to come and follow him was there no prevailing inward power that made them leave all and follow him And was it not the power of the Holy Ghost that Converted three thousand Jewes at a Sermon of them that by wicked hands had Crucified and slain the Lord Jesus Act. 2. 23 41. When the Preaching and Miracles of Christ Converted so few his Brethren and they that saw his Miracles believed not on him Joh. 12. 37. 5. 38. 6. 36. 7. 5. but when the Holy Ghost was given after his Ascension in that plenty which answered the Gospel and promise his words were fulfilled Joh. 12. 32. And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me I pass by abundance more such evidence Quest. 9. Doth it not tend to bring sin into credit which holiness is contrary to and to bring the love of God into discredit and to hinder mens Conversion and keep them from a holy life when holiness is taken for so low and natural or common a thing Quest. 10. And consequently doth it not tend to the vilifying of the Attribute of Holiness in God when the Image and effect of it is so extenuated Quest. 11. And doth it not tend to the contempt of Heaven it self whose state of felicity consisteth much in perfect Holiness And if Sanctification be but some common motion which Cain and Judas had as well as Paul sure it is less Divine and more inconsiderable then we thought Quest. 12. Doth it not speak very dangerous suspicion of a soul that never felt the special work of grace that can make light of it and ascribe it most to his own will And would not sound Humiliation do more then Arguments to cure this great mistake I never yet came neer a throughly-humbled soul but I found them too low and vile in their own eyes to have such undervaluing thoughts of grace or to think it best for them to leave all the efficacy of grace to their own wills A broken heart abhors such thoughts Quest. 13. Dare any wise and sober man desire such a thing of God or dare you say that you will expect no other Grace but what shall leave it to your selves to make it effectual or frustrate it I think he is no friend to his soul that would take up with this Quest. 14. Do not the constant Prayers of all that have but a shew of godliness contradict the doctrine which I am contradicting Do you not beg of God to melt and soften and bow your hearts and to make them more holy and fill them with light and faith and Love and hold you close to God and duty In a word do you not daily pray for effectual grace that shall infallibly procure your desired ends I scarce ever heard a prayer from a sober man but was orthodox in such points though their speeches would be heterodox Quest. 15. Do you not know that there is an enmity in every unrenewed heart against sanctification till God remove it Are we not greater enemies to our selves and greater resisters of the Holy Ghost and of our own conversion and sanctification and salvation then all the world besides is woe to him that feeleth not this by himself And is it likely that we that are enemies to holiness should do more to our own Sanctification then the Holy Ghost Woe to us if he conquer not our enmity Quest. 16. Is it probable that so great a work as the destroying of our dearest sins the setting our hearts and all our hopes on an Invisible glory and delighting in the Lord and forsaking all for him c. should come rather from the choice of a will that loveth those sins and hateth that holy heavenly life then from the spirit of Christ sure this is much above us Quest. 17. Whence is it that so often one man that hath been a notorious sinner is Converted by a Sermon when a civiler man of better nature and life is never changed though he have that and ten times more perswasions Quest. 18. Doth not experience tell impartial observers that the high esteemers of the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost are ordinarily of more holy heavenly lives then they that use to ascribe the differencing work to their free wills In my observation it is so Quest. 19. Should not every gracious humble soul be more enclined to magnifie God then himself and to give him the Glory then to give it to our selves especially in a case where Scripture and experience telleth us that we are more unlikely then God to deserve the praise Our destruction is of our selves but in him is our help Hos. 13. 9. When we see an effect and know it and the causes that are in question it is easie to conjecture from the quality which is the true cause If I see a Serpent brought forth I will sooner think that it was generated by a Serpent then a Dove If I see sin in the world I shall easily believe it is the spawn of this corrupted will that is so prone to it But if I find a divine nature in me or see a holy heavenly life in any I must needs think that this is liker to be the work of the blessed God then of such a naughty heart as mans that hath already been a self-destroyer Quest. 