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
in the Womb the Miracles that he wrought were by the Power of the Spirit in him Power is a Title belonging to him and sometimes both are put together 1 Thess 1.5 and other places And that great Power of changing the Heart and sanctifying a polluted Nature a work greater than Creation is frequently acknowledged in the Scripture to be the peculiar act of the Holy Ghost The Father Son Spirit are one Principle in Creation Resurrection and all the Works of Omnipotence 3. Inference from the Doctrine The Blessedness of God is hence evidenc'd If God be Almighty he can want nothing all want speaks Weakness If he doth what he will he cannot be miserable all Misery consists in those things which happen contrary to our will There is nothing can hinder his Happiness because nothing can resist his Power Since he is Omnipotent nothing can hurt him nothing can strip him of what he hath of what he is †Sal unde Tit. 39. If he can do whatsoever he will he cannot want any thing that he wills He is as happy as great as glorious as he will for he hath a perfect liberty of Will to will and a perfect Power to attain what he will His Will cannot be restrained nor his Power mated It would be a defect in Blessedness to Will what he were not able to do Sorrow is the result of a want of Power with a presence of Will * Pont. Part 6. med 16. p 531. If he could Will any thing which he could not effect he would be miserable and no longer God He can do whatsoever he pleases and therefore can want nothing that pleases him He cannot be happy the original of whose Happiness is not in himself Nothing can be infinitely happy that is limited and bounded 4. Hence is a ground for the Immutability of God As he is uncapable of changing his Resolves because of his Infinite Wisdom so he is uncapable of being forced to any Change because of his Infinite Power Being Almighty He can be no more chang'd from Power to Weakness than being All-wise He can be chang'd from Wisdom to Folly or being Omniscient from Knowledge to Ignorance He cannot be alter'd in his Purposes because of his Wisdom nor in the manner and method of his Actions because of his Infinite strength Men indeed when their Designs are laid deepest and their Purposes stand firmest yet are forced to stand still or change the manner of the execution of their Resolves by reason of some outward Accidents that obstruct them in their course for having not Wisdom to foresee future hindrances they have not power to prevent them or strength to remove them when they unexpectedly interpose themselves between their desire and performance But no created Power has strength enough to be a bar against God By the same act of his Will that he resolves a thing He can puff away any Impediments that seem to rise up against him He that wants no Means to effect his Purposes cannot be check'd by any thing that riseth up to stand in his way Heaven Earth Sea the deepest places are too weak to resist his Will †Psal 135.6 The Purity of the Angels will not and the Devils Malice cannot frustrate his Will the one voluntarily obeys the beck of his hand and the other are vanquisht by the Power of it What can make him change his Purposes who if he please can dash the Earth against the Heavens in the twinkling of an Eye untying the World from its Center clap the Stars and Elements together into one Mass and blow the whole Creation of Men and Devils into Nothing Because he is Almighty therefore he is Immutable 5. Hence is inferred the Providence of God and his Government of the World His Power as well as his Wisdom gives him a right to Govern Nothing can equal him therefore nothing can share the Command with him since All things are his Works 't is fittest they should be under His Order He that frames a work is fittest to guide and govern it God hath the most Right to Govern because he hath Knowledge to direct his Power and Power to execute the Results of his Wisdom He knows what is convenient to order and hath Strength to effect what he orders As his Power would be oppressive without Goodness and Wisdom so his Goodness and Wisdom would be fruitless without Power An Artificer that hath lost his Hands may direct but cannot make an Engine A Pilot that hath lost his Arms may advise the way of Steerage but cannot hold the Helm something is wanting in him to be a compleat Governour But since both Counsel and Power are Infinite in God hence results an Infinite Right to Govern and an Infinite Fitness because his Will cannot be resisted his Power cannot be enfeebled or diminish'd he can quicken and increase the strength of all Means as he pleases He can hold all things in the World together and preserve them in those Functions wherein he setled them and conduct them to those ends for which he design'd them Every Artificer the more Excellent he is and the more Excellency of Power appears in his work is the more careful to maintain and cherish it Those that deny Providence do not only ravish from him the bowels of his Goodness but strip him of a main exercise of his Power and engender in Men a suspicion of Weariness and Feebleness in him as though his strength had been spent in making them that none is left to guide them They would make him Headless in regard of his Wisdom and Bowelless in regard of his Goodness and Armless in regard of his Strength If he did not or were not able to preserve and provide for his Creatures his Power in making them would be in a great part an Invisible Power if he did not preserve what he made and govern what he preserves it would be a kind of strange and rude Power to make and suffer it to be dasht in pieces at the pleasure of others If the Power of God should relinquish the World the life of things would be extinguisht the Fabrick would be confounded and fall into a deplorable Chaos That which is composed of so many various pieces could not maintain its Union if there were not a secret virtue binding them together and maintaining those varieties of links Well then since God is not only so Good that he cannot will any thing but what is good so Wise that he cannot erre or mistake but also so Able that he cannot be defeated or maâ—ed He hath every way a full Ability to govern the World where those Three are Infinite the right and fitness resulting from thence is unquestionable And indeed to deny God this Active part of his Power is to render him Weak Foolish Cruel or all 6. Here is a ground for the Worship of God Wisdom and Power are the grounds of the Respect we give to Men they being both infinite in God
or Wisdom to have let Man perpetually wallow in that Sink wherein he had plung'd himself since he was Criminal by his own will and therefore Miserable by his own fault Nothing could necessitate this Reparation If Divine Goodness could not be obliged by the Angelical Dignity to repair that Nature he is further from any Obligation by the meaness of Man to repair Humane Nature There was less necessity to restore Man than to restore the fallen Angels What could Man do to oblige God to a Reparation of him since he could not render him a Recompence for his Goodness manifested in his Creation He must be much more impotent to render him a Debtor for the Redemption of him from Misery Could it be a salary for any thing we had done Alass we are so far from Meriting it that by our daily Demerits we seem ambitious to put a stop to any further Effusions of it We could not have complain'd of him if he had left us in the Misery we had courted since he was bound by no Law to bestow upon us the Recovery we wanted When the Apostle speaks of the Gospel of Redemption he giveth it the Title of the Gospel of the Blessed God †2 Tim. 1.11 It was the Gospel of a God abounding in his own Blessedness which receiv'd no addition by Mans Redemption If he had been blessed by it it had been a goodness to himself as well as to the Creature It was not an Indigent Goodness needing the receiving any thing from us but it was a pure Goodness streaming out of it self without bringing any thing into it self for the Perfection of it There was no Goodness in us to be the Motive of his Love but his Goodness was the Fountain of our Benefit 3. It was a distinct Goodness of the whole Trinity In the Creation of Man we find a general Consultation * Gen. 1.26 without those distinct Labours and Offices of each Person and without those rais'd Expressions and Marks of Joy and Triumph as at Mans Restoration In this there are distinct Functions The Grace of the Father the Merit of the Son and the Efficacy of the Spirit The Father makes the Promise of Redemption the Son Seals it with his Blood and the Spirit applies it The Father Adopts us to be his Children the Son Redeems us to be his Members and the Spirit Renews us to be his Temples In this the Father testifies himself well pleased in a Voice The Son proclaims his own delight to do the will of God and the Spirit hastens with the Wing of a Dove to fit him for his work And afterwards in his apparition in the likeness of Fiery Tongues manifests his zeal for the propagation of the Redeeming Gospel 4. The Effects of it proclaim his great Goodness 'T is by this we are deliver'd from the Corruption of our Nature the Ruine of our Happiness the deformity of our Sins and the punishment of our Transgressions He frees us from the Ignorance wherewith we were darkned and from the Slavery wherein we were fetter'd When he came to make Adams Process after his Crime instead of pronouncing the Sentence of Death he had merited he utters a Promise that Man could not have expected His Kindness swells above his provoked Justice and while he chaseth him out of Paradise he gives him hopes of regaining the same or a better Habitation and is in the whole more ready to prevent him with the Blessings of his Goodness than charge him with the horrour of his Crimes †Gen. 3.17 'T is a Goodness that pardons us more Transgressions than there are Moments in our Lives and overlooks as many Follies as there are Thoughts in our Heart He doth not only relieve our wants but restores us to our Dignity 'T is a greater Testimony of Goodness to instate a Person in the highest Honour than barely to supply his present Necessity 'T is an admirable Pity whereby he was inclin'd to Redeem us and an incomparable Affection whereby he was resolv'd to exalt us What can be desir'd more of him than his Goodness hath granted He hath sought us out when we were lost and Ransom'd us when we were Captives He hath Pardon'd us when we were Condemn'd and rais'd us when we were Dead In Creation he rear'd us from nothing in Redemption he delivers our Understanding from ignorance and vanity and our Wills from impotence and obstinacy and our whole Man from a Death worse than that nothing he drew us from by Creation 5. Hence we may consider the height of this Goodness in Redemption to exceed that in Creation He gave Man a Being in Creation but did not draw him from unexpressible Misery by that act His Liberality in the Gospel doth infinitely surpass what we admire in the Works of Nature His Goodness in the latter is more astonishing to our belief than his Goodness in Creation is visible to our Eye There is more of his Bounty exprest in that one Verse * Joh. 3.16 So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son than there is in the whole Volume of the World 'T is an incomprehensible so a so that all the Angels in Heaven cannot Analyze and few Comment upon or understand the dimensions of this so In Creation he form'd an Innocent Creature of the Dust of the Ground in Redemption he restores a Rebellious Creature by the Blood of his Son It is greater than that Goodness manifested in Creation 1. In regard of the difficulty of effecting it In Creation meer nothing was vanquisht to bring us into Being In Redemption sullen Enmity was conquer'd for the enjoyment of our Restoration In Creation he subdued a Nullity to make us Creatures In Redemption his Goodness overcomes his Omnipotent Justice to restore us to Felicity A word from the Mouth of Goodness inspir'd the Dust of Mens Bodies with a living Soul but the Blood of his Son must be shed and the Laws of Natural Affection seem to be overturn'd to lay the Foundation of our renew'd Happiness In the first Heaven did but speak and the Earth was form'd In the second Heaven it self must sink to Earth and be clothed with dusty Earth to reduce Mans Dust to its Original State 2. This Goodness is greater than that manifested in Creation in regard of its Cost This was a more expensive Goodness than what was laid out in Creation The redemption of one Soul is pretious †Psal 49.8 much more costly than the whole Fabrick of the World or as many Worlds as the understandings of Angels in their utmost extent can conceive to be Created For the effecting of this God parts with his dearest Treasure and his Son Eclipses his choicest Glory For this God must be made Man Eternity must suffer Death the Lord of Angels must weep in a Cradle and the Creator of the World must hang like a Slave he must be in a Manger in Bethlehem and die upon a Cross on
party we disaffect So the Will of God may be performed not as his Will but as it may gratifie some selfish consideration when we will please God so far as it may not displease our selves and serve him as our Master so far as his Command may be a Servant to our humor When we consider not who it is that Commands but how short it comes of displeasing that sin which Rules in our heart pick and chuse what is least burdensom to the flesh and distastful to our lusts He that doth the Will of God not out of Conscience of that Will but because it is agreeable to himself casts down the Will of God and sets his own Will in the place of it takes the Crown from the head of God and places it upon the head of self If things are done not because they are Commanded by God but desirable to us t is a disobedient obedience a conformity to Gods Will in regard of the matter a conformity to our own Will in regard of the motive either as the things done are agreeable to natural and moral self or sinful self 1. As they are agreeable to natural or moral self When men will practise some points of Religion and walk in the track of some Divine precepts not because they are Divine but because they are agreeable to their humor or constitution of nature from the sway of a natural bravery the Byas of a secular interest not from an ingenuous sense of Gods Authority or a voluntary submission to his Will As when a man will avoid excess in drinking not because it is dishonourable to God but as it is a blemish to his own reputation or an impair of the health of his body Doth this deserve the name of an observance of the Divine injunction or rather an obedience to our selves Or when a man will be liberal in the distribution of his Charity not with an eye to Gods precept but in compliance with his own natural compassion or to pleasure the generosity of his nature The one is obedience to a mans own preservation the other an obedience to the interest or impulse of a moral Vertue T is not respect to the rule of God but the Authority of self and at the best is but the performance of the material part of the Divine Rule without any concurrence of a Spiritual motive or a Spiritual manner That only is a maintaining the rights of God when we pay an observance to his rule without examining the agreeableness of it to our secular interest or consulting with the humour of flesh and blood when we will not decline his service though we find it cross and hath no affinity with the pleasure of our own nature Such an obedience as Abraham manifested in his readiness to sacrifice his Son Such an obedience as our Saviour demands in cutting off the right hand When we observe any thing of divine order upon the account of its suitableness to our natural Sentiments we shall readily divide from him when the interest of nature turns it's point against the interest of Gods honour we shall fall off from him according to the change we find in our own humours And can that be valued as a setting up the rule of God which must be depos'd upon the mutable interest of an inconstant mind Esau had no regard to God in delaying the execution of his resolution to shorten his brothers dayes though he was awed by the reverence of his Father to delay it he considered perhaps how justly he might lie under the imputation of hastening crazy Isaacs death by depriving him of a beloved Son But had the old mans head been laid neither the contrary command of God nor the nearness of a fraternal relation could have bound his hands from the act no more than they did his heart from the resolution Gen. 27.41 Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him and Esau said in his heart the days of mourning for my father are at hand then will I slay my brother So many Children that expect at the death of their Parents great Inheritances or Portions may be observant of them not in regard of the rule fixed by God but to their own hopes which they would not frustrate by a disobligement Whence is it that many men abstain from gross sins but in love to their reputation Wickedness may be acted privately which a mans one credit puts a bar to the open commission of The preserving his own esteem may divert him from entring into a brothell house to which he hath set his mind before against a known precept of his Creator As Pharaoh parted with the Israelites so do some men with their blemishing sins not out of a sense of Gods rule but the smart of present Judgments or fear of a future wrath Our security then and reputation is set up in the place of God This also may be and is in renewed men who have the law written in their hearts that is an habitual disposition to an agreement with the law of God when what is done is with a respect to this habitual inclination without eying the divine precept which is appointed to be their rule This also is to set up a creature as renewed self is instead of the Creator and that Law of his in his word which ought to be the rule of our actions Thus it is when men chuse a moral life not so much out of respect to the law of nature as it is the law of God but as it is a law become one with their souls and constitutions There is more of self in this than consideration of God For if it were the latter the revealed law of God would upon the same reason be received as well as his natural law From this principle of self morality comes by some to be advanced above Evangelical dictates 2. As they are agreeable to sinful self Not that the commands of God are suited to bolster up the corruptions of men no more than the law can be said to excite or revive sin * Rom. 7.8 9. But it is like a scandal taken not given an occasion taken by the tumultuousness of our depraved nature The Pharisees were devout in long Prayers not from a sense of duty or a care of Gods honour but to satisfie their ambition and rake together fuel for their covetuousness * Math. 23.14 You devour Widdows Houses and for a pretence makes long Prayers that they might have the greater esteem and richer offerings to free by their prayers the souls of deceased persons from Purgatory an opinion that some think the Jewish Synagogue had then entertain'd * Gerrard in loc since some of their Doctors have defended such a notion Men may observe some Precepts of God to have a better conveniency to break others Jehu was ordered to cut off the house of Ahab The service he undertook was in it self acceptable but corrupt nature misacted that which
