* â—â—r 20. Their Fathers Worshipping in that Mountain and the Jews affirming Jerusalem to be a place of worship She pleads the Antiquity of the worship in this place Abraham having built an Altar there Gen. 12.7 and Jacob upon his return from Syria And surely had the place been capable of an exception such persons as they and so well acquainted with the Will of God would not have pitched upon that place to Celebrate their worship Antiquity hath too too often bewitched the minds of Men and drawn them from the revealed Will of God Men are more willing to imitate the outward actions of their famous Ancestors than conform themselves to the revealed Will of their Creator The Samaritans would imitate the Patriarchs in the place of worship but not in the faith of the worshippers Christ answers her that this question would quickly be resolved by a new state of the Church which was neer at hand and neither Jerusalem which had now the precedency nor that Mountain should be of any more value in that concern than any other place in the world * ver 21. But yet to make her sensible of her sin and that of her Country-men tells her that their Worship in that Mountain was not according to the Will of God he having long after the Altars built in this place fixed Jerusalem as the place of Sacrifices besides they had not the knowledge of that God which ought to be worshipped by them but the Jews had the true object of Worship and the true manner of worship according to the declaration God had made of himself to them * ver â—â— But all that service shall vanish the vail of the Temple shall be rent in twain and that Carnal worship give place to one more Spiritual shadows shall fly before substance and truth advance it self above figures and the worship of God shall be with the strength of the Spirit such a worship and such worshippers doth the Father seek * ver 23. For God is a Spirit and those that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in truth The design of our Saviour is to declare that God is not taken with external worship invented by men no nor Commanded by himself and upon that this reason because he is a Spiritual essence infinitely above gross and Corporeal matter and is not taken with that pomp which is a pleasure to our Earthly imaginations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate it just as the words lie Spirit is God * Vulgar lat Illyrc Clav. But it is not unusual both in the old and new Testament languages to put the predicate before the subject as Psal 5.9 Their throat is an open Sepulchre in the Hebrew a Sepulchre open their throat So Psa 111.3 His work is honourable and glorious Heb. Honour and glory his work And there wants not one example in the same Evangelist Joh. 1.1 And the word was God Greek and God was the word In all the predicate or what is ascribed is put before the subject to which it is ascribed One tells us and he an head of a party that hath made a disturbance in the Church of God * Eâ—â—â—â—â—p Institut lib. 4. cap. 3. that this place is not aptly brought to prove God to be a Spirit And the reason of Christ runs not thus God is of a Spiritual Essence and therefore must be worshipped with a Spiritual worship for the Essence of God is not the Foundation of his worship but his Will for then we were not to worship him with a Corporal worship because he is not a body but with an invisible and Eternal worship because he is invisible and eternal But the nature of God is the foundation of worship the Will of God is the Rule of worship the matter and manner is to be performed according to the Will of God But is the nature of the object of worship to be excluded No as the object is so ought our Devotion to be Spiritual as he is Spiritual God in his Commands for worship respected the discovery of his own nature in the Law he respected the discovery of his mercy and justice and therefore Commanded a worship by Sacrifices a Spiritual worship without those institutions would not have declared those Attributes which was Gods end to display to the world in Christ And tho the nature of God is to be respected in worship yet the obligations of the Creature are to be considered God is a Spirit therefore must have a Spiritual worship The Creature hath a body as well as a Soul and both from God and therefore ought to worship God with the one as well as the other since one as well as the other is freely bestowed upon him The Spirituality of God was the foundation of the change from the Judaical carnal worship to a more Spiritual and Evangelical God is a Spirit That is he hath nothing Corporeal no mixture of matter not a visible substance a bodily form * Melancton He is a Spirit not a bare Spiritual substance But an understanding willing Spirit holy wise good and just Before Christ spake of the Father * ver 23. the first person in the Trinity Now he speaks of God Essentially The word Father is personal the word God essential So that our Saviour would render a reason not from any one person in the blessed Trinity but from the Divine nature why we should worship in Spirit and therefore makes use of the word God the being a Spirit being Common to the other persons with the Father This is the reason of the proposition verse 23. Of a Spiritual Worship Every nature delights in that which is like it and distasts that which is most different from it If God were Corporeal he might be pleased with the victims of beasts and the beautiful Magnificence of Temples and the noyse of Musick But being a Spirit he cannot be gratified with carnal things He demands something better and greater than all those that Soul which he made that Soul which he hath endowed a Spirit of a frame sutable to his nature He indeed appointed Sacrifices and a Temple as shadows of those things which were to be most acceptable to him in the Messiah but they were imposed only till the time of Reformation * Heb. 9.10 Must Worship him Not they may or it would be more agreeable to God to have such a manner of worship But they must T is not exclusive of bodily worship for this were to exclude all publick worship in societies which cannot be performed without reverential postures of the body * Terniti The Gestures of the body are helps to worship and declarations of Spiritual acts We can scarcely worship God with our Spirits without some tincture upon the outward-man But he excludes all acts meerly Corporeal all resting upon an external service and devotion which was the Crime of the Pharisees and the general persuasion of the Jews
as well as Heathens who used the outward Ceremonies not as signs of better things but as if they did of themselves please God and render the worshippers accepted with him without any sutable frame of the inward man * Amirald in loc It is as if he had said now you must separate your selves from all carnal modes to which the service of God is now tyed and render a worship chiefly consisting in the affectionate motions of the heart and accommodated more exactly to the condition of the object who is a Spirit In Spirit and Truth * Amirald in loc The Evangelical Service now required has the advantage of the former that was a Shadow and Figure this the Body and Truth * Muscul Spirit say some is here opposed to the legal Ceremonies Truth to hypocritical services or * Chemnit rather truth is opposed to shadows and an opinion of worth in the outward action 't is principally opposed to external Rites because our Saviour saith v. 23. The hour comes and â—oâ— is c. Had it been opposed to Hypocrisy Christ had said no new thing For God always required Truth in the inward parts and all true Worshippers had served him with a sincere Conscience and single Heart The old Patriarks did worship God in Spirit and Truth as taken for sincerity Such a Worship was always and is perpetually due to God because he always was and eternally will be a Spirit * Musâ—al And it is said the Father seeks such to worship him not shall seek He always sought it it always was performed to him by one or other in the world And the Prophets had always rebuked them for resting upon their outward Solemnities Isa 58.7 and Micah 6.8 But a Worship without legal Rites was proper to an Evangelical State and the times of the Gospel God having then exhibited Christ and brought into the world the substance of those shadows and the end of those institutions There was no more need to continue them when the true reason of them was ceased All Laws do naturally expire when the true reason upon which they were first framed is changed Or by Spirit may be meant such a Worship as is kindled in the heart by the breath of the holy Ghost Since we are dead in sin a spiritual light and flame in the heart sutable to the nature of the object of our worship cannot be raised in us without the operation of a supernatural Grace And though the Fathers could not worship God without the Spirit yet in the Gospel-times there being a fuller effusion of the Spirit the Evangelical State is called the administration of the Spirit and the newness of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 in opposition to the legal Oeconomy entitled the oldness of the Letter * Rom. 7.6 The Evangelical State is more suted to the Nature of God than any other Such a Worship God must have whereby he is acknowledged to be the true Sanctifier and Quickner of the Soul The nearer God doth approach to us and the more full his manifestations are the more spiritual is the Worship we return to God The Gospel pares off the rugged parts of the Law and Heaven shall remove what is material in the Gospel and change the Ordinances of Worship into that of a Spiritual Praise In the words there is 1. A Proposition God is a Spirit The Foundation of all Religion 2. An Inference they that worship him c. As God a Worship belongs to him as a Spirit a spiritual Worship is due to him in the inference we have 1. The manner of Worship in Spirit and Truth 2. The necessity of such a Worship must The Proposition declares the Nature of God the Inference the Duty of Man The Observations lie plain Ob. 1. God is a pure spiritual Being He is a Spirit 2. The Worship due from the Creature to God must be agreeable to the Nature of God and purely spiritual 3. The Evangelical State is suted to the Nature of God For the first D. God is a pure spiritual Being 'T is the Observation of one * Episcop insti tut l. 4. c. 3. that the plain assertion of Gods being a Spirit is found but once in the whole Bible and that is in this place which may well be wondred at because God is so often described with hands feet eyes and ears in the form and figure of a Man The spiritual Nature of God is deducible from many places but not any where as I remember asserted totidem verbis but in this Text Some alledge that place 2 Cor. 3.17 the Lord is that Spirit for the proof of it but that seems to have a different sense In the Text the Nature of God is described in that place the operations of God in the Gospel * Amyrald in loc 'T is not the Ministry of Moses or that old Covenant which communicates to you that Spirit it speaks of but it is the Lord Jesus and the Doctrin of the Gospel delivered by him whereby this Spirit and Liberty is dispensed to you He opposes here the Liberty of the Gospel to the Servitude of the Law 'T is from Christ that a Divine Vertue diffuseth it self by the Gospel 't is by him not by the Law that we partake of that Spirit * Suarez de Deo vol. 1. P. 9. Col. 2. The Spirituality of God is as evident as his Being If we grant that God is we must necessarily grant that he cannot be corporeal because a Body is of an imperfect Nature It will appear incredible to any that acknowledge God the first Being and Creator of all things that he should be a massy heavy Body and have Eyes and Ears Feet and hands as we have For the explication of it 1. Spirit is taken various ways in Scripture It signifies sometimes an aereal substance as Psal 11.6 A horrible Tempest Heb. A Spirit of Tempest Sometimes the breath which is a thin substance Gen. 6.17 All Flesh wherein is the breath of Life Heb. Spirit of Life A thin substance though it be material and corporeal is called Spirit And in the bodies of living Creatures that which is the principle of their actions is called Spirits the animal and vital Spirits And the finer parts extracted from Plants and Minerals we call Spirits Those volatile parts separated from that gross matter wherein they were immerst because they come nearest to the nature of an incorporeal substance And from this notion of the word 't is translated to signifie those substances that are purely immaterial as Angels and the Souls of Men. Angels are called Spirits Psal 104.4 who makes his Angels Spirits * Heb. 1.14 And not only good Angels are so called but evil Angels Mark 1.27 Souls of men are called Spirits Eccl. 12. And the Soul of Christ is called so John 19.30 whence God is called the God of the Spirits of all Flesh Numb 22.16 and Spirit is opposed to Flesh Isa
upon them by the Wonders wrought by the Apostles Acts 2.43 And fear came upon every Soul and many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles Was there not the same reason in the nature of the Works our Saviour wrought to point them to the Finger of God and calm their rage Yet did not the Power of God work upon their Passions in those Miracles nor stop the impetuousness of the Corruption resident in their hearts Yet now those who had the boldness to attack the Son of God and nail him to the Cross are frighted at the Appearance of Twelve unarmed Apostles as the Sea seems to be afraid when it approacheth the bounds of the feeble Sand. How did God bend the Hearts of the Egyptians to the Israelites and turn them to that point as to lend their most costly Vessels their precious Jewels and rich Garments to supply those whom they had just before tyrannically loaded with their Chains * Exod. 3.21 22. 1 Chro. 18.31 When a great part of an Army came upon Jehosaphat to dispatch him into another World how doth God in a trice touch their hearts and move them by a secret instinct at once to depart from him As if you should see a numerous sight of Birds in a moment turn wing another way by a sudden and joynt consent When he gave Saul a Kingdom he gave him a Spirit fit for Government and gave him another heart 1 Sam. 1â—â— and brought the People to submit to his yoke who a little before wandred about the Land upon no nobler employment than the seeking of Asses 'T is no small remark of the Power of God to make a number of strong and discontented Persons and desirous enough of liberty to bend their Necks under the yoke of Government and submit to the Authority of One and that of their own Nature often weaker and unwiser than the most of them and many times an Oppressor and Invader of their Rights Upon this account David calls God his Fortress Tower Shield Psal 144 2. all terms of Strength in subduing the People under him 'T is the Mighty hand of God that links Princes and People together in the bands of Government The same hand that asswageth the Waves of the Sea suppresseth the Tumults of the People III. It appears in his Gracious and Judicial Government 1. In his Gracious Government In the Deliverance of his Church He is the strength of Israel and hath protected his Little Flock in the midst of Wolves 1 Sam. 15.29 and maintained their standing when the strongest Kingdoms have sunk and the best joynted States have been broken in pieces When Judgments have ravaged Countries and torn up the Mighty as a tempestuous Wind hath often done the tallest Trees which seem'd to threaten Heaven with their Tops and dare the Storm with the depth of their Roots when yet the Vine and Rose-bushes have stood firm and been seen in their beauty next morning The state of the Church hath outlived the most flourishing Monarchies when there hath been a mighty knot of Adversaries against her when the Bulls of Bashan have pusht her and the whole Tribe of the Dragon have sharpen'd their weapons and edg'd their Malice when the voice was strong and the hopes high to raze her foundation even with the ground when Hell hath roar'd when the wit of the World hath contriv'd and the strength of the World hath attempted her ruine when Decrees have been past against her and the Powers of the World arm'd for the execution of them when her Friends have droop'd and skulk'd in Corners when there was no Eye to pity and no Hand to assist help hath come from Heaven her Enemies have been defeated Kings have brought gifts to her and rear'd her Tears have been wip'd off her Cheeks and her very Enemies by an unseen Power have been forc'd to court her whom before they would have devour'd quick The Devil and his Armies have sneakt into their Den and the Church hath triumphed when she hath been upon the brink of the Grave Thus did God send a mighty Angel to be the Executioner of Senacheribs Army and the Protector of Jerusalem who run his Sword into the hearts of Eighty Thousand 2 King 19.35 when they were ready to swallow up his beloved City When the Knife was at the Throats of the Jews in Shushan Esther 8. by a powerful hand it was turned into the hearts of their Enemies With what an Out-stretched Arm were the Israelites freed from the Egyptian yoke Deut. 4.34 When Pharoah had muster'd a great Army to pursue them assisted with Six hundred Chariots of War the Red Sea obstructed their passage before and an enraged Enemy trod on their rear when the fearful Israelites despair'd of Deliverance and the insolent Egyptian assured himself of his Revenge God stretches out his irresistible Arm to defeat the Enemy and assist his People he strikes down the Wolves and preserves the Flock God restrain'd the Egyptian Enmity against the Israelites till they were at the brink of the Red Sea and then lets them follow their humor and pursue the Fugitives that his Power might more gloriously shine forth in the Deliverance of the one and the Destruction of the other God might have brought Israel out of Egypt in the â—ime of those Kings that had remembred the good Service â—f Joseph to their Country but he leaves them till the Reign of a cruel Tyrant suffers them to be Slaves that they might by his sole Power be Conquerors which had had no appearance had there been a willing dismission of them at the first summons Exod. 9.16 In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up for to shew my Power and that my Name might be declared throughout all the Earth I have permitted thee to rise up against my People and keep them in Captivity that thou might'st be an occasion for the manifestation of my Power in their rescue and whilst thou art obstinate to enslave them I will stretch out my Arm to deliver them and make my Name famous among the Gentiles in the wrack of thee and thy Host in the Red Sea The Deliverance of the Church hath not been in one Age or in one Part of the World but God hath signaliz'd his Power in all Kingdoms where she hath had a footing As he hath guided her in all places by one Rule animated her by one Spirit so he hath protected her by the same Arm of Power When the Roman Emperors bandied all their Force against Her for about Three hundred years they were further from effecting her ruine at the end than when they first attempted it The Church grew under their Sword and was hatcht under the Wings of the Roman Eagle which were spread to destroy her The Ark was elevated by the Deluge and the Waters the Devil poured out to drown Her did but slime the Earth for a new increase of her She hath sometime been
Noah the 8th person a Preacher of Righteousness bringing in the Flood upon the World of the ungodly called the 8th in respect of his Preaching not in regard of his preservation He was the 8th Preacher in order from the begining of the World that endeavoured to restore the World to the way of Righteousness Most indeed consider him here as the 8th person saved so do our Translators and therefore add Person which is not in the Greek Some others consider him here as the 8th Preacher of Righteousness reckoning Enoch the Son of Seth the first grounding it upon Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call on the Name of the Lord Hebr. Then it was began to call in the Name of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. He began to call in the Name of the Lord which others render he began to preach or call upon men in the Name of the Lord. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to Preach or to call upon men by Preaching Prov. 1.21 Wisdom cryeth or preaches And if this be so as it is very probable 't is easie to reckon him the 8th Preacher by numbering the successive heads of the Generations Gen. 5. Beginning at Enosh the first Preacher of Righteousness * Vid. Gells 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So many there were before God choakt the Old World with water and swept them away 'T is clear he often did admonish by his Prophets the Jews of their sin and the wrath which should come upon them One Prophet Hosea Prophesied 70 years for he Prophesied in the dayes of 4 Kings of Judah and one of Israel Jeroboam the Son of Joash Hos 1.1 or Jeroboam the second of that name Vzziah King of Judah in whose Reign Hosea Prophesied lived 38 years after the death of Jeroboam The Second Jotham Vzziah's Successor Reign'd 16 years Ahaz 16 Hezekiah 29 years Now take nothing of Hezekiah's time and Date the beginning of his Prophesie from the last year of Jeroboam's Reign and the time of Hosea's Prophesie will be 70 years compleat Wherein God warned those people and waited the return particularly of Israel * Sanctius Prolegom in Hosea Prolog the 3d. and not less than 5 of those we call the lesser Prophets were sent to foretell the destruction of the Ten Tribes and to call them to Repentance Hosea Joel Amos Micah Jonah And though we have nothing of Jonah's Prophesie in this concern of Israel yet that he lived in the time of the same Jeroboam and Prophesied things which are not upon record in the book of Jonah is clear 2 King 14.25 And besides those Isaiah Prophesied also in the Reign of the same Kings as Hosea did Isa 1.1 And it is God's usual method to send forth his servants and when their admonitions are slighted he Commissions others before he sends out his destroying Armies Mat. 22.3 4 7. 2. He doth often give warning of Judgments that he might not pour out his wrath He summons them to a surrender of themselves and a return from their Rebellion that they might not feel the force of his Armes He offers peace before he shakes off the dust of his feet that his despised peace might not return in vain to him to sollicite a revenge from his anger He hath a right to punish upon the first Commission of a crime but he warns men of what they have deserved of what his Justice moves him to inflict that by having recourse to his mercy he might not exercise the rights of his Justice God sought to kill Moses for not circumcising his Son Exod. 4.24 Could God that sought it miss of a way to do it Could a creature lurch or flie from him God put on the garb of an enemy that Moses might be discouraged from being an instrument of his own ruine God manifested an anger against Moses for his neglect as if he would then have destroyed him that Moses might prevent it by casting off his carelesness and doing his duty He sought to kill him by some evident sign that Moses might escape the judgment by his obedience He threatens Niniveh by the Prophet with destruction that Niniveh's Repentance might make void the Prophesie He fights with men by the Sword of his mouth that he might not pierce them by the Sword of his wrath He threatens that men might prevent the execution of his threatning He terrifies that he might not destroy but that men by humiliation may lie prostrate before him and move the bowels of his mercy to a louder sound than the voice of his Anger He takes time to whet his Sword that men may turn themselves from the edge of it He roars like a Lion that men by hearing his voice may shelter themselves from being torn by his Wrath. There is patience in the sharpest threatning that we may avoid the scourge Who can charge God with an eagerness to revenge that sends so many Heralds and so often before he strikes that he might be prevented from striking His threatnings have not so much of a black flag as of an Olive branch He lifts his up hand before he strikes that men might See and avert the stroke Isaiah 26.11 2. His Patience is manifest in long delaying his threatned Judgements though he finds no Repentance in the Rebels He doth sometimes delay his lighter punishments because he doth not delight in torturing his Creatures but he doth longer delay his destroying punishments such as put an end to mens happiness and remit them to their final and unchangeable state because he doth not delight in the death of a Sinner While he is preparing his arrows he is waiting for an occasion to lay them aside and dull their points that he may with honour march back again and disband his Armies He brings lighter smarts sooner that men might not think him asleep but he suspends the more terrible judgments that men might be led to Repentance He scatters not his consuming fires at the first but brings on ruining vengeance with a slow pace sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed Eccles 8.11 The Jews therefore say that Michael the Minister of Justice flyes with one wing but Gabriel the Minister of Mercy with two An 120 years did God wait upon the old World and delay their punishment all the time the Ark was preparing 1 Pet. 3.20 Wherein that wicked Generation did not enjoy only a bare patience but a striving patience Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall not always strive with man yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years the days wherein I will strive with him that his Long-suffering might not lose all its fruit and remit the objects of it into the hands of consuming Justice It was the Tenth Generation of the World from Adam when the deluge overflow'd it so long did God bear with them And the Tenth Generation from Noah wherein Sodom was consumed God did not come to keep his Assizes in Sodom till the cry of their sins was very
