiness The whole work of Sanctification and the preservation of it our Saviour begs for his Disciples of his Father under this Title John 17.11 17. Holy Father keep them through thy own name and sanctifie them through thy Truth as the proper Source whence Holiness was to flow to the Creature As the Sun is the proper Fountain whence Light is derived both to the Stars above and Bodies here below Whence He is not only called Holy but the Holy One of Israel Isai 43.15 I am the Lord your Holy One the Creator of Israel Displaying his Holiness in them by a new Creation of them as his Israel As the rectitude of the Creature at the first Creation was the effect of his Holiness so the Purity of the Creature by a New Creation is a draught of the same Perfection He is called the Holy One of Israel more in Isaiah that Evangelical Prophet in erecting Zion and forming a People for himself than in the whole Scripture
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.
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
he needed not have sought without himself for his own preservation and comfort What depends upon another is not of it self and what depends upon things inferiour to it self is less of it self Since nothing can subsist of it self since we see those things upon which Man depends for his nourishment and subsistence growing and decaying starting into the world and retiring from it as well as man himself some preserving cause must be concluded upon which all depends 5. If the first Man did produce himself why did he not produce himself before It hath been already proved that he had a beginning and could not be from Eternity Why then did he not make himself before Not because he would not For having no being he could have no will he could neither be willing nor not willing If he could not then how could he afterwards if it were in his own power he could have done it he would have done it if it were not in his own power then it was in the power of some other cause and that is God How came he by that power to produce himself If the power of producing himself were communicated by another then Man could not be the cause of himself That is the cause of it which communicated that power to it But if the power of being was in and from himself and in no other nor communicated to him man would always have been in act and always have Existed no hinderance can be conceived For that which had the power of being in it self was invincible by any thing that should stand in the way of its own being We may conclude from hence the excellency of the Scripture that it is a Word not to be refused credit It gives us the most rational account of things in the 1. and 2. of Genesis which nothing in the world else is able to do Thirdly III. Proposition no Creature could make the world No Creature can create another If it creates of nothing t is then Omnipotent and so not a Creature If it makes something of matter unfit for that which is produced out of it then the inquiry will be who was the cause of the matter and so we must arrive to some uncreated being the cause of all Whatsoever gives being to any other must be the highest being and must possess all the perfections of that which it gives being to what visible Creature is there which possesses the perfections of the whole world If therefore an invisible Creature made the world the same enquiries will return whence that Creature had its being for he could not make himself If any Creature did Create the World he must do it by the strength and vertue of another which first gave him being and this is God For whatsoever hath its Existence and vertue of acting from another is not God If it hath its vertue from another t is then a second cause and so supposeth a first cause It must have some cause of it self or be Eternally Existent If Eternally Existent t is not a second cause but God if not Eternally Existent we must come to somthing at length which was the cause of it or else be bewildred without being able to give an account of any thing We must come at last to an Infinite Eternal Independent Being that was the first cause of this Structure and Fabrick wherein we and all Creatures dwell The Scripture proclaims this aloud * Isa 45.6.7 Deut. 4.35 I am the Lord and there is none else I Form the light and I Create darkness Man the Noblest Creature cannot of himself make a man the chiefest part of the World If our Parents only without a Superior power made our Bodies or Souls they would know the frame of them as he that makes a Lock knows the Wards of it he that makes any curious peice of Arras knows how he setts the various colours together and how many threads went to each division in the Web he that makes a Watch having the Idea of the whole work in his mind knows the motions of it and the reason of those motions But both Parents and Children are equally ignorant of the nature of their Souls and Bodies and of the reason of their motions God only that had the Supream hand in forming us in whose Book all our members are written Psal 139.16 which in continuance were fashioned knows what we all are ignorant of If man hath in an ordinary course of generation his being chiefly from an higher cause than his Parents the World then certainly had its being from some infinitely wise intelligent Being which is God If it were as some fancy made by an Assembly of Atomes there must be some infinite intelligent cause that made them some cause that separated them some cause that mingled them together for the piling up so comely a structure as the world T is the most absurd thing to think they should meet togeither by hazard and rank themselves in that order we see without a higher and a wise agent So that no Creature could make the world For supposing any Creature was formed before this visible world and might have a hand in disposing things yet he must have a cause of himself and must act by the virtue and strength of another and this is God Fourthly IV. Proposition From hence it follows that there is a first cause of things which we call God There must be somthing supreme in the order of nature somthing which is greater than all which hath nothing beyond it or above it otherwise we must run in infinitum We see not a River but we conclude a Fountain a Watch but we conclude an Artificer As all number begins from unity so all the multitude of things in the world begins from some unity Oneness as the principle of it T is natural to arise from a view of those things to the conception of a nature more perfect than any As from heat mixed with cold and light mixed with darkness men conceive and arise in their understandings to an intense heat and a pure light And from a Corporeal or bodily substance joyned with an incorporeal as man is an earthly body and a Spiritual Soul we ascend to a conception of a substance purely incorporeal and Spiritual So from a multitude of things in the world Reason leads us to one choice being above all And since in all natures in the World we still find a superior nature the nature of one beast above the nature of another the nature of man above the nature of beasts and some invisible nature the worker of strange effects in the Air and Earth which cannot be ascribed to any visible cause we must suppose some nature above all those of unconceivable perfection * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 33. c. Every Sceptick one that doubts whither there be any thing real or no in the World that counts every thing an appearance must necessarily own a first cause They cannot
violated Law When God is the object of such a wish t is a vertual undeifying of him Not to be able to punish is to be impotent not to be willing to punish is to be unjust Imperfections inconsistent with the Deity God cannot be supposed without an infinite Power to act and an infinite Righteousness as the Rule of acting Fear of God is natural to all men not a Fear of offending him but a Fear of being punished by him The wishing the Extinction of God has its degree in men according to the degree of their Fears of his just Vengeance And though such a Wish be not in its Meridian but in the Damned in Hell yet it hath its starts and motions in affrighted and awakened Consciences on the Earth Under this Rank of Wishers that there were no God or that God were destroyed do fall 1. Terrified Consciences that are Magor missabib see nothing but matter of fear round about As they have lived without the bounds of the Law they are affraid to fall under the stroak of his Justice Fear wishes the destruction of that which it apprehends hurtful It considers him as a God to whom Vengeance belongs as the Judge of all the Earth * Psal 94.12 The less hopes such a one hath of his Pardon the more joy he would have to hear that his Judge should be stript of his Life He would entertain with delight any reasons that might support him in the conceit that there were no God In his present State such a Doctrine would be his Security from an Account He would as much rejoyce if there were no God to enflame an Hell for him as any guilty Malefactor would if there were no Judge to order a Gibbet for him Shame may bridle mens words but the Heart will be casting about for some Arguments this way to secure it self Such as are at any time in Spira's Case would be willing to cease to be Creatures that God might cease to be Judge The Fool hath said in his heart there is no Elohim no Judge fancying God without any exercise of his judicial Authority And there is not any wicked man under anguish of Spirit but were it within the reach of his power would take away the Life of God and rid himself of his fears by destroying his Avenger 2. Debaucht Persons are not without such wishes sometimes An obstinate Servant wishes his Masters death from whom he expects Correction for his Debaucheries As Man stands in his corrupt Nature 't is impossible but one time or other most debaucht persons at least have so me kind of velleities or imperfect wishes 'T is as natural to men to abhor those things which are unsuteable and troublesome as it is to please themselves in things agreeable to their minds and humours And since Man is so deeply in love with Sin as to count it the most estimable good he cannot but wish the abolition of that Law which checks it and consequently the change of the Law-Giver which Enacted it and in wishing a change in the holy Nature of God he wishes a destruction of God who could not be God if he ceased to be immutably holy They do as certainly wish that God had not a holy Will to command them as desparing Souls wish that God had not a righteous Will to punish them and to wish Conscience extinct for the molestations they receive from it is to wish the power Conscience represents out of the world also Since the State of Sinners is a State of distance from God and the Language of Sinners to God is departed from us * Joh. 21.14 They desire as litle the continuance of his Being as they desire the knowledge of his Ways The same reason which moves them to desire Gods distance from them would move them to desire Gods not Being Since the greatest distance would be most agreeable to them the Destruction of God must be so too Because there is no greater distance from us than in not Being Men would rather have God not to be than themselves under controle that sensuality might range at pleasure He is like a Heifer sliding from the Yoke Hos 4.16 The Cursing of God in the Heart feared by Job of his Chidren intimates a wishing God despoild of his Authority that their pleasure might not be dampt by his Law Besides is there any natural man that sins against actuated knowledge but either thinks or wishes that God might not see him that God might not know his actions And is not this to wish the Destruction of God who could not be God unless he were immense and omniscient 3. Under this rank fall those who perform external Duties only out of a Principle of slavish Fear Many Men perform those Duties that the Law enjoyns with the same Sentiments that Slaves perform their Drudgery and are constrained in their Duties by no other considerations but those of the Whip and the Cudgel Since therefore they do it with reluctancy and secretly murmur while they seem to obey they would be willing that both the Command were recall'd and the Master that commands them were in another world The Spirit of Adoption makes men act towards God as a Father a Spirit of Bondage only eyes him as a Judge Those that look upon their Superiors as tyrannical will not be much concerned in their welfare and would be more glad to have their Nails pared than be under perpetual fear of them Many men regard not the infinite goodness in their service of him but consider him as cruel tyrannical injurious to their Liberty Adam's Posterity are not free from the Sentiments of their common Father till they are regenerate You know what Conceit was the Hammer whereby the Hellish Jael struck the Nail into our first Parents which conveyed Death together with the same Imagination to all their Posterity Gen. 3.5 God knows that in the day you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil Alas poor Souls God knew what he did when he forbad you that Fruit He was jealous you should be too happy It was a cruelty in him to deprive you of a Food so pleasant and delicious The apprehension of the severity of Gods Commands riseth up no less in desires that there were no God over us than Adam's apprehension of Envy in God for the restraint of one Tree mov'd him to attempt to be equal with God Fear is as powerful to produce the one in his Posterity as Pride was to produce the other in the Common-Root When we apprehend a thing hurtful to us we desire so much evil to it as may render it uncapable of doing us the hurt we fear As we wish the preservation of what we love or hope for so we are naturally apt to wish the not being of that whence we fear some hurt or trouble We must not understand this as if any man did formally wish the destruction of God as God God in
it as a Sacrifice to Devils It was not the intention of Jeroboam to establish Priests to the Devil when he Consecrated them to the service of his Calves for Jehu afterwards calls them the Servants of the Lord 2 King 10.23 See if there be here none of the Servants of the Lord to distinguish them from the Servants of Baal signifying that the true God was Worshipped under those Images and not Baal nor any of the Gods of the Heathens yet the Scripture couples the Calves and Devils together and ascribes the Worship given to one to be given to the other * 2 Cron. 11.15 He ordained him Priests for the high places and for the Devils and for the Calves which he had made so that they were Sacrifices to Devils notwithstanding the intention of Jeroboam and his Subjects that had set them up and worshipped them because they were contrary to the mind of God and agreeable to the Doctrine and mind of Satan tho the object of their worship in their own intention were not the Devil but some deified man or some Canonized Saint The intention makes not a good action If so when men kill the best Servants of God with a design to do God service as our Saviour foretels * Joh. 16.2 the action would not be Murder yet who can call it otherwise since God is wronged in the persons of his servants Since most of the worship of the world which mens corrupt natures incline them to is false and different from the revealed will of God t is a practical acknowledgment of the Devil as the Governour by acknowleding and practising those Doctrines which have not the stamp of Divine Revelation upon them but were minted by Satan to depress the Honour of God in the world It doth concern men then to take good heed that in their acts of worship they have a Divine rule otherwise it is an owning the Devil as the rule for there is no medium Whatsoever is not from God is from Satan But to bring this closer to us and consider that which is more common among us Men that are in a natural condition and Wedded to their lusts are under the paternal Government of Satan Joh. 8.44 Ye are of your Father the Devil and the lusts of your Father you will do If we divide sin into Spiritual and carnal which division comprehends all the Devils authority is owned in both In spiritual we conform to his example because those he commits In carnal we obey his will because those he directs He acts the one and sets us a Copy He tempts to the other and gives us a kind of a precept Thus man by nature being a willing servant of sin is more desirous to be bound in the Devils Iron Chain than in Gods silken Cords What greater Atheism can there be than to use God as if he were inferior to the Devil to take the part of his greatest Enemy who drew all others into the faction against him to pleasure Satan by offending God and gratifie our adversary with the injury of our Creator For a Subject to take arms against his Prince with the deadliest Enemy both himself and Prince hath in the whole world adds a greater blackness to the Rebellion 2. The more visible rule preferred before God in the World is man The opinion of the world is more our rule than the precept of God and many mens abstinence from sin is not from a sense of the Divine Will no nor from a priciple of reason but from an affection to some man on whom they depend or fear of punishment from a superior The same principle with that in a ravenous beast who abstains from what he desires for fear only of a stick or Club Men will walk with the Herds go in fashion with the most speak and act as the most do While we conform to the world we cannot perform a reasonable service to God nor prove nor approve practically what the good and acceptable Will of God is The Apostle puts them in opposition to one another * Rom. 12.1 2. This appears 1. In complying more with the dictates of men than the Will of God Men draw encouragement from Gods forbearance to sin more freely against him but the fear of punishment for breaking the Will of Man lays a restraint upon them The fear of man a is more powerful curb to restrain men in their duty than the fear of God So we may please a Friend a Master a Governour we are regardless whither we please God or no Men pleasers are more than God pleasers Man is more advanced as a rule than God when we submit to human orders and stagger and dispute against Divine Would not a Prince think himself slighted in his authority if any of his Servants should decline his commands by the order of one of his subjects And will not God make the same account of us when we deny or delay our obedience for fear of one of his Creatures In the fear of man we as little acknowledge God for our Soveraign as we do for our comforter Isa 51.12 13. I even I am he that comforteth you who art thou thou shouldst be affraid of a man that shall die c. and forgettest the Lord thy maker c. We put a slight upon God as if he were not able to bear us out in our duty to him and uncapable to ballance the strength of an arm of flesh 2. In observing that which is materially the Will of God not because t is his Will but the injunctions of men As the word of God may be received yet not as his word so the Will of God may be performed yet not as his Will T is materially done but not formally obeyed An action and obedience in that action are two things as when man Commands the ceasing from all works of the ordinary calling on the Sabbath t is the same that God enjoyns the Cessation or attendance of his servants on the hearing the word are conformable in the matter of it to the Will of God but it is only conformable in the obediential part of the acts to the Will of man when it is done only with respect to a human precept As God hath a right to enact his laws without consulting his Creature in the way of his government So man is bound to obey those Laws without consulting whither they be agreeable to mens laws or no If we act the Will of God because the Will of our superiors concurs with it we obey not God in that but man a human Will being the rule of our obedience and not the Divine This is to vilifie God and make him inferior to man in our esteem and a valuing the rule of man above that of our Creator Since God is the highest perfection and infinitely good whatsoever rule he gives the Creature must be good else it cannot proceed from God A base thing cannot be the product of an infinite excellency
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
* â—â—r 20. Their Fathers Worshipping in that Mountain and the Jews affirming Jerusalem to be a place of worship She pleads the Antiquity of the worship in this place Abraham having built an Altar there Gen. 12.7 and Jacob upon his return from Syria And surely had the place been capable of an exception such persons as they and so well acquainted with the Will of God would not have pitched upon that place to Celebrate their worship Antiquity hath too too often bewitched the minds of Men and drawn them from the revealed Will of God Men are more willing to imitate the outward actions of their famous Ancestors than conform themselves to the revealed Will of their Creator The Samaritans would imitate the Patriarchs in the place of worship but not in the faith of the worshippers Christ answers her that this question would quickly be resolved by a new state of the Church which was neer at hand and neither Jerusalem which had now the precedency nor that Mountain should be of any more value in that concern than any other place in the world * ver 21. But yet to make her sensible of her sin and that of her Country-men tells her that their Worship in that Mountain was not according to the Will of God he having long after the Altars built in this place fixed Jerusalem as the place of Sacrifices besides they had not the knowledge of that God which ought to be worshipped by them but the Jews had the true object of Worship and the true manner of worship according to the declaration God had made of himself to them * ver â—â— But all that service shall vanish the vail of the Temple shall be rent in twain and that Carnal worship give place to one more Spiritual shadows shall fly before substance and truth advance it self above figures and the worship of God shall be with the strength of the Spirit such a worship and such worshippers doth the Father seek * ver 23. For God is a Spirit and those that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in truth The design of our Saviour is to declare that God is not taken with external worship invented by men no nor Commanded by himself and upon that this reason because he is a Spiritual essence infinitely above gross and Corporeal matter and is not taken with that pomp which is a pleasure to our Earthly imaginations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate it just as the words lie Spirit is God * Vulgar lat Illyrc Clav. But it is not unusual both in the old and new Testament languages to put the predicate before the subject as Psal 5.9 Their throat is an open Sepulchre in the Hebrew a Sepulchre open their throat So Psa 111.3 His work is honourable and glorious Heb. Honour and glory his work And there wants not one example in the same Evangelist Joh. 1.1 And the word was God Greek and God was the word In all the predicate or what is ascribed is put before the subject to which it is ascribed One tells us and he an head of a party that hath made a disturbance in the Church of God * Eâ—â—â—â—â—p Institut lib. 4. cap. 3. that this place is not aptly brought to prove God to be a Spirit And the reason of Christ runs not thus God is of a Spiritual Essence and therefore must be worshipped with a Spiritual worship for the Essence of God is not the Foundation of his worship but his Will for then we were not to worship him with a Corporal worship because he is not a body but with an invisible and Eternal worship because he is invisible and eternal But the nature of God is the foundation of worship the Will of God is the Rule of worship the matter and manner is to be performed according to the Will of God But is the nature of the object of worship to be excluded No as the object is so ought our Devotion to be Spiritual as he is Spiritual God in his Commands for worship respected the discovery of his own nature in the Law he respected the discovery of his mercy and justice and therefore Commanded a worship by Sacrifices a Spiritual worship without those institutions would not have declared those Attributes which was Gods end to display to the world in Christ And tho the nature of God is to be respected in worship yet the obligations of the Creature are to be considered God is a Spirit therefore must have a Spiritual worship The Creature hath a body as well as a Soul and both from God and therefore ought to worship God with the one as well as the other since one as well as the other is freely bestowed upon him The Spirituality of God was the foundation of the change from the Judaical carnal worship to a more Spiritual and Evangelical God is a Spirit That is he hath nothing Corporeal no mixture of matter not a visible substance a bodily form * Melancton He is a Spirit not a bare Spiritual substance But an understanding willing Spirit holy wise good and just Before Christ spake of the Father * ver 23. the first person in the Trinity Now he speaks of God Essentially The word Father is personal the word God essential So that our Saviour would render a reason not from any one person in the blessed Trinity but from the Divine nature why we should worship in Spirit and therefore makes use of the word God the being a Spirit being Common to the other persons with the Father This is the reason of the proposition verse 23. Of a Spiritual Worship Every nature delights in that which is like it and distasts that which is most different from it If God were Corporeal he might be pleased with the victims of beasts and the beautiful Magnificence of Temples and the noyse of Musick But being a Spirit he cannot be gratified with carnal things He demands something better and greater than all those that Soul which he made that Soul which he hath endowed a Spirit of a frame sutable to his nature He indeed appointed Sacrifices and a Temple as shadows of those things which were to be most acceptable to him in the Messiah but they were imposed only till the time of Reformation * Heb. 9.10 Must Worship him Not they may or it would be more agreeable to God to have such a manner of worship But they must T is not exclusive of bodily worship for this were to exclude all publick worship in societies which cannot be performed without reverential postures of the body * Terniti The Gestures of the body are helps to worship and declarations of Spiritual acts We can scarcely worship God with our Spirits without some tincture upon the outward-man But he excludes all acts meerly Corporeal all resting upon an external service and devotion which was the Crime of the Pharisees and the general persuasion of the Jews
the Soul of Man more excellent than other Animals Angels more excellent than Men They contain in their own nature whatsoever dignity there is in the inferior Creatures God must have therefore an excellency above all those and therefore is intirely remote from the conditions of a Body * Calov Socin Proflig P. 129. 130. 'T is a gross conceit therefore to think that God is such a Spirit as the Air is for that is to be a body as the Air is though it be a thin one and if God were no more a Spirit than that or than Angels he would not be the most simple Being * Amirald Sup. Heb. 9. p. 146. c. Yet some think that the spiritual Deity was represented by the Air in the Ark of the Testament It was unlawful to represent him by any Image that God had prohibited Every thing about the Ark had a particular signification The Gold and other Ornaments about it signified something of Christ but were unfit to represent the Nature of God A thing purely invisible and falling under nothing of sense could not represent him to the mind of Man The Air in the Ark was the fittest it represented the invisibility of God Air being imperceptible to our eyes Air diffuseth it self through all parts of the world it glides through secret passages into all Creatures it fills the space between Heaven and Earth there is no place wherein God is not present To evidence this 1. If God were not a Spirit he could not be Creator All multitude begins in and is reduced to unity As above multitude there is an absolute unity So above mixt Creatures there is an absolute simplicity You cannot conceive number without conceiving the beginning of it in that which was not number viz. a unite You cannot conceive any mixture but you must conceive some simple thing to be the Original and Basis of it The works of Art done by rational Creatures have their Foundation in something Spiritual Every Artificer Watch-maker Carpenter hath a model in his own mind of the work he designs to frame The material and outward Fabrick is squared according to an inward and Spiritual Idea A Spiritual Idea speaks a Spiritual faculty as the subject of it God could not have an Idea of that vast number of Creatures he brought into being if he had not had a Spiritual Nature * Amiral moral Tom. 1. pa. 282. The wisdom whereby the world was Created could never be the fruit of a Corporeal nature such natures are not capable of understanding and comprehending the things which are within the compass of their nature much less of produ them And therefore beasts which have only Corporeal faculties move to objects by the force of their sense and have no knowledge of things as they are comprehended by the understanding of Man All acts of wisdom speak an intelligent and Spiritual agent The effects of wisdom goodness power are so great and admirable that they bespeak him a more perfect and eminent being than can possibly be beheld under a bodily shape Can a Coporeal substance put Wisdom in the inward parts and give understanding to the heart * Job 38.16 2. If God were not a pure Spirit he could not be one If God had a body consisting of distinct members as ours or all of one nature as the water and air are yet he were then capable of division and therefore could not be entirely one Either those parts would be finite or infinite if finite they are not parts of God for to be God and finite is a contradiction If infinite then there are as many infinites as distinct members and therefore as many Deities Suppose this body had all parts of the same nature as air and water hath every little part of air is as much air as the greatest and every little part of water is as much water as the Ocean so every little part of God would be as much God as the whole as many particular Deities to make up God as little Atomes to compose a body What can be more absurd If God had a body like a human body and were compounded of body and Soul of substance and quality he could not be the most perfect unity he would be made up of distinct parts and those of a distinct nature as the members of a human body are Where there is the greatest unity there must be the greatest simplicity but God is one As he is free from any change so he is void of any multitude Deut. 6.4 The Lord our God is one Lord. 3. If God had a body as we have he would not be invisible Every material thing is not visible The Air is a body yet invisible but it is sensible the cooling quality of it is felt by us at every breath and we know it by our touch which is the most material sense Every body that hath Members like to bodies is visible But God is invisible * Daille in Tim The Apostle reckons it amongst his other perfections 1 Tim. 1.17 Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible He is invisible to our sense which beholds nothing but material and coloured things and incomprehensible to our understanding that conceives nothing but what is finite God is therefore a Spirit uncapable of being seen and infinitely uncapable of being understood If he be invisible he is also Spiritual If he had a body and hid it from our eyes he might be said not to be seen but could not be said to be invisible When we say a thing is visible we understand that it hath such qualities which are the objects of sense tho we may never see that which is in its own nature is to be seen God hath no such qualities as fall under the perception of our sense His works are visible to us but not his God-head * Rom. 1.20 The nature of a human body is to be seen and handled Christ gives us such a description of it Luke 24.39 Handle me and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have But man hath been so far from seeing God that it is impossible he can see him 1 Tim. 6.16 There is such a disproportion between an infinite object and a finite sense and understanding that it is utterly impossible either to behold or comprehend him But if God had a body more luminous and glorious than that of the Sun he would be as well visible to us as the Sun tho the immensity of that light would dazle our eyes and forbid any close inspection into him by the vertue of our sence We have seen the shape and figure of the Sun but no man hath ever seen the shape of God * Joh. 5.37 If God had a body he were visible tho he might not perfectly and fully be seen by us * Goulart de Dieu pa. 94. As we see the Heavens tho we see not the extension latitude and greatness of them
them into a frame agreeable to the nature of God * Heb. 10.1 Heb. 9.9 nor purge the Conscience from those dead and dull dispositions which were by nature in them * Heb. 9.14 Being Carnal they could not have an efficacy to purifie the Conscience of the offerer and work Spiritual effects Had they continued without the exhibition of Christ they could never have wrought any change in us or purchased any favour for us * Burges vind pa. 256. At the best they were but shadows and came unexpressibly short of the efficacy of that person and state whose shadows they were The shadow of a man is too weak to perform what the man himself can do because it wants the life Spirit and activity of the substance The whole pomp and scene was suted more to the sensitive than the intellectual nature and like pictures pleased the fancy of Children rather than improved their reason The Jewish state was a state of Child-hood * Gal. 5.2 and that administration a Pedagogy * Gal. 4.24 The Law was a Schoolmaster fitted for their weak and Childish Capacity and could no more Spiritualize the heart than the teachings in a Primer-School can enable the mind and make it fit for affairs of State And because they could not better the Spirit they were instituted only for a time as elements delivered to an infant age which naturally lives a life of sense rather than a life of reason It was also a servile state which doth rather debase than elevate the mind rather Carnalize than Spiritualize the heart Besides t is a sense of mercy that both melts and elevates the heart into a Spiritual frame * Psa 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared And they had in that state but some glimmerings of mercy in the dayly bloody intimations of Justice There was no Sacrifice for some sins but a cutting off without the least hints of pardon and in the yearly remembrance of sin there was as much to shiver them with fear as to possess than with hopes And such a state which alwayes held them under the Conscience of sin could not produce a free Spirit which was necessary for a worship of God according to his nature 3. In their use they rather hindred than furthered a Spiritual worship In their own nature they did not tend to the obstructing a Spiritual worship for then they had been contrary to the nature of Religion and the end of God who appointed them Nor did God cover the Evangelical Doctrine under the clouds of the legal administration to hinder the people of Israel from perceiving it but because they were not yet capable to bear the splendor of it had it been clearly set before them The shining of the face of Moses was too dazling for their weak eyes and therefore there was a necessity of a veil not for the things themselves but the weakness of their eyes * 2 Cor. 3.13.14 The carnal affections of that people sunk down into the things themselves stuck in the outward pomp and pierced not through the vail to the Spiritual intent of them And by the use of them without rational conceptions they besotted their minds and became senseless of those Spiritual motions required of them Hence came all their expectations of a Carnal Messiah the veil of Ceremonies was so thick and the film upon their eyes so condensed that they could not look through the veil to the Spirit of Christ They beheld not the Heavenly Canaan for the beauty of the earthly nor minded the regeneration of the Spirit while they rested upon the purifications of the flesh The prevalency of sense and sensitive affections diverted their minds from enquiring into the intent of them Sense and matter are often cloggs to the mind and sensible objects are the same often to Spiritual motions Our Souls are never more raised than when they are abstracted from the entanglements of them A pompous worship made up of many sensible objects weakens the Spirituality of Religion Those that are most zealous for outward are usually most cold and indifferent in inward observances And those that overdo in carnal modes usually underdo in Spiritual affections This was the Jewish state * Illyric de velam Mosiâ— pa. 221. c. The nature of the Ceremonies being pompous and earthly by their show and beauty meeting with their weakness and Childish affections filled their eyes with an outward lustre allured their minds and detained them from seeking things higher and more Spiritual The kernel of those rites lay concealed in a thick shell the Spiritual glory was little seen and the Spiritual sweetness little tasted Unless the Scripture be diligently searched it seems to transfer the worship of God from true faith and the Spiritual motions of the heart and stake it down to outward observances and the opus operatum Besides the voice of the Law did only declare Sacrifices and invited the Worshipper to them with a promise of the atonement of Sin turning away the wrath of God It never plainly acquainted them that those things were Types and Shadows of something future that they were only outward purifications of the Flesh It never plainly told them at the time of appointing them that those Sacrifices could not abolish Sin and reconcile them to God Indeed we see more of them since their death and dissection in that one Epistle to the Hebrews than can be discern'd in the five Books of Moses Besides Man naturally affects a carnal Life and therefore affects a carnal Worship He designs the gratifying his sense and would have a Religion of the same nature Most men have no mind to busie their reasons about the things of sense and are naturally unwilling to raise them up to those things which are allyed to the spiritual nature of God and therefore the more spiritual any Ordinance is the more averse is the heart of man to it There is a simplicity of the Gospel from which our minds are easily corrupted by things that pleasure the sense as Eve was by the curiosity of her eye and the liquorishness of her Palate * 2 Cor. 11.3 From this Principle hath sprung all the Idolatry in the world The Jews knew they had a God who had delivered them but they would have a sensible God to go before them * Exod. 32.1 And the Papacy at this day is a Witness of the truth of this natural Corruption 4. Vpon these accounts therefore God never testified himself well pleased with that kind of Worship He was not displeased with them as they were his own institution and ordained for the representing though in an obscure manner the glorious things of the Gospel nor was he offended with those peoples observance of them For since he had commanded them it was their duty to perform them and their sin to neglect them But he was displeased with them as they were practised by them with Souls as
