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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62579	The remaining discourses, on the attributes of God Viz. his Goodness. His mercy. His patience. His long-suffering. His power. His spirituality. His immensity. His eternity. His incomprehensibleness. God the first cause, and last end. By the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. Being the seventh volume; published from the originals, by Ralph Barker, D.D. chaplain to his Grace.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708, publisher.	1700 (1700)	Wing T1216; ESTC R222200	153,719	440

of it Psal 29.1 Give unto the Lord O ye mighty give unto the Lord glory and strength So likewise it should take Men off from relying upon their own strength which at the best is but an arm of flesh as the Scripture calls it for the weakness of it Do we not see that many times the battel is not to the strong That things are not done by might and by power but by the spirit of the Lord. When he appears against the most potent their hearts melt within them and there is no more spirit left in them as 't is said of the mighty Inhabitants of Canaan Josh 5.1 Thirdly We should make this Omnipotence of God the Object of our trust and confidence This is the most proper use we can make of this Doctrine as David does in this Psalm and this was used for a form of blessing the People in the Name of God Psal 136.3 The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee And David when he magnifies God's deliverance of his People from the multitude of their Enemies resolves it into this Our help standeth in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth Thus did the great Pattern and Example of Faith incourage and support his confidence in God in a very difficult tryal he staggered not at it because he believed God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things that be not as tho' they were therefore against hope he believed in hope c. Rom. 4.17 c. This gives life to all our Devotion to be perswaded that God is able to do for us exceedingly above what we can ask or think and that his is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory I shall only caution two things as to our relyance on the Power of God I. Labour to be such Persons to whom God hath promised that he will engage and imploy his Omnipotence for their good If we hope for any good from the Almighty we must walk before him and be perfect as he said to Abraham Good Men have a peculiar interest in God's Power hence he is called the strength of Israel and the mighty one of Israel If we do what God requires of us we may expect that he will put forth his Power and exert his Arm for us but if we disobey we must expect he will manifest his Power against us Ez. 8.22 When we do well we may commit the keeping of our souls to him 1 Pet. 4.19 II. Our expectations from the Omnipotence of God must be with submission to his Pleasure and Goodness and Wisdom we must not expect that God will manifest his Power when we think there is occasion for it but when it seems best to him he will so imploy his Omnipotence as to manifest his Goodness and Wisdom And with these two Cautions we may rely upon him in all our Wants both Spiritual and Temporal for his Divine Power can give us all things that pertain to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1.3 We may trust him at all times for the Omnipotent God neither slumbereth nor sleepeth the Almighty fainteth not neither is he weary trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength SERMON XI Vol. VII· The Spirituality of the Divine Nature JOHN IV. 24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth THese are the words of our Saviour to the Woman of Samaria who was speaking to him of the difference between the Samaritans and the Jews concerning Religion v. 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this mountain but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship Christ tells her The time was coming when the worshippers of God should neither be confined to that mountain nor to Jerusalem but men should worship the Father in spirit and in truth when this carnal and ceremonial and typical Worship of God should be exalted into a more spiritual a more real and true and substantial Religion which should not be confined to one Temple but should be universally diffused through the World Now such a Worship as this is most agreeable to the Nature of God for he is a spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth In the words we have First A Proposition laid down God is a spirit Secondly A Corollary or Inference deduced from it they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth I shall speak of the Proposition as that which concerns my present Design and afterward speak something to the Corollary or Inference deduced from it together with some other Inferences drawn from this truth by way of Application First That God is a spirit This expression is singular and not to be parallell'd again in the Scripture indeed we have often mention made in Scripture of the spirit of God and the spirit of the Lord which signifies a Divine Power and Energy and of the holy Spirit signifying the third Person in the Trinity