* Isa 44.17 They applyed a general Notion to a perticular Image The difference is in the manner and immediate object of worship not in the formal ground of worship The worship sprung from a true Principal though it was not applyed to a right object While they were rational Creatures they could not deface the Notion yet while they were corrupt Creatures it was not difficult to apply themselves to a wrong object from a true principle A blind man knows he hath a way to go as well as one of the clearest sight but because of his blindness he may miss the way and stumble into a Ditch No man would be impos'd upon to take a Bristol Stone instead of a Diamond if he did not know that there were such things as Diamonds in the World nor any man spread forth his hands to an Idol if he were altogether without the sense of a Deity Whether it be a false or a true God men apply to yet in both the natural sentiment of a God is evidenc'd all their mistakes were grafts inserted in this Stock since they would multiply gods rather than deny a Deity * Charron de la Sagesse Livr 1. Cha. 7. p. 43. 44. How should such a general submission be entered into the by all the world so as to adore things of a base alloy if the force of Religion were not such that in any fashion a man would seek the satisfaction of his natural instinct to some object of worship This great diversity confirms this consent to be a good argument for it evidenceth it not to be a Cheat combination or conspiracy to deceive or a mutual intelligence but every one finds it in his climate yea in himself * Gassend Phys § 1. lib. 4. Ca. 2. p. 291. People would never have given the Title of a God to men or Brutes had there not been a pre-existing and unquestioned perswasion that there was such a Being how else should the Notion of a God come into their minds the Notion that there is a God must be more ancient 3. Whatsoever disputes there have been in the World this of the existence of God was never the subject of contention All other things have been questioned What Jarrings were there among Philosophers about natural things into how many parties were they split with what animosities did they maintain their several judgments but we hear of no solemn Controversies about the Existence of a Supream Being this never met with any considerable contradiction no Nation that hath put other things to question would ever suffer this to be disparaged so much as by a publick doubt * Amyrant des Religion p. 50. We find among the Heathen contentions about the Nature of God and the number of gods some asserted an innumerable multitude of gods some affirmed him to be subject to birth and death some affirmed the intire World was God others fancied him to be a circle of a bright Fire others that he was a Spirit diffused through the whole World Yet they unanimously concurr'd in this as the judgment of Universal Reason that there was such a sovereign Being And those that were sceptical in every thing else and asserted that the greatest certainty was that there was nothing certain profest a certainty in this The question was not whether there was a First Cause but why it was * Gassend Phys § 1. lâ—b 4. Ca. 2. p. 291. 'T is much the same thing as the disputes about the Nature and matter of the Heavens the Sun and Planets tho there be great diversity of Judgments yet all agree that there are Heavens Sun Planets so all the Contentions among men about the Nature of God weaken not but rather confirm that there is a God since there was never a publick formal debate about his Existence Those that have been ready to pull out one anothers eyes for their dissent from their judgments sharply censured one anothers sentiments envied the births of one anothers wits alwayes shook hands with an unanimous consent in this never censured one another for being of this perswasion never called it into question as what was never controverted among men professing Christianity but acknowledged by all though contending about other things has reason to be judged a certain Truth belonging to the Christian Religion so what was never subjected to any Controversy but acknowledged by the whole World hath reason to be imbraced as a Truth without any doubt 4. This Vniversal Consent is not prejudiced by some few Dissenters History doth not reckon twenty profest Atheists in all Ages in the compass of the whole World Gassend Phys § 1. lib. 4. cap. 7. p. 282. and we have not the name of any one absolute Atheist upon Record in Scripture yet it is questioned whether any of them noted in History with that infamous name were down-right denyers of the Existence of God but rather because they disparaged the Deities commonly worshipped by the Nations where they lived as being of a clearer reason to discern that those qualities vulgarly attributed to their gods as lust and luxury wantonness and quarrels were unworthy of the nature of a God But suppose they were really what they are termed to be what are they to the multitude of men that have sprung out of the loyns of Adam not so much as one grain of ashes is to all that were ever turned into that form by any fires in your Chimnies And many more were not sufficient to weigh down the contrary consent of the whole World and bear down an universal impression Should the Laws of a Country agreed universally to by the whole Body of the People be accounted vain because a hundred men of those millions disapprove of them when not their reason but their folly and base interest perswades them to dislike them and dispute against them * Gassend ibid. p. 290. What if some men be blind shall any conclude from thence that eyes are not natural to men shall we say that the notion of the Existence of God is not natural to men because a very small number have been of a contrary opinion shall a man in a dungeon that never saw the Sun deny that there is a Sun because one or two blind men tell him there is none when thousands assure him there is Why should then the exceptions of a few not one to millions discredit that which is voted certainly true by the joynt consent of the World Add this too that if those that are reported to be Atheists had had any considerable reason to step aside from the common perswasion of the whole world 't is a wonder it met not with entertainment by great numbers of those who by reason of their notorious wickedness and inward disquiets might reasonably be thought to wish in their hearts that there were no God 'T is strange if there were any reason on their side that in so long a space of time as hath run
of the Heaven c. How could this great heap be brought into being unless a God had framed it Every plant every Atome as well as every Star at the first meeting whispers this in our Ears I have a Creator I am witness to a Deity who ever saw Statues or Pictures but presently thinks of a Statuary and Limner Who beholds Garments Ships or Houses but understands there was a Weaver a Carpenter an Architect * Philo. ex Petav. Theolo Dog Tom 1. li. 1. cap. 1 pa. 4. somewhat changed Who can cast his eyes about the world but must think of that power that formed it and that the goodness which appears in the formation of it hath a perfect Residence in some Being those things that are good must flow from somthing perfectly good that which is chief in any kind is the cause of all of that kind Fire which is most hot is the cause of all things which are hot There is some being therefore which is the cause of all that Perfection which is in the Creature and this is God Aquin. 1 qu. 2. Artic. 3. All things that are demonstrate something from whence they are All things have a contracted perfection and what they have is Communicated to them Perfections are parcelled out among several Creatures Any thing that is imperfect cannot exist of it self We are led therefore by them to consider a fountain which bubbles up in all perfection a hand which distributes those several degrees of Being and Perfection to what we see we see that which is imperfect our minds conclude somthing perfect to exist before it our eye sees the streams but our understanding riseth to the head as the eye sees the shadow but the understanding informs us whither it he the shadow of a man or of a beast God hath given us Sense to behold the objects in the World and Understanding to reason his Existence from them the understanding cannot conceive a thing to have made it self that is against all reason * Rom. 1.20 As they are made they speak out a Maker and cannot be a trick of chance since they are made with such an immense Wisdom that is too big for the grasp of all humane understanding Those that doubt whither the Existence of God be an implanted Principle yet agree that the effects in the world lead to a supream and universal cause And that if we have not the knowledge of it rooted in our Natures yet we have it by discourse since by all Masters of reason a Processus in Infinitum must be accounted impossible in subordinate causes This will appear in several things First I. The World and every Creature had a beginning The Scripture Ascertains this to us * Gen. 1. By Faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God c. David who was not the first man gives the praise to God of his being curiously wrought c. Psal 139.14.15 God gave being to Men and Plants and Beasts before they gave being to one another He gives being to them now as the Fountain of all being though the several Modes of being are from the several natures of second causes * Heb. 11.3 T is true indeed we are ascertained that they were made by the true God that they were made by his word that they were made of nothing and not only this lower world wherein we live but according to the Jewish division the world of Men the the world of Stars and the world of Spirits and Souls We do not waver in it or doubt of it as the Heathen did in their disputes we know they are the workmanship of the true God of that God we adore not of false Gods By his Word without any instrument or engin as in earthly Sâ—ructures of things which do not appear without any preexistent matter as all Artificial works of men are framed Yet the proof of the beginning of the world is affirmed with good reason and if it had a beginning it had also some higher cause than it self Every effect hath a cause * Daille 20. Serm. Psa 102.26 pa. 13. 14. The World was not Eternal or from Eternity The matter of the world cannot be Eternal Matter cannot subsist without form nor put on any form without the action of some cause this cause must be in being before it acted that which is not cannot act The cause of the world must necessarily exist before any matter was endued with any form that therefore cannot be Eternal before which another did subsist if it were from Eternity it would not be subject to mutation If the whole was from Eternity why not also the parts what makes the changes so visible then if Eternity would exempt it from mutability 1. Time cannot be infinite and therefore the World not Eternal * Daille ut Supra All motion hath its beginning if it were otherwise we must say the number of Heavenly revolutions of days and nights which are past to this instant is actually infinite which cannot be in nature If it were so it must needs be granted that a part is equal to the whole because infinite being equal to infinite the number of days past in all Ages to the beginning of one year being Infinite as they would be supposing the World had no beginning would by consequence be equal to the number of days which shall pass to the end of the next whereas that number of days past is indeed but a part and so a part would be equal to the whole 2. Generations of Men Animals and Plants could not be from Eternity * Petar Theo. Dogmat. tom 1. lib. 1. cap. 2. pag. 15. If any Man say the world was from Eternity then there must be propagations of living Creatures in the same manner as are at this day For without this the World could not consist what we see now done must have been perpetually done if it be done by a necessity of nature But we see nothing now that doth arise but by a mutual propagation from another If the world were Eternal therefore it must be so in all Eternity take any particular species suppose a man if men were from Eternity then there were perpetual generations some were born into the World and some died Now the natural condition of generation is that a man doth not generate a man nor a Sheep a Lamb as soon as ever it self is brought into the World but get strength and vigour by degrees and must arrive to a certain stated age before they can produce the like for whilst any thing is little and below the due age it cannot increase its kind Men therefore and other Creatures did propagate their kind by the same Law not as soon as ever they were born but in the interval of some time and Children grew up by degrees in the Mothers Womb till they were fit to be brought forth If this be so then there could not be an Eternal
understand what storms it is to contest with or why it shoots up its branches towards Heaven Doth it know it needs the droppings of the clouds to preserve it self and make it fruitful These are acts of understanding The root is downward to preserve its own standing the branches upward to preserve other Creatures This understanding is not in the Creature it self but originally in another Thunders and Tempests know not why they are sent yet by the direction of a mighty hand they are instruments of Justice upon a wicked world * Coccei sum Theolog. cap. 8. § 67. c. Rational Creatures that act for some end and know the end they aim at yet know not the manner of the natural motion of the members to it When we intend to look upon a thing we take no counsel about the natural motion of our eyes we know not all the principles of their operations or how that dull matter whereof our bodies are composed is subject to the order of our minds * Peirson on the Creed p. 35. We are not of Counsel with our stomacks about the concoction of our meat or the distribution of the nourishing juyce to the several parts of the body Neither the Mother nor the Foetus sit in Council how the formation should be made in the Womb. We know no more than a plant knows what Stature it is of and what medicinal vertue its fruit hath for the good of man yet all those natural operations are perfectly directed to their proper end by an higher wisdom than any human understanding is able to conceive since they exceed the ability of an inanimate or fleshly nature yea and the wisdom of a man Do we not often see reasonable Creatures acting for one end and perfecting a higher than what they aimed at or could suspect When Josephs Brethren sold him for a Slave their end was to be rid of an Informer * Gen. 37.2 But the action issued in preparing him to be the preserver of them and their families Cyrus his end was to be a Conqueror but the action ended in being the Jews deliverer Prov. 16.9 A mans heart deviseth his way but the Lord directs his steps 3. Therefore there is some superior understanding and nature which so acts them That which acts for an end unknown to it self depends upon some over-ruling wisdom that knows that end Who should direct them in all those ends but he that bestowed a being upon them for those ends * Lessius de providen lib. 1. pag. 652. who knows what is convenient for their life security and propagation of their natures An exact knowledge is necessary both of what is agreeable to them and the means whereby they must attain it which since it is not inherent in them is in that wise God who puts those instincts into them and governs them in the exercise of them to such ends Any man that sees a dart flung knows it cannot hit the mark without the skil and strength of an Archer Or he that sees the hand of a Dial pointing to the hours successively knows that the Dial is ignorant of its own end and is disposed and directed in that motion by an other All Creatures ignorant of their own natures could not universally in the whole kind and in every Climate and Country without any difference in the whole world tend to a certain end if some over-ruling wisdom did not preside over the world and guide them and if the Creatures have a Conductor they have a Creator All things are turned round about by his Council that they may do whatsoever he Commands them upon the face of the world in the earth * Job 37.12 So that in this respect the folly of Atheism appears Without the owning a God no account can be given of those actions of Creatures that are an imitation of Reason To say the Bees c. are rational is to equal them to man nay make them his superiors since they do more by nature than the wisest man can do by art T is their own Counsel whereby they act or anothers If it be their own they are reasonable Creatures If by anothers t is not meer nature that is necessary Then other Creatures would not be without the same skill There would be no difference among them If nature be restrained by another it hath a superior if not t is a free agent T is an understanding being that directs them And then it is something superior to all Creatures in the world and by this therefore we may ascend to the acknowledgment of the necessity of a God Fourthly IV. Add to the production and order of the world and the Creatures acting for their end the preservation of them Nothing can depend upon it self in its preservation no more than it could in its being If the order of the world was not fixed by it self the preservation of that order cannot be continued by it self Tho the matter of the world after Creation cannot return to that nothing whence it was fetched without the power of God that made it because the same power is as requisite to reduce a thing to nothing as to raise a thing from nothing yet without the actual exerting of a power that made the Creatures they would fall into confusion Those contesting qualities which are in every part of it could not have preserved but would have consumed and extinguisht one another and reduced the world to that confused Chaos wherin it was before the Spirit moved upon the waters As contrary parts could not have met together in one form unless there had been one that had conjoyned them So they could not have kept together after their conjunction unless the same hand had preserved them Natural contrarieties cannot be reconciled T is as great power to keep discords knit as at first to link them Who would doubt but that an Army made up of several Nations and humors would fall into a Civil War and sheath their Swords in one anothers bowels if they were not under the management of some wise General or a Ship dash against the Rocks without the skill of a Pilot * Gassend Phy. sect 6. lib. 4. cap. 2. pa. 101. As the body hath neither life nor motion without the active presence of the Soul which distributes to every part the vertue of acting sets every one in the exercise of its proper function and resides in every part So there is some powerful cause which doth the like in the world that rules and tempers it There is need of the same power and action to preserve a thing as there was at first to make it When we consider that we are preserved and know that we could not preserve our selves we must necessarily run to some first cause which doth preserve us All works of art depend upon nature and are preserved while they are kept by the force of nature As a Statue depends upon the matter whereof it is
several valves or doors for the thrusting the blood forwards to perform its circular motion 3. The Brain fortified by a strong skull to hinder outward accidents a tough membrane or skin to hinder any oppression by the skull the seat of sense that which coins the animal spirits by purifying and refining those which are sent to it and seems like a curious peice of Needlework 4. The Ear framed with windings and turnings to keep any thing from entring to offend the Brain so disposed as to admit sounds with the greatest safety and delight * Eccles 12.4 filled with an air within by the motion whereof the sound is transmitted to the Brain As sounds are made in the Air by diffusing themselves as you see Circles made in the water by the flinging in a stone This is the Gate of knowledge whereby we hear the Oracles of God and the instruction of men for arts T is by this they are exposed to the mind and the mind of another Man framed in our understandings 5. What a curious Workmanship is that of the Eye which is in the body as the Sun in the World set in the head as in a Watch-Tower having the softest nerves for the receiving the greater multitude of Spirits necessary for the act of Vision How is it provided with defence by the variety of Coats to secure and accomodate the little humor and part whereby the vision is made Made of a round figure and convex as most commodious to receive the species of objects shaded by the eye-brows and eye-lids secured by the eye-lids which are its ornament and safety which refresh it when it is too much dried by heat hinder too much light from insinuating it self into it to offend it cleanse it from impurities by their quick motion preserve it from any invasion and by contraction confer to the more evident discerning of things Both the eyes seated in the hollow of the bone for security yet standing out that things may be perceived more easily on both sides And this little Member can behold the earth and in a moment veiw things as high as Heaven 6. * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 49. The Tongue for speech framed like a Musical instrument the Teeth serving for variety of sounds the lungs serving for Bellows to blow the Organs as it were to cool the Heart by a continual motion transmitting a pure Air to the Heart expelling that which was smoky and superfluous T is by the Tongue that communication of Truth hath a passage among men it opens the sense of the mind there would be no converse and commerce without it Speech among all Nations hath an elegancy and attractive force mastering the affections of men Not to speak of other parts or of the multitude of Spirits that act every part he quick flight of them where there is a necessity of their presence Solomon 12 Ecclesiast makes an elegant description of them in his Speech of old age And Job â—peaks of this formation of the body Job 10.9 10 11 c. Not the least part of the body is made in vain The hairs of the Head have their use as well as are an ornament The whole Symmetry of the body is a ravishing object Every Member hath a Signature and mark of God and his Wisdom He is visible in the formation of the Members the beauty of the parts and the vigor of the body This structure could not be from the body that only hath a passive power and cannot act in the absence of the Soul Nor can it be from the Soul How comes it then to be so ignorant of the manner of its formation The Soul knows not the internal parts of its own body but by information from others or inspection into other bodies It knows less of the inward frame of the body than it doth of it self But he that makes the Clock can tell the number and motions of the wheels within as well as what figures are without This short discourse is useful to raise our admirations of the Wisdom of God as well as to demonstrate that there is an Infinite Wise Creator And the consideration of our selves every day and the wisdom of God in our frame would maintain Religion much in the world Since all are so framed that no man can tell any error in the constitution of him If thus the body of man is fitted for the service of his Soul by an infinite God the body ought to be ordered for the service of this God and in obedience to him 2. In the admirable difference of the features of Men. Which is a great argument that the world was made by a wise Being This could not be wrought by Chance or be the work of meer nature since we find never or very rarely two persons exactly alike This distinction is a part of infinite wisdom otherwise what confusion would be introduced into the World Without this Parents could not know their Children nor Children their Parents nor a Brother his Sister nor a Subject his Magistrate Without it there had been no comfort of Relations no Government no commerce Debtors would not have been known from strangers nor good men from bad Propriety could not have been preserved nor justice executed the innocent might have been apprehended for the nocent wickedness could not have been stopt by any Law The Faces of men are the same for parts not for features A dissimilitude in a likeness Man like to all the rest in the World yet unlike to any and differenced by some mark from all which is not to be observed in any other species of Creatures This speaks some wise Agent which framed man since for the preservation of human society and order in the world this distinction was necessary Secondly II. As mans own nature witnesseth a God to him in the structure of his body so also in the nature of his Soul * Coâ—cei sam Theolog. cap. 8. § 50.51 We know that we have an understanding in us a substance we cannot see but we know it by its operations as thinking reasoning willing remembring And as operating about things that are invisible and remote from sense This must needs be distinct from the body for that being but dust and Earth in its original hath not the power of reasoning and thinking for then it would have that power when the Soul were absent as well as when it is present Besides if it had that power of thinking it could think only of those things which are sensible and made up of matter as it self is This Soul hath a greater excellency it can know it self rejoyce in it self which other Creatures in this world are not capable of The Soul is the greatest glory of this lower world and as one saith * More There seems to be no more difference between the Soul and an Angel than between a Sword in the Scabbard and when it is Out of the Scabbard First I. Consider the vastness
violated Law When God is the object of such a wish t is a vertual undeifying of him Not to be able to punish is to be impotent not to be willing to punish is to be unjust Imperfections inconsistent with the Deity God cannot be supposed without an infinite Power to act and an infinite Righteousness as the Rule of acting Fear of God is natural to all men not a Fear of offending him but a Fear of being punished by him The wishing the Extinction of God has its degree in men according to the degree of their Fears of his just Vengeance And though such a Wish be not in its Meridian but in the Damned in Hell yet it hath its starts and motions in affrighted and awakened Consciences on the Earth Under this Rank of Wishers that there were no God or that God were destroyed do fall 1. Terrified Consciences that are Magor missabib see nothing but matter of fear round about As they have lived without the bounds of the Law they are affraid to fall under the stroak of his Justice Fear wishes the destruction of that which it apprehends hurtful It considers him as a God to whom Vengeance belongs as the Judge of all the Earth * Psal 94.12 The less hopes such a one hath of his Pardon the more joy he would have to hear that his Judge should be stript of his Life He would entertain with delight any reasons that might support him in the conceit that there were no God In his present State such a Doctrine would be his Security from an Account He would as much rejoyce if there were no God to enflame an Hell for him as any guilty Malefactor would if there were no Judge to order a Gibbet for him Shame may bridle mens words but the Heart will be casting about for some Arguments this way to secure it self Such as are at any time in Spira's Case would be willing to cease to be Creatures that God might cease to be Judge The Fool hath said in his heart there is no Elohim no Judge fancying God without any exercise of his judicial Authority And there is not any wicked man under anguish of Spirit but were it within the reach of his power would take away the Life of God and rid himself of his fears by destroying his Avenger 2. Debaucht Persons are not without such wishes sometimes An obstinate Servant wishes his Masters death from whom he expects Correction for his Debaucheries As Man stands in his corrupt Nature 't is impossible but one time or other most debaucht persons at least have so me kind of velleities or imperfect wishes 'T is as natural to men to abhor those things which are unsuteable and troublesome as it is to please themselves in things agreeable to their minds and humours And since Man is so deeply in love with Sin as to count it the most estimable good he cannot but wish the abolition of that Law which checks it and consequently the change of the Law-Giver which Enacted it and in wishing a change in the holy Nature of God he wishes a destruction of God who could not be God if he ceased to be immutably holy They do as certainly wish that God had not a holy Will to command them as desparing Souls wish that God had not a righteous Will to punish them and to wish Conscience extinct for the molestations they receive from it is to wish the power Conscience represents out of the world also Since the State of Sinners is a State of distance from God and the Language of Sinners to God is departed from us * Joh. 21.14 They desire as litle the continuance of his Being as they desire the knowledge of his Ways The same reason which moves them to desire Gods distance from them would move them to desire Gods not Being Since the greatest distance would be most agreeable to them the Destruction of God must be so too Because there is no greater distance from us than in not Being Men would rather have God not to be than themselves under controle that sensuality might range at pleasure He is like a Heifer sliding from the Yoke Hos 4.16 The Cursing of God in the Heart feared by Job of his Chidren intimates a wishing God despoild of his Authority that their pleasure might not be dampt by his Law Besides is there any natural man that sins against actuated knowledge but either thinks or wishes that God might not see him that God might not know his actions And is not this to wish the Destruction of God who could not be God unless he were immense and omniscient 3. Under this rank fall those who perform external Duties only out of a Principle of slavish Fear Many Men perform those Duties that the Law enjoyns with the same Sentiments that Slaves perform their Drudgery and are constrained in their Duties by no other considerations but those of the Whip and the Cudgel Since therefore they do it with reluctancy and secretly murmur while they seem to obey they would be willing that both the Command were recall'd and the Master that commands them were in another world The Spirit of Adoption makes men act towards God as a Father a Spirit of Bondage only eyes him as a Judge Those that look upon their Superiors as tyrannical will not be much concerned in their welfare and would be more glad to have their Nails pared than be under perpetual fear of them Many men regard not the infinite goodness in their service of him but consider him as cruel tyrannical injurious to their Liberty Adam's Posterity are not free from the Sentiments of their common Father till they are regenerate You know what Conceit was the Hammer whereby the Hellish Jael struck the Nail into our first Parents which conveyed Death together with the same Imagination to all their Posterity Gen. 3.5 God knows that in the day you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil Alas poor Souls God knew what he did when he forbad you that Fruit He was jealous you should be too happy It was a cruelty in him to deprive you of a Food so pleasant and delicious The apprehension of the severity of Gods Commands riseth up no less in desires that there were no God over us than Adam's apprehension of Envy in God for the restraint of one Tree mov'd him to attempt to be equal with God Fear is as powerful to produce the one in his Posterity as Pride was to produce the other in the Common-Root When we apprehend a thing hurtful to us we desire so much evil to it as may render it uncapable of doing us the hurt we fear As we wish the preservation of what we love or hope for so we are naturally apt to wish the not being of that whence we fear some hurt or trouble We must not understand this as if any man did formally wish the destruction of God as God God in
