Power an Arm to destroy his Enemies and an Arm to relieve his People * Isa 51.9 All those are attributed to God to signifie divine actions which he doth without bodily organs as we do with them 3. Consider also that only those members which are the instruments of the noblest actions and under that consideration are used by him to represent a notion of him to our minds Whatsoever is perfect and excellent is ascribed to him but nothing that savours of imperfection * Episcop institu l. 4. § 3. c. 3 The heart is ascribed to him it being the principle of vital actions to signifie the Life that he hath in himself Watchful and discerning eys not sleepy and lazy ones A mouth to reveal his Will not to take in food To eat and sleep are never ascribed to him nor those parts that belong to the preparing or transmitting nourishment to the several parts of the body as stomach liver reins nor bowels under that consideration but as they are significant of compassion but only those parts are ascribed to him whereby we acquire knowledge as eyes and ears the Organs of learning and wisdom Or to Communicate it to others as the mouth lips tongue as they are the Instrmments of speaking not of tasting Or those parts which signifie strength and power or whereby we perform the actions of Charity for the relief of others Tast and touch senses that extend no further than to Corporeal things and are the grossest of all the senses are never ascribed to him * T is Zanchieâ— observation Tom. 2. de natura Dei lib. 1. cap. 4. Thes 9. It were worth consideration whither this describing God by the Members of an human body were so much figuratively to be understood as with respect to the incarnation of our Saviour who was to assume the human nature and all the Members of a human body Asaph speaking in the person of God Psal 78.1 I will open my mouth in Parables In regard of God it is to be understood figuratively but in regard of Christ literally to whom it is applied Matt. 13.34.35 And that Apparition Isa 6. which was the appearance of Jehovah is applied to Christ John 12.40.41 * Amiraut Meral Tâ—m 1. pa. 293. 294. After the report of the Creation and the forming of man we read of Gods speaking to him but not of Gods appearing to him in any visible shape A voice might be formed in the air to give man notice of his duty some way of infoâ—â—aâ—iâ—n he must have what positive Laws he was to observe besides that Law wâ—â—ch wâ—â—â—â—graven in his nature which we call the Law of nature And without a voice the knowledge of the Divine Will could not be so conveniently communicated to man Tho God was heard in a voice he was not seen in a shape But after the fall we several times read of his appearing in such a form Tho we read of his speaking before mans committing of sin yet not of his walking which is more Corporeal till afterwards * Gen. 3.8 Tho God would not have man believe him to be Corporeal yet he judged it expedient to give some prenotices of that Divine incarnation which he had promised * Amirald 5. Therefore we must not conceive of the visible Deity according to the letter of such expressions but the true intent of them Tho the Scripture speaks of his eyes and arm yet it denies them to be arms of flesh * Job 10.4 2 Chron. 32.8 We must not conceive of God according to the Letter but the design of the Metaphor When we hear things described by Metaphorical expressions for the clearing them up to our fancy we conceive not of them under that garb but remove the vail by an act of our reason When Christ is called a Sun a Vine Bread is any so stupid as as to conceive him to be a Vine with material branches and Clusters or be of the same nature with a Loaf But the things designed by such Metaphors are obvious to the conception of a mean understanding If we would conceive God to have a body like a man because he describes himself so we may conceit him to be like a Bird because he is mentioned with wings * Psal 36.7 or like a Lyon or Leopard because he likens himself to them in the Acts of his strength and fury * Hos 13.7.8 He is called a rock a horn fire to note his strength and wrath If any be so stupid as to think God to be really such they would make him not only a man but worse than a Monster * Maimon More Nevoc par 1. cap. 27. Onkelos the Chalde Paraphrast upon parts of the Scripture was so tender of expressing the Notion of any Corporeity in God that when he meets with any expressions of that nature he translates them according to the true intent of them as when God is said to descend Gen. 11.5 which implies a local motion a motion from one place to another he translates it and God revealed himself We should conceive of God according to the design of the expressions When we read of his eyes we should conceive his Omniscience of his hand his power of his sitting his immutability of his Throne his Majesty and conceive of him as surmounting not only the grossness of bodies but the Spiritual excellency of the most dignified Creatures something so perfect great spiritual as nothing can be conceived higher and purer * Mores conjectura cabalistica pa. 122. Christ saith one is truly Deus figuratus and for his sake was it more easily permitted to the Jews to think of God in the shape of a man Use If God be a pure Spiritual being then 1. Man is not the image of God according to his external bodily form and figure The image of God in man consisted not in what is seen but in what is not seen not in the conformation of the members but rather in the Spiritual faculties of the Soul or most of all in the holy endowments of those faculties Eph. 4.24 That ye put on the new man which after God is Created in righteousness and true holiness * Col. 3 1â— The image which is restored by redeeming grace was the image of God by Original nature The image of God cannot be in that part which is common to us with beasts but rather in that wherein we excell all living Creatures in reason understanding and an immortal Spirit God expresly saith that none saw a similitude of him Deut. 4.15 16. which had not been true if man in regard of his body had been the image and similitude of God for then a figure of God had been seen every day as often as we saw a man or beheld our selves Nor would the Apostles argument stand good Acts 17.29 That the Godhead is not like to stone graven by art if we were not the off-spring of God and bore the stamp of
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
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
cannot be well governed but by one endowed with infinite Discretion Providential government can be no more without infinite wisdom than infinite wisdom can be without Providence Reas 3. The Creatures working for an end without their own knowledge demonstrates the wisdom of God that guides them All things in the World work for some end the ends are unknown to them though many of their ends are visible to us As there was some prime Cause which by his power inspir'd them with their several instincts so there must be some supream wisdom which moves and guides them to their end As their Being manifests his power that endowed them so the acting according to the rules of their Nature which they themselves understand not manifests his wisdom in directing them Every thing that acts for an end must know that end or be directed by another to attain that end The Arrow doth not know who shoots it or to what end it is shot or what Mark is aimed at but the Archer that puts it in and darts it out of the Bow knows A Watch hath a regular motion but neither the Spring nor the Wheels that move know the end of their motion no man will judge a wisdom to be in the Watch but in the Artificer that dispos'd the Wheels and Spring by a joint combination to produce such a motion for such an end Doth either the Sun that enlivens the Earth or the Earth that travels with the Plant know what Plant it produceth in such a Soil what temper it should be of what fruit it should bear and of what colour What Plant knows its own medicinal qualities it s own beautiful flowers and for what use they are ordain'd When it strikes up its head from the Earth doth it know what proportion of them there will be Yet it produceth all these things in a state of ignorance The Sun warms the Earth concocts the humours excites the vertue of it and cherishes the Seeds which are cast into her lap yet all unknown to the Sun or the Earth Since therefore that Nature that is the immediate cause of those things doth not understand its own quality nor operation nor the end of its action that which thus directs them must be conceived to have an infinite wisdom When things act by a Rule they know not and move for an end they understand not and yet work harmoniously together for one end that all of them we are sure are ignorant of it mounts up our minds to acknowledge the wisdom of that supream Cause that hath rang'd all these inferiour Causes in their order and imprinted upon them the Laws of their motions according to the Ideas in his own Mind who orders the Rule by which they act and the end for which they act and directs every motion according to their several Natures and therefore is possessed with infinite wisdom in his own Nature Reas 4. God is the fountain of all wisdom in the creatures and therefore is infinitely wise himself As he hath a fulness of being in himself because the streams of being are derived to other things from him So he hath a fulness of wisdom because he is the spring of wisdom to Angels and men That Being must be infinitely wise from whence all other wisdom derives its original For nothing can be in the effect which is not eminently in the cause the cause is alway more perfect than the effect If therefore the creatures are wise the Creator must be much more wise If the Creator were destitute of wisdom the creature would be much more perfect than the Creator If you consider the wisdom of the Spider in her web which is both her house and net the artifice of the Bee in her Comb which is both her chamber and granary the provision of the Pismire in her repositories for corn the wisdom of the Creator is illustrated by them whatsoever excellency you see in any creature is an Image of some excellency in God The skill of the artificer is visible in the fruits of his Art a workman transcribes his spirit in the work of his hands But the wisdom of rational creatures as men doth more illustrate it All Arts among men are the rayes of divine Wisdom shining upon them and by a common gift of the Spirit enlightning their minds to curious inventions as Prov. 8.12 I wisdom find out the knowledge of witty inventions that is I give a faculty to men to find them out without my wisdom all things would be buried in darkness and ignorance Whatsoever wisdom there is in the World it is but a shadow of the wisdom of God a small Rivulet derived from him a spark leaping out from Uncreated Wisdom Isa 54.16 He created the Smith that bloweth the coals in the fire and makes the Instruments The skill to use those weapons in War-like Enterprises is from him I have created the waster to destroy 'T is not meant of creating their Persons but communicating to them their Art He speaks it there to expell fear from the Church of all war-like preparations against them He had given Men the skill to form and use Weapons and could as well strip them of it and defeat their purposes The Art of husbandry is a fruit of divine teaching Isa 28.24 25. If those lower kinds of Knowledge that are common to all Nations and easily learn'd by all are discoveries of Divine Wisdom much more the nobler Sciences intellectual and Political Wisdom Dan. 2.21 He gives Wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding speaking of the more abstruse parts of knowledge The inspiration of the Almighty gives Vnderstanding Job 32.8 Hence the Wisdom which Solomon exprest in the Harlots case 1 Kings 3.28 was in the Judgment of all Israel the Wisdom of God that is a fruit of Divine Wisdom a beam communicated to him from God Every mans Soul is endowed more or less with those noble qualities The Soul of every man exceeds that of a Brute If the streams be so excellent the Fountain must be fuller and clearer The first Spirit must infinitely more possess what other Spirits derive from him by Creation Were the Wisdom of all the Angels in Heaven and men on Earth collected in one Spirit it must be infinitely less than what is in the Spring for no Creature can be equal to the Creator As the highest Creature already made or that we can conceive may be made by Infinite Power would be infinitely below God in the Notion of a Creature so it would be infinitely below God in the Notion of Wise IV. The fourth Thing is Wherein the Wisdom of God appears It appears 1. In Creation 2. In Government 3. In Redemption 1. In Creation As in a Musical Instrument there is first the skill of the Workman in the frame then the skill of the Musician in stringing it proper for such Musical Notes as he will express upon it and after that the tempering of the Strings by
all mixture of Evil so Sacred with them was the Conception of God as a Holy God 2. The Absurdest Hereticks have own'd it * Petav. Theol. Dogmat. Tom. 1. lib. 6. cap. 5. p. 415. The Manichees and Marchionites that thought Evil came by Necessity yet would salve Gods being the Author of it by asserting two distinct Eternal Principles One the Original of Evil as God was the Fountain of good So rooted was the Notion of this Divine Purity that none would ever slander Goodness it self with that which was so disparaging to it 3. The Nature of God cannot rationally be conceived without it Though the Power of God be the first Rational conclusion drawn from the sight of his Works Wisdom the next from the order and connexion of his Works Purity must result from the beauty of his Works That God cannot be deform'd by Evil who hath made every thing so Beautiful in its time The Notion of a God cannot be entertain'd without separating from him whatsoever is impure and bespotting both in his Essence and Actions Though we conceive him Infinite in Majesty Infinite in Essence Eternal in Duration Mighty in Power and Wise and Immutable in his Counsels Merciful in his proceedings with Men and whatsoever other Perfections may dignifie so Soveraign a Being yet if we conceive him destitute of this excellent Perfection and imagine him possessed with the least contagion of Evil we make him but an Infinite Monster and fully all those Perfections we ascrib'd to him before we rather own him a Devil than a God 'T is a contradiction to be God and to be Darkness or to have one Mote of Darkness mixed with his Light 'T is a less Injury to him to deny his Being than to deny the Purity of it the one makes him no God the other a deform'd unlovely and a detestable God Plutarch said not amiss That he should count himself less injured by that Man that should deny that there was such a Man as Plutarch than by him that should affirm that there was such a one indeed but he was a debauch'd Fellow a loose and vicious Person 'T is a less wrong to God to discard any acknowledgments of his Being and to count him Nothing than to believe him to exist but imagine a base and unholy Deity He that saith God is not Holy speaks much worse than he that saith There is no God at all Let these two Things be considered I. If any this Attribute hath an excellency above his other Perfections There are some Attributes of God we prefer because of our Interest in them and the relation they bear to us As we esteem his Goodness before his Power and his Mercy whereby he relieves us before his Justice whereby he punisheth us As there are some we more delight in because of the goodness we receive by them so there are some that God delights to honour because of their Excellency 1. None is sounded out so loftily with such solemnity and so frequently by Angels that stand before his Throne as this Where do you find any other Attribute trebled in the Praises of it as this Isai 6.3 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his Glory and Rev. 4.8 The four Beasts rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty c. His Power or Soveraignty as Lord of Hosts is but once mentioned but with a ternal repetition of his Holiness Do you hear in any Angelical Song any other Perfection of the Divine Nature thrice repeated Where do we read of the crying out Eternal Eternal Eternal or Faithful Faithful Faithful Lord God of Hosts Whatsoever other Attribute is left out this God would have to fill the Mouths of Angels and Blessed Spirits for ever in Heaven 2. He singles it out to swear by Psal 89.35 Once have I sworn by my Holiness that I will not lye unto David And Amos 4.2 The Lord will swear by his Holiness He twice swears by his Holiness once by his Power Isai 62.8 once by all when he swears by his Name Jer. 44.26 He lays here his Holiness to pledge for the assurance of his Promise as the Attribute most dear to him most valued by him as though no other could give an assurance parallel to it in this concern of an Everlasting Redemption which is there spoken of He that swears swears by a greater than himself God having no greater than himself swears by himself And swearing here by his Holiness seems to equal that single one to all his other Attributes as if he were more concern'd in the Honour of it than of all the rest 'T is as if he should have said since I have not a more excellent Perfection to swear by than that of my Holiness I lay this to pawn for your Security and bind my self by that which I will never part with were it possible for me to be stript of all the rest 'T is a tacit Imprecation of himself If I lye unto David let me never be counted holy or thought righteous enough to be trusted by Angels or Men. This Attribute he makes most of 3. 'T is his glory and beauty Holiness is the Honour of the Creature sanctification and honour are linkt together 1 Thess 4.4 much more is it the honour of God 't is the Image of God in the Creature * Ephes 4.24 When we take the Picture of a Man we draw the most beautiful part the Face which is a Member of the greatest excellency When God would be drawn to the Life as much as can be in the Spirit of his Creatures He is drawn in this Attribute as being the most beautiful Perfection of God and most valuable with him Power is his Hand and Arm Omniscience his Eye Mercy his Bowels Eternity his Duration his Holiness is his Beauty 2 Chron. 20 21. should praise the Beauty of Holiness In the 27 th Psalm and the 4 th Verse David desires to behold the Beauty of the Lord and enquire in his Holy Temple that is the Holiness of God manifested in his hatred of Sin in the daily Sacrifices Holiness was the Beauty of the Temple Isai 46.11 Holy and Beautiful House are joyned together much more the Beauty of God that dwelt in the Sanctuary This renders him lovely to all his Innocent Creatures though formidable to the Guilty ones * Plutarch Eugubin de Perenni Phil. lib. 6. cap. 6. A Heathen Philosopher could call it the Beauty of the Divine Essence and say That God was not so happy by an Eternity of Life as by an Excellency of Vertue And the Angels Song intimate it to be his glory Isaiah 6.3 The whole Earth is full of thy Glory that is of his Holiness in his Laws and in his Judgments against Sin that being the Attribute applauded by them before 4. 'T is his very life So it is called Ephes 4.18 Alienated from the Life of God that is from the Holiness of
Understanding could not have been imputed to him as his Crime because it would have been not a voluntary but a necessary effect of his Nature had there been an error in the first Wheel the error of the next could not have been imputed to the Nature of that but to the irregular motion of the first Wheel in the Engine The sin of Men and Angels proceeded not from any natural defect in their Understandings but from Inconsideration He that was the Author of Harmony in his other Creatures could not be the Author of Disorder in the chief of his Works Other Creatures were his Footsteps but man was his Image †Gen. 1.26 27. Let us make man in our image after our likeness Which though it seems to imply no more in that place than an Image of his Dominion over the Creatures yet the Apostle raises it a peg higher and gives us a larger Interpretation of it Col. 3.10 And have put on the New-man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him making it to consist in a resemblance to his Righteousness Image say some notes the form as Man was a Spirit in regard of his Soul Likeness notes the quality implanted in his Spiritual Nature The Image of God was drawn in him both as he was a Rational and as he was a holy Creature The Creatures manifested the being of a Superiour Power as their Cause but the Righteousness of the first Man evidenced not only a Soveraign Power as the Donor of his being but a holy Power as the Patern of his Work God appeared to be a holy God in the Righteousness of his Creature as well as an Understanding God in the Reason of his Creature while he formed him with all necessary knowledge in his Mind and all necessary uprightness in his Will The Law of Love to God with his whole soul his whole mind his whole heart and strength was originally writ upon his Nature All the parts of his Nature were framed in a Moral Conformity with God to answer this Law and imitate God in his Purity which consists in a love of himself and his own Goodness and Excellency Thus doth the clearness of the Stream point us to the purer Fountain and the brightness of the Beam evidence a greater splendor in the Sun which shot it out 2. His Holiness appears in his Laws as he is a Law-giver and a Judge Since Man was bound to be subject to God as a Creature and had a capacity to be ruled by the Law as an understanding and willing Creature God gave him a Law taken from the depths of his holy Nature and suted to the Original Faculties of Man The Rules which God hath fixed in the World are not the Resolves of bare Will but result particularly from the Goodness of his Nature They are nothing else but the Transcripts of his Infinite detestation of sin as he is the unblemisht Governour of the World This being the most adorable Property of his Nature he hath imprest it upon that Law which he would have inviolably observed as a perpetual Rule for our Actions that we may every moment think of this beautiful Perfection God can command nothing but what hath some similitude with the rectitude of his own Nature All his Laws every Paragraph of them therefore scent of this and glitter with it Deut. 4.8 What Nation hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous as all this Law I set before you this day and therefore they are compar'd to fine Gold that hath no speck or dross * Psal 19.10 This Purity is evident 1. In the Moral Law or Law of Nature 2. In the Ceremonial Law 3. In the Allurements annext to it for keeping it and the Affrightments to restrain from the breaking of it 4. In the Judgments inflicted for the Violation of it 1. In the Moral Law Which is therefore dignified with the title of holy twice in one Verse Rom. 7.12 Wherefore the Law is holy and the Commandment is holy just and good It being the express Image of God's Will as our Saviour was of his Person and bearing a resemblance to the Purity of his Nature The Tables of this Law were put into the Ark that as the Mercy Seat was to represent the Grace of God so the Law was to represent the Holiness of God †Psal 19.1 The Psalmist after he had spoken of the Glory of God in the Heavens wherein the Power of God is exposed to our view introduceth the Law wherein the Purity of God is evidenc'd to our Minds ‖ Vers 7 8. c. perfect pure clean righteous are the titles given to it 'T is clearer in Holiness than the Sun is in brightness and more mighty in it self to command the Conscience than the Sun is to run its Race As the Holiness of the Scripture demonstrates the Divinity of its Author so the Holiness of the Law doth the Purity of the Law-giver 1. The purity of this Law is seen in the Matter of it It prescribes all that becomes a Creature towards God and all that becomes one Creature towards another of his own rank and kind The Image of God is compleat in the Holiness of the first Table and the Righteousness of the second which is intimated by the Apostle Eph. 4.24 the one being the Rule of what we owe to God the other being the Rule of what we owe to man There is no good but it enjoyns and no evil but it disowns 'T is not sickly and lame in any part of it not a good action but it gives it its due praise and not an evil action but it sets a condemning mark upon The Commands of it are frequently in Scripture call'd Judgments because they rightly judge of good and evil and are a clear light to inform the Judgment of Man in the knowledge of both By this was the Understanding of David enlightned to know every false way and to hate it * Psal 119.104 There is no Case can happen but may meet with a determination from it It teaches men the noblest manner of living a life like God himself honourably for the Law-giver and joyfully for the subject It directs us to the highest End sets us at a distance from all base and sordid Practises it proposeth Light to the Understanding and Goodness to the Will It would Tune all the Strings set right all the Orders of Mankind It censures the least Mote countenanceth not any stain in the Life Not a wanton Glance can meet with any justification from it * Mat. 5.28 not a rash Anger but it frowns upon †Mat. 5.22 As the Law-giver wants nothing as an Addition to his Blessedness so his Law wants nothing as a Supplement to its perfection Deut. 4 2. What our Saviour seems to add is not an Addition to mend any defects but a restoration of it from the corrupt Glosses wherewith the Scribes and Pharisees had eclipst the brightness of
Minds and Consciences of Men as the Author of Nature for the preservation of the World manifests the Holiness of the Law-maker and Governour 2. His Holiness appears in the Ceremonial Law In the variety of Sacrifices for Sin wherein he writ his detestation of Vnrighteousness in bloody Characters His Holiness was more constantly exprest in the continual Sacrifices than in those rarer sprinklings of Judgments now and then upon the World which often reached not the worst but the most moderate Sinners and were the occasions of the questioning of the Righteousness of his Providence both by Jews and Gentiles In Judgments his Purity was only now and then manifest By his long Patience he might be imagin'd by some reconcil'd to their Crimes or not much concern'd in them but by the Morning and Evening Sacrifice he witness'd a perpetual and uninterrupted Abhorrence of whatsoever was Evil. Besides those the occasional Washings and Sprinklings upon Ceremonial Defilements which polluted only the Body gave an evidence that every thing that had a resemblance to Evil was loathsom to him Add also the Prohibitions of eating such and such Creatures that were filthy as the Swine that wallowed in the Mire a fit Emblem for the prophane and brutish Sinner which had a Moral signification both of the loathsomness of Sin to God and the aversion themselves ought to have to every thing that was filthy 3. This Holiness appears in the Allurements annex'd to the Law for keeping it and the Affrightments to restrain from the breaking of it Both Promises and Threatnings have their Fundamental Root in the Holiness of God and are both Branches of this peculiar Perfection As they respect the Nature of God they are Declarations of his hatred of Sin and his love of Righteousness the one belong to his Threatnings the other to his Promises both joyn together to represent this Divine Perfection to the Creature and to excite to an imitation in the Creature In the one God would render Sin odious because dangerous and curb the practice of Evil which would otherwise be Licentious In the other he would commend Righteousness and excite a love of it which would otherwise be cold By these God sutes the two great Affections of Men Fear and Hope both the branches of Self-love in Man The Promises and Threatnings are both the Branches of Holiness in God The end of the Promises is the same with the Exhortation the Apostle concludes from them 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God As the end of Precepts is to direct the end of Threatnings is to deter from Iniquity so that of the Promises is to allure to Obedience Thus God breaths out his Love to Righteousness in every Promise his Hatred of Sin in every Threatning The Rewards offerd in the one are the Smiles of pleased Holiness and the Curses thundred in the other are the Sparklings of enraged Righteousness 4. His Holiness appears in the Judgments inflicted for the violation of this Law Divine Holiness is the Root of Divine Justice and Divine Justice is the Triumph of Divine Holiness Hence both are expressed in Scripture by one word of Righteousness which sometimes signifies the rectitude of the Divine Nature and sometimes the vindicative stroak of his Arm Psal 103.6 The Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgment for all that are oppressed So Dan. 9.7 Righteousness that is Justice belongs to thee The Vials of his Wrath are filled from his implacable aversion to Iniquity All Penal Evils showred down upon the heads of Wicked men spread their root in and branch out from this Perfection All the dreadful Storms and Tempests in the World are blown up by it Why doth he rain Snares Fire and Brimstone and a horrible Tempest because the righteous Lord loveth Righteousness Psal 11.6 7. And as was observed before when he was going about the dreadfullest Work that ever was in the World the overturning the Jewish State hardening the Hearts of that Unbelieving People and casheiring a Nation once dear to him from the honour of his Protection His Holiness as the Spring of all this is applauded by the Seraphims Isai 6.3 compared with Vers 9 10 11 c. Impunity argues the approbation of a Crime and Punishment the abhorrency of it The greatness of the Crime and the Righteousness of the Judge are the first Natural Sentiments that arise in the Minds of Men upon the appearance of Divine Judgments in the World by those that are near them †Amirant Moral Tom. 5. p. 388. As when Men see Gibbets erected Scaffolds prepared Instruments of Death and Torture provided and grievous Punishments inflicted the first reflection in the Spectators is the malignity of the Crime and the detestation the Governours are possessed with 1. How severely hath he punish'd his most Noble Creatures for it The once glorious Angels upon whom he had been at greater cost than upon other Creatures and drawn more lively Lineaments of his own Excellency upon the Transgression of his Law are thrown into the Furnace of Justice without any Mercy to pity them Jude 6. And though there were but one sort of Creatures upon the Earth that bore his Image and were only fit to publish and keep up his Honour below the Heavens yet upon their Apostacy though upon a Temptation from a subtile and insinuating Spirit the Man with all his Posterity is sentenc'd to Misery in Life and Death at last and the Woman with all her Sex have standing Punishments inflicted on them which as they begun in their Persons were to reach as far as the last Member of their successive Generations So Holy is God that he will not endure a Spot in his choicest Work Men indeed when there is a crack in an excellent piece of Work or a stain upon a rich Garment do not cast it away they value it for the remaining Excellency more than hate it for the contracted Spot But God saw no Excellency in his Creature worthy regarding after the Image of that which he most esteemed in himself was defaced 2. How detestable to him are the very Instruments of Sin For the Ill use the Serpent an Irrational Creature was put to by the Devil as an Instrument in the Fall of Man the whole brood of those Animals are Curst Gen. 3.14 Cursed above all Cattle and above every Beast of the field Not only the Devils Head is threatned to be for ever bruised and as some think render'd irrecoverable upon this further Testimony of his Malice in the Seduction of Man who perhaps without this new Act might have been admitted into the Arms of Mercy notwithstanding his first Sin though the Scripture gives us no account of this only this is the only Sentence we read of pronounc'd against the Devil which puts him into an irrecoverable state by a Mortal bruising of his Head But I say He is not only punish'd but the
God cannot will any thing as his End of acting but himself without undeifying himself Gods Will being Infinitely Good cannot move for any thing but what is Infinitely Good and therefore whatsoever God made he made for himself †Prov. 16.4 that whatsoever he made might bear a badge of this Perfection upon it and be a discovery of his wonderful Goodness For the making things for himself doth not signifie any indigence in God that he made any thing to encrease his Excellency for that is capable of no addition but to manifest his Excellency God possessing every thing eminently in himself did not Create the World for any need he had of it Finite things were unable to make any accession to that which is Infinite Man indeed builds a House to be a shelter to him against Wind and Weather and makes Clothes to secure him from Cold and Plants Gardens for his Recreation and Health God is above all those little helps he did not make the World for himself in such a kind but for himself i. e. the manifestation of himself and the Riches of his Nature Not to make himself Blessed but to discover his own Blessedness to his Creatures and communicate something of it to them He did not garnish the World with so much Bounty that he might live more happily than he did before but that his Rational Creatures might have fit conveniencies As the end for which God demands the performance of our Duty is not for his own advantage but for our good * Deut. 10.13 so the end why he conferr'd upon us the excellency of such a Being was for our good and the discovery of his Goodness to us For had not God Created the World he had been wholly unknown to any but himself He produced Creatures that he might be known As the Sun shines not only to discover other things but to be seen it self in its beauty and brightness God would Create things because he would be known in his Glory and Liberality Hence it that he Created Intellectual Creatures because without them the rest of the Creation could not be taken notice of It had been in some sort in vain for no Nature lower than an Understanding Nature was able to know the Marks of God in the Creation and acknowledge him as God In this regard God is good above all Creatures because he intends only to communicate his Goodness in Creation not to acquire any Goodness or Excellency from them as Men do in their framing of things God is all and is destitute of nothing and therefore nothing accrues to him by the Creation but the acknowledgment of his Goodness This Goodness therefore must be the Motive and End of all his Works The third thing That God is good 1. The more excellent any thing is in Nature the more of goodness and kindness it hath For we see more of love and kindness in Creatures that are endued with Sense to their Descendents than in Plants that have only a Principle of Growth Plants preserve their Seeds whole that are enclosed in them Animals look to their young only after they are dropt from them yet after some time take no more notice of them than of a Stranger that never had any Birth from them But Man that hath a higher Principle of Reason cherisheth his Offspring and gives them Marks of his goodness while he lives and leaves not the World at the time of his Death without some testimonies of it Much more must God who is a higher Principle than Sense or Reason be good and bountiful to all his Offspring The more perfect any thing is the more it doth communicate it self The Sun is more excellent than the Stars and therefore doth more sensibly more extensively disperse its liberal Beams than the Stars do And the better any Man is the more charitable he is God being the most excellent Nature having nothing more excellent than himself because nothing more ancient than himself who is the ancient of days There is nothing therefore better and more bountiful than himself 2. He is the cause of all Created Goodness he must therefore himself be the Supream Good What Good is in the Heavens is the Product of some Being above the Earth and those varieties of Goodness in the Earth and several Creatures are some where in their fulness and union That therefore which possesses all those scattered Goodnesses in their fulness must be all Good All that Good which is display'd in Creatures therefore Soveraignly best Whatsoever Natural or Moral Goodness there is in the World in Angels or Men or Inferiour Creatures is a line drawn from that Center the bublings of that Fountain God cannot but be better then all since the Goodness that is in Creatures is the fruit of his own If he were not good he could produce no good he could not bestow what he had not If the Creature be good as the Apostle says every Creature is * 1 Tim. 4.4 he must needs be better than all because they have nothing but what is derived to them from him And much more goodness then all because Finite Being are not capable of receiving into them and containing in themselves all that goodness which is in an Infinite Being When we search for good in Creatures they come short of that satisfaction which is in God †Psal 4.6 As the certainty of a first Principle of all things is necessarily concluded from the being of Creatures and the upholding and sustaining Power and Virtue of God is concluded from the mutability of those things in the World whence we infer that there must be some Stable Foundation of those tottering things some firm Hinge upon which those changeable things do move without which there would be no Stability in the Kinds of things no order no agreement or union among them So from the goodness of every thing and their usefulness to us we must conclude him Good who made all those things And since we find distinct Goodnesses in the Creature we must conclude that one Principle whence they did slow excels in the Glory of Goodness All those little glimmerings of Goodness which are scattered in the Creatures as the Image in the Glass Represent the Face Posture Motion of him whose Image it is but not in the fulness of Life and Spirit as in the Original 'T is but a Shadow at the best and speaks something more excellent in the Copy As God hath an Infiniteness of Being above them so he hath a Supremacy of Goodness beyond them What they have is but a Participation from him what he hath must be infinitely super-eminent above them If any thing be good by it self it must be Infinitely Good it would set it self no bounds we must make as many Gods as particulars of Goodness in the World But being Good by the bounty of another that from whence they flow must be the chief Goodness * Fiâ—inus in Con. Amor. Orat 2. cap.
