All Spiritual acts must be acts of reason otherwise they are not human acts because they want that principle which is constitutive of man and doth difference him from other Creatures Acts done only by sense are the acts of a brute acts done by reason are the acts of a man That which is only an act of sense cannot be an act of Religion The sense without the conduct of reason is not the subject of Religious acts for then beasts were capable of Religion as well as Men There cannot be Religion where there is not reason and there cannot be the exercise of Religion where there is not an exercise of the rational faculties Nothing can be a Christian act that is not a human act Besides all worship must be for some end the worship of God must be for God t is by the exercise of our rational faculties that we only can intend an end An Ignorant and Carnal worship is a brutish worship Particularly 1. Spiritual Worship is a Worship from a spiritual Nature Not only Physically spiritual so our Souls are in their frame but morally spiritual by a renewing principle The heart must be first cast into the Mould of the Gospel before it can perform a Worship required by the Gospel Adam living in Paradice might perform a spiritual worship but Adam fallen from his rectitude could not We being Heirs of his Nature are Heirs of his Impotence Restoration to a spiritual Life must precede any act of spiritual Worship As no work can be good so no worship can be spiritual till we are created in Christ * Eph. 2.10 Christ is our Life * Col. 3.4 As no natural action can be performed without life in the root or heart so no spiritual act without Christ in the Soul Our being in Christ is as necessary to every spiritual act as the union of our Soul with our Body is necessary to natural action Nothing can exceed the limits of its nature for then it should exceed it self in acting and do that which it hath no principle to doe A Beast cannot act like a Man without partaking of the nature of a Man nor a Man act like an Angel without partaking of the Angelical nature How can we perform spiritual acts without a spiritual principle Whatsoever worship proceeds from the corrupted nature cannot deserve the title of spiritual worship because it springs not from a spiritual habit If those that are evil cannot speak good things those that are carnal cannot offer a spiritual service Poyson is the fruit of a Vipers nature Mat. 12.34 Oh Generation of Vipers how can you being evil speak good things For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks As the root is so is the fruit If the Soul be habitually carnal the worship cannot be actually spiritual There may be an intention of Spirit but there is no spiritual principle as a root of that intention A heart may be sensibly united with a duty when it is not spiritually united with Christ in it Carnal motives and carnal ends may fix the mind in an act of worship as the sense of some pressing affliction may enlarge a mans mind in Prayer Whatsoever is agreeable to the nature of God must have a stamp of Christ upon it a stamp of his grace in performance as well as of his mediation in the acceptance The Apostle lived not but Christ lived in him * Gal. 2.20 the Soul worships not but Christ in him Not that Christ performs the act of Worship but enables us spiritually to worship after he enables us spiritually to live As God counts not any Soul living but in Christ so he counts not any a spiritual Worshipper but in Christ The goodness and fatness of the fruit comes from the fatness of the Olive wherein we are engrafted We must find healing in Christs wings before God can find spirituality in our services All worship issuing from a dead nature is but a dead service A living action cannot be performed without being knit to a living root 2. Spiritual Worship is done by the influence and with the assistance of the Spirit of God A Heart may be spiritual when a particular act of Worship may not be spiritual The Spirit may dwell in the Heart when he may suspend his influence on the act Our worship is then spiritual when the fire that kindles our affections comes from Heaven as that fire upon the Altar wherewith the Sacrifices were consumed God tasts a sweetness in no service but as it is drest up by the hand of the Mediator and hath the Air of his own Spirit in it They are but natural acts without a supernatural assistance Without an actual influence we cannot act from spiritual motives nor for spiritual ends nor in a spiritual manner We cannot mortifie a Lust without the Spirit * Rom. 8.13 nor quicken a service without the Spirit Whatsoever corruption is killed is slain by his Power whatsoever duty is spiritualized is refined by his Breath He quickens our dead bodies in our Resurection * Rom. 8.11 He renews our dead Souls in our Regeneration He quickens our carnal services in our adorations The choicest acts of worship are but infirmities without his auxiliary help * Rom. 8.26 We are Loggs unable to move our selves till he raise our faculties to a pitch agreeable to God puts his hand to the duty and lifts that up and us with it Never any great act was performed by the Apostles to God or for God but they are said to be filled with the Holy-Ghost Christ could not have been conceived immaculate as that holy thing without the Spirits overshadowing the Virgin nor any spiritual act conceived in our heart without the Spirits moving upon us to bring forth a living Religion from us The acts of worship are said to be in the Spirit Supplication in the Spirit * Eph. 6.18 not only with the strength and affection of our own Spirits but with the mighty operation of the Holy-Ghost if Jude may be the Interpreter * Jude 20. The Holy-Ghost exciting us impelling us and firing our Souls by his divine flame raising up the affections and making the Soul cry with a holy importunity Abba Father To render our worship spiritual we should before every ingagement in it implore the actual presence of the Spirit without which we are not able to send forth one spiritual breath or groan but be Wind-bound like a Ship without a Gale and our worship be no better than carnal How doth the Spouse solicite the Spirit with an awake oh North-wind and come thou South-wind c. * Cant. 4.16 3. Spiritual Worship is done with Sincerity When the heart stands right to God and the Soul performs what it pretends to perform When we serve God with our Spirits as the Apostle Rom. 1.9 God is my Witness whom I serve with my Spirit in the Gospel of his Son This is not meant of the
of the Soul 't is there his Image glitters He hath given us a Jewel as well as a Case and the Jewel as well as the Case we must return to him The Spirit is Gods gift and must return to him * Eccl. 12.7 It must return to him in every service morally as well as it must return to him at last physically 'T is not fit we should serve our Maker only with that which is the Brute in us and withold from him that which doth constitue us reasonable Creatures we must give him our bodies but a living Sacrifice * Rom. 12.1 If the Spirit be absent from God when the Body is before him we present a dead Sacrifice 'T is morally dead in the duty though it be naturally alive in the posture and action 'T is not an indifferent thing whether we shall worship God or no nor is it an indifferent thing whether we shall worship him without Spirits or no As the excellency of mans knowledge consists in knowing things as they are in Truth so the excellency of the Will in willing things as they are in goodness As it is the excellency of Man to know God as God so it is no less his excellency as well as his duty to honour God as God As the obligation we have to the Power of God for our Being binds us to a worship of him so the obligation we have to his bounty for fashioning us according to his own Image binds us to an exercise of that part wherein his Image doth consist God hath made all things for himself Pro. 16.4 that is for the evidence of his own goodness and wisdom We are therefore to render him a glory according to the the excellency of his nature discovered in the frame of our own T is as much our sin not to glorifie God as God as not to attempt the glorifying of him at all T is our sin not to worship God as God as well as to omit the testifying any respect at all to him As the divine nature is the object of worship so the Divine perfections are to be honoured in worship We do not honour God if we honour him not as he is we honour him not as a Spirit if we think him not worthy of the ardors and ravishing admirations of our Spirits If we think the Devotions of the body are sufficient for him we contract him into the condition of our own being and not only deny him to be a Spiritual nature but dash out all those perfections which he could not be possessed of were he not a Spirit 5. The Ceremonial law was abolisht to promote the Spirituality of Divine worship That service was gross carnal calculated for an infant and sensitive Church It consisted in rudiments the Circumcision of the flesh the blood and smoak of Sacrifices the steams of incense observation of days distinction of meats Corporal purifications every leaf of the law is clogged with some rite to be particularly observed by them The Spirituality of worship lay veild under a thick cloâ—ld that the people could not behold the glory of the Gospel which lay covered under those shadows 2 Cor. 3.13 They could not stedfastly look to the â—â—d of that which is abolished They understood not the Glory and Spiritual intent of the law and therefore came short of that Spiritual frame in the worship of God which was their duty And therefore in opposition to this administration the worship of God under the Gospel is called by our Saviour in the Text a worship in Spirit more Spiritual for the matter more Spiritual for the motives and more Spiritual for the manner and frames of worship 1. This legal service is called flesh in Scripture in opposition to the Gospel which is called Spirit The ordinances of the Law tho of Divine institution are dignified by the Apostle with no better a title than Carnal ordinances * Heb. 9.10 and a Carnal Command * Heb. 7.16 But the Gospel is called the Ministration of the Spirit as being attended with a special and Spiritual efficacy on the minds of men * 2 Cor. 3.8 And when the degenerate Galatians after having tasted of the pure streams of the Gospel turned about to drink of the thicker streams of the Law the Apostle tells them that they begun in the Spirit and would now be made perfect in the flesh * Gal. 3.3 They would leave the righteousness of faith for a justification by works The moral law which is in its own nature Spiritual * Rom. 7.14 in regard of the abuse of it in expectation of justification by the outward works of it is called flesh Much more may the Ceremonial administration which was never intended to run parallel with the moral nor had any foundation in nature as the other had That whole Oeconomy consisted in sensible and material things which only touched the flesh 'T is called the letter and the oldness of the Letter * Rom. 7.6 as Letters which are but empty sounds of themselves but put together and formed into words signifie something to the mind of the hearer or reader An old Letter a thing of no efficacy upon the Spirit but as a law written upon paper The Gospel hath an efficacious Spirit attending it strongly working upon the mind and Will and moulding the Soul into a Spiritual frame for God according to the Doctrin of the Gospel the one is old and decays the other is new and increaseth dayly And as the law it self is called flesh so the observers of it and resters in it are called Israel after the flesh * 1 Cor. 10.18 And the Evangelical worshipper is called a Jew after the Spirit Rom. 2.29 They were Israel after the flesh as born of Jacob not Israel after the Spirit as born of God and therefore the Apostle calls them Israel and not Israel * Rom. 9.6 Israel after a carnal birth not Israel after a Spiritual Israel in the Circumcision of the flesh not Israel by a regeneration of the heart 2. The legal Ceremonies were not a fit means to bring the heart into a Spiritual frame They had a Spiritual intent the Rock and Manna prefigured the Salvation and Spiritual nourishment by the Redeemer * 1 Cor. 10.3 4. The Sacrifices were to point them to the Justice of God in the punishment of sin and the mercy of God in substituting them in their steads as types of the Redeemer and the ransome by his blood The Circumcision of the flesh was to instruct them in the Circumcision of the heart They were flesh in regard of their matter weakness and cloudiness Spiritual in regard of their intent and signification They did instruct but not efficaciously work strong Spiritual affections in the Soul of the worshipper They were weak and beggerly elements * Gal 4.9 had neither wealth to inrich nor strength to nourish the Soul They could not perfect the Comers to them or put
and as a stone in things relating to the Donor of them as a man with his mind about him in the affairs of the world as a Beast without reason in his acts towards God If a man did not employ his reason in other things he would be an unprofitable Creature in the world If he do not employ his spiritual faculties in worship he denies them the proper end and use for which they were given him 't is a practical denial that God hath given him a Soul and that God hath any right to the exercise of it If there were no worship appointed by God in the world the natural inclination of man to some kind of Religion would be in vain and if our inward faculties were not employed in the duties of Religion they would be in vain The true end of God in the endowment of us with them would be defeated by us as much as lies in us if we did not serve him with that which we have from him solely at his own cost As no man can with reason conclude that the Rest commanded on the Sabbath and the Sanctification of it was only a rest of the body that had been performed by the Beasts as well as Men but some higher end was aimed at for the rational Creature So no man can think that the Command for worship terminated only in the presence of the Body that God should give the Command to Man as a reasonable Creature and expect no other service from him than that of a Brute God did not require a worship from man for any want he had or any essential honour that could accrue to him but that men might testifie their gratitude to him and dependance on him 'T is the most horrid ingratitude not to have lively and deep sentiments of gratitude after such obligations and not to make those due acknowledgments that are proper for a rational Creature Religion is the highest and choicest act of a reasonable Creature No Creature under Heaven is capable of it that wants reason As it is a violation of reason not to worship God so it is no less a violation of reason not to worship him with the Heart and Spirit It is a high dishonour to God and defeats him not only of the service due to him from Man but that which is due to him from all the Creatures Every Creature as it is an effect of Gods Power and Wisdom doth passively worship God that is it doth afford matter of adoration to man that hath reason to collect it and return it where it is due Without the exercise of the Soul we can no more hand it to God than without such an exercise we can gather it from the Creature So that by this neglect the Creatures are restrained from answering their chief end they cannot pay any service to God without man nor can man without the employment of his rational faculties render a homage to God any more than beasts can This engagement of our inward power stands firm and unviolable let the modes of worship be what they will or the changes of them by the Soveraign Authority of God never so frequent this could not expire or be changed as long as the nature of Man endured As Man had not been capable of a Command for Worship unless he had been endued with spiritual faculties so he is not active in a true practice of Worship unless they be imployed by him in it The constitution of Man makes this manner of worship perpetually obligatory and the oblation can never cease till man cease to be a Creature furnisht with such faculties In our worship therefore if we would act like rational Creatures we should extend all the powers of our Souls to the utmost pitch and essay to have apprehensions of God equal to the excellency of his Nature which though we may attempt we can never attain Reason 3. Without this engagement of our Spirits no act is an act of worship True worship being an acknowledgment of God and the perfections of his Nature results only from the Soul that being only capable of knowing God and those perfections which are the object and motive of worship The posture of the body is but to testifie the inward temper and affection of the mind If therefore it testifies what it is not 't is a lye and no worship The cringes a Beast may be taught to make to an Altar may as well be called Worship since a man thinks as little of that God he pretends to honour as the beast doth of the Altar to which he bowes Worship is a reverent remembrance of God and giving some honour to him with the intention of the Soul It cannot justly have the name of Worship that wants the essential part of it 'T is an ascribing to God the glory of his Nature an owning subjection and obedience to him as our soveraign Lord This is as impossible to be performed without the Spirit as that there can be life and motion in a body without a Soul 'T is a drawing neer to God not in regard of his essential presence so all things are neer to God but in an acknowledgement of his excellency which is an act of the Spirit without this the worst of men in a place of worship are as neer to God as the best The necessity of the conjunction of our Soul ariseth from the nature of worship which being the most serious thing we can be employed in the highest converse with the highest object requires the choicest temper of Spirit in the performance That cannot be an act of worship which is not an act of Piety and Vertue but there is no act of vertue done by the members of the Body without the concurrence of the Powers of the Soul We may as well call the presence of a dead Carcass in a place of worship an act of Religion as the presence of a living body without an intent Spirit The separation of the Soul from one is natural the other moral that renders the body lifeless but this renders the act loathsome to God As the being of the Soul gives life to the Body so the operation of the Soul gives life to the actions As he cannot be a man that wants the form of a man a rational Soul so that cannot be a worship that wants an essential part the act of the Spirit God will not vouchsafe any acts of man so noble a title without the requisite qualifications Hos 5.6 They shall go with their Flocks and their Herds to seek the Lord c. A multitude of Lambs and Bullocks for Sacrifice to appease Gods Anger God would not give it the title of worship though instituted by himself when it wanted the qualities of such a service The Spirit of Whoredom was in the midst of them v. 4. In the judgment of our Savior it is a vain worship when the Traditions of Men are taught for the Doctrins of God * Mat. 15.9 and no
his own though appearing ridiculous in the place where he is he owns the Authority of the Prince whereas the omission of all respect would be a contempt of Majesty And therefore the Judgments of God have been more signal upon the Sacrilegious Contemners of worship among the Heathens than upon those that were diligent and devout in their false worship and they generally owned the blessings received to the preservation of a sense and worship of a deity among them Though such a worship be not acceptable to God and every man is bound to offer to God a devotion agreeable to his own mind yet it is commendable not as worship but as it speaks an acknowledgment of such a Being as God in his power in Creation and his beneficence in his Providence Well then omissions of worship are to be avoided Let no man execute that upon himself which God will pronounce at last as the greatest misery and bid God depart from him who will at last be loath to hear God bid him depart from him Though man hath natural sentiments that God is to be worshipped yet having an hostility in his nature he is apt to neglect or give it him in a slight manner He therefore sets a particular mark and notice of attention upon the fourth Command Remember thou keep holy the Sabath-day Corrupt nature is apt to neglect the worship of God and flagg in it This Command therefore which concerns his worship he fortifies with several reasons Nor let any neglect worship because they cannot find their hearts spiritual in it The further we are from God the more carnal shall we be No man can expect heat by a distance from the Sun beams or other means of warmth Though God commanded a circumcised heart in the Jewish services yet he did not warrant a neglect of the outward testimonies of Religion he had then appointed He expected according to his Command that they should offer the Sacrifices and practise the legal Purifications he had commanded he would have them diligently observed though he had declared that he imposed them only for a time And our Saviour ordered the practise of those positive rites as long as the law remained unrepealed as in the Case of the Leper * Mark 14.4 'T is an injustice to refuse the offering our selves to God according to the manner he hath in his Wisdom prescribed and required If spiritual worship be required by God then 2. It informs us that diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in * Daille melange des Sermon Ser. 2. Men may attend all their days on worship with a juiceless heart and unquickned frame and think to compensate the neglect of the manner with abundance of the matter of service Outward expressions are but the badges and liveries of service not the service it self As the strength of Sin lies in the inward frame of the heart so the strength of worship in the inward complexion and temper of the Soul What do a thousand services avail without cutting the throat of our carnal affections What are loud Prayers but as sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals without Divine Charity A Pharisaical diligence in outward forms without inward Spirit had no better a title vouchsafed by our Saviour than that of hypocritical God desires not Sacrifices nor delights in burnt Offerings Shadows are not to be offered instead of Substance God required the heart of man for it self but commanded outward Ceremonies as subservient to inward worship and goads and spurs unto it They were never appointed as the substance of Religion but auxiliaries to it What value had the Offering of the human nature of Christ been of if he had not had a divine nature to qualifie him to be the Priest And what is the oblation of our Bodies without a Priestly act of the Spirit in the presentation of it Could the Israelites have called themselves Worshippers of God according to his Order if they had brought a thousand Lambs that had died in a Ditch or been killed at home They were to be brought living to the Altar the blood shed at the foot of it A thousand Sacrifices killed without had not been so valuable as one brought alive to the place of Offering One sound Sacrifice is better than a thousand rotten ones As God took no pleasure in the blood of Beasts without its relation to the Antitype So he takes no pleasure in the outward rites of worship without Faith in the Redeemer To offer a Body with a sapless Spirit is a Sacriledge of the same nature with that of the Israelites when they offered dead Beasts A man without spiritual worship is dead whiles he worships though by his diligence in the externals of it he may like the Angel of the Church of Sardis have a name to live * Revel 3.1 What security can we expect from a multitude of dead services What weak shields are they against the holy eye and revenging wrath of God What man but one out of his wits would sollicite a dead man to be his Advocate or Champion Diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in Vse 2. Shall be for Examination Let us try our selves concerning the manner of our worship We are now in the end of the world and the dreggs of time wherein the Apostle predicts there may be much of a form and little of the power of Godliness * 2 Tim. 3.1 5. And therefore it stands us in hand to search into our selves whether it be not thus with us Whether there be as much reverence in our Spirits as there may be devotion in our countenances and outward carriages 1. How therefore are our hearts prepared to worship Is our diligence greater to put our hearts in an adoring posture than our bodies in a decent garb Or are we content to have a muddy Heart so we may have a drest Carcass To have a Spirit a Cage of unclean Birds while we wipe the filth from the outside of the Platter is no better than a Pharisaical devotion and deserves no better a name than that of a whited Sepulcher Do we take opportunities to excite and quicken our Spirits to the performance and cry aloud with David awake awake my glory Are not our hearts asleep when Christ knocks when we hear the voice of God seek my face Do we answer him with warm resolutions thy face Lord we will seek * Psal 27.8 Do we comply with spiritual motions and strike whiles the Iron is hot Is there not more of reluctancy than readiness Is there a quick rising of the Soul in reverence to the motion as Eglon to Ehud or a sullen hanging the head at the first approach of it Or if our hearts seem to be engaged and on fire What are the motives that quicken that fire Is it only the blast of a natural Conscience fear of Hell desires of Heaven as abstracted from God Or is it an affection to God an obedient
be purged as well as the Temple was by our Saviour of the Thieves that would rob God of his due worship Antiquity had some Temples wherein it was a crime to bring any gold therefore those that came to worship laid their gold aside before they went into the Temple We should lay aside our worldly and trading thoughts before we address to worship Isa 26.9 With my Spirit within me will I seek thee early Let not our minds be gadding abroad and exil'd from God and themselves It will be thus when the desire of our Soul is to his name and the remembrance of him ver 8. When he hath given so great and admirable a gift as that of his Son in whom are all things necessary to Salvation Righteousness Peace and pardon of sin we should manage the remembrance of his name in worship with the closest unitedness of heart and the most Spiritual affections The motion of the Spirit is the first act in Religion to this we are obliged in every act The Devil requires the Spirit of his votaries should God have a less dedication than the Devil Motives to back this exhortation 1. Not to give God our Spirit is a great sin T is a mockery of God not worship contempt not adoration whatever our outward fervency or protestations may be * Nâ—n valet prâ—testatio câ—ntra jactum is a rule in the civil law Every alienation of our hearts from him is a real scorn put upon him The acts of the Soul are real and more the acts of the man than the acts of the body because they are the acts of the choicest part of man and of that which is the first spring of all bodily motions 't is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Inrenal speech whereby we must speak with God To give him therefore only an external form of worship without the life of it is a taking his name in vain We mock him when we mind not what we are speaking to him or what he is speaking to us when the motions of our hearts are contrary to the motions of our tongues when we do any thing before him slovenly impudently or rashly As in a Lutinisi it is absurd to sing one Tune and play another so it is a foul thing to tell God one thing with our lips and think another thing with our hearts 't is a sin like that the Apostle chargeth the Heathens with Rom. 1.28 they like not to retain God in their knowledge their stomachs are sick while they are upon any duty and never leave working till they have thrown up all the spiritual part of Worship and rid themselves of the thoughts of God which are as unwelcome and troublesome Guests to them When men behave themselves in the sight of God as if God were not God they do not only defame him but deny him and violate the unchangeable perfections of the Divine Nature 1. 'T is against the Majesty of God When we have not awful thoughts of that great Majesty to whom we address when our Souls cleave not to him when we petition him in Prayer or when he gives out his Orders to us in his Word 'T is a contempt of the Majesty of a Prince if whiles he is speaking to us we listen not to him with reverence and attention but turn our backs on him to play with one of his Hounds or talk with a Begger or while we speak to him to rake in a Dunghill Solomon adviseth us to keep our foot when we go to the House of God * Eccles 5.1 Our affections should be steady and not slip away again why v. 2. because God is in Heaven c. He is a God of Majesty earthly durty frames are unsutable to the God of Heaven low Spirits are unsutable to the most High We would not bring our mean Servants or durty Dogs into a Princes Presence Chamber yet we bring not only our worldly but our prophane affections into Gods presence We give in this case those services to God which our Governour would think unworthy of him * Mal. 1.8 The more excellent and glorious God is the greater contempt of him it is to suffer such foolish affections to be Competitors with him for our hearts 'T is a scorn put upon him to converse with a Creature while we are dealing with him but a greater to converse in our thoughts and fancies with some sordid lust which is most hateful to him And the more aggravation it attracts in that we are to apprehend him the most glorious Object sitting upon his Throne in time of worship and our selves standing as vile Creatures before him supplicating for our lives and the conveyances of grace and mercy to our Souls As if a grand Mutineer instead of humbly begging the pardon of his offended Prince should present his Petition not only scribled and blotted but besmeared with some loathsome excrement 'T is unbecoming the Majesty both of God and the worship it self to present him with a Picture instead of Substance and bring a world of nasty affections in our hearts and ridiculous toys in our heads before him and worship with indisposed and heedless Souls Malac. 1.14 He is a great King therefore address to him with fear and reverence 2. 'T is against the Life of God Is a dead worship proportioned to a living God The separation of heavenly affections from our Souls before God makes them as much a Carcass in his sight as the divorce of the Soul makes the Body a Carcass When the affections are separated worship is no longer worship but a dead offering a liveless bulk for the essence and spirit of worship is departed Though the Soul be present with the Body in a way of information yet it is not present in a way of affection and this is the worst for it is not the separation of the Soul from informing that doth separate a man from God but the removal of our affections from him If a man pretend an application to God and sleep and snore all the time without question such a one did not worship In a careless worship the heart is morally dead while the eyes are open The heart of the Spouse * Cant. 5.2 waked whiles her eyes slept and our hearts on the contrary sleep while our eyes wake Our blessed Saviour hath died to purge our Consciences from dead works and frames that we may serve the living God * Heb. 9.14 to serve God as a God of Life Davids Soul cried and fainted for God under this consideration * Psal 42.2 But to present our Bodies without our Spirits is such a usage of God that implies he is a dead Image not worthy of any but a dead and heartless service Like one of those Idols the Psalmist speaks of * Psal 115.5 that have eyes and see not ears and hear not no life in it Though it be not an objective Idolatry because the worship is directed to the true
it is a representation of the Divinity and a holy man ought to esteem himself excellent in being such in his measure as his God is and puts his principal felicity in the possession of the same purity in Truth This is the refin'd Complexion of the Angels that stand before his Throne The Devils lost their comliness when they fell from it It was the honour of the humane Nature of our Saviour not only to be united to the Deity but to be sanctified by it He was fairer than all the Children of men because he had a holiness above the Children of men Grace was poured into his lips Psal 45.2 It was the Jewel of the reasonable Nature in paradise Conformity to God was mans original happiness in his created state and what was naturally so cannot but be immutably so in its own Nature The beauty of every copyed thing consists in its likeness to the Original Every thing hath more of loveliness as it hath greater impressions of its first Pattern In this regard holiness hath more of beauty on it than the whole Creation because it partakes of a greater excellency of God than the Sun Moon and Stars No greater glory can be than to be a conspicuous and visible Image of the invisible and holy and blessed God As this is the splendor of all the Divine Attributes so it is the flower of all a Christians Graces the Crown of all Religion 'T is the glory of the Spirit In this regard the Kings Daughter is said to be all glorious within * Psal 45.13 'T is more excellent than the soul itself since the greatest soul is but a deformed piece without it A Diamond without lustre †Vaughan p. 4 5. What are the noble faculties of the Soul without it but as a curious rusty Watch a delicate heap of Disorder and confusion 'T is impossible there can be beauty where thâ—re are a multitude of spots and wrinkles that blemish a Countenance ‖ Eph. 5.27 It can never be in its true brightness but when it is perfect in Purity when it regains what it was possessed of by Creation and dispossessed of by the fall and recovers its primitive temper We are not so beautiful by being the work of God as by having a stamp of God upon us Worldly greatness may make men honourable in the sight of creeping worms Soft lives ambitious reaches luxurious pleasures and a pompous Religion render no man excellent and noble in the sight of God This is not the excellency and nobility of the Deity which we are bound to resemble Other lines of a Divine Image must be drawn in us to render us truly excellent 4. 'T is our life What is the life of God is truly the life of a rational Creature * Amirald in Heb. p. 101 102. The life of the body consists not in the perfection of its Members and the integrity of its Organs these remain when the body becomes a Carcass but in the presence of the Soul and its vigorous animation of every part to perform the distinct offices belonging to each of them The life of the Soul consists not in its being or spiritual substance or the excellency of its Faculties of understanding and will but in the moral and becoming operations of them The spirit is only life because of righteousness * Rom. 8.10 The Faculties are turned by it to acquit themselves in their functions according to the will of God the absence of this doth not only deform the Soul but in a sort annihilate it in regard of its true essence and end Grace gives a Christian being and a want of it is the want of a true being Cor. 1.15.10 When Adam devested himself of his original righteousness he came under the force of the threatning in regard of a spiritual death Every person is morally dead whiles he lives an unholy life †1. Tim. 5 6. What life is to the body that is righteousness to the Spirit and the greater measure of holiness it hath the more of life it hath because it is in a greater nearness and partakes more fully of the fountain of life Is not that the most worthy life which God makes most account of without which his life could not be a pleasant and blessed life but a life worse than death What a miserable life is that of the men of the World that are carried with greedy inclinations to all manner of unrighteousness whither their interests or their lusts invite them The most beautiful body is a Carcass and the most honorable person hath but a brutish life ‖ Psal 49.20 miserable Creatures when their life shall be extinct without a Divine rectitude when all other things will vanish as the shadows of the night at the appearance of the Sun Holiness is our life 5. 'T is this only fits us for Communion with God Since it is our beauty and our life without it what Communion can an excellent God have with deformed Creatures a living God with dead Creatures Without Holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 The Creature must be stript of his Unrighteousness or God of his Purity before they can come together Likeness is the ground of Communion and of Delight in it The opposition between God and unholy Souls is as great as that between light and darkness * 1 John 1.6 Divine fruition is not so much by a union of Presence as a union of Nature Heaven is not so much an outward as an inward life the foundation of Glory is laid in Grace a resemblance to God is our vital happiness without which the Vision of God would not be so much as a cloudy and shadowy happiness but rather a torment than a felicity unless we be of a like nature to God we cannot have a pleasing fruition of him Some Philosophers think that if our Bodies were of the same nature with the Heavens of an Ethereal Substance the nearness to the Sun would cherish not scorch us Were we partakers of a Divine nature we might enjoy God with delight whereas remaining in our unlikeness to him we cannot think of him and approach to him without terrour As soon as sin had stript man of the Image of God he was an Exile from the comfortable presence of God unworthy for God to hold any correspondence with He can no more delight in a defiled person than a man can take a Toad into intimate converse with him he would hereby discredit his own Nature and justifie our Impurity The holiness of a Creature only prepares him for an eternal conjunction with God in glory Enoch's walking with God was the cause of his being so soon wafted to the place of a full fruition of him he hath as much delight in such as in Heaven it self one is his Habitation as well as the other The one is his habitation of Glory and the other is the house of his Pleasure If he dwell in Zion it must be
several valves or doors for the thrusting the blood forwards to perform its circular motion 3. The Brain fortified by a strong skull to hinder outward accidents a tough membrane or skin to hinder any oppression by the skull the seat of sense that which coins the animal spirits by purifying and refining those which are sent to it and seems like a curious peice of Needlework 4. The Ear framed with windings and turnings to keep any thing from entring to offend the Brain so disposed as to admit sounds with the greatest safety and delight * Eccles 12.4 filled with an air within by the motion whereof the sound is transmitted to the Brain As sounds are made in the Air by diffusing themselves as you see Circles made in the water by the flinging in a stone This is the Gate of knowledge whereby we hear the Oracles of God and the instruction of men for arts T is by this they are exposed to the mind and the mind of another Man framed in our understandings 5. What a curious Workmanship is that of the Eye which is in the body as the Sun in the World set in the head as in a Watch-Tower having the softest nerves for the receiving the greater multitude of Spirits necessary for the act of Vision How is it provided with defence by the variety of Coats to secure and accomodate the little humor and part whereby the vision is made Made of a round figure and convex as most commodious to receive the species of objects shaded by the eye-brows and eye-lids secured by the eye-lids which are its ornament and safety which refresh it when it is too much dried by heat hinder too much light from insinuating it self into it to offend it cleanse it from impurities by their quick motion preserve it from any invasion and by contraction confer to the more evident discerning of things Both the eyes seated in the hollow of the bone for security yet standing out that things may be perceived more easily on both sides And this little Member can behold the earth and in a moment veiw things as high as Heaven 6. * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 49. The Tongue for speech framed like a Musical instrument the Teeth serving for variety of sounds the lungs serving for Bellows to blow the Organs as it were to cool the Heart by a continual motion transmitting a pure Air to the Heart expelling that which was smoky and superfluous T is by the Tongue that communication of Truth hath a passage among men it opens the sense of the mind there would be no converse and commerce without it Speech among all Nations hath an elegancy and attractive force mastering the affections of men Not to speak of other parts or of the multitude of Spirits that act every part he quick flight of them where there is a necessity of their presence Solomon 12 Ecclesiast makes an elegant description of them in his Speech of old age And Job â—peaks of this formation of the body Job 10.9 10 11 c. Not the least part of the body is made in vain The hairs of the Head have their use as well as are an ornament The whole Symmetry of the body is a ravishing object Every Member hath a Signature and mark of God and his Wisdom He is visible in the formation of the Members the beauty of the parts and the vigor of the body This structure could not be from the body that only hath a passive power and cannot act in the absence of the Soul Nor can it be from the Soul How comes it then to be so ignorant of the manner of its formation The Soul knows not the internal parts of its own body but by information from others or inspection into other bodies It knows less of the inward frame of the body than it doth of it self But he that makes the Clock can tell the number and motions of the wheels within as well as what figures are without This short discourse is useful to raise our admirations of the Wisdom of God as well as to demonstrate that there is an Infinite Wise Creator And the consideration of our selves every day and the wisdom of God in our frame would maintain Religion much in the world Since all are so framed that no man can tell any error in the constitution of him If thus the body of man is fitted for the service of his Soul by an infinite God the body ought to be ordered for the service of this God and in obedience to him 2. In the admirable difference of the features of Men. Which is a great argument that the world was made by a wise Being This could not be wrought by Chance or be the work of meer nature since we find never or very rarely two persons exactly alike This distinction is a part of infinite wisdom otherwise what confusion would be introduced into the World Without this Parents could not know their Children nor Children their Parents nor a Brother his Sister nor a Subject his Magistrate Without it there had been no comfort of Relations no Government no commerce Debtors would not have been known from strangers nor good men from bad Propriety could not have been preserved nor justice executed the innocent might have been apprehended for the nocent wickedness could not have been stopt by any Law The Faces of men are the same for parts not for features A dissimilitude in a likeness Man like to all the rest in the World yet unlike to any and differenced by some mark from all which is not to be observed in any other species of Creatures This speaks some wise Agent which framed man since for the preservation of human society and order in the world this distinction was necessary Secondly II. As mans own nature witnesseth a God to him in the structure of his body so also in the nature of his Soul * Coâ—cei sam Theolog. cap. 8. § 50.51 We know that we have an understanding in us a substance we cannot see but we know it by its operations as thinking reasoning willing remembring And as operating about things that are invisible and remote from sense This must needs be distinct from the body for that being but dust and Earth in its original hath not the power of reasoning and thinking for then it would have that power when the Soul were absent as well as when it is present Besides if it had that power of thinking it could think only of those things which are sensible and made up of matter as it self is This Soul hath a greater excellency it can know it self rejoyce in it self which other Creatures in this world are not capable of The Soul is the greatest glory of this lower world and as one saith * More There seems to be no more difference between the Soul and an Angel than between a Sword in the Scabbard and when it is Out of the Scabbard First I. Consider the vastness
