of it Psal 29.1 Give unto the Lord O ye mighty give unto the Lord glory and strength So likewise it should take Men off from relying upon their own strength which at the best is but an arm of flesh as the Scripture calls it for the weakness of it Do we not see that many times the battel is not to the strong That things are not done by might and by power but by the spirit of the Lord. When he appears against the most potent their hearts melt within them and there is no more spirit left in them as 't is said of the mighty Inhabitants of Canaan Josh 5.1 Thirdly We should make this Omnipotence of God the Object of our trust and confidence This is the most proper use we can make of this Doctrine as David does in this Psalm and this was used for a form of blessing the People in the Name of God Psal 136.3 The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee And David when he magnifies God's deliverance of his People from the multitude of their Enemies resolves it into this Our help standeth in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth Thus did the great Pattern and Example of Faith incourage and support his confidence in God in a very difficult tryal he staggered not at it because he believed God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things that be not as tho' they were therefore against hope he believed in hope c. Rom. 4.17 c. This gives life to all our Devotion to be perswaded that God is able to do for us exceedingly above what we can ask or think and that his is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory I shall only caution two things as to our relyance on the Power of God I. Labour to be such Persons to whom God hath promised that he will engage and imploy his Omnipotence for their good If we hope for any good from the Almighty we must walk before him and be perfect as he said to Abraham Good Men have a peculiar interest in God's Power hence he is called the strength of Israel and the mighty one of Israel If we do what God requires of us we may expect that he will put forth his Power and exert his Arm for us but if we disobey we must expect he will manifest his Power against us Ez. 8.22 When we do well we may commit the keeping of our souls to him 1 Pet. 4.19 II. Our expectations from the Omnipotence of God must be with submission to his Pleasure and Goodness and Wisdom we must not expect that God will manifest his Power when we think there is occasion for it but when it seems best to him he will so imploy his Omnipotence as to manifest his Goodness and Wisdom And with these two Cautions we may rely upon him in all our Wants both Spiritual and Temporal for his Divine Power can give us all things that pertain to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1.3 We may trust him at all times for the Omnipotent God neither slumbereth nor sleepeth the Almighty fainteth not neither is he weary trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength SERMON XI Vol. VII· The Spirituality of the Divine Nature JOHN IV. 24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth THese are the words of our Saviour to the Woman of Samaria who was speaking to him of the difference between the Samaritans and the Jews concerning Religion v. 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this mountain but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship Christ tells her The time was coming when the worshippers of God should neither be confined to that mountain nor to Jerusalem but men should worship the Father in spirit and in truth when this carnal and ceremonial and typical Worship of God should be exalted into a more spiritual a more real and true and substantial Religion which should not be confined to one Temple but should be universally diffused through the World Now such a Worship as this is most agreeable to the Nature of God for he is a spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth In the words we have First A Proposition laid down God is a spirit Secondly A Corollary or Inference deduced from it they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth I shall speak of the Proposition as that which concerns my present Design and afterward speak something to the Corollary or Inference deduced from it together with some other Inferences drawn from this truth by way of Application First That God is a spirit This expression is singular and not to be parallell'd again in the Scripture indeed we have often mention made in Scripture of the spirit of God and the spirit of the Lord which signifies a Divine Power and Energy and of the holy Spirit signifying the third Person in the Trinity God is call'd the God of the Spirits of all flesh Numb 16.22.27.16 much in the same Sense as he is call'd the Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 that is the Creator of the Souls of Men but we no where meet with this expression or any other equivalent to it that God is a spirit but only in this place nor had it been used here but to prove that the best Worship of God that which is most proper to him is spiritual so that the thing which our Saviour here intends is not to prove the Spiritual Nature of God but that his Worship ought to be spiritual nor indeed is there any necessity that it should have been any where said in Scripture that God is a spirit it being the natural Notion of a God no more than it is necessary that it should be told us that God is good or that he is infinite and eternal and the like or that the Scripture should prove to us the Being of a God All these are manifest by the Light of Nature and if the Scripture mention them it is ex abundanti and it is usually in order to some further purpose For we are to know that the Scripture supposeth us to be Men and to partake of the common Notions of Human Nature and therefore doth not teach us Philosophy nor solicitously instruct us in those things which are born with us but supposeth the knowledge of these and makes use of these common Principles and Notions which are in us concerning God and the immortality of our Souls and the Life to come to excite us to our Duty and quicken our Endeavours after Happiness For I do not find that the Doctrine of the immortality of the Soul is any where expresly delivered in Scripture but taken for granted in like manner that the Scripture doth not solicitously instruct us in the natural Notions which we have of God but supposeth them known to us and if it mention them it is not so
Church with it and make it a ground of separation from her 3. If God be a Spirit then we should worship him in spirit and in truth This is the Inference of the Text and therefore I shall speak a little more largely of it only I must explain what is meant by worshiping in spirit and in truth and shew you the force of this Consequence how it follows that because God is a Spirit therefore he must be worship'd in spirit and in truth 1 st For the explication of it This word Spirit is sometimes apply'd to the Doctrine of the Gospel and so it is opposed to Letter by which Name the Doctrine of Moses is called 2 Cor. 3.6 Who hath made us able Ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the spirit not of the Law which was written in Tables of Stone but which Christ by his Spirit writes in the Hearts of Believers Sometimes to the worship of the Gospel and so it is opposed to the Flesh Gal. 3.3 Having begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh that is by the works of the ceremonial Law which is therefore call'd Flesh because the principal ceremony of it Circumcision was made in the Flesh and because their Sacrifices a chief part of their Worship were of the Flesh of Beasts and because the greatest part of their Ordinances as washing and the like related to the Body Hence it is the Apostle calls the worship of the Jews the law of a carnal commandment Heb. 7.16 and Heb. 9.10 Carnal Ordinances speaking of the Service of the Law which saith he stood in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances Now in opposition to this carnal and ceremonial Worship we are to worship God in the Spirit The Worship of the Jews was most a bodily service but we are to give God a reasonable service to serve him with the spirit of our minds as the Apostle speaks instead of offering the flesh of bulls and goats we are to consecrate our selves to the service of God this is a holy and acceptable sacrifice or reasonable service And in truth Either in opposition to the false Worship of the Samaritans as in spirit is opposed to the Worship of the Jews as our Saviour tells the Woman that they worship'd they knew not what or which I rather think in opposition to the shadows of the Law and so it is opposed John 1.17 The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Not that the external Service of God is here excluded not that we are to show no outward reverence to him but that as under the Law the Service of God was chiefly external and corporeal so now it should chiefly be inward and spiritual the Worship of God under the Gospel should chiefly be spiritual and substantial not a carnal and bodily and ceremonious Devotion 2 dly For the force of the Consequence it doth not lie in this that just such as God is such must our Worship of him be for this would exclude all bodily and outward worship our Worship of God must therefore be invisible eternal c. for so is he and besides the Will of God seems rather to be the rule of his Worship than his Nature but the force of it is this God is of a spiritual Nature and this is to be supposed to be his Will that our Worship should be as agreable to the Object of it as the nature of the Creature who is to give it will bear now saith Christ to the Woman the Jews and the Samaritans they limit their Worship to a certain place and it consists chiefly in certain carnal Rites and Ordinances but saith he tho' God have permitted this for a time because of the carnality and hardness of their hearts yet the time is coming when a more spiritual and solid and substantial Worship of God is to be introduced which will be free from all particular Places and Rites not tyed to the Temple or to such external Ceremonies but consisting in the devotion of our Spirits even the inward frame and temper of our Hearts all outward Circumstances excepting those of the two Sacraments which are positive being left by the Gospel to as great a liberty as natural necessity and decency will permit We must worship God and therefore it is naturally necessary that we should do it somewhere in some place now seeing some body must determine this it is most convenient that Authority should determine it according to the conveniency of cohabitation We must not be rude nor do any thing that is naturally undecent in the Worship of God this Authority should restrain but further than this I doubt not but the Gospel hath left us free and to this end that the less we are tied to external Observances the more intent we should be upon the spiritual and substantial parts of Religion the conforming of our selves to the Mind and Will of God endeavouring to be like God and to have our Souls and Spirits ingaged in those Duties we perform to him So that our Saviour's argument is this God is a Spirit that is the most excellent Nature and Being and therefore must be served with the best We consist of Body and Soul 't is true and we must serve him with our whole Man but principally with our Souls which are the most excellent Part of our selves the Service of our Mind and Spirit is the best we can perform and therefore most agreeable to God who is a Spirit and the best and most perfect Being So that the Inference is this that if God be a Spirit we must worship him in spirit and in truth our Religion must be real and inward and sincere and substantial we must not think to put off God with external observances and with bodily reverence and attendance this we must give him but we must principally regard that our Service of him be reasonable that is directed by our Understandings and accompanied with our Affections Our Religion must consist principally in a sincere love and affection to God which expresseth it self in a real conformity of our lives and actions to his Will and when we make our solemn approaches to him in the Duties of his Worship and Service we must perform all acts of outward Worship to God with a pure and sincere Mind whatever we do in the Service of God we must do it heartily as to the Lord. God is a pure Spirit present to our Spirits intimate to our Souls and conscious to the most secret and retired motions of our Hearts now because we serve the Searcher of Hearts we must serve him with our Hearts Indeed if we did worship God only to be seen of Men a pompous and external Worship would be very suitable to such an end but Religion is not intended to please Men but God and therefore it must be spiritual and inward and real And where-ever the external part of Religion
The most Reverend D r. IOHN TILLOTSON late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Remaining DISCOURSES ON THE Attributes of God viz. His Goodness His Mercy His Patience His Long-suffering His Power His Spirituality His Immensity His Eternity His Incomprehensibleness God the first Cause and last End By the Most Reverend Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Being The SEVENTH VOLUME Published from the Originals By Ralph Barker D. D. Chaplain to his Grace LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard 1700. THE CONTENTS SERMON I II III IV. The Goodness of God PSAL. CXLV 9 The Lord is good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works Page 1 25 51 81. SERMON V. The Mercy of God NUMB. XIV 18 The Lord is long-suffering and of great Mercy p. 145. SERMON VI VII The Patience of God 2 Pet. III. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise as some men count slackness but is long suffering not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance p. 143 179. SERMON VIII IX The Long-suffering of God ECCLES VIII 11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil p. 193 239. SERMON X. The Power of God PSAL. LXII 11 God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth unto God p. 265. SERMON XI The Spirituality of the Divine Nature JOHN IV. 2 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth p. 299. SERMON XII The Immensity of the Divine Nature PSAL. CXXXIX 7 8 9 10. Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into 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 hold me p. 331 SERMON XIII The Eternity of God PSALM XC 2 Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God p. 355 SERMON XIV The Incomprehensibleness of God JOB XI 7 Canst thou by searching find out God Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection p. 377 SERMON XV. God the first Cause and last End ROM XI 36 For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen p. 403 SERMON I. Vol. VII The Goodness of God PSAL. CXLV 9 The Lord is Good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works THE Subject which I have now proposed to treat of is certainly one of the Greatest and Noblest Arguments in the World the Goodness of God the Highest and most Glorious Perfection of the best and most Excellent of Beings than which nothing deserves more to be considered by us nor ought in Reason to affect us more The Goodness of God is the cause and the continuance of our Beings the Foundation of our Hopes and the Fountain of our Happiness our greatest comfort and our fairest Example the chief Object of our love and praise and admiration the joy and rejoycing of our hearts and therefore the Meditation and Discourse of it must needs be pleasant and delightful to us the great difficulty will be to confine our selves upon so copious an Argument and to set bounds to that which is of so vast an extent the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works Which words are an Argument which the divine Plalmist useth