* 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
make them march in the same order to their Confusion as they did in their Creation Who can jumble the whole Frame together and by a Word dissolve the Pillars of the World and make the Fabrick lie in a ruinous heap 2. In effecting his Purposes by small Means In making use of the Meanest Creatures As the Power of God is seen in the creation of the smallest Creatures and assembling so many perfections in the little body of an Insect as an Ant or Spider So his Power is not less magnified in the use he makes of them As he magnifies his Wisdom by using ignorant Instruments so he exalts his Power by employing weak Instruments in his service The Meaness and Imperfection of the matter sets off the Excellency of the Workman so the weakness of the Instrument is a foyl to the Power of the principal Agent When God hath effected things by Means in the Scripture he hath usually brought about his Purposes by weak Instruments Moses a Fugitive from Egypt and Aaron a Captive in it are the Instruments of the Israelites Deliverance By the motion of Moses his Rod he works Wonders in the Court of Pharaoh and summons up his Judgments against him He brought down Pharaohs stomack for a while by a squadron of Lice and Locusts wherein Divine Power was more seen than if Moses had brought him to his own Articles by a multitude of Warlike Troops The fall of the Walls of Jericho by the sound of Rams horns was a more glorious Character of Gods Power than if Joshuah had batter'd it down with an hundred of Warlike Engines Josh 6.20 Thus the great Army of the Midianites which lay as Grasshoppers upon the ground were routed by Gideon in the head of Three hundred Men and Goliah a Giant laid level with the ground by David a Stripling by the force of a Sling A Thousand Philistines dispatcht out of the World by the Jaw Bone of an Ass in the hand of Sampson He can master a stout Nation by an Army of Locusts and render the Teeth of those little Insects as destructive as the Teeth yea the strongest Teeth the Cheek Teeth of a great Lion * Joel 1.6 7. The Thunderbolt which produceth sometimes dreadful effects is compacted of little Atoms which fly in the Air small Vapors drawn up by the Sun and mixt with other Sulphurous matter and petrifying Juice Nothing is so weak but his Strength can make victorious nothing so small but by his Power he can accomplish his great ends by it nothing so vile but his Mâ—ght can conduct to his glory and no Nation so mighty but he can waste and enfeeble by the Meanest Creatures God is great in Power in the greatest things and not little in the smallest his Power in the minutest Creatures which he uses for his service surmounts the force of our Understanding III. The Power of God appears in Redemption As our Saviour is called the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 so he is called the Power of God The Arm of Power was lifted up as high as the designs of Wisdom were laid deep As this way of Redemption could not be contriv'd but by an Infinite Wisdom so it could not be accomplish'd but by an Infinite Power None but God could shape such a design and none but God could effect it The Divine Power in Temporal deliverances and freedom from the slavery of humane Oppressors vails to that which glitters in Redemption whereby the Devil is defeated in his designs stript of his spoils and yok'd in his strength The Power of God in Creation requires not those degrees of Admiration as in Redemption In Creation the World was erected from Nothing as there was Nothing to act so there was Nothing to oppose no victorious Devil was in that to be subdued no thundring Law to be silenced no Death to be conquer'd no Transgression to be pardoned and rooted out no Hell to be shut no Ignominious death upon the Cross to be suffered It had been in the nature of the thing an easier thing to Divine Power to have created a new World than repair'd a broken and purified a polluted one This is the most admirable Work that ever God brought forth in the World greater than all the Marks of his Power in the first Creation And this will appear 1. In the Person Redeeming 2. In the publication and propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption 3. In the application of Redemption I. In the Person Redeeming First In his Conception 1. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin Luke 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee Which act is exprest to be the effect of the Infinite Power of God and it expresses the supernatural manner of the forming the Humanity of our Saviour and signifies not the Divine Nature of Christ infusing it self into the Womb of the Virgin for the Angel refers it to the manner of the operation of the Holy Ghost in the producing the Humane Nature of Christ and not to the Nature assuming that Humanity into union with it self The Holy Ghost or the Third Person in the Trinity overshadowed the Virgin and by a Creative act fram'd the Humanity of Christ and united it to the Divinity It is therefore exprest by a word of the same import with that used Gen. 1.2 The Spirit moved upon the face of the face of the Waters which signifies as it were a Brooding upon the Chaos shadowing it with his Wings as Hens sit upon their Eggs to form them and hatch them into Animals or else it is an allusion to the Cloud which covered the Tent of the Congregation when the Glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle * Exod. 40 34 It was not such a Creative Act as we call Immediate which is a production out of Nothing but a Mediate Creatâ—on such as Gods bringing things into form out of the first Matter which had nothing but an Obediential or Passive disposition to whatsoever stamp the Powerful Wisdom of God should imprint upon it So the substance of the Virgin had no active but only a passive disposition to this work The Matter of the Body was Earthy the substance of the Virgin the forming of it was Heavenly the Holy Ghost working upon that Matter And therefore when it is said Mat. 1.18 that she was found with Child of the Holy Ghost 't is to be understood of the Efficacy of the Holy Ghost not of the Substance of the Holy Ghost The matter was Natural but the manner of Conceiving was in a Supernatural way above the methods of Nature In reference to the Active Principle the Redeemer is called in the Prophecy †Isai 4.2 The Branch of the Lord in regard of the Divine hand that planted him In respect to the Passive Principle The Fruit of the Earth in regard of the Womb that bare him and therefore said to be made
have all the Utensils of the Sanctuary employed about his service to be holy The Inwards of the Sacrifice were to be rinsed thrice * As the Jewish Doctors observe on Lev. 1.9 The Crop and Feathers of sacrificed Doves was to be hung Eastward towards the entrance of the Temple at a distance from the Holy of Holies where the presence of God was most eminent * Lev. 1.16 When Aaron was to go into the Holy of Holies he was to sanctifie himself in an extraordinary manner * Lev. 16.4 The Priests were to be bare footed in the Temple in the exercise of their Office shoes alway were to be put off upon holy ground Look to thy foot when thou goest to the House of God saith the wise man Eccles 5.1 Strip the affections the feet of the Soul of all the dirt contracted discard all earthly and base thoughts from the heart A Beast was not to touch the Mount Sinai without losing his Life Nor can we come near the Throne with brutish affections without losing the life and fruit of the worship An unholy Soul degrades himself from a Spirit to a Brute and the worship from spiritual to brutish If any unmortified sin be found in the Life as it was in the comers to the Temple It taints and pollutes the Worship * Isa 1.15 All worship is an acknowledgment of the excellency of God as he is holy * Jer. 7.9 10. Hence it is called a sanctifying Gods Name How can any person sanctifie Gods Name that hath not a holy resemblance to his Nature If he be not holy as he is holy he cannot worship him according to his excellency in Spirit and in Truth No worship is spiritual wherein we have not a communion with God But what intercourse can there be between a holy God and an impure Creature between Light and Darkness We have no fellowship with him in any service unless we walk in the Light in service and out of service as he is Light * 1 John 1.7 The Heathen thought not their Sacrifices agreeable to God without washing their hands whereby they signified the preparation of their hearts before they made the Oblation Clean hands without a pure heart signify nothing The frame of our hearts must answer the purity of the outward Symbols Psal 26.6 I will wash my hands in Innocence so will I compass thine Altar oh Lord He would observe the appointed Ceremonies but not without cleansing his heart as well as his hands Vain Man is apt to rest upon outward acts and rites of worship But this must alway be practised The words are in the present Tense I wash I compass Purity in worship ought to be our continual Care If we would perform a spiritual service wherein we would have communion with God it must be in Holiness If we would walk with Christ it must be in white * Revel 3.4 alluding to the white Garments the Priests put on when they went to perform their service As without this we cannot see God in Heaven so neither can we see the beauty of God in his own Ordinances 11. Spiritual worship is performed with spiritual ends with raised aims at the glory of God No duty can be spiritual that hath a carnal aim Where God is the sole Object he ought to be the principal End In all our actions he is to be our End as he is the principle of our Being much more in Religious Acts as he is the Object of our worship The worship of God in Scripture is exprest by the seeking of him * Heb. 11.6 Him not our selves all is to be referred to God As we are not to live to our selves that being the sign of a carnal state so we are not to worship for our selves Rom. 14.7 8. As all actions are denominated good from their end as well as their object so upon the same account they are denominated spiritual The end spiritualizeth our natural actions much more our religious Then are our faculties devoted to him when they center in him If the intention be evil there is nothing but darkness in the whole service Luke 11.34 The first institution of the Sabbath the solemn day for worship was to contemplate the glory of God in his stupendous works of Creation and render him a homage for them Revel 4.11 Thou art worthy oh Lord to receive Honour Glory and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created No worship can be returned without a glorifying of God and we cannot actually glorify him without direct aims at the promoting his honour As we have immediately to do with God so we are immediately to mind the praise of God As we are not to content our selves with habitual grace but be rich in the exercise of it in worship so we are not to acquiesce in habitual aims at the glory of God without the actual outflowings of our hearts in those aims 'T is natural for Man to worship God for self Self-righteousness is the rooted aim of Man in his worship since his revolt from God and being sensible it is not to be found in his natural actions he speaks for it in his moral and religious By the first Pride we flung God off from being our Soveraign and from being our end since a Pharisaical Spirit struts it in nature not only to do things to be seen of men but to be admired by God Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted and thou takest no knowledge This is to have God worship them instead of being worshipped by them Cain's carriage after his Sacrifice testified some base end in his worship he came not to God as a Subject to a Soveraign but as if he had been the Soveraign and God the Subject and when his design is not answered and his desire not gratified he proves more a Rebel to God and a Murderer of his Brother Such base scents will rise up in our worship from the body of death which cleaves to us and mix themselves with our services as Weeds with the Fish in the Net David therefore after his People had offered willingly to the Temple beggs of God that their hearts might be prepared to him * 1 Cron. 29.18 that their hearts might stand right to God without any squinting to self-ends Some present themselves to God as poor men offer a present to a great person not to honour him but to gain for themselves a reward richer than their gift What profit is it that we have kept his Ordinance c Mal. 3.14 Some worship him intending thereby to make him amends for the wrong they have done him wipe off their scores and satisfie their debts as though a spiritual wrong could be recompensed with a bodily service and an infinite Spirit be outwitted and appeased by a carnal flattery Self is the Spirit of Carnality To pretend a homage to God and intend only the advantage of self is rather
Essence of God to be every where as to be always Immensity is as rational as Eternity That indivisible Essence which reaches through all times may as well reach through all places 'T is more excellent to be always than to be every where for to be always in duration is Intrinsical to be every where is Extrinsick If the greater belongs to God why not the less As all times are a Moment to his Eternity so all places are as a Point to his Essence As he is larger than all time so he is vaster than all place The Nations of the World are to him as the Dust of the Ballance or Drop of a Bucket * Isa 40.15 The Nations are accounted as the small Dust the Essence of God may well be thought to be present every where with that which is no more than a grain of Dust to him and in all those Isles which if put together are a very little thing in his hand Therefore saith a Learned Jew * Maimonid If a man were set in the highest Heavens he would not be nearer to the Essence of God than if he were in the Center of the Earth Why may not the Presence of God in the World be as noble as that of the Soul in the Body which is generally granted to be essentially in every part of the body of man which is but a little World and animates every Member by its actual presence though it exerts not the same operation in every part * Ficin the World is less to the Creator than the Body to the Soul and needs more the Presence of God than the Body needs the presence of the Soul That glorious body of the Sun visits every part of the Habitable Earth in 24 hours by its beams which reaches the Troughs of the lowest Valleys as well as the Pinacles of the highest Mountains must we not acknowledg in the Creator of this Sun an infinite greater proportion of Presence Is it not as easy with the Essence of God to over-spread the whole body of Heaven and Earth as it is for the Sun to pierce and diffuse its self through the whole Air between it and the Earth and send up its light also as far to the Regions above Do we not see something like it in Sounds and Voices Is not the same Sound of a Trumpet or any other Musical Instrument at the first breaking out of a Blast in several places within such a compass at the same time Doth not every Ear that hears it receive alike the whole sound of it And fragrant Odors scented in several places at the same time in the same manner and the Organ proper for Smelling takes in the same in every person within the compass of it How far is the noise of Thunder heard alike to every Ear in places something distant from one another And do we daily find such a manner of presence in those things of so low a concern and not imagine a kind of Presence of God greater than all those Is the sound of Thunder the Voice of God as it is call'd every where in such a compass and shall not the Essence of an Infinite God be much more every where Those that would confine the Essence of God only to Heaven and exclude it from the Earth run into great inconveniencies It may be demanded whether he be in one part of the Heavens or in the whole vast body of them If in one part of them his Essence is bounded if he moves from that part he is mutable for he changes a place wherein he was for another wherein he was not If he be always fixed in one part of the Heavens such a notion would render him little better than a living Statue * Hornheck Soun Part 1. p. 303. If he be in the whole Heaven why cannot his Essence possess a greater space than the whole Heavens which are so vast How comes he to be confin'd within the compass of that since the whole Heaven compasseth the Earth If he be in the whole Heaven he is in places farther distant one from another than any part of the Earth can be from the Heavens since the Earth is like a Center in the midst of a Circle it must be nearer to every part of the Circle than some parts of the Circle can be to one another If therefore his Essence possesses the whole Heavens no reason can be render'd why he doth not also possess the Earth since also the Earth is but a little point in comparison of the vastness of the Heavens If therefore he be in every part of the Heavens why not in every part of the Earth The Scripture is plain Psal 139.7.8 9. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit Or whither shall I flie from thy Presence If I ascend up to Heaven thou art there If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall uphold me If he be in Heaven Earth Hell Sea he fills all places with his Presence his Presence is here asserted in places the most distant from one another all the places then between Heaven and Earth are possessed by his Presence 'T is not meant of his Knowledge for that the Psalmist had spoken of before ver 2.3 Thou understandest my thoughts afar off thou art acquainted with all my ways Besides Thou art there not thy wisdom or knowledge but Thou thy Essence not only thy Vertue For having before spoken of his Omniscience he proves that such Knowledg could not be in God unless he were present in his Essence in all places so as to be excluded from none He fills the depths of Hell the extension of the Earth and the heights of the Heavens When the Scripture mentions the Power of God only it expresseth it by Hand or Arm but when it mentions the Spirit of God and doth not intend the Third Person in the Trinity it signifies the Nature and Essence of God And so here when he saith Whither shall I go from thy Spirit he adds exegetically Whither shall I flie from thy Presence or Heb. Face and the Face of God in Scripture signifies the Essence of God †Exod 33.20.23 Thou canst not see my face and my face shall not be seen the effects of his Power Wisdom Providence are seen which are his Back-parts but not his face The effects of his Power and Wisdom are seen in the World but his Essence is invisible and this the Psalmist elegantly expresseth Had I Wings endued with as much quickness as the first Dawnings of the morning light or the first darts of any Sun-beam that spreads its self through the Hemisphere and passes many Miles in as short a space as I can think a Thought I should find thy presence in all places before me and could not flie out of the infinite