have all the Utensils of the Sanctuary employed about his service to be holy The Inwards of the Sacrifice were to be rinsed thrice * As the Jewish Doctors observe on Lev. 1.9 The Crop and Feathers of sacrificed Doves was to be hung Eastward towards the entrance of the Temple at a distance from the Holy of Holies where the presence of God was most eminent * Lev. 1.16 When Aaron was to go into the Holy of Holies he was to sanctifie himself in an extraordinary manner * Lev. 16.4 The Priests were to be bare footed in the Temple in the exercise of their Office shoes alway were to be put off upon holy ground Look to thy foot when thou goest to the House of God saith the wise man Eccles 5.1 Strip the affections the feet of the Soul of all the dirt contracted discard all earthly and base thoughts from the heart A Beast was not to touch the Mount Sinai without losing his Life Nor can we come near the Throne with brutish affections without losing the life and fruit of the worship An unholy Soul degrades himself from a Spirit to a Brute and the worship from spiritual to brutish If any unmortified sin be found in the Life as it was in the comers to the Temple It taints and pollutes the Worship * Isa 1.15 All worship is an acknowledgment of the excellency of God as he is holy * Jer. 7.9 10. Hence it is called a sanctifying Gods Name How can any person sanctifie Gods Name that hath not a holy resemblance to his Nature If he be not holy as he is holy he cannot worship him according to his excellency in Spirit and in Truth No worship is spiritual wherein we have not a communion with God But what intercourse can there be between a holy God and an impure Creature between Light and Darkness We have no fellowship with him in any service unless we walk in the Light in service and out of service as he is Light * 1 John 1.7 The Heathen thought not their Sacrifices agreeable to God without washing their hands whereby they signified the preparation of their hearts before they made the Oblation Clean hands without a pure heart signify nothing The frame of our hearts must answer the purity of the outward Symbols Psal 26.6 I will wash my hands in Innocence so will I compass thine Altar oh Lord He would observe the appointed Ceremonies but not without cleansing his heart as well as his hands Vain Man is apt to rest upon outward acts and rites of worship But this must alway be practised The words are in the present Tense I wash I compass Purity in worship ought to be our continual Care If we would perform a spiritual service wherein we would have communion with God it must be in Holiness If we would walk with Christ it must be in white * Revel 3.4 alluding to the white Garments the Priests put on when they went to perform their service As without this we cannot see God in Heaven so neither can we see the beauty of God in his own Ordinances 11. Spiritual worship is performed with spiritual ends with raised aims at the glory of God No duty can be spiritual that hath a carnal aim Where God is the sole Object he ought to be the principal End In all our actions he is to be our End as he is the principle of our Being much more in Religious Acts as he is the Object of our worship The worship of God in Scripture is exprest by the seeking of him * Heb. 11.6 Him not our selves all is to be referred to God As we are not to live to our selves that being the sign of a carnal state so we are not to worship for our selves Rom. 14.7 8. As all actions are denominated good from their end as well as their object so upon the same account they are denominated spiritual The end spiritualizeth our natural actions much more our religious Then are our faculties devoted to him when they center in him If the intention be evil there is nothing but darkness in the whole service Luke 11.34 The first institution of the Sabbath the solemn day for worship was to contemplate the glory of God in his stupendous works of Creation and render him a homage for them Revel 4.11 Thou art worthy oh Lord to receive Honour Glory and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created No worship can be returned without a glorifying of God and we cannot actually glorify him without direct aims at the promoting his honour As we have immediately to do with God so we are immediately to mind the praise of God As we are not to content our selves with habitual grace but be rich in the exercise of it in worship so we are not to acquiesce in habitual aims at the glory of God without the actual outflowings of our hearts in those aims 'T is natural for Man to worship God for self Self-righteousness is the rooted aim of Man in his worship since his revolt from God and being sensible it is not to be found in his natural actions he speaks for it in his moral and religious By the first Pride we flung God off from being our Soveraign and from being our end since a Pharisaical Spirit struts it in nature not only to do things to be seen of men but to be admired by God Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted and thou takest no knowledge This is to have God worship them instead of being worshipped by them Cain's carriage after his Sacrifice testified some base end in his worship he came not to God as a Subject to a Soveraign but as if he had been the Soveraign and God the Subject and when his design is not answered and his desire not gratified he proves more a Rebel to God and a Murderer of his Brother Such base scents will rise up in our worship from the body of death which cleaves to us and mix themselves with our services as Weeds with the Fish in the Net David therefore after his People had offered willingly to the Temple beggs of God that their hearts might be prepared to him * 1 Cron. 29.18 that their hearts might stand right to God without any squinting to self-ends Some present themselves to God as poor men offer a present to a great person not to honour him but to gain for themselves a reward richer than their gift What profit is it that we have kept his Ordinance c Mal. 3.14 Some worship him intending thereby to make him amends for the wrong they have done him wipe off their scores and satisfie their debts as though a spiritual wrong could be recompensed with a bodily service and an infinite Spirit be outwitted and appeased by a carnal flattery Self is the Spirit of Carnality To pretend a homage to God and intend only the advantage of self is rather
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
Essence of God to be every where as to be always Immensity is as rational as Eternity That indivisible Essence which reaches through all times may as well reach through all places 'T is more excellent to be always than to be every where for to be always in duration is Intrinsical to be every where is Extrinsick If the greater belongs to God why not the less As all times are a Moment to his Eternity so all places are as a Point to his Essence As he is larger than all time so he is vaster than all place The Nations of the World are to him as the Dust of the Ballance or Drop of a Bucket * Isa 40.15 The Nations are accounted as the small Dust the Essence of God may well be thought to be present every where with that which is no more than a grain of Dust to him and in all those Isles which if put together are a very little thing in his hand Therefore saith a Learned Jew * Maimonid If a man were set in the highest Heavens he would not be nearer to the Essence of God than if he were in the Center of the Earth Why may not the Presence of God in the World be as noble as that of the Soul in the Body which is generally granted to be essentially in every part of the body of man which is but a little World and animates every Member by its actual presence though it exerts not the same operation in every part * Ficin the World is less to the Creator than the Body to the Soul and needs more the Presence of God than the Body needs the presence of the Soul That glorious body of the Sun visits every part of the Habitable Earth in 24 hours by its beams which reaches the Troughs of the lowest Valleys as well as the Pinacles of the highest Mountains must we not acknowledg in the Creator of this Sun an infinite greater proportion of Presence Is it not as easy with the Essence of God to over-spread the whole body of Heaven and Earth as it is for the Sun to pierce and diffuse its self through the whole Air between it and the Earth and send up its light also as far to the Regions above Do we not see something like it in Sounds and Voices Is not the same Sound of a Trumpet or any other Musical Instrument at the first breaking out of a Blast in several places within such a compass at the same time Doth not every Ear that hears it receive alike the whole sound of it And fragrant Odors scented in several places at the same time in the same manner and the Organ proper for Smelling takes in the same in every person within the compass of it How far is the noise of Thunder heard alike to every Ear in places something distant from one another And do we daily find such a manner of presence in those things of so low a concern and not imagine a kind of Presence of God greater than all those Is the sound of Thunder the Voice of God as it is call'd every where in such a compass and shall not the Essence of an Infinite God be much more every where Those that would confine the Essence of God only to Heaven and exclude it from the Earth run into great inconveniencies It may be demanded whether he be in one part of the Heavens or in the whole vast body of them If in one part of them his Essence is bounded if he moves from that part he is mutable for he changes a place wherein he was for another wherein he was not If he be always fixed in one part of the Heavens such a notion would render him little better than a living Statue * Hornheck Soun Part 1. p. 303. If he be in the whole Heaven why cannot his Essence possess a greater space than the whole Heavens which are so vast How comes he to be confin'd within the compass of that since the whole Heaven compasseth the Earth If he be in the whole Heaven he is in places farther distant one from another than any part of the Earth can be from the Heavens since the Earth is like a Center in the midst of a Circle it must be nearer to every part of the Circle than some parts of the Circle can be to one another If therefore his Essence possesses the whole Heavens no reason can be render'd why he doth not also possess the Earth since also the Earth is but a little point in comparison of the vastness of the Heavens If therefore he be in every part of the Heavens why not in every part of the Earth The Scripture is plain Psal 139.7.8 9. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit Or whither shall I flie from thy Presence If I ascend up to Heaven thou art there If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall uphold me If he be in Heaven Earth Hell Sea he fills all places with his Presence his Presence is here asserted in places the most distant from one another all the places then between Heaven and Earth are possessed by his Presence 'T is not meant of his Knowledge for that the Psalmist had spoken of before ver 2.3 Thou understandest my thoughts afar off thou art acquainted with all my ways Besides Thou art there not thy wisdom or knowledge but Thou thy Essence not only thy Vertue For having before spoken of his Omniscience he proves that such Knowledg could not be in God unless he were present in his Essence in all places so as to be excluded from none He fills the depths of Hell the extension of the Earth and the heights of the Heavens When the Scripture mentions the Power of God only it expresseth it by Hand or Arm but when it mentions the Spirit of God and doth not intend the Third Person in the Trinity it signifies the Nature and Essence of God And so here when he saith Whither shall I go from thy Spirit he adds exegetically Whither shall I flie from thy Presence or Heb. Face and the Face of God in Scripture signifies the Essence of God †Exod 33.20.23 Thou canst not see my face and my face shall not be seen the effects of his Power Wisdom Providence are seen which are his Back-parts but not his face The effects of his Power and Wisdom are seen in the World but his Essence is invisible and this the Psalmist elegantly expresseth Had I Wings endued with as much quickness as the first Dawnings of the morning light or the first darts of any Sun-beam that spreads its self through the Hemisphere and passes many Miles in as short a space as I can think a Thought I should find thy presence in all places before me and could not flie out of the infinite
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
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
Shall we take only here with a limitation as some that are no Friends to the Deity of Christ would and say God only knows the hearts of men from himself and by his own infinite vertue Why may we not take only in other places with a limitation and make nonsence of it as Psal 86.10 Thou art God alone Is it to be understood that God is God alone from himself but other Gods may be made by him and so there may be numberless infinites As God is God alone so that none can be God but himself so he alone knows all the hearts Of all the Children of men and none but he can know them this knowledg is from his nature Placaeus de deitate Christi The reason why God knows the hearts of men is rendered in the Scripture double because he created them and because he is present every where Psal 33.13 15. these two are by the Confession of Christians and Pagans universally received as the proper Characters of Divinity whereby the Deity is distinguish'd from all Creatures Now when Christ ascribes this to himself and that with such an Emphasis that nothing greater than that could be urg'd as he doth Rev. 2.23 we must conclude that he is of the same Essence with God one with him in his Nature as well as one with him in his Attributes God only knows the hearts of the Children of men there is the unity of God Christ searches the Hearts and Reins there is a distinction of Persons in an oneness of essence he knows the hearts of all men not only of those that were with him in the time of the Flesh that have been and shall be since his Ascension but of those that lived and died before his coming because he is to be the Judg of all that lived before his humiliation on earth as well as after his exaltation in Heaven It pertains to him as a Judg to know distinctly the merits of the Cause of which he is to Judg and this excellency of searching the hearts is mention'd by himself with relation to his judicial Proceeding I will give to every one of you according to your Works And tho' a Creature may know what is in a mans heart if it be revealed to him yet such a knowledg is a knowledg only by report not by inspection yet this latter is ascrib'd to Christ John 2.24.25 he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man for he knew what was in man he looked into their hearts The Evangelist to allay the amazement of men at his relation of our Saviours knowledg of the inward falsity of those that made a splendid Profession of him doth not say the Father revealed it to him but intimates it to be an unseparable Property of his nature No covering was so thick as to bound his eye no pretence so glittering as to impose upon his understanding Those that made a Profession of him and could not be discerned by the eye of man from his faithfullest Attendants were in their inside known to him plainer than their outside was to others and therefore he committed not himself to them tho' they seemed to be perswaded to a real belief in his name because of the Power of his Miracles and were touched with an admiration of him as some great Prophet and perhaps declared him to be the Messiah ver 23. 4. He had a foreknowledg of the particular inclinations of men before those distinct inclinations were in actual Being in them This is plainly asserted John 6.64 but there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him When Christ assured them from the knowledg of the hearts of his followers that some of them were void of that Faith they profest The Evangelist to stop their amazement that Christ should have such a power and vertue adds that he knew from the beginning that he had not only a present knowledg but a foreknowledg of every ones inclination he knew not only now and then what was in the Hearts of his Disciples but from the beginning of any ones giving up their Names to him he knew whether it were a pretence or sincere he knew who should betray him and there was no mans inward affection but was foreseen by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the beginning whether we understand it from the beginning of the World as when Christ saith concerning Divorces from the beginning it was not so that is from the beginning of the World from the beginning of the Law of Nature or from the beginning of their attending him as it is taken Luke 1.2 he had a certain prescience of the inward dispositions of mens hearts and their succeeding sentiments he foreknew the treacherous heart of Judas in the midst of his splendid Profession and discern'd his resolution in the root and his thought in the confus'd Chaos of his natural corruption he knew how it would spring up before it did spring up before Judas had any distinct and formal conception of it himself or before there was any actual preparation to a resolve Peters denyal was not unknown to him when Peter had a present resolution and no question spake it in the present sincerity of his Soul never to forsake him he foreknew what would be the result of that Poyson which lurkt in Peters nature before Peter himself imagin'd any thing of it he discern'd Peters Apostatizing heart when Peter resolved the contrary our Saviours Prediction was accomplisht and Peters valiant resolution languisht into Cowardice Shall we then conclude our Blessed Saviour a Creature who perfectly and only knew the Father who knew all Creatures who had all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg who knew the inward motions of mens hearts by his own Vertue and had not only a present Knowledg but a Prescience of them Inform. 2. The second Instruction from this position That God hath an infinite Knowledg and Understanding Then there is a Providence exercis'd by God in the World and that about every thing As Providence infers Omniscience as the guide of it so Omniscience infers Providence as the end of it What Exercise would there be of this Attribute but in the Government of the World To this this infinite Perfection refers Jer. 17.10 I the Lord search the heart I try the Reins to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings He searches the heart to reward he rewards every man according to the rewardableness of his actions his Government therefore extends to every man in the World there is no heart but he searches therefore no heart but he governs to what purpose else would be this Knowledg of all his Creatures for a meer Contemplation of them no What pleasure can that be to God who knows himself who is infinitely more excellent than all his Creatures Doth he know them to neglect all care
and Pagan Oracles gained so much Credit upon this Foundation were they established and the Enemies of Mankind owned for a true God I say from the Prediction of future things tho' their Oracles were often ambiguous many times false yet those poor Heathens framed many ingenious excuses to free their Adored Gods from the charge of falsity and imposture And shall we not adore the true God the God of Israel the God Blessed for ever for this incommunicable Property whereby he flies above the Wings of the Wind the understandings of men and Cherubims Sabund Theol. natural Tit. 84. somewhat changed Consider how great it is to know the Thoughts and Intentions and Works of one man from the beginning to the end of his life to foreknow all these before the Being of this man when he was lodged afar off in the Loyns of his Ancestors yea of Adam how much greater is it to foreknow and know the Thoughts and Works of three or four men of a whole Village or Neighbourhood 'T is greater still to know the imaginations and actions of such a multitude of men as are contained in London Paris or Constantinople how much greater still to know the intentions and practises the clandestine contrivances of so many Millions that have do or shall swarm in all quarters of the World every person of them having Millions of Thoughts Desires Designs Affections and Actions Let this Attribute then make the Blessed God honourable in our eyes and adorable in all our affections especially since it is an Excellency which hath so lately discovered it self in bringing to Light the hidden things of darkness in opening and in part confounding the wicked Devices of Bloody men Especially let us adore God for it and admire it in God since it is so necessary a Perfection that without it the goodness of God had been impotent and could not have relieved us for what help can a distressed person expect from a man of the sweetest disposition and the strongest arm if the eyes which should discover the danger and direct the defence and rescue were closed up by blindness and darkness Adore God for this wonderful Perfection 7. In the consideration of this excellent Attribute what low thoughts should we have of our own knowledg and how humble ought we to be before God There 's nothing man is more apt to be proud of than his Knowledg 't is a Perfection he glories in but if our own Knowledg of the little outside and barks of things puffs us up the consideration of the infiniteness of Gods Knowledg should abate the Tumor As our Beings are nothing in regard to the infiniteness of his Essence so our Knowledg is nothing in regard of the vastness of his understanding We have a spark of Being but nothing to the heat of the Sun We have a drop of Knowledg but nothing to the Divine Ocean What a vain thing is it for a shallow Brook to boast of its Streams before a Sea whose depths are unfathomable As it is a vanity to brag of our Strength when we remember the Power of God and of our Prudence when we glance upon the Wisdom of God so 't is no less a vanity to boast of our Knowledg when we think of the Understanding and Knowledg of God How hard is it for us to know any thing Pascall p. 17â— too much noise deafs us and too much light dazels us too much distance alienates the object from us and too much nearness bars up our sight from beholding it When we think our selves to be near the knowledg of a thing as a Ship to the Haven a puff of Wind blows us away and the object which we desired to know eternally flies from us we burn with a desire of knowledg and yet are opprest with the darkness of ignorance we spend our days more in dark Egypt than in enlightened Goshen In what narrow bounds is all the knowledg of the most intelligent persons included Amyrant de praedest p. 116. 117. somewhat changed How few understand the exact Harmony of their own bodies the nature of the life they have in common with other Animals who understands the nature of his own faculties how he Knows and how he Wills how the Understanding Proposeth and how the Will embraceth how his spiritual Soul is united to his material Body what the nature is of the operation of our Spirits nay who understands the nature of his own body the offices of his sences the motion of his Members how they come to obey the command of the Will and a Thousand other things What a vain weak and ignorant thing is man when compar'd with God yet there is not a greater Pride to be found among Devils than among ignorant men with a little very little flashy knowledg Ignorant man is as proud as if he knew as God! As the consideration of Gods Omniscience should render him honourable in our eyes so it should render us vile in our own God because of his knowledg is so far from disdaining his Creatures that his Omniscience is a Minister to his Goodness No knowledg that we are possess'd of should make us swell with too high a conceit of our selves and a disdain of others We have infinitely more of ignorance than knowledg Let us therefore remember in all our thoughts of God that he is God and we are men and therefore ought to be humble as becomes men and ignorant and foolish men to be as weak Creatures should lie low before an Almighty God and impure Creatures before a Holy God false Creatures before a Faithful God finite Creatures before an Infinite God so should ignorant Creatures before an All-Knowing God All Gods Attributes teach admiring thoughts of God and low thoughts of our selves 8. It may inform us how much this Attribute is injured in the World The first error after Adams eating the forbidden Fruit was the denyal of this as well as the Omnipresence of God Gen. 3.10 I heard thy voice in the Garden and I hid my self as if the thickness of the Trees could screen him from the eye of his Creator And after Cains Murder this is the first Perfection he affronts Gen. 4.9 Where is Abel thy Brother saith God How roundly doth he answer I know not as if God were as weak as man to be put off with a Lye Man doth as naturally hate this Perfection as much as he cannot naturally but acknowledg it he wishes God stript of this eminency that he might be incapable to be an inspector of his Crimes and a searcher of the Closets of his heart In wishing him deprived of this there is a hatred of God himself for it is a loathing an Essential Property of God without which he would be a pitiful Governor of the World What a kind of God should that be of a Sinners wishing that had wanted Eyes to see a Crime and Righteousness to punish it The want of the consideration of this Attribute is
him through the universal Corruption of Nature Now he hath manifested himself a God of Truth mindful of his Promise in Blessing all Nations in the Seed of Abraham The Fury of Devils and the Violence of Men could not hinder the propagation of this Gospel Its Light hath been dispersed as far as that of the Sun and that Grace that sounded in the Gentiles Ears hath bent many of their Hearts to the Obedience of it 5. Observe That Libertinism and Licentiousness find no encouragement in the Gospel It was made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith The Goodness of God is publish'd that our Enmity to him may be parted with Christs Righteousness is not offered to us to be put on that we may roul more warmly in our Lusts The Doctrine of Grace commands us to give up our selves to Christ to be accepted through him and to be ruled by him Obedience is due to God as a Soveraign Lord in his Law and 't is due out of gratitude as he is a God of Grace in the Gospel The discovery of a further perfection in God weakens not the right of another nor the obligation of the Duty the former Attribute claims at our hands The Gospel frees us from the Curse but not from the Duty and Service We are delivered from the hands of our Enemies that we might serve God in Holiness and Righteousness Luke 1.74 This is the will of God in the Gospel even our Sanctification When a Prince strikes off a Malefactors Chains though he deliver him from the punishment of his Crime he frees him not from the Duty of a Subject His Pardon adds a greater obligation than his Protection did before while he was Loyal Christs Righteousness gives us a Title to Heaven but there must be a Holiness to give us a fitness for Heaven 6. Observe That Evangelical Obedience or the Obedience of Faith is only acceptable to God Obedience of Faith Genitivus speciei noting the kind of Obedience God requires an Obedience springing from Faith animated and influenced by Faith Not Obedience of Faith as though Faith were the Rule and the Law were abrogated but to the Law as a Rule and from Faith as a Principle There is no true Obedience before Faith Heb. 11.6 Without Faith it is impossible to please God and therefore without Faith impossible to obey him A good Work cannot proceed from a defil'd Mind and Conscience and without Faith every mans Mind is darkned and his Conscience polluted * Tit. 1.15 Faith is the Band of Union to Christ and Obedience is the Fruit of Union we cannot bring forth fruit without being Branches †John 15.4 5. and we cannot be Branches without Believing Legitimate Fruit follows upon Marriage to Christ not before it Rom. 7.4 That you should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead that you should bring forth fruit unto God All Fruit before Marriage is Bastard and Bastards were excluded from the Sanctuary Our Persons must be first accepted in Christ before our Services can be acceptable those Works are not acceptable where the Person is not pardoned Good Works flow from a pure Heart but the Heart cannot be pure before Faith All the Good Works reckoned up in the 11th Chapter of the Hebrews were from this Spring those Heroes first believed and then obeyed By Faith Abel was righteous before God without it his Sacrifice had been no better than Cains By Faith Enoch pleased God and had a Divine Testimony to his Obedience before his Translation By Faith Abraham offered up Isaac without which he had been no better than a Murderer All Obedience hath its Root in Faith and is not done in our own strength but in the strength and virtue of another of Christ whom God hath set forth as our Head and Root 7. Observe Faith and Obedience are distinct though inseparable The Obedience of Faith Faith indeed is Obedience to a Gospel Command which enjoyns us to believe but it is not all our Obedience Justification and Sanctification are distinct Acts of God Justification respects the Person Sanctification the Nature Justification is first in order of Nature and Sanctification follows They are distinct but inseparable every Justified Person hath a Sanctified Nature and every Sanctified Nature supposeth a Justified Person So Faith and Obedience are distinct Faith as the Principle Obedience as the Product Faith as the Cause Obedience as the Effect the Cause and the Effect are not the same By Faith we own Christ as our Lord by Obedience we regulate our selves according to his Command The acceptance of the Relation to him as a Subject precedes the performance of our Duty By Faith we receive his Law and by Obedience we fulfil it Faith makes us Gods Children Gal. 3.26 Obedience manifests us to be Christs Disciples John 15.8 Faith is the Touchstone of Obedience the Touchstone and that which is tried by it are not the same But though they are distinct yet they are inseparable Faith and Obedience are joyned together Obedience follows Faith at the heels Faith purifies the heart and a pure Heart cannot be without pure Actions Faith unites us to Christ whereby we partake of his Liâ—e and a living Branch cannot be without fruit in its season and much fruit John 15.5 and that naturally from a newness of Spirit Rom. 7.9 not constrained by the rigors of the Law but drawn forth from a sweetness of Love for Faith works by Love The Love of God is the strong Motive and Love to God is the quickning Principle as there can be no Obedience without Faith so no Faith without Obedience After all this the Apostle ends with the celebration of the Wisdom of God To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever The rich Discovery of the Gospel cannot be thought of by a gracious Soul without a return of Praise to God and Admiration of his singular Wisdom Wise God His Power before and his Wisdom here are mentioned in conjunction in which his Goodness is included as interested in his establishing Power as the ground of all the Glory and Praise God hath from his Creatures Only Wise As Christ saith Mat. 19.17 None is good but God so the Apostle saith None Wise but God As all Creatures are unclean in regard of his Purity so they are all Fools in regard of his Wisdom yea the glorious Angels themselves * Job 4.18 Wisdom is the Royalty of God the proper Dialect of all his Ways and Works No Creature can lay claim to it He is so Wise that he is Wisdom it self Be glory through Jesus Christ As God is only known in and by Christ so he must be only worshipped and celebrated in and through Christ In him we must Pray to him and in him we must Praise him As all Mercies flow from God through Christ to us so all our Duties are to be presented to God through Christ In the Greek verbatim