from it The meeting of a Divine Truth and the Heart of Man is like the meeting of two Tides the weaker swells and foams We have a natural Antipathy against a Divine Rule and therefore when it is clapt close to our Consciences there is a snuffing at it high reasonings against it corruption breaks out more strongly As Water poured on Lime sets it on Fire by an Antiperistasis and the more Water is cast upon it the more furiously it burns Or as the Sun Beams shining upon a Dung-hill makes the steams the thicker and the stench the noysomer neither being the positive cause of the smoke in the Lime or the stench in the Dung-hill but by accident the causes of the eruption Rom. 7.8 But Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence for without the Law Sin was dead Sin was in a languishing posture as if it were dead like a lazy Garrison in a City till upon an Alarm from the Adversary it takes Arms and revives its courage all the sin in the heart gathers together its force to maintain its standing like the vapours of the Night which unite themselves more closely to resist the Beams of the rising Sun Deep Conviction often provokes fierce Opposition sometimes Disputes against a Divine Rule end in Blasphemies Acts 13.45 Contradicting and Blaspheming are coupled together Men naturally desire things that are forbidden and reject things commanded from the corruption of Nature which affects an unbounded Liberty and is impatient of returning under that Yoke it hath shaken off and therefore rageth against the bars of the Law as the Waves roar against the restraint of a bank When the Understanding is dark and the Mind Ignorant Sin lies as dead * Thes Salmur De Spiritu Servitutis Thes 19. a man scarce knows he hath such Motions of Concupiscence in him he finds not the least breath of Wind but a full calm in his Soul but when he is awakened by the Law then the vitiousness of nature being sensible of an Invasion of its Empire arms it self against the Divine Law and the more the Command is urged the more vigorously it bends its strength and more insolently lifts up it self against it he perceives more and more Atheistical Lusts than before all manner of Concupiscence more leprous and contagious than before When there are any motions to turn to God a reluctancy is presently perceived Atheistical thoughts bluster in the mind like the wind they know not whence they come nor whether they go So unapt is the heart to any acknowledgement of God as his Ruler and any re-union with him Hence men are said to resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 to fall against it as the word signifies as a stone or any ponderous body falls against that which lies in its way They would dash to pieces or grind to powder that very motion which is made for their instruction and the Spirit too which makes it and that not from a fit of passion but an habitual repugnance Ye always resist c. 2. External 't is a fruit of Atheism in the fourth verse of this Psalm Who eat up my people as they eat bread How do the revelations of the Mind of God meet with opposition And the Carnal World like dogs bark against the shining of the Moon So much men hate the Light that they spurn at the Lanthorns that bear it And because they cannot endure the Treasure often fling the earthen vessels against the ground wherein it is held If the entrance of Truth render the Market worse for Diana's Shrines the whole City will be in an uproar * Act. 19.24.28.29 When Socrates upon natural Principles confuted the Heathen Idolatry and asserted the unity of God the whole cry of Athens a learned University is against him and because he opposed the publick received Religion though with an undoubted Truth he must end his Life by Violence How hath every Corner of the World steam'd with the blood of those that would maintain the Authority of God in the World The Devils Children will follow the steps of their Father and endeavour to bruise the Heel of Divine Truth that would endeavour to break the Head of corrupt Lust 5. Men often seem desirous to be acquainted with the Will of God not out of any respect to his Will and to make it their Rule but upon some other Consideration Truth is scarce received as truth There is more of Hypocrisie than Sincerity in the pale of the Church and attendance on the Mind of God The outward dowry of a religious Profession makes it often more desirable than the Beauty Judas was a follower of Christ for the Bag not out of any affection to the Divine Revelation Men sometime pretend a desire to be acquainted with the Will of God to satisfie their own passions rather than to conform to Gods Will The Religion of such is not the judgment of the Man but the passion of the Brute Many entertain a Doctrine's for the persons sake rather than a person for the Doctrine sake and believe a thing because it comes from a Man they esteem as if his lips were more Canonical than Scripture The Apostle implies in the Commendation he gives the Thessalonians * 1 Thes 2.13 that some receive the Word for human interest not as it is in truth the Word and Will of God to command and govern their Consciences by its Soveraign Authority Or else they have the Truth of God as St. James speaks of the Faith of Christ with respect of persons * Jam. 2.2 and receive it not for the sake of the Fountain but of the Channel So that many times the same Truth delivered by another is disregarded which when dropping from the fancy and mouth of a Man 's own Idol is cryed up as an Oracle This is to make not God but Man the Rule For though we entertain that which materially is the Truth of God yet not formally as his Truth but as conveyed by one we affect And that we receive a Truth and not an Error we ow the obligation to the honesty of the Instrument and not to the strength and clearness of our own Judgment Wrong considerations may give admittance to an unclean as well as a clean beast into the Ark of the Soul That which is contrary to the Mind of God may be entertained as well as that which is agreeable 'T is all one to such that have no respect to God what they have As it is all one to a Spunge to suck up the foulest water or the sweetest wine when either is applyed to it 6. Many that entertain the Notions of the Will and Mind of God admit them with unsettled and wavering Affections There is a great Levity in the heart of Man The Jews that one day applaud our Saviour with Hosannahs as their King vote his Crucifixion the next and use him as a Murderer We begin in the Spirit and
* â—â—r 20. Their Fathers Worshipping in that Mountain and the Jews affirming Jerusalem to be a place of worship She pleads the Antiquity of the worship in this place Abraham having built an Altar there Gen. 12.7 and Jacob upon his return from Syria And surely had the place been capable of an exception such persons as they and so well acquainted with the Will of God would not have pitched upon that place to Celebrate their worship Antiquity hath too too often bewitched the minds of Men and drawn them from the revealed Will of God Men are more willing to imitate the outward actions of their famous Ancestors than conform themselves to the revealed Will of their Creator The Samaritans would imitate the Patriarchs in the place of worship but not in the faith of the worshippers Christ answers her that this question would quickly be resolved by a new state of the Church which was neer at hand and neither Jerusalem which had now the precedency nor that Mountain should be of any more value in that concern than any other place in the world * ver 21. But yet to make her sensible of her sin and that of her Country-men tells her that their Worship in that Mountain was not according to the Will of God he having long after the Altars built in this place fixed Jerusalem as the place of Sacrifices besides they had not the knowledge of that God which ought to be worshipped by them but the Jews had the true object of Worship and the true manner of worship according to the declaration God had made of himself to them * ver â—â— But all that service shall vanish the vail of the Temple shall be rent in twain and that Carnal worship give place to one more Spiritual shadows shall fly before substance and truth advance it self above figures and the worship of God shall be with the strength of the Spirit such a worship and such worshippers doth the Father seek * ver 23. For God is a Spirit and those that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in truth The design of our Saviour is to declare that God is not taken with external worship invented by men no nor Commanded by himself and upon that this reason because he is a Spiritual essence infinitely above gross and Corporeal matter and is not taken with that pomp which is a pleasure to our Earthly imaginations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate it just as the words lie Spirit is God * Vulgar lat Illyrc Clav. But it is not unusual both in the old and new Testament languages to put the predicate before the subject as Psal 5.9 Their throat is an open Sepulchre in the Hebrew a Sepulchre open their throat So Psa 111.3 His work is honourable and glorious Heb. Honour and glory his work And there wants not one example in the same Evangelist Joh. 1.1 And the word was God Greek and God was the word In all the predicate or what is ascribed is put before the subject to which it is ascribed One tells us and he an head of a party that hath made a disturbance in the Church of God * Eâ—â—â—â—â—p Institut lib. 4. cap. 3. that this place is not aptly brought to prove God to be a Spirit And the reason of Christ runs not thus God is of a Spiritual Essence and therefore must be worshipped with a Spiritual worship for the Essence of God is not the Foundation of his worship but his Will for then we were not to worship him with a Corporal worship because he is not a body but with an invisible and Eternal worship because he is invisible and eternal But the nature of God is the foundation of worship the Will of God is the Rule of worship the matter and manner is to be performed according to the Will of God But is the nature of the object of worship to be excluded No as the object is so ought our Devotion to be Spiritual as he is Spiritual God in his Commands for worship respected the discovery of his own nature in the Law he respected the discovery of his mercy and justice and therefore Commanded a worship by Sacrifices a Spiritual worship without those institutions would not have declared those Attributes which was Gods end to display to the world in Christ And tho the nature of God is to be respected in worship yet the obligations of the Creature are to be considered God is a Spirit therefore must have a Spiritual worship The Creature hath a body as well as a Soul and both from God and therefore ought to worship God with the one as well as the other since one as well as the other is freely bestowed upon him The Spirituality of God was the foundation of the change from the Judaical carnal worship to a more Spiritual and Evangelical God is a Spirit That is he hath nothing Corporeal no mixture of matter not a visible substance a bodily form * Melancton He is a Spirit not a bare Spiritual substance But an understanding willing Spirit holy wise good and just Before Christ spake of the Father * ver 23. the first person in the Trinity Now he speaks of God Essentially The word Father is personal the word God essential So that our Saviour would render a reason not from any one person in the blessed Trinity but from the Divine nature why we should worship in Spirit and therefore makes use of the word God the being a Spirit being Common to the other persons with the Father This is the reason of the proposition verse 23. Of a Spiritual Worship Every nature delights in that which is like it and distasts that which is most different from it If God were Corporeal he might be pleased with the victims of beasts and the beautiful Magnificence of Temples and the noyse of Musick But being a Spirit he cannot be gratified with carnal things He demands something better and greater than all those that Soul which he made that Soul which he hath endowed a Spirit of a frame sutable to his nature He indeed appointed Sacrifices and a Temple as shadows of those things which were to be most acceptable to him in the Messiah but they were imposed only till the time of Reformation * Heb. 9.10 Must Worship him Not they may or it would be more agreeable to God to have such a manner of worship But they must T is not exclusive of bodily worship for this were to exclude all publick worship in societies which cannot be performed without reverential postures of the body * Terniti The Gestures of the body are helps to worship and declarations of Spiritual acts We can scarcely worship God with our Spirits without some tincture upon the outward-man But he excludes all acts meerly Corporeal all resting upon an external service and devotion which was the Crime of the Pharisees and the general persuasion of the Jews
as well as Heathens who used the outward Ceremonies not as signs of better things but as if they did of themselves please God and render the worshippers accepted with him without any sutable frame of the inward man * Amirald in loc It is as if he had said now you must separate your selves from all carnal modes to which the service of God is now tyed and render a worship chiefly consisting in the affectionate motions of the heart and accommodated more exactly to the condition of the object who is a Spirit In Spirit and Truth * Amirald in loc The Evangelical Service now required has the advantage of the former that was a Shadow and Figure this the Body and Truth * Muscul Spirit say some is here opposed to the legal Ceremonies Truth to hypocritical services or * Chemnit rather truth is opposed to shadows and an opinion of worth in the outward action 't is principally opposed to external Rites because our Saviour saith v. 23. The hour comes and â—oâ— is c. Had it been opposed to Hypocrisy Christ had said no new thing For God always required Truth in the inward parts and all true Worshippers had served him with a sincere Conscience and single Heart The old Patriarks did worship God in Spirit and Truth as taken for sincerity Such a Worship was always and is perpetually due to God because he always was and eternally will be a Spirit * Musâ—al And it is said the Father seeks such to worship him not shall seek He always sought it it always was performed to him by one or other in the world And the Prophets had always rebuked them for resting upon their outward Solemnities Isa 58.7 and Micah 6.8 But a Worship without legal Rites was proper to an Evangelical State and the times of the Gospel God having then exhibited Christ and brought into the world the substance of those shadows and the end of those institutions There was no more need to continue them when the true reason of them was ceased All Laws do naturally expire when the true reason upon which they were first framed is changed Or by Spirit may be meant such a Worship as is kindled in the heart by the breath of the holy Ghost Since we are dead in sin a spiritual light and flame in the heart sutable to the nature of the object of our worship cannot be raised in us without the operation of a supernatural Grace And though the Fathers could not worship God without the Spirit yet in the Gospel-times there being a fuller effusion of the Spirit the Evangelical State is called the administration of the Spirit and the newness of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 in opposition to the legal Oeconomy entitled the oldness of the Letter * Rom. 7.6 The Evangelical State is more suted to the Nature of God than any other Such a Worship God must have whereby he is acknowledged to be the true Sanctifier and Quickner of the Soul The nearer God doth approach to us and the more full his manifestations are the more spiritual is the Worship we return to God The Gospel pares off the rugged parts of the Law and Heaven shall remove what is material in the Gospel and change the Ordinances of Worship into that of a Spiritual Praise In the words there is 1. A Proposition God is a Spirit The Foundation of all Religion 2. An Inference they that worship him c. As God a Worship belongs to him as a Spirit a spiritual Worship is due to him in the inference we have 1. The manner of Worship in Spirit and Truth 2. The necessity of such a Worship must The Proposition declares the Nature of God the Inference the Duty of Man The Observations lie plain Ob. 1. God is a pure spiritual Being He is a Spirit 2. The Worship due from the Creature to God must be agreeable to the Nature of God and purely spiritual 3. The Evangelical State is suted to the Nature of God For the first D. God is a pure spiritual Being 'T is the Observation of one * Episcop insti tut l. 4. c. 3. that the plain assertion of Gods being a Spirit is found but once in the whole Bible and that is in this place which may well be wondred at because God is so often described with hands feet eyes and ears in the form and figure of a Man The spiritual Nature of God is deducible from many places but not any where as I remember asserted totidem verbis but in this Text Some alledge that place 2 Cor. 3.17 the Lord is that Spirit for the proof of it but that seems to have a different sense In the Text the Nature of God is described in that place the operations of God in the Gospel * Amyrald in loc 'T is not the Ministry of Moses or that old Covenant which communicates to you that Spirit it speaks of but it is the Lord Jesus and the Doctrin of the Gospel delivered by him whereby this Spirit and Liberty is dispensed to you He opposes here the Liberty of the Gospel to the Servitude of the Law 'T is from Christ that a Divine Vertue diffuseth it self by the Gospel 't is by him not by the Law that we partake of that Spirit * Suarez de Deo vol. 1. P. 9. Col. 2. The Spirituality of God is as evident as his Being If we grant that God is we must necessarily grant that he cannot be corporeal because a Body is of an imperfect Nature It will appear incredible to any that acknowledge God the first Being and Creator of all things that he should be a massy heavy Body and have Eyes and Ears Feet and hands as we have For the explication of it 1. Spirit is taken various ways in Scripture It signifies sometimes an aereal substance as Psal 11.6 A horrible Tempest Heb. A Spirit of Tempest Sometimes the breath which is a thin substance Gen. 6.17 All Flesh wherein is the breath of Life Heb. Spirit of Life A thin substance though it be material and corporeal is called Spirit And in the bodies of living Creatures that which is the principle of their actions is called Spirits the animal and vital Spirits And the finer parts extracted from Plants and Minerals we call Spirits Those volatile parts separated from that gross matter wherein they were immerst because they come nearest to the nature of an incorporeal substance And from this notion of the word 't is translated to signifie those substances that are purely immaterial as Angels and the Souls of Men. Angels are called Spirits Psal 104.4 who makes his Angels Spirits * Heb. 1.14 And not only good Angels are so called but evil Angels Mark 1.27 Souls of men are called Spirits Eccl. 12. And the Soul of Christ is called so John 19.30 whence God is called the God of the Spirits of all Flesh Numb 22.16 and Spirit is opposed to Flesh Isa
31.3 the Egyptians are Flesh and not Spirit And our Saviour gives us the notion of a Spirit to be something above the nature of a Body Luke 24.39 not having flesh and bones extended parts loads of gross matter 'T is also taken for those things which are active and efficacious because activity is of the nature of a Spirit Caleb had another Spirit Num. 14.24 an active affection The vehement motions of sin are called Spirit Hos 4.12 the Spirit of Whoredoms in that sense that Pro. 29.11 a Fool utters all his mind all his Spirit he knows not how to restrain the vehement motions of his mind So that the notion of a Spirit is that it is a fine immaterial substance an active being that acts it self and other things A meer Body cannot act it self as the Body of Man cannot move without the Soul no more than a Ship can move it self without Wind and Waves So God is called a Spirit as being not a Body not having the greatness figure thickness or length of a Body wholly separate from any thing of flesh and matter We find a Principle within us nobler than that of our Bodies and therefore we conceive the Nature of God according to that which is more worthy in us and not according to that which is the vilest part of our Natures God is a most spiritual Spirit more spiritual than all Angels all Souls * Gerhard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he exceeds all in the nature of Being so he exceeds all in the nature of Spirit He hath nothing gross heavy material in his Essence 2. When we say God is a Spirit 't is to be understood by way of Negation There are two ways of knowing or describing God By way of affirmation affirming that of him in a way of eminency which is excellent in the Creature as when we say God is wise good The other by way of negation when we remove from God in our conceptions what is tainted with imperfection in the Creature * Gamacheus Tom. 1. q. 3. Cap. 1. P. 42. The first ascribes to him whatsoever is excellent the other separates from him whatsoever is imperfect The first is like a Limning which adds one Colour to another to make a comely Picture the other is like a Carving which pares and cuts away whatsoever is superfluous to make a compleat Statue This way of negation is more easie we better understand what God is not than what he is and most of our knowledge of God is by this way As when we say God is infinite immense immutable they are negatives He hath no limits is confined to no place admits of no change * Coccei sum Theol. Cap. 8. When we remove from him what is inconsistent with his Being we do more strongly assert his Being and know more of him when we elevate him above all and above our own capacity And when we say God is a Spirit 't is a negation he is not a Body he consists not of various parts extended one without and beyond another He is not a Spirit so as our Souls are to be the form of any Body A Spirit not as Angels and Souls are but infinitely higher we call him so because in regard of our weakness we have not any other term of excellency to express or conceive of him by We transfer it to God in honour because Spirit is the highest excellency in our nature Yet we must apprehend God above any Spirit since his Nature is so great that he cannot be declared by human speech perceived by human sense or conceived by human understanding The second thing That God is a Spirit * Thes Sedan Part. 2. P. 1â—â—â— Some among the Heathens imagined God to have a Body some thought him to have a Body of Air some a Heavenly Body some a human Body * Vossius Idolol lib. 2. cap. 1. Forbes Instrument l. 1. c. 36. And many of them ascribed bodies to their Gods but bodies without blood without corruption bodies made up of the finest and thinnest Atomes such bodies which if compared with ours were as no bodies The Saddures also who denied all Spirits and yet acknowledged a God must conclude him to be a Body and no Spirit Some among Christians have been of that opinion Tertullian is charged by some and excused by others And some Monks of Egypt were so fierce for this Error that they attempted to kill one Theophilus a Bishop for not being of that Judgment * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the wiser Heathens were of another mind and esteemed it an unholy thing to have such imaginations of God * Plutarch incorporalis ratio divinus spiritus Seneca And some Christians have thought God only to be free from any thing of body because he is omnipresent immutable he is only incorporeal and spiritual all things else even the Angels are clothed with bodies though of a neater matter and a more active frame than ours a pure spiritual Nature they allowed to no Being but God Scripture and Reason meet together to assert the spirituality of God Had God had the Lineaments of a Body the Gentiles had not fallen under that accusation of changing his Glory into that of a Corruptible Man * Rom. 1.23 This is signified by the name God gives himself Exod. 3.14 I am that I am a simple pure uncompounded Being without any created mixture as infinitely above the being of Creatures as above the conceptions of Creatures Job 37.23 Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out He is so much a Spirit that he is the Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 The Almighty Father is not of a Nature inferior to his Children The Soul is a Spirit it could not else exert actions without the assistance of the body as the act of Understanding it self and its own nature the act of willing and willing things against the incitements and interest of the Body It could not else conceive of God Angels and immaterial substances It could not else be so active as with one glance to fetch a compass from Earth to Heaven and by a sudden motion to elevate the understanding from an earthly thought to the thinking of things as high as the highest Heavens If we have this opinion of our Souls which in the nobleness of their acts surmount the Body without which the Body is but a dull unactive piece of clay we must needs have a higher conception of God than to clogg him with any matter though of a finer temper than ours We must conceive of him by the perfections of our Souls without the vileness of our Bodies If God made Man according to his Image we must raise our thoughts of God according to the noblest part of that Image and imagine the Exemplar or Copy not to come short but to exceed the thing copyed by it God were not the most excellent substance if he were not a Spirit Spiritual substances are more excellent than bodily
the Soul of Man more excellent than other Animals Angels more excellent than Men They contain in their own nature whatsoever dignity there is in the inferior Creatures God must have therefore an excellency above all those and therefore is intirely remote from the conditions of a Body * Calov Socin Proflig P. 129. 130. 'T is a gross conceit therefore to think that God is such a Spirit as the Air is for that is to be a body as the Air is though it be a thin one and if God were no more a Spirit than that or than Angels he would not be the most simple Being * Amirald Sup. Heb. 9. p. 146. c. Yet some think that the spiritual Deity was represented by the Air in the Ark of the Testament It was unlawful to represent him by any Image that God had prohibited Every thing about the Ark had a particular signification The Gold and other Ornaments about it signified something of Christ but were unfit to represent the Nature of God A thing purely invisible and falling under nothing of sense could not represent him to the mind of Man The Air in the Ark was the fittest it represented the invisibility of God Air being imperceptible to our eyes Air diffuseth it self through all parts of the world it glides through secret passages into all Creatures it fills the space between Heaven and Earth there is no place wherein God is not present To evidence this 1. If God were not a Spirit he could not be Creator All multitude begins in and is reduced to unity As above multitude there is an absolute unity So above mixt Creatures there is an absolute simplicity You cannot conceive number without conceiving the beginning of it in that which was not number viz. a unite You cannot conceive any mixture but you must conceive some simple thing to be the Original and Basis of it The works of Art done by rational Creatures have their Foundation in something Spiritual Every Artificer Watch-maker Carpenter hath a model in his own mind of the work he designs to frame The material and outward Fabrick is squared according to an inward and Spiritual Idea A Spiritual Idea speaks a Spiritual faculty as the subject of it God could not have an Idea of that vast number of Creatures he brought into being if he had not had a Spiritual Nature * Amiral moral Tom. 1. pa. 282. The wisdom whereby the world was Created could never be the fruit of a Corporeal nature such natures are not capable of understanding and comprehending the things which are within the compass of their nature much less of produ them And therefore beasts which have only Corporeal faculties move to objects by the force of their sense and have no knowledge of things as they are comprehended by the understanding of Man All acts of wisdom speak an intelligent and Spiritual agent The effects of wisdom goodness power are so great and admirable that they bespeak him a more perfect and eminent being than can possibly be beheld under a bodily shape Can a Coporeal substance put Wisdom in the inward parts and give understanding to the heart * Job 38.16 2. If God were not a pure Spirit he could not be one If God had a body consisting of distinct members as ours or all of one nature as the water and air are yet he were then capable of division and therefore could not be entirely one Either those parts would be finite or infinite if finite they are not parts of God for to be God and finite is a contradiction If infinite then there are as many infinites as distinct members and therefore as many Deities Suppose this body had all parts of the same nature as air and water hath every little part of air is as much air as the greatest and every little part of water is as much water as the Ocean so every little part of God would be as much God as the whole as many particular Deities to make up God as little Atomes to compose a body What can be more absurd If God had a body like a human body and were compounded of body and Soul of substance and quality he could not be the most perfect unity he would be made up of distinct parts and those of a distinct nature as the members of a human body are Where there is the greatest unity there must be the greatest simplicity but God is one As he is free from any change so he is void of any multitude Deut. 6.4 The Lord our God is one Lord. 3. If God had a body as we have he would not be invisible Every material thing is not visible The Air is a body yet invisible but it is sensible the cooling quality of it is felt by us at every breath and we know it by our touch which is the most material sense Every body that hath Members like to bodies is visible But God is invisible * Daille in Tim The Apostle reckons it amongst his other perfections 1 Tim. 1.17 Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible He is invisible to our sense which beholds nothing but material and coloured things and incomprehensible to our understanding that conceives nothing but what is finite God is therefore a Spirit uncapable of being seen and infinitely uncapable of being understood If he be invisible he is also Spiritual If he had a body and hid it from our eyes he might be said not to be seen but could not be said to be invisible When we say a thing is visible we understand that it hath such qualities which are the objects of sense tho we may never see that which is in its own nature is to be seen God hath no such qualities as fall under the perception of our sense His works are visible to us but not his God-head * Rom. 1.20 The nature of a human body is to be seen and handled Christ gives us such a description of it Luke 24.39 Handle me and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have But man hath been so far from seeing God that it is impossible he can see him 1 Tim. 6.16 There is such a disproportion between an infinite object and a finite sense and understanding that it is utterly impossible either to behold or comprehend him But if God had a body more luminous and glorious than that of the Sun he would be as well visible to us as the Sun tho the immensity of that light would dazle our eyes and forbid any close inspection into him by the vertue of our sence We have seen the shape and figure of the Sun but no man hath ever seen the shape of God * Joh. 5.37 If God had a body he were visible tho he might not perfectly and fully be seen by us * Goulart de Dieu pa. 94. As we see the Heavens tho we see not the extension latitude and greatness of them
Tho God hath manifested himself in a bodily shape Gen. 18.1 And elsewhere Jehovah appeared to Abraham Yet the substance of God was not seen no more than the substance of Angels was seen in their Apparitions to men A body was formed to be made visible by them and such actions done in that body that spake the person that did them to be of a higher eminency than a bare Corporeal Creature Sometimes a representation is made to the inward sense and imagination as to Michaiah * 1 King 22.19 and to Isa 6. chap. 1. But they saw not the essence of God but some Images and figures of him proportioned to their sense or imagination The Essence of God no man ever saw nor can see Joh. 1.18 * Goulart de Dieu p. 95. 96. Nor doth it follow that God hath a body because Jacob is said to see God Face to Face Gen. 32.30 And Moses had the like priviledge Deut. 34.10 This only signifies a fuller and clearer manifestation of God by some representations offered to the bodily sense or rather to the inward Spirit For God tells Moses he could not see his Face Exod. 33.20 And that none ever saw the similitude of God Deut. 4.15 Were God a Corporeal substance he might in some measure be seen by Corporeal eies 4. If God were not a Spirit he could not be infinite All bodies are of a finite nature Every body is material and every material thing is terminated The Sun a vast body hath a bounded greatness The Heavens of a mighty bulk yet have their limits If God had a body he must consist of parts those parts would be bounded and limited and whatsoever is limited is of a finite vertue and therefore below an infinite nature Reason therefore tells us that the most excellent nature as God is cannot be of a Corporeal condition because of the limitation and other actions which belong to every body God is infinite for the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him 2 Chron. 2.6 The largest Heavens and those imaginary spaces beyond the world are no bounds to him He hath an essence beyond the bounds of the world and cannot be included in the vastness of the Heavens If God be infinite then he can have no parts in him if he had they must be finite or infinite Finite parts can never make up an infinite being A vessel of Gold of a pound weight cannot be made of the quantity of an ounce Infinite parts they cannot be because then every part would be equal to the whole as infinite as the whole which is contradictory We see in all things every part is less than the whole bulk that is composed of it As every Member of a Man is less than the whole body of Man If all the parts were finite then God in his Essence were finite and a finite God is not more excellent than a Creature So that if God were not a Spirit he could not be infinite 5. If God were not a Spirit he could not be an independent being Whatsoever is compounded of many parts depends either essentially or integrally upon those parts as the essence of a man depends upon the conjunction and union of his two main parts his Soul and Body when they are separated the essence of a Man ceaseth and the perfection of a man depends upon every Member of the Body So that if one be wanting the perfection of the whole is wanting As if a man hath lost a limb you call him not a perfect man because that part is gone upon which his perfection as an intire man did depend If God therefore had a body the perfection of the Deity would depend upon every part of that body and the more parts he were compounded of the more his dependency would be multiplyed according to the number of those parts of the body For that which is compounded of many parts is more dependent than that which is compounded of fewer And because God would be a dependent being if he had a body he could not be the first being for the compounding parts are in order of nature before that which is compounded by them as the soul and body are before the man which results from the union of them If God had parts and bodily Members as we have or any composition the Essence of God would result from those parts and those parts be supposed to be before God For that which is a part is before that whose part it is As in Artificial things you may conceive it All the parts of a Watch or Clock are in time before that Watch which is made by setting those parts together In natural things you must suppose the Members of a Body framed before you can call it a Man So that the parts of this body are before that which is constituted by them We can conceive no other of God if he were not a pure intire unmixed Spirit If he had distinct parts he would depend upon them those parts would be before him his Essence would be the effect of those distinct parts and so he would not be absolutely and intirely the first Being But he is so Isa 44.6 I am the first and I am the last He is the first nothing is before him Whereas if he had bodily parts and those finite it would follow God is made up of those parts which are not God and that which is not God is in order of Nature before that which is God So that we see if God were not a Spirit he could not be independent 6. If God were not a Spirit he were not immutable and unchangeable His immutability depends upon his simplicity He is unchangeable in his Essence because he is a pure and unmixed spiritual Being Whatsoever is compounded of parts may be divided into those parts and resolved into those distinct parts which make up and constitute the Nature Whatsoever is compounded is changeable in its own nature though it should never be changed Adam who was constituted of Body and Soul had he stood in Innocence had not died there had been no separation made between his Soul and Body whereof he was constituted and his Body had not resolved into those principles of Dust from whence it was extracted Yet in his own nature he was dissoluble into those distinct parts whereof he was compounded And so the glorified Saints in Heaven after the Resurrection and the happy meeting of their Souls and Bodies in a new Marriage knot shall never be dissolved yet in their own nature they are mutable and dissoluble and cannot be otherwise because they are made up of such distinct parts that may be separated in their own nature unless sustained by the grace of God They are immutable by Will the Will of God not by Nature God is immutable by Nature as well as Will As he hath a necessary Existence so he hath a necessary Unchangeableness Mal. 3.6 I the Lord change not He is as unchangeable in his
Essence as in his Veracity and Faithfulness They are perfections belonging to his Nature But if he were not a pure Spirit he could not be immutable by Nature 7. If God were not a pure Spirit He could not be omnipresent He is in Heaven above and the Earth below * Deut. 4.39 He fills Heaven and Earth * Jer. 23.24 The Divine Essence is at once in Heaven and Earth but it is impossible a Body can be in two places at one and the same time Since God is every where he must be spiritual Had he a Body he could not penetrate all things he would be circumscribed in place He could not be every where but in parts not in the whole one member in one place and another in another for to be confined to a particlar place is the property of a Body But since he is diffused through the whole World higher than Heaven deeper than Hell longer than the Earth broader than the Sea * Job 11.8 he hath not any corporeal matter If he had a Body wherewith to fill Heaven and Earth there could be no Body besides his own 'T is the Nature of Bodies to bound one another and hinder the extending of one another Two Bodies cannot be in the same place in the same point of Earth one excludes the other And it will follow hence that we are nothing no substances meer illusions there could be no place for any Body else * Gamacheus Theol. Tom. 1. Quos 3. C. 1. If his Body were as bigg as the World as it must be if with that he filled Heaven and Earth there would not be room for him to move a hand or a foot or extend a finger for there would be no place remaining for the motion 8. If God were not a Spirit he could not be the most perfect Being The more perfect any thing is in the rank of Creatures the more spiritual and simple it is as Gold is the more pure and perfect that hath least mixture of other Metals If God were not a Spirit there would be Creatures of a more excellent Nature than God as Angels and Souls which the Scripture calls Spirits in opposition to Bodies There is more of perfection in the first notion of a Spirit than in the notion of a Body God cannot be less perfect than his Creatures and contribute an excellency of being to them which he wants himself If Angels and Souls possess such an excellency and God want that excellency he would be less than his Creatures and the excellency of the Effect would exceed the excellency of the Cause But every Creature even the highest Creature is infinitely short of the perfection of God for whatsoever excellency they have is finite and limited 't is but a spark from the Sun a drop from the Ocean but God is unboundedly perfect in the highest manner without any limitation and therefore above Spirits Angels the highest Creatures that were made by him An infinite sublimity a pure act to which nothing can be added from which nothing can be taken In him there is light and no darkness * 1 John 1.5 spirituality without any matter perfection without any shadow or taint of imperfection Light pierceth into all things preserves its own purity and admits of no mixture of any thing else with it Question It may be said If God be a Spirit and it is impossible he can be otherwise than a Spirit how comes God so often to have such Members as we have in our Bodies ascribed to him not only a Soul but particular bodily parts as heart arms hands eyes ears face and back-parts And how is it that he is never called a Spirit in plain words but in this Text by our Saviour Answ 'T is true many parts of the Body and natural affections of the human nature are reported of God in Scripture Head * Dan. 7.9 Eyes and Eye-lids * Psal 11.4 Apple of the Eye Mouth c. our Affections also Grief Joy Anger c. But it is to be considered 1. That this is in condescension to our weakness God being desirous to make himself known to Man * Loquitur lex secund ling. filiorum hominum was the H. saying whom he created for his Glory humbles as it were his own Nature to such representations as may sute and assists the capacity of the Creature Since by the condition of our nature nothing erects a notion of it self in our understanding but as it is conducted in by our sence God hath served himself of those things which are most exposed to our sence most obvious to our understandings to give us some acquaintance with his own Nature and those things which otherwise we were not capable of having any notion of As our Souls are linkt with our Bodies so our knowledge is linkt with our sence that we can scarce imagin any thing at first but under a corporeal form and figure till we come by great attention to the Object to make by the help of reason a separation of the spiritual substance from the corporeal fancy and consider it in its own nature We are not able to conceive a Spirit without some kind of resemblance to something below it nor understand the actions of a Spirit without considering the operations of a human Body in its several Members As the Glories of another Life are signified to us by the pleasures of this so the Nature of God by a gracious condescension to our capacities is signified to us by a likeness to our own The more familiar the things are to us which God uses to this purpose the more proper they are to teach us what he intends by them Answ 2. All such representations are to signifie the acts of God as they hear some likeness to those which we perform by those members he ascribes to himself So that those members ascribed to him rather note his visible operations to us than his invisible Nature and signifie that God doth some works like to those which men do by the assistance of those Organs of their Bodies * Amyral de Trin. p. 218. 219. So the wisdom of God is called his Eye because he knows that with his mind which we see with our eyes The efficiency of God is called his Hand and Arm because as we act with our hands so doth God with his Power The divine Efficacies are signified By his eyes and ears we understand his Omniscience by his face the manifestation of his Favour by his mouth the revelation of his Will by his nostrils the acceptation of our Prayers by his bowels the tenderness of his Compassion by his heart the sincerity of his Affections by his hand the strength of his Power by his feet the ubiquity of his Presence And in this he intends instruction and comfort By his eyes he signifies his watchfulness over us By his ears his readiness to hear the crys of the oppressed * Psal 34.15 By his Arm his