that Redemption to us the order of the Persons had also been inverted The Spirit then who was third in order had been second in Operation The Son would then have received of the Spirit as the Spirit doth now of Christ and shew it unto us Joh. 1.15 As the Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son so the proper Function and Operation of it was in order alter the Operations of the Father and the Son Had the Spirit been sent to redeem us and the Son sent by the Father and the Spirit to apply that Redemption to us the Son in his acts had proceeded from the Father and the Spirit the Spirit as sender had been in order before the Son whereas the Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ as sent by Christ from the Father Gal. 4.6 Joh. 15.27 But as the order of the Works so the order of the Persons is preserved in their several Operations Creation and a Law to govern the Creature precedes Redemption Nothing or that which hath no being is not capable of a redeemed being Redemption supposeth the existence and the misery of a Person redeemed As Creation precedes Redemption so Redemption precedes the application of it As Redemption supposeth the being of the Creature so application of Redemption supposeth the efficacy of Redemption According to the order of these Works is the order of the Operations of the three Persons Creation belongs to the Father the first Person Redemption the second work is the Function of the Son the second Person Application the third work is the Office of the Holy Ghost the third Person The Father orders it the Son acts it the Holy Ghost applies it He purifies our Souls to understand believe and love these Mysteries He forms Christ in the womb of the Soul as he did the Body of Christ in the womb of the Virgin As the Spirit of God moved upon the waters to garnish and adorn the World after the Matter of it was formed Gen. 1.2 so he moves upon the heart to supple it to a complyance with Christ and draws the Lineaments of the new Creation in the Soul after the Foundation is laid The Son pays the price that was due from us to God and the Spirit is the earnest of the Promises of Life and Glory purchased by the Merit of that Death * Amyraâ—t Moral Tom. 5. p. 478 479 480. 'T is to be observed that the Father under the dispensation of the Law proposed the Commands with the Promises and Threatnings to the Understandings of Men and Christ under the dispensation of Grace when he was upon the Earth proposeth the Gospel as the Means of Salvation exhorts to Faith as the Condition of salvation but it was neither the Function of the one or the other to display such an efficacy in the Understanding and Will to make men believe and obey and therefore there were such few Conversions in the time of Christ by his Miracles But this work was reserved for the fuller and brighter appearance of the Spirit whose Office it was to convince the World of the necessity of a Redeemer because of their lost Condition of the Person of the Redeemer the Son of God of the sufficiency and efficacy of Redemption because of his righteousness and acceptation by the Father The Wisdom of God is seen in preparing and presenting the Objects and then in making impression of them upon the Subjects he intends And thus is the order of the three Persons preserved 2. The second Person had the greatest congruity to this work He by whom God created the World was most conveniently imployed in restoring the defaced World Who more fit to recover it from it s lapsed state John 1.4 than he that had erected it in its primitive state Hebr. 1.2 He was the light of men in Creation and therefore it was most reasonable he should be the light of men in Redemption Who sitter to reform the Divine Image than he that first formed it Who fitter to speak for us to God than he who was the Word Joh. 1.1 Who could better intercede with the Father than he who was the only begotten and beloved Son Who so fit to redeem the forfeited Inheritance as the Heir of all things Who fitter and better to prevail for us to have the right of Children than he that possessed it by Nature We fell from being the Sons of God and who fitter to introduce us into an adopted state than the Son of God Herein was an expression of the richer Grace because the first sin was immediately against the wisdom of God by an ambitious affectation of a wisdom equal to God That that Person who was the wisdom of God should be made a Sacrifice for the expiation of the sin against Wisdom 3. The wisdom of God is seen in the two Natures of Christ whereby this Redemption was accomplished The Union of the two Natures was the Foundation of the Union of God and the fallen Creature 1. The Vnion it self is admirable The Word is made Flesh Joh. 1.14 One equal with God in the form of a Servant Phil. 2.7 When the Apostle speaks of God manifested in the flesh he speaks the wisdom of God in a Mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 That which is incomprehensible to the Angels which they never imagined before it was revealed which perhaps they never knew till they beheld it I am sure under the Law the Figures of the Cherubims were placed in the Sanctuary with their faces looking towards the Propitiatory in a perpetual posture of Contemplation and Admiration Exod. 37.9 to which the Apostle alludes 1 Pet. 1.12 Mysterious is the wisdom of God to unite Finite and Infinite Almightiness and Weakness Immortality and Mortality Immutability with a Thing subject to Change to have a Nature from Eternity and yet a Nature subject to the Revolutions of Time a Nature to make a Law and a Nature to be subjected to the Law to be God blessed for ever in the bosom of his Father and an Infant exposed to Câ—lâ—mities from the Womb of his Mother Terms seeming most distant from union most uncapable of conjunction to shake hands together to be most intimately conjoyned Glory and Vileness Fulness and Emptiness Heaven and Earth the Creature with the Creator he that made all things in one Person with a Nature that is made Immanuel God and Man in one That which is most Spiritual to partake of that which is Carnal flesh and blood * Heb. 2.14 One with the Father in his Godhead one with us in his Manhood The Godhead to be in him in the fullest Perfection and the Manhood in the greatest Purity The Creature one with the Creator and the Creator one with the Creature Thus is the incomprehensible Wisdom of God declared in the Word being made Flesh 2. In the manner of this Vnion A Union of two Natures yet no Natural Union It transcends all the Unions visible among Creatures †Savana triâ—mp
a Chain as a ravenous Lion or a furious wild Horse by the Creator and Governour of the World What remedy could be used by Man against the activity of this unseen and swift Spirit The World could not subsist under his Malice he would practise the same things upon All as he did upon Job when he had got leave from his Governour turn the Swords of Men into one anothers bowels send Fire from Heaven upon the Fruits of the Earth and the Cattle intended for the use of Man Raise Winds to shake and tear our Houses upon our Heads daub our Bodies with Scabs and Boils and let all the humors in our Blood loose upon us He that envied Adam a Paradise doth envy us the pleasure of enjoying its out-works If we were not destroyed by him we should live in a continued vexation by Spectrums and Apparitions affrighting sounds and noise as some think the Egyptians did in that three days Darkness He would be alway winnowing us as he desired to winnow Peter Luke 22.31 But God over-masters his strength that he cannot move a hairs breadth beyond his Tedder not only he is unable to touch an Upright Job but to lay his fingers upon one of the Unbelieving Gadarens forbidden and filthy Swine without special licence Mat. 8.31 When he is cast out of one place he walks through dry places seeking rest Luke 11.24 new objects for his Malicious designs but finding none till God le ts loose the reins upon him for a new employment Though Satans Power be great yet God suffers him not to tempt as much as his Diabolical appetite would but as much as Divine Wisdom thinks fit And the Divine Power tempers the others active Malice and gives the Creature victory where the Enemy intended spoil and captivity How much stronger is God than all the Legions of Hell Luke 11.22 as he that holds a strong man from effecting his purpose testifies more ability than his Adversary How doth he lock him up for a Thousand years in a Pownd which he cannot leap over Rev. 20.3 and this restraint is wrought partly by blinding the Devil in his designs partly by denying him concourse to his motion As he hindered the active quality of the Fire upon the Three Children by withdrawing his power which was necessary to the motion of it and his power is as necessary for the motion of the Devil as for that of any other Creature Sometimes he makes him to confess him against his own interest as Apollo's Oracle confest †Caeteâ—â—â— deos aeâ—eos esse c. Grot. â—eâ—it reâ— lib. 4. And though when the Devil was cast out of the possessed person he publickly owned Christ to be the Holy one of God Mark 1.24 to render him suspected by the People of having commerce with the Unclean Spirits yet this he could not do without the leave and permission of God that the power of Christ in stopping his mouth and imposing silence upon him might be evidenced and that it reaches to the Gates of Hell as well as to the quieting of Winds and Waves This is a part of the Strength as well as the Wisdom of God Job 12.16 that the deceived and the deceiver are his Wisdom to defeat and Power to over-rule his most Malicious designs to his own glory 2. In the restraint of the Natural Corruption of Men. Since the impetus of Original Corruption runs in the Blood conveyed down from Adam to the Veins of all his Posterity and universally diffus'd in all Mankind what wrack and havock would it make in the World if it were not supprest by this Divine Power which presides over the hearts of Men Man is so wretched by Nature that nothing but what is vile and pernicious can drop from him Man drinks Iniquity like water Job 15.16 being by Nature abominable and filthy He greedily swallows all matter for Iniquity every thing suitable to the mire and poyson in his Nature and would sprout it out with all fierceness and insolence God himself gives us the description of Mans Nature Gen. 6.5 that he hath not one good imagination at any time Rom. 3.10 c. And the Apostle from the Psalmist dilates and comments upon it There is none righteous no not one their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood c. This Corruption is equal in all natural to all 't is not more poysonous or more fierce in one Man than in another The Root of all Men is the same all the Branches therefore do equally possess the Villanous nature of the Root No Child of Adam can by Natural descent be better than Adam or have less of baseness and vileness and venom than Adam How fruitful would this loathsom Lake be in all kind of steams What unbridled Licentiousness and head-strong Fury would triumph in the World if the Power of God did not interpose it self to lock down the Floud-gates of it What rooting up of Humane society would there be how would the World be drencht in Blood the number of Malefactors be greater than that of Apprehenders and Punishers How would the prints of Natural Laws be raz'd out of the heart if God should leave Humane nature to it self Who can read the first Chapter to the Romans 24 25 26 27 28 29 Verses without acknowledging this Truth where there is a Catalogue of those Villanies which followed upon Gods pulling up the Sluces and letting the malignity of their Inward Corruption have its natural course If God did not hold back the fury of Man his Garden would be over-run his Vine rooted up the Inclinations of Men would hurry them to the worst of Wickedness How great is that Power that curbs bridles or changes as many head-strong Horses at once and every minute as there are Sons of Adam upon the Earth The floods lift up their waves Psal 93.3 4. the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many Waters yea than the mighty waves of the Sea that doth hush and pen in the turbulent Passions of Men. 3. In the ordering and framing the hearts of Men to his own ends That must be an Omnipotent hand that grasps and contains the Hearts of all Men the Heart of the Meanest person as well as of the most towring Angel and turns them as he pleases and makes them sometime ignorantly sometime knowingly concur to the accomplishment of his own purposes When the Hearts of Men are so numerous their Thoughts so various and different from one another yet he hath a Key to those Millions of Hearts and with Infinite Power guided by as Infinite Wisdom he draws them into what Chanels he pleases for the gaining his own ends Though the Jews had embrued their hands in the Blood of our Saviour and their Rage was yet reeking-hot against his Followers God bridled their Fury in the Churches Infancy till it had got some strength and cast a Terror
1 Cor. 1.9 Is he the Instrumental or Principal cause of our effectual Vocation And can the Will of God be the Instrument of putting Paul into the Apostleship or the Soveraign cause of investing him with that Dignity when he calls himself an Apostle by the will of God Ephes 1.3 And when all things are said to be through God as well as of him must he be counted the Instrumental cause of his own Creation Counsels and Judgments * Rom. 11.36 When we mortifie the deeds of the Body through the Spirit Rom. 8.13 or keep the Treasure of the Word by the Holy Ghost 2 Tim. 1.14 Is the Holy Ghost of no more dignity in such acts than Instrument Nor doth the gaining a thing by a Person make him a meer Instrument or Inferior as when a Man gains his Right in a way of Justice against his Adversary by the Magistrate is the Judge inferiour to the Suppliant If the Word were an Instrument in Creation it must be a created or uncreated Instrument If Created it could not be true what the Evangelist saith that All things were made by him since himself the Principal thing could not be made by himself if Uncreated he was God and so acted by a Divine Omnipotency which surmounts an Instrumental cause But indeed an Instrument is impossible in Creation since it is wrought only by an act of the Divine Will Do we need any Organ to an act of Volition the efficacious Will of the Creator is the cause of the Original of the Body of the World with its particular Members and exact Harmony It was form'd by a Word and establish'd by a Command †Psal 33.9 the beauty of the Creation stood up at the Precept of his Will Nor was the Son a Partial cause as when many are said to build a House one works one part and another frames another part God created all things by the immediate operation of the Son in the unity of Essence Goodness Power Wisdom not an extrinsick but a connatural Instrument As the Sun doth illustrate all things by his Light and quickens all things by his Heat so God created the Worlds by Christ as he was the brightness or splendor of his Glory the exact image of his Person which follows the declaration of his making the Worlds by him ‖ Heb. 1.3 4. to shew that he acted not as an Instrument but one in Essential conjunction with him as Light and Brightness with the Sun But suppose he did make the World as a kind of Instrument He was then before the World not bounded by Time and Eternity cannot well be conceiv'd belonging to a Being without Omnipotency He is the End as well as the Author of the Creatures * Colos 1.16 not only the Principle which gave them Being but the Sea into whose glory they run and dissolve themselves which consists not with the meaness of an Instrument 2. As Creation so Preservation is ascribed to him Colos 1.17 By him all things consist As he preceded all things in his Eternity so he establishes all things by his Omnipotency and fixes them in their several Centers that they sink not into that nothing from whence he fetched them By him they flourish in their several Beings and observe the Laws and Orders he first appointed That Power of his which extracted them from insensible Nothing upholds them in their several Beings with the same facility as he spake Being into them even by the word of his Power ‖ Heb. 1 3. and by one Creative continued Voice called all Generations from the beginning to the Period of the World * Isai 41.4 and causes them to flourish in their several seasons 'T is by him Kings reign and Princes decree justice and all things are confin'd within the limits of Government All which are Acts of an Infinite Power 3. Resurrection is also ascrib'd to him The Body crumbled to Dust and that Dust blown to several quarters of the World cannot be gathered in its distinct parts and new formed for the entertainment of the Soul without the strength of an Infinite Arm. This he will do and more change the vileness of an Earthly Body into the glory of an Heavenly one a Dusty flesh into a Spiritual Body which is an argument of a Power Invincible to which all things cannot but stoop for it is by such an operation which testifies an ability to subdue all things to himself †Phil. 3.21 especially when he works it with the same ease as he did the Creation by the power of his Voice John 5.28 All that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth Speaking them into a restored life from insensible Dust as he did into Being from an empty Nothing The greatest acts of Power are own'd to belong to Creation Preservation Resurrection Omnipotence therefore is his Right and therefore a Deity cannot be denied to him that inherits a Perfection essential to none but God and impossible to be intrusted in or managed by the hands of any Creatures And this is no mean comfort to those that believe in him He is in regard of his Power the Horn of salvation so Zachariah sings of him Luke 1.69 Nor could there be any more Mighty found out upon whom God could have laid our help ‖ Psal 89.19 No reason therefore to doubt his ability to save to the utmost who hath the Power of Creation Preservation and Resurrection in his hands His Promises must be accomplished since nothing can resist him He hath Power to fulfil his Word and bring all things to a final issue because he is Almighty by his Outstretched Arm in the Deliverance of his Israel from Egypt for it was his Arm 1 Cor. 10. he shewed that he was able to deliver us from Spiritual Egypt The charge of Mediator to expiate Sin vanquish Hell form a Church conduct and perfect it are not to be effected by a Person of less ability than Infinite Let this Almightiness of his be the Bottom wherein to cast and fix the Anchor of our Hopes 2. Information Hence may be inferred the Deity of the Holy Ghost Works of Omnipotency are ascrib'd to the Spirit of God By the motion of the Wings of this Spirit as a Bird over her Eggs was that rude and unshapen Mass hatcht into a comly World * Gen. 1.2 So the word Moved properly signifies The Stars or perhaps the Angels are meant by the garnishing of the Heavens in the Verse before the Text were brought forth in their comliness and dignity as the ornaments of the upper World by this Spirit By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens To this Spirit Job ascribes the formation both of the Body and Soul under the Title of Almighty Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life Resurrection another work of Omnipotency is attributed to him Rom. 8.11 The Conception of our Saviour