might be ordered as an Answer to his former Petition Psal 19.12 Cleanse thou me from my secret sins and as he did earnestly pray after his Fall so no doubt but he endeavour'd a thorough Sanctification Psal 51.7 Purge me wash me and that he meant not only a Sanctification from that single Sin but from all Root and Branch is evident by that Complaint of the slaw in his Nature verse 5. the Dross and Chaff which lies in the heart is hereby discovered and an opportunity administred of throwing it out and searching all the corners of the Heart to discover where it lay As God sometimes takes occasion from one Sin to reckon with Men in a way of Justice for others so he sometimes takes occasion from the commission of one Sin to bring out all the actions against the Sinner to make him in a way of gracious Wisdom set more cordially upon the work of Sanctification A great Fall sometimes hath been the occasion of a Mans Conversion The Fall of Mankind occasioned a more blessed Restoration and the Falls of particular Believers ofttimes occasion a more extensive Sanctification Thus the only Wise God makes poysons in Nature to become Medicines in a way of Grace and Wisdom 5. Hereby the growth in Grace is furthered 'T is a wonder of Divine Wisdom to substract sometimes his Grace from a Person and let him fall into Sin thereby to occasion the increase of habitual Grace in him and to augment it by those ways that seem'd to depress it By making Sins an occasion of a more vigorous acting the contrary Grace the Wisdom of God makes our Corruptions in their own nature destructive to become profitable to us Grace often breaks out more strongly afterwards as the Sun doth with its heat after it hath been mask'd and interrupted with a Mist They often through the mighty working of the Spirit make us more humble and Humility fits us to receive more Grace from God †James 4.6 How doth Faith that sunk under the Waves lift up its head again and carry the Soul out with a greater liveliness What ardours of Love what flouds of Repenting Tears what severity of Revenge what horrours at the remembrance of the Sin what Tremblings at the appearance of a second Temptation So that Grace seems to be be awaken'd to a new and more vigorous life ‖ 2 Cor. 7.11 The broken Joynt is many times stronger in the Rupture than it was before The Luxuriancy of the Branches of Corruption is an occasion of purging and purging is with a design to make Grace more fruitful John 15.2 He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Thus Divine Wisdom doth both sharpen and brighten us by the dust of Sin and ripen and mellow the fruits of Grace by the dung of Corruption Grace grows the stronger by opposition as the Fire burns hottest and clearest when it is most surrounded by a cold Air and our Natural heat reassumes a new strength by the coldness of the Winter The foyl under a Diamond though an imperfection in it self increaseth the beauty and lustre of the Stone The Enmity of Man was a commendation of the Grace of God It occasioned the breaking out of the Grace of God upon us and is an occasion by the Wisdom and Grace of God of the increase of Grace many times in us How should the Consideration of Gods Incomprhensible Wisdom in the management of Evil swallow us up in Admiration who brings forth such beauty such eminent Discoveries of himself such excellent good to the Creature out of the bowels of the greatest Contrarieties making dark Shadows serve to display and beautisie to our Apprehensions the Divine Glory If Evil were not in the World Men would not know what Good is They would not behold the lustre of Divine Wisdom as without Night we could not understand the beauty of the Day Though God is not the Author of Sin because of his Holiness yet he is the Administrator of Sin by his Wisdom and accomplisheth his own Purposes by the Iniquities of his Enemies and the Lapses and Infirmities of his Friends Thus much for the Second The Government of Man in his Lapsed state and the Government of Sin wherein the Wisdom of God doth wonderfully appear III. The Wisdom of God appears in the Government of Man in his Conversion and Return to him If there be a Counsel in framing the lowest Creature and in the minutest passages of Providence there must needs be a higher Wisdom in the government of the Creature to a Supernatural End and framing the Soul to be a monument of his Glory The Wisdom of God is seen with more Admirations and in more varieties by the Angels in the Church than in the Creation * Eph. 3.10 that is in forming a Church out of the Rubbish of the World out of Contrarieties and Contradictions to him which is greater than the framing a Celestial and Elementary World out of a rude Chaos The most glorious Bodies in the World even those of the Sun Moon and Stars have not such stamps of Divine Skill upon them as the Soul of Man nor is there so much of Wisdom in the Fabrick and Faculties of that as in the reduction of a blind wilful rebellious Soul to its own happiness and Gods glory Eph. 1.11 12. He worketh all things according to the counsel of his own Will that we should be for the praise of his glory If all things then this which is none of the least of his works To the praise of the glory of his Goodness in his work and to the praise of the Rule of his work his Counsel in both the act of his Will and the act of his Wisdom The restoring of the Beauty of the Soul and its fitness for its true end speaks no less Wisdom than the first draught of it in Creation And the application of Redemption and bringing forth the fruits of it is as well an act of his Prudence as the contrivance was of his Counsel Divine Wisdom appears First In the Subjects of Conversion His Goodness reigns in the very Dust and he erects the Walls and Ornaments of his Temple from the Clay and Mud of the World He passes over the Wise and Noble and Mighty that may pretend some grounds of boasting in their own natural or acquired Endowments and pitches upon the most contemptible Materials wherewith to build a Spiritual Tabernacle for himself 1 Cor. 1.26 27. The foolish and weak things of the World those that are naturally most unfit for it and most refractory to it Herein lies the Skill of an Architect to render the most knotty crooked and inform Pieces by his Art subservient to his main purpose and design Thus God hath ordered from the beginning of the World contrary Tempers various Humors diverse Nations as Stones of several Natures to be a Building for himself fitly framed together and to be his own Family †1 Cor. 3.7 Who will
Will as a Natural Faculty concurs in the act or motion God doth not act in this in a way of Absolute Power without an Infinite Wisdom suting himself to the Nature of the things he acts upon He doth not change the Physical Nature though he doth the Moral As in the Government of the World he doth not make heavy things ascend nor light things descend ordinarily but guides their Motions according to their Natural qualities So God doth not strain the Faculties beyond their due pitch He lets the nature of the Faculty remain but changes the Principle in it The Understanding remains Understanding and the Will remains Will. But where there was before Folly in the Understanding he puts in a Spirit of Wisdom and where there was before a stoutness in the Will he forms it to a pliableness to his offers He hath a Key to fit every Ward in the Lock and opens the Will without injuring the Nature of the Will He doth not change the Soul by an alteration of the Faculties but by an alteration of something in them Not by an Inroad upon them or by meer power or a blind Instinct but by proposing to the Understanding something to be known and informing it of the Reasonableness of his Precepts and the Innate goodness and excellency of his Offers and by inclining the Will to love and embrace what is proposed And things are propos'd under those Notions which usually move our Wills and Affections We are moved by things as they are good pleasant profitable we entertain things as they make for us and detest things as they are contrary to us Nothing affects us but under such qualities and God sutes his Encouragements to these Natural Affections which are in us His Power and Wisdom go hand in hand together his Power to act what his Wisdom orders and his Wisdom to conduct what his Power executes He brings Men to him in ways suted to their Natural dispositions The stubborn he tears like a Lion the gentle he wins like a Turtle by sweetness he hath a Hammer to break the stout and a Cord of Love to draw the more pliable Tempers He works upon the more Rational in a way of Gospel Reason upon the more Ingenuous in a way of kindness and draws them by the Cords of Love The Wise-men were led to Christ by a Star and Means suted to the knowledge and study that those Eastern Nations used which was much in Astronomy He worketh upon others by Miracles accommodated to every ones sense and so proportions the Means according to the Nature of the Subjects he works upon 4. The Wisdom of God is apparent in his Discipline and Penal Evils The Wisdom of Human Governments is seen in the matter of their Laws and in the Penalties of their Laws and in the proportion of the Punishment to the Offence and in the good that redounds from the Punishment either to the Offender or to the Community The Wisdom of God is seen in the Penalty of Death upon the Transgression of his Law both in that it was the greatest Evil that Man might fear and so was a convenient means to keep him in his due bound and also in the proportion of it to the Transgression Nothing less could be in a Wise Justice inflicted upon an Offender for a Crime against the highest Being and the Supream Excellency But this hath been spoken of before in the Wisdom of his Laws I shall only mention some few it would be too tedious to run into all 1. His Wisdom appears in Judgments in the suting them to the qualities of Persons and nature of Sins He deviseth evil Jer. 18.11 his Judgments are fruits of Counsel He also is wise and will bring Evil Isai 31.2 Evil sutable to the Person offending and Evil sutable to the Offence committed As the Husbandman doth his Threshing Instruments to the Grain He hath a Rod for the Cummin a tenderer Seed and a Flayl for the harder so hath God greater Judgments for the obdurate Sinner and lighter for those that have something of tenderness in their Wickedness Isai 28.27 29. Because he is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working so Some understand the place With the froward he will shew himself froward He proportions punishment to the Sin and writes the cause of the Judgment in the Forehead of the Judgment it self Sodom burned in Lust and was consumed by Fire from Heaven The Jews sold Christ for Thirty pence and at the Taking of Jerusalem Thirty of them were sold for a Penny So Adonibezek Cut off the Thumbs and great Toes of others and he is served in the same kind Judg. 1.7 The Babel Builders design'd an indissoluble union and God brings upon them an unintelligible Confusion And in Exod. 9.9 the Ashes of the Furnace where the Israelites burnt the Egyptian Bricks sprinkled towards Heaven brought Boyls upon the Egyptian Bodies that they might feel in their own what Pain they had caused in the Israelites flesh and find by the smart of the inflamed Scab what they had made the Israelites endure The Waters of the River Nilus are turned into Blood wherein they had stifled the breath of the Israelites Infants And at last the Prince and the flower of their Nobility are drowned in the Red Sea 'T is part of the Wisdom of Justice to proportion punishment to the Crime and the degrees of Wrath to the degrees of Malice in the Sin Afflictions also are wisely proportion'd God as a wise Physician considers the nature of the humor and strength of the Patient and sutes his Medicines both to the one and the other 1 Cor. 10.13 2. In the seasons of Punishments and Afflictions He stays till Sin be ripe that his Justice may appear more equitable and the Offender more inexcusable Dan. 9.14 he watches upon the evil to bring it upon Men. To bring it in the just Season and order for his righteous and gracious Purpose his Righteous purpose on the Enemies and his Gracious purpose on his People Jerusalems Calamity came upon them when the City was full of People at the Solemnity of the Passover that he might Mow down his Enemies at once and Time their Destruction to such a moment wherein they had Timed the Crucifixion of his Son He watched over the Clouds of his Judgments and kept them from pouring down till his People the Christians were provided for and had departed out of the City to the Chambers and Retiring places God had provided for them He made not Jerusalem the Shambles of his Enemies till he had made Pella and other places the Arks of his Friends As Pliny tells us The Providence of God holds the Sea in a calm for fifteen days that the Halcyons little Birds that frequent the Shoar may build their Nests and hatch up their Young The Judgment upon Sodom was suspended for some hours till Lot was secured | Daille sur 1 Cor. 10. p. 390. God suffer'd not the Church to be Invaded
by the throng and his death hath brought a defeat to his Army and deliverance to the other Party that were upon the brink of ruine Thus doth the Wisdom of God link things together according to Natural order to work out his intended preservation of a People 2. In the season of Deliverance The Timing of Affairs is a part of the Wisdom of Man and an eminent part of the Wisdom of God It is in due season he sends the former and the latter Rain when the Earth is in the greatest Indigence and when his Influences may most contribute to the bringing forth and ripening the Fruit. The dumb Creatures have their meat from him in due season * Psal 104.27 And in his due season have his darling People their Deliverance When Paul was upon his Journey to Damascus with a Persecuting Commission he is struck down for the security of the Church in that City The Nature of the Lion is changed in due season for the preservation of the Lambs from worrying The Israelites are miraculously rescued from Egypt when their Wits were at a loss when their danger to Human understanding was unavoidable when Earth and Sea refus'd protection then the Wisdom and Power of Heaven stept in to effect that which was past the skill of the Conductors of that Multitude And when the Lives of the Jews lay at the stake and their Necks were upon the Block at the mercy of their Enemies Swords by an Order from Shushan not only a Reprieve but a Triumph arrives to the Jews by the Wisdom of God guiding the Affair whereby of Persons design'd to execution they are made Conquerors and have opportunity to exercise their Revenge instead of their Patience proving Triumphers where they expected to be Sufferers †Esih 8 9. How strangely doth God by secret ways bow the hearts of Men and the nature of things to the execution of that which he designs notwithstanding all the resistance of that which would traverse the security of his People How often doth he trap the wicked in the work of their own hands make their confidence to become their ruine and ensnare them in those Nets they wrought and laid for others Psal 9.16 The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands He scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts Luke 1.51 in the height of their hopes when their designs have been laid so deep in the Foundation and knit and cemented so close in their superstructure that no Human Power or Wisdom could raze them down He hath then disappointed their Projects and befool'd their Craft How often hath he kept back the Fire when it hath been ready to devour broke the Arrows when they have been prepared in the Bow turned the Spear into the bowels of the Bearers and wounded them at the very instant they were ready to wound others 3. In suting Instruments to his purpose He either finds them sit or makes them on a suddain fit for his gracious ends If he hath a Tabernacle to build he will sit a Bezaleel and an Aholiab with the Spirit of wisdom and Understanding in all cunning workmanship Exod. 31.3 6. If he finds them crooked pieces he can like a wise Architect make them strait Beams for the rearing his House and for the honour of his Name He sometimes picks out men according to their natural Tempers and employs them in his Work Jehu a man of a furious Temper and ambitious Spirit is called out for the destruction of Ahab's House Moses a man furnisht with all Egyptian wisdom fitted by a generous Education prepared also by the Affliction he met with in his flight and one who had had the benefit of conversation with Jethro a man of more than an ordinary wisdom and goodness as appears by his prudent and religious Counsel this man is called out to be the Head and Captain of an opprest People and to rescue them from their Bondage and settle the first National Church in the World So Elijah a high spirited man of a hot and angry temper one that sl ghted the Frowns and undervalued the Favour of Princes is set up to stem the Torrent of the Israelitish Idolatry So Luther a man of the same temper is drawn out by the same Wisdom to encounter the Corruptions in the Church against such Opposition which a milder Temper would have sunâ— under The Earth in Rev. 12.16 is made an Instrument to help the woman When the Grandees of that Age transferred the Imperial Power upon Constantine who became afterwards a protecting and nursing Father to the Church a thnig end which many of his Favourers never design'd nor ever dreamt of But God by his infinite Wisdom made these several Designs like several Arrows shot at Rovers meet in one Mark to which he directed them viz. in bringing forth an Instrument to render Peace to the World and Security and Increase to his Church 3. The wisdom of God doth wonderfully appear in Redemption His wisdom in Creation ravisheth the Eye and Understanding his wisdom in Government doth no less affect a curious Observer of the Links and Concatenation of the Means but his wisdom in Redemption mounts the Mind to a greater astonishment The works of Creation are the Footsteps of his wisdom the work of Redâ—mption is the Face of his wisdom A man is better known by the Features of his Face than by the Prints of his Feet We with open face or a revealed face beholding the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Face there refers to God not to us the glory of God's wisdom is now open and no longer covered and vailed by the shadows of the Law As we behold the Light glorious as scattered in the Air before the appearance of the Sun but more gloriously in the Face of the Sun when it begins its Race in our Horizon All the wisdom of God in Creation and Government in his variety of Laws was like the light the three first days of the Creation disperst about the World but the fourth day it was more glorious when all gathered into the Body of the Sun Gen. 1.4 16. So the Light of Divine wisdom and glory was scattered about the World and so more obscure till the fourth Divine day of the World about the four thousandth year it was gathered into one Body the Sun of Righteousness and so shone out more gloriously to Men and Angels All things are weaker the thinner they are extended but stronger the more they are united and compacted in one Body and Appearance In Christ in the dispensation by him as well as in his Person were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Coloss 2.3 Some Doles of wisdom were given out in Creation but the Treasures of it opened in Redemption the highest degrees of it that ever God did exert in the World Christ is therefore called the wisdom of God as well as the power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 and the Gospel is called
the wisdom of God Christ is the wisdom of God principally and the Gospel instrumentally as it is the power of God instrumentally to subdue the heart to himself This is wrapped up in the appointing Christ as Redeemer and open'd to us in the revelation of it by the Gospel 1. It is a hidden wisdom In this regard God is said in the Text to be only wise and it is said to be a hidden wisdom 1 Tim. 1.17 and wisdom in a mystery 1 Cor. 2.7 incomprehensible to the ordinary Capacity of an Angel more than the abstruse qualities of the Creatures are to the understanding of man No wisdom of Men or Angels is able to search all the Veins of this Mine to tell all the threds of this Web or to understand the lustre of it they are as far from an ability fully to comprehend it as they were at first to contrive it That wisdom that invented it can only comprehend it In the uncreated Understanding only there is a clearness of light without any shadow of darkness We come as short of full apprehensions of it as a Child doth of the Counsel of the wisest Prince It is so hidden from us that without Revelation we could not have the least imagination of it and though it be revealed to us yet without the help of an Infiniteness of Understanding we cannot fully fathom it 'T is such a tractate of Divine wisdom that the Angels never before had seen the Edition of it till it was publish'd to the World Eph. 3.10 To the intent that now unto Principalities and Powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Now made known to them not before and now made known to them in the heavenly places They had not the knowledge of all heavenly Mysteries though they had the possession of heavenly Glory They knew the Prophecies of it in the Word but attained not a clear Interpretation of those Prophecies till the things that were prophecied of came upon the Stage 2. Manifold wisdom So 't is called As manifold as mysterious Variety in the Mystery and Mystery in every part of the Variety It was not one single act but a variety of Counsels met in it a conjunction of excellent ends and excellent means The glory of God the salvation of Man the defeat of the Apostate Angels the discovery of the blessed Trinity in their Nature Operations their combin'd and distinct Acts and Expressions of Goodness The means are the conjunction of two Natures infinitely distant from one another the union of Eternity and Time of Mortality and Immortality Death is made the way to Life and Shame the path to Glory The weakness of the Cross is the reparation of man and the Creature is made wise by the foolishness of preaching fallen man grows rich by the poverty of the Redeemer and man is filled by the emptiness of God The Heir of Hell made a Son of God by God's taking upon him the form of a Servant the Son of Man advanc'd to the highest degree of Honour by the Son of God becoming of no reputation 'T is called Eph. 1.8 abundance of wisdom and prudence Wisdom in the Eternal Counsel contriving a way Prudence in the Temporary Revelation ordering all Affairs and Occurrences in the World for the attaining the end of his Counsel Wisdom refers to the Mystery Prudence to the manifestation of it in fit ways and convenient seasons Wisdom to the contrivance and order Prudence to the execution and accomplishment In all things God acted as became him as a wise and just Governour of the World Heb. 2.10 Whether the wisdom of God might not have found out some other way or whether he were in regard of the necessity and naturalness of his Justice limited to this is not the question But that it is the best and wisest way for the manifestation of his glory is out of question This wisdom will appear in the different Interests reconciled by it In the Subject the second Person in the Trinity wherein they were reconciled In the two Natures wherein he accomplish'd it whereby God is made known to man in his Glory Sin eternally condemned and the repenting and believing sinner eternally rescued The honour and righteousness of the Law vindicated both in the Precept and Penalty The Devil's Empire overthrown by the same Nature he had overturned and the Subtilty of Hell defeated by that Nature he had spoiled The Creature engaged in the very act to the highest Obedience and Humility that as God appears as a God upon his Throne the Creature might appear in the lowest posture of a Creature in the depths of resignation and dependance the publication of this made in the Gospel by ways congruous to the wisdom which appeared in the execution of his Counsel and the Conditions of enjoying the fruit of it most wise and resonable 1. The greatest different Interests are reconcil'd Justice in punishing and Mercy in pardoning For man had broken the Law and plung'd himself into a Gulf of Misery The Sword of Vengeance was unsheathed by Justice for the punishment of the Criminal The Bowels of Compassion were stirred by Mercy for the rescue of the Miserable Justice severely beholds the Sin and Mercy compassionately reflects upon the Misery Two different claims are entred by those concerned Attributes Justice votes for Destruction and Mercy votes for Salvation Justice would draw the Sword and drench it in the blood of the Offender Mercy would stop the Sword and turn it from the breast of the Sinner Justice would edge it and Mercy would blunt it The Arguments are strong on both sides 1. Justice pleads I Arraign before thy Tribunal a Rebel who was the glorious Work of thy Hands the Center of thy rich Goodness and a Counterpart of thy own Image he is indeed miserable whereby to excite thy Compassion but he is not miserable without being Criminal Thou didst create him in a state and with ability to be otherwise The riches of thy Bounty aggravate the blackness of his Crime He is a Rebel not by necessity but will What constraint was there upon him to listen to the Counsels of the Enemy of God What force could there be upon him since it is without the compass of any Creature to work upon or constrain the Will Nothing of Ignorance can excuse him the Law was not ambiguously express'd but in plain words both as to Precept and Penalty it was writ in his Nature in legible Characters Had he received any disgust from thee after his Creation it would not excuse his Apostacy since as a Soveraign thou wert not obliged to thy Creature Thou hadst provided all things richly for him he was crowned with glory and honour Thy infinite power had bestowed upon him an Habitation richly furnished and varieties of Servants to attend him Whatever he viewed without and whatever he viewed within himself were several Marks of thy Divine Bounty to engage him to Obedience Had
Man if he stand thy Bounty will be eminent yet there is no room for Mercy to act unless by the Commission of sin he exposeth himself to Misery and if sin enter into another World I have little hopes to be heard then if I am rejected now Worlds will be perpetually created by Goodness Wisdom and Power Sin entring into these Worlds will be perpetually punished by Justice and Mercy which is a Perfection of thy Nature will for ever be commanded silence and lye wrapt up in an eternal Darkness Take occasion now therefore to expose me to the knowledge of thy Creature since without Misery Mercy can never set foot into the World Mercy pleads if man be ruined the Creation is in vain Justice pleads if man be not sentenced the Law is in vain Truth backs Justice and Grace abets Mercy What shall be done in this seeming Contradiction Mercy is not manifested if man be not pardoned Justice will complain if man be not punished 3. An expedient is found out by the wisdom of God to answer these Demands and adjust the Differences between them The wisdom of God answers I will satisfie your Pleas. The Pleas of Justice shall be satisfied in punishing and the Pleas of Mercy shall be received in pardoning Justice shall not complain for want of Punishment nor Mercy for want of Compassion I will have an infinite Sacrifice to content Justice and the Vertue and Fruit of that Sacrifice shall delight Mercy Here shall Justice have punishment to accept and Mercy shall have Pardon to bestow The Rights of both are preserved and the Demands of both amicably accorded in punishment and pardon by transferring the punishment of our Crimes upon a Surety exacting a Recompence from his Blood by Justice and conferring life and salvation upon us by Mercy without the expence of one drop of our own Thus is Justice satisfied in its Severities and Mercy in its Indulgences The riches of Grace are twisted with the terrors of Wrath. The bowels of Mercy are wound about the flaming Sword of Justice and the Sword of Justice protects and secures the bowels of Mercy Thus is God righteous without being cruel and merciful without being unjust his Righteousness inviolable and the World recoverable Thus is a resplendent Mercy brought forth in the midst of all the Curses Confusions and Wrath threatned to the Offender This is the admirable temperament found out by the wisdom of God His Justice is honoured in the Sufferings of Man's Surety and his Mercy is honoured in the application of the Propitiation to the Offender Rom. 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Had we in our Persons been Sacrifices to Justice Mercy had for ever been unknown had we been solely fostered by Mercy Justice had for ever been secluded had we being guilty been absolved Mercy might have rejoyced and Justice might have complained had we been solely punished Justice would have triumphed and Mercy grieved But by this medium of Redemption neither hath ground of Complaint Justice hath nothing to charge when the Punishment is inflicted Mercy hath whereof to boast when the Surety is accepted The Debt of the Sinner is transferred upon the Surety that the Merit of the Surety may be conferred upon the Sinner so that God now deals with our sins in a way of consuming Justice and with our Persons in a way of relieving Mercy 'T is highly better and more glorious than if the Claim of one had been granted with the exclusion of the Demand of the other It had then been either an unrighteous Mercy or a merciless Justice 'T is now a righteous Mercy and a merciful Justice 2. The Wisdom of God appears in the Subject or Person wherein these were accorded The second Person in the blessed Trinity There was a congruity in the Sons undertaking and effecting it rather than any other Person according to the order of the Persons and the several functions of the Persons as represented in Scripture The Father after Creation is the Law-giver and presents man with the Image of his own Holiness and the way to his Creatures happiness But after the Fall man was too impotent to perform the Law and too polluted to enjoy a Felicity Redemption was then necessary not that it was necessary for God to redeem man but it was necessary for man's happiness that he should be recovered To this the second Person is appointed that by Communion with him man might derive a happiness and be brought again to God But since man was blind in his Vnderstanding and an Enemy in his will to God there must be the exerting of a Vertue to enlighten his mind and bend his Will to understand and accept of this Redemption And this work is assigned to the third Person the Holy Ghost 1. It was not congruous that the Father should assume Human Nature and suffer in it for the Redemption of man He was first in order he was the Law-giver and therefore to be the Judge As Lawgiver it was not convenient he should stand in the stead of the Law-breaker and as Judge it was as little convenient he should be reputed a Malefactor That he who had made a Law against sin denounced a Penalty upon the commission of sin and whose part it was actually to punish the sinner should become sin for the wilful Transgressor of his Law He being the Rector how could he be an Advocate and Intercessor to himself How could he be the Judge and the Sacrifice A Judge and yet a Mediator to himself If he had been the Sacrifice there must be some Person to examine the validity of it and pronounce the Sentence of acceptance Was it agreeable that the Son should sit upon a Throne of Judgment and the Father stand at the Bar and be responsible to the Son That the Son should be in the place of a Governour and the Father in the place of the Criminal That the Father should be bruised * Isa 53.10 by the Son as the Son was by the Father †Zach. 13 70. that the Son should awaken a Sword against the Father as the Father did against the Son that the Father should be sent by the Son as the Son was by the Father * Gal. 4.4 The order of the Persons in the blessed Trinity had been inverted and disturbed Had the Father been sent he had not been first in order the Sender is before the Person sent As the Father begets and the Son is begotten Joh. 1.14 so the Father sends and the Son is sent He whose order is to send cannot properly send himself 2. Nor was it congruous that the Spirit should he sent upon this Affair If the Holy Ghost had been sent to redeem us and the Son to apply
that Redemption to us the order of the Persons had also been inverted The Spirit then who was third in order had been second in Operation The Son would then have received of the Spirit as the Spirit doth now of Christ and shew it unto us Joh. 1.15 As the Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son so the proper Function and Operation of it was in order alter the Operations of the Father and the Son Had the Spirit been sent to redeem us and the Son sent by the Father and the Spirit to apply that Redemption to us the Son in his acts had proceeded from the Father and the Spirit the Spirit as sender had been in order before the Son whereas the Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ as sent by Christ from the Father Gal. 4.6 Joh. 15.27 But as the order of the Works so the order of the Persons is preserved in their several Operations Creation and a Law to govern the Creature precedes Redemption Nothing or that which hath no being is not capable of a redeemed being Redemption supposeth the existence and the misery of a Person redeemed As Creation precedes Redemption so Redemption precedes the application of it As Redemption supposeth the being of the Creature so application of Redemption supposeth the efficacy of Redemption According to the order of these Works is the order of the Operations of the three Persons Creation belongs to the Father the first Person Redemption the second work is the Function of the Son the second Person Application the third work is the Office of the Holy Ghost the third Person The Father orders it the Son acts it the Holy Ghost applies it He purifies our Souls to understand believe and love these Mysteries He forms Christ in the womb of the Soul as he did the Body of Christ in the womb of the Virgin As the Spirit of God moved upon the waters to garnish and adorn the World after the Matter of it was formed Gen. 1.2 so he moves upon the heart to supple it to a complyance with Christ and draws the Lineaments of the new Creation in the Soul after the Foundation is laid The Son pays the price that was due from us to God and the Spirit is the earnest of the Promises of Life and Glory purchased by the Merit of that Death * Amyraâ—t Moral Tom. 5. p. 478 479 480. 'T is to be observed that the Father under the dispensation of the Law proposed the Commands with the Promises and Threatnings to the Understandings of Men and Christ under the dispensation of Grace when he was upon the Earth proposeth the Gospel as the Means of Salvation exhorts to Faith as the Condition of salvation but it was neither the Function of the one or the other to display such an efficacy in the Understanding and Will to make men believe and obey and therefore there were such few Conversions in the time of Christ by his Miracles But this work was reserved for the fuller and brighter appearance of the Spirit whose Office it was to convince the World of the necessity of a Redeemer because of their lost Condition of the Person of the Redeemer the Son of God of the sufficiency and efficacy of Redemption because of his righteousness and acceptation by the Father The Wisdom of God is seen in preparing and presenting the Objects and then in making impression of them upon the Subjects he intends And thus is the order of the three Persons preserved 2. The second Person had the greatest congruity to this work He by whom God created the World was most conveniently imployed in restoring the defaced World Who more fit to recover it from it s lapsed state John 1.4 than he that had erected it in its primitive state Hebr. 1.2 He was the light of men in Creation and therefore it was most reasonable he should be the light of men in Redemption Who sitter to reform the Divine Image than he that first formed it Who fitter to speak for us to God than he who was the Word Joh. 1.1 Who could better intercede with the Father than he who was the only begotten and beloved Son Who so fit to redeem the forfeited Inheritance as the Heir of all things Who fitter and better to prevail for us to have the right of Children than he that possessed it by Nature We fell from being the Sons of God and who fitter to introduce us into an adopted state than the Son of God Herein was an expression of the richer Grace because the first sin was immediately against the wisdom of God by an ambitious affectation of a wisdom equal to God That that Person who was the wisdom of God should be made a Sacrifice for the expiation of the sin against Wisdom 3. The wisdom of God is seen in the two Natures of Christ whereby this Redemption was accomplished The Union of the two Natures was the Foundation of the Union of God and the fallen Creature 1. The Vnion it self is admirable The Word is made Flesh Joh. 1.14 One equal with God in the form of a Servant Phil. 2.7 When the Apostle speaks of God manifested in the flesh he speaks the wisdom of God in a Mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 That which is incomprehensible to the Angels which they never imagined before it was revealed which perhaps they never knew till they beheld it I am sure under the Law the Figures of the Cherubims were placed in the Sanctuary with their faces looking towards the Propitiatory in a perpetual posture of Contemplation and Admiration Exod. 37.9 to which the Apostle alludes 1 Pet. 1.12 Mysterious is the wisdom of God to unite Finite and Infinite Almightiness and Weakness Immortality and Mortality Immutability with a Thing subject to Change to have a Nature from Eternity and yet a Nature subject to the Revolutions of Time a Nature to make a Law and a Nature to be subjected to the Law to be God blessed for ever in the bosom of his Father and an Infant exposed to Câ—lâ—mities from the Womb of his Mother Terms seeming most distant from union most uncapable of conjunction to shake hands together to be most intimately conjoyned Glory and Vileness Fulness and Emptiness Heaven and Earth the Creature with the Creator he that made all things in one Person with a Nature that is made Immanuel God and Man in one That which is most Spiritual to partake of that which is Carnal flesh and blood * Heb. 2.14 One with the Father in his Godhead one with us in his Manhood The Godhead to be in him in the fullest Perfection and the Manhood in the greatest Purity The Creature one with the Creator and the Creator one with the Creature Thus is the incomprehensible Wisdom of God declared in the Word being made Flesh 2. In the manner of this Vnion A Union of two Natures yet no Natural Union It transcends all the Unions visible among Creatures †Savana triâ—mp