reasonably doubt but that there is some first cause which makes the things appear so to them They cannot be the cause of their own appearance For as nothing can have a being from it self so nothing can appear by it self and its own force Nothing can be and not be at the same time But that which is not and yet seems to be if it be the cause why it seems to be what it is not it may be said to be and not to be But certainly such persons must think themselves to exist If they do not they cannot think and if they do exist they must have some cause of that Existence So that which way soever we turn our selves we must in reason own a first cause of the World Well then might the Psalmist term an Atheist a fool that disowns a God against his own reason Without owning a God as the first cause of the world no man can give any tolerable or satisfactory account of the world to his own reason And this first cause 1. Must necessarily exist * Petav. Theol. Dog Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 2. pa. 10. 11. T is necessary that he by whom all things are should be before all things and nothing before him And if nothing be before him he comes not from any other and then he always was and without beginning He is from himself not that he once was not but because he hath not his Existence from another and therefore of necessity he did exist from all Eternity Nothing can make it self or bring it self into being therefore there must be some being which hath no cause that depends upon no other never was produced by any other but was what he is from Eternity and cannot be otherwise and is not what he is by will but nature necessarily existing and always existing without any capacity or possibility ever not to be 2. Must be infinitely perfect Since man knows he is an imperfect being he must suppose the perfections he wants are seated in some other being which hath limited him and upon which he depends Whatsoever we conceive of excellency or perfection must be in God For we can conceive no perfection but what God hath given us a power to conceive And he that gave us a power to conceive a transcendent perfection above whatever we saw or heard of hath much more in himself else he could not give us such a conception Secondly II. As the production of the world so the harmony of all the parts of it declare the being and wisdom of a God Without the acknowledging God the Atheist can give no account of those things The multitude elegancy variety and beauty of all things are steps whereby to ascend to one fountain and orignal of them Is it not a folly to deny the being of a wise Agent who sparkles in the beauty and motions of the Heavens rides upon the wings of the wind and is writ upon the flowers and fruits of Plants As the cause is known by the effects so the wisdom of the cause is known by the elegancy of the work the proportion of the parts to one another Who can imagine the world could be rashly made and without consultation which in every part of it is so Artificially framed * Philo. Judae Petav. Theolog. Dogmat. Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 1. pag. 9. No work of Art springs up of its own accord The world is framed by an excellent Art and therefore made by some skilful Artist As we hear not a melodious instrument but we conclude there is a Musitian that touches it as well as some skilful hand that framed and disposed it for those Lessons And no man that hears the pleasant sound of a Lute but will fix his thoughts not upon the Instrument it self but upon the skill of the Artist that made it and the art of the Musitian that strikes it though he should not see the first when he saw the Lute nor see the other when he hears the harmony So a rational Creature confines not his thoughts to his sense when he sees the Sun in its Glory and the Moon walking in its brightness but riseth up in a contemplation and admiration of that infinite Spirit that composed and filled them with such sweetness This appears 1. In the linking contrary qualities together All things are compounded of the Elements Those are endued with contrary qualities driness and moisture heat and cold These would always be contending with and infesting one anothers rights till the contest ended in the destruction of one or both Where fire is predominant it would suck up the water where water is prevalent it would quench the fire The heat would wholly expel the cold or the cold over-power the heat Yet we see them chained and linkt one within another in every body upon the Earth and rendring mutual offices for the benefit of that body wherein they are seated and all conspiring together in their particular quarrels for the publick interest of the body How could those contraries that of themselves observe no order that are always preying upon one another joyntly accord together of themselves for one common end if they were not linkt in a common band and reduced to that order by some incomprehensible wisdom and power which keeps a hand upon them orders their motions and directs their events and makes them friendly pass into one anothers Natures Confusion had been the result of the discord and diversity of their Natures No composition could have been of those conflicting qualities for the frame of any body nor any harmony arose from so many jarring strings if they had not been reduced into concord by one that is supream Lord over them and knows how to dispose their varieties and enmities for the publick good * Athanasius Petav. Theol. Dog Tom. 1. lib. 1. cap. 1. pag. 4. 5. If a man should see a large City or Country consisting of great multitudes of men of different tempers full of Frauds and Factions and Animosities in their natures against one another yet living together in good order and peace without oppressing and invading one another and joyning together for the publick good he would presently conclude there were some excellent Governor who tempered them by his Wisdom and preserved the publick Peace though he had never yet beheld him with his eye T is as necessary to conclude a God who moderates the contrarieties in the world as to conclude a wise Prince who overrules the contrary dispositions in a state making every one to keep his own bounds and confines Things that are contrary to one another subsist in an admirable order 2. In the subserviency of one thing to another * Gassend Physic sect 1. lib. 4. cap. 2. pag. 315. All the Members of living Creatures are curiously fitted for the service of one another destin'd to a particular end and endued with a vertue to attain that end and so distinctly placed that one is no hinderance to the
understand what storms it is to contest with or why it shoots up its branches towards Heaven Doth it know it needs the droppings of the clouds to preserve it self and make it fruitful These are acts of understanding The root is downward to preserve its own standing the branches upward to preserve other Creatures This understanding is not in the Creature it self but originally in another Thunders and Tempests know not why they are sent yet by the direction of a mighty hand they are instruments of Justice upon a wicked world * Coccei sum Theolog. cap. 8. § 67. c. Rational Creatures that act for some end and know the end they aim at yet know not the manner of the natural motion of the members to it When we intend to look upon a thing we take no counsel about the natural motion of our eyes we know not all the principles of their operations or how that dull matter whereof our bodies are composed is subject to the order of our minds * Peirson on the Creed p. 35. We are not of Counsel with our stomacks about the concoction of our meat or the distribution of the nourishing juyce to the several parts of the body Neither the Mother nor the Foetus sit in Council how the formation should be made in the Womb. We know no more than a plant knows what Stature it is of and what medicinal vertue its fruit hath for the good of man yet all those natural operations are perfectly directed to their proper end by an higher wisdom than any human understanding is able to conceive since they exceed the ability of an inanimate or fleshly nature yea and the wisdom of a man Do we not often see reasonable Creatures acting for one end and perfecting a higher than what they aimed at or could suspect When Josephs Brethren sold him for a Slave their end was to be rid of an Informer * Gen. 37.2 But the action issued in preparing him to be the preserver of them and their families Cyrus his end was to be a Conqueror but the action ended in being the Jews deliverer Prov. 16.9 A mans heart deviseth his way but the Lord directs his steps 3. Therefore there is some superior understanding and nature which so acts them That which acts for an end unknown to it self depends upon some over-ruling wisdom that knows that end Who should direct them in all those ends but he that bestowed a being upon them for those ends * Lessius de providen lib. 1. pag. 652. who knows what is convenient for their life security and propagation of their natures An exact knowledge is necessary both of what is agreeable to them and the means whereby they must attain it which since it is not inherent in them is in that wise God who puts those instincts into them and governs them in the exercise of them to such ends Any man that sees a dart flung knows it cannot hit the mark without the skil and strength of an Archer Or he that sees the hand of a Dial pointing to the hours successively knows that the Dial is ignorant of its own end and is disposed and directed in that motion by an other All Creatures ignorant of their own natures could not universally in the whole kind and in every Climate and Country without any difference in the whole world tend to a certain end if some over-ruling wisdom did not preside over the world and guide them and if the Creatures have a Conductor they have a Creator All things are turned round about by his Council that they may do whatsoever he Commands them upon the face of the world in the earth * Job 37.12 So that in this respect the folly of Atheism appears Without the owning a God no account can be given of those actions of Creatures that are an imitation of Reason To say the Bees c. are rational is to equal them to man nay make them his superiors since they do more by nature than the wisest man can do by art T is their own Counsel whereby they act or anothers If it be their own they are reasonable Creatures If by anothers t is not meer nature that is necessary Then other Creatures would not be without the same skill There would be no difference among them If nature be restrained by another it hath a superior if not t is a free agent T is an understanding being that directs them And then it is something superior to all Creatures in the world and by this therefore we may ascend to the acknowledgment of the necessity of a God Fourthly IV. Add to the production and order of the world and the Creatures acting for their end the preservation of them Nothing can depend upon it self in its preservation no more than it could in its being If the order of the world was not fixed by it self the preservation of that order cannot be continued by it self Tho the matter of the world after Creation cannot return to that nothing whence it was fetched without the power of God that made it because the same power is as requisite to reduce a thing to nothing as to raise a thing from nothing yet without the actual exerting of a power that made the Creatures they would fall into confusion Those contesting qualities which are in every part of it could not have preserved but would have consumed and extinguisht one another and reduced the world to that confused Chaos wherin it was before the Spirit moved upon the waters As contrary parts could not have met together in one form unless there had been one that had conjoyned them So they could not have kept together after their conjunction unless the same hand had preserved them Natural contrarieties cannot be reconciled T is as great power to keep discords knit as at first to link them Who would doubt but that an Army made up of several Nations and humors would fall into a Civil War and sheath their Swords in one anothers bowels if they were not under the management of some wise General or a Ship dash against the Rocks without the skill of a Pilot * Gassend Phy. sect 6. lib. 4. cap. 2. pa. 101. As the body hath neither life nor motion without the active presence of the Soul which distributes to every part the vertue of acting sets every one in the exercise of its proper function and resides in every part So there is some powerful cause which doth the like in the world that rules and tempers it There is need of the same power and action to preserve a thing as there was at first to make it When we consider that we are preserved and know that we could not preserve our selves we must necessarily run to some first cause which doth preserve us All works of art depend upon nature and are preserved while they are kept by the force of nature As a Statue depends upon the matter whereof it is
violated Law When God is the object of such a wish t is a vertual undeifying of him Not to be able to punish is to be impotent not to be willing to punish is to be unjust Imperfections inconsistent with the Deity God cannot be supposed without an infinite Power to act and an infinite Righteousness as the Rule of acting Fear of God is natural to all men not a Fear of offending him but a Fear of being punished by him The wishing the Extinction of God has its degree in men according to the degree of their Fears of his just Vengeance And though such a Wish be not in its Meridian but in the Damned in Hell yet it hath its starts and motions in affrighted and awakened Consciences on the Earth Under this Rank of Wishers that there were no God or that God were destroyed do fall 1. Terrified Consciences that are Magor missabib see nothing but matter of fear round about As they have lived without the bounds of the Law they are affraid to fall under the stroak of his Justice Fear wishes the destruction of that which it apprehends hurtful It considers him as a God to whom Vengeance belongs as the Judge of all the Earth * Psal 94.12 The less hopes such a one hath of his Pardon the more joy he would have to hear that his Judge should be stript of his Life He would entertain with delight any reasons that might support him in the conceit that there were no God In his present State such a Doctrine would be his Security from an Account He would as much rejoyce if there were no God to enflame an Hell for him as any guilty Malefactor would if there were no Judge to order a Gibbet for him Shame may bridle mens words but the Heart will be casting about for some Arguments this way to secure it self Such as are at any time in Spira's Case would be willing to cease to be Creatures that God might cease to be Judge The Fool hath said in his heart there is no Elohim no Judge fancying God without any exercise of his judicial Authority And there is not any wicked man under anguish of Spirit but were it within the reach of his power would take away the Life of God and rid himself of his fears by destroying his Avenger 2. Debaucht Persons are not without such wishes sometimes An obstinate Servant wishes his Masters death from whom he expects Correction for his Debaucheries As Man stands in his corrupt Nature 't is impossible but one time or other most debaucht persons at least have so me kind of velleities or imperfect wishes 'T is as natural to men to abhor those things which are unsuteable and troublesome as it is to please themselves in things agreeable to their minds and humours And since Man is so deeply in love with Sin as to count it the most estimable good he cannot but wish the abolition of that Law which checks it and consequently the change of the Law-Giver which Enacted it and in wishing a change in the holy Nature of God he wishes a destruction of God who could not be God if he ceased to be immutably holy They do as certainly wish that God had not a holy Will to command them as desparing Souls wish that God had not a righteous Will to punish them and to wish Conscience extinct for the molestations they receive from it is to wish the power Conscience represents out of the world also Since the State of Sinners is a State of distance from God and the Language of Sinners to God is departed from us * Joh. 21.14 They desire as litle the continuance of his Being as they desire the knowledge of his Ways The same reason which moves them to desire Gods distance from them would move them to desire Gods not Being Since the greatest distance would be most agreeable to them the Destruction of God must be so too Because there is no greater distance from us than in not Being Men would rather have God not to be than themselves under controle that sensuality might range at pleasure He is like a Heifer sliding from the Yoke Hos 4.16 The Cursing of God in the Heart feared by Job of his Chidren intimates a wishing God despoild of his Authority that their pleasure might not be dampt by his Law Besides is there any natural man that sins against actuated knowledge but either thinks or wishes that God might not see him that God might not know his actions And is not this to wish the Destruction of God who could not be God unless he were immense and omniscient 3. Under this rank fall those who perform external Duties only out of a Principle of slavish Fear Many Men perform those Duties that the Law enjoyns with the same Sentiments that Slaves perform their Drudgery and are constrained in their Duties by no other considerations but those of the Whip and the Cudgel Since therefore they do it with reluctancy and secretly murmur while they seem to obey they would be willing that both the Command were recall'd and the Master that commands them were in another world The Spirit of Adoption makes men act towards God as a Father a Spirit of Bondage only eyes him as a Judge Those that look upon their Superiors as tyrannical will not be much concerned in their welfare and would be more glad to have their Nails pared than be under perpetual fear of them Many men regard not the infinite goodness in their service of him but consider him as cruel tyrannical injurious to their Liberty Adam's Posterity are not free from the Sentiments of their common Father till they are regenerate You know what Conceit was the Hammer whereby the Hellish Jael struck the Nail into our first Parents which conveyed Death together with the same Imagination to all their Posterity Gen. 3.5 God knows that in the day you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil Alas poor Souls God knew what he did when he forbad you that Fruit He was jealous you should be too happy It was a cruelty in him to deprive you of a Food so pleasant and delicious The apprehension of the severity of Gods Commands riseth up no less in desires that there were no God over us than Adam's apprehension of Envy in God for the restraint of one Tree mov'd him to attempt to be equal with God Fear is as powerful to produce the one in his Posterity as Pride was to produce the other in the Common-Root When we apprehend a thing hurtful to us we desire so much evil to it as may render it uncapable of doing us the hurt we fear As we wish the preservation of what we love or hope for so we are naturally apt to wish the not being of that whence we fear some hurt or trouble We must not understand this as if any man did formally wish the destruction of God as God God in
and an unreasonable thing cannot be the product of an infinite wisdom and goodness Therefore as the respecting Gods Will before the Will of man is excellent and worthy of a Creature and is an acknowledging the excellency goodness and wisdom of God So the eying the Will of man before and above the Will of God is on the contrary a denyal of all those in a lump and a preferring the wisdom goodness and power of man in his Law above all those perfections of God in his Whatsoever men do that looks like moral virtue or abstinence from vices not out of obedience to the rule God hath set but because of custome necessity example or imitation they may in the doing of it be rather said to be Apes than Christians 3. In obeying the Will of man when t is contrary to the Will of God As the Israelites willingly walked after the Commandment * Hos 5.11 Not of God but of Jeroboam in the â—ase of the Calves And made the Kings heart glad with their lies * Hos 7.3 They cheered â—im with their ready obedience to his Command for Idolatry which was a lie in iâ—self and a lie in them against the Commandment of God and the warnings of the Prophets rather than cheer the heart of God with their obedience to his worship instituted by him Nay and when God offered them to cure them their wound their iniquity breaks out a fresh they would neither have him as a Lord to rule them nor a Physitian to cure them Hos 7.1 When I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered The whole Persian Nation shrunk at once from a duty due by the light of nature to the Deity upon a decree that neither God or man should be petitioned to for thirty days but only their King * Daniel 6. One only Daniel excepted against it who preferred his homage to God above obedience to his Prince An adulterous generation is many times made the rule of mens professions as is implyed in those words of our Saviour Mark 8.38 Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this Adulterous and sinful Generation Own him among his Disciples and be ashamed of him among his enemies Thus men are said to deny God Tit. 1.16 when they attend to Jewish fables and the precepts of men rather than the word of God When the decrees or Canons of fallible men are valued at a higher rate and preferred before the writings of the holy-ghost by his Apostles As Man naturally disowns the rule God sets him and owns any other rule than that of Gods prescribing so Thirdly 3. He doth this in order to the setting himself up as his own rule As tho our own Wills and not Gods were the true square and measure of Goodness We make an Idol of our own Wills And as much as self is exalted God is deposed The more we esteem our own Wills the more we endeavour to annihilate the Will of God Account nothing of him the more we account of our selves And endeavor to render our selves his superiors by exalting our own Wills No Prince but would look upon his Authority as invaded his Royalty derided if a Subject should resolve to be a Law to himself in opposition to his known Will True piety is to hate our selves deny our selves and cleave solely to the service of God To make our selves our own rule and the object of our chiefest love is Atheism If self denyal be the greatest part of Godliness the great Letter in the Alphabet of Religion Self love is the great Letter in the Alphabet of Practical Atheism Self is the great Anti-Christ and Anti-God in the World that sets up it self above all that is called God Self love is the Captain of that black band 2 Tim. 3.2 It sits in the Temple of God and would be ador'd as God Self love begins but denying the the power of Godliness which is the same with denying the ruling power of God ends the list T is so far from bending to the righteous Will of the Creator that it would have the eternal Will of God stoop to the humor and unrighteous Will of a Creature And this is the ground of the contention between the flesh and Spirit in the heart of a renewed man Flesh Wars for the God-head of self and Spirit fights for the God-head of God The one would settle the throne of the Creator and the other maintain a Law of Covetosness Ambition Envy Lust in the stead of God The Evidence of this will appear in these propositions 1. This is natural to man as he is corrupted What was the venom of the sin of Adam is naturally derived with his nature to all his posterity It was not the eating a forbidden Apple or the pleasing his Palate that Adam aimed at or was the chief object of his desire but to live independently on his Creator and be a God to himself Gen. 3.5 You shall be as Gods That which was the matter of the Devils Temptation was the incentive of mans rebellion A likeness to God he aspired to in the Judgment of God himself an infallible interpreter of mans thoughts Behold man is become as one of us to know good and evil in regard of self sufficiency and being a rule to himself The Jews understand the ambition of man to reach no further than an equality with the Angelical nature But Jehovah here understands it in another sense God had ordered man by this prohibition not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil not to attempt the knowledge of good and evil of himself but to wait upon the dictates of God not to trust to his own Counsels but to depend wholly upon him for direction and guidance Certainly he that would not hold off his hand from so small a thing as an Apple when he had his choice of the fruit of the Garden would not have denyed himself any thing his Appetite had desired when that principle had prevailed upon him He would not have stuck at a greater matter to pleasure himself with the displeasing of God when for so small a thing he would incur the anger of his Creator Thus would he deifie his own understanding against the wisdom of God and his own appetite against the Will of God This desire of equality with God a learned man thinks the Apostle intimates Phil. 2.6 Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God The Sons being in the form of God Dr. Jackson and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God implies that the robbery of sacriledge committed by our first Parents for which the Son of God humbled himself to the death of the Cross was an attempt to be equal with God and depend no more upon Gods directions but his own conduct which could be no less than an invasion of the throne of God and endeavor to put himself into
* 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
of our Natures in the practice of the Israelites a People chosen out of the whole world to bear up Gods name and preserve his glory And in that the Images of God were so soon set up in the Christian Church and to this day the picture of God in the shape of an old man is visible in the Temples of the Romanists 'T is prone to the Nature of Man 4. To represent God by a corporeal Image and to worship him in and by that Image is Idolatry Though the Israelites did not acknowledge the Calf to be God nor intended a worship to any of the Egyptian Deities by it but worshipped that God in it who had so lately and miraculously delivered them from a cruel Servitude and could not in natural reason judge him to be clothed with a bodily shape much less to be like an Ox that eateth grass yet the Apostle brings no less a charge against them than that of Idolatry 1 Cor. 10.7 he calls them Idolaters who before that Calf kept a Feast to Jehovah citing Exod. 32.5 Suppose we could make such an Image of God as might perfectly represent him yet since God hath prohibited it shall we be wiser than God He hath sufficiently manifested himself in his Works without Images He is seen in the Creatures more particularly in the Heavens which declare his Glory His Works are more excellent representations of him as being the works of his own hands than any thing that is the Product of the Art of Man His Glory sparkles in the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars as being magnificent pieces of his Wisdom and Power yet the kissing the hand to the Sun or the Heavens as representatives of the Excellency and Majesty of God is Idolatry in Scripture account and a denial of God * Job 31.26 27 28. Chin. Predict Part. 2. P. 252. a prostituting the glory of God to a Creature * Lawson Body Divin P. 161 Either the worship is terminated on the Image it self and then it is confessed by all to be Idolatry because it is a giving that worship to a Creature which is the sole right of God or not terminated in the Image but in the Object represented by it 't is then a foolish thing we may as well terminate our worship on the true Object without as with an Image An erected Statue is no sign or symbol of Gods special presence as the Ark Tabernacle Temple were It is no part of divine institution has no Authority of a Command to support it no Cordial of a promise to encourage it and the Image being infinitely distant from and below the Majesty and Spirituality of God cannot constitute one object of worship with him To put a Religious Character upon any Image formed by the corrupt imagination of Man as a representation of the invisible and spiritual Deity is to think the Godhead to be like silver and gold or stone graven by art and mans device * Acts 17.29 3. This Doctrine will direct us in our conceptions of God as a pure perfect Spirit than which nothing can be imagined more perfect more pure more spiritual 1. We cannot have an adequate or sutable conception of God He dwells in inaccessible light inaccessible to the acuteness of our fancy as well as the weakness of our sense If we could have thoughts of him as high and excellent as his Nature our conceptions must be as infinite as his Nature All our imaginations of him cannot represent him because every created species is finite it cannot therefore represent to us a full and substantial notion of an infinite Being We cannot speak or think worthily enough of him who is greater than our words vaster than our understandings Whatsoever we speak or think of God is handed first to us by the notice we have of some perfection in the Creature and explains to us some particular excellency of God rather than the fulness of his Essence No Creature nor all Creatures together can furnish us with such a magnificent notion of God as can give us a clear view of him Yet God in his word is pleased to step below his own excellency and point us to those excellencies in his works whereby we may ascend to the knowledge of those excellencies which are in his Nature But the Creatures whence we draw our lessons being finite and our understandings being finite 't is utterly impossile to have a notion of God commensurate to the immensity and spirituality of his Being * Amyraut Moral Tom. 1. P. 289. God is not like to visible Creatures nor is there any proportion between him and the most spiritual We cannot have a full notion of a spiritual Nature much less can we have of God who is a Spirit above Spirits No Spirit can clearly represent him The Angels that are great Spirits are bounded in their extent finite in their being and of a mutable Nature Yet though we cannot have a sutable conception of God we must not content our selves without any conception of him 'T is our sin not to endeavour after a true notion of him 'T is our sin to rest in a mean and low notion of him when our reason tells us we are capable of having higher But if we ascend as high as we can though we shall then come short of a sutable notion of him this is not our sin but our weakness God is infinitely superior to the choicest conceptions not only of a sinner but of a Creature If all conceptions of God below the true nature of God were sin there is not a holy Angel in Heaven free from sin because tho they are the most capacious Creatures yet they cannot have such a Notion of an infinite being as is fully sutable to his nature unless they were infinite as he himself is 2. But however we must by no means conceive of God under a human or Corporeal shape Since we cannot have conceptions honourable enough for his nature we must take heed we entertain not any which may debase his nature Tho we cannot comprehend him as he is we must be careful not to fancy him to be what he is not 'T is a vain thing to conceive him with human lineaments We must think higher of him than to ascribe to him so mean a shape We deny his Spirituality when we fancy him under such a form He is Spiritual and between that which is Spiritual and that which is Corporeal there is no resemblance * Episco institu li. 4. § 2. c. 10. Indeed Daniel saw God in a human form Daniel 7.9 The Ancient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow and the hairs of his head like pure Wool he is described as coming to Judgment t is not meant of Christ probably because Christ ver 13. is called the Son of Man coming near to the Ancient of days This is not the proper shape of God for no man hath seen his shape It was a vision wherein such
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
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
some thoughts pitch'd upon God in worship and as many willingly upon the World David sought God not with a moity of his heart but with his whole heart with his intire frame * Psal 119.10 He brought not half his heart and left the other in the possession of another Master It was a good lesson Pythagoras gave his Scholars * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jamblich l. 1. c. 518. p. 87. Not to make the Observance of God a work by the by If those Guests be invited or entertained kindly or if they come unexpected the spirituality of that worship is lost the Soul kicks down what it wrought before But if they be Brow-beaten by us and our grief rather than our pleasure they divert our spiritual intention from the work in hand but hinder not Gods acceptance of it as spiritual because they are not the acts of our Will but offences to our Wills 5. Spiritual Worship is performed with a spiritual activity and sensibleness of God With an active Understanding to meditate on his excellency and an active Will to embrace him when he drops upon the Soul If we understand the amiableness of God our affections will be ravisht if we understand the immensity of his goodness our Spirits will be enlarged We are to act with the highest intention sutable to the greatness of that God with whom we have to do Psal 150.2 Praise him according to his excellent greatness Not that we can worship him equally but in some proportion the frame of the heart is to be suted to the excellency of the Object Our spiritual strength is to be put out to the utmost as Creatures that act naturally do The Sun shines and the Fire burns to the utmost of their natural power This is so necessary that David a spiritual Worshipper prays for it before he sets upon acts of adoration Psal 80.18 quicken us that we may call upon thy Name As he was loth to have a drowzy faculty he was loth to hâ—â— a drowzy instrument and would willingly have them as lively as himself Psal 57.8 Awake up my glory awake Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake early How would this Divine Soul serue himself up to God and be turned into nothing but a holy flame Our Souls must be boyling hot when we serve the Lord * Rom. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The heart doth no less burn when it Spiritually comes to God than when God doth Spiritually approach to it * Luke 24.32 A Nabals heart one as cold as a stone cannot offer up a Spiritual service Whatsoever is enjoyned us as our duty ought to be performed with the greatest intensness of our Spirit As it is our duty to pray so it is our duty to pray with the most fervent importunity T is our duty to love God but with the purest and most sublime affections Every Command of God requires the whole strength of the Creature to be imployed in it That love to God wherein all our duty to God is summed up is to be with all our strength with all our might c. * Lady Falklands life pa. 130. Tho in the Covenant of grace he hath mitigated the severity of the Law and requires not from us such an elevation of our affections as was possible in the state of innocence yet God requires of us the utmost moral industry to raise our affections to a pitch at least equal to what they are in other things What strength of affections we naturally have ought to be as much and more excited in acts of worship than upon other occasions and our ordinary works As there was an inactivity of Soul in worship and a quickness to sin when sin had the dominion so when the Soul is Spiritualized the temper is changed there is an inactivity to sin and an ardor in duty The more the Soul is dead to sin the more it is alive to God * Rom. 6.11 and the more lively too in all that concerns God and his honour For grace being a new strength added to our natural determines the affections to new objects and excites them to a greater vigor And as the hatred of sin is more sharp the love to every thing that destroys the dominion of it is more strong And acts of worship may be reckoned as the cheifest batteries against the power of this inbred enemy When the Spirit is in the Soul like the Rivers of waters flowing out of the belly the Soul hath the activity of a River and makes hast to be swallowed up in God as the streams of the River in the Sea Christ makes his people Kings and Priests to God * Revel 1.6 first Kings then Priests Gives first a Royal temper of heart that they may offer Spiritual Sacrifices as Priests Kings and Priests to God acting with a magnificent Spirit in all their motions to him We cannot be Spiritual Priests till we be Spiritual Kings The Spirit appeared in the likeness of fire and where he resides Communicates like fire purity and activity Dulness is against the light of nature I do not remember that the Heathen ever offered a Snail to any of their false Deities nor an Ass but to Priapus their unclean Idol but the Persians Sacrificed to the Sun a Horse a swift and generous Creature God provided against those in the Law Commanding an Asses Firstling the off-spring of a sluggish Creature to be Redeemed or his neck broke but by no means to be offered to him * Exod. 13.13 God is a Spirit infinitely active and therefore frozen and benummed frames are unsutable to him He rides upon a Cherub and flies he comes upon the wings of the wind he rides upon a swift cloud * Isa 19.1 and therefore demands of us not a dull reason but an active Spirit God is a living God therefore must have a lively service Christ is life and slothful adorations are not fit to be offered up in the name of life The worship of God is called wrestling in Scripture and Paul was a striver in the service of his Master * Col. 1.29 in an agony * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angels worship God Spiritually with their wings on and when God Commands them to worship Christ the next Scripture quoted is that he makes them flames of fire * Heb. 1.7 If it be thus how may we charge our selves What Paul said of the sensual Widow * 1 Tim. 5.6 that she is dead while she lives we may say often of our Selves we are dead while we worship Our hearts are in duty as the Jews were in deliverances as those in a dream * Psa 126.1 by which unexpectedness God shewed the greatness of his care and mercy and we attend him as men in a dream whereby we discover our negligence and folly This activity doth not consist in outward acts The body may be hot and the heart may be faint but in an inward stirring