20. What motive hath any man to exalt himself and sin again the Holy Ghost by such an extenuation of his saving grace It is a causeless fruitless sin The only reason that ever I could hear for it was lest the doctrine of differencing grace should make God a respecter of persons or the author of sin of which there is no reason of a suspicion We all agree that no man perisheth or is denyed Grace but such as deserve it And when all deserve it it is no more respect of persons in God to sanctifie some only of those ill deservers then it is that he makes not all men Kings nor every dog or toad a man nor every star a Sun or every man or Angel To clear all objections concerning this would be but to digress 3. Lastly Our knowledge of the Holy Ghost must raise us to an high estimation of his works and a ready reception of his graces and cheerful obedience to his motions He Sanctified our Head that had no sin by preventing sin in his conception and he annointed him to his office and came upon him at his Baptism He Sanctified and anointed the Prophets and Apostles to their offices and by them endited the holy Scripture He illuminateth converteth sanctifieth and guideth all that are to be the heirs of life This is his work Honour that part of it that is done on Christ on the Prophets Apostles and the Scriptures and value and seek after that which belongeth to your selves Think not to be Holy without the Sanctifier nor to do any thing well without the spirit of Jesus Christ who is Christs internal invisible Agent here on earth as
Tertullian in the Churches Creed speaks misit vicariam vim spiritus sancti qui credentes agat O that men knew how much of their well-fare dependeth on a faithful obeying of the Holy Ghost CHAP. XIII 12. THe next part of our Knowledge of God is to know him in those great consequent Relations to which he is entitled by Creation and Redemption viz. as he is Our Absolute Lord or Owner our most Righteous Governour and ou most Bountiful or Gracious Father or Benefactor 1. God both as our Creator and Redeemer hath Jus Dominii an Absolute Dominion of the world that is He is our Owner or Proprietary and we are his Own For we take not the term Lordship or Dominion here in the looser sense as it signifieth a Ruler but in the stricter sense as it signifieth an Owner Of this Relation I have already spoken in a Sermon of Christs Dominion and therefore shall say the less in this place The Knowledge of Gods Dominion or Propriety must comprehend 1. The certain truth of this his right 2. The fulness of it 3. The effects that it must have on us I. And the Truth of it is beyond dispute even among Infidels that know there is a God He that made us of his own materials or of nothing must needs be the Owner of us And so must he that Bought us from destruction Ezek. 18. 4. Behold all souls are Mine Rom. 14. 9. To this end Christ both dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Joh. 16. 14 15. All things that the Father hath are Mine The Father then hath this Propriety by Creation and the son by Redemption and the Father also by communication with the Son in Redemption and the Son by communication with the Father in Creation II. And it must be the most Absolute Plenary Dominion because the very Being of all the Creatures is from God and therefore no one can be co-ordinate with him or his corrival nor any thing limit his Interest in us III. And the effects that this must have upon us are these following 1. Hence we must conclude and reverently and willingly consess that further then he voluntarily doth oblige himself to us it is impossible that God should be our Debtor and consequently that upon terms of commutative Justice we should Merit any thing of God For what can we render to him but his Own And how should he properly and Antecedently be indebted to and for his Own 2. And we must conclude that antecedently to his Laws and promise it is impossible that God can do us any wrong or any thing that he can do can be guilty of injustice For Justice giveth to all their Own and therefore it giveth Nothing to us from God but what he voluntarily giveth us himself which therefore is first a gift of Bounty and but secondarily a Due in Justice 3. And therefore we must hence learn that God may do with his own as he list And therefore we must take heed that we repine not at any of his Decrees or Providences or any passages concerning them in his word Much may be above us because our blindness cannot reach the reasons of his wayes but nothing is unreasonable or evil For all proceedeth from Infinite Wisdom and Goodness as well as from Omnipotency As no man must feign any thing of God and say This is his Decree or Word or Providence and therefore it is good when there is no such thing revealed to us so when we find that it is indeed Revealed our Reason must presently submit and undoubtedly conclude it reasonable and good Yet is there no cause from hence to fear lest God should condemn the innocent or break his promises and deny us the reward nor is there any hope to wicked men that he should violate his peremptory threatnings or as they call it in their selfish language be better then his word Because though God have an Absolute Propriety and therefore in regard of his interest or Power may do what he Will yet he is essentially also most Wise and Good and accordingly hath fitted all things to their use and taken upon him the Relation of our Governour and as it were obliged himself