is the mysterious and manifold Wisdom of God 3. The end of this Vnion 1. He was hereby fitted to be Mediator He hath something like to Man and something like to God If he were in all things only like to Man he would be at a distance from God If he were in all things only like to God he would be at a distance from Man He is a true Mediator between Mortal Sinners and the Immortal Righteous One. He was near to us by the Infirmities of our Nature and near to God by the Perfections of the Divine as near to God in his Nature as to us in ours as near to us in our Nature as he is to God in the Divine Nothing that belongs to the Deity but he possesses nothing that belongs to the Human Nature but he is clothed with He had both the Nature which had offended and that Nature which was offended a Nature to please God and a Nature to pleasure us A Nature whereby he experimentally knew the excellency of God which was injured and understood the Glory due to him and consequently the Greatness of the Offence which was to be measur'd by the Dignity of his Person And a Nature whereby he might be sensible of the Miserie 's contracted by and endure the calamities due to the Offender that he might both have Compassion on him and make due Satisfaction for him * Gomb de relig p. 42. He had two distinct Natures capable of the Affections and Sentiments of the two Persons he was to accord he was a just Judge of the Rights of the one and the demerit of the other He could not have this full and perfect Understanding if he did not possess the Perfections of the one and the Qualities of the other The one fitted him for things appertaining to God Heb. 5.1 and the other furnisht him with a sense of the Infirmities of man Heb. 4.15 2. He was hereby fitted for the working out the happiness of man A Divine Nature to communicate to man and a Human Nature to carry up to God 1. He had a Nature whereby to suffer for us and a Nature whereby to be meritorious in those Sufferings A Nature to make him capable to bear the Penalty and a Nature to make his Sufferings sufficient for all that embraced him A Nature capable to be exposed to the flames of Divine Wrath and another Nature uncapable to be crusht by the weight or consum'd by the heat of it A Human Nature to suffer and stand a Sacrifice in the stead of Man a Divine Nature to sanctifie these Sufferings and fill the Nostrils of God with a sweet savour and thereby atone his wrath The one to bear the stroak due to us and the other to add merit to his Sufferings for us Had he not been Man he could not have filled our place in suffering and could he otherwise have suffered his sufferings had not been applicable to us and had he not been God his Sufferings had not been meritoriously and fruitfully applicable Had not his Blood been the Blood of God it had been of as little advantage as the Blood of an ordinary Man or the Blood of the Legal Sacrifices †Heb. 9.12 Nothing less than God could have satisfied God for the injury done by Man Nothing less than God could have countervail'd the Torments due to the offending Creature Nothing less than God could have rescued us out of the hands of the Jaylor too powerful for us 2. He had therefore a Nature to be compassionate to us and victorious for us A Nature sensibly to compassionate us and another Nature to render those Compassions effectual for our Relief he had the Compassions of our Nature to pity us and the Patience of the Divine Nature to bear with us He hath the affections of a Man to us and the power of a God for us A Nature to disarm the Devil for us and another Nature to be sensible of the working of the Devil in us and against us If he had been only God he would not have had an experimental sense of our Misery and if he had been only Man he could not have vanquish'd our Enemies Had he been only God he could not have died and had he been only Man he could not have conquered Death 3. A Nature efficaciously to instruct us As Man he was to instruct us sensibly as God he was to instruct us infallibly A Nature whereby he might converse with us and a Nature whereby he might influence us in those Converses A Human Mouth to minister Instruction to Man and a Divine Power to imprint it with efficacy 4. A Nature to be a pattern to us A Pattern of Grâ—ce as Man as Adam was to have been to his Posterity ‖ Amyrant morals Tom. 5. p. 468 469. A Divine Nature shining in the Human the Image of the invisible God in the glass of our Flesh that he might be a perfect Copy for our Imitation Col. 1.15 The Image of the invisible God and the first-born of every Creature in conjunction The Vertues of the Deity are sweetned and tempered by the Union with the Humanity as the Beams of the Sun are by shining through a colour'd Glass which condescends more to the weakness of our eye Thus the Perfections of the invisible God breaking through the first-born of every Creature glittering in Christ's created state became more sensible for Contemplation by our Mind and more imitable for Conformity in our practise 5. A Nature to be a ground of confidence in our approach to God A Nature wherein we may behold him and wherein we may approach to him A Nature for our comfort and a Nature for our confidence Had he been only Man he had been too feeble to assure us and had he been only God he had been too high to attract us But now we are allured by his Human Nature and assured by his Divine in our drawing near to Heaven Communion with God was desired by us but our Guilt stifled our hopes and the Infinite Excellency of the Divine Nature would have dampt our hopes of speeding but since these two Natures so far distant are met in a Marriage-knot we have a ground of hope nay an earnest that the Creator and believing Creature shall meet and converse together And since our sins are expiated by the Death of the Human Nature in conjunction with the Divine our Guilt upon believing shall not hinder us from this comfortable approach Had he been only Man he could not have assured us an approach to God Had he been only God his Justice would not have admitted us to approach to him he had been too terrible for guilty Persons and too holy for polluted Persons to come near to him But by being made Man his Justice is tempered and by his being God and Man his Mercy is ensured A Human Nature he had one with us that we might be related to God as one with him 6. A Nature to
How wonderful is this Wisdom of God! That the seed of the woman born of a mean Virgin brought forth in a stable spending his days in affliction misery and poverty without any pomp and splendor passing some time in a Carpenters shop with Carpenters tools and afterwards exposed to a horrible and disgraceful death Mark 6 6. should by this way pull down the gates of Hell subvert the kingdom of the Devil and be the hammer to break in pieces that power which he had so long exercised over the World Thus became he the Author of our life by being bound for a while in the chains of death and arrived to a principality over the most malicious powers by being a prisoner for us and the anvâ—l of their rage and fury 7. The Wisdom of God appears In giving us this way the surest ground of comfort and the strongest incentive to obedience The Rebel is reconciled and the rebellion shamed God is propitiated and the sinner sanctified by the same blood What can more contribute to our comfort confidence than Gods richest gift to us What can more enflame our love to him than our recovery from death by the oblation of his Son to misery and death for us It doth as much engage our duty as secure our happiness It presents God glorious and gracious and therefore every way fit to be trusted in regard of the interest of his own glory in it and in regard of the effusions of his grace by it It renders the Creature obliged in the highest manner and so awakens his industry to the strictest and noblest obedience Nothing so effectual as a crucified Christ to wean us from sin and stifle all motions of despair a means in regard of the Justice signaliz'd in it to make man to hate the sin which had ruined him and a means in regard of the love exprest to make him delight in that Law he had violated 2. Cor. 5.14 15. The love of Christ and therefore the love of God exprest in it constrains us no longer to live to our selves 1. It is a ground of the highest comfort and confidence in God Since he hath given such an evidence of his impartial truth to his threatning for the honour of his Justice we need not question but he will be as punctual to his promise for the honour of his mercy T is a ground of confidence in God since he hath redeemed us in such a way as glorifies the steadiness of his veracity as well as the severity of his Justice We may well trust him for the performance of his promise since we have experience of the execution of his threatning his mâ—rciful truth will as much engage him to accomplish the one as his just truth did to inflict the other The goodness which shone forth in weaker rays in the Creation breaks out with stronger beams in redemption And the mercy which before the appearance of Christ was manifested in some small Rivulets diffuseth itself like a boundless Ocean That God that was our Creator is our Redeemer the Repayrer of our Breaches and the Restorer of our Paths to dwell in And the plenteous Redemption from all Iniquity manifested in the Incarnation and Passion of the Son of God is much more a ground of hope in the Lord than it was in the past Ages when it could not be said the Lord hath but the Lord shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities Psal 130.8 It is a full Warrant to cast our selves into his Arms. 2. At incentive to obedience 1. The Commands of the Gospel require the obedience of the Creature There is not one Precept in the Gospel which interferes with any rule in the Law but strengthens it and represents it in its true exactness The heat to scorch us is allaied but the light to direct us is not extinguisht Not the least allowance to any sin is granted not the least affection to any sin is indulg'd The Law is temper'd by the Gospel but not null'd and cast out of doors by it It enacts that none but those that are sanctified shall be glorified that there must be Grace here if we expect Glory hereafter that we must not presume to expect an admittance to the Vision of Gods face unless our Souls be clothed with a robe of Holiness Heb. 12.14 It requires an obedience to the whole Law in our intention and purpose and an endeavour to observe it in our actions It promotes the honour of God and ordains a universal Charity among men it reveals the whole Counsel of God and furnisheth men with the holiest Laws 2. It presents to us the exactest pattern for our Obedience The redeeming Person is not only a Propitiation for the sin but a pattern to the sinner 1 Pet. 2.21 The Conscience of man after the fall of Adam approved of the reason of the Law but by the corruption of Nature man had no strength to perform the Law The possibility of keeping the Law by Human Nature is evidenced by the Appearance and life of the Redeemer and an assurance given that it shall be advanc'd to such a state as to be able to observe it We aspire to it in this life and have hopes to attain it in a future And while we are here the Actor of our Redemption is the copy for our Imitation The Pattern to imitate is greater than the Law to be ruled by What a lustre did his Vertues cast about the World How attractive are his Graces With what high Examples for all Duties has he furnish'd 〈◊〉 out of the copy of his Life 3. It presents us with the strongest motives to Obedience Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness What Chains bind faster and closer than love Here is love to our nature in his Incarnation love to us though Enemies in his Death and Passion Encouragements to Obedience by the proffers of Pardon for former Rebellions By the disobedience of man God introduceth his redeeming Grace and ingageth his Creature to more Ingenious and excellent returns than his Innocent state could oblige him to In his Created state he had goodness to move him he hath the same goodness now to oblige him as a Creature and a greater love and mercy to oblige him as a repaired Creature and the terror of Justice is taken off which might invenom his Heart as a Criminal In his revolted state he had misery to discourage him in his redeemed state he hath love to attract him Without such a way black despaire had seized upon the Creature exposed to a remediless misery And God would have had no returns of love from the best of his earthly Works But if any sparks of Ingenuity be left they will be excited by the efficacy of this Argument The willingness of God to receive returning sinners is manifested in the highest degree and the willingness of a sinner to return to him in duty hath the strongest engagements He hath done as much to
all affections to sin lye down in Sorrow and bewail what he hath done amiss against so tender a God Can you expect that any man that Promises you a great honour or a rich donative should demand less of you than to trust his word bear an affection to him and return him kindness Can any less be expected by a Prince than obedience from a pardoned Subject and a redeemed Captive If you have injured any man in his Body Estate Reputation would you not count it a reasonable Condition for the partaking of his Clemency and Forgiveness to express a hearty sorrow for it and a resolution not to fall into the like Crime again Such are the Conditions of the Gospel suted to the Consciences of men 5. The Wisdom of God appears in that this condition was only likely to attain the end There are but two Common Heads appointed by God Adam and Christ By one we are made a living Soul by the other a quickning Spirit By the one we are made sinners by the other we are made righteous Adam fell as a Head and all his members his whole Issue and Posterity fell with him because they proceeded from him by natural Generation But since the second Adam can not be our Head by natural Generation there must be some other way of engrafting us in him and uniting us to him as our Head which must be Moral and Spiritual this can not rationally be conceived to be by any other way than What is sutable to a reasonable Creature and therefore must be by an act of the Will Consent and Acceptance and owning the terms setled for an Admission to that Union And this is that we properly call Faith and therefore called a receiving of him John 1.12 Now this Condition of enjoying the Fruits of Redemption could not be a bare Knowledge for that is but only an act of the Understanding and doth not in itself include the act of the Will and so would have united only one Faculty to him not the whole Soul But Faith in an act both of the Understanding and Will too and principally of the Will which doth presuppose an act of the Understanding For there cannot be a Perswasion in the Will without a Proposition from the Understanding The Understanding must be convinced of the truth and goodness of a thing before the Will can be perswaded to make any motion towards it and therefore all the Promises Invitations and Proffers are suted to the Understanding and Will To the Understanding in regard of Knowledge to the Will in regard of Appetite to the Understanding as true to the Will as good To the Understanding as practical and influencing the Will 2. Nor could it be an intire Obedience That as was said before would have made the Creature have some matter of boasting and this was not sutable to the Condition he was sunk into by the fall Besides mans Nature being corrupted was rendered uncapable to obey and unable to have one thought of a due Obedience 2 Cor. 3.5 When man turned from God and upon that was turned out of Paradise his return was impossible by any strength of his own his Nature was as much corrupted as his re-entrance into Paradise was prohibited That Covenant whereby he stood in the garden required a perfection of action and intention in the observance of all the Commands of God But his Fall had crack'd his Ability to recover happiness by the terms and condition of an intire Obedience yet man being a person governable by a Law and capable of happiness by a Covenant if God would restore him and enter into a Covenant with him we must suppose it to have some Condition as all Covenants have That Condition could not be works because mans Nature was polluted Indeed had God reduced mans Body to the dust and his Soul to nothing and framed another man he might have govern'd him by a Covenant of Works But that had not been the same man that had revolted and upon his revolt was stain'd and disabled But suppose God had by any transcendent Grace wholly purified him from the stain of his former Transgression and restored to him the strength and ability he had lost might he not as easily have rebelled again And so the Condition would never have been accomplisht the Covenant never have been performed and Happiness never have been enjoyed There must be some other Condition then in the Covenant God would make for mans Security Now Faith is the most proper for receiving the Promise of Pardon of Sin Belief of those promises is the first natural reflection that a Malefactor can make upon a pardon offered him and acceptance of it is the first consequent from that beliefe Hence is Faith entitled a perswasion of and embraceing the Promises Heb 11.13 and a receiving the atonement Rom. 5.11 Thus the Wisdom of God is apparent in annexing such a Condition to the Covenant whereby man is restored as answers the end of God for his glory the State Conscience and necessity of Man and had the greatest congruity to his recovery 9. This Wisdom of God is manifest in the manner of the publishing and propagating this Doctrine of Redemption 1. In the gradual discoveries of it Flashing a great light in the face of a suddain is amazing should the Sun glare in our Eye in all its brightness on a suddain after we have been in a thick darkness it would blind us instead of comforting us So great a work as this must have several digestions God first reveals of what Seed the Redeeming Person should be the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 Then of what Nation Gen. 26.4 then of what Tribe Gen. 49.12 of the Tribe of Judah then of what Family the family of David then what works he was to do what sufferings to undergoe The first Predictions of our Saviour were obscure Adam could not well see the Redemption in the Promise for the punishment of death which succeeded in the Threatning the Promise exercised his Faith and the Obscurity and bodily Death his Humility The Promise made to Abraham was clearer than the Revelations made before yet he could not tell how to reconcile his Redemption with his Exile God supported his Faith by the Promise and exercised his Humility by making him a Pilgrim and keeping him in a perpetual dependance upon him in all his motions The Declarations to Moses are brighter than those to Abraham The delineations of Christ by David in the Psalms more illustrious than the former And all those exceeded by the Revelations made to the Prophet Isaiah and the other Prophets according as the Age did approach wherein the Redeemer was to enter into his Office God wrapt up this Gospel in a multitude of Types and Ceremonies fitted to the Infant state of the Church Gal. 4.3 An Infant State is usually affected with sensible things yet all those Ceremonies were fitted to that great end of the Gospel which he would bring forth in
upon them by the Wonders wrought by the Apostles Acts 2.43 And fear came upon every Soul and many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles Was there not the same reason in the nature of the Works our Saviour wrought to point them to the Finger of God and calm their rage Yet did not the Power of God work upon their Passions in those Miracles nor stop the impetuousness of the Corruption resident in their hearts Yet now those who had the boldness to attack the Son of God and nail him to the Cross are frighted at the Appearance of Twelve unarmed Apostles as the Sea seems to be afraid when it approacheth the bounds of the feeble Sand. How did God bend the Hearts of the Egyptians to the Israelites and turn them to that point as to lend their most costly Vessels their precious Jewels and rich Garments to supply those whom they had just before tyrannically loaded with their Chains * Exod. 3.21 22. 1 Chro. 18.31 When a great part of an Army came upon Jehosaphat to dispatch him into another World how doth God in a trice touch their hearts and move them by a secret instinct at once to depart from him As if you should see a numerous sight of Birds in a moment turn wing another way by a sudden and joynt consent When he gave Saul a Kingdom he gave him a Spirit fit for Government and gave him another heart 1 Sam. 1â—â— and brought the People to submit to his yoke who a little before wandred about the Land upon no nobler employment than the seeking of Asses 'T is no small remark of the Power of God to make a number of strong and discontented Persons and desirous enough of liberty to bend their Necks under the yoke of Government and submit to the Authority of One and that of their own Nature often weaker and unwiser than the most of them and many times an Oppressor and Invader of their Rights Upon this account David calls God his Fortress Tower Shield Psal 144 2. all terms of Strength in subduing the People under him 'T is the Mighty hand of God that links Princes and People together in the bands of Government The same hand that asswageth the Waves of the Sea suppresseth the Tumults of the People III. It appears in his Gracious and Judicial Government 1. In his Gracious Government In the Deliverance of his Church He is the strength of Israel and hath protected his Little Flock in the midst of Wolves 1 Sam. 15.29 and maintained their standing when the strongest Kingdoms have sunk and the best joynted States have been broken in pieces When Judgments have ravaged Countries and torn up the Mighty as a tempestuous Wind hath often done the tallest Trees which seem'd to threaten Heaven with their Tops and dare the Storm with the depth of their Roots when yet the Vine and Rose-bushes have stood firm and been seen in their beauty next morning The state of the Church hath outlived the most flourishing Monarchies when there hath been a mighty knot of Adversaries against her when the Bulls of Bashan have pusht her and the whole Tribe of the Dragon have sharpen'd their weapons and edg'd their Malice when the voice was strong and the hopes high to raze her foundation even with the ground when Hell hath roar'd when the wit of the World hath contriv'd and the strength of the World hath attempted her ruine when Decrees have been past against her and the Powers of the World arm'd for the execution of them when her Friends have droop'd and skulk'd in Corners when there was no Eye to pity and no Hand to assist help hath come from Heaven her Enemies have been defeated Kings have brought gifts to her and rear'd her Tears have been wip'd off her Cheeks and her very Enemies by an unseen Power have been forc'd to court her whom before they would have devour'd quick The Devil and his Armies have sneakt into their Den and the Church hath triumphed when she hath been upon the brink of the Grave Thus did God send a mighty Angel to be the Executioner of Senacheribs Army and the Protector of Jerusalem who run his Sword into the hearts of Eighty Thousand 2 King 19.35 when they were ready to swallow up his beloved City When the Knife was at the Throats of the Jews in Shushan Esther 8. by a powerful hand it was turned into the hearts of their Enemies With what an Out-stretched Arm were the Israelites freed from the Egyptian yoke Deut. 4.34 When Pharoah had muster'd a great Army to pursue them assisted with Six hundred Chariots of War the Red Sea obstructed their passage before and an enraged Enemy trod on their rear when the fearful Israelites despair'd of Deliverance and the insolent Egyptian assured himself of his Revenge God stretches out his irresistible Arm to defeat the Enemy and assist his People he strikes down the Wolves and preserves the Flock God restrain'd the Egyptian Enmity against the Israelites till they were at the brink of the Red Sea and then lets them follow their humor and pursue the Fugitives that his Power might more gloriously shine forth in the Deliverance of the one and the Destruction of the other God might have brought Israel out of Egypt in the â—ime of those Kings that had remembred the good Service â—f Joseph to their Country but he leaves them till the Reign of a cruel Tyrant suffers them to be Slaves that they might by his sole Power be Conquerors which had had no appearance had there been a willing dismission of them at the first summons Exod. 9.16 In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to shew my Power and that my Name might be declared throughout all the Earth I have permitted thee to rise up against my People and keep them in Captivity that thou might'st be an occasion for the manifestation of my Power in their rescue and whilst thou art obstinate to enslave them I will stretch out my Arm to deliver them and make my Name famous among the Gentiles in the wrack of thee and thy Host in the Red Sea The Deliverance of the Church hath not been in one Age or in one Part of the World but God hath signaliz'd his Power in all Kingdoms where she hath had a footing As he hath guided her in all places by one Rule animated her by one Spirit so he hath protected her by the same Arm of Power When the Roman Emperors bandied all their Force against Her for about Three hundred years they were further from effecting her ruine at the end than when they first attempted it The Church grew under their Sword and was hatcht under the Wings of the Roman Eagle which were spread to destroy her The Ark was elevated by the Deluge and the Waters the Devil poured out to drown Her did but slime the Earth for a new increase of her She hath sometime been
knowledge of his own Nature and of the evil nature of Sin and the contrariety of it to his own Excellency and the order of his works 2. Therefore intensely Nothing do men act for more than their glory As he doth infinitely and therefore perfectly know himself so he infinitely and therefore perfectly knows what is contrary to himself and as according to the manner and measure of his knowledge of himself is his love to himself as infinite as his knowledge and therefore unexpressible and unconceivable by us So from the perfection of his knowledge of the evil of Sin which is infinitely above what any Creature can have doth arise a displeasure against it sutable to that knowledge In Creatures the degrees of affection to or aversion from a thing are suted to the strength of their apprehensions of the good or evil in them God knows not only the workers of wickedness but the wickedness of their works ‖ Job 11.11 for he knows vain men he sees wickedness also The vehemency of this hatred is exprest variously in Scripture he loaths it so that he is impatient of beholding it the very sight of it affects him with detestation Hab. 1.13 he hates the first spark of it in the imagination Zach. 8.17 with what variety of expressions doth he repeat his indignation at their polluted Services Amos 5.21 22. I hate I detest I despise I will not smell I will not accept I will not regard take away from me the noise of thy Songs I will not hear So Isai 1.14 My Soul hates they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them 'T is the abominable thing that he hates Jer. 44.4 he is vexed and fretted at it Isai 63.10 Ezek. 16.43 He abhors it so that his hatred redounds upon the Person that commits it Psal 5.5 He hates all workers of Iniquity Sin is the only primary Object of his Displeasure He is not displeas'd with the Nature of man as man for that was derived from him but with the Nature of man as sinful which is from the sinner himself When a man hath but one Object for the exercise of all his Anger 't is stronger than when diverted to many Objects A mighty Torrent when diverted into many Streams is weaker than when it comes in a full Body upon once place only The Infinite anger and hatred of God which is as infinite as his love and mercy has no other Object against which he directs the mighty force of it but only Unrighteousness He hates no Person for all the penal Evils upon him though they were more by ten thousand times than Job was struck with but only for his sin Again Sin being only evil and an unmixt evil there is nothing in it that can abate the detestation of God or ballance his hatred of it there is not the least grain of goodness in it to encline him to the least affection to any part of it This hatred cannot but be intense for as the more any Creature is sanctified the more is he advanc'd in the abhorrence of that which is contrary to Holiness therefore God being the Highest most Absolute and Infinite Holiness doth infinitely and therefore intensly hate unholiness being infinitely righteous doth infinitely abhor unrighteousness being infinitely true doth infinitely abhor falsity as it is the greatest and most deformed evil As it is from the righteousness of his Nature that he hath a content and satisfaction in righteousness Psal 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth righteousness So it is from the same righteousness of his Nature that he detests whatsoever is morally evil As his Nature therefore is Infinite so must his abhorrence be 3. Therefore universally because necessarily and intensly He doth not hate it in one and indulge it in another but loaths it wherever he finds it not one worker of Iniquity is exempt from it Psal 5.5 Thou hatest all workers of iniquity For it is not sin as in this or that person or as great or little but sin as sin is the Object of his hatred And therefore let the person be never so great and have particular Characters of his Image upon him it secures him not from God's hatred of any evil action he shall commit He is a jealous God jealous of his Glory * Exod. 20.5 a Metaphor taken from jealous Husbands who will not indure the least Adultery in their Wives nor God the least defection of man from his Law Every act of sin is a spiritual Adultery denying God to be the chief Good and giving that Prerogative by that Act to some vile thing He loves it no more in his own People than he doth in his Enemies he frees them not from his Rod the testimony of his loathing their Crimes Whosoever sows Iniquity shall reap Affliction It might be thought that he affected their Dross if he did not refine them and loved their filth if he did not cleanse them because of his detestation of their sin he will not spare them from the Furnace though because of love to their persons in Christ he will exempt them from Tophet How did the Sword ever and anon drop down upon David's Family after his unworthy dealing in Vriah's Case and cut off ever and anon some of the Branches of it He doth sometimes punish it more severely in this Life in his own People than in others Upon Jonah's Disobedience a Storm pursues him and a Whale devours him while the Prophane World lived in their Lusts without controul Moses for one act of Unbelief is excluded from Canaan when greater Sinners attained that happiness 'T is not a light punishment but a vengeance he takes on their Inventions †Psal 99 8. to manifest that he hates sin as sin and not because the worst persons commit it Perhaps had a prophane Man touched the Ark the hand of God had not so suddenly reach'd him But when Vzzah a man zealous for him as may be supposed by his care for the support of the tottering Ark would step out of his place he strikes him down for his disobedient Action by the side of the Ark which he would indirectly as not being a Levite sustain †2 Sam. 6.7 Nor did our Saviour so sharply reprove the Pharisees and turn so short from them as he did from Peter when he gave a carnal advise and contrary to that wherein was to be the greatest manifestation of God's Holiness viz. the Death of Christ ‖ 〈…〉 He calls him Satan a name sharper than the title of the Devil's Children wherewith he marked the Pharisees and given besides him to none but Judas who made a profession of love to him and was outwardly rank'd in the number of his Disciples A Gardiner hates a Weed the more for being in the bed with the most pretious Flowers God's hatred is universally fixed against sin and he hates it as much in those whose Persons shall not fall under his eternal Anger as being secured in