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
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
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
will to please him longings to enjoy him as a holy and sanctifying God in his Ordinances as well as a blessed and glorified God in Heaven What do we expect in our approaches from him That which may make divine impressions upon us and more exactly conform us to the divine nature Or do we design nothing but an empty formality a rowling eye and a filling the Air with a few words without any openings of heart to receive the incomes which according to the nature of the duty might be conveyed to us Can this be a spiritual worship The Soul then closely waits upon him when its expectation is only from him Psal 62.6 Are our hearts seasoned with a sense of sin a sight of our spiritual wants raised notions of God glowing affections to Him strong appetite after a spiritual fulness Do we rouze up our sleepy Spirits and make a Covenant with all that is within us to attend upon him So much as we want of this so much we come short of a spiritual worship In Psal 57.7 My heart is fixed oh God my heart is fixed David would fix his heart before he would engage in a praising act of worship He appeals to God about it and that with doubling the expression as being certain of an inward preparedness Can we make the same appeals in a fixation of Spirit 2. How are our hearts fixed upon him How do they cleave to him in the duty Do we resign our Spirits to God and make them an intire Holocaust a whole burnt-offering in his worship Or do we not willingly admit carnal thoughts to mix themselves with spiritual duties and fasten our minds to the Creature under pretences of directing them to the Creator Do we not pass a meer complement on God by some superficial act of devotion while some covetous envious ambitious voluptuous imagination may possess our minds Do we not invert Gods Order and worship a Lust instead of God with our Spirits that should not have the least service either from our Souls or Bodies but with a spiritual disdain be sacrificed to the just indignation of God How often do we fight against his Will while we cry hail Master instead of crucifying our own thoughts crucifying the Lord of our Lives Our outward carriage plausible and our inward stark naught Do we not often regard iniquity more than God in our hearts in a time of worship Roul some filthy imagination as a sweet morsel under our tongues and taste more sweetness in that than in God Do not our Spirits smell rank of Earth while we offer to Heaven and have we not hearts full of thick Clay as their hands were full of blood * Isa 1.15 When we sacrifice do we not wrap up our Souls in communion with some sordid fancy when we should entwine our Spirits about an amiable God While we have some fear of him may we not have a love to something else above him This is to worship or swear by the Lord and by Malchom * Zeph. 1.5 How often doth an Apish-fancy render a service inwardly ridiculous under a grave outward posture skipping to the Shop Ware-house Compting-house in the space of a short Prayer And we are before God as a Babel a confusion of internal languages and this in those parts of worship which are in the right use most agreeable to God profitable for our selves ruinous to the Kingdom of Sin and Satan and means to bring us into a closer communion with the Divine Majesty Can this be a spiritual worship 3. How do we act our graces in worship Though the Instrument be strung if the strâ—ngs be not wound up what melody can be the issue All readiness and alacrity discover a strength of nature and a readiness in Spirituals discovers a spirituality in the heart As unaffecting thoughts of God are not spiritual thoughts so unaffecting addresses to God are not spiritual addresses Well tâ—en what awakenings and elevations of Faith and Love have we What strong outflowings of our Souls to him What indignation against Sin What admirations of redeeming Grace How low have we brought our corruptions to the foot-stool of Christ to be made his conquered Enemies How straitly have we claspt ouâ— Faith about the Cross and Throne of Christ to become his intimate Spouse Do we in hearing hang upon the lips of Christ in prayer take hold of God and wil not let him go in confessions rent the Caul of our hearts and indite our Souls before him with a deep humility Do we act more by a soaring love than a drooping fear So far as our Spitits are servile so far they are legal and carnal so much as they are free and spontaneous so much they are evangelical and spiritual As men under the Law are subject to the constraint of Bondage * Heb. 2.15 all their life-time in all their worship so under the Gospel they are under a constraint of love * 2 Cor. 5.14 How then are believing affections exercised which are alway accompanied with holy fear a fear of his goodness that admits us into his presence and a fear to offend him in our act of worship So much as we have of forced or feeble affection so much we have of carnality 4. How do we find our hearts after worship By an after carriage we may judge of the spirituality of it 1. How are we as to inward strength When a worship is spiritually performed grace is more strengthened corruption more mortified The Soul like Sampson after his awakening goes out with a renewed strength As the inward man is renewed day by day that is every day so it is renewed in every worship Every shower makes the grass and fruit grow in good ground where the root is good and the weeds where the ground is naught The more prepared the heart is to obedience in other duties after worship the more evidence there is that it hath been spiritual in the exercise of it 'T is the end of God in every dispensation as in that of John Baptist To make ready a People prepared for the Lord * Luke 1 17. When the heart is by worship prepared for fresh acts of obedience and hath a more exact watchfulness against the incroachments of Sin As carnal men after worship sprout up in spiritual wickedness so do spiritual Worshippers in spiritual graces Spiritual fruits are a sign of a spiritual frame When men are more prone to sin after duty 't is a sign there was but little communion with God in it and a greater strength of sin because such an act is contrary to the end of worship which is the subduing of Sin 'T is a sign the Physick hath wrought well when the stomach hath a better appetite to its appointed food and worship hath been well performed when we have a stronger inclination to other acts well pleasing to God and a more sensible distaste of those temptations we too much relisht before 'T is a sign of
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
Hills are said to leap and the Mountains to rejoyce The Creature is said to groan as the Heavens are said to declare the glory of God passively naturally not rationally 'T is not likely Angels are here meant though they cannot but desire it since they are affected with the dishonour and reproach God hath in the world they cannot but long for the restoration of his honour in the restoration of the Creature to its true end And indeed the Angels are employed to serve man in this sinful state and cannot but in holiness wish the Creature freed from his corruption Nor is it meant of the new Creatures which have the first fruits of the Spirit those he brings in afterwards groaning and waiting for the Adoption * Verse 23. where he distinguisheth the rational Creature from the Creature he had spoken of before If he had meant the believing Creature by that Creature that desired the liberty of the Sons of God what need had there been of that additional distinction and not only they but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan within our selves Whereby it seems he means some Creatures below rational Creatures since neither Angels nor blessed Souls can be said to travail in pain with that distress as a Woman in travail hath as the word signifies who perform the work joyfully which God sets them upon * Mestraezat fur Heb. 1. If the Creatures be subject to vanity by the sin of man they shall also partake of a happiness by the restoration of man The Eâ—â—â—h hath born Thorns and Thistles and venemous Beasts The Air hath had its Tempests and infectious Qualities The Water hath caused its Flouds and Deluges The Creature hath been abused to luxury and intemperance and been tyranniz'd over by Man contrary to the end of its creation 'T is convenient that some time should be allotted for the Creature 's attaining its true end and that it may partake of the peace of Man as it hath done of the fruits of his sin otherwise it would seem that sin had prevailed more than grace and would have had more power to deface than grace to restore and things into their due order 5. Again upon what account should the Psalmist exhort the Heavens to rejoyce and the Earth to be glad when God comes to judge the world with Righteousness * Psal 96.11 12 13. if they should be annihilated and sunk for ever into nothing It would seem saith Daille to be an impertinent figure if the Judge of the world brought to them a total destruction an entire ruin could not be matter of triumph to Creatures who naturally have that instinct or inclination put into them by their Creator to preserve themselves and to affect their own preservation 6. Again The Lord is to rejoyce in his works Psal 104.31 The Glory of the Lord shall endure for ever the Lord shall rejoyce in his works not hath but shall rejoyce in his works In the works of Creation which the Psalmist had enumerated and which is the whole scope of the Psalm And he intimates that it is part of the glory of the Lord which endures for ever that is his manifestative glory to rejoyce in his works The Glory of the Lord must be understood with reference to the Creation he had spoken of before How short was that joy God had in his works after he had sent them beautified out of his hand How soon did he repent not only that he had made Man but was grieved at the heart also that he made the other Creatures which Man's sin had disordered What joy can God have in them * Gen. 6.7 since the Curse upon the entrance of sin into the world remains upon them If they are to be annihilated upon the full restoration of his Holiness what time will God have to rejoyce in the other works of Creation 'T is the joy of God to see all his works in their due order every one pointing to their true end marching together in their excellency according to his first intendment in their Creation Did God create the World to perform its end only for one day scarce so much if Adam fell the very first day of his Creation What would have been their end if Adam had been confirm'd in a state of happiness as the Angels were 'T is likely will be answered and performed upon the compleat restoration of Man to that happy state from whence he fell What Artificer compiles a work by his skill but to rejoyce in it And shall God have no joy from the works of his hands Since God can only rejoyce in goodness the Creatures must have that goodness restored to them which God pronounced them to have at the first Creation and which he ordained them for before he can again rejoyce in his works The goodness of the Creatures is the glory and joy of God Inference 1. We may infer from hence what a base and vile thing Sin is which lays the foundation of the worlds change Sin brings it to a decrepit age Sin overturned the whole work of God * Gen. 3.17 so that to render it useful to its proper end there is a necessity of a kind of a new creating it This causes God to fire the Earth for a purification of it from that infection and contagion brought upon it by the apostacy and corruption of Man It hath served sinful man and therefore must undergo a purging Flame to be fit to serve the holy and righteous Creator As Sin is so riveted in the body of man that there is need of a change by death to rase it out so hath the Curse for sin got so deep into the bowels of the world that there is need of a change by fire to refine it for its Masters use Let us look upon Sin with no other notion than as the Object of Gods hatred the cause of his grief in the Creatures and the Spring of the pain and ruin of the World 2. How foolish a thing is it to set our hearts upon that which shall perish and be no more what it is now The Heavens and Earth the solidest and firmest parts of the Creation shall not continue in the posture they are they must perish and undergo a refining change How feeble and weak are the other parts of the Creation the little Creatures walking upon and fluttering about the world that are perishing and dying every day and we scarce see them clothed with life and beauty this day but they wither and are despoyl'd of all the next and are such frail things fit Objects for our everlasting Spirits and Affections Though the daily employment of the Heavens is the declaration of the glory of God * Psal 19.1 yet neither this nor their harmony order beauty amazing greatness and glory of them shall preserve them from a dissolution and melting at the presence of the Lord Though they have remained in the same posture from
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
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
before it was Immense before it had no bounds and would God make a World that he would be ashamed to be present with and continue it to the diminution and lessening of himself rather than annihilate it to avoid the disparagement This were to impeach the Wisdom of God and cast a blemish upon his infinite Understanding that he knows not the consequences of his Work or is well contented to be impaired in the immensity of his own Essence by it No man thinks it a dishonour to Light a most excellent Creature to be present with a Toad or Serpent and tho' there be an infinite disproportion between Light a Creature and the Father of Lights the Creator Yet * Gassend God being a Spirit knows how to be with Bodies as if they were not Bodies And being jealous of his own Honor would not could not do any thing that might impair it 4. Nor will it follow That because God is Essentially every where that every thing is God God is not every where by any conjunction composition or mixture with any thing on Earth when Light is in every part of a Chrystal Globe and encircles it close on every side do they become one No the Chrystal remains what it is and the Light retains its own nature God is not in us as a part of us but as an efficient and preserving Cause 't is not by his Essential Presence but his efficacious Presence that he brings any person into a likeness to his own Nature God is so in his Essence with things as to be distinct from them as a Cause from the Effect as a Creator different from the Creature preserving their Nature not communicating his own his Essence touches all is in conjunction with none Finite and Infinite cannot be joyn'd he is not far from us therefore near to us so near that we live and move in him * Acts 17.27 Nothing is God because it moves in him any more than a Fish in the Sea is the Sea or a part of the Sea because it moves in it Doth a man that holds a thing in the hollow of his hand Amyrald de Trinit p. 99. 100. transform it by that action and make it like his hand The Soul and Body are more straitly united than the Essence of God is by his Presence with any Creature The Soul is in the Body as a form in matter and from their Union doth arise a man yet in this near conjunction both Body and Soul remain distinct the Soul is not the Body nor the Body the Soul they both have distinct natures and essences the Body can never be changed into a Soul nor the Soul into a Body no more can God into the Creature or the Creature into God Fire is in heated Iron in every part of it so that it seems to be nothing but Fire yet is not Fire and Iron the same thing But such a kind of arguing against Gods Omnipresence that if God were Essentially present every thing would be God would exclude him from Heaven as well as from Earth By the same reason since they acknowledge God essentially in Heaven the Heaven where he is should be chang'd into the nature of God and by arguing against his Presence in Earth upon this ground they run such an inconvenience that they must own him to be no where and that which is no where is nothing Doth the Earth become God because God is Essentially there any more than the Heavens where God is acknowledged by all to be Essentially present Again if where God is Essentially that must be God then if they place God in a Point of the Heavens not only that Point must be God but all the World because if that point be God because God is there then the Point touched by that Point must be God and so consequently as far as there are any Points touched by one another We live and move in God so we live and move in the Air we are no more God by that than we are meer Air because we breathe in it and it enters into all the Pores of our Body Nay where there was a straiter Union of the Divine Nature to the Humane in our Saviour yet the Nature of both was distinct and the Humanity was not chang'd into the Divinity nor the Divinity into the Humanity 5. Nor doth it follow that because God is every where therefore a Creature may be worshipt without Idolatry Some of the Heathens who acknowledged Gods Omnipresence abus'd it to the countenancing Idolatry because God was resident in every thing they thought every thing might be Worshipped and some have usd it as an Argument against this Doctrine the best Doctrines may by mens corruption be drawn out into unreasonable and pernicious conclusions Have you not met with any That from the Doctrine of Gods Free Mercy and our Saviours satisfactory Death have drawn Poyson to feed their Lusts and consume their Souls a Poyson compos'd by their own corruption and not offer'd by those Truths The Apostle intimates to us that some did or at least were ready to be more lavish in sinning because God was abundant in Grace Rom. 6.1 2.15 Shall we Sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound when he prevents an Objection that he thought might be made by some But as to this Case since tho' God be present in every thing yet every thing retains its nature distinct from the Nature of God therefore it is not to have a Worship due to the Excellency of God As long as any thing remains a Creature 't is only to have the respect from us which is due to it in the rank of Creatures When a Prince is present with his Guard or if he should go Arm in Arm with a Peasant is therefore the Veneration and Honor due to the Prince to be paid to the Peasant or any of his Guard would the Presence of the Prince excuse it or would it not rather aggravate it he acknowledged such a person equal to me by giving him my Rights even in my Sight Tho' God dwelt in the Temple would not the Israelites have been accounted guilty of Idolatry had they Worshipped the Images of the Cherubims or the Ark or the Altar as objects of Worship which were erected only as means for his Service Is there not as much reason to think God was as Essentially present in the Temple as in Heaven since the same Expressions are used of the one and the other the Sanctuary is called the Glorious High Throne * Jer. 17.13 and he is said to dwell between the Cherubims †Psal 80.1 i. e. the two Cherubims that were at the two ends of the Mercy Seat appointed by God as the two sides of his Throne in the Sanctuary Exod. 25.18 where he was to dwell ver 8. and meet and commune with his people ver 22. Could this excuse Manasseh's Idolatry
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
Wisdom Power signify at a distance from us Let us frame in our minds a strong Idea of it 't is this makes so great a difference between the actions of one man and another one maintains actual thoughts of it another doth not tho' all believe it as a Perfection pertaining to the infiniteness of his Essence David or rather a greater than David had God always before him there was no time no occasion wherein he did not stir up some lively thoughts of him Psal 16.8 Let us have right notions of it imagine not God as a great King sitting only in his Majesty in Heaven acting all by his Servants and Ministers This saith one * Musculuâ— is a Childish and unworthy conceit of God and may in time bring such a conceiver by degrees to deny his Providence the denyal of this Perfection is an Axe at the Root of Religion if it be not deeply imprinted in the mind personal Religion grows faint and feeble who would fear that God that is not imagin'd to be a Witness of his actions Who would worship a God at a distance both from the Worship and Worshipper * Drexel Let us believe this Truth but not with an idle Faith as if we did not believe it Let us know that as wheresoever the Fish moves it is in the Water wheresoever the Bird moves it is in the Air so wheresoever we move we are in God as there is not a moment but we are under his Mercy so there is not a moment that we are out of his Presence Let us therefore look upon nothing without thinking who stands by without reflecting upon him in whom it Lives Moves and hath its Being When you view a man you fix your eyes upon his Body but your mind upon that invisible part that acts every member by life and motion and makes them fit for your converse Let us not bound our thoughts to the Creatures we see but pierce through the Creature to that boundless God we do not see we have continual remembrancers of his Presence the Light whereby we see and the Air whereby we live give us perpetual notices of it and some weak resemblance why should we forget it yea what a shame is our unmindfulness of it when every cast of our Eye every motion of our Lungs jogs us to remember it Light is in every part of the Air in every part of the World yet not mixt with any both remain entire in their own substance Let us not be worse than some of the Heathens who pressed this notion upon themselves for the spiriting their actions with Vertue That all places were full of God This was the means Basil used to prescribe upon a Question was askt him Omnia Diâ—plena How shall we do to be serious Mind Gods Presence How shall we avoid distractions in Service Think of Gods Presence How shall we resist Temptations Oppose to them the Presence of God 1. This will be a Shield against all Temptations God is present is enough to blunt the Weapons of Hell this will secure us from a ready complyance with any base and vile attractives and curb that head-strong Principle in our nature that would joyn hands with them the Thoughts of this would like the powerful Presence of God with the Israelites take off the Wheels from the Chariots of our sensitive Appetites and make them perhaps more slower at least towards a Temptation How did Peter fling off the Temptation which had worsted him upon a look from Christ the actuated faith of this would stifle the Darts of Satan and fire us with an anger against his sollicitations as strong as the Fire that inflames the Darts Moses his Sight of him that was Invisible strengthned him against the costly Pleasures and Luxuries of a Princes Court Heb. 11 27. We are utterly senseless of a Deity if we are not moved with this Item from our Consciences God is Present Had our first Parents actually consider'd the nearness of God to them when they were Tempted to Eat of the Forbidden Fruit they had not probably so easily been overcome by the Temptation What Soldier would be so base as to revolt under the Eye of a tender and obliging General Or what man so negligent of himself as to Rob a House in the Sight of a Judg Let us consider That God is as near to observe us as the Devil to sollicite us yea nearer the Devil stands by us but God is in us we may have a Thought the Devil knows not but not a Thought but God is actually present with as our Souls are with the Thoughts they think nor can any Creature attract our heart if our minds were fixed on that invisible Presence that contributes to that excellency and sustains it and considered that no Creature could be so present with us as the Creator is 2. It will be a Spur to Holy Actions What man would do an unworthy action or speak an unhandsom Word in the Presence of his Prince the Eye of the General inflames the Spirit of a Soldier Why did David keep Gods Testimonies Psal 119 168 because he consider'd that all his ways were before him because he was perswaded his ways were present with God Gods Precepts should be present with him The same was the cause of Jobs Integrity Job 31.4 Doth he not see my ways to have God in our Eye is the way to be sincere Gen 17. â— walk before me as in my Sight and be thou perfect Communion with God consists chiefly in an ordering our Ways as in the Presence of him that is Invisible This would make us spiritual rais'd and watchful in all our Passions if we consider'd that God is present with us in our Shops in our Chambers in our Walks and in our Meetings as present with us as with the Angels in Heaven who tho' they have a Presence of Glory above us yet have not a greater measure of his Essential Presence than we have What an awe had Jacob upon him when he consider'd God was present in Bethel Gen. 28.16 17 If God should appear visibly to us when we were alone should we not be reverent and serious before him God is every where about us he doth encompass us with his Presence should not Gods seeing us have the same influence upon us as our seeing God He is not more essentially present if he should so manifest himself to us than when he doth not Who would appear besmear'd in the presence of a great person or not be asham'd to be found in his Chamber in a nasty posture by some visitant Would not a man blush to be catched about some mean action tho' it were not an immoral Crime If this Truth were imprest upon our Spirits we should more blush to have our Souls daub'd with some loathsom Lust swarms of Sin like Egyptian Lice and Frogs creeping about our Heart in his Sight If the most sensual man be asham'd
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
improperly knowledg because it belongs to the Will and not to the Understanding only it is radically in the understanding because affection implies knowledg men cannot approve of that which they are ignorant of Thus knowledg is taken Amos 3.2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth And 2 Tim. 2.19 The Lord knows who are his that is he loves them he doth not only know them but acknowledg them for his own it notes not only an exact understanding but a special care of them and so is that to be understood Gen. 1. God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good that is he saw it with an eye of approbation as well as apprehension This is grounded upon Gods knowledg of Vision his sight of his creatures for God doth not love or delight in any thing but what is actually in being or what he hath decreed to bring into being On the contrary also when God doth not approve he is said not to know Mat. 25.12 I know you not and Mat. 7.23 I never knew you he doth not approve of their Works 't is not an ignorance of Understanding but an ignorance of Will for whiles he saith he never knew them he testifies that he did know them in rendring the reason of his disapproving them because he knows all their Works so he knows them and doth not know them in a different manner he knows them so as to understand them but he doth not know them so as to love them We must then ascribe an universal knowledg to God If we deny him a speculative knowledg or knowledg of intelligence we destroy his Deity we make him ignorant of his own Power if we deny him Practical knowledg we deny our selves to be his creatures for as his creatures we are the fruits of this his discretion discovered in Creation if we deny his knowledg of Vision we deny his governing Dominion How can he exercise a Sovereign and uncontroulable Dominion that is ignorant of the nature and qualities of the things he is to govern If he had not Knowledg he could make no Revelation he that knows not cannot dictate we could then have no Scripture To deny God Knowledg is to dash out the Scripture and demolish the Deity God is describ'd in Zech. 3.9 with seven eyes to shevv his perfect Knovvledg of all things all Occurrences in the World and the Cherubims or vvhatsoever is meant by the Wings are described to be full of Eyes both before and behind Ezek 1.18 round about them much more is God all Eye all Ear all Understanding The Sun is a natural Image of God if the Sun had an Eye it vvould see if it had an Understanding it vvould knovv all visible things it vvould see vvhat it shines upon and understand vvhat it influenceth in the most obscure Bovvels of the Earth Doth God excell his Creature the Sun in Excellency and Beauty and not in Light and Understanding certainly more than the Sun excels an Atome or grain of Dust We may yet make some representation of this Knowledg of God by a lower thing a Picture which seems to look upon every one tho' there be never so great a multitude in the Room where it hangs no man can cast his Eye upon it but it seems to behold him in particular and so exactly as if there were none but him upon whom the eye of it were fixt and every man finds the same cast of it shall Art frame a thing of that Nature and shall not the God of Art and all Knowledg be much more in reality than that is in imagination Shall not God have a far greater capacity to behold everything in the World which is infinitely less to him than a wide Room to a Picture II. The second thing what God knows how far his Understanding reaches 1. God knows himself and only knows himself This is the first and original knowledg wherein he excells all Creatures No man doth exactly know himself much less doth he understand the full nature of a Spirit much less still the Nature and Perfections of God for what proportion can there be between a finite faculty and an infinite object Herein consists the Infiniteness of Gods Knowledg That he knows his own Essence that he knows that which is unknowable to any else It doth not so much consist in knowing the Creatures which he hath made as in knowing himself who was never made 'T is not so much infinite because he knows all things which are in the World or that shall be or things that he can make because the number of them is finite but because he hath a perfect and comprehensive knowledg of his own infinite Perfections * Moulin Tho' it be said that Angels see his Face Math. 18.10 that sight notes rather their immediate Attendance than their exact Knowledg they see some signs of his Presence and Majesty more illustrious and express than ever appear'd to man in this Life but the Essence of God is invisible to them hid from them in the secret place of Eternity none knows God but himself 1 Cor. 2.11 what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man so the things of God knows no man but the spirit of God the spirit of God searches the deep things of God searcheth that is exactly knows throughly understands as those who have their eyes in every Chink and Crevis to see what lies hid there the word search notes not an Enquiry but an exact Knowledg such as men have of things upon a diligent scrutiny as when God is said to search the Heart and the Reins it doth not signify a precedent ignorance but an exact Knowledg of the most intimate corners of the hearts of men As the Conceptions of men are unknown to any but themselves so the depths of the Divine Essence Perfections and Decrees are unknown to any but to God himself he only knows what he is and what he knows what he can do and what he hath Decreed to do 1. For first If God did not know himself he would not be perfect 'T is the Perfection of a Creature to know it self much more a Perfection belonging to God If God did not comprehend himself he would want an Infinite Perfection and so would cease to be God in being defective in that which intellectual Creatures in some measure possess As God is the most perfect Being so he must have the most perfect Understanding If he did not understand himself he would be under the greatest Ignorance because he would be ignorant of the most excellent object Ignorance is the Imperfection of the Understanding and ignorance of ones self is a greater Imperfection than ignorance of things without If God should know all things without himself and not know himself he would not have the most perfect Knowledg because he would not have the knowledg of the best of objects 2. Without the Knowledg of himself he