to stir up himself and others to the praise of God At the 3. v. he tells us that the Lord is great and greatly to be praised and he gives the reason of this v. 8. and 9. from those Properties and Perfections of the Divine Nature which declare his Goodness the Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works where you have the Goodness of God declared together with the amplitude and extent of it in respect of the Objects of it the Lord is good to all In the handling of this Argument I shall do these four things First Consider what is the proper Notion of Goodness as it is attributed to God Secondly Shew that this Perfection belongs to God Thirdly Consider the Effects and the Extent of it Fourthly Answer some Objections which may seem to contradict and bring in question the Goodness of God First What is the proper Notion of Goodness as it is attributed to God There is a dry Metaphysical Notion of Goodness which only signifies the Being and essential properties of a thing but this is a good word ill bestowed for in this sense every thing that hath Being even the Devil himself is good And there is a Moral Notion of Goodness and that is twofold 1. More general in opposition to all Moral evil and imperfection which we call sin and vice and so the Justice and Truth and Holiness of God are in this sense his Goodness But there is 2. Another Notion of Moral Goodness which is more particular and restrained and then it denotes a particular Virtue in opposition to a particular Vice and this is the proper and usual acceptation of the word Goodness and the best description I can give of it is this that it is a certain propension and disposition of mind whereby a person is enclined to desire and procure the happiness of others and it is best understood by its contrary which is an envious disposition a contracted and narrow Spirit which would confine happiness to it self and grudgeth that others should partake of it or share in it or a malicious and mischievous temper which delights in the harms of others and to procure trouble and mischief to them To communicate and lay out our selves for the good of others is Goodness and and so the Apostle explains doing good by communicating to others who are in misery or want Heb. 13.16 but to do good and to communicate forget not The Jews made a distinction between a righteous and a good man to which the Apostle alludes Rom. 5.7 scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a good man one would even dare to die The righteous man was he that did no wrong to others and the good man he who was not only not injurious to others but kind and beneficial to them So that Goodness is a readiness and disposition to communicate the good and happiness which we enjoy and to be willing others should partake of it This is the Notion of Goodness among men and 't is the same in God only with this difference that God is originally and transcendently good but the Creatures are the best of them but imperfectly good
this World and all the Creatures in it and that they might be made in the best manner that could be his Wisdom directed his Power he hath made all things in number weight and measure so that they are admirably fitted and proportioned to one another And that there is an excellent Contrivance in all sorts of Beings and a wonderful beauty and harmony in the whole Frame of things is I think sufficiently visible to every discerning and unprejudiced mind The lowest form of Creatures I mean those which are destitute of sense do all of them contribute some way or other to the use and conveniency and comfort of the Creatures above them which being endowed with sense are capable of enjoying the benefit and delight of them which being so palpable in the greatest part of them may resonably be presumed tho'it be not so discernable concerning all the rest so that when we survey the whole Creation of God and the several parts we may well cry out with David Psal 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hath thou made them all 'T is true indeed there are degrees of Perfection in the Creatures and God is not equally good to all of them Those Creatures which are of more Noble and Excellent Natures and to which he hath communicated more degrees of Perfection they partake more of his Goodness and are more glorious instances of it But every Creature partakes of the Divine Goodness in a certain degree and according to the Nature and Capacity of it God if he pleased could have made nothing but immortal Spirits and he could have made as many of these as there are individual Creatures of all sorts in the World but it seemed good to the wise Architect to make several ranks and orders of Beings and to display his Power and Goodness and Wisdom in all imaginable variety of Creatures all which should be good in their kind tho' far short of the Perfection of Angels and immortal Spirits He that will build a House for all the uses and purposes of which a House is capable cannot make it all foundation and great beams and pillars must not so contrive it as to make it all Rooms of state and entertainment but there must of necessity be in it meaner materials rooms and offices for several uses and purposes which however inferiour to the rest in dignity and degree do yet contribute to the beauty and advantage of the whole So in this great Frame of the World it was fit there should be variety and different degrees of Perfection in the several parts of it and this is so far from being an impeachment of the Wisdom or Goodness of him that made it that it is an Evidence of both For the meanest of all Gods Creatures is good considering the nature and rank of it and the end to which it was designed and we cannot imagine how it could have been ordered and framed better tho' we can easily tell how it might have been worse and that if this or that had been wanting or had been otherwise it had not been so good and those who have been most conversant in the contemplation of Nature and of the Works of God have been most ready to make this acknowledgment But then if we consider the Creatures of God with relation to one another and with regard to the whole Frame of things they will all appear to be very good and notwithstanding this or that kind of Creatures be much less perfect than another and there be a very great distance between the Perfection of a worm and of an Angel yet considering every thing in the rank and order which it hath in the Creation it is as good as could be considering its nature and use and the place allotted to it among the Creatures And this difference in the Works of God between the goodness of the several parts of the Creation and the excellent and perfect goodness of the whole the Scripture is very careful to express to us in the History of the Creation where you find God represented as first looking upon and considering every days work by it self and approving it and pronouncing it to be good Gen. 1.4 10 12 18 21 24. at the end of every days work it is said that God saw it and it was good but then when all was finisht and he surveyed the whole together it is said v. 31. that God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good very good that is the best the Hebrews having no other Superlative Every Creature of God by it self is good But take the whole together and they are very good the best that could be 3. The universal goodness of God further appears in the careful and continual preservation of the things which he hath made his upholding and maintaining the several Creatures in being in their natural state and order those which have life in life to the period which he hath determined and appointed for them in his preserving the whole World his managing and governing this vast Frame of things in such sort as to keep it from running into confusion and disorder This is a clear demonstration no less of the goodness than of the Wisdom and Power of God that for so many Ages all the parts of it have kept their