the Arms of a Redeemer by whom the Guilt is wip'd of and the filth shall be totally washed away Though he hates their sin and cannot but hate it yet he loves their Persons as being united as Members to the Mediator and Mystical Head A man may love a gangren'd Member because 't is a Member of his own Body or a Member of a dear Relation but he loaths the gangrene in it more than in those wherein he is not so much concern'd Though God's hatred of Believers Persons is removed by Faith in the Satisfactory Death of Jesus Christ yet his Antipathy against sin was not taken away by that Blood nay it was impossible it should It was never design'd nor had it any capacity to alter the unchangeable Nature of God but to manifest the unspottedness of his Will and his eternal Aversion to any thing that was contrary to the Purity of his Being and the Righteousness of his Laws 4. Perpetually This must necessarily follow upon the others He can no more cease to hate Impurity than he can cease to love Holiness If he should in the least instant approve of any thing that is filthy in that moment he would disapprove of his own Nature and Being there would be an interruption in his love of himself which is as Eternal as it is Infinite How can he love any sin which is contrary to his Nature but for one moment without hating his own Nature which is essentially contrary to sin Two Contraries cannot be loved at the same time God must first begin to hate himself before he can approve of any evil which is directly opposite to himself We indeed are changed with a Temptation sometimes bear an affection to it and sometimes testifie an indignation against it but God is always the same without any shadow of change and is angry with the wicked every day Psal 7.11 that is uninterruptedly in the nature of his Anger though not in the effects of it God indeed may be reconciled to the Sinner but never to the sin for then he should renounce himself deny his own Essence and his own Divinity if his inclinations to the love of Goodness and his aversion from Evil could be changed if he suffered the Contempt of the one and encouraged the Practise of the other 4. God is so holy that he cannot but love Holiness in others Not that he owes any thing to his Creature but from the unspeakable holiness of his Nature whence affections to all things that bear a resemblance of him do flow as Light shoots out from the Sun or any glittering Body 'T is essential to the infinite Righteousness of his Nature to love Righteousness wherever he beholds it Psal 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth righteousness He cannot because of his Nature but love that which bears some agreement with his Nature that which is the curious Draught of his own Wisdom and Purity He cannot but be delighted with a Copy of himself He would not have a holy Nature if he did not love Holiness in every Nature His own Nature would be denied by him if he did not affect every thing that had a Stamp of his own Nature upon it There was indeed nothing without God that could invite him to manifest such Goodness to man as he did in Creation But after he had stampt that rational Nature with a Righteousness convenient for it it was impossible but that he should ardently love that Impression of himself because he loves his own Deity and consequently all things which are any Sparks and Images of it And were the Devils capable of an act of Righteousness the Holiness of his Nature would incline him to love it even in those dark and revolted Spirits 5. God is so holy that he cannot positively will or encourage sin in any How can he give any Encouragement to that which he cannot in the least approve of or look upon without loathing not only the Crime but the Criminal Light may sooner be the cause of Darkness than Holiness it self be the cause of Unholiness absolutely contrary to it 'T is a Contradiction that he that is the Fountain of Good should be the source of Evil as if the same Fountain should bubble up both sweet and bitter Streams salt and fresh * Jam. 3.11 Since whatsoever Good is in man acknowledges God for its Author it follows that men are Evil by their own fault There is no need for men to be incited to that to which the Corruption of their own Nature doth so powerfully bend them Water hath a forcible principle in its own Nature to carry it downward it needs no force to hasten the motion God tempts no man but every man is drawn away by his own Lust Jam. 1 13.14 All the preparations for glory are from God Rom. 9.23 but men are said to be fitted to destruction Verse 22. but God is not said to fit them they by their Iniquities fit themselves for ruine and he by his long suffering keeps the destruction from them for a while 1. First God cannot command any Vnrighteousness As all Vertue is summ'd up in a love to God so all Iniquity is summ'd up in an enmity to God Every wicked Work declares a man an Enemy to God Col. 1.21 Enemies in your minds by wicked Works If he could command his Creature any thing which bears an enmity in its Nature to himself he would then implicitly command the hatred of himself and he would be in some measure a hater of himself He that commands another to deprive him of his Life cannot be said to bear any love to his own Life God can never hate himself and therefore cannot command any thing that is hateful to him and tends to a hating of him and driving the Creature further from him In that very moment that God should command such a thing he would cease to be Good What can be more absur'd to imagine then that infinite Goodness should enjoyn a thing contrary to it self and contrary to the essential Duty of a Creature and order him to do any thing that bespeaks an enmity to the Nature of the Creator or a deflouring and disparaging his Works God cannot but love himself and his own Goodness he were not otherwise Good and therefore cannot order the Creature to do any thing opposite to this Goodness or any thing hurtful to the Creature it self as Unrighteousness is 2. Nor can God secretly inspire any Evil into us 'T is as much against his Nature to incline the heart to sin as it is to command it As it is impossible but that he should love himself and therefore impossible to enjoyn any thing that tends to a hatred of himself by the same reason it is as impossible that he should infuse such a Principle in the heart that might carry a man out to any act of Enmity against him To enjoyn one thing and incline to another would be an Argument of such insincerity unfaithfulness contradiction to
Understanding could not have been imputed to him as his Crime because it would have been not a voluntary but a necessary effect of his Nature had there been an error in the first Wheel the error of the next could not have been imputed to the Nature of that but to the irregular motion of the first Wheel in the Engine The sin of Men and Angels proceeded not from any natural defect in their Understandings but from Inconsideration He that was the Author of Harmony in his other Creatures could not be the Author of Disorder in the chief of his Works Other Creatures were his Footsteps but man was his Image †Gen. 1.26 27. Let us make man in our image after our likeness Which though it seems to imply no more in that place than an Image of his Dominion over the Creatures yet the Apostle raises it a peg higher and gives us a larger Interpretation of it Col. 3.10 And have put on the New-man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him making it to consist in a resemblance to his Righteousness Image say some notes the form as Man was a Spirit in regard of his Soul Likeness notes the quality implanted in his Spiritual Nature The Image of God was drawn in him both as he was a Rational and as he was a holy Creature The Creatures manifested the being of a Superiour Power as their Cause but the Righteousness of the first Man evidenced not only a Soveraign Power as the Donor of his being but a holy Power as the Patern of his Work God appeared to be a holy God in the Righteousness of his Creature as well as an Understanding God in the Reason of his Creature while he formed him with all necessary knowledge in his Mind and all necessary uprightness in his Will The Law of Love to God with his whole soul his whole mind his whole heart and strength was originally writ upon his Nature All the parts of his Nature were framed in a Moral Conformity with God to answer this Law and imitate God in his Purity which consists in a love of himself and his own Goodness and Excellency Thus doth the clearness of the Stream point us to the purer Fountain and the brightness of the Beam evidence a greater splendor in the Sun which shot it out 2. His Holiness appears in his Laws as he is a Law-giver and a Judge Since Man was bound to be subject to God as a Creature and had a capacity to be ruled by the Law as an understanding and willing Creature God gave him a Law taken from the depths of his holy Nature and suted to the Original Faculties of Man The Rules which God hath fixed in the World are not the Resolves of bare Will but result particularly from the Goodness of his Nature They are nothing else but the Transcripts of his Infinite detestation of sin as he is the unblemisht Governour of the World This being the most adorable Property of his Nature he hath imprest it upon that Law which he would have inviolably observed as a perpetual Rule for our Actions that we may every moment think of this beautiful Perfection God can command nothing but what hath some similitude with the rectitude of his own Nature All his Laws every Paragraph of them therefore scent of this and glitter with it Deut. 4.8 What Nation hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous as all this Law I set before you this day and therefore they are compar'd to fine Gold that hath no speck or dross * Psal 19.10 This Purity is evident 1. In the Moral Law or Law of Nature 2. In the Ceremonial Law 3. In the Allurements annext to it for keeping it and the Affrightments to restrain from the breaking of it 4. In the Judgments inflicted for the Violation of it 1. In the Moral Law Which is therefore dignified with the title of holy twice in one Verse Rom. 7.12 Wherefore the Law is holy and the Commandment is holy just and good It being the express Image of God's Will as our Saviour was of his Person and bearing a resemblance to the Purity of his Nature The Tables of this Law were put into the Ark that as the Mercy Seat was to represent the Grace of God so the Law was to represent the Holiness of God †Psal 19.1 The Psalmist after he had spoken of the Glory of God in the Heavens wherein the Power of God is exposed to our view introduceth the Law wherein the Purity of God is evidenc'd to our Minds ‖ Vers 7 8. c. perfect pure clean righteous are the titles given to it 'T is clearer in Holiness than the Sun is in brightness and more mighty in it self to command the Conscience than the Sun is to run its Race As the Holiness of the Scripture demonstrates the Divinity of its Author so the Holiness of the Law doth the Purity of the Law-giver 1. The purity of this Law is seen in the Matter of it It prescribes all that becomes a Creature towards God and all that becomes one Creature towards another of his own rank and kind The Image of God is compleat in the Holiness of the first Table and the Righteousness of the second which is intimated by the Apostle Eph. 4.24 the one being the Rule of what we owe to God the other being the Rule of what we owe to man There is no good but it enjoyns and no evil but it disowns 'T is not sickly and lame in any part of it not a good action but it gives it its due praise and not an evil action but it sets a condemning mark upon The Commands of it are frequently in Scripture call'd Judgments because they rightly judge of good and evil and are a clear light to inform the Judgment of Man in the knowledge of both By this was the Understanding of David enlightned to know every false way and to hate it * Psal 119.104 There is no Case can happen but may meet with a determination from it It teaches men the noblest manner of living a life like God himself honourably for the Law-giver and joyfully for the subject It directs us to the highest End sets us at a distance from all base and sordid Practises it proposeth Light to the Understanding and Goodness to the Will It would Tune all the Strings set right all the Orders of Mankind It censures the least Mote countenanceth not any stain in the Life Not a wanton Glance can meet with any justification from it * Mat. 5.28 not a rash Anger but it frowns upon †Mat. 5.22 As the Law-giver wants nothing as an Addition to his Blessedness so his Law wants nothing as a Supplement to its perfection Deut. 4 2. What our Saviour seems to add is not an Addition to mend any defects but a restoration of it from the corrupt Glosses wherewith the Scribes and Pharisees had eclipst the brightness of
it They had curtail'd it and diminish'd part of its Authority cutting off its empire over the least Evil and left its power only to check the grosser Practises But Christ restores it to the due extent of its Soveraignty and shews it in those dimensions in which the Holy Men of God considered it as exceeding broad Psal 119.96 reaching to all Actions all Motions all Circumstances attending them full of inexhaustible Treasures of Righteousness And though this Law since the Fall doth irritate Sin 't is no disparagement but a Testimony to the Righteousness of it which the Apostle manifests by his Wherefore Rom. 7.8 Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence and repeating the same sense verse 11. subjoyns a Wherefore verse 12. Wherefore the Law is holy The rising of Mens sinful hearts against the Law of God when it strikes with its Preceptive and Minatory parts upon their Consciences evidenceth the Holiness of the Law and the Law-giver In its own Nature it is a Directing Rule but the malignant Nature of Sin is exasperated by it as an hostile quality in a Creature will awaken it self at the appearance of its Enemy The Purity of this Beam and Transcript of God bears witness to a greater clearness and beauty in the Sun and Original Undefiled Streams manifest an untainted Fountain 2. It is seen in the manner of its Precepts As it prescribes all Good and forbids all Evil so it doth enjoyn the one and banish the other as such The Laws of Men command Vertuous things not as Vertuous in themselves but as useful for Human Society which the Magistrate is the Conservator of and the Guardian of Justice ‖ Ames de Consc lib. 5 cap. 1. queâ—t â— The Laws of Men contain not all the Precepts of Vertue but only such as are accommodated to their Customes and are useful to preserve the Ligaments of their Government The design of them is not so much to render the Subjects good Men as good Citizens They order the Practise of those Vertues that may strengthen Civil Society and discountenance those Vices only which weaken the Sinews of it But God beâ—â—â— the Guardian of Vniversal Righteousness doth not only enact the Observance of all Righteousness but the observance of it as Righteousness He Commands that which is Just in it self enjoyns Vertues as Vertues and prohibits Vices as Vices as they are profitable or injurious to our selves as well as to Others Men command Temperance and Justice not as Vertues in themselves but as they prevent Disorder and Confusion in a Common Wealth And forbid Adultery and Theft not as Vices in themselves but as they are Intrenchments upon Property Not as hurtful to the Person that commits them but as hurtful to the Person against whose Right they are committed Upon this account perhaps Paul applauds the Holiness of the Law of God in regard of its own Nature as considered in it self more than he doth the Justice of it in regard of Man and the goodness and conveniency of it to the World Rom. 7.12 the Law is Holy twice and Just and Good but once 3. In the Spiritual extent of it The most Righteous Powers of the World do not so much regard in their Laws what the Inward Affections of their Subjects are The External Acts are only the Objects of their Decrees either to encourage them if they be useful or discourage them if they be hurtful to the Community And indeed they can do no other for they have no Power proportioned to Inward Affections since the Inward disposition falls not under their Censure and it would be foolish for any Legislative Power to make such Laws which it is impossible for it to put in Execution They can prohibit the Outward Acts of Theft and Murder but they cannot command the Love of God the Hatred of Sin the Contempt of the World they cannot prohibit Vnclean Thoughts and the Atheism of the Heart But the Law of God surmounts in Righteousness all the Laws of the best regulated Common Wealths in the World It restrains the Licentious Heart as well as the Violent Hand it damps the very first bubblings of Corrupt Nature orders a Purity in the Spring commands a clean Fountain clean Streams clean Vessels It would frame the Heart to an Inward as well as the Life to an Outward Righteousness and make the Inside purer than the Outside It forbids the first Belchings of a Murderous or Adulterous intention It obligeth Man as a Rational Creature and therefore exacts a conformity of every Rational Faculty and of whatsoever is under the Command of them It commands the Private Closet to be free from the least Cobweb as well as the Outward Porch to be clean from Mire and Dirt. It frowns upon all stains and pollutions of the most retired Thoughts Hence the Apostle calls it a Spiritual Law Rom. 7.14 as not Political but extending its force further than the Frontiers of the Man placing its Ensigns in the Metropolis of the Heart and Mind and curbing with its Scepter the Inward motions of the Spirit and commanding over the Secrets of every Mans Breast 4. In regard of the perpetuity of it The Purity and perpetuity of it are link'd together by the Psalmist Psal 19.9 The fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever the Fear of the Lord that is that Law which commands the Fear and Worship of God and is the Rule of it And indeed God values it at such a rate that rather than part with a tittle or let the honour of it lie in the Dust he would not only let Heaven and Earth pass away but expose his Son to death for the reparation of the wrong it had sustain'd So holy it is that the Holiness and Righteousness of God cannot dispence with it cannot abrogate it without despoiling himself of his own Being 'T is a Copy of the Eternal Law Can he ever abrogate the command of Love to himself without shewing some contempt of his own Excellency and very Being Before he can enjoyn a Creature not to love him he must make himself unworthy of Love and worthy of Hatred this would be the highest Vnrighteousness to order us to hate that which is only worthy of our highest Affections †Suarez So God cannot change the first Command and order us to worship many Gods this would be against the Excellency and Unity of God For God cannot constitute another God or make any thing worthy of an Honour equal with himself Those things that are good only because they are Commanded are alterable by God Those things that are intrinsically and essentially Good and therefore Commanded are unalterable as long as the Holiness and Righteousness of God stand firm The intrinsick Goodness of the Moral Law the concern God hath for it thâ— perpetuity of the Precepts of the first Table and the care he hath had to imprint the Precepts of the Second upon the
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
torments the Person that acts it 't is black and abominable and hath not a mite of Goodness in the Nature of it If it ends in any good 't is only from that Infinite Transcendency of skill that can bring Good out of Evil as well as Light out of Darkness Therefore God did not permit it as Sin but as it was an occasion for the manifestation of his own Glory Though the Goodness of God would have appear'd in the Preservation of the World as well as it did in the Creation of it yet his Mercy could not have appear'd without the Entrance of Sin because the Object of Mercy is a Miserable Creature but Man could not be Miserable as long as he remained Innocent The Reign of Sin opened a door for the Reign and Triumph of Grace Rom. 5.21 As sin hath reigned unto death so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life Without it the Bowels of Mercy had never sounded and the ravishing Musick of Divine Grace could never have been heard by the Creature Mercy which renders God so amiable could never else have beam'd out to the World Angels and Men upon this occasion beheld the stirrings of Divine Grace and the Tenderness of Divine Nature and the glory of the Divine Persons in their several Functions about the Redemption of Man which had else been a Spring shut up and a Fountain sealed the Song of Glory to God and Good will to Men in a way of Redemption had never been Sung by them It appears in his dealings with Adam that he permitted his Fall not only to shew his Justice in punishing but principally his Mercy in rescuing since he proclaims to him first the Promise of a Redeemer to bruise the Serpents head before he setled the Punishment he should smart under in the World †Gen. 3.15 16 17. And what fairer prospect could the Creature have of the Holiness of God and his Hatred of Sin than in the edge of that Sword of Justice which punished it in the Sinner but glitter'd more in the Punishment of a Surety so near Allied to him Had not Man been Criminal he could not have been Punishable nor any been punishable for him And the Pulse of Divine Holiness could not have beaten so quick and been so visible without an exercise of his Vindicative Justice He left Mans mutable Nature to fall under Vnrighteousness that thereby he might commend the Righteousness of his own Nature * Rom. 3.7 Adams Sin in its Nature tended to the ruine of the World and God takes an occasion from it for the glory of his Grace in the Redemption of the World He brings forth thereby a new Scene of Wonders from Heaven and a surprizing Knowledge on Earth As the Sun breaks out more strongly after a Night of Darkness and Tempest As God in Creation framed a Chaos by his Power to manifest his Wisdom in bringing Order out of Disorder Light out of Darkness Beauty out of Confusion and Deformity when he was able by a Word to have made all Creatures stand up in their Beauty without the precedency of a Chaos So God permitted a Moral Chaos to manifest a greater Wisdom in the repairing a broken Image and restoring a deplorable Creature and bringing out those Perfections of his Nature which had else been wrapt up in a perpetual silence in his own bosom †But of the Wisdom of God in the permitting Sin in order to Redeâ—ption I have handled in the Attribute of Wisdom It was therefore very congruous to the Holiness of God to permit that which he could make subservient for his own glory and particularly for the manifestation of this Attribute of Holiness which seems to be in opposition to such a permission 5. Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by his concurrence with the Creature in the material part of a sinful Act. Some to free God from having any hand in Sin deny his concurrence to the Actions of the Creature because if he concurs to a sinful Action he concurs to the Sin also Not understanding how there can be a distinction between the Act and the Sinfulness or Viciousness of it and how God can concur to a Natural Action without being stain'd by that Moral Evil which cleaves to it For the understanding of this observe 1. There is a concurrence of God to all the acts of the Creature Acts 17.28 In him we live and move and have our being We depend upon God in our Acting as well as in our Being There is as much an efficacy of God in our Motion as in our Production as none have life without his Power in producing it so none have any operation without his Providence concurring with it In him or by him that is by his Virtue preserving and governing our Motions as well as by his Power bringing us into Being Hence Man is compared to an Ax Isai 10.15 an Instrument that hath no action without the cooperation of a Superiour Agent handling it And the Actions of the Second Causes are ascrib'd to God the Grass that is the product of the Sun Rain and Earth he is said to make to grow upon the Mountains Psal 147.8 and the Skin and Flesh which is by Natural generation he is said to cloath us with Job 10.5 in regard of his co-working with Second Causes according to their Natures As nothing can exist so nothing can operate without him let his Concurrence be removed and the Being and Action of the Creature cease Remove the Sun from the Horizon or a Candle from a Room and the Light which flowed from either of them ceaseth Without Gods preserving and concurring Power the course of Nature would sink and the Creation be in vain ‖ Suarez Metaph part 1. p. 552. All Created things depend upon God as Agents as well as Beings and are subordinate to him in a way of Action as well as in a way of Existing If God suspend his Influence from their Action they would cease to act as the Fire did from burning the Three Children as well as if God suspend his Influence from their Being they would cease to be God supports the Nature whereby Actions are wrought the Mind where Actions are consulted and the Will where Actions are determin'd and the Motive power whereby Actions are produced The Mind could not contrive nor the Hand act a Wickedness if God did not support the Power of the one in designing and the Strength of the other in executing a wicked Intention Every faculty in its Being and every faculty in its Motion hath a dependance upon the Influence of God To make the Creature Independent upon God in any thing which speaks Perfection as Action considered as Action is is to make the Creature a Soveraign Being Indeed we cannot imagine the Concurrence of God to the good Actions of Men since the Fall without granting a Concurrence of God to evil Actions because there is no Action so purely
Will because there was a flaw contracted in that Nature that came right and true out of his hand And as he that winds up his disordered Watch is in the same manner the cause of its motion then as he was when it was regular yet by that act of his he is not the cause of the false motion of it but that is from the deficiency of some part of the Watch it self So though God concurs to that Action of the Creature whereby the Wickedness of the Heart is drawn out yet is not God therefore as Unholy as the Heart 5. God hath one End in his Concurrence and Man another in his Action So that there is a Righteous and often a gracious End in God when there is a base and unworthy End in Man God concurs to the substance of the Act Man produceth the circumstance of the Act whereby it is Evil. God orders both the Action wherein he concurs and the Sinfulness over which he presides as a Governour to his own Ends. In Josephs case Man was sinful and God merciful his Brethren acted Envy and God design'd Mercy Gen. 45.4 5. They would be rid of him as an Eyesore and God concurr'd with their Action to make him their Preserver Gen. 50.20 Ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good God concur'd to Judas his action of betraying our Saviour he supported his Nature while he contracted with the Priests and supported his Members while he was their Guide to apprehend him God's end was the manifestation of his choicest love to Man and Judas his end was the gratification of his own Covetousness The Assyrian did a Divine Work against Hierusalem but not with a Divine end * Isa 10.5.6 â— He had a mind to enlarge his Empire enrich his Coffers with the Spoil and gain the Title of a Conqueror he is desirous to Invade his Neighbours and God employs him to punish his Rebels but he means not so nor doth his heart think so He intended not as God intended The Axe doth not think what the Carpenter intends to do with it But God used the rapine of an Ambitious Nature as an Instrument of his Justice As the exposing Malefactors to wild Beasts was an ancient Punishment whereby the Magistrate intended the execution of Justice and to that purpose used the natural fierceness of the Beasts to an end different from what those ravaging Creatures aim'd at God concur'd with Satan in spoiling Job of his Goods and scarifying his Body God gave Satan license to do it Job 1.12 21. and Job acknowledges it to be God's act But their ends were different God concurred with Satan for the clearing the Integrity of his Servant when Satan aim'd at nothing but the provoking him to Curse his Creator The Physician applies Leeches to suck the superfluous blood but the Leeches suck to glut themselves without any regard to the intention of the Physician and the welfare of the Patient In the same act where men intend to hurt God intends to correct so that his concurrence is in a holy manner while men commit unrighteous actions A Judge commands the Executioner to execute the Sentence of Death which he hath justly pronounced against a Malefactor and admonisheth him to do it out of love to Justice the Executioner hath the Authority of the Judge for his Commission and the protection of the Judge for his Security The Judge stands by to countenance and secure him in the doing of it but if the Executioner hath not the same intention as the Judge viz. a love to Justice in the performance of his Office but a private hatred to the Offender the Judge though he commanded the fact of the Executioner yet did not command this Error of his in it and though he protects him in the Fact yet he owns not this corrupt disposition in him in the doing of what was enjoyn'd him as any act of his own To Conclude this Since the Creature cannot act without God cannot lift up a Hand or move his Tongue without God's preserving and upholding the Faculty and preserving the power of Action and preserving every Member of the Body in its actual Motion and in every circumstance of its Motion we must necessarily suppose God to have such a way of concurrence as doth not intrench upon his Holiness We must not equal the Creature to God by denying its dependence on him Nor must we imagine such a concurrence to the sinfulness of an act as stains the Divine Purity which is I think sufficiently salv'd by distinguishing the matter of the act from the evil adhering to it For since all evil is founded in some good the evil is distinguishable from the good and the deformity of the action from the action it self which as it is a created act hath a dependance on the will and influence of God And as it is a sinful act is the product of the will of the Creature 6. Proposition The holiness of God is not blemisht by proposing Objects to a man which he makes use of to sin There is no Object propos'd to man but is directed by the Providence of God which influenceth all motions in the World and there is no Object propos'd to man but his active Nature may according to the goodness or badness of his disposition make a good or an ill use of That two men one of a charitable the other of a hard-hearted disposition meet with an indigent and necessitous Object is from the Providence of God yet this indigent person is relieved by the one and neglected by the other There could be no action in the World but about some Object there could be no Object offer'd to us but by Divine Providence the active Nature of man would be in vain if there were not Objects about which it might be exercis'd Nothing could present it self to man as an Object either to excite his Grace or awaken his Corruption but by the conduct of the Governour of the World That David should walk upon the Battlements of his Palace and Bathsheba be in the Bath at the same time was from the Divine Providence which orders all the affairs of the World * 2 Sam. 117. and so some understand Jer. 6.21 Thus saith the Lord I will lay stumbling blocks before this People and the Fathers and Sons together shall fall upon them Since they have offered Sacrifices without those due qualifications in their hearts which were necessary to render them acceptable to me I will lay in their way such Objects which their Corruption will use ill to their further sin and ruin so Psal 105.25 He turned their heart to hate his people that is by the multiplying his People he gave occasion to the Egyptians of hating them instead of caressing them as they had formerly done But God's Holiness is not blemisht by this for 1. This proposing or presenting of Objects invades not the liberty of any man The Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil set in the midst of the Garden of Eden had no violent influence on man to force him to eat of it his liberty to eat of it or not was reserved intire to himself no such Charge can be brought against any Object whatsoever If a man meet accidentally at a Table with Meat that is grateful to his Palate but hurtful to the present temper of his Body doth the presenting this sort of Food to him strip him of his liberty to decline it as well as to feed of it Can the Food have any internal influence upon his will and lay the freedom of it asleep whether he will or no Is there any Charm in that more than in other sorts of Diet No but it is the habit of love which he hath to that particular Dish the curiosity of his Fancy and the strength of his own Appetite whereby he is brought into a kind of slavery to that particular Meat and not any thing in the food it self When the word is proposed to two persons 't is embrac'd by the one rejected by the other is it from the word it self which is the Object that these two persons perform different acts The Object is the same to both but the manner of acting about the Object is not the same Is there any invasion of their liberty by it Is the one forced by the word to receive it and the other forced by the word to reject it Two such contrary effects cannot proceed from one and the same Cause Outward things have only an objective influence not an inward †Amyral de libero arbit p. 224. If the meer proposal of things did suspend or strike down the liberty of Man no Angels in Heaven no Man upon Earth no not our Saviour himself could do any thing freely but by force Objects that are ill used are of God's Creation and though they have allurements in them yet they have no compulsive power over the will The Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was pleasing to the sight it had a quality to allure there had not else needed a Prohibition to bar the eating of it but it could not have so much power to allure as the Divine threatning to deter 2. The Objects are good in themselves but the ill use of them is from mans corruption Bathsheba was by God's Providence presented to David's sight but it was Davids disposition moved him to so evil an act What if God knew that he would use that Object ill yet he knew he had given him a power to refrain from any ill use of it The Objects are innocent but our Corruption poisons them The same Object hath been used by one to holy purposes and holy improvements that hath been used by another to sinful ends when a charitable Object is presented to a good man and a cruel man one relieves him the other reviles him The Object was rather an occasion to draw out the Charity of one as well as the other but the refusing to reach out a helping hand was not from the person in Calamity but the disposition of the Refuser to whom he was presented 'T is not from the nature of the Object that men do good or evil but from the disposition of the person what is good in it self is made bad by our Corruption As the same Meat which nourishes and strengthens a sound Constitution cherisheth the Disease of another that eats at the same Table not from any unwholsom quality in the Food but the vitious quality of the humours lodging in the Stomach which turn the Diet into fuel for themselves which in its own nature was apt to engender a wholsom juyce Some are perfected by the same things whereby others are ruin'd Riches are used by some not only for their own but the advantage of others in the World by others only for themselves and scarcely so much as their necessities require Is this the fault of the wealth or the dispositions of the Persons who are covetous instead of being Generous 'T is a Calumny therefore upon God to charge him with the sin of man upon this account The rain that drops from the Clouds upon the Plants is sweet in it self but when it moystens the root of any venomous Plant 't is turn'd into the juyce of the Plant and becomes venomous with it The Miracles that our Saviour wrought were applauded by some and envied by the Pharisees the sin arose not from the nature of the Miracles but the Malice of their spirits The Miracles were sitter in their own nature to have induced them to an adoration of our Saviour than to excite so vile a Passion against one that had so many marks from Heaven to dignifie him and proclaim him worthy of their respect The Person of Christ was an Object proposed to the Jews some worship him others condemn and crucifie him and according to their several Vices and base ends they use this object Judas to content his Covetousness the Pharisees to glut their Revenge Pilate for his Ambition to preserve himself in his Government and avoid the Articles the People might charge him with of Countenancing an Enemy to Caesar * Amyrald Ironic p. 337. God at that time put into their minds a rational and true Proposition which they apply to ill purposes Caiphas said that it was expedient for one man to dye for the people which he spake not of himself Joh. 11.50 51. God put it into his mind but he might have applied it better than he did and considered though the Maxim was commendable whether it might justly be applied to Christ or whether there was such a necessity that he must dye or the Nation be destroy'd by the Romans The Maxim was sound and holy decreed by God but what an ill use did the High Priest make of it to put Christ to death as a seditious Person to save the Nation from the Roman Fury 3. Since the natural Corruption of men will use such Objects ill may not God without tainting himself present such Objects to them in subserviency to his gracious Decrees Whatsoever God should present to men in that state they would make an ill use of hath not God then the Soveraign Prerogative to present what he pleases and suppress others To offer that to them which may serve his holy purpose and hide other things from them which are not so conducing to his gracious ends which would be as much the occasions of exciting their sin as the others which he doth bring forth to their view The Jews at the time of Christ were of a turbulent and seditious humour they expected a Messiah a Temporal King and would readily have embraced any occasion to have been up in arms to have delivered themselves from the Roman yoke to this purpose the People attempted once to make him King And probably the expectation they had that he had such a Design to Head them might be one reason of their