from it The meeting of a Divine Truth and the Heart of Man is like the meeting of two Tides the weaker swells and foams We have a natural Antipathy against a Divine Rule and therefore when it is clapt close to our Consciences there is a snuffing at it high reasonings against it corruption breaks out more strongly As Water poured on Lime sets it on Fire by an Antiperistasis and the more Water is cast upon it the more furiously it burns Or as the Sun Beams shining upon a Dung-hill makes the steams the thicker and the stench the noysomer neither being the positive cause of the smoke in the Lime or the stench in the Dung-hill but by accident the causes of the eruption Rom. 7.8 But Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence for without the Law Sin was dead Sin was in a languishing posture as if it were dead like a lazy Garrison in a City till upon an Alarm from the Adversary it takes Arms and revives its courage all the sin in the heart gathers together its force to maintain its standing like the vapours of the Night which unite themselves more closely to resist the Beams of the rising Sun Deep Conviction often provokes fierce Opposition sometimes Disputes against a Divine Rule end in Blasphemies Acts 13.45 Contradicting and Blaspheming are coupled together Men naturally desire things that are forbidden and reject things commanded from the corruption of Nature which affects an unbounded Liberty and is impatient of returning under that Yoke it hath shaken off and therefore rageth against the bars of the Law as the Waves roar against the restraint of a bank When the Understanding is dark and the Mind Ignorant Sin lies as dead * Thes Salmur De Spiritu Servitutis Thes 19. a man scarce knows he hath such Motions of Concupiscence in him he finds not the least breath of Wind but a full calm in his Soul but when he is awakened by the Law then the vitiousness of nature being sensible of an Invasion of its Empire arms it self against the Divine Law and the more the Command is urged the more vigorously it bends its strength and more insolently lifts up it self against it he perceives more and more Atheistical Lusts than before all manner of Concupiscence more leprous and contagious than before When there are any motions to turn to God a reluctancy is presently perceived Atheistical thoughts bluster in the mind like the wind they know not whence they come nor whether they go So unapt is the heart to any acknowledgement of God as his Ruler and any re-union with him Hence men are said to resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 to fall against it as the word signifies as a stone or any ponderous body falls against that which lies in its way They would dash to pieces or grind to powder that very motion which is made for their instruction and the Spirit too which makes it and that not from a fit of passion but an habitual repugnance Ye always resist c. 2. External 't is a fruit of Atheism in the fourth verse of this Psalm Who eat up my people as they eat bread How do the revelations of the Mind of God meet with opposition And the Carnal World like dogs bark against the shining of the Moon So much men hate the Light that they spurn at the Lanthorns that bear it And because they cannot endure the Treasure often fling the earthen vessels against the ground wherein it is held If the entrance of Truth render the Market worse for Diana's Shrines the whole City will be in an uproar * Act. 19.24.28.29 When Socrates upon natural Principles confuted the Heathen Idolatry and asserted the unity of God the whole cry of Athens a learned University is against him and because he opposed the publick received Religion though with an undoubted Truth he must end his Life by Violence How hath every Corner of the World steam'd with the blood of those that would maintain the Authority of God in the World The Devils Children will follow the steps of their Father and endeavour to bruise the Heel of Divine Truth that would endeavour to break the Head of corrupt Lust 5. Men often seem desirous to be acquainted with the Will of God not out of any respect to his Will and to make it their Rule but upon some other Consideration Truth is scarce received as truth There is more of Hypocrisie than Sincerity in the pale of the Church and attendance on the Mind of God The outward dowry of a religious Profession makes it often more desirable than the Beauty Judas was a follower of Christ for the Bag not out of any affection to the Divine Revelation Men sometime pretend a desire to be acquainted with the Will of God to satisfie their own passions rather than to conform to Gods Will The Religion of such is not the judgment of the Man but the passion of the Brute Many entertain a Doctrine's for the persons sake rather than a person for the Doctrine sake and believe a thing because it comes from a Man they esteem as if his lips were more Canonical than Scripture The Apostle implies in the Commendation he gives the Thessalonians * 1 Thes 2.13 that some receive the Word for human interest not as it is in truth the Word and Will of God to command and govern their Consciences by its Soveraign Authority Or else they have the Truth of God as St. James speaks of the Faith of Christ with respect of persons * Jam. 2.2 and receive it not for the sake of the Fountain but of the Channel So that many times the same Truth delivered by another is disregarded which when dropping from the fancy and mouth of a Man 's own Idol is cryed up as an Oracle This is to make not God but Man the Rule For though we entertain that which materially is the Truth of God yet not formally as his Truth but as conveyed by one we affect And that we receive a Truth and not an Error we ow the obligation to the honesty of the Instrument and not to the strength and clearness of our own Judgment Wrong considerations may give admittance to an unclean as well as a clean beast into the Ark of the Soul That which is contrary to the Mind of God may be entertained as well as that which is agreeable 'T is all one to such that have no respect to God what they have As it is all one to a Spunge to suck up the foulest water or the sweetest wine when either is applyed to it 6. Many that entertain the Notions of the Will and Mind of God admit them with unsettled and wavering Affections There is a great Levity in the heart of Man The Jews that one day applaud our Saviour with Hosannahs as their King vote his Crucifixion the next and use him as a Murderer We begin in the Spirit and
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
All Spiritual acts must be acts of reason otherwise they are not human acts because they want that principle which is constitutive of man and doth difference him from other Creatures Acts done only by sense are the acts of a brute acts done by reason are the acts of a man That which is only an act of sense cannot be an act of Religion The sense without the conduct of reason is not the subject of Religious acts for then beasts were capable of Religion as well as Men There cannot be Religion where there is not reason and there cannot be the exercise of Religion where there is not an exercise of the rational faculties Nothing can be a Christian act that is not a human act Besides all worship must be for some end the worship of God must be for God t is by the exercise of our rational faculties that we only can intend an end An Ignorant and Carnal worship is a brutish worship Particularly 1. Spiritual Worship is a Worship from a spiritual Nature Not only Physically spiritual so our Souls are in their frame but morally spiritual by a renewing principle The heart must be first cast into the Mould of the Gospel before it can perform a Worship required by the Gospel Adam living in Paradice might perform a spiritual worship but Adam fallen from his rectitude could not We being Heirs of his Nature are Heirs of his Impotence Restoration to a spiritual Life must precede any act of spiritual Worship As no work can be good so no worship can be spiritual till we are created in Christ * Eph. 2.10 Christ is our Life * Col. 3.4 As no natural action can be performed without life in the root or heart so no spiritual act without Christ in the Soul Our being in Christ is as necessary to every spiritual act as the union of our Soul with our Body is necessary to natural action Nothing can exceed the limits of its nature for then it should exceed it self in acting and do that which it hath no principle to doe A Beast cannot act like a Man without partaking of the nature of a Man nor a Man act like an Angel without partaking of the Angelical nature How can we perform spiritual acts without a spiritual principle Whatsoever worship proceeds from the corrupted nature cannot deserve the title of spiritual worship because it springs not from a spiritual habit If those that are evil cannot speak good things those that are carnal cannot offer a spiritual service Poyson is the fruit of a Vipers nature Mat. 12.34 Oh Generation of Vipers how can you being evil speak good things For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks As the root is so is the fruit If the Soul be habitually carnal the worship cannot be actually spiritual There may be an intention of Spirit but there is no spiritual principle as a root of that intention A heart may be sensibly united with a duty when it is not spiritually united with Christ in it Carnal motives and carnal ends may fix the mind in an act of worship as the sense of some pressing affliction may enlarge a mans mind in Prayer Whatsoever is agreeable to the nature of God must have a stamp of Christ upon it a stamp of his grace in performance as well as of his mediation in the acceptance The Apostle lived not but Christ lived in him * Gal. 2.20 the Soul worships not but Christ in him Not that Christ performs the act of Worship but enables us spiritually to worship after he enables us spiritually to live As God counts not any Soul living but in Christ so he counts not any a spiritual Worshipper but in Christ The goodness and fatness of the fruit comes from the fatness of the Olive wherein we are engrafted We must find healing in Christs wings before God can find spirituality in our services All worship issuing from a dead nature is but a dead service A living action cannot be performed without being knit to a living root 2. Spiritual Worship is done by the influence and with the assistance of the Spirit of God A Heart may be spiritual when a particular act of Worship may not be spiritual The Spirit may dwell in the Heart when he may suspend his influence on the act Our worship is then spiritual when the fire that kindles our affections comes from Heaven as that fire upon the Altar wherewith the Sacrifices were consumed God tasts a sweetness in no service but as it is drest up by the hand of the Mediator and hath the Air of his own Spirit in it They are but natural acts without a supernatural assistance Without an actual influence we cannot act from spiritual motives nor for spiritual ends nor in a spiritual manner We cannot mortifie a Lust without the Spirit * Rom. 8.13 nor quicken a service without the Spirit Whatsoever corruption is killed is slain by his Power whatsoever duty is spiritualized is refined by his Breath He quickens our dead bodies in our Resurection * Rom. 8.11 He renews our dead Souls in our Regeneration He quickens our carnal services in our adorations The choicest acts of worship are but infirmities without his auxiliary help * Rom. 8.26 We are Loggs unable to move our selves till he raise our faculties to a pitch agreeable to God puts his hand to the duty and lifts that up and us with it Never any great act was performed by the Apostles to God or for God but they are said to be filled with the Holy-Ghost Christ could not have been conceived immaculate as that holy thing without the Spirits overshadowing the Virgin nor any spiritual act conceived in our heart without the Spirits moving upon us to bring forth a living Religion from us The acts of worship are said to be in the Spirit Supplication in the Spirit * Eph. 6.18 not only with the strength and affection of our own Spirits but with the mighty operation of the Holy-Ghost if Jude may be the Interpreter * Jude 20. The Holy-Ghost exciting us impelling us and firing our Souls by his divine flame raising up the affections and making the Soul cry with a holy importunity Abba Father To render our worship spiritual we should before every ingagement in it implore the actual presence of the Spirit without which we are not able to send forth one spiritual breath or groan but be Wind-bound like a Ship without a Gale and our worship be no better than carnal How doth the Spouse solicite the Spirit with an awake oh North-wind and come thou South-wind c. * Cant. 4.16 3. Spiritual Worship is done with Sincerity When the heart stands right to God and the Soul performs what it pretends to perform When we serve God with our Spirits as the Apostle Rom. 1.9 God is my Witness whom I serve with my Spirit in the Gospel of his Son This is not meant of the
meltings flights In the highest raptures the body is most insensible Strong Spiritual affections are abstracted from outward sense 6. Spiritual worship is performed with acting Spiritual habits When all the living springs of Grace are opened as the Fountains of the deep were in the deluge the Soul and all that is within it all the Spiritual impresses of God upon it erect themselves to bless his holy name * Psa 103.1 This is necessary to make a worship Spiritual As natural agents are determined to act sutable to their proper nature So rational agents are to act conformable to a rational being When there is a conformity between the act and the nature whence it flows t is a good act in its kind if it be rational t is a good rational act because sutable to its principle As a Man endowed with reason must act sutable to that endowment and exercise his reason in his acting So a Christian endued with Grace must act sutable to that nature and exercise his Grace in his acting Acts done by a natural inclination are no more human acts than the natural acts of a beast may be said to be human Tho they are the acts of a Man as he is the efficient cause of them yet they are not human acts because they arise not from that principle of Reason which denominates him a man So acts of worship performed by a bare exercise of reason are not Christian and Spiritual acts because they come not from the principle which constitutes him a Christian Reason is not the principle for then all rational Creatures would be Christians They ought therefore to be acts of a higher principle Exercises of that Grace whereby Christians are what they are Not but that rational acts in worship are due to God for worship is due from us as men and we are setled in that rank of being by our reason Grace doth not exclude reason but ennobles it and calls it up to another form But we must not rest in a bare rational worship but exert that principle whereby we are Christians To worship God with our reason is to worship him as Men To worship God with our grace is to worship him as Christians and so Spiritually But to worship him only with our bodies is no better than Brutes Our desires of the word are to issue from the regenerate principle 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word It seems to be not a comparison but a restriction All worship must have the same spring and be the exercise of that principle otherwise we can have no Communion with God Friends that have the same habitual dispositions have a fundamental fitness for an agreeable converse with one another but if the temper wherein their likeness consists be languishing and the string out of tune there is not an actual fitness and the present indisposition breaks the converse and renders the Company troublesome Tho we may have the habitual graces which compose in us a resemblance to God yet for want of acting those sutable dispositions we render our selves unfit for his converse and make the worship which is fundamentally Spiritual to become actually carnal As the Will cannot naturally act to any object but by the exercise of its affections So the heart cannot Spiritually act towards God but by the exercise of graces This is Gods Musick Eph. 5.19 Singing and making melody to God in your hearts Singing and all other acts of worship are outward but the Spiritual melody is by grace in the heart Col. 3.16 This renders it a Spiritual worship for it is an effect of the fulness of the Spirit in the Soul as v. 19. But be filled with the Spirit The overflowing of the Spirit in the heart setting the Soul of a beliver thus on work to make a Spiritual melody to God shews that something higher than bare reason is put in tune in the heart Then is the fruit of the Garden pleasant to Christ when the holy Spirit the North and South wind blow upon the spices and strike out the fragrancy of them * Cant. 4.16 Since God is the Author of graces and bestows them to have a glory from them they are best employed about him and his service T is fit he should have the Cream of his own gifts Without the exercise of grace we perform but a work of nature and offer him a few dry bones without marrow The whole set of graces must be one way or other exercised If any treble be wanting in a Lute there will be a great defect in the Musick If any one Spiritual string be dull the Spiritual harmony of worship will be spoiled And therefore 1. First Faith must be acted in worship A confidence in God A natural worship cannot be performed without a natural confidence in the goodness of God Whosoever comes to him must regard him as a Rewarder and a faithful Creator * Heb. 11.6 A Spiritual worship cannot be performed without an Evangelical confidence in him as a gracious Redeemer To think him a Tyrant meditating revenge damps the Soul to regard him as a gracious King full of tender bowels Spirits the affections to him The mercy of God is the proper object of trust Psal 33.18 The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy The worship of God in the old Testament is most described by fear In the new Testamen by faith Fear or the worship of God and hope in his mercy are linkt together when they go hand in hand the accepting eye of God is upon us When we do not trust we do not worship * Zeph. 3.2 Those of Judah had the Temple worship among them especially in Josiah's time Zeph. 3.2 the time of that Prophecy yet it was accounted no worship because no trust in the Worshippers Interest in God cannot be improved without an exercise of Faith The Gospel worship is prophecied of to be a confidence in God as in a Husband more than in a Lord Hos 2.16 Thou shalt call me Ishi and shalt call me no more Baali Thou shalt call me that is thou shalt worship me Worship being often comprehended under Invocation More confidence is to be exercised in a Husband or Father than in a Lord or Master If a Man have not Faith he is without Christ and though a Man be in Christ by the habit of Faith â—e performs a duty out of Christ without an act of Faith Without the habit of Faith our persons are out of Christ and without the exercise of Faith the duties are out of Christ As the want of Faith in a person is the death of the Soul so the want of Faith in a Service is the death of the Offering Though a man were at the cost of an Ox yet to kill it without bringing it to the door of the Tabernacle was not a Sacrifice but a Murder * Levit. 17.3 4. The Tabernacle
