God and are apt of themselves and in the natural tendency of their own thoughts to offer at some kind of Worship But I fear this is gratis dictum sooner said than prov'd Histories give us frequent instances of several regions of a wild and uncultivated sort of Mankind that give no vilible intimations at all by which a man might guess they have any sense or apprehension of God This is true indeed that no one endu'd with reason however void of all thoughts of this nature he may have been but when the notion comes to be offer'd him and he is told there is a God above that gave him his being and that governs the world he speedily embraces it as highly reasonable and finds a natural and ready inclination to so great and probable a truth And this gives the Argument as strong a force against the Atheist in that the ready compliance of the mind with all such notions when first offer'd seems a demonstration that the thing it self has a native and original truth in it which needs only to be brought to remembrance and then reason falls in immediately with it But this is certain as there may be that failure and defect of Reason in some parts of the World where barbarous mankind may either have lost all notions of God or at least have taken up some that are no more suited to the divine nature than the conjectures of a man born blind would be in the description of colours or the figures and shapes of things So those that have the greatest advantages of revelation by the word of God himself and have improv'd these advantages by the greatest industry and enquiry thereinto yea that have wrought their minds into some participation of the divine nature by labour'd meditation fall infinitely short of all just and adequate conceptions of God For 1. We are greatly to seek in the first notion of God that he is a Spirit The Scripture tells us God is a Spirit but we are no more able to conceive what the nature of a Spirit is than the Child in the Womb apprehends what the nature of his being and sustenance is there To say the truth were the great searcher of hearts but to lay to our charge all those absurd Idolatries we commit in the odd conceptions the mean and bodily shapes we frame of God in our imaginations whiles we offer at the most solemn acts of worship toward him we might perish under the iniquities of our most holy things and the guilt of our most labour'd endeavours in devotion 2. As we are to seek in the notion of a Spirit so no less are we in that deep and bewondring mystery of the Trinity in Vnity which upon the strength of Divine revelation we justly believe and adore We are indeed sure from the H. Scriptures that the Father is God and that Jesus Christ the Son is not only God too but was so from all Eternity and that the H. Ghost is no less God than the Father and the Son We also know from the same express revelation that we are to own and worship no other than the One only and true God These things are certain matter of Divine revelation and being so we have all imaginable reason to believe and embrace them But then how these three distinct Persons should be so united in one undivided nature that while we worship three Persons we still do worship but one God this is a mystery reserv'd to be unfolded in the other world only We may perhaps endeavour to illustrate the notion by some faint and imperfect resemblances but alas they are so faint and imperfect that they rather serve to darken and obscure it still more II. As we are very short in apprehending the Nature of God so are we no less as to his Decrees and Counsels The one is the consequence of the other we therefore must needs conjecture uncertainly about his Decrees because we are so distant and so incompetent in all our Speculations about the Divine Nature There have been warm and heated disputes about these things amongst assuming men The Decrees of God have been canvast and talkt over by some as if they were the very rudiments of Religion and might be the first learnt and understood when in the mean time the dust that disputes have raised in things of so high and unsearchable a Nature have only serv'd to hurt the Eyes of both the contending Parties that they have seen the less for their warmth in arguing What man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 It is an excellent passage in the Apocryphal book of Wisdom to this purpose Chap. 4. from v. 13 ad finem What man is he that can know the Counsel of God or who can think what the will of the Lord is For the thoughts of mortal men are miserable and our devices are but uncertain for the corruptible body presseth down the soul and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things And hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon the Earth and with labour dowe find the things that are before us but the things that are in heaven who hath searched out and thy Counsel who hath known Except thou give Wisdom and send thy Holy Spirit from above It is plain how short we are in our thoughts of this kind not only from the irreconcileable differences about these things but also the infinite difficulties wherewith both ways of thinking are perplext Thus when any would be point blank representing God as from all eternity choosing out some few for everlasting happiness and decreeing the rest of mankind absolutely to eternal damnation how are they gravell'd in their thoughts when they observe God in his holy word exhibiting himself as so kind and benign a Lover of Mankind so unlikely to hate originally any thing he makes that he does never willingly grieve nor afflict the Children of men On the other hand when some are peremptorily rejecting all doctrines of this Nature how do they stick and labour under the inexplicable difficulty of Divine foreknowledge c. Herein therefore we should all imitate the Modesty of St. Paul who yet had the advantage of brighter revelations than ever we can pretend to He when he had been discoursing that difference it had pleas'd God to put betwixt the Nation of the Jews and all the rest of mankind results the whole in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and of the Knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out Rom. 11.34 35. III. Last Come we to consider lastly how short and imperfect we are in our knowledge of God as to his works either of Creation or Providence 1. The works of his Creation And therefore Elihu to confirm what he had said in the words of