English Word to express the act of the Vnderstanding as his power is co-eternal with him so is his knowledg all times past present and to come are embrac'd in the Bosom of his Understanding he fixed all things in their Seasons that nothing new comes to him nothing old passes from him Damianus What is done in a Thousand years is as actually present with his Knowledg as what is done in one day or in one Watch in the night is with ours Since a Thousand years are no more to God than a day or a Watch in the Night is to us Psal 90.4 God is in the highest degree of Being and therefore in the highest degree of Understanding Knowledg is one of the most perfect acts in any Creature God therefore hath all Actual as well as Essential and Habitual knowledg his Vnderstanding is infinite IV. The fourth general is Reasons to prove this Reas 1. God must know what any Creature knows and more than any Creature knows There is nothing done in the World but is known by some Creature or other every action is at least known by the person that acts and therefore known by the Creator vvho cannot be exceeded by any of the Creatures or all of them together and every Creature is knovvn by him since every Creature is made by him Gerhard And as God vvorks all things by an Infinite Povver so he knovvs all things by an Infinite Understanding 1. The Perfection of God requires this Gamach in 1. part Aquin. q. 14. cap. 1. p. 118. 119. All Perfections that include no Essential Defect are formally in God but knowledg includes no Essential Defect in it self therefore it is in God Knovvledg in it self is desirable and an excellency Ignorance is a defect 't is impossible that the least grain of defect can be found in the most perfect Being Since God is Wise he must be Knovving for Wisdom must have Knovvledg for the Basis of it A Creature can no more be vvise vvithout Knovvledg than he can be active vvithout Strength Novv God is only Wise Rom. 16.27 and therefore only knovving in the highest degree of Knovvledg incomprehensibly beyond all degrees of Knovvledg because infinite Again the more Spiritual any thing is the more Understanding it is The dull Body understands nothing Sense perceives but the Understanding faculty is seated in the Soul vvhich is of a spiritual nature vvhich knovvs things that are present remembers things that are past foresees many things to come What is the property of a Spiritual nature must be in a most eminent manner in the supream Spirit of the World that is in the highest degree of Spirituality and most remote from any matter Again nothing can enjoy other things but by some kind of Understanding them God hath the highest enjoyment of himself of all things he hath Created of all the Glory that accrues to him by them nothing of Perfection and Blessedness can be vvanting to him Felicity doth not consist vvith ignorance and all imperfect knovvledg is a degree of ignorance God therefore doth perfectly know himself and all things from vvhence he designs any glory to himself The most noble manner of acting must be ascribed to God as being the most noble and excellent Being to act by Knowledg is the most excellent manner of acting God hath therefore not only Knowledg but the most excellent manner of Knowledg for as it is better to know than to be ignorant so it is better to know in the most excellent manner than to have a mean and low kind of knowledg His knowledg therefore must be every way as perfect as his Essence infinite as well as that An infinite nature must have an infinite knowledg A God ignorant of any thing cannot be counted infinite for he is not infinite to whom any degree of Perfection is wanting 2. All the knowledg in any Creature is from God And you must allow God a greater and more perfect Knowledg than any Creature hath yea than all Creatures have All the drops of Knowledg any Creature hath come from God and all the knowledg in every Creature that ever was is or shall be in the whole Mass was derived from him If all those several Drops in particular Creatures were collected into one Spirit into one Creature it would be an unconceivable knowledg yet still lower than what the Author of all that knowledg hath for God cannot give more knowledg than he hath himself nor is the Creature capable of receiving so much Knowledg as God hath As the Creature is uncapable of receiving so much power as God hath for then it would be Almighty so it is uncapable of receiving so much Knowledg as God hath for then it would be God Nothing can be made by God equal to him in any thing if any thing could be made as Knowing as God it would be Eternal as God it would be the cause of all things as God The Knowledg that we poor Worms have is an Argument God uses for the asserting the greatness of his own Knowledg Psal 94.10 He that teaches man knowledg shall not he know Man hath here Knowledg ascribed to him the Author of this Knowledg is God he furnisht him with it and therefore doth in a higher manner possess it and much more than can fall under the comprehension of any Creature as the Sun enlightens all things but hath more Light in it self than it darts upon the Earth or the Heavens and shall not God eminently contain all that knowledg he imparts to the Creatures and infinitely more exact and comprehensive 3. The accusations of Conscience evidence Gods knowledg of all actions of all his Creatures Doth not Conscience check for the most secret Sins to which none are privy but a mans self the whole World beside being ignorant of his Crime do not the fears of another Judg gall the heart If a Judgment above him be fear'd an Understanding above him discerning their Secrets is confest by those fears whence can those horrors arise if there be not a Superior that understands and records the Crime What Perfection of the Divine Being can this relate unto but Omniscience What other Attribute is to be feared if God were defective in this The Condemnation of us by our own Hearts when none in the World can condemn us renders it legible that there is one greater than our hearts in respect of Knowledg who knows all things 1 John 3.20 Conscience would be a vain Principle and stingless without this it would be an easy matter to silence all its accusations and mockingly laugh in the face of its severest frowns What need any trouble themselves if none knows their Crimes but themselves Conceal'd Sins gnawing the Conscience are Arguments of Gods Omniscience of all present and past actions 4. God is the first cause of every thing every Creature is his Production Since all Creatures from the highest Angel to the lowest Worm exist by the power of God
Power This Title is superior to any Title given to any of the Prophets in regard of their Predictions and therefore I should take it rather as the note of his perfect understanding than of his perfect teaching and discovering as Calvin doth He is not only the Revealer of what he knows so were the Prophets according to their measures but the Counsellor of what he revealed having a perfect understanding of all the Counsels of God as being interested in them as the mighty God He calls himself by the peculiar Title of God and declares that he will manifest himself by this Prerogative to all the Churches Rev. 2.23 And all the Churches shall know that I am he which searches the Reins and Hearts the most hidden operations of the minds of men that lye locked up from the view of all the World besides And this was no new thing to him after his Ascension for the same Perfection he had in the time of his earthly flesh Luke 6.8 he knew their Thoughts his eyes are therefore compar'd Cant. 5.12 to Doves eyes which are clear and quick and to a flame of fire Rev. 1.14 not only heat to consume his Enemies but Light to discern their contrivances against the Church he pierceth by his knowledg into all parts as fire pierceth into the closest particle of Iron and separates between the most united parts of Metals and some tell us he is called a Roe from the perspicacity of his Sight as well as from the swiftness of his motion 1. He hath a perfect Knowledg of the Father he knows the Father and none else knovvs the Father Angels knovv God men knovv God but Christ in a peculiar manner knovvs the Father no man knows the Son but the Father neither knows any man the Father save the Son Mat. 11.27 he knows so as that he learns not from any other he doth perfectly comprehend him vvhich is beyond the reach of any Creature vvith the addition of all the Divine Vertue not because of any incapacity in God to reveal but the incapacity of the Creature to receive finite is uncapable of being made infinite and therefore incapable of comprehending infinite so that Christ cannot be Deus factus made of a Creature a God to comprehend God for then of finite he vvould become infinite vvhich is a contradiction As the Spirit is God because he searches the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 that is comprehends them Potav Theo. dogmat Tom. 1. p. 467. c. as the Spirit of a man doth the things of a man now the Spirit of man understands vvhat it Thinks and vvhat it Wills so the Spirit of God understands vvhat is in the Understanding of God and vvhat is in the Will of God He hath an absolute knovvledg ascrib'd to him and such as could not be ascrib'd to any thing but a Divinity Novv if the Spirit knovvs the deep things of God and takes from Christ vvhat he shevvs to us of him John 16.15 he cannot be ignorant of those things himself he must knovv the depths of God that affords us that Spirit that is not ignorant of any of the Counsels of the Fathers Will since he comprehends the Father and the Father him he is in himself infinite for God whose Essence is infinite is infinitely knowable but no Created understanding can infinitely know God The infiniteness of the object hinders it from being understood by any thing that is not infinite Though a Creature should understand all the works of God yet it cannot be therefore said to understand God himself As tho' I may understand all the volitions and motions of my Soul yet it doth not follow that therefore I understand the whole nature and substance of my Soul or if a man understood all the effects of the Sun that therefore he understands fully the nature of the Sun But Christ knows the Father he lay in the Bosom of the Father was in the greatest intimacy with him John 1.18 and from this intimacy with him he saw him and knew him so he knows God as much as he is knowable and therefore knows him perfectly as the Father knows himself by a comprehensive Vision this is the knowledg of God wherein properly the infiniteness of his understanding appears And our Saviour uses such expressions which manifest his Knowledg to be above all Created Knowledg and such a manner of knowledg of the Father as the Father hath of him 2. Christ knows all Creatures That knowledg which comprehends God comprehends all Created things as they are in God 't is a knowledg that sinks to the depths of his Will and therefore extends to all the acts of his Will in Creation and Providence by knowing the Father he knows all things that are contained in the Vertue Power and Will of God whatsoever the Father doth that the Son doth John 5.19 As the Father therefore knows all things he is the cause of so doth the Son know all things he is the worker of as the perfect making of all things belongs to both so doth the perfect knowledg of all things belong to both where the action is the same the knowledg is the same Now the Father did not Create one thing and Christ another but all things were Created by him and for him all things both in Heaven and Earth Col. 1.16 as he knows himself as the cause of all things and the end of all things he cannot be ignorant of all things that were effected by him and are referred to him he knows all Creatures in God as he knows the Essence of God and knows all Creatures in themselves as he knows his own acts and the fruits of his Power those things must be in his Knowledg that were in his Power all the Treasures of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God are hid in him Col. 2.3 Now it is not the Wisdom of God to know in part and be in part ignorant He cannot be ignorant of any thing since there is nothing but what was made by him John 1.3 and since it is less to know than Create for we know many things which we cannot make Petav. Theolo Dogmat. Tom. 1. p. 467. If he be the Creator he cannot but be the discerner of what he made this is a part of Wisdom belonging to an Artificer to know the nature and quality of what he makes Since he cannot be ignorant of what he furnisht with Being and with various endowments he must know them not only universally but particularly 3. Christ knows the hearts and affections of men Peter scruples not to ascribe to him this knowledg among the knowledg of all other things John 21.17 Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee From Christs knowledg of all things he concludes his knowledg of the inward frames and dispositions of men To search the heart is the sole Prerogative of God 1 Kings 8.39 for thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the Children of men
the cause of all Sin in the World Hos 7.2 they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their Wickedness they speak not to their hearts nor make any reflection upon the infiniteness of my Knowledg 't is a high contempt of God as if he were an Idol a senseless Stock or Stone in all evil practices this is denyed We know God sees all things yet we live and vvalk as if he knevv nothing We call him Omniscient and live as if he vvere ignorant we say he is all eye yet act as if he were wholly blind In particular this Attribute is injured By invading the peculiar rights of it by presuming on it and by a practical denyal of it 1. By invading the peculiar rights of it 1. By invocation of Creatures Praying to Saints by the Romanists is a disparagement to this Divine Excellency he that knows all things is only fit to have the Petitions of men presented to him Prayer supposeth an Omniscient Being as the object of it no other Being but God ought to have that honour acknowledged to it no Understanding but his is infinite no other Presence but his is every where to implore any deceased Creature for a supply of our wants is to ovvn in them a Property of the Deity and make them Deities that vvere but men and increase their Glory by a diminution of Gods Honour in ascribing that Perfection to Creatures which belongs only to God Alas they are so far from understanding the desires of our Souls that they know not the words of our Lips 'T is against reason to address our Supplications to them that neither understand us nor discern us Isa 63.16 Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledges us not The Jews never called upon Abraham tho' the Covenant vvas made vvith him for the vvhole Seed not one departed Saint for the vvhole Four Thousand Years betvveen the Creation of the World and the coming of Christ vvas ever Prayed to by the Israelites or ever imagin'd to have a share in Gods Omniscience so that to pray to St. Peter St. Paul much less to St. Roch St. Swithin St. Martin St. Francis c. is such a Superstition that hath no footing in the Scripture Daillè Melang part 2. p. 560. 561. To desire the Prayers of the Living with whom we have a Communion who can understand and grant our desires is founded upon a mutual Charity but to implore persons that are absent at a great distance from us with whom we have not nor know how to have any Commerce supposeth them in their departure to have put off Humanity and commenc'd Gods and endued with some part of the Divinity to understand our Petitions we are indeed to cherish their Memories consider their Examples imitate their Graces and observe their Doctrines we are to follow them as Saints but not elevate them as Gods in ascribing to them such a knowledg which is only the necessary right of their and our common Creator As the invocation of Saints mingles them with Christ in the exercise of his Office so it sets them equal with God in the Throne of his Omniscience As if they had as much credit with God as Christ in a way of Mediation and as much knowledg of mens affairs as God himself Omniscience is peculiar to God and incommunicable to any Creature 't is the foundation of all Religion and therefore one of the choicest acts of it viz. Prayer and Invocation To direct our Vows and Petitions to any else is to invade the peculiarity of this Perfection in God and to rank some Creatures in a Partnership with him in it 2. This Attribute is injured by curiosity of Knowledg Especially of future things which God hath not discovered in natural causes or supernatural Revelation 'T is a common error of mens Spirits to aspire to know what God would have hidden and to pry into Divine Secrets and many men are more willing to remain without the knowledg of those things which may with a little industry be attained than be divested of the curiosity of enquiring into those things which are above their reach 't is hence that some have laid aside the Study of the common remedies of Nature to find out the Philosophers Stone which scarce any ever yet attempted but sunk in the Enterprise Amyraut Moral Tom. 3. p. 75. c. From this inclination to know the most abstruse and difficult things it is that the horrors of Magick and the vanities of Astrology have sprung whereby men have thought to find in a commerce with Devils and the Jurisdiction of the Stars the events of their Lives and the disposal of States and Kingdoms Hence also arose those Multitudes of ways of Divination invented among the Heathen and practised too commonly in these Ages of the World This is an invasion of Gods Prerogative to whom secret things belong Deut. 29.29 Secret things belong unto the Lord our God but revealed things belong to us and our Children 'T is an intolerable boldness to attempt to fathom those the knowledg whereof God hath reserved to himself and to search that which God will have to surpass our Understandings whereby we more truly envy God a knowledg superior to our own than we in Adam imagin'd that he envyed us Ambition is the greatest cause of this Ambition to be accounted some great thing among men by reason of a Knowledg estrang'd from the common mass of mankind but more especially that soaring Pride to be equal with God which lurks in our nature ever since the Fall of our first Parents This is not yet laid aside by man though it was the first thing that embroyl'd the World with the Wrath of God Some think a curiosity of Knowledg was the cause of the fall of Devils I am sure it was the foyl of Adam and is yet the Crime of his Posterity had he been contented to know what God had furnisht him with neither he nor his Posterity had smarted under the Venom of the Serpents Breath All curious and bold enquiries into things not revealed are an attempt upon the Throne of God and are both sinful and pernicious like to glaring upon the Sun where instead of a greater acuteness we meet with blindness and too dearly buy our ignorance in attempting a superfluous knowledg As Gods Knowledg is destin'd to the government of the World so should ours be to the advantage of the World and not degenerate into vain speculations 3. This Attribute is injur'd by swearing by Creatures To swear by the Name of God in a Righteous Cause Cajetan Sum. p. 190. when we are lawfully call'd to it by a Superior Power or for the necessary decision of some Controversy for the ends of Charity and Justice is an act of Religion and a part of Worship founded upon and directed to the honour of this Attribute by it we acknowledg the glory of his infallible Knowledg of all things but to Swear by false Gods
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
us and how ignorant they are of what they possess It will cause us to reflect upon the deeper Impressions of Wisdom in the frame of our own Bodies and Souls an excellency far superiour to theirs this would make us admire the magnificence of his Wisdom and Goodness and sound forth his Praise for advancing us in dignity above other Works of his hands and stamping on us by Infinite Art a Nobler Image of himself And by such a Comparison of our selves with the Creatures below us we should be induced to act excellently according to the nature of our Souls not brutishly according to the nature of the Creatures God hath put under our feet 5. By the Contemplation of the Creatures we may receive some assistance in clearing our knowledge in the Wisdom of Redemption Though they cannot of themselves inform us of it yet since God hath revealed his Redeeming Grace they can illustrate some particulars of it to us Hence the Scripture makes use of the Creatures to set forth things of a higher orb to us Our Saviour is called a Sun a Vine and a Lion the Spirit likened to a Dove Fire and Water The Union of Christ and his Church is set forth by the Marriage Union of Adam and Eve God hath placed in Corporeal things the Images of Spiritual and wrapped up in his Creating Wisdom the representations of his Redeeming Grace Whence some call the Creatures Natural Types of what was to be transacted in a new formation of the World and Allusions to what God intended in and by Christ 6. The Meditation of Gods Wisdom in the Creatures is in part a beginning of Heaven upon Earth No doubt but there will be a perfect opening of the Model of Divine Wisdom Heaven is for clearing what is now obscure and a full discovering of what seems at present intricate Psal 36.9 In his light shall we see light All the Light in Creation Government and Redemption The Wisdom of God in the New Heavens and the New Earth would be to little purpose if that also were not to be regarded by the Inhabitants of them As the Saints are to be restored to the state of Adam and higher so they are to be restored to the employment of Adam and higher But his employment was to behold God in the Creatures The World was so soon depraved that God had but little joy in and Man but little knowledge of his Works And since the Wisdom of God in Creation is so little seen by our Ignorance here would not God lose much of the glory of it if the glorified Souls should lose the understanding of it above When their Darkness shall be expelled and their Advantages improved when the Eye that Adam lost shall be fully restored and with a greater clearness when the Creature shall be restored to its true End and Reason to its true Perfection * Rom. 8.21 22. when the Fountains of the depths of Nature and Government shall be opened Knowledge shall increase and according to the increase of our Knowledge shall the admiration of Divine Wisdom increase also The Wisdom of God in Creation was not surely intended to lie wholly unobserved in the greatest part of it but since there was so little time for the full observation of it there will be a time wherein the Wisdom of God shall enjoy a resurrection and be fully contemplated by his understanding and glorified Creature II. Exhortation Study and admire the Wisdom of God in Redemption This is the Duty of all Christians We are not called to understand the great depth of Philosophy we are not called to a skill in the Intricacies of Civil Government or understand all the methods of Physick but we are called to be Christians that is Studiers of Divine Evangelical Wisdom There are first Principles to be learned but not those Principles to be rested in without a further progress Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on to perfection Duties must be practised but knowledge is not to be neglected The study of Gospel Mysteries the harmony of Divine Truths the sparkling of Divine Wisdom in their mutual combination to the great ends of Gods Glory and Mans Salvation is an Incentive to Duty a Spur to Worship and particularly to the greatest and highest part of Worship that part which shall remain in Heaven the Admiration and Praise of God and Delight in him If we acquaint not our selves with the Impressions of the glory of Divine Wisdom in it we shall not much regard it as worthy our observance in regard of that Duty The Gospel is a Mystery and as a Mystery hath something Great and Magnificent in it worthy of our daily inspection we shall find fresh Springs of New wonders which we shall be invited to adore with a Religious Astonishment It will both raise and satisfie our Longings Who can come to the depths of God manifested in the flesh How amazing is it and unworthy of a slight thought that the Death of the Son of God should purchase the happy Immortality of a Sinful Creature and the glory of a Rebel be wrought by the Ignominy of so great a Person That our Mediator should have a Nature whereby to Covenant with his Father and a Nature whereby to be a Surety for the Creature How admirable is it that the Fallen Creature should receive an advantage by the Forfeiture of his Happiness How Mysterious is it that the Son of God should bow down to Death upon a Cross for the satisfaction of Justice and rise Triumphantly out of the Grave as a declaration that Justice was contented and satisfied That he should be exalted to Heaven to Intercede for us and at last return into the World to receive us and invest us with a Glory for ever with himself Are these things worthy of a Careless regard or a Blockish amazement What Understanding can pâ—erce into the depths of the Divine Doctrine of the Incarnation and Birth of Christ the indissoluble Union of the two Natures What Capacity is able to measure the miracles of that Wisdom found in the whole Draught and Scheme of the Gospel Doth it not merit then to be the Object of our daily Meditation How comes it to pass then that we are so little curious to concern our Thoughts in those Wonders that we scarce taste or sip of these Delicacies That we busie our selves in Trifles and consider what we shall eat and in what fashion we shall be drest please our selves with the ingeniousness of a Lace or Feather admire a Moth-eaten Manuscript or some Half-worn piece of Antiquity and think our time Ill-spent in the contemplating and celebrating that wherein God hath busied himself and Eternity is design'd for the perpetual expressions of How Inquisitve are the Blessed Angels with what vigour do they renew their daily Contemplations of it and receive a fresh Contentment from it still learning and still enquiring 1 Pet. 1.12 their Eye is
his Power according to the light of his infinite Wisdom and other Attributes that direct his Will and therefore his Power is not to be measur'd by his actual Will No doubt but he could in a moment have produced that World which he took six days time to frame He could have drown'd the old World at once without prolonging the time till the revolution of forty days He was not limited to such a term of time by any weakness but by the determination of his own Will God doth not do the hundred thousandth part of what he is able to do but what is convenient to do according to the â—nd which he hath proposed to himself Jesus Christ as Man could have ask'd Legions of Angels and God as a Soveraign could have sent them †Matth. 26 53. God could raise the dead every day if he pleased but he doth not He could heal every d seased person in a moment but he doth not As God can will more than he doth actually will so he can do more than he hath actually done He can do whatsoever he can will he can will more Worlds and therefore can create more Worlds If God hath not abilâ—ty to do more than he will do he then can do no more than what he actually hath done and then it will follow that he is not a free but a natural and necessary Agent which cannot be supposed of God 2. This Power is infinite in regard of action As he can produce numberless Objects above what he hath produced so he could produce them more magnificently than he hath made them As he never works to the extent of his Power in regard of things so neither in regard of the manner of acting for he never acts so but he could act in a higher and perfecter manner 1. His Power is infinite in regard of the independency of Action He wants no Instrument to act When there was nothing but God there was no cause of action but God When there was nothing in being but God there could be no instrumental Cause of the being of any thing God can perfect his action without dependance on any thing ‖ Suarez vol. 1. ac Deo p. 151. And to be simply independent is to be simply infinite In this respect it is a Power incommunicable to any Creature though you conceive a Creature in higher degrees of perfection than it is A Creature cannot cease to be dependent but it must cease to be a Creature To be a Creature and independent are terms repugnant to one another 2. But the infiniteness of Divine Power consists in an ability to give higher degrees of perfection to every thing which he hath made * Becan Sum. Theol. p. 82. As his Power is infinite extensivè in regard of the multitude of Objects he can bring into being so it is infinite intensivè in regard of the manner of operation and the endowments he can bestow upon them Some things indeed God doth so perfect that higher degrees of perfection cannot be imagined to be added to them †Becan Sum. Theol. p. 84. As the Humanity of Christ cannot be united more gloriously than to the Person of the Son of God a greater degree of perfection cannot be conferred upon it Nor can the Souls of the Blessed have a nobler Object of vision and fruition than God himself the infinite Being No higher than the enjoyment of himself can be conferred upon a Creature Respectu termini This is not want of power He cannot be greater because he is greatest nor better because he is best nothing can be more than infinite But as to the things which God hath made in the World he could have given them other manner of beings than they have A human Understanding may improve a thought or conclusion strengthen it with more and more force of reason and adorn it with richer and richer elegancy of Language Why then may not the Divine Providence produce a World more perfect and excellent than this He that makes a plain Vessel can embellish it more engrave more Figures upon it according to the capacity of the subject And cannot God do so much more with his Works Could not God have made this World of a larger quantity and the Sun of a greater bulk and proportionable strength to influence a bigger World so that this World would have been to another that God might have made as a Ball or a Mount this Sun as a Star to another Sun that he might have kindled He could have made every Star a Sun every spire of Grass a Star every grain of Dust a Flower every Soul an Angel And though the Angels be perfect Creatures and unexpressibly more glorious than a visible Creature yet who can imagine God so confin'd that he cannot create a more excellent kind and endow those which he hath made with excellency of a higher rank than he invested them with at the first moment of their Creation Without question God might have given the meaner Creatures more excellent endowments put them into another order of nature for their own good and more diffusive usefulness in the World What is made use of by the Prophet ‖ Mal 2.15 in another case may be used in this Yet had he a residue of Spirit The capacity of every Creature might have been enlarg'd by God for no work of his in the World doth equal his Power as nothing that he hath framed doth equal his Wisdom The same matter which is the matter of the body of a Beast is the matter of a Plant and Flower is the matter of the body of a Man and so was capable of a higher form and higher perfections than God hath been pleas'd to bestow upon it And he had power to bestow that perfection on one part of matter which he denied to it and bestowed on another part If God cannot make things in a greater perfection there must be some limitation of him He cannot be limited by another because nothing is superiour to God If limited by himself that limitation is not from a want of Power but a want of Will He can by his own Power raise Stones to be Children to Abraham * Matth. 3.9 He could alter the nature of the Stones form them into Human Bodies dignifie them with rational Souls inspire those Souls with such Graces that may render them the Children of Abraham But for the more fully understanding the nature of this Power we may observe 1. That though God can make every thing with a higher degree of perfection yet still within the limits of a finite Being No Creature can be made infinite because no Creature can be made God No Creature can be so improved as to equal the goodness and perfection of God †Gamach in Aquin. tom 1. qu. 25. yet there is no Creature but we may conceive a possibility of its being made more perfect in that rank of a Creature than it is As we
inferior nature of nothing As bodily things are more imperfect than spiritual so their Creation may be supposed easier than that of spiritual There was as little need of any matter to be wrought to his hands to contrive into this visible Fabrick as there was to erect such an excellent Order as the glorious Cherubims 2. This Creation of things from nothing speaks an infinite power The distance between Nothing and Being hath been alway counted so great that nothing but an infinite Power can make such distances meet together either for Nothing to pass into Being or Being to return to nothing To have a thing arise from nothing was so difficult a Text to those that were ignorant of the Scripture that they knew not how to fathom it and therefore laid it down as a certain Rule That of nothing nothing is made which is true of a created Power but not of an uncreated and Almighty Power A greater distance cannot be imagin'd then that which is between Nothing and Something that which hath no being and that which hath And a greater Power cannot be imagin'd then that which brings Something out of Nothing * Amyral Morale tom 1. p. 252. We know not how to conceive a Nothing and afterwards a Being from that Nothing but we must remain swallowed up in admiration of the Cause that gives it being and acknowledge it to be without any bounds and measures of Greatness and Power The further any thing is from being the more immense must that Power be which brings it into being 'T is not conceivable that the power of all the Angels in one can give being to the smallest spire of Grass To imagine therefore so small a thing as a Bee a Fly a grain of Corn or an Atome of Dust to be made of nothing would stupifie any Creature in the consideration of it Much more to behold the Heavens with all the Troop of Stars the Earth with all its embroidery and the Sea with all her Inhabitants of Fish and Man the noblest Creature of all to arise out of the Womb of meer Emptiness Indeed God had not acted as an Almighty Creator if he had stood in need of any Materials but of his own framing It had been as much as his Deity was worth if he had not had all within the compass of his own Power that was necessary to Operation if he must have been beholden to something without himself and above himself for matter to work upon Had there been such a necessity we could not have imagin'd him to be Omnipotent and consequently not God 3. In this the power of God exceeds the power of all natural and rational Agents Nature or the Order of second Causes hath a vast Power The Sun generates Flies and other Insects but of some Matter the Slime of the Earth or a Dunghill The Sun and the Earth bring forth Harvests of Corn but from Seed first sown in the Earth Fruits are brought forth but from the Sap of the Plant. Were there no Seed or Plants in the Earth the power of the Earth would be idle and the influence of the Sun insignificant whatsoever strength either of them had in their Nature must be useless without matter to work upon All the united strength of Nature cannot produce the least thing out of nothing It may multiply and increase things by the powerful blessing God gave it at the first erecting of the World but it cannot create The Word which signifies Creation used in Gen. 1.1 is not ascrib'd to any second Cause but only to God a word in that sense as incommunicable to any thing else as the action it signifies Rational Creatures can produce admirable Pieces of Art from small things yet still out of Matter created to their hands Excellent Garments may be woven but from the Entrails of a small Silkworm Delightful and Medicinal Spirits and Essences may be extracted by ingenious Chymists but out of the Bodies of Plants and Minâ—rals No Picture can be drawn without Colours no Statue engraven withouâ—â—tone no Building erected without Timber Stones and other Materials Nor can any man raise a thought without some Matter framed to his hands or cast into him Matter is by Nature formed to the hands of all Artificers they bestow a new Figure upon it by the help of Instruments and the product of their own Wit and Skill but they create not the least particle of Matter when they want it they must be supplyed or else stand still as well as Nature for none of them or all together can make the least Mite or Atom And when they have wrought all that they can they will not want some to find a flaw and defect in their work God as a Creator hath the only Prerogative to draw what he pleases from nothing without any defect without any imperfection He can raise what Matter he please enoble it with what form he pleases Of nothing nothing can be made by any created Agent But the Omnipotent Architect of the World is not under the same necessity nor is limited to the same Rule and tied by so short a Tedder as created Nature or an ingenious yet feeble Artificer 2. It appears In raising such variety of Creatures from this barren Womb of Nothing or from the Matter which he first commanded to appear out of Nothing Had there been any preexistent Matter yet the bringing forth such varieties and diversities of excellent Creatures some with life some with sense and others with reason superadded to the rest and those out of indisposed and undigested Matter would argue an infinite Power resident in the first Author of this variegated Fabrick From this Matter he formed that glorious Sun which every day displays its Glory scatters its Beams clears the Air ripens our Fruits and maintains the propagation of Creatures in the World From this Matter he lighted those Torches which he set in the Heaven to qualifie the darkness of the Night From this he compacted those Bodies of Light which though they seem to us as little sparks as if they were the Glow-worms of Heaven yet some of them exceed in greatness this Globe of the Earth on which we live And the highest of them hath so quick a motion that some tell us they run in the space of every hour 42 millions of Leagues From the same matter he drew the Earth on which we walk from thence he extracted the Flowers to adorn it the Hills to secure the Valleys and the Rocks to fortifie it against the Inundations of the Sea And on this dull and sluggish Element he bestowed so great a fruitfulness to maintain feed and multiply so many Seeds of different kinds and conferred upon those little Bodies of Seeds a power to multiply their kinds in conjunction with the fruitfulness of the Earth to many thousands From this rude Matter the Slime or Dust of the Earth he kneaded the Body of Man and wrought so curious a Fabrick fit to