his nature in our Spirits rather than our bodies * Petav. Theol. Dog Tom. 1. lib. 2. cap. 1. pa. 104. It was a fancy of Eugubinus that when God set upon the actual Creation of man he took a bodily form for an Exemplar of that which he would express in his work and therefore that the words of Moses * Gen. 1.26 are to be understood of the body of man because there was in Man such a shape which God had then assumed To let alone Gods forming himself a body for that work as a groundless fancy Man can in no wise be said to be the image of God in regard of the substance of his body but beasts may as well be said to be made in the Image of God whose bodies have the same Members as the body of Man for the most part and excell Men in the acuteness of the senses and swiftness of their motion agility of body greatness of strength and in some kind of ingenuities also wherein Man hath been a Scholar to the brutes and beholden to their skill The Soul comes nearest the nature of God as being a Spiritual substance yet considered singly in regard of its Spiritual substance cannot well be said to be the image of God A beast because of its Corporeity may as well be called the image of a Man for there is a greater similitude between man and a brute in the rank of bodies than there can be between God and the highest Angels in the rank of Spirits If it doth not consist in the substance of the Soul much less can it in any similitude of the body This Image consisted partly in the state of man as he had dominion over the Creatures partly in the nature of man as he was an intelligent being and thereby was capable of having a grant of that Dominion but principally in the conformity of the Soul with God in the frame of his Spirit and the holiness of his actions Not at all in the figure and form of his body Physically tho morally there might be as there was a rectitude in the body as an instrument to conform to the holy motions of the soul as the holiness of the soul sparkled in the actions and members of the body If man were like God because he hath a body whatsoever hath a body hath some resemblance to God and may be said to be in part his image But the truth is the essence of all Creatures cannot be an image of the immense essence of God 2. If God be a pure Spirit T is unreasonable to frame any Image or picture of God * Jamblyc protrept cap. 21. Symb. 24. Some Heathens have been wiser in this than some Christians Pythagoras forbad his Scholars to engrave any shape of him upon a Ring because he was not to be comprehended by sense but conceived only in our minds our hands are as unable to fashion him as our eyes to see him * Austin de Civitat Dei lib. 4. cap. 31. out of Varro The ancient Romans worshipped their Gods 170. years before any material representations of them * Tacitus and the Ancient Idolatrous Germans thought it a wicked thing to represent God in a human shape Yet some and those no Romanists labour to defend the making Images of God in the resemblance of man because he is so represented in Scripture he may be * Gerhard loc Comun vol. 4. Exegesis de naturâ Dei cap. 8. § 1. saith one conceived so in our minds and figured so to our sense If this were a good reason why may he not be pictured as a Lyon Horn Eagle Rock since he is under such Metaphors shadowed to us The same ground there is for the one as for the other What tho man be a nobler Creature God hath no more the body of a man than that of an Eagle and some perfections in other Creatures represent some excellencies in his nature and actions which cannot be figur'd by a human shape as strength by the Lyon swiftness and readiness by the wings of the Bird. But God hath absolutely prohibited the making any Image whatsoever of him and that with terrible threatnings Exod. 20.5 I the Lord am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon their Children and Deut. 5.8 9. After God had given the Israelites the Commandment wherein he forbad them to have any other Gods before him he forbids all figuring of him by the hand of man * Amiraut Morale Christiene Tom. 1. p. 294. not only Images but any likness of him either by things in Heaven in the earth or in the water How often doth he discover his indignation by the Prophets against them that offer to mould him in a Creature form This law was not to serve a particular dispensation or to endure a particular time but it was a declaration of his Will invariable in all places and all times being founded upon the immutable nature of his being and therefore agreeable to the Law of nature otherwise not chargeable upon the Heathens And therefore when God had declared his nature and his works in a stately and Majestick eloquence he demands of them To whom they would liken him or what likeness they would compare unto him Isa 40.18 Where they could find any thing that would be a lively image and resemblance of his infinite excellency Founding it upon the infiniteness of his nature which necessarily implies the Spirituality of it God is infinitely above any Statue and those that think to draw God by a stroak of a pensil or form him by the engravings of Art are more stupid than the Statues themselves To shew the unreasonableness of it Consider 1. T is impossible to fashion any image of God If our more capacious Souls cannot grasp his nature our weaker sense cannot frame his image T is more possible of the two to comprehend him in our minds than to frame him in an image to our sense He inhabits inaccessible light As it is impossible for the eye of man to see him t is impossible for the art of man to paint him upon walls and carve him out of wood None knows him but himself none can describe him but himself * Cocceius sum Theol. cap. 9. pa. 47. § 35. Can we draw a figure of our own Souls and express that part of our selves wherein we are most like to God Can we extend this to any bodily figure and divide it into parts How can we deal so with the Original Copy whence the first draught of our Souls was taken and which is infinitely more Spiritual than Men or Angels No Corporeal thing can represent a Spiritual substance there is no proportion in nature between them God is a simple infinite immense eternal invisible incorruptible being A Statue is a compounded finite limited temporal visible and corruptible body God is a living Spirit but a Statue nor sees nor hears nor perceives any thing But suppose God
representations were made as were accomodated to the inward sense of Daniel Daniel saw him in a rapture or extasy wherein outward senses are of no use God is described not as he is in himself of a human form but in regard of his fitness to Judge White notes the purity and simplicity of the Divine nature Ancient of days in regard of his eternity white hair in regard of his prudence and wisdom which is more eminent in age than youth and more fit to discern causes and to distinguish between right and wrong Visions are riddles and must not be understood in a litteral sense We are to watch against such determinate conceptions of God Vain imaginations do easily infest us Tinder will not sooner take fire than our natures kindle into wrong Notions of the Divine Majesty We are very apt to fashion a God like our selves We must therefore look upon such representations of God as accommodated to our weakness And no more think them to be literal descriptions of God as he is in himself than we will think the image of the Sun in the water to be the true Sun in the Heavens We may indeed conceive of Christ as man who hath in Heaven the vestment of our nature and is Deus figuratus tho we cannot conceive the God-head under a human shape 1. To have such a fancy is to disparage and wrong God A Corporeal fancy of God is as ridiculous in it self and as injurious to God as a wooden Statue The capricios of our imagination are often more monstrous than the images which are the works of art T is as irreligious to measure Gods essence by our line his perfections by our imperfections as to measure his thoughts and actings by the weakness and unworthiness of our own This is to limit an infinite essence and pull him down to our scanty measures and render that which is unconceivably above us equal with us T is impossible we can conceive God after the manner of we a body but must bring him down to the proportion of a body which is to diminish his glory and stoop him below the dignity of his nature God is a pure Spirit he hath nothing of the nature and tincture of a body whosoever therefore conceives of him as having a bodily form tho he fancy the most beautiful and comely body instead of owning his dignity detracts from the supereminent excellency of his nature and blessedness When men fancy God like themselves in their Corporeal nature they will soon make a progress and ascribe to him their corrupt nature and while they clothe him with their bodies invest him also in the infirmities of them God is a jealous God very sensible of any disgrace and will be as much incensed against an inward Idolatry as an outward That * Exod. 20.4 Command which forbad Corporeal images would not indulge carnal imaginations since the nature of God is as much wronged by unworthy images erected in the fancy as by statues carved out of stone or metals One as well as the other is a deserting of our true spouse and committing Adultery one with a material image and the other with a carnal Notion of God Since God humbles himself to our apprehensions we should not debase him in thinking him to be that in his nature which he makes only a resemblance of himself to us 2. To have such fancies of God will obstruct and pollute our worship of him How is it possible to give him a right worship of whom we have so debasing a Notion We shall never think a corporeal Deity worthy of a dedication of our Spirits The hating Instruction and casting Gods word behind the back is charged upon the imagination they had that God was such a one as themselves Psal 50.17.21 Many of the wiser Heathens did not judge their Statues to be their Gods or their Gods to be like their Statues but suted them to their politick designs and judged them a good invention to keep people within the bounds of Obedience and Devotion by such visible figures of them which might imprint a reverence and fear of those Gods upon them But these were false measures A despised and undervalued God is not an Object of Petition or Affection Who would address seriously to a God he has low apprehensions of The more raised thoughts we have of him the viler sense we shall have of our selves They would make us humble and self abhorrent in our supplications to him Job 42.6 wherefore I abhorr my self c. 3. Though we must not conceive of God as of a human or Corporeal shape yet we cannot think of God without some reflection upon our own being We cannot conceive him to be an intelligent being but we must make some comparison between him and our own understanding nature to come to a knowledge of him Since we are inclosed in bodies we apprehend nothing but what comes in by sense and what we in some sort measure by sensible Objects And in the consideration of those things which we desire to abstract from sense we are fain to make use of the assistances of sense and visible things And therefore when we frame the highest notion there will be some similitude of some corporeal thing in our fancy and though we would spiritualize our thoughts and aim at a more abstracted and raised understanding yet there will be some dreggs of matter sticking to our conceptions yet we still judge by argument and reasoning what the thing is we think of under those material Images * Nazianzen A corporeal Image will follow us as the shadow doth the body While we are in the body and surrounded with fleshly matter we cannot think of things without some help from corporeal representations Something of sense will interpose it self in our purest conceptions of spiritual things * Amiraut Morale Tom. 1. P. 180 c. for the faculties which serve for contemplation are either corporeal as the sense and fancy or so allyed to them that nothing passes into them but by the Organs of the body so that there is a natural inclination to figure nothing but under a corporeal notion till by an attentive application of the mind and reason to the object thought upon we separate that which is bodily from that which is spiritual and by degrees ascend to that true notion of that we think upon and would have a due conception of in our mind Therefore God tempers the declaration of himself to our weakness and the condition of our Natures He condescends to our littleness and narrowness when he declares himself by the similitude of bodily members As the light of the Sun is tempered and diffuseth it self to our sense through the air and vapours that our weak eyes may not be too much dazled with it Without it we could not know or judge of the Sun because we could have no use of our sense which we must have before we can judge of it in our
understanding So we are not able to conceive of spiritual Beings in the purity of their own nature without such a temperament and such shadows to usher them into our minds And therefore we find the Spirit of God accommodates himself to our contracted and teddered capacities and uses such expressions of God as are suted to us in this state of flesh wherein we are And therefore because we cannot apprehend God in the simplicity of his own Being and his undivided Essence he draws the representations of himself from several Creatures and several actions of those Creatures As sometimes he is said to be angry to walk to sit to fly not that we should rest in such conceptions of him but take our rise from this foundation and such perfections in the Creatures to mount up to a knowledge of Gods nature by those several steps and conceive of him by those divided Excellencies because we cannot conceive of him in the purity of his own Essence * Lessius We cannot possibly think or speak of God unless we transfer the names of created perfections to him yet we are to conceive of them in a higher manner when we apply them to the Divine Nature than when we consider them in the several Creatures formally exceeding those perfections and excellencies which are in the Creature and in a more excellent manner * Towerson on the Commandments P. 112. as one saith though we cannot comprehend God without the help of such resemblances yet we may without making an Image of him so that inability of ours excuseth those apprehensions of him from any way offending against his Divine Nature These are not notions so much suted to the nature of God as the weakness of man They are helps to our meditations but ought not to be formal conceptions of him We may assist our selves in our apprehensions of him by considering the subtilty and spirituality of Air and considering the members of a body without thinking him to be air or to have any corporeal member Our reason tells us that whatsoever is a body is limited and bounded and the notion of infiniteness and bodiliness cannot agree and consist together And therefore what is offered by our fancy should be purified by our reason 4. Therefore we are to elevate and refine all our notions of God and spiritualize our conceptions of him Every man is to have a conception of God therefore he ought to have one of the highest elevation Since we cannot have a full notion of him we should endeavour to make it as high and as pure as we can Though we cannot conceive of God but some corporeal representations or images in our minds will be conversant with us as motes in the Air when we look upon the Heavens yet our conceptions may and must rise higher As when we see the draught of the Heavens and Earth in a Globe or a Kingdom in a Map it helps our conceptions but doth not terminate them We conceive them to be of a vast extent far beyond that short description of them So we should endeavour to refine every representation of God to rise higher and higher and have our apprehensions still more purified separating the perfect from the imperfect casting away the one and greatning the other conceive him to be a Spirit diffused through all containing all perceiving all All the perfections of God are infinitely elevated above the excellencies of the Creatures above whatsoever can be conceived by the clearest and most piercing understanding The Nature of God as a Spirit is infinitely superior to whatsoever we can conceive perfect in the notion of a created Spirit Whatsoever God is he is infinitely so He is infinite Wisdom infinite Goodness infinite Knowledge infinite Power infinite Spirit infinitely distant from the weakness of Creatures infinitely mounted above the excellencies of Creatures As easie to be known that he is as impossible to be comprehended what he is Conceive of him as excellent without any imperfection A Spirit without parts great without quantity perfect without quality every where without place Powerful without members understanding without ignorance wise without reasoning light without darkness infinitely more excelling the beauty of all Creatures than the light in the Sun pure and unviolated exceeds the splendor of the Sun dispersed and divided through a cloudy and misty Air And when you have risen to the highest conceive him yet infinitely above all you can conceive of Spirit and acknowledge the infirmity of your own minds And whatsoever conception comes into your minds say this is not God God is more than this If I could conceive him he were not God for God is incomprehensibly above whatsoever I can say whatsoever I can think and conceive of him 4. Inference If God be a Spirit no corporeal thing can defile him Some bring an Argument against the Omnipresence of God that it is a disparagement to the Divine Essence to be every where in nasty Cottages as well as beautiful Palaces and garnisht Temples What place can defile a Spirit Is Light which approaches to the nature of Spirit polluted by shining upon a Dung-hill or a Sun-beam tainted by darting upon a Quag-mire Doth an Angel contract any soyl by stepping into a nasty Prison to deliver Peter What can steam from the most noysom body to pollute the spiritual nature of God As he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity * Heb. 1.13 so he is of a more spiritual substance than to contract any physical pollution from the places where he doth diffuse himself Did our Saviour who had a true body derive any taint from the Lepers he touched the diseases he cured or the Devils he expell'd God is a pure Spirit plungeth himself into no filth is dasht with no spot by being present with all bodies Bodies only receive defilement from bodies 5. Inference If God be a Spirit he is active and communicative He is not clogg'd with heavy and sluggish matter which is cause of dulness and inactivity The more subtil thin and approaching neerer the Nature of a Spirit any thing is the more diffusive it is Air is a gliding substance spreads it self through all Regions peirceth into all bodies it fills the space between Heaven and Earth there is nothing but partakes of the vertue of it Light which is an emblem of Spirit insinuates it self into all places refresheth all things As Spirits are fuller so they are more overflowing more piercing more operative than bodies The Egyptian Horses were weak things because they were Flesh and not Spirit * Isay 31.3 The Soul being a Spirit conveys more to the Body than the Body can to it What cannot so great a Spirit do for us What cannot so great a Spirit work in us God being a Spirit above all Spirits can pierce into the Center of all Spirits make his way into the most secret recesses stamp what he pleases 'T is no more to him to turn our Spirits than to make
a Wilderness become Waters and speak a Chaos into a beautiful frame of Heaven and Earth He can act our souls with infinite more ease than our souls can act our bodies he can fix in us what motions frames inclinations he pleases he can come and settle in our hearts with all his Treasures 'T is an encouragement to confide in him when we petition him for spiritual Blessings As he is a Spirit he is possessed with spiritual Blessings * Eph. 1.3 A Spirit delights to bestow things sutable to its Nature do Bodies are to communicate what is agreeable to theirs As he is a Father of Spirits we may go to him for the Welfare of our Spirits he being a Spirit is as able to repair our Spirits as he was to create them As he is a Spirit he is indefatigable in acting The members of the body tire and flagg but whoever heard of a Soul wearied with being active Whoever heard of a weary Angel In the purest Simplicity there is the greatest Power the most efficacious Goodness the most reaching Justice to affect the Spirit that can insinuate it self every where to punish wickedness without weariness as well as to comfort goodness God is active because he is Spirit and if we be like to God the more spiritual we are the more active we shall be 6. Inference God being a Spirit is immortal His being immortal and being invisible are joyned together * 1 Tim. 1.17 Spirits are in their nature incorruptible they can only perish by that hand that framed them Every compounded thing is subject to mutation but God being a pure and simple Spirit is without corruption without any shadow of change * James 1.17 Where there is composition there is some kind of repugnancy of one part against the other and where there is repugnancy there is a capability of dissolution God in regard of his infinite spirituality hath nothing in his own nature contrary to it can have nothing in himself which is not himself The world perishes friends change and are dissolved bodies moulder because they are mutable God is a Spirit in the highest excellency and glory of Spirits nothing is beyond him nothing above him no contrariety within him This is our comfort if we devote our selves to him this God is our God this Spirit is our Spirit this is our all our immutable our incorruptible support a Spirit that cannot die and leave us 7. Inference If God be a Spirit we see how we can only converse with him by our Spirits Bodies and Spirits are not sutable to one another We can only see know embrace a Spirit with our Spirits He judges not of us by our corporeal actions nor our external devotions by our masks and disguises He fixes his eye upon the frame of the heart bends his ear to the groans of our Spirits He is not pleased with outward pomp He is not a Body therefore the beauty of Temples delicacy of Sacrifices fumes of Incense are not grateful to him by those or any external action we have no communion with him A Spirit when broken is his delightful Sacrifice * Psal 51.17 We must therefore have our Spirits fitted for him be renewed in the spirit of our minds * Eph. 4.23 that we may be in a posture to live with him and have an intercourse with him We can never be united to God but in our Spirits Bodies unite with Bodies Spirits with Spirits The more spiritual any thing is the more closely doth it unite Air hath the closest union nothing meets together sooner than that when the parts are divided by the interposition of a body 8. Inference If God be a Spirit he can only be the true satisfaction of our Spirits Spirit can only be fill'd with Spirit Content flows from likeness and sutableness As we have a resemblance to God in regard of the spiritual nature of our Soul so we can have no satisfaction but in him Spirit can no more be really satisfied with that which is corporeal than a beast can delight in the company of an Angel Corporeal things can no more fill a hungry Spirit than pure Spirit can feed an hungry Body God the highest Spirit can only reach out a full content to our spirits Man is Lord of the Creation nothing below him can be fit for his converse nothing above him offers it self to his converse but God We have no correspondence with Angels The influence they have upon us the protection they afford us is secret and undiscern'd but God the highest Spirit offers himself to us in his Son in his Ordinances is visible in every Creature presents himself to us in every providence to him we must seek in him we must rest God had no rest from the Creation till he had made Man and Man can have no rest in the Creation till he rests in God * Psal 90.1 God only is our dwelling place our Souls should only long for him our Souls should only wait upon him * Psal 63.1 The Spirit of Man never riseth to its original glory till it be carried up on the wings of Faith and Love to its original Copy The face of the Soul looks most beautiful when it is turned to the face of God the Father of Spirits when the derived Spirit is fixed upon the original Spirit drawing from it Life and Glory Spirit is only the receptacle of Spirit God as Spirit is our Principle we must therefore live upon him God as Spirit hath some resemblance to us as his Image we must therefore only satisfie our selves in him 9. Inference If God be a Spirit we should take most care of that wherein we are like to God Spirit is nobler than Body we must thererefore value our Spirits above our Bodies The Soul as Spirit partakes more of the Divine Nature and deserves more of our choycest cares If we have any love to this Spirit we should have a real affection to our own Spirits as bearing a stamp of the spiritual Divinity the chiefest of all the works of God as it is said of Behemoth Job 40.19 .. That which is most the Image of this immense Spirit should be our Darling So David calls his Soul Psal 35.17 Shall we take care of that wherein we partake not of God and not delight in the Jewel which hath his own Signature upon it God was not only the Framer of Spirits and the End of Spirits but the Copy and Exemplar of Spirits God partakes of no corporeity he is pure Spirit But how do we act as if we were only matter and body We have but little kindness for this great Spirit as well as our own if we take no care of his immediate offspring since he is not only Spirit but the Father of Spirits * Heb. 12.9 10. Inference If God be a Spirit let us take heed of those sins which are spiritual Paul distinguisheth between the filth of the Flesh and that of
the Spirit * 2 Cor. 7.1 By the one we defile the Body by the other we defile the Spirit which in regard of its Nature is of kin to the Creator To wrong one who is neer of kin to a Prince is worse than to injure an inferior Subject When we make our Spirits which are most like to God in their Nature and framed according to his Image a stage to act vain imaginations wicked desires and unclean affections we wrong God in the excellency of his Work and reflect upon the nobleness of the Patern we wrong him in that part where he hath stampt the most signal Character of his own spiritual nature we defile that whereby we have only converse with him as a Spirit which he hath ordered more immediately to represent him in this Nature than all corporeal things in the world can and make that Spirit with whom we desire to be joyned unfit for such a knot Gods Spirituality is the root of his other perfections We have already heard he could not be infinite omnipresent immutable without it Spiritual sins are the greatest root of bitterness within us As grace in our Spirits renders us more like to a spiritual God so spiritual sins bring us into a conformity to a degraded Devil * Eph. 2.2 3. Carnal sins change us from men to brutes and spiritual sins devest us of the Image of God for the Image of Satan We should by no means make our Spirits a Dung-hill which bear upon them the Character of the spiritual Nature of God and were made for his residence Let us therefore behave our selves towards God in all those ways which the spiritual nature of God requires us A DISCOURSE OF Spiritual Worship HAVING thus dispatcht the first proposition God is a Spirit It will not be amiss to handle the inference our Saviour makes from that proposition which is the second observation propounded Doct. That the Worship due from us to God ought to be Spiritual and Spiritually performed Spirit and Truth are understood variously Either we are to Worship God 1. Not by legal ceremonies The Evangelical administration being called Spirit in opposition to the legal ordinances as carnal and Truth in opposition to them as typical As the whole Judaical service is called flesh so the whole Evangelical service is called Spirit Or Spirit may be opposed to the worship at Jerusalem as it was carnal Truth to the worship on the Mount Gerizim because it was false They had not the true object of worship nor the true Medium of worship as those at Jerusalem had Their worship should cease because it was false and the Jewish worship should cease because it was carnal There is no need of a Candle when the Sun spreads it beams in the Air no need of those Ceremonies when the Sun of righteousness appeared They only served for Candles to instruct and direct men till the time of his coming The shadows are chased away by the displaying the substance so that they can be of no more use in the worship of God since the end for which they were instituted is expired and that discovered to us in the Gospel which the Jews sought for in vain among the baggage and stuff of their Ceremonies 2. With a Spiritual and sincere frame In Spirit i. e. with Spirit with the inward operations of all the faculties of our Souls and the cream and flower of them And the reason is because there ought to be a worship sutable to the nature of God And as the worship was to be Spiritual so the exercise of that worship ought to be in a Spiritual manner * Lingend Tom. 2. p. 777. It shall be a worship in Truth because the true God shall be adored without those vain imaginations and phantastick resemblances of him * Taylors Exemplar Preface § 30. which were common among the blind Gentiles and contrary to the glorious nature of God and unworthy ingredients in Religious services It shall be a worship in Spirit without those carnal rites the degenerate Jews rested on Such a posture of Soul which is the life and ornament of every service God looks for at your hands There must be some proportion between the object adored and the manner in which we adore it It must not be a meer Corporeal worship because God is not a body but it must rise from the Center of our Soul because God is a Spirit If he were a body a bodily worship might sute him Images might be fit to represent him but being a Spirit our bodily services enter us not into communion with him Being a Spirit we must banish from our minds all carnal imaginations of him and separate from our Wills all cold and dissembled affections to him We must not only have a loud voice but an elevated Soul not only a bended knee but a broken heart not only a supplicating tone but a groaning Spirit not only a ready ear for the word but a receiving heart and this shall be of greater value with him than the most costly outward services offered at Gerizim or Jerusalem Our Saviour certainly meant not by worshipping in Spirit only the matter of the Evangelical service as opposed to the legal administration without the manner wherein it was to be performed T is true God always sought a worship in Spirit he expected the heart of the worshipper should joyn with his instituted rights of adoration in every exercise of them But he expects such a carriage more under the Gospel administration because of the clearer discoveries of his nature made in it and the greater assistances conveyed by it I shall therefore 1. Lay down some general propositions 2. Shew what this Spiritual worship is 3. Why we must offer to God a Spiritual service 4. The Vse 1. Some general propositions Proposition 1. First The right exercise of worship is founded upon and riseth from the Spirituality of God * Ames medul lib. 2. cap. 4. § 20. The first ground of the worship we render to God is the infinite excellency of his nature which is not only one attribute but results from all For God as God is the object of worship and the Notion of God consists not in thinking him wise good just but all those infinitely beyond any Conception And hence it follows that God is an object infinitely to beloved and honoured His goodness is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as a motive of our homage Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Fear in the Scripture dialect signifies the whole worship of God Acts 10.35 But in every Nation he that fears him is accepted of him * So 2 Kings 17.32 33. If God should act towards men according to the rigors of his Justice due to them for the least of their Crimes there could be no exercise of any affection but that of despair which could not engender a worship of God which ought to be joyned with love not
the Majesty of the Creator of the world and the excellency of Religion No Nation no person did ever assert that the vilest part of man was enough for the most excellent Being as God is That a bodily service could be a sufficient acknowledgment of the greatness of God or a sufficient return for the bounty of God * Amyraut Ib. Man could not but know that he was to act in Religion conformably to the Object of Religion and to the excellency of his own Soul The notion of a God was sufficient to fill the mind of man with admiration and reverence and the first conclusion from it would be to honour God and that he have all the affection placed on him that so infinite and spiritual a Being did deserve The progress then would be that this excellent Being was to be honoured with the motions of the Understanding and Will with the purest and most spiritual powers in the nature of man because he was a spiritual Being and had nothing of matter mingled with him Such a brutish imagination to suppose that blood and fumes beasts and incense could please a Deity without a spiritual frame cannot be supposed to befal any but those that had lost their reason in the rubbish of sense Meer rational nature could never conclude that so excellent a Spirit would be put off with a meer animal service an attendance of matter and body without Spirit when they themselves of an inferior nature would be loath to sit down contented with an outside service from those that belong to them So that this instruction of our Saviour that God is to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth is conformable to the sentiments of nature and drawn from the most undeniable principles of it The excellency of Gods nature and the excellent constitution of human faculties concur naturally to support this perswasion This was as natural to be known by men as the necessity of Justice and Temperance for the support of human societies and bodies 'T is to be feared that if there be not among us such brutish apprehensions there are such brutish dealings with God in our services against the light of nature when we place all our worship of God in outward attendances and drooping countenances with unbelieving frames and formal devotions when Prayer is muttered over in private slightly as a Parrot learns lessons by rote not understanding what it speaks or to what end it speaks it not glorifying God in Thought and Spirit with Understanding and Will 3. Spiritual Worship therefore was always required by God and always offered to him by one or other Man had a perpetual obligation upon him to such a worship from the nature of God and what is founded upon the nature of God is unvariable This and that particular mode of worship may wax old as a Garment and as a Vesture may be folded up and changed as the expression is of the Heavens * Heb. 1.11 12. But God endures for ever his spirituality fails not therefore a worship of him in Spirit must run through all ways and rites of Worship God must cease to be Spirit before any service but that which is spiritual can be accepted by him The light of Nature is the light of God the light of nature being unchangeable what was dictated by that was alway and will alway be required by God The worship of God being perpetually due from the Creature the worshipping him as God is as perpetually his right Though the outward expressions of this Honour were different one way in Paradice for a worship was then due since a solemn time for that worship was appointed another under the Law another under the Gospel the Angels also worship God in Heaven and fall down before his Throne yet though they differ in rites they agree in this necessary ingredient All rites though of a different shape must be offered to him not as Carcasses but animated with the affections of the Soul Abels Sacrifice had not been so excellent in Gods esteem without those gracious habits and affections working in his Soul * Heb. 11.4 Faith works by Love his heart was on fire as well as his Sacrifice Cain rested upon his Present perhaps thought he had obliged God he depended upon the outward Ceremony but sought not for the inward purity It was an offering brought to the Lord * Gen. 4.5 he had the right object but not the right manner Gen. 4.7 If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted And in the Command afterwards to Abraham Walk before me and be thou perfect was the direction in all our religious acts and walkings with God A sincere act of the Mind and Will looking above and beyond all Symbolls extending the Soul to a pitch far above the Body and seeing the day of Christ through the vail of the Ceremonies was required by God And though Moses by Gods order had instituted a multitude of carnal Ordinances Sacrifices Washings Oblations of sensible things and recomended to the people the diligent observation of those Statutes by the allurements of promises and denouncing of threatnings as if there were nothing else to be regarded and the true workings of Grace were to be buried under a heap of Ceremonies yet sometimes he doth point them to the inward worship and by the Command of God requires of them the Circumcision of the Heart Deut. 10.16 the turning to God with all their heart and all their Soul Deut. 30.10 whereby they might recollect that it was the engagement of the Heart and the worship of the Spirit that was most agreeable to God and that he took not any pleasure in their observance of Ceremonies without true Piety within and the true purity of their thoughts 4. 'T is therefore as much every mans duty to worship God in Spirit as it is their duty to worship him Worship is so due to him as God as that he that denies it disowns his Deity And spiritual worship is so due that he that waves it denies his spirituality 'T is a debt of Justice we owe to God to worship him and it is as much a debt of Justice to worship him according to his Nature Worship is nothing else but a rendring to God the honour that is due to him and therefore the right posture of our Spirits in it is as much or more due than the material worship in the modes of his own prescribing that is grounded both upon his Nature and upon his Command this only upon his Command that is perpetually due whereas the Channel wherein outward worship runs may be dryed up and the River diverted another way Such a worship wherein the mind thinks of God feels a sense of God has the Spirit consecrated to God the Heart glowing with affections to God 'T is else a mocking God with a feather A rational Nature must worship God with that wherein the Glory of God doth most sparkle in him God is most visible in the frame
that we might now serve God in a more spiritual manner and with more spiritual frames 6. Proposition The Service and worship the Gospel settles is spiritual and the performance of it more spiritual Spirituality is the Genius of the Gospel as Carnality was of the Law the Gospel is therefore called Spirit We are abstracted from the imployments of Sense and brought neerer to a Heavenly State The Jews had Angels Bread poured upon them we have Angels Service prescribed to us the Praises of God Communion with God in Spirit through his Son Jesus Christ and stronger foundations for spiritual affections 'T is called a reasonable service * Rom. 12.1 t is suted to a rational nature tho it finds no friendship from the Corruption of reason It prescribes a service fit for the reasonable faculties of the Soul and advanceth them while it employs them The word reasonable may be translated word service * V. Hammond in loc as well as reasonable service an Evangelical service in opposition to a Law service All Evangelical service is reasonable and all truly reasonable service is Evangelical The matter of the worship is Spiritual it consists in love of God faith in God recourse to his goodness Meditation on him and Communion with him It lays aside the Ceremonial Spiritualizeth the moral The Commands that concerned our duty to God as well as those that concerned our duty to our Neighbour were reduced by Christ to their Spiritual intention The Motives are Spiritual t is a state of more grace as well as of more truth * John 1.17 supported by Spiritual promises beaming out in Spiritual priviledges heaven comes down in it to Earth to Spiritualize Earth for Heaven The manner of worship is more Spiritual higher flights of the Soul stronger ardours of affections sincerer aims at his glory mists are removed from our minds Cloggs from the Soul more of love than fear faith in Christ kindles the affections and works by them The assistances to Spiritual worship are greater The Spirit doth not drop but is plentifully poured out It doth not light sometimes upon but dwells in the heart Christ suted the Gospel to a Spiritual heart and the Spirit changeth a carnal heart to make it fit for a Spiritual Gospel He blows upon the Garden and causes the spices to flow forth And often makes the Soul in worship like the Chariots of Aminadab in a quick and nimble motion Our blessed Lord and Saviour by his death discovered to us the nature of God and after his ascension sent his Spirit to fit us for the worship of God and converse with him One Spiritual Evangelical believing breath is more delightful to God than millions of Altars made up of the richest pearls and smoaking with the costliest oblations because it is Spiritual And a mite of Spirit is of more worth than the greatest weight of flesh One holy Angel is more excellent than a whole world of meer bodies 7. Proposition Yet the worship of God with our bodies is not to be rejected upon the account that God requires a Spiritual worship Tho we must perform the weightier duties of the Law yet we are not to omit and leave undone the lighter precepts Since both the Magnalia and minutula legis the greater and the lesser duties of the Law have the stamp of Divine authority upon them As God under the Ceremonial Law did not Command the worship of the body and the observation of outward rites without the engagement of the Spirit so neither doth he Command that of the Spirit without the peculiar attendance of the body The Schwelk sendians denied bodily worship And the indecent postures of many in publick attendance intimate no great care either of Composing their bodies or Spirits A morally discomposed body intimates a tainted heart Our Bodies as well as our Spirits are to be presented to God * Rom. 12.1 Our bodies in lieu of the Sacrifices of Beasts as in the Judaical institutions body for the whole man a living Sacrifice not to be slain as the Beasts were but living a new life in a holy posture with Crucified affections This is the inference the Apostle makes of the priviledges of Justification Adoption Coheirship with Christ which he had before discoursed of Priviledges conferred upon the person and not upon a part of man 1. Bodily worship is due to God He hath a right to an Adoration by our bodies as they are his by Creation his right is not diminisht but increased by the blessing of Redemption 1 Cor. 6.20 For you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your Spirits which are Gods The Body as well as the Spirit is redeemed since our Saviour suffered Crucifixion in his body as well as Agonies in his Soul Body is not taken here for the whole man as it may be in Rom. 12. But for the material part of our nature it being distinguisht from the Spirit If we are to render to God an obedience with our bodies we are to render him such Acts of worship with our bodies as they are capable of As God is the Father of Spirits so he is the God of all flesh Therefore the flesh he hath framed of the Earth as well as the noble portion he hath breathed into us cannot be denyed him without apalpable in justice The service of the body we must not deny to God unless we will deny him to be the author of it and the exercise of his providential care about it The mercies of God are renewed every day upon our bodies as well as our Souls and therefore they ought to express a fealty to God for his bounty everyday * Sherman's Greek in the Temple pa. 61.62 both are from God both should be for God Man consists of Body and Soul the service of Man is the service of both The body is to be Sanctified as well as the Soul and therefore to be offered to God as well as the Soul Both are to be glorified both are to glorifie As our Saviours Divinity was manifested in his body so should our Spirituality in ours To give God the service of the body and not of the Soul is hypocrisie to give God the service of the Spirit and not of the body is sacriledge to give him neither Atheism If the only part of man that is visible were exempted from the service of God there could be no visible Testimonies of piety given upon any occasion Since not a moiety of man but the whole is Gods Creature he ought to pay a homage with the whole and not only with a moiety of himself 2. Worship in societies is due to God but this cannot be without some bodily expressions The law of nature doth as much direct men to combine together in publick societies for the acknowledgment of God as in Civil Communities for self preservation and order And the notice of a society for Religion is more Ancient than the mention of