my Text appeals to the Works of his Creation and instances in so small a thing as a drop of Water the breaking of a Cloud and a clap of Thunder Behold God is great and we know him not For the maketh small the drops of water they pour down rain according to the Vapour thereof which the Clouds do drop and distill upon man abundantly Also can any understand the spreading of the Clouds or the noise of his Tabernacles v. 27 28 29. It is from these works of his that it pleases God to humble Job by laying them before him and thereby giving him a view of his own ignorance Job 38.16 Hast thou enter'd into the Springs of the Sea or hast thou walkt in the search of the deep Have the gates of death been open'd to thee or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death Hast thou perceiv'd the breadth of the Earth declare if thou knowest it at all Where is the way where light dwelleth and as for darkness where is the place of it Hast thou enter'd into the treasures of the snow or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail Out of whose womb came the Ice and the hoary frost who hath gender'd it Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion Canst thou bring forth Mazaroth in his season or canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons c. We live by conjecture only as to the reasons and nature of all those things we either see or use It is no certain account we can give of the air we breathe in or the light that gives us the pleasure of all created glories not only the Stars of Heaven but the Spark in the Diamond and the lustres we meet with in a clod of Earth puzzles our deepest Philosophy Nothing we see either in the Air or Seas or Earth or Heaven but as they have been mighty subjects of enquiry so they never yet cou'd be so explain'd but that some new supposals of things have been offer'd with as probable reasons and the man of strongest fancy has usually made the most pleasing and acceptable guesses and all is but guess at last In short how can we expect well to understand the secrets of nature at a distance when we know so little nearer home We carry about with us in the nature of our own beings such numberless and insuperable difficulties that they are never to be solv'd till the Soul comes nearer to its first original and the body is refin'd from its corruption and dross that the whole man may discern himself if I may so express it in his own transparency Let our thoughts therefore turn a little inward and see what conjectures we can make about our own frame and nature and this perhaps will let us see how short our sight is as to all the other great works of the Creation This observation the wise man makes Eccl. 11.5 As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child even so thou knowest not the works of God that maketh all The Spirit that enlivens and actuates us lyes hid from us in the whole course of its motion discourse or thinking We know we subsist of something that can discourse and think can grieve and rejoice can remember and reflect but that Soul it self that does all this by all its reasoning can give no account how it came into the body nor where the seat of its own residence is nor by what way or influence it gives the body sense or motion It never yet has seen its own face in any glass that cou'd give it any tolerable representation of it self but must wait the time when it shall arrive at its own proper Countrey that world of Spirits where the body it self shall be spiritualiz'd and come so much nearer to the nature of that being that informs and is to dwell for ever in it But further 2. As our insight into the works of Gods creation is short and imperfect so is it no less into those of his providence We are apt to wonder and stand amazd at many unaccountable events in the world and many times can discern no other reason but the meer arbitrary will of God Several perplexing amusoments about the age and first birth of the World Why of no earlier a date than 7000 years ago About the fall of man why permitted to be so soon baffled by the Devil About the great mystery of Redemption why to be brought about by no less a method than the incarnation and death of the Son of God About the prosperity of some Kingdoms and the overthrow of others about particular events of providence to our selves our friends or our enemies and innumerable instances of this kind that may perplex and confound our thoughts but we must expect to have no tolerable account of them till we come to that state where all stories will be told over again all amazing revolutions of things shall be discern'd fully in their first causes and their last issues where wisdom will justifie it self in all the intricacies of its operations and the great Judge of all shall be clear indeed when he hath judged And thus much may serve for illustrating the argument viz. how infinitely short we are in our highest conceptions of God as to any just and adequate knowledge of him if we consider either his nature or his decrees and counsels or his works either of creation or providence Come we now to some useful inferences from the whole I. From all that has been said we learn what an inestimable treasure the H. Scriptures ought to be esteem'd by us Wherein it has pleas'd God to make known himself so far as our natures in this present condition of life are capable of apprehending him It is very little that we could ever have conjectur'd aright concerning God without some revelations of himself in what method he himself pleas'd It is indeed but little he has given us leave to know of him in this world by all that he hath told us in his word But herein are we blest and priviledg'd indeed that having this free use of the H. Scriptures if we will learn not to be wise beyond what revelation has thought fit to teach us we may be sure that all the knowledge of God which we acquire from the H. Scriptures is most unquestionably true because they are the dictates of that H. Spirit who only knows the nature and counsels and operations of God and is himself the God that cannot lye or deceive us And besides that what we learn of God from the H. Scriptures is unquestionably true so we shall not be accountable for what we do not know of God if we make the Scriptures our guide because therein is contained the whole revelation of the divine Nature so far as he is pleased to indulge it to us in this World If we