be a slight and mean Being Our being in Covenant with him must not lower our awful apprehensions of him As he is the Lord thy God 't is a gloririous and fearful Name or wonderful * Deut. 28.58 Though he lay by his Justice to Believers he doth not lay by his Majesty When we have a confidence in him because he is the Lord our God we must have awful thoughts of his Majesty because his name is glorious God is terrible from his Holy-places in regard of the great things he doth for his Israel * Psal 68.35 We should behave our selves with that inward honour and respect of him as if he were present to our bodily eyes The higher apprehensions we have of his Majesty the greater aw will be upon our hearts in his presence and the greater spirituality in our acts We should manage our hearts so as if we had a view of God in his heavenly glory 9. Spiritual Worship is to be performed with humility in our Spirits This is to follow upon the reverence of God As we are to have high thoughts of God that we may not debase him we must have low thoughts of our selves not to vaunt before him When we have right notions of the Divine Majesty we shall be as Worms in our own thoughts and creep as Worms into his presence We can never consider him in his Glory but we have a fit opportunity to reflect upon our selves and consider how basely we revolted from him and how graciously we are restored by him As the Gospel affords us greater discoveries of Gods nature and so enhaunceth our reverence of him so it helps us to a fuller understanding of our own vileness and weakness and therefore is proper to ingender Humility The more spiritual and evangelical therefore any service is the more humble it is That is a spiritual service that doth most manifest the glory of God and this cannot be manifested by us without manifesting our own emptiness and nothingness The Heathens were sensible of the necessity of Humility by the Light of Nature * Plutarch Moral P. 344. after the Name of God signified by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inscribed on the Temple at Delphos followed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby was insinuated that when we have to do with God who is the only Ens we should behave our selves with a sense of our own infirmity and infinite distance from him As a person so a duty leavened with Pride hath nothing of sincerity and therefore nothing of spirituality in it Hab. 2.4 His Soul which is lifted up is not upright in him The Elders that were crowned by God to be Kings and Priests to offer spiritual Sacrifices uncrown themselves in their worship of him and cast down their Ornaments at his feet * Revel 4 1◠compared with 5. and the 1◠The Greek word to worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to creep like a Dog upon his belly before his Master to lye low How deep should our sense be of the priviledge of Gods admitting us to his worship and affording us such a mercy under our deserts of wrath How mean should be our thoughts both of our persons and performances How patiently should we wait upon God for the success of worship How did Abraham the Father of the Faithful equal himself to the Earth when he supplicated the God of Heaven and devote himself to him under the title of very Dust and Ashes * Gen. 18.27 Isaiah did but behold an Evangelical Apparition of God and the Angels worshipping him and presently reflects upon his own uncleaness * Isa 6.5 Gods presence both requires and causes Humility How lowly is David in his own opinion after a magnificent duty performed by himself and his people 1 Chron. 29.14 Who am I And what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly The more spiritual the Soul is in its carriage to God the more humble it is and the more gracious God is in his communications to the Soul the lower it lies God commanded not the fiercer Creatures to be offered to him in Sacrifices but Lambs and Kids meek and lowly Creatures none that had stings in their tails or venom in their tongues * Caudam aculeatam vel linguam nigram Alexand. ab Alex. l. 3. c. 12. The meek Lamb was the daily Sacrifice The Doves were to be offered by Pairs God would not have Hony mixed with any Sacrifice Levit. 2.11 That breeds Choler and Choler Pride but Oyle he commanded to be used that supples and mollifies the parts Swelling Pride and boiling Passions render our services carnal they cannot be spiritual without an humble sweetness and an innocent sincerity One grain of this transcends the most costly Sacrifices A Contrite Heart puts a gloss upon Worship * Psal 51.16 17 The departure of men and Angels from God began in Pride Our approaches and return to him must begin in Humility And therefore all those Graces which are bottom'd on Humility must be acted in worship as Faith and a sense of our own indigence Our blessed Saviour the most spiritual Worshipper prostrated himself in the Garden with the greatest lowliness and offered himself upon the Cross a Sacrifice with the greatest humility Melted Souls in worship have the most spiritual conformity to the person of Christ in the state of humiliation and his design in that state As worship without it is not sutable to God so neither is it advantageous for us A time of worship is a time of Gods Communication The Vessel must be melted to receive the Mould it is designed for Softned wax is fittest to receive a stamp and a spiritually melted Soul fittest to receive a spiritual impression We cannot perform duty in an evangelical and spiritual strain without the meltingness and meaness in our selves which the Gospel requires 10. Spiritual worship is to be performed with Holiness God is a holy Spirit a likeness to God must attend the worshipping of God as he is Holiness is alway in season It becomes his house for ever * Psal 91.5 We can never serve the living God till we have Consciences purged from dead works Heb. 9.14 Dead works in our Consciences are unsutable to God an eternal living Spirit The more mortified the heart the more quickned the service Nothing can please an infinite Purity but that which is pure Since God is in his Glory in his Ordinances we must not be in our Filthiness The Holiness of his Spirit doth sparkle in his Ordinances The holiness of our Spirits ought also to sparkle in our observance of them The Holiness of God is most celebrated in the worship of Angels * Isa 6.3 Revel 4.8 Spiritual worship ought to be like Angelical That cannot be with Souls totally impure As there must be perfect holiness to make a worship perfectly spiritual so there must be some degree of holiness to make it in any measure spiritual God would
to mock him than worship him When we believe that we ought to be satisfied rather than God glorified we set God below our selves imagin that he should submit his own honour to our advantage We make our selves more glorious than God as though we were not made for him but he hath a Being only for us this is to have a very low esteem of the Majesty of God Whatsoever any man aims at in worship above the glory of God that he forms as an Idol to himself instead of God and sets up a Golden-Image God counts not this as a Worship The Offerings made in the Wilderness for forty years together God esteemed as not offered to him Amos 5.25 Have you offered to me Sacrifices and Offerings in the Wilderness forty years oh House of Israel They did it not to God but to themselves for their own security and the attainment of the possession of the promised Land A spiritual Worshipper performs not worship for some hopes of carnal advantage he uses ordinances as means to bring God and his Soul together to be more fitted to honour God in the world in his particular place When he hath been inflamed and humble in any address or duty he gives God the glory his heart sutes the doxology at the end of the Lords-prayer ascribes the Kingdom Power and Glory to God alone and if any viper of Pride starts out upon him he endeavours presently to shake it off That which was the first end of our framing ought to be the chief end of our acting towards God But when men have the same ends in worship as Brutes the satisfaction of a sensitive part the service is no more than brutish The acting for a sensitive end is unworthy of the Majesty of God to whom we address and unbecoming a rational Creature The acting for a sensitive end is not a rational much less can it be a spiritual service though the Act may be good in it self yet not good in the Agent because he wants a due end We are then spiritual when we have the same end in our redeemed services as God had in his redeeming love viz. his own Glory 12. Spiritual service is offered to God in the name of Christ Those are only spiritual Sacrifices that are offered up to God by Jesus Christ * 1 Pet. 2.5 that are the fruits of the Sanctification of the Spirit and offered in the mediation of the Son As the Altar sanctifies the gift so doth Christ spiritualize our services for Gods acceptation as the Fire upon the Altar separated the airy and finer parts of the sacrifice from the terrene and earthly This is the Golden Altar upon which the Prayers of the Saints are offered up before the Throne * Revel 8.3 As all that we have from God streams through his blood so all that we give to God ascends by vertue of his merits All the blessings God gave to the Israelites came out of Sion * Psal 134.3 The Lord bless thee out of Sion that is from the Gospel hid under the Law all the duties we present to God are to be presented in Sion in an evangelical manner All our worship must be bottomed on Christ God hath intended that we should honour the Son as we honour the Father As we honour the Father by offering our service only to him so we are to honour the Son by offering it only in his name In him alone God is well pleased because in him alone he finds our services spiritual and worthy of acceptation We must therefore take fast hold of him with our Spirits and the faster we hold him the more spiritual is our worship To do any thing in the name of Christ is not to believe the worship shall be accepted for it self but to have our eye fixed upon Christ for the acceptance of it and not to rest upon the work done as carnal people are apt to do The Creatures present their acknowledgments to God by Man and man can only present his by Christ It was utterly unlawful after the building of the Temple to sacrifice any where else The Temple being a type of Christ it is utterly unlawful for us to present our services in any other name than his This is the way to be spiritual If we consider God out of Christ we can have no other notions but those of horror and bondage We behold him a Spirit but environ'd with Justice and Wrath for Sinners But the consideration of him in Christ vails his Justice draws forth his Mercy represents him more a Father than a Judge In Christ the aspect of Justice is changed and by that the temper of the Creature so that in and by this Mediator we can have a spiritual boldness and access to God with confidence * Eph. 3.12 whereby the Spirit is kept from benummedness and distraction and our Souls quickned and refined The thoughts kept upon Christ in a duty of worship quickly elevates the Soul and spiritualizeth the whole service Sin makes our services black and the blood of Christ makes both our persons and services white To conclude this Head God is a Spirit infinitely happy therefore we must approach to him with cheerfulness He is a Spirit of infinite Majesty therefore we must come before him with reverence He is a Spirit infinitely high therefore we must offer up our Sacrifices with the deepest humility He is a Spirit infinitely holy therefore we must address with purity He is a Spirit infinitely glorious we must therefore acknowledge his excellency in all that we do and in our measures contribute to his glory by having the highest aims in his worship He is a Spirit infinitely provoked by us therefore we must offer up our worship in the name of a pacifying Mediator and Intercessour 3. The third general is why a spiritual worship is due to God and to be offered to him We must consider the Object of Worship and the Subject of worship the Worshipper and the Worshipped God is a spiritual Being Man is a reasonable Creature The nature of God informs us what is fit to be presented to him our own nature informs us what is fit to be presented by us Reason 1. The best we have is to be presented to God in worship For 1. Since God is the most excellent Being he is to be served by us with the most excellent thing we have and with the choicest veneration God is so incomprehensibly excellent that we cannot render him what he deserves We must render him what we are able to offer the best of our affiections the flower of our strength the Cream and Top of our Spirits By the same reason that we are bound to give to God the best worship we must offer it to him in the best manner We cannot give to God any thing too good for so blessed a Being God being a great King slight services become not his Majesty * Mal. 1.13 14. 'T is unbecoming the
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
Zech. 4.1 The Angel that talked with me came again and awaked me as a man is awaked out of sleep He had been rouzed up before but he was ready to drop down again his heart was gone till the Angel jogged him We may complain of such imaginations as Jerem. doth of the Enemies of the Jews * Lam. 4.19 Our Persecutors are swifter than Eagles they light upon us with as much speed as Eagles upon a Carcass they pursue us upon the Mountain of Divine institutions and they lay wait for us in the Wilderness in our retired addresses to God And this will be so while 1. There is natural corruption in us There are in a Godly man two contrary principles Flesh and Spirit which endeavour to hinder one anothers acts and are alway stirring upon the offensive or defensive part * Gal. 5.17 There is a body of death continually exhaling its noysom vapours 'T is a body of death in our worship as well as in our natures it snaps our resolutions asunder * Rom. 7.19 it hinders us in the doing good and contradicts our wills in the stirring up evil This corruption being seated in all the faculties and a constant Domestick in them has the greater opportunity to trouble us since it is by those faculties that we spiritually transact with God and it stirs more in the time of religious exercises though it be in part mortified As a wounded Beast though tired will rage and strive to its utmost when the Enemy is about to fetch a blow at it All duties of worship tend to the wounding of corruption and it is no wonder to feel the striving of sin to defend it self and offend us when we have our Arms in our hands to mortifie it that the blow may be diverted which is directed against it The Apostles had aspiring thoughts and being perswaded of an earthly Kingdom expected a Grandeur in it And though we find some appearance of it at other times as when they were casting out Devils and gave an account of it to their Master he gives them a kind of a check * Luke 10.20 intimating that there was some kind of evil in their rejoycing upon that account Yet this never swelled so high as to break out into a quarrel who should be greatest * Luke 22.24 until they had the most solemn Ordinance the Lords Supper to quell it* Our corruption is like Lime which discovers not its fire by any smoke or heat till you cast water the Enemy of fire upon it Neither doth our natural corruption rage so much as when we are using means to quench and destroy it 2. While there is a Devil and we in his Precinct As he accuseth us to God so he disturbs us in our selves He is a bold Spirit and loves to intrude himself when we are conversing with God We read that when the Angels presented themselves before God Satan comes among them * Job 1.6 Motions from Satan will thrust themselves in with our most raised and Angelical frames He loves to take off the edge of our Spirits from God He acts but after the old rate He from the first envied God an obedience from man and envied man the felicity of communion with God He is unwilling God should have the honour of worship and that we should have the fruit of it He hath himself lost it and therefore is unwilling