God is call'd the God of the Spirits of all flesh Numb 16.22.27.16 much in the same Sense as he is call'd the Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 that is the Creator of the Souls of Men but we no where meet with this expression or any other equivalent to it that God is a spirit but only in this place nor had it been used here but to prove that the best Worship of God that which is most proper to him is spiritual so that the thing which our Saviour here intends is not to prove the Spiritual Nature of God but that his Worship ought to be spiritual nor indeed is there any necessity that it should have been any where said in Scripture that God is a spirit it being the natural Notion of a God no more than it is necessary that it should be told us that God is good or that he is infinite and eternal and the like or that the Scripture should prove to us the Being of a God All these are manifest by the Light of Nature and if the Scripture mention them it is ex abundanti and it is usually in order to some further purpose For we are to know that the Scripture supposeth us to be Men and to partake of the common Notions of Human Nature and therefore doth not teach us Philosophy nor solicitously instruct us in those things which are born with us but supposeth the knowledge of these and makes use of these common Principles and Notions which are in us concerning God and the immortality of our Souls and the Life to come to excite us to our Duty and quicken our Endeavours after Happiness For I do not find that the Doctrine of the immortality of the Soul is any where expresly delivered in Scripture but taken for granted in like manner that the Scripture doth not solicitously instruct us in the natural Notions which we have of God but supposeth them known to us and if it mention them it is not so

misery or liable to it that is that are in danger of it or have deserved it 'T is mercy to prevent the misery that we are liable to and which may befal us tho' it be not actually upon us 'T is mercy to defer the misery that we deserve or mitigate it and this is properly patience and forbearance 'T is mercy to relieve those that are in misery to support or comfort them 'T is mercy to remit the misery we deserve and by pardon and forgiveness to remove and take away the obligation to punishment Thus the mercy of God is usually in Scripture set forth to us by the affection of pity and compassion which is an affection that causeth a sensible commotion and disturbance in us upon the apprehension of some great Evil that lies upon another or hangs over him Hence it is that God is said in Scripture to be grieved and afflicted for the miseries of Men his bowels are said to sound and his heart to turn within him But tho' God is pleased in this manner to set forth his mercy and tenderness towards us yet we must take heed how we cloath the Divine Nature with the Infirmities of human Passions We must not measure the Perfection of God by the Expressions of his condescention and because he stoops to our weakness level him to our Infirmities When God is said to pity us we must take away the imperfection of this Passion the commotion and disturbance of it and not imagine any such thing in God but we are to conceive that the mercy and compassion of God without producing the disquiet do produce the Effects of the most sensible pity Secondly That this Perfection belongs to God All the Arguments that I used to prove the goodness of God from the acknowledgment of natural Light and from Scripture and Reason serve to prove that he is merciful because the mercy of God is an eminent Branch of his goodness I will only produce some of those many Texts of Scripture which attribute this Perfection to God Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful Deut. 4.31 The Lord thy God is a merciful God 2 Chron. 30.9 The Lord your God is gracious and merciful Neh. 9.17 Ready to pardon gracious and merciful Psal 25.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy Psal 62.12 Vnto thee O Lord belongeth mercy Psal 103.8 Merciful and gracious Psal 130.7 With the Lord there is mercy And so Jer. 3.12 Joel 2.13 Jonah 4.2 Luke 6.36 Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful The Scripture speaks of this as most natural to him 2 Cor. 1.3 he is called the Father of mercies But when he punisheth he doth as it were relinquish his Nature and do a strange work The Lord will wait that he may be gracious Isa 30.18 God passeth by opportunities of punishing but his mercy takes opportunity to display it self he waits to be gracious To afflict or punish is a Work that God is unwilling to that he takes no pleasure in Lam. 3.33 He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men But mercy is a Work that he delights in Mic. 7.18 He delighteth in mercy When God shews mercy he does it with pleasure and delight he is said to rejoyce over his people to do them good Those Attributes that declare God's goodness as when he is said to be gracious or merciful and long-suffering they shew what God is in himself and delights to be those which declare his wrath and severity shew what he is upon provocation and the occasion of sin not what he chuseth to be but what we do as it were compel and necessitate him to