Civil associations for Politick Government Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord viz. In the time of Seth. No question but Adam had worshipped God before as well as Abel and a Family-Religion had been preserved but as mankind increased in distinct Families they knit together in Companies to solemnize the worship of God * Stillingfleet's Irenicum cap. 1. § 1. pa. 23. Hence as some think those that incorporated together for such ends were called the Sons of God Sons by profession tho not Sons by Adoption As those of Corinth were Saints by profession tho in such a Corrupted Church they could not be all so by regeneration yet Saints as being of a Christian society and calling upon the name of Christ that is worshipping God in Christ tho they might not be all Saints in Spirit and Practise So Cain and Abel met together to worship Gen 4.3 at the end of the days at a set time God setled a publick worship among the Jews instituted Synagogues for their Convening together whence call'd the Synagogues of God * Psa 74.8 The Sabbath was instituted to acknowledge God a Common Benefactor Publick worship keeps up the Memorials of God in a world prone to Atheism and a sense of God in a heart prone to forgetfulness The Angels sung in Company not singly at the Birth of Christ * Luke 2.13 and praised God not only with a simple elevation of their Spiritual nature but audibly by forming a voice in the air Affections are more lively Spirits more raised in publick than private God will Credit his own ordinance Fire increaseth by laying together many Coals on one place so is devotion inflamed by the union of many hearts and by a joynt presence Nor can the approach of the last day of Judgment or particular Judgments upon a Nation give a Writ of ease from such assemblies Heb. 10.25 Not forsaking the assembling our selves together but so much the more as you see the day approaching Whether it be understood of the day of Judgment or the day of the Jewish destruction and the Christian persecution the Apostle uses it as an argument to quicken them to the observance not to encourage them to a neglect Since therefore natural light informs us and Divine institution Commands us publickly to acknowledge our selves the Servants of God it implies the service of the body Such acknowledgments cannot be without visible Testimonies and outward exercises of devotion as well as inward affections This promotes Gods honour checks others prophaness allures men to the same expressions of duty And tho there may be hypocrisy and an outward garb without an inward frame yet better a moiety of worship than none at all better acknowledge Gods right in one than disown it in both 3. Jesus Christ the most Spiritual worshipper worshipt God with his body He Prayed orally and kneeled Father if it be thy Will c. * Luke 22.41 42. He blessed with his mouth Father I thank thee * Mat. 11.26 He lifted up his eyes as well as elevated his Spirit when he praised his Father for mercy received or begged for the blessings his Disciples wanted * John 11.41 John 12.1 The strength of the Spirit must have vent at the outward members The holy men of God have employed the body in significant expressions of worship Abraham in falling on his face Paul in kneeling employing their Tongues lifting up their hands Tho Jacob was bedrid yet he would not worship God without some devout expression of Reverence t is in one place leaning upon his staff * Heb. 11.21 in another bowing himself upon his beds head * Gen. 47.31 The reason of the diversity is in the Heb. word which without vowels may be red Mittah a bed or Matteh a staff howsoever both signifie a Testimony of adoration by a reverent gesture of the body Indeed in Angels and separated Souls a worship is performed purely by the Spirit but whiles the Soul is in conjunction with the body it can hardly perform a serious act of worship without some tincture upon the outward man and reverential composure of the body Fire cannot be in the clothes but it will be felt by the members nor flames be pent up in the Soul without bursting out in the body The heart can no more restrain it self from breaking out than Joseph could enclose his affections without expressing them in tears to his Brethren * Gen. 45.1 2. We Believe and therefore speak * 2 Cor. 4.13 To conclude God hath appointed some parts of worship which cannot be performed without the body as Sacraments we have need of them because we are not wholly spiritual and incorporeal Creatures The Religion which consists in externals only is not for an intellectual nature A worship purely intellectual is too sublime for a nature allyed to sense and depending much upon it The Christian mode of worship is proportioned to both It makes the sense to assist the mind and elevates the spirit above the sense Bodily worship helps the spiritual The members of the body reflect back upon the heart the voice bars distractions the tongue sets the heart on fire in good as well as in evil T is as much against the light of nature to serve God without external significations as to serve him only with them without the intention of the mind As the invisible God declares himself to men by visible works and signs so should we declare our invisible frames by visible expressions God hath given us a soul and body in conjunction and we are to serve him in the same manner he hath framed us 2. The second thing I am to shew is what Spiritual worship is In general the whole Spirit is to be employed The name of God is not sanctifyed but by the engagement of our Souls Worship is an Act of the understanding applying it self to the knowledge of the excellency of God and actual thoughts of his Majesty recognizing him as the supreme Lord and Governour of the world which is natural knowledge beholding the glory of his Attributes in the Redeemer which is Evangelical knowledge This is the sole act of the Spirit of Man The same reason is for all our worship as for our thanksgiving This must be done with understanding Psal 47.7 Sing ye praise with understanding with a knowledge and sense of his greatness goodness and Wisdom T is also an act of the Will whereby the Soul adores and reverenceth his Majesty is ravisht with his amiableness embraceth his goodness enters it self into an intimate Communion with this most lovely object and pitcheth all his affections upon him We must worship God understandingly t is not else a reasonable service The nature of God and the Law of God abhor a blind offering we must worship him heartily else we offer him a dead Sacrifice A reasonable service is that wherein the mind doth truly act something with God
was a Type of Christ and a look to him is necessary in every spiritual Sacrifice As there must be Faith to make any act an act of obedience so there must be Faith to make any act of worship spiritual That service is not spiritual that is not vital and it cannot be vital without the exercise of a vital Principle All spiritual life is hid in Christ and drawn from him by Faith * Gal. 2.20 Faith as it hath relation to Christ makes every act of worship a living act and consequently a spiritual act Habitual unbelief cuts us off from the Body of Christ Rom. 11.20 Because of unbelief they were broken off and a want of actuated belief breaks us off from a present communion with Christ in Spirit As unbelief in us hinders Christ from doing any mighty work so unbelief in us hinders us from doing any mighty spiritual duty So that the exercise of Faith and a confidence in God is necessary to every duty 2. Love must be acted to render a worship spiritual Though God commanded love in the Old-Testament yet the manner of giving the Law bespoke more of Fear than Love The dispensation of the Law was with Fire Thunder c. proper to raise horror and benum the Spirit which effect it had upon the Israelites when they desired that God would speake no more to them Grace is the Genius of the Gospel proper to excite the affection of Love The Law was given by the disposition of Angels with signs to amaze the Gospel was usher'd in with the songs of Angels composed of peace and good-will calculated to ravish the Soul Instead of the terrible voice of the Law do this and live The comfortable voice of the Gospel is Grace Grace Upon this account the principle of the Old testament was Fear and the Worship often exprest by the Fear of God The principle of the New-testament is Love The Mount Sinai gendreth to Bondage * Gal. 4.44 Mount Sion from whence the Gospel or Evangelical Law goes forth gendreth to Liberty and therefore the Spirit of Bondage unto Fear as the Property of the Law is opposed to the State of Adoption the principle of Love as the property of the Gospel * Rom. 8.15 And therefore the worship of God under the Gospel or New-testament is oftner exprest by Love than Fear as proceeding from higher principles and acting nobler passions In this State we are to serve him without fear * Luke 1.74 without a Bondage-fear not without a fear of unworthy treating him with a fear of his goodness as it is prophesied of * Hos 9.9 Goodness is not the object of terror but reverence God in the Law had more the garb of a Judge in the Gospel of a Father The name of a Father is sweeter and bespeaks more of affection As their services were with a feeling of the thunders of the Law in their Consciences so is our worship to be with a sense of Gospel-grace in our Spirits Spiritual worship is that therefore which is exercised with a spiritual and heavenly affection proper to the Gospel The heart should be enlarged according to the liberty the Gospel gives of drawing neer to God as a Father As he gives us the nobler relation of Children we are to act the nobler qualities of Children Love should act according to its nature which is desire of Union desire of a moral union by Affections as well as a mystical union by Faith as flame aspires to reach flame and become one with it In every act of worship we should endeavour to be united to God and become one Spirit with him This Grace doth spiritualize Worship In that one word Love God hath wrapt up all the devotion he requires of us 'T is the total sum of the first Table Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 'T is to be acted in every thing we do But in Worship our hearts should more solemnly rise up and acknowledge him amiable and lovely since the Law is stript of its cursing power and made sweet in the blood of the Redeemer Love is a thing acceptable of it self but nothing acceptable without it The gifts of one man to another are spiritualized by it We would not value a Present without the affection of the Donor Every man would lay claim to the love of others though he would not to their Possessions Love is Gods right in every service and the noblest thing we can bestow upon him in our adorations of him Gods gifts to us are not so estimable without his love not our services valuable by him without the exercise of a choice affection Hezekiah regarded not his deliverance without the love of the Deliverer In love to my Soul thou hast delivered me * Isa 38.17 So doth God say in love to my honour thou hast worshipped me So that Love must be acted to render our worship spiritual 3. A spiritual sensibleness of our own weakness is necessary to make our worship spiritual Affections to God cannot be without relentings in our selves When the eye is spiritually fixed upon a spiritual God the heart will mourn that the worship is no more spiritually sutable The more we act love upon God as amiable and gracious the more we should exercise grief in our selves as we are vile and offending Spiritual worship is a melting worship as well as an elevating worship It exalts God and debaseth the Creature The Publican was more spiritual in his humble address to God when the Pharisee was wholly carnal with his swelling language A spiritual love in worship will make us grieve that we have given him so little and could give him no more 'T is a part of spiritual duty to bewail our carnality mixed with it as we receive mercies spiritually when we receive them with a sense of Gods goodness and our own vileness in the same manner we render a spiritual worship 4. Spiritual desires for God render the service spiritual When the Soul follows hard after him * Psal 63.8 pursues after God as a God of infinite and communicative goodness with sighs and groans unutterable A spiritual Soul seems to be transformed into hunger and thirst and becomes nothing but desire A carnal Worshipper is taken with the beauty and magnificence of the Temple a spiritual Worshipper desires to see the glory of God in the Sanctuary * Psal 63.2 He pants after God As he came to worship to find God he boyls up in desires for God and is loth to go from it without God the living God Psal 42.2 He would see the Vrim and the Thummim the unusual sparkling of the stones upon the High-priests Breast-plate That deserves not the title of spiritual worship when the Soul makes no longing inquiries saw you him whom my Soul loves A spiritual worship is when our desires are chiefly for God in the worship As David desires to dwell in the House of the Lord but his desire is not terminated
be a slight and mean Being Our being in Covenant with him must not lower our awful apprehensions of him As he is the Lord thy God 't is a gloririous and fearful Name or wonderful * Deut. 28.58 Though he lay by his Justice to Believers he doth not lay by his Majesty When we have a confidence in him because he is the Lord our God we must have awful thoughts of his Majesty because his name is glorious God is terrible from his Holy-places in regard of the great things he doth for his Israel * Psal 68.35 We should behave our selves with that inward honour and respect of him as if he were present to our bodily eyes The higher apprehensions we have of his Majesty the greater aw will be upon our hearts in his presence and the greater spirituality in our acts We should manage our hearts so as if we had a view of God in his heavenly glory 9. Spiritual Worship is to be performed with humility in our Spirits This is to follow upon the reverence of God As we are to have high thoughts of God that we may not debase him we must have low thoughts of our selves not to vaunt before him When we have right notions of the Divine Majesty we shall be as Worms in our own thoughts and creep as Worms into his presence We can never consider him in his Glory but we have a fit opportunity to reflect upon our selves and consider how basely we revolted from him and how graciously we are restored by him As the Gospel affords us greater discoveries of Gods nature and so enhaunceth our reverence of him so it helps us to a fuller understanding of our own vileness and weakness and therefore is proper to ingender Humility The more spiritual and evangelical therefore any service is the more humble it is That is a spiritual service that doth most manifest the glory of God and this cannot be manifested by us without manifesting our own emptiness and nothingness The Heathens were sensible of the necessity of Humility by the Light of Nature * Plutarch Moral P. 344. after the Name of God signified by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inscribed on the Temple at Delphos followed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby was insinuated that when we have to do with God who is the only Ens we should behave our selves with a sense of our own infirmity and infinite distance from him As a person so a duty leavened with Pride hath nothing of sincerity and therefore nothing of spirituality in it Hab. 2.4 His Soul which is lifted up is not upright in him The Elders that were crowned by God to be Kings and Priests to offer spiritual Sacrifices uncrown themselves in their worship of him and cast down their Ornaments at his feet * Revel 4 1◠compared with 5. and the 1◠The Greek word to worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to creep like a Dog upon his belly before his Master to lye low How deep should our sense be of the priviledge of Gods admitting us to his worship and affording us such a mercy under our deserts of wrath How mean should be our thoughts both of our persons and performances How patiently should we wait upon God for the success of worship How did Abraham the Father of the Faithful equal himself to the Earth when he supplicated the God of Heaven and devote himself to him under the title of very Dust and Ashes * Gen. 18.27 Isaiah did but behold an Evangelical Apparition of God and the Angels worshipping him and presently reflects upon his own uncleaness * Isa 6.5 Gods presence both requires and causes Humility How lowly is David in his own opinion after a magnificent duty performed by himself and his people 1 Chron. 29.14 Who am I And what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly The more spiritual the Soul is in its carriage to God the more humble it is and the more gracious God is in his communications to the Soul the lower it lies God commanded not the fiercer Creatures to be offered to him in Sacrifices but Lambs and Kids meek and lowly Creatures none that had stings in their tails or venom in their tongues * Caudam aculeatam vel linguam nigram Alexand. ab Alex. l. 3. c. 12. The meek Lamb was the daily Sacrifice The Doves were to be offered by Pairs God would not have Hony mixed with any Sacrifice Levit. 2.11 That breeds Choler and Choler Pride but Oyle he commanded to be used that supples and mollifies the parts Swelling Pride and boiling Passions render our services carnal they cannot be spiritual without an humble sweetness and an innocent sincerity One grain of this transcends the most costly Sacrifices A Contrite Heart puts a gloss upon Worship * Psal 51.16 17 The departure of men and Angels from God began in Pride Our approaches and return to him must begin in Humility And therefore all those Graces which are bottom'd on Humility must be acted in worship as Faith and a sense of our own indigence Our blessed Saviour the most spiritual Worshipper prostrated himself in the Garden with the greatest lowliness and offered himself upon the Cross a Sacrifice with the greatest humility Melted Souls in worship have the most spiritual conformity to the person of Christ in the state of humiliation and his design in that state As worship without it is not sutable to God so neither is it advantageous for us A time of worship is a time of Gods Communication The Vessel must be melted to receive the Mould it is designed for Softned wax is fittest to receive a stamp and a spiritually melted Soul fittest to receive a spiritual impression We cannot perform duty in an evangelical and spiritual strain without the meltingness and meaness in our selves which the Gospel requires 10. Spiritual worship is to be performed with Holiness God is a holy Spirit a likeness to God must attend the worshipping of God as he is Holiness is alway in season It becomes his house for ever * Psal 91.5 We can never serve the living God till we have Consciences purged from dead works Heb. 9.14 Dead works in our Consciences are unsutable to God an eternal living Spirit The more mortified the heart the more quickned the service Nothing can please an infinite Purity but that which is pure Since God is in his Glory in his Ordinances we must not be in our Filthiness The Holiness of his Spirit doth sparkle in his Ordinances The holiness of our Spirits ought also to sparkle in our observance of them The Holiness of God is most celebrated in the worship of Angels * Isa 6.3 Revel 4.8 Spiritual worship ought to be like Angelical That cannot be with Souls totally impure As there must be perfect holiness to make a worship perfectly spiritual so there must be some degree of holiness to make it in any measure spiritual God would
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
Majesty of God and the reason of a Creature to give him a trivial thing 'T is unworthy to bestow the best of our strength on our Lust and the worst and weakest in the service of God An infinite Spirit should have affections as near to infinite as we can As he is a Spirit without bounds so he should have a service without limits When we have given him all we cannot serve him according to the excellency of his nature * Josh 24.19 and shall we give him less than all His infinite excellency and our dependance on him as Creatures demands the choicest adoration Our Spirits being the noblest part of our nature are as due to him as the service of our bodies which are the vilest To serve him with the worst only is to diminish his honour 2. Vnder the Law God commanded the best to be offered him He would have the Males the best of the kind the fat the best of the Creature * Exod. 29.13 The inward fat not the of-fails He commanded them to offer him the Firstlings of the flock not the Firstlings of the Womb but the Firstlings of the Year The Jewish Cattle having two breeding times in the beginning of the Spring and the beginning of September The latter breed was the weaker which Jacob knew * Gen. 30. when he laid the Rods before the Cattle when they were strong in the Spring and witheld them when they were feeble in the Autumn One reason as the Jews say why God accepted not the offering of Cain was because he brought the meanest not the best of the fruit and therefore 't is said only that he brought of the fruit of the Ground Gen. 4.3 not the first of the fruit or the best of the fruit as Abel who brought the Firstling of his Flock and the Fat thereof v. 4. 3. And this the Heathen practiced by the light of Nature They for the most part offered Males as being more worthy and burnt the Male not the Female Frank incense as it is divided into those two kinds They offered the best when they offered their Children to Molock Nothing more excellent than Man and nothing dearer to Parents than their Children which are parts of themselves When the Israelites would have a Golden-Calf for a representation of God they would dedicate their Jewels and strip their Wives and Children of their richest Ornaments to shew their devotion Shall men serve their dumb Idols with the best of their substance and the strength of their Souls and shall the living God have a duller service from us than Idols had from them God requires no such hard but delightful worship from us our spirits 4. All Creatures serve Man by the providential order of God with the best they have As we by Gods appointment receive from Creatures the best they can give ought we not with a free will render to God the best we can offer The Beasts give us their best Fat the Trees their best Fruit the Sun its best Light the Fountains their best Streams Shall God order us the best from Creatures and we put him off with the worst from our selves 5. God hath given us the choicest thing he had A Redeemer that was the Power of God and the Wisdom of God The best he had in Heaven his own Son and in himself a Sacrifice for us that we might be enabled to present our selves a Sacrifice to Him And Christ offered himself for us the best he had and that with the strength of the Deity through the Eternal Spirit and shall we grudge God the best part of our selves As God would have a worship from his Creature so it must be with the best part of his Creature If we have given our selves to the Lord * 2 Cor. 8.5 we can worship with no less than our selves What is the Man without his Spirit If we are to worship God with all that we have received from him we must worship him with the best part we have received from him 'T is but a small glory we can give him with the best and shall we deprive him of his right by giving him the worst As what we are is from God so what we are ought to be for God Creation is the foundation of worship Psal 100.2 3. Serve the Lord with gladness Know ye that the Lord he is God 't is he that hath made us He hath ennobled us with spiritual affections where is it fittest for us to employ them but upon him and at what time but when we come solemnly to converse with him Is it Justice to deny him the honour of his best gift to us Our Souls are more his gift to us than any thing in the World Other things are so given that they are often taken from us but our Spirits are the most durable gift Rational faculties cannot be removed without a dissolution of nature Well then * Amyraut Mor. Tom. 2. P. 311. As he is God he is to be honoured with all the propensions and ardor that the infiniteness and excellency of such a Being requires and the incomparable obligations he hath laid upon us in this state deserve at our hands In all our worship therefore our minds ought to be filled with the highest admiration love and reverence Since our end was to glorifie God we answer not our end and honour him not unless we give him the choicest we have Reason 2. We cannot else act towards God according to the nature of rational Creatures Spiritual worship is due to God because of his nature and due from us because of our nature As we are to adore God so we are to adore him as men The nature of a rational Creature makes this impression upon him He cannot view his own nature without having this duty striking upon his mind As he knows by inspection into himself that there was a God that made him so that he is made to be in subjection to God subjection to him in his Spirit as well as his Body and ought morally to testifie this natural dependance on him His constitution informs him that he hath a capacity to converse with God that he cannot converse with him but by those inward faculties If it could be managed by his Body without his Spirit Beasts might as well converse with God as Men. It can never be a reasonable service as it ought to be * Rom. 12.1 unless the reasonable faculties be employed in the management of it It must be a worship prodigiously lame without the concurrence of the cheifest part of Man with it As we are to act conformably to the nature of the object so also to the nature of our own faculties Our faculties in the very gift of them to us were destined to be exercised about what What All other things but the Author of them 'T is a conceit cannot enter into the heart of a rational Creature that he should act as such a Creature in other things
less vain must it be when the Bodies of Men are presented to supply the place of their Spirits As an omission of duty is a contempt of Gods Soveraign Authority so the omission of the manner of it is a contempt of it and of his amiable excellency and that which is a contempt and mockery can lay no just claim to the title of Worship Reason 4. There is in worship an approach of God to Man It was instituted to this purpose that God might give out his blessings to Man And ought not our Spirits to be prepared and ready to receive his communications We are in such acts more peculiarly in his presence In the Israelites hearing the Law it is said God was to come among them * Exod. 19.10 11. Then men are said to stand before the Lord * Deut. 10.8 God before whom I stand that is whom I worship And therefore when Cain forsook the worship of God setled in his Fathers Family * Kings 1.17 he is said to go out from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4.16 God is essentially present in the world graciously present in his Church The name of the Evangelical City is Jehovah Shammah * Ezek. 48.35 the Lord is there God is more graciously present in the Evangelical institutions than in the Legal He loves the Gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob * Psal 87.2 His Evangelical Law and Worship which was to go forth from Zion as the other did from Sinai Mic. 4.2 God delights to approach to Men and converse with them in the worship instituted in the Gospel more than in all the dwellings of Jacob. If God be graciously present ought not we to be spiritually present A liveless Carcass service becomes not so high and delectable a presence as this 'T is to thrust him from us not invite him to us 'T is to practise in the Ordinances what the Prophet predicts concerning mens usage of our Saviour Isa 53.2 There is no form no comeliness nor beauty that we should desire him A slightness in worship reflects upon the excellency of the object of worship God and his worship are so linkt together that whosoever thinks the one not worth his inward care esteems the other not worth his inward affection How unworthy a slight is it of God who profers the opening his Treasure the reimpressing his Image conferring his blessings admits us into his presence when he hath no need for us who hath millions of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise He that worships not God with his Spirit regards not Gods presence in his Ordinances and slights the great end of God in them and that perfection he may attain by them We can only expect what God hath promised to give when we tender to him what he hath commanded us to present If we put off God with a Shell he will put us off with a Husk How can we expect his heart when we do not give him ours or hope for the blessing needful for us when we render not the glory due to him It cannot be an advantagious worship without spiritual graces for those are uniting and Union is the ground of all Communion Reason 5. To have a spiritual worship is Gods end in the restoration of the Creature both in Redemption by his Son and Sanctification by his Spirit A fitness for spiritual Offerings was the end of the coming of Christ * Mal. 3.3 He should purge them as Gold and Silver by Fire a Spirit burning up their dross melting them into a holy compliance with and submission to God To what purpose That they may offer to the Lord an Offering in Righteousnes a pure Offering from a purified Spirit He came to bring us to God * 1 Pet. 3.18 in such a Garb as that we might be fit to converse with him Can we be thus without a fixedness of our Spirits on him The offering of spiritual Sacrifices is the end of making any a spiritual Habitation and a holy Priest-hood * Pet. 2.5 We can no more be Worshippers of God without a Worshippers nature than a man can be a man without humane nature As man was at first created for the honour and worship of God so the design of restoring that Image which was defaced by Sin tends to the same end We are not brought to God by Christ nor are our services presented to him if they be without our Spirits Would any man that undertakes to bring another to a Prince introduce him in a slovenly and sordid habit such a garb that he knows hateful to him Or bring the Clothes or Skin of a Man stuft with straw instead of the Person To come with our Skins before God without our Spirits is contrary to the design of God in Redemption and Regeneration If a carnal worship would have pleased God a carnal heart would have served his turn without the expence of his Spirit in Sanctification He bestows upon man a spiritual nature that he may return to him a spiritual service He enlightens the Understanding that he may have a rational service and new moulds the Will that he may have a voluntary service As it is the Milk of the Word wherewith he feeds us so it is the service of the Word wherewith we must glorifie him So much as there is of confusedness in our understanding so much of starting and levity in our Wills so much of slipperiness and skipping in our affections so much is abated of the due qualities of the worship of God and so much we fall short of the end of Redemption and Sanctification Reason 6. A spiritual worship is to be offered to God because no worship but that can be acceptable We can never be secured of acceptance without it He being a Spirit nothing but the worship in Spirit can be sutable to him What is unsutable cannot be acceptable There must be something in us to make our services capable of being presented by Christ for an actual acceptation No service is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ but as it is a spiritual Sacrifice and offered by a spiritual heart 1 Pet. 2.5 The Sacrifice is first spiritual before it be acceptable to God by Christ When it is an offering in righteousness it is then and only then pleasant to the Lord Mal. 3.3 4. No Prince would accept a gift that is unsutable to his Majesty and below the condition of the person that presents it Would he be pleased with a bottle of water for drink from one that hath his Cellar full of wine How unacceptable must that be that is unsutable to the Divine Majesty And what can be more unsutable than a withdrawing the operations of our Souls from him in the oblation of our Bodies We as little glorifie God as God when we give him only a corporeal worship as the Heathen did when they represented him in a corporeal shape * Rom. 1.21
one as well as the other denies his spiritual nature This is worse for had it been lawful to represent God to the eye it could not have been done but by a bodily figure suted to the sense but since it is necessary to worship him it cannot be by a corporeal attendance without the operation of the Spirit A spiritual frame is more pleasing to God than the highest exterior adornments than the greatest gifts and the highest Prophetical illuminations The glory of the second Temple exceeded the glory of the first * Hag. 2.8 9. As God accounts the spiritual glory of Ordinances most beneficial for us so our spiritual attendance upon Ordinances is most pleasing to him He that offers the greatest services without it offers but flesh Hos 8.13 They sacrifice Flesh for the Sacrifices of my Offerings but the Lord accepts them not Spiritual frames are the Soul of Religious services all other carriages without them are contemptible to this Spirit We can never lay claim to that promise of God none shall seek my face in vain We affect a vain seeking of him when we want a due temper of Spirit for him And vain Spirits shall have vain returns 'T is more contrary to the nature of Gods Holiness to have communion with such than it is contrary to the nature of Light to have communion with Darkness To make use of this Vse 1. First it serves for information 1. If spiritual worship be required by God How sad is it for them that are so far from giving God a spiritual worship that they render him no worship at all I speak not of the neglect of publick but of private when men present not a devotion to God from one years end to the other The speech of our Saviour that we must worship God in Spirit and Truth implies that a worship is due to him from every one That is the common impression upon the Consciences of all men in the world if they have not by some constant course in gross sins hardned their Souls and stifled those natural sentiments There was never a Nation in the world without some kind of Religion and no Religion was ever without some modes to testifie a devotion The Heathens had their Sacrifices and Purifications and the Jews by Gods order had their rites whereby they were to express their Allegiance to God Consider 1. Worship is a duty incumbent upon all men 'T is a homage Mankind ows to God under the relation wherein he stands obliged to him 'T is a prime and immutable justice to own our Allegiance to him 'T is as unchangeable a truth that God is to be worshipped as that God is He is to be worshipped as God as Creator and therefore by all since he is the Creator of all the Lord of all and all are his Creatures and all are his Subjects Worship is founded upon Creation Psal 100.2 3. 'T is due to God for himself and his own essential excellency and therefore due from all 'T is due upon the account of mans nature The human rational nature is the same in all Whatsoever is due to God upon the account of mans nature and the natural obligations he hath laid upon man is due from all men because they all enjoy the benefits which are proper to their nature Man in no state was exempted nor can be exempted from it In Paradise he had his Sabbath and Sacraments Man therefore dissolves the obligation of a reasonable nature by neglecting the worship of God Religion is in the first place to be minded As soon as Noah came out of the Ark he contrived not a Habitation for himself but an Altar for the Lord to acknowledge him the Author of his preservation from the Deluge * Gen. 8.20 And wheresoever Abraham came his first business was to erect an Altar and pay his arrears of gratitude to God before he ran upon the score for new mercies * Gen. 12.7 Gen. 13.4.18 He left a testimony of worship where ever he came 2. Wholly therefore to neglect it is a high degree of Atheism He that calls not upon God saith in his heart there is no God and seems to have the sentiments of natural Conscience as to God stifled in him * Psal 14.1 4 It must arise from a conceit that there is no God or that we are equal to him adoration not being due from persons of an equal state or that God is unable or unwilling to take notice of the adoring acts of his Creatures What is any of these but an undeifying the supream Majesty When we lay aside all thoughts of paying any homage to him we are in a fair way opinionatively to deny him as much as we practically disown him Where there is no knowledge of God that is no acknowledgment of God a gap is opened to all licentiousness * Hos 4.1 2. And that by degrees brawns the Conscience and raseth out the sense of God Those forsake God that forget his holy Mountain * Isa 65.11 They do not practically own him as the Creator of their Souls or bodies 'T is the sin of Cain who turning his back upon worship is said to go out from the presence of the Lord * Gen. 4.16 Not to worship him with our Spirits is against his Law of Creation Not to worship him at all is against his act of Creation Not to worship him in truth is Hypocrisie Not to worship him at all is Atheism whereby we render our selves worse than the worms in the Earth or a toad in a Ditch 3. To perform a worship to a false God or to the true God in a false manner seems to be less a sin than to live in perpetual neglects of it Though it be directed to a false Object instead of God yet it is under the notion of a God and so is an acknowledgement of such a Being as God in the world whereas the total neglect of any worship is a practical denying of the existence of any supream Majesty Whosoever constantly omits a publick and private worship transgresses against an universally received dictate For all Nations have agreed in the common notion of worshipping God though they have disagreed in the several modes and rites whereby they would testifie that adoration By a worship of God though superstitious a veneration and reverence of such a being is maintained in the world whereas by a total neglect of worship he is vertually disowned and discarded if not from his existence yet from his Providence and Government of the world All the mercies we breath in are denied to flow from him A foolish worship owns Religion though it bespatters it As if a stranger coming into a Country mistakes a Subject for the Prince and pays that reverence to the Subject which is due to the Prince though he mistakes the object yet he owns an Authority or if he pays any respect to the true Prince of that Country after the mode of
Zech. 4.1 The Angel that talked with me came again and awaked me as a man is awaked out of sleep He had been rouzed up before but he was ready to drop down again his heart was gone till the Angel jogged him We may complain of such imaginations as Jerem. doth of the Enemies of the Jews * Lam. 4.19 Our Persecutors are swifter than Eagles they light upon us with as much speed as Eagles upon a Carcass they pursue us upon the Mountain of Divine institutions and they lay wait for us in the Wilderness in our retired addresses to God And this will be so while 1. There is natural corruption in us There are in a Godly man two contrary principles Flesh and Spirit which endeavour to hinder one anothers acts and are alway stirring upon the offensive or defensive part * Gal. 5.17 There is a body of death continually exhaling its noysom vapours 'T is a body of death in our worship as well as in our natures it snaps our resolutions asunder * Rom. 7.19 it hinders us in the doing good and contradicts our wills in the stirring up evil This corruption being seated in all the faculties and a constant Domestick in them has the greater opportunity to trouble us since it is by those faculties that we spiritually transact with God and it stirs more in the time of religious exercises though it be in part mortified As a wounded Beast though tired will rage and strive to its utmost when the Enemy is about to fetch a blow at it All duties of worship tend to the wounding of corruption and it is no wonder to feel the striving of sin to defend it self and offend us when we have our Arms in our hands to mortifie it that the blow may be diverted which is directed against it The Apostles had aspiring thoughts and being perswaded of an earthly Kingdom expected a Grandeur in it And though we find some appearance of it at other times as when they were casting out Devils and gave an account of it to their Master he gives them a kind of a check * Luke 10.20 intimating that there was some kind of evil in their rejoycing upon that account Yet this never swelled so high as to break out into a quarrel who should be greatest * Luke 22.24 until they had the most solemn Ordinance the Lords Supper to quell it* Our corruption is like Lime which discovers not its fire by any smoke or heat till you cast water the Enemy of fire upon it Neither doth our natural corruption rage so much as when we are using means to quench and destroy it 2. While there is a Devil and we in his Precinct As he accuseth us to God so he disturbs us in our selves He is a bold Spirit and loves to intrude himself when we are conversing with God We read that when the Angels presented themselves before God Satan comes among them * Job 1.6 Motions from Satan will thrust themselves in with our most raised and Angelical frames He loves to take off the edge of our Spirits from God He acts but after the old rate He from the first envied God an obedience from man and envied man the felicity of communion with God He is unwilling God should have the honour of worship and that we should have the fruit of it He hath himself lost it and therefore is unwilling we should enjoy it and being subtil he knows how to make impressions upon us sutable to our inbred corruptions and assault us in the weakest part He knows all the avenues to get within us as he did in the temptation of Eve and being a Spirit he wants not a power to dart them immediatly upon our fancy And being a Spirit and therefore active and nimble he can shoot those darts faster than our weakness can beat them off He is diligent also and watcheth for his Prey and seeks to devour our services as well as our Souls and snatch our best morsels from us We know he mixed himself with our Saviours retirements in the Wilderness and endeavoured to Fly-blow his holy converse with his Father in the preparation to his mediatory work Satan is Gods Ape and imitates the Spirit in the Office of a Remembrancer As the Spirit brings good thoughts and divine promises to mind to quicken our worship so the Devil brings evil things to mind and endeavours to fasten them in our Souls to disturb us And though all the foolish starts we have in worship are not purely his issue yet being of kin to him he claps his hands and sets them on like so many Mastives to tear the service in pieces And both those distractions which arise from our own corruption and from Satan are most rise in worship when we are under some pressing affliction This seems to be David's Case Psal 86. when in v. 11. He prays God to unite his heart to fear and worship his Name he seems to be under some affliction or fear of his Enemies Oh free me from those distractions of Spirit and those passions which arise in my Soul upon considering the designs of my enemies against me and press upon me in my addresses to thee and attendances on thee Job also in his affliction complains Job 17.11 That his purposes were broken off He could not make an even thread of thoughts and resolutions they were frequently snapt saunder like rotten Yarn when one is winding it up Good Men and spiritual Worshippers have lain under this trouble Though they are a sign of weakness of grace or some obstructions in the acting of strong grace yet they are not alway evidences of a want of grace What ariseth from our own corruption is to be matter of humiliation and resistance what ariseth from Satan should edge our minds to a noble conquest of them If the Apostle did comfort himself with his disapproving of what rose from the natural spring of sin within him with his consent to the Law and dissent from his Lust and charges it not upon himself but upon the sin that dwelt in him with which he had broken off the former League and was resolved never to enter into Amity with it By the same reason we may comfort our selves if such thoughts are undelighted in and alienate not our hearts from the worship of God by all their busie intrusions to interrupt us 2. These distractions not allowed may be occasions by an holy improvement to make our hearts more spiritual after worship though they disturb us in it By answering those ends for which we may suppose God permits them to invade us And that is 1. When they are occasions to humble us 1. For our carriage in the particular worship There is nothing so dangerous as spiritual pride It deprived Devils and Men of the presence of God and will hinder us of the influence of God If we had had raised and uninterrupted motions in worship we should be apt to be lifted