dived into the depths of Nature have been more studious of the qualities of the Creatures than of the excellency of the nature or the discovery of the mind of God in them who regard only the rising and motions of the Star but follow not with the wise men its conduct to the King of the Jews How often do we see men filled with an eager thirst for all other kind of knowledge that cannot acquiesce in a twilight discovery but are inquisitive into the causes and reasons of effects yet are contented with a weak and languishing knowledge of God and his Law and are easily tired with the Proposals of them He now that nauseates the means whereby he may come to know and obey God has no intention to make the Law of God his Rule There is no man that intends seriously an end but he intends means in order to that end As when a man intends the preservation or recovery of his health he will intend means in order to those ends otherwise he cannot be said to intend his health So he that is not diligent in using means to know the mind of God has no sound intention to make the Will and Law of God his Rule Is not the inquiry after the Will of God made a work by the by and fain to lacquy after other concerns of an inferior nature if it hath any place at all in the Soul which is a despising the Being of God The Notion of the Soveraignty of God bears the same date with the Notion of his Godhead and by the same way that he reveals Himself he reveals his Authority over us whether it be by Creatures without or Conscience within All Authority over Rational Creatures consists in commanding and directing the duty of Rational Creatures in compliance with that Authority consists in obeying Where there is therefore a careless neglect of those means which convey the knowledge of Gods Will and our Duty there is an utter disowning of God as our Soveraign and our Rule 2. When any part of the Mind and Will of God breaks in upon Men they endeavour to shake it off As a Man would a Sergeant that comes to arrest him they like not to retain God in their Knowledge Rom. 1.28 A natural Man receives not the things of the Spirit of God that is into his Affection he pusheth them back as men do troublesome and importunate Beggers They have no kindness to bestow upon it They thrust with both shoulders against the Truth of God when it presseth in upon them and dash as much contempt upon it as the Pharisees did upon the Doctrine our Saviour directed against their Covetousness As men naturally delight to be without God in the world so they delight to be without any offspring of God in their thoughts Since the Spiritual Palate of Man is depraved Divine Truth is unsavoury and ungrateful to us till our taste and relish is restored by Grace Hence men damp and quench the motions of the Spirit to Obedience and Compliance with the Dictates of God strip them of their Life and Vigor and kill them in the Womb. How unable are our Memories to retain the substance of spiritual Truth but like Sand in a Glass put in at one part and runs out at the other Have not many a secret wish that the Scripture had never mentioned some truths or that they were blotted out of the Bible because they face their Consciences and discourage those boiling Lusts they would with eagerness and delight pursue Me thinks that interruption John gives our Saviour when he was upon the Reproof of their Pride looks little better * Mark 9.33.38 than a design to divert him from a discourse so much against the grain by telling him a story of their prohibiting one to cast out Devils because he followed not them How glad are men when they can raise a Battery against a Command of God and raise some smart Objection whereby they may shelter themselves from the strictness of it 3. When men cannot shake off the Notices of the Will and Mind of God they have no pleasure in the consideration of them Which could not possibly be if there were a real and fixed design to own the Mind and Law of God as our Rule Subjects or Servants that love to obey their Prince and Master will delight to read and execute their Orders The Devils understand the Law of God in their minds but they loath the impressions of it upon their Wills Those miserable Spirits are bound in Chains of Darkness evil Habits in their Wills that they have not a thought of obeying that Law they know It was an unclean Beast under the Law that did not chew the Cud 'T is a corrupt Heart that doth not chew Truth by Meditation A natural man is said not to know God or the things of God he may know them notionally but he knows them not affectionately A sensual Soul can have no delight in a spiritual Law To be sensual and not to have the Spirit are inseparable Jude 19. Natural Men may indeed meditate upon the Law and Truth of God but without delight in it if they take any pleasure in it 't is only as 't is knowledge not as it is a Rule for we delight in nothing that we desire but upon the same account that we desire it Natural Men desire to know God and some part of his Will and Law not out of a sense of their practical excellency but a natural thirst after knowledge and if they have a delight 't is in the act of knowing not in the Object known not in the Duties that stream from that Kowledge they design the furnishing their Understandings not the quickning their Affections like idle Boys that strike Fire not to warm themselves by the heat but sport themselves with the Sparks Whereas a gracious Soul accounts not only his Meditation or the Operations of his Soul about God and his Will to be sweet but he hath a joy in the object of that Meditation * Psal 104.34 Many have the knowledge of God who have no delight in Him or his Will Owls have Eyes to perceive that there is a Sun but by reason of the weakness of their sight have no pleasure to look upon a Beam of it So neither can a man by Nature love or delight in the Will of God because of his natural corruption That Law that riseth up in men for Conviction and Instruction they keep down under the power of Corruption making their Souls not the Sanctuary but Prison of Truth Rom. 1.18 They will keep it down in their hearts if they cannot keep it out of their heads and will not endeavour to know and taste the Spirit of it 4. There is farther a rising and swelling of the Heart against the Will of God 1. Internal Gods Law cast against a hard Heart is like a Ball thrown against a stone Wall by reason of the resistance rebounding the further
are coupled here together that which hath Wealth and that which hath those glorious Creatures in Heaven for its Object And though some may think it a light Sin yet the Crime being of deeper guilt a denial of God deserves a severer punishment and falls under the Sentence of the just Judge of all the Earth under that Notion which Job intimates in those words this also were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judge The kissing the hand to the Sun Moon or any Idol was an external Sign of Religious Worship among those and other Nations This is far less than an inward hearty Confidence and an affectionate Trust If the motion of the hand be much more is the affection of the heart to an excrementitious Creature or a brutish Pleasure is a Denial of God and a kind of an Abjuring of him siince the Supream Affection of the Soul is undoubtedly and solely the Right of the Soveraign Creator and not to be given in common to others as the outward gesture may in a way of civil respect Nothing that is an Honour peculiar to God can be given to a Creature without a plain exclusion of God to be God it being a disowning the rectitude and excellency of his Nature If God should command a Creature such a Love and such a Confidence in any thing inferior to him He would deny himself his own Glory He would deny himself to be the most excellent Being Can the Romanists be free from this when they call the Cross Spem unicam and say to the Virgin In te Domina speravi as Bonaventure c. Good reason therefore have Worldlings and Sensualists persons of immoderate fondness to any thing in the world to reflect upon themselves since though they own the Being of a God they are guilty of so great disrespect to him that cannot be excused from the title of an unworthy Atheism And those that are renewed by the Spirit of God may here see ground of a daily Humiliation for the frequent and too common Excursions of their Souls in Creature Confidences and Affections whereby they fall under the charge of an act of practical Atheism though they may be free from an habit of it 3. The third thing is Man would make himself the end of all Creatures Man would fit in the Seat of God and set his heart as the heart of God as the Lord saith of Tyrus Ezek. 28.2 What is the consequence of this but to be esteemed the chief Good and end of other Creatures A thing that the heart of God cannot but be set upon it being an inseparable Right of the Deity who must deny himself if he deny this affection of the Heart Since it is the nature of Man deriv'd from his Root to desire to be equal with God it follows that he desires no Creature should be equal with him but subservient to his ends and his glory He that would make himself God would have the Honour proper to God He that thinks himself worthy of his own supream affection thinks himself worthy to be the Object of the supream affection of others Whosoever counts himself the chiefest Good and last End would have the same place in the thoughts of others Nothing is more natural to Man than a desire to have his own Judgment the Rule and Measure of the Judgments and Opinions of the rest of Mankind He that sets himself in the Place of the Prince doth by that act challenge all the Prerogatives and Dues belonging to the Prince and apprehending himself fit to be a King apprehends himself also worthy of the Homage and Fealty of the Subjects He that loves himself chiefly and all other things and persons for himself would make himself the end of all Creatures It hath not been once or twice only in the World that some vain Princes have assumed to themselves the title of Gods and caused Divine Adorations to be given to them and Altars to smoke with Sacrifices for their Honour What hath been practised by one is by Nature seminally in all We would have all pay an Obedience to us and give to us the Esteem that is due to God This is evident 1. In Pride When we entertain an high Opinion of our selves and act for our own Reputes we dispossess God from our own hearts and while we would have our Fame to be in every mans mouth and be admired in the hearts of men we would chase God out of the hearts of others and deny his Glory a Residence any where else that our Glory should reside more in their minds than the Glory of God that their thoughts should be filled with our Atchievements more than the Works and Excellency of God with our Image and not with the Divine Pride would paramount God in the affections of others and justle God out of their Souls and by the same reason that man doth thus in the Place where he lives he would do so in the whole world and press the whole Creation from the Service of their true Lord to his own Service Every proud man would be counted by others as he counts himself the highest chiefest piece of Goodnes and be adored by others as much as he adores and admires himself No proud man in his self-love and self-admiration thinks himself in an Error and if he be worthy of his own admiration he thinks himself worthy of the highest esteem of others that they should value him above themselves and value themselves only for him What did Nebuchadnezzar intend by setting up a Golden Image and commanding all his Subjects to worship it upon the highest Penalty he could inflict but that all should aim only at the pleasing his Humor 2. In using the Creatures contrary to the End God has appointed God created the World and all things in it as steps whereby men might ascend to a Prospect of him and the acknowledgment of his Glory and we would use them to dishonour God and gratifie our selves He appointed them to supply our necessities and support our rational delights and we use them to cherish our sinful lusts We wring groans from the Creature in diverting them from their true scope to one of our own fixing when we use them not in his service but purely for our own and turn those things he created for himself to be instruments of Rebellion against him to serve our turns and hereby endeavour to defeat the ends of God in them to establish our own ends by them This is a high dishonour to God a Sacrilegious undermining of his Glory * Sabunde Tit. 200. P. 352. to reduce what God hath made to serve our own glory and our own pleasure It perverts the whole Order of the World and directs it to another end than what God hath constituted to another intention contrary to the intention of God and thus Man makes himself a God by his own Authority As all things were made by God so they are for God but while we
cleared over their Heads The whole book of Judges makes mention of it And tho an Evangelical light hath chased that Idolatry away from a great part of the world yet the Principle remaining Coyns more Spiritual Idols in the heart which are brought before God in acts of Worship 2. Hence all superstition received its rise and growth When we Mint a God according to our own Complexion like to us in mutable and various passions soon angry and soon appeased t is no wonder that we invent ways of pleasing him after we have offended him and think to expiate the sin of our Souls by some Melancholy devotions and self Chastisements Superstition is nothing else but an unscriptural and unrevealed dread of God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they imagined him a rigorous and severe Master they cast about for ways to mitigate him whom they thought so hard to be pleased A very mean thought of him as if a slight and pompous Devotion could as easily bribe and flatter him out of his rigors as a few good words or baubling rattles could please and quiet little Children And whatsoever pleased us could please a God infinitely above us Such narrow conceipts had the Philistins when they thought to still the anger of the God of Israel whom they thought they possess'd in the Ark with the present of a few Golden mice * 1 Sam. 6.3 4. All the Superstition this day living in the world is built upon this foundation So natural it is to Man to pull God down to his own Imaginations rather than raise his Imaginations up to God Hence doth arise also the diffidence of his mercy tho they repent measuring God by the contracted Models of their own Spirits as tho his nature were as difficult to Pardon their offences against him as they are to remit wrongs done to themselves 3. Hence Springs all Presumption the Common disease of the world All the wickedness in the World which is nothing else but presuming upon God rises from the ill interpretations of the goodness of God breaking out upon them in the works of Creation and Providence The Corruption of Mans nature engendred by those Notions of goodness a monstrous birth of vain imaginations Not of themselves primarily but of God whence arose all that folly and darkness in their minds and conversations Rom. 1.20.21 They glorified him not as God but according to themselves imagined him good that themselves might be bad fancyed him so indulgent as to neglect his own honour for their sensuality How doth the unclean person represent him to his own thoughts but as a Goat the Murderer as a Tyger the sensual person as a Swine while they fancy a God indulgent to their Crimes without their repentance As the Image on the Seal is stampt upon the wax so the thoughts of the heart are Printed upon the actions Gods Patience is apprehended to be an approbation of their Vices and from the Consideration of his forbearance they fashion a God that they believe will smile upon their Crimes They imagine a God that plays with them and tho he threatens doth it only to scare but means not as he speaks A God they fancy like themselves that would do as they would do not be angry for what they count a light offence Psal 50.21 Thou thoughtest I was such a one as thy self That God and they were exactly alike as two Tallies * Gurnal part 2. p. 245. 246. Our wilful misapprehensions of God are the cause of our misbehaviour in all his worship Our slovenly and lazy services tell him to his face what slight thoughts and apprehensions we have of him Compare these two together Superstition ariseth from terrifying misapprehensions of God Presumption from self pleasing thoughts One represents him only rigorous and the other careless One makes us over officious in serving him by our own rules and the other over bold in offending him according to our humors The want of a true Notion of Gods Justice makes some Men slight him And the want of a true apprehension of his goodness makes others too servile in their approaches to him One makes us careless of duties and the other makes us look on them rather as Physick than food an unsupportable pennance than a desirable priviledge In this Case Hell is the principle of Duty performed to Heaven The superstitious Man believes God hath scarce mercy to Pardon the presumptuous Man believes he hath no such perfection as Justice to punish The one makes him insignificant to what he desires kindness and goodness the other renders him insignificant to what he fears his vindictive Justice What between the Idolater the superstitious the presumptuous person God should look like no God in the world These unworthy imaginations of God are likewise A vilifying of him Debasing the Creator to be a Creature of their own fancies putting their own stamp upon him and fashioning him not according to that beautiful Image he imprest upon them by Creation but the defaced Image they inherit by their fall and which is worse the Image of the Devil which spread it self over them at their revolt and apostacy Were it possible to see a Picture of God according to the fancies of Men it would be the most Monstrous being such a God that never was nor ever can be VVe honour God when we have worthy opinions of him sutable to his nature when we conceive of him as a being of unbounded loveliness and perfection VVe detract from him when we ascribe to him such qualities as would be a horrible disgrace to a wise and good Man As Injustice and Impurity Thus Men debase God when they invert his order and would Create him according to their Image as he first Created them according to his own And think him not worthy to be a God unless he fully answer the mould they would cast him into and be what is unworthy of his nature Men do not conceive of God as he would have them but he must be what they would have him one of their own shaping 1. This is worse than Idolatry The grossest Idolater commits not a Crime so hainous by changing his glory into the Image of Creeping things and senseless Creatures as the imagining God to be as one of our sinful selves and likening him to those filthy Images we erect in our fancies One makes him an earthly God like an earthly Creature the other fancies him an unjust and impure God like a wicked Creature One sets up an Image of him in the Earth which is his footstool the other sets up an Image of him in the heart which ought to be his throne 2. T is worse than absolute Atheism or a denial of God Dignius credimus non esse quodcunque non ita fuerit ut esse deberet was the opinion of Tertullian * Tertul. cont Maxim lib. 1. cap. 2. T is more Commendable to think him not to be than to think him such a one
the Soul of Man more excellent than other Animals Angels more excellent than Men They contain in their own nature whatsoever dignity there is in the inferior Creatures God must have therefore an excellency above all those and therefore is intirely remote from the conditions of a Body * Calov Socin Proflig P. 129. 130. 'T is a gross conceit therefore to think that God is such a Spirit as the Air is for that is to be a body as the Air is though it be a thin one and if God were no more a Spirit than that or than Angels he would not be the most simple Being * Amirald Sup. Heb. 9. p. 146. c. Yet some think that the spiritual Deity was represented by the Air in the Ark of the Testament It was unlawful to represent him by any Image that God had prohibited Every thing about the Ark had a particular signification The Gold and other Ornaments about it signified something of Christ but were unfit to represent the Nature of God A thing purely invisible and falling under nothing of sense could not represent him to the mind of Man The Air in the Ark was the fittest it represented the invisibility of God Air being imperceptible to our eyes Air diffuseth it self through all parts of the world it glides through secret passages into all Creatures it fills the space between Heaven and Earth there is no place wherein God is not present To evidence this 1. If God were not a Spirit he could not be Creator All multitude begins in and is reduced to unity As above multitude there is an absolute unity So above mixt Creatures there is an absolute simplicity You cannot conceive number without conceiving the beginning of it in that which was not number viz. a unite You cannot conceive any mixture but you must conceive some simple thing to be the Original and Basis of it The works of Art done by rational Creatures have their Foundation in something Spiritual Every Artificer Watch-maker Carpenter hath a model in his own mind of the work he designs to frame The material and outward Fabrick is squared according to an inward and Spiritual Idea A Spiritual Idea speaks a Spiritual faculty as the subject of it God could not have an Idea of that vast number of Creatures he brought into being if he had not had a Spiritual Nature * Amiral moral Tom. 1. pa. 282. The wisdom whereby the world was Created could never be the fruit of a Corporeal nature such natures are not capable of understanding and comprehending the things which are within the compass of their nature much less of produ them And therefore beasts which have only Corporeal faculties move to objects by the force of their sense and have no knowledge of things as they are comprehended by the understanding of Man All acts of wisdom speak an intelligent and Spiritual agent The effects of wisdom goodness power are so great and admirable that they bespeak him a more perfect and eminent being than can possibly be beheld under a bodily shape Can a Coporeal substance put Wisdom in the inward parts and give understanding to the heart * Job 38.16 2. If God were not a pure Spirit he could not be one If God had a body consisting of distinct members as ours or all of one nature as the water and air are yet he were then capable of division and therefore could not be entirely one Either those parts would be finite or infinite if finite they are not parts of God for to be God and finite is a contradiction If infinite then there are as many infinites as distinct members and therefore as many Deities Suppose this body had all parts of the same nature as air and water hath every little part of air is as much air as the greatest and every little part of water is as much water as the Ocean so every little part of God would be as much God as the whole as many particular Deities to make up God as little Atomes to compose a body What can be more absurd If God had a body like a human body and were compounded of body and Soul of substance and quality he could not be the most perfect unity he would be made up of distinct parts and those of a distinct nature as the members of a human body are Where there is the greatest unity there must be the greatest simplicity but God is one As he is free from any change so he is void of any multitude Deut. 6.4 The Lord our God is one Lord. 3. If God had a body as we have he would not be invisible Every material thing is not visible The Air is a body yet invisible but it is sensible the cooling quality of it is felt by us at every breath and we know it by our touch which is the most material sense Every body that hath Members like to bodies is visible But God is invisible * Daille in Tim The Apostle reckons it amongst his other perfections 1 Tim. 1.17 Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible He is invisible to our sense which beholds nothing but material and coloured things and incomprehensible to our understanding that conceives nothing but what is finite God is therefore a Spirit uncapable of being seen and infinitely uncapable of being understood If he be invisible he is also Spiritual If he had a body and hid it from our eyes he might be said not to be seen but could not be said to be invisible When we say a thing is visible we understand that it hath such qualities which are the objects of sense tho we may never see that which is in its own nature is to be seen God hath no such qualities as fall under the perception of our sense His works are visible to us but not his God-head * Rom. 1.20 The nature of a human body is to be seen and handled Christ gives us such a description of it Luke 24.39 Handle me and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have But man hath been so far from seeing God that it is impossible he can see him 1 Tim. 6.16 There is such a disproportion between an infinite object and a finite sense and understanding that it is utterly impossible either to behold or comprehend him But if God had a body more luminous and glorious than that of the Sun he would be as well visible to us as the Sun tho the immensity of that light would dazle our eyes and forbid any close inspection into him by the vertue of our sence We have seen the shape and figure of the Sun but no man hath ever seen the shape of God * Joh. 5.37 If God had a body he were visible tho he might not perfectly and fully be seen by us * Goulart de Dieu pa. 94. As we see the Heavens tho we see not the extension latitude and greatness of them