Body of Man should be polisht in the lower parts of the Earth as he calls the Womb verse 15. in so short a time with Members 〈◊〉 a various form and usefulness each labouring in their several functions Can any man give an exact account of the manner how the Bones do grow in the womb Eccles 11.5 'T is unknown to the Father and no less hid from the Mother and the wisest Men cannot search out the depths of it 'T is one of the Secret works of an Omnipotent Power secret in the manner though open in the effect So that we must ascribe it to God as Job doth Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about Job 10.8 Thy hands which formed Heaven have formed every Part every Member and wrought me like a Mighty workman The Heavens are said to be the work of Gods hands and Man is here said to be no less The forming and propagation of Man from that Earthy matter is no less a wonder of Power than the structure of the World from a rude and indispos'd Matter †Trismegist in Serm. Greek in the Temple p. 57. A Heathen Philosopher descants elegantly upon it Dost thou understand my Son the forming of Man in the womb who erected that noble Fabrick who carv'd the Eyes the Christal-windows of light and the conductors of the Body who bor'd the Nostrils and Ears those Loop-holes of scents and sounds who stretched out and knit the Sinews and Ligaments for the fastning of every Member who cast the hollow Veins the Channels of Blood set and strengthned the Bones the Pillars and Rafters of the Body who digg'd the Pores the sinks to expel the filth who made the Heart the repository of the Soul and formed the Lungs like a Pipe What Mother what Father wrought these things No none but the Almighty God who made all things according to his pleasure 't is He who propagates this Noble piece from a pile of Dust Who is born by his own advice who gives stature features sence wit strength speech but God 'T is no less a wonder that a little Infant can live so long in a dark Sink in the midst of filth without breathing And the eduction of it out of the Womb is no less a wonder than the forming increase nourishment of it in that Cell A wonder that the life of the Infant is not the death of the Mother or the life of the Mother the death of the Infant This little Creature when it springs up from such small beginnings by the Power of God grows up to bâ— one of the Lords of the World to have a Dominion over the Creatures and propagates its kind in the same manner All this is unaccountable without having recourse to the Power of God in the government of the Creatures And to add to this wonder Consider also what multitudes of Formations and Births there are at one time all over the World in every of which the Finger of God is at work and it will speak an unwearied Power 'T is admirable in one Man more in a Town of Men still more in a greater and larger Kingdom a vaster World there is a Birth for every Hour in this City were but 168 born in a Week though the Weekly Bills mention more What is this City to Three Kingdoms what Three Kingdoms to a populous World Eleven Thousand and eighty will make one for every Minute in the Week what is this to the Weekly propagation in all the Nations of the Universe besides the generation of all the Living Creatures in that Space which are the works of Gods fingers as well as Man What will be the result of this but the notion of an unconceivable unwearied Almightiness alway active alway operating 3. It appears in the Motions of all Creatures All things live and move in him Acts 17.28 by the same Power that Creatures have their Beings they have their Motions They have not only a Being by his powerful Command but they have their minutely Motion by his Powerful concurrence Nothing can act without the Almighty influx of God no more than it can exist without the Creative Word of God 'T is true indeed the ordering of all Motions to his Holy ends is an act of Wisdom but the motion it self whereby those Ends are attained is a work of his Power 1. God as the first Cause hath an influence into the motions of all second Causes As all the Wheels in a Clock are moved in their different motions by the force and strength of the principal and primary Wheel if there be any defect in that or if that stand still all the rest languish and stand idle the same moment All Creatures are his Instruments his Engines and have no Spirit but what he gives and what he assists Whatsoever Nature works God works in Nature Nature is the Instrument God is the Supporter Director Mover of Nature that what the Prophet saith in another case may be the language of universal Nature Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us Isai 26.12 They are our works subjectively efficiently as second causes Gods works originally concurrently The Sun moved not in the Valley of Ajalon for the space of many hours in the time of Joshua †Josh 10.13 nor did the Fire exercise its consuming quality upon the Three Children in Nebuchadnezzars Furnace ‖ Dan. 3.25 He withdrew not his supporting Power from th ir Being for then they had vanâ—shed but his influencing Power from their qualities whereby their motion ceas'd till he return'd his influential concurrence to them which evidenceth that without a perpetual derivation of Divine Power the Sun could not run one stride or inch of its race nor the Fire devour one grain of light Chaff or an inch of Straw Nothing without his sustaining Power can continue in Being nothing without his co-working Power can exercise one mite of those qualities it is possessed of All Creatures are wound up by him and his hand is constantly upon them to keep them in perpetual motion 2. Consider the variety of motions in a single Creature How many motions are there in the Vital parts of a Man or in any other Animal which a Man knows not and is unable to number The renewed motion of the Lungs the Systoles and Diastoles of the Heart the Contractions and Dilatations of the Heart whereby it spouts out and takes in Blood the power of Concoction in the Stomach the motion of the Blood in the Veins c. all which were not only setled by the Powerful hand of God but are upheld by the same preserv'd and influenc'd in every distinct motion by that Power that stampt them with that Nature To every one of those there is not only the sustaining Power of God holding up their Natures but the motive Power of God concurring to every motion for if we move in him as well as we live in him then every particle of our motion
Terms of this Union were infinitely distant What greater distance can there be than between the Deity and Humanity between the Creator and a Creature Can you imagine the distance between Eternity and Time Infinite Power and Miserable Infirmity an Immortal Spirit and Dying Flesh the Highest Being and Nothing yet these are espous'd A God of unmixt Blessedness is linkt personally with a Man of perpetual Sorrows Life uncapable to Die joyn'd to a Body in that Oeconomy uncapable to live without dying first Infinite Purity and a reputed Sinner Eternal Blessedness with a Cursed Nature Almightiness and Weakness Omniscience and Ignorance Immutability and Changableness Incomprehensibleness and comprehensibility that which cannot be comprehended and that which can be comprehended that which is intirely Independent and that which is totally Dependant the Creator forming all things and the Creature made met together to a Personal Union the Word made flesh †John 1.14 the Eternal Son the Seed of Abraham ‖ Heb. 2.16 What more Miraculous than for God to become Man and Man to become God That a Person possessed of all the Perâ—ections of the Godhead should inherit all the Imperfections of the Manhood in one Person Sin only excepted A Holiness uncapable of sinning to be made Sin God blessed for ever taking the properties of Humane Nature and Humane Nature admitted to a Union with the Properties of the Creator The Fulness of the Deity and the Emptiness of Man united together * Colos 2.9 not by a shining of the Deity upon the Humanity as the light of the Sun upon the Earth but by an inhabitation or indwelling of the Deity in the Humanity Was there not need of an Infinite Power to bring together Terms so far asunder to elevate the Humanity to be capable of and disposed for a conjunction with the Deity If a clod of Earth should be advanced to and united with the Body of the Sun such an advance would evidence it self to be a work of Almighty Power The Clod hath nothing in its own nature to render it so glorious no power to climb up to so high a dignity How little would such a Union be to that we are speaking of Nothing less than an incomprehensible Power could effect what an Incomprehensible Wisdom did project in this affair 3. Especially since the Vnion is so strait 'T is not such a Vnion as is between a Man and his House he dwells in whence he goes out and to which he returns without any alteration of himself or his House nor such a Vnion as is betwen a Man and his Garment which both communicate and receive warmth from one another nor such as is between an Artificer and his Instrument wherewith he works nor such a Vnion as one Friend hath with another All these are distant things not one in Nature but have distinct subsistences Two Friends though united by love are distinct Persons a Man and his Cloaths an Artificer and his Instruments have distinct subsistences But the Humanity of Christ hath no subsistence but in the Person of Christ †Lessius de Perf. divin lib. 12. cap. 4. p. 104. The straitness of this Vnion is exprest and may be somewhat conceiv'd by the union of Fire with Iron Fire pierceth through all the parts of Iron it unites it self with every particle bestows a light heat purity upon all of it you cannot distinguish the Iron from the Fire or the Fire from the Iron yet they are distinct Natures So the Deity is united to to the whole Humanity seasons it and bestows an excellency upon it yet the Natures still remain distinct And as during that union of Fire with Iron the Iron is uncapable of rust or blackness so is the Humanity uncapable of Sin And as the operation of Fire is attributed to the red-hot Iron as the Iron may be said to heat burn and the Fire may be said to cut and pierce yet the imperfections of the Iron do not affect the Fire so in this Mystery those things which belong to the Divinity are ascribed to the Humanity and those things which belong to the Humanity are ascribed to the Divinity in regard of the Person in whom those Natures are united yet the Imperfections of the Humanity do not hurt the Divinity The Divinity of Christ is as really united with the Humanity as the Soul with the Body The Person was one though the Natures were two so united that the Sufferings of the Humane Nature were the Sufferings of that Person and the dignity of the Divine was imputed to the Humane by reason of that Unity of both in one Person Hence the Blood of the Humane Nature is said to be the Blood of God ‖ Acts 20.28 * Lessius p. 103 104. All things ascrib'd to the Son of God may be ascrib'd to this Man and the things ascrib'd to this Man may be ascrib'd to the Son of God as this Man is the Son of God Eternal Almighty And it may be said God suffered was Crucified c. for the Person of Christ is but one most simple the Person suffered that was God and Man united making One Person 4. And though the Union be so strait yet without confusion of the Natures or change of them into one another †Lessius ut antea p. 103 104. Amyrald Irenic p. 284. The two Natures of Christ are not mixed as Liquors that incorporate with one another when they are poured into a Vessel the Divine Nature is not turned into the Humane nor the Humane into the Divine one Nature doth not swallow up another and make a third Nature distinct from each of them The Deity is not turned into the Humanity as Air which is next to a Spirit may be thickned and turned into Water and Water may be rarifi'd into Air by the power of Heat boyling it The Deity cannot be chang'd because the Nature of it is to be unchangeable It would not be Deity if it were Mortal and capable of Suffering The Humanity is not chang'd into the Deity for then Christ could not have been a Sufferer If the Humanity had been swallowed up into the Deity it had lost its own distinct Nature and put on the Nature of the Deity and consequently been uncapable of Suffering Finite can never by any mixture be chang'd into Infinite nor Infinite into Finite This Union in this regard may be resembled to the Union of Light and Air which are strictly joyn'd for the Light passes through all parts of the Air but they are not confounded but remain in their distinct essences as before the union without the least confusion with one another * Amyrald Irenic p. 282. The Divine Nature remains as it was before the Union intire in it self only the Divine Person assumes another Nature to himself The Humane Nature remains as it would have done had it existed separately from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except that then it would have had a
Justice abus'd his Goodness done injury to all those Attributes which are necessary to his relief It was not so in Creation nothing was uncapable of disobliging God from bringing it into Being The Dust which was the Matter of Adams Body needâ—d only the extrinsick Power of God to form it into a Man and inspire it with a living Soul It had not render'd it self obnoxious to Divine Justice nor was capable to excite any disputes between his Perfections But after the entrance of Sin and the merit of Death thereby there was a resistance in Justice to the free Remission of Man God was to exercise a Power over himself to answer his Justice and pardon the Sinner as well as a power over the Creature to reduce the Run-away and Rebel Unless we have recourse to the Infiniteness of Gods Power the infiniteness of our Guilt will weigh us down We must consider not only that we have a mighty Guilt to press us but a mighty God to relieve us In the same act of his being our Righteousness he is our Strength In the Lord have I righteousness and strength Isai 45.24 2. In the sense of Pardon When the Soul hath been wounded with the sense of sin and its Iniquities have star'd it in the face the raising the Soul from a despairing condition and lifting it above those Waters which terrified it to cast the light of Comfort as well as the light of Grace into a heart covered with more than an Egyptian Darkness is an act of his Infinite and Creating Power Isai 57.19 I create the fruit of the lips peace Men may wear out their Lips with numbring up the Promises of Grace and Arguments of Peace but all will signifie no more without a Creative Power than if all Men and Angels should call to that White upon the Wall to shine as splendidly as the Sun God only can create Jerusalem and every Child of Jerusalem a rejoycing * Isai 65.18 A Man is no more able to apply to himself any word of Comfort under the sense of Sin than he is able to Convert himself and turn the proposals of the Word into gracious Affections in his heart To restore the joy of Salvation is in Davids Judgment an act of Soveraign Power equal to that of creating a clean heart Psal 51.10 12. Alas 't is a state like to that of Death as Infinite Power can only raise from Natural death so from a Spiritual death also from a Comfortless death In his favour there is life in the want of his Favour there is death The Power of God hath so placed Light in the Sun that all Creatures in the World all the Torches upon Earth kindled together cannot make it Day if that doth not rise so all the Angels in Heaven and Men upon Earth are not competent Chirurgions for a wounded Spirit The cure of our Spiritual Ulcers and the pouring in Balm is an Act of Soveraign Creative Power 'T is more visible in silencing a Tempestuous Conscience than the Power of our Saviour was in the stilling the stormy Winds and the roaring Waves As none but Infinite Power can remove the Guilt of Sin so none but Infinite Power can remove the Despairing sense of it III. This Power is evident in the preserving Grace As the Providence of God is a manifestation of his Power in a continued Creation so the preservation of Grace is a manifestation of his Power in a continued Regeneration To keep a Nation under the Yoke is an act of the same Power that subdu'd it 'T is this that strengthens Men in suffering against the Fury of Hell †Colos 1.13 't is this that keeps them from falling against the force of Hell the Fathers hand John 10.29 His strength abates and moderates the violence of Temptations his Staff sustains his People under them his Might defeats the Power of Satan and bruiseth him under a Believers feet The Counterworkings of Indwelling Corruption the reluctances of the Flesh against the breathings of the Spirit the fallacy of the Senses and the rovings of the Mind have ability quickly to stifle and extinguish Grace if it were not maintain'd by that Powerful blast that first inbreathed it No less Power is seen in perfecting it than was in planting it ‖ 2 Pet. 1.3 no less in fulfilling the work of Faith than in ingrafting the Word of Faith 2 Thess 1.11 The Apostle well understood the Necessity and Efficacy of it in the preservation of Faith as well as in the firâ—t infusion when he expresses himself in those terms of a Greatness or Hyperbole of Power his Mighty Power or the Power of his Might Ephes 1.19 The Salvation he bestows and the Strength whereby he effects it are joyned together in the Prophets Song Isai 12.2 The Lord is my strength and my salvation And indeed God doth more magnifie his Power in continuing a Believer in the World a weak and half-rigg'd Vessel in the midst of so many Sands whereon it might split so many Rocks whereon it might dash so many Corruptions within and so many Temptations without than if he did immediately transport him into Heaven and cloth him with a perfectly Sanctified Nature To Conclude What is there then in the World which is destitute of Notices of Divine Power Every Creature affords us the Lesson all acts of Divine Government are the marks of it Look into the Word and the manner of its propagation instructs us in it your Changed Natures your Pardoned Guilt your Shining Comfort your quell'd Corruptions the standing of your staggering Graces are sufficient to preserve a sense and prevent a forgetfulness of this great Attribute so necessary for your support and conducing so much to your comfort Vses I. Of Information and Instruction 1. If Incomprehensible and Infinite Power belongs to the Nature of God then Jesus Christ hath a Divine Nature because the Acts of Power proper to God are ascribed to him This Perfection of Omnipotence doth unquestionably pertain to the Deity and is an incommunicable Property and the same with the Essence of God He therefore to whom this Attribute is ascribed is essentially God This is challenged by Christ in conjunction with Eternity Revel 1.8 I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty This the Lord Christ speaks of himself He who was equal with God proclaims himself by the Essential title of the Godhead part of which he repeats again verse 11. and this is the Person which walks in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks the Person that was dead and now lives vers 17 18. which cannot possibly be meant of the Father the first Person who can never come under that denomination of having been dead Being therefore adorn'd with the same Title he hath the same Deity and though his Omnipotence be only positively asserted v. 8. yet his Eternity being asserted v. 11 17. it inferreth
God that can do what he pleases nothing so difficult but he can effect nothing so strong but he can over-rule You need not dread Men since you have One to restrain them nor fear Devils since you have One to chain them No Creature but is acted by this Power no Creature but must fall upon the withdrawing of this Power It was not all laid out in Creation 'T is not weakned by his Preservation of things he yet hath a fulness of Power and a residue of Spirit For whom should that Eternal Arm of the Lord be displayed and that Incomprehensible Thunder of his Power be shot out but for those for whose sake and for whose Comfort it is revealed in his Word In Particular 1. Here is Comfort in all Afflictions and Distresses Our Evils can never be so great to oppress us as his Power is great to deliver us The same Power that brought a World out of a Chaos and constituted and hath hitherto preserved the regular Motion of the Stars can bring Order out of our Confusions and Light out of our Darkness When our Saviour was in the greatest distress and beheld the face of his Father frowning while he was upon the Cross in his Complaint to him he exerciseth Faith upon his Power Math. 27.46 Eli Eli My God my God why hast thou forsaken me that is My strong my strong El is a Name of Power belonging to God He comforts himself in his Power while he complains of his Frowns Follow his Pattern and forget not that Power that can scatter the Clouds as well as gather them together The Psalmists support in his Distress was in the Creative Power of God Psal 121.2 My help comes from the Lord which made Heaven and Earth 2. 'T is Comfort in all strong and stirring Corruptions and mighty Temptations 'T is by this we may arm our selves and be strong in the power of his might Ephes 6.10 By this we may conquer Principalities and Powers as dreadful as Hell but not so mighty as Heaven By this we may triumph over Lusts within too strong for an Arm of Flesh By this the Devils that have possessed us may be cast out the batter'd Walls of our Souls may be repaired and the Sons of Anak laid slat That Power that brought Light out of Darkness and overmaster'd the deformity of the Chaos and set bounds to the Ocean and dried up the Red Sea by a Rebuke can quell the Tumults in our Spirits and level Spiritual Goliahs by his Word When the Disciples heard that terrifying Speech of our Saviour concerning Rich men that it was easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God Mat. 19.24 to entertain the Gospel which commanded Self-denial and that because of the Allurements of the World and the strong Habits in their Soul Christ refers them to the Power of God verse 26. who could expel those ill Habits and plant good ones With Men this is impossible but with God all things are possible There is no resistance but he can surmount no strong hold but he can demolish no Tower but he can level 3. 'T is Comfort from hence that all Promises shall be performed Goodness is sufficient to make a Promise but Power is necessary to perform a Promise Men that are honest cannot often make good their words because something may intervene that may shorten their Ability but nothing can disable God without diminishing his Godhead He hath an Infiniteness of Power to accomplish his Word as well as an Infiniteness of Goodness to make and utter his Word That Might whereby he made Heaven and Earth and his keeping Truth for ever are joyn'd together Psal 146.5 6. His Fathers Faithfulness and His Creative Power are link'd together 'T is upon this Basis the Covenant and every part of it is established and stands as firm as the Almightiness of God whereby he sprung up the Earth and rear'd the Heavens No power can resist his will Rom. 9.19 Who can disannul his purpose and turn back his hand when it is stretched out Isai 14.27 His Word is unalterable and his Power is invincible He could not deceive himself for he knew his own strength when he promised No unexpected event can change his Resolution because nothing can happen without the compass of his Foresight No Created Strength can stop him in his Action because all Creatures are ready to serve him at his Command not the Devils in Hell nor all the Wicked men on Earth since he hath strength to restrain them and an Arm to punish them What can be too hard for him that created Heaven and Earth Hence it was that when God Promised any thing anciently to his People he used often the Name of the Almighty the Lord that created Heaven and Earth as that which was an undeniable Answer to any Objection against any thing that might be made against the greatness and stupendiousness of any Promise by that Name in all his Works of Grace was he known to them Exod. 6.3 When we are sure of his Will we need not question his Strength since he never over-engageth himself above his Ability He that could not be resisted by nothing in Creation nor vanquish'd by Devils in Redemption can never want Power to glorifie his Faithfulness in his Accomplishment of whatsoever he hath promised 4. From this Infiniteness of Power in God we have ground of Assurance for Perseverance Since Conversion is resembled to the Works of Creation and Resurrection two great Marks of his Strength he doth not surely employ himself in the first work of Changing the Heart to let any Created strength baffle that Power which he began and intends to glorifie It was this Might that struck off the Chain and expell'd that strong one that possessed you What if you are too weak to keep him out of his lost possession will God lose the glory of his first strength by suffering his foiled Adversary to make a re-entry and regain his former usurpation His Outstretched Arm will not do less by his Spiritual than it did by his National Israel It guarded them all the way to Canaan and left them not to shift for themselves after he had struck off the Fetters of Egypt and buried their Enemies in the Red Sea Deut. 1.31 This Greatness of the Father above all our Saviour makes the ground of Believers continuance for ever against the blasts of Hell and engines of the World John 10.29 My Father is greater than all and none is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hands Our keeping is not in our own weak hands but in the hands of him who is mighty to save That Power of God keeps us which intends our salvation In all fears of falling away shelter your selves in the Power of God He shall be holden up saith the Apostle speaking concerning one weak in Faith and no other Reason is rendred by him but this for
of God Righteousness a Perfection as referred to others in his Actions towards them and upon them In Particular This Property of the Divine Nature is First An essential and necessary Perfection He is essentially and necessarily Holy 'T is the essential glory of his Nature His Holiness is as necessary as his Being as necessary as his Omniscience As he cannot but know what is right so he cannot but do what is just His Understanding is not as Created Understandings capable of Ignorance as well as Knowledge so his Will is not as Created Wills capable of Unrighteousness as well as Righteousness There can be no contradiction or contrariety in the Divine Nature to know what is right and to do what is wrong If so there would be a diminu ion of his Blessedness he would not be a God alway blessed Blessed for ever as he is * Rom. 9 5. He is as necessarily Holy as he is necessarily God as necessarily without Sin as without Change As he was God from Eternity so he was Holy from Eternity †Turreâ—in de Satisfact p. 28. He was Gracious Merciful Just in his own Nature and also Holy though no Creature had been framed by him to exercise his Grace Mercy Justice or Holiness upon If God had not created a World he had in his own Nature been Almighty and able to Create a World If there never had been any thing but himself yet he had been Omniscient knowing every thing that was within the verge and compass of his Infinite Power so he was Pure in his own Nature though he never had brought forth any Rational Creature whereby to manifest this Purity These Perfections are so necessary that the Nature of God could not subsist without them And the acts of those ad intra or within himself are necessary for being Omniscient in Nature there must be an act of knowledge of himself and his own Nature Being Infinitely Holy an act of Holiness in Infinitely loving himself must necessarily flow from this Perfection ‖ Ochino Predic part 3. Bodic 51. p. 347 348. As the Divine Will cannot but be perfect so it cannot be wanting to render the highest Love to it self to its Goodness to the Divine Nature which is due to him Indeed the acts of those ad extra are not necessary but upon a condition To love Righteousness without himself or to detest Sin or inflict Punishment for the committing of it could not have been had there been no Righteous Creature for him to love no Sinning Creature for him to loath and to exercise his Justice upon as the Object of Punishment Some Attributes require a Condition to make the Acts of them necessary As it is at Gods liberty whether he will create a Rational Creature or no But when he decrees to make either Angel or Man 't is necessary from the Perfection of his Nature to make them Righteous 'T is at Gods liberty whether he will speak to Man or no but if he doth 't is impossible for him to speak that which is false because of his Infinite Perfection of Veracity 'T is at his liberty whether he will permit a Creature to Sin but if he sees good to suffer it 't is impossible but that he should detest that Creature that goes cross to his Righteous Nature His Holiness is not solely an Act of his Will for then he might be Unholy as well as Holy he might love Iniquity and hate Righteousness he might then command that which is good and afterwards command that which is bad and unworthy For what is only an Act of his Will and not belonging to his Nature is indifferenr to him As the positive Law he gave to Adam of not eating the Forbidden Fruit was a pure Act of his Will he might have given him liberty to eat of it if he had pleased as well as prohibited him But what is Moral and good in its own Nature is necessarily willed by God and cannot be changed by him because of the transcendent Eminency of his Nature and Righteousness of his Will As it is impossible for God to command his Creature to hate him or to dispence with a Creature for not loving him for this would be to command a thing intrinsically Evil the highest Ingratitude the very Spirit of all Wickedness which consists in the hating God Yet though God be thus necessarily Holy he is not so by a bare and simple necessity as the Sun shines or the Fire burns but by a free necessity not compelled thereunto but inclined from the fulness of the Perfection of his own Nature and Will so as by no means he can be Unholy because he will not be Unholy 't is against his Nature to be so 2. God is only absolutely Holy There is none Holy as the Lord. 1 Sam. 2.2 'T is the peculiar glory of his Nature As there is none Good but God so none Holy but God No Creature can be essentially Holy because Mutable Holiness is the substance of God but a Quality and Accident in a Creature God is Infinitely Holy Creatures Finitely Holy He is holy from Himself Creatures are holy by derivation from him He is not only Holy but Holiness Holiness in the highest degree is his sole Prerogative As the highest Heaven is called the Heaven of Heavens because it embraceth in its Circle all the Heavens and contains the Magnitude of them and hath a greater vastness above all that it incloseth so is God the Holy of Holies He contains the Holiness of all Creatures put together and Infinitely more As all the Wisdom Excellency and Power of the Creatures if compar'd with the Wisdom Excellency and Power of God is but Folly Vileness and Weakness so the highest created Purity if set in parallel with God is but Impurity and Uncleaness Revel 15.4 Thou only art Holy 'T is like the light of a Glow-worm to that of the Sun †Job 15.15 The Heavens are not pure in his sight and his Angels he charged with folly Job 4 18. Though God hath Crowned the Angels with an unspotted Sanctity and placed them in a habitation of Glory yet as Illustrious as they are they have an Unworthiness in their own Nature to appear before the Throne of so Holy a God Their holiness grows dim and pale in his Presence 'T is but a weak shadow of that Divine Purity whose Light is so glorious that it makes them cover their faces out of weakness to behold it and cover their Feet out of shame in themselves They are not pure in his sight because though they love God which is a Principle of Holiness as much as they can yet not so much as he deserves They love him with the intensest degree according to their Power but not with the intensest degree according to his own Amiableness For they cannot infinitely love God unless they were as Infinite as God and had an understanding of his Perfections equal with himself and as immense
34.12 How despicable is a Judge that wants Innocence As Omniscience fits God to be a Judge so Holiness fits him to be a Righteous Judge Psal 1.6 The Lord knows that is loves the way of the Righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish 9. Information If Holiness be an eminent Perfection of the Divine Nature The Christian Religion is of a Divine Extraction It discovers the Holiness of God and forms the Creature to a conformity to him It gives us a prospect of his Nature represents him in the Beauty of Holiness Psal 110.3 more than the whole Glass of the Creation 'T is in this Evangelical Glass the Glory of the Lord is beheld and rendred amiable and imitable †2 Cor. 3.18 'T is a Doctrine according to Godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 directing us to live the Life of God a life worthy of God and worthy of our first Creation by his hand It takes us off from our selves fixeth us upon a Noble End points our Actions and the scope of our lives to God It quells the Monsters of Sin discountenanceth the Motes of Wickedness and it is no mean Argument for the Divinity of it that it sets us no lower a Pattern for our Imitation than the Holiness of the Divine Majesty God is exalted upon the Throne of his Holiness in it and the Creature advanc'd to an Image and resemblance of it 1 Pet. 1.16 Be ye holy for I am holy Vse 2. The Second use is for Comfort This Attribute frowns upon Lapsed Nature but smiles in the Restorations made by the Gospel Gods Holiness in conjunction with his Justice is Terrible to a guilty Sinner but now in conjunction with his Mercy by the Satisfaction of Christ 't is sweet to a Believing Penitent In the first Covenant the Purity of his Nature was joyned with the Rigours of his Justice In the second Covenant the Purity of his Nature is joyned with the Sweetness and Tenderness of his Mercy In the one Justice flames against the Sinner in the right of Injur'd Holiness In the other Mercy yearns towards a Believer with the consent of Righted Holiness To rejoyce in the Holiness of God is the true and genuine Spirit of a Renewed Man My heart rejoyceth in the Lord what follows There is none holy as the Lord 1 Sam. 2.1 2. Some Perfections of the Divine Nature are Astonishing some Affrighting but this may may fill us both with Astonishment at it and a Joy in it 1. By Covenant we have an Interest in this Attribute as well as any other In that Clause of Gods being our God entire God with all his Glory all his Perfections are past over as a portion and a gracious Soul is brought into Union with God as his God Not with a part of God but with God in the Simplicity Extent Integrity of his Nature and therefore in this Attribute And upon some account it may seem more in this Attribute than in any other for if he be our God he is our God in his Life and Glory and therefore in his Purity especially without which he could not live he could not be happy and blessed Little comfort will it be to have a dead God or a vile God made over to us And as by this Covenant he is our Father so he gives us his Nature and communicates his Holiness in all his Dispensations and in those that are severest as well as those that are sweetest Heb. 12.10 But he corrects us for our profit that we might be partakers of his Holiness Not simply partakers of Holiness but of his Holiness to have a Portrayture of it in our Nature a Meddal of it in our hearts a spark of the same Nature with that Immense splendor and flame in himself The Holiness of a Covenant Soul is a resemblance of the Holiness of God and formed by it As the Picture of the Sun in a Cloud is a fruit of his Beams and an Image of its Author The fulness of the Perfection of Holiness remains in the Nature of God as the fulness of the Light doth in the Sun yet there are transmissions of Light from the Sun to the Moon and it is a Light of the same Nature both in the one and in the other The Holiness of a Creature is nothing else but a reflection of the Divine Holiness upon it and to make the Creature capable of it God takes various methods according to his Covenant Grace 2. This Attribute renders God a fit Object for Trust and Dependance The Notion of an Unholy and Unrighteous God is an uncomfortable Idea of him and beats off our hands from laying any hold of him 'T is upon this Attribute the Reputation and Honour of God in the World is built What encouragement can we have to believe him or what Incentives could we have to serve him without the lustre of this in his Nature The very thought of an Unrighteous God is enough to drive Men at the greatest distance from him As the Honesty of a Man gives a reputation to his Word so doth the Holiness of God give credit to his Promise 'T is by this he would have us stifle our Fears and fortifie our Trust Isai 41.14 Fear not thou worm Jacob and ye men of Israel I will help thee saith the Lord and thy Redeemer the holy one of Israel He will be in his Actions what he is in his Nature Nothing shall make him defile his own Excellency Unrighteousness is the ground of Mutability but the Promise of God doth never fail because the rectitude of his Nature doth never languish Were his Attributes without the conduct of this they would be altogether formidable As this is the glory of all his other Perfections so this only renders him comfortable to a Believing Soul Might we not fear his Power to crush us his Mercy to overlook us his Wisdom to design against us if this did not influence them What an oppression is Power without Righteousness in the hand of a Creature destructive instead of protecting The Devil is a mighty Spirit but not fit to be trusted because he is an Impure Spirit When God would give us the highest Security of the sincerity of his Intentions he swears by this Attribute †Psal 8.35 His Holiness as well as his Truth is laid to pawn for the Security of his Promise As we make God the Judge between us and others when we swear by him so he makes his Holiness the Judge between himself and his People when he swears by it 1. 'T is this renders him fit to be confided in for the answer of our Prayers This is tâ—e ground of his readiness to give * Matth. 7.11 If you being evil know how to give good gifts how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good thâ—ngâ— to them that ask him Though the holiness of God be not mention'd yet it is to be understood the Emphasis lies in those words if you being evil