when men will study Arguments from the holy word of God to Colour shelter their Crimes When men will seek for a shelter for their Lies in that of the Midwifes to preserve the Children or in that of Rahab to save the Spies as if because God rewarded their fidelity he countenanc'd their sin How often is Scripture wrested to be a plea for unbecoming practises that God in his Word may be imagin'd a Patron for their Iniquity 'T is not unknown that some have maintain'd their quaffing and carowsing from Eccles 8.11 That a man hath no better thing under the Sun than to eat and drink and be merry And their Gluttony from Matth. 5.11 That which goes into the belly defiles not a man The Jesuits morals are a transcript of this How often hath the Passion of our Saviour the highest expression of Gods holiness been employ'd to stain it encourage the most debauched practises Grace hath been turn'd into wantonness the abundance of grace been us'd as a blast to increase the flames of sin as if God had no other aim in that work of Redemption but to discover himself more indulgent to our Sensual Appetites and by his Severity with his Son become more gracious to our Lusts This is to feed the Roots of Hell with the Dews of Heaven to make Grace a Pandor for the abuse of it and to employ the Expressions of his Holiness in his Word to be a Sword against the essential Holiness of his Nature As if a man should draw an Apology for his Treason out of that Law that was made to forbid not to protect his Rebellion Not the meanest Instrument in the Temple was to be alienated from the use it was by Divine Order appointed to nor was it to be imployed in any common use and shall the Word of God which is the Image of his Holiness be transfer'd by base Interpretations to be an Advocate for Iniquity such an ill use of his Word reflects upon that Hand which imprinted those Characters of Purity and Righteousness upon it As the mis-interpretation of the wholesome Laws of a Prince made to discourage Debauchery reflects upon his righteousness and sincerity in enacting them 5. The Holiness of God is injured when men will put up Petitions to God to favour them in a wicked Design Such there are and taxt by the Apostle James 4.3 Ye ask amiss that you may consume it upon your Lusts who desired Mercies from God with an intent to make them Instruments of Sin and Weapons of Unrighteousness as it is reported of a Thief that he always pray'd for the success of his Robery It hath not been rare in the World to appoint Fasts and Prayers for success in Wars manifestly unjust and commenc'd upon breaches of Faith Many Covetous men petition God to prosper them in their unjust gain as if the blessed God sate in his pure Majesty upon a Throne of Grace to espouse unjust practises and make Iniquity prosperous There are such as offer Sacrifice with an evil mind * Prov. 21.27 to barter with God for a Divine Blessing to spirit a wicked contrivance How great a contempt of the Holiness of God is this How inexcusable would it be for a Favourite to address himself to a just Prince with this Language Sir I desire a Boon of such Lands that lye near me for an addition to my Estate that I may have supports for my Debauchery and be able to play the Villain more powerfully among my Neighbours Hereby he implies that his Prince is a Friend to such Crimes and Wickedness he intends his Petition for Is not this the language of many mens hearts in the immediate presence of God The Order of Prayer runs thus Hallowed be thy Name first to have a deep sense of the Holiness of the Divine Nature and an ardent desire for the glory of it This Order is inverted by asking those things which are not agreeable to the Will of God not meet for us to ask nor meet for God to give or asking things agreeable to the Will of God but with a wicked intention This is in effect to desire God to strip himself of his Holiness and commit Sacriledge upon his own Nature to gratifie our Lusts 6. The Purity of God is contemned in hating and scoffing at the holiness which is in a Creature Whoever looks upon the holiness of a Creature as an unlovely thing can have no good Opinion of the amiableness of Divine Purity Whosoever hates those qualities and graces that resemble God in any person must needs contemn the Original Pattern which is more eminent in God If there be no comliness in a Creature 's holiness to render it grateful to us we should say of God himself were he visible among us with those in the Prophet Isa 53. There is no beauty in him that we should desire him Holiness is beautiful in it self If God be the most lovely Being that which is a likeness to him so far as it doth resemble him must needs be amiable because it partakes of God And therefore those that see no beauty in an inferiour holiness but contemn it because it is a Purity above them contemn God much more He that hates that which is imperfect meerly for that excellency which is in it doth much more hate that which is perfect without any mixture or stain Holiness being the glory of God the peculiar Title of the Deity and from him derived unto the Nature of a Creature he that mocks this in a Person derides God himself and when he cannot abuse the Purity in the Deity he will do it in his Image As Rebels that cannot wrong the King in his Person will do it in his Picture and his Subjects that are Loyal to him He that hates the Picture of a Man hates the Person represented by it much more he that hates the Beams hates the Sun the holiness of a Creature is but a Beam from that Infinite Sun a Stream from that Eternal Fountain Where there is a derision of the Purity of any Creature there is a greater reflection upon God in that derision as he is the Author of it If a mixed and stained holiness be more the subject of any mans Scoff than a great deal of Sin that Person hath a disposition more roundly to scoff at God himself should he appear in that unblemisht and unspotted Purity which infinitely shines in his Nature O! 't is a dangerous thing to scoff and deride holiness in any person though never so mean Such do deride and scoff at the most holy God 7. The Holiness of God is injur'd by our unprepared addresses to him when like Swine we come into the presence of God with all our mire reeking and steaming upon us A holy God requires a holy Worship And if our best Duties having filth in every part as perform'd by us are unmeet for God how much more unsutable are dead and dirty Duties to a living and
immense Holiness Slight approaches and drossy frames speak us to have imaginations of God as of a slight and sottish Being This is worse than the Heathens practis'd who would purge their Flesh before they Sacrific'd and make some preparations in a seeming Purity before they would enter into their Temples God is so holy that were our Services as refin'd as those of Angels we could not present him with a Service meet for his holy Nature * Josh 24.19 We contemn then this Perfection when we come before him without due preparation as if God himself were of an impure Nature and did not deserve our purest thoughts in our applications to him as if any blemâ—sht and polluted Sacrifice were good enough for him and his Nature deserv'd no better When we excite not those elevated Frames of Spirit which are due to such a Being when we think to put him off with a lame and imperfect Service we worship him not according to the excellency of his Nature but put a slight upon his Majestick Sanctity When we nourish in our Duties those foolish Imaginations which creep upon us when we bring into and continue our worldly carnal debauch'd Fancies in his Presence worse than the nasty Servants or bemired Dogs a man would blush to be attended with in his Visits to a neat Person To be conversing with sordid Sensualities when we are at the feet of an Infinite God sitting upon the Throne of his Holiness is as much a contempt of him as it would be of a Prince to bring a Vessel full of nasty Dung with us when we come to present a Petition to him clothed in his Royal Robes Or as it would have been to God if the High Priest should have swept all the Blood and Excrements of the Sacrifices from the Foot of the Altar into the Holy of Holies and heapt it up before the Mercy Seat where the Presence of God dwelt between the Cherubims and afterwards shovel'd it up into the Ark to be lodged with Aarons Rod and the Pot of Manna 8. God's Holiness is slighted in depending upon our imperfect Services to bear us out before the Tribunal of God This is too ordinary The Jews were often infected with it †Rom. 3.10 who not well understanding the enormity of their Transgressions the interweaving of Sin with their Services and the unspottedness of the Divine Purity mingled an Opinion of Merit with their Sacrifices and thought by the cutting the Throat of a Beast and offering it upon God's Altar they had made a sufficient Compensation to that Holiness they had offended Not to speak of many among the Romanists who have the same notion thinking to make satisfaction to God by erecting an Hospital or endowing a Church as if this injur'd Perfection could be contented with the Dregs of their Purses and the offering of an unjust Mammon more likely to mind God of the Injury they have done him than contribute to the appeasing of him But is it not too ordinary with miserable men whose Consciences accuse them of their Crimes to rely upon the mumbling of a few formal Prayers and in the strength of them to think to stand before the tremendous Tribunal of God and meet with a Discharge upon this account from any Accusation this Divine Perfection can present against them Nay do not the best Christians sometimes find a Principle in them that makes them stumble in their goings forth to Christ and glorifying the Holiness of God in that method which he hath appointed Sometimes casting an eye at their Grace and sticking a while to this or that Duty and gazing at the glory of the Temple-building while they should more admire the glorious Presence that fills it What is all this but a vilifying of the Holiness of the Divine Nature as though it would be well enough contented with our Impurities and Imperfections because they look like a Righteousness in our estimation As though Dross and Dung which are the Titles the Apostle gives to all the Righteousness of a Fallen Creature * Phil. 3.8 were valuable in the sight of God and sufficient to render us comely before him 'T is a Blasphemy against this Attribute to pretend that any thing so imperfect so daub'd as the best of our Services are can answer to that which is Infinitely Perfect and be a ground of demanding Eternal Liâ—e 'T is at best to set up a guilded Dagon as a fit Companion for the Ark of his Holiness our own Righteousness as a sutable Mate for the Righteousness of God As if he had repented of the Claim he made by the Law to an exact conformity and thrown off the Holiness of his Nature for the fondling of a Corrupted Creature Rude and foolish Notions of the Divine Purity are clearly evidenced by any confidence in any Righteousness of our own though never so splendid 'T is a rendring the Righteousness of God as dull and obscure as that of Men a meer Out-side as their own As blind as the Heathens pictur'd their Fortune that knew as little how to discern the Nature and value of the Offerings made to her as to distribute her gifts as if it were all one to them to have a Dog or a Lamb presented in Sacrifice As if God did not well understand his own Nature when he enacted so Holy a Law and strengthned it with so severe a Threatning which must follow upon our Conceit that he will accept a Righteousness lower than that which bears some sutableness to the Holiness of his own Nature and that of his Law and that he could easily be put off with a pretended and counterfeit Service What are the Services of the generality of Men but Suppositions that they can bribe God to an Indulgence of them in their Sins and by an Oral Sacrifice cause him to devest himself of his Hatred of their former Iniquities and countenance their following Practises As the Harlot that would return fresh to her Uncleanness upon the confidence that her Peace Offerings had contented the Righteousness of God †Prov. 7.14 As though a small Service could make him wink at our Sins and lay aside the Glory of his Nature when alas the best Duties in the most gracious Persons in this life are but as the steams of a Spiced Dunghil a composition of Myrrh and Froth since there are swarms of Corruptions in their Nature and secret Sins that they need a cleansing from 9. 'T is a contemning the Holiness of God when we charge the Law of God with rigidness We cast Durt upon the Holiness of God when we blame the Law of God because it shackles us and prohibits our desired Pleasures and hate the Law of God as they did the Prophets because they did not Prophesy smooth things but called to them to get them out of the way and turn aside out of the path and cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before them Isai 30.10 11. Put us
Immutable propension of his Nature 't is not so free an act of his Will as the Creation of Man and Angels which he might have forborn as well as effected As the detestation of Sin results from the universal rectitude of his Nature so the punishment of Sin follows upon that as he is the Righteous Governour of the World 'T is as much against his Nature not to punish it as it is against his Nature not to loath it He would cease to be Holy if he ceas'd to hate it and he would cease to hate it if he ceas'd to punish it Neither the Obedience of our Saviours Life nor the strength of his Cries could put a bar to the Cup of his Passion God so hated Sin that when it was but imputed to his Son without any commission of it he would bring a Hell upon his Soul Certainly if God could have hated Sin without punishing it his Son had never felt the smart of his Wrath His love to his Son had been strong enough to have caused him to forbear had not the Holiness of his Nature been stronger to move him to inflict a Punishment according to the demerit of the Sin God cannot but be Holy and therefore cannot but be Just because Injustice is a part of Unholiness 3. Therefore there can be no Communion between God and Vnholy spirits How is it conceivable that God should hate the Sin and cherish the Sinner with all his filth in his bosom that he should Eternally detest the Crime and Eternally fold the Sâ—nner in his Arms Can less be expected from the Purity of his Nature than to separate an impure Soul as long as it remains so Can there be any delightful Communion between those whose Natures are contrary Darkness and Light may as soon kiss each other and become one Nature God and the Devil may as soon enter into an Eternal League and Covenant together For God to have pleasure in wickedness and to admit Evil to dwell with him are things equally impossible to his Nature * Psal â— 4 while he hates Impurity he cannot have Communion with an impure Person It may as soon be expected that God should hate himself offer Violence to his own Nature lay aside his Purity as an Abominable thing and blot his own Glory as love an Impure Person entertain him as his delight and set him in the same Heaven and Happiness with himself and his holy Angels He must needs loath him he must needs banish him from his Presence which is the greatest Punishment Gods Holiness and Hatred of Sin necessarily infer the Punishment of it 5. Information There is therefore a necessity of the satisfaction of the Holiness of God by some sufficient Mediator The Divine Purity could not meet with any acquiescence in all Mankind after the Fall Sin was hated the Sinner would be ruin'd unless some way were found out to repair the Wrongs done to the Holiness of God either the Sinner must be condemned for ever or some Satisfaction must be made that the Holiness of the Divine Nature might Eternally appear in its full lustre That it is Essential to the Nature of God to hate all Unrighteousness as that which is absolutely repugnant to his Nature none do question That the Justice of God is so Essential to him as that Sin could not be pardon'd without Satisfaction some do question though this latter seems rationally to follow upon the former †Turretin de Satiâ—fac p. 8. That Holiness is Essential to the Nature of God is evident because else God may as much be conceived without Purity as he might be conceived without the creating the Sun or Stars No Man can in his right Wits frame a right Notion of a Deity without Purity It would be a less Blasphemy against the Excellency of God to conceit him not Knowing than to imagine him not Holy And for the Essentialness of his Justice Joshua joyns both his Holiness and his Jealousie as going hand in hand together Josh 24.19 He is a Holy God he is a Jealous God he will not forgive your sin But consider only the Purity of God since it is contrary to Sin and consequently hating the Sinner the guilty Person cannot be reduc'd to God nor can the Holiness of God have any complacency in a filthy Person but as Fire hath in Stubble to consume it How the Holy God should be brought to delight in Man without a Salvo for the Rights of his Holiness is not to be conceiv'd without an impeachment of the Nature of God The Law could not be abolish'd that would reflect indeed upon the Righteousness of the Law-giver to abolish it because of Sin would imply a change of the Rectitude of his Nature Must be change his Holiness for the sake of that which was against his Holiness in a compliance with a prophane and unrighteous Creature This should engage him rather to maintain his Law than to null it And to abrogate his Law as soon as he had enacted it since Sin stept into the World presently after it would be no credit to his Wisdom There must be a reparation made of the Honour of Gods Holiness by our selves it could not be without Condemnation by another it could not be without a sufficiency in the Person No Creature could do it All the Creatures being of a finite Nature could not make a compensation for the disparagements of Infinite Holiness He must have despicable and vile Thoughts of this Excellent Perfection that imagines that a few Tears and the glavering Fawnings at the death of a Creature can be sufficient to repair the Wrongs and restore the Rights of this Attribute It must therefore be such a compensation as might be commensurate to the Holiness of the Divine Nature and the Divine Law which could not be wrought by any but him that was possessed of a Godhead to give efficacy and exact congruity to it The Person design'd and appointed by God for so great an affair was one in the form of God one equal with God Phil. 2.6 who could not be term'd by such a Title of Dignity if he had not been equal to God in the universal rectitude of the Divine Nature and therefore in his Holiness The Punishment due to Sin is translated to that Person for the righting Divine Holiness and the Righteousness of that Person is communicated to the Sinner for the Pardon of the Offending Creature If the Sinner had been Eternally damn'd Gods hatred of Sin had been evidenc'd by the strokes of his Justice but his Mercy to a Sinner had lain in obscurity If the Sinner had been Pardoned and Saved without such a reparation Mercy had been evident but his Holiness had hid its head for ever in his own bosom There was therefore a necessity of such a way to manifest his Purity and yet to bring forth his Mercy That Mercy might not alway sigh for the destruction of the Creature and that Holiness might not mourn
for the neglect of its Honour 6. Information Hence it will follow There is no justification of a Sinner by any thing in himself After Sin had set foot in the World Man could present nothing to God acceptable to him or bearing any proportion to the Holiness of his Law till God set forth a Person upon whose account the Acceptation of our Persons and Services is founded Ephes 1.6 Who hath made us accepted in the Beloved The Infinite Purity of God is so glorious that it shames the Holiness of Angels as the light of the Sun dims the light of the Fire Much more will the Righteousness of Fallen Man who is Vile and drinks up Iniquity like water vanish into Nothing in his Presence With what Self-abasement and Abhorrence ought he to be possessed that comes as short of the Angels in Purity as a Dunghill doth of a Star The highest Obedience that ever was perform'd by any meer Man since Lapsed Nature cannot challenge any acceptance with God or stand before so exact an Inquisition What Person hath such a clear Innocence and unspotted Obedience in such a Perfection as in any degree to sute the Holiness of the Divine Nature Psal 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified If God should debate the case simply with Man in his own Person without respecting the Mediator he were not able to answer one of a thousand Though we are his Servants as David was and perform a sincere Service yet there are many little Motes and Dust of Sin in the best Works that cannot lie undiscover'd from the Eye of his Holiness And if we come short in the least of what the Law requires we are guilty of all * James 2.10 So that in thy sight shall no man living be justified In the sight of thy Infinite Holiness which hates the least spot in the sight of thy Infinite Justice which punishes the least Transgression God would descend below his own Nature and vilifie both his Knowledge and Purity should he accept that for a Righteousness and Holiness which is not so in it self and nothing is so which hath the least stain upon it contrary to the Nature of God The most holy Saints in Scripture upon a prospect of his Purity have cast away all confidence in themselves every flash of the Divine Purity has struck them into a deep sense of their own Impurity and shame for it Job 42.6 Wherefore I abhor my self in dust and ashes What can the language of any Man be that lies under a sense of Infinite Holiness and his own Defilement in the least but that of the Prophet Isai 6.5 Wo is me I am undone And what is there in the World can administer any other thought than this unless God be considered in Christ reconciling the World to himself As a Holy God so righted as that he can dispense with the Condemnation of a Sinner without dispensing with his Hatred of Sin pardoning the Sin in the Criminal because it hath been punished in the Surety That Righteousness which God hath set forth for Justification is not our own but a Righteousness which is of God Phil. 3.9 10. of Gods appointing and of Gods performing appointed by the Father who is God and performed by the Son who is one with the Father A Righteousness surmounting that of all the glorious Angels since it is an Immutable one which can never fail an Everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9.24 A Righteousness wherein the Holiness of God can acquiesce as considered in it self because it is a Righteousness of one equal with God As we therefore dishonour the Divine Majesty when we insist upon our own bemir'd Righteousness for our Justification as if a Mortal Man were as just as God and a Man as pure as his Maker Job 4.17 So we highly honour the Purity of his Nature when we charge our Selves with Folly acknowledge our selves Unclean and accept of that Righteousness which gives a full content to his Infinite Purity There can be no Justification of a Sinner by any thing in himself 7. It Inâ—orms us If Holiness be a glorious Perfection of the Divine Nature then the Deity of Christ might be argued from hence He is indeed dignified with the Title of the Holy One Acts 3.14 16. a Title often given to God in the Old Testament and he is called the Holy of Holies Dan. 9.24 but because the Angels seemed to be termed holy Ones Dan. 4.13 17. and the most Sacred place in the Temple was also called the Holy of Holies I shall not insist upon that But you find our Saviour particularly applauded by the Angels as Holy when this Perfection of the Divine Nature together with the Incommunicable Name of God are link'd together and ascrib'd to him Isai 6.3 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts and the whole Earth is full of his glory which the Apostle interprets of Christ John 12.39 41. Isaiah again He hath blinded their Eyes and hardned their Hearts that they should not see with their Eyes nor understand with their Hearts and be converted and I should heal them These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him He that Isaiah saw environ'd with the Seraphims in a Reverential posture before his face and praised as most Holy by them was the True and Eternal God such Acclamations belong to none but the great Jehovah God Blessed for ever But saith John It was the glory of Christ that Isaiah saw in this Vision Christ therefore is God blessed for ever of whom it was said Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts * Placeus de Deitat Chriâ—ti in locum The Evangelist had been speaking of Christ the Miracles which he wrought the obstinacy of the Jews against believing on him his Glory therefore is to be referred to the Subject he had been speaking of The Evangelist was not speaking of the Father but of the Son and cites those words out of Isaiah not to teach any thing of the Father but to shew that the Jews could not believe in Christ He speaks of Him that had wrought so many Miracles but Christ wrought those Miracles He speaks of him whom the Jews refused to believe on but Christ was the Person they would not believe on while they acknowledged God It was the Glory of this Person Isaiah saw and this Person Isaiah spake of if the Words of the Evangelist be of any credit The Angels are too holy to give Acclamations belonging to God to any but Him that is God 8. It Informs us that God is fully fit for the Government of the World The Righteousness of Gods Nature qualifies Him to be Judge of the World If he were not perfectly Righteous and Holy he were uncapable to govern and Judge the World Rom. 3.5 If there be unrighteousness with God how shall he judge the World God will not do wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert judgment Job
in its Brightness we may behold it through a colour'd Glass whereby the lustre of it is moderated without dazling our eyes The sense of it will furnish us with a greatness of mind that little things will be contemned by us Motives of a greater alloy would have little influence upon us we should have the highest Motives to every Duty and Motives of the same strain which influence â—he Angels above It would change us not only into an Angelical Nature but a Divine Nature We should act like men of another Sphere as if we had received our Original in another World and seen with Angels the ravishing Beauties of Heaven How little would the mean Imployments of the World sink us into dirt and mud How often hath the Meditation of the Courage of a Valiant Man or Acuteness and Industry of a Learned Person spur'd on some men to an imitation of them and transform'd them into the same Nature As the looking upon the Sun imprints an Image of the Sun upon our eye that we seem to behold nothing but the Sun a while after The view of the Divine Purity would fill us with a holy generosity to imitate him more than the Examples of the best men upon Earth It was a saying of a Heathen That if Vertue were visible it would kindle a noble flame of Love to it in the heart by its ravishing beauty Shall the Infinite Purity of the Author of all Vertue come short of the strength of a Creature Can we not render that visible to us by frequent Meditation which though it be invisible in his Nature is made visible in his Law in his Ways in his Son It would make us ready to obey him since we know he cannot Command any thing that is sinful but what is holy just and good It would put all our Aff ctions in their due place elevate them above the Creature and subject them to the Creator 6. It would make us patient and contented under all God's Dispensations All penal Evils are the Fruits of his Holiness as he is Judge and Governour of the World He is not an Arbitrary Judge nor doth any Sentence pronounc'd nor Warrant for Execution issue from him but what bears upon it a Stamp of the Righteousness of his Nature he doth nothing by Passion or Unrighteousness but according to the Eternal Law of his own unstained Nature which is the Rule to him in his Works the Basis and Foundation of his Throne and Soveraign Dominion Psal 89.14 Justice or Righteousness and Judgment are the Habitation of thy Throne upon these his Soveraign Power is established So that there can be no just Complaint or Indictâ—â—â—t brought against any of his Proceedings with men How doth our Saviour who had the highest Apprehensions of God's Holiness justifie God in his deepest Distresses when he cried and was not answered in the particular he desired in that Prophetick Psalm of him Psal 22.2 3. I cry day and night but thou hearest not Thou seemest to be deaf to all my Petitions afar off from the words of my roaring but thou art holy I cast no blame upon thee All thy dealings are squar'd by thy holiness this is the only Law to thee in this I acquiesce 'T is part of thy holiness to hide thy face from me to shew thereby thy detestation of sin Our Saviour adores the Divine Purity in his sharpest Agony and a like sense of it would guide us in the same steps to acknowledge and glorifie it in our greatest desertions and afflictions especially since as they are the fruit of the holiness of his Nature so they are the means to impart to us clearer stamps of holiness according to that in himself which is the original Copy * Heb. 12.10 He melts us down as Gold to fit us for the receiving a new Impression to mortifie the Affections of the Flesh and clothe us with the Graces of his Spirit The due sense of this would make us to submit to his stroke and to wait upon him for a good issue of his dealings 2. Exhortation Is holiness a Perfection of the Divine Nature Is it the glory of the Deity Then let us glorifie this holiness of God Moses glorifies it in the Text and glorifies it in a Song which was a Copy for all Ages The whole Corporation of Seraphims have their Mouths fill'd with the praises of it The Saints whither Militant on Earth or Triumphant in Heaven are to continue the same Acclamation Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts †Rev. 4.8 Neither Angels nor glorified Spirits exalt at the same rate the Power which formed them Creatures nor Goodness which preserves them in a blessed Immortality As they do holiness which they bear some beams of in their own Nature and whereby they are capacitated to stand before his Throne Upon the account of this a Debt of Praise is demanded of all Rational Creatures by the Psalmist Psal 99.3 Let them praise thy great and terrible Name for it is holy Not so much for the greatness of his Majesty or the treasures of his Justice but as they are considered in conjunction with his holiness which renders them beautiful for it is holy Grandeur and Majesty simply in themselves are not Objects of Praise nor do they merit the Acclamations of men when destitute of Righteousness This only renders every thing else adorable and this adorns the Divine Greatness with an amiableness Isa 12.6 Great is the holy One of Israel in the midst of thee and makes his Might worthy of Praise Luke 1.49 In honouring this which is the soul and spirit of all the rest we give a glory to all the Perfections which constitute and beautifie his Nature And without the glorifying this we glorifie nothing of them though we should extoll every other single Attribute a thousand times He values no other Adoration of his Creatures unless this be interested nor accepts any thing as a glory from them Levit. 10.3 I will be sanctified in them that come near me and I will be glorified As if he had said in manifesting my Name to be holy you truly you only honour me And as the Scripture seldom speaks of this Perfection without a particular Emphasis it teaches us not to think of it without a special Elevation of heart By this act only while we are on Earth can we joyn consort with the Angels in Heaven he that doth not honour it delight in it and in the meditation of it hath no resemblance of it he hath none of the Image that delights not in the Original Every thing of God is glorious but this most of all If he built the World principally for any thing it was for the communication of his Goodness and display of his Holiness He formed the Rational Creature to manifest his Holiness in that Law whereby he was to be governed Then deprive not God of the design of his own Glory We honour this Attribute 1. When we make it
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
this let us see 1. What this Goodness is 2. Some Propositions concerning the nature of it 3. That God is Good 4. The manifestation of it in Creation Providence and Redemption 5. The Vse 1. What this Goodness is There is a Goodness of Being which is the natural perfection of a thing There is the Goodness of Will which is the Holiness and Righteousness of a Person There is the Goodness of the Hand which we call Liberality or Beneficence a doing good to others 1. We mean not by this The Goodness of his Essence or the Perfection of his Nature God is thus Good because his Nature is infinitely Perfect He hath all things requisite to the compleating of a most Perfect and Soveraign Being All Good meets in his Essence as all Water meets in the Ocean Under this Notion all the Attributes of God which are requisite to so illustrious a Being are comprehended All things that are have a goodness of being in them derived to them by the Power of God as they are Creatures so the Devil is good as he is a Creature of Gods making He hath a natural goodness but not a moral goodness when he fell from God he retained his natural goodness as a Creature because he did not cease to be he was not reduced to that nothing from whence he was drawn but he ceased to be morally good being stript of his Righteousness by his Apostasie as a Creature he was Gods Work as a Creature he remains still Gods Work and therefore as a Creature remains still good in regard of his created Being The more of Being any thing hath the more of this sort of natural goodness it hath and so the Devil hath more of this natural goodness than Men have because he hath more marks of the Excellency of God upon him in regard of the greatness of his knowledge and the extent of his power the largeness of his capacity and the acuteness of his understanding which are natural perfections belonging to the nature of an Angel though he hath lost his moral perfections God is Soveraignly and infinitely Good in this sort of Goodness He is unsearchably perfect * Job 11.7 nothing is wanting to his Essence that is necessary to the Perfection of it yet this is not that which the Scripture expresseth under the term of Goodness but a Perfection of Gods Nature as related to us and which he poureth forth upon all his Creatures as Goodness which flows from this Natural Perfection of the Deity 2. Nor is it the same with the Blessedness of God but something flowing from his Blessedness VVere he not first infinitely Blessed and Full in Himself he could not be infinitely Good and Diffusive to us had he not an infinite abundance in his own Nature he could not be overflowing to his Creatures Had not the Sun a fulness of Light in it self and the Sea a vastness of VVater the one could not enrich the VVorld with its Beams nor the other fill every Creek with its VVaters 3. Nor is it the same with the Holiness of God The Holiness of God is the rectitude of his Nature whereby he is Pure and without Spot in himself The Goodness of God is the efflux of his VVill whereby he is beneficial to his Creatures The Holiness of God is manifest in his rational Creatures but the Goodness of God extends to all the VVorks of his Hands His Holiness beams most in his Law his Goodness reacheth to every thing that had a Being from him * Psal 145.9 The Lord is Good to all And though he be said in the same Psalm v. 17. to be Holy in all his Works 't is to be understood of his Bounty Bountiful in all his VVorks The Hebrew word signifying both Holy and Liberal and the Margent of the Bible reads it Merciful or Bountiful 4. Nor is this Goodness of God the same with the Mercy of God Goodness extends to more Objects than Mercy Goodness stretcheth it self out to all the VVorks of his Hands Mercy extends only to a miserable Object for it is joined with a sentiment of Pity occasioned by the Calamity of another The Mercy of God is exercised about those that Merit Punishment the Goodness of God is exercised upon Objects that have not merited any thing contrary to the acts of his Bounty Creation is an act of Goodness not of Mercy Providence in governing some part of the VVorld is an act of Goodness not of Mercy * Lombard lib. 1. distinct 46. p. 286. The Heavens saith Austin need the Goodness of God to govern them but not the Mercy of God to relieve them The Earth is full of the Misery of Man and the Compassions of God but the Heavens need not the Mercy of God to pity them because they are not miserable though they need the Goodness and Power of God to sustain them because as Creatures they are impotent without him Gods Goodness extends to the Angels that kept their standing and to Man in Innocence who in that state stood not in need of Mercy Goodness and Mercy are distinct though Mercy be a Branch of Goodness There may be a manifestation of Goodness though none of Mercy Some think Christ had been Incarnate had not Man fallen Had it been so there had been a manifestation of Goodness to our Nature but not of Mercy because Sin had not made our Natures miserable The Devils are Monuments of Gods creating Goodness but not of his Pardoning Compassions The Grace of God respects the rational Creature Mercy the miserable Creature Goodness all his Creatures Brutes and the sensless Plants as well as reasonable Man 5. By Goodness is meant the Bounty of God This is the Notion of goodness in the World when we say a good Man we mean either a holy Man in his life or a charitable and liberal Man in the management of his Goods A righteous Man and a good Man are distinguished * Rom. 5.7 For scarcely for a righteous Man will one die yet for a good Man one would even dare to die For an innocent Man one as innocent of the Crime as Himself would scarce venture his Life but for a good Man a liberal tender-hearted Man that had been a common Good in the place where he lived or had done another as great a benefit as life it self amounts to a Man out of gratitude might dare to die The Goodness of God is his inclination to deal well and bountifully with his Creatures * Coccei sum p. 50. 'T is that whereby he wills there should be something besides Himself for his own Glory God is good in Himself and to Himself i. e. highly amiable to Himself and therefore some define it a Perfection of God whereby he loves himself and his own Excellency but as it stands in Relation to his Creatures 't is that Perfection of God whereby he delights in his Works and is beneficial to them God is the highest Goodness