we should enjoy it and being subtil he knows how to make impressions upon us sutable to our inbred corruptions and assault us in the weakest part He knows all the avenues to get within us as he did in the temptation of Eve and being a Spirit he wants not a power to dart them immediatly upon our fancy And being a Spirit and therefore active and nimble he can shoot those darts faster than our weakness can beat them off He is diligent also and watcheth for his Prey and seeks to devour our services as well as our Souls and snatch our best morsels from us We know he mixed himself with our Saviours retirements in the Wilderness and endeavoured to Fly-blow his holy converse with his Father in the preparation to his mediatory work Satan is Gods Ape and imitates the Spirit in the Office of a Remembrancer As the Spirit brings good thoughts and divine promises to mind to quicken our worship so the Devil brings evil things to mind and endeavours to fasten them in our Souls to disturb us And though all the foolish starts we have in worship are not purely his issue yet being of kin to him he claps his hands and sets them on like so many Mastives to tear the service in pieces And both those distractions which arise from our own corruption and from Satan are most rise in worship when we are under some pressing affliction This seems to be David's Case Psal 86. when in v. 11. He prays God to unite his heart to fear and worship his Name he seems to be under some affliction or fear of his Enemies Oh free me from those distractions of Spirit and those passions which arise in my Soul upon considering the designs of my enemies against me and press upon me in my addresses to thee and attendances on thee Job also in his affliction complains Job 17.11 That his purposes were broken off He could not make an even thread of thoughts and resolutions they were frequently snapt saunder like rotten Yarn when one is winding it up Good Men and spiritual Worshippers have lain under this trouble Though they are a sign of weakness of grace or some obstructions in the acting of strong grace yet they are not alway evidences of a want of grace What ariseth from our own corruption is to be matter of humiliation and resistance what ariseth from Satan should edge our minds to a noble conquest of them If the Apostle did comfort himself with his disapproving of what rose from the natural spring of sin within him with his consent to the Law and dissent from his Lust and charges it not upon himself but upon the sin that dwelt in him with which he had broken off the former League and was resolved never to enter into Amity with it By the same reason we may comfort our selves if such thoughts are undelighted in and alienate not our hearts from the worship of God by all their busie intrusions to interrupt us 2. These distractions not allowed may be occasions by an holy improvement to make our hearts more spiritual after worship though they disturb us in it By answering those ends for which we may suppose God permits them to invade us And that is 1. When they are occasions to humble us 1. For our carriage in the particular worship There is nothing so dangerous as spiritual pride It deprived Devils and Men of the presence of God and will hinder us of the influence of God If we had had raised and uninterrupted motions in worship we should be apt to be lifted
and Truth in the inward parts * Psal 51.6 And therefore infinite Goodness and Holiness cannot but hate worship presented to him with deceitful carnal and flitting affections They must be more nauseous to God than a putrified Carcass can be to Man They are the prophanings of that which should be the habitation of the Spirit They make the Spirit the seat of duty a filthy dung-hill and are as loathsome to God as Mony-changers in the Temple were to our Saviour We see the evil of carnal frames and the necessity and benefit of spiritual frames For further help in this last let us practise thesâ— following directions Direction 1. Keep up spiritual frames out of worship To avoid low affections we must keep our hearts as much as we can in a setled elevation If we admit unworthy dispositions at one time we shall not easily be rid of them at another * Fitzherbert Pol. in relig part 2. cap. 19. § 12. As he that would not be bitten with Gnats in the Night must keep his windows shut in the Day when they are once entred 't is not easie to expel them In which respect one adviseth to be such out of worship as we would be in worship If we mix spiritual affections with our worldly employments worldly affections will not mingle themselves so easily with our heavenly engagements If our hearts be spiritual in our outward calling they will scarce be carnal in our religious service If we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfil the lusts of the Flesh * Gal. 5.16 A spiritual walk in the day will hinder carnal lustings in worship The Fire was to be kept alive upon the Altar when Sacrifices were not offered from morning till night from night till morning as well as in the very time of Sacrifice A spiritual life and vigour out of worship would render it at its season sweet and easie and preserve a spontaneity and preparedness to it and make it both natural and pleasant to us Any thing that doth unhinge and discompose our Spirits is inconsistent with religious services which are to be performed with the greatest sedateness and gravity All irregular passions disturb the serenity of the Spirit and open the door for Satan * Eph. 4.26.27 Saith the Apostle Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the Devil Where wrath breaks the Lock the Devil will quickly be over the Threshold and though they be allayed yet they leave the heart sometime after like the Sea rowling and swelling after the storm is ceased Mixture with ill company leaves a tincture upon us in worship Ephraims allying himself with the Gentiles bred an indifferency in Religion Hos 7.8 Ephraim hath mixed himself with the People Ephraim is a Cake not turn'd It will make our hearts and consequently our services half Dough as well as half bak'd These and the like make the holy Spirit withdraw himself and then the Soul lies like a wind-bound Vessel and can make no way When the Sun departs from us it carries its Beams away with it then doth Darkness spread it self over the Earth and the Beasts of the Forests creep out * Psal 1â—4 2â— When the Spirit withdraws a while from a good man it carries away though not habitual yet much of the exciting and assisting grace and then carnal dispositions perk up themselves from the bosome of natural corruption To be spiritual in worship we must bar the door at other times against that which is contrary to it As he that would not be infected with a contagious disease carries some Preservative about with him and inures himself to good scents To this end be much in secret ejaculations to God these are the purest slights of the Soul that have more of fervor and less of carnality they preserve a liveliness in the Spirit and make it more fit to perform solemn stated worship with greater freedom and activity A constant use of this would make our whole lives lives of worship As frequent sinful acts strengthen habits of sin so frequent religious acts strengthen habits of grace Direction 2. Excite and exercise particularly a love to God and dependence on him Love is a commanding affection a uniting graces it draws all the faculties of the Soul to one Center The Soul that loves God when it hath to do with him is bound to the beloved Object It can mind nothing else during such impressions When the affection is set to the worship of God every thing the Soul hath will be bestowed upon it As David's disposition was to the Temple 1 Chron. 29.3 Carnal frames like the Fouls will be lighting upon the Sacrifice but not when it is enflam'd Though the scent of the flesh invite them yet the heat of the fire drives them to their distance A flaming love will singe the Flies that endeavour to interrupt and disturb us The happiness of Heaven consists in a full attraction of the Soul to God by his glorious influence upon it There will be such a diffusion of his goodness throughout the Souls of the Blessed as will unite the affections perfectly to him These affections which are scattered here will be there gathered into one flame moving to him and centring in him Therefore the more of a heavenly frame possesses our affections here the more settled and uniform will our hearts be in all their motions to God and operations about him Excite a dependence on him Pro. 16.3 Commit thy works to the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established Let us go out in Gods strength and not in our own vain is the help of man in any thing and vain is the help of the heart 'T is through God only we can do valiantly in spiritual concerns as well as temporal the want of this makes but slight impressions upon the Spirit Direction 3. Nourish right conceptions of the Majesty of God in your minds Let us consider that we are drawing to God the most amiable Object the best of Beings worthy of infinite honour and highly meriting the highest affections we can give a God that made the world by a word that upholds the great frame of Heaven and Earth a Majesty above the conceptions of Angels who uses not his power to strike us to our deserved punishment but his love and bounty to allure us a God that gave all the Creatures to serve us and can in a trice make them as much our Enemies as he hath now made them our Servants Let us view him in his greatness and in his goodness that our hearts may have a true value of the worship of so great a Majesty and count it the most worthy employment with all diligence to attend upon him When we have a fear of God it will make our worship serious when we have a joy in God it will make our worship durable Our affections will be raised when we represent God in the most reverential endearing and obliging
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
the suggestions of their Carnal Wisdom The Brats of Soul-destroying Errors may walk about the World in a garb and disguise of good words and fair speeches as it is in the 18th Verse by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple And for their encouragement to a constancy in the Gospel Doctrine he assures them that all those that would dispossess them of Truth to possess them with Vanity are but Satans Instruments and will fall under the same Captivity and Yoke with their Principal Verse 18. The God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Whence observe 1. All Corrupters of Divine Truth and Troublers of the Churches Peace are no better than Devils Our Saviour thought the Name Satan a Title merited by Peter when he breathed out an Advice as an Ax at the Root of the Gospel the Death of Christ the foundation of all Gospel Truth and the Apostle concludes them under the same Character which hinder the superstructure and would mix their Chaff with his Wheat Mat. 16.23 Get thee behind me Satan 'T is not Get thee behind me Simon or Get thee behind me Peter but Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence to me Thou dost oppose thy self to the Wisdom and Grace and Authority of God to the Redemption of Man and to the good of the World As the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Truth so is Satan the Spirit of Falshood As the Holy Ghost inspires Believers with Truth so doth the Devil corrupt Unbelievers with Error Let us cleave to the Truth of the Gospel that we may not be counted by God as part of the Corporation of Fallen Angels and not be barely reckon'd as Enemies of God but in league with the greatest Enemy to his Glory in the World 2. The Reconciler of the World will be the subduer of Satan The God of Peace sent the Prince of Peace to be the Restorer of his Rights and the Hammer to beat in pieces the Usurper of them As a God of Truth he will make good his Promise as a God of Peace he will perfect the design his Wisdom hath laid and begun to act In the subduing Satan he will be the Conqueror of his Instruments He saith nor God shall bruise your Troublers and Hereticks but Satan The fall of a General proves the rout of the Army Since God as a God of Peace hath delivered his own he will perfect the Victory and make them cease from bruising the heel of his Spiritual Seed 3. Divine Evangelical Truth shall be Victorious No Weapon formed against it shall prosper The Head of the Wicked shall fall as low as the Feet of the Godly The Devil never yet bluster'd in the World but he met at last with a disappointment His Fall hath been like Lightning sudden certain vanishing 4. Faith must look back as far as the foundation Promise The God of Peace shall bruise c. The Apostle seems to allude to the first Promise Gen. 2.15 A Promise that hath vigor to nourish the Church in all Ages of the World 'T is the standing Cordial out of the Womb of this Promise all the rest have taken their birth The Promises of the Old Testament were designed for those under the New and the full performance of them is to be expected and will be enjoyed by them 'T is a mighty strengthning to Faith to trace the footsteps of Gods Truth and Wisdom from the Threatning against the Serpent in Eden to the bruise he received in Calvary and the Triumph over him upon Mount Olivet 5. We are to confide in the Promise of God but leave the season of its accomplishment to his Wisdom He will bruise Satan under your feet therefore do not doubt it and shortly therefore wait for it Shortly it will be done that is quickly when you think it may be a great way off or shortly that is seasonably when Satans Rage is hottest God is the best Judge of the seasons of distributing his own Mercies and darting out his own Glory 'T is enough to encourage our waiting that it will be and that it will be shortly but we must not measure God's shortly by our Minutes The Apostle after this concludes with a comfortable Prayer That since they were liable to many Temptations to turn their backs upon the Doctrine which they had learned yet he desires God who had brought them to the knowledge of his Truth would confirm them in the belief of it since it was the Gospel of Christ his dear Son and a Mystery he had been chary of and kept in his own Cabinet and now brought forth to the World in pursuance of the ancient Prophesies and now had publish'd to all Nations for that end that it might be obeyed and concludes with a Doxology a voice of Praise to him who was only Wise to effect his own purposes Verses 25 26 27. Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the Everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith This Doxology is interlac'd with many Comforts for the Romans He explains the causes of this glory to God Power and Wisdom Power to establish the Romans in Grace which includes his Will This he proves from a Divine Testimony viz. the Gospel the Gospel committed to him and preached by him which he commends by calling it the preaching of Christ and describes it for the instruction and comfort of the Church from the Adjuncts the obscurity of it under the old Testament and the clearness of it under the New It was hid from the former Ages and kept in silence not simply and absolutely but comparatively and in part because in the Old Testament the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ was confin'd to the limits of Judea preached only to the Inhabitants of that Country To them he gave his Statutes and his Judgments and dealt not so magnificently with any Nation †Psal 147.19 20. but now he causes it to spring with greater Majesty out of those narrow bounds and spread its Wings about the World This manifestation of the Gospel he declares first from the subject All Nations 2. From the principal efficient cause of it The Commandment and Order of God 3. The Instrumental cause The Prophetick Scriptures 4. From the End of it Gomarus in loc The obedience of Faith 1. Observe The glorious Attributes of God bear a comfortable respect to Believers Power and Wisdom are here mention'd as two props of their Faith his Power here includes his Goodness Power to help without Will to assist is a dry Chip The Apostle mentions not Gods Power simply and absolutely considered for that of it self is no more comfort to Men than it is to Devils but