by his Laws and Covenants and declared himself to be most Just and shewed us hereby that he Will do nothing contrary to these As there is no contradiction but most perfect Unity in Gods Omnipotency Wisdom and Goodness his Dominion or Propriety his Kingdom and Paternity so shall there be no contradiction but a perfect Concord of all these in the exercise He therefore that as our King or Governour hath undertaken to advance the Godly and destroy the wicked will not by the exercise of his Absolute Dominion deny himself nor be unfaithful to his people or to his rules of Government If you ask me in what cases then this Dominion is exercised I answer 1. In laying the Foundations of laws and Right 2. In the Disposal of the unreasonable Creatures 3. In abundance of things about his Rational Creatures wherein as Rector he is not engaged nor hath in his Laws declared his will As about the various constitutions and complexions of men their ranks and dignities in the world their riches or poverty their health or sickness their gifts and parts both natural and acquired the first giving of the Gospel and of special Grace to such as had forfeited them and had no promise of them the degrees of outward means and mercies the degrees of inward grace more then what is promised c. From hence also we must learn not to repine at the providences of God about his Church which are strange to us and past our reach and seem to make against it wellfare Remember that as he may do with his own as he list so we have no reason to think that he will be lavish or disregardful of his own The Church is not ours but Gods and therefore he is fitter then we to be trusted with it And so in our own distresses by affliction when flesh repineth let us remember that we are his Own and he may do with us as he please If we be poor despised sick and miserable in the world let us remember that as it is no injury to the beasts that they are not men or to the worms that they are not beasts or to the plants that they have not sense or to the stars that they are not suns so it is no wrong to the subjects that they are not Princes or to the poor that they are not rich or to the sick that they are not healthful May not God do with his own as he list shall a Beggar grudge that you give not all that he desireth when you are not bound to give him any thing 4. Yea hence we must learn to be the more Thankful for all our mercies because they proceed from the Absolute Lord that was not obliged to us He might have made
us and Rest to the troubled 2. The Justice of God is the terrour of the ungodly As he would not make unrighteous Laws for the pleasure of unrighteous men so neither will he pass unrighteous judgement But look what a man soweth that shall he also reap All his peremptory threatnings shall be made good and his wrath poured out for ever upon impenitent souls because he is the Righteous God CHAP. XVIII 17. ANother of Gods Attributes is his Holiness He is called Holy 1. As he is Transcendently above and separated from all the Creatures in comparison of whom the Heâ—vens are not clean and from whom all things stand at an Infinite distance 2. As the Perfection of his nature is the Fountain of all Moral Good 1. In the Holiness of his Law the Rule of Holiness 2. In the Holiness of the soul and 3. In his holy Judgements And consequently as this Perfect Nature is contrary to all the Moral Pollution of the Creature loathing iniquity forbiding and condemning it That Perfect Goodness of the will of God from whence floweth holy Laws and motions and the Holiness of the soul of man is it that Scripture meaneth usually by Gods Holiness rather then the foresaid distance from the Creatures And therefore his Holiness is usually given as the Reason of his Laws and Judgements and of his enmity to sin And our Holiness is called his Image who imitate not his Transcendency and we are commanded to be Holy as he is Holy 1 Pet. 1. 16. The nature of the Image will best tell us what Holiness is in God Holiness in us is called The Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. and therefore is radically a right inclination and disposition of the soul which hath its rise from a Transcendent Holiness in God even as our Wisdome from his Transcendent Wisdome and our Being from his Being Holiness therefore being indeed the same with the Transcendently Moral Goodness of God which I have spoken of before I shall say but little of it now Thus must the Holiness of God be known 1. It must cause us to have a most high and honourable esteem of Holiness in the Creature because it is the Image of the Holiness of God Three sorts of Creatures have a Derivative Holiness The first is The Law which is the meer signification of the Wise and Holy Will of God concerning mans Duty with Rewards and Penalties for the Holy Governing of the world This is the nearest Image of God engraven upon that Seal which must be the Instrument of imprinting it on our souls Now the Holiness of the Word is not the meer product of the Will of God considered as a Will but of the Will of God considered as Holy that is as the Infinite Transcendent Moral Goodness in the Architype or Original For all events