Mr. Resburys SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL On Sunday Aug. 16. 1691. JOB XXXVI 8. Behold God is great and we know him not neither can the number of his years be searched out THese words are part of a long discourse that Elihu took up with Job after his three friends had ended theirs This person perhaps a Syrian born and of the kindred and family of Abraham tho of younger years than the other three yet seems of deeper judgment stronger reasoning less affected piety and one that fram'd the method of his discourse to a better design as he had grounded it upon a better foundation than the other three had done He apprehends Job as having a little too much insisted upon his own Innocency and so by justifying himself too warmly had seem'd to glance obliquely upon God as if by that severe usage of his Providence God had dealt in something an unjustifiable rigour with him The part therefore that Elihu takes is not so much to charge Job with some unknown wickednesses which his friends had been loading him with because of the present condition they saw him in But to justifie God in his dealings with him who knew his own holy ends and designs in all tho man is not able reach or to fathom them My Text is in that part of the argument where Elihu is setting forth the perfections of God which to us are so incomprehensible His power his greatness his eternity which being so infinitely beyond the reach or compass of humane understanding shou'd keep the man in so humble and resign'd a sense of God as not to cherish the least irreverent thought of him let the condition be never so miserable to which he may be reduc'd In the words we have laid before us 1. The greatness of God infinitely surpassing our knowledge of him Behold God is great and we know him not 2. His Eternity not to be brought within the compass of our numbers Neither can the number of his years be searched out By both which is intimated to us how very short and imperfect all the knowledge we can have of God in this World ought to be esteem'd how scanty all the conceptions we can frame of his Majesty or Eternity Perfections infinitely surpassing all our measures either as we are mortal or finite and limited creatures This I shall a little illustrate and then draw some useful inferences from the whole 1. To illustrate the thing viz. How infinitely short we are in our highest conceptions of God while we are in this World We may ask the same question still with Zophar the Naamathite Job 11.7 Canst thou by searching find out God canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection This may appear if we consider how imperfect our knowledge is either as to 1. The Divine nature or 2. His decrees or counsels or 3. His works either of Creation or Providence 1. As to the Divine nature It is some demonstration how incompetent humane nature is herein when we consider that any part of it has sunk so low in its speculations concerning God so far short of his immense and boundless his pure and invisible nature as not only to make Gods of men and adore them but to fancy a Divinity even in Serpents and Dogs and Fish the trunks of old and overgrown Trees in Leeks and Onions and what not It is not more evident still were we to look among the wiser Heathens who made it the business of their profession to enquire into the nature of the chief good who after they had rais'd their minds much beyond the common pitch of men of that age yet after their most labour'd researches have been fain to confess that God was something not only invisible but unintelligible Plato tells us it is impossible to find out God and as impossible it would be to express him or communicate the notion of him when once found out So Xenophon God c. the great and the powerful who is in every ones view and yet what his form and essence is is evident to none but himself who makes all things clear and conspecious by his own light But such thoughts as these though the highest flights among the wisest Philosophers need not be much insisted upon For we may observe it in the H. Scriptures where God has condescended to make as plain revelations of himself as he thought fit when Moses made request for a fuller discovery of his nature he tells him how incompetent this state of life is for beholding or knowing him aright Exod. 33.20 Thou canst not see my face for there shalls no man see me and live That is thou canst have no proper conceptions of my nature and essence for there is no mortal in this state of life capable of the Speculation This is said to Moses who yet was blest with such lintimacies that it is said God spake to him face to face as a man speaketh to his friend Exod. 23.10 Yet is he in this place assur'd that this distant obnoxious mortal state of life is not the state where the Divinity is pleas'd to make any adequate displays of his incomprehensible nature but reserves that for the happiness of the other World Hence is God pleas'd so far to consider the infancy and childishness of this state that he does in the H. Scriptures if I may so express it 〈…〉 he attributes to himself what is most fitted to our senses and therefore represents himself by hands and eyes and ears by all the shapes of men and human passions c. which are infinitely below his immenseland spiritual nature to which no mortal eye can approach He gives us notions of his mercy by that of an indulgent and compassionate father and of his justice by that of a severe and impartial Judge and of his power by that of a Crown'd and Scepter'd King and of his bounty by that of a liberal and rich Housholder and of his Eternity by that of an old man or the Ancient of Days All which we ought to make so awful and reverend an use of as to look upon them only as Condescensions in God to help us in our contemplations of the divine Nature not to make them the boundaries and limits of our thoughts And yet they are a standing argument that the wise God who knows our frame knows how incapable we are without such condescentions to frame any useful or comfortable Ideas of him And indeed so far are we owing to these lower helps of instruction that 't is more than probable where the minds of men are wholly destitute even of these Rudiments they are so far from knowing any thing agreeably of the divine Nature that they have not the least thoughts or consciousness of God at all I know some have made it an Argument against the Atheist that there is no Nation under heaven so brutish no part of mankind so salvage but they have naturally and inseparably some notion and sense of