of a Woman ‖ Gal. 4 4. That part of the Flesh of the Virgin whereof the Humane Nature of Christ was made was refin'd and purifi'd from Corruption by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost as a skilful Workman separates the Dross from the Gold Our Saviour is therefore called that Holy thing * Luke 1.35 though born of the Virgin He was necessarily some way to descend from Adam God indeed might have created his Body out of Nothing or have formed it as he did Adams out of the Dust of the Ground But had he been thus extraordinarily formed and not propagated from Adam though he had been a Man like one of us yet he would not have been of kin to us because it would not have been a Nature deriv'd from Adam the Common Parent of us all †Amyrald in Symbol p. 103 c. It was therefore necessary to an affinity with us not only that he should have the same Humane Nature but that it should slow from the same Principle and be propagated to him But now by this way of producing the Humanity of Christ of the Substance of the Virgin He was in Adam say some Corporally but not Seminally of the Substance of Adam or a Daughter of Adam but not of the Seed of Adam And so he is of the same Nature that had sinned so what he did and suffered may be imputed to us which had he been created as Adam could not be claim'd in a Legal and Judicial way 2. It was not convenient he should be born in the Common order of Nature of Father and Mother For whosoever is so born is polluted A Clean thing cannot be brought out of an unclean ‖ Job 14.4 And our Saviour had been uncapable of being a Redeemer had he been tainted with the least Spot of our Nature but would have stood in need of Redemption himself Besides it had been inconsistent with the Holiness of the Divine Nature to have assumed a tainted and defiled Body He that was the Fountain of Blessedness to all Nations was not to be subject to the Curse of the Law for himself which he would have been had he been conceiv'd in an ordinary way He that was to overturn the Devils Empire was not to be any way captive under the Devils Power as a Creature under the Curse nor could he be able to break the Serpents head had he been tainted with the Serpents breath Again supposing that Almighty God by his Divine Power had so order'd the matter and so perfectly sanctified an Earthly Father and Mother from all Original spot that the Humane Nature might have been transmitted Immaculate to him as well as the Holy Ghost did purge that part of the flesh of the Virgin of which the Body of Christ was made yet it was not convenient that that Person that was God blessed for ever as well as Man partaking of our Nature should have a Conception in the same manner as ours but different and in some measure conformable to the Infinite dignity of his Person which could not have been had not a supernatural Power and a Divine Person been concern'd as an active Principle in it Besides such a Birth had not been agreeable to the first Promise Gen. 1.15 which calls him The Seed of the woman not of the Man and so the Veracity of God had suffer'd some detriment The seed of the woman only is set in opposition to the seed of the Serpent 3. By this manner of Conception the Holiness of his Nature is secur'd and his fitness for his Office is assur'd to us 'T is now a pure and unpolluted Humanity that is the Temple and Tabernacle of the Divinity The Fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily and dwells in him Holily His Humanity is supernaturaliz'd and elevated by the activity of the Holy Ghost hatching the Flesh of the Virgin into Man as the Chaos into a World Though we read of some sanctified from the Womb it was not a pure and perfect Holiness it was like the Light of Fire mixed with Smoak an infus'd Holiness accompanied with a Natural tâ—int But the Holiness of the Redeemer by this Conception is like the Light of the Sun pure and without spot The Spirit of Holiness supplying the place of a Father in a way of Creation His Fitness for his Office is also assur'd to us for being born of the Virgin one of our Nature but conceived by the Spirit a Divine Person the guilt of our Sins may be imputed to him because of our Nature without the stain of Sin inherent in him because of his Supernatural Conception he is capable as one of Kin to us to bear our Curse without being toucht by our Taint By this means our sinful Nature is assum'd without Sin in that Nature which was assum'd by him Flesh he hath but not Sinful flesh Rom. 8.3 Real Flesh but not really Sinful only by way of Imputation Nothing but the Power of God is evident in this whole Work By the ordinary Laws and course of Nature a Virgin could not bear a Son nothing but a Supernatural and Almighty Grace could intervene to make so holy and perfect a Conjunction * Amyrant sâ—r â—imole p. 292. The generation of others in an ordinary way is by Male and Female But the Virgin is overshadow'd by the Spirit and Power of the Highest Man only is the product of Natural generation this which is born of the Virgin is the Holy thing the Son of God In other generations a Rational Soul is only united to a Material Body But in this the Divine Nature is united with the Humane in one Person by an indissoluble Union II. The Second Act of Power in the Person Redeeming is the Union of the two Natures the Divine and Humane The designing indeed of this was an act of Wisdom but the accomplishing it was an act of Power 1. There is in this Redeeming Person a Union of two Natures He is God and Man in one Person Heb. 1.8 9. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever God even thy God hath anointed thee with the Oil of Gladness c. The Son is called God having a Throne for ever and ever and the Unction speaks him Man The Godhead cannot be Anointed nor hath any Fellows Humanity and Divinity are ascrib'd to him Rom. 1.3 4. He was of the Seed of David according to the Flesh and declared to be the Son of God by hiâ— Resurrection from the dead The Divinity and Humanity are both Prophetically joyn'd Zach. 12.10 I will pour out my Spirit the pouring forth the Spirit is an Act only of Divine Grace and Power And they shâ—ll look upon me whom they have pierced the same Person pours forth the Spirit as God and is pierced as Man The Word was made Flesh John 1.14 Word from Eternity was made Flesh in time Word and Flesh in one Person a great God and a little Infant 2. The
God speaking of the opposite to it the Vncleaness and Prophaness of the Gentiles We are only alienated from that which we are bound to imitate but this is the Perfection alway set out as the Pattern of our Actions Be you holy as I am Holy no other is proposed as our Copy Alienated from that Purity of God which is as much as his Life without which he could not live If he were stript of this he would be a dead God more than by the want of any other Perfection His Swearing by it intimates as much He Swears often by his own Life As I live saith the Lord so he Swears by his Holiness as if it were his Life and more his Life than any other Let me not live or Let me not be Holy are all one in his Oath His Deity could not outlive the Life of his Purity II. As it seems to challenge an Excellency above all his other Perfections so 't is the glory of all the rest As it is the glory of the Godhead so 't is the glory of every Perfection in the Godhead As his Power is the Strength of them so his Holiness is the Beauty of them As all would be weak without Almightiness to back them so all would be uncomly without Holiness to adorn them Should this be sullied all the rest would lose their Honour and their comfortable Efficacy As at the same instant that the Sun should lose its Light it would lose its Heat its Strength its generative and quickening virtue As Sincerity is the lustre of every Grace in a Christian so is Purity the splendor of every Attribute in the Godhead His Justice is a holy Justice his Wisdom a holy Wisdom his Arm of Power a Holy Arm Psal 98.1 his Truth or Promise a Holy Promise Psal 105.42 Holy and True go hand in hand Revel 6.10 His Name which signifies all his Attributes in conjunction is Holy Psal 103.1 Yea he is Râ—ghteous in all his waies and Holy in all his works Psal 145 17. 'T is the Rule oâ— all his Acts the Source of all his Punishments If every Attribute of the Deity were a distinct Member Purity would be the Form the Soul the Spirit to animate them Without it his Patience would be an Indulgence to Sin his Mercy a Fondness his Wrath a Madness his Power a Tyranny his Wisdom an unworthy Subtilty 'T is this gives a Decorum to all His Mercy is not exercis'd without it since he pardons none but those that have an Interest by Union in the Obedience of a Mediator which was so delightful to his Infinite Purity His Justice which Guilty man is apt to tax with Cruelty and Violence in the exercise of it is not acted out of the compass of this Rule In Acts of Mans vindictive Justice there is something of Impurity Perturbation Passion some mixture of Cruelty but none of these fall upon God in the severest Acts of Wrath. When God appears to Ezekiel in the resemblance of Fire to signifie his Anger against the House of Judah for their Idolatry from his Loyns downward there was the appearance of Fire but from the Loyns upward the appearance of Brightness as the colour of Amber Ezek. 8.2 His Heart is clear in his most Terrible acts of Vengeance 't is a pure Flame wherewith he scorcheth and burns his Enemies He is Holy in the most fiery appearance This Attribute therefore is never so much applauded as when his Sword hath been drawn and he hath manifested the greatest fierceness against his Enemies The Magnificent and Triumphant expression of it in the Text follows just upon Gods Miraculous defeat and ruine of the Egyptian Army The Sea covered them they sank as Lead in the mighty waters Then it follows Who is like unto thee oh Lord glorious in Holiness And when it was so celebrated by the Seraphims Isai 6.3 it was when the Posts moved and the House was filled with smoke v. 4. which are signs of Anger Psal 18.7 8. And when he was about to send Isaiah upon a Message of Spiritual and Temporal Judgments that he would make the heart of that people fat and their ears heavy and their eyes shut waste their Cities without Inhabitant and their Houses without Man and make the Land desolate Verses 9 10 11 12. and the Angels which here applaud him for his Holiness are the Executioners of his Justice and here called Seraphims from burning or fiery Spirits as being the Ministers of his Wrath. His Justice is part of his Holiness whereby he doth reduce into order those things that are out of order When he is consuming Men by his Fury he doth not diminish but manifest Purity Zephany 3.5 The just Lord is in the midst of her he will do no Iniquity Every Action of his is free from all tincture of Evil. 'T is also celebrated with Praise by the four Beasts about his Throne when he appears in a Covenant garb with a Rain-bow about his Throne and yet with Thundrings and Lightnings shot out against his Enemies Revel 4.8 compared with vers 3.5 to shew that all his Acts of Mercy as well as Justice are clear from any stain This is the Crown of all his Attributes the Life of all his Decrees the Brightness of all his Actions Nothing is Decreed by him nothing is acted by him but what is worthy of the Dignity and becoming the Honour of this Attribute For the better understanding this Attribute observe 1. The Nature of this Holiness 2. The Demonstration of it 3. The Purity of his Nature in all his Acts about Sin 4. The Vse of all to our selves First The Nature of Divine Holiness In General The Holiness of God Negatively is a perfect and unpolluted freedom from all Evil. As we call Gold pure that is not embased by any Dross and that Garment clean that is free from any Spot so the Nature of God is estranged from all shadow of Evil all imaginable contagion Positively 'T is the Rectitude or Integrity of the Divine Nature or that conformity of it in Affection and Action to the Divine Will as to his Eternal Law whereby he works with a becomingness to his own Excellency and whereby he hath a delight and complacency in every thing agreeable to his Will and an abhorrency of every thing contrary thereunto As there is no darkness in his Understanding so there is no spot in his Will As his Mind is possessed with all Truth so there is no deviation in his Will from it He loves all Truth and Goodness He hates all falsity and Evil. In regard of his Righteousness he loves Righteousness Psal 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth righteousness and hath no pleasure in wickedness Psal 5.4 He values Purity in his Creatures and detests all Impurity whether inward or outward ‖ Martin de Deo p. 86. We may indeed distinguish the Holiness of God from his Righteousness in our Conceptions Holiness is a Perfection absolutely considered in the Nature
Encourage or Excite or Incline to sin How can he excite to that which when it is done he will be sure to condemn How can he be a Righteous Judge to sentence a sinner to Misery for a Crime acted by a secret Inspiration from himself Iniquity would deserve no reproof from him if he were any way positively the Author of it Were God the Author of it in us what is the reason our own Consciences accuse us for it and convince us of it that being God's Deputy would not accuse us of it if the Soveraign Power by which it acts did incline us to it How can he be thought to excite to that which he hath enacted such severe Laws to restrain or encline Man to that which he hath so dreadfully punished in his Son and which it is impossible but the excellency of his Nature must encline him eternally to hate We may sooner imagine that a pure Flame shall engender Cold and Darkness be the Off-spring of a Sun-beam as imagine such a thing as this What shall we say is there unrighteousness with God God forbid The Apostle execrates such a thought Rom. 9.14 6. God cannot act any Evil in or by himself If he cannot approve of sin in others nor excite any to iniquity which is less he cannot commit Evil himself which is greater What he cannot positively will in another can never be willed in himself he cannot do evil through Ignorance because of his Infinite Knowledge nor through Weakness because of his Infinite Power nor through Malice because of his Infinite Rectitude He cannot will any unjust thing because having an infinitely perfect Understanding he cannot judge that to be true which is false or that to be good which is evil his Will is regulated by his Wisdom If he could will any unjust and irrational thing his Will would be repugnant to his Understanding there would be a disagreement in God Will against Mind and Will against Wisdom He being the highest Reason the first Truth cannot do an unreasonable false defective Action 'T is not a defect in God that he cannot do Evil but a fulness and excellency of Power As it is not a weakness in the Light but the perfection of it that it is unable to produce Darkness God is the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness James 1.17 Nothing pleases him nothing is acted by him but what is beseeming the Infinite excellency of his own Nature The voluntary necessity whereby God cannot be unjust renders him a God blessed for ever He would hate himself as the chief Good if in any of his Actions he should disagree with his Goodness He cannot do any unworthy thing not because he wants an Infinite Power but because he is possessed of an Infinite Wisdom and adorn'd with an Infinite Purity and being infinitely pure cannot have the least mixture of impurity As if you can suppose Fire infinitely hot you cannot suppose it to have the least mixture of Coldness The better any thing is the more unable it is to do evil God being the only Goodness can as little be changed in his Goodness as in his Essence The Second thing 2. The next enquiry is The Proof that God is holy or the manifestation of it Purity is as requisite to the blessedness of God as to the Being of God As he could not be God without being blessed so he could not be blessed without being holy He is called by the title of blessed as well as by that of holy Mark 14.61 Art thou the Christ the Son of the Blessed Unrighteousness is a misery and turbulency in any Spirit wherein it is For it is a privation of an excellency which ought to be in every intellectual Being and what can follow upon the privation of an excellency but unquietness and grief the moth of Happiness An unrighteous man as an unrighteous man can never be blessed though he were in a local Heaven Had God the least Spot upon his Purity it would render him as miserable in the midst of his Infinite Sufficiency as Iniquity renders a man in the confluence of his earthly Enjoyments The Holiness and Felicity of God are inseparable in him The Apostle intimates that the Heathen made an attempt to sully his Blessedness when they would liken him to corruptible mutable impure man Rom. 1.23 25. They changed the Glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to Corruptible Man And after he entitles God a God blessed for ever The Gospel is therefore called The glorious Gospel of the blessed God 1 Tim. 1.11 In regard of the holiness of the Gospel Precepts and in regard of the Declaration of the holiness of God in all the Streams and Branches wherein his Purity in which his Blessedness consists is as illustrious as any other Perfection of the Divine Being God hath highly manifested this Attribute in the state of Nature in the Legal Administration in the dispensation of the Gospel His Wisdom Goodness and Power are declared in Creation his Soveraign Authority in his Law his Grace and Mercy in the Gospel and his Righteousness in all Sutable to this threefold state may be that ternal Repetition of his Holiness in the Prophecy Isai 6.3 holy as Creator and Benefactor holy as Law-giver and Judge holy as Restorer and Redeemer 1. His holiness appears as he is Creator in framing man in a perfect Vprightness Angels as made by God could not be evil for God beheld his own Works with pleasure and could not have pronounced them all good had some been created pure and others impure Two Moral Contrarieties could not be good The Angels had a first estate wherein they were happy * Jude 6. and had they not left their own habitation and state they could not have been miserable But because the Scripture speaks only of the Creation of man we will consider that the Humane Nature was well strung and tun'd by God according to the Note of his own Holiness Eccl. 7.29 God hath made man upright He had declared his Power in other Creatures but would declare in his Rational Creature what he most valued in himself and therefore created him upright with a Wisdom which is the rectitude of the Mind with a Purity which is the rectitude of the Will and Affections He had declared a purity in other Creatures as much as they were capable of viz. in the exact tuning them to answer one another And that God who so well tun'd and compos'd other Creatures would not make Man a Jarring Instrument and place a crackt Creature to be Lord of the rest of his earthly Fabrick God being holy could not set his Seal upon any Rational Creature but the Impression would be like himself pure and holy also He could not be created with an Error in his Understanding that had been inconsistent with the Goodness of God to his Rational Creature if so the erronious motion of the Will which was to follow the dictates of the