that proceed from God are the products of his Will which is Holy but not as Holy as the creating preserving disposing of every fly or fish in the sea or worm in the earth c. There is somewhat therefore in the Nature of God which is the Perfection of his Will and is called Holiness which â—he Holiness of the Law doth flow from and express This Holy Word is the Immortal seed that begetteth Holiness in the soul which is the second subject of derived Holiness And this our Holiness is a conformity of the soul to the Law as the Product of the Holy Will of God and not a meer conformity to his predictions and decreeing Will as such It is a separation to God but not every separation Pharaoh was set apart to be the Passive monument of the Honour of Gods Name and Cyrus was his servant to restore his people and yet not thus Holy But it is a separation from common and unclean uses and a Purgation from polluting vice and a renovation by reception of the Image of Gods Holiness whose Nature is to encline the soul to God and devote it wholly to him both in Justice because we are his own and in Love because he is most Holy and perfectly Good The third subject of Holiness is those creatures that are but separated to Holy uses and these have but a Relative Holiness and secundum quid As the Temple the holy utensils the Bible as to the materials the Minister as an Officer the people as visible members c. All these must be reverenced and honoured by us according to the proportion of their Holiness 1. Our principal Reverence must be to the Holy Word of God For Holiness is more perfect there then in our souls The Holiness of the Word which is it that the ungodly hate or quarrel at is the Glory of it in the eyes of Holy men We may much discern a Holy and an unholy soul by their Loving or not loving a Holy Law especially as it is a Rule to themselves A distast of the Holiness of Scripture and of the Holiness of the writings of Divines and of the Holiness of their preaching or conference discovereth an unholy soul. A Love to holy Doctrine sheweth that there is somewhat suitable to it in the soul that Loveth it It is the elogy of the Scriptures the Promises the Covenant the Prophets and Apostles that they are all Holy Rom. 1. 2. Psal. 105. 42. Luk. 1. 70 72. Rev. 18. 20. 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 7. 12. The Holiness of the Scripture doth make it as suitable and savoury to a Holy soul as Light is suitable to the eye-sight and sweetness to the tast and therefore it is to them as the hony comb But to the unholy it is a mystery and as foolishness and that which is contrary to their disposition and they have an enmity to it which makes a wonderful difference in their judging of the evidences of Scripture Verity and much facilitateth the work of Faith in one sort and strengtheneth unbelief in the other Holy doctrine is the Glass that sheweth us the Holy face of God himself and therefore must needs be most excellent to the Saints 2. And we must honour and love also the Holiness of the Saints For they also bear the Image of the Lord. Their Holy Affections Prayers Discourses and Conversations must be beautiful in our eyes And we must take heed of those temptations that either from personal injuries received from any or from their blots or imperfections or from their meanness in the world or from the contempt and reproach and slanders of the ungodly would draw us to think dishononrably of their Holiness He that honoureth the Holy God will honour his Image in his Holy people In his eyes a vile person will be contemned but he will honour them that fear the Lord Psal. 15. 4. The Saints on earth are the excellent in his eyes and his delight is in them Psal. 16. 2 3. The breathings of Divine Love in the holy Prayers Praises and Speeches of the Saints and their Reverent and Holy mention of his Name are things that a holy soul
is most unreasonable of all O Sirs when you read and hear of the wonderful weighty matters of the Scripture of an Endless Life and the way thereto bethink you if these things be True what manner of persons you should be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness 2 Pet. 3. 11. If the Word be True that telleth us of Death and Judgement and Heaven and Hell is it time for us to sin to trifle and live unready 2. The Truth of God is the Terror of his Enemies O happymen if their Unbelief could make void the Threatnings of God and doubting of them would make them false and if their misery were as easily remedied as denied and ended as easily as now forgotten or forgotten hereafter as easily as now But true and righteous is the Lord and from the beginning his Word is true Psal. 119. 16. Not a word shall fall to the ground nor a jot or tittle pass unfufilled 3. The Truth of God is the Ground of Faith and the stay of our souls and the Rock of all our confidence and comfort A Christian did not differ from another man unless in being somewhat more deluded if God were not True But this is the foundation of all our hopes and the life of our Religion and all that we are as Christians proceeds from this Faith is animated by Gods Veracity and from thence all other Graces flow or are excited in us O Christians what a treasure is before your eyes when you open the Blessed Book of God! what life should it put into your confidence and comforts to think that all these words are true All those descriptions of the Everlasting Kingdome and all those exceeding precious Promises of this life and that which is to come and all the expressions of that exceeding Love of God unto his servants all these are the True sayings of God A faithful witness will not Lye Prov. 14. 