Essence as in his Veracity and Faithfulness They are perfections belonging to his Nature But if he were not a pure Spirit he could not be immutable by Nature 7. If God were not a pure Spirit He could not be omnipresent He is in Heaven above and the Earth below * Deut. 4.39 He fills Heaven and Earth * Jer. 23.24 The Divine Essence is at once in Heaven and Earth but it is impossible a Body can be in two places at one and the same time Since God is every where he must be spiritual Had he a Body he could not penetrate all things he would be circumscribed in place He could not be every where but in parts not in the whole one member in one place and another in another for to be confined to a particlar place is the property of a Body But since he is diffused through the whole World higher than Heaven deeper than Hell longer than the Earth broader than the Sea * Job 11.8 he hath not any corporeal matter If he had a Body wherewith to fill Heaven and Earth there could be no Body besides his own 'T is the Nature of Bodies to bound one another and hinder the extending of one another Two Bodies cannot be in the same place in the same point of Earth one excludes the other And it will follow hence that we are nothing no substances meer illusions there could be no place for any Body else * Gamacheus Theol. Tom. 1. Quos 3. C. 1. If his Body were as bigg as the World as it must be if with that he filled Heaven and Earth there would not be room for him to move a hand or a foot or extend a finger for there would be no place remaining for the motion 8. If God were not a Spirit he could not be the most perfect Being The more perfect any thing is in the rank of Creatures the more spiritual and simple it is as Gold is the more pure and perfect that hath least mixture of other Metals If God were not a Spirit there would be Creatures of a more excellent Nature than God as Angels and Souls which the Scripture calls Spirits in opposition to Bodies There is more of perfection in the first notion of a Spirit than in the notion of a Body God cannot be less perfect than his Creatures and contribute an excellency of being to them which he wants himself If Angels and Souls possess such an excellency and God want that excellency he would be less than his Creatures and the excellency of the Effect would exceed the excellency of the Cause But every Creature even the highest Creature is infinitely short of the perfection of God for whatsoever excellency they have is finite and limited 't is but a spark from the Sun a drop from the Ocean but God is unboundedly perfect in the highest manner without any limitation and therefore above Spirits Angels the highest Creatures that were made by him An infinite sublimity a pure act to which nothing can be added from which nothing can be taken In him there is light and no darkness * 1 John 1.5 spirituality without any matter perfection without any shadow or taint of imperfection Light pierceth into all things preserves its own purity and admits of no mixture of any thing else with it Question It may be said If God be a Spirit and it is impossible he can be otherwise than a Spirit how comes God so often to have such Members as we have in our Bodies ascribed to him not only a Soul but particular bodily parts as heart arms hands eyes ears face and back-parts And how is it that he is never called a Spirit in plain words but in this Text by our Saviour Answ 'T is true many parts of the Body and natural affections of the human nature are reported of God in Scripture Head * Dan. 7.9 Eyes and Eye-lids * Psal 11.4 Apple of the Eye Mouth c. our Affections also Grief Joy Anger c. But it is to be considered 1. That this is in condescension to our weakness God being desirous to make himself known to Man * Loquitur lex secund ling. filiorum hominum was the H. saying whom he created for his Glory humbles as it were his own Nature to such representations as may sute and assists the capacity of the Creature Since by the condition of our nature nothing erects a notion of it self in our understanding but as it is conducted in by our sence God hath served himself of those things which are most exposed to our sence most obvious to our understandings to give us some acquaintance with his own Nature and those things which otherwise we were not capable of having any notion of As our Souls are linkt with our Bodies so our knowledge is linkt with our sence that we can scarce imagin any thing at first but under a corporeal form and figure till we come by great attention to the Object to make by the help of reason a separation of the spiritual substance from the corporeal fancy and consider it in its own nature We are not able to conceive a Spirit without some kind of resemblance to something below it nor understand the actions of a Spirit without considering the operations of a human Body in its several Members As the Glories of another Life are signified to us by the pleasures of this so the Nature of God by a gracious condescension to our capacities is signified to us by a likeness to our own The more familiar the things are to us which God uses to this purpose the more proper they are to teach us what he intends by them Answ 2. All such representations are to signifie the acts of God as they hear some likeness to those which we perform by those members he ascribes to himself So that those members ascribed to him rather note his visible operations to us than his invisible Nature and signifie that God doth some works like to those which men do by the assistance of those Organs of their Bodies * Amyral de Trin. p. 218. 219. So the wisdom of God is called his Eye because he knows that with his mind which we see with our eyes The efficiency of God is called his Hand and Arm because as we act with our hands so doth God with his Power The divine Efficacies are signified By his eyes and ears we understand his Omniscience by his face the manifestation of his Favour by his mouth the revelation of his Will by his nostrils the acceptation of our Prayers by his bowels the tenderness of his Compassion by his heart the sincerity of his Affections by his hand the strength of his Power by his feet the ubiquity of his Presence And in this he intends instruction and comfort By his eyes he signifies his watchfulness over us By his ears his readiness to hear the crys of the oppressed * Psal 34.15 By his Arm his
a Wilderness become Waters and speak a Chaos into a beautiful frame of Heaven and Earth He can act our souls with infinite more ease than our souls can act our bodies he can fix in us what motions frames inclinations he pleases he can come and settle in our hearts with all his Treasures 'T is an encouragement to confide in him when we petition him for spiritual Blessings As he is a Spirit he is possessed with spiritual Blessings * Eph. 1.3 A Spirit delights to bestow things sutable to its Nature do Bodies are to communicate what is agreeable to theirs As he is a Father of Spirits we may go to him for the Welfare of our Spirits he being a Spirit is as able to repair our Spirits as he was to create them As he is a Spirit he is indefatigable in acting The members of the body tire and flagg but whoever heard of a Soul wearied with being active Whoever heard of a weary Angel In the purest Simplicity there is the greatest Power the most efficacious Goodness the most reaching Justice to affect the Spirit that can insinuate it self every where to punish wickedness without weariness as well as to comfort goodness God is active because he is Spirit and if we be like to God the more spiritual we are the more active we shall be 6. Inference God being a Spirit is immortal His being immortal and being invisible are joyned together * 1 Tim. 1.17 Spirits are in their nature incorruptible they can only perish by that hand that framed them Every compounded thing is subject to mutation but God being a pure and simple Spirit is without corruption without any shadow of change * James 1.17 Where there is composition there is some kind of repugnancy of one part against the other and where there is repugnancy there is a capability of dissolution God in regard of his infinite spirituality hath nothing in his own nature contrary to it can have nothing in himself which is not himself The world perishes friends change and are dissolved bodies moulder because they are mutable God is a Spirit in the highest excellency and glory of Spirits nothing is beyond him nothing above him no contrariety within him This is our comfort if we devote our selves to him this God is our God this Spirit is our Spirit this is our all our immutable our incorruptible support a Spirit that cannot die and leave us 7. Inference If God be a Spirit we see how we can only converse with him by our Spirits Bodies and Spirits are not sutable to one another We can only see know embrace a Spirit with our Spirits He judges not of us by our corporeal actions nor our external devotions by our masks and disguises He fixes his eye upon the frame of the heart bends his ear to the groans of our Spirits He is not pleased with outward pomp He is not a Body therefore the beauty of Temples delicacy of Sacrifices fumes of Incense are not grateful to him by those or any external action we have no communion with him A Spirit when broken is his delightful Sacrifice * Psal 51.17 We must therefore have our Spirits fitted for him be renewed in the spirit of our minds * Eph. 4.23 that we may be in a posture to live with him and have an intercourse with him We can never be united to God but in our Spirits Bodies unite with Bodies Spirits with Spirits The more spiritual any thing is the more closely doth it unite Air hath the closest union nothing meets together sooner than that when the parts are divided by the interposition of a body 8. Inference If God be a Spirit he can only be the true satisfaction of our Spirits Spirit can only be fill'd with Spirit Content flows from likeness and sutableness As we have a resemblance to God in regard of the spiritual nature of our Soul so we can have no satisfaction but in him Spirit can no more be really satisfied with that which is corporeal than a beast can delight in the company of an Angel Corporeal things can no more fill a hungry Spirit than pure Spirit can feed an hungry Body God the highest Spirit can only reach out a full content to our spirits Man is Lord of the Creation nothing below him can be fit for his converse nothing above him offers it self to his converse but God We have no correspondence with Angels The influence they have upon us the protection they afford us is secret and undiscern'd but God the highest Spirit offers himself to us in his Son in his Ordinances is visible in every Creature presents himself to us in every providence to him we must seek in him we must rest God had no rest from the Creation till he had made Man and Man can have no rest in the Creation till he rests in God * Psal 90.1 God only is our dwelling place our Souls should only long for him our Souls should only wait upon him * Psal 63.1 The Spirit of Man never riseth to its original glory till it be carried up on the wings of Faith and Love to its original Copy The face of the Soul looks most beautiful when it is turned to the face of God the Father of Spirits when the derived Spirit is fixed upon the original Spirit drawing from it Life and Glory Spirit is only the receptacle of Spirit God as Spirit is our Principle we must therefore live upon him God as Spirit hath some resemblance to us as his Image we must therefore only satisfie our selves in him 9. Inference If God be a Spirit we should take most care of that wherein we are like to God Spirit is nobler than Body we must thererefore value our Spirits above our Bodies The Soul as Spirit partakes more of the Divine Nature and deserves more of our choycest cares If we have any love to this Spirit we should have a real affection to our own Spirits as bearing a stamp of the spiritual Divinity the chiefest of all the works of God as it is said of Behemoth Job 40.19 .. That which is most the Image of this immense Spirit should be our Darling So David calls his Soul Psal 35.17 Shall we take care of that wherein we partake not of God and not delight in the Jewel which hath his own Signature upon it God was not only the Framer of Spirits and the End of Spirits but the Copy and Exemplar of Spirits God partakes of no corporeity he is pure Spirit But how do we act as if we were only matter and body We have but little kindness for this great Spirit as well as our own if we take no care of his immediate offspring since he is not only Spirit but the Father of Spirits * Heb. 12.9 10. Inference If God be a Spirit let us take heed of those sins which are spiritual Paul distinguisheth between the filth of the Flesh and that of
the Spirit * 2 Cor. 7.1 By the one we defile the Body by the other we defile the Spirit which in regard of its Nature is of kin to the Creator To wrong one who is neer of kin to a Prince is worse than to injure an inferior Subject When we make our Spirits which are most like to God in their Nature and framed according to his Image a stage to act vain imaginations wicked desires and unclean affections we wrong God in the excellency of his Work and reflect upon the nobleness of the Patern we wrong him in that part where he hath stampt the most signal Character of his own spiritual nature we defile that whereby we have only converse with him as a Spirit which he hath ordered more immediately to represent him in this Nature than all corporeal things in the world can and make that Spirit with whom we desire to be joyned unfit for such a knot Gods Spirituality is the root of his other perfections We have already heard he could not be infinite omnipresent immutable without it Spiritual sins are the greatest root of bitterness within us As grace in our Spirits renders us more like to a spiritual God so spiritual sins bring us into a conformity to a degraded Devil * Eph. 2.2 3. Carnal sins change us from men to brutes and spiritual sins devest us of the Image of God for the Image of Satan We should by no means make our Spirits a Dung-hill which bear upon them the Character of the spiritual Nature of God and were made for his residence Let us therefore behave our selves towards God in all those ways which the spiritual nature of God requires us A DISCOURSE OF Spiritual Worship HAVING thus dispatcht the first proposition God is a Spirit It will not be amiss to handle the inference our Saviour makes from that proposition which is the second observation propounded Doct. That the Worship due from us to God ought to be Spiritual and Spiritually performed Spirit and Truth are understood variously Either we are to Worship God 1. Not by legal ceremonies The Evangelical administration being called Spirit in opposition to the legal ordinances as carnal and Truth in opposition to them as typical As the whole Judaical service is called flesh so the whole Evangelical service is called Spirit Or Spirit may be opposed to the worship at Jerusalem as it was carnal Truth to the worship on the Mount Gerizim because it was false They had not the true object of worship nor the true Medium of worship as those at Jerusalem had Their worship should cease because it was false and the Jewish worship should cease because it was carnal There is no need of a Candle when the Sun spreads it beams in the Air no need of those Ceremonies when the Sun of righteousness appeared They only served for Candles to instruct and direct men till the time of his coming The shadows are chased away by the displaying the substance so that they can be of no more use in the worship of God since the end for which they were instituted is expired and that discovered to us in the Gospel which the Jews sought for in vain among the baggage and stuff of their Ceremonies 2. With a Spiritual and sincere frame In Spirit i. e. with Spirit with the inward operations of all the faculties of our Souls and the cream and flower of them And the reason is because there ought to be a worship sutable to the nature of God And as the worship was to be Spiritual so the exercise of that worship ought to be in a Spiritual manner * Lingend Tom. 2. p. 777. It shall be a worship in Truth because the true God shall be adored without those vain imaginations and phantastick resemblances of him * Taylors Exemplar Preface § 30. which were common among the blind Gentiles and contrary to the glorious nature of God and unworthy ingredients in Religious services It shall be a worship in Spirit without those carnal rites the degenerate Jews rested on Such a posture of Soul which is the life and ornament of every service God looks for at your hands There must be some proportion between the object adored and the manner in which we adore it It must not be a meer Corporeal worship because God is not a body but it must rise from the Center of our Soul because God is a Spirit If he were a body a bodily worship might sute him Images might be fit to represent him but being a Spirit our bodily services enter us not into communion with him Being a Spirit we must banish from our minds all carnal imaginations of him and separate from our Wills all cold and dissembled affections to him We must not only have a loud voice but an elevated Soul not only a bended knee but a broken heart not only a supplicating tone but a groaning Spirit not only a ready ear for the word but a receiving heart and this shall be of greater value with him than the most costly outward services offered at Gerizim or Jerusalem Our Saviour certainly meant not by worshipping in Spirit only the matter of the Evangelical service as opposed to the legal administration without the manner wherein it was to be performed T is true God always sought a worship in Spirit he expected the heart of the worshipper should joyn with his instituted rights of adoration in every exercise of them But he expects such a carriage more under the Gospel administration because of the clearer discoveries of his nature made in it and the greater assistances conveyed by it I shall therefore 1. Lay down some general propositions 2. Shew what this Spiritual worship is 3. Why we must offer to God a Spiritual service 4. The Vse 1. Some general propositions Proposition 1. First The right exercise of worship is founded upon and riseth from the Spirituality of God * Ames medul lib. 2. cap. 4. § 20. The first ground of the worship we render to God is the infinite excellency of his nature which is not only one attribute but results from all For God as God is the object of worship and the Notion of God consists not in thinking him wise good just but all those infinitely beyond any Conception And hence it follows that God is an object infinitely to beloved and honoured His goodness is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as a motive of our homage Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Fear in the Scripture dialect signifies the whole worship of God Acts 10.35 But in every Nation he that fears him is accepted of him * So 2 Kings 17.32 33. If God should act towards men according to the rigors of his Justice due to them for the least of their Crimes there could be no exercise of any affection but that of despair which could not engender a worship of God which ought to be joyned with love not
Civil associations for Politick Government Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord viz. In the time of Seth. No question but Adam had worshipped God before as well as Abel and a Family-Religion had been preserved but as mankind increased in distinct Families they knit together in Companies to solemnize the worship of God * Stillingfleet's Irenicum cap. 1. § 1. pa. 23. Hence as some think those that incorporated together for such ends were called the Sons of God Sons by profession tho not Sons by Adoption As those of Corinth were Saints by profession tho in such a Corrupted Church they could not be all so by regeneration yet Saints as being of a Christian society and calling upon the name of Christ that is worshipping God in Christ tho they might not be all Saints in Spirit and Practise So Cain and Abel met together to worship Gen 4.3 at the end of the days at a set time God setled a publick worship among the Jews instituted Synagogues for their Convening together whence call'd the Synagogues of God * Psa 74.8 The Sabbath was instituted to acknowledge God a Common Benefactor Publick worship keeps up the Memorials of God in a world prone to Atheism and a sense of God in a heart prone to forgetfulness The Angels sung in Company not singly at the Birth of Christ * Luke 2.13 and praised God not only with a simple elevation of their Spiritual nature but audibly by forming a voice in the air Affections are more lively Spirits more raised in publick than private God will Credit his own ordinance Fire increaseth by laying together many Coals on one place so is devotion inflamed by the union of many hearts and by a joynt presence Nor can the approach of the last day of Judgment or particular Judgments upon a Nation give a Writ of ease from such assemblies Heb. 10.25 Not forsaking the assembling our selves together but so much the more as you see the day approaching Whether it be understood of the day of Judgment or the day of the Jewish destruction and the Christian persecution the Apostle uses it as an argument to quicken them to the observance not to encourage them to a neglect Since therefore natural light informs us and Divine institution Commands us publickly to acknowledge our selves the Servants of God it implies the service of the body Such acknowledgments cannot be without visible Testimonies and outward exercises of devotion as well as inward affections This promotes Gods honour checks others prophaness allures men to the same expressions of duty And tho there may be hypocrisy and an outward garb without an inward frame yet better a moiety of worship than none at all better acknowledge Gods right in one than disown it in both 3. Jesus Christ the most Spiritual worshipper worshipt God with his body He Prayed orally and kneeled Father if it be thy Will c. * Luke 22.41 42. He blessed with his mouth Father I thank thee * Mat. 11.26 He lifted up his eyes as well as elevated his Spirit when he praised his Father for mercy received or begged for the blessings his Disciples wanted * John 11.41 John 12.1 The strength of the Spirit must have vent at the outward members The holy men of God have employed the body in significant expressions of worship Abraham in falling on his face Paul in kneeling employing their Tongues lifting up their hands Tho Jacob was bedrid yet he would not worship God without some devout expression of Reverence t is in one place leaning upon his staff * Heb. 11.21 in another bowing himself upon his beds head * Gen. 47.31 The reason of the diversity is in the Heb. word which without vowels may be red Mittah a bed or Matteh a staff howsoever both signifie a Testimony of adoration by a reverent gesture of the body Indeed in Angels and separated Souls a worship is performed purely by the Spirit but whiles the Soul is in conjunction with the body it can hardly perform a serious act of worship without some tincture upon the outward man and reverential composure of the body Fire cannot be in the clothes but it will be felt by the members nor flames be pent up in the Soul without bursting out in the body The heart can no more restrain it self from breaking out than Joseph could enclose his affections without expressing them in tears to his Brethren * Gen. 45.1 2. We Believe and therefore speak * 2 Cor. 4.13 To conclude God hath appointed some parts of worship which cannot be performed without the body as Sacraments we have need of them because we are not wholly spiritual and incorporeal Creatures The Religion which consists in externals only is not for an intellectual nature A worship purely intellectual is too sublime for a nature allyed to sense and depending much upon it The Christian mode of worship is proportioned to both It makes the sense to assist the mind and elevates the spirit above the sense Bodily worship helps the spiritual The members of the body reflect back upon the heart the voice bars distractions the tongue sets the heart on fire in good as well as in evil T is as much against the light of nature to serve God without external significations as to serve him only with them without the intention of the mind As the invisible God declares himself to men by visible works and signs so should we declare our invisible frames by visible expressions God hath given us a soul and body in conjunction and we are to serve him in the same manner he hath framed us 2. The second thing I am to shew is what Spiritual worship is In general the whole Spirit is to be employed The name of God is not sanctifyed but by the engagement of our Souls Worship is an Act of the understanding applying it self to the knowledge of the excellency of God and actual thoughts of his Majesty recognizing him as the supreme Lord and Governour of the world which is natural knowledge beholding the glory of his Attributes in the Redeemer which is Evangelical knowledge This is the sole act of the Spirit of Man The same reason is for all our worship as for our thanksgiving This must be done with understanding Psal 47.7 Sing ye praise with understanding with a knowledge and sense of his greatness goodness and Wisdom T is also an act of the Will whereby the Soul adores and reverenceth his Majesty is ravisht with his amiableness embraceth his goodness enters it self into an intimate Communion with this most lovely object and pitcheth all his affections upon him We must worship God understandingly t is not else a reasonable service The nature of God and the Law of God abhor a blind offering we must worship him heartily else we offer him a dead Sacrifice A reasonable service is that wherein the mind doth truly act something with God
Majesty of God and the reason of a Creature to give him a trivial thing 'T is unworthy to bestow the best of our strength on our Lust and the worst and weakest in the service of God An infinite Spirit should have affections as near to infinite as we can As he is a Spirit without bounds so he should have a service without limits When we have given him all we cannot serve him according to the excellency of his nature * Josh 24.19 and shall we give him less than all His infinite excellency and our dependance on him as Creatures demands the choicest adoration Our Spirits being the noblest part of our nature are as due to him as the service of our bodies which are the vilest To serve him with the worst only is to diminish his honour 2. Vnder the Law God commanded the best to be offered him He would have the Males the best of the kind the fat the best of the Creature * Exod. 29.13 The inward fat not the of-fails He commanded them to offer him the Firstlings of the flock not the Firstlings of the Womb but the Firstlings of the Year The Jewish Cattle having two breeding times in the beginning of the Spring and the beginning of September The latter breed was the weaker which Jacob knew * Gen. 30. when he laid the Rods before the Cattle when they were strong in the Spring and witheld them when they were feeble in the Autumn One reason as the Jews say why God accepted not the offering of Cain was because he brought the meanest not the best of the fruit and therefore 't is said only that he brought of the fruit of the Ground Gen. 4.3 not the first of the fruit or the best of the fruit as Abel who brought the Firstling of his Flock and the Fat thereof v. 4. 3. And this the Heathen practiced by the light of Nature They for the most part offered Males as being more worthy and burnt the Male not the Female Frank incense as it is divided into those two kinds They offered the best when they offered their Children to Molock Nothing more excellent than Man and nothing dearer to Parents than their Children which are parts of themselves When the Israelites would have a Golden-Calf for a representation of God they would dedicate their Jewels and strip their Wives and Children of their richest Ornaments to shew their devotion Shall men serve their dumb Idols with the best of their substance and the strength of their Souls and shall the living God have a duller service from us than Idols had from them God requires no such hard but delightful worship from us our spirits 4. All Creatures serve Man by the providential order of God with the best they have As we by Gods appointment receive from Creatures the best they can give ought we not with a free will render to God the best we can offer The Beasts give us their best Fat the Trees their best Fruit the Sun its best Light the Fountains their best Streams Shall God order us the best from Creatures and we put him off with the worst from our selves 5. God hath given us the choicest thing he had A Redeemer that was the Power of God and the Wisdom of God The best he had in Heaven his own Son and in himself a Sacrifice for us that we might be enabled to present our selves a Sacrifice to Him And Christ offered himself for us the best he had and that with the strength of the Deity through the Eternal Spirit and shall we grudge God the best part of our selves As God would have a worship from his Creature so it must be with the best part of his Creature If we have given our selves to the Lord * 2 Cor. 8.5 we can worship with no less than our selves What is the Man without his Spirit If we are to worship God with all that we have received from him we must worship him with the best part we have received from him 'T is but a small glory we can give him with the best and shall we deprive him of his right by giving him the worst As what we are is from God so what we are ought to be for God Creation is the foundation of worship Psal 100.2 3. Serve the Lord with gladness Know ye that the Lord he is God 't is he that hath made us He hath ennobled us with spiritual affections where is it fittest for us to employ them but upon him and at what time but when we come solemnly to converse with him Is it Justice to deny him the honour of his best gift to us Our Souls are more his gift to us than any thing in the World Other things are so given that they are often taken from us but our Spirits are the most durable gift Rational faculties cannot be removed without a dissolution of nature Well then * Amyraut Mor. Tom. 2. P. 311. As he is God he is to be honoured with all the propensions and ardor that the infiniteness and excellency of such a Being requires and the incomparable obligations he hath laid upon us in this state deserve at our hands In all our worship therefore our minds ought to be filled with the highest admiration love and reverence Since our end was to glorifie God we answer not our end and honour him not unless we give him the choicest we have Reason 2. We cannot else act towards God according to the nature of rational Creatures Spiritual worship is due to God because of his nature and due from us because of our nature As we are to adore God so we are to adore him as men The nature of a rational Creature makes this impression upon him He cannot view his own nature without having this duty striking upon his mind As he knows by inspection into himself that there was a God that made him so that he is made to be in subjection to God subjection to him in his Spirit as well as his Body and ought morally to testifie this natural dependance on him His constitution informs him that he hath a capacity to converse with God that he cannot converse with him but by those inward faculties If it could be managed by his Body without his Spirit Beasts might as well converse with God as Men. It can never be a reasonable service as it ought to be * Rom. 12.1 unless the reasonable faculties be employed in the management of it It must be a worship prodigiously lame without the concurrence of the cheifest part of Man with it As we are to act conformably to the nature of the object so also to the nature of our own faculties Our faculties in the very gift of them to us were destined to be exercised about what What All other things but the Author of them 'T is a conceit cannot enter into the heart of a rational Creature that he should act as such a Creature in other things