places and performed the offices and work for which Nature designed them that the World is not in the course of so many thousand years grown old and weak and out of repair and that the Frame of things doth not dissolve and fall in pieces And the Goodness of God doth not only take care of the main and support the whole Frame of things and preserve the more noble and considerable Creatures but even the least and meanest of them The Providence of God doth not overlook any thing that he hath made nor despise any of the works of his hands so as to let them relapse and fall back into nothing through neglect and inadvertency as many as there are he takes care of them all Psal 104.27 28. where the Psalmist speaking of the innumerable multitude of Creatures upon the Earth and in the Sea These all saith he wait upon thee that thou mayst give them their meat in due season that thou givest them they gather thou openest thine hand and they are filled with good And to the same purpose Psal 145.15 16. The eyes of all wait upon thee and thou givest them their meat in due season thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing The inanimate Creatures which are without sense and the brute Creatures which tho' they have sense are without understanding and so can have no End and Design of self-preservation God preserves them no less than men who are endowed with reason and foresight to provide for themselves Psal 36.7 Thou preservest man and beast And Psal 147.9 He giveth to the beast his food and to the young Ravens when they cry And
another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children and walk in love We cannot in any thing resemble God more than in goodness and kindness and mercy and in a readiness to forgive those who have been injurious to us and to be reconciled to them Let us then often contemplate this Perfection of God and represent it to our Minds that by the frequent contemplation of it we may be transformed into the Image of the Divine Goodness Is God so good to his Creatures with how much greater reason should we be so to our fellow Creatures Is God good to us let us imitate his universal goodness by endeavouring the good of Mankind and as much as in us lies of the whole Creation of God What God is to us and what we would have him still be to us that let us be to others We are infinitely beholding to this Perfection of God for all that we are and for all that we enjoy and for all that we expect and therefore we have all the reason in the World to admire and imitate it Let this pattern of the Divine Goodness be continually before us that we may be still fashioning our selves in the temper of our Minds and in the actions of our Lives to a likeness and conformity to it Lastly The consideration of the Divine goodness should excite our praise and thankfulness This is a great Duty to the performance whereof we should summon all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls as the holy Psalmist does Psal 103. Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits And we should invite all others to the same Work as the same devout Psalmist frequently does Psal 106. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever And Psal 107. O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of Men And we had need to be often call'd upon to this Duty to which we have a peculiar backwardness Necessity drives us to Prayer and sends us to God for the supply of our wants but Praise and Thanksgiving is a Duty which depends upon our gratitude and ingenuity and nothing sooner wears off than the sense of Kindness and Benefits We are very apt to forget the blessings of God not so much from a bad Memory as from a bad Nature to forget the greatest blessings the continuance whereof should continually put us in mind of them the blessings of our Beings So God complains of his People Deut. 32. Of the God that formed thee thou hast been unmindful the dignity and excellency of our Beings above all the Creatures of this visible World Job 35.10 11. None saith Where is God my Maker who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven the daily comforts and blessings of our Lives which we can continually receive without almost ever looking up to the Hand that gives them So God complains by the Prophet Hosea 2.8 9. She knew not that I gave her corn and wine and oyl and multiplied her gold and silver And is it not shameful to see how at the most plentiful Tables the giving of God Thanks is almost grown out of fashion as if Men were ashamed to own from whence these Blessings came When thanks is all God expects from us can we not afford to give him that Do ye thus requite the Lord foolish people and unwise It is just with God to take away his Blessings from us if we deny him this easie tribute of Praise and Thanksgiving It is a sign Men are unfit for Heaven when they are backward to that which is the proper Work and Imployment of the blessed Spirits above Therefore as ever we hope to come thither let us begin this Work here and inure our selves to that which will be the great business of all Eternity Let us with the four and twenty Elders in the Revelation fall down before him that sits on the throne and worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast our crowns before the throne that is cast our selves and ascribe all glory to God Saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast made all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created To him therefore the infinite and inexhaustible fountain of goodness the father of mercies and the God of all consolation who gave us such excellent Beings having made made us little lower than the Angels and crowned us with glory and honour who hath been pleased to stamp upon us the image of his own goodness and thereby made us partakers of a divine nature communicating to us not only of the effects of his goodness but in some measure and degree of the perfection it self to him who gives us all things richly to enjoy which pertain to life and godliness and hath made such abundant provision not only for our comfort and convenience in this present life but for our unspeakable happiness to all eternity to him who designed this happiness to us from all eternity and whose mercy and goodness to us endures for ever who when by willful transgressions and disobedience we had plunged our selves into a state of sin and misery and had forfeited that happiness which we were designed to was pleased to restore us to a new capacity of it by sending his only Son to take our nature with the miseries and infirmities of it to live among us and to die for us in a word to him who is infinitely good to us not only contrary to our deserts but beyond our hopes who renews his mercy upon us every morning and is patient tho' we provoke him every day who preserves and provides for us and spares us continually who is always willing always watchful and never weary to do us good to him be all glory and honour adoration and praise love and obedience now and for ever SERMON V. Vol. VII The Mercy of God NUMB. XIV 18 The Lord is long suffering and of great Mercy I Have considered God's Goodness in general There are two eminent Branches of it his Patience and Mercy The Patience of God is his goodness to them that are guilty in deferring or moderating their deserved punishment the Mercy of God is his goodness to them that are or may be miserable 'T is the last of these two I design to discourse of at this time in doing which I shall inquire First What we are to understand by the Mercy of God Secondly Shew you that this Perfection belongs to God Thirdly Consider the degree of it that God is of great Mercy First What we are to understand by the Mercy of God I told you it is his goodness to them that are in