approach to the Object of the Souls affection Love is appetitus unionis The more love the more delight in the approachings of God to the Soul or the out-goings of the Soul to God As the Object of Worship is amiable in a spiritual eye so the â—â—â—hs tending to a communion with this Object are delightful in the exercise Where there is no delight in a duty there is no delight in the object of the duty The more of grace the more of pleasure in the actings of it As the more of nature there is in any natural Agent the more of pleasure in the Act So the more heavenly the Worship the more spiritual Delight is the frame and temper of Glory A heart filled up to the brim with joy is a heart filled up to the brim with the Spirit Joy is the fruit of the Holy-Ghost * Gal. 5.22 1. Not the joy of Gods dispensation flowing from God but a gracious active joy streaming to God There is a joy when the Comforts of God are dropt into the Soul as Oyle upon the Wheel which indeed makes the faculties move with more speed and activity in his service like the Chariots of Aminadab And a Soul may serve God in the strength of this taste and its delight terminated in the sensible comfort This is not the joy I mean but such a joy that hath God for its Object delighting in him as the term in worship as the way to him The first is Gods dispensation the other is our duty The first is an act of Gods favour to us the second a sprout of habitual grace in us The Comforts we have from God may elevate our duties but the grace we have within doth spiritualize our duties 2. Nor is every delight an argument of a spiritual service All the the requisites to worship must be taken in A man may invent a worship and delight in it as Micah in the adoration of his Idol when he was glad he had got both an Ephod and a Levite * Judges 17. As a man may have a contentment in Sin so he may have a contentment in Worship not because it is a worship of God but the worship of his own invention agreeable to his own humor and design as Isa 58.2 't is said they delighted in approaching to God but it was for carnal ends Novelty ingenders Complacency but it must be a worship wherein God will delight and that must be a worship according to his own Rule and infinite Wisdom and not our shallow fancies God requires a cheerfulness in his service especially under the Gospel where he sits upon a Throne of Grace discovers himself in his amiableness and acts the Covenant of Grace and the sweet relation of a Father The Priests of old were not to fully themselves with any sorrow when they were in the exercise of their functions God put a bar to the natural affections of Aaron and his Sons when Nadab and Abihu had been cut off by a severe hand of God * Lev. 10.6 Every true Christian in a higher order of Priest-hood is a person dedicated to joy and peace offering himself a lively Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving And there is no Christian duty but is to be set off and seasoned with cheerfulness He that loves a cheerful Giver in acts of Charity requires no less a cheerful Spirit in acts of Worship As this is an ingredient in worship so it is the means to make your Spirits intent in worship When the heart triumphs in the consideration of Divine excellency and goodness it will be angry at any thing that offers to jogg and disturb it 8. Spiritual worship is to be performed though with a delight in God yet with a deep reverence of God The Gospel in advancing the spirituality of worship takes off the terror but not the reverence of God which is nothing else in its own nature but a due and high esteem of the excellency of a thing according to the nature of it And therefore the Gospel presenting us with more illustrious notices of the glorious nature of God is so far from indulging any disesteem of him that it requires of us a greater reverence sutable to the hight of its discovery above what could be spell'd in the Book of Creation The Gospel worship is therefore exprest by trembling Hos 11.10 They shall walk after the Lord he shall roar like a Lion when he shall roar then the Children shall tremble from the West When the Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall lift up his powerful voice in the Gospel the Western Gentiles shall run trembling to walk after the Lord. God hath alway attended his greatest manifestations with remarkable Characters of Majesty to create a reverence in his Creature He caused the wind to March before him to cut the Mountain when he manifested himself to Elijah 1 Kings 19.11 A Wind and a Cloud of Fire before that magnificent Vision to Ezekiel Ezek. 1.4 5. Thunders and Lightnings before the giving the Law Exod. 19.18 And a mighty wind before the giving the Spirit Acts 2. God requires of us an aw of him in the very act of performance The Angels are pure and cannot fear him as Sinners but in reverence they cover their Faces when they stand before him * Isa 6.2 His power should make us reverence him as we are Creatures His Justice as we are Sinners His goodness as we are restored Creatures * Daille Sur. 3. Jean P. 150. God is clothed with unspeakable Majesty the glory of his face shines brighter than the Lights of Heaven in their beauty Before him the Angels tremble and the Heavens melt we ought not therefore to come before him with the Sacrifice of Fools nor tender a duty to him without falling low upon our faces and bowing the knees of our hearts in token of reverence Not a slavish fear like that of Devils but a Godly fear like that of Saints * Heb. 12.28 joyned with a sense of an unmoveable Kingdom becomth us And this the Apostle calls a grace necessary to make our service acceptable And therefore the grace necessary to make it spiritual since nothing finds admission to God but what is of a spiritual nature The consideration of his glorious nature should imprint an awful respect upon our Souls to him His goodness should make his Majesty more adorable to us as his Majesty makes his goodness more admirable in his condescensions to us As God is a Spirit our worship must be spiritual and being he is the supream Spirit our worship must be reverential We must observe the State he takes upon him in his Ordinances He is in Heaven we upon the Earth we must not therefore be hasty to utter any thing before God Eccles 5.7 Consider him a Spirit in the highest Heavens and our selves Spirits dwelling in a dreggy Earth Loose and garish frames debase him to our own quality Slight postures of Spirit intimate him to
to mock him than worship him When we believe that we ought to be satisfied rather than God glorified we set God below our selves imagin that he should submit his own honour to our advantage We make our selves more glorious than God as though we were not made for him but he hath a Being only for us this is to have a very low esteem of the Majesty of God Whatsoever any man aims at in worship above the glory of God that he forms as an Idol to himself instead of God and sets up a Golden-Image God counts not this as a Worship The Offerings made in the Wilderness for forty years together God esteemed as not offered to him Amos 5.25 Have you offered to me Sacrifices and Offerings in the Wilderness forty years oh House of Israel They did it not to God but to themselves for their own security and the attainment of the possession of the promised Land A spiritual Worshipper performs not worship for some hopes of carnal advantage he uses ordinances as means to bring God and his Soul together to be more fitted to honour God in the world in his particular place When he hath been inflamed and humble in any address or duty he gives God the glory his heart sutes the doxology at the end of the Lords-prayer ascribes the Kingdom Power and Glory to God alone and if any viper of Pride starts out upon him he endeavours presently to shake it off That which was the first end of our framing ought to be the chief end of our acting towards God But when men have the same ends in worship as Brutes the satisfaction of a sensitive part the service is no more than brutish The acting for a sensitive end is unworthy of the Majesty of God to whom we address and unbecoming a rational Creature The acting for a sensitive end is not a rational much less can it be a spiritual service though the Act may be good in it self yet not good in the Agent because he wants a due end We are then spiritual when we have the same end in our redeemed services as God had in his redeeming love viz. his own Glory 12. Spiritual service is offered to God in the name of Christ Those are only spiritual Sacrifices that are offered up to God by Jesus Christ * 1 Pet. 2.5 that are the fruits of the Sanctification of the Spirit and offered in the mediation of the Son As the Altar sanctifies the gift so doth Christ spiritualize our services for Gods acceptation as the Fire upon the Altar separated the airy and finer parts of the sacrifice from the terrene and earthly This is the Golden Altar upon which the Prayers of the Saints are offered up before the Throne * Revel 8.3 As all that we have from God streams through his blood so all that we give to God ascends by vertue of his merits All the blessings God gave to the Israelites came out of Sion * Psal 134.3 The Lord bless thee out of Sion that is from the Gospel hid under the Law all the duties we present to God are to be presented in Sion in an evangelical manner All our worship must be bottomed on Christ God hath intended that we should honour the Son as we honour the Father As we honour the Father by offering our service only to him so we are to honour the Son by offering it only in his name In him alone God is well pleased because in him alone he finds our services spiritual and worthy of acceptation We must therefore take fast hold of him with our Spirits and the faster we hold him the more spiritual is our worship To do any thing in the name of Christ is not to believe the worship shall be accepted for it self but to have our eye fixed upon Christ for the acceptance of it and not to rest upon the work done as carnal people are apt to do The Creatures present their acknowledgments to God by Man and man can only present his by Christ It was utterly unlawful after the building of the Temple to sacrifice any where else The Temple being a type of Christ it is utterly unlawful for us to present our services in any other name than his This is the way to be spiritual If we consider God out of Christ we can have no other notions but those of horror and bondage We behold him a Spirit but environ'd with Justice and Wrath for Sinners But the consideration of him in Christ vails his Justice draws forth his Mercy represents him more a Father than a Judge In Christ the aspect of Justice is changed and by that the temper of the Creature so that in and by this Mediator we can have a spiritual boldness and access to God with confidence * Eph. 3.12 whereby the Spirit is kept from benummedness and distraction and our Souls quickned and refined The thoughts kept upon Christ in a duty of worship quickly elevates the Soul and spiritualizeth the whole service Sin makes our services black and the blood of Christ makes both our persons and services white To conclude this Head God is a Spirit infinitely happy therefore we must approach to him with cheerfulness He is a Spirit of infinite Majesty therefore we must come before him with reverence He is a Spirit infinitely high therefore we must offer up our Sacrifices with the deepest humility He is a Spirit infinitely holy therefore we must address with purity He is a Spirit infinitely glorious we must therefore acknowledge his excellency in all that we do and in our measures contribute to his glory by having the highest aims in his worship He is a Spirit infinitely provoked by us therefore we must offer up our worship in the name of a pacifying Mediator and Intercessour 3. The third general is why a spiritual worship is due to God and to be offered to him We must consider the Object of Worship and the Subject of worship the Worshipper and the Worshipped God is a spiritual Being Man is a reasonable Creature The nature of God informs us what is fit to be presented to him our own nature informs us what is fit to be presented by us Reason 1. The best we have is to be presented to God in worship For 1. Since God is the most excellent Being he is to be served by us with the most excellent thing we have and with the choicest veneration God is so incomprehensibly excellent that we cannot render him what he deserves We must render him what we are able to offer the best of our affiections the flower of our strength the Cream and Top of our Spirits By the same reason that we are bound to give to God the best worship we must offer it to him in the best manner We cannot give to God any thing too good for so blessed a Being God being a great King slight services become not his Majesty * Mal. 1.13 14. 'T is unbecoming the
be of an eternal duration then Christ is God Eternity is the Property of God but it is ascribed to Christ He is before all things * Col. 1.17 i. e. all created things He is therefore no Creature and if no Creature eternal All things were created by him both in Heaven and in Earth Angels as well as Men * Col. 1.16 whether they be Thrones or Dominions If all things were his Creatures then he is no Creature if he were all things were not created by him or he must create himself He hath no difference of time for he is the same yesterday to day and for ever * Heb. 13.8 Rev. 1.8 He which is and which was and which is to come The same with the Name of God I am which signifies his Eternity He is no more to day than he was yesterday nor will be any other to morrow than he is to day And therefore Melchisedeck whose Descent Birth and Death Father and Mother Beginning and End of days are not upon Record was a Type of the Existence of Christ without difference of time * Heb. 7.3 Having neither beginning of Days nor end of Life but made like the Son of God The suppression of his Birth and Death was intended by the Holy-Ghost as a Type of the excellency of Christ's person in regard of his Eternity and the duration of his Charge in regard of his Priest-hood As there was an appearance of an Eternity in the suppression of the Race of Melchisedeck so there is a true Eternity in the Son of God How could the Eternity of the Son of God be exprest by any resemblance so well as by such a suppression of the Beginning and End of this great Person different from the custom of the Spirit of God in the Old-Testament who often records the Generations and Ends of holy Men and why might not this which was a kind of a shadow of Eternity be a representation of the true Eternity of Christ as well as the restoration of Isaac to his Father without death is said to be a figure of the Resurrection of Christ after a real death * Mestraezat in loc Melchisedeck is only mentioned once without any record of his extraction in his appearance to Abraham after his victory as if he came from Heaven only for that action and instantly disappeared again as if he had been an eternal person And Christ himself hints his own eternity * John 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father He goes to the Father as he came from the Father He goes to the Father for everlasting so he came from the Father from everlasting there is the same duration in coming forth from the Father as in returning to the Father But more plainly * John 17.5 He speaks of a Glory that he had with the Father before the world was when there was no Creature in being this is an actual glory and not only in Decree For a decreed glory Believers had and why may not every one of them say the same words Father glorify me with that glory which I had with thee before the world was if it were only a glory in decree Nay it may be said of every man he was before the world was because he was so in decree Christ speaks of something peculiar to him a Glory in actual possession before the world was glorify me embrace honour me as thy Son whereas I have now been in the eyes of the world handled disgracefully as a Servant If it were only in decree why is not the like expression used of others in Scripture as well as of Christ Why did he not use the same words for his Disciples that were then with him who had a glory in decree His Eternity is also mentioned in the Old-Testament * Prov. 8.22 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old If he were the work of God he existed before himself if he existed before all the works of God 't is so not properly meant of the essential wisdom of God since the discourse runs in the name of a Person and several passages there are which belong not so much to the essential wisdom of God as v. 13. The evil way and the froward mouth do I hate which belongs rather to the holiness of God than to the essential wisdom of God besides it is distinguisht from Jehovah as possessed by him and rejoycing before him Yet plainer * Mica 5 2. Out of thee i. e. Bethlehem shall he come forth to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the wayes of Eternity There are two goings forth of Christ described one from Bethlehem in the days of his incarnation and another from Eternity The Holy-Ghost adds after his prediction of his incarnation his going out from everlasting that none should doubt of his Deity If this going out from everlasting were only in the purpose of God it might be said of David and of every Creature And in Isa 9.6 He is particularly called the Everlasting or Eternal Father Not the Father in the Trinity but a Father to us yet eternal the Father of Eternity As he is the mighty God so he is the everlasting Father Can such a title be ascribed to any whose being depends upon the Will of another and may be dasht out at the pleasure of a Superior As the Eternity of God is the ground of all Religion so the Eternity of Christ is the ground of the Christian Religion Could our Sins be perfectly expiated had he not an eternal Divinity to answer for the offences committed against an eternal God Temporary sufferings had been of little validity without an infiniteness and eternity in his person to add weight to his passion 2. If God be eternal he knows all things as present * Petav. All things are present to him in his Eternity for this is the notion of Eternity to be without succession If Eternity be one indivisible point and is not diffused into preceding and succeeding parts then that which is known in it or by it is perceived without any succession For knowledge is as the substance of the person knowing if that hath various actions and distinct from it self then it understands things in differences of time as time presents them to view But since Gods Being depends not upon the revolutions of time so neither doth his Knowledge it exceeds all motions of years and days comprehends infinite spaces of past and future God considers all things in his Eternity in one simple knowledge as if they were now acted before him * Acts 15.18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à seculo from eternity Gods Knowledge is coeternal with him If he knows that in time which
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
