Imprisoned in a Cloud shall be set in a Clear Skie The Bright Diamond of your Souls now soiled with Corruption shall be cleansed all the Black Spots now fixt there shall be changed into radiant Lights of Heaven Comfort one another with these words Vse 4. Lastly We are hence instructed in some few Duties viz. 1. To shun inward Sins Hypocrisie Pride Vain-Glory Infidelity as carefully as outward and more visible Sins God is Omniscient and views the sins of the heart as well as the sins of the Life the under Roots as well as the upper Boughs He sees Faults where men see none Nay that which shines to mans eye like a Diamond is in Gods Ballance a Contemptible Worm It was a wise practice therefore of that Arabian we read of who to prevent sin represented to himself over his head an Eye which perpetually enlightned him an Ear which heard him and an Hand which measured out all his Deportments and Demeanours Verily the due consideration of Gods Eye will blunt a thousand and a thousand Arrows shot against the heart of a resolute Christian If the exercise thereof were as familiar to us as it is effectual how powerful a motive would it be to cleanse all the impurities of our Intentions and affections and give us leave to arrive to the top of Perfection 2. To seek to him for Knowledg Ignorance is no Branch of his Image who is Omniscient Let it be the Mother of Popish Devotion suffer it not so much to be with the Profession of Christs Religion He giveth wisdom liberally He descended into the Country of Darkness to scatter Knowledg by his brightness and ceaseth not to give light and kindle in our hearts many Inspirations which are like so many Stars to conduct us to the Fountain of our Happiness Hear him promising All thy Children shall be taught of God It is his Prerogative to teach Hearts The Sun enlightens the World and Christ enlightens Souls Make it your Prayer Lord breathe upon us breathe thy Spirit into thy Word You may read the Bible and hear Sermons over and over but to no purpose till the Spirit of Christ Shine in your Hearts and the more Commerce you have with the Divine Essence the more splendour you shall enjoy And having obtained use all to his Glory from whom you receive all Be faithful Stewards Like as small Rivers which pay their Tribute and acknowledgments to the great Ocean whence they came 3. Prize the Lord Jesus Christ set an high esteem upon him why do we Reverence Learned men among our selves as those eminent Doctors Reynolds both former and latter Perkins Bolton Luther Melancthon Musculus Beza Calvin Zanchis Chamier Camero and others Among our Adversaries Lumbard Aquinas Durand Hales c. Among the Gentiles Aristotle Plutarch Homer c. With other brave Fellows separated from us by many Lands and Seas yea by Death and all for their Knowledg because we have seen a Ray of their wits upon Paper Beams of their Knowledg which was but a drop of his Ocean and a Spark of his Light who Enlightneth every one that cometh into the World this made them admired If Alexander could say That he was more bound to Aristotle his Schoolmaster than to his Natural Parent how much more are we bound unto and should we Prize and Praise our Omniscient Jesus Secondly we have here offer'd to our Consideration The Omnipotency of our God in whom we Believe He calleth i. e. he Causeth things not only to appear but also to be in time as they were willed and seen before time This Power is either Absolute whereof sacred writings say but little and about which we are not to enquire or Actual as Limited by his Will and Ordered by his Wisdom to give being and dispose his Creatures by means to their several ends Of which we are now to discourse giving us two Observations viz. 1. That our God in whom Abraham believed and we should belilve is Omnipotent 2. That the Omnipotency of our God in whom we should believe is a firm ground of Faith For the former Our God is Omnipotent He can do all things that imply not Imperfection as to Sin and deny himself to Sin is against his Supremacy he hath no Superiour against whom he might offend It is against his Natural Sanctity and Omnipotency Or that imply not a Contradiction as to be and not to be at the same time in the same Respect because that is Repugnant to Entity Thiâ— is true of all the Persons 1. Of the Father none ever Acknowledging a God denying it So we have it in the Apostles Creed I believe in God the Father Almighty Where Almighty is applyed to the Father Inclusively as Lord or Dominion is appropriated to the Son not excluding the Father or the Holy Spirit Hence it is that Hereticks have appropriated all the Attributes of Eternity Omnisciency Omnipotency to the Father alone 2. It is true of the Son John 1.3 All things were made by him and without him was nothing made Which latter Clause is added for â—…e more Certainty it being usual with the Hebrews thus by Negation to Confirm what before they have affirmed where they would assure that the thing is so indeed He is therefore stiled The first and the last Revel 1.17 It is a verity that is written with the Rays of a vast number of Divine Witnesses 3. It is true of the Holy Spirit Gen. 1.2 The Spirit moved on the Face of the Waters i. e. he sustained them by the Power of his Sublimity However Interpreters have varied hereabout yet all conclude it to be the Spirit of God nothing distinct from the Deity or Infinite Active Power of God So the Psalmist 95 Psalm which our Apostle takes notice of as spoken not by but of the Holy Spirit Hebr. 3.7 The Grounds whereof are twofold 1. The Unity of Nature doth imply equality of Power we say we believe there are three Subsistences in the Divine Essence and that each of those Persons is truely and properly God and we find such Attributes and works ascribed to the whole Nature of the Deity to the several Persons Subsisting in that Divine Nature as do evince their Power to be the same 2. This Manifestation of power is opus ad extra and therefore common According to that constant Rule of Credit among all Divines Opera Trinitatis ad extrâ— sunt indivisa But especially Attributed to the Second Person here and in most places because that is most beneficial to the Church and is most opPosed by Enemies Gen. 17.1 I am God Almighty Elshaddai signifying either Sufficiency because he is sufficient of himself as Psalm 16.2 My Goodness extendeth not to thee c. He is Infinitely above Creatures Infinite in Essence and Goodness comprehending within himself all good and anticipating it to all Eternity with an incomparable Eminency Or else it signifieth Omnipotency for the word will bear both all things yielding to him both for