to the Holiness of God as a frothy unmelted heart and a wanton fancy in a time of worship God is so holy that if we could offer the worship of Angels and the quintessence of our Souls in his service it would be beneath his infinite purity How unworthy then are they of him when they are presented not only without the sense of our uncleaness but sullied with the fumes and exhalations of our corrupt affections which are as so many Plague spots upon our duties contrary to the unspotted purity of the Divine Nature Is not this an unworthy conceit of God and injurious to his infinite Holiness 9. 'T is against the Love and Kindness of God 'T is a condescension in God to admit a piece of Earth to offer up a duty to him when he hath miriads of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise To admit Man to be an Attendant on him and a Partner with Angels is a high favour 'T is not a single mercy but a heap of mercies to be admitted into the presence of God Psal 5.7 I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies When the blessed God is so kind as to give us access to his Majesty do we not undervalue his kindness when we deal uncivilly with him and deny him the choicest part of our selves 'T is a contempt of his Soveraignty as our Spirits are due to him by nature a contempt of his Goodness as our Spirits are due to him by gratitude How abusive a carriage is it to make use of his mercy to encourage our impudence that should excite our fear and reverence How unworthy would it be for an indigent Debtor to bring to his indulgent Creditor an empty Purse instead of Payment When God holds out his Golden Scepter to encourage our approaches to him stands ready to give us the pardon of sin and full felicity the best things he hath Is it a fit requital of his kindness to give him a formal outside only a shadow of Religion to have the heart overswayed with other thoughts and affections as if all his profers were so contemptible as to deserve only a slight at our hands 'T is a contempt of the love and kindness of God 10. 'T is against the Sufficiency and Fullness of God When we give God our Bodies and the Creature our Spirits it intimates a conceit that there is more content to be had in the Creature than in God blessed for ever that the waters in the Cistern are sweeter than those in the Fountain Is not this a practical giving God the Lye and denying those promises wherein he hath declared the satisfaction he can give to the Spirit as he is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh If we did imagin the excellency and loveliness of God were worthy to be the ultimate Object of our affections the heart would attend more closely upon him and be terminated in him did we believe God to be all sufficient full of grace and goodness a tender Father not willing to forsake his own willing as well as able to supply their wants the heart would not so lamely attend upon him and would not upon every impertinency be diverted from him There is much of a wrong notion of God and a predominancy of the world above him in the heart when we can more savourly relish the thoughts of low inferior things than heavenly and let our Spirits upon every trifling occasion be fugitives from him 'T is a testimony that we make not God our chiefest good If apprehensions of his excellency did possess our Souls they would be fastned on him glued to him we should not listen to that rabble of foolish thoughts that steal our hearts so often from him Were our breathings after God as strong as the pantings of the Hart after the water Brooks we should be like that Creature not diverted in our Course by every Puddle Were God the predominant satisfactory Object in our eye he would carry our whole Soul along with him When our Spirits readily retreat from God in worship upon every giddy motion 't is a kind of repentance that ever we did come near him and implies that there is a fuller satisfaction and more attractive excellency in that which doth so easily divert us than in that God to whose worship we did pretend to address our selves 'T is as if when we were petitioning a Prince we should immediately turn about and make request to one of his Guard as though so mean a person were more able to give us the boon we want than the Soveraign is 2. Consideration by way of motive To have our Spirits off from God in worship is a bad sign It was not so in Innocence The heart of Adam could cleave to God the Law of God was engraven upon him he could apply himself to the fulfilling of it without any twinkling there was no folly and vanity in his mind no independency in his thoughts no duty was his burden for there was in him a proneness to and delight in all the duties of worship 'T is the Fall hath distempered us and the more unwieldiness there is in our Spirits the more carnal our affections are in worship the more evidence there is of the strength of that revolted state 1. It argues much corruption in the heart As by the eructations of the Stomach we may judge of the windiness and foulness of it so by the inordinate motions of our minds and hearts we may judge of the weakness of its complexion A strength of sin is evidenced by the eruptions and ebullitions of it in worship when they are more sudden numerous and vigorous than the motions of grace When the heart is apt like tinder to catch fire from Satan 't is a sign of much combustible matter sutable to his temptation Were not corruption strong the Soul could not turn so easily from God when it is in his presence and hath an advantagious opportunity to create a fear and aw of God in it Such base fruit could not sprout up so suddenly were there not much sap and juice in the root of sin What communion with a living root can be evidenced without exercises of an inward life That Spirit which is a Well of living waters in a gracious heart will be especially springing up when it is before God 2. It shews much affection to earthly things and little to heavenly There must needs be an inordinate affection to earthly things when upon every slight sollicitation we can part with God and turn the back upon a service glorious for him and advantagious for our selves to wedd our hearts to some idle fancy that signifies nothing How can we be said to entertain God in our affections when we give him not the precedency in our understandings but let every trifle justle the sense of God out of our minds Were our hearts fully determined to spiritual things such vanities could not seat themselves in our
of thankfulness in arrear He renders himself doubly unworthy of the mercies he wants that doth not gratefully acknowledge the mercies he hath received God scarce promised any deliverance to the Israelites and they in their distress scarce prayed for any deliverance but that from Egypt was mentioned on both sides by God to encourage them and by them to acknowledge their confidence in him The greater our dangers the more we should call to mind Gods former kindness We are not only thankfully to acknowledge the mercies bestowed upon our persons or in our age but those of former times Thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations Moses was not living in the former Generations yet he appropriates the former mercies to the present age Mercies as well Generations proceed out of the loyns of those that have gon before All Man-kind are but one Adam the whole Church but one Body In the second verse he backs his former consideration 1. By the greatness of his Power in forming the world 2. By the boundlesness of his duration From everlasting to everlasting As thou hast been our dwelling place and expended upon us the strength of thy power and riches of thy love so we have no reason to doubt the continuance on thy part if we be not wanting on our parts For the vast Mountains and fruitful Earth are the works of thy hands and there is less power requisite for our relief than there was for their Creation and though so much strength hath been upon various occasions manifested yet thy Arm is not weakned for from everlasting to everlasting thou art God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong * Amyrald in loc Thou hast always been God and no time can be assigned as the beginning of thy Being The mountains are not of so long a standing as thy self they are the effects of thy power and therefore cannot be equal to thy duration since they are effects they suppose a precedency of their cause If we would look back we can reach no further than the beginning of the Creation and account the years from the first foundation of the world but after that we must lose our selves in the Abyss of Eternity we have no Cue to guide our thoughts we can see no bounds in thy Eternity But as for Man he traverseth the world a few days and by thy order pronounced concerning all men returns to the Dust and moulders into the Grave By Mountains some understand Angels as being Creatures of a more elevated Nature By Earth they understand humane Nature the Earth being the habitation of Men. There is no need to divert in this place from the Letter to such a sense The description seems to be Poetical and amounts to this He neither began with the beginning of Time nor will expire with the End of it * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret in loc He did not begin when he made himself known to our Fathers but his Being did precede the Creation of the World before any created Being was formed and any time setled Before the Mountains were brought forth Or before they were begotten or born The word being used in those senses in Scripture before they stood up higher than the rest of the earthly Mass God had created It seems that Mountains were not casually cast up by the force of the Deluge softning the Ground and driving several parcels of it together to grow up into a massy body as the Sea doth the Sand in several places but they were at first formed by God The Eternity of God is here described 1. In his Priority Before the world 2. In the extension of his duration From everlasting to everlasting thou art God He was before the world yet he neither began nor ends He is not a Temporary but an Eternal God It takes in both parts of Eternity what was before the Creation of the world and what is after Though the Eternity of God be one permanent state without succession yet the Spirit of God suiting himself to the weakness of our conception divides it into two parts one past before the foundation of the world another to come after the destruction of the world as he did exist before all ages and as he will exist after all ages Many Truths lye coucht in the verse 1. The World hath a beginning of being It was not from Eternity it was once nothing had it been of a very long duration some Records would have remained of some memorable actions done of a longer date than any extant 2. The world owes its Being to the creating Power of God Thou hadst formed it out of nothing into being Thou that is God it could not spring into being of it self it was nothing it must have a Former 3. God was in being before the world The Cause must be before the Effect that Word which gives Being must be before that which receives Being 4. This Being was from Eternity From Everlasting 5. This Being shall endure to Eternity To Everlasting 6. There is but one God one Eternal From everlasting to everlasting thou art God None else but one hath the Property of Eternity the Gods of the Heathen cannot lay claim to it Doct. God is of an eternal duration The Eternity of God is the foundation of the stability of the Covenant the great comfort of a Christian The design of God in Scripture is to set forth his dealing with men in the way of a Covenant * Gen. 1.1 The Priority of God before all things begins the Bible In the beginning God created His Covenant can have no foundation but in his duration before and after the world * Calv. in loc And Moses here mentions his Eternity not only with respect to the Essence of God but to his faederal Providence As he is the dwelling place of his People in all Generations The duration of God for ever is more spoken of in Scripture than his Eternity à parte ante though that is the foundation of all the comfort we can take from his Immortality If he had a beginning he might have an end and so all our happiness hope and being would expire with him but the Scripture sometimes takes notice of his being without beginning as well as without end * Psal 93.2 Thou art from everlasting * Psal 41.13 Blessed be God from everlasting to everlasting * Prov. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting If his Wisdom were from everlasting himself was from everlasting Whether we understand it of Christ the Son of God or of the essential wisdom of God 't is all one to the present purpose The Wisdom of God supposeth the Essence of God as habits in Creatures suppose the being of some power or faculty as their Subject The Wisdom of God supposeth Mind and Understanding Essence and Substance The notion of Eternity is difficult as Austin said * Confes lib. 11. Confes 14. of Time If no man will ask me the
he knows at once what is has been and will be All things are past present and to come in regard of their Existence but there is not past present and to come in regard of Gods Knowledge of them * Parsiensis because he sees and knows not by any other but by himself He is his own Light by which he sees his own Glass wherein he sees beholding himself he beholds all things 2. There is no succession in the Decrees of God He doth not decree this now which he decreed not before for as his works were known from the beginning of the world so his works were decreed from the beginning of the world as they are known at once so they are decreed at once there is a succession in the execution of them first grace then glory but the purpose of God for the bestowing of both was in one and the same moment of Eternity * Eph. 1.4 He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy The choice of Christ and the choice of some in him to be holy and to be happy were before the foundation of the world 'T is by the eternal Counsel of God all things appear in time they appear in their order according to the Counsel and Will of God from Eternity The Redemption of the world is after the Creation of the world but the Decree whereby the world was created and whereby it was redeemed was from Eternity 4. God is his own Eternity He is not eternal by grant and the disposal of any other but by Nature and Essence * Calov Socinian The Eternity of God is nothing else but the Duration of God and the Duration of God is nothing else but his Existence enduring Existentia durans If Eternity were any thing distinct from God and not of the Essence of God then there would be something which was not God necessary to perfect God As Immortality is the great perfection of a rational Creature so Eternity is the choice perfection of God yea the gloss and lustre of all others Every perfection would be imperfect if it were not always a perfection God is essentially whatsoever he is and there is nothing in God but his Essence Duration or Continuance in being in Creatures differs from their being for they might exist but for one instant in which case they may be said to have being but not duration because all duration includes prius et posterius All Creatures may cease from being if it be the pleasure of God they are not therefore durable by their Essence and therefore are not their own duration no more than they are their own Existence And though some Creatures as Angels and Souls may be called everlasting as a perpetual life is communicated to them by God yet they can never be called their own Eternity because such a Duration is not simply necessary nor essential to them but accidental depending upon the pleasure of another there is nothing in their nature that can hinder them from loosing it if God from whom they received it should design to take it away But as God is his own necessity of existing so he is his own duration in existing * Gassend As he doth necessarily exist by himself so he will always necessarily exist by himself 5. Hence all the perfections of God are eternal In regard of the Divine Eternity all things in God are eternal his Power Mercy Wisdom Justice Knowledge God himself were not eternal if any of his perfections which are essential to him were not eternal also He had not else been a perfect God from all eternity and so his whole self had not been eternal If any thing belonging to the nature of a thing be wanting it cannot be said to be that thing which it ought to be If any thing requisite to the Nature of God had been wanting one moment he could not have been said to be an eternal God The second Thing God is Eternal The Spirit of God in Scripture condescends to our Capacities in signifying the Eternity of God by days and years which are terms belonging to time whereby we measure it * Psal 102.27 But we must no more conceive that God is bounded or measured by time and hath succession of days because of those expressions than we can conclude him to have a Body because Members are ascribed to him in Scripture to help our conceptions of his glorious nature and operations Though years are ascribed to him yet they are such as cannot be numbred cannot be finished since there is no proportion between the duration of God and the years of Men. The number of his years cannot be searched out for he makes small the drops of water they pour down Rain according to the vapor thereof * Job 36.26 27 The numbers of the drops of Rain which have fallen in all parts of the Earth since the Creation of the world if substracted from the number of the years of God would be found a small quantity a meer nothing to the years of God As all the Nations in the world compared with God are but as the drop of a Bucket worse than nothing than vanity * Isa 40.15 So all the Ages of the world if compared with God amount not to so much as the One hundred thousandth part of a Minute The Minutes from the Creation may be numbred but the years of the duration of God being infinite are without measure As one day is to the Life of Man so are a Thousand years to the Life of God * Psal 90.5 Amyrald Trin. p. 44. The Holy-Ghost expresseth himself to the capacity of Man to give us some Notion of an infinite Duration by a resemblance suted to the capacity of Man If a Thousand years be but as a day to the Life of God then as a year is to the Life of Man so are Three hundred sixty five thousand years to the Life of God And as Seventy years are to the Life of Man so are twenty five Millions four Hundred and fifty Thousand years to the Life of God Yet still since there is no proportion between Time and Eternity we must dart our thoughts beyond all those * Daille Vent Sermons Ser. 1. sur 102. Psal 27. p. 21. For years and days measure only the duration of created things and of those only that are material and corporeal subject to the motion of the Heavens which makes days and years Sometimes this Eternity is exprest by parts as looking backward and forward by the differences of time past present and to come * Revel 1.8 Revel 4.8 Crellius weakens this argument De Deo cap. 18. p. 42. which was and is and is to come Though this might be spoken of any thing in being though but for an hour it was the last minute it is now and it will be the next minute yet the Holy-Ghost would declare something proper to God as
promised it were not immortal to continue it as well as powerful to effect it His Power were not Almighty if his duration were not Eternal 1. If God be eternal his Covenant will be so 'T is founded upon the Eternity of God the Oath whereby he confirms it is by his Life Since there is none greater than himself he swears by himself * Heb. 6.13 or by his own Life which he engageth together with his Eternity for the full performance so that if he lives for ever the Covenant shall not be disanull'd 't is an immutable Counsel * Heb. 6.16.17 The immutability of his Counsel follows the immutability of his Nature Immutability and Eternity go hand in hand together The promise of eternal Life is as ancient as God himself in regard of the purpose of the promise or in regard of the promise made to Christ for us * Tit. 1.2 Eternal life which God promised before the world began As it hath an ante-eternity so it hath a post-eternity Therefore the Gospel which is the new Covenant publisht is term'd the everlasting Gospel * Rev. 14.6 which can no more be altered and perish than God can change and vanish into nothing He can as little morally deny his truth as he can naturally desert his life The Covenant is there represented in a Green Colour to note its perpetual Verdure The Rain-bow the Embleme of the Covenant about the Throne was like to an Emrald a Stone of a green colour * Rev. 4.3 whereas the natural Rain-bow hath many colours this but one to signify its Eternity 2. If God be eternal he being our God in Covenant is an eternal Good and Possession This God is our God for ever and ever * Psal 48.14 He is a dwelling place in all Generations We shall traverse the world a while and then arrive at the blessings Jacob wished for Joseph * Gen. 49.26 The blessings of the everlasting hills If an Estate of a thousand Pound per Annum render a mans life comfortable for a short term how much more may the Soul be swallowed up with joy in the enjoyment of the Creator whose years never fail who lives for ever to be enjoyed and can keep us in life for ever to enjoy him Death indeed will seize upon us by Gods irreversible order but the immortal Creator will make him disgorge his morsel and land us in a glorious immortality our Souls at their Dissolution and our Bodies at the Resurrection after which they shall remain for ever and imploy the extent of that boundless Eternity in the fruitition of the Soveraign and Eternal God For 't is impossible that the Believer who is united to the immortal God that is from everlasting to everlasting can ever perish for being in conjunction with him who is an ever flowing Fountain of Life he cannot suffer him to remain in the jaws of Death While God is eternal and always the same 't is not possible that those that partake of his spiritual life should not also partake of his eternal 'T is from the consideration of the endlesness of the years of God that the Church comforts her self that her Children shall continue and their Seed be established for ever * Psal 102.27.28 And from the eternity of God Habbacue chap. 1.12 concludes the eternity of Believers Art not thou from everlasting O Lord my God my holy One We shall not dye O Lord. After they are retired from this world they shall live for ever with God without any change by the multitude of those imaginable years and ages that shall run for ever 'T is that God that hath neither beginning nor end that is our God who hath not only immortality in himself but immortality to give out to others As he hath abundance of Spirit to quicken them * Mal. 2.15 so he hath abundance of Immortality to continue them 'T is only in the consideration of this a man can with wisdom say Soul take thy ease thou hast Goods laid up for many years to say it of any other possession is the greatest folly in the judgment of our Saviour * Luke 12.19 20. Mortality shall be swallowed up of Immortality Rivers of pleasure shall be for evermore Death is a word never spoken there by any never heard by any in that possession of Eternity 't is for ever put out as one of Christs conquered enemies The happiness depends upon the presence of God with whom Believers shall be for ever present Happiness cannot perish as long as God lives He is the first and the last the first of all delights nothing before him the last of all pleasures nothing beyond him A Paradise of delights in every Point without a flaming Sword 2. The enjoyment of God will be as fresh and glorious after many ages as it was at first God is eternal and Eternity knows no change there will then be the fullest possession without any decay in the Object enjoy'd There can be nothing past nothing future time neither adds to it nor detracts from it That infinite fulness of perfection which flourisheth in him now will flourish eternally without any discolouring of it in the least by those innumerable ages that shall run to Eternity much less any despoyling him of them He is the same in his endless Duration * Psal 102.27 As God is so will the Eternity of him be without succession without division The fulness of joy will be always present without past to be thought of with regret for being gone without future to be expected with tormenting desires When we enjoy God we enjoy him in his Eternity without any flux an entire possession of all together without the passing away of pleasures that may be wished to return or expectation of future joys which might be desired to hasten Time is fluid but Eternity is stable and after many ages the joys will be as savory and satisfying as if they had been but that moment first tasted by our hungry appetites When the glory of the Lord shall rise upon you it shall be so far from ever setting that after millions of years are expired as numerous as the Sands on the Sea-shore the Sun in the light of whose Countenance you shall live shall be as bright as at the first appearance He will be so far from ceasing to flow that he will flow as strong as full as at the first communication of himself in glory to the Creature God therefore as sitting upon his Throne of Grace and acting according to his Covenant is like a Jasper-stone which is of a green colour a colour always delightful * Rev. 4.3 Because God is always vigorous and flourishing a pure act of life sparkling new and fresh rays of life and light to the Creature flourishing with a perpetual Spring and contententing the most capacious desire forming your interest pleasure and satisfaction with an infinite variety without any change or succession