be Thirdly For the degree of it that God is a God of great mercy The Scripture doth delight to advance the mercy of God and does use great variety of Expression to magnifie it It speaks of the greatness of his mercy Numb 14.19 According to the greatness of his mercy 2 Sam. 24.14 Let me fall into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are great 'T is call'd an abundant mercy 1 Pet. 1.3 According to his abundant mercy Psal 103.8 he is said to be plenteous in mercy and rich in mercy Eph. 2.4 Psal 5.7 he speaks of the multitude of God's mercies and of the variety of them Neh. 9.18 In thy manifold mercies thou forsookest them not So many are they that we are said to be surrounded and campassed about on every side with them Psal 103.4 Who crowneth us with loving kindness and tender mercies And yet further to set forth the greatness of them the Scripture useth all dimensions Heighth Psal 57.10 Thy mercy is great unto the Heavens Nay higher yet Psal 108.4 Thy mercy is great above the heavens For the latitude and extent of it 't is as large as the Earth and extends to all the Creatures in it Psal 109.64 The earth is full of thy mercy Psal 145.8 His tender mercies are over all his works For the length or duration and continuance of it Exod. 34.7 Laying up mercy in store for thousands of generations one after another Nay it is of a longer continuance Psal 118. 't is several times repeated That his mercy endureth for ever And to shew the intense degree of this affection of mercy or pity the Scripture useth several emphatical Expressions to set it forth to us The Scripture speaks of the tender mercies of God Psal 25.6 Remember O Lord thy tender mercies Yea of the multitude of these Psal 51.1 According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Jam. 5.11 The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy They are called God's Bowels which are the tenderest parts and apt to yern and stir in us when any affections of love and pity are excited Is 63.15 Where is the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies are they restrained Luke 1.78 Through the tender mercy of our God So it is in our Translation but if we render it from the Original 't is through the bowels of the mercies of our God How doth God condescend in those pathetical Expressions which he useth concerning his People Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Ephraim mine heart is turned within me and my repentings are kindled together Nay to express his tender sense of our miseries and sufferings he is represented as being afflicted with us and bearing a part in our sufferings Isa 63.9 In all their afflictions he was afflicted The compassions of God are compared to the tenderest affections among Men to that of a Father towards his Children Psal 103.13 As a father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Nay to the compassions of a Mother towards her Infant Isa 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb Yea she may 't is possible tho' most unlikely but tho' a Mother may turn unnatural yet God cannot be unmerciful In short

the Scripture doth every where magnifie the mercy of God and speak of it with all possible advantage as if the Divine Nature which doth in all Perfections excel all others did in this excel it self The Scripture speaks of it as if God was wholly taken up with it as if it was his constant Exercise and Employment so that in comparison of it he doth hardly display any other excellency Psal 25.10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy as if in this World God had a design to advance his mercy above his other Attributes The mercy of God is now in the Throne this is the day of mercy and God doth display it many times with a seeming dishonour to his other Attributes his Justice and Holiness and Truth His Justice This makes Job complain of the long life and prosperity of the wicked Job 41.7 Wherefore do the wicked live yea become old c. His Holiness This makes the Prophet expostulate with God Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue c. And the Truth of God This makes Jonah complain as if God's mercies were such as did make some reflection upon his truth Jon. 4.2 But that we may have more distinct apprehensions of the greatness and number of God's mercies I will distribute them into kinds and rank them under several Heads 'T is mercy to prevent those evils and miseries that we are liable to 'T is mercy to defer those evils that we have deserved or to mitigate them 'T is mercy to support and comfort us when misery is upon us 'T is mercy to deliver us from them But the greatest mercy of all is to remit the evil and misery we have deserved by pardon and forgiveness to remove and take away the obligation to punishment so that the mercy of God may be reduced to these five Heads I. Preventing Mercy Many evils and miseries which we are liable to God prevents them at a great distance and when they are coming towards us he stops them or turns them another way The merciful Providence of God and those invisible guards which protect us do divert many evils from us which fall upon others We seldom take notice of God's preventing mercy we are not apt to be sensible how great a mercy it is to be freed from those straits and