the desert of our sins 'T is mercy that comforts and supports us under any of those Evils that lye upon us and that rescues and delivers us from them Which way so ever we look we are encompassed with the mercies of God they compass us about on every side we are crowned with loving kindness and tender mercies 'T is mercy that feeds us and cloaths us and that preserves us But above all we should thankfully acknowledge and admire the pardoning mercy of God Ps 103.1 2 3. where David does as it were muster up the mercies of God and make a Catalogue of them he sets the pardoning mercy in the front Bless ye the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy iniquities If we look into our selves and consider our own temper and disposition how void of pity and bowels we are how cruel and hard hearted and insolent and revengeful if we look abroad into the World and see how full the earth is of the habitations of cruelty we shall admire the mercy of God more and think our selves more beholden to it How many things must concur to make our hearts tender and melt our spirits and stir our bowels to make us pitiful and compassionate We seldom pity any unless they be actually in misery nor all such neither unless the misery they lye under be very great nor then neither unless the person that suffers be nearly related and we be someways concerned in his sufferings yea many times not then neither upon a generous account but as we are someways obliged by interest and self-love and a dear regard to our selves when we have suffered the like our selves and have learnt to pity others by our own Sufferings or when in danger and probability to be in the like condition our selves so many motives and obligations are necessary to awaken and stir up this affection in us But God is merciful and pitiful to us out of the mere goodness of his Nature for few of these motives and considerations can have any place in him This affection of pity and tenderness is stirred up in God by the mere presence of the Object without any other inducement The mercy of God many times doth not stay till we be actually miserable but looks forward a great way and pities us at a great distance and prevents our misery God doth not only pity us in great Calamities but considers those lesser Evils that are upon us God is merciful to us when we have deserved all the Evils that are upon us and far greater when we are less than the least of all his mercies when we deserved all the misery that is upon us and have with violent hands pulled it upon our own heads and have been the authors and procurers of it to our selves Tho' God in respect of his Nature be at an infinite distance from us yet his mercy is near to us and he cannot possibly have any self-interest in it The Divine Nature is not liable to want or injury or suffering he is secure of his own happiness and fullness and can neither wish the inlargement nor fear the impairment of his Estate he can never stand in need of pity or relief from us or any other and yet he pities us Now if we consider the vast difference of this affection in God and us how tender his mercies are and how sensible his bowels and yet we who have so many arguments to move us to pity how hard our hearts are and how unapt to relent as if we were born of the rock and were the off-spring of the nether milstone sure when we duly consider this we cannot but admire the mercy of God How cruel are we to Creatures below us with how little remorse can we kill a Flea or tread upon a Worm partly because we are secure that they cannot hurt us nor revenge themselves upon us and partly because they are so despicable in our Eyes and so far below us that they do not fall under the consideration of our Pity Look upward proud Man and take notice of him who is above thee thou didst not make the Creatures below thee as God did there 's but a finite distance between thee and the meanest Creatures but there 's an infinite distance between thee and God Man is a Name of Dignity when we compare our selves with other Creatures but compared to God we are Worms and not Men yea we are nothing yea less than nothing and vanity How great then is the Mercy of God which regards us who are so far below him which takes into Consideration such inconsiderable nothings as we are we may say with David Ps 8.4 Lord What is man that thou art so mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him And with Job 7.17 What is Man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldst set thine Heart upon him And then how hard do we find it to forgive those who have injured us if any one have offended or provoked us how hard are we to be reconciled How mindful of an Injury How do anger and revenge boyl within us How do we upbraid Men with their faults What vile and low Submission do we require of them before we will receive them into Favour and grant them Peace And if we forgive once we think that is much but if an offence and provocation be renewed often we are inexorable Even the Disciples of our Saviour after he had so emphatically taught them Forgiveness in the Petition in the Lord's Prayer yet they had very narrow Spirits as to this Matth. 18.21 Peter comes to him and asks him How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times He thought that was much And yet we have great obligations to Pardoning and Forgiving others because we are obnoxious to God and one another we shall many times stand in need of Pardon from God and Men and it may be our own case and when it is we are too apt to be very indulgent to our selves and conceive good hopes of the Mercy of others we would have our ignorance and inadvertencies and mistakes and all occasions and temptations and provocations considered and when we have done amiss upon Submission and Acknowledgment of our Fault we would be received into Favour but God who is not at all liable to us how ready is he to Forgive If we confess our Sins to him he is merciful to Forgive he Pardons freely and such are the condescentions of his Mercy tho' he be the party offended yet he offers Pardon to us and beseeches us to be reconcil'd if we do but come towards him he runs to meet us as in the Parable of the Prodigal Luke 15.20 What reason have we then thankfully to acknowledge and admire the Mercy of God to us Vse 2. The great mercy of God to us should
great absurdities following from the supposing of God to be mere Matter or Body we are to conceive of him as another kind of substance that is a Spirit So that I wonder that the Author of the Leviathan who doth more than once expresly affirm that there can be nothing in the World but what is material and corporeal did not see that the necessary consequence of this Position is to banish God out of the World I would not be uncharitable but I doubt he did see it and was content with the consequence and willing the World should entertain it for it is so evident that by supposing the Divine Essence to consist of Matter the immensity of the Divine Nature is taken away and it is also so utterly unimaginable how mere Matter should understand and be endowed with liberty and consequently with goodness that I cannot but vehemently suspect the Man who denies God to be a Spirit either to have a gross and faulty understanding or a very ill will against God and an evil design to root out of the Minds of Men the belief of a God I come in the III. Place to consider the Objections 1 Obj. Why then is God represented to us so often in Scripture by the Parts and Members of Mens Bodies Ans I shall only say at present that all these descriptions and representations of God are plainly made to comply with our weakness by way of condescention and accomodation to our capacities 2 Obj. How is it said that Man was made after the the Image of God If God be a Spirit of which there can be no likeness nor resemblance Ans Man is not said to be made after the image of God in respect of the outward Shape and Features of his Body but in respect of the Qualities of his Mind as Holiness and Righteousness or of his Faculties as Understanding and Will or which the Text seems most to favour in respect of his Dominion and Soveraignty over the Creatures