Hills are said to leap and the Mountains to rejoyce The Creature is said to groan as the Heavens are said to declare the glory of God passively naturally not rationally 'T is not likely Angels are here meant though they cannot but desire it since they are affected with the dishonour and reproach God hath in the world they cannot but long for the restoration of his honour in the restoration of the Creature to its true end And indeed the Angels are employed to serve man in this sinful state and cannot but in holiness wish the Creature freed from his corruption Nor is it meant of the new Creatures which have the first fruits of the Spirit those he brings in afterwards groaning and waiting for the Adoption * Verse 23. where he distinguisheth the rational Creature from the Creature he had spoken of before If he had meant the believing Creature by that Creature that desired the liberty of the Sons of God what need had there been of that additional distinction and not only they but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan within our selves Whereby it seems he means some Creatures below rational Creatures since neither Angels nor blessed Souls can be said to travail in pain with that distress as a Woman in travail hath as the word signifies who perform the work joyfully which God sets them upon * Mestraezat fur Heb. 1. If the Creatures be subject to vanity by the sin of man they shall also partake of a happiness by the restoration of man The Eâ—â—â—h hath born Thorns and Thistles and venemous Beasts The Air hath had its Tempests and infectious Qualities The Water hath caused its Flouds and Deluges The Creature hath been abused to luxury and intemperance and been tyranniz'd over by Man contrary to the end of its creation 'T is convenient that some time should be allotted for the Creature 's attaining its true end and that it may partake of the peace of Man as it hath done of the fruits of his sin otherwise it would seem that sin had prevailed more than grace and would have had more power to deface than grace to restore and things into their due order 5. Again upon what account should the Psalmist exhort the Heavens to rejoyce and the Earth to be glad when God comes to judge the world with Righteousness * Psal 96.11 12 13. if they should be annihilated and sunk for ever into nothing It would seem saith Daille to be an impertinent figure if the Judge of the world brought to them a total destruction an entire ruin could not be matter of triumph to Creatures who naturally have that instinct or inclination put into them by their Creator to preserve themselves and to affect their own preservation 6. Again The Lord is to rejoyce in his works Psal 104.31 The Glory of the Lord shall endure for ever the Lord shall rejoyce in his works not hath but shall rejoyce in his works In the works of Creation which the Psalmist had enumerated and which is the whole scope of the Psalm And he intimates that it is part of the glory of the Lord which endures for ever that is his manifestative glory to rejoyce in his works The Glory of the Lord must be understood with reference to the Creation he had spoken of before How short was that joy God had in his works after he had sent them beautified out of his hand How soon did he repent not only that he had made Man but was grieved at the heart also that he made the other Creatures which Man's sin had disordered What joy can God have in them * Gen. 6.7 since the Curse upon the entrance of sin into the world remains upon them If they are to be annihilated upon the full restoration of his Holiness what time will God have to rejoyce in the other works of Creation 'T is the joy of God to see all his works in their due order every one pointing to their true end marching together in their excellency according to his first intendment in their Creation Did God create the World to perform its end only for one day scarce so much if Adam fell the very first day of his Creation What would have been their end if Adam had been confirm'd in a state of happiness as the Angels were 'T is likely will be answered and performed upon the compleat restoration of Man to that happy state from whence he fell What Artificer compiles a work by his skill but to rejoyce in it And shall God have no joy from the works of his hands Since God can only rejoyce in goodness the Creatures must have that goodness restored to them which God pronounced them to have at the first Creation and which he ordained them for before he can again rejoyce in his works The goodness of the Creatures is the glory and joy of God Inference 1. We may infer from hence what a base and vile thing Sin is which lays the foundation of the worlds change Sin brings it to a decrepit age Sin overturned the whole work of God * Gen. 3.17 so that to render it useful to its proper end there is a necessity of a kind of a new creating it This causes God to fire the Earth for a purification of it from that infection and contagion brought upon it by the apostacy and corruption of Man It hath served sinful man and therefore must undergo a purging Flame to be fit to serve the holy and righteous Creator As Sin is so riveted in the body of man that there is need of a change by death to rase it out so hath the Curse for sin got so deep into the bowels of the world that there is need of a change by fire to refine it for its Masters use Let us look upon Sin with no other notion than as the Object of Gods hatred the cause of his grief in the Creatures and the Spring of the pain and ruin of the World 2. How foolish a thing is it to set our hearts upon that which shall perish and be no more what it is now The Heavens and Earth the solidest and firmest parts of the Creation shall not continue in the posture they are they must perish and undergo a refining change How feeble and weak are the other parts of the Creation the little Creatures walking upon and fluttering about the world that are perishing and dying every day and we scarce see them clothed with life and beauty this day but they wither and are despoyl'd of all the next and are such frail things fit Objects for our everlasting Spirits and Affections Though the daily employment of the Heavens is the declaration of the glory of God * Psal 19.1 yet neither this nor their harmony order beauty amazing greatness and glory of them shall preserve them from a dissolution and melting at the presence of the Lord Though they have remained in the same posture from
cannot be sever'd from his Power nor his Power from his Essence for the Power of God is nothing but God acting and the wisdom of God nothing but God knowing As the power of God is always so is his Essence as the power of God is every where so is his Essence whatsoever God is he is alway and every where To confine him to a place is to measure his Essence as to confine his actions is to limit his power his Essence being no less infinite than his Power and his Wisdom can be no more bounded than his Power and Wisdom but they are not separable from his Essence yea they are his Essence if God did not fill the whole World he would be determin'd to some place and excluded from others and so his substance would have bounds and limits and then something might be conceived greater than God for we may conceive that a Creature may be made by God of so vast a greatness as to fill the whole World for the power of God is able to make a body that should take up the whole space between Heaven and Earth and reach to every corner of it but nothing can be conceived by any Creature greater than God he exceeds all things and is exceeded by none God therefore cannot be included in Heaven nor included in the Earth cannot be contained in either of them for if we should imagine them vaster than they are yet still they would be finite and if his Essence were contain'd in them it could be no more infinite than the World which contains it As water is not of a larger compass than the Vessel which contains it If the Essence of God were limited either in the Heavens or Earth it must needs be finite as the Heaven and Earth are But there is no proportion between finite and infinite God therefore cannot be contain'd in them If there were an infinite body that must be every where certainly then an infinite Spirit must be every where Unless we will account him finite we can render no reason why he should not be in one Creature as well as in another if he be in Heaven which is his Creature why can he not be in the Earth which is as well his Creature as the Heavens 2. Reason Because of the continual operation of God in the World This was one reason made the Heathen believe that there was an infinite Spirit in the vast body of the World acting in every thing and producing those admirable motions which we see every where in Nature That cause which acts in the most perfect manner is also in the most perfect manner present with its effects God preserves all and therefore is in all the Apostle thought it a good induction Acts 17.27 He is not far from us for in him we live For being as much as because shews that from his operation he concluded his real presence with all 'T is not his vertue is not far from every one of us but He his Substance himself for none that acknowledge a God will deny the absence of the vertue of God from any part of the World He works in every thing every thing lives and works in him therefore he is present with all * Pont. or rather if things live they are in God who gives them life If things live God is in them and gives them life If things move God is in them and gives them motion If things have any Being God is in them and gives them Being if God withdraws himself they presently lose their Being and therefore some have compar'd the Creature to the impression of a Seal upon the water that cannot be preserved but by the Presence of the Seal As his Presence was actual with what he Created so his Presence is actual with what he preserves since Creation and Preservation do so little differ if God creates things by his Essential Presence by the same he supports them If his substance cannot be disjoyn'd from his preserving Power his power and wisdom cannot be separated from his Essence where there are the marks of the one there is the presence of the other for it is by his Essence that he is powerful and wise no man can distinguish the one from the other in a simple Being God doth not preserve and act things by a vertue diffus'd from him N.B. It may be demanded whether that vertue be distinct from God if it be not 't is then the Essence of God if it be distinct 't is a Creature and then it may be ask't how that vertue which preserves other things is preserved it self it must be ultimately resolv'd into the Essence of God or else there must be a running in infinitum or else * Amyrald de Trinitat p. 106. 107. is that vertue of God a substance or not Is it endued with understanding or not If it hath understanding how doth it differ from God If it wants understanding can any imagine that the support of the World the guidance of all Creatures the wonders of Nature can be wrought preserv'd manag'd by a vertue that hath nothing of understanding in it If it be not a substance it can much less be able to produce such excellent Operations as the preserving all the kinds of things in the World and ordering them to perform such excellent ends this Vertue is therefore God himself the infinite Power and Wisdom of God and therefore wheresoever the effects of these are seen in the World God is essentially present some Creatures indeed act at a distance by a vertue diffus'd but such a manner of acting comes from a limitedness of nature that such a nature cannot be every where present and extend its substance to all parts To act by a vertue speaks the Subject finite and it is a part of indigence Kings act in their Kingdoms by Ministers and Messengers because they cannot act otherwise but God being infinitely perfect works all things in all immediately 1 Cor. 12.6 Illumination Sanctification Grace c. are the immediate Works of God in the heart and immediate Agents are present with what they do 't is an Argument of the greater Perfection of a Being to know things immediately which are done in several places than to know them at the second hand by Instruments 't is no less a Perfection to be every where rather than to be tyed to one place of action and to act in other places by Instruments for want of a Power to act immediately it self God indeed acts by means and second causes in his Providential Dispensations in the World but this is not out of any Defect of Power to Work all immediately himself but he thereby accommodates his way of acting to the nature of the Creature and the Order of Things which he hath setled in the World And when he Works by means he acts with those means in those means sustains their faculties and vertues in them concurs with them by his Power so
in bringing in a Carved Image into the House of God 1 Chron. 33.7 had it been a good Answer to the Charge God is present here and therefore every thing may be Worshipped as God if he be only Essentially in Heaven would it not be Idolatry to direct a Worship to the Heavens or any part of it as a due object because of the Presence of God there Though we look up to the Heavens where we Pray and Worship God yet Heaven is not the object of Worship the Soul abstracts God from the Creature 6. Nor is God defil'd by being present with those Creatures which seem filthy to us Nothing is filthy in the Eye of God as his Creature he could never else have pronounced all good whatsoever is filthy to us yet as it is a Creature it ows it self to the Power of God His Essence is no more defild by being present with it than his Power by producing it No Creature is foul in it self tho' it may seem so to us Doth not an Infant lye in a Womb of filthiness and rottenness yet is not the Power of God present with it in working it curiously in the lower parts of the Earth are his eyes defil'd by seeing the Substance when it it is yet imperfect or his hand defiled by writing every Member in his Book †Psal 139.15 16. Have not the vilest and most noisom things excellent Medicinal Vertues How are they endued with them How are those qualities preserved in them by any thing without God or no every Artificer looks with Pleasure upon the work he hath wrought with Art and Skill can his Essence be defil'd by being present with them any more than it was in giving them such vertues and preserving them in them God measures the Heaven and the Earth with his hand is his hand defil'd by the evil influences of the Planets or the Corporeal Impurities of the Earth nothing can be filthy in the Eye of God but Sin since every thing else owes its Being to him What may appear deform'd and unworthy to us is not so to the Creator he sees Beauty where we see Deformity finds goodness where we behold what is nauseous to us All Creatures being the effects of his Power may be the objects of his Presence Can any place be more foul than Hell if you take it either for the Hell of the Damned or for the Grave where there is rottenness yet there he is †Psal 139.8 When Satan appear'd before God and God spake with him †Job 1.7 Could God contract any impurity by being present where that filthy Spirit was more impure than any corporeal noysom and defiling thing can be No God is purity to himself in the midst of noysomness a Heaven to himself in the midst of Hell Who ever heard of a Sun-beam stain'd by shining upon a Quag mire any more than sweetned by breaking into a Perfum'd Room Shelford of the Attributes p. 170. Tho' the Light shines upon pure and impure things yet it mixes not its self with either of them so tho' God be present with Devils and Wicked men yet without any mixture he is present with their essence to sustain it and support it not in their defection wherein lies their defilement and which is not a Physical but a Moral evil Bodily filth can never touch an incorporeal substance Spirits are not present with us in the same manner that one body is present with another bodies can by a touch only defile bodies Is the Glory of an Angel stained by being in a Coal-mine or could the Angel that came into the Lions Den to deliver Daniel be any more disturb'd by the stench of the place * Dan. 6.22 than he could be scratcht by the Paws or torn by the Teeth of the Beasts their Spiritual nature secures them against any infection when they are ministring Spirits to Persecuted Believers in their nasty Prisons * Acts 12.7 The Soul is straitly united with the Body but it is not made white or black by the whiteness or blackness of its habitation is it infected by the corporeal impurities of the Body while it continually dwells in a Sea of filthy Pollution If the Body be cast into a Common-shore is the Soul defil'd by it Can a Diseased body derive a Contagion to the Spirit that animates it Is it not often the purer by Grace the more the body is infected by nature Hezekiah's Spirit was scarce ever more fervent with God than when the Sore which some think to be a Plague Sore was upon him * Isa 38.3 How can any Corporeal filth impair the purity of the Divine Essence it may as well be said That God is not present in Battels and Fights for his People Joshua 23.10 because he would not be disturbed by the noise of Canons and clashing of Swords as that he is not present in the World because of the ill scents Let us therefore conclude this with the Expression of a Learned man of our own Dr. More To deny the Omnipresence of God because of ill scented places is to measure God rather by the nicety of Sense than by the sagacity of Reason IV. VSE I. Of Information 1. Christ hath a divine nature As Eternity and Immutability two incommunicable properties of the Divine nature are ascrib'd to Christ so also is this of Omnipresence or Immensity John 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of man which is in heaven Not which was but which is He comes from heaven by incarnation and remains in heaven by his Divinity He was while he spake to Nicodemus locally on earth in regard of his humanity but in heaven according to his Deity as well as upon earth in the union of his divine and human nature He descended upon earth but he left not heaven He was in the World before he came in the flesh John 1.10 He was in the world and the world was made by him He was in the world as the light that enlightens every man that comes into the world In the world as God before he was in the world as man He was then in the world as man while he discoursed with Nicodemus yet so that he was also in heaven as God No creature but is bounded in place either circumscribed as body or determin'd as Spirit to be in one space so as not to be in another at the same time to leave a place where they were and possess a place where they were not But Christ is so on earth that at the same time he is in heaven he is therefore infinite To be in heaven and earth at the same moment of time is a property solely belonging to the Deity wherein no creature can be a partner with him He was in the world before he came to the world and the world was made by him * John 1.10 His coming was
Worship He is present to observe and present to accept our Petitions and answer our Suits Good men have not only the Essential Presence which is common to all but his gracious presence not only the presence that flows from his nature but that which flows from his Promise his Essential Presence makes no difference between this and that man in regard of Spirituals without this in conjunction with it his nature is the cause of the Presence of his Essence his Will engag'd by his Truth is the cause of the Presence of his Grace He promis'd to meet the Israelites in the place where he should set his name and in all places where he doth Record it Exod. 20.4 In all places where I Record my Name I will come unto thee and I will Bless thee in every place where I shall manifest the special Presence of my Divinity In all places hands may be lifted up without doubting of his ability to hear he dwells in the contrite Hearts wherever it is most in the exercise of contrition which is usually in times of special Worship Isa 57.15 and that to revive and refresh them Habitation notes a special Presence tho' he dwell in the highest Heavens in the sparklings of his Glory he dwells also in the lowest Hearts in the beams of his Grace as none can expel him from his Dwelling in Heaven so none can reject him from his residence in the heart The Tabernacle had his peculiar Presence fixed to it Levit. 26.11 his Soul should not abhor them as they are washed by Christ tho' they are loathsom by Sin In a greater dispensation there cannot be a less Presence since the Church under the New Testament is called the Temple of the Lord wherein he will both dwell and walk 2 Cor. 6.6 Or. I will indwell in them as if he should say I will dwell in and in them I will dwell in them by Grace and walk in them by exciting their Graces he will be more intimate with them than their own Souls and converse with them as the Living God i. e. as a God that hath Life in himself and Life to convey to them in their Converse with him and shew his Spiritual Glory among them in a greater measure than in the Temple since that was but a heap of Stones and the figure of the Christian Church the mystical Body of his Son His presence is not less in the Substance than it was in the Shadow this Presence of God in his Ordinances is the Glory of a Church as the Presence of a King is the Glory of a Court the Defence of it too as a Wall of Fire Zech. 2.5 alluding to the Fire Travellers in a Wilderness made to fright away wild Beasts 'T is not the meaness of the place of Worship can exclude him the second Temple was not so magnificent as the first of Solomon's Erecting and the Jews seem to despond of so glorious a Presence of God in the second as they had in the first because they thought it not so good for the entertainment of him that inhabits Eternity but God comforts them against this conceit again and again Hag. 2.3.4 Be strong Be strong Be strong I am with you the meaness of the place shall not hinder the grandeur of my Presence no matter what the Room is so it be the Presence-Chamber of the King wherein he will favour our Suits he can every where slide into our Souls with a perpetual sweetness since he is every where and so intimate with every one that fears him If we should see God on Earth in his amiableness as Moses did should we not be encouraged by his Presence to present our Requests to him to Eccho out our Praises of him and have we not as great a ground now to do it since he is as really present with us as if he were visible to us he is in the same room with us as near to us as our Souls to our Bodies not a word but he hears not a motion but he sees not a breath but he perceives he is through all he is in all 4. The Omnipresence of God is a comfort in all special Services God never puts any upon a hard task but he makes Promises to encourage them and assist them and the matter of the Promise is that of his Presence so he did assure the Prophets of Old when he set them difficult tasks and strengthned Moses against the Face of Pharaoh by assuring him he would be with his Mouth Exod. 4.12 and when Christ put his Apostles upon a Contest with the whole World to Preach a Gospel that would be Foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling Block to the Jews he gives them a Cordial only compos'd of his Presence Math. 28.20 I will be with you 't is this presence scatters by its Light the darkness of our Spirits 'T is this that is the cause of what is done for his Glory in the World 't is this that mingles its self with all that is done for his Honour 't is this from whence springs all the assistance of his Creatures markt out for special purposes 5. This Presence is not without the special Presence of all his Attributes Where his Essence is his Perfections are because they are one with his Essence yea they are his Essence tho' they have their several degrees of manifestation As in the Covenant he makes over himself as our God not a part of himself but his whole Deity so in promising of his Presence he means not a part of it but the whole the Presence of all the Excellencies of his nature to be manifested for our good 'T is not a piece of God is here and another parcel there but God in his whole Essence and Perfections in his Wisdom to guide us his Power to protect and support us his Mercy to pity us his Fulness to refresh us and his Goodness to relieve us He is ready to sparkle out in this or that Perfection as the necessities of his People require and his own Wisdom directs for his own Honour So that being not far from us in any excellency of his nature we can quickly have recourse to him upon any emergency so that if we are miserable we have the presence of his Goodness if we want direction we have the presence of his Wisdom if we are weak we have the presence of his Power and should we not rejoyce in it as a man doth in the Presence of a Powerful Wealthy and Compassionate Friend 3. USE of Exhortation 1. Let us be much in the actual Thoughts of his Truth How should we enrich our understandings with the knowledge of the Excellency of God whereof this is none of the least nor hath less of Honey in its Bowels tho' it be more Terrible to the Wicked than the Presence of a Lyon 't is this that makes all other excellencies of the Divine Nature sweet What would Grace