necessities those pains and diseases of Body those inward racks and horrours which others are pressed withal and labour under When any evil or misery is upon us would we not reckon it a mercy to be rescued and delivered from it And is it not a greater mercy that we never felt it Does not that Man owe more to his Physician who prevents his sickness and distemper than he who after the weakness and languishing the pains and tortures of several Months is at length cured by him II. Forbearing mercy And this is the patience of God which consists in the deferring or moderating of our deserved punishment Hence it is that slow to anger and of great mercy do so often go together But this I shall speak to hereafter in some particular Discourses III. Comforting mercy 2 Cor. 1.3 The father of mercies and the God of all Comfort The Scripture represents God as very merciful in comforting and supporting those that are afflicted and cast down hence are those expressions of putting his arms under us bearing us up speaking comfortably visiting us with his loving kindness which signifie God's merciful regard to those who are in misery and distress IV. His relieving mercy in supplying those that are in want and delivering those that are in trouble God doth many times exercise Men with troubles and afflictions with a very gracious and merciful design to prevent greater Evils which Men would otherwise bring upon themselves Afflictions are a merciful invention of Heaven to do us that good which nothing else can they awaken us to a sense of God and of our selves to a consideration of the evil of our ways they make us to take notice of God to seek him and enquire after him God doth as it were by Afflictions throw Men upon their backs to make them look up to Heaven Hos 5.15 In their affliction they will seek me early Psal 78.34 When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and enquired early after God But God does not delight in this he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men When afflictions have accomplished their work and obtained their end upon us God is very ready to remove them and command deliverance for us Isa 54.7 8. For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath I hid my face from thee but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer V. Pardoning mercy And here the greatness and fullness of God's mercy appears because our sins are great Psal 78.38 Being full of compassion he forgave their iniquity And the multitude of God's mercies because our sins are many Psal 51.1 Have mercy on me O Lord according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Exod. 34.7 He is said to pardon iniquity transgression and sin How many fold are his mercies to forgive all our sins of what kind so ever The mercy of God to us in pardoning our sins is matter of astonishment and admiration Mic. 7.18 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity But especially if we consider by what means our pardon is procured by transferring our guilt upon the most innocent person the Son of God and making him to bear our iniquities and to suffer the wrath of God which was due to us The admirable contrivance of God's mercy appears in this dispensation this shews the riches of his grace that he should be at so much cost to purchase our pardon Not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of his own Son Eph. 1.6 7. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Having dispatch'd the three particulars I propos'd to be spoken to I shall shew what Use we ought to make of this Divine Attribute Vse 1. We ought with thankfulness to acknowledge and admire the great mercy of God to us Let us view it in all its dimensions the heighth and length and breadth of it in all the variety and kinds of it the preventing mercy of God to many of us Those miseries that lye upon others 't is mercy to us that we escaped them 'T is mercy that spares us It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed and because his compassions fail not 'T is mercy that mitigates our punishment and makes it fall below

Power can cause that the same thing should be made and not be made that that which hath been should not have been for the Power which makes a thing so as that it was not made and causeth a thing to have been so as that it hath not been does nothing and consequently is no Power Nor can we say that the Divine Power can effect that any thing should be made by it self that is be the cause of its own Being for that would be to cause that a thing should be before it is that is be when it is not which signifies nothing We cannot say that the Divine Power can effect that twice two should not make four for that would be to cause that things should not be what they are if they be at all which is to cause that things should be and not be at all when they are which amounts to nothing We cannot say that the Divine Power can make a sound to be seen and colour to be heard for that would be to make colour and sound all one that is things that differ to be the same while they differ which is to make colour and sound not to be colour and sound while they are so which is to do nothing and consequently argues no Power We cannot say the Divine Power can make that which is intrinsecally