the Dead by the Glory of the Father and that the Father raised him It is easily answered This was not by way of supplement to make up any defect of power in Christ but only by way of consent to Christs own Power and Action that so men might Honour the Son and the Father John 5.19,26 Or else by the Glory of the Father we may understand that Glorious Power which the Father gave unto the Son in the Flesh to have life from himself because that holy Spirit which immediatly quickned him was both his and the Fathers and so the Action was common to both Thus like the Pâ—…enix he goeth out of the Sâ—pulcher in the day of his Triumphs al lighted and environ'd with Flames of Triumphant Glory 3. Assuring others by his lights and sâ—…en or that they shall rise again 1. Cor. 6.14 He is called the first Fruits of them that Sleep The Triumphant Resurrection of our Lord is the Root and Hope of ours with this he sweetens the acerbities of our present life and replenisheth Hearts with the Antipast of their Immortality for he arose not barely in a Personal but Publick Capacity and though it were a Damnable Heresy of Hymeneus to say That the Resurrection was past already Yet it is a truth to say that it is begun He first and we at his coming 1 Cor. 15.25 By what is past in the head we are assured of what is expected in his Members for his Resurrection is a Pledge and Earnest of theirs He having paid our Debt Death cannot detain us in Prison for it Yea it is a beginning of ours as before is noted he being raised who is the Head the Body must also follow If the Elder Brother be sprung out of the Dust the Younger Brethren shall not stay there The Vine-Plant being in Heaven there the Branches must receive their Eternal Flourish Object 1. Is it not said 1. Cor. 15.2 By man came the Resurrection of the Dead A. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a man as is God also from whose Will this large Soul of Nature had its motion and who therein commandeth so universally as he seems to hold the Heaven and Elements under here to be instruments of his Wonders it is he that lighted Stars at his Birth and Eclipsed the Ancient Sun at his Death and walked on the waters as on a Pavement of Marble It is he that causeth the Earth to cast out her Dead Object 2. Have not men done it Answer 1. Stories of Men Raised by Men are either Lies and Illusions as the Pythonist of Endor raised the Devil in Samuels Shape and the Church of Rome maintain many Idle Stories of Dead men Raised to Walk and Live after Death Otherwayes Dead Men neither walk nor appear in Body or Soul after Death Or if there are any such They are extraordinary Permissions for Secret Ends only known to him that Permits them 2. The Prophets and Apostles have done it but in the Quality of Ministers So Elisha raised the Shunamites Son 2. Kings 4.34 And Peter raised Dorcas Acts 9.40 But not by their own Power It only belongs to Christ to do this work with an Original Power which hath its Fountain in his Bosom with an Absolute Command which receives no Modification in all Nature with a Simple Will which needs no other Instrument It was by Divine Influence and Assistance in those Prophets and Apostles to confirm their Doctrine and to draw the Church sooner to believe 3. It is the Divine Nature that is the Fountain of Life he gives takes restores to whom when and how he pleaseth As it is with the Sea for water and the Sun for light in the former all the waters are gathered together into an Ocean where they grow into swelling heaps and are the source of all the Streams that refresh the Earth and in the latter that great Luminarie is the Vessel wherein the Lord hath gathered all light which before was sattered in the Heavens but is now united in that bright Lamp which running like a fiery Chariot might rule the day and illustrate the earth making it fruitful Thus it is with the Deity for life John 6.63 The Spirit quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you are Spirit and Life And by this power he quickneth the Dead So that it 's clear the work is his who is Lord of nature and holds the Keys of life and death in his own hands His light only can dispel the darkness and his voice only can break the silence of the Grave The second Doctrine comes now to hand viz. Doct. 2. That this Divine Priviledge should be to us a ground of Faith Gen. 17.1 I am God all-sufficient walk before me c. Walk before me who am all-sufficient self-sufficient Original Universal Good the Pillar of Abrahams Faith And the Apostle speaks by way of wonder that any should not believe it Acts. 26.8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you That God should raise the Dead Therefore it is that the Sacred Scripture doth frequently mind us of his power to help our incredulitie Numb 23.19 God is not as man that he should lie nor the Son of man that he should repent hath he said it and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good And again Is there any thing too hard for God So Math. 19.27 With God all things are possible A main prop to an humble Suppliant That seeing his own vileness and the Divine Excellencies which are warming and enlightning cryeth out Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean as it is recorded Math. 8. â— 2. This is the Rock on which the weak Anchor of a Christians Faith may firmly fix You know Sampsons Riddle Out of the Eater cometh forth Sweet The reason why Christians should consider the power of God out of this strong comes forth sweetness In the application hereof may be found Vse 1. Matter of Correction and that of two sorts First of such that make it too hard denying the Resurrection in opinion As Pearls are dissolved in Vinegar so is Truth in hearts made bitter with Corruption Thus we find many wicked and irregular Spirits who having renounced the blessings of the other life against the voice of nature in the order of the World wherein we have the New Birth of Stars days Seasons Plants and Birds who make a perpetual Image of the Resurrection in the World nay against the touch of God and impressions of verity on the very Gentiles who have professed the happiness of the Soul in the other life and the Resurrection even on their Tombs to deny the Resurrection So the Saduces of old Acts 23.8 Hymeneus and Philetus 2 Tim. 18. which you may easily perceive is not only to crack the eye of a reasonable judgment but also to pull out the eye of Faith all pure and caelestial as it is Or in practice Let us eat