more distractions jogg us the more need we should see of going out to a Saviour by Faith One part of our Saviours Office is to stand between us and the infirmities of our worship As he is an Advocate he presents our services and pleads for them and us * 1 John 2.1 for the sins of our duties as well as for our other sins Jesus Christ is an High-priest appointed by God to take away the iniquities of our holy things which was typified by Aarons Plate upon his Mitre * Exod. 28.36 38. Were there no imperfections were there no creeping up of those Froggs into our minds we should think our worship might merit acceptance with God upon its own account But if we behold our own weakness that not a tear a groan a sigh is so pure but must have Christ to make it entertainable that there is no worship without those blemishes and upon this throw all our services into the Arms of Christ for acceptance and sollicite him to put his merits in the front to make our ciphers appear valuable 't is a spiritual act the design of God in the Gospel being to advance the honour and mediation of his Son That is a spiritual and evangelical act which answers the evangelical design The design of Satan and our own corruption is defeated when those interruptions make us run swifter and take faster hold on the High-priest who is to present our worship to God and our own Souls receive comfort thereby Christ had temptations offered to him by the Devil in his Wilderness retirement that from an experimental knowledge he might be able more compassionatly to succour us * Heb. 2.18 we have such assaults in our retir'd worship especially that we may be able more highly to value him and his mediation 3. Let us not therefore be discouraged by those interruptions and starts of our hearts 1. If we find in our selves a strong resistance of them The Flesh will be lusting that cannot be hindered yet if we do not fulfil the lusts of it rise up at its command and go about its work we may be said to walk in the Spirit * Gal. 5.16 17. We walk in the Spirit if we fulfil not the lusts of the Flesh though there be a lusting of the Flesh against the Spirit So we worship in the Spirit though there be carnal thoughts arising if we do not fulfil them though the stirring of them discovers some contrariety in us to God yet the resistance manifests that there is a principle of contrariety in us to them that as there is something of Flesh that lusts against the Spirit so there is something of Spirit in worship which lusts against the Flesh We must take heed of omitting worship because of such in-rodes and lying down in the mire of a total neglect If our Spirits are made more lively and vigorous against them If those cold vapours which have risen from our hearts make us like a Spring in the midst of the cold Earth more warm There is in this case more reason for us to bless God than to be discouraged God looks upon it as the disease not the wilfulness of our nature as the weakness of the Flesh not the willingness of the Spirit If we would shut the door upon them it seems they are unwelcome company Men do not use to lock their doors upon those they love If they break in and disturb us with their impertinencies we need not be discomforted unless we give them a share in our affections and turn our back upon God to entertain them If their presence makes us sad their flight would make us joyful 2. If we find our selves excited to a stricter watch over our hearts against them As Travellers will be careful when they come to places where they have been rob'd before that they be not so easily surprized again We should not only lament when we have had such foolish imaginations in worship breaking in upon us but also bless God that we have had no more since we have hearts so fruitful of weeds We should give God the glory when we find our hearts preserved from these intruders and not boast of our selves but return him our praise for the watch and guard he kept over us to preserve us from such Thieves Let us not be discomforted for as the greatness of our sins upon our turning to God is no hinderance to our justification because it doth not depend upon our conversion as the meritorious cause but upon the infinite value of our Saviours satisfaction which reaches the greatest sins as well as the least so the multitude of our bewail'd distractions in worship are not a hinderance to our acceptation because of the uncontroulable power of Christs intercession Vse 3. Is for exhortation Since Spiritual worship is due to God and the Father seeks such to worship him how much should we endeavour to satisfie the desire and order of God and act conformable to the Law of our Creation and the love of Redemption Our end must be the same in worship which was Gods end in Creation and Redemption to glorifie his name set forth his perfections and be rendred fit as Creatures and Redeemed ones to partake of that grace which is the fruit of worship An Evangelical dispensation requires a Spiritual homage to neglect therefore either the matter or manner of Gospel duties is to put a slight upon Gospel priviledges The manner of duty is ever of more value than the matter the Scarlet dye is more precious than the cloth tinctured with it God respects more the diposition of the Sacrificer than the multitude of the Sacrifices * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Abstinentia The Solemn feasts appointed by God were but Dung as managed by the Jews Mâ—â— 2.3 The heart is often welcome without the body but the body never graâ—â—ful without the heart The inward acts of the Spirit require nothing from without to constitute them good in themselves but the outward acts of devotion require inward acts to render them savory to God As the goodness of outward acts consists not in the acts themselves so the acceptableness of them results not from the acts themselves but from the inward frame animating and quickning those acts as blood and Spirits running through the veins of a duty to make it a living service in the sight of God Imperfections in worship hinder not Gods acceptation of it if the heart Spirited by Grace be there to make it a sweet Savour The stench of burning flesh and fat in the legal Sacrifices might render them noysome to the outward senses but God smelt a sweet savour in them as they respected Christ When the heart and Spirit are offered up to God it may be a savory duty though attended with unsavory imperfections But a thousand Sacrifices without a stamp of faith a thousand Spiritual duties with an habitual carnality are no better than stench with God The heart must
to the Holiness of God as a frothy unmelted heart and a wanton fancy in a time of worship God is so holy that if we could offer the worship of Angels and the quintessence of our Souls in his service it would be beneath his infinite purity How unworthy then are they of him when they are presented not only without the sense of our uncleaness but sullied with the fumes and exhalations of our corrupt affections which are as so many Plague spots upon our duties contrary to the unspotted purity of the Divine Nature Is not this an unworthy conceit of God and injurious to his infinite Holiness 9. 'T is against the Love and Kindness of God 'T is a condescension in God to admit a piece of Earth to offer up a duty to him when he hath miriads of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise To admit Man to be an Attendant on him and a Partner with Angels is a high favour 'T is not a single mercy but a heap of mercies to be admitted into the presence of God Psal 5.7 I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies When the blessed God is so kind as to give us access to his Majesty do we not undervalue his kindness when we deal uncivilly with him and deny him the choicest part of our selves 'T is a contempt of his Soveraignty as our Spirits are due to him by nature a contempt of his Goodness as our Spirits are due to him by gratitude How abusive a carriage is it to make use of his mercy to encourage our impudence that should excite our fear and reverence How unworthy would it be for an indigent Debtor to bring to his indulgent Creditor an empty Purse instead of Payment When God holds out his Golden Scepter to encourage our approaches to him stands ready to give us the pardon of sin and full felicity the best things he hath Is it a fit requital of his kindness to give him a formal outside only a shadow of Religion to have the heart overswayed with other thoughts and affections as if all his profers were so contemptible as to deserve only a slight at our hands 'T is a contempt of the love and kindness of God 10. 'T is against the Sufficiency and Fullness of God When we give God our Bodies and the Creature our Spirits it intimates a conceit that there is more content to be had in the Creature than in God blessed for ever that the waters in the Cistern are sweeter than those in the Fountain Is not this a practical giving God the Lye and denying those promises wherein he hath declared the satisfaction he can give to the Spirit as he is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh If we did imagin the excellency and loveliness of God were worthy to be the ultimate Object of our affections the heart would attend more closely upon him and be terminated in him did we believe God to be all sufficient full of grace and goodness a tender Father not willing to forsake his own willing as well as able to supply their wants the heart would not so lamely attend upon him and would not upon every impertinency be diverted from him There is much of a wrong notion of God and a predominancy of the world above him in the heart when we can more savourly relish the thoughts of low inferior things than heavenly and let our Spirits upon every trifling occasion be fugitives from him 'T is a testimony that we make not God our chiefest good If apprehensions of his excellency did possess our Souls they would be fastned on him glued to him we should not listen to that rabble of foolish thoughts that steal our hearts so often from him Were our breathings after God as strong as the pantings of the Hart after the water Brooks we should be like that Creature not diverted in our Course by every Puddle Were God the predominant satisfactory Object in our eye he would carry our whole Soul along with him When our Spirits readily retreat from God in worship upon every giddy motion 't is a kind of repentance that ever we did come near him and implies that there is a fuller satisfaction and more attractive excellency in that which doth so easily divert us than in that God to whose worship we did pretend to address our selves 'T is as if when we were petitioning a Prince we should immediately turn about and make request to one of his Guard as though so mean a person were more able to give us the boon we want than the Soveraign is 2. Consideration by way of motive To have our Spirits off from God in worship is a bad sign It was not so in Innocence The heart of Adam could cleave to God the Law of God was engraven upon him he could apply himself to the fulfilling of it without any twinkling there was no folly and vanity in his mind no independency in his thoughts no duty was his burden for there was in him a proneness to and delight in all the duties of worship 'T is the Fall hath distempered us and the more unwieldiness there is in our Spirits the more carnal our affections are in worship the more evidence there is of the strength of that revolted state 1. It argues much corruption in the heart As by the eructations of the Stomach we may judge of the windiness and foulness of it so by the inordinate motions of our minds and hearts we may judge of the weakness of its complexion A strength of sin is evidenced by the eruptions and ebullitions of it in worship when they are more sudden numerous and vigorous than the motions of grace When the heart is apt like tinder to catch fire from Satan 't is a sign of much combustible matter sutable to his temptation Were not corruption strong the Soul could not turn so easily from God when it is in his presence and hath an advantagious opportunity to create a fear and aw of God in it Such base fruit could not sprout up so suddenly were there not much sap and juice in the root of sin What communion with a living root can be evidenced without exercises of an inward life That Spirit which is a Well of living waters in a gracious heart will be especially springing up when it is before God 2. It shews much affection to earthly things and little to heavenly There must needs be an inordinate affection to earthly things when upon every slight sollicitation we can part with God and turn the back upon a service glorious for him and advantagious for our selves to wedd our hearts to some idle fancy that signifies nothing How can we be said to entertain God in our affections when we give him not the precedency in our understandings but let every trifle justle the sense of God out of our minds Were our hearts fully determined to spiritual things such vanities could not seat themselves in our
understandings and divide our Spirits from God Were our hearts ballanced with a love to God the world could never steal our hearts so much from his worship but his worship would draw our hearts to it It shews a base neutrality in the greatest concernments a halting between God and Baal a contrariety between Affection and Conscience when natural Conscience presses a man to duties of worship and his other affections pull him back draw him to carnal objects and make him slight that whereby he may honour God God argues the prophaness of the Jews hearts from the wickedness they brought into his house and acted there Jer. 23.11 Yea in my house that is my worship I found their wickedness saith the Lord. Carnality in worship is a kind of an Idolatrous frame when the heart is renewed Idols are cast to the Moles and the Batts Isa 2.20 3. It shews much hypocrisie to have our Spirits off from God The mouth speaks and the carriage pretends what the heart doth not think there is a dissent of the heart from the pretence of the body Instability is a sure sign of Hypocrisie Double thoughts argue a double heart The Wicked are compared to Chaff * Psal 1.4 for the uncertain and various motions of their minds by the least wind of fancy The least motion of a carnal Object diverts the Spirit from God as the scent of Carrion doth the Raven from the flight it was set upon The People of God are called Gods Spouse and God calls himself their Husband whereby is noted the most intimate union of the Soul with God and that there ought to be the highest love and affection to him and faithfulness in his worship but when the heart doth start from him in worship it is a sign of the unstedfastness of it with God and a disrelish of any communion with him It is as God complains of the Israelites a going a whoreing after our own imaginations As grace respects God as the object of worship so it looks most upon God in approaching to him Where there is a likeness and love there is a desire of converse and intimacy if there be no spiritual entwining about God in our worship it is a sign there is no likeness to him no true sense of him no renewed image of God in us Every living Image will move strongly to joyn it self with its original Copy and be glad with Jacob to sit steadily in those Chariots that shall convey him to his beloved Joseph Motion 3. Consider the danger of a carnal worship 1. We lose the comfort of worship The Soul is a great Gainer when it offers a spiritual worship and as great a loser when it is unfaithful with God Treachery and perfidiousness hinder commerce among men so doth Hypocrisie in its own nature communion with God God never promised any thing to the Carcass but to the Spirit of worship God hath no obligation upon him by any word of his to reward us with himself when we perform it not to himself When we give an outside worship we have only the outside of an ordinance We can expect no kernel when we give God only the shell He that only licks the outside of the Glass can never be refreshed with the rich Cordial enclosed within A cold and lazy formality will make God to withdraw the light of his countenance and not shine with any delightful communications upon our Souls but if we come before him with a liveliness of affections and steadiness of heart he will draw the vail and cause his glory to display it self before us An humble praying Christian and a warm affectionate Christian in worship will soon find a God who is delighted with such frames and cannot long withold himself from the Soul When our hearts are enflamed with love to him in worship 't is a preparation to some act of love on his part whereby he intends further to gratifie us When John was in the Spirit on the Lords day that is in spiritual employment and meditation and other duties he had that great Revelation of what should happen to the Church in all ages * Rev 1.10 His being in the Spirit intimates his ordinary course on that day and not any extraordinary act in him though it was followed with an extraordinary discovery of God to him When he was thus engaged he heard a voice behind him God doth not require of us spirituality in worship to advantage himself but that we might be prepared to be advantaged by him If we have a clear and well disposed eye 't is not a benefit to the Sun but fits us to receive benefits from his Beams Worship is an act that perfects our own Souls they are then most widened by spiritual frames to receive the influence of divine blessings as an eye most opened receives the fruit of the Suns light better than the eye that is shut The communications of God are more or less according as our spiritual frames are more or less in our worship God will not give his blessings to unsutable hearts What a nasty Vessel is a carnal heart for a spiritual communication The chief end of every duty enjoyned by God is to have communion with him and therefore it is called a drawing near to God 'T is impossible therefore that the outward part of any duty can answer the end of God in his institution 'T is not a bodily appearance or gesture whereby men can have communion with God but by the impressions of the heart and reflections of the heart upon God Without this all the rich streams of grace will run besides us and the growth of the Soul be hindered and impaired A diligent hand makes rich saith the wise man a diligent heart in spiritual worship brings in rich incomes to the humble and spiritual Soul 2. It renders the worship not only unacceptable but abominable to God It makes our Gold to become Dross it soyls our duties and bespotts our Souls A carnal and unsteady frame shews an indifferency of Spirit at best and luke warmness is as ungrateful to God as heavy and nauseous meat is to the stomach he spues them out of his mouth * Rev. 3.16 As our gracious God doth overlook infirmities where intentions are good and endeavours serious and strong so he loaths the services where the frames are stark naught Psal 66.118 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my Prayer Luke warm and indifferrent services stink in the Nostrils of God The heart seems to loath God when it starts from him upon every occasion when it is unwilling to employ it self about and stick close to him And can God be pleased with such a frame The more of the Heart and Spirit is in any service the more real goodness there is in it and the more savoury it is to God the less of the Heart and Spirit the less of goodness and the more nauseous to God who loves Righteousness
promised it were not immortal to continue it as well as powerful to effect it His Power were not Almighty if his duration were not Eternal 1. If God be eternal his Covenant will be so 'T is founded upon the Eternity of God the Oath whereby he confirms it is by his Life Since there is none greater than himself he swears by himself * Heb. 6.13 or by his own Life which he engageth together with his Eternity for the full performance so that if he lives for ever the Covenant shall not be disanull'd 't is an immutable Counsel * Heb. 6.16.17 The immutability of his Counsel follows the immutability of his Nature Immutability and Eternity go hand in hand together The promise of eternal Life is as ancient as God himself in regard of the purpose of the promise or in regard of the promise made to Christ for us * Tit. 1.2 Eternal life which God promised before the world began As it hath an ante-eternity so it hath a post-eternity Therefore the Gospel which is the new Covenant publisht is term'd the everlasting Gospel * Rev. 14.6 which can no more be altered and perish than God can change and vanish into nothing He can as little morally deny his truth as he can naturally desert his life The Covenant is there represented in a Green Colour to note its perpetual Verdure The Rain-bow the Embleme of the Covenant about the Throne was like to an Emrald a Stone of a green colour * Rev. 4.3 whereas the natural Rain-bow hath many colours this but one to signify its Eternity 2. If God be eternal he being our God in Covenant is an eternal Good and Possession This God is our God for ever and ever * Psal 48.14 He is a dwelling place in all Generations We shall traverse the world a while and then arrive at the blessings Jacob wished for Joseph * Gen. 49.26 The blessings of the everlasting hills If an Estate of a thousand Pound per Annum render a mans life comfortable for a short term how much more may the Soul be swallowed up with joy in the enjoyment of the Creator whose years never fail who lives for ever to be enjoyed and can keep us in life for ever to enjoy him Death indeed will seize upon us by Gods irreversible order but the immortal Creator will make him disgorge his morsel and land us in a glorious immortality our Souls at their Dissolution and our Bodies at the Resurrection after which they shall remain for ever and imploy the extent of that boundless Eternity in the fruitition of the Soveraign and Eternal God For 't is impossible that the Believer who is united to the immortal God that is from everlasting to everlasting can ever perish for being in conjunction with him who is an ever flowing Fountain of Life he cannot suffer him to remain in the jaws of Death While God is eternal and always the same 't is not possible that those that partake of his spiritual life should not also partake of his eternal 'T is from the consideration of the endlesness of the years of God that the Church comforts her self that her Children shall continue and their Seed be established for ever * Psal 102.27.28 And from the eternity of God Habbacue chap. 1.12 concludes the eternity of Believers Art not thou from everlasting O Lord my God my holy One We shall not dye O Lord. After they are retired from this world they shall live for ever with God without any change by the multitude of those imaginable years and ages that shall run for ever 'T is that God that hath neither beginning nor end that is our God who hath not only immortality in himself but immortality to give out to others As he hath abundance of Spirit to quicken them * Mal. 2.15 so he hath abundance of Immortality to continue them 'T is only in the consideration of this a man can with wisdom say Soul take thy ease thou hast Goods laid up for many years to say it of any other possession is the greatest folly in the judgment of our Saviour * Luke 12.19 20. Mortality shall be swallowed up of Immortality Rivers of pleasure shall be for evermore Death is a word never spoken there by any never heard by any in that possession of Eternity 't is for ever put out as one of Christs conquered enemies The happiness depends upon the presence of God with whom Believers shall be for ever present Happiness cannot perish as long as God lives He is the first and the last the first of all delights nothing before him the last of all pleasures nothing beyond him A Paradise of delights in every Point without a flaming Sword 2. The enjoyment of God will be as fresh and glorious after many ages as it was at first God is eternal and Eternity knows no change there will then be the fullest possession without any decay in the Object enjoy'd There can be nothing past nothing future time neither adds to it nor detracts from it That infinite fulness of perfection which flourisheth in him now will flourish eternally without any discolouring of it in the least by those innumerable ages that shall run to Eternity much less any despoyling him of them He is the same in his endless Duration * Psal 102.27 As God is so will the Eternity of him be without succession without division The fulness of joy will be always present without past to be thought of with regret for being gone without future to be expected with tormenting desires When we enjoy God we enjoy him in his Eternity without any flux an entire possession of all together without the passing away of pleasures that may be wished to return or expectation of future joys which might be desired to hasten Time is fluid but Eternity is stable and after many ages the joys will be as savory and satisfying as if they had been but that moment first tasted by our hungry appetites When the glory of the Lord shall rise upon you it shall be so far from ever setting that after millions of years are expired as numerous as the Sands on the Sea-shore the Sun in the light of whose Countenance you shall live shall be as bright as at the first appearance He will be so far from ceasing to flow that he will flow as strong as full as at the first communication of himself in glory to the Creature God therefore as sitting upon his Throne of Grace and acting according to his Covenant is like a Jasper-stone which is of a green colour a colour always delightful * Rev. 4.3 Because God is always vigorous and flourishing a pure act of life sparkling new and fresh rays of life and light to the Creature flourishing with a perpetual Spring and contententing the most capacious desire forming your interest pleasure and satisfaction with an infinite variety without any change or succession
into being 4. Therefore the distinction of past and future makes no change in the Knowledge of God When a thing is past God hath no more distinct knowledg of it after it is past than he had when it was to come all things were all in their Circumstances of past present and to come seen by his Understanding as they were determined by his Will * Gamch 1. pa. Aquin. Qu. 9. cap. 1. Pa. 73. Besides to know a day to be past or future is only to know the state of that day in it self and to know its relation to that which follows and that which went before This day wherein we are if we consider it in the state wherein it was yesterday it was to come it was future but if we consider it in that state wherein it will be to morrow we understand it as past This in man cannot be said to be a different knowledge of the thing it self but only of the circumstance attending a thing and the different relation of it As I see the Sun this day I know it was up yesterday I know it will be up to morrow my knowledge of the Sun is the same if there be any change it is in the Sun not in my knowledge only I apply my knowledge to such particular circumstances How much more must the knowledge of those things in God be unchangeable who knows all those states conditions and circumstances most perfectly from Eternity wherein there is no succession no past or future and therefore will know them for ever He always beholds the same thing he sees indeed succession in things and he sees a thing to be past which before was future As from Eternity he saw Adam as existing in such a time In the first time he saw that he would be in the following time he saw that he had been But this he knew from Eternity this he knew in the same manner tho there was a variation in Adam yet there was no variation in Gods knowledge of him in all his states though Adam was not present to himself yet in all his states he was present to Gods Eternity 5. Consider that the knowledge of God in regard of the manner of it as well as the objects is incomprehensible to a finite Creature So that tho we cannot arrive to a full understanding of the manner of Gods Knowledge yet we must conceive so of it as to remove all imperfection from him in it And since it is an imperfection to be changeable we must remove that from God the Knowledge of God about things past present and future must be unconceivably above ours His understanding is infinite Psal 147.5 There is no number of it it can no more be calculated or drawn into an account by us than infinite spaces which have no bounds and limits can be measured by us We can no more arrive even in Heaven to a comprehensive understanding of the manner of his Knowledge than of the infinite glory of his Essence we may as well comprehend one as the other This we must conclude that God being not a Body doth not see one thing with eyes and another thing with mind as we do but being a Spirit he sees and knows only with Mind and his Mind is himself and is as unchangeable as himself and therefore as he is not now another thing than what he was so he knows not any thing now in another manner than as he knew it from Eternity He sees all things in the Glass of his own Essence as therefore the Glass doth not vary so neither doth his Vision 3. God is unchangeable in regard of his Will and Purpose A change in Purpose is when a man determins to do that now which before he determined not to do or to do the contrary when a man hates that thing which he loved or begins to love that which he before hated When the Will is changed a man begins to will that which he willed not before and ceaseth to will that which he willed before But whatsoever God hath decreed is immutable whatsoever God hath promised shall be accomplisht The Word that goes forth of his Mouth shall not return to him void but it shall accomplish that which he pleaseth * Isa 55.11 Isa 46.11 whatsoever he purposeth he will do * Numb 23.19 His Decrees are therefore called Mountains of Brass * Zach. 6.1 Brass as having substance and solidity Mountains as being immoveable not only by any Creature but by himself because they stand upon the Basis of infallible Wisdom and are supported by uncontroulable Power From this Immutability of his Will publisht to Man there could be no release from the severity of the Law without satisfaction made by the death of a Mediator since it was the unalterable Will of God that death should be the wages of Sin and from this immutable Will it was that the length of Time from the first promise of the Redeemer to his mission and the daily provocations of men altered not his purpose for the accomplishment of it in the fullness of that time he had resolved upon Nor did the wickedness of former Ages hinder the addition of several promises as Buttresses to the first To make this out consider 1. The Will of God is the same with his Essence If God had a Will distinct from his Essence he would not be the most simple Being God hath not a faculty of Will distinct from himself As his Understanding is nothing else but Deus intelligens God understanding so his Will is nothing else but Deus volens God willing being therefore the Essence of God though it is considered according to our weakness as a faculty 't is as his Understanding and Wisdom eternal and immutable and can no more be changed than his Essence The Immutability of the Divine Counsel depends upon that of his Essence He is the Lord Jehovah therefore he is true to his Word Mal. 3.6 Isa 43.13 Yea before the Day I am He and there is none that can deliver out of my hand He is the same immutable in his Essence therefore irresistible in his Power 2. There is a concurrence of Gods Will and Vnderstanding in every thing As his Knowledge is eternal so is his Purpose Things created had not been known to be had not God resolved them to be the act of his Will the existence of any thing supposeth an Act of his Will Again as God knows all things by one simple vision of his Understanding so he wills all things by one act of volition therefore the Purpose of God in the Scripture is not exprest by Counsels in the Plural Number but Counsel shewing that all the purposes of God are not various but as one Will branching it self out into may acts towards the Creature but all knit in one Root all links of one Chain Whatsoever is eternal is immutable As his Knowledge is eternal and therefore immutable so is his Will He wills
lie secret in your heart though not form'd into a full conception yet testified by your Actions No you are much mistaken 't is impossible but that I should see and know all things since I am present with all things and am not at a greater distance from the things on earth than from the the things in Heaven for I fill all that vast Fabrick which is divided into those two parts of Heaven and Earth and he that hath such an infinite essence cannot be distant cannot be ignorant nothing can be far from his eyes since every thing is so near to his Essence So that it is an elegant Expression of the Omniscience of God and a strong Argument for it He asserts first the Universality of his Knowledge but lest they should mistake and confine his presence only to Heaven he adds That he fills Heaven and Earth I do not see things so as if I were in one place and the things seen in another as it is with man but whatsoever I see I see not without my self because every corner of Heaven and Earth is fill'd by me He that fills all must needs see and know all And indeed men that question the knowledg of God would be more convinc'd by the Doctrine of his immediate presence with them And this seems to be the design and manner of Arguing in this place Nothing is remote from my knowledg because nothing is distant from my presence I fill Heaven and Earth he doth not say I am in Heaven and Earth but I fill Heaven and Earth i. e. †Tum perspâ—â—â—cia tum effâ—cacia Groâ— say some with my Knowledg others with my Authority or my Power But 1. The word filling cannot properly be referred to the act of understanding and will A presence by knowledg is to be granted but to say such a presence fills a a place is an improper Speech Knowledge is not enough to constitute a presence A man at London knows there is such a City as Paris and knows many things in it can he be concluded therefore to be present in Paris or fill any place there or be present with the things he knows there If I know any thing to be distant from me how can it be present with me For by knowing it to be distant I know it not to be present Besides filling Heaven and Earth is distinguisht here from Knowing or Seeing His presence is render'd as an Argument to prove his Knowledg Now a Proposition and the proof of that Proposition are distinct and not the same It cannot be imagin'd that God should prove idem per idem as we say for what would be the import of the Speech then I know all things I see all things because I know and see all things * Suarez The Holy Ghost here accommodates himself to the Capacity of men because we know that a man sees and knows that which is done where he is corporally present so he proves that God knows all things that are done in the most secret Caverns of the Heart because he is every where in Heaven and Earth as light is every where in the air and air every where in the World Hence the Schools use the term repletivè for the presence of God 2. Nor by filling of Heaven and Earth is meant his Authority and Power It would be improperly said of a King that in regard of the Government of his Kingdom is every where by his Authority that he fills all the Cities and Countrys of his Dominions I do not I fill * Amirald de Trinitate p. 57. That I notes the Essence of God as distinguisht according to our capacity from the perfections pertaining to his Essence and is in reason better referred to the substance of God than to those things we conceive as Attributes in him Besides were it meant only of his Authority or Power the Argument would not run well I see all things because my Authority and Power fills Heaven and Earth Power doth not always rightly infer knowledg no not in a rational agent Many things in a Kingdom are done by the Authority of the King that never arrive to the Knowledg of the King Many things in us are done by the Power of our souls which yet we have not a distinct Knowledg of in our understandings There are many motions in sleep by the virtue of the soul informing the body that we have not so much as a simple knowledg of in our minds Knowledge is not rightly inferr'd from power or power from knowledg By filling Heaven and Earth is meant therefore a filling it with his Essence No place can be imagin'd that is deprived of the presence of God and therefore when the Scripture any where speaks of the presence of God it joyns Heaven and Earth together He so fills them that there is no place without him We do not say a vessel is full so long as there is any space to contain more Not a part of Heaven nor a part of Earth but the whole Heaven the whole Earth at one and the same time If he were only in one part of Heaven or one part of Earth nay if there were any part of Heaven or any part of Earth void of him he could not be said to fill them I fill Heaven and Earth not a part of me fills one place and another part of me fills another but I God fill Heaven and Earth I am whole God filling the Heaven and whole God filling the Earth I fill Heaven and yet fill Earth I fill Earth and yet fill Heaven and fill Heaven and Earth at one and the same time God fills his own works a Heathen Philosopher saith * Seneca de Benefic lib. 4. cap. 8. Ipse opus suum implet Here is then a Description of Gods Presence 1. By Power Am I not a God afar off a God in the extension of his Arm. 2. By Knowledg Shall I not see them 3. By Essence as an undeniable ground for inferring the two former I fill Heaven and Earth Doct. God is Essentially every where present in Heaven and Earth If God be he must be somewhere that which is no where is nothing Since God is he is in the world not in one part of it for then he were circumscrib'd by it if in the world and only there though it be a great space he were also limited * Chrysostom Some therefore said God was every where and no where No where i. e. not bounded by any place nor receiving from any place any thing for his preservation or sustainment He is every where because no creature either Body or Spirit can exclude the presence of his Essence for he is not only near but in every thing * Acts. 17.28 In him we live and move and have our being Not absent from any thing but so present with them that they live and move in him and move more in God than in the air or earth wherein they
are nearer to us than our flesh to our bones than the air to our breath he cannot be far from them that live and have every motion in him The Apostle doth not say By him but in him to shew the inwardness of his Presence As Eternity is the perfection whereby he hath neither beginning nor end Immutability is the perfection whereby he hath neither increase nor diminution so Immensity or Omnipresence is that whereby he hath neither bounds nor limitation As he is in all time yet so as to be above time so is he in all places yet so as to be above limitation by any place It was a good Expression of a Heathen to illustrate this That God is a Sphere or Circle whose Center is every where and Circumference no where His meaning was that the Essence of God was indivisible i. e. could not be divided It cannot be said here and there the lines of it terminate 't is like a line drawn out in infinite spaces that no point can be conceived where its length and breadth ends The Sea is a vast mass of waters yet to that it is said Hitherto shalt thou go and no further But it cannot be said of Gods Essence hitherto it reaches and no further here it is and there it is not 'T is plain that God is thus immense because he is infinite we have Reason and Scripture to assent to it though we cannot conceive it We know that God is eternal though Eternity is too great to be measured by the short line of a created understanding We cannot conceive the Vastness and Glory of the Heavens much less that which is so great as to fill Heaven and Earth yea * 1 King 8.27 not to be contained in the Heaven of Heavens Things are said to be present or in a place 1. Circumscriptivè as circumscribed This belongs to things that have quantity as bodies that are encompass'd by that place wherein they are and a body fills but one particular space wherein it is and the space is commensurate to every part of it and every member hath a distinct place The hand is not in the same particular space that the foot or head is 2. Definitivè which belongs to Angels and Spirits which are said to be in a point yet so as that they cannot be said to be in another at the same time 3. Repletivè filling all places this belongs only to God As he is not measured by time to he is not limited by place A Body or Spirit because finite fills but one space God because infinite fills all yet so as not to be contained in them as Wine and Water is in a Vessel He is from the height of the Heavens to the bottom of the Deeps in every point of the World and in the whole Circle of it yet not limited by it but beyond it Now this hath been acknowledged by the wisest in the world Some indeed had other Notions of God The more ignorant sort of the Jews confin'd him to the Temple * Hierom. on Isa 66.1 And God intimates that they had such a thought when he asserts his presence in Heaven and Earth in opposition to the Temple they built as his House and the place of his Rest * Hammond on Matth. 6.7 And the Idolaters among them thought their Gods might be at a distance from them which Elias intimates in the scoff he puts upon them * 1 King 18.17 Cry aloud for he is a God meaning Baal either he is talking or he is pursuing or he is in a journey and they follow his advice and cried louder v. 28. whereby it is evident they looked not on it as a mock but as a truth And the Syrians call'd the God of Israel the God of the hills as though his presence were fixed there and not in the valleys * 1 King 20.23 and their own Gods in the Valleys and not in the Mountains they phansied every God to have a particular Dominion and presence in one place and not in another and bounded the Territories of their Gods as they did those of their Princes * Med. Diatrib vol. 1. p 71 72. And some thought him tied to and shut up in their Temples and Groves wherein they worshipped him * Dought Analec excurs 61. 113. Some of them thought God to be confined to Heaven and therefore sacrificed upon the highest Mountains that the steam might ascend nearer Heaven and their Praises be heard better in those places which were nearest to the Habitation of God But the wiser Jews acknowledged it and therefore call'd God place * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grot. upon Mat. 5.16 Mares contra Volk lib. 1. cap. 27. p. 494 whereby they denoted his immensity he was not contain'd in any place every part of the World subsists by him He was a place to himself greater than any thing made by him And the wiser Heathens acknowledged it also †Vide Minut. Fel. p. 20. One calls God a mind passing through the universal nature of things Another That he was an infinite and immense Air * Plotia Enead 6. lib 5. cap 4. Another That it is as natural to think God is every where as to think that God is Hence they call'd God the Soul of the World that as the Soul is in every part of the Body to quicken it so is God in every part of the World to support it And there are some resemblances of this in the World though no Creature can fully resemble God in any one perfection for then it would not be a Creature but God But Air and Light are some weak resemblances of it Air is in all the spaces of the World in the Pores of all Bodies in the Bowels of the Earth and extends it self from the lowest Earth to the highest Regions and the Heavens themselves are probably nothing else but a refin'd kind of Air and Light diffuseth it self through the whole Air and every part of it is truly Light as every part of the Air is truly Air and though they seem to be mingled together yet they are distinct things and not of the same Essence so is the Essence of God in the whole World not by diffusion as Air or Light not mixed with any Creature but remaining distinct from the Essence of any Created Being Now when this hath been own'd by men instructed only in the School of Nature 't is a greater shame to any acquainted with the Scripture to deny it For the understanding of this there shall be some Propositions premis'd in general 1. This is Negatively to be understood Our Knowledge of God is most by withdrawing from him or denying to him in our conceptions any weaknesses or imperfections in the Creature As the infiniteness of God is a denial of limitation of Being so Immensity or Omnipresence is a denial of limitation of place And when we say God is totus in every place we must understand it
cannot be sever'd from his Power nor his Power from his Essence for the Power of God is nothing but God acting and the wisdom of God nothing but God knowing As the power of God is always so is his Essence as the power of God is every where so is his Essence whatsoever God is he is alway and every where To confine him to a place is to measure his Essence as to confine his actions is to limit his power his Essence being no less infinite than his Power and his Wisdom can be no more bounded than his Power and Wisdom but they are not separable from his Essence yea they are his Essence if God did not fill the whole World he would be determin'd to some place and excluded from others and so his substance would have bounds and limits and then something might be conceived greater than God for we may conceive that a Creature may be made by God of so vast a greatness as to fill the whole World for the power of God is able to make a body that should take up the whole space between Heaven and Earth and reach to every corner of it but nothing can be conceived by any Creature greater than God he exceeds all things and is exceeded by none God therefore cannot be included in Heaven nor included in the Earth cannot be contained in either of them for if we should imagine them vaster than they are yet still they would be finite and if his Essence were contain'd in them it could be no more infinite than the World which contains it As water is not of a larger compass than the Vessel which contains it If the Essence of God were limited either in the Heavens or Earth it must needs be finite as the Heaven and Earth are But there is no proportion between finite and infinite God therefore cannot be contain'd in them If there were an infinite body that must be every where certainly then an infinite Spirit must be every where Unless we will account him finite we can render no reason why he should not be in one Creature as well as in another if he be in Heaven which is his Creature why can he not be in the Earth which is as well his Creature as the Heavens 2. Reason Because of the continual operation of God in the World This was one reason made the Heathen believe that there was an infinite Spirit in the vast body of the World acting in every thing and producing those admirable motions which we see every where in Nature That cause which acts in the most perfect manner is also in the most perfect manner present with its effects God preserves all and therefore is in all the Apostle thought it a good induction Acts 17.27 He is not far from us for in him we live For being as much as because shews that from his operation he concluded his real presence with all 'T is not his vertue is not far from every one of us but He his Substance himself for none that acknowledge a God will deny the absence of the vertue of God from any part of the World He works in every thing every thing lives and works in him therefore he is present with all * Pont. or rather if things live they are in God who gives them life If things live God is in them and gives them life If things move God is in them and gives them motion If things have any Being God is in them and gives them Being if God withdraws himself they presently lose their Being and therefore some have compar'd the Creature to the impression of a Seal upon the water that cannot be preserved but by the Presence of the Seal As his Presence was actual with what he Created so his Presence is actual with what he preserves since Creation and Preservation do so little differ if God creates things by his Essential Presence by the same he supports them If his substance cannot be disjoyn'd from his preserving Power his power and wisdom cannot be separated from his Essence where there are the marks of the one there is the presence of the other for it is by his Essence that he is powerful and wise no man can distinguish the one from the other in a simple Being God doth not preserve and act things by a vertue diffus'd from him N.B. It may be demanded whether that vertue be distinct from God if it be not 't is then the Essence of God if it be distinct 't is a Creature and then it may be ask't how that vertue which preserves other things is preserved it self it must be ultimately resolv'd into the Essence of God or else there must be a running in infinitum or else * Amyrald de Trinitat p. 106. 107. is that vertue of God a substance or not Is it endued with understanding or not If it hath understanding how doth it differ from God If it wants understanding can any imagine that the support of the World the guidance of all Creatures the wonders of Nature can be wrought preserv'd manag'd by a vertue that hath nothing of understanding in it If it be not a substance it can much less be able to produce such excellent Operations as the preserving all the kinds of things in the World and ordering them to perform such excellent ends this Vertue is therefore God himself the infinite Power and Wisdom of God and therefore wheresoever the effects of these are seen in the World God is essentially present some Creatures indeed act at a distance by a vertue diffus'd but such a manner of acting comes from a limitedness of nature that such a nature cannot be every where present and extend its substance to all parts To act by a vertue speaks the Subject finite and it is a part of indigence Kings act in their Kingdoms by Ministers and Messengers because they cannot act otherwise but God being infinitely perfect works all things in all immediately 1 Cor. 12.6 Illumination Sanctification Grace c. are the immediate Works of God in the heart and immediate Agents are present with what they do 't is an Argument of the greater Perfection of a Being to know things immediately which are done in several places than to know them at the second hand by Instruments 't is no less a Perfection to be every where rather than to be tyed to one place of action and to act in other places by Instruments for want of a Power to act immediately it self God indeed acts by means and second causes in his Providential Dispensations in the World but this is not out of any Defect of Power to Work all immediately himself but he thereby accommodates his way of acting to the nature of the Creature and the Order of Things which he hath setled in the World And when he Works by means he acts with those means in those means sustains their faculties and vertues in them concurs with them by his Power so