for in the two former respects the Angels are made after the Image of God Now this seems to be spoken peculiarly of Men Gen. 1.26 Let us make man in our own image after our own likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air c. IV. I come now to draw some Inferences or Corollaries from hence and they shall be partly speculative partly practical First Speculative Inferences 1. That God is invisible The proper Object of sight is Colour and that ariseth from the various dispositions of the parts of Matter which cause several reflections of Light now a Spirit hath no Parts nor Matter and therefore is invisible 1 Tim. 1.17 Vnto the eternal immortal invisible the only wise God Heb. 11.27 He endured as seeing him who is invisible as seeing him by an Eye of Faith who is invisible by an Eye of Sense 1 Tim. 6.16 Whom no Man hath seen nor can see When Moses and the Elders of Israel are said to have seen God and Jacob to have seen him face to face Exod. 2.9 Gen. 32.30 it is meant of an Angel covered with divine Glory and Majesty as we shall see if we compare these with other Texts When Moses is said to have spoken to him face to face that is familiarly and so Micaiah 1 Kings 22.19 is said to have seen God upon his throne and all Israel scattered up and down this was in a Vision And it is promised that in Heaven we shall see God that is have a more perfect knowledge of him and full enjoyment as to see good days is to enjoy them Those Texts where it is said No man can see God and live Exod. 33.20 and John 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time do not intimate that God is visible tho' we cannot see him but seeing is metaphorically used for knowing and the meaning is that in this Life we are not capable of a perfect knowledge of God A clear discovery of God to our Understanding would let in joys into our Souls and create desires in us too great for frail Mortality to bear 2. That he is the living God Spirit and Life are often put together in Scripture 3. That God is immortal This the Scripture attributes to him 1 Tim. 1.17 To the King immortal invisible 1 Tim. 6.16 Who only hath immortality This also flows from God's Spirituality a Spiritual Nature hath no principles of Corruption in it nothing that is liable to perish or decay or dye Now this doth so eminently agree to God either because he is purely spiritual and immaterial as possibly no Creature is or else because he is not only immortal in his own Nature but is not liable to be reduced to nothing by any other because he hath an original and independent Immortality and therefore the Apostle doth attribute it to him in such a singular and peculiar manner Who only hath Immortality Secondly Practical Inferences 1. We are not to conceive of God as having a Body or any corporeal Shape or Members This was the gross conceit of the Anthropomorphites of old and of some Socinians of late which they ground upon the gross and literal Interpretation of many figurative Speeches in Scripture concerning God as where it speaks of his Face and Hand and Arm c. But we are very unthankful to God who condescends to represent himself to us according to our Capacities if we abuse this condescention to the blemish and reproach of the Divine Nature If God be pleased to stoop to our weakness we must not therefore level him to our Infirmities 2. If God be a Spirit we are not to worship God by any Image or sensible representation Because God is a Spirit we are not to liken him to any thing that is corporeal we are not to represent him by the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above that is of any Birds or in the earth beneath that is of any Beast or in the waters under the earth that is of any Fish as it is in the second Commandment For as the Prophet tells us there is nothing that we can liken God to Isa 40 18. To whom will ye liken God or what likeness will ye compare to him We debase his Spiritual and Incorruptible Nature when we compare him to corruptible Creatures Rom. 1.22 23. Speaking of the Heathen Idolatry Who professing themselves wise became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and to fourfooted Beasts and creeping things They became Fools this is the folly of Idolatry to liken a Spirit which hath no bodily shape to things that are corporeal and corruptible So that however some are pleased to mince the matter I cannot see how the Church of Rome which worships God by or toward some Image or sensible representation can be excused from Idolatry and the Church of England doth not without very just cause challenge the Romish
is principally regarded and Men are more careful to worship God with outward pomp and ceremony than in spirit and in truth Religion degenerates into Superstition and Men embrace the shadow of Religion and let go the substance And this the Church of Rome hath done almost to the utter ruin of Christianity she hath clogged Religion and the Worship of God with so many Rites and Ceremonies under one Pretence or other that the Yoke of Christ is become heavier than that of Moses and they have made the Gospel a more carnal Commandment than the Law and whatever Christians or Churches are intent upon external Rites and Observances to the neglect of the weightier Parts of Religion regarding meats and drinks c. to the prejudice of righteousness and peace wherein the kingdom of God consists they advance a Religion as contrary to the Nature of God and as unsuitable to the genius and temper of the Gospel as can be imagined It is an Observation of Sir Edwin Sands that as Children are pleas'd with Toys so saith he it is a pitiful and childish Spirit that is predominant in the contrivers and zealots of a ceremonious Religion I deny not but that very honest and devout Men may be this way addicted but the wiser any Man is the better he understands the Nature of God and of Religion the further he will be from this temper A Religion that consists in external and little things doth most easily gain upon and possess the weakest Minds and whoever entertain it it will enfeeble their Spirits and unfit them for the more generous and excellent Duties of Christianity We have but a finite heat and zeal and activity and if we let out much of it upon small things there will be too little left for those parts of Religion which are of greatest moment and concernment if our heat evaporate in externals the heart and vitals of Religion will insensibly cool and decline How should we blush who are Christians that we have not learnt this easie truth from the Gospel which even the Light of Nature taught the Heathen Cultus autem deorum est optimus itemque sanctissimus atque castissimus plenissimusque pietatis ut eos semper purâ integrâ incorruptâ mente voce veneremur Tully The best the surest the most chast and most devout worship of the Gods is that which is pay'd them with a pure sincere and uncorrupt Mind and words truly representing the thoughts of the Heart Compositum jus fasque animi c. Serve God with a pure honest holy frame of Spirit bring him a heart that is but generously honest and he will accept of the plainest Sacrifice And let me tell you that the ceremonious Worship of the Jews was never a thing in it self acceptable to God or which he did delight in and tho' God was pleased with their obedience to the ceremonial Law after it was commanded yet antecedently he did not desire it but that which our Saviour saith concerning the Law of Divorce is true likewise of the ceremonial that it was permitted to the Jews for the hardness of their hearts and for their proneness to Idolatry God did not command it so much by way of approbation as by way of condescension to their weakness it was because of the hardness of their carnal hearts that God brought them under the Law of a carnal Commandment as the Apostle calls it See Psal 51.16 17. Jer. 7.21 The reason why I have insisted so long upon this is to let you understand what is the true nature of Christ's Religion and to