'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
them and the Provisions that were made for them Divine Bounty was the Motive to Erect Altars and present Sacrifices though they mistook the Object of their Worship and offer'd the dues of the Creator to the Instruments whereby he conveyed his Benefits to them And you find that the Religion instituted by him among the Jews was enforc'd upon them by the consideration of their miraculous deliverance from Egypt the preservation of them in the Wilderness and the infeoffing them in a Land flowing with Milk and Honey Every act of bounty and success the Heathens received moved them to appoint new Feasts and repeat their adorations of those Deities they thought the Authors and Promoters of their Victories and Welfare The Devil did not mistake the common Sentiment of the World in Divine Service when he alledg'd to God that Job did not fear him for nought i. e. worship him for nothing * Job 1.9 All acts of Devotion take their rise from Gods liberality either from what they have or from what they hope Praise speaks the Possession and Prayer the Expectation of some Benefit from his Hand Though some of the Heathens made fear to be the prime Cause of the acknowledgment and worship of a Deity yet surely something else besides and beyond this Establisht so great a thing as Religion in the World an ingenuous Religion could never have been born into the World without a Notion of Goodness and would have gaspt its last as soon as this Notion should have expir'd in the minds of Men. What encouragement can fear of Power give without sense of Goodness just as much as Thunder hath to invite a Man to the place where it is like to fall and crush him The nature of fear is to drive from and the nature of goodness to allure to the Object The Divine Thunders Prodigies and other Armies of his Justice in the World which are the Marks of his Power could conclude in nothing but a slavish Worship Fear alone would have made Men blaspheme the Deity instead of serving him they would have fretted against him they might have offer'd him a trembling Worship but they could never have in their minds thought him worthy of an Adoration they would rather have secretly complain'd of him and cursed him in their heart than inwardly have admir'd him The issue would have been the same which Job's Wife advis'd him to when God withdrew his Protection from his Goods and Body Curse God and die * Job 2.9 'T is certainly the common sentiment of Men that he that acts Cruelly and Tyrannically is not worthy of an integrity to be retain'd towards him in the hearts of his Subjects But Job fortifies himself against this Temptation from his Bosom Friend by the consideration of the good he had received from God which did more deserve a worship from him than the present evil had reason to discourage it Alass what is only fear'd is hated not ador'd Would any seek to an irreconcilable Enemy Would any person affectionately list himself in the service of a Man void of all good disposition Would any distressed person put up a Petition to that Prince who never gave any experiment of the sweetness of his Nature but always satiated himself with the Blood of the meanest Criminals All affection to service is rooted up when hopes of receiving good are extinguisht There could not be a spark of that in the World which is properly call'd Religion without a Notion of Goodness The Existence of God is the first Pillar and the Goodness of God in rewarding the next upon which coming to him which includes all acts of Devotion is established * Heb. 11.6 He that comes unto God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him If either of those Pillars be not thought to stand firm all Religion falls to the ground 'T is this as the most agreeable Motive that the Apostle James uses to encourage Mens approach to God because he gives liberally and upbraideth not * James 1.5 A Man of a kind heart and bountiful hand shall have his gate throng'd with suppliants who sometimes would be willing to lay down their lives For a good Man one would even dare to die when one of a niggardly or tyrannical temper shall be destitute of all free and affectionate applications What Eyes would be lifted up to Heaven What hands stretched out if there were not a knowledge of goodness there to enliven their hopes of speeding in their Petitions Therefore Christ orders our Prayers to be directed to God as a Father which is a Title of tenderness as well as a Father in Heaven a Mark of his greatness The one to support our confidence as well as the other to preserve our distance God could not be ingenuously ador'd and acknowledged if he were not liberal as well as powerful The Goodness of God is the foundation of all ingenuous Religion Devotion and Worship 6. The sixth Instruction The Goodness of God renders God amiable His Goodness renders him beautiful and his Beauty renders him lovely both are linkt together * Zach. 9.17 How great is his Goodness And how great is his Beauty This is the most powerful Attractive and masters the affections of the Soul 'T is goodness only supposed or real that is thought worthy to demerit our affections to any thing If there be not a reality of this or at least an opinion and estimation of it in an Object it would want a force and vigor to allure our Will This Perfection of God is the Loadstone to draw us and the Center for our Spirits to rest in 1. This renders God amiable to himself His Goodness is his Godhead * Rom. 1.20 By his Godhead is meant his Goodness If he loves his Godhead for it self he loves his Goodness for it self He would not be good if he did not love himself And if there were any thing more Excellent and had a greater goodness than himself he would not be good if he did not love that greater Goodness above himself For not only a hatred of goodness is evil but an indifferent or cold affection to goodness hath a tincture of evil in it If God were not good and yet should love himself in the highest manner he would be the greatest Evil and do the greatest evil in that act for he would set his love upon that which is not the proper Object of such an affection but the Object of a version His own Infinite Excellency and Goodness of his Nature renders him lovely and delightful to himself without this he could not love himself in a commendable and worthy way and becoming the purity of a Deity and he cannot but love himself for this For as Creatures by not loving him as the Supream Good deny him to be the choicest good so God would deny himself and his own goodness if he did not love himself and that for his
goodness But the Apostle tells us That God cannot deny himself * 2 Tim. 2.13 Self-love upon this account is the only Prerogative of God because there is not any thing better than himself that can lay any just claim to his affections He only ought to love himself and it would be an injustice in him to himself if he did not He only can love himself for this An Infinite Goodness ought to be infinitely loved but he only being Infinite can only love himself according to the due Merit of his own Goodness He cannot be so amiable to any Man to any Angel to the highest Seraphim as he is to himself because he is only capable in regard of his Infinite Wisdom to know the infiniteness of his own Goodness And no Creature can love him as he ought to be loved unless it had the same infinite capacity of Understanding to know him and of Affection to embrace him This first renders God amiable to himself 2. It ought therefore to render him amiable to us What renders him lovely to his own Eye ought to render him so to ours and since by the shortness of our Understandings we cannot love him as he Merits yet we should be induc'd by the measures of his Bounty to love him as we can If this do not present him lovely to us we own him rather a Devil than a God If his Goodness moved him to frame Creatures his Goodness moved him also to frame Creatures for himself and his own glory 'T is a mighty wrong to him not to look with a delightful Eye upon the Marks of it and return an Affection to God in some measure sutable to his liberality to us We are descended as low as Brutes if we understand him not to be the Perfect Good and we are descended as low as Devils if our Affections are not attracted by it 1. If God were not Infinitely Good he could not be the Object of Supream Love If he were Finitely Good there might be other things as good as God and then God in justice could not challenge our choicest Affections to him above any thing else It would be a defect of goodness in him to demand it because he would despoil that which were equally good with him of its due and right to our affections which it might claim from us upon the account of its goodness God would be unjust to challenge more than was due to him for he would claim that chiefly to himself which another had a lawful share in Nothing can be supreamly loved that hath not a Triumphant Excellency above all other things Where there is an equality of goodness neither can justly challenge a Supremacy but only an equality of Affection 2. This Attribute of Goodness renders him more lovely than any other Attribute He never requires our Adoration of him so much as the strongest or wisest but as the best of Beings He uses this chiefly to constrain and allure us Why would he be fear'd or worshipt but because there is forgiveness with him * Psal 130.4 'T is for his goodness sake that he is sued to by his People in distress †Psal 25.7 For thy goodness sake O Lord. Men may be admir'd because of their knowledge but they are affected because of their goodness The will in all the variety of Objects it pursues centers in this one thing of good as the term of its appetite All things are belov'd by Men because they have been better'd by them or because they expect to be the better for them Severity can never conquer enmity and kindle love Were there nothing but wrath in the Deity it would make him be fear'd but render him odious and that to an innocent Nature As the Spouse speaks of Christ * Cant 5.10 11. s◠we may of God Though she commends him for his Head the excellency of his Wisdom his Eyes the extent of his Omniscence his Hands the greateness of his Power and his Legs the swiftness of his Motions and ways to and for his People yet the sweetness of his Mouth in his gracious Words and Promises closes all and is follow'd with nothing but an Exclamation that he is altogether lovely Verse 16. His Mouth in pronouncing Pardon of Sin and justification of the Person presents him most lovely His Power to do good is admirable but his Will to do good is amiable This puts a gloss upon all his other Attributes Though he had knowledge to understand the depth of our necessities and power to prevent them or rescue us from them yet his knowledge would be fruitless and his power useless if he were of a rigid Nature and not touched with any sentiments of kindness 3. This Goodness therefore lays a strong Obligation upon us 'T is true he is lovely in regard of his absolute goodness or the goodness of his Nature but we should hardly be perswaded to return him an affection without his Relative goodness his Benefits to his Creatures We are oblig'd by both to love him 1. By his Absolute Goodness or the Goodness of his Nature Suppose a Creature had drawn its Original from something else wherein God had no influx and had never received the least mite of a benefit from him but from some other hand yet the infinite Excellency and goodness of his Nature would merit the love of that Creature and it would act sordidly and disingenuously if it did not discover a mighty Respect for God For what ingenuity could there be in a Rational Creature that were possessed with no esteem for any Nature fill'd with unbounded goodness and Excellency though he had never been oblig'd to him for any favour That Man is accounted odious and justly despicable by Man that reproaches and disesteems nay that doth not value a Person of a high Vertue in himself and an universal goodness and Charity to others though himself never stood in need of his Charity and never had any benefit conveyed from his hands nor ever saw his face or had any commerce with him A value of such a Person is but a just due to the natural claim of Vertue And indeed the first Object of Love is God in the Excellency of his own Nature as the first Object of Love in Marriage is the Person the Portion is a thing consequent upon it To love God only for his Benefits is to love our selves first and him secondarily To love God for his own Goodness and Excellency is a true love of God a love of him for himself That flaming Fire in his own Breast though we have not a Spark of it hath a right to kindle one in ours to him 2. By his Relative Goodness or that of his Benefits Though the Excellency of his own Nature wherein there is a combination of Goodness must needs ravish an apprehensive Mind yet a reflection upon his imparted Kindness both in the Beings we have from him and the support we have by him must enhance this
Estimation When the Excellency of his Nature and the Expressions of his Bounty are in conjunction the Excellency of his own Nature renders him estimable in a way of Justice and the greatness of his Benefits renders him valuable in a way of Gratitude The first ravisheth and the other allures and melts He hath enough in his Nature to attract and sufficient in his Bounty to engage our Affections The Excellency of his Nature is strong enough of it self to blow up our Affections to him were there not a Malignity in our hearts that represents him under the Notion of an Enemy therefore in regard of our Corrupt State the consideration of Divine Largesses comes in for a share in the Elevation of our Affections For indeed 't is a very hard thing for a Man to love another though never so well qualified and of an eminent Vertue while he believes him to be his Enemy and one that will severely handle him though he hath before received many good turns from him The Vertue Valour and Courtesie of a Prince will hardly make him affected by those against whom he is in Arms and that are daily pilfer'd by his Souldiers unless they have hopes of a Reparation from him and future security from injuries Christ in the Repetition of the Command to love God with all our mind with all our heart and with all our Soul i. e. with such an ardency above all things which glitter in our Eye or can be Created by him considers him as our God * Mat. 22.37 And the Psalmist considers him as one that had kindly employ'd his power for him in the eruption of his love Psal 18.1 I will love thee Oh Lord my strength And so in Psal 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications An esteem of the Benefactor is inseparable from gratitude for the received Benefits And should not then the unparallell'd kindness of God advance him in our thoughts much more than slighter Courtesies do a Created Benefactor in ours 'T is an obligation on every Mans Nature to answer Bounty with gratitude and Goodness with love Hence you never knew any Man nor can the Records of Eternity produce any Man or Devil that ever hated any Person or any thing as good in it self 'T is a thing absolutely repugnant to the Nature of any Rational Creature The Devils hate not God because he is good but because he is not so good to them as they would have him because he will not unlock their Chains turn them into liberty and restore them to Happiness i. e. because he will not desert the Rights of abus'd Goodness But how should we send up flames of love to that God since we are under his direct Beams and enjoy such plentiful influences If the Sun is comely in it self yet 't is more amiâ—ble to us by the light we see and the warmth we feel 1. The greatness of his Benefits have reason to affect us with a love to him The Impress he made upon our Souls when he extracted us from the darkness of nothing The Comeliness he hath put upon us by his own Breath The Care he took of our Recovery when we had lost our selves The Expence he was at for our Regaining our defac'd Beauty The gift he made of his Son The Affectionate Calls we have heard to over-master our Corrupt Appetites move us to Repentance and make us disaffect our beloved Misery The loud sound of his Word in our Ears and the more inward knocking 's of his Spirit in our Heart The offering us the Gift of himself and the Everlasting Happiness he Courts us to besides those common favours we enjoy in the World which are all the Streams of his rich Bounty The voice of all is loud enough to sollicite our love and the Merit of all ought to be strong enough to engage our love There is none like the God of Jesurun who rides upon the Heaven in thy help and in his Excellency on the Sky * Deut. 33.26 2. The unmeritedness of them doth inhance this 'T is but reason to love him who hath loved us first * 1 John 4.19 Hath he placed his delight upon were nothing and after they were Sinful and shall he set his delight upon such vile Persons and shall not we set our love upon so Excellent an Object as himself How base are we if his goodness doth not constrain us to affect him who hath been so free in his favour to us who have merited the quite contrary at his hands If his tender Mercies are over all his Works * Psal 145.9 He ought for it to be esteem'd by all his Works that are capable of a Rational Estimation 3. Goodness in Creatures makes them estimable much more should the Goodness of God render him lovely to us If we love a little spark of goodness in this or that Creature if a drop be so delicious to us shall not the immense Sun of Goodness the ever-flowing Fountain of all be much more delightful The Original Excellency always out-strips what is deriv'd from it If so mean and contracted an Object as a little Creature deserves Estimation for a little Mite communicated to it so great and extended a goodness as is in the Creator much more merits it at our hands He is good after the infinite methods of a Deity A weak Resemblance is lovely much more amiable then must be the incomprehensible Original of that Beauty We love Creatures for what we think to be good in them though it may be hurtful And shall we not love God who is a real and unblemisht Goodness And from whose hand are pour'd out all those Blessings that are conveyed to us by second Causes The Object that delights us the Capacity we have to delight in it are both from him Our love therefore to him should transcend the Affection we bear to any Instruments he moves for our welfare Among the Gods there is none like thee O Lord neither are there any Works like unto thy Works * Psal 86.8 Among the pleasantest Creatures there is none like the Creator nor any Goodness like unto his Goodness Shall we love the Food that Nourisheth us and the Medicine that Cures us and the Silver whereby we furnish our selves with useful Commodities Shall we love a Horse or Dog for the benefits we have by them And shall not the Spring of all those draw our Souls after it and make us aspire to the honour of loving and embracing him who hath stor'd every Creature with that which may pleasure us But instead of endeavouring to parallel our Affection with his Kindness we endeavour to make our Disingenuity as extensive and towring as his Divine Goodness 4. This is the true end of the manifestation of his Goodness that he might appear amiable and have a Return of Affection Did God display his Goodness only to be thought of or to be loved 'T is the want of
Holy Name And because himself and all men were insufficient to offer up a praise to God answerable to the greatness of his benefits he summons in the end of the Psalm the Angels and all Creatures to joyn in consort with him Observe 1. As man is too shallow a Creature to comprehend the excellency of God so he is too dull and scanty a Creature to offer up a due praise to God both in regard of the excellency of his nature and the multitude and greatness of his benefits 2. We are apt to forget divine benefits our Souls must therefore be often jogg'd and rous'd up All that is within me every power of my Rational and every Affection of my Sensitive part All his Faculties all his Thoughts Our Souls will hang back from God in every duty much more in this if we lay not a strict charge upon them We are so void of a pure and intire love to God that we have no mind to those duties Wants will spurr us on to Prayer but a pure love to God can only spirit us to Praise We are more ready to reach out a hand to receive his Mercies than to lift up our heart to recognize them after the receipt After the Psalmist had summoned his own Soul to this task he enumerates the Divine blessings received by him to awaken his soul by a sence of them to so noble a work He begins at the first and foundation Mercy to himself the pardon of his sin and justification of his Person the renewing of his sickly and languishing nature Verse 3. Who forgives all thy iniquities and heals all thy diseases His Redemption from death or Eternal destruction his expected glorification thereupon which he speaks of with that certainty as if it were present V. 4 Who redeems thy life from destruction who Crowns thee with loving kindness and tender Mercies He makes his progress to the mercy manifested to the Church in the protection of it against or delivery of it from oppressions Verse 6. The Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgment for all that are oppressed In the discovery of his Will and Law and the glory of his merciful Name to it Verse 7 8. He made known his ways unto Moses and his acts unto the Children of Israel The Lord is Merciful and Gracious slow to Anger and plenteous in Mercy Which latter words may refer also to the free and unmerited spring of the benefits he had reckoned up Viz. The Mercy of God which he mentions also verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities And then extols the perfection of Divine mercy in the pardoning of sin Ver. 11 12. The Paternal tenderness of God Verse 13. The eternity of his Mercy Verse 17. But restrains it to the proper object Verse 11.17 To them that fear him i. e. To them that beleive in him Fear being the word commonly used for Faith in the Old Testament under the legal dispensation wherein the spirit of bondage was more eminent than the spirit of Adoption and their fear more than their confidence Observe 1. All true blessings grow up from the pardon of sin ver 3. Who forgives all thine iniquities That is the first blessing the top and Crown of all other favours which draws all other blessings after it and sweetens all other blessings with it The principal intent of Christ was Expiation of sin Redemption from iniquity the purchase of other blessings was consequent upon it Pardon of sin is every blessing vertually and in the root and spring it flows from the favor of God and is such a gift as cannot be tainted with a Curse as outward things may 2. Where sin is pardoned the soul is renewed verse 3. Who heals all thy diseases Where guilt is remitted the deformity and sickness of the soul is cur'd Forgiveness is a teeming mercy it never goes single when we have an interest in Christ as bearing the chastisement of our peace we receive also a balsom from his blood to heal the wounds we feel in our nature Isaiah 53.5 The chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed As there is a guilt in sin which binds us over to punishment so there is a contagion in sin which fills us with pestilent diseases when the one is removed the other is cur'd We should not know how to love the one without the other The renewing the soul is necessary for a delightful relish of the other blessings of God A condemn'd Malefactor infected with a Leprosie or any other loathsome distemper if pardon'd could take little comfort in his freedom from the Gibbet without a Cure of his Plague 3. God is the sole and soveraign author of all spiritual blessings Who forgives all thy iniquities and heals all thy diseases He refers all to God nothing to himself in his own merit and strength All not the pardon of one sin merited by me not the cure of one disease can I owe to my own power and the strength of my free will and the operations of nature He and he alone is the Prince of pardon the Physitian that restores me the Redeemer that delivers me 't is a Sacriledge to divide the praise between God and our selves God only can knock off our fetters expell our distempers and restore a deformed Soul to its decayed beauty 4. Gracious Souls will bless God as much for Sanctification as for Justification The initials of Sanctification and there are no more in this Life are worthy of solemn acknowledgement 'T is a sign of growth in Grace when our Hymns are made up of acknowledgments of Gods sanctifying as well as pardoning Grace In blessing God for the one we rather shew a love to our selves in blessing God for the other we cast out a pure beam of love to God because by purifying Grace we are fitted to the service of our maker prepared to every good work which is delightful to him by the other we are eas'd in our selves Pardon fills us with inward peace but Sanctification fills us with an activity for God Nothing is so capable of setting the soul in a heavenly tune as the consideration of God as a pardoner and as a healer 5. Where sin is pardon'd the punishment is remitted Verse 3 4. Who forgives all thy iniquities and Redeems thy Life from destruction A Malefactors pardon puts an end to his chains frees him from the stench of the Dungeon and fear of the Gibbet Pardon is nothing else but the remitting of guilt and guilt is nothing else but an obligation to punishment as a penal debt for sin A Creditors tearing a Bond frees the Debtor from payment and rigor 6. Growth in Grace is always annext to true Sanctification Verse 3. So that thy youth is renew'd like the Eagles Interpreters trouble themselves much about the manner of the Eagles renewing its youth and regaining its vigor * Amyrald in loc He speaks
he please and exact what he will of his Creature without promising any Rewards May he not use his own for his own honour as well as men use for their credit what they do possess by his indulgence 5. Affliction is an act of his Soveraignty By this right of Soveraignty may not God take away any man's Goods since they were his doles As he was not indebted to us when he bestow'd them so he cannot wrong us when he removes them He takes from us what is more his own than it is ours and was never ours but by his gift and that for a time only not for ever By this right he may determine our times put a period to our days when he pleases strip us of one member and lop off another Man's being was from him and why should he not have a Soveraignty to take what he had a Soveraignty to give Why should this seem strange to any of us since we our selves exercise an absolute Dominion over those things in our possession which have sense and feeling as well as over those that want it Doth not every man think he hath an absolute Authority over the Utensils of his house over his Horse his Dog to preserve or kill him to do what he please with him without rendring any other reason than 't is my own May not God do much more Doth not his dominion over the work of his hands transcend that which a man can claim over his Beast that he never gave life unto He that dares dispute against God's absolute right fancies himself as much a God as his Creator understands not the vast difference between the Divine nature and his own between the Soveraignty of God and his own which is all the theam God himself discourseth upon in those stately Chapters Job 38 39. c. Not mentioning a Word of Job's sin but only vindicating the rights of his own Authority Nor doth Job in his reply Job 40.4 speak of his sin but of his natural vileness as a Creature in the presence of his Creator By this right God unstops the Bottles of Heaven in one place and stops them in another causing it to Rain upon one City and not upon another Amos 4.7 Ordering the Clouds to move to this or that quarter where he hath a mind to be a Benefactor or a Judge 6. Vnequal dispensations are acts of his Soveraignty By this right he is patient toward those whose sins by the common voice of men deserve speedy Judgments and pours out pain upon those that are patterns of vertue to the World By this he gives sometimes the worst of men an Ocean of wealth and honor to swim in and reduceth an useful and exemplary grace to a scanty poverty By this he Rules the Kingdoms of men and sets a Crown upon the head of the basest of men Dan. 4.17 While he deposeth another that seem'd to deserve a weightier Diadem This is as he is the Lord of the Ammunition of his Thunders and the Treasures of his Bounty 7. He may inflict what torments he pleases Some say by this right of Soveraignty he may inflict what torments he pleaseth upon an innocent person which indeed will not bear the nature of a punishment as an effect of Justice without the supposal of a crime but a torment as an effect of that Soveraign right he hath over his Creature which is as absolute over his work as the Potters power is over his own Clay Jerem. 18.6 Rom. 9.21 * Lessius de perfect Divin p. 66. 67. May not the Potter after his labour either set his vessel up to adorn his House or knock it in peices and fling it upon the Dunghill separate it to some noble use or condemn it to some sordid service Is the right of God over his Creatures less than that of the Potter over his Vessel since God contributed all to his Creature but the Potter never made the Clay which is the substance of the Vessel nor the water which was necessary to make it tractable but only moulded the substance of it into such a shape The Vessel that is fram'd and the Potter that frames it differ only in Life the body of the Potter whereby he executes his Authority is of no better a mould than the Clay the matter of his Vessel shall he have so absolute a power over that which is so near him and shall not God over that which is so infinitely distant from him The Vessel perhaps might plead for its self that it was once part of the Body of a man and as good as the Potter himself whereas no Creature can plead it was part of God and as good as God himself Though there be no man in the World but deserves affliction yet the Scripture sometimes layes affliction upon the score of God's dominion without any respect to the sin of the afflicted person James 5.15 Speaking of a sick person if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him whereby is implyed that he might be struck into sickness by God without any respect to a particular sin but in a way of Tryal and that his affliction sprung not from any exercise of Divine Justice but from his absolute soveraignty And so in the case of the blind man when the Disciples askt for what sin it was whether for his own or his Parents sin he was born blind John 9.3 Neither hath this man sinned nor his Parents which speaks in its self not against the whole current of Scripture but the words import thus much that God in this blindness from the birth neither respected any sin of the mans own nor of his Parents but he did it as an absolute soveraign to manifest his own Glory in that miraculous cure which was wrought by Christ Though afflictions do not happen without the desert of the Creature yet some afflictions may 〈◊〉 sent without any particular respect to that desert meerly for the manifestation of God's Glory since the Creature was made for God himself and his honour and therefore may be used in a serviceableness to the Glory of the Creator 2. His Dominion is absolute in regard of unlimitedness by any Law without him He is an absolute Monarch that makes Laws for his Subjects but is not bound by any himself nor receives any rules and Laws from his Subjects for the management of his Government But most Governments in the World are bounded by Laws made by common consent But when Kings are not limited by the Laws of their Kingdoms yet they are bounded by the Law of Nature and by the Providence of God But God is under no Law without himself his rule is within him the rectitude and Righteousness of his own nature he is not under that Law he hath prescribed to man The Law was not made for a Righteous man 1 Tim. 1.9 Much less for a Righteous God God is his own Law his own nature is his rule as his own Glory is his end
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