thus That he is not every where by parts as Bodies are as Air and Light are He is every where i. e. his Nature hath no bounds he is not tyed to any place as the Creature is who when he is present in one place is absent from another As no place can be without God so no place can compass and contain him 2. There is an influential Omnipresence of God 1. Vniversal with all Creatures He is present with all things by his Authority because all things are subject to him By his power because all things are sustained by him By his Knowledge because all things are naked before him He is present in the World as a King is in all parts of his Kingdom Regally present Providentially present with all since his Care extends to the meanest of his Creatures His Power reacheth all and his Knowledge pierceth all As every thing in the World was Created by God so every thing in the World is preserved by God and since Preservation is not wholly distinct from Creation 't is necessary God should be present with every thing while he preserves it as well as present with it when he Created it * Psal 36.6 Thou preservest man and Beast †Heb. 1.3 He upholds all things by the word of his Power There is a vertue sustaining every Creature that it may not fall back into that nothing from whence it was elevated by the Power of God All those natural Vertues we call the Principles of Operation are Fountains springing from his Goodness and Power all things are acted and managed by him as well as preserved by him and in this sense God is present with all Creatures for whatsoever acts another is present with that which it acts by sending forth some vertue and influence whereby it acts If free Agents do not only live but move in him and by him * Acts 17.28 much more are the motions of other natural Agents by a vertue communicated to them and upheld in them in the time of their acting This vertual presence of God is evident to our sense a presence we feel his essential presence is evident in our Reason This influential presence may be compar'd to that of the Sun which though at so great a distance from the Earth is present in the Air and Earth by its Light and within the Earth by its influence in concocting those Metals which are in the Bowels of it without being substantially either of them God is thus so intimate with every Creature that there is not the least particle of any Creature but the marks of his Power and Goodness are seen in it and his Goodness doth attend them and is more swift in its effluxes than the breakings out of Light from the Sun which yet are more swift than can be declar'd but to say he is in the World only by his Vertue is to acknowledge only the effects of his Power and Wisdom in the World That his Eye sees all his Arm supports all his Goodness nourisheth all but Himself and his Essence at a distance from them * Zanch. and so the Soul of man according to its measure would have in some kind a more excellent manner of Presence in the body than God according to the Infiniteness of his Being with his Creatures for that doth not only communicate Life to the Body but is actually present with it and spreads its whole Essence through the Body and every Member of it All grant That God is efficaciously in every Creek of the World but some say he is only substantially in Heaven 2. Limited to such Subjects that are capacitated for this or that kind of Presenâ—e Yet it is an Omnipresence because it is a Presence in all the Subjects capacitated for it thus there is a special Providential Presence of God with some in assisting them when he sets them on work as his Instruments for some special Service in the World As with Cyrus * Isa 4â— 2 I will go before thee and with Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander whom he Protected and Directed to execute his Counsels in the World such a presence Judas and others †Mat. 7.22 that shall not enjoy his glorious Presence had in the working of Miracles in the world In thy name we have done many wonderful works Besides * Cajetan in Aquin Par. 1. Qu 8 Artic. 3. as there is an effective Presence of God with all Creatures because he produced them and preserves them so there is an objective Presence of God with rational Creatures because he offers himself to them to be known and loved by them He is near to Wicked men in the offers of his Grace * Isa 55.6 call ye upon him while he is near Besides there is a gracious Presence of God with his People in whom he dwells and makes his abode as in a Temple Consecrated to him by the Graces of the Spirit †John 14.23 We will come i. e. the Father and the Son and make our abode with him He is present with all by the Presence of his Divinity but only in his Saints by a Presence of a gracious Efficacy he walks in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks and hath Dignifi'd the Congregation of his People with the Title of Jehovah Sbammah * Ezek. 48.35 The Lord is there In Salem is his Tabernacle and his dwelling place in Sion †Psal 76.2 As he filled the Tabernacle so he doth the Church with the Signs of his Presence this is not the Presence wherewith he fills Heaven and Earth His Spirit is not bestowed upon all to reside in their hearts enlighten their minds and bedew them with refreshing Comforts When the Apostle speaks of Gods being Above all and through all * Eph. 4.6 Above all in his Majesty Through all in his Providence he doth not appropriate that as he doth what follows and in you all in you all by a special Grace as God was specially present with Christ by the Grace of Union so he is specially present with his People by the Grace of Regeneration So there are several manifestations of his Presence he hath a Presence of Glory in Heaven whereby he Comforts the Saints a Presence of Wrath in Hell whereby he Torments the Damned in Heaven he is a God spreading his Beams of Light in Hell a God distributing his Strokes of Justice by the one he fills Heaven by the other he fills Hell by his Providence and Essence he fills both Heaven and Earth 3. There is an Essential Presence of God in the World He is not only every where by his Power upholding the Creatures by his Wisdom understanding them but by his Essence containing them That any thing is essentially present any where it hath from God God is therefore much more present every where for he cannot give that which he hath not 1. He is Essentially present in all places * Ficin 'T is as reasonable to think the
Power This Title is superior to any Title given to any of the Prophets in regard of their Predictions and therefore I should take it rather as the note of his perfect understanding than of his perfect teaching and discovering as Calvin doth He is not only the Revealer of what he knows so were the Prophets according to their measures but the Counsellor of what he revealed having a perfect understanding of all the Counsels of God as being interested in them as the mighty God He calls himself by the peculiar Title of God and declares that he will manifest himself by this Prerogative to all the Churches Rev. 2.23 And all the Churches shall know that I am he which searches the Reins and Hearts the most hidden operations of the minds of men that lye locked up from the view of all the World besides And this was no new thing to him after his Ascension for the same Perfection he had in the time of his earthly flesh Luke 6.8 he knew their Thoughts his eyes are therefore compar'd Cant. 5.12 to Doves eyes which are clear and quick and to a flame of fire Rev. 1.14 not only heat to consume his Enemies but Light to discern their contrivances against the Church he pierceth by his knowledg into all parts as fire pierceth into the closest particle of Iron and separates between the most united parts of Metals and some tell us he is called a Roe from the perspicacity of his Sight as well as from the swiftness of his motion 1. He hath a perfect Knowledg of the Father he knows the Father and none else knovvs the Father Angels knovv God men knovv God but Christ in a peculiar manner knovvs the Father no man knows the Son but the Father neither knows any man the Father save the Son Mat. 11.27 he knows so as that he learns not from any other he doth perfectly comprehend him vvhich is beyond the reach of any Creature vvith the addition of all the Divine Vertue not because of any incapacity in God to reveal but the incapacity of the Creature to receive finite is uncapable of being made infinite and therefore incapable of comprehending infinite so that Christ cannot be Deus factus made of a Creature a God to comprehend God for then of finite he vvould become infinite vvhich is a contradiction As the Spirit is God because he searches the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 that is comprehends them Potav Theo. dogmat Tom. 1. p. 467. c. as the Spirit of a man doth the things of a man now the Spirit of man understands vvhat it Thinks and vvhat it Wills so the Spirit of God understands vvhat is in the Understanding of God and vvhat is in the Will of God He hath an absolute knovvledg ascrib'd to him and such as could not be ascrib'd to any thing but a Divinity Novv if the Spirit knovvs the deep things of God and takes from Christ vvhat he shevvs to us of him John 16.15 he cannot be ignorant of those things himself he must knovv the depths of God that affords us that Spirit that is not ignorant of any of the Counsels of the Fathers Will since he comprehends the Father and the Father him he is in himself infinite for God whose Essence is infinite is infinitely knowable but no Created understanding can infinitely know God The infiniteness of the object hinders it from being understood by any thing that is not infinite Though a Creature should understand all the works of God yet it cannot be therefore said to understand God himself As tho' I may understand all the volitions and motions of my Soul yet it doth not follow that therefore I understand the whole nature and substance of my Soul or if a man understood all the effects of the Sun that therefore he understands fully the nature of the Sun But Christ knows the Father he lay in the Bosom of the Father was in the greatest intimacy with him John 1.18 and from this intimacy with him he saw him and knew him so he knows God as much as he is knowable and therefore knows him perfectly as the Father knows himself by a comprehensive Vision this is the knowledg of God wherein properly the infiniteness of his understanding appears And our Saviour uses such expressions which manifest his Knowledg to be above all Created Knowledg and such a manner of knowledg of the Father as the Father hath of him 2. Christ knows all Creatures That knowledg which comprehends God comprehends all Created things as they are in God 't is a knowledg that sinks to the depths of his Will and therefore extends to all the acts of his Will in Creation and Providence by knowing the Father he knows all things that are contained in the Vertue Power and Will of God whatsoever the Father doth that the Son doth John 5.19 As the Father therefore knows all things he is the cause of so doth the Son know all things he is the worker of as the perfect making of all things belongs to both so doth the perfect knowledg of all things belong to both where the action is the same the knowledg is the same Now the Father did not Create one thing and Christ another but all things were Created by him and for him all things both in Heaven and Earth Col. 1.16 as he knows himself as the cause of all things and the end of all things he cannot be ignorant of all things that were effected by him and are referred to him he knows all Creatures in God as he knows the Essence of God and knows all Creatures in themselves as he knows his own acts and the fruits of his Power those things must be in his Knowledg that were in his Power all the Treasures of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God are hid in him Col. 2.3 Now it is not the Wisdom of God to know in part and be in part ignorant He cannot be ignorant of any thing since there is nothing but what was made by him John 1.3 and since it is less to know than Create for we know many things which we cannot make Petav. Theolo Dogmat. Tom. 1. p. 467. If he be the Creator he cannot but be the discerner of what he made this is a part of Wisdom belonging to an Artificer to know the nature and quality of what he makes Since he cannot be ignorant of what he furnisht with Being and with various endowments he must know them not only universally but particularly 3. Christ knows the hearts and affections of men Peter scruples not to ascribe to him this knowledg among the knowledg of all other things John 21.17 Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee From Christs knowledg of all things he concludes his knowledg of the inward frames and dispositions of men To search the heart is the sole Prerogative of God 1 Kings 8.39 for thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the Children of men
Pet. 1.12 It was publish'd in Paradise but in such words as Adam did not fully understand It was both discover'd and clouded in the Smoke of Sacrifices It was wrapped up in a Vail under the Law but not open'd till the Death of the Redeemer It was then plainly said to the Cities of Judah Behold your God comes The whole Transaction of it between the Father and the Son which is the Spirit of the Gospel was from Eternity the Creation of the World was in order to the manifestation of it Let us not then regard the Gospel as a Novelty the consideration of it as one of Gods Cabinet Rarities should enhance our Estimation of it No Traditions of Men no Inventions of vain Wits that pretend to be wiser than God should have the same Credit with that which bears date from Eternity 8. Observe That Divine Truth is Mysterious According to the revelation of the mystery Christ manifested in the flesh The whole Scheme of Godliness is a Mystery No Man or Angel could imagine how two Natures so distant as the Divine and Human should be united how the same Person should be Criminal and Righteous how a Just God should have a Satisfaction and Sinful Man a Justification how the Sin should be punish'd and the Sinner saved None could imagine such a way of Justification as the Apostle in this Epistle declares It was a Mystery when hid under the Shadows of the Law and a Mystery to the Prophets when it sounded from their Mouths they searched it without being able to comprehend it †1 Pet. 1.10 11. If it be a Mystery 't is humbly to be submitted to Mysteries surmount Human Reason The study of the Gospel must not be with a yawning and careless frame Trades you call Mysteries are not learned sleeping and nodding Diligence is required we must be Disciples at Gods Feet As it had God for the Author so we must have God for the Teacher of it the Contrivance was his and the Illumination of our Minds must be from him As God only manifested the Gospel so he only can open our Eyes to see the Mysteries of Christ in it In Verse 26. we may observe 1. The Scriptures of the Old Testament verifie the substance of the New and the New doth evidence the Authority of the Old By the Scriptures of the Prophets made known The Old Testament credits the New and the New illustrates the Old The New Testament is a Comment upon the Prophetick part of the Old The Old shews the Promises and Predictions of God and the New shews the Performance What was foretold in the Old is fulfilled in the New the Predictions are cleared by the Events The Predictions of the Old are Divine because they are above the Reason of Man to foreknow None but an Infinite Knowledge could foretell them because none but an Infinite Wisdom could order all things for the accomplishment of them The Christian Religion hath then the surest Foundation since the Scriptures of the Prophets wherein it is foretold are of undoubted Antiquity and owned by the Jews and many Heathens which are and were the great Enemies of Christ The Old Testament is therefore to be read for the strengthning of our Faith Our Blessed Saviour himself draws the Streams of his Doctrine from the Old Testament He clears up the Promise of Eternal Life and the Doctrine of the Resurrection from the words of the Covenant I am the God of Abraham c. Mat. 22.32 And our Apostle clears up the Doctrine of Justification by Faith from Gods Covenant with Abraham Rom. 4. It must be read and it must be read as it is writ It was writ to a Gospel End it must be studied with a Gospel Spirit The Old Testament was writ to give Credit to the New when it should be manifested in the World It must be read by us to give strength to our Faith and establish us in the Doctrine of Christianity How many view it as a bare story an Almanack out of date and regard it as a dry Bone without sucking from it the Evangelical Marrow Christ is in Genesis Abrahams Seed in Davids Psalms and the Prophets the Messiah and Redeemer of the World 2. Observe the Antiquity of the Gospel Is made manifest by the Scriptures of the Prophets It was of as Ancient a date as any Prophesy The first Prophesy was nothing else but a Gospel Charter it was not made at the Incarnation of Christ but made manifest It then rose up to its Meridian lustre and sprung out of the Clouds wherewith it was before obscur'd The Gospel was preached to the Ancients by the Prophets as well as to the Gentiles by the Apostles Heb. 4.2 Vnto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them To them first to us after to them indeed more cloudy to us more clear but they as well as we were Evangeliz'd as the word signifies The Covenant of Grace was the same in the Writings of the Prophets and the Declarations of the Evangelists and Apostles Though by our Saviours Incarnation the Gospel Light was clearer and by his Ascension the Effusions of the Spirit fuller and stronger yet the Believers under the Old Testament saw Christ in the Swadling Bands of Legal Ceremonies and the Lattice of Prophetical Writings they could not else offer one Sacrifice or read one Prophesy with a Faith of the right stamp Abrahams Justifying Faith had Christ for its Object though it was not so Explicit as ours because the Manifestation was not so clear as ours 3. All Truth is to be drawn from Scripture The Apostle refers them here to the Gospel and the Prophets The Scripture is the Source of Divine Knowledge not the Traditions of Men nor Reason separate from Scripture Whosoever brings another Doctrine coyns another Christ nothing is to be added to what is written nothing detracted from it He doth not send us for Truth to the Puddles of Human Inventions to the Enthusiasms of our Brain not to the See of Rome no nor to the Instructions of Angels but the Writings of the Prophets as they clear up the Declarations of the Apostles The Church of Rome is not made here the Standard of Truth but the Scriptures of the Prophets are to be the Touch-stone to the Romans for the Trial of the Truth of the Gospel 4. How great is the Goodness of God The Borders of Grace are enlarged to the Gentiles and not hid under the Skirts of the Jews He that was so long the God of the Jews is now also manifest to be the God of the Gentiles The Gospel is now made known to all Nations according to the Commandment of the Everlasting God Not only in a way of Common Providence but Special Grace in Calling them to the Knowledge of himself and a Justification of them by Faith He hath brought Strangers to him to the Adoption of Children and lodged them under the Wings of the Covenant that were before alienated from