from Though by Creation God was declared Good yet he was not made Good by any or by all the Creatures He partakes of none but all things partake of him He is so Good that he gives all and receives nothing Only Good because nothing is Good but by him Nothing hath a Goodness but from him 2. God only is Infinitely Good A boundless Goodness that knows no limits a Goodness as infinite as his Essence not only Good but best not only Good but Goodness it self the Supream unconceivable Goodness All things else are but little Particles of God small Sparks from this Immense Flame Sips of Goodness to this Fountain Nothing that is good by his influence can equal him who is good by himself Derived goodness can never equal Primitive goodness Divine Goodness communicates it self to a vast number of Creatures in various degrees to Angels Glorifi'd Spirits Men on Earth to every Creature and when it hath communicated all that the present World is capable of there is still less display'd than left to enrich another World All possible Creatures are not capable of exhausting the Wealth and Treasures that Divine Bounty is filled with 3. God is only perfectly good because only Infinitely good He is good without indigence because he hath the whole Nature of goodness not only some beams that may admit of increase of degree As in him is the whole Nature of Entity so in him is the whole Nature of Excellency As nothing hath an absolute perfect Being but God so nothing hath an absolutely perfect goodness but God As the Sun hath a perfection of heat in it but what is warm'd by the Sun is but imperfectly hot and equals not the Sun in that perfection of heat wherewith it is naturally endued The goodness of God is the measure and rule of goodness in every thing else 4. God only is Immutably good Other things may be perpetually good by Supernatural Power but not Immutably good in their own Nature Other things are not so good but they may be bad God is so good that he cannot be bad * Eugubin Peren. Philos lib. 5. cap. 9. p. 97. col 1. It was the Speech of a Philosopher That it was a hard thing to find a good Man yea impossible but though it were possible to find a good Man he would be good but for some moment or a short time For though he should be good at this instant it was above the Nature of Man to continue in a habit of goodness without going awry and warping But the goodness of God endureth for ever †Psal 52.1 God always glitters in goodness as the Sun which the Heathens call'd the visible Image of the Divinity doth with light There is not such a perpetual light in the Sun as there is a fulness of goodness in God no variableness in him as he is the Father of Lights * 1 James 17. Before I come to the Doctrine that is the chief scope of the words some remarks may be made upon the Young-mans Question and Carriage What must I do to inherit Eternal Life 1. The opinion of gaining Eternal Life by the outward observation of the Law will appear very unsatisfactory to an inquisitive Conscience This Ruler affirm'd and certainly did confidently believe that he had fulfill'd the Law Vers 20. All this have I observed from my youth yet he had not any full satisfaction in his own Conscience his heart misgave and started upon some Sentiments in him that something else was requir'd and what he had done might be too weak too short to shoot Heavens lock for him And to that purpose he comes to Christ to receive Instructions for the piercing up whatsoever was defective Whosoever will consider the Nature of God and the Relation of a Creature cannot with reason think that Eternal Life was of it self due from God as a Recompence to Adam had he persisted in a State of Innocence Who can think so great a Reward due for having perform'd that which a Creature in that Relation was oblig'd to do Can any Man think another oblig'd to convey an Inheritance of 1000 l. per annum upon his payment of a few Farthings unless any compact appears to support such a conceit And if it were not to be expected in the integrity of Nature but only from the goodness of God how can it be expected since the Revolt of Man and the Universal Deluge of Natural Corruption God owes nothing to the holiest Creature what he gives is a present from his Bounty not the Reward of the Creatures Merit And the Apostle defies all Creatures from the greatest to the least from the tallest Angel to the lowest Shrub to bring out any one Creature that hath first given to God * Rom. 11.35 Who hath first given to him And it shall be Recompenced to him again The Duty of the Creature and Gods gift of Eternal Life is not a Bargain and Sale God gives to the Creature he doth not properly repay For he that repays hath received something of an equal value and worth before When God Crowns Angels and Men he bestows upon them purely what is his own not what is theirs by Merit and Natural Obligation Though indeed what God gives by virtue of a Promise made before is upon the performance of the Condition due by gracious Obligation God was not indebted to Man in Innocence but every Mans Conscience may now mind him that he is not upon the same level as in the State of Integrity And that he cannot expect any thing from God as the Salary of his Merit but the free gift of Divine Liberality * Amyraut Morale Man is oblig'd to the practice of what is good both from the Excellency of the Divine Precepts and the Duty he owes to God and cannot without some Declaration from God hope for any other Reward than the satisfaction of having well acquitted himself 2. 'T is the Disease of Humane Nature since its Corruption to hope for Eternal Life by the tenor of the Covenant of Works Though this Rulers Conscience was not throughly satisfy'd with what he had done but imagin'd he might for all that fall short of Eternal Life yet he still huggs the imagination of obtaining it by doing †Vers 17. What shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life This is natural to Corrupted Man Cain thought to be accepted for the sake of his Sacrifice and when he found his mistake he was so weary of seeking Happiness by doing that he would court Misery by Murdering All Men set too high a value upon their own Services Sinful Creatures would fain make God a Debtor to them and be Purchasers of Felicity They would not have it conveyed to them by Gods Sovereign Bounty but by an obligation of Justice upon the value of their Works The Heathens thought God would treat Men according to the Merit of their Services and it is no wonder they should have
because he doth not act for his own profit but for his Creatures welfare and the manifestation of his own Goodness He sends out his Beams without receiving any addition to himself or substantial advantage from his Creatures 'T is from this Perfection that he loves whatsoever is good and that is whatsoever he hath made For every Creature of God is good * 1 Tim. 4.4 Every Creature hath some Communications from him which cannot be without some Affection to them Every Creature hath a Footstep of Divine Goodness upon it God therefore loves that goodness in the Creature else he would not love himself †Cajetan in secund ' secundae Qu. 34. Ar. 3. God hates no Creature no not the Devils and Damn'd as Creatures he is not an Enemy to them as they are the Works of his Hands He is properly an Enemy that doth simply and absolutely wish Evil to another but God doth not absolutely wish Evil to the Damned that Justice that he inflicts upon them the deserved Punishment of their Sin is part of his Goodness as shall afterward be shewn This is the most pleasant Perfection of the Divine Nature His Creating Power amazes us His Conducting Wisdom astonisheth us His Goodness as furnishing us with all Conveniencies delights us and renders both his amazing Power and astonishing Wisdom delightful to us As the Sun by effecting things is an Emblem of Gods Power by discovering things to us is an Emblem of his Wisdom but by refreshing and comforting us is an Emblem of his Goodness And without this refreshing Vertue it communicates to us we should take no pleasure in the Creatures it produceth nor in the Beauties it discovers As God is Great and Powerful he is the Object of our Understanding but as Good and Bountiful he is the Object of our Love and Desire 6. The Goodness of God comprehends all his Attributes All the Acts of God are nothing else but the Effluxes of his Goodness distinguisht by several names according to the Objects it is exercised about As the Sea though it be one Mass of Water yet we distinguish it by several names according to the Shores it washeth and beats upon as the Brittish and German Ocean though all be one Sea When Moses long'd to see his Glory God tells him he would give him a prospect of his Goodness †Exod. 33.19 I will make all my goodness to pass before thee His Goodness is his Glory and Godhead as much as is delightfully visible to his Creatures and whereby he doth benefit Man I will cause my Goodness or Comeliness as Calvin renders it to pass before thee what is this but the Train of all his lovely Perfections springing from his Goodness * Exod. 34.6 The whole Catalogue of Mercy Grace long-suffering abundance of truth summed up in this one word All are Streams from this Fountain he could be none of this were he not first Good When it confers Happiness without Merit 't is Grace when it bestows Happiness against Merit 't is Mercy when he bears with provoking Rebels ' its long-suffering when he performs his Promise 't is Truth when it meets with a person to whom it is not oblig'd 't is Grace when he meets with a person in the World to which he hath obliged himself by Promise 't is Truth * Herle upon Wisdom cap. 5. p. 41. 42. when it Commiserates a Distressed Person 't is Pity when it supplies an Indigent Person 't is Bounty when it succours an Innocent Person 't is Righteousness and when it pardons a Penitent Person 't is Mercy all summ'd up in this one name of Goodness And the Psalmist expresseth the same Sentiment in the same words †Ps 145.7 8. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works He is first Good and then Compassionate Righteousness is often in Scripture taken not for Justice but Charitableness This Attribute saith one †Ingelo Bentivolio Vran Book 4. p. 260 261. is so full of God that it doth defie all the rest and verifie the Adorableness of him His Wisdom might contrive against us His Power bear too hard upon us one might be too hard for an Ignorant and the other too mighty for an Impotent Creature His holiness would scare an impure and guilty Creature but his goodness conducts them all for us and makes them all amiable to us Whatever Comeliness they have in the Eye of a Creature whatever Comfort they afford to the Heart of a Creature we are oblig'd for all to his goodness This puts all the rest upon a delightful Exercise this makes his Wisdom design for us and this makes his Power to act for us This Vails his Holiness from affrighting us and this Spirits his Mercy to relieve us †Daille Melang part 2. p. 704 705. All his acts towards Man are but the Workmanship of this What moved him at first to Create the World out of nothing and erect so noble a Creature as Man endow'd with such excellent gifts was it not his goodness What made him separate his Son to be a Sacrifice for us after we had endeavoured to raze out the first marks of his favour Was it not a strong bubling of goodness What moves him to reduce a Fallen Creature to the due sense of his Duty and at last bring him to an Eternal Felicity is it not only his goodness This is the Captain Attribute that leads the rest to act This attends them and Spirits them in all his ways of acting This is the Complement and Perfection of all his Works had it not been for this which set all the rest on work nothing of his Wonders had been seen in Creation nothing of his Compassions had been seen in Redemption The Second thing is some Propositions to explain the Nature of this Goodness 1. He is good by his own Essence God is not only good in his Essence but good by his Essence The Essence of every created thing is good so the unerring God pronounced every thing which he had made * Gen. 1.31 The Essence of the worst Creatures yea of the impure and Savage Devils is good but they are not good per essentiam for then they could not be bad Malicious and Oppressive God is good as he is God and therefore good by himself and from himself not by participation from another He made every thing good but none made him good Since his goodness was not received from another he is good by his own Nature He could not receive it from the things he Created they are later than he Since they received all from him they could bestow nothing on him and no God preceded him in whose Inheritance and Treasures of Goodness he could be a Successor He is absolutely
God is a Good which hath no taint of Evil nothing can be so Supream an Evil as God is Supream Goodness He is only Good without capacity of increase He is all Good and unmixedly Good none Good but God A Goodness like the Sun that hath all Light and no Darkness That is the second thing He is the Supream and chief Goodness 3. This Goodness is Communicative None so Communicatively Good as God As the Notion of God includes Goodness so the Notion of Goodness includes Diffusiveness without Goodness he would cease to be a Deity and without Diffusiveness he would cease to be Good The being Good is necessary to the being God For Goodness is nothing else in the Notion of it but a strong inclination to do Good either to find or make an Object wherein to exercise it self according to the Propension of its own Nature And it is an Inclination of Communicating it self not for its own interest but the good of the Object it pitcheth upon Thus God is good by Nature and his Nature is not without activity he acts conveniently to his own Nature †Ps 119.68 Thou art good and dost good And nothing accrues to him by the Communications of himself to others since his blessedness was as great before the frame of any Creature as ever it was since the Erecting of the World so that the Goodness of Christ himself encreaseth not the lustre of his Happiness †Psal 16.2 My Goodness extends not to thee He is not of a Niggardly and Envious Nature He is too Rich to have any cause to envy and too Good to have any will to envy He is as liberal as he is Rich according to the capacity of the Object about which his Goodness is exercised The Divine Goodness being the Supream Goodness is Goodness in the highest Degree of Activity Not an idle enclos'd pent up Goodness as a Spring shut up or a Fountain sealed bubling up within it self but bubling out of it self A Fountain of Gardens to water every part of his Creation He is an Oyntment powr'd forth †Cant. 1.5 Nothing spreads it self more than Oyl and takes up a larger space wheresoever it drops It may be no less said of the Goodness of God as it is of the fulness of Christ †Eph. 1.23 He fills all in all He fills Rational Creatures with Understanding Sensitive Nature with Vigor and Motion the whole World with Beauty and Sweetness Every Tast every Touch of a Creature is a Tast and Touch of Divine Goodness Divine Goodness offers it self in one spark in this Creature in another spark in the other Creature and altogether make up a Goodness inconceivable by any Creature The whole Mass and extracted Spirit of it is infinitely short of the Goodness of the Divine Nature imperfect shadows of that Goodness which is in himself Indeed the more excellent any thing is the more nobly it acts How remotely doth Light that excellent brightness of the Creation disperse it self How doth that glorious Creature which God hath set in the Heavens spread its Wings over Heaven and Earth roul it self about the World cast its Beams upward and downward insinuate into all Corners pierce the Depths and shoot up its Rays into the Heigths encircle the higher and lower Creatures in its Arms reach out its Communications to influence every thing under the Earth as well as dart its Beams of light and heat on things above or upon the Earth Nothing is hid from it †Psal 19.6 not from its power nor from its sweetness How Communicative also is Water a necessary and excellent Creature How active is it in a River to nourish the living Creatures engendred in its Womb Refresheth every Shore it runs by promotes the propagation of Fruits for the Nourishment and bestows a Verdure upon the Ground for the delight of Man and where it cannot reach the higher Ground in its Substance it doth by its Vapours mounted up and concocted by the Sun and gently distilled upon the Earth for the opening its Womb to bring forth its Fruits †Tom. 2. p. 926. God is more prone to communicate himself than the Sun to spread its Wings or the Earth to mount up its Fruits or the Water to multiply living Creatures Goodness is his Nature Hence were there internal Communications of himself from Eternity Diffusions of himself without himself in time in the Creation of the World like a full Vessel running over He Created the World that he might impart his Goodness to something without him and diffuse larger measures of his Goodness after he had laid the first Foundation of it in its Being And therefore he Created several sorts of Creatures that they might be capable of various and distinct measures of his Liberality according to the distinct capacities of their Nature but imparted most to the Rational Creature because that is only capable of an Understanding to know him and Will to embrace him He is the highest Goodness and therefore a Communicative Goodness and acts excellently according to his Nature 4. God is necessarily good None is necessarily Good but God he is as necessarily Good as he is necessarily God His Goodness is as inseparable from his Nature as his Holiness He is Good by Nature not only by will as he is Holy by Nature not only by will he is Good in his Nature and Good in his Actions and as he cannot be bad in his Nature so he cannot be bad in his Communications He can no more act contrary to this Goodness in any of his actions than he can un-God himself 'T is not necessary that God should Create a World he was at his own choice whether he would Create or no But when he resolves to make a World 't is necessary that he should make it good because he is Goodness it self and cannot act against his own Nature He could not Create any thing without Goodness in the very act The very act of Creation or Communicating being to any thing without himself is in it self an act of Goodness as well as an act of Power Had he not been Good in himself nothing could have been endued with any Goodness by him In the act of giving Being he is Liberal the Being he bestows is a Displaying his own Liberality He could not confer what he needs not and which could not be deserved without being Pountiful Since what was nothing could not Merit to be brought into Being the very act of giving to nothing a Being was an act of choice Goodness He could not Create any thing without Goodness as the Motive and the necessary Motive His Goodness could not necessitate him to make the World but his Goodness could only move him to resolve to make a World He was not bound to erect and fashion it because of his Goodness but he could not frame it without his Goodness as the moving cause He could not Create any thing but he must Create
beautify our Dwellings furnish our Closets or store our VVardrobes * Psal 104.24 The whole Earth is full of his Riches Nothing but by the rich Goodness of God is exquisitely accomodated in the numerous brood of things immediately or mediately for the use of Man All in the issue conspire together to render the VVorld a delightful Residence for Man And therefore all the living Creatures were brought by God to attend upon Man after his Creation to receive a Mark of his Dominion over them by the imposition of their Names †Gen. 2.19 20. He did not only give variety of Senses to Man but provided variety of delightful Objects in the VVorld for every Sense The Beauties of Light and Colours for our Eye the Harmony of Sounds for our Ear the Fragrancy of Odours for our Nostrils and a Delicious Sweetness for our Palates Some have qualities to pleasure all every thing a quality to pleasure one or other He doth not only present those things to our view as Rich Men do in Ostentation their Goods He makes us the Enjoyers as well as the Spectators and gives us the Use as well as the Sight And therefore he hath not only given us the Sight but the Knowledge of them He hath set up a Sun in the Heavens to expose their outward Beauty and Conveniencies to our Sight and the Candle of the Lord is in us to expose their inward Qualities and Conveniencies to our Knowledge that we might serve our selves of and rejoyce in all this Furniture wherewith he hath garnisht the World and have wherewithal to employ the inquisitiveness of our Reason as well as gratifie the pleasure of our Sense And particularly God provided for Innocent Man a delightful Mansion-house a place of more special Beauty and Curiosity the Garden of Eden a delightful Paradise a Model of the Beauties and Pleasures of another World wherein he had placed whatsoever might contribute to the felicity of a Rational and Animal Life the Life of a Creature composed of Mire and Dust of Sense and Reason * Gen. 2.9 Besides the other Delicacies consign'd in that place to the use of Man there was a Tree of Life provided to maintain his Being and nothing denied in the whole compass of that Territory but one Tree that of the knowledge of Good and Evil which was no Mark of an ill will in his Creator to him but a Reserve of Gods absolute Soveraignty and a Trial of Mans voluntary Obedience What blur was it to the Goodness of God to reserve one Tree for his own propriety when he had given to Man in all the rest such numerous Marks of his Rich Bounty and Goodness VVhat Israel after Mans Fall enjoyed sensibly Nehemiah calls great Goodness †Neh. 9.25 How inexpressible then was that Goodness manifested to Innocent Man when so small a part of it indulg'd to the Israelites after the Curse upon the Ground is call'd as truly it Merits such great Goodness How can we pass through any part of this great City and cast our Eyes upon the well Furnisht Shops stor'd with all kinds of Commodities without reflections upon this Goodness of God starting up before our Eyes in such varieties and plainly telling us that he hath accommodated all things for our use suited things both to supply our need content a reasonable Curiosity and delight us in our aims at and passage to our Supream End 3. The Goodness of God appears in the Laws he hath given to Man the Covenant he made with him It had not been agreeable to the Goodness of God to let a Creature governable by a Law be without a Law to regulate him his Goodness then which had broke forth in the Creation had suffer'd an Eclipse and obscurity in his Government As Infinite Goodness was the Motive to Create so Infinite Goodness was the Motive of his Government And this appears 1. In the fitting the Law to the Nature of Man It was rather below than above his strength he had an integrity in his Nature to answer the Righteousness of the Precept * Eccles 7.29 God Created Man upright his Nature was suited to the Law and the Law to his Nature it was not above his understanding to know it nor his will to embrace it nor his passions to be regulated by it The Law and his Nature were like two exact streight Lines touching one another in every part when joyned together God exacted no more by his Law than what was written by Nature in his Heart He had a knowledge by Creation to observe the Law of his Creation and he fell not for want of a Righteousness in his Nature He was enabled for more than was commanded him but wilfully indisposed to less than he was able to perform The Precepts were easie not only becoming the Authority of a Soveraign to exact but the Goodness of a Father to demand and the Ingenuity of a Creature and a Son to pay †1 John 5.3 His Commands are not grievous the observance of them had fill'd the Spirit of Man with an extraordinary Contentment It had been no less a pleasure and a delightful satisfaction to have kept the Law in a Created State than it is to keep it in some measure in a Renew'd State The Renewed Nature finds a suitableness in the Law to kindle a delight * Psal 1.2 It could not then have anywise shook the Nature of an upright Creature nor have been a burden too heavy for his Shoulders to bear Though he had not a Grace given him above Nature yet he had not a Law given him that surmounted his Nature It did not exceed his Created strength and was suited to the Dignity and Nobility of a Rational Nature It was a just Law †Rom. 7.12 and therefore not above the Nature of the Subject that was bound to obey it And had it been impossible to be observed it had been unrighteous to be Enacted It had not been a matter of Divine Praise and that seven times a day as it is * Psal 119.164 Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy Righteous Judgments The Law was so Righteous that Adam had every whit as much reason to bless God in his Innocence for the Righteousness of it as David had with the Reliques of Enmity against it His Goodness shines so much in his Law as merits our Praise of him as he is a Soveraign Law-giver as well as a Gracious Benefactor in the imparting to us a Being 2. In fitting it for the Happiness of Man For the satisfaction of his Soul which finds a Reward in the very act of keeping it †Psal 119.165 Great peace in the loving it for the preservation of Human Society wherein consists the External felicity of Man It had been inconsistent with Divine Goodness to enjoyn Man any thing that should be oppressive and uncomfortable Bitterness cannot come from that which is altogether Sweet
Himself By giving his Son he hath given himself and in both Gifts he hath given all things to us The Creator of all things is eminently all things He hath given all things into the hands of his Son * Joh. 3.35 and by consequence given all things into the hands of his Redeem'd Creatures by giving them him to whom he gave all things Whatsoever we were invested in by Creation whatsoever we were depriv'd of by Corruption and more he hath deposited in safe hands for our enjoyment And what can Divine Goodness do more for us What further can it give unto us than what it hath given and in that Gift design'd for us 3. This Goodness is enhanc'd by considering the State of Man in the first Transgression and since 1. Mans first Transgression If we should rip up every Vein of that first Sin should we find any want of Wickedness to excite a just Indignation What was there but ingratitude to Divine Bounty and Rebellion against Divine Soveraignty The Royalty of God was attempted the Supremacy of Divine knowledge above Mans own knowledge envied the Riches of Goodness whereby he lived and breathed slighted There is a discontent with God upon an unreasonable Sentiment that God had denied a knowledge to him which was his right and due when there should have been an humble acknowledgment of that unmerited Goodness which had not only given him a Being above other Creatures but placed him the Governor and Lord of those that were inferior to him What alienation of his understanding was there from knowing God and of his will from loving him A Debauch of all his Faculties A Spiritual Adultery in preferring not only one of Gods Creatures but one of his desperate Enemies before him thinking him a wiser Counsellor than Infinite Wisdom and imagining him possessed with kinder affections to him than that God who had newly Created him Thus he joyns in League with Hell against Heaven with a Fallen Spirit against his Bountiful Benefactor and enters into Society with Rebels that just before commenc'd a War against his and their common Soveraign He did not only falter in but cast off the Obedience due to his Creator endeavoured to purloin his Glory and actually murder'd all those that were vertually in his Loyns * Rom. 5.12 Sin enter'd into the World by him and Death by Sin and passed upon all Men taking them off from their Subjection to God to be Slaves to the damn'd Spirits and Heirs of their Misery And after all this he adds a foul imputation on God taxing him as the Author of his Sin and thereby stains the Beauty of his Holiness But notwithstanding all this God stops not up the Floodgates of his Goodness nor doth he entertain Fiery Resolutions against Man but brings forth a healing Promise and sends not an Angel upon Commission to Reveal it to him but Preaches it himself to this Forlorn and Rebellious Creature †Gen. 3.15 2. Could there be any thing in this Fallen Creature to allure God to the Expression of his Goodness Was there any good action in all his Carriage that could plead for a readmission of him to his former State Was there one good quality left that could be an Orator to perswade Divine Goodness to such a gracious Procedure Was there any Moral Goodness in Man after this Debauch that might be an Object of Divine Love What was there in him that was not rather a provocation than an allurement Could you expect that any Perfection in God should find a Motive in this ungrateful Apostate to open a Mouth for him and be an Advocate to support him and bring him off from a just Tribunal Or after Divine Goodness had begun to pity and plead for Man is it not wonderful that it should not discontinue the Plea after it found Mans Excuse to be as black as his Crime * Gen. 3.12 and his Carriage upon his Examination to be as disobliging as his first Revolt It might well be expected that all the Perfections in the Divine Nature would have entered into an association eternally to treat this Rebel according to his deserts What attractives were there in a silly Worm much less in such compleat Wickedness inexcusable Enmity infamous Rebellion to design a Redeemer for him and such a Person as the Son of God to a Fleshy Body an Eclipse of Glory and an ignominious Cross The meaness of Man was further from alluring God to it than the dignity of Angels 3. Was there not a World of demerit in Man to animate Grace as well as Wrath against him We were so far from deserving the opening any Streams of Goodness that we had merited Floods of devouring Wrath. What were all Men but Enemies to God in a high manner Every offence was infinite as being committed against a Being of Infinite Dignity it was a stroke at the very Being of God A resistance of all his Attributes it would degrade him from the height and Perfection of his Nature it would not by its good will suffer God to be God If he that hates his Brother is a Murderer of his Brother he that hates his Creator is a Murderer of the Deity * Joh. 1.3.15 and every Carnal mind is Enmity to God †Rom. 8.7 Every Sin envies him his Authority by breaking his Precept and envies him his Goodness by defacing the Marks of it Every Sin comprehends in it more than Men or Angels can conceive That God who only hath the clear apprehensions of his own Dignity hath the sole clear apprehensions of Sins Malignity All Men were thus by Nature those that Sinned before the coming of the Redeemer had been in a State of Sin those that were to come after him would be in a State of Sin by their Birth and be Criminals as soon as ever they were Creatures All Men as well the Glorifi'd as those in the Flesh at the coming of the Redeemer and those that were to be born after were consider'd in a State of Sin by God when he bruis'd the Redeemer for them All were filthy and unworthy of the Eye of God All had employ'd the Faculties of their Souls and the Members of their Bodies which they enjoyed by his Goodness against the interest of his Glory Every Rational Creature had made himself a Slave to those Creatures over whom he had been appointed a Lord subjected himself as a Servant to his Inferior and strutted as a Superior against his Liberal Soveraign and by every Sin rendred himself more a Child of Satan and Enemy of God and more worthy of the Curses of the Law and the Torments of Hell Was it not now a mighty Goodness that would surmount those high Mountains of Demerit and elevate such Creatures by the Depression of his Son Had we been possessed of the highest Holiness a Reward had been the natural effect of Goodness It was not possible that God should be unkind to a Righteous and Innocent Creature
not to own it but erect an Idol in its place Ezra was of another mind when he ascribed to the good hand of God the providing Ministers for the Temple and not to his own care and diligence * Ezra 8.18 And Nehemiah the success he had with the King in the behalf of his Nation and not solely to his favour with the Prince * Neh. 2.8 or the arts he used to please him 2. The second Information is this If God be so good 't is a certain Argument that Man is fallen from his Original State 'T is the complaint of Man sometimes that other Creatures have more of Earthly Happiness than Men have live freer from cares and trouble and are not rackt with that sollicitousness and anxiety as Man is Have not such distempers to embitter their lives 'T is a good ground for Man to look into himself and consider whether he hath not some ways or other disobliged God more than other Creatures can possibly do We often find that the Creatures Men have need of in this State do not answer the expectation of Man Cursed be the ground for thy sake * Gen. 3.17 A fruitful Land is made barren Thorns and Thistles triumph upon the face of the Earth instead of good Fruit. Is it like that that Goodness which is as infinite as his Power and knows no more limits than his Almightiness should imprint so many scars upon the World if he had not been hainously provoked by some miscarriage of his Creature Infinite Goodness could never move Infinite Justice to inflict Punishment upon Creatures if they had not highly Merited it We cannot think that any Creature was blemisht with a Principle of Disturbance as it came first out of the hand of God All things were certainly settled in a due order and dependance upon one another Nothing could be ungrateful and unuseful to Man by the Original Law of their Creation If there had it had not been Goodness but Evil and Baseness that had Created the World When we see therefore the Course of Nature overturn'd the Order Divine Goodness had placed disturb'd and the Creatures pronounced good and useful to Man employ'd as Instruments of Vengeance against him We must conclude some horrible blot upon Humane Nature and very odious to a God of Infinite Goodness And that this blot was dasht upon Man by himself and his own fault for it is repugnant to the Infinite Goodness of God to put into the Creature a Sinning Nature to hurry him into Sin and then punish him for that which he had imprest upon him The Goodness of God inclines him to love goodness wherever he finds it and not to punish any that have not deserved it by their own Crimes The Curse we therefore see the Creatures groan under the disorders in Nature the frustrating the expectations of Man in the Fruits of the Earth and plentiful Harvests the trouble he is continually expos'd to in the World which tedders down his Spirit from more generous Employments shews that Man is not what he was when Divine Goodness first Erected him but hath admitted into his Nature something more uncomely in the Eye of God and so hainous that it puts his Goodness sometimes to a stand and makes him lay aside the Blessings his hand was fill'd with to take up the Arms of Vengeance wherewith to fight against the World Divine Goodness would have secur'd his Creatures from any such invasions and never us'd those things against Man which he design'd in the first frame for Mans service were there not some detestable disorder risen in the Nature of Man which makes God with-hold his Liberality and change the dispensation of his numerous Benefits into Legions of Judgments The Consideration of the Divine Goodness which is a Notion that Man naturally concludes to be inseparable from the Deity would to an unbyast Reason verifie the History of those Punishments settled upon Man in the third Chapter of Genesis and make the whole seem more probable to Reason at the first Relation This instruction naturally flows from the Doctrine of Divine Goodness If God be so good it is a certain Argument that Man is fallen from his Original State 3. The third Information is this If God be infinitely good there can be no just complaint against God if Men be punisht for abusing his Goodness Man had nothing nay it was impossible he could have any thing from infinite Goodness to disoblige him but to engage him God never did nay never could draw his Sword against Man till Man had had slighted him and affronted him by the strength of his own Bounty 'T is by this God doth justifie his severest proceedings against Men and very seldom charges them with any else as the matter of their provocations * Hosea 2.9 Therefore will I return and take away my Corn in the time thereof and my Wine in the season thereof and will recover my Wool and my Flax. And in Ezek. 16. after he had drawn out a Bill of Complaint against them and inserted onâ—y the abuse of his Benefits as a justification of what he intended to do He concludes Verse 27. Behold therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee and dimâ—nisht thy ordinary food and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee When Men suffer they suffer justly they were not constrained by any Violence or forced by any necessity nor provok't by any ill usage to turn head against God but broke the bands of the strongest Obligations and most tender Allurements What Man what Devil can justly blame God for punishing them after they had been so intolerably bold as to fly in the face of that Goodness that had oblig'd them by giving them beings of a higher elevation than to inferior Creatures and furnishing them with sufficient strength to continue in their first Habitation Man seems to have less reason to accuse God of rigor than Devils since after his unreasonable Revolt a more express Goodness than that which Created him hath sollicited him to Repentance Courted him by melting Promises and Expostulations added undeniable Arguments of Bounty and drawn out the choicest Treasures of Heaven in the gift of his Son to prevail over Mens perversity And yet Man after he might arrive to the height and happiness of an Angel will be fond of continuing in the meanness and misery of a Devil and more strongly link himself to the Society of the damn'd Spirits wherein by his first Rebellion he had incorporated himself Who can blame God for vindicating his own Goodness from such desperate contempts and the extream ingratitude of Man * Petav. Theolog. Dogmat Vol. 1. p. 407. If God be good 't is our happiness to adhere to him If we depart from him we depart from Goodness and if Evil happen to us we cannot blame God but our selves for our departure Why are Men happy Because they cleave to God Why are Men miserable Because they