abate the intemperate heat and zeal which Men are apt to have for external and indifferent things in Religion The Sacrifices and Rites of the Jews were very unagreeable and unsuitable to the Nature of God Psal 50.13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats Spirits neither eat nor drink it was a very unsuitable way of service to kill Oxen and Sheep for God and there 's the same reason of all other Rites which either natural necessity or decency doth not require Can any Man in earnest think that God who is a Spirit is pleased with the pompous bravery and pageantry which affects our Senses So little doth God value indifferent Rites that even the necessary external Service of God and outward Reverence where they are separated from spirit and truth from real holiness and obedience to the indispensable Laws of Christ are so far from being acceptable to God that they are abominable nay if they be used for a Cloak of Sin or in opposition to real Religion and with a design to undermine it God accounts such Service in the number of the most heinous Sins You who spend the strength and vigour of your Spirits about external things whose zeal for or against Ceremonies is ready to eat you up you who hate and persecute one another because of these things and break the necessary and indispensable Commands of Love as an indifferent and unnecessary Ceremony go and learn what that means I will have mercy and not sacrifice which our Saviour doth so often inculcate and that Rom. 14.17 The kingdom of God is not meat and drink c. And study the meaning of this God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth SERMON XII Vol. VII The Immensity of the Divine Nature PSAL. CXXXIX 7 8 9 10. Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into 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 hold me THAT Attribute of God which I last discours'd of is most Absolute and declares his Essence most immediately the spirituality of the Divine Nature I shall in the next place speak of those which relate to the manner of his Being Immensity and Eternity that is the infiniteness of his Essence both in respect of space and duration that the Divine Nature hath no limits of its Being nor bounds of its duration I shall at the present speak to the first of these his Immensity and that from these words which I here read to you Whither shall I go from thy spirit c. The meaning of which is this That God is a Spirit infinitely diffusing himself present in all places so that wherever I go God is there we cannot flee from his presence If I ascend into heaven he is there if I go down into the grave the place of silence and obscurity he is there for that is the meaning of the Expression If I make my bed in hell 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 hold me that is if my
come to answer Objections against this Doctrine There are two Objections against this 1. From Reason 2. From Scripture 1. Obj. Reason will be ready to suggest that this is a disparagement to the Divine Nature to tye his Presence to this vile Dunghil of the Earth and fordid Sink of Hell This is a gross Apprehension of God and a measuring of him by our selves Indeed if we look upon God as capable of Injury and Suffering and Offence from the Contagion of any thing here below as we are then indeed there were some strength in this Objection but he is a blessed and pure Being Mens segregata ab omni concretione mortali A Mind free from all mortal Composition or Mixture Tully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disentangled from every thing passible as Plut. Those things that are nauseous to our Senses do not affect him Darkness is uncomfortable to us but the Darkness and the Light are all one to him Wickedness may hurt a man or the son of man but if we multiply our transgressions we do nothing to God as Elihu speaks Job 35.6 Nothing can disquiet or discompose his happy and blessed Nature but he converseth here in this dark and troubled World with less danger of Disturbance or any impure Contagion than the Sun-beams 2. Obj. Does not the Scripture tell us that God sits in the Heavens and dwells on high that Heaven is his throne and that it is the City of the great God Doth not the Lord's Prayer teach us to say Our Father which art in heaven Is he not said to look down from heaven and to hear in heaven his dwelling-place Is it not said that he doth not dwell in temples made with hands And does not Solomon 1 Kings 8.27 put it as a strange question will God indeed dwell on the earth Is he not said to come down and draw near to us and to be afar off from us Now how does this agree with his Immensity and Omnipresence For answer to this I must distinguish the Presence of God There is 1 st his glorious Presence that is such a Presence of God as is accompanied with an extraordinary manifestation of his Glory and that is especially and chiefly confined to Heaven in respect of which it is called his Seat and Throne and the Habitation of his Glory Some degree of this was in the Temple which is the reason of Solomon's Admiration will God indeed dwell on Earth 2 dly There is his gracious Presence which discovers it self by miraculous effects of his Favour and Goodness and Assistance and thereby he is said to dwell in the hearts of good Men and with them that are of an humble and contrite Spirit Isa 57.15 and in respect of this he is said to draw near to us to look down upon us and in respect of the absence of this to be far from us 3 dly There is his essential Presence which is equally and alike in all Places and this is not excluded by those former Expressions which the Scripture useth to denote to us the glorious and gracious Presence of God Fourthly To make some Inferences I will mention only such as the Scripture here takes notice of speaking of God's Immensity I. Inf. That God is a Spirit This necessarily flows from his Immensity for if the Essence of God be every where diffused the Divine Nature must be spiritual otherwise it could not be in the same place were Body and Matter is but must be shut out of the World But this I spoke more largely to in my Discourse of God's being a Spirit This the Psalmist observes here Where shall I go from thy Spirit If he were not a Spirit we might go from him and hide our selves from his Presence II. Inf. That God is Incomprehensible That which is infinite cannot be measured and comprehended by that which is finite and this also the Psalmist takes notice of in the Verse before my Text Such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high I cannot attain it III. Inf. That God is Omniscient If God be every where then he knows all things yea even the hidden things of Darkness the Secrets of our Hearts nothing can be hid from an infinite Eye he is present to our Thoughts intimate to our Hearts and Reins this the Psalmist takes notice of 1 2 3 4 and 12 Verses IV. Inf. That God is Omnipotent He can do all things Distance limits the Power of Creatures and makes their hands short but God is every where nothing is out of his reach and this also the Psalmist intimates in the Text v. 10. Even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand hold me Fifthly The Use and Improvement I shall make of this shall be 1. To awaken our Fear of him 2. To encourage our Faith and Confidence in him 1. To awaken our Fear of him The Consideration of God's Presence should awaken in us a Fear of Reverence The Presence of an earthly Majesty will awe our Spirits and compose us to Reverence yea the Presence of a wise and good Man how much more should the Presence of the great and glorious the wise and the holy and the just God strike an awe upon our Spirits Wherever we are God is with us we always converse with him and live continually in his Presence now a Heathen could say cum Diis verecunaè agendum We must behave our selves modestly because we are in the presence of God And it should awaken in us a Fear to offend God and a Fear of the divine displeasure