in this that they are both Acts of the Understanding but Knowledge is the Apprehension of a thing and Wisdom is the Appointing and Ordering of things Wisdom is the splendor and lustre of Knowledge shining forth in Operations and is an Act both of Understanding and Will Understanding in Counselling and Contriving Will in Resolving and Executing Counsel and Will are link'd together Ephes 1.11 II. The Second thing is to lay down some Propositions in general concerning the Wisdom of God 1. There is an Essential and a Personal Wisdom of God The Essential Wisdom is the Essence of God the Personal Wisdom is the Son of God Christ is called Wisdom by himself Luke 7.35 The Wisdom of God by the Apostle 1 Cor. 1.24 The Wisdom I speak of belongs to the Nature of God and is considered as a necessary Perfection The Personal Wisdom is called so because he opens to us the Secrets of God If the Son were that Wisdom whereby the Father is Wise the Son would be also the Essence whereby the Father is God If the Son were the Wisdom of the Father whereby he is Essentially Wise the Son would be the Essence of the Father and the Father would have his Essence from the Son since the Wisdom of God is the Essence of God and so the Son would be the Father if the Wisdom and Power of the Father were originally in the Son 2. Therefore Secondly The Wisdom of God is the same with the Essence of God Wisdom in God is not a Habit added to his Essence as it is in Man but it is his Essence 'T is like the splendor of the Sun the same with the Sun it self or like the brightness of Chrystal which is not communicated to it by any thing else as the Brightness of a Mountain is by the Beam of the Sun but it is one with the Chrystal it self 'T is not a Habit superadded to the Divine Essence that would be repugnant to the Simplicity of God and speak him compounded of divers Principles it would be contrary to the Eternity of his Perfections If he be Eternally Wise his Wisdom is his Essence for there is nothing Eternal but the Essence of God * Maimon Mor. Part 1. cap. 53. As the Sun melts some things and hardens others blackens some things and whitens others and produceth contrary qualities in different Subjects yet it is but one and the same quality in the Sun which is the cause of those contrary Operations So the Perfections of God seem to be diverse in our Conceptions yet they are but one and the same in God The Wisdom of God is God acting Prudently as the Power of God is God acting Powerfully and the Justice of God is God acting Righteously And therefore 't is more truly said that God is Wisdom Justice Truth Power than that He is Wise Just True c. as if he were compounded of Substance and Qualities All the Operations of God proceed from one Simple Essence as all the Operations of the Mind of Man though various proceed from one faculty of Understanding 3. Wisdom is the Property of God alone He is only Wise 'T is an Honour peculiar to him Upon the account that no Man deserved the Title of Wise but that it was a Royalty belonging to God †Laert. lib. 1. Proem Pythagoras would not be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Title given to their Learned Men but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Name Philosopher arose out of a respect to this transcendent Perfection of God 1. God is only Wise necessarily As He is necessarily God so he is necessarily Wise for the Notion of Wisdom is inseparable from the Notion of a Deity When we say God is a Spirit is True Righteous Wise we understand that he is transcendently these by an intrinsick and absolute necessity by virtue of his own Essence without the Efficiency of any other or any Efficiency in and by himâ—â—lf God doth not make himself Wise no more than he makes himself God As â—e is a necessary Being in regard of his Life so he is necessarily Wise in regard oâ—â—is Understanding Synesius saith that God is Essentiated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his Vnderstanâ—ing He places the Substance of God in Vnderstanding and Wisdom Wisdom is the first vital Operation of God He can no more be Unwise than he can be Untrue for Folly in the Mind is much the same with Falsity in Speech Wisdom among Men is gained by Age and Experience furthered by Instructions and Exercise but the Wisdom of God is his Nature As the Sun cannot be without Light while it remains a Sun and as Eternity cannot be without Immortality So neither can God be without Wisdom As he only hath Immortality 1 Tim. 6.16 not arbitrarily but necessarily so he only hath Wisdom Not because he will be Wise but because he cannot but be Wise He cannot but contrive Counsels and exert Operations becoming the Greatness and Majesty of his Nature 2. Therefore only Wise originally God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men acquire Wisdom by the loss of their fairest years but his Wisdom is the Perfection of the Divine Nature not the birth of Study or the growth of Experience but as necessary as Eternal as his Essence He goes not out of himself to search Wisdom He needs no more the Brains of Creatures in the contrivance of his Purposes than he doth their Arm in the execution of them He needs no Counsel he receives no Counsel from any Rom. 11.34 Who hath been his Counsellor and Isai 40.14 With whom took he counsel and who instructed him or taught him in the path of Judgment and taught him Knowledge and shewed to him the path of Vnderstanding He is the only Fountain of Wisdom to others Angels and Men have what Wisdom they have by communication from him All created Wisdom is a spark of the Divine Light like that of the Stars borrowed from the Sun He that borrows Wisdom from another and doth not originally possess it in his own Nature cannot properly be called Wise As God is the only Being in regard that all other Beings are derived from him so he is only Wise because all other Wisdom slows from him He is the Spring of Wisdom to all none the Original of Wisdom to him 3. Therefore only Wise perfectly There is no cloud upon his Understanding He hath a distinct and certain Knowledge of all things that can fall under action As he hath a perfect Knowledge without Ignorance so he hath a Beautiful Wisdom without Mole or Wart Men are wise yet have not an Understanding so vast as to grasp all things nor a Perspicacity so clear as to penetrate into the depths of all Beings Angels have more delightful and lively sparks of Wisdom yet so imperfect that in regard of the Wisdom of God they are charged with folly Job 4.18 Their Wisdom as well as their Holiness is vailed in the Presence of God It vanisheth
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
his loathing of sin and the sprinklings of his Judgments in the World and the horrible expectations of terrified Consciences confirm it But what are all these Testimonies to the highest evidence that can possibly be given in the sheathing the Sword of his wrath in the heart of his Son If a Father should order his Son to take a mean Garb below his Dignity order him to be dragg'd to Prison seem to throw off all Affection of a Father for the severity of a Judge condemn his Son to a horrible Death be a Spectator of his bleeding Condition withhold his hand from asswaging his Misery regard it rather with Joy than Sorrow give him a bitter Cup to drink and stand by to see him drink it off to the bottom dregs and all and sâ—ash frowns in his face all the while and this not for any fault of his own but the Rebellion of some Subjects he undertook for and that the Offenders might have a pardon seal'd by the Blood of the Son the sufferer all this would evidence his detestation of the Rebellion and his affection to the Rebels his hatred to their Crime and his love to their Welfare This did God do He delivered Christ up for our Offences Rom. 8.32 the Father gave him the Cup John 18 18. the Lord bruised him with pleasure Isa 53.10 and that for sin â—e transfer'd upon the shoulders of his Son the pain we had merited that the Criminal might be restored to the place he had forfeited He hates the sin so as to condemn it for ever and wrap it up in the Curse he had threatned and loves the sinner believing and repenting so as to mount him to an expectation of a happiness exceeding the first state both in glory and perpetuity Instead of an Earthly Paradise lays the Foundation of an Heavenly Mansion brings forth a weight of Glory from a weight of Misery separates the comfortable light of the Sun from the scorching heat we had deserved at his hands Thus hath Gods hatred of sin been manifested He is at an eternal Defiance with sin yet nearer in alliance with the sinner than he was before the Revolt As if man's miserable Fall had endeared him to the Judge This is the wisdom and prudence of Grace wherein God hath abounded Eph. 1.9 A wisdom in twisting the happy restoration of the broken Amity with an everlasting Curse upon that which made the breach both upon sin the Cause and upon Satan the Seducer to it Thus is hatred and love in their highest glory manifested together Hatred to sin in the death of Christ more than if the torments of Hell had been undergone by the sinner and love to the sinner more than if he had by an absolute and simple Bounty bestowed upon him the possession of Heaven because the gift of his Son for such an end is a greater token of his boundless Affections than a reinstating Man in Paradise Thus is the wisdom of God seen in Redemption consuming the sin and recovering the sinner 6. The wisdom of God is evident in overturning the Devil's Empire by the Nature he had vanquish'd and by ways quite contrary to what that malicious Spirit could imagine The Devil indeed read his own doom in the first Promise and found his ruin resolved upon by the means of the Seed of the Woman but by what Seed was not so easily known to him * And indeed the 〈◊〉 â—â—racles managed by the Devils declared that they were not long to hold their Scepter in the World but the Hebrew Child should vanquish them And the methods whereby it was to be brought about was a Mystery kept secret from the malicious Devils since it was not discovered to the obedient Angels He might know from Isa 53. that the Redeemer was assured to divide the Spoil with the strong and rescue a part of the lost Creation out of his hands and that this was to be effected by making his Soul an offering for sin But could he imagine which way his Soul was to be made such an Offering He shrewdly suspected Christ just after his Inauguration into his Office by Bapism to be the Son of God But did he ever dream that the Messiah by dying as a reputed Malefactor should be a Sacrifice for the expiation of the sin the Devil had introduced by his subtilty Did he ever imagine a Cross should dispossess him of his Crown and that dying groans should wrest the Victory out of his hands He was conquer'd by that Nature he had cast headlong into ruin A Woman by his subtilty was the occasion of our death and a Woman by the conduct of the only wise God brings forth the Author of our Life and the Conquerour of our Enemies The Flesh of the old Adam had infected us and the Flesh of the new Adam cures us 1 Cor. 15.21 By man came death by man also came the resurrection from the dead We are killed by the old Adam and raised by the new As among the Israelites a fiery Serpent gave the wound and a brazen Serpent administers the Cure The Nature that was deceived bruiseth the Deceiver and razeth up the Foundations of his Kingdom Satan is defeated by the Counsels he took to secure his Possession and loses the Victory by the same means whereby he thought to preserve it His tempting the Jews to the sin of Crucifying the Son of God had a contrary success to his tempting Adam to eat of the Tree The first death he brought upon Adam ruined us and the death he brought by his Instrumâ—nts upon the second Adam restored us By a Tree if one may so say he had Triumphed over the World and by the fruit of a Tree one hanging upon a Tree he is dischâ—â—ged of his power over us Heb. 2.14 Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death And thus the Devil ruins his own Kingdom while he thinks to confirm inlarge it And is defeated by his own policy whereby he thought to continue the World under his chains and deprive the Creator of the World of his purposed honour What deeper Counsell could he resolve upon for his own security than to be instrumental in the death of him who was God the terror of the Devil himself and to bring the Redeemer of the World to expire with disgrace in the sight of a multitude of men Thus did the Wisdom of God shine forthin restoring us by methods seemingly repugnant to the end he aimed at above the suspition of a subtle Devil whom he intended to baffle Could he Imagine that we should be healed by stripes quickned by death purified by blood crowned by a cross advanced to the highest honour by the lowest humility comforted by sorrows glorified by disgrace absolved by condemnation and made rich by poverty That the sweetest hony should at once spring out of the belly of a dead Lion the Lion of the tribe of Judah and out of the bosom of the living God
place of the Original of their Ancestors and their affection to the Country wherein they were born might have occasioned their embracing the Idolatrous Worship of the place Afterwads the Persecutions of Antiochus scatter'd many of the Jews for their security into other Nations yet a great part and perhaps the greatest preserved their Religion and by that were obliged to come every year to Jerusalem to Offer and so were present at the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and were witnesses of the miraculous effects of it Had they not been dispers'd by Persecution had they not resided in several Countries and been acquainted with their Languages the Gospel had not so easily been diffused into several Countreys of the World The first Persecutions also raised against the Church propagated the Gospel the scattering of the Disciples enflamed their courage and dispers'd the Doctrine ‖ Acts 8.3 ccording to the Prophecy of Daniel Dan. 12.4 Many should run to and fro and knowledge should be encreased The flights and hurryings of men should enlarge the Territories of the Gospel There was not a Tribunal but the primitive Christians were cited to not a horrible Punishment but was inflicted upon them Treated they were as the dregs and offals of Mankind as the common Enemies of the World yet the Flames of the Martyrs brightned the Doctrine and the Captivity of its Professors made way for the Throne of its Empire The imprisonment of the Ark was the downfal of Dagon Religion grew stronger by Sufferings and Christianity taller by Injuries What can this be ascribed to but the conduct of a Wisdom superiour to that of Men and Devils defeating the methods of human and hellish Policy thereby making the wisdom of the World foolishness with God 1 Cor. 3.19 Fifthly The Vse I. Of Information If wisdom be an excellency of the Divine Nature then 1. Christ's Deity may hence be asserted Wisdom is the emphatical Title of Christ in Scripture Prov. 8.12 13 31. where Wisdom is brought in speaking as a distinct Person ascribing Counsel and Understanding and the Knowledge of witty Inventions to it self He is called also the power of God and the wisdom of God * 1 Cor. 1.21 And the Ancients generally understood that place Col. 2.3 In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge as an assertion of the God-head of Christ in regard of the infiniteness of his knowledge referring wisdom to his knowledge of Divine things and knowledge to his understanding of all Human things But the natural sense of the place seems to be this that all wisdom and knowledge is displayed by Christ in the Gospel and the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refer either to Christ or the mystery of God spoken of vers 2. But the Deity of Christ in regard of infinite Wisdom may be deduc'd from his Creation of things and his Government of things both which are ascribed to him in Scripture The first ascribed to him John 1.3 All things were made by him and verse 27. Without him was not any thing made that was made The second John 5.22 The Father hath committed all Judgment to the Son and both put together Col. 2.16 17. Now since he hath the Government of the World he hath the Perfections necessary to so great a Work As the Creation of the World which is ascribed to him requires an infinite power so the Government of the World requires an infinite wisdom That he hath the knowledge of the hearts of men was proved in handling the Omniscience of God That knowledge would be to little purpose without wisdom to order the motions of mens hearts and conduct all the qualities and actions of Creatures to such an end as is answerable to a wise Government we cannot think so great an Imployment can be without an Ability necessary for it The Government of Men and Angels is a great part of the glory of God and if God should intrust the greatest part of his Glory in hands unfit for so great a trust it would be an argument of weakness in God as it is in men to pitch upon unfit Instruments for particular Charges Since God hath therefore committed to him his greatest Glory the Conduct of all things for the highest end he hath a wisdom requisite for so great an end which can be no less than infinite If then Christ were a finite Person he would not be capable of an infinite Communication he could not be a Subject wherein infinite wisdom could be lodged for the terms finite and infinite are so distant that they cannot commence one another finite can never be changed into infinite no more than infinite can into finite 2. Hence we may assert The right and fitness of God for the Government of the World as he is the wisest Being Among men those who are excellent in Judgment are accounted fittest to preside over and give orders to others the wisest in a City are most capable to govern a City or at least though ignorant men may bear the Title yet the advice of the soundest and skilfullest Heads should prevail in all publick Affairs We see in Nature that the eye guides the body and the mind directs the eye * Amyâ—â—uâ— Mâ—â— â—or 1. p. 253 259. Power and Wisdome are the two Arms of Authority Wisdom knows the end and directs the means Power executes the means design'd for such an end The more splendid and strong those are in any the more Authority results from thence for the conduct of others that are of an inferiour Orb Now God being infinitely excellent in both his ability and right to the management of the World cannot be suspected the whole World is but one Commonwealth whereof God is the Monarch Did the Government of the World depend upon the Election of Men and Angels where could they pitch or where would they find Perfections capable of so great a work but in the Supream Wisdom His Wisdom hath already been apparent in those Laws whereby he formed the World into a Civil Society and the Israelites into a Commonwealth The one suted to the Consciences and Reasons of all his Subjects and the other suted to the Genius of that particular Nation drawn out of the Righteousness of the Moral Law and applicable to all Cases that might arise among them in their Government so that Moses asserts that the wisdom apparent in their Laws enacted by God as their chief Magistrate would render them famous among other Nations in regard of their Wisdom as well as their Righteousness Deut. 4.6 7 9. Also this perfection doth evidence that God doth actually govern the World It would not be a commendable thing for a man to make a curious Piece of Clock-work and take no care for the orderly motion of it Would God display so much of his Skill in framing the Heaven and Earth and none in actual guidance of them to their particular and universal ends Did he lay the Foundation in
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