submit our speculations of God to these lively oracles by which and by which alone he hath taken care we should know any thing of him we are safe from all the false flights of Superstition on the one hand Enthusiasm on the other hand and all the wandring misguided opinions concerning God on every hand Here we may set our foot and acquiesce in what we certainly meet with here tho we may not be carried into those heights to which some vain opiniastres think they could be soaring or tho there may be some mysteries which leave our reason behind them and call in for the assistance of Faith as believing that they are the certain matter of revelation which must therefore be true because revealed to us by the H. Spirit of God There are two things wherein the Socinians have seemed to lay a barr against themselves as to the soundness of their Faith 1. The loose conceptions about the Divine inspiration of the H. Scriptures 2. Their apprehension that they must believe nothing which their own reasons cannot comprehend By the former they let go that firm hold they ought to have of some first principles on which they ought to rest and depend and lay themselves open to a gradual Scepticism throughout the whole Occonomy of Faith And by the other they discard all mystery in Religion and would pretend to fathom the utmost depths of that while they are uncapable of solving a thousand difficulties in every thing which they see and handle and converse immediately with Hence their hesitating in the great mystery of our redemption by Christ Jesus and the satisfaction to divine justice effected by his death the deep and unfathomable doctrine of the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity They forget the authority that matters of pure revelation ought to have with our Belief and that where our reason cannot reach they must not therefore cry out of Contradiction and Impossibility because we cannot tell what is contradictory or what is impossible where we cannot understand the nature of that thing about which we are apt to suspect an impossibility unless it appear contradictory to something that is plainly revealed It is therefore a good Caution of the Apostles which he gives and that in a peculiarly smart turn of words which he has hardly us'd more than this one time throughout his whole writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not to think more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly Rom. 21.3 Let this be the measure we take in all matters of pure revelation first to satisfy our selves that this or that thing is unquestionably reveal'd and then how insuperable soever the difficulties may seem that attend it not to perplex our selves in nicely unfolding them but give Reason only the scope of arguing the necessity of believing what is reveal'd and after submitting the whole mystery of it to the obedience of faith And this will infinitely endear to us the H. Scriptures wherein we know is contain'd the whole compass of knowledge concerning God which we ought to aspire after in this world II. We may hence also infer how reasonable a thing it is for us to love one another in some differences of thought and opinion while we are on this side heaven Our knowledge of God is scanty and imperfect and in our imperfect way of thinking it is hardly possible not to think differently where therefore any differences in opinion have no influences to a bad life nor disturb the government nor lead to a necessity of throwing off the Authority of the Scriptures there our mutual love and forbearance whatever else is is a most undoubted command III. Last We may hence infer how justly the wise and the good mind may be longing after that state where their knowledge of God may be advanc'd to such unspeakable degrees suitably both to the nature of God and the capacious nature of our Souls Alas What is all this World in comparison but ignorance and mistake Where fancy chiefly proves the guide to reason and in recompence to all its travels in Worldly knowledge gives it little other satisfaction than cheat and delusion With what satisfaction can the wise mind linger and trifle here distant from home and a stranger to the interests and affairs of its own Country above Coopt up and confin'd to a place where so little light is conversing hardly with any thing but the shapes and images of things which a trivial fancy or a diseas'd eye is framing to it self It is in the other World only that the Soul can bath it self in the pure and clear streams of rational knowledge The Apostle tells us that we see but through a glass darkly and we know but in part i. e. it is but little we see at most and but uncertainly at best But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.9 10 11 12. Then as to the nature and decrees and works of God We shall see all face to face and know even as we are known v. 12. That will be the land of Vision indeed where all things shall be seen as they are where all representations shall cease and metaphors prove useless Where every riddle shall be explain'd to the utmost satisfaction of greediest enquirers into the deep things of God Then tho the Divine Nature be so boundless and infinite that it surpasses the thoughts and comprehensions of Angels themselves yet will both Angels and Men so far comprehend the nature and being of God that they shall never entertain any unworthy or uncomely thoughts of him more They shall never frame to themselves any mean and wretched images of God but shall see him as he is and that so substantially and so much in reality that the very sight will in some measure transform them into his image and make them like him whom they thus view So S. John tells us Behold now we are the sons of God 1 Joh. 3.2 and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is We shall not then see the back parts only as it once pleas'd God to indulge to Moses in this world but we shall be able fully and substantially to contemplate his nature so as to acquiesce in the knowledge of him as a most sure and indissoluble bond of eternal Converse and Communion with him Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matth. 5.8 And as they shall see him in his Nature so they shall see him in his Decrees too Then all the difficult knots of the divine foreknowledge shall be unty'd We shall then see how the liberty of mans will consisted with Gods praescience that this latter did not influence the former as to a necessity of the mans sinning and undoing himself but that he himself was the author and first mover in both S. Austin after