Immutable propension of his Nature 't is not so free an act of his Will as the Creation of Man and Angels which he might have forborn as well as effected As the detestation of Sin results from the universal rectitude of his Nature so the punishment of Sin follows upon that as he is the Righteous Governour of the World 'T is as much against his Nature not to punish it as it is against his Nature not to loath it He would cease to be Holy if he ceas'd to hate it and he would cease to hate it if he ceas'd to punish it Neither the Obedience of our Saviours Life nor the strength of his Cries could put a bar to the Cup of his Passion God so hated Sin that when it was but imputed to his Son without any commission of it he would bring a Hell upon his Soul Certainly if God could have hated Sin without punishing it his Son had never felt the smart of his Wrath His love to his Son had been strong enough to have caused him to forbear had not the Holiness of his Nature been stronger to move him to inflict a Punishment according to the demerit of the Sin God cannot but be Holy and therefore cannot but be Just because Injustice is a part of Unholiness 3. Therefore there can be no Communion between God and Vnholy spirits How is it conceivable that God should hate the Sin and cherish the Sinner with all his filth in his bosom that he should Eternally detest the Crime and Eternally fold the Sâ—nner in his Arms Can less be expected from the Purity of his Nature than to separate an impure Soul as long as it remains so Can there be any delightful Communion between those whose Natures are contrary Darkness and Light may as soon kiss each other and become one Nature God and the Devil may as soon enter into an Eternal League and Covenant together For God to have pleasure in wickedness and to admit Evil to dwell with him are things equally impossible to his Nature * Psal â— 4 while he hates Impurity he cannot have Communion with an impure Person It may as soon be expected that God should hate himself offer Violence to his own Nature lay aside his Purity as an Abominable thing and blot his own Glory as love an Impure Person entertain him as his delight and set him in the same Heaven and Happiness with himself and his holy Angels He must needs loath him he must needs banish him from his Presence which is the greatest Punishment Gods Holiness and Hatred of Sin necessarily infer the Punishment of it 5. Information There is therefore a necessity of the satisfaction of the Holiness of God by some sufficient Mediator The Divine Purity could not meet with any acquiescence in all Mankind after the Fall Sin was hated the Sinner would be ruin'd unless some way were found out to repair the Wrongs done to the Holiness of God either the Sinner must be condemned for ever or some Satisfaction must be made that the Holiness of the Divine Nature might Eternally appear in its full lustre That it is Essential to the Nature of God to hate all Unrighteousness as that which is absolutely repugnant to his Nature none do question That the Justice of God is so Essential to him as that Sin could not be pardon'd without Satisfaction some do question though this latter seems rationally to follow upon the former †Turretin de Satiâ—fac p. 8. That Holiness is Essential to the Nature of God is evident because else God may as much be conceived without Purity as he might be conceived without the creating the Sun or Stars No Man can in his right Wits frame a right Notion of a Deity without Purity It would be a less Blasphemy against the Excellency of God to conceit him not Knowing than to imagine him not Holy And for the Essentialness of his Justice Joshua joyns both his Holiness and his Jealousie as going hand in hand together Josh 24.19 He is a Holy God he is a Jealous God he will not forgive your sin But consider only the Purity of God since it is contrary to Sin and consequently hating the Sinner the guilty Person cannot be reduc'd to God nor can the Holiness of God have any complacency in a filthy Person but as Fire hath in Stubble to consume it How the Holy God should be brought to delight in Man without a Salvo for the Rights of his Holiness is not to be conceiv'd without an impeachment of the Nature of God The Law could not be abolish'd that would reflect indeed upon the Righteousness of the Law-giver to abolish it because of Sin would imply a change of the Rectitude of his Nature Must be change his Holiness for the sake of that which was against his Holiness in a compliance with a prophane and unrighteous Creature This should engage him rather to maintain his Law than to null it And to abrogate his Law as soon as he had enacted it since Sin stept into the World presently after it would be no credit to his Wisdom There must be a reparation made of the Honour of Gods Holiness by our selves it could not be without Condemnation by another it could not be without a sufficiency in the Person No Creature could do it All the Creatures being of a finite Nature could not make a compensation for the disparagements of Infinite Holiness He must have despicable and vile Thoughts of this Excellent Perfection that imagines that a few Tears and the glavering Fawnings at the death of a Creature can be sufficient to repair the Wrongs and restore the Rights of this Attribute It must therefore be such a compensation as might be commensurate to the Holiness of the Divine Nature and the Divine Law which could not be wrought by any but him that was possessed of a Godhead to give efficacy and exact congruity to it The Person design'd and appointed by God for so great an affair was one in the form of God one equal with God Phil. 2.6 who could not be term'd by such a Title of Dignity if he had not been equal to God in the universal rectitude of the Divine Nature and therefore in his Holiness The Punishment due to Sin is translated to that Person for the righting Divine Holiness and the Righteousness of that Person is communicated to the Sinner for the Pardon of the Offending Creature If the Sinner had been Eternally damn'd Gods hatred of Sin had been evidenc'd by the strokes of his Justice but his Mercy to a Sinner had lain in obscurity If the Sinner had been Pardoned and Saved without such a reparation Mercy had been evident but his Holiness had hid its head for ever in his own bosom There was therefore a necessity of such a way to manifest his Purity and yet to bring forth his Mercy That Mercy might not alway sigh for the destruction of the Creature and that Holiness might not mourn
God is then considered in a disposition contrary to this which can be nothing but his Righteousness If you that are unholy and have so much Corruption in you to render you cruel can bestow upon your Children the good things they want how much more shall God who is holy and hath nothing in him to check his mercifulness to his Creatures grant the Petitions of his Suppliants 'T was this Attribute edg'd the siduciary importunity of the Souls under the Altar for the revenging their blood unjustly shed upon the Earth Rev. 6.10 How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth Let not thy holiness stand with folded Arms as careless of the eminent Sufferings of those that fear thee we implore thee by the holiness of thy Nature and the truth of thy Word 2. This renders him fit to be confided in for the comfort of our Souls in a broken condition The reviving the hearts of the spiritually afflicted is a part of the holiness of his Nature Isa 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble He acknowledgeth himself the lofty One they might therefore fear he would not revive them but he is also the holy One and therefore he will refresh them he is not more lofty than he is holy besides the argument of the immutability of his Promise and the might of his Power here is the holiness of his Nature moving him to pity his drooping Creature His Promise is usher'd in with the name of power high and lofty One to bar their distrust of his strength and with a declaration of his holiness to check any despair of his Will There is no ground to think I should be false to my word or misemploy my Power since that cannot be because of the holiness of my Name and Nature 3. This renders him fit to be confided in for the maintenance of grace and protection of us against our spiritual Enemies What our Saviour thought an argument in Prayer we may well take as a ground of our confidence In the strength of this he puts up his sute when in his mediatory Capacity he intercedes for the preservation of his People John 17.11 Holy Father keep through thy own Name those that thou hast given me that they may be one as we are Holy Father not merciful Father or powerful or wise Father but holy and Verse 25. righteous Father Christ pleads that Attribute for the performance of God's Word which was laid to pawn when he past his word For it was by his Holiness that he swore That his seed should endure for ever and his Throne as the Sun before him †Psal 89.36 which is meant of the perpetuity of the Covenant which he made with Christ and is also meant of the preservation of the mystical Seed of David and the perpetuating his loving kindness to them ‖ Vers 32 33. Grace is an Image of God's holiness and therefore the holiness of God is most proper to be used as an Argument to interest and engage him in the preservation of it In the midst of Church provocations he will not utterly extinguish because he is the holy One in the midst of her * Hos 11.9 Nor in the midst of Judgments will he condemn his people to death because he is their holy one †Hab. 1.12 but their Enemies shall be ordained for Judgment and established for Correction One Prophet assures them in the Name of the Lord upon the strength of this Perfection and the other upon the same ground is confident of the protection of the Church because of Gods holiness engag'd in an inviolable Covenant 3. Comfort Since holiness is a glorious Perfection of the Nature of God he will certainly value every holy Soul 'T is of a greater value with him than the Souls of all men in the World that are destitute of it Wicked men are the worst of vilenesses meer dross and dunghil ‖ Psal 12.8 The vilest mâ—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Purity then which is contrary to wickedness must be the most precious thing in his esteem he must needs love that quality which he is most pleas'd with in himself as a father looks with most delight upon the child which is possess'd with those dispositions he most values in his own nature His Countenance doth behold the upright Ps 11.7 He looks upon them with a full and open Face of favour with a countenance clear unmaskt and smiling with a Face full of delight Heaven it self is not such a pleasing Object to him as the Image of his own increated holiness in the created holiness of Men and Angels As a man esteems that most which is most like him of his own Generation more than a piece of Art which is meerly the product of his wit or strength And he must love holiness in the Creature he would not else love his own Image and consequently would undervalue himself He despiseth the Image the wicked bears * Psal 73.20 but he cannot disesteem his own stamp on the godly he cannot but delight in his own work his choice work the Master-piece of all his works the new Creation of things that which is next to himself as being a Divine Nature like himself †2 Pet. 1.4 When he overlooks strength parts knowledge he cannot overlook this He sets apart him that is godly for himself Psal 4.3 as a peculiar Object to take pleasure in he reserves such for his own complacency when he leaves the rest of the World to the Devils power he is choice of them above all his other works and will not let any have so great a propriety in them as himself If it be so dear to him here in its imperfect and mixt condition that he appropriates it as a peculiar Object for his own delight how much more will the unspotted purity of glorified Saints be infinitely pleasing to him So that he will take less pleasure in the material Heavens than in such a Soul Sin only is detestable to God and when this is done away the Soul becomes as lovely in his account as before it was loathsome 4. 'T is comfort upon this account That God will perfect holiness in every upright Soul We many times distrust God and despond in our selves because of the infinite holiness of the Divine Nature and the dunghil Corruptions in our own but the holiness of God engageth him to the preservation of it and consequently to the perfection of it as appears by our Saviour's Argument Joh. 17.11 Holy Father keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me to what end that they may be one as we are one with us in the resemblances of Purity And the holiness of the Soul is used as an Argument by
in its Brightness we may behold it through a colour'd Glass whereby the lustre of it is moderated without dazling our eyes The sense of it will furnish us with a greatness of mind that little things will be contemned by us Motives of a greater alloy would have little influence upon us we should have the highest Motives to every Duty and Motives of the same strain which influence â—he Angels above It would change us not only into an Angelical Nature but a Divine Nature We should act like men of another Sphere as if we had received our Original in another World and seen with Angels the ravishing Beauties of Heaven How little would the mean Imployments of the World sink us into dirt and mud How often hath the Meditation of the Courage of a Valiant Man or Acuteness and Industry of a Learned Person spur'd on some men to an imitation of them and transform'd them into the same Nature As the looking upon the Sun imprints an Image of the Sun upon our eye that we seem to behold nothing but the Sun a while after The view of the Divine Purity would fill us with a holy generosity to imitate him more than the Examples of the best men upon Earth It was a saying of a Heathen That if Vertue were visible it would kindle a noble flame of Love to it in the heart by its ravishing beauty Shall the Infinite Purity of the Author of all Vertue come short of the strength of a Creature Can we not render that visible to us by frequent Meditation which though it be invisible in his Nature is made visible in his Law in his Ways in his Son It would make us ready to obey him since we know he cannot Command any thing that is sinful but what is holy just and good It would put all our Aff ctions in their due place elevate them above the Creature and subject them to the Creator 6. It would make us patient and contented under all God's Dispensations All penal Evils are the Fruits of his Holiness as he is Judge and Governour of the World He is not an Arbitrary Judge nor doth any Sentence pronounc'd nor Warrant for Execution issue from him but what bears upon it a Stamp of the Righteousness of his Nature he doth nothing by Passion or Unrighteousness but according to the Eternal Law of his own unstained Nature which is the Rule to him in his Works the Basis and Foundation of his Throne and Soveraign Dominion Psal 89.14 Justice or Righteousness and Judgment are the Habitation of thy Throne upon these his Soveraign Power is established So that there can be no just Complaint or Indictâ—â—â—t brought against any of his Proceedings with men How doth our Saviour who had the highest Apprehensions of God's Holiness justifie God in his deepest Distresses when he cried and was not answered in the particular he desired in that Prophetick Psalm of him Psal 22.2 3. I cry day and night but thou hearest not Thou seemest to be deaf to all my Petitions afar off from the words of my roaring but thou art holy I cast no blame upon thee All thy dealings are squar'd by thy holiness this is the only Law to thee in this I acquiesce 'T is part of thy holiness to hide thy face from me to shew thereby thy detestation of sin Our Saviour adores the Divine Purity in his sharpest Agony and a like sense of it would guide us in the same steps to acknowledge and glorifie it in our greatest desertions and afflictions especially since as they are the fruit of the holiness of his Nature so they are the means to impart to us clearer stamps of holiness according to that in himself which is the original Copy * Heb. 12.10 He melts us down as Gold to fit us for the receiving a new Impression to mortifie the Affections of the Flesh and clothe us with the Graces of his Spirit The due sense of this would make us to submit to his stroke and to wait upon him for a good issue of his dealings 2. Exhortation Is holiness a Perfection of the Divine Nature Is it the glory of the Deity Then let us glorifie this holiness of God Moses glorifies it in the Text and glorifies it in a Song which was a Copy for all Ages The whole Corporation of Seraphims have their Mouths fill'd with the praises of it The Saints whither Militant on Earth or Triumphant in Heaven are to continue the same Acclamation Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts †Rev. 4.8 Neither Angels nor glorified Spirits exalt at the same rate the Power which formed them Creatures nor Goodness which preserves them in a blessed Immortality As they do holiness which they bear some beams of in their own Nature and whereby they are capacitated to stand before his Throne Upon the account of this a Debt of Praise is demanded of all Rational Creatures by the Psalmist Psal 99.3 Let them praise thy great and terrible Name for it is holy Not so much for the greatness of his Majesty or the treasures of his Justice but as they are considered in conjunction with his holiness which renders them beautiful for it is holy Grandeur and Majesty simply in themselves are not Objects of Praise nor do they merit the Acclamations of men when destitute of Righteousness This only renders every thing else adorable and this adorns the Divine Greatness with an amiableness Isa 12.6 Great is the holy One of Israel in the midst of thee and makes his Might worthy of Praise Luke 1.49 In honouring this which is the soul and spirit of all the rest we give a glory to all the Perfections which constitute and beautifie his Nature And without the glorifying this we glorifie nothing of them though we should extoll every other single Attribute a thousand times He values no other Adoration of his Creatures unless this be interested nor accepts any thing as a glory from them Levit. 10.3 I will be sanctified in them that come near me and I will be glorified As if he had said in manifesting my Name to be holy you truly you only honour me And as the Scripture seldom speaks of this Perfection without a particular Emphasis it teaches us not to think of it without a special Elevation of heart By this act only while we are on Earth can we joyn consort with the Angels in Heaven he that doth not honour it delight in it and in the meditation of it hath no resemblance of it he hath none of the Image that delights not in the Original Every thing of God is glorious but this most of all If he built the World principally for any thing it was for the communication of his Goodness and display of his Holiness He formed the Rational Creature to manifest his Holiness in that Law whereby he was to be governed Then deprive not God of the design of his own Glory We honour this Attribute 1. When we make it