5. much less will the faithful God Eternal Life is promised by God that cannot Lye Tit. 1. 2. Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsels confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to Lye we might have a strong Consolation who have fled for Refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Heb. 6. 17 18. Let Faith therefore live upon the Truth of God and let us be strengthned and rejoyce therein 4. Abhor all doctrines which deny the Truth and Faithfulness of God For they destroy the ground of Christian Faith of all Divine Faith and all Religion The Veracity of God is the formal Object of all Divine Faith We believe God because he cannot Lye If he can Lye and do Lye he is not credible But you will say Is there any that hold such odious doctrines Answ. I like not the charging of Persons with the consequences of their opinions which they discern not but disclaim God will not charge them with such consequences who do their best to know the truth and why should we All men have some errours whose consequences contradict some Articles of Faith It is not the persons that I perswade you to dislike but the Doctrine And the Doctrine is never the less to be abhorred because a wise or good man may hold that which doth infer it I shall now instance only in the Dominicans predetermination They that hold that it is necessary to the being of every circumstantiated act natural and free that God be the principal immediate Physical efficient predetermining cause of it do hold that he so causeth all the false speeches and writings as well as other sins that ever were spoken or written in the world not only as they are acts in genere but as these words in particular as that he so predetermined the tongues of Ananias and Saphira to say those very words which they said rather than others Now seeing it is apparent 1. That God hath not a voice but speaketh to us by a Created Voice even by Prophets and Apostles and that the Scripture was written by men 2. And that Gods Veracity which is the formal object of our Faith consisteth in his not using lying instruments nor sending a lying messenger to us it is Veracitas revelantis per alium 3. And that no way of Inspiration can make God to be any more the cause of the words or writings of an Apostle than his Immediate Physical efficient specifying predetermination doth for it can do no more than irresistibly as the first cause Physically to premove the agent to this Thought Will Word or Deed considered with all its circumstances It followeth that we have no certainty when God premoveth an Apostle or Prophet to speak true and when to speak falsly and that no words or writings are o certain truth upon any account of Gods inspiration or premotion because God not only can but doth cause all the untruths that are spoken or written in the world Therefore no Faith in Gods Revelations hath any sure foundation nor any formal object at all And so all Religion is dasht out at a stroke To say that God causeth not the falsity of the word nor the word as false but the word which is false might well be the justification of them that affirm God to be but the Universal Cause of the Word oâ— Act in genere as a Word or Act and that the specification is only from the sinner But in them that say he is the particular Cause of this word comparatively rather than another it is but a contradiction 1. For there is no other cause of the falsity which is a meer Relation but that which causeth the Rule and the Word or Writing which is false and so layeth the foundation 2. It overthroweth all certainty of Faith if God speak to us by his Instruments those words that are false The Quod falsum as well as the Qua falsum leaveth us no ground of certainty The Dominicans therefore have but one task in which their hope is placed to excuse their opinion from plain obliterating all Divine Belief and Religion and that is to prove that there is so great a difference between Inspiration and their Physical Predetermination that God cannot by Inspiration premove to an untruth though by Physical Predetermination he may This is their task which I see not the least possibility that ever they should perform If God premove and predeterminate every Will and Tongue and Pen to every lye that is spoken or written more potently and irresistibly than I move my Pen in writing it is past my power to understand what more he can do by inspiration to interest him in the Creatures Act or at least how the difference can be so great as that one of the waies he can predetermine all men to their falsities and none the other way But of this I have written a large Disputation yet think it not needless even in a practical Treatise to