than this and Millions of Heavens greater than this Heaven he hath already Created if so he is then in unconceivable spaces beyond this World for his Essence is not less and narrower than his Power and his Power is not to be thought of a further extent than his Essence he cannot be excluded therefore from those vast spaces where his Power may fix those Worlds if he please if so 't is no wonder that he should fill this World and there is no reason to exclude God from the narrow space of this World that is not contain'd in infinite spaces beyond the World God is wheresoever he hath a Power to act but he hath a power to act every where in the World every where out of the World he is therefore every where in the World every where out of the World Before this World was made he had a Power to make it in the space where now it stands Was he not then unlimitedly where the World now is before the World received a Being by his powerful Word Why should he not then be in every part of the World now Can it be thought that God who was immense before should after he had Created the World contract himself to the limits of one of his Creatures and tie himself to a particular place of his own Creation and be less after his Creation than he was before This might also be prosecuted by an Argument from his Eternity What is eternal in duration is immense in essence the same reason which renders him eternal renders him immense That which proves him to be always will prove him to be every where The third thing is Propositions for the further clearing this Doctrine from any exceptions 1. This truth is not weakned by the expressions in Scripture where God is said to dwell in Heaven and in the Temple 1. He is indeed said to sit in heaven * Psal 2.4 and to dwell on high * Psal 113 5. but he is no where said to dwell only in the heavens as confin'd to them 'T is the Court of his Majestical presence but not the Prison of his Essence For when we are told that the heaven is his throne we are told with the same breath that the earth is his footstool Isa 66. â— He dwells on high in regard of the excellency of his nature but he is in all places in regard of the diffusion of his presence The soul is essentially in all parts of the body but it doth not exert the same operations in all the more noble discoveries of it are in the Head and Heart In the Head where it exerciseth the chiefest senses for the enriching the understanding In the Heart where it vitally resides and communicates life and motion to the rest of the body It doth not understand with the foot or toe tho' it be in all parts of the body it informs And so God may be said to dwell in Heaven in regard of the more excellent and majestick representations of himself both to the Creatures that inhabit the place as Angels and blessed spirits and also in those marks of his greatness which he hath planted there those spiritual natures which have a nobler stamp of God upon them and those excellent bodies as Sun and Stars which as so many Tapers light us to behold his glory Psal 19.1 and astonish the minds of men when they gaze upon them 'T is his Court where he hath the most solemn Worship from his Creatures all his Courtiers attending there with a pure love and glowing zeal He reigns there in a special manner without any opposition to his government 't is therefore call'd his holy dwelling-place 2 Chron 3.27 The Earth hath not that title since sin cast a stain and a ruining curse upon it The Earth is not his Throne because his government is oppos'd But Heaven is none of Satan's precinct and the Rule of God is uncontradicted by the Inhabitants of it 'T is from thence also he hath given the greatest discoveries of himself Thence he sends the Angels his Messengers his Son upon Redemption his Spirit for Sanctification From Heaven his gifts drop down upon our heads and his grace upon our hearts James 3.15 From thence the chiefest blessings of Earth descend The motions of the heavens fatten the earth and the heavenly bodies are but stewards to the earthly comforts for man by their influence Heaven is the richest vastest most stedfast and majestick part of the visible Creation 'T is there where he will at last manifest himself to his people in a full conjunction of grace and glory and be for ever open to his people in uninterrupted expressions of goodness and discoveries of his presence as a reward of their labour and service And in these respects it may peculiarly be call'd his Throne And this doth no more hinder his essential presence in all parts of the earth than it doth his gracious presence in all the hearts of his people God is in heaven in regard of the manifestation of his glory in hell by the expressions of his justice in the earth by the discoveries of his Wisdom Power Patience and Compassion in his people by the monuments of his grace and in all in regard of his substance 2. He is said also to dwell in the Ark and Temple 'T is called Psal 26.8 The habitation of his house and the place where his honour dwells and to dwell in Jerusalem as in his holy Mountain The Mountain of the Lord of Hosts Zec. 8.3 in regard of publishing his Oracles answering their prayers manifesting more of his goodness to the Israelites than to any other Nation in the world erecting his true Worship among them which was not setled in any part of the world besides and his worship is principally intended in that Psalm The Ark is the place where his honour dwells the worship of God is called the glory of God They changed the glory of God into an image made like to corruptible man Rom. 1.23 i. e. they changed the worship of God into dolatry and to that also doth the place in Zechary refer Now because he is said to dwell in heaven is he essentially only there Is he not as essentially in the Temple and Ark as he is in Heaven since there are as high expressions of his habitation there as of his dwelling in heaven If he dwell only in heaven how came he to dwell in the Temple both are asserted in Scripture one as much as the other If his dwelling in heaven did not hinder his dwelling in the Ark it could as little hinder the presence of his essence on the earth To dwell in heaven and in one part of the earth at the same time is all one as to dwell in all parts of heaven and all parts of earth If he were in Heaven and in the Ark and Temple it was the same essence in both tho' not the same kind of
in bringing in a Carved Image into the House of God 1 Chron. 33.7 had it been a good Answer to the Charge God is present here and therefore every thing may be Worshipped as God if he be only Essentially in Heaven would it not be Idolatry to direct a Worship to the Heavens or any part of it as a due object because of the Presence of God there Though we look up to the Heavens where we Pray and Worship God yet Heaven is not the object of Worship the Soul abstracts God from the Creature 6. Nor is God defil'd by being present with those Creatures which seem filthy to us Nothing is filthy in the Eye of God as his Creature he could never else have pronounced all good whatsoever is filthy to us yet as it is a Creature it ows it self to the Power of God His Essence is no more defild by being present with it than his Power by producing it No Creature is foul in it self tho' it may seem so to us Doth not an Infant lye in a Womb of filthiness and rottenness yet is not the Power of God present with it in working it curiously in the lower parts of the Earth are his eyes defil'd by seeing the Substance when it it is yet imperfect or his hand defiled by writing every Member in his Book †Psal 139.15 16. Have not the vilest and most noisom things excellent Medicinal Vertues How are they endued with them How are those qualities preserved in them by any thing without God or no every Artificer looks with Pleasure upon the work he hath wrought with Art and Skill can his Essence be defil'd by being present with them any more than it was in giving them such vertues and preserving them in them God measures the Heaven and the Earth with his hand is his hand defil'd by the evil influences of the Planets or the Corporeal Impurities of the Earth nothing can be filthy in the Eye of God but Sin since every thing else owes its Being to him What may appear deform'd and unworthy to us is not so to the Creator he sees Beauty where we see Deformity finds goodness where we behold what is nauseous to us All Creatures being the effects of his Power may be the objects of his Presence Can any place be more foul than Hell if you take it either for the Hell of the Damned or for the Grave where there is rottenness yet there he is †Psal 139.8 When Satan appear'd before God and God spake with him †Job 1.7 Could God contract any impurity by being present where that filthy Spirit was more impure than any corporeal noysom and defiling thing can be No God is purity to himself in the midst of noysomness a Heaven to himself in the midst of Hell Who ever heard of a Sun-beam stain'd by shining upon a Quag mire any more than sweetned by breaking into a Perfum'd Room Shelford of the Attributes p. 170. Tho' the Light shines upon pure and impure things yet it mixes not its self with either of them so tho' God be present with Devils and Wicked men yet without any mixture he is present with their essence to sustain it and support it not in their defection wherein lies their defilement and which is not a Physical but a Moral evil Bodily filth can never touch an incorporeal substance Spirits are not present with us in the same manner that one body is present with another bodies can by a touch only defile bodies Is the Glory of an Angel stained by being in a Coal-mine or could the Angel that came into the Lions Den to deliver Daniel be any more disturb'd by the stench of the place * Dan. 6.22 than he could be scratcht by the Paws or torn by the Teeth of the Beasts their Spiritual nature secures them against any infection when they are ministring Spirits to Persecuted Believers in their nasty Prisons * Acts 12.7 The Soul is straitly united with the Body but it is not made white or black by the whiteness or blackness of its habitation is it infected by the corporeal impurities of the Body while it continually dwells in a Sea of filthy Pollution If the Body be cast into a Common-shore is the Soul defil'd by it Can a Diseased body derive a Contagion to the Spirit that animates it Is it not often the purer by Grace the more the body is infected by nature Hezekiah's Spirit was scarce ever more fervent with God than when the Sore which some think to be a Plague Sore was upon him * Isa 38.3 How can any Corporeal filth impair the purity of the Divine Essence it may as well be said That God is not present in Battels and Fights for his People Joshua 23.10 because he would not be disturbed by the noise of Canons and clashing of Swords as that he is not present in the World because of the ill scents Let us therefore conclude this with the Expression of a Learned man of our own Dr. More To deny the Omnipresence of God because of ill scented places is to measure God rather by the nicety of Sense than by the sagacity of Reason IV. VSE I. Of Information 1. Christ hath a divine nature As Eternity and Immutability two incommunicable properties of the Divine nature are ascrib'd to Christ so also is this of Omnipresence or Immensity John 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of man which is in heaven Not which was but which is He comes from heaven by incarnation and remains in heaven by his Divinity He was while he spake to Nicodemus locally on earth in regard of his humanity but in heaven according to his Deity as well as upon earth in the union of his divine and human nature He descended upon earth but he left not heaven He was in the World before he came in the flesh John 1.10 He was in the world and the world was made by him He was in the world as the light that enlightens every man that comes into the world In the world as God before he was in the world as man He was then in the world as man while he discoursed with Nicodemus yet so that he was also in heaven as God No creature but is bounded in place either circumscribed as body or determin'd as Spirit to be in one space so as not to be in another at the same time to leave a place where they were and possess a place where they were not But Christ is so on earth that at the same time he is in heaven he is therefore infinite To be in heaven and earth at the same moment of time is a property solely belonging to the Deity wherein no creature can be a partner with him He was in the world before he came to the world and the world was made by him * John 1.10 His coming was
and his Power is his Arm. Of his Infinite Vnderstanding I am to Discourse Doctrine God hath an Infinite Knowledg and Vnderstanding All Knowledg Omnipresence which before we spake of respects his Essence Omniscience respects his Understanding according to our manner of Conception This is clear in Scripture hence God is called a God of Knowledg 1 Sam. 2.3 The Lord is a God of Knowledg Heb. Knowledges in the Plural Number of all kind of Knowledg 't is spoken there to quell mans Pride in his own reason and parts what is the Knowledg of man but a spark to the whole Element of Fire a grain of Dust and worse than nothing in comparison of the Knowledg of God as his Essence is in comparison of the Essence of God All kind of Knowledg He knows what Angels know what Man knows and infinitely more he knows himself his own operations all his Creatures the notions and thoughts of them he is understanding above understanding mind above mind the mind of minds the light of lights this the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the Etimology of it of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see to contemplate and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scio The Names of God signify a nature viewing and piercing all things and the attribution of our senses to God in Scripture as Hearing and Seeing which are the Senses whereby Knowledg enters into us signifies Gods Knowledg 1. The Notion of Gods Knowledg of all things lies above the ruines of Nature it was not obliterated by the Fall of Man It was necessary offending man was to know that he had a Creator whom he had injured that he had a Judg to Try and Punish him since God thought fit to keep up the World it had been kept up to no purpose had not this notion been continued alive in the minds of men there would not have been any practice of his Laws no bar to the worst of Crimes If men had thought they had to deal with an Ignorant Deity there could be no practice of Religion Who would lift up his eyes or spread his hands towards Heaven if he imagin'd his Devotion were directed to a God as blind as the Heathens imagin'd Fortune To what boot would it be for them to make Heaven and Earth resound with their Cries if they had not thought God had an Eye to see them and an Ear to hear them And indeed the very notion of a God at the first blush speaks him a Being endued with Understanding no man can imagine a Creator void of one of the noblest Perfections belonging to those Creatures that are the Flower and Cream of his Works 2. Therefore all Nations acknowledg this as well as the Existence and Being of God * No Nation but had their Temples particular Ceremonies of Worship and presented their Sacrifices which they could not have been so vain as to do without an acknowledgment of this Attribute This notion of Gods Knowledg owed not its rise to Tradition but to natural implantation it was born and grew up with every rational Creature Though the several Nations and men of the World agreed not in one kind of Deity or in their Sentiments of his Nature or other Perfections some judging him Clothed with a fine and pure Body others judging him an uncompounded Spirit some fixing him to a seat in the Heavens others owning his Universal Presence in all parts of the World yet they all agreed in the Universality of his Knowledge and their own Consciences reflecting their Crimes unknown to any but themselves would keep this notion in some vigor whether they would or no. Now this being implanted in the minds of all men by nature cannot be false for nature imprints not in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity Nature would not pervert the reason and minds of men Universal notions of God are from Original not lapsed Nature Agamemnon Homer Il. 3. v 8. making a Covenant with Priam invocates the Su◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and preserved in mankind in order to a restoration from a lapsed state The Heathens did acknowledg this in all the solemn Covenants solemniz'd with Oaths and the invocation of the Name of God this Attribute was suppos'd They confest Knowledg to be peculiar to the Deity Scientia Deorum vita saith Cicero Some called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mens mind pure understanding without any note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inspector of all As they called him Life because he was the Author of Life so they called him intellectus because he was the Author of all Knowledg and Understanding in his Creatures And one being askt Whether any man could be hid from God no saith he not so much as thinking Some call him the Eye of the World * Gamach in 1 Pa. Aqui. Q. 14. cap. 1. p. 119. Clem. Alexand. strom lib. 6. and the Egyptians represented God by an Eye on the top of a Scepter because God is all Eye and can be ignorant of nothing And the same Nation made Eyes and Ears of the most excellent Metals Consecrating them to God and hanging them up in the midst of their Temples in signification of Gods seeing and hearing all things hence they called God Light as well as the Scripture because all things are visible to him For the better understanding of this we will enquire 1. What kind of Knowledg or Vnderstanding there is in God 2. What God knows 3. How God knows things 4. The proof that God knows all things 5. The Vse of all to our selves I. What kind of Vnderstanding or Knowledg there is in God The Knowledg of God in Scripture hath various Names according to the various relations or objects of it In respect of present things 't is called Knowledg or Sight in respect of things past Remembrance in respect of things future or to come 't is called Fore-Knowledg or Prescience 1 Pet. 1.2 in regard of the Vniversality of the Objects it is called Omniscience in regard of the simple Vnderstanding of things 't is called Knowledg in regard of acting and modelling the ways of acting 't is called Wisdom and Prudence Eph. 1.8 He must have Knowledg otherwise he could not be Wise Wisdom is the Flower of Knowledg and Knowledg is the Root of Wisdom As to what this Knowledg is if we know what Knowledg is in man we may apprehend what it is in God removing all Imperfection from it and ascribing to him the most eminent way of understanding because we cannot comprehend God but as he is pleased to condescend to us in his own ways of Discovery that is under some way of similitude to his perfectest Creatures therefore we have a notion of God by his Understanding and Will Understanding whereby he conceives and apprehends things Will whereby he extends himself in acting according to his Wisdom and whereby he doth approve or disapprove Yet we must not measure his Understanding
of them this must be either out of Sloth but how incompatible is laziness to a pure and infinite activity or out of Majesty but 't is no less for the glory of his Majesty to conduct them than it was for the glory of his Power to erect them into Being he that counts nothing unworthy of his Arms to make nothing unworthy of his Understanding to know why should he count any thing unworthy of his Wisdom to govern If he knows them to neglect them it must be because he hath no Will to it or no Goodness for it either of these would be a stain upon God to want Goodness is to be Evil and to want Will is to be negligent and scornful which are inconsistent with an Infinite Active Goodness Doth a Father neglect providing for the wants of the Family which he knows or a Physician the cure of that Disease he understands God is Omniscient he therefore sees all things he is good he doth not therefore neglect any thing but conducts it to the end he appointed it There is nothing so little that can escape his Knowledg and therefore nothing so little but falls under his Providence nothing so sublime as to be above his Understanding and therefore nothing can be without the compass of his Conduct nothing can escape his Eye and therefore nothing can escape his Care nothing is known by him in vain as nothing was made by him in vain there must be acknowledg'd therefore some end of this knowledg of all his Creatures Instruct 3. Hence then will follow the certainty of a day of Judgment To what purpose can we imagine this Attribute of Omniscience so often declared and urg'd in Scripture to our consideration but in order to a government of our practise and a future Tryal Every Perfection of the Divine Nature hath sent out brighter Rays in the World than this of his Infinite Knowledg his Power hath been seen in the Being of the World and his Wisdom in the Order and Harmony of the Creatures his Grace and Mercy hath been plentifully poured out in the mission of a Redeemer and his Justice hath been elevated by the Dying-Groans of the Son of God upon the Cross But hath his Omniscience yet met with a Glory proportionable to that of his other Perfections all the Attributes of God that have appeared in some beautiful glimmerings in the World wait for a more full manifestation in Glory as the Creatures do for the manifestation of the Sons of God Rom. 8.19 But especially this since it hath been less evidenced than others and as much or more abused than any it expects therefore a publick righting in the eye of the World There have been indeed some few sparks of this Perfection sensibly struck out now and then in the World in some horrors of Conscience which have made men become their own Accusers of unknown Crimes in bringing out hidden Wickedness to a publick view by various Providences This hath also been the design of sprinklings of Judgments upon several Generations as Psal 90.8 We are consumed by thy Anger and by thy Wrath we are troubled thou hast set our Iniquities before thee and our secret Sins in the light of thy Countenance The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Youth as well as secret i.e. Sins committed long ago and that with secrecy By this he hath manifested that secret Sins are not hid from his eye Tho' inward Terrors and outward Judgments have been let loose to worry men into a belief of this yet the corruptions of men would still keep a contrary notion in their minds that God hath forgotten that he hides his face from Transgression and will not regard their Impiety Psal 10.11 There must therefore be a time of Tryal for the publick demonstration of this Excellency that it may receive its due Honour by a full Testimony that no secrecy can be a shelter from it As his Justice which consists in giving every one his due could not be Glorified unless men were called to an account for their actions so neither would his Omniscience appear in its illustrious colours without such a manifestation of the secret motions of mens hearts and of Villanies done under Lock and Key when none were conscious to them but the committers of them Novv the last Judgment is the time appointed for the opening of the Books Dan. 7.10 The Book of Gods Records and Conscience the counter-part were never fully opened and read before only novv and then some some pages turn'd to in particular Judgments and out of those Books shall men be judged according to their Works Rev. 20.12 Then shall the defaced Sins be brought vvith all their circumstances to every mans memory the Counsels of mens hearts fled far from their present remembrance all the habitual knovvledg they had of their ovvn actions shall by Gods knovvledg of them be excited to an actual revievv and their vvorks not only made manifest to themselves but notorious to the World All the Words Thoughts Deeds of men shall be brought forth into the light of their ovvn minds by the infinite Light of Gods understanding reflecting on them His Knovvledg renders him an unerring Witness as vvell as his Justice a swift Witness Mal. 3.5 a svvift Witness because he shall vvithout any circuit or length of Speech convince their Consciences by an invvard illumination of them to take notice of the blackness and deformity of their hearts and vvorks In all Judgments God is somevvhat knovvn to be the searcher of hearts the time of Judgment is the time of his remembrance Hos 8.13 Now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins but the great instant or now of the full glorifying it is the grand day of account This Attribute must have a time for its full Discovery and no time can be fit for it but a time of a general reckoning Justice cannot be exercis'd without Omniscience for as Justice is a giving to every one his due so there must be knowledg to discern what is due to every man the searching the heart is in order to the rewarding the works 4. This Perfection in God gives us ground to believe a Resurrection Who can think this too hard for his Power since not the least Atome of the Dust of our Bodies can escape his Knowledg An infinite Understanding comprehends every mite of a departed Carcass this will not appear impossible nor irrational to any upon a serious consideration of this excellency in God The body is perished the matter of it hath been since clothed with different forms and figures part of it hath been made the body of a Worm part of it returned to the Dust that hath been blown away by the Wind part of it hath been concocted in the Bodies of Cannibals Fish ravenous Beasts the Spirits have evaporated into Air part of the Blood melted into Water what then is the matter of the body annihilated is that wholly perished no the
and Pagan Oracles gained so much Credit upon this Foundation were they established and the Enemies of Mankind owned for a true God I say from the Prediction of future things tho' their Oracles were often ambiguous many times false yet those poor Heathens framed many ingenious excuses to free their Adored Gods from the charge of falsity and imposture And shall we not adore the true God the God of Israel the God Blessed for ever for this incommunicable Property whereby he flies above the Wings of the Wind the understandings of men and Cherubims Sabund Theol. natural Tit. 84. somewhat changed Consider how great it is to know the Thoughts and Intentions and Works of one man from the beginning to the end of his life to foreknow all these before the Being of this man when he was lodged afar off in the Loyns of his Ancestors yea of Adam how much greater is it to foreknow and know the Thoughts and Works of three or four men of a whole Village or Neighbourhood 'T is greater still to know the imaginations and actions of such a multitude of men as are contained in London Paris or Constantinople how much greater still to know the intentions and practises the clandestine contrivances of so many Millions that have do or shall swarm in all quarters of the World every person of them having Millions of Thoughts Desires Designs Affections and Actions Let this Attribute then make the Blessed God honourable in our eyes and adorable in all our affections especially since it is an Excellency which hath so lately discovered it self in bringing to Light the hidden things of darkness in opening and in part confounding the wicked Devices of Bloody men Especially let us adore God for it and admire it in God since it is so necessary a Perfection that without it the goodness of God had been impotent and could not have relieved us for what help can a distressed person expect from a man of the sweetest disposition and the strongest arm if the eyes which should discover the danger and direct the defence and rescue were closed up by blindness and darkness Adore God for this wonderful Perfection 7. In the consideration of this excellent Attribute what low thoughts should we have of our own knowledg and how humble ought we to be before God There 's nothing man is more apt to be proud of than his Knowledg 't is a Perfection he glories in but if our own Knowledg of the little outside and barks of things puffs us up the consideration of the infiniteness of Gods Knowledg should abate the Tumor As our Beings are nothing in regard to the infiniteness of his Essence so our Knowledg is nothing in regard of the vastness of his understanding We have a spark of Being but nothing to the heat of the Sun We have a drop of Knowledg but nothing to the Divine Ocean What a vain thing is it for a shallow Brook to boast of its Streams before a Sea whose depths are unfathomable As it is a vanity to brag of our Strength when we remember the Power of God and of our Prudence when we glance upon the Wisdom of God so 't is no less a vanity to boast of our Knowledg when we think of the Understanding and Knowledg of God How hard is it for us to know any thing Pascall p. 17â— too much noise deafs us and too much light dazels us too much distance alienates the object from us and too much nearness bars up our sight from beholding it When we think our selves to be near the knowledg of a thing as a Ship to the Haven a puff of Wind blows us away and the object which we desired to know eternally flies from us we burn with a desire of knowledg and yet are opprest with the darkness of ignorance we spend our days more in dark Egypt than in enlightened Goshen In what narrow bounds is all the knowledg of the most intelligent persons included Amyrant de praedest p. 116. 117. somewhat changed How few understand the exact Harmony of their own bodies the nature of the life they have in common with other Animals who understands the nature of his own faculties how he Knows and how he Wills how the Understanding Proposeth and how the Will embraceth how his spiritual Soul is united to his material Body what the nature is of the operation of our Spirits nay who understands the nature of his own body the offices of his sences the motion of his Members how they come to obey the command of the Will and a Thousand other things What a vain weak and ignorant thing is man when compar'd with God yet there is not a greater Pride to be found among Devils than among ignorant men with a little very little flashy knowledg Ignorant man is as proud as if he knew as God! As the consideration of Gods Omniscience should render him honourable in our eyes so it should render us vile in our own God because of his knowledg is so far from disdaining his Creatures that his Omniscience is a Minister to his Goodness No knowledg that we are possess'd of should make us swell with too high a conceit of our selves and a disdain of others We have infinitely more of ignorance than knowledg Let us therefore remember in all our thoughts of God that he is God and we are men and therefore ought to be humble as becomes men and ignorant and foolish men to be as weak Creatures should lie low before an Almighty God and impure Creatures before a Holy God false Creatures before a Faithful God finite Creatures before an Infinite God so should ignorant Creatures before an All-Knowing God All Gods Attributes teach admiring thoughts of God and low thoughts of our selves 8. It may inform us how much this Attribute is injured in the World The first error after Adams eating the forbidden Fruit was the denyal of this as well as the Omnipresence of God Gen. 3.10 I heard thy voice in the Garden and I hid my self as if the thickness of the Trees could screen him from the eye of his Creator And after Cains Murder this is the first Perfection he affronts Gen. 4.9 Where is Abel thy Brother saith God How roundly doth he answer I know not as if God were as weak as man to be put off with a Lye Man doth as naturally hate this Perfection as much as he cannot naturally but acknowledg it he wishes God stript of this eminency that he might be incapable to be an inspector of his Crimes and a searcher of the Closets of his heart In wishing him deprived of this there is a hatred of God himself for it is a loathing an Essential Property of God without which he would be a pitiful Governor of the World What a kind of God should that be of a Sinners wishing that had wanted Eyes to see a Crime and Righteousness to punish it The want of the consideration of this Attribute is
of his goodness and wisdom †Lessius Winds are fitted to purifie the Air to preserve it from Putrefaction to carry the Clouds to several parts to refresh the parched Earth and assist her Fruits And also to serve for the Commerce of one Nation with another by Navigation God in his wisdom and goodness walks upon the wings of the Wind Psal 104.3 ‖ Daille melan part 2. p. 472 473. Rivers are appointed to bathe the Ground and render it fresh and lively they fortifie Cities are the limits of Countreys serve for Commerce they are the Watring-pots of the Earth and the Vessels for Drink for the living Creatures that dwell upon the Earth God cut those Chanels for the wild Asses the Beasts of the Desart which are his Creatures as well as the rest Psal 104.10 12 13. Trees are appointed for the Habitations of Birds Shadows for the Earth Nourishment for the Creatures Materials for Building and Fuel for the relief of man against Cold. The Seasons of the Year have their use the Winter makes the Juice retire into the Earth fortifies Plants and fixes their Roots It moystens the Earth that was dried before by the heat of Summer and cleanseth and prepares it for a new fruitfulness The Spring calls out the Sap in new Leaves and Fruit The Summer consumes the superfluous moisture and produceth Nourishment for the Inhabitants of the World * Daille melang part 1. p. 477 c. The Day and Night have also their usefulness The Day gives Life to Labour and is a guide to Motion and Action Psal 104.23 The Sun ariseth man goeth forth to his labour until the Evening It warms the Air and quickens Nature without Day the World would be a Chaos an unseen Beauty The Night indeed casts a Vail upon the bravery of the Earth but it draws the Curtains from that of Heaven though it darkens below it makes us see the Beauty of the World above and discovers to us a glorious part of the Creation of God the Tapistry of Heaven and the Motion of the Stars hid from us by the eminent light of the Day It procures a Truce from Labour and refresheth the Bodies of Creatures by recruiting the Spirits which are scattered by watching It prevents the ruin of Life by a reparation of what was wasted in the Day It takes from us the sight of Flowers and Plants but it washeth their Face with Dews for a new Appearance next Morning The length of the Day and Night is not without a Mark of Wisdom were they of a greater length as the length of a Week or Month the one would too much dry and the other too much moisten and for want of Action the Members would be stupified The perpetual Succession of Day and Night is an Evidence of the Divine Wisdom in tempering the travel and rest of Creatures Hence the Psalmist tells us Psal 74.16 17. The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast prepared the light of the Sun and made Summer and Winter i. e. they are of God's framing not without a wise counsel and end Hence let us ascend to the Bodies of living Creatures and we shall find every Member fitted for use What a Curiosity is there in every Member Every one fitted to a particular use in their situation form temper and mutual agreement for the good of the whole The Eye to direct the Ear to receive Directions from others the Hands to act the Feet to move Every Creature hath Members fitted for that Element wherein it resides And in the Body some parts are appointed to change the Food into Blood others to refine it and others to distribute and convey it to several parts for the maintenance of the whole The Heart to mint vital Spirits for preserving Life and the Brain to coin Animal Spirits for Life and Motion the Lungs to serve for the cooling the Heart which else would be parcht as the ground in Summer The Motion of the Members of the Body by one act of the Will and also without the Will by a natural Instinct is an admirable Evidence of Divine Skill in the Structure of the Body so that well might the Psalmist cry out Psal 139.14 I am fearfully and wonderfully made But how much more of this Divine Perfection is seen in the Soul A Nature furnisht with a Faculty of Understanding to judge of things to gather in things that are distant and to reason and draw Conclusions from one thing to another with a Memory to treasure up things that are past with a Will to apply it self so readily to what the Mind judges fit and comely and fly so speedily from what it judges ill and hurtful The whole World is a Stage every Creature in it hath a part to act and a Nature suted to that part and end 't is design'd for and all concur in a joint Language to publish the Glory of Divine Wisdom they have a Voice to proclaim the Glory of God Psal 19.1 3. And it is not the least part of God's Skill in framing the Creatures so that upon Man's Obedience they are the Chanels of his Goodness and upon Man's Disobedience they can in their Natures be the Ministers of his Justice for the punishing of offending Creatures 4. Fourthly This Wisdom is apparent in the linking all these useful parts together so that one is subordinate to the other for a common end All parts are exactly suted to one another and every part to the whole though they are of different Natures as Lines distant in themselves yet they meet in one common Center the good and the preservation of the Universe they are all joynted together as the word translated framed * Heb. 11.3 signifies knit by fit Bands and Ligaments to contribute mutual Beauty Strength and Assistance to one another like so many Links of a Chain coupled together that though there be a distance in place there is a unity in regard of connexion and end there is a consent in the whole Hosea 2.21 22. The Heavens hear the Earth and the Earth hears the Corn and the Wine and the Oyl The Heavens communicate their qualities to the Earth and the Earth conveys them to the Fruits she bears †Dalle 15. Serm. p. 17◠The Air distributes Light Wind and Rain to the Earth the Earth and the Sea render to the Air Exhalations and Vapours and all together charitably give to the Plants and Animals that which is necessary for their nourishment and refreshment The Influences of the Heavens animate the Earth and the Earth affords matter in part for the Influences it receives from the Regions above Living Creatures are maintain'd by Nourishment Nourishment is conveyed to them by the Fruits of the Earth the Fruits of the Earth are produced by means of Rain and Heat Matter for Rain and Dew is raised by the heat of the Sun and the Sun by its motion distributes heat and quickning vertue to all parts of
value and virtue of the Redeemers Merit which God from the beginning intended to magnifie The Value of it in taking off so much successive Guilt and the Virtue of it in washing away so much daily filth Th◠Wisdom of God hereby keeps up the Credit of Imputed Righteousness and manifests the Immense Treasure of the Redeemers Merit to pay such daily Debts Were we perfectly Sanctified we should stand upon our own Bottom and imagine no need of the continual and repeated Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ for our Justification We should confide in Inherent Righteousness and slight Imputed If God should take off all Remainders of Sin as well as the Guilt of it we should be apt to forget that we are Fallen Creatures and that we had a Redeemer But the Reliques of Sin in us mind us of the necessity of some higher strength to set us right They mind us both of our own Misery and the Redeemers perpetual benefit God by this keeps up the Dignity and Honour of our Saviours Blood to the height and therefore sometimes lets us see to our own cost what filth yet remains in us for the employment of that Blood which we should else but little think of and less admire Our Gratitude is so small to God as well as Man that the first Obligations are soon forgot if we stand not in need of fresh ones successively to second them we should lose our Thankful Remembrance of the first virtue of Christs Blood in washing us if our Infirmities did not mind us of fresh Reiterations and Applications of it Ours Saviours Office of Advocacy was erected especially for Sins committed after a Justified and Renewed state * 1 John 2.1 We should scarce remember we had an Advocate and scarce make use of him without some sensible Necessity but our Remainders of Sin discover our Impotency and an impossibility for us either to expiate our Sin or conform to the Law which necessitates us to have recourse to that Person whom God hath appointed to make up the breaches between God and us So the Apostle wraps up himself in the Covenant of Grace and his Interest in Christ after his conflict with Sin Rom. 7. ult I thank God through Jesus Christ Now after such a Body of Death a Principle within me that sends up daily steams yet as long as I serve God with my Mind as long as I keep the main Condition of the Covenant there is no Condemnation †Rom. 8.1 Christ takes my part procures my acceptance and holds the Band of Salvation firm in his hands The brightness of Christs Grace is set off by the darkness of our Sin We should not understand the Soveraignty of his Medicines if there were no Reliques of Sin for him to exercise his Skill upon The Physicians Art is most experimented and therefore most valued in Relapses as dangerous as the former Disease As the Wisdom of God brought our Saviour into Temptation that he might have Compassion to us so it permits us to be overcome by Temptation that we might have due Valuations of him 3. God hereby often engageth the Soul to a greater Industry for his glory The highest Persecutors when they have become Converts have been the greatest Champions for that Cause they both hated and opprest The Apostle Paul is such an Instance of this that it needs no enlargement By how much they have failed of answering the end of their Creation in glorifying God by so much the more they summon up all their Force for such an end after their Conversion to restore as much as they can of that Glory to God which they by their Sin had robb'd him of Their Sins by the order of Divine Wisdom prove Whetstones to sharpen the edge of their Spirits for God Paul never remembred his Persecuting Fury but he doubled his Industry for the Service of God which before he trampled under his feet The further we go back the greater Leap many times we take forward Our Saviour after his Resurrection put Peter upon the exercise of that Love to him which had so lately shrunk his head out of Suffering ‖ Iohn 21.15 16 17. and no doubt but the consideration of his base Denial together with a reflection upon a gracious Pardon engag'd his Ingenuous Soul to stronger and fiercer flames of Affection A Believers Courage for God is more sharpned oftentimes by the shame of his Fall He endeavours to repair the faults of his Ingratitude and Disingenuity by larger and stronger steps of Obedience As a Man in a fight having been foil'd by his Enemy reassumes new Courage by his Fall and is many times oblig'd to his Foil both for his Spirit and his Victory A gracious Heart will upon the very motions to sin double its Vigor as well as by good ones It is usually more quickned both in its motion to God and for God by the Temptations and Motions to Sin which run upon it This is another Good the Wisdom of God brings forth from Sin 4. Again Humility towards God is another Good Divine Wisdom brings forth from the Occasion of Sin By this God beats down all good opinion or our selves Hezekiah was more humbled by his fall into Pride than by all the Distress he had been in by Senacharibs Army 2 Chron. 32.26 Peters Confidence before his Fall gave way to an humble Modesty after it You see his Confidence Mark 14.24 Though all should be offended in thee yet will not I and you have the mark of his Modesty John 21.17 't is not then Lord I will love thee to the death I will not start from thee but Lord thou knowest that I love thee I cannot assure my self of any thing after this Miscarriage but Lord thou knowest there is a Principle of Love in me to thy Name He was asham'd that himself who appeared such a Pillar should bend as meanly as a Shrub to a Temptation The reflection upon Sin lays a Man as low as Hell in his Humiliation as the Commission of Sin did in the Merit When David comes to exercise Repentance for his Sin he begins it from the Well-head of Sin * Psal 51.5 his Original Corruption and draws down the streams of it to the last commission Perhaps he did not so seriously humble himself for the Sin of his Nature all his days so much as at that time at least we have not such Evidences of it And Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart not only for the Pride of his Act †2 Chron. 32.26 but for the Pride in the Heart which was the Spring of that Pride in Act in shewing his Treasures to the Babylonish Ambassadors God lets Sin continue in the Hearts of the best in this World and sometimes gives the Reins to Satan and a Man 's own Corruption to keep up a sense of the ancient Sale we made of our selves to both II. In regard of our selves Herein is the wonder of Divine