2. Readiness to exercise it upon due occasions He hath prepared his Throne he is not at a loss he needs not stay for a Commission or Instructions from any how to act He hath all things ready for the assistance of his People he hath Rewards and Punishments his Treasures and Axes the great marks of Authority lying by him the one for the good the other for the wicked His Mercy he keeps by him for Thousands Exod. 34.7 His Arrows he hath prepared by him for Rebels Psal 7.13 3. Wise management of it 'T is prepared preparations imply prudence the Government of God is not a rash and heady Authority A Prince upon his Throne a Judge upon the Bench manages things with the greatest discretion or should be supposed so to do 4. Successfulness and duration of it He hath prepared or Established 'T is fixed not tottering 't is an immoveable Dominion all the strugglings of Men and Devils cannot overturn it nor so much as shake it 'T is Established above the reach of obstinate Rebels he cannot be deposed from it he cannot be mated in it His Dominion as himself abides for ever And as his Counsel so his Authority shall stand and he will do all his pleasure Isaiah 46.10 His Throne in the Heavens This is an expression to signifie the Authority of God for as God hath no member properly though he be so represented to us so he hath properly no Throne It signifies his power of Reigning and Judging A Throne is proper to Royalty the Seat of Majesty in its excellency and the place where the deepest respect and homage of Subjects is paid and their Petitions presented That the Throne of God is in the Heavens that there he sits as a Soveraign is the opinion of all that acknowledge a God when they stand in need of his Authority to assist them their eyes are lifted up and their heads stretched out to Heaven so his Son Christ prayed he lifted up his Eyes to Heaven as the place where his Father sat in Majesty as the most adorable object John 17.1 Heaven hath the Title of his Throne as the Earth hath that of his Footstool Isaiah 66.1 And therefore Heaven is sometimes put for the Authority of God Dan. 4.26 After that thou shalt have known that the Heavens do rule i. e. That God who hath his Throne in the Heavens orders earthly Princes and Scepters as he pleases and rules over the Kingdoms of the World His Throne in the Heavens Notes 1. The Glory of his Dominion The Heavens are the most stately and comely peices of the Creation His Majesty is there most visible his glory most splendid Psal 19.1 The Heavens speak out with a full mouth his Glory 'T is therefore called the Habitation of his Holiness and of his Glory Isaiah 63.15 There is the greater glister and brightness of his Glory The whole Earth indeed is full of his Glory full of the beams of it the Heaven is full of the body of it as the rayes of the Sun reach the Earth but the full Glory of it is in the Firmament In Heaven his Dominion is more acknowledged by the Angels standing at his beck and by their readiness and swiftness obeying his Commands going and returning as a flash of lightning Ezek. 1.14 His Throne may well be said to be in the Heavens since his Dominion is not disputed there by the Angels that attend him as it is on Earth by the Rebels that arm themselves against him 2. The Supremacy of his Empire The Heavens are the loftiest part of the Creation and the only fit Palace for him 't is in the Heavens his Majesty and Dignity are so sublime that they are elevated above all Earthly Empires 3. Peculiarly of this Dominion He rules in the Heavens alone There is some shadow of Empire in the World Royalty is communicated to men as his Substitutes He hath disposed a vicarious Dominion to men in his footstool the Earth he gives them some share in his Authority and therefore the Title of his Name Psal 82.6 I have said ye are Gods but in Heaven he reigns alone without any Substitutes his Throne is there He gives out his orders to the Angels himself the marks of his Immediate soveraignty are there most visible He hath no Vicars General of that Empire His Authority is not delegated to any Creature he rules the blessed Spirits by himself but he rules Men that are on his Footstool by others of the same kind men of their own nature 4. The vastness of his Empire The Earth is but a spot to the Heavens What is England in a Mapp to the whole Earth but a spot you may cover with your Finger Much less must the whole Earth be to the extended Heavens 'T is but a little point or Atome to what is visible the Sun is vastly bigger than it and several Stars are supposed to be of a greater bulk than the Earth and how many and what Heavens are beyond the ignorance of man cannot understand If the Throne of God be there 't is a larger Circuit he rules in than can well be conceived You cannot conceive the many millions of little particles there are in the Earth and if all put together be but as one point to that place where the Throne of God is seated how vast must his Empire be He rules there over the Angels which excell in strength those Hosts of his which do his pleasure in comparison of whom all the Men in the World and the power of the greatest Potentates is no more than the strength of an Ant or Fly multitudes of them encircle his Throne and listen to his orders without roving and execute them without disputing And since his Throne is in the Heavens it will follow that all things under the Heaven are parts of his Dominion his Throne being in the highest place the inferior things of Earth cannot but be subject to him and it necessarily includes his influence on all things below because the Heavens are the cause of all the motion in the World the immediate thing the Earth doth naturally address to for Corn Wine and Oyl above which there is no superior but the Lord. Hosea 2.21 22. The Earth hears the Corn Wine and Oyl the Heavens hear the Earth and the Lord hears the Heavens 5. The easiness of managing this Government His Throne being placed on high he cannot but behold all things that are done below the height of a place gives advantage to a pure and clear Eye to behold things below it Had the Sun an Eye nothing could be done in the open Air out of its ken The Throne of God being in Heaven he easily looks from thence upon all the Children of Men. Psal 14.2 The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand He looks not down from Heaven as if he were in regard of his presence confined there but he looks down
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
must be resolved into his own will Yet not into a Will without Wisdom God did not choose hand over head and act by meer Will without Reason and Understanding an infinite Wisdom is far from such a kind of procedure but the reason of God is inscrutable to us unless we could understand God as well as he understands himself the whole ground lies in God himself no part of it in the Creature Rom. 9.15 16. Not in him that Wills nor in him that Runs but in God that shews Mercy Since God hath revealed no other cause than his will we can resolve it into no other than his Soveraign Empire over all Creatures 'T is not without a stop to our curiosity that in the same place where God asserts the absolute Soveraignty of his mercy to Moses he tells him he could not see his face Exod. 33.19 20. I will be Gracious to whom I will be Gracious and he said Thou canst not see my face The rayes of his infinite Wisdom are too bright and dazling for our weakness The Apostle acknowledged not only a Wisdom in this proceeding but a riches and treasure of Wisdom not only that but a depth and vastness of those riches of Wisdom but was unable to give us an Inventory and Scheme of it Rom. 11.33 The secrets of his Counsels are too deep for us to wade into in attempting to know the reason of those acts we should find our selves swallowed up into a bottomless Gulf. Though the understanding be above our capacity yet the admiration of his Authority and Submission to it are not We should cast our selves down at his feet with a full resignation of our selves to his Soveraign pleasure * This was Dr. Goodwins Speech when he was in trouble This is a more comely carriage in a Christian than all the contentious endeavours to measure God by our line 2. In bestowing Grace where he pleases God in Conversion and Pardon works not as a natural Agent putting forth strength to the utmost which God must do if he did renew man naturally as the Sun shines and the fire burns which always act ad extremum virium unless a Cloud interpose to eclipse the one and water to extinguish the other But God acts as a voluntary Agent which can freely exert his power when he please and suspend it when he please Though God be necessarily good yet he is not necessitated to manifest all the Treasures of his Goodness to every Subject he hath power to distill his dews upon one part and not upon another If he were necessitated to express his Goodness without a liberty no thanks were due to him Who thanks the Sun for shining on him or the fire for warming him None Because they are necessary Agents and can do no other What is the reason he did not reach out his hand to keep all the Angels from sinking as well as some or recover them when they were sunk What is the reason he engrafts one man into the true Vine and lets another remain a wild Olive Why is not the efficacy of the Spirit always linkt with the motions of the Spirit Why doth he not mould the Heart into a Gospel frame when he fills the Ear with a Gospel sound Why doth he strike off the chains from some and tear the vail from the Heart while he leaves others under their natural slavery and Aegyptian darkness Why do some lie under the bands of death while another is rais'd to a spiritual life What reason is there for all this but his absolute Will The Apostle resolves the question if the question be askt why he begets one and not another Not from the Will of the Creature but his own Will is the determination of one James 1.18 Why doth he work in one to will and to do and not in another Because of his good pleasure is the answer of another Phil. 2.13 He could as well new create every one as he at first created them and make Grace as universal as Nature and Reason but it is not his pleasure so to do 1. 'T is not from want of strength in himself The power of God is unquestionably able to strike off the chains of unbeleief from all he could surmount the obstinacy of every child of wrath and inspire every Son of Adam with Faith as well as Adam himself He wants not a vertue superior to the greatest resistance of his Creature a victorious beam of light might be shot into their understandings and a flood of Grace might overspread their Wills with one word of his mouth without putting forth the utmost of his power What hinderance could there be in any created spirit which cannot be easily peirced into and new moulded by the Father of Spirits Yet he only breaths this efficacious vertue into some and leaves others under that insensibility and hardness which they love and suffers them to continue in their benighting ignorance and consume themselves in the embraces of their dear though deceitful Dalilahs He could have conquered the resistance of the Jews as well as chased away the darkness and ignorance of the Gentiles No doubt but he could over power the Heart of the most malicious Devil as well as that of the simplest and weakest man But the breath of the Almighty Spirit is in his own power to breath where he lists John 3.8 'T is at his liberty whither he will give to any the feeling of the invincible efficacy of his Grace He did not want strength to have kept man as firm as a Rock against the temptation of Satan and pour'd in such fortifying Grace as to have made him impregnable against the powers of Hell as well as he did secure the standing of the Angels against the Sedition of their fellows But it was his will to permit it to be otherwise 2. Nor is it from any prerogative in the Creature He converts not any for their natural perfection Because he seizeth upon the most ignorant Nor for their moral perfection Because he converts the most sinful Nor for their Civil perfection Because he turns the most despicable 1. Not for their natural perfection of knowledge He opened the minds and hearts of the more ignorant Were the nature of the Gentiles better manur'd than that of the Jews or did the Tapers of their understandings burn clearer No the one were skil'd in the Prophesies of the Messiah and might have compared the Predictions they own'd with the Actions and Sufferings of Christ which they were spectators of He let alone those that had expectations of the Messiah and expectations about the time of Christ's appearance both grounded upon the Oracles wherewith he had intrusted them The Gentiles were unacquainted with the Prophets and therefore destitute of the expectations of the Messiah Eph. 2.12 They were without Christ Without any Revelation of Christ because aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in
concern without appointment and pattern than Moses a servant ver 5.6 It seems to be a vote of nature to referr the Original of the modes of all worship to God and therefore in all those varieties of Ceremonies among the Heathens there was scarce any but were imagin'd by them to be the Dictates and Orders of some of their pretended Deities and not the resolves of meer Humane Authority What intrusion upon God's right hath the Papacy made in regard of Officers Cardinals Patriarchs c. not known in any Divine Order In regard of Ceremonies in worship prest as necessary to obtain the favour of God Holy-water Crucifixes Altars Images Cringings reviving many of the Jewish and Pagan Ceremonies and adopting them into the Family of Christian Ordinances as if God had been too absolute and arbitrary in repealing the one and dashing in peices the other When God had by his Soveraign order fram'd a Religion for the heart men are ready to usurp an Authority to frame one for the sence to dress the Ordinances of God in new and gaudy habits to take the eye by a vain pomp thus affecting a Divine Royalty and acting a silly childishness and after this to impose the observation of those upon the Consciences of men is a bold ascent into the Throne of God To impose Laws upon the Conscience which Christ hath not imposed hath deservedly been thought the very Spirit of Antichrist It may be call'd also the Spirit of Anti-God God hath reserv'd to himself the sole Soveraignty over the Conscience and never indulg'd men any part of it he hath not given man a power over his own Conscience much less one man a power over another's Conscience Men have a power over outward things to do this or that where it is determined by the Law of God but not the least Authority to controul any dictate or determination of Conscience The sole Empire of that is appropriate to God as one of the great marks of his Royalty What an usurpation is it of God's right to make Conscience a slave to man which God hath solely as the father of Spirits subjected to himself An usurpation which though the Apostles those extraordinary Officers might better have claim'd yet they utterly disown'd any imperious dominion over the faith of others 2 Cor. 1.24 Though in this they do not seem to climb up above God yet they set themselves in the Throne of God envy him an absolute Monarchy would be sharers with him in his Legislative power and grasp one end of his Scepter in their own hands They do not pretend to take the Crown from Gods head but discover a bold ambition to shuffle their hairy Scalps under it and wear part of it upon their own that they may rule with him not under him And would be joint Lords of his Mannour with him who hath by the Apostle forbidden any to be Lords of his Heritage 1 Pet. 5.3 And therefore they cannot assume such an Authority to themselves till they can shew where God hath resign'd this part of his Authority to them If their Exposition of that place Matth. 16.18 Vpon this rock I will build my Church be granted to be true and that the person and Successors of Peter are meant by that Rock it could be no Apology for their Usurpations 't is not Peter and his Successors shall build but I will build others are instruments in building but they are to observe the directions of the grand Architect 3. The Soveraignty of God is contemned when men prefer Obedience to mens Laws before Obedience to God As God hath an undoubted right as the Law-giver and Ruler of the World to enact Laws without consulting the pleasure of men or requiring their consent to the verifying and establishing his Edicts so are men oblig'd by their Allegiance as subjects to observe the Laws of their Creator without consulting whither they be agreeable to the Laws of his revolted Creatures To consult with Flesh and Blood whither we should obey is to Authorize Flesh and Blood above the purest and most soveraign spirit When men will obey their superiors without taking in the condition the Apostle prescribes to Servants Col. 3.22 In singleness of heart fearing God and post-pone the fear of God to the fear of man 't is to render God of less power with them than the drop of a Bucket or dust of the Ballance When we out of fear of punishment will observe the Laws of Men against the Laws of God 't is like the Egyptians to Worship a ravenous Crocodile instead of a Deity when we submit to humane Laws and stagger at Divine 't is to set man upon the Throne of God and God at the footstool of man to set man above and God beneath to make him the tail and not the head as God speaks in another case of Israel Deut. 28.13 When we pay an outward observation to Divine Laws because they are backt by the Laws of Man and humane Authority is the motive of our observance we subject Gods soveraignty to Mans Authority what he hath from us is more owing to the pleasure of men than any value we have for the Empire of God When men shall commit Murders and imbrue their hands in blood by the order of a Grandee when the worst sins shall be committed by the order of Papal dispensations When the use of his Creatures which God hath granted and sanctifi'd shall be abstain'd from for so many days in the week and so many weeks in the year because of a Roman Edict the Authority of man is acknowledg'd not only equal but superior to that of God The dominion of dust and clay is preferr'd before the undoubted right of the soveraign of the World The Commands of God are made less than humane and the orders of men more authoritative than Divine and a grand Rebels usurpation of Gods right is countenanced When men are more devout in observance of uncertain Traditions or meer humane inventions than at the hearing of the unquestionable Oracles of God When men shall squeeze their countenances into a more serious figure and demean themselves in a more religious posture at the appearance of some mock Ceremony clothed in a Jewish or Pagan garb which hath unhappily made a rent in the Coat of Christ and pay a more exact reverence to that which hath no Divine but only a humane stamp upon it than to the clear and plain Word of God which is perhaps neglected with sleepy nodds or which is worse entertain'd with prophane scoffs this is to prefer the Authority of man employ'd in trifles before the Authority of the wise Law-giver of the World Besides the ridiculousness of it is as great as to adore a Glo-worm and laugh at the Sun or for a Courtier to be more exact in his cringes and starcht postures before a puppet than before his soveraign Prince In all this we make not the Will and Authority of God our rule but the
attempters and often oversets the disturbers of the peace of the World 3. Information God can do no wrong since he is absolute soveraign Man may do wrong Princes may oppress and rifle but it is a crime in them so to do Because their power is a power of Government and not of propriety in the goods or lives of their subjects but God cannot do any wrong whatsoever the clamours of Creatures are Because he can do nothing but what he hath a soveraign right to do If he takes away your goods he takes not away any thing that is yours more than his own since though he intrusted you with them he devested not himself of the propriety When he takes away our lives he takes what he gave us by a temporary donation to be surrendred at his call We can claim no right in any thing but by his will He is no debtor to us and since he owes us nothing he can wrong us in nothing that he takes away His own soveraignty excuseth him in all those acts which are most distastful to the Creature If we crop a medicinal plant for our use or a flower for our pleasure or kill a Lamb for our food we do neither of them any wrong Because the original of them was for our use and they had their life and nourishment and pleasing qualities for our delight and support and are not we much more made for the pleasure and use of God than any of those can be for us Of him and to him are all things Rom. 11.36 Hath not God as much right over any one of us as over the meanest Worm Though there be a vast difference in nature between the Angels in Heaven and the Worms on Earth yet they are all one in regard of subjection to God he is as much the Lord of the one as the other as much the proprietor of the one as the other as much the Governour of the one as the other Not a cranny in the World is exempt from his jurisdiction Not a mite or grain of a Creature exempt from his propriety He is not our Lord by election he was a Lord before we were in being he had no terms put upon him who capitulated with him and set him in his Throne by Covenant What Oath did he take to any subject at his first investiture in his Authority His right is as natural as eternal as himself As natural as his existence and as necessary as his Deity Hath he any Law but his own will What wrong can he do that breaks no Law that fulfils his Law in every thing he doth by fulfilling his own will which as it is absolutely soveraign so it is infinitely righteous In what soever he takes from us then he cannot injure us 't is no crime in any man to seize upon his own goods to vindicate his own honour and shall it be thought a wrong in God to do such things Besides the occasion he hath from every man and that every day provoking him to do it He seems rather to wrong himself by forbearing such a seizure than wrong us by executing it 4. If God have a soveraignty over the whole World then merit is totally excluded His right is so absolute over all Creatures that he neither is nor can be a debtor to any not to the undefiled holiness of the blessed Angels much less to poor earthly worms those blessed Spirits enjoy their glory by the title of his soveraign pleasure not by vertue of any obligation devolving from them upon God Are not the faculties whereby they and we perform any act of obedience his grant to us Is not the strength whereby they and we are enabled to do any thing pleasing to him a gift from him Can a vassal merit of his Lord or a slave of his Master by using his tools and employing his strength in his service though it was a strength he had naturally not by donation from the man in whose service it is employ'd God is Lord of all all is due to him how can we oblige him by giving him what is his own more his to whom it is presented than ours by whom it is offered * Austin He becomes not a debtor by receiving any thing from us but by promising something to us 5. If God hath a soveraign dominion over the whole World then hence it follows that all Magistrates are but soveraigns under God He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords all the Potentates of the World are no other than his Lieutenants moveable at his pleasure and more at his disposal than their subjects are at theirs Though they are dignified with the title of Gods yet still they are at an infinite distance from the supream Lord. Gods under God not to be above him not to be against him The want of the due sence of their subordination to God hath made many in the World act as soveraigns above him more than soveraigns under him Had they all bore a deep conviction of this upon their spirits such audacious language had never dropt from the mouth of Pharoah who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go Exod. 5.2 Presuming that there was no superior to controul him nor any in Heaven able to be a match for him Darius had never publisht such a doting Edict as to prohibit any petition to God Nero had never fir'd Rome and sung at the sight of the devouring flames nor ever had he ript up his mothers belly to see the Womb where he first lodg'd and received a life so hateful to his Country Nor would Abner and Joab the two Generals have accounted the death of men but a sport and interlude 2 Sam. 2.14 Let the young men arise and play before us what play it was the next verse acquaints you with thrusting their Swords into one anothers sides They were no more troubled at the death of thousands than a man is to kill a fly or a flea Had a sence of this but hover'd over their Souls People in many Countries had not been made their foot-balls and used worse than their dogs Nor had the lives of millions worth more than a World been expos'd to Fire and Sword to support some sordid lust or breach of Faith upon an idle quarrel and for the depredation of their Neighbours estates the flames of Cities had not been so bright nor the streams of blood so dâ—ep nor the cries of innocents so loud In Particular 1. If God be soveraign All under-Soveraigns are not to rule against him but to be obedient to his Orders If they rule by his Authority Prov. 8.15 they are not to rule against his interest they are not to imagine themselves as absolute as God and that their Laws must be of as soveraign Authority against his honour as the Divine are for it If they are his Leiutenants on Earth they ought to act according to his Orders No man but will account a Governour or a
though Divines take notice of other sins in the fall of Adam yet God in his tryal chargeth him with none but this and doth put upon his question an Emphasis of his own Authority Gen. 3.11 Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded ye that thou shoâ—ld'st not eat This I am displeased with that thou shouldest disown my dominion over thy self and this Garden This was the inlet to all the other sins as the acknowledgment of God's soveraignty is the first step to the practice of all the duties of a Creature so the disowning his soveraignty is the first spring of all the extravagancies of a Creature Every sin against the soveraign Law-giver is worthy of Death The Transgression of this positive command desâ—rved death and procured it to spread it self over the face of the World God's dominion cannot be despis'd without meriting the greatest punishment 1. Punishment necessarily follows upon the Doctrine of Soveraignty 'T is a faint and a feeble Soveraignty that cannot preserve it self and vindicate its own wrongs against râ—bellious subjects The height of God's dominion infers a vengeance on the contemners of it If God be an Eternal King he is an Eternal Judge Since sin unlinks the dependance between God the Soveraign and man the subject if God did not vindicate the rights of his Soveraignty and the Authority of his Law he would seem to despise his own dominion be weary of it and not act the part of a good Governour But God is tender of his prerogative and doth most bestir himself when men exalt themselves proudly against him Exod. 18.11 In the thing wherein they dealt proudly he will be above them When Pharaoh thought himself a mate for God and proudly rejected his commands as if they had been the messages of some petty Arabian Lord God rights his own Authority upon the life of his enemy by the ministry of the Red Sea He turned a great King into a beast to make him know that the most high ruled in the Kingdoms of men Dan. 4.16 17. The demand is by the word of the Holy ones to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the Kingdoms of men And that by the Petitions of the Angels who cannot endure that the Empire of God should be obscur'd and diminisht by the pride of man Besides the tender respect he hath to his own glory he is constantly presented with the sollicitations of the Angels to punish the proud ones of the earth that darken the glory of his Majesty 'T is necessary for the rescue of his honour and necessary for the satisfaction of his illustrious attendants who would think it a shame to them to serve a Lord that were always unconcern'd in the rebellions of his creatures and tamely suffer their spurns at his Throne and therefore there is a day wherein the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down the Cedars of Lebanon over-thrown and high Mountains levell'd that God may be exalted in that day Isa 2.11 12. c. Pride is a sin that immediately swells against God's Authority this shall be brought down that God may be exalted not that he should have a real exaltation as if he were actually depos'd from his Government but that he shall be manifested to be the Soveraign of the whole World 'T is necessary there should be a day to chase away those clouds that are upon his Throne that the lustre of his Majesty may break forth to the confusion of all the children of pride that vaunt against him God hath a dominion over us as a Law-giver as we are his creatures and a dominion over us in away of Justice as we are his criminals 2. This punishment is unavoidable 1. None can escape him He hath the sole Authority over Hell and Death the Keyes of both are in his hand The greatest Caesar can no more escape him than the meanest Peasant Who art thou O great Mountain before Zerubbabel Zac. 4.7 The height of Angels is no match for him much less that of the mortal grandees of the World they can no more resist him than the meanest person But are rather as the highest Steeples the fittest marks for his crushing thunder If he speaks the word the principalities of men come down and the Crown of their glory Jer. 13.18 He can take the Mighty away in a moment and that without hands i. e. without instruments Job 34.20 The strongest are like the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's Image Iron and Clay Iron to man but Clay to God to be crumbled to nothing 2. What comfort can be reapt from a creature when the Soveraign of the World arms himself with terrors and begins his visitation Isa 10.3 What will you do in the day of visitation to whom will you flie for help and where will you leave your glory The torments from a Subject may be releived by the Prince but where can there be an appeal from the Soveraign of the World Where is there any above him to controul him if he will overthrow us who is there to call him to account and say to him what dost thou He works by an uncontroulable Authority he needs not ask leave of any Isa 43.13 He works and none can let it As when he will relieve none can afflict so when he will wound none can relieve If a King appoint the punishment of a rebel the greatest Favorite in the Court cannot speak a comfortable word to him The most beloved Angel in Heaven cannot sweeten and ease the spirit of a man that the Soveraign power is set against to make the butt of his wrath The Devils lye under his sentence and wear their chains as marks of their condemnation without hope of ever having them filed off since they are laid upon them by the Authority of an unaccountable Soveraign 3. By his Soveraign Authority God can make any creature the instrument of his vengeance He hath all the creatures at his beck and can Commission any of them to be a dreadful scourge Strong winds and tempests fulfil his word Psal 148.8 The Lightnings answer him at his call and cry aloud here are we Job 38.35 By his Soveraign Authority he can render Locusts as mischievous as Lions forge the meanest creatures into Swords and Arrows and commission the most despicable to be his Executioners He can cut off joy from our spirits and make our own hearts be our tormentors our most confident friends our persecutors our nearest relations to be his avengers They are more his who is their Soveraign than ours who place a vain confidence in them Rather than Abraham shall want children he can raise up stones and adopt them into his Family And rather than not execute his vengeance he can array the stones in the streets and make them his armed subjects against us If he speak the word a hair shall drop from our heads to choak us or a vapour congeal'd into Rheum in our heads shall dropdown and putrifie our