his Immense Power for he that is Eternal without limits of Time must needs be conceived Powerful without any dash of Infirmity Again when He is said to be a Child born and a Son given in the same breath he is called the Mighty God * Isai 9.6 'T is introduc'd as a ground of Comfort to the Church to preserve their Hopes in the accomplishment of the Promises made to them before They should not imagine him to have only the Infirmity of a Man though he was vail'd in the Appearance of a Man No they should look through the disguise of his Flesh to the Might of his Godhead The Attribute of Mighty is added to the Title GOD because the consideration of Power is most capable to sustain the drooping Church in such a condition and to prop up her hopes 'T is upon this account he saith of himself that whatsoever things the Father doth those also doth the Son likewise John 5.19 In creation of Heaven Earth Sea and the Preservation of all Creatures the Son works with the same Will Wisdom Vertue Power as the Father works Not as two may concur in an Action in a different manner as an Agent and an Instrument a Carpenter and his Tools but in the same manner of operation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we Translate Likeness which doth not express so well the Emphasis of the word There is no diversity of Action between Us what the Father doth that I do by the same Power with the same Easiness in every respect there is the same Creative Productive Conservative Power in both of us and that not in one work that is done ad extra but in All in whatsoever the Father doth In the same manner not by a delegated but Natural and Essential Power by one undivided operation and manner of working 1. The Creation which is a work of Omnipotence is more than once ascrib'd to him This he doth own himself the Creation of the Earth and of Man upon it the stretching out the Heavens by his Hands and the forming of all the Host of them by his Command Isai 45.12 He is not only the Creator of Israel the Church verse 12. but of the whole World and every Creature on the face of the Earth and in the Glories of the Heavens which is repeated also verse 18. where in this act of Creation he is called God himself and speaks of himself in the Term Jehovah and swears by himself verse 23. What doth he swear That unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear Is this Christ Yes if the Apostle may be believed who applies it to him Rom. 14.11 to prove the Appearance of all Men before the Judgment Seat of Christ whom the Prophet calls verse 15. a God that hides himself and so he was a hidden God when obscur'd in our fleshly Infirmities He was in conjunction with the Father when the Sea receiv'd his Decree and the foundations of the Earth were appointed not as a Spectator but as an Artificer â—or so the word in Prov. 8.30 signifies As one brought up with him it signifies also A cunning workman * Cant. 7.1 He was the East or the Sun from whence sprang all the light of life and Being to the Creature so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 22. which is translated Before his works of old is rendred by some and signifies the East as well as Before But if it notes only his existence before 't is enough to prove his Deity The Scripture doth not only allow him an existence before the World but exalts him as the cause of the World A thing may precede another that is not the cause of that which follows a precedency in Age doth not entitle one Brother or thing the cause of another But our Saviour is not only Ancienter than the World but is the Creator of the World Heb. 1.10 11. Who laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the works of his hands So great an Elogy cannot be given to one destitute of Omnipotence Since the distance between Being and not Being is so vast a Gulf that cannot be surmounted and stept over but by an Infinite Power He is the First and the Last that called the Generations from the beginning †Isai 41.4 and had an Almighty voice to call them out of Nothing In which regard he is called the Everlasting Father Isai 9.6 as being the Efficient of Creation as God is called the Father of the Rain or as Father is taken for the Inventor of an Art as Jubal the first framer and Inventor of Musick is called the Father of such as handle the Harp Gen 4.21 And that Person is said to make the Sea and form the dry Land by his hands Psal 95.5 6. against whom we are exhorted not to harden our hearts verse 8. which is applied to Christ by the Apostle Heb. 3.8 in the 15 verse he is called a great King and a great God our Maker The Places wherein the Creation is attributed to Christ those that are the Antagonists of his Deity would evade by understanding them of the New or Evangelical not of the first Old and Material Creation But what appearance is there for such a sense Consider 1. That of Heb. 1.10 11. 't is spoken of that Earth and Heavens which were in the beginning of Time 't is that Earth that shall perish that Heaven that shall be folded up that Creation that shall grow old towards a decay that is only the visible and material Creation The Spiritual shall endure for ever it grows not old to decay but grows up to a perfection it sprouts up to its happiness not to its detriment The same Person creates that shall destroy and the same World is created by him that shall be destroyed by him as well as it subsisted by virtue of his Omnipotency 2. Can that also Heb. 1.2 By whom also he made the worlds speaking of Christ bear the same plea It was the same Person by whom God spake to us in these last times the same Person which he hath constituted Heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds And the Particle Also intimates it to be a distinct act from his Speaking or Prophetical Office whereby he restored and new created the World as well as the rightful foundation God had to make him Heir of all things It refers likewise not to the time of Christ's speaking upon Earth but to something past and something different from the publication of the Gospel 'T is not doth make which had been more likely if the Apostle had meant only the New Creation but hath made ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 referring to time long since past something done before his appearance upon Earth as a Prophet By whom also he made the Worlds or Ages all things subjected to or measured by Time which must be meant according to the Jewish Phrase of this Material visible World So
they entitle God in their Liturgy the Lord of Ages that is the Lord of the World and all Ages and Revolutions of the World from the Creation to the last Period of Time If any thing were in Being before this frame of Heaven and Earth and within the compass of Time it receiv'd Being and Duration from the Son of God The Apostle would give an Argument to prove the equity of making him Heir of all things as Mediator because he was the Framer of all things as God He may well be the Heir or Lord of Angels as well as Men who created Angels as well as Men All things were justly under his Power as Mediator since they deriv'd their Existence from him as Creator 3. But Thirdly what evasion can there be for that Coloss 1.16 By him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him He is said to be the Creator of Material and Visible things as well as Spiritual and Invisible of things in Heaven which needed no restoration as well as things on Earth which were polluted by Sin and stood in need of a new Creation How could the Angels belong to the new Creation who had never put off the honour and purity of the first Since they never divested themselves of their original Integrity they could not be reinvested with that which they never lost Besides suppose the Holy Angels be one way or other reduc'd as parts of the new Creation as being under the Mediatory Government of our Saviour as their Head and in regard of their confirmation by him in that happy state In what manner shall the Devils be ran'kd among new Creatures They are called Principalities and Powers as well as the Angels and may come under the Title of Things invisible That they are called Principalities and Powers is plain Ephes 6.12 For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities and Powers the Rulers of the Darkness of this World against Spiritual wickedness in high places Good Angels are not there meant for what War have Believers with them or they with Believers They are the Guardians of them since Christ hath taken away the Enmity between our Lord and theirs in whose quarrel they were engag'd against us And since the Apostle speaking of All things created by him expresseth it so that it cannot be conceived he should except any thing how come the finally Impenitent and Unbelievers which are Things in Earth and visible to be listed here in the Roll of New Creatures None of these can be called New Creatures because they are subjected to the Government of Christ no more than the Earth and Sea and the Animals in it are made New Creatures because they are all under the Dominion of Christ and his Providential Government Again the Apostle manifestly makes the Creation he here speaks of to be the Material and not the New Creation for that he speaks of afterwards as a distinct act of our Lord Jesus under the Title of Reconciliation Coloss 1.20 21. which was the restoration of the World and the satisfying for that Curse that lay upon it His intent is here to shew that not an Angel in Heaven nor a Creature upon Earth but was placed in their several degrees of excellency by the Power of the Son of God who after that act of Creation and the entrance of Sin was the Reconciler of the World through the Blood of his Cross 4. There is another place as clear John 1.3 All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made The Creation is here ascrib'd to him Affirmatively All things were made by him Negatively There was nothing made without him And the Words are Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not one thing excepting nothing including invisible things as well as things conspicuous to sense only mentioned in the story of the Creation Gen. 1. not only the intire Mass but the distinct parcels the smallest Worm and the highest Angel owe their Original to him And if not one thing then the Matter was not created to his hands and his work consisted not only in the forming things from that Matter If that one thing of Matter were excepted a chief thing were excepted if not one thing were excepted then he created Something of Nothing because Spirits as Angels and Souls are not made of any pre-existing or fore-created Matter How could the Evangelist phrase it more extensively and comprehensively This is a Character of Omnipotency to create the World and every thing in it of Nothing requires an Infinite Virtue and Power If all things were created by him they were not created by him as Man because Himself as Man was not in Being before the Creation If all things were made by him then Himself was not made Himself was not created and to be existent without being made without being created is to be unboundedly Omnipotent And if we understand it of the New Creation as they do that will not allow him an existence in his Deity before his Humanity it cannot be true of that for how could he regenerate Abraham make Simeon and Anna new Creatures who waited for the salvation of Israel and form John Baptist and fill him with the Holy Ghost even from the womb * Luke 1.15 who belong'd to the new Creation and was to prepare the way if Christ had not a Being before him The Evangelist alludes to and explains the History of the Creation in the beginning and acquaints us what was meant by God said so often viz. the Eternal Word and describes him in his Creative Power manifested in the framing the World before he describes him in his Incarnation when he came to lay the Foundation of the restoration of the World John 1.14 The Word was made flesh this Word who was with God who was God who made all things and gave Being to the most glorious Angels and the meanest Creature without exception this Word in time was made flesh 5. The Creation of things mentioned in these Scriptures cannot be attributed to him as an Instrument As if when it is said God created all things by him and by him made the Worlds we were to understand the Father to be the Agent and the Son to be a Tool in his Fathers hand as an Ax in the hand of a Carpenter or a File in the hand of a Smith or a Servant acting by Command as the Organ of his Master The Preposition Per. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not alway signifie an Instrumental cause When it is said that the Apostle gave the Thessalonians a Command by Jesus Christ 1 Thess 4 2. was Christ the Instrument and not the Lord of that Command the Apostle gave The immediate Operation of Christ dwelling in the Apostles was that whereby they gave the Commands to their Disciples When we are called by God
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
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
the battle when they will rebell against the light God doth often leave them to their own course sentence him that is filthy to be filthy still ‖ Reve. 22.11 which is a righteous act of God as he is Rector and Governor of the World Man's not receiving or not improving what God gives is the cause of Gods not giving further or taking away his own which before he had bestowed This is so far from being repugnant to the Holiness and Righteousness of God that it is rather a commendable act of his Holiness and Righteousness as the Rector of the World not to let those gifts continue in the hand of a man who abuses them contrary to his glory Who will blame a Father that after all the good Counsels he hath given his Son to reclaim him all the Corrections he hath inflicted on him for his irregular practice leaves him to his own courses and withdraws those assistances which he scoft at and turned the deaf Ear unto Or who will blame the Physician for deserting the Patient who rejects his Counsel will not follow his Prescriptions but dasheth his Physick against the Wall No man will blame him no man will say that he is the cause of the Patients death but the true cause is the fury of the Distemper and the obstinacy of the diseased Person to which the Physician left him And who can justly blame God in this case who yet never denied supplies of Grace to any that sincerely sought it at his hands and what man is there that lies under a hardness but first was guilty of very provoking sins What unholiness is it to deprive men of those assistances because of their sin and afterwards to direct those counsels and practices of theirs which he hath justly given them up unto to serve the ends of his own glory in his own methods 4. Which will appear further by considering that God is not oblig'd to continue his Grace to them It was at his liberty whither he could give any renewing Grace to Adam after his fall or to any of his Posterity He was at his own liberty to withold it or communicate it But if he were under any Obligation then surely he must be under less now since the multiplication of Sin by his Creatures But if the Obligation were none just after the fall there is no pretence now to fasten any such Obligation on God That God had no Obligation at first hath been spoken to before He is less obliged to continue his Grace after a repeated refusal and a peremptory abuse than he was bound to proffer it after the first Apostacy God cannot be charg'd with unholiness in withdrawing his Grace after we have received it unless we can make it appear that his Grace was a thing due to us as we are his Creatures and as he is Governor of the World What Prince looks upon himself as oblig'd to reside in any particular place of his Kingdom But suppose he be bound to inhabit in one particular City yet after the City rebells against him is he bound to continue his Court there spend his Revenue among Rebels endanger his own Honour and Security inlarge their Charter or maintain their Ancient Priviledges Is it not most just and righteous for him to withdraw himself and leave them to their own Tumultuousness and Sedition whereby they should eat the fruit of their own doings If there be an Obligation on God as a Governor it would rather lie on the side of Justice to leave Man to the Power of the Devil whom he courted and the prevalency of those Lusts he hath so often caressed and wrap up in a Cloud all his common Illuminations and leave him destitute of all common workings of his Spirit 8. Proposition Gods Holiness is not blemisht by his commanding those things sometimes which seem to be against Nature or thwart some other of his Precepts As when God commanded Abraham with his own hand to Sacrifice his Son * Gen. 22.2 there was nothing of Unrighteousness in it God hath a Soveraign Dominion over the lives and beings of his creatures whereby as he creates one day he might annihilate the next and by the same right that he might demand the life of Isaac as being his Creature he might demand the Obedience of Abraham in a ready return of that to him which he had so long enjoy'd by his grant 'T is true killing is unjust when it is done without cause and by a private Authority But the Authority of God surmounts all private and Publick Authority whatsoever Our lives are due to him when he calls for them and they are more than once forfeit to him by reason of Transgression But howsoever the case is God commanded him to do it for the trial of his Grace but suffered him not to do it in favour to his ready Obedience But had Isaac been actually slain and offer'd how had it been unrighteous in God who enacts Laws for the Regulation of his Creature but never intended them to the prejudice of the Rights of his Soveraignty Another Case is that of the Israelites borrowing Jewels of the Egyptians by the order of God †Exod. 11.2.3 Exod. 12.36 Is not God Lord of mans goods as well as their lives What have any they have not received that not as Proprietors independent on God but his Stewards and may not he demand a portion of his Steward to bestow upon his Favourite He that had power to dispose of the Egyptians Goods had power to order the Israelites to ask them Besides God acted the part of a just Judge in ordering them their wages for their Service in this method and making their Task-masters give them some recompence for their unjust oppression so many years It was a Command from God therefore rather for the preservation of Justice the Basis of all those Laws which link human Society than any infringement of it It was a material recompence in part though not a formal one in the intention of the Egyptians It was but in part a recompence It must needs come short of the dammage the poor Captives had sustained by the tyranny of their Masters who had inslav'd them contrary to the rules of hospitality and could not make amends for the lives of the poor Infants of Israel whom they had drowned in the River He that might for the unjust oppression of his People have taken away all their Lives destroy'd the whole Nation and put the Israelites into the possession of their Lands could without any unrighteousness dispose of part of their Goods And it was rather an act of Clemency to leave them some part who had doubly forfeited all Again the Egyptians were as ready to lend by Gods influence as the Israelites were to ask by Gods order And though it was a loan God as Soveraign of the World and Lord of the Earth and the fulness thereof alienated the property by assuming them to the use of the