and he is punctually obeyed by them as a Soveraign Lord. All Creatures stand ready for his call and are prepared to be Executioners of his vengeance when he speaks the word they are his Hosts by Creation and in array for his service at the sound of his Trumpet or beat of his Drum they troop together with their Arms in their hands to put his Orders exactly in execution 6. The Dominion of God is manifest in appointing to every man his calling and station in the World If the hairs of every mans head fall under his Soveraign care the Calling of every man wherein he is to glorifie God and serve his Generation which is of a greater concern than the hairs of the head falls under his Dominion He is the Master of the great Family and divides to every one his work as he pleaseth The whole work of the Messiah the time of every action as well as the hour of his Passion was ordered and appointed by God The separation of Paul to the Preaching of the Gospel was by the Soveraign disposal of God Rom. 1.1 By the same exercise of his Authority that he sets every man the bounds of his habitation Acts 17.26 he prescribes also to him the nature of his work He that ordered Adam the Father of mankind his work and the place of it the dressing the Garden Gen. 2.15 doth not let any of his posterity be their own choosers without an influence of his Soveraign direction on them Though our Callings are our work yet they are by Gods order wherein we are to be faithful to our great Master and Ruler 7. The Dominion of God is manifest in the means and occasions of mens Conversion Sometimes one occasion sometimes another one word lets a man go another arrests him and brings him before God and his own Conscience 't is as God gives out the order He lets Paul be a Prisoner at Jerusalem that his cause should not be determined there moves him to appeal to Caesar not only to make him a Prisoner but a Preacher in Caesars Court and render his chains an occasion to bring in a Harvest of Converts in Nero's Palace 1 Phil. 12.13 His bonds in or for Christ are manifest in all the Palace not the bare knowledge of his bonds but the soveraign design of God in those Bonds and the success of them the bare knowledge of them would not make others more confident for the Gospel as it follows v. 14. without a providential design of them Onesimus running from his Master is guided by Gods soveraign order into Pauls Company and thereby into Christ's arms and he who came a fugitive returns a Christian. Phil. 10.15 Some by a strong affliction have had by the Divine soveraignty their understandings awakened to consider and their wills spirited to conversion Monica being call'd Meribibula or toss-pot was brought to consider her way and reform her Life A word hath done that at one time which hath often before fallen without any fruit Many have come to suck in the Eloquence of the Minister and have found in the Hony for their Ears a sting for their Consciences Austin had no other intent in going to hear Ambrose but to have a tast of his famous Oratory but while Ambrose spake a Language to his Ear God spake a heavenly Dialect to his heart No reason can be render'd of the order and timing and influence of those things but the soveraign pleasure of God who will attend one occasion and season with his blessing and not another 8. The Dominion of God is manifest in disposing of the Lives of men He keeps the key of Death as well as that of the Womb in his own hand he hath given man a Life but not power to dispose of it or lay it down at his pleasure And therefore he hath ordered man not to murder not another not himself man must expect his call and grant to dispose of the Life of his Body Why doth he cut the thred of this mans Life and spin anothers out to a longer term Why doth one die an inglorious death and another more honourable One silently drops away in the multitude while another is made a Sacrifice for the Honour of God or the safety of his Countrey This is a mark of Honour he gives to one and not to another Phil. 1.29 To you it is given The manner of Peters death was appointed John 21.19 Why doth a small and slight Disease against the Rules of Physick and the Judgment of the best Practitioners dislodge one mans Soul out of his Body while a greater Disease is master'd in another and discharges the Patient to enjoy himself a longer time in the Land of the Living Is it the effect of means so much as of the soveraign disposer of all things If means only did it the same means would alway work the same effect and sooner master a dwarfish than a Gyant-like Distemper Our times are only in Gods hands Psal 31.15 Either to cut short or continue long As his soveraignty made the first Marriage knot so he reserves the sole Authority to himself to make the Divorce 4. The Dominion of God is manifest in his being a Redeemer as well as Law-giver Proprietor and Governour His Soveraignty was manifest in the Creation in bestowing upon this or that part of matter a form more excellent than upon another He was a Law-giver to Men and Angels and prescribed them rules according to the Councel of his own Will These were his Creatures and perfectly at his disposal but in Redemption a soveraignty is exercised over the Son the second Person in the Trinity one equal with the Father in essence and works by whom the worlds were created and by whom they do consist The whole Gospel is nothing else but a declaration of his soveraign pleasure concerning Christ and concerning us in him 't is therefore call'd the Mystery of his Will Eph. 1.9 The Will of God as distinct from the Will of Christ a purpose in himself not mov'd thereunto by any the whole design was fram'd in the Deity and as much the purpose of his soveraign Will as the contrivance of his immense Wisdom He decreed in his own pleasure to have the second person assume our Nature for to deliver mankind from that misery whereinto it was fallen The whole of the Gospel and the Priviledges of it are in that chapter resolved into the will and pleasure of God God is therefore called the head of Christ 1 Cor. 11.3 As Christ is superior to all men and the man superior to the woman so is God superior to Christ and of a more eminent dignity in regard of the constituting him mediator Christ is Subject to God as the Body to the Head Head is a Title of Government and Soveraignty and Magistrates were called the heads of the People As Christ is the head of Man so is God the head of Christ and as man is subject to Christ so is Christ
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
a day or two but continually In whatsoever day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye but not understanding his dying that very day he should eat of it Referring day to the extensiveness of the prohibition as to time But to leave this as uncertain it may be answered that as in some threatnings a condition is implyed though not exprest as in that positive denouncing of the destruction of Niniveh Jonah 3.4 Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroy'd the condition is imply'd unless they humble themselves and repent for upon their Repentance the sentence was deferred So here in the day thou eatest thereof thou shall dye the death or certainly dye unless there be a way found for the expiation of thy crime and the righting my honour This condition in regard of the event may as well be asserted to be implyed in this threatning as that of Repentance was in the other Or rather thou shalt dye thou shalt die spiritually thou shalt loose that image of mine in thy nature that Righteousness which is as much the Life of thy Soul as thy Soul is the life of thy Body that Righteousness whereby thou art enabled to live to me and thy own happiness What the Soul is to the Body a quickning Soul that the image of God is to the Soul a quickning image Or thou shalt dye the death or certainly dye thou shalt be liable to death * Perer in loc And so it is to be understood not of an actual death of the Body but the merit of death and the necessity of death thou wilt be obnoxious to death which will be avoided if thou dost forbear to eat of the forbidden fruit thou shalt be a guilty person and so under a sentence of death that I may when I please inflict it on thee Death did come upon Adam that day because his nature was vitiated He was then also under an expectation of death he was obnoxious to it though that day it was not poured out upon him in the full bitterness and gall of it As when the Apostle saith Rom. 8.10 The Body is dead because of sin he speaks to the Living and yet tells them the body was dead because of sin he means no more than that it was under a sentence and so a necessity of dying though not actually dead So thou shalt be under the sentence of death that day as certainly as if that day thou shouldst sink into the dust And as by his Patience towards man not sending forth death upon him in all the bitter ingredients of it his Justice afterwards was more eminent upon mans surety than it would have been if it had been then employ'd in all its severe operations upon man So was his Veracity eminent also in making good this threatning in inflicting the punishment included in it upon our nature assum'd by a mighty person and upon that person in our nature who was infinitely higher than our nature 2. His justice and righteousness are not prejudiced by his patience There is a hatred of the sin in his holiness and a sentence past against the sin in his justice though the execution of that sentence be suspended and the person reprieved by patience which is implyed Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Sentence is past but a speedy execution is stopt Some of the Heathens who would not imagine God unjust and yet seeing the villanies and oppressions of men in the World remain unpunisht and frequently beholding prosperous wickedness to free him from the charge of injustice denyed his providence and actual Government of the World for if he did take notice of humane affairs and concern himself in what was done upon the Earth they could not think an infinite goodness and Justice could be so slow to punish oppressors and relieve the miserable and leave the World in that disorder under the injustice of men They judged such a patience as was exercised by him if he did govern the World was drawn out beyond the line of fit and just Is it not a presumption in men to prescribe a rule of Righteousness and conveniency to their Creator It might be demanded of such whether they never injur'd any in their lives and when certainly they have one way or other would they not think it a very unworthy if not unjust thing that a person so injur'd by them should take a speedy and severe revenge on them And if every man should do the like would there not be a speedy dispatch made of Mankind Would not the World be a shambles and men rush forwards to one anothers destruction for the wrongs they have mutually received If it be accounted a virtue in man and no unrighteousness not presently to be all on fire against an offence by what right should any question the consistency of Gods patience with his justice Do we praise the lenity of Parents to children and shall we disparage the long suffering of God to men We do not censure the righteousness of Physitians and Chirurgeons because they cut not off a corrupt member this day as well as to morrow And is it just to asperse God because he doth deferr his vengeance which man assumes to himself a right to do We never account him a bad Governour that deferrs the tryal and consequently the condemnation and execution of a notorious offender for important reasons and beneficial to the publick either to make the nature of his crime more evident or to find out the rest of his complices by his discovery A Governour indeed were unjust if he commanded that which were unrighteous and forbad that which were worthy and commendable But if he delayes the execution of a convict offender for weighty reasons either for the benefit of the state whereof he is the Ruler or for some advantage to the offender himself to make him have a sence of and a regret for his offence we account him not unjust for this God doth not by his patience dispense with the holiness of his Law nor cut off any thing from its due Authority If men do strengthen themselves by his long suffering against his Law 't is their fault not any unrighteousness in him He will take a time to vindicate the Righteousness of his own commands if men will wholly neglect the time of his patience in forbearing to pay a dutiful observance to his Precept If Justice be natural to him and he cannot but punish sin yet he is not necessitated to consume sinners as the fire doth stubble put into it which hath no command over its own qualities to restrain them from acting But God is a free agent and may choose his own time for the distribution of that punishment his nature leads him to Though he be naturally just yet it is not so natural to him as to deprive him of a dominion over his own acts and a
to the last committed this minute The line of his patience hath run along with the duration of the World to this day and there is not any one of Adams posterity but hath been expensive to him and partaked of the riches of it 4. All these he bears when he hath a sense of them He sees every day the Roll and Catalogue of sin increasing he hath a distinct view of every one from the sin of Adam to the last fil'd up in his Omniscience and yet gives no order for the arrest of the World He knows men fitted for destruction all the instants he exerciseth long-suffering towards them which makes the Apostle call it not simply long suffering without the addition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much long-suffering Rom. 9.23 There is not a grain in the whole Mass of sin that he hath not a distinct knowledge of and of the quality of it He perfectly understands the greatness of his own Majesty that is vilified and the nature of the offence that doth disparage him He is sollicited by his Justice directed by his Omniscience and armed with judgments to vindicate himself but his arm is restrained by patience To conclude no indignity is hid from him no iniquity is beloved by him the hatred of their sinfulness is infinite and the knowledge of the malice is exact The subsisting of the World under such weighty provocations so numerous so long time and with his full sence of every one of them is an evidence of such a forbearance and long-suffering that the addition of Riches which the Apostle puts to it Rom. 2.4 labours with an insufficiency clearly to display it III. Why God doth exercise so much patience 1. To shew himself appeaseable God did not declare by his patience to former ages or any age that he was appeased with them or that they were in his favour but that he was appeasable that he was not an implacable Enemy but that they might find him favourable to them if they did seek after him The continuance of the World by patience and the bestowing many mercies by goodness were not a natural revelation of the manner how he would be appeased That was made known only by the Prophets and after the coming of Christ by the Apostles and had indeed been intelligible in some sort to the whole World had there been a faithfulness in Adams posterity to transmit the tradition of the first promise to succeeding Generations Had not the knowledge of that dyed by their carelesness and neglect it had been easie to tell the reason of Gods patience to be in order to the exhibition of the Seed of the woman to bruise the Serpents head They could not but naturally know themselves sinners and worthy of death they might be easie reflections upon themselves collect that they were not in that comely and harmonious posture now as they were when God first wrought them with his own finger and placed them as his Lieutenants in the World they knew they did grievously offend him this they were taught by the sprinklings of his judgments among them sometimes And since he did not utterly root up mankind his sparing patience was a prologue of some further favours or pardoning Grace to be display'd to the World by some methods of God yet unknown to them Though the Earth was something impair'd by the curse after the fall yet the main pillars of it stood the strate of the natural motions of the Creature was not chang'd the Heavens remain'd in the same posture wherein they were Created the Sun and Moon and other heavenly bodies continued their usefulness and refreshing influences to man The Heavens did still declare the Glory of God day unto day did utter speech their line is gone throughout all the Earth and their words to the end of the World Psal 19.1 2 3. 4. Which declar'd God to be willing to do good to his Creatures and were as so many legible letters or rudiments whereby they might read his patience and that a further design of favour to the World lay hid in that Patience Paul applies this to the Preaching of the Gospel Rom. 10.18 Have they not heard the word of God yes verily their sound went into all the Earth and their words unto the end of the World Redeeming grace could not be spell'd out by them in a clear notion but yet they did declare that which is the Foundation of Gospel Mercy Were not God patient there were no room for a Gospel Mercy so that the Heavens declare the Gospel not formally but fundamentally in declaring the long-suffering of God without which no Gospel had been fram'd or could have been expected They could not but read in those things favourable inclinations towards them And though they could not be ignorant that they deserved a mark of justice yet seeing themselves supported by God and beholding the regular motions of the Heavens from day to day and the Revolutions of the seasons of the year the natural conclusion they might draw from thence was that God was placable Since he behav'd himself more as a tender Friend that had no mind to be at War with them than an enraged Enemy The good things which he gave them and the patience whereby he spar'd them were no arguments of an impâ—acable disposition And therefore of a disposition willing to be appeased This is clearly the design of the Apostles arguing with the Lystrians when they would have offered Sacrifices to Paul Acts 14.17 When God suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways he did not leave himself without witness giving Rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons What were those Witnesses of Not only of the Being of a God by their readiness to sacrifice to those that were not Gods only supposed to be so in their false imaginations but witnesses to the tenderness of God that he had no mind to be severe with his Creatures But would allure them by ways of Goodness * Amyrald dissert pag. 191. 192. Had not Gods patience tended to this end to bring the World under another dispensation the Apostles arguing from it had not been sutable to his design which seems to be a hindering the sacrifices they intended for them and a drawing them to embrace the Gospel and therefore preparing the way to it by speaking of the Patience and Goodness of God to them as an unquestionable testimony of the reconcileableness of God to them by some sacrifice which was represented under the common notion of Sacrifices These things were not Witnesses of Christ or syllables whereby they could spell out the redeeming person but Witnesses that God was placable in his own nature When man abused those noble faculties God had given him and diverted them from the use and service God intended them for God might have stript man of them the first time that he mis-employed them and it would have seemed most agreeable to this wisdom and Justice not to suffer himself to be
360 618 619 Not Instruments in the Creation of Man Pag. 443 Evil not redeemed Pag. 619 620 Angels not Governors of the world Pag. 673 674 Subject to God Pag. 717 718 Men Apostatize from God when his will crosses theirs Pag. 80 In times of Persecution Pag. 90 By reason of practical Atheism Pag. 102 103 Apostles the first Preachers of the Gospel mean and worthless men Pag. 463 464 Spirited by Divine Power for spreading of it Pag. 464 465 The Wisdom of God seen in using such Instruments Pag. 393 394 Applauding our selves v. Pride Atheism opens a Door to all manner of wickedness Pag. 2. Some spice of it in all men Pag. 2 4 The greatest folly 3 ad Pag. 39 Common in our days Pag. 3 41 Strikes at the Foundation of all Religion Pag. 3 We should establish our selves against it ibid. 'T is against the light of Natural Reason Pag. 4 Against the universal consent of all Nations Pag. 6 But few if any profest it in former Ages Pag. 8 41 Would root up the Foundations of all Government Pag. 39 Introduce all evil into the world Pag. 39 40 Pernicious to the Atheist himself Pag. 40 41 The cause of Publick Judgments Pag. 41 Mens Lusts the cause of it Pag. 43 Promoted by the Devil most since the destruction of Idolatry Pag. 44 Uncomfortable Pag. 44 45 Directions against it Pag. 45 46 All sin founded in a secret Atheism Pag. 50 Practical Atheism natural to Man Pag. 47 Natural since the Fall Pag. 48 To all men ibid. Proved by Arguments 54 ad Pag. 99 We ought to be humbled for it both in our selves and others Pag. 103 104 How great a sin it is 104 ad Pag. 106 Misery will attend it Pag. 106 We should watch against it ibid. Directions against it Pag. 106 107 Atheist can never prove there is no God Pag. 41 42 All the Creatures fight against him Pag. 42 In Afflictions suspects and fears there is one Pag. 42 43 How much pains he takes to blot out the notion of a God Pag. 43 Suppose it were an even lay that there were no God yet he is very imprudent ibid. Uses not means to enform himself ibid. Atoms the World not made by a casual concourse of them Pag. 20 Attributes of God bear a comfortable respect to believers Pag. 342 Authority how distinguisht from Power Pag. 704 B. THe Best we have ought to be given to God Pag. 155 156 Blessings Spiritual God only the Author of Pag. 698 Temporal God uses a Soveraignty in bestowing them 740 Vide Riches Body of Man how curiously wrought Pag. 30 31 350 Every Human one hath different Features Pag. 31 32 God hath none v. Spirit We must worship God with our Bodies Pag. 139 140 141 Yet not with our Bodies only Vide Soul and Worship We must not conceive of God under a Bodily shape Pag. 124 125 Bodily Members ascribed to him Vide Members Brain how curious a workmanship Pag. 30 C. THe Israelites worshipped the true God under the golden Calf Pag. 122 God fits and enclines men to several Callings Pag. 356 357 650 Appoints every mans Calling Pag. 747 There is a first Cause of all things Pag. 20 21 Which doth necessarily exist and is infinitely perfect Pag. 21 We must not Censure God in his Counsels Actions or Revelations Pag. 192 193 403 404 Or in his ways Pag. 415 416 Censuring the hearts of others is an injury to God's Omniscience Pag. 324 325 Men is a contempt of God's Soveraignty Pag. 763 Ceremonial Law abolisht to promote Spiritual Worship Pag. 135 Called Flesh ibid. Not a fit means to bring the heart into a spiritual frame Pag. 135 136 Rather hindred than further'd Spiritual Worship Pag. 136 137 God never testified himself well-pleased with it nor intended it should always last Pag. 137 138 The abrogating of it doth not argue any change in God Pag. 228 229 The Holiness of God appears in it Pag. 510 511 Men are prone to bring Ceremonies of their own into God's Worship 79 Vide Worship and Additions c. Chance the World not made nor governed by it Pag. 26 Charity men have bad ends in it Pag. 93 We should exercise it Pag. 691 692 The consideration of God's Soveraignty would promote it Pag. 774 We should be Chearful in God's worship Pag. 150 Christ his Godhead proved from his Eternity Pag. 191 192 From his Omnipresence Pag. 261 262 From his Immutability Pag. 229 230 From his Knowledge of God all Creatures the hearts of men and his prescience of their Inclinations Pag. 315 316 317 From his Omnipotence manifest in Creation Preservation and Resurrection Pag. 472 ad 476 From his Holiness Pag. 551 From his Wisdom Pag. 395 Is God-man Pag. 458 Spiritual Worship offered to God through him Pag. 154 155 The imperfectness of our Services should make us prize his Mediation Pag. 168 The only fit Person in the Trinity to assume our Nature Pag. 378 379 Fitted to be our Mediator and Saviour by his two Natures Pag. 381 382 383 Should be imitated in his Holiness and often viewed by us to that end Pag. 559 563 The greatest Gift Pag. 622 ad 625 Appointed by the Father to be our Redeemer Pag. 749 750 751 The Christian Religion its Excellency Pag. 103 Of Divine Extraction Pag. 551 Most opposed in the World Pag. 63 Vide Gospel Church God's Eternity a comfort to her in all her Distresses and Threatnings of her Enemies Pag. 193 194 Under God's special Providence Pag. 272 273 His Infinite Knowledge a comfort in all subtil contrivances of men against her Pag. 328 329 Troublers of her Peace by corrupt Doctrines no better than Devils 341 †God 's Wisdom a comfort to her in her greatest dangers Pag. 406 Hath shewn his Power in her deliverance in all Ages Pag. 180 453 454 And in the destruction of her Enemies Pag. 454 455 456 Ought to take comfort in his Power in her lowest Estate Pag. 487 488 Should not fear her Enemies v. Fear His Goodness a comfort in dangers Pag. 684 How great is God's love to her Pag. 769 820 His Soveraignty a comfort to her Pag. 771 772 He will comfort her in her â—ears and destroy her Enemies Pag. 787 788 God exercises Patience towards her Pag. 812 For her sake to the wicked also Pag. 812 813 Why her Enemies are not immediately destroyed Pag. 819 Commands of God v. Laws The Holiness of God to be relied on for Comfort Pag. 551 God gives great Comforts in or after Temptations Pag. 659 Creatures cannot Comfort us if God be angry Pag. 768 Communion with God man naturally hath no desire of Pag. 98 The advantage of Communion with him Pag. 106 107 Can only be in our Spirits Pag. 127 We should desire it Pag. 201 202 Cannot be between God and sinners Pag. 548 549 Holiness only fits us for it Pag. 562 Conceptions we cannot have adequate ones of God Pag. 123 We ought to labour after as high ones as
which is past And tho' God be said to forget in Scripture and not to know his People and his People pray to him to remember them as if he had forgotten them Psal 119 49. This is improperly ascrib'd to God * Bradward As God is said to repent when he changes things according to his Counsel beyond the expectation of men so he is said to forget when he defers the making good his Promise to the Godly or his Threatnings to the Wicked this is not a defect of Memory belonging to his mind but an act of his Will When he is said to remember his Covenant 't is to Will Grace according to his Covenant when he is said to forget his Covenant 't is to intercept the influences of it whereby to punish the Sin of his People and when he is said not to know his People 't is not an absolute forgetfulness of them but withdrawing from them the Testimonies of his Kindness and clouding the Signs of his favour so God in Pardon is said to forget Sin not that he ceaseth to know it but ceaseth to punish it 'T is not to be meant of a simple forgetfulness or a lapse of his Memory but of a Judicial Forgetfulness so when his People in Scripture Pray Lord Remember thy Word unto thy Servant no more is to be understood but Lord fulfil thy Word and Promise to thy Servant 3. He knows things Present Heb. 4.13 All things are naked and opened unto the Eyes of him with whom we have to do This is grounded upon the Knowledg of himself 't is not so difficult to know all Creatures exactly as to know himself because they are finite but himself is infinite he knows his own Power and therefore every thing through which his Omnipotence is diffus'd all the acts and objects of it not the least thing that is the Birth of his Power can be conceal'd from him he knows his own Goodness and therefore every object upon which the warm beams of his Goodness strike he therefore knows distinctly the properties of every Creature because every Property in them is a Ray of his Goodness he is not only the efficient but the exemplary cause therefore as he knows all that his Power hath wrought as he is the efficient so he knows them in himself as the pattern As a Carpenter can give an account of every part and passage in a House he hath built by consulting the Model in his own mind whereby he built it He looked upon all things after he had made them and pronounc'd them good Gen. 1.3 full of a natural goodness he had endowed them with he did not ignorantly pronounce them so and call them good whether he knew them or not and therefore he knows them in particular as he knew them all in their first Presence Is there any reason he should be ignorant of every thing now present in the World or that any thing that derives an existence from him as a free cause should be concealed from him If he did not know things present in their particularities many things would be known by man yea by Beasts which the infinite God were ignorant of and if he did not know all things present but only some 't is possible for the most Blessed God to be deceived and be miserable Ignorance is a Calamity to the Understanding He could not prescribe Laws to his Creatures unless he knew their Natures to which those Laws were to be suited no not natural Ordinances to the Sun Moon and Heavenly Bodies and inanimate Creatures unless he knew the vigour and vertue in them to execute those Ordinances for to prescribe Laws above the nature of things is inconsistent with the Wisdom of Government he must know how far they were able to obey whether the Laws were suted to their ability And for his rational Creatures Whether the Punishments annext to the Law were proper and suited to the Transgression of the Creature 1. First He knows all Creatures from the highest to the lowest the least as well as the greatest He knows the Ravens and their young ones Job â—â— 41. the Drops of Rain and Dew which he hath begotten Job 38. â—â— every Bird in the Air as well as any man doth what he hath in a Cage at home Psal 50.11 I know all the Fowls in the Mountains and the wild Beasts in the Field which some read creeping things The Clouds are numbred in his Wisdom Job 38.37 every Worm in the Earth every drop of Rain that falls upon the ground the flakes of Snow and the knots of Hail the Sands upon the Sea-shore the Hairs upon the Head 't is no more absurd to imagine that God knows them than that God made them they are all the effects of his Power as well as the Stars which he calls by their Names as well as the most glorious Angel and blessed Spirit he knows them as well as if there were none but them in particular for him to know the least things were framed by his Art as well as the greatest the least things partake of his goodness as well as the greatest he knows his own Arts and his own Goodness and therefore all the Stamps and Impressions of them upon all his Creatures he knows the immediate causes of the least and therefore the effects of those causes Since his knowledg is infinite it must extend to those things which are at the greatest distance from him to those which approach nearest to not Being since he did not want Power to Create he cannot want Understanding to know every thing he hath Created the dispositions qualities and vertues of the minutest Creature Nor is the Vnderstanding of God embas'd and suffers a diminution by the Knowledg of the vilest and most inconsiderable things Is it not an imperfection to be ignorant of the nature of any thing and can God have such a defect in his most perfect Understanding Is the Understanding of man of an impurer Alloy by knowing the nature of the rankest Poysons by understanding a Fly or a small Insect or by considering the deformity of a Toad Is it not generally counted a note of a Dignified mind to be able to Discourse of the Nature of them Was Solomon who knew all from the Cedar to the Hysop debas'd by so Rich a Present of Wisdom from his Creator Is any Glass defil'd by presenting a Deformed Image Is there any thing more vile than the imaginations which are only evil and continually doth not the mind of man descend to the mud of the Earth play the Adulterer or Idolater with mean objects suck in the most unclean things yet God knows these in all their circumstances in every appearance inside and outside Is there any thing viler than some thoughts of men than some actions of men their unclean Beds and Gluttonous Vomiting and Luciferian Pride yet do not these fall under the Eye of God in all their Nakedness The Second Person 's taking
Human Nature tho' it obscur'd yet it did not disparage the Deity or bring any disgrace to it Is Gold the worse for being formed into the Image of a Fly doth it not still retain the nobleness of the Metal When men are despis'd for descending to the knowledg of mean and vile things 't is because they neglect the knowledg of the greater and Sin in their enquiries after lesser things with a neglect of that which concerns more the Honour of God and the Happiness of themselves to be ambitious of such a Knowledg and careless of that of more concern is criminal and contemptible But God knows the greatest as well as the least mean things are not known by him to exclude the knowledg of the greater nor are vile things govern'd by him to exclude the order of the better The Deformity of Objects known by God doth not deform him nor defile him he doth not view them without himself but within himself wherein all things in their Ideas are Beautiful and Comely Our knowledg of a Deformed thing is not a Deforming of our Understanding but is beautiful in the Knowledg tho' it be not in the object nor is there any fear that the Understanding of God should become material by knowing material things any more than our Understandings lose their Spirituality by knowing the nature of Bodies 't is to be observed therefore that only those senses of men as seeing hearing smelling which have those qualities for their objects that come nearest the nature of spiritual things as Light Sounds fragrant Odours are ascrib'd to God in Scripture not Touching or Tasting which are senses that are not exercis'd without a more immediate commerce with gross matter and the reason may be because we should have no gross thoughts of God as if he were a body and made of matter like the things he knows 2. As he knows all Creatures so God knows all the actions of Creatures He counts in particular all the ways of men Doth he not see all my ways and count all my steps Job 31.4 He tells their wandrings as if one by one Psal 56.8 His eyes are upon all the ways of man and he sees all his goings Job 34.21 a Metaphor taken from men when they look wistly with fixed Eyes upon a thing to view it in every circumstance whence it comes whether it goes to observe every little motion of it Gods Eye is not a wandring but a fixed Eye and the ways of man are not only before his eyes but he doth exactly ponder them Prov. 5.21 as one that will not be ignorant of the least Mite in them but weigh and examine them by the Standard of his Law he may as well know the motions of our Members as the Hairs of our Heads the smallest actions before they be whether Civil Natural or Religious fall under his Cognizance what meaner than a man carrying a Pitcher yet our Saviour foretels it Luke 22.10 God knows not only what men do but what they would have done had he not restrained them what Abimelech would have done to Sarah had not God put a Bar in his way Gen. 20.6 What a man that is taken away in his Youth would have done had he lived to a riper Age yea he knows the most secret words as well as actions the words spoken by the King of Israel in his Bed-Chamber were revealed to Elisha 2 Kings 6.12 and indeed how can any action of man be conceal'd from God Can we view the various actions of a heap of Ants or a Hive of Bees in a glass without turning our Eyes and shall not God behold the actions of all men in the World which are less than Bees or Ants in his Sight and more visible to him than an Ant-Hill or Bee-Hive can be to the acutest eye of man 3. As God knows all the actions of Creatures so he knows all the Thoughts of Creatures The thoughts are the most closetted acts of man hid from men and Angels unless disclos'd by some outward Expressions but God descends into the depths and abysses of the Soul discerns the most inward contrivances nothing is impenetrable to him the Sun doth not so much enlighten the Earth as God understands the Heart all thoughts are as visible to him as Flies and Motes enclos'd in a body of transparent Chrystal this man naturally allows to God Men often speak to God by the motions of their minds and secret Ejaculations which they would not do if it were not naturally implanted in them that God knows all their inward motions the Scripture is plain and positive in this He tries the Heart and the Reins Psal 7.9 as men by the use of Fire discern the drossy and purer parts of Metals The secret intentions and aims the most lurking affections seated in the Reins he knows that which no man no Angel is able to know which a man himself knows not nor makes any particular reflection upon yea he weighs the Spirit Prov. 16.2 he exactly numbers all the devices and inclinations of men as men do every piece of Coyn they tell out of a heap He discerns the Thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4.12 all that is in the mind all that is in the affections every stirring and purpose so that not one thought can be withheld from him Job 42.2 yea Hell and Destruction are before him much more then the Hearts of the Children of men Prov. 15.11 he works all things in the Bowels of the Earth and brings forth all things out of that Treasure say some but more naturally God knows the whole state of the dead all the receptacles and Graves of their bodies all the bodies of men consumed by the Earth or devoured by living Creatures things that seem to be out of all Being he knows the Thoughts of the Devils and Damned Creatures whom he hath cast out of his care for ever into the arms of his Justice never more to cast a delightful glance towards them not a secret in any Soul in Hell which he hath no need to know because he shall not judg them by any of the Thoughts they now have since they were condemned to punishment is hid from him much more is he acquainted with the Thoughts of living men the counsels of whose hearts are yet to be manifested in order to their Tryal and Censure yea he knows them before they spring up into actual being Psal 139.2 thou understandest my Thoughts afar off my Thoughts that is every Thought tho' innumerable Thoughts pass through me in a day and that in the Sourse and Fountain when it is yet in the Womb before it is our Thought if he knows them before their Existence before they can be properly called ours much more doth he know them when they actually spring up in us he knows the tendency of them where the Bird will light when it is in flight he knows them exactly he is therefore called a discerner or criticizer of the Heart