and essentially good to be evil and on the contrary Or that which is necessarily true to be false and on the contrary For to make that which is intrinsecally and essentially good to be evil is to make that which is always good to be sometimes evil that is to be evil whilst it is good that is to make good and evil all one which is to bring two things together which so soon as they do exist destroy one another which is to no purpose because it is to do just nothing and there is the same reason of true and false We cannot say that the Power of God can cause that the same thing should be hot and cold dead and alive at the same time because these destroy one another and if they were both neither of them would be and so the effect we attribute to this Power would be nothing We cannot say that the Divine Power can effect that the same impression should give a thing two contrary motions upward and downward at the same time that the same Body should be in two contrary postures in motion and at rest and in several places which are the contradictions of Transubstantiation for for the same Body to be at the same time in two several places is to be limited and circumscribed by each of these that is so to be in each of them as not to be in the other or in any other so that if it be in this place it is not in that nor any other besides this if it be in that place it is not in this nor any other besides that but if it be in two it is both in this and in that and therefore in neither of them nor any where else so that a Power to make a Body to be in two places at once is a Power to make it to be no where that is not to be at all which is no Power and there 's the same reason of the same Body's being in contrary motion or in motion and at rest or in two contrary postures at the same time So that by all these Instances it appears that a Power to do any thing which implies a contradiction and is repugnant to the nature of things signifies nothing and the supposed Effect of it is only to bring terms together which if they could be brought together so soon as they meet will mutually take away and destroy one another which would be vain and to no purpose I have the more explicitly laid open these contradictions with relation to the gross Doctrine of Transubstantiation in which all or most of the contradictions which I have mentioned are involved I know they stifly deny that these contradictions follow from that Doctrine and use pitiful shifts to avoid them but being not able to satisfie themselves that way if the worst should come to the worst they can grant these contradictions but then they flye to the Power of God which can do things which we call contradictions or else they say there are as many contradictions in the Doctrine of the Trinity which all Christians believe And thus they reproach Christianity to defend Popery and if they cannot perswade Men to be Papists do what they can to make them Atheists or at least to hinder them from being Christians but there is not so much malice in this Objection but there is as little strength Is it any contradiction that the same thing should be three and one in several respects which is all that the Scripture teacheth concerning the Trinity but if Men will undertake to explain this more particularly than God thought fit to do and do it in such a manner as that they cannot free themselves from contradiction let them look to it the Christian Religion is not at all concerned in this further than to censure such Mens boldness and curiosity But against this exemption of things that imply a contradiction from the compass and extent of the Divine Power there are two Objections which are more considerable and deserve to be taken notice of I. We grant God's fore-knowledge of future Events which seem to us to be impossible to be foreknown now why may we not as well grant that God can do things which seem to us impossible to be done by any Power as foreknow things which it is impossible for any Understanding to know For why should we pretend to know the utmost of what infinite Power can do any more than the utmost of what infinite Understanding can know Ans I know no reason but that the Argument should be granted if there were an equal necessity of granting the possibility of those things which seem to us impossible to be done that there is of granting the possibility of fore-knowing future contingencies tho' they seem to us impossible to be known We must grant the possibility of fore-knowing future contingencies because the Scripture which we believe to be a Divine Revelation expresly tells us that God doth foreknow them and gives us Instances of it in several Prophecies and Predictions Now if any Man can shew me as express Texts which say that God can make a Body to be in two places at once I would believe it tho' I do not see how it is possible because it is reasonable I should believe that infinite Power can do many things the possibility of which my finite Understanding cannot reach Now whereas the Papists say the Scripture hath said that from which this necessarily follows viz. This is my Body this is not enough unless they could either prove that it is necessary to understand all Texts of Scripture in a rigorous and strict propriety of the