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
†Heb. 7.26 so they must be in us 2. In his Christ As the Law is the Transcript so Christ is the Image of his Holiness The glory of God is too dazling to be beheld by us The acute eye of an Angel is too weak to look upon that bright Sun without covering his Face We are much too weak to take our Measures from that Purity which is infinite in his Nature But he hath made his Son like us that by the imitation of him in that temper and shadow of human Flesh we may arrive to a resemblance of him ‖ 2 Cor. 3.18 Then there is a conformity to him when that which Christ did is drawn in lively Colours in the Soul of a Christian when as he died upon the Cross we dye to our sins as he rose from the Grave we rise from our Lusts as he ascended on high we mount our Souls thither When we express in our lives what shined in his and exemplifie in our hearts what he acted in the world and become one with him as he was separate from sinners The holiness of God in Christ is our ultimate pattern As we are not only to believe in Christ but by Christ in God * John 14.1 so we are not only to imitate Christ but the holiness of God as discovered in Christ And to enforce this upon us let us consider 1. 'T is this only wherein he commands our imitation of him We are not commanded to be mighty and wise as God is mighty and wise but be holy as I am holy The declarations of his power are to enforce our subjection those of his wisdom to encourage our direction by him but this only to attract our imitaâ—ion When he saith I am holy the immediate inference he makes is be yee so too which is not the proper instruction from any other Perfection †In 〈◊〉 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man was created by Divine Power and harmoniz'd by Divine Wisdom but not after them or according to them as the true Image this was the Prerogative of Divine Holiness to be the Pattern of his Rational Creature ‖ Eph. 4.24 Col. 3 1â— Wisdom and Power were subservient to this the one as the Pensil the other as the Hand that mov'd it The condition of a Creature is too mean to have the communications of the Divine Essence the true Impressions of his Righteousness and Goodness we are only capable of 'T is only in those moral Perfections we are said to resemble God The Devils those impure and ruin'd Spâ—rits are nearer to him in strength and knowledge than we are yet in regard of that natural and intellectual Perfection never counted like him but at the greatest distance from him because at the greatest distance from his Purity God values not a natural Might nor an acute Understanding nor vouchsafes such Perfections the glorious Title of that of his Image * Eugub 〈◊〉 de perenni Philos. Lib. 6. cap 6. Plutarch saith God is angry with those that imitate his Thunder or Lightning his works of Majesty but delighted with those that imitate his Vertue In this only we can never incur any reproof from him but for falling short of him and his glory Had Adam endeavour'd after an imitation of this instead of that of Divine Knowledge he had escap'd his fall and preserv'd his standing And had Lucifer wish'd himself like God in this as well as his Dominion he had still been a glorious Angel instead of being now a ghastly Devil To reach after a Union with the Supream Being in regard of holiness is the only generous and commendable Ambition 2. This is the prime way of honouring God We do not so glorifie God by elevated Admirations or eloquent Expressions or pompous Services of him as when we aspire to a conversing with him with unstained Spirits and live to him in living like him The Angels are not called holy for applauding his Purity but conforming to it The more perfect any Creature is in the rank of Beings the more is the Creator honoured As it is more for the honour of God to create an Angel or Man than a meer Animal because there are in such clearer Characters of Divine power and goodness than in those that are Inferiour The more perfect any Creature is morally the more is God glorified by that Creature t is a real declaration that God is the best and most amiable Being that nothing besides him is valuable and worthy to be the Object of our imitation 'T is a greater honouring of him than the highest acts of Devotion and the most religious bodily Exercise or the singing this Song of Moses in the Text with a triumphant spirit As it is more the honour of a Father to be imitated in his Vertues by his Son than to have all the glavering Commendations by the Tongue or Pen of a vicious and debauch'd Child By this we honour him in that Perfection which is dearest to him and counted by him as the chiefest glory of his Nature God seems to accept the glorifying this Attribute as if it were a real addition to that holiness which is infinite in his Nature and because infinite cannot admit of any increase And therefore the word sanctified is used instead of glorified Isa 8.13 Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread And Isa 29.23 They shall sanctifie the holy One of Jacob and fear the God of Israel This sanctification of God is by the fear of him which signifies in the Language of the Old Testament a reverence of him and a righteousness before him He doth not say when he would have his Power or Wisdom glorified empower me or make me wise but when he would have holiness glorified by the Creature 't is sanctifie me that is manifest the purity of my Nature by the holiness of your lives But he expresseth it in such a term as if it were an addition to this infinite Perfection so acceptable it is to him as if it were a contribution from his Creature for the inlarging an Attribute so pleasing to him and so glorious in his Eye 'T is as much as in the Creature lies a preserving the life of God since this Perfection is his Life and that he would as soon part with his Life as part with his Purity It keeps up the Reputation of God in the World and attracts others to a love of him whereas unworthy carriages defame God in the eyes of men and bring up an ill report of him as if he were such a one as those that profess him and walk unsutably to their Profession appear to be 3. This is the excellency and beauty of a creature The title of beauty is given to it in Psal 110.3 beauties in the plural number as comprehending in it all other beauties whatsoever What is a Divine excellency can not be a Creatures Deformity The natural beauty of
Drops as well as the fuller Streams are of the same Fountain and relish of the Nature of it And though he do not make all Men partake of the riches of his Grace after the corruption of their Nature Is his Goodness disgraced hereby Or doth he merit the Title of Cruelty Will any diminish the goodness of a Father for his not setting up his Son after he hath foolishly and wilfully proved Bankrupt or not rather admire his liberality in giving him so large a Stock to Trade with when he first set him up in the World 2. The goodness of God to Creatures is to be measured by their distinct Vsefulness to the Common End It were better for a Toad or Serpent to be a Man i. e. better for the Creature it self if it were advanced to a higher degree of Being but not better for the Universe He could have made every Pebble a living Creature and every living Creature a Rational one But that he made every thing as we see it was a goodness to the Creature it self But that he did not make it of a higher Elevation in Nature was a part of his goodness to the Rational Creature If all were Rational Creatures there would have been wanting Creatures of an Inferior Nature for their conveniency There would have wanted the manifestation of the variety and fulness of his goodness Had all things in the World been Rational Creatures much of that goodness which he hath communicated to Rational Creatures would not have appear'd How could Man have shew'd his skill in Taming and Managing Creatures more mighty than himself What Materials would there have been to manifest the goodness of God bestowed upon the Reasonable Creatures for framing Excellent Works and Inventions Much of the Goodness of God had lain wrapt up from Sense and Understanding All other things partake not of so great a goodness as Man yet they are so subservient to that goodness pour'd forth on Man that little of it coulâ— have been seen without them Consider Man every Member in his Body hath a goodness in it self but a greater goodness as referred to the whole without which the goodness of the more noble part would not be manifested The Head is the most excellent Member and hath greater Impressions of Divine Goodness upon it in regard that it is the Organ of Understanding Were every Member of the Body a Head what a deformed Monster would Man be If he were all Head where would be feet for Motion And Arms for Action Man would be fit only for Thought and not for Exercise The goodness of God in giving Man so noble a part as the Head could not be known without a Tongue whereby to Express the Conception of his Mind and without Feet and Hands whereby to act much of what he conceives and determines and execute the resolves of his Will All those have a goodness in themselves an honour a comeliness from the goodness of God * 1 Cor. 12.22 23. but not so great a goodness as the nobler part Yet if you consider them in their Functions and refer them to that excellent Member which they serve their Inferior goodness is absolutely necessary to the goodness of the other without which the goodness of the Head and Understanding would lie in obscurity be insignificant to the whole World and in a great measure to the Person himself that wants such Members 3. The goodness of God is more seen in this inequality If God were equally good to all it would destroy Commerce Unity the Links of Humane Society damp Charity and render that useless which is one of the noblest and delightfullest Duties to be exercised here It would cool Prayer which is excited by wants and is a necessary demonstration of the Creatures dependance on God But in this inequality every Man hath enough in his Enjoyments for Praise and in his VVants matter for his Prayer Besides the inequality of the Creature is the Ornament of the World What pleasure could a Garden afford if there were but one sort of Flowers or one sort of Plants Far less than when there is variety to please the Sight and every other Sense Again the freedom of Divine Goodness which is the glory of it is evident hereby Had he been alike good to all it would have lookt like a necessary not a free act But by the inequality it is manifest that he doth not do it by a Natural necessity as the Sun shines but by a voluntary Liberty as being the entire Lord and free Disposer of his own Goods And that it is the gift of the pleasure of his VVill as well as the Efflux of his Nature That he hath not a Goodness without VVisdom but a VVisdom as rich as his Bounty 4. The goodness of God could not be equally communicated to all after their settlement in their several Beings Because they have not a capacity in their Natures for it He doth bestow the Marks of his Goodness according to that natural capacity of fitness he perceives in his Creatures As the VVater of the Sea fills every Creek and Gulf with different measures according to the compass each have to contain it And as the Sun doth disperse Light to the Stars above and the places below to some more to some less according to the measures of their Reception God doth not do good to all Creatures according to the greatness of his own Power and the extent of his own VVealth but according to the capacity of the Subject Not so much good as he can do but so much good as the Creature can receive The Creature would sink if God would pour out all his Goodness upon it As Moses would have perished if God should have shewn him all his Glory * Exod. 33.18 20. He doth manifest more Goodness to his Reasonable Creatures because they are more capable of acknowledging and setting forth his Goodness 5. God ought to be allow'd the free disposal of his own Goodness Is not God the Lord of his own Gifts and will you not allow him the priviledge of having some more peculiar Objects of his love and pleasure which you allow without blame to Man and use your self without any sense of a Crime Is a Prince esteem'd good though he be not equally bountiful to all his Servants nor equally gracious in pardoning all his Rebels And shall the goodness of the great Soveraign of the World be impeacht notwithstanding those mighty distributions of it because he will act according to his own VVisdom and Pleasure and not according to Mens fancies and humors Must Purblind Reason be the Judge and Director how God shall dispose of his own rather than his own Infinite VVisdom and Soveraign VVill Is God less good because there are number less nothings which he is able to bring into being He could Create a VVorld of more Creatures than he hath done doth he therefore wish evil to them by letting them remain in that nothing from
beautify our Dwellings furnish our Closets or store our VVardrobes * Psal 104.24 The whole Earth is full of his Riches Nothing but by the rich Goodness of God is exquisitely accomodated in the numerous brood of things immediately or mediately for the use of Man All in the issue conspire together to render the VVorld a delightful Residence for Man And therefore all the living Creatures were brought by God to attend upon Man after his Creation to receive a Mark of his Dominion over them by the imposition of their Names †Gen. 2.19 20. He did not only give variety of Senses to Man but provided variety of delightful Objects in the VVorld for every Sense The Beauties of Light and Colours for our Eye the Harmony of Sounds for our Ear the Fragrancy of Odours for our Nostrils and a Delicious Sweetness for our Palates Some have qualities to pleasure all every thing a quality to pleasure one or other He doth not only present those things to our view as Rich Men do in Ostentation their Goods He makes us the Enjoyers as well as the Spectators and gives us the Use as well as the Sight And therefore he hath not only given us the Sight but the Knowledge of them He hath set up a Sun in the Heavens to expose their outward Beauty and Conveniencies to our Sight and the Candle of the Lord is in us to expose their inward Qualities and Conveniencies to our Knowledge that we might serve our selves of and rejoyce in all this Furniture wherewith he hath garnisht the World and have wherewithal to employ the inquisitiveness of our Reason as well as gratifie the pleasure of our Sense And particularly God provided for Innocent Man a delightful Mansion-house a place of more special Beauty and Curiosity the Garden of Eden a delightful Paradise a Model of the Beauties and Pleasures of another World wherein he had placed whatsoever might contribute to the felicity of a Rational and Animal Life the Life of a Creature composed of Mire and Dust of Sense and Reason * Gen. 2.9 Besides the other Delicacies consign'd in that place to the use of Man there was a Tree of Life provided to maintain his Being and nothing denied in the whole compass of that Territory but one Tree that of the knowledge of Good and Evil which was no Mark of an ill will in his Creator to him but a Reserve of Gods absolute Soveraignty and a Trial of Mans voluntary Obedience What blur was it to the Goodness of God to reserve one Tree for his own propriety when he had given to Man in all the rest such numerous Marks of his Rich Bounty and Goodness VVhat Israel after Mans Fall enjoyed sensibly Nehemiah calls great Goodness †Neh. 9.25 How inexpressible then was that Goodness manifested to Innocent Man when so small a part of it indulg'd to the Israelites after the Curse upon the Ground is call'd as truly it Merits such great Goodness How can we pass through any part of this great City and cast our Eyes upon the well Furnisht Shops stor'd with all kinds of Commodities without reflections upon this Goodness of God starting up before our Eyes in such varieties and plainly telling us that he hath accommodated all things for our use suited things both to supply our need content a reasonable Curiosity and delight us in our aims at and passage to our Supream End 3. The Goodness of God appears in the Laws he hath given to Man the Covenant he made with him It had not been agreeable to the Goodness of God to let a Creature governable by a Law be without a Law to regulate him his Goodness then which had broke forth in the Creation had suffer'd an Eclipse and obscurity in his Government As Infinite Goodness was the Motive to Create so Infinite Goodness was the Motive of his Government And this appears 1. In the fitting the Law to the Nature of Man It was rather below than above his strength he had an integrity in his Nature to answer the Righteousness of the Precept * Eccles 7.29 God Created Man upright his Nature was suited to the Law and the Law to his Nature it was not above his understanding to know it nor his will to embrace it nor his passions to be regulated by it The Law and his Nature were like two exact streight Lines touching one another in every part when joyned together God exacted no more by his Law than what was written by Nature in his Heart He had a knowledge by Creation to observe the Law of his Creation and he fell not for want of a Righteousness in his Nature He was enabled for more than was commanded him but wilfully indisposed to less than he was able to perform The Precepts were easie not only becoming the Authority of a Soveraign to exact but the Goodness of a Father to demand and the Ingenuity of a Creature and a Son to pay †1 John 5.3 His Commands are not grievous the observance of them had fill'd the Spirit of Man with an extraordinary Contentment It had been no less a pleasure and a delightful satisfaction to have kept the Law in a Created State than it is to keep it in some measure in a Renew'd State The Renewed Nature finds a suitableness in the Law to kindle a delight * Psal 1.2 It could not then have anywise shook the Nature of an upright Creature nor have been a burden too heavy for his Shoulders to bear Though he had not a Grace given him above Nature yet he had not a Law given him that surmounted his Nature It did not exceed his Created strength and was suited to the Dignity and Nobility of a Rational Nature It was a just Law †Rom. 7.12 and therefore not above the Nature of the Subject that was bound to obey it And had it been impossible to be observed it had been unrighteous to be Enacted It had not been a matter of Divine Praise and that seven times a day as it is * Psal 119.164 Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy Righteous Judgments The Law was so Righteous that Adam had every whit as much reason to bless God in his Innocence for the Righteousness of it as David had with the Reliques of Enmity against it His Goodness shines so much in his Law as merits our Praise of him as he is a Soveraign Law-giver as well as a Gracious Benefactor in the imparting to us a Being 2. In fitting it for the Happiness of Man For the satisfaction of his Soul which finds a Reward in the very act of keeping it †Psal 119.165 Great peace in the loving it for the preservation of Human Society wherein consists the External felicity of Man It had been inconsistent with Divine Goodness to enjoyn Man any thing that should be oppressive and uncomfortable Bitterness cannot come from that which is altogether Sweet
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.