and his Power is his Arm. Of his Infinite Vnderstanding I am to Discourse Doctrine God hath an Infinite Knowledg and Vnderstanding All Knowledg Omnipresence which before we spake of respects his Essence Omniscience respects his Understanding according to our manner of Conception This is clear in Scripture hence God is called a God of Knowledg 1 Sam. 2.3 The Lord is a God of Knowledg Heb. Knowledges in the Plural Number of all kind of Knowledg 't is spoken there to quell mans Pride in his own reason and parts what is the Knowledg of man but a spark to the whole Element of Fire a grain of Dust and worse than nothing in comparison of the Knowledg of God as his Essence is in comparison of the Essence of God All kind of Knowledg He knows what Angels know what Man knows and infinitely more he knows himself his own operations all his Creatures the notions and thoughts of them he is understanding above understanding mind above mind the mind of minds the light of lights this the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the Etimology of it of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see to contemplate and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scio The Names of God signify a nature viewing and piercing all things and the attribution of our senses to God in Scripture as Hearing and Seeing which are the Senses whereby Knowledg enters into us signifies Gods Knowledg 1. The Notion of Gods Knowledg of all things lies above the ruines of Nature it was not obliterated by the Fall of Man It was necessary offending man was to know that he had a Creator whom he had injured that he had a Judg to Try and Punish him since God thought fit to keep up the World it had been kept up to no purpose had not this notion been continued alive in the minds of men there would not have been any practice of his Laws no bar to the worst of Crimes If men had thought they had to deal with an Ignorant Deity there could be no practice of Religion Who would lift up his eyes or spread his hands towards Heaven if he imagin'd his Devotion were directed to a God as blind as the Heathens imagin'd Fortune To what boot would it be for them to make Heaven and Earth resound with their Cries if they had not thought God had an Eye to see them and an Ear to hear them And indeed the very notion of a God at the first blush speaks him a Being endued with Understanding no man can imagine a Creator void of one of the noblest Perfections belonging to those Creatures that are the Flower and Cream of his Works 2. Therefore all Nations acknowledg this as well as the Existence and Being of God * No Nation but had their Temples particular Ceremonies of Worship and presented their Sacrifices which they could not have been so vain as to do without an acknowledgment of this Attribute This notion of Gods Knowledg owed not its rise to Tradition but to natural implantation it was born and grew up with every rational Creature Though the several Nations and men of the World agreed not in one kind of Deity or in their Sentiments of his Nature or other Perfections some judging him Clothed with a fine and pure Body others judging him an uncompounded Spirit some fixing him to a seat in the Heavens others owning his Universal Presence in all parts of the World yet they all agreed in the Universality of his Knowledge and their own Consciences reflecting their Crimes unknown to any but themselves would keep this notion in some vigor whether they would or no. Now this being implanted in the minds of all men by nature cannot be false for nature imprints not in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity Nature would not pervert the reason and minds of men Universal notions of God are from Original not lapsed Nature Agamemnon Homer Il. 3. v 8. making a Covenant with Priam invocates the Su◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and preserved in mankind in order to a restoration from a lapsed state The Heathens did acknowledg this in all the solemn Covenants solemniz'd with Oaths and the invocation of the Name of God this Attribute was suppos'd They confest Knowledg to be peculiar to the Deity Scientia Deorum vita saith Cicero Some called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mens mind pure understanding without any note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inspector of all As they called him Life because he was the Author of Life so they called him intellectus because he was the Author of all Knowledg and Understanding in his Creatures And one being askt Whether any man could be hid from God no saith he not so much as thinking Some call him the Eye of the World * Gamach in 1 Pa. Aqui. Q. 14. cap. 1. p. 119. Clem. Alexand. strom lib. 6. and the Egyptians represented God by an Eye on the top of a Scepter because God is all Eye and can be ignorant of nothing And the same Nation made Eyes and Ears of the most excellent Metals Consecrating them to God and hanging them up in the midst of their Temples in signification of Gods seeing and hearing all things hence they called God Light as well as the Scripture because all things are visible to him For the better understanding of this we will enquire 1. What kind of Knowledg or Vnderstanding there is in God 2. What God knows 3. How God knows things 4. The proof that God knows all things 5. The Vse of all to our selves I. What kind of Vnderstanding or Knowledg there is in God The Knowledg of God in Scripture hath various Names according to the various relations or objects of it In respect of present things 't is called Knowledg or Sight in respect of things past Remembrance in respect of things future or to come 't is called Fore-Knowledg or Prescience 1 Pet. 1.2 in regard of the Vniversality of the Objects it is called Omniscience in regard of the simple Vnderstanding of things 't is called Knowledg in regard of acting and modelling the ways of acting 't is called Wisdom and Prudence Eph. 1.8 He must have Knowledg otherwise he could not be Wise Wisdom is the Flower of Knowledg and Knowledg is the Root of Wisdom As to what this Knowledg is if we know what Knowledg is in man we may apprehend what it is in God removing all Imperfection from it and ascribing to him the most eminent way of understanding because we cannot comprehend God but as he is pleased to condescend to us in his own ways of Discovery that is under some way of similitude to his perfectest Creatures therefore we have a notion of God by his Understanding and Will Understanding whereby he conceives and apprehends things Will whereby he extends himself in acting according to his Wisdom and whereby he doth approve or disapprove Yet we must not measure his Understanding
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 his goodness and wisdom †Lessius Winds are fitted to purifie the Air to preserve it from Putrefaction to carry the Clouds to several parts to refresh the parched Earth and assist her Fruits And also to serve for the Commerce of one Nation with another by Navigation God in his wisdom and goodness walks upon the wings of the Wind Psal 104.3 ‖ Daille melan part 2. p. 472 473. Rivers are appointed to bathe the Ground and render it fresh and lively they fortifie Cities are the limits of Countreys serve for Commerce they are the Watring-pots of the Earth and the Vessels for Drink for the living Creatures that dwell upon the Earth God cut those Chanels for the wild Asses the Beasts of the Desart which are his Creatures as well as the rest Psal 104.10 12 13. Trees are appointed for the Habitations of Birds Shadows for the Earth Nourishment for the Creatures Materials for Building and Fuel for the relief of man against Cold. The Seasons of the Year have their use the Winter makes the Juice retire into the Earth fortifies Plants and fixes their Roots It moystens the Earth that was dried before by the heat of Summer and cleanseth and prepares it for a new fruitfulness The Spring calls out the Sap in new Leaves and Fruit The Summer consumes the superfluous moisture and produceth Nourishment for the Inhabitants of the World * Daille melang part 1. p. 477 c. The Day and Night have also their usefulness The Day gives Life to Labour and is a guide to Motion and Action Psal 104.23 The Sun ariseth man goeth forth to his labour until the Evening It warms the Air and quickens Nature without Day the World would be a Chaos an unseen Beauty The Night indeed casts a Vail upon the bravery of the Earth but it draws the Curtains from that of Heaven though it darkens below it makes us see the Beauty of the World above and discovers to us a glorious part of the Creation of God the Tapistry of Heaven and the Motion of the Stars hid from us by the eminent light of the Day It procures a Truce from Labour and refresheth the Bodies of Creatures by recruiting the Spirits which are scattered by watching It prevents the ruin of Life by a reparation of what was wasted in the Day It takes from us the sight of Flowers and Plants but it washeth their Face with Dews for a new Appearance next Morning The length of the Day and Night is not without a Mark of Wisdom were they of a greater length as the length of a Week or Month the one would too much dry and the other too much moisten and for want of Action the Members would be stupified The perpetual Succession of Day and Night is an Evidence of the Divine Wisdom in tempering the travel and rest of Creatures Hence the Psalmist tells us Psal 74.16 17. The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast prepared the light of the Sun and made Summer and Winter i. e. they are of God's framing not without a wise counsel and end Hence let us ascend to the Bodies of living Creatures and we shall find every Member fitted for use What a Curiosity is there in every Member Every one fitted to a particular use in their situation form temper and mutual agreement for the good of the whole The Eye to direct the Ear to receive Directions from others the Hands to act the Feet to move Every Creature hath Members fitted for that Element wherein it resides And in the Body some parts are appointed to change the Food into Blood others to refine it and others to distribute and convey it to several parts for the maintenance of the whole The Heart to mint vital Spirits for preserving Life and the Brain to coin Animal Spirits for Life and Motion the Lungs to serve for the cooling the Heart which else would be parcht as the ground in Summer The Motion of the Members of the Body by one act of the Will and also without the Will by a natural Instinct is an admirable Evidence of Divine Skill in the Structure of the Body so that well might the Psalmist cry out Psal 139.14 I am fearfully and wonderfully made But how much more of this Divine Perfection is seen in the Soul A Nature furnisht with a Faculty of Understanding to judge of things to gather in things that are distant and to reason and draw Conclusions from one thing to another with a Memory to treasure up things that are past with a Will to apply it self so readily to what the Mind judges fit and comely and fly so speedily from what it judges ill and hurtful The whole World is a Stage every Creature in it hath a part to act and a Nature suted to that part and end 't is design'd for and all concur in a joint Language to publish the Glory of Divine Wisdom they have a Voice to proclaim the Glory of God Psal 19.1 3. And it is not the least part of God's Skill in framing the Creatures so that upon Man's Obedience they are the Chanels of his Goodness and upon Man's Disobedience they can in their Natures be the Ministers of his Justice for the punishing of offending Creatures 4. Fourthly This Wisdom is apparent in the linking all these useful parts together so that one is subordinate to the other for a common end All parts are exactly suted to one another and every part to the whole though they are of different Natures as Lines distant in themselves yet they meet in one common Center the good and the preservation of the Universe they are all joynted together as the word translated framed * Heb. 11.3 signifies knit by fit Bands and Ligaments to contribute mutual Beauty Strength and Assistance to one another like so many Links of a Chain coupled together that though there be a distance in place there is a unity in regard of connexion and end there is a consent in the whole Hosea 2.21 22. The Heavens hear the Earth and the Earth hears the Corn and the Wine and the Oyl The Heavens communicate their qualities to the Earth and the Earth conveys them to the Fruits she bears †Dalle 15. Serm. p. 17◠The Air distributes Light Wind and Rain to the Earth the Earth and the Sea render to the Air Exhalations and Vapours and all together charitably give to the Plants and Animals that which is necessary for their nourishment and refreshment The Influences of the Heavens animate the Earth and the Earth affords matter in part for the Influences it receives from the Regions above Living Creatures are maintain'd by Nourishment Nourishment is conveyed to them by the Fruits of the Earth the Fruits of the Earth are produced by means of Rain and Heat Matter for Rain and Dew is raised by the heat of the Sun and the Sun by its motion distributes heat and quickning vertue to all parts of
his Power according to the light of his infinite Wisdom and other Attributes that direct his Will and therefore his Power is not to be measur'd by his actual Will No doubt but he could in a moment have produced that World which he took six days time to frame He could have drown'd the old World at once without prolonging the time till the revolution of forty days He was not limited to such a term of time by any weakness but by the determination of his own Will God doth not do the hundred thousandth part of what he is able to do but what is convenient to do according to the â—nd which he hath proposed to himself Jesus Christ as Man could have ask'd Legions of Angels and God as a Soveraign could have sent them †Matth. 26 53. God could raise the dead every day if he pleased but he doth not He could heal every d seased person in a moment but he doth not As God can will more than he doth actually will so he can do more than he hath actually done He can do whatsoever he can will he can will more Worlds and therefore can create more Worlds If God hath not abilâ—ty to do more than he will do he then can do no more than what he actually hath done and then it will follow that he is not a free but a natural and necessary Agent which cannot be supposed of God 2. This Power is infinite in regard of action As he can produce numberless Objects above what he hath produced so he could produce them more magnificently than he hath made them As he never works to the extent of his Power in regard of things so neither in regard of the manner of acting for he never acts so but he could act in a higher and perfecter manner 1. His Power is infinite in regard of the independency of Action He wants no Instrument to act When there was nothing but God there was no cause of action but God When there was nothing in being but God there could be no instrumental Cause of the being of any thing God can perfect his action without dependance on any thing ‖ Suarez vol. 1. ac Deo p. 151. And to be simply independent is to be simply infinite In this respect it is a Power incommunicable to any Creature though you conceive a Creature in higher degrees of perfection than it is A Creature cannot cease to be dependent but it must cease to be a Creature To be a Creature and independent are terms repugnant to one another 2. But the infiniteness of Divine Power consists in an ability to give higher degrees of perfection to every thing which he hath made * Becan Sum. Theol. p. 82. As his Power is infinite extensivè in regard of the multitude of Objects he can bring into being so it is infinite intensivè in regard of the manner of operation and the endowments he can bestow upon them Some things indeed God doth so perfect that higher degrees of perfection cannot be imagined to be added to them †Becan Sum. Theol. p. 84. As the Humanity of Christ cannot be united more gloriously than to the Person of the Son of God a greater degree of perfection cannot be conferred upon it Nor can the Souls of the Blessed have a nobler Object of vision and fruition than God himself the infinite Being No higher than the enjoyment of himself can be conferred upon a Creature Respectu termini This is not want of power He cannot be greater because he is greatest nor better because he is best nothing can be more than infinite But as to the things which God hath made in the World he could have given them other manner of beings than they have A human Understanding may improve a thought or conclusion strengthen it with more and more force of reason and adorn it with richer and richer elegancy of Language Why then may not the Divine Providence produce a World more perfect and excellent than this He that makes a plain Vessel can embellish it more engrave more Figures upon it according to the capacity of the subject And cannot God do so much more with his Works Could not God have made this World of a larger quantity and the Sun of a greater bulk and proportionable strength to influence a bigger World so that this World would have been to another that God might have made as a Ball or a Mount this Sun as a Star to another Sun that he might have kindled He could have made every Star a Sun every spire of Grass a Star every grain of Dust a Flower every Soul an Angel And though the Angels be perfect Creatures and unexpressibly more glorious than a visible Creature yet who can imagine God so confin'd that he cannot create a more excellent kind and endow those which he hath made with excellency of a higher rank than he invested them with at the first moment of their Creation Without question God might have given the meaner Creatures more excellent endowments put them into another order of nature for their own good and more diffusive usefulness in the World What is made use of by the Prophet ‖ Mal 2.15 in another case may be used in this Yet had he a residue of Spirit The capacity of every Creature might have been enlarg'd by God for no work of his in the World doth equal his Power as nothing that he hath framed doth equal his Wisdom The same matter which is the matter of the body of a Beast is the matter of a Plant and Flower is the matter of the body of a Man and so was capable of a higher form and higher perfections than God hath been pleas'd to bestow upon it And he had power to bestow that perfection on one part of matter which he denied to it and bestowed on another part If God cannot make things in a greater perfection there must be some limitation of him He cannot be limited by another because nothing is superiour to God If limited by himself that limitation is not from a want of Power but a want of Will He can by his own Power raise Stones to be Children to Abraham * Matth. 3.9 He could alter the nature of the Stones form them into Human Bodies dignifie them with rational Souls inspire those Souls with such Graces that may render them the Children of Abraham But for the more fully understanding the nature of this Power we may observe 1. That though God can make every thing with a higher degree of perfection yet still within the limits of a finite Being No Creature can be made infinite because no Creature can be made God No Creature can be so improved as to equal the goodness and perfection of God †Gamach in Aquin. tom 1. qu. 25. yet there is no Creature but we may conceive a possibility of its being made more perfect in that rank of a Creature than it is As we
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
at the Presence of the Council that had their hands yet reeking with the Blood of his Master but being filled with the Holy Ghost seems to dare the Power of the Priests and Jewish Governours and is as confident in the Council Chamber as he had been cowardly in the High Priests Hall †Acts 4.9 c. the efficacy of Grace triumphing over the Fearfulness of Nature Whence should this Ardor and Zeal to propagate a Doctrine that had already born the Scars of the Peoples Fury be but from a mighty Power which changed those Hares into Lions and stript them of their Natural Cowardize â—o cloath them with a Divine Courage making them in a moment both Wise and Magnanimous alienating them from any Consultations with Flesh and Blood As soon as ever the Holy Ghost came upon them as a mighty rushing Wind they move up and down for the Interest of God as Fish after a great Clap of Thunder are rowz'd and move more nimbly on the top of the Water therefore that which did so fit them for this undertaking is called by the title of Power from on high Luke 24.49 III. The Divine Power appears in the Means whereby it was propagated 1. By Means different from the Methods of the World Not by force of Arms as some Religions have taken root in the World Mahomets Horse hath trampled upon the Heads of Men to imprint an Alcoran in their Brains and robb'd Men of their Goods to plant their Religion But the Apostles bore not this Doctrine through the World upon the Points of their Swords they presented a Bodily death where they would bestow an Immortal life They employ'd not Troops of Men in a Warlike posture which had been possible for them after the Gospel was once spread they had no Ambition to subdue Men unto themselves but to God they coveted not the Possessions of others design'd not to enrich themselves invaded not the Rights of Princes nor the Liberties and Properties of the People They rifled them not of their Estates nor scar'd them into this Religion by a fear of losing their Worldly happiness The Arguments they used would naturally drive them from an entertainment of this Doctrine rather than allure them to be Proselytes to it Their design was to change their Hearts not their Government to wean them from the love of the World to a love of a Redeemer to remove that which would ruine their Souls It was not to enslave them but ransom them they had a warfare but not with Carnal weapons but such as were mighty through God for the pulling down of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 they used no weapons but the Doctrine they preach'd Others that have not gained Conquests by the Edge of the Sword and the Stratagems of War have extended their Opinions to others by the strength of Humane Reason and the Insinuations of Eloquence But the Apostles had as little flourish in their Tongues as edge upon their Swords Their Preaching was not with the enticing words of Mans wisdom * 1 Cor. 2.4 their Presence was mean and their Discourses without varnish their Doctrine was plain a Crucified Christ a Doctrine unlac'd ungarnisht untoothsom to the World but they had the demonstration of the Spirit and a mighty Power for their Companion in the work The Doctrine they preached viz. the Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are called the Powers not of this World but of the World to come †Heb. 6.5 No less than a Supernatural Power could conduct them in this Attempt with such weak Methods in Humane appearance 2. Against all the Force Power and Wit of the World The Divisions in the Eastern Empire and the feeble and consuming State of the Western contributed to Mahomets Success ‖ Dailâ—é 15. Serm. p. 57. But never was Rome in a more flourishing condition Learning Eloquence Wisdom Strength were at the highest pitch Never was there a more diligent Watch against any Innovations never was that State governed by more severe and suspicious Princes than at the time when Tiberius and Nero held the Rains No time seemed to be more unfit for the entrance of a New Doctrine than that Age wherein it begun to be first publish'd never did any Religion meet with that Opposition from Men. Idolatry hath been often setled without any Contest but this hath suffered the same Fate with the Institutor of it and endured the Contradictions of Sinners against it self And those that publish'd it were not only without any Worldly prop but expos'd themselves to the Hatred and Fury to the Racks and Tortures of the strongest Powers on Earth It never set foot in any place but the Country was in an uproar †Acts 19.28 Swords were drawn to destroy it Laws made to suppress it Prisons provided for the Professors of it Fires kindled to consume them and Executioners had a perpetual employment to stifle the progress of it Rome in its Conquest of Countries chang'd not the Religion Rites and Modes of their Worship They alter'd their Civil Government but left them to the liberty of their Religion and many times joyned with them in the Worship of their Peculiar gods and sometime imitated them at Rome instead of abolishing them in the Cities they had subdued But all their Councils were assembled and their Force was bandied against the Lord and against his Christ and that City that kindly receiv'd all manner of Superstitions hated this Doctrine with an irreconcileable hatred It met with Reproaches from the Wise and Fury from the Potentates it was derided by the one as the greatest Folly and persecuted by the other as contrary to God and Mankind the one were afraid to lose their Esteems by the Doctrine and the other to lose their Authority by a Sedition they thought a change of Religion would introduce The Romans that had been Conquerors of the Earth feared Intestine Commotions and the falling asunder the Links of their Empire Scarce any of their first Emperors but had their Swords dy'd Red in the Blood of the Christians The Flesh with all its Lusts the World with all its Flatteries the Statesmen with all their Craft and the Mighty with all their Strength joyn'd together to extirpate it Though many Members were taken off by the Fires yet the Church not only lived but flourish'd in the Furnace Converts were made by the Death of Martyrs and the Flames which consumed their Bodies were the occasion of firing Mens hearts with a Zeal for the Profession of it Instead of being extinguish'd the Doctrine shone more bright and multiplied under the Sickles that were employed to cut it down God ordered every Circumstance so both in the Persons that publish'd it the Means whereby and the Time when that nothing but his Power might appear in it without any thing to dim and darken it IV. The Divine Power was conspicuous in the great success it had under all these difficulties Multitudes were Prophecied of to
easily be cured than when it becomes Chronical and inveterate The strength of a Disease or the complication of many magnifies the Power of the Physician and efficacy of the Medicine that tames and expels it What Power is that which hath made Men stoop when Natural habits have been grown Giants by Custome when the putrefaction of Nature hath engendred a multitude of Worms when the Vlcers are many and deplorable when many Cords wherewith God would have bound the Sinner have been broken and like Sampson the wicked Heart hath gloried in its strength and grown more proud that it hath stood like a strong Fort against those Batteries under which others have fallen flat Every Proud thought every Evil habit captivated serves for matter of Triumph to the Power of God †2 Cor. 10.5 What resistance will a multitude of them make when one of them is enough to hold the Faculty under its dominion and intercept its Operations So many Customary habits so many Old natures so many different strengths added to Nature every one of them standing as a Barricado against the way of Grace all the Errors the Vnderstanding is possessed with think the Gospel Folly all the Vices the Will is filled with count it the Fetter and Band. Nothing so contrary to Man as to be thought a Fool nothing so contrary to Man as to enter into slavery 'T is no easie matter to plant the Cross of Christ upon a Heart guided by many Principles against the Truth of it and byast by a World of Wickedness against the Holiness of it Nature renders a Man too feeble and indispos'd and Custome renders a Man more weak and unwilling to change his Hue ‖ Jer. 13.23 To dispossess Man then of his Self-esteem and Self-excellency to make room for God in the Heart where there was none but for Sin as dear to him as himself to hurle down the Pride of Nature to make stout Imaginations stoop to the Cross to make desires of Self-advancement sink under a Zeal for the glorifying of God and an over-ruling design for his Honour is not to be ascrib'd to any but an Out-stretched Aâ—m wielding the Sword of the Spirit To have a Heart full of the Fear of God that was just before filled with a Contempt of him to have a sense of his Power an eye to his Glory admiring Thoughts of his Wisdom a Faith in his Truth that had lower Thoughts of him and all his Perfections than he had of a Creature To have a hatred of his Habitual Lusts that had brought him in much Sensitive pleasure to loath them as much as he loved them to cherish the Duties he hated to live by Faith in and Obedience to the Redeemer who was before so heartily under the conduct of Satan and Self to chase the acts of Sin from his Members and the pleasing thoughts of Sin from his Mind to make a stout Wretch willingly fall down crawl upon the ground and adore that Saviour whom before he out-dar'd is a Triumphant Act of Infinite Power that can subdue all things to it self and break those multitude of Locks and Bolts that were upon us 3. Against a multitude of Temptations and Interests The Temptations Rich Men have in this World are so numerous and strong that the entrance of one of them into the Kingdom of Heaven that is the entertainment of the Gospel is made by our Saviour an impossible thing with Men and procurable only by the Power of God * Luke 18.24 25 26. The Divine Strength only can separate the World from the Heart and the Heart from the World There must be an Incomprehensible Power to chase away the Devil that had so long so strong a footing in the Affections to render the Soyl he had sown with so many Tares and Weeds capable of good Grain to make Spirits that had found the sweetness of Worldly prosperity wrapt up all their Happiness in it and not only bent down but as it were buried in Earth and Mud to be loosened from those beloved Cords to disrelish the Earth for a Crucified Christ I say this must be the effect of an Almighty Power 4. The Manner of Conversion shews no less the Power of God There is not only an irresistible Force used in it but an agreeable Sweetness The Power is so Efficacious that nothing can vanquish it and so Sweet that none did ever complain of it The Almighty Vertue displays it self Invincibly yet without Constraint compelling the Will without offering Violence to it and making it cease to be Will Not forcing it but changing it not dragging it but drawing it making it will where before it nill'd removing the Corrupt Nature of the Will without invading the Created Nature and Rights of the Faculty not working in us against the Physical nature of the Will but working to will †Phil. 2.13 This work is therefore called Creation Resurrection to shew its Irresistible Power 'T is called Illumination Perswasion Drawing to shew the suitableness of its Efficacy to the nature of the Humane Faculties 'T is a drawing with Cords which testifies an Invincible strength but with Cords of Love which testifies a Delightful conquest 'T is hard to determine whether it be more Powerful than Sweet or more Sweet than Powerful 'T is no mean part of the Power of God to twist together Victory and Pleasure to give a blow as delightful as strong as pleasing to the Sufferer as it is sharp to the Sinner II. The Power of God in the application of Redemption is evident in the Pardoning a Sinner 1. In the Pardon it self The Power of God is made the ground of his Patience or the reason why he is Patient is because he would shew his Power ‖ Rom. 9.22 'T is a part of Magnanimity to pass by Injuries As weaker Stomacks cannot concoct the tougher food so weak Minds cannot digest the harder Injuries He that passes over a Wrong is superiour to his Adversary that does it When God speaks of his own Name as Merciful he speaks first of himself as Powerful Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God that is the Lord the strong Lord Jehovah the strong Jehovah Let the Power of my Lord be great saith Moses when he prays for the Forgiveness of the People * Numb 14.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be exalted Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stâ—ength c. The word Jigdal is written with a great Jod or a Jod above the other Letters The Power of God in Pardoning is advanc'd beyond an ordinary strain beyond the Creative strength In the Creation he had power over the Creatures in this power over himself In Creation not Himself but the Creatures were the Object of his Power in that no Attribute of his Nature could article against his Design In the Pardon of a Sinner after many Overtures made to him and refus'd by him God exerciseth a power over himself for the Sinner hath dishonour'd God prâ—â—ok'd his