Corruptions will certainly be subdued in his voluntary subjects The Covenant I will be your God implyes protection government and relief which are all grounded upon Soveraignty That therefore which is our greatest burden will be remov'd by his Soveraign power Micah 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities If the outward enemies of the Church shall not bear up against his Dominion and perpetuate their rebellions unpunisht those within his people shall as little bear up against his Throne without being destroy'd by him The billows of our own hearts and the raging waves within us are as much at his beck as those without us And his Soveraignty is more eminent in quelling the corruptions of the heart than the commotions of the World in reigning over mens Spirits by changing them or curbing them more than over mens bodies by pinching and punishing them The remainders of Satans Empire will moulder away before him since he that is in us is a greater Soveraign than he that is in the World 1 Joh. 4.4 His enemies will be laid at his feet and so neveâ— shall prevail against him when his Kingdom shall come He could not be Lord of any man as a happy creature if he did not by his power make them happy and he could not make them happy unless by his Grace he made them holy He could not be praised as a Lord of Glory if he did not make some creatures glorious to praise him And an Earthly Creature could not praise him perfectly unless he had every grain of enmity to his Glory taken out of his heart Since God is the only Soveraign he only can still the commotions in our spirits and pull down all the Ensigns of the Devil's royalty he can wast him by the powerful word of his lips 4. Hence is a strong encouragement for Prayer My King was the strong compellation David us'd in Prayer as an argument of comfort and confidence as well as that of My God Psal 5 2. Hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God To be a King is to have an Office of Government and Protection He gives us liberty to approach to him as the Judge of all Heb. 12.23 i. e. As the Governour of the World we pray to one that hath the whole Globe of Heaven and Earth in his hand and can do whatsoever he will Though he be higher than the Cherubims and transcendently above all in Majesty yet we may soar up to him with the wings of our Soul Faith and Love and lay open our cause and find him as gracious as if he were the meanest subject on Earth rather than the most soveraign God in Heaven He hath as much of tenderness as he hath of Authority and is pleased with Prayer which is an acknowledgment of his Dominion an honouring of that which he delights to honour For Prayer in the notion of it imports thus much that God is the Rector of the World that he takes notice of humane affairs that he is a careful just wise Governour a store-house of blessing a fountain of goodness to the indigent and a releif to the oppressed What have we reason to fear when the soveraign of the World gives us liberty to approach to him and lay open our case That God who is King of the whole Earth not only of a few Villages or Cities in the Earth but the whole Earth and not only King of this dreggy place of our dross but of Heaven having prepar'd or established his Throne in the most glorious place of the Creation 5. Here is comfort in afflictions As a soveraign he is the Author of Afflictions as a soveraign he can be the remover of them he can command the waters of affliction to go so far and no farther If he speaks the Word a disease shall depart as soon as a servant shall from your presence with a Nod. If we are banisht from one place he can command a shelter for us in another If he orders Moab a Nation that had no great kindness for his people to let his outcasts dwell with them they shall entertain them and afford them sanctuary Isaiah 16.4 Again God chastneth as a soveraign but teacheth as a Father Psal 99.12 The exercise of his Authority is not without an exercise of his goodness He doth not correct for his own pleasure or the Creature 's torment but for the Creature 's instruction though the rod be in the hand of a soveraign yet it is tinctur'd with the kindness of divine bowels He can order them as a soveraign to mortifie our flesh and try our Faith In the severest tempest the Lord that rais'd the Wind against us which shatter'd the ship and tore its rigging can change that contrary wind for a more happy one to drive us into the Port. 6. 'T is a comfort against the projects of the Churches adversaries in times of publick commotions The consideration of the Divine soveraignty may arm us against the threatnings of mighty ones and the menaces of persecutors God hath Authority above the Crowns of men and a Wisdom superior to the cabals of men None can move a step without him he hath a negative voice upon their Counsels a negative hand upon their motions their politick resolves must stop at the point he hath prescrib'd them Their formidable strength cannot exceed the limits he hath set them their overreaching wisdom expires at the breath of God There is no Wisdom nor Vnderstanding nor Counsel against the Lord. Prov. 21.30 Not a bullet can be discharg'd nor a Sword drawn a wall battered nor a person dispatcht out of the world without the leave of God by the mightiest in the World The instruments of Satan are no more free from his soveraign restraint than their inspirer they cannot pull the hook out of their nostrils nor cast the bridle out of their mouths This soveraign can shake the Earth rend the Heavens overthrow Mountains the most Mountainous opposers of his interest Though the Nations rush in against his people like the rushing of many waters God shall rebuke them they shall be chased as the chaff of the Mountains before the Wind and like a rolling thing before the Whirlwind Isaiah 17.13 So doth he often burst in pieces the most mischievous designs and conducts the oppressed to a happy port He often turns the severest tempests into a calm as well as the most peaceful calm into a horrible storm How often hath a well-rigg'd ship that seemed to spâ—rn the Sea under her feet and beat the waves before her to a foam been swallowed up into the bowels of that Element over whose back she rode a little before God never comes to deliver his Church as a Governour but in a wrathful posture Ezek. 20.23 Surely saith the Lord with a mighty hand and with an out stretched arm and with fury pour'd out will I rule over you not with fury poured out upon the Church but fury pour'd out upon her Enemies as the words
following evidence The Church he would bring out from the Countries where she was scattered and bring the people into the bond of the Covenant He sometimes cuts off the Spirits of Princes Psal 76.12 i. e. cuts off their designs as men do the pipes of a water-course The hearts of all are as open to him as the riches of heaven where he resides He can slip an inclination into the heart of the mighty which they dream'd not of before and if he doth not change their projects he can make them abortive and way-lay them in their attempts Laâ—an marched with fury but God put a padlock upon his passion against Jacob. Gen. 31.24.29 The Devils which ravage mens minds must be still when he gives out his soveraign orders This soveraign can make his people find favour in the eyes of the cruel Egyptians which had so long opprest them Exod. 11.3 And speak a good word in the heart of Nebuchadnezzar for the Prophet Jeremy that he should order his Captain to take him into his special protection when he took Zedekiah away prisoner in chains and put out his eyes Jerem. 39.11 His people cannot want deliverance from him who hath all the world at his command when he is pleased to bestow it he hath as many instruments of deliverance as he hath Creatures at his beck in Heaven or Earth from the meanest to the highest As he is the Lord of Hosts the Church hath not only an interest in the strength he himself is possessed with but in the strength of all the Creatures that are under his command in the Elements below and Angels above in those armies of Heaven and in the inhabitants of the Earth he doth what he will Dan. 4.35 They are all in order and array at his command There are Angels to employ in a fatal stroke Lice and Froggs to quell the stubborn hearts of his Enemies He can range his Thunders and Lightnings the Canon and Granado's of Heaven and the Worms of the Earth in his service He can muzzle Lions calm the fury of the Fire turn his Enemies Swords into their own bowels and their Artillery on their own breasts set the wind in their Teeth and make their Chariot-wheels languish make the Sea enter a quarrel with them and wrap them in its waves till it hath stifled them in its lap The Angels have Storms and Tempests and Warrs in their hands but at the disposal of God when they shall cast them out against the Empire of Antichrist Rev. 7.1 2. then shall Satan be discharg'd from his Throne and no more seduce the Nations the everlasting Gospel shall be preached and God shall reign gloriously in Sion Let us therefore shelter our selves in the divine soveraignty regard God as the most High in our dangers and in our petitions This was Davids resolution Psal 57.1 2. I will cry unto unto God most high This Dominion of God is the true Tower of David wherein there are a thousand shields for defence and encouragement Cant. 4.4 IV. USE If God hath an extensive Dominion over the whole World this ought to be often meditated on and acknowledged by us This is the universal duty of mankind if he be the soveraign of all we should frequently think of our great Prince and acknowledge our selves his Subjects and him our Lord. God will be acknowledg'd the Lord of the whole Earth the neglect of this is the cause of the Judgments which are sent upon the World All the Prodigies were to this end that they might know or acknowledge that God was the Lord. Exod. 10.2 As God was proprietor he demanded the first-born of every Jew and the first-born of every Beast the one was to be Redeemed and the other Sacrificed this was the Quit-Rent they were to pay to him for their fruitful Land The first Fruits of the Earth were ordered to be paid to him as a homage due to the Landlord and an acknowledgment they held all in chief of him The practice of offering first-fruits for an acknowledgment of Gods soveraignty was among many of the Heathens and very ancient hence they dedicated some of the chief of their spoils owning thereby the Dominion and Goodness of God whereby they had gain'd the Victory Cain own'd this in offering the Fruits of the Earth and it was his sin he own'd no more viz. His being a sinner and meriting the Justice of God as his Brother Abel did in his bloody Sacrifice God was a soveraign Proprietor and Governour while man was in a state of innocence but when man proved a Rebel the soveraignty of God bore another relation towards him that of a Judge added to the other The First-fruits might have been offered to God in a state of innocence as a homage to him as Lord of the Manour of the World the design of them was to own Gods propriety in all things and mens dependance on him for the influences of heaven in producing the fruits of the Earth which he had ordered for their use The design of Sacrifices and placing beasts instead of the criminal was to acknowledg their own guilt and God as a soveraign Judge Cain own'd the first but not the second he acknowledged his dependance on God as a proprietor but not his obnoxiousness to God as a Judg which may be probably gathered from his own speech when God came to examine him and ask him for his Brother Gen. 4.9 Am I my Brothers keeper Why do you ask me though I own thee as the Lord of my Land and Goods yet I do not think my self accountable to thee for all my actions This Soveraignty of God ought to be acknowledged in all the parts of it in all the manifestations of it to the creature We should bear a sense of this always upon our Spirits and be often in the thoughts of it in our retirements We should fancy that we saw God upon his Throne in his Royal Garb and great attendants about him and take a view of it to imprint an awe upon our Spirits The meditation on this would 1. Fix us on him as an object of trust 'T is upon his Soveraign Dominion as much as upon anything that safe and secure confidence is built for if he had any superior above him to controul him in his designs and promises his veracity and power would be of little efficacy to form our souls to a close adherency to him It were not fit to make him the object of our trust that can be gainsaid by a higher than himself and had not a full Authority to answer our expectations If we were possessed with this notion fully and believingly that God were high above all that his Kingdom rules over all we should not catch at every broken reed and stand gaping for comforts from a pebble stone He that understands the Authority of a King would not wave a relyance on his promise to depend upon the breath of a changeling favorite None but an ignorant man would
of sparing exercis'd to the Devils in deferring their compleat punishment and hitherto keeping off the day wherein their final sentence is to be pronounced yet the Scripture never mentions this by the name of slowness to anger or long suffering It can no more be call'd Patience than a Princes keeping a Malefactor in chains and not pronouncing a condemning sentence or not executing a sentence already pronounced can be call'd a Patience with him when it is not out of kindness to the Offender but for some reasons of State God's sparing the Devils from their total punishment which they have not yet but are reserved in chains under darkness for it Jude 6. is not in order to Repentance or attended with any invitations from God or hopes in them and therefore cannot come under the same title as Gods sparing man Where there is no proposal of mercy there is no exercise of Patience The fall'n Angels had no mercy reserv'd for them nor any Sacrifice prepar'd for them God spared not the Angels 2 Pet. 2.4 but delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment i. e. he had no Patience for them For Patience is properly a temporary sparing a person with a waiting for his relenting and a change of his injurious demeanour The object of goodness is more extensive than that of Patience Nor do they both consider the object under the same relation Goodness respects things in a capacity or in a state of Creation and brings them forth into Creation and nurseth and supports them as Creatures Patience considers them already Created and fall'n short of the duty of creatures It considers them as sinners or in relation to sinners Had not sin entred Patience had never been exercised but goodness had been exercised had the creature stood firm in its Created State without any transgression Nay Creation could not have been without goodness because it was goodness to Create But Patience had never been known without an object which could not have been without an injury Where there is no wrong no suffering nor like to be any Patience hath no prospect of any operation So then goodness respects persons as creatures Patience as transgressors Mercy eyes men as miserable and obnoxious to punishment Patience considers men as sinful and provoking to punishment 2. Since 't is a part of goodness and mercy 't is not an insensible patience What is the fruit of pure goodness cannot be from a weakness of resentment he is slow to anger The Prophet doth not say he is uncapable of anger or cannot discern what is a real object of anger It implyes that he doth consider every provocation but he is not hasty to discharge his arrows upon the Offenders He sees all while he bears with them his omniscience excludes any ignorance He cannot but see every wrong every aggravation in that wrong every step and motion from the begiâ—â—ing to the compleating it For he knows all our thoughts he sees the sin and 〈◊〉 sinner at the same time the sin with an eye of abhorrency and the sinner with an eye of pity His eye is upon their iniquities and his hatred edged against them while he stands with arms open waiting a penitent return When he publisheth his patience in his keeping silence he publisheth also his resolution to set sin in order before their Eyes Psal 50.21 I will reprove thee and set them in order before thy Eyes Think me not such a peice of phlegm and so dull as not to resent your insolencies you shall see in my final charge when I come to Judge that not a wry look escap't my knowledge that I had an eye to behold and a heart to loath every one of your Transgressions The Church was ready to think that Gods slowness to deliver her and his bearing with her oppressors was not from any Patience in his nature but a drowsie carelessness a senseless Lethargy Psal 44.23 Awake why sleepest thou Oh Lord We must conclude him an inapprehensive God before we can conclude him an insensible God As his delaying his promise is not slackness to his people 2 Pet. 3.9 So his deferring of punishment is not from a stupidity under the affronts offered him 3. Since 't is a part of his Mercy and Goodness 't is not a constrained or faint-hearted Patience 'T is not a slowness to Anger arising from a despondency of his own pâ—â—er to revenge He hath as much power to punish as he hath to forbear punishment He that created a World in six days and that by a word wants not a strength to crush all mankind in one minute and with as much ease as a Word imports can give satisfaction to his Justice in the blood of the offender Patience in man is many times interpreted and truly too a cowardise a feebleness of Spirit and a want of strength But i◠〈…〉 not from the shortness of the divine arm that he cannot reach us nor from th◠〈…〉 of his hand that he cannot strike us 'T is not because he cannot lev◠〈…〉 dust 〈◊〉 us in peices like a Potters Vessel or consume us as a Moth◠〈…〉 â—tiest to fall before him and lay the strongest at his fe◠〈…〉 crime He that did not want a powerful Word to 〈…〉 want a powerful Word to dissolve the whole frame of 〈…〉 it out of being 'T is not therefore out of a distrust of his own power that he hath supported a sinful World for so many ages and patiently born the Blasphemies of some the neglects of others and the ingratitude of all without inflicting that severe Justice which righteously he might have done he wants no thunder to crush the whole generation of men nor waters to drown them nor Earth to swallow them up How easie is it for him to single out this or that particular person to be the object of his Wrath and not of his Patience What he hath done to one he may to another any signal judgment he hath sent upon one is an evidence that he wants not power to inflict it upon all Could he not make the motes in the Air to choke us at every breath Rain thunderbolts instead of drops of water fill the Clouds with a consuming Lightning take off the reverence and fear of man which he hath imprinted upon the Creature Spirit our domestick Beasts to be our Executioners unloose the Tiles from the house top to brain us or make the fall of a house to crush us 'T is but taking out the pins and giving a blast and the work is done And doth he want a power to do any of those things 'T is not then a faint-hearted or feeble Patience that he exerciseth towards Man 4. Since 't is not for want of power over the Creature 't is from a fulness of power over himself This is in the Text The Lord is slow to Anger and great in Power 't is a part of his Dominion over himself whereby he can moderate and rule his
freedom in the exerting them what time he judgeth most convenient in his Wisdom God is necessarily holy and is necessarily angry with sin his nature can never like it and cannot but be displeased with it yet he hath a liberty to restrain the effects of this anger for a time without disgracing his holiness or being interpreted to act unrighteously As well as a Prince or State may suspend the execution of a Law which they will never break only for a time and for a publick benefit If God should presently execute his Justice this perfection of patience which is a part of his goodness would never have an opportunity of discovery Part of his Glory for which he Created the World would lye in obscurity from the knowledge of his creature His Justice would be signal in the destruction of sinners but this stream of his goodness would be stopt up from any motion One perfection must not cloud another God hath his seasons to discover all one after another The times and seasons are in his own power Act. 1.7 The seasons of manifesting his own perfections as well as other things Succession of them in their distinct appearance makes no invasion upon the rights of any If justice should complain of an injury from patience because it is delaid patience hath more reason to complain of an injury from justice that by such a plea it would be wholly obscur'd and unactive For this perfection hath the shortest time to act its part of any it hath no stage but this World to move in Mercy hath a Heaven and Justice a Hell to display it self to Eternity but long suffering hath only a short liv'd earth for the compass of its operation Again Justice is so far from being wrong'd by Patience that it rather is made more illustrious and hath the fuller scope to exercise it self 'T is the more righted for being deferred and will have stronger grounds than before for its activity The equity of it will be more apparent to every reason the objections more fully answered against it when the way of dealing with sinners by patience hath been slighted When this dam of long suffering is remov'd the floods of fiery justice will rush down with more force and violence Justice will be fully recompenc'd for the delay when after Patience is abused it can spread it self over the offender with a more unquestionable Authority it will have more arguments to hit the sinner in the teeth with and silence him There will be a sharper edge for every stroke the sinner must not only pay for the score of his former sins but the score of abus'd patience so that justice hath no reason to commence a suit against God's slowness to anger What it shall want by the fulness of mercy upon the truly penitent it will gain by the contempt of patience on the impenitent abusers When men by such a carriage are ripen'd for the stroke of justice justice may strike without any regret in it self or pull-back from mercy The contempt of long suffering will silence the pleas of the one and spirit the severity of the other To conclude since God hath glorified his justice on Christ as a surety for sinners his patience is so far from interfering with the rights of his justice that it promotes it 'T is dispensed to this end that God might pardon with honour both upon the score of purchased mercy and contented justice that by a penitent sinners return his mercy might be acknowledg'd free and the satisfaction of his Justice by Christ be glorified in believing for he is long suffering from an unwillingness that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 i. e. All to whom the promise is made for to such the Apostle speaks and calls it long suffering to us ward And Repentance being an acknowledgment of the demerit of sin and a breaking off unrighteousness gives a particular glory to the freeness of mercy and the equity of Justice II. The 2d thing How this patience or slowness to anger is manifested 1. To our First Parents His slowness to anger was evidenced in not directing his Artillery against them when they first attempted to rebel He might have struck them dead when they began to bite at the temptation and were inclinable to a surrender for it was a degree of sinning and a breach of Loyalty as well though not so much as the consummating Act. God might have given way to the floods of his wrath at the first spring of man's aspiring thoughts when the monstrous motion of being as God began to be curdled in his heart But he took no notice of any of their Embryo sins till they came to a ripeness and started out of the womb of their minds into the open Air And after he had brought his sin to perfection God did not presently send that death upon him which he had merited but continued his Life to the space of 930 years Gen. 5.5 The Sun and Stars were not arrested from doing their Office for him Creatures were continued for his use the earth did not swallow him up nor a Thunderbolt from Heaven raze out the memory of him Though he had deserved to be treated with such a severity for his ungrateful demeanour to his Creator and Benefactor and affecting an equality with him yet God continued him with a sufficiency for his content after he turned rebel though not with such a liberality as when he remain'd a Loyal Subject And though he foresaw that he would not make an end of sinning but with an end of living he used him not in the same manner as he had used the Devils He added dayes and years to him after he had deserved death and hath for this 5000 years continued the propagation of Mankind and derived from his loyns an innumerable posterity and hath crown'd multitudes of them with hoary heads He might have extinguisht humane race at the first but since he hath preserved it till this day it must be interpreted nothing else but the effect of an admirable Patience 2. His slowness to anger is manifest to the Gentiles What they were we need no other witness than the Apostle Paul who summs up many of their crimes Rom. 1.29.30 31 32. He doth preface the Catalogue with a comprehensive expression being filled with all unrighteousness And concludes it with a dreadful aggravation They not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them They were so soakt and naturaliz'd in wickedness that they had no delight and found no sweetness in any thing else but what was in it self abominable All of them were plung'd in Idolatry and Superstition none of them but either set up their great men or creatures beneficial to the World and some the damned Spirits in his stead and paid an adoration to insensible Creatures or Devils which was due to God Some were so deprav'd in their lives and actions that it seem'd to be the
He sends but a few drops out of the Cloud which he might make to break in the gross and fall down upon our heads to overwhelm us he abates much of what he might do When he might sweep away a whole Nation by deluges of water corruption of the Air or convulsions of the Earth or by other wayes that are not wanting at his order He picks out only some Persons some Families some Cities sends a plague into one house and not into another here is Patience to the stock of a Nation while he inflicts punishment upon some of the most notorious sinners in it Herod is suddenly snatcht away being willingly flattered into the thoughts of his being a God God singl'd out the chief in the herd for whose sake he had been affronted by the rabble Act. 12.22 23. Some find him sparing them while others feel him destroying them He arrests some when he might seize all all being his Debtors And often in great desolations brought upon a people for their sin he hath left a stump in the Earth as Daniel speakes Dan. 4.15 for a Nation to grow upon it again and arise to a stronger constitution He doth punish less than our iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 and rewards us not according to our iniquities Psal 103.10 The greatness of any punishment in this Life answers not the greatness of the crime Though there be an equity in whatsoever he doth yet there is not an equality to what we deserve Our iniquities would justifie a severer treating of us His Justice goes not here to the end of its line 't is stopped in its progress and the blows of it weakned by his Patience He did not curse the Earth after Adam's fall that it should bring forth no fruit but that it should not bring forth fruit without the wearysome toyl of man and subjected him to distempers presently but inflicted not death immediately while he punished him he supported him And while he expelled him from Paradise he did not order him not to cast his eye towards it and conceive some hopes of regaining that happy place 5. His Patience is seen in giving great mercies after provocations He is so slow to anger that he heaps many kindnesses upon a rebel instead of punishment There is a prosperous wickedness wherein the provokers strength continues firm The troubles which like Clouds drop upon others are blown away from them and they are not plagued like other men that have a more worthy demeanour towards God Psal 73.3 4 5. He doth not only continue their lives but sends out fresh beams of his goodness upon them and calls them by his Blessings that they may acknowledge their own fault and his bounty which he is not obliged to by any gratitude he meets with from them but by the richness of his own patient nature for he finds the unthank fulness of men as great as his benefits to them He doth not only continue his outward mercies while we continue our sins but sometimes gives fresh benefits after new provocations that if possible he might excite an ingenuity in men When Israel at the Red Sea flung dirt in the face of God by quarrelling with his servant Moses for bringing them out of Egypt and mis-judging God in his design of deliverance and were ready to submit themselves to their former oppressors Exod. 14.11 12. which might justly have urged God to say to them take your own course yet he is not only patient under their unjust charge but makes bare his Arm in a deliverance at the Red Sea that was to be an amazing monument to the World in all Ages and afterwards when they repiningly quarrelled with him in their wants in the Wilderness he did not only not revenge himself upon them or cast off the conduct of them but bore with them by a miraculous long suffering and supplyed them with miraculous provision Manna from Heaven and Water from a Rock Food is given to support us and Cloaths to cover us and Divine Patience makes the creatures which we turn to another use than what they were at first intended for serve us contrary to their own Genius For had they reason no question but they would complain to be subjected to the service of man who hath been so ungrateful to their Creator and groan at the abuse of God's Patience in the abuse they themselves suffer from the hands of man 6. All this is more manifest if we consider the provocations he hath Wherein his slowness to Anger infinitely transcends the Patience of any creature nay the Spirits of all the Angels and Glorified Saints in Heaven would be too narrow to bear the sins of the World for one day nay not so much as the sins of Churches which is a little spot in the whole World 't is because he is the Lord one of an infinite power over himself that not only the whole Mass of the Rebellious World but of the Sons of Jacob either considered as a Church and Nation springing from the loyns of Jacob or considered as the Regenerate part of the World sometimes called the Seed of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 A Jonah was angry with God for recalling his Anger from a sinful people Had God committed the Government of the World to the Glorified Saints who are perfect in Love and Holiness the World would have had an end long ago They would have acted that which they sue for at the hands of God and is not granted them Rev. 6.10 How long Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth God hath designs of Patience above the World above the unsinning Angels and perfectly renewed Spirits in Glory The greatest Created long suffering is infinitely disproportion'd to the Divine Fire from Heaven would have been showred down before the greatest part of a day were spent if a Created Patience had the conduct of the World though that creature were possessed with the spirit of Patience extracted from all the creatures which are in Heaven or are or ever were upon the earth Methinks Moses intimates this for as soon as God had passed by proclaiming his Name gracious and long suffering As soon as ever Moses had paid his Adoration he falls a Praying that God would go with the Israelites Exod. 34.8 9. For it is a stiffneck'd people What an Argument is here for God to go along with them He might rather since he had heard him but just before say he would by no means clear the guilty desire God to stand further off from them for fear the fire of his wrath should burst out from him to burn them as he did the Sodomites But he considers that as none but God had such anger to destroy them so none but God had such a Patience to bear with them 'T is as much as if he should have said Lord if thou should'st send the most tender hearted Angel in Heaven to have the guidance of this people
they would be a lost people A period will quickly be set to their lives no Created strength can restrain its power from crushing such a stiff-neck'd people Flesh and Blood cannot bear them nor any Created Spirit of a greater might 1. Consider the greatness of the provocations No light matter but actions of a great defiance What is the practical Language of most in the World but that of Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should obey him How many question his being and more his Authority What blasphemies of him what reproaches of his Majesty Men drinking up iniquity like water and with a hast and ardency rushing into sin as the horse into the battle What is there in the reasonable creature that hath the quickest capacity and the deepest obligation to serve him but opposition and enmity a slight of him in every thing yea the services most seriously performed unsuited to the royalty and purity of so great a Being Such provocations as dare him to his face that are a burden to so righteous a Judge and so great a lover of the Authority and Majesty of his Laws That were there but a spark of anger in him 't is a wonder it doth not shew it self When he is invaded in all his attributes 't is astonishing that this single one of Patience and Meekness should with-stand the assault of all the rest of his perfections His being which is attack'd by sin speakes for vengeance his Justice cannot be imagin'd to stand silent without charging the sinner His Holiness cannot but encourage his Justice to urge its pleas and be an Advocate for it His Omniscience proves the truth of all the charge and his abused mercy hath little encouragement to make opposition to the Indictment Nothing but Patience stands in the gap to keep off the arrest of judgment from the sinner 2. His Patience is manifest if you consider the multitudes of these provocations Every man hath sin enough in a day to make him stand amazed at Divine Patience and to call it as well as the Apostle did all long suffering 1 Tim. 1.16 How few duties of a perfectly right stamp are performed What unworthy considerations mix themselves like dross with our purest and sincerest Gold How more numerous are the respects of the Worshippers of him to themselves than unto him How many services are paid him not out of love to him but because he should do us no hurt and some service When we do not so much design to please him as to please our selves by expectations of a reward from him What Master would endure a servant that endeavoured to please him only because he should not kill him Is that former charge of God upon the Old World yet out of date That the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man was only evil and that continually Gen. 6.5 Was not the New World as chargeable with it as the Old Certainly it was Gen. 8.21 And is of as much force this very minute as it was then How many are the sins against knowledge as well as those of ignorance Presumptuous sins as well as those of infirmity How numerous those of Omission and Commission * Lessius pag. 152. 'T is above the reach of any man's understanding to conceive all the Blasphemies Oaths Thefts Adulteries Murders Oppressions contempt of Religion the open Idolatries of Turks and Heathens the more spiritual and refin'd Idolatries of others Add to those the ingratitude of those that profess his name their pride earthlyness carelesness sluggishness to divine duties and in every one of those a multitude of provocations The whole man being engag'd in every sin the understanding contriving it the will embracing it the affections complying with it and all the members of the body instruments in the acting the unrighteousness of it Every one of these faculties bestowed upon men by him are armed against him in every act and in every employment of them there is a distinct provocation though center'd in one sinful end and object What are the offences all the men of the World receive from their fellow creatures to the injuries God receives from men but as a small dust of earth to the whole mass of Earth and Heaven too What multitudes of sins is one prophane wretch guilty of in the space of 20 40 50 years Who can compute the vast number of his transgressions from the first use of reason to the time of the separation of his Soul from his Body from his entrance into the World to his exit What are those to those of a whole Village of the like Inhabitants What are those to those of a great City Who can number up all the foul mouth'd Oaths the beastly excess the goatish uncleanness committed in the space of a day year twenty years in this City much less in the whole Nation least of all in the whole World Were it no more than the common Idolatry of former ages when the whole World turn'd their backs upon their Creator and passed him by to sue to a Creature a stock or stone or a degraded spirit How provoking would it be to a Prince to see a whole City under his Dominion deny him a respect and pay it to his scullion or the common Executioner he employs Add to this the unjust invasions of Kings the oppressions exercised upon men all the private and publick sins that have been in the World ever since it began The Gentiles were describ'd by the Apostle Rom. 1.29 30 31. in a black character They were haters of God yet how did the Riches of his patience preserve multitudes of such disingenuous persons and how many millions of such haters of him breath every day in his Air and are maintained by his bounty have their tables sprâ—â—d and their cups fill'd to the brim and that too in the midst of reiterated belchings of their enmity against him All are under sufficient provocations of him to the highest indignation The presiding Angels over Nations could not forbear in Love and Honour to their Governour to arm themselves to the destruction of their several charges if Divine patience did not set them a pattern and their obedience incline them to expect his Orders before they act what their zeal would prompt them to The Devils would be glad of Commission to destroy the World but that his patience puts a stop to their fury 〈◊〉 well as his own Justice 3. Consider the long time of this patience He spread out his handâ— all the day to a rebellious World Isaiah 65.2 All mens day all Gods day which is a thousand years he hath born with the gross of mankind with all the Nations of the World in a long succession of ages for five thousand years and upwards already and will bear with them till the time comes for the World dissolution He hath suffered the monstrous acts of men and endur'd the contradictions of a sinful World against himself from the first sin of Adam
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