away our guilt on the Cross and pleads for our Persons at the Throne of Grace That Blood which silenc'd the Curse pacifi'd Heaven and purg'd Earth is given to us for our refreshment This is the Bread sent from Heaven the true Manna The Cup is the Cup of Blessing and therefore a Cup of Goodness †1 Cor. 10.15 'T is true Bread doth not cease to be Bread nor the Wine cease to be Wine neither of them lose their Substance but both acquire a Sanctification by the relation they have to that which they represent and give a nourishment to that Faith that receives them In those God offers us a Remedy for the Sting of Sin and troubles of Conscience He gives us not the Blood of a meer Man or the Blood of an incarnate Angel but of God blessed for ever A Blood that can secure us against the wrath of Heaven and the tumults of our Consciencies A Blood that can wash away our Sins and beautifie our Souls A Blood that hath more strength than our Filth and more prevalency than our Accuser A Blood that secures us against the terrours of Death and purifies us for the Blessedness of Heaven The Goodness of God complies with our senses and condescends to our weakness He instructs us by the Eye as well as by the Ear He lets us see and taste and feel him as well as hear him He vails his Glory under Earthly Elements and informs our understanding in the Mysteries of Salvation by signs familiar to our Senses and because we cannot with our Bodily Eyes behold him in his Glory he presents him to the Eyes of our Minds in Elements to affect our understandings in the representations of his Death The Body of Christ Crucified is more visible to our Spiritual sense than the invisible Deity could be visible in his Flesh upon Earth And the Power of his Body and Blood is as well experimented in our Souls as the power of his Divinity was seen by the Jews in his miraculous actions in his Body in the World 'T is the Goodness of God to mind us frequently of the great things Christ hath purchased That as himself would not let them be out of his mind to communicate them to us so he would give us means to preserve them in our minds to adore him for them and request them of him whereby he doth evidence his own solicitousness that we should not be depriv'd by our own forgetfulness of that Grace Christ hath purchased for us It was to remember the Redeemer and shew his Death till he came * 1 Cor. 1â—â— 25 26. 1. His Goodness is seen in the end of it which is a sealing the Covenant of Grace * Amyral 〈◊〉 p. 16 â—7 The common Nature and End of Sacraments is to seal the Covenant they belong to and the truths of the Promises of it The legal Sacraments of Circumcision and the Passover sealed the legal Promises and the Covenant in the Judaical Administration of it And the Evangelical Sacraments seal the Evangelical Promises as a Ring confirms a contract of Marriage and a Seal the Articles of a Compact By the same reason Circumcision is call'd a Seal of the Righteousnâ—ss of Faith †Rom. 4.11 other Sacraments may have the same Title God doth attest that he will remain firm in his Promise and the Receiver atteâ—ts he will remain firm in his Faith In all Reciprocal Covenants there are mutual Engagements and that which serves for a Seal on the part of the one serves for a Seal also on the part of the other God obligeth himself to the performance of the Promise and Man engageth himself to the performance of his Duty The thing confirm'd by this Sacrament is the perpetuity of this Covenant in the Blood of Christ whence it is called the New Testament or Covenant in the Blood of Christ * Lâ—ke 22.20 In every repetition of it God by presenting confirms his resolution to us of sticking to this Covenant for the Merit of Christs Blood and the Receiver by eating the Body and drinking the Blood engageth himself to keep close to the Condition of Faith expecting a full Salvation and a blessed Immortality upon the Merit of the same Blood alone This Sacrament could not be called the New Testament or Covenant if it had not some relation to the Covenant and what it can be but this I do not understand The Covenant it self was confirm'd by the Death of Christ †Heb. 9.15 and thereby made unchangeable both in the Benefits to us and the Condition requir'd of us but he seals it to our sense in a Sacrament to give us strong consolation Or rather the Articles of the Covenant of Redemption between the Father and the Son agreed on from Eternity were accomplisht on Christs part by his Death on the Fathers part by his Resurrection Christ performed what he promsed in the one and God acknowledgeth the validity of it and performs what he had promised in the other The Covenant of Grace founded upon this Covenant of Redemption is sealed in the Sacrament God owns his standing to the terms of it as sealed by the Blood of the Mediator by presenting him to us under those Signs and gives us a right upon Faith to the enjoyment of the Fruits of it As the right of a House is made over by the delivery of the Key and the right of Land translated by the delivery of a Turf whereby he gives us assurance of his reality and a strong support to our confidence in him Not that there is any vertue and power of sealing in the Elements themselves no more than there is in a Turf to give an Infeoffment in a parcel of Land but as the power of the one is derived from the Order of the Law so the confirming power of the Sacrament is deriv'd from the Institution of God As the Oyl wherewith Kings were anointed did not of it self confer upon them that Royal Dignity but it was a sign of their investiture into Office order'd by Divine Institution We can with no reason imagine that God intended them as naked Signs or Pictures to please our Eyes with the Image of them to represent their own Figures to our Eyes but to confirm something to our understanding by the Efficacy of the Spirit accompanying them * Daille Melâ—â—g part 1. p. 153. They convey to the Believing Receiver what they represent as the great Seal of a Prince fixed to the Parchment doth the Pardon of the Rebel as well as its own Figure Christs Death and the Grace of the Covenant is not only signified but the Fruits and Merit of that Death communicated also Thus doth Divine Goodness evidence it self not only in making a Gracious Covenant with us but fixing Seals to it not to strengthen his own Obligation which stood stronger than the Foundations of Heaven and Earth upon the Credit of his Word but to strengthen our weakness and
the gates of Hell shall not prevail against them That in all things they shall be more than Conquerors through him that lov'd them That the most raging Malice of Hell shall not wrest them out of his hands His Goodness is not less in performing than it was in promising And as the care of his Providence extends to the least as well as the greatest so the watchfulness of his Goodness extends to us in the least as well as in the greatest Temptation 1. The Goodness of God appears in shortening Temptations None of them can go beyond their appointed times * Dan. 11.35 The strong blast Satan breaths cannot blow nor the Waves he raises rage one minute beyond the time God allows them when they have done their work and come to the period of their time God speaks the word and the Wind and Sea of Hell must obey him and retire into their Dens The more violent Temptations are the shorter time doth God allot them The assaults Christ had at the time of his Death were of the most pressing and urging nature The Powers of Darkness were all in Arms against him the Reproaches and scorns put upon him questioning his Sonship were very sharp yet a little before his Suffering he calls it but an hour * Luke 22.53 This is your hour and the Power of Darkness A short time that Men and Devils were combin'd against him and the time of Temptation that is to come upon all the World for their trial is call'd but an hour * Rev. 3.10 In all such attempts the greatness of the rage is a certain Prognostick of the shortness of the Season Revel 12.12 2. The Goodness of God appears in strengthening his People under Temptations If he doth not restrain the Arm of Satan from striking he gives us a Sword to manage the Combat and a Shield to bear off the blow * Eph. 6.16 17. If he obscures his Goodness in one part he clears and brightens it in another He either binds the strong Man that he shall not stir or gives us Armour to render us victorious If we fall it is not for want of provision from him but for want of our putting on the Armour of God * Eph. 6.11 â—3 When we have not a strength by Nature he gives it us by Grace He often quells those Passions within which would joyn hands with and second the Temptation without He either qualifies the Temptation sutably to the force we have or else supplies us with a new strength to mate the Temptation he intends to let loose against us He knows we are but Dust and his Goodness will not have us unequally matcht The Jews that in Antiochus his time were under great Temptation to Apostacy by reason of the violence of their Persecutions were out of weakness made strong for the Combat * Heb. 11.34 The Spirit came more strongly upon Sampson when the Philistines most furiously and confidently assaulted him His Spirit is sent to strengthen his People before the Devil is permitted to tempt them * Matth. 4.2 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit Then When When the Spirit had in an extraordinary manner descended upon him Matth. 3.16 Then and not before As the Angels appeared to Christ after his Temptation to Minister to him so they appear'd to him before his Passion the time of the strongest Powers of Darkness to strengthen him for it He is so Good that when he knows our Pot-sheard strength too weak he furnisheth our Recruits from his own Omnipotence * Eph. 6 1â— Be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his Might He doth as it were breath in something of his own Almightiness to assist us in our wrestling against Principalities and Powers and make us capable to sustain the violent Storms of the Enemies 3. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations in giving great Comforts in on after them The Israelites had a more immediate provision of Manna from Heaven when they were in the Wilderness We read not that the Father spake audibly to the Son and gave him so loud a Testimony that he was his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased till he was upon the brink of strong Temptations * Mat. 3.17 Nor sent Angels to Minister immediately to his Person till after his success * Mat. 4.11 Job never had such evidences of Divine Love till after he had felt the sharp strokes of Satans Malice he had heard of God before by the hearing of the Ear but afterwards is admitted into greater familiarity * Job 42.5 He had more choice appearances clearer illuminations and more lively instructions And though his People fall into Temptation yet after their rising they have more signal Marks of his favour than others have or themselves before they fell Peter had been the Butt of Satans rage in tempting him to deny Christ and he had shamefully comply'd with the Temptation yet to him particularly must the first news of the Redeemers Resurrection be carried by Gods order in the mouth of an Angel * Mar. 16.7 Go your ways tell his Disciples and Peter We have the greatest Communion with God after a Victory The most refreshing truths after the Devil hath done his worst God is ready to furnish us with strength in a Combat and Cordials after it 4. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations in discovering and advancing inward Grace by this means The issue of a Temptation of a Christian is often like that of Christs the manifesting a greater vigor of the Divine Nature in affections to God and enmity to Sin Spices perfume not the Air with their scent till they are invaded by the Fire the truth of Grace is evidenced by them The assault of an Enemy revives and actuates that Strength and Courage which is in a Man perhaps unknown to himself as well as others till he meets with an Adversary Many seem good not that they are so in themselves but for want of a Temptation This many times verifies a Vertue which was own'd upon trust before and discovers that we had more Grace than we thought we had The sollicitations of Josephs Mistress clear'd up his Chastity We are many times under Temptation as a Candle under the Snuffer it seems to be out but presently burns the clearer Afflictions are like those Clouds which look black and Eclips the Sun from the Earth but yet when they drop refresh that Ground they seem to threaten and multiply the Grain on the Earth to serve for our Food and so our troubles while they wet us to the Skin wash much of that dust from our Graces which in a clearer day had been blown upon us Too much rest Corrupts Exercise teacheth us to manage our Weapons The Spiritual Armour would grow rusty without opportunity to furbish it up Faith receives a new heart by every Combat and by every Victory like a Fire it spreads it self further
of one Jonah sent to Niniveh but frequent Alarms to the Israelites by a multitude of Prophets commissioned by God 'T is true the door of the Jewish Church was open to what Proselytes would enter themselves and embrace their Religion and Worship but there was no publick Proclamation made in the World only God by his miracles in their deliverance from Egypt which could not but be famous among all the Neighbour Nations declared them to be a people favour'd by Heaven But the Tradition from Adam and Noah was not publickly reviv'd by God in other parts and rais'd from that Grave of forgetfulness wherein it had lain so long buried Was there any reason in them for this Indulgence God might have been as liberal to any other Nation yea to all the Nations in the World if it had been his Soveraign pleasure Any other people were as fit to be entrusted with his Oracles and be subjects for his Worship as that people yet all other Nations till the rejection of the Jews because of their rejection of Christ were strangers from the Covenant of Promise These people were part of the common mass of the World They had no prerogative in nature above Adam's posterity Were they the extract of an innocent part of his Loyns and all the other Nations drain'd out of his putrefaction Had the blood of Abraham from whom they were more immediately descended any more precious tincture than the rest of mankind They as well as other Nations were made of one Blood Acts 17.26 And that corrupted both in the spring and in the Rivulets Were they better than other Nations when God first drew them out of their slavery We have Joshua's Authority for it that they had complyed with the Egyptian Idolatry and served other Gods in that place of their servitude Joshua 24.14 Had they had an abhorrency of the superstition of Egypt while they remain'd there they could not so soon have erected a Golden Calf for Worship in imitation of the Egyptian Idols All the rest of mankind had as inviting reasons to present God with as those people had God might have granted the same priviledge to all the World as well as to them or denyed it them and endow'd all the rest of the World with his Statutes but the enriching such a small Company of people with his Divine showers and leaving the rest of the World as a barren Wilderness in Spirituals can be plac'd upon no other account originally than that of his unaccountable Soveraignty of his love to them There was nothing in them to merit such high Titles from God as his first born his peculiar Treasure the Apple of his Eye He disclaims any Righteousness in them and speaks a word sufficient to damp such thoughts in them by charging them with their wickedness while he loaded them with his benefits Deut. 9.4.6 The Lord gives thee not this Land for thy Righteousness For thou art a stiff-necked people It was an act of God's free pleasure to choose them to be a people to himself Deut. 7.6 3. God afterwards rejected the Jews gave them up to the hardness of their hearts and spread the Gospel among the Gentiles He hath cast off the Children of the Kingdom those that had been enrol'd for his subjects for many ages who seemed by their descent from Abraham to have a right to the priviledges of Abraham and called men from the East and from the West from the darkest corners of the World