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
1 Cor. 1.9 Is he the Instrumental or Principal cause of our effectual Vocation And can the Will of God be the Instrument of putting Paul into the Apostleship or the Soveraign cause of investing him with that Dignity when he calls himself an Apostle by the will of God Ephes 1.3 And when all things are said to be through God as well as of him must he be counted the Instrumental cause of his own Creation Counsels and Judgments * Rom. 11.36 When we mortifie the deeds of the Body through the Spirit Rom. 8.13 or keep the Treasure of the Word by the Holy Ghost 2 Tim. 1.14 Is the Holy Ghost of no more dignity in such acts than Instrument Nor doth the gaining a thing by a Person make him a meer Instrument or Inferior as when a Man gains his Right in a way of Justice against his Adversary by the Magistrate is the Judge inferiour to the Suppliant If the Word were an Instrument in Creation it must be a created or uncreated Instrument If Created it could not be true what the Evangelist saith that All things were made by him since himself the Principal thing could not be made by himself if Uncreated he was God and so acted by a Divine Omnipotency which surmounts an Instrumental cause But indeed an Instrument is impossible in Creation since it is wrought only by an act of the Divine Will Do we need any Organ to an act of Volition the efficacious Will of the Creator is the cause of the Original of the Body of the World with its particular Members and exact Harmony It was form'd by a Word and establish'd by a Command †Psal 33.9 the beauty of the Creation stood up at the Precept of his Will Nor was the Son a Partial cause as when many are said to build a House one works one part and another frames another part God created all things by the immediate operation of the Son in the unity of Essence Goodness Power Wisdom not an extrinsick but a connatural Instrument As the Sun doth illustrate all things by his Light and quickens all things by his Heat so God created the Worlds by Christ as he was the brightness or splendor of his Glory the exact image of his Person which follows the declaration of his making the Worlds by him ‖ Heb. 1.3 4. to shew that he acted not as an Instrument but one in Essential conjunction with him as Light and Brightness with the Sun But suppose he did make the World as a kind of Instrument He was then before the World not bounded by Time and Eternity cannot well be conceiv'd belonging to a Being without Omnipotency He is the End as well as the Author of the Creatures * Colos 1.16 not only the Principle which gave them Being but the Sea into whose glory they run and dissolve themselves which consists not with the meaness of an Instrument 2. As Creation so Preservation is ascribed to him Colos 1.17 By him all things consist As he preceded all things in his Eternity so he establishes all things by his Omnipotency and fixes them in their several Centers that they sink not into that nothing from whence he fetched them By him they flourish in their several Beings and observe the Laws and Orders he first appointed That Power of his which extracted them from insensible Nothing upholds them in their several Beings with the same facility as he spake Being into them even by the word of his Power ‖ Heb. 1 3. and by one Creative continued Voice called all Generations from the beginning to the Period of the World * Isai 41.4 and causes them to flourish in their several seasons 'T is by him Kings reign and Princes decree justice and all things are confin'd within the limits of Government All which are Acts of an Infinite Power 3. Resurrection is also ascrib'd to him The Body crumbled to Dust and that Dust blown to several quarters of the World cannot be gathered in its distinct parts and new formed for the entertainment of the Soul without the strength of an Infinite Arm. This he will do and more change the vileness of an Earthly Body into the glory of an Heavenly one a Dusty flesh into a Spiritual Body which is an argument of a Power Invincible to which all things cannot but stoop for it is by such an operation which testifies an ability to subdue all things to himself †Phil. 3.21 especially when he works it with the same ease as he did the Creation by the power of his Voice John 5.28 All that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth Speaking them into a restored life from insensible Dust as he did into Being from an empty Nothing The greatest acts of Power are own'd to belong to Creation Preservation Resurrection Omnipotence therefore is his Right and therefore a Deity cannot be denied to him that inherits a Perfection essential to none but God and impossible to be intrusted in or managed by the hands of any Creatures And this is no mean comfort to those that believe in him He is in regard of his Power the Horn of salvation so Zachariah sings of him Luke 1.69 Nor could there be any more Mighty found out upon whom God could have laid our help ‖ Psal 89.19 No reason therefore to doubt his ability to save to the utmost who hath the Power of Creation Preservation and Resurrection in his hands His Promises must be accomplished since nothing can resist him He hath Power to fulfil his Word and bring all things to a final issue because he is Almighty by his Outstretched Arm in the Deliverance of his Israel from Egypt for it was his Arm 1 Cor. 10. he shewed that he was able to deliver us from Spiritual Egypt The charge of Mediator to expiate Sin vanquish Hell form a Church conduct and perfect it are not to be effected by a Person of less ability than Infinite Let this Almightiness of his be the Bottom wherein to cast and fix the Anchor of our Hopes 2. Information Hence may be inferred the Deity of the Holy Ghost Works of Omnipotency are ascrib'd to the Spirit of God By the motion of the Wings of this Spirit as a Bird over her Eggs was that rude and unshapen Mass hatcht into a comly World * Gen. 1.2 So the word Moved properly signifies The Stars or perhaps the Angels are meant by the garnishing of the Heavens in the Verse before the Text were brought forth in their comliness and dignity as the ornaments of the upper World by this Spirit By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens To this Spirit Job ascribes the formation both of the Body and Soul under the Title of Almighty Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life Resurrection another work of Omnipotency is attributed to him Rom. 8.11 The Conception of our Saviour
he might be a Rewarder and Threatens that he might not be a Punisher the one is to elevate our hope and the other to excite our fear the two Passions whereby the Nature of Man is manag'd in the World He imprints upon Man Sentiments of a Misery by Sin in his thundring Commination that he might engage him the more to embrace and be guided by the Motives of Sweetness in his gracious Promises The design of them was to preserve Man in his due bounds that God might not have occasion to blow upon him the Flames of his Justice to suppress those irregular Passions which the Nature of Man though Created without any disorder was capable of entertaining upon the appearance of suitable Objects and to keep the Waves from swelling upon any turning Wind that so Man being modest in the use of the Goodness God had allowed him might still be capable of fresh streams of Divine Bounty without ever falling under his Righteous Wrath for any Transgression What a prospect of Goodness is in this proceeding to disclose Mans Happiness to be as durable as his Innocence and set before a Rational Creature the extreamest Misery due to his Crime to affright him from neglecting his Creator and making unworthy Returns to his Goodness What could be done more by Goodness to suit that passion of fear which was implanted in the Nature of Man than to assure him he should not degenerate from the Righteousness of his Nature and violate the Authority of his Creator without falling from his own Happiness and sinking into the most deplorable Calamity 3. The Reward he promised manifests yet further his Goodness to Man It was his Goodness to intend a Reward to Man No necessity could oblige God to Reward Man had he continued obedient in his Created State For in all Rewards which are truly Merited besides some kind of equality to be consider'd between the Person doing Service and the Person Rewarding and also between the Act performed and the Reward bestow'd there must also be consider'd the condition of the Person doing the Service that he is not oblig'd to do it as a Duty but is at his own choice whether to offer it or no But Man being wholly dependent on God in his Being and Preservation having nothing of his own but what he had receiv'd from the hands of Divine Bounty †1 Cor. 4.7 his Service was due by the strongest Obligation to God But there was no natural Engagement on God to return a Reward to him for Man could return nothing of his own but that only which he had received from his Creator It must be pure Goodness that gives a gracious Reward for a due Debt to receive his own from Man and return more than he had received A Divine Reward doth far surmount the value of a Rational Service It was therefore a mighty Goodness to stipulate with Man that upon his Obedience he should enjoy an Immortality in that Nature * Amyral Dissertat p. 637 638. The Article on Mans part was Obedience which was necessarily just and founded in the Nature of Man He had been unjust ungrateful and violated all Laws of Righteousness had he committed any act unworthy of one that had been so great a Subject of Divine Liberality But the Article on Gods part of giving a perpetual Blessedness to Innocent Man was not founded upon Rules of strict Justice and Righteousness for that would have argu'd God to be a Debtor to Man but that God cannot be to the Work of his hands that had receiv'd the Materials of his Being and Acting from him as the Vessel doth from the Potter But this was founded only on the Goodness of the Divine Nature whereby he cannot but be kind to an innocent and holy Creature The Nature of God enclin'd him to it by the Rules of Goodness but the Service of Man could not claim it by the Rules of Justice without a Stipulation So that the Covenant whereby God oblig'd himself to continue the Happiness of Man upon the continuance of his Obedience in the Original of it springs from pure Goodness though the performance of it upon the fulfilling Condition requir'd in the Creature was founded upon the Rules of Righteousness and Truth after Divine Goodness had brought it forth God did Create Man for a Reward and Happiness Now Gods implanting in the Nature of Man a desire after Happiness and some higher Happiness than he had in Creation invested him in doth evidence that God did not Create Man only for his own Service but for his attaining a greater Happiness All Rational Creatures are possessed with a Principle of seeking after Good the highest Good and God did not plant in Man this Principle in vain It had not been Goodness to put this Principle in Man if he had design'd never to bestow a Happiness on Man for his Obedience This had been Repugnant to the Goodness and Wisdom of God And the Scripture doth very Emphatically express the Felicity of Man to be the design of God in the first forming him and moulding him a Creature as well as working him a new Creature †2 Cor. 5.1 2. He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God He framed this Earthly Tabernacle for a Residence in an Eternal Habitation and a better Habitation than an Earthly Paradise What we expect in the Resurrection that very same thing God did in Creation intend us for but since the Corruption of our Natures we must undergo a dissolution of our Bodies and may have just reason of a despondency since Sin hath seem'd to change the course of Gods Bounty and brought us under a Curse He hath given us the Earnest of his Spirit as an assurance that he will perform that very self same thing the conferring that Happiness upon renewed Creatures for which he first form'd Man in Creation when he compacted his Earthly Tabernacle of the dust of the Ground and rear'd it up before him 4. It was a mighty Goodness that God should give Man an Eternal Reward That an Eternity of Reward was promised is implied in the Death that was threatned upon Transgression Whatsoever you conceive the threatned Death to be either for Nature or duration upon Transgression of the same Nature and duration you must suppose the life to be which is implied upon his constancy in his Integrity As Sin would render him an Eternal Object of Gods hatred so his Obedience would render him an Eternally amiable Object to his Creator as the standing Angels are preserved and confirmed in an intire Felicity and Glory Though the threatning be only exprest by God * Gen. 2.17 yet the other is implied and might easily be concluded from it by Adam And one reason why God only exprest the Threatning and not the Promise was because man might collect some hopes and expectations of a perpetual Happiness from that Image of God which he beheld in himself and from the large
for our selves What are we dead Dogs that he should behold us with so gracious an Eye This Goodness is thus inhanced if you consider the State of Man in his first Transgression and after 4. This Goodness further appears in the high advancement of our Nature after it had so highly offended By Creation we had an affinity with Animals in our Bodies with Angels in our Spirits with God in his Image but not with God in our Nature till the Incarnation of the Redeemer Adam by Creation was the Son of God * Luke 3.38 but his Nature was not one with the Person of God He was his Son as Created by him but had no affinity to him by vertue of union with him But now Man doth not only see his Nature in multitudes of Men on Earth but by an astonishing Goodness beholds his Nature united to the Deity in Heaven That as he was the Son of God by Creation he is now the Brother of God by Redemption for with such a Title doth that Person who was the Son of God as well as the Son of Man honour his Disciples †Joh. 20.17 And because he is of the same Nature with them he is not ashamed to call them Brethren Heb. 2.11 Our Nature which was infinitely distant from and below the Deity now makes one Person with the Son of God What Man sinfully aspired to God hath graciously granted and more Man aspired to a likeness in knowledge and God hath granted him an affinity in union It had been astonishing Goodness to Angelize our Natures but in Redemption Divine Goodness hath acted higher in a sort to Deifie our Natures In Creation our Nature was exalted above other Creatures on Earth in our Redemption our Nature is exalted above all the Host of Heaven We were higher than the Beasts as Creatures but lower than the Angels * Psal 8.5 But by the Incarnation of the Son of God our Nature is elevated many steps above them After it had sunk it self by Corruption below the Bestial Nature and as low as the Diabolical the fulness of the Godhead dwells in our Nature Bodily †Colos 2.9 but never in the Angels Angelically The Son of God descended to dignifie our Nature by assuming it and ascended with our Nature to have it crown'd above those standing Monuments of Divine Power and Goodness * 1 Ephes 20.21 That Person that descended in our Nature into the Grave and in the same Nature was raised up again is in that same Nature set at the right hand of God in Heaven far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named Our Refined Clay by an indissoluble union with this Divine Person is honoured to sit for ever upon a Throne above all the Tribes of Seraphims and Cherubins and the Person thâ—t wears it is the head of the good Angels and the conqueror of the bad The one are put under his Feet and the other commanded to adore him that purged our Sins in our Nature †Heb. 1.3 6. That Divine Person in our Nature receives Adoration from the Angels but the Nature of Man is not order'd to pay any Homage and Adorations to the Angels How could Divine Goodness to Man more magnifie it self As we could not have a lower descent than we had by Sin How could we have a higher ascent than by a substantial participation of a Divine Life in our Nature in the unity of a Divine Person Our Earthly Nature is joyned to a Heavenly Person our undone Nature united to one equal with God * Phil. 2.6 It may truly be said that Man is God which is infinitely more glorious for us than if it could be said Man is an Angel If it were Goodness to advance our Innocent Nature above other Creatures the advancement of our degenerate Nature above Angels deserves a higher Title than meer Goodness 'T is a more gracious act than if all Men had been transformed into the pure Spiritual Nature of the loftiest Cherubins 5. This Goodness is manifest in the Covenant of Grace made with us whereby we are freâ—d from the rigor of that of Works God might have insisted upon the terms of the old Covenant and requir'd of Man the improvement of his Original Stock but God hath condescended to lower terms and offer'd Man more gracious Methods and mitigated the rigor of the first by the sweetness of the second 1. 'T is Goodness that he should condescend to make another Covenant with Man To Stipulate with Innocent and Righteous Adam for his Obedience was a stoop of his Soveraignty Though he gave the Precept as a Soveraign Lord yet in his Covenanting he seems to descend to some kind of equality with that Dust and Ashes with whom he treated Absolute Soveraigns do not usually Covenant with their People but exact Obedience and Duty without binding themselves to bestow a Reward and if they intend any they reserve the purpose in their own breasts without treating their Subjects with a solemn declaration of it There was no obligation on God to enter into the first Covenant much less after the violation of the first to the settlement of a new If God seem'd in some sort to equal himself to Man in the first he seem'd to descend below himself in treating with a Rebel upon more condescending terms in the second If his Covenant with Innocent Adam was a stoop of his Soveraignty this with Rebellious Adam seems to be a stripping himself of his Majesty in favour of his Goodness As if his happiness depended upon us and not ours upon him 'T is a Humiliation of himself to behold the things in Heaven the glorious Angels as well as things on Earth mortal Men †Psal 113.6 much more to bind himself in gracious bonds to the glorious Angels and much more if to Rebel Man In the first Covenant there was much of Soveraignty as well as Goodness In the second there is less of Soveraignty and more of Grace In the first there was a Righteous Man for a Holy God In the second a polluted Creature for a pure and provoked God In the first he holds his Scepter in his hand to Rule his Subjects In the second he seems to lay by his Scepter to Court and Espouse a Beggar * Hosea 2.18 19 20. In the first he is a Lord in the second a Husband and binds himself upon Gracious Conditions to become a Debtor How should this Goodness fill us with an humble astonishment as it did Abraham when he fell on his face when he heard God speaking of making a Covenant with him †Gen. 17.2.3 And if God speaking to Israel out of the Fire and making them to hear his voice out of Heaven that he might instruct them was a Consideration whereby Moses would heighten their admiration of Divine Goodness and engage their affectionate Obedience to him * Deut. 4.32 36 40. How much more
happiness This he doth not only in his general proclamations but in his particular wooings those inward courtings of his Spirit solliciting them with more diligence if they would observe it to their happiness than the Devil tempts them to the ways of their Misery As he was first in Christ reconciling the World when the World looked not after him so he is first in his Spirit wooing the World to accept of that Reconciliation when the World will not listen to him How often doth he flash up the Light of Nature and the Light of the Word in Mens hearts to move them not to lie down in sparks of their own kindling but to aspire to a better happiness and prepare them to be subject to a higher Mercy If they would improve his present intreaties to such an end And what are his Threatnings design'd for but to move the Wheel of our Fears that the Wheel of our Desire and Love might be set on Motion for the embracing his Promise They are not so much the Thunders of his Justice as the loud Rhetorick of his good Will to prevent Mens Misery under the Vials of Wrath. 'T is his kindness to feare Men by threatnings that Justice might not strike them with the Sword 'T is not the destruction but the preserving Reformation that he aims at He hath no pleasure in the death of the Wicked This he confirms by his Oath * Ezek. 33.11 His threatnings are gracious Expostulations with them Why will ye die O house of Israel They are like the noise a favourable Officer makes in the Street to warn the Criminal he comes to seize upon to make his escape He never used his Justice to crush Men till he had used his Kindness to allure them All the dreadful descriptions of a future Wrath as well as the lively descriptions of the happiness of another World are designed to perswade Men The Honey of his Goodness is in the Bowels of those roaring Lyons such pains doth Goodness take with Men to make them Candidates for Heaven 2. How readily doth he receive Men when they do return We have Davids Experience for it †Psal 32.5 I said I will confess my Transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my Sin Selah A sincere look from the Creature draws out his Arms and opens his Bosom he is ready with his Physick to heal us upon a resolution to acquaint him with our Disease and by his Medicines prevents the putting our Resolution into a Petition The Psalmist adds a Selah to it as a special Note of Thankfulness for Divine Goodness He doth not only stand ready to receive our Petitions while we are speaking but answers us before we call * Isai 65.24 listening to the Motions of our Hearts as well as to the supplications of our Lips He is the true Father that hath a quicker pace in meeting than the Prodigal hath in returning Who would not have his Embraces and Caresses interrupted by his Confession †Luke 15.20 21 22. The Confession follows doth not precede the Fathers Compassion How doth he rejoyce in having an opportunity to express his Grace when he hath prevail'd with a Rebel to throw down his Arms and lie at his Feet and this because he delights in Mercy * Mic. 7.18 He delights in the Expressions of it from himself and the acceptance of it by his Creature 3. How meltingly doth he bewail Mans wilful refusal of his Goodness 'T is a mighty Goddness to offer Grace to a Rebel a mighty Goodness to give it him after he hath a while stood off from the terms An astonishing Goodness to regret and lament his wilful perdition He seems to utter those words in a sigh †Psal 81.13 Oh that my People had hearkned unto me and Israel had walked in my way 'T is true God hath not Humane Passions but his Affections can not be exprest otherwise in a way intelligible to us The Excellency of his Nature is above the Passions of Men but such Expressions of himself manifest to us the sincerity of his Goodness and that were he capable of our Passions he would express himself in such a manner as we do And we find incarnate Goodness bewailing with tears and sighs the ruine of Jerusalem * Luke 19.42 By the same reason that when a Sinner returns there is joy in Heaven upon his obstinacy there is sorrow in Earth The one is as if a Prince should Cloth all his Court in Triumphant Scarlet upon a Rebels Repentance And the other as if a Prince should put himself and his Court in Mourning for a Rebels obstinate refusal of a Pardon when he lies at his Mercy Are not now these affectionate invitations and deep bewailings of their perversity high Testimonies of Divine Goodness Do not the unwearied repetitions of Gracious Encouragements deserve a higher name than that of meer Goodness What can be a stronger Evidence of the sincerity of it than the sound of his saving voice in our enjoyments the motion of his Spirit in our hearts and his grief for the neglect of all These are not Testimonies of any want of Goodness in his Nature to answer us or willingness to express it to his Creature Hath he any mind to deceive us that thus entreats us The Majesty of his Nature is too great for such shifts or if it were not the despicableness of our condition would render him above the using any Who would charge that Physician with want of kindness that freely offers his Soveraign Medicine importunes Men by the love they have to their health to take it and is dissolved into tears and sorrow when he finds it rejected by their peevish and conceited humor 7. Divine Goodness is eminent in the Sacraments he hath affixt to this Covenant especially in the Lords Supper As he gave himself in his Son so he gives his Son in the Sacrament He doth not only give him as a Sacrifice upon the Cross for the Expiation of our Crimes but as a Feast upon the Table for the noâ—â—ishment of our Souls In the one he was given to be offer'd in this he gives him to be partaked of with all the Fruits of his Death Under the Image of the Sacramental Signs every Believer doth eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the great Mediator of the Covenant The words of Christ This is my Body and this is my Blood are true to the end of the World * Matth. 26.26 28. This is the most delicious Viand of Heaven the most exquisite Dainty Food God can feed us with the delight of the Deity the admiration of Angels A Feast with God is great but a Feast on God is greater Under those Signs that Body is presented that which was conceived by the Spirit inhabited by the Godhead bruised by the Father to be our Food as well as our Propitiation is presented to us on the Table That Blood which satisfied Justice washt
actions than the Actor it self The Actor hath a Soveraignty over others in action but the end for which any one works hath a Soveraignty over the Agent himself A Limner hath a Soveraignty over the Picture he is framing or hath fram'd but the end for which he fram'd it either his profit he design'd from it or the honor and credit of skill he aimed at in it hath a Dominion over the Limner himself The end moves and excites the Artist to work it spirits him in it conducts him in his whole business possesses his mind and sits triumphant in him in all the progress of his work 'T is the first cause for which the whole work is wrought Now God in his actual Creation of all is the Soveraign end of all for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4.11 The Lord hath made all things for himself Prov. 16.4 Man indeed is the subordinate and immediate end of the lower Creation And therefore had the Dominion over other Creatures granted to him But God being the ultimate and principal end hath the Soveraign and principal Dominion all things as much referre to him as the last end as they flow from him as the first Cause So that as I said before if the World had been compacted together by a jumbling chance without a wise hand as some have foolishly imagined none could have been an Antagonist with God for the Government of the World but God in regard of the excellency of his nature would have been the Rector of it unless those Atomes that had composed the World had had an ability to Govern it Since there could be no universal end of all things but God God only can claim an intire right to the Government of it For though man be the end of the lower Creation yet man is not the end of himself and his own being he is not the end of the Creation of the supream Heavens he is not able to govern them they are out of his ken and out of his reach None fit in regard of the excellency of Nature to be the chief end of the whole World but God And therefore none can have a right to the Dominion of it but God In this regard Gods Dominion differs from the Dominion of all Earthly Potentates All the subjects in Creation were made for God as their end so are not People for Rulers but Rulers made for People for their protection and the preservation of Order in Societies 4. The Dominion of God is founded upon his preservation of things Ps 95.3 4. The Lord is a great King above all Gods Why In his hand are all the deep places of the Earth While his hand holds things his hand hath a Dominion over them He that holds a stone in the Air exerciseth a dominion over its natural inclination in hindring it from falling The Creature depends wholly upon God in its preservation as soon as that Divine hand which sustains every thing were withdrawn a languishment and swooning would be the next turn in the Creature He is call'd Lord Adonai in regard of his sustentation of all things by his continual influx The Word coming of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a basis or pillar that supports a building God is the Lord of all as he is the sustainer of all by his power as well as the Creator of all by his Word The Sun hath a Soveraign dominion over its own beams which depend upon it so that if he withdraws himself they all attend him and the World is left in darkness God maintains the vigor of all things conducts them in their operations so that nothing that they are nothing that they have but is owing to his preserving power The Master of this great Family may as well be called the Lord of it since every member of it depends upon him for the support of that being he first gave them and holds of his Empire As the right to govern resulted from Creation so it is perpetuated by the preservation of things 5. The dominion of God is strengthened by the innumerable benefits he bestows upon his Creatures The benefits he conferrs upon us after Creation are not the original ground of his dominion A man hath not Authority over his Servant from the kindness he shews to him but his Authority commenceth before any act of kindness and is founded upon a right of purchase conquest or compact Dominion doth not depend upon meer benefits Then Inferiors might have dominion over Superiors A Peasant may save the Life of a Prince to whom he was not subject he hath not therefore a right to step up into his Throne and give Laws to him And Children that maintain their Parents in their poverty might then acquire an Authority over them which they can never climb to Because the benefits they conferre cannot parallel the benefits they have received from the Authors of their Lives The bounties of God to us add nothing to the intrinsick right of his natural dominion they being the effects of that Soveraignty as he is a Rewarder and Governour As the benefits a Prince bestows upon his favorite increases not that right of Authority which is inherent in the Crown but strengthens that dominion as it stands in relation to the receiver by increasing the obligation of the favorite to an observance of him not only as his natural Prince but his gracious Benefactor The beneficence of God adds though not an original right of power yet a foundation of a stronger upbraiding the Creature if he walks in a violation and forgetfulness of those benefits and pull in peices the links of that ingenuous duty they call for and an occasion of exercising of Justice in punishing the delinquent which is a part of his Empire Isaiah 1.2 Hear O Heavens and give Ear O Earth the Lord hath spoken I have nourished Children and they have rebelled against me Thus the fundamental right as Creator is made more indisputable by his relation as a Benefactor and more as being so after a forfeiture of what was enjoyed by Creation The benefits of God are innumerable and so magnificent that they cannot meet with any compensation from the Creature And therefore do necessarily require a submission from the Creature and an acknowledgement of Divine Authority But that benefit of Redemption doth add a stronger right of dominion to God Since he hath not only as a Creator given them Being and Life as his Creatures but paid a price the price of his Sons blood for their rescue from Captivity so that he hath a Soveraignty of Grace as well as Nature and the ransom'd ones belong to him as Redeemer as well as Creator 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Ye are not your own For ye are bought with a price therefore your Body and your Spirit are Gods By this he acquir'd a right of another kind and bought us from that uncontroulable Lordship we affected over our selves by the sin of Adam that he might use us
as his own peculiar for his own glory and service By this Redemption there results to God a right over our bodies over our Spirits over our services as well as by Creation and to shew the strength of this right the Apostle repeats it you are bought a purchase cannot be without a price paid but he adds price also bought with a price To strengthen the Title purchase gave him a new right and the greatness of the price established that right The more a man pays for a thing the more usually we say he deserves to have it he hath paid enough for it It was indeed price enough and too much for such vile Creatures as we are III. The third thing is The Nature of this Dominion 1. This Dominion is Independent His Throne is in the Heavens the Heavens depend not upon the Earth nor God upon his Creatures Since he is Independent in regard of his Essence he is so in his dominion which flows from the excellency and fulness of his Essence As he receives his Essence from none so he derives his dominion from none All other dominion except paternal Authority is rooted originally in the wills of men * Raynaud Theolog. Natural p. 760 761 762. The first Title was the consent of the People or the conquest of others by the help of those People that first consented And in the exercise of it Earthly dominion depends upon assistance of the Subjects and the Members being joyn'd with the head carry on the work of Government and prevent Civil dissentions in the support of it it depends upon the Subjects Contributions and Taxes The Subjects in their strength are the Arms and in their Purses the Sinews of Government But God depends upon none in the foundation of his Government he is not a Lord by the Votes of his Vassals Nor is it successively handed to him by any Predecessor nor constituted by the power of a Superior Nor forced he his way by War and conquest nor precariously attained it by suit or flattery or bribing promises He holds not the right of his Empire from any other he hath no Superior to hand him to his Throne and settle him by Commission He is therefore called King of Kings and Lord of Lords having none above him A great King above all Gods Psal 95.3 Needing no Licence from any when to act nor direction how to act or assistance in his action He owes not any of those to any person he was not ordered by any other to Create and therefore receives not orders from any other to rule over what he hath created He received not his power and wisdom from another and therefore is not Subject to any for the rule of his Government He only made his own Subjects and from himself hath the sole Authority his own will was the cause of their beings and his own will is the director of their actions He is not determined by his Creatures in any of his motions but determins the Creatures in all His actions are not regulated by any Law without him but by a Law within him the Law of his own Nature 'T is impossible he can have any rule without himself because there is nothing Superior to himself Nor doth he depend upon any in the exercise of his Government he needs no Servants in it when he uses Creatures it is not out of want of their help but for the manifestation of his wisdom and power What he doth by his Subjects he can do by himself The Government is upon his Shoulder Isaiah 9.6 To shew that he needs not any supporters All other governments flow from him all other Authorities depend upon him Dei Gratiâ or Dei Providentiâ is in the style of Princes As their being is deriv'd from his power so their Authority is but a branch of his dominion They are governors by Divine Providence God is Governour by his sole nature All motions depend upon the first Heaven which moves all but that depends upon nothing The Government of Christ depends upon God's increated dominion and is by Commission from him Christ assum'd not this honour to himself But he that said unto him thou art my Son bestow'd it upon him He put all things under his feet but not himself 1 Cor. 15.27 When he saith all things are put under him he is excepted which did put all things under him He sits still as an independent Governour upon his Throne 2. This dominion is Absolute If his Throne be in the Heavens there is nothing to controul him If he be independent he must needs be â—bsolute since he hath no cause in conjunction with him as Creator that can share with him in his right or restrain him in the disposal of his Creature His Authority is unlimited in this regard the Title of Lord becomes not any but God properly Tiberius thoâ—ght none of the best though one of the subtilest Princes accounted the Title of Lord a reproach to him Since he was not absolute * Sueton. de Tiberio cap. 27. 1. Absolute in regard of Freedom and Liberty 1. Thus Creation is a work of his meer Soveraignty he Created because it was his pleasure to Create Rev. 4.11 He is not necessitated to do this or that He might have chosen whether he would have fram'd an Earth and Heavens and laid the foundations of his Chambers in the Waters He was under no obligation to reduce things from nullity to existence 2. Preservation is the fruit of his Soveraignty When he had called the World to stand out he might have ordered it to return into its dark den of nothingness ript up every part of its foundation or have given being to many more Creatures than he did If you consider his absolute soveraignty why might he not have devested Adam presently of those rational perfections wherewith he had endow'd him And might he not have metamorphos'd him into some Beast and elevated some Beast into a rational nature Why might he not have degraded an Angel to a Worm and advanc'd a Worm to the nature and condition of an Angel Why might he not have revokt that grant of dominion which he had passed to man over all Creatures It was free to him to permit sin to enter into the Earth or to have excluded it out of the Earth as he doth out of Heaven 3. Redemption is a fruit of his Soveraignty By his absolute Soveraignty he might have confirmed all the Angels in their standing by Grace and prevented the revolt of any of their members from him and when there was a revolt both in Heaven and Earth it was free to him to have call'd out his Son to assume the Angelical as well as the humane nature or have exercised his dominion in the destruction of Men and Devils rather than in the Redemption of any he was under no obligation to restore either the one or the other 4. May he not impose what terms he pleases May he not impose what Laws
especially this dominion in the peculiarity of its extent is seen in the exercise of it over the Spirits and Hearts of Men. Earthly Governours have by his indulgence a share with him in a dominion over mens bodies upon which account he graceth Princes and Judges with the Title of Gods Psal 82.6 But the highest Prince is but a Prince according to the Flesh as the Apostle calls Masters in relation to their Servants Colos 3.22 God is the Soveraign Man rules over the Beast in Man the Body and God rules over the Man in Man the Soul It sticks not in the outward surface but peirceth to the inward Marrow 'T is impossible God should be without this if our wills were independent on him we were in some sort equal with himself in part Gods as well as Creatures 'T is impossible a Creature either in whole or in part can be exempted from it Since he is the fashioner of hearts as well as of Bodies He is the Father of Spirits And therefore hath the right of a paternal dominion over them When he established man Lord of the other Creatures he did not strip himself of the propriety And when he made man a free Agent and Lord of the acts of his Will he did not devest himself of the Soveraignty His Soveraignty is seen 1. In Gifting of the Spirits of Men. Earthly Magistrates have hands too short to inspire the Hearts of their Subjects with worthy sentiments When they conferre an employment they are not able to convey an ability with it fit for the station They may as soon frame a Statue of liquid water and guild or paint it over with the costliest colours as impart to any a State-Head for a State-Ministry But when God chooseth a Saul from so mean an employment as seeking of Asses he can treasure up in him a Spirit fit for Government And fire David in Age a stripling and by Education a Shepherd with Courage to Encounter and skill to defeat a massy Goliah And when he designs a person for Glory to stand before his Throne he can put a new and a Royal Spirit into him Ezek. 36.26 God only can infuse habits into the Soul to capacitate it to act nobly and generously 2. His Soveraignty is seen in regard of the inclinations of mens Wills No Creature can immediately work upon the will to guide it to what point he pleaseth though mediately it may by proposing reasons which may Master the understandiâ—g and thereby determine the Will But God bows the Hearts of men by the 〈◊〉 of his dominion to what Centre he pleaseth When the more overweeniâ—g sort of men that thought their own heads as fit for a Crown as Sauls scornfully dâ—spis'd him yet God touched the hearts of a band of men to follow and adhere to him 1 Sam. 10.26 27. When the Anti-Christian Whore shall be ripe for destruction God shall put it into the Heart of the ten Horns or Kings to hate the Whore burn her with Fire and fulfil his Will Rev. 17.16 17. He Fashions the Hearts alike and tunes one string to answer another and both to answer his own design Psal 33.15 And while men seem to gratifie their own ambition and malice they execute the Will of God by his secret touch upon their Spirits guiding their inclinations to serve the glorious manifestation of his Truth While the Jews would in a reproachful disgrace to Christ Crucifie two Theives with him to render him more uncapable to have any followers they accomplisht a Prophesie and brought to light a mark of the Messiah whereby he had been charactered in one of their Prophets Isaiah 53.12 That he should be numbred among Transgressors He can make a man of not willing willing the wills of all men are in his hand i. e. under the power of his Scepter to retain or let go upon this or that Errand to bend this or that way as Water is carried by Pipes to what house or place the owner of it is pleas'd to order Prov. 21.1 The Kings Heart is in the hand of the Lord as the Rivers of waters he turns it whithersoever he will without any limitation He speaks of the Heart of Princes Because in regard of their height they seem to be more absolute and impetuous as waters yet God holds them in his hand under his dominion turns them to acts of clemency or severity like waters either to overflow and dammage or to refresh and fructifie He can convey a Spirit to them or cut it off from them Psal 76.12 'T is with reference to his efficacious power in graciously turning the Heart of Paul that the Apostle breaks of his discourse off the story of his conversion and breaks out into a magnifying and glorifying of God's dominion 1 Tim. 1.17 Now unto the King eternal c. be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Our Hearts are more subject to the divine Soveraignty than our members in their motions are subject to our own wills As we can move our hand East or West to any quarter of the World so can God bend our Wills to what mark he pleases The second Cause in every motion depends upon the first and that will being a second Cause may be furthered or hindered in its inclinations or executions by God he can bend or unbend it and change it from one actual inclination to another 'T is as much under his Authority and Power to move or hinder as the vast engine of the Heavens is in its motion or standing still which he can effect by a word The work depends upon the workman the Clock upon the Artificer for the motions of it 3. His dominion is seen in regard of Terror or Comfort The Heart or Conscience is Gods special Throne on Earth which he hath reserv'd to himself and never indulg'd humane Authority to sit upon it He solely orders this in ways of conviction or Comfort He can flash terror into mens Spirits in the midst of their Earthly jollities and put death into the pot of Conscience when they are boyling up themselves in a high pitch of worldly delights and can raise mens Spirits above the sense of torment under Racks and Flames He can draw a hand Writing not only in the outward Chamber but the inward Closet bring the Rack into the inwards of a Man None can infuse Comfort when he writes bitter things nor can any fill the heart with Gall when he drops in Hony Men may order outward duties but they cannot unlock the Conscience and constrain men to think them duties which they are forced by humane Laws outwardly to act And as the Laws of earthly Princes are bounded by the outward man so do their executions and punishments reach no further than the case of the Body But God can run upon the inward man as a Gyant and inflict wounds and gashes there 5. Proposition 'T is an Eternal Dominion In regard of the exercise of it it was not from Eternity Because