it is a representation of the Divinity and a holy man ought to esteem himself excellent in being such in his measure as his God is and puts his principal felicity in the possession of the same purity in Truth This is the refin'd Complexion of the Angels that stand before his Throne The Devils lost their comliness when they fell from it It was the honour of the humane Nature of our Saviour not only to be united to the Deity but to be sanctified by it He was fairer than all the Children of men because he had a holiness above the Children of men Grace was poured into his lips Psal 45.2 It was the Jewel of the reasonable Nature in paradise Conformity to God was mans original happiness in his created state and what was naturally so cannot but be immutably so in its own Nature The beauty of every copyed thing consists in its likeness to the Original Every thing hath more of loveliness as it hath greater impressions of its first Pattern In this regard holiness hath more of beauty on it than the whole Creation because it partakes of a greater excellency of God than the Sun Moon and Stars No greater glory can be than to be a conspicuous and visible Image of the invisible and holy and blessed God As this is the splendor of all the Divine Attributes so it is the flower of all a Christians Graces the Crown of all Religion 'T is the glory of the Spirit In this regard the Kings Daughter is said to be all glorious within * Psal 45.13 'T is more excellent than the soul itself since the greatest soul is but a deformed piece without it A Diamond without lustre †Vaughan p. 4 5. What are the noble faculties of the Soul without it but as a curious rusty Watch a delicate heap of Disorder and confusion 'T is impossible there can be beauty where thâ—re are a multitude of spots and wrinkles that blemish a Countenance ‖ Eph. 5.27 It can never be in its true brightness but when it is perfect in Purity when it regains what it was possessed of by Creation and dispossessed of by the fall and recovers its primitive temper We are not so beautiful by being the work of God as by having a stamp of God upon us Worldly greatness may make men honourable in the sight of creeping worms Soft lives ambitious reaches luxurious pleasures and a pompous Religion render no man excellent and noble in the sight of God This is not the excellency and nobility of the Deity which we are bound to resemble Other lines of a Divine Image must be drawn in us to render us truly excellent 4. 'T is our life What is the life of God is truly the life of a rational Creature * Amirald in Heb. p. 101 102. The life of the body consists not in the perfection of its Members and the integrity of its Organs these remain when the body becomes a Carcass but in the presence of the Soul and its vigorous animation of every part to perform the distinct offices belonging to each of them The life of the Soul consists not in its being or spiritual substance or the excellency of its Faculties of understanding and will but in the moral and becoming operations of them The spirit is only life because of righteousness * Rom. 8.10 The Faculties are turned by it to acquit themselves in their functions according to the will of God the absence of this doth not only deform the Soul but in a sort annihilate it in regard of its true essence and end Grace gives a Christian being and a want of it is the want of a true being Cor. 1.15.10 When Adam devested himself of his original righteousness he came under the force of the threatning in regard of a spiritual death Every person is morally dead whiles he lives an unholy life †1. Tim. 5 6. What life is to the body that is righteousness to the Spirit and the greater measure of holiness it hath the more of life it hath because it is in a greater nearness and partakes more fully of the fountain of life Is not that the most worthy life which God makes most account of without which his life could not be a pleasant and blessed life but a life worse than death What a miserable life is that of the men of the World that are carried with greedy inclinations to all manner of unrighteousness whither their interests or their lusts invite them The most beautiful body is a Carcass and the most honorable person hath but a brutish life ‖ Psal 49.20 miserable Creatures when their life shall be extinct without a Divine rectitude when all other things will vanish as the shadows of the night at the appearance of the Sun Holiness is our life 5. 'T is this only fits us for Communion with God Since it is our beauty and our life without it what Communion can an excellent God have with deformed Creatures a living God with dead Creatures Without Holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 The Creature must be stript of his Unrighteousness or God of his Purity before they can come together Likeness is the ground of Communion and of Delight in it The opposition between God and unholy Souls is as great as that between light and darkness * 1 John 1.6 Divine fruition is not so much by a union of Presence as a union of Nature Heaven is not so much an outward as an inward life the foundation of Glory is laid in Grace a resemblance to God is our vital happiness without which the Vision of God would not be so much as a cloudy and shadowy happiness but rather a torment than a felicity unless we be of a like nature to God we cannot have a pleasing fruition of him Some Philosophers think that if our Bodies were of the same nature with the Heavens of an Ethereal Substance the nearness to the Sun would cherish not scorch us Were we partakers of a Divine nature we might enjoy God with delight whereas remaining in our unlikeness to him we cannot think of him and approach to him without terrour As soon as sin had stript man of the Image of God he was an Exile from the comfortable presence of God unworthy for God to hold any correspondence with He can no more delight in a defiled person than a man can take a Toad into intimate converse with him he would hereby discredit his own Nature and justifie our Impurity The holiness of a Creature only prepares him for an eternal conjunction with God in glory Enoch's walking with God was the cause of his being so soon wafted to the place of a full fruition of him he hath as much delight in such as in Heaven it self one is his Habitation as well as the other The one is his habitation of Glory and the other is the house of his Pleasure If he dwell in Zion it must be
a lower measure much more will he love it in a higher degree because then his Image is more illustrious and beautiful and comes nearer to the lively lineaments of his own Infinite Purity Perfection in any thing is more lovely and amiable than Imperfection in any state and the nearer any thing arrives to Perfection the further are those things separated from it which might Cool an affection to it An increase in holiness is attended with a manifestation of his love Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keeps them he it is that loves me and he shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and I will manifest my self to him T is a testimony of love to God and God will not be behind hand with the Creature in kindness He loves a holy man for some resemblance to him in his Nature but when there is an abounding in Sanctified dispositions sutable to it there is an increase of savour The more we resemble the Original the more shall we enjoy the blessedness of that Original As any partake more of the Divine likeness they partake more of the Divine happiness 5. Exhortation Let us carry our selves holily in a spiritual manner in all our religious approaches to God Psal 93.5 Holiness becomes thy house O Lord for ever This Attribute should work in us a deep and reverential respect to God This is the reason rendred why we should worship at his foot-stool in the lowest posture of humility prostrate before him because he is holy †Psal 99.5 Shooes must be put off from our feet Exod. 3.5 that is Lusts from our Affections every thing that our souls are clogged and bemired with as the Shooe is with dirt He is not willing we should offer to him an impure soul mired hearts rotten carcasses putrified in vice rotten in iniquity Our Services are to be as free from prophaness as the sacrifices of the Law were to be free from sickliness or any blemish Whatsoever is contrary to his Purity is abhorred by him and unlovely in his sight and can meet with no other success at his hands but a disdainful turning away both of his eye and ear ‖ Isa 1.15 Since he is an Immense purity he will reject from his presence and from having any communion with him all that which is not conformable to him as light chases away the darkness of the night and will not mix with it If we stretch out our hands towards him we must put iniquity farr away from us * Job 11.13 14. the fruits of all Service will else drop off to nothing Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord When when the heart is purged by Christ sitting as a purifier of silver †Mal. 3.3 4. Not all the Incense of the Indies yield him so sweet a Savour as one spiritual act of worship from a heart estranged from the vileness of the World and ravisht with an affection to and a desire of imitating the Puririty of his Nature 6. Exhortation Let us address for holiness to God the fountain of it As he is the Author of bodily life in the Creature so he is the Author of his own life the life of God in the soul By his holiness he makes men holy as the Sun by his light enlightens the Air. He is not only the Holy One but our holy One ‖ Isa 43.15 The Lord that sanctifies us Levit. 20.8 As he hath mercy to pardon us so he hath holiness to purify us the excellency of being a Sun to comfort us and a Shield to protect us giving Grace and Glory * Psal 84.11 Grace whereby we may have Communion with him to our comfort and strength against our spiritual enemies for our defence Grace as our preparatory to glory and Grace growing up till it ripen in Glory He only can mould us into a Divine frame The great Original can only derive the excellency of his own Nature to us We are too low too lame to lift up our selves to it too much in love with our own Deformity to admit of this Beauty without a heavenly power inclining our desires for it our affections to it our willingness to be partakers of it He can as soon set the beauty of Holiness in a deformed heart as the beauty of Harmony in a confused mass when he made the World He can as soon cause the light of Purity to rise out of the darkness of Corruption as frame glorious spirits out of the insufficiency of nothing His beauty doth not decay he hath as much in himself now as he had in his eternity He is as ready to impart it as he was at the Creation only we must wait upon him for it and be content to have it by small measures and degrees There is no fear of our sanctification if we come to him as a God of holiness since he is a God of peace and the breach made by Adam is repaired by Christ Thes 1.5.23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly c. He restores the sanctifying spirit which was withdrawn by the Fall as he is a God pacified and his holiness righted by the Redeemer The beauty of it appears in its smiles upon a man in Christ and is as ready to impart it self to the reconcil'd Creature as before Iustice was to punish the rebellious one He loves to send forth the streams of this perfection into created Chanels more than any else He did not design the making the Creature so powerfull as he might because power is not such an excellency in its own Nature but as it is conducted and managed by some other excellency Power is indifferent and may be used well or ill according as the possessor of it is righteous or unrighteous God makes not the Creature so powerful as he might but he delights to make the Creature that waits upon him as holy as it can be beginning it in this world and ripening it in the other 'T is from him we must expect it and from him that we must begg it and draw Arguments from the holiness of his Nature to move him to work holiness in our Spirits We cannot have a stronger plea. Purity is the favourite of his own Nature and delights itself in the resemblances of it in the Creature Let us also go to God to preserve what he hath already wrought and imparted As we cannot attain it so we cannot maintain it without him God gave it Adam and he lost it When God gives it us we shall lose it without his influencing and preserving Grace The chanel will be without a Stream if the Fountain do not bubble it forth and the streams will vanish if the Fountain doth not constantly supply them Let us apply our selves to him for holiness as he is a God glorious in holiness By this we honour God and advantage our selves A DISCOURSE UPON THE Goodness of God Mark 10.18 And Jesus
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
Man if he stand thy Bounty will be eminent yet there is no room for Mercy to act unless by the Commission of sin he exposeth himself to Misery and if sin enter into another World I have little hopes to be heard then if I am rejected now Worlds will be perpetually created by Goodness Wisdom and Power Sin entring into these Worlds will be perpetually punished by Justice and Mercy which is a Perfection of thy Nature will for ever be commanded silence and lye wrapt up in an eternal Darkness Take occasion now therefore to expose me to the knowledge of thy Creature since without Misery Mercy can never set foot into the World Mercy pleads if man be ruined the Creation is in vain Justice pleads if man be not sentenced the Law is in vain Truth backs Justice and Grace abets Mercy What shall be done in this seeming Contradiction Mercy is not manifested if man be not pardoned Justice will complain if man be not punished 3. An expedient is found out by the wisdom of God to answer these Demands and adjust the Differences between them The wisdom of God answers I will satisfie your Pleas. The Pleas of Justice shall be satisfied in punishing and the Pleas of Mercy shall be received in pardoning Justice shall not complain for want of Punishment nor Mercy for want of Compassion I will have an infinite Sacrifice to content Justice and the Vertue and Fruit of that Sacrifice shall delight Mercy Here shall Justice have punishment to accept and Mercy shall have Pardon to bestow The Rights of both are preserved and the Demands of both amicably accorded in punishment and pardon by transferring the punishment of our Crimes upon a Surety exacting a Recompence from his Blood by Justice and conferring life and salvation upon us by Mercy without the expence of one drop of our own Thus is Justice satisfied in its Severities and Mercy in its Indulgences The riches of Grace are twisted with the terrors of Wrath. The bowels of Mercy are wound about the flaming Sword of Justice and the Sword of Justice protects and secures the bowels of Mercy Thus is God righteous without being cruel and merciful without being unjust his Righteousness inviolable and the World recoverable Thus is a resplendent Mercy brought forth in the midst of all the Curses Confusions and Wrath threatned to the Offender This is the admirable temperament found out by the wisdom of God His Justice is honoured in the Sufferings of Man's Surety and his Mercy is honoured in the application of the Propitiation to the Offender Rom. 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Had we in our Persons been Sacrifices to Justice Mercy had for ever been unknown had we been solely fostered by Mercy Justice had for ever been secluded had we being guilty been absolved Mercy might have rejoyced and Justice might have complained had we been solely punished Justice would have triumphed and Mercy grieved But by this medium of Redemption neither hath ground of Complaint Justice hath nothing to charge when the Punishment is inflicted Mercy hath whereof to boast when the Surety is accepted The Debt of the Sinner is transferred upon the Surety that the Merit of the Surety may be conferred upon the Sinner so that God now deals with our sins in a way of consuming Justice and with our Persons in a way of relieving Mercy 'T is highly better and more glorious than if the Claim of one had been granted with the exclusion of the Demand of the other It had then been either an unrighteous Mercy or a merciless Justice 'T is now a righteous Mercy and a merciful Justice 2. The Wisdom of God appears in the Subject or Person wherein these were accorded The second Person in the blessed Trinity There was a congruity in the Sons undertaking and effecting it rather than any other Person according to the order of the Persons and the several functions of the Persons as represented in Scripture The Father after Creation is the Law-giver and presents man with the Image of his own Holiness and the way to his Creatures happiness But after the Fall man was too impotent to perform the Law and too polluted to enjoy a Felicity Redemption was then necessary not that it was necessary for God to redeem man but it was necessary for man's happiness that he should be recovered To this the second Person is appointed that by Communion with him man might derive a happiness and be brought again to God But since man was blind in his Vnderstanding and an Enemy in his will to God there must be the exerting of a Vertue to enlighten his mind and bend his Will to understand and accept of this Redemption And this work is assigned to the third Person the Holy Ghost 1. It was not congruous that the Father should assume Human Nature and suffer in it for the Redemption of man He was first in order he was the Law-giver and therefore to be the Judge As Lawgiver it was not convenient he should stand in the stead of the Law-breaker and as Judge it was as little convenient he should be reputed a Malefactor That he who had made a Law against sin denounced a Penalty upon the commission of sin and whose part it was actually to punish the sinner should become sin for the wilful Transgressor of his Law He being the Rector how could he be an Advocate and Intercessor to himself How could he be the Judge and the Sacrifice A Judge and yet a Mediator to himself If he had been the Sacrifice there must be some Person to examine the validity of it and pronounce the Sentence of acceptance Was it agreeable that the Son should sit upon a Throne of Judgment and the Father stand at the Bar and be responsible to the Son That the Son should be in the place of a Governour and the Father in the place of the Criminal That the Father should be bruised * Isa 53.10 by the Son as the Son was by the Father †Zach. 13 70. that the Son should awaken a Sword against the Father as the Father did against the Son that the Father should be sent by the Son as the Son was by the Father * Gal. 4.4 The order of the Persons in the blessed Trinity had been inverted and disturbed Had the Father been sent he had not been first in order the Sender is before the Person sent As the Father begets and the Son is begotten Joh. 1.14 so the Father sends and the Son is sent He whose order is to send cannot properly send himself 2. Nor was it congruous that the Spirit should he sent upon this Affair If the Holy Ghost had been sent to redeem us and the Son to apply