to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. To partake with them of the promises of the Gospel Math. 8.11 The people that were accounted accursed by the Jews enjoy the means of Grace which have been hid from those that were once dignified this 1600 years that they have neither Ephod nor Teraphim nor sacrifice nor any true Worship of God among them Hos 3.4 Why he should not give them Grace to acknowledge and own the person of the Messiah to whom he had made the promises of him for so many successive ages but let their heart be fat and their Ears heavy Isaiah 6.10 Why the Gospel at length after the Resurrection of Christ should be presented to the Gentiles not by chance but pursuant to the resolution and prediction of God declared by the Prophets that it should be so in time Why he should let so many hundreds of years passe over after the World was peopled and let the Nations all that while soak in their Idolatrous Customs Why he should not call the Gentiles without rejecting the Jews and bind them both up together in the bundle of Life Why he should acquaint some people with it a little after the publishing it in Jerusalem by the descent of the Spirit and others not a long time after Some in the first ages of Christianity enjoyed it others have it not as those in America till the last age of the World can be referred to nothing but his Soveraign pleasure What merit can be discovered in the Gentiles There is something of Justice in the case of the Jews rejection nothing but Soveraignty in the Gentiles reception into the Church If the Jews were bad the Gentiles were in some sort worse The Jews own'd the One true God without mixture of Idols though they own'd not the Messiah in his appearance which they did in a promise but the Gentiles own'd neither the one nor the other Some tell us it was for the merit of some of their Ancestors How comes the means of Grace then to be taken from the Jew who had if any people ever had meritorious Ancestors for a plea If the merit of some of their former progenitors were the Cause what was the reason the debt due to their merit was not paid to their immediate progeny or to themselves but to a posterity so distant from them and so abominably depraved as the Gentile World was at the day of the Gospel-Sun striking into their Horizon What merit might be in their Ancestors if any could be supposed in the most refined rubbish 't was so little for themselves that no Oyl could be spared out of their Lamps for others What merit their Ancestors might have might be forfeited by the succeeding Generations 'T is ordinarily seen that what honour a Father deserves in a State for publick Service may be lost by the Son forfeited by Treason and himself attainted Or was it out of a foresight that the Gentiles would embrace it and the Jews reject it that the Gentiles would embrace it in one place and not in another How did God foresee it but in his own Grace which he was resolved to display in one not in another It must be then still resolved into his Soveraign pleasure Or did he foresee it in their wills and nature What were they not all one common dross Was any part of Adam by nature better than another How did God forsee that which was not nor could be without his pleasure to
a man of them succeeded in the Throne but the Crown is transferr'd to Jehu by Gods disposal In Warrs whereby flourishing Kingdoms are overthrown God hath the cheif hand in reference to which it is observed that in the two Prophets Isaiah and Jeremy God is called the Lord of Hosts 130 times 'T is not the Sword of the Captain but the Sword of the Lord bears the first rank The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon Judg. 7.18 The Sword of a Conqueror is the Sword of the Lord and receives its Charge and Commission from the great Soveraign Jerem. 47.6 7. VVe are apt to confine our thoughts to second Causes lay the fault upon the miscarriages of persons the Ambition of the one and the Covetousness of another and regard them not as the effects of Gods soveraign Authority linking second Causes together to serve his own purpose The skill of one man may lay open the folly of a Counsellour an earthly force may break in peices the power of a mighty Prince But Job in his consideration of those things referrs the matter higher Job 12.18 He looseth the bond of Kings and girdeth their Loyns with a girdle He looseth the Bonds of Kings i. â— takes off the yokes they lay upon their Subjects and girds their Loyns with a girdle A Cord as the Vulgar he lays upon them those fetters they fram'd for others such a girdle or band as is the mark of Captivity as the words ver 19. confirm it He leads Princes away spoil'd and overthrows the mighty God lifts up some to a great height and casts down others to a disgraceful ruine All those changes in the face of the World the revolutions of Emâ—ires the desolating and ravaging wars which are often immediately the birth of the Vice Ambition and fury of Princes are the Royal Acts of God as Governour of the World All Government belongs to him he is the Fountain of all the Great and the Petty Dominions in the World And therefore may place in them what substitutes and Vicegerents he pleaseth As a Prince may remove his Officers at pleasure and take their Commissions from them The highest are setled by God durante bene placito and not quamdiu bene se gâ—ssâ—rint Those Princes that have been the Glory of their Country have sway'd the Scepter but a short time when the more Wolvish ones have remain'd longâ—r in Commission as God hath seen fit for the ends of his own Soveraign Government Now by the revolutions in the World and Changes in Governours and Government God keeps up the acknowledgment of his Soveraignty when he doth arrest grand and publick offenders that wear a Crown by his Providence and employ it by their pride against him that plac'd it there When he arraigns such by a signal hand from Heaven he makes them the publick examples of the rights of his Soveraignty declaring thereby that the Cedars of Lebanon are as much at his foot as the Shrubs of the Valley that he hath as Soveraign an Authority over the Throne in the Palace as over the Stool in the Cottage 2. The Dominion of God is manifested in raising up and ordering the Spirits of men according to his pleasure He doth as the Father of Spirits communicate an influence to the Spirits of men as well as an existence he puts what inclinations he pleaseth into the will stores it with what habits he please whither natural or supernatural whereby it may be render'd more ready to act according to the divine purpose The will of man is a finite principle and therefore subject to him who hath an infinite Soveraignty over all things and God having a Soveraignty over the will in the manner of its acting as causeth it to will what he wills as to the outward act and the outward manner of performing it There are many examples of this part of his Soveraignty God by his Soveraign conduct ordered Moses a Protectoress as soon as his Parents had form'd an Ark of Bulrushes wherein to set him floting on the River Exod. 2.3 4.5.6 They expose him to the waves and the waves expose him to the view of Pharoahs Daughter whom God by his secret ordering her motion had posted in that place and though she was the Daughter of a Prince that inveterately hated the whole Nation and had by various Arts endeavour'd to extirpate them yet God inspires the Royal Lady with sentiments of compassion to the forlorn Infant though she knew him to be one of the Hebrews Children ver 6. i. e. one of that race whom her Father had devoted to the hands of an Executioner yet God that doth by his Soveraignty rule over the Spirits of all men moves her to take that Infant into her protection and nourish him at her own charge give him a liberal Education Adopt him her Son who in time was to be the ruin of her race and the Saviour of his Nation Thus he appointed Cyrus to be his Shepherd and gave him a Pastoral Spirit for the Restauration of the City and Temple of Jerusalem Isaiah 44.28 And Isaiah 45.5 Tells them in the Prophesie that he had girded him though Cyrus had not known him i. e. God had given him a military Spirit and strength for so great an attempt though he did not know that he was acted by God for those divine purposes And when the time came for the House of the Lord to be re-built the Spirits of the people were rais'd up not by themselves but by God Ezra 1.5 Whose Spirit God had rais'd to go up And not only the Spirit of Zerubbabel the Magistrate and of Joshua the Priest but the Spirit of all the people from the highest to the meanest that attended him were acted by God to strengthen their hands and promote the work Hag. 1.14 The Spirits of men even in those works which are naturally desirable to them as the Restauration of the City and rebuilding of the Temple was to those Jews are acted by God as the soveraign over them much more when the wheels of mens spirits are lifted up above their ordinary temper and motion It was this Empire of God good Nehemiah regarded as that whence he was to hope for success he did not assure himself so much of it from the favour he had with the King nor the reasonableness of his intended Petition but the absolute power God had over the heart of that great Monarch And therefore he supplicates the heavenly before he petitioned the earthly Throne Nehem. 2.4 So I pray'd to the God of Heaven The Heathens had some glance of this 't is an expression that Cicero hath some where That the Roman Common-wealth was rather Govern'd by the Assistance of the supream Divinity over the Hearts of Men than by their own Counsels and Management How often hath the feeble courage of men been heightned to such a pitch as to stare death in the face which before were dampt with the least thought or glance of
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 mind to forbear me but since he hath forborn me and given me a heart to see and answer the true end of that forbearance I need not question but that sparing Mercy will end in saving since it finds that Repentance springing up in me which that Patience conducted me to 2. His Patience is a ground to trust in his promise If his slowness to anger be so great when his Precept is slighted his readiness to give what he hath promised will be as great when his promise is believed If the provocations of them meet with such an unwillingness to punish them Faith in him will meet with the choicest embraces from him He was more ready to make the promise of Redemption after man's Apostacy than to execute the threatning of the Law He doth still witness a greater willingness to give forth the fruits of the promise than to pour out the vials of his curses His slowness to anger is an evidence still that he hath the same disposition which is no slight Cordial to Faith in his Word 3. 'T is a comfort in infirmities If he were not patient he could not bear with so many peevishnesses and weaknesses in the hearts of his own If he be patient to the grosser sins of his enemies he will be no less to the lighter infirmities of his people When the Soul is as a bruised Reed that can emit no sound at all or one very harsh and ungrateful he doth not break it in pieces and fling it away in disdain but waits to see whether it will fully answer his pains and be brought to a better frame and sweeter note He brings them not to account for every slip but as a Father spares his son that serves him Mal. 3.17 'T is a comfort to us in our distracted services for were it not for this slowness to anger he would stifle us in the midst of our Prayers wherein there are as many foolish thoughts to disgust him as there are petitions to implore him The Patientest Angels would hardly be able to bear with the follies of good men in Acts of worship 3. The Third Vse is for Exhortation I. Meditate often on the patience of God The Devil labours for nothing more than to deface in us the consideration and memory of this perfection He is an envious creature and since it hath reached out it self to us and not to him he envies God the Glory of it and man the advantage of it But God loves to have the Volumes of it studied and daily turn'd over by us We cannot without an inexcusable wilfulness miss the thoughts of it since it is visible in every bit of bread and breath of Air in our selves and all about us 1. The frequent consideration of his patience would render God highly amiable to us 'T is a more endearing argument than his meer goodness His goodness to us as creatures endowing us with such excellent faculties furnishing us with such a commodious World and bestowing upon us so many attendants for our pleasure and service and giving us a Lordship over his other works deserves our affection But his patience to us as sinners after we have merited the greatest wrath shews him to be of a sweeter disposition than creating Goodness to unoffending Creatures and consequently speaks a greater love in him and bespeaks a greater affection from us His Creating goodness discovered the Majesty of his Being and the greatness of his mind but this the sweetness and tenderness of his Nature In this patience he exceeds the mildness of all Creatures to us and therefore should be enthroned in our affections above all other Creatures The consideration of this would make us affect him for his nature as well as for his benefits 2. The consideration of his patience would make us frequent and serious in the exercise of Repentance In its nature it leads to it and the consideration of it would engage us to it and melt us in the exercise of it Could we deeply think of it without being touched with a sence of the kindness of our forbearing Creditor and Governour Could we gaze upon it nay could we glance upon it without relenting at our offending one of so mild a nature without being sensibly affected that he hath preserved us so long from being loaded with those chains of darkness under which the Devils groan This forbearance hath good reason to make sin and sinners asham'd That you are in being is not for want of advantages enough in his hand against you many a forfeiture you have made and many an engagement you have broke he hath scarce met with any other dealing from us than what had treachery in it Whatsoever our sincerity is we have no reason to boast of it when we consider what mixtures there are in it and what swarms of base motions taint it Hath he not lain pressed and groaning under our sins as a Cart is pressed with sheaves Amos 2.13 when one shake of himself as Sampson might have rid him of the burthen and dismist us in his fury into Hell If we should often ask our Consciences why have we done thus and thus against so mild a God Would not the reflection on it put us to the blush If men would consider that such a time they provoked God to his face and yet have not felt his Sword such a time they blasphemed him and made a reproach of his name and his thunder did not stop their motion such a time they fell into an abominable brutishness yet he kept the punishment of Devils the unclean Spirits from reaching them such a time he bore an open affront from them when they scoft at his Word and he did not send a destruction and laugh at it Would not such a meditation work some strange kind of relentings in men What if we should consider that we cannot do a sinful act without the support of his concurring Providence We cannot see hear move without his concourse All Creatures we use for our necessity or pleasure are supported by him in the very act of assisting to pleasure us and when we abuse those Creatures against him which he supports for our use how great is his patience to bear with us that he doth not annihilate those Creatures or at least imbitter their use What issue could reasonably be expected from this consideration but Oh wretched man that I am to serve my self of Gods power to affront him and of his Long-suffering to abuse him Oh infinite patience to employ that power to preserve me that might have been used to punish me He is my Creator I could not have a being without him and yet I offend him He is my preserver I cannot maintain my being without him and yet I affront him Is this a worthy requital of God Deut. 32.6 Do you thus requite the Lord would be the heart breaking reflection How would it give men a fuller prospect of the depravation of their nature than any thing else