for having offended him Fear is the most wakeful Passion in the Soul of man and is the first Principle that is wrought upon in us from the Apprehensions of a Deity it flows immediately from the principle of Self-preservation which God hath planted in every Man's Nature we have a natural Dread and Horror for every thing that can hurt us and endanger our Being or Happiness now the greatest Danger is from the greatest Power for where we are clearly over-match'd we cannot hope to make Opposition nor Resistance with security and success to râ—bel with Safety now he that apprehends God to be near him and present to him believes such a Being to stand by him as is possest of an infinite and irresistible Power and will vindicate all Contempt of the Divine Majesty and Violation of his Laws If we believe God to be always present with us Fear will continually take hold of us and we shall say of every place as Jacob did of Bethel surely God is in this place how dreadful is this place When we have at any time provoked God if we believe the just God is at hand to revenge himself and if we believe the power of his anger we shall say with David Psa 76.7 Thou even thou art to be feared and who may stand before thee when thou art angry Psa 119.120 My flesh trembleth because of thee and I am afraid of thy Judgments Sinners consider
formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God THE Immensity and Eternity of God are those Attributes which relate to his Nature or manner of Being Having spoken of the former I proceed to consider the latter from these words The Title of this Psalm is the Prayer of Moses the man of God He begins his Prayer with the acknowledgment of God's Providence to his people from the beginning of the World Lord thou hast been our dwelling place from all generations in generation and generation so the Hebrew He was well acquainted with the History of the World and the Providence of God from the beginning of it and as if he had spoken too little of God in saying that his Providence had been exercised in all the Ages of the World he tells us here in the Text that he was before the World and he made it he was from all Eternity and should continue to all Eternity the same Before the mountains were brought forth the most firm and durable parts of the World the most eminent and conspicuous Or ever thou had'st formed the earth and the world before any thing was created from everlasting to everlasting thou art God In speaking of this Attribute I shall First Give you the Explication of it Secondly Endeavour to prove that it doth belong to God and ought to be attributed to the Divine Nature Thirdly Draw some Corollaries from the whole First For the Explication of it Eternity is a duration without bounds or limits Now there are two limits of duration beginning and ending that which hath always been is without beginning that which always shall be is without ending Now we may conceive of a thing always to have been and the continuance of its being now to cease tho' there be no such thing in the World and there are some things which have had a beginning of their Being but shall have no end shall always continue as the Angels and Spirits of Men. The first of these the Schoolmen call Eternity â parte ante that is duration without beginning the latter Eternity â parte post a duration without ending but Eternity absolutely taken comprehends both these and signifies an infinite duration which had no beginning nor shall have any end so that when we say God is Eternal we mean that he always was and shall be for ever that he had no beginning of Life nor shall have any end of Days but that he is from everlasting to everlasting as it is here in the Text. 'T is true indeed that as to God's Eternity â parte ante as to his having always been the Scripture doth not give us any solicitous account of it it only tells us in general that God was before the world was and that he created it it doth not descend to gratifie our curiosity in giving us any account of what God did before he made the World or how he entertaind himself from all Eterninity it doth not give us any distinct account of his infinite duration for that had been impossible for our finite understandings to comprehend if we should have ascended upward millions of Ages yet we should never have ascended to the top never have arrived at the beginning of infinity therefore the Scripture which was wrote to instruct us in what was necessary and not to satisfie our curiosity tells us this that God was from everlasting before the world was made and that he laid the foundations of it So that by the Eternity of God you are to understand the perpetual continuance of his Being without beginning or ending I shall not trouble you with the inconsistent and unintelligible notions of the Schoolmen that it is duratio tota simul in which we are not to conceive any succession but to imagine it an instant We may as well conceive the Immensity of God to be a point as his Eternity to be an instant and as according to our manner of conceiving we must necessarily suppose the Immensity of God to be an infinite Expansion of his Essence a presence of it to all places and imaginable space so must we suppose the Eternity of God to be a perpetual continuance coexistent to all imaginable succession of Ages Now how that can be together which must necessarily be imagined to be coexistent to successions let them that can conceive Secondly For the proof of this I shall attempt it two ways I. From the Dictates of Natural Light and Reason II. From Scripture and Divine Revelation I. From the Dictates of Natural Reason This attribute of God is of all other least disputed among the Philosophers indeed all agree that God is a perfect and happy Being but wherein that happiness and perfection consists they differ exceedingly but all agree that God is Eternal and are agreed what Eternity is viz. a boundless duration and however they did attribute a beginning to their Heroes and Demons whence come the Genealogies of their Gods yet the Supreme God they look'd upon as without beginning and it is a good evidence that this perfection doth clearly belong to God that Epicurus who had the lowest and meanest conceptions of God and robbed him of as many Perfections as his imperfect Reason would let him yet is forced to attribute this to him Tully de Nat Deor. l. 1. saith to the Epicureans ubi igitur vestrum beatum aeternum quibus duobus verbis significatis deum Where then is your happy and eternal Being by which two Epithets you express God And Lucretius who hath undertaken to represent to the World the Doctrine of Epicurus gives this account of the Divine Nature Omnis enim per se divûm naturae necesse est Immortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur 'T is absolutely necessary to the nature of the Gods to pass an Eternity in profound peace and quiet The Poets who had the wildest Notions of God yet they constantly give them the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heathen never mention the name of God without this Attribute Dii immortales Immortal Gods was their ordinary exclamation and they swear constantly by this Attribute deos testor immortales and to mention no more Tully saith expresly Nos deum nisi sempiternum intelligere quî possumus How can we conceive of God but as of an Eternal Being Now the Reason of this is evident because it would be the greatest imperfection we could attribute to his Being and the more perfect his Being were otherwise the greater imperfection would it be for such a Being to die so excellent a Nature to cease to be it would be an infinite abasement to all his other perfections his Power and Wisdom and Goodness that these should all be perishing Nay it would hinder several of his perfections and contradict their very Being his self-existence had he not always been he had not been of himself his necessary existence for that is not necessarily which may at any time not be or cease