Justice abus'd his Goodness done injury to all those Attributes which are necessary to his relief It was not so in Creation nothing was uncapable of disobliging God from bringing it into Being The Dust which was the Matter of Adams Body needâ—d only the extrinsick Power of God to form it into a Man and inspire it with a living Soul It had not render'd it self obnoxious to Divine Justice nor was capable to excite any disputes between his Perfections But after the entrance of Sin and the merit of Death thereby there was a resistance in Justice to the free Remission of Man God was to exercise a Power over himself to answer his Justice and pardon the Sinner as well as a power over the Creature to reduce the Run-away and Rebel Unless we have recourse to the Infiniteness of Gods Power the infiniteness of our Guilt will weigh us down We must consider not only that we have a mighty Guilt to press us but a mighty God to relieve us In the same act of his being our Righteousness he is our Strength In the Lord have I righteousness and strength Isai 45.24 2. In the sense of Pardon When the Soul hath been wounded with the sense of sin and its Iniquities have star'd it in the face the raising the Soul from a despairing condition and lifting it above those Waters which terrified it to cast the light of Comfort as well as the light of Grace into a heart covered with more than an Egyptian Darkness is an act of his Infinite and Creating Power Isai 57.19 I create the fruit of the lips peace Men may wear out their Lips with numbring up the Promises of Grace and Arguments of Peace but all will signifie no more without a Creative Power than if all Men and Angels should call to that White upon the Wall to shine as splendidly as the Sun God only can create Jerusalem and every Child of Jerusalem a rejoycing * Isai 65.18 A Man is no more able to apply to himself any word of Comfort under the sense of Sin than he is able to Convert himself and turn the proposals of the Word into gracious Affections in his heart To restore the joy of Salvation is in Davids Judgment an act of Soveraign Power equal to that of creating a clean heart Psal 51.10 12. Alas 't is a state like to that of Death as Infinite Power can only raise from Natural death so from a Spiritual death also from a Comfortless death In his favour there is life in the want of his Favour there is death The Power of God hath so placed Light in the Sun that all Creatures in the World all the Torches upon Earth kindled together cannot make it Day if that doth not rise so all the Angels in Heaven and Men upon Earth are not competent Chirurgions for a wounded Spirit The cure of our Spiritual Ulcers and the pouring in Balm is an Act of Soveraign Creative Power 'T is more visible in silencing a Tempestuous Conscience than the Power of our Saviour was in the stilling the stormy Winds and the roaring Waves As none but Infinite Power can remove the Guilt of Sin so none but Infinite Power can remove the Despairing sense of it III. This Power is evident in the preserving Grace As the Providence of God is a manifestation of his Power in a continued Creation so the preservation of Grace is a manifestation of his Power in a continued Regeneration To keep a Nation under the Yoke is an act of the same Power that subdu'd it 'T is this that strengthens Men in suffering against the Fury of Hell †Colos 1.13 't is this that keeps them from falling against the force of Hell the Fathers hand John 10.29 His strength abates and moderates the violence of Temptations his Staff sustains his People under them his Might defeats the Power of Satan and bruiseth him under a Believers feet The Counterworkings of Indwelling Corruption the reluctances of the Flesh against the breathings of the Spirit the fallacy of the Senses and the rovings of the Mind have ability quickly to stifle and extinguish Grace if it were not maintain'd by that Powerful blast that first inbreathed it No less Power is seen in perfecting it than was in planting it ‖ 2 Pet. 1.3 no less in fulfilling the work of Faith than in ingrafting the Word of Faith 2 Thess 1.11 The Apostle well understood the Necessity and Efficacy of it in the preservation of Faith as well as in the firâ—t infusion when he expresses himself in those terms of a Greatness or Hyperbole of Power his Mighty Power or the Power of his Might Ephes 1.19 The Salvation he bestows and the Strength whereby he effects it are joyned together in the Prophets Song Isai 12.2 The Lord is my strength and my salvation And indeed God doth more magnifie his Power in continuing a Believer in the World a weak and half-rigg'd Vessel in the midst of so many Sands whereon it might split so many Rocks whereon it might dash so many Corruptions within and so many Temptations without than if he did immediately transport him into Heaven and cloth him with a perfectly Sanctified Nature To Conclude What is there then in the World which is destitute of Notices of Divine Power Every Creature affords us the Lesson all acts of Divine Government are the marks of it Look into the Word and the manner of its propagation instructs us in it your Changed Natures your Pardoned Guilt your Shining Comfort your quell'd Corruptions the standing of your staggering Graces are sufficient to preserve a sense and prevent a forgetfulness of this great Attribute so necessary for your support and conducing so much to your comfort Vses I. Of Information and Instruction 1. If Incomprehensible and Infinite Power belongs to the Nature of God then Jesus Christ hath a Divine Nature because the Acts of Power proper to God are ascribed to him This Perfection of Omnipotence doth unquestionably pertain to the Deity and is an incommunicable Property and the same with the Essence of God He therefore to whom this Attribute is ascribed is essentially God This is challenged by Christ in conjunction with Eternity Revel 1.8 I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty This the Lord Christ speaks of himself He who was equal with God proclaims himself by the Essential title of the Godhead part of which he repeats again verse 11. and this is the Person which walks in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks the Person that was dead and now lives vers 17 18. which cannot possibly be meant of the Father the first Person who can never come under that denomination of having been dead Being therefore adorn'd with the same Title he hath the same Deity and though his Omnipotence be only positively asserted v. 8. yet his Eternity being asserted v. 11 17. it inferreth
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
God is able to make him to stand Rom. 14.4 5. From this Attribute of the Infinite Power of God we have a ground of comfort in the lowest estate of the Church Let the state of the Church be never so deplorable the condition never so desperate that Power that created the World and shall raise the Bodies of men can create a happy state for the Church and raise her from an overwhelming Grave Though the Enemies trample upon her they cannot upon the Arm that holds her which by the least motion of it can lift her up above the heads of her Adversaries and make them feel the thunder of that Power that none can understand By the blast of God they perish and by the breath of his nostrils they are consumed Job 4.9 they shall be scattered as Chaff before the wind If once he draw his hand out of his bosom all must fly before him or sink under him * Psal 74.11 And when there is none to help his own Arm sustains him and brings salvation †Isa 63.5 and his fury doth uphold him What if the Church totter under the underminings of Hell What if it hath a sad heart and wet eyes In what a little moment can he make the night turn into day and make the Jews that were preparing for death in Shushan triumph over the necks of their Enemies and march in one hour with Swords in their hands that expected the last hour ropes about their necks Esth 9.1.5 If Israel be pursued by Pharoah the Sea shall open its arms to protect them If they be thirsty a Rock shall spout out Water to refresh them If they be hungry Heaven shall be their Granary for Manna If Jerusalem be besieg'd and hath not Force enough to encounter Senacherib an Angel shall turn the Camp into an Aceldema a Field of Blood His People shall not want deliverances till God want a power of working Miracles for their security He is more jealous of his Power than the Church can be of her Safety And if we should want other Arguments to press him we may implore him by virtue of his Power For when there is nothing in the Church as a Motive to him to save it there is enough in his own Name and the illustration of his Power Psal 106.8 Who can grapple with the Omnipotency of that God who is jealous of and zealous for the honour of it And therefore God for the most part takes such opportunities to deliver wherein his Almightiness may be most conspicuous and his Counsels most admirable He awakened not himself to deliver Israel till they were upon the brink of the Red Sea nor to rescue the three Children till they were in the fiery Furnace nor Daniel till he was in the Lions Den. 'T is in the weakness of his Creature that his strength is perfected not in a way of addition of perfectness to it but in a way of manifestation of the perfection of it As it is the perfection of the Sun to shine and enlighten the World not that the Sun receives an increase of light by the darting of his Beams but discovers his Glory to the admiration of Men and pleasure of the World If it were not for such occasions the World would not regard the Mightiness of God nor know what Power were in him It traverses the Stage in its fulness and liveliness upon such occasions when the Enemies are strong and their strength edg'd with an intense hatred and but little time between the contrivance and execution 'T is a great comfort that the lowest Distresses of the Church are a fit Scene for the discovery of this Attribute and that the Glory of God's Omnipotence and the Churches Security are so straitly link't together 'T is a promise that will never be forgotten by God and ought never to be forgotten by us that in this Mountain the hand of the Lord shall rest ‖ Isa 25.10 that is the Power of the Lord shall abide and Moab shall be trodden under him even as Straw is trodden down for the Dunghill And the Plagues of Babylon shall come in one day death and mourning and famine for strong is the Lord who judges her Rev. 18.8 Use III The Third Vse is for Exhortation 1. Meditate on this Power of God and press it often upon your Minds We conclude many things of God that we do not practically suck the comfort of for want of deep thoughts of it and frequent inspection into it We believe God to be true yet distrust him we acknowledge him powerful yet fear the motion of every straw Many Truths though assented to in our Understandings are kept under hatches by corrupt Affections and have not their due influence because they are not brought forth into the open air of our Souls by meditation If we will but search our hearts we shall find it is the Power of God we often doubt of When the heart of Ahaz and his Subjects trembled at the Combination of the Syrian and Israelitish Kings against him for want of a confidence in the Power of God God sends his Prophet with Commission to work a miraculous sign at his own choice to rear up his fainting heart and when he refus'd to ask a sign out of diffidence of that Almighty Power the Prophet complains of it as an affront to his Master * Isa 7.12 13. Moses so great a Friend of God was overtaken with this kind of unbelief after all the Experiments of God's miraculous Acts in Egypt the Answer God gives him manifests this to be at the Core Is the Lord's hand waxed short Numb 11.23 For want of actuated thoughts of this we are many times turned from our known duty by the blast of a Creature as though man had more power to dismay us than God hath to support us in his commanded way The belief of God's Power is one of the first steps to all Religion without settled thoughts of it we cannot pray lively and believingly for the obtaining the Mercies we want or the averting the Evils we fear we should not love him unless we are persuaded he hath a Power to bless us nor fear him unless we were perswaded of his Power to punish us The frequent thoughts of this would render our Faith more stable and our Hopes more stedfast it would make us more feeble to sin and more careful to obey When the Virgin stagger'd at the Message of the Angel that she should bear a Son he in his Answer turns her to the Creative power of God Luke 1.35 The Power of the highest shall over-shadow thee Which seems to be in allusion to the Spirits moving upon the face of the Deep and bringing a comely World out of a confus'd Mass Is it harder for God to make a Virgin conceive a Son by the power of his Spirit than to make a World Why doth he reveal himself so often under the title of Almighty and press it upon us but
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
God is a Good which hath no taint of Evil nothing can be so Supream an Evil as God is Supream Goodness He is only Good without capacity of increase He is all Good and unmixedly Good none Good but God A Goodness like the Sun that hath all Light and no Darkness That is the second thing He is the Supream and chief Goodness 3. This Goodness is Communicative None so Communicatively Good as God As the Notion of God includes Goodness so the Notion of Goodness includes Diffusiveness without Goodness he would cease to be a Deity and without Diffusiveness he would cease to be Good The being Good is necessary to the being God For Goodness is nothing else in the Notion of it but a strong inclination to do Good either to find or make an Object wherein to exercise it self according to the Propension of its own Nature And it is an Inclination of Communicating it self not for its own interest but the good of the Object it pitcheth upon Thus God is good by Nature and his Nature is not without activity he acts conveniently to his own Nature †Ps 119.68 Thou art good and dost good And nothing accrues to him by the Communications of himself to others since his blessedness was as great before the frame of any Creature as ever it was since the Erecting of the World so that the Goodness of Christ himself encreaseth not the lustre of his Happiness †Psal 16.2 My Goodness extends not to thee He is not of a Niggardly and Envious Nature He is too Rich to have any cause to envy and too Good to have any will to envy He is as liberal as he is Rich according to the capacity of the Object about which his Goodness is exercised The Divine Goodness being the Supream Goodness is Goodness in the highest Degree of Activity Not an idle enclos'd pent up Goodness as a Spring shut up or a Fountain sealed bubling up within it self but bubling out of it self A Fountain of Gardens to water every part of his Creation He is an Oyntment powr'd forth †Cant. 1.5 Nothing spreads it self more than Oyl and takes up a larger space wheresoever it drops It may be no less said of the Goodness of God as it is of the fulness of Christ †Eph. 1.23 He fills all in all He fills Rational Creatures with Understanding Sensitive Nature with Vigor and Motion the whole World with Beauty and Sweetness Every Tast every Touch of a Creature is a Tast and Touch of Divine Goodness Divine Goodness offers it self in one spark in this Creature in another spark in the other Creature and altogether make up a Goodness inconceivable by any Creature The whole Mass and extracted Spirit of it is infinitely short of the Goodness of the Divine Nature imperfect shadows of that Goodness which is in himself Indeed the more excellent any thing is the more nobly it acts How remotely doth Light that excellent brightness of the Creation disperse it self How doth that glorious Creature which God hath set in the Heavens spread its Wings over Heaven and Earth roul it self about the World cast its Beams upward and downward insinuate into all Corners pierce the Depths and shoot up its Rays into the Heigths encircle the higher and lower Creatures in its Arms reach out its Communications to influence every thing under the Earth as well as dart its Beams of light and heat on things above or upon the Earth Nothing is hid from it †Psal 19.6 not from its power nor from its sweetness How Communicative also is Water a necessary and excellent Creature How active is it in a River to nourish the living Creatures engendred in its Womb Refresheth every Shore it runs by promotes the propagation of Fruits for the Nourishment and bestows a Verdure upon the Ground for the delight of Man and where it cannot reach the higher Ground in its Substance it doth by its Vapours mounted up and concocted by the Sun and gently distilled upon the Earth for the opening its Womb to bring forth its Fruits †Tom. 2. p. 926. God is more prone to communicate himself than the Sun to spread its Wings or the Earth to mount up its Fruits or the Water to multiply living Creatures Goodness is his Nature Hence were there internal Communications of himself from Eternity Diffusions of himself without himself in time in the Creation of the World like a full Vessel running over He Created the World that he might impart his Goodness to something without him and diffuse larger measures of his Goodness after he had laid the first Foundation of it in its Being And therefore he Created several sorts of Creatures that they might be capable of various and distinct measures of his Liberality according to the distinct capacities of their Nature but imparted most to the Rational Creature because that is only capable of an Understanding to know him and Will to embrace him He is the highest Goodness and therefore a Communicative Goodness and acts excellently according to his Nature 4. God is necessarily good None is necessarily Good but God he is as necessarily Good as he is necessarily God His Goodness is as inseparable from his Nature as his Holiness He is Good by Nature not only by will as he is Holy by Nature not only by will he is Good in his Nature and Good in his Actions and as he cannot be bad in his Nature so he cannot be bad in his Communications He can no more act contrary to this Goodness in any of his actions than he can un-God himself 'T is not necessary that God should Create a World he was at his own choice whether he would Create or no But when he resolves to make a World 't is necessary that he should make it good because he is Goodness it self and cannot act against his own Nature He could not Create any thing without Goodness in the very act The very act of Creation or Communicating being to any thing without himself is in it self an act of Goodness as well as an act of Power Had he not been Good in himself nothing could have been endued with any Goodness by him In the act of giving Being he is Liberal the Being he bestows is a Displaying his own Liberality He could not confer what he needs not and which could not be deserved without being Pountiful Since what was nothing could not Merit to be brought into Being the very act of giving to nothing a Being was an act of choice Goodness He could not Create any thing without Goodness as the Motive and the necessary Motive His Goodness could not necessitate him to make the World but his Goodness could only move him to resolve to make a World He was not bound to erect and fashion it because of his Goodness but he could not frame it without his Goodness as the moving cause He could not Create any thing but he must Create
Calvary Unspotted Righteousness must be made Sin and unblemisht Blessedness be made a Curse He was at no other Expence than the Breath of his Mouth to form Man the Fruits of the Earth could have maintained Innocent Man without any other Cost but his broken Nature cannot be heal'd without the invaluable Medicine of the Blood of God View Christ in the Womb and in the Manger in his weary Steps and hungry Bowels in his Prostrations in the Garden and in his clodded drops of Bloody Sweat View his Head pierced with a Crown of Thorns and his Face besmeared with the Soldiers Slabber View him in his march to Calvary and his Elevation on the painful Cross with his Head hanged down and his Side streaming Blood View him pelted with the Scoffs of the Governours and the Derisions of the Rabble And see in all this what Cost Goodness was at for Mans Redemption In Creation his Power made the Sun to shine upon us and in Redemption his Bowels sent a Son to die for us 3. This Goodness of God in Redemption is greater than that manifested in Creation in regard of Mans desert of the contrary In the Creation as thre was nothing without him to allure him to the Expressions of his Bounty so there was nothing that did damp the Inclinations of his Goodness The nothing from whence the World was drawn could never merit nor demerit a Being because it was nothing As there was nothing to engage him so there was nothing to disoblige him As his Favour could not be merited so neither could his Anger be deserved But in this he finds ingratitude against the former Marks of his Goodness and Rebellion against the sweetness of his Soveraignty Crimes unworthy of the dews of Goodness and worthy of the sharpest stroaks of Vengeance And therefore the Scripture advanceth the honour of it above the Title of meer Goodness to that of Grace * Rom. 5.2 Tit. 2.11 because Men were not only unworthy of a Blessing but worthy of a Curse An Innocent Nothing more deserves Creation than a Culpable Creature deserves an exemption from Destruction When Man fell and gave occasion to God to repent of his Created Work his ravishing Goodness surmounted the occasions he had of repenting and the provocations he had to the destruction of his Frame 4. It was a greater Goodness than was exprest towards the Angels 1. A greater Goodness than was exprest towards the standing Angels The Son of God did no more expose his Life for the confirmation of those that stood than for the restoration of those that fell The Death of Christ was not for the holy Angels but for sinful Man They needed the Grace of God to confirm them but not the Death of Christ to restore or preserve them They had a beloved Holiness to be established by the powerful Grace of God but not any abominable Sin to be expiated and blotted out by the Blood of God They had no Debt to pay but that of Obedience but we had both a Debt of Obedience to the Precepts and a Debt of Suffering to the Penalty after the Fall Whether the holy Angels were confirm'd by Christ or no is a question some think they were from Colos 1.20 where things in Heaven are said to be reconcil'd but some think that place signifies no more than the Reconciliation of things in Heaven if meant of the Angels to things on Earth with whom they were at enmity in the Cause of their Soveraign or the Reconciliation of things in Heaven to God is meant the glorified Saints who were once in a State of Sin and whom the Death of Christ upon the Cross reached though dead long before But if Angels were confirm'd by Christ it was by him not as a slain Sacrifice but as the Soveraign head of the whole Creation appointed by God to gather all things into one which some think to be the intendment of Ephes 1.10 where all things as well those in Heaven as those in Earth are said to be gathered together in one in Christ Where is a syllable in Scripture of his being Crucified for Angels but only for Sinners Not for the Confirmation of the one but the Reconciliation of the other So that the Goodness whereby God continued those Blessed Spirits in Heaven through the effusions of his Grace is a small thing to the restoring us to our forfeited Happiness through the Streams of Divine Blood The preserving a Man in life is a little thing and a smaller benefit than the raising a Man from Death The rescuing a Man from an ignominious Punishment lays a greater obligation than barely to prevent him from committing a capital Crime The preserving a Man standing upon the top of a steep Hill is more easie than to bring a Crippled and Tissical Man from the bottom to the top The continuance God gave to the Angels is not so signal a Mark of Goodness as the deliverance he gave to us since they were not sunk into Sin nor by any Crime fallen into Misery 2. His Goodness in Redemption is greater than any Goodness expressed to the Fallen Angels 'T is the wonder of his Goodness to us that he was mindful of Fall'n Man and careless of Fall'n Angels That he should visit Man wallowing in Death and Blood with the Day-spring from on high and never turn the Aegyptian darkness of Devils into a chearful day When they Sinn'd Divine Thunder dasht them into Hell When Man Sinn'd Divine Blood wafts the Fallen Creature from his Misery The Angels wallow in their own Blood for ever while Christ is made partaker of our Blood and wallows in his Blood that we might not for ever corrupt in ours They tumbled down from Heaven and Divine Goodness would not vouchsafe to catch them Man tumbles down and Divine Goodness holds out a hand drencht in the Blood of him that was from the Foundations of the World to lift us up Heb. 2.16 He spared not those dignified Spirits when they Revolted and spared not punishing his Son for dusty Man when he offended when he might as well for ever have let Man lie in the Chains wherein he had intangled himself as them We were as fit Objects of Justice as they and they as fit Objects of Goodness as we they were not more wretched by their Fall than we and the poverty of our Nature rendred us more unable to recover our selves than the dignity of theirs did them They were his Reuben his first born they were his Might and the beginning of his Strength yet those Elder Sons he neglected to prefer the Younger They were the Prime and Golden Pieces of Creation not laden with gross Matter yet they lie under the Ruines of their Fall while Man Lead in comparison of them is refin'd for another World They seem'd to be fitter Objects of Divine Goodness in regard of the eminency of their Nature above the Humane One Angel excelled in Endowments of Mind and Spirit vastness of
Himself By giving his Son he hath given himself and in both Gifts he hath given all things to us The Creator of all things is eminently all things He hath given all things into the hands of his Son * Joh. 3.35 and by consequence given all things into the hands of his Redeem'd Creatures by giving them him to whom he gave all things Whatsoever we were invested in by Creation whatsoever we were depriv'd of by Corruption and more he hath deposited in safe hands for our enjoyment And what can Divine Goodness do more for us What further can it give unto us than what it hath given and in that Gift design'd for us 3. This Goodness is enhanc'd by considering the State of Man in the first Transgression and since 1. Mans first Transgression If we should rip up every Vein of that first Sin should we find any want