acknowledge it with thankfulness in what we have to implore it with a holy submission in what wâ— wâ—nt To oâ—n Gâ—â— as a Soveraign in a way of dependance is the way to be own'd by him as Subjects in a way of favour 5. His Soveraignty is manifested in giving a great measure of knowledge to some than to others What Parts Gifts excellency of Nature any have above others are Gods donative He gives Wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding Dan. 2.21 Wisdom the habit and Knowledge the right use of it in discerning the right nature of objects and the fitness of means conducing to the end all is but a beam of Divine Light and the different degrees of Knowledge in one man above another are the effects of his Soveraign pleasure He enlightens not the minds of all men to know every part of his will one eats with a doubtful Conscience another in Faith without any staggering Romans 14.2 Peter had a desire to keep up Circumcision not fully understanding the mind of God in the abolition of the Jewish Ceremonies While Paul was clear in the Truth of that Doctrine A thought comes into our mind that like a Sun-beam makes a Scripture Truth visible in a moment which before we were poring upon without any success this is from his pleasure One in the primitive times had the gift of Knowledge another of Wisdom one the gift of Prophesie another of Tongues one the gift of Healing another that of discerning Spirits why this gift to one man and not to another Why such a distribution in several Subjects Because it is his Soveraign pleasure The Spirit divides to every man severally as he will 1 Cor. 12.11 Why doth he give Bezaleel and Aholiah the gift of Engraving and making curious works for the Tabernacle Exod. 31.3 and not others Why doth he bestow the Treasures of Evangelical Knowledge upon the meanest of Earthen Vessels the poor Galileans and neglect the Pharisees stor'd with the Knowledge both of Naturals and Morals Why did he give to some and not to others to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 13.11 The reason is implyed in the words Because it was the mystery of his Kingdom and therefore was the act of his Soveraignty How would it be a Kingdom and Monarchy if the Governour of it were bound to do what he did 'T is to be resolv'd only into the Soveraign right of propriety of his own goods that he furnisheth Babes with a stock of knowledge and leaves the Wise and Prudent empty of it Matth. 11.26 Even so Father for so it seem'd good in thy sight Why did he not reveal his mind to Eri a grown man and in the highest office in the Jewish Church but open it to Samuel a stripling Why did the Lord go from the one to the other Because his motion depends upon his own will Some are of so dull a constitution that they are uncapable of any impression like Rocks too hard for a stamp others like water you may stamp what you please but it vanisheth as soon as the Seal is remov'd 'T is God forms men as he pleaseth Some have parts to govern a Kingdom others scarce brains to conduct their own affairs One is fit to rule men and another scarce fit to keep Swine Some have capacious Souls in crazy and deform'd Bodies others contracted Spirits and heavier minds in a richer and more beautiful case Why are not all stones alike some have a more sparkling light as gems more orient than pebbles Some are Stars of first and others of a less magnitude others as mean as Glo-worms a slimy lustre 'T is because he is the Soveraign disposer of what belongs to him and gives here as well as at the Resurrection to one a Glory of the Sun to another that of the Moon and to a third a less resembling that of a Star 1 Cor. 15.40 And this God may do by the same right of Dominion as he exercised when he endow'd some kinds of Creaâ—â—â—es with a greater perfection than others in their Nature Why may he not as well garnish one man with a greater proportion of gifts as make a man differ in excellency from the Nature of a Beast Or frame Angels to a more purely spiritual Nature than a man Or make one Angel a Cherubim or Seraphim with a greater measure of light than another Though the foundation of this is his Dominion yet his wisdom is not uninterested in his Soveraign disposal he garnisheth those with a greater ability whom he intends for greater service than those that he intends for less or none at all As an Artificer bestows more labour and carves a more excellent figure upon those Stones that he designs for a more honourable place in the building But though the intending this or that man for service be the motive of laying in a greater provision in him than in others yet still it is to be referred to his Soveraignty Since that first act of culling him out for such an end was the fruit solely of his Soveraign pleasure As when he resolv'd to make a Creature actively to glorifie him in wisdom he must give him reason yet the making such a Creature was an act of his absolute Dominion 6. His Soveraignty is manifest in the calling some to a more special service in their Generation God settles some in immediate Offices of his service and perpetuates them in those Offices with a neglect of others who seem to have a greater pretence to them Moses was a great sufferer for Israel the sollicitor for them in Egypt and the conductor of them from Egypt to Canaan yet he was not chosen to the High Priesthood but that was an office setled upon Aaron and his posterity after him in a lineal descent Moses was only pitched upon for the present resscue of the Captiv'd Israelites and to be the instrument of Divine Miracles but notwithstanding all the success he had in his conduct his faithfulness in his employment and the transcendent familiarity he had with the great Ruler of the World his posterity were left in the common level of the Tribe of Levi without any special mark of dignity upon them above the rest for all the services of that great man Why Moses for a Temporary Magistracy Aaron for a perpetual Priesthood above all the rest of the Israelites hath little reason but the absolute pleasure of God who distributes his employments as he pleaseth and as a Master orders this Servant to do the noblest work and another to labour in baser offices according to his pleasure Why doth he call out David a Shepherd to sway the Jewish Scepter above the rest of the Brothers that had a fairer appearance and had been bred in arms and enur'd to the Toyls and Watchings of a Camp Why should Mary be the Mother of Christ and not some other of the same Family of David of a more splendid birth and a
by theft from the Christian Granting many years indulgences upon slight performances the repeating so many Ave-Maries and Pater-Nosters in a day Canonizing Saints claiming the Keyes of Heaven and disposing of the honours and glory of it And proposing Creatures as objects of Religions Worship wherein he answers the Character of the Apostle 2 Thes 2.4 Shewing himself that he is God in challenging that power which is only the right of Divine Soveraignty exalting himself above God in indulging those things which the Law of God never allow'd but hath severely prohibited This controuling the Soveraignty of God not allowing him the rights of his Crown is the Soul and Spirit of many errors Why are the decrees of election and praeterition denyed because men will not acknowledge God the Soveraign disposer of his Creature Why is effectual calling and efficacious grace denyed because they will not allow God the proprietor and distributer of his own goods Why is the satisfaction of Christ deny'd because they will not allow God a power to vindicate his own Law in what way he pleaseth Most of the errors of men may be resolv'd into a denyal of God's Soveraignty All have a tincture of the first evil sentiment of Adam 2. The Soveraignty of God is contemned in the practices of men 1. As he is a Law-giver 1. When Laws are made and urg'd in any State contrary to the Law of God 'T is part of God's Soveraignty to be a Law-giver not to obey his Law is a breach made upon his right of Government But it is Treason in any against the Crown of God to Mint Laws with a stamp contrary to that of Heaven whereby they renounce their due subjection and vy with God for Dominion snatch the supremacy from him and account themselves more Lords than the Soveraign Monarch of the World When men will not let God be the Judge of good and evil but put in their own vote controuling his to establish their own Such are not content to be as Gods subordinate to the supream God to sit at his feet Nor co-ordinate with him to sit equal upon his Throne but paramount to him to over-top and shadow his Crown A boldness that leaves the serpent in the first temptation under the Character of a more commendable modesty who advised our first Parents to attempt to be as Gods but not above him and would enervate a Law of God but not enact a contrary one to be observ'd by them Such was the usurpation of Nebuchadnezzar to set up a Golden Image to be ador'd Dan. 3. as if he had power to mint Gods as well as to conquer men to set the stamp of a Deity upon a peice of Gold as well as his own Effigies upon his currant Coyn. Much of the same nature was that of Darius by the motion of his flatterers to prohibit any Petition to be made to God for the space of 30 dayes as though God was not to have a Worship without a License from a doting peice of clay Dan. 6.7 * Trap. in loc So Henry the Third of France by his Edict silenced Masters of Families from praying with their Houshoulds And it is a farther contempt of God's Authority when good men are opprest by the sole weight of power for not observing such Laws * Faucheur vol. 2. p. 663. 664. as if they had a real Soveraignty over the Consciences of men more than God himself When the Apostles were commanded by an Angel from God to preach in the Temple the Doctrine of Christ Act. 5.19 20. they were fetcht from thence with a Guard before the Councel v. 26. And what is the Language of those States-men to them as absolute as God himself could speak to any Transgressors of his Law ver 28. Did not we straitly command you that you should not teach in this Name 'T is sufficient that we gave you a command to be silent and publish no more this Doctrine of Jesus 'T is not for you to examine our decrees but rest in our order as Loyal Subjects and comply with your Rulers They might have added though it be with the damnation of your souls How would those over-rule the Apostles by no other reason but their absolute pleasure And though God had espous'd their cause by delivering them out of the Prison wherein they had lockt them the day before Yet not one of all this Councel had the wit or honesty to entitle it a fighting against God but Gamaliel ver 39. So foolishly fond are men to put themselves in the place of God and usurp a jurisdiction over mens Consciences And to presume that Laws made against the interest and command of God must be of more force than the Laws of God's enacting 2. The Soveraignty of God is contemn'd in making additions to the Laws of God The Authority of a Sovereign Law-giver is invaded and vilified when an inferior presumes to make orders equivalent to his Edicts 'T is a Praemunire against Heaven to set up an Authority distinct from that of God or to enjoyn any thing as necessary in matter of worship for which a Divine Commission cannot be shewn God was alway so tender of this part of his prerogative that he would not have any thing wrought in the Tabernacle not a Vessel not an instrument but what himself had prescribed Exod. 25.9 According to all that I shew thee after the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all the Instruments thereof even so shall ye make it which is strictly urg'd again ver 40. Look that thou make them after their pattern Look to it beware of doing any thing of thine own head and justling with my Authority It was so afterwards in the matter of the Temple which succeeded the Tabernacle God gave the model of it to David and made him understand in writing by his hand upon him even all the works of this pattern 1 Chron. 28.19 Neither the Royal Authority in Moses who was King in Jesurun nor in David who was a man after God's own heart and called to the Crown by a special and extraordinary providence nor Aaron and the High Priests his Successors invested in the Sacerdotal Office had any Authority from God to do any thing in the framing the Tabernacle or Temple of their own heads God barr'd them from any thing of that nature by giving them an exact pattern so dear to him was alwayes this flower of his Crown And afterwards the power of appointing Officers and Ordinances in the Church was delegated to Christ and was among the rest of those Royalties given to him which he fully compleated for the edifying of the body Ephes 4.11 12. And he hath the Elogy by the Spirit of God to be faithfull as Moses was in all his house to him that appointed him Heb. 3.2 Faithfulness in a trust implyes a punctual observing directions God was still so tender of this that even Christ the son should no more do any thing in this
than a Talent without it In the little Paul did he comforts himself in this that with the mind he serv'd the Law of God Rom. 7.25 The Testimonies of God were David's delight Psal 119.24 Our Understandings must take pleasure in knowing him our wills delightfully embrace him and our actions be cheerfully squar'd to him This credits the Soveraignty of God in the World makes others believe him to be a gracious Lord and move them to have some veneration for his Authority 8. It must be perpetual Obedience As man is a subject as soon as he is a creature so he is a Subject as long as he is a Creature God's Soveraignty is of perpetual duration as long as he is God Man's obedience must be perpetual while he is a man God cannot part with his Soveraignty and a creature cannot be exempted from subjection We must not only serve him but cleave to him Deut. 13.4 Obedience is continued in Heaven his Throne is established in Heaven it must be bow'd to in Heaven as well as in Earth The Angels continually fulfil his pleasure 7. Exhortation Patience is a duty flowing from this Doctrine In all strokes upon our selves or thick showers upon the Church The Lord reigns is a consideration to prevent muttering against him and make us quietly wait to see what the issue of his divine pleasure will be 'T is too great an insolence against the Divine Majesty to censure what he acts or quarrel with him for what he inflicts Proud clay doth very unbecomingly swell against an infinite superior If God be our Soveraign we ought to subscribe to his afflicting will without debates as well as to his liberal will with affectionate applauses We should be as full of patience under his sharper as of praise under his more grateful dispensations and be without reluctancy against his penal as well as his preceptive pleasure 'T is God's part to inflict and the creatures part to submit This Doctrine affords us motives and shews us the nature of Patience 1. Motives to it 1. God being Soveraign hath an absolute right to dispose of all things His Title to our persons and possessions is upon this account stronger than our own can be We have as much reason to be angry with our selves when we assert our worldly right against others as to be angry with God for asserting the right of his Dominion over us Why should we enter a charge against him because he hath not temper'd us so strong in our bodies drawn us with as fair colours embellisht our spirits with as rich gifts as others Is he not the Soveraign of his own goods to impart what and in what measure he pleaseth Would you be content your servants should check your pleasure in dispensing your own favors 'T is an unreasonable thing not to leave God to the exercise of his own dominion Though Job were a pattern of patience yet he had deep tinctures of impatience he often complains of God's usage of him as too hard and stands much upon his own integrity But when God comes in the latter Chapters of that book to justifie his carriage towards him he chargeth him not as a criminal but considers him only as his Vassal He might have found flaws enough in Job's carriage and corruption enough in Job's nature to clear the equity of his proceeding as a Judge but he useth no other medium to convince him but the greatness of his Majesty the unlimitedness of his soveraignty which so appales the good man that he puts his finger on his mouth and stands mute with a self-abhorrenc before him as a soveraign rather than as a Judge When he doth pinch us and deprive us of what we most affect his right to do it should silence our lips and calm our hearts from any boysterous uproars against him 2. The property of all still remains in God since he is soveraign He did not devest himself of the property when he granted us the use The Earth is his not ours the fulness of the Earth is his 't is not ours the fulness any of us have as well as the fulness others have After he had given the Israelites Corn Wine and Oyl he calls them all His and emphatically adds My to every one of them Hos 2.9 His right is universal over every mite we have and perpetual too He may therefore take from us what he please He did but deposite in our hands for a while the benefits we enjoy either Children Friends Estate or Lives he did not make a total conveyance of them and alienate his own property when he put them into our hands we can shew no Patent for them wherein the full right is past over to us to hold them against his will and pleasure and implead him if he offer to reassume them He reserved a power to dispossess us upon a forfeiture as he is the Lord and Governour Did any of us yet answer the condition of his grant It was his indulgence to allow them so long There is reason to submit to him when he reassumes what he lent us and rather to thank him that he lent it so long and did not seize upon it sooner 3. Other things have more reason to complain of our soveraignty over them than we of God's exercise of his soveraignty over us Do we not exercise an Authority over our Beasts as to strike them when we please and meerly for our pleasure and think we merit no reproof for it because they are our own and of a nature inferior to ours And shall not God who is absolute do as much with us who are more below him than the meanest Creatures are below us They are Creatures as well as we and we no more Creatures than they they were fram'd by omnipotence as well as we there is no more difference between them and us in the notion of Creatures As there is no difference between the greatest Monarch on Earth and the meanest Beggar on the dunghil in the notion of a man The Beggar is a man as well as the Monarch and as much a man the difference consists in the special Endowments we have above them by the bounty of their and our common Creator We are less if compared with God than the worst meanest most sordid Creature can be if compared with us Hath not a Bird or a Hare if they had a capacity more reason to complain of mens persecuting them by their Hawks and their Dogs but would their complaints appear reasonable since both were made for the use of man and man doth but use the nature of the one to attain a benefit by the other Have we any reason to complain of God if he le ts loose other Creatures the devouring Hounds of the World to bite and afflict us We must not open our lips against him nor let our heart swell against his scourge since both they and we were made for his use as well as other Creatures for ours This is
strong that it had been a wrong to his Justice to have restrain'd it any longer The cry was so loud that he could not be at quiet as it were on his Throne of Glory for the disturbing noise Gen. 18.20 21. Sin transgresseth the Law the Law being violated solicites Justice Justice being urg'd pleads for punishment the cry of their sins did as it were force him from Heaven to come down and examine what cause there was for that clamour Sin cries loud and long before he takes his Sword in hand Four hundred years he kept off deserved destruction from the Amorites and deferr'd making good his promise to Abraham of giving Canaan to his Posterity out of his Long-suffering to the Amorites Gen. 15.16 In the fourth Generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full Their measure was filling then but not so full as to put a stop to any further patience till four hundred years after The usual time in succeeding Generations from the denouncing of Judgments to the execution is forty years this some ground upon Ezek. 4.6 thou shalt bear the iniquity of the House of Judah forty days taking each day for a year Though Hosea lived seventy years yet from the beginning of his prophesying Judgments against Israel to the pouring them out upon that Idolatrous People it was forty years Hosea as was mentioned before prophesied against them in the days of Jeroboam the second in whose time God did wonderfully deliver Israel 2 Kings 14.26.27 From that time till the total destruction of the ten Tribes it was forty years as may easily be computed from the Story 2 Kings 15 16 17. chapters by the Reign of the succeeding Kings So forty years after the most horrid villany that ever was committed in the face of the Sun viz. The Crucifying the Son of God was Jerusalem destroyed and the inhabitants captiv'd so long did God delay a visible punishment for such an outrage Sometimes he prolongs sending a threatned judgment upon a meer shadow of humiliation so he did that denounced against Ahab He turn'd it over to his posterity and adjourn'd it to another season 1 Kings 21.29 He doth not issue out an Arrest upon one Transgression you often find him not commencing a suit against men till three and four Transgressions The first of Amos all along that chapter and the second chapter for three and four i. e. seven A certain number for an uncertain He gives not orders to his judgments to march till men be obstinate and refuse any commerce with him He stops them till there be no remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 It must be a great wickedness that gives vent to them Hos 10.15 Heb. your wickedness of wickedness He is so slow to anger and stays the punishment his enemies deserve that he may seem to have forgot his kindness to his Friends Psal 44.24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and oppression He lets his people groan under the yoke of their Enemies as if he were made up of kindness to his Enemies and anger against his Friends This delaying of punishment to evil men is visible in his suspending the terrifying acts of Conscience and supporting it only in its checking admonishing and controuling acts The patience of a Governour is seen in the patient mildness of his Deputy Davids Conscience did not terrifie him till nine months after his sin of Murder Should God set open the Mouth of this power within us not only the Earth but our own bodies and Spirits would be a burden to us 'T is long before God puts Scorpions into the hands of mens Consciences to scourge them He holds back the rod waiting for the hour of our return as if that would be a recompence for our offences and his forbearance III. His Patience is manifest in his unwillingness to execute his Judgments when he can delay no longer He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men. Lament 3.33 Hebr. He doth not afflict from his Heart He takes no pleasure in it as he is Creator The height of mens provocations and the necessity of the preserving his rights and vindicating his Laws obligeth him to it as he is the Governour of the World As a Judge may willingly condemn a Malefactor to death out of affection to the Laws and desire to preserve the order of Government but unwillingly out of Compassion to the offender himself When he resolved upon the destruction of the old World he spake it as a God grieved with an occasion of punishment Gen. 6.6 7. compared together When he came to reckon with Adam be walked he did not run with his Sword in his hand upon him as a mighty man with an eagerness to destroy him Gen. 3.8 And that in the cool of the day a time when men tired in the day are unwilling to engage in a hard employment His exercising judgment is a coming out of his place Isaiah 26.21 Micah 1.3 He comes out of his station to exercise judgment a Throne is more his place than a tribunal Every prophesie loaded with threatnings is call'd the Burden of the Lord a burden to him to execute it as well as to men to suffer it Though three Angels came to Abraham about the punishment of Sodom whereof one Abraham speaks to as to God yet but two appear'd at the destruction of Sodom as if the Governour of the World were unwilling to be present at such dreadful work Gen. 19.1 And when the Man that had the inkhorn by his side that was appointed to mark those that were to be preserved in the common destruction return'd to give an account of the performing his commission Ezek. 9.10 We read not of the return of those that were to kill as if God delighted only to hear again of his works of Mercy and had no mind to hear again of his severe proceedings * Mercer in Gen. 1.5 The Jews to shew Gods unwillingness to punish imagine that Hell was created the second day Because that days work is not pronounced good by God as all the other days works are Gen. 1.8 1. When God doth punish he doth it with some regret * Cressol Decad. 2. p. 163. When he hurles down his thunders he seems to do it with a backward hand Because with an unwilling heart He created saith Chrysostom the World in six days but was seven days in destroying one City Jericho which he had before devoted to be razed to the ground What is the reason saith he that God is so quick to build up but slow to pull down His Goodness excites his power to the One but is not earnest to perswade him to the Other When he comes to strike he doth it with a sigh or groan Isaiah 1.24 Ah I will ease me of my adversaries and avenge me on my Enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ah a note of grief So Hos 6.4 Oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee
360 618 619 Not Instruments in the Creation of Man Pag. 443 Evil not redeemed Pag. 619 620 Angels not Governors of the world Pag. 673 674 Subject to God Pag. 717 718 Men Apostatize from God when his will crosses theirs Pag. 80 In times of Persecution Pag. 90 By reason of practical Atheism Pag. 102 103 Apostles the first Preachers of the Gospel mean and worthless men Pag. 463 464 Spirited by Divine Power for spreading of it Pag. 464 465 The Wisdom of God seen in using such Instruments Pag. 393 394 Applauding our selves v. Pride Atheism opens a Door to all manner of wickedness Pag. 2. Some spice of it in all men Pag. 2 4 The greatest folly 3 ad Pag. 39 Common in our days Pag. 3 41 Strikes at the Foundation of all Religion Pag. 3 We should establish our selves against it ibid. 'T is against the light of Natural Reason Pag. 4 Against the universal consent of all Nations Pag. 6 But few if any profest it in former Ages Pag. 8 41 Would root up the Foundations of all Government Pag. 39 Introduce all evil into the world Pag. 39 40 Pernicious to the Atheist himself Pag. 40 41 The cause of Publick Judgments Pag. 41 Mens Lusts the cause of it Pag. 43 Promoted by the Devil most since the destruction of Idolatry Pag. 44 Uncomfortable Pag. 44 45 Directions against it Pag. 45 46 All sin founded in a secret Atheism Pag. 50 Practical Atheism natural to Man Pag. 47 Natural since the Fall Pag. 48 To all men ibid. Proved by Arguments 54 ad Pag. 99 We ought to be humbled for it both in our selves and others Pag. 103 104 How great a sin it is 104 ad Pag. 106 Misery will attend it Pag. 106 We should watch against it ibid. Directions against it Pag. 106 107 Atheist can never prove there is no God Pag. 41 42 All the Creatures fight against him Pag. 42 In Afflictions suspects and fears there is one Pag. 42 43 How much pains he takes to blot out the notion of a God Pag. 43 Suppose it were an even lay that there were no God yet he is very imprudent ibid. Uses not means to enform himself ibid. Atoms the World not made by a casual concourse of them Pag. 20 Attributes of God bear a comfortable respect to believers Pag. 342 Authority how distinguisht from Power Pag. 704 B. THe Best we have ought to be given to God Pag. 155 156 Blessings Spiritual God only the Author of Pag. 698 Temporal God uses a Soveraignty in bestowing them 740 Vide Riches Body of Man how curiously wrought Pag. 30 31 350 Every Human one hath different Features Pag. 31 32 God hath none v. Spirit We must worship God with our Bodies Pag. 139 140 141 Yet not with our Bodies only Vide Soul and Worship We must not conceive of God under a Bodily shape Pag. 124 125 Bodily Members ascribed to him Vide Members Brain how curious a workmanship Pag. 30 C. THe Israelites worshipped the true God under the golden Calf Pag. 122 God fits and enclines men to several Callings Pag. 356 357 650 Appoints every mans Calling Pag. 747 There is a first Cause of all things Pag. 20 21 Which doth necessarily exist and is infinitely perfect Pag. 21 We must not Censure God in his Counsels Actions or Revelations Pag. 192 193 403 404 Or in his ways Pag. 415 416 Censuring the hearts of others is an injury to God's Omniscience Pag. 324 325 Men is a contempt of God's Soveraignty Pag. 763 Ceremonial Law abolisht to promote Spiritual Worship Pag. 135 Called Flesh ibid. Not a fit means to bring the heart into a spiritual frame Pag. 135 136 Rather hindred than further'd Spiritual Worship Pag. 136 137 God never testified himself well-pleased with it nor intended it should always last Pag. 137 138 The abrogating of it doth not argue any change in God Pag. 228 229 The Holiness of God appears in it Pag. 510 511 Men are prone to bring Ceremonies of their own into God's Worship 79 Vide Worship and Additions c. Chance the World not made nor governed by it Pag. 26 Charity men have bad ends in it Pag. 93 We should exercise it Pag. 691 692 The consideration of God's Soveraignty would promote it Pag. 774 We should be Chearful in God's worship Pag. 150 Christ his Godhead proved from his Eternity Pag. 191 192 From his Omnipresence Pag. 261 262 From his Immutability Pag. 229 230 From his Knowledge of God all Creatures the hearts of men and his prescience of their Inclinations Pag. 315 316 317 From his Omnipotence manifest in Creation Preservation and Resurrection Pag. 472 ad 476 From his Holiness Pag. 551 From his Wisdom Pag. 395 Is God-man Pag. 458 Spiritual Worship offered to God through him Pag. 154 155 The imperfectness of our Services should make us prize his Mediation Pag. 168 The only fit Person in the Trinity to assume our Nature Pag. 378 379 Fitted to be our Mediator and Saviour by his two Natures Pag. 381 382 383 Should be imitated in his Holiness and often viewed by us to that end Pag. 559 563 The greatest Gift Pag. 622 ad 625 Appointed by the Father to be our Redeemer Pag. 749 750 751 The Christian Religion its Excellency Pag. 103 Of Divine Extraction Pag. 551 Most opposed in the World Pag. 63 Vide Gospel Church God's Eternity a comfort to her in all her Distresses and Threatnings of her Enemies Pag. 193 194 Under God's special Providence Pag. 272 273 His Infinite Knowledge a comfort in all subtil contrivances of men against her Pag. 328 329 Troublers of her Peace by corrupt Doctrines no better than Devils 341 †God 's Wisdom a comfort to her in her greatest dangers Pag. 406 Hath shewn his Power in her deliverance in all Ages Pag. 180 453 454 And in the destruction of her Enemies Pag. 454 455 456 Ought to take comfort in his Power in her lowest Estate Pag. 487 488 Should not fear her Enemies v. Fear His Goodness a comfort in dangers Pag. 684 How great is God's love to her Pag. 769 820 His Soveraignty a comfort to her Pag. 771 772 He will comfort her in her â—ears and destroy her Enemies Pag. 787 788 God exercises Patience towards her Pag. 812 For her sake to the wicked also Pag. 812 813 Why her Enemies are not immediately destroyed Pag. 819 Commands of God v. Laws The Holiness of God to be relied on for Comfort Pag. 551 God gives great Comforts in or after Temptations Pag. 659 Creatures cannot Comfort us if God be angry Pag. 768 Communion with God man naturally hath no desire of Pag. 98 The advantage of Communion with him Pag. 106 107 Can only be in our Spirits Pag. 127 We should desire it Pag. 201 202 Cannot be between God and sinners Pag. 548 549 Holiness only fits us for it Pag. 562 Conceptions we cannot have adequate ones of God Pag. 123 We ought to labour after as high ones as
with others so he will treat us and what relates to us as we will ourselves We would have God resign his Authority to our humors and our humors should be in the place of a God to him to direct him what was fit to do in our cause When things go not according to our vote our impatience is a wish that God were depos'd from his Throne that he would surrender his seat to some that would deal more favourably and be more punctual observers of our directions Let us look to our selves in regard of this sin which is too common and the root of much mischief This seems to be the first bubbling of Adam's will he was not content with the condition wherein God had placed him but affected another which ended in the ruine of himself and of Mankind 3. Limiting God in his way of working to our methods is another part of the contempt of his dominion When we will prescribe him methods of acting that he should deliver us in this or that way we would not suffer him to be the Lord of his own favors and have the priviledg to be his own director When we will limit him to such a time wherein to work our deliverance we would rob him of the power of times and seasons which are solely in his hand We would regulate his conduct according to our imaginations and assume a power to give Laws to our Soveraign Thus the Israelites limited the holy one of Israel Psal 78.41 They would controul his absolute dominion and of a Soveraign make him their slave Man that is God's vassal would set bounds to his Lord and cease to be a servant and commence Master when he would give not take directions from him When God had given them Manna and their fancies were weary of that delicious food they would prescribe Heaven to rain down some other sort of food for them When they wanted no sufficient provision in the Wilderness they quarrell'd with God for bringing them out of Egypt and not presently giving them a place of Seed of Figgs Vines and Pomegranates Numb 20.5 which is call'd a striving with the Lord ver 13. a contending with him for his Lordship When we tempt God and require a sign of him as a mark of his favour we circumscribe his dominion when we will not use the means he hath appointed but father our lazyness upon a trust in his providence as if we expected he should work a miracle for our relief when we censure him for what he hath done in the course of his providence when we capitulate with him and promise such a service if he will do us such a good turn according to our platform we would bring down his Soveraign pleasure to our will we invade his Throne and expect a submissive Obedience from him Man that hath not wit enough to govern himself would be governing God and those that cannot be their own Sovereigns affect a Soveraignty over Heaven 4. Pride and presumption is another invasion of his dominion When men will resolve to go to morrow to such a City to such a Fair and Market to traffick and get gain without thinking of the necessity of a Divine License as if our selves were the Lords of our time and of our lives and God were to lacquy after us James 4.13.15 Ye that say to day we will go into such a City and buy and sell whereas ye ought to say if the Lord will we shall live As if they had a free hold and were not Tenants at will to the Lord of the Manour When we presume upon our own strength or wit to get the better of our adversaries As the Germans as Tacitus relates assur'd themselves by the numerousness of their Army of a victory against the Romans and prepar'd chaines to fetter the Captives before the conquest which were found in their camp after their defeat When we are peremptory in expectations of success according to our will As Pharoah Exod. 15.9 I will pursue I will overtake I will divide the spoyl my lust shall be satisfied upon them I will draw my sword my hand shall destroy them He speaks more like a God than a man as if he were the Soveraign power and God only his Vicar and Lieutenant How he struts without thinking of a superiour power to curb him When men ascribe to themselves what is the sole fruit of God's Soveraign pleasure As the King of Assyria speaks a Language fit only to be spoken by God Isa 10 13 14. c. I have removed the bounds of the people my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people I have gathered all the earth which God declares to be a wrong to his Soveraignty by the title wherewith he prefaceth his threatning against him ver 16. Therefore shall the Lord the Lord of Hosts send among his fat ones leanness c. 'T is indeed a rifling if not of his Crown yet of the most glittering Jewel of it his Glory He that mocks the poor reproacheth his Maker Prov. 17.5 He never thinks that God made them poor and himself rich He owns not his riches to be dropt upon him by the divine hand Self is the great invader of God's Soveraignty doth not only spurn at it but usurp it and assume divine honorus payable only to the Universal Soveraign The Assyrian was not so modest as the Chaldean who would impute his power and victories to his Idol Hab. 1.11 whom he thought to be God though yet robbing the true God of his Authority and so much was signified by their names Nebuchadnezzar Evil-Merodach Belshazzar Nebo Merodach Bel being the Chaldean Idols and the names signifying Lord of wealth giver of riches and the like When we behave our selves proudly towards others and imagine our selves greater than our Maker ever meant us When we would give Laws to others and expect the most submissive observances from them as if God had resign'd his Authority to us and made us in his stead the rightful Monarchs of the World To disdain that any creature should be above us is to disdain God's Soveraign disposition of men and consequently his own superiority over us A proud man would govern all and would not have God his Soveraign but his Subject to over-value our selves is to under-value God 5. Slight and careless worship of God is another contempt of his Soveraignty A Prince is contemn'd not only by a neglect of those reverential postures which are due to him but in a reproachful and scornful way of paying them To behave our selves uncomely or immodestly before a Prince is a dis-esteem of Majesty Soveraignty requires aw in every address where this is wanting there is a dis-respect of Authority We contemn God's Dominion when we give him the service of the Lip the Hand the Knee and deny him that of the Heart as they in Ezekiel Ezek. 33.31 as though he were the Soveraign only of the body and not of the soul To
have devout figures of the face and uncomely postures of the soul is to exclude his dominion from our spirits while we own it only over our outward man we render him an insignificant Lord not worthy of any higher adorations from us than a sensless statue We demean not our selves according to his Majestical Authority over us when we present him not with the Cream and Quintessence of our souls The greatness of God requir'd a great house and a costly Palace 1 Chron. 29.11.16 David speaks it in order to the building God a house and Temple God being a great King expects a Male the best of our flock Mal. 1.14 a Masculine and vigorous service When we present him with a sleepy sickly rheumatick service we betray our conceptions of him to be as mean as if he were some petty Lord whose dominion were of no larger extent than a Mole hill or some inconsiderable Village 6. Omission of the service he hath appointed is another contempt of his Soveraignty This is a contempt of his dominion whereby he hath a right to appoint what means and conditions he pleaseth for the enjoyment of his proffered and promised benefits 'T is an enmity to his Scepter not to accept of his terms after a long series of precepts and invitations made for the restoring us to that happiness we had lost and providing all means necessary thereunto nothing being wanting but our own concurrence with it and acceptance of it by rendring that easy homage he requires By with-holding from him the service he enjoyns we deny that we hold any thing of him As he that payes not the quit rent though it be never so small disowns the Soveraignty of the Lord of the Manour It implyes that he is a miserable poor Lord having no right or destitute of any power to dispose of any thing in the World to our advantage Job 22.17 They say unto God depart from us what can the Almighty do for them They will have no commerce with him in a way of duty because they imagine him to have no Soveraign power to do any thing for them in way of benefit as if his dominion were an empty title and as much destitute of any Authority to command a favour for them as any Idol They think themselves to have as absolute a disposal of things as God himself What can he do for us What can he confer upon us that we cannot invest our selves in As though they were Soveraigns in an equality with God Thus men live without God in the World Eph. 2.12 as if there were no supream being to pay a respect to or none fit to receive any homage at their hands With-holding from God the right of his time and the right of his service which is the just claim of his Soveraignty 7. Censuring others is a contempt of his Soveraignty When we censure mens persons or actions by a rash judgment when we will be judges of the good and evil of mens actions where the law of God is utterly silent we usurp God's place and invade his right we claim a superiority over the Law and judge God defective as the rector of the World in his prescriptions of good and evil Jam. 4.11.12 He that speaks evil of his Brother and judgeth his Brother speaks evil of the Law and judgeth the Law There is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy Who art thou that judgest another Do you know what you do in judging another You take upon you the garb of a Soveraign as if he were more your servant than God's and more under your Authority than the Authority of God 't is a setting thy self in God's Tribunal and assuming his rightful power of judging thy Brother is not to be govern'd by thy fancy but by God's Law and his own Conscience 2. Information Hence it follows that God doth actually govern the World He hath not only a right to rule but he rules over all so saith the Text. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords what to let them do what they please and all that their lusts prompt them to hath God an absolute Dominion Is it good and is it wise Is it then a useless prerogative of the Divine Nature Shall so excellent a power lye idle as if God were a lifeless Image Shall we fancy God like some lazy Monarch that solaceth himself in the Gardens of his Palace or steeps himself in some charming pleasures and leaves his Lieutenants to govern the several Provinces which are all Members of his Empire according to their own humour Not to exercise this Dominion is all one as not to have it To what purpose is he invested with this Soveraignty if he were careless of what were done in the world and regarded not the oppressions of men God keeps no useless excellency by him He actually reigns over the Heathen Psal 47.8 and those as bad or worse than Heathens It had been a vanity in David to call upon the Heavens to be glad and the earth to rejoyce under the rule of a sleepy Deity 1 Chron. 16.31 No his Scepter is full of eyes as it was painted by the Egyptians He is always waking and always more than Ahashuerus reading over the records of Humane actions Not to exercise his Authority is all one as not to regard whither he keep the Crown upon his head or continue the Scepter in his hand If his Soveraignty were exempt from care it would be destitute of Justice God is more Righteous than to resign the ensigns of his Authority to blind and oppressive man to think that God hath a power and doth not use it for just and righteous ends is to imagine him an unrighteous as well as a careless Soveraign such a thing in a man renders him a base man and a worse Governor 'T is a vice that disturbs the World and overthrows the ends of Authority as to have a power and use it well is the greatest virtue of an Earthly Soveraign What an unworthy conception is it of God to acknowledge him to be possessed of a greater Authority than the greatest Monarch and yet to think that he useth it less than a petty Lord that his Crown is of no more value with him than a Feather This represents God impotent that he cannot or unrighteous and base that he will not administer the Authority he hath for the noblest and justest end But can we say that he neglects the government of the World How come things then to remain in their due order How comes the Law of nature yet to be preserved in every man's Soul How comes Conscience to check and cite and judge If God did not exercise his Authority what Authority could Conscience have to disturb man in unlawful practises and to make his sports and sweetness so unpleasant and sour to him Hath he not given frequent notices and memorials that he holds a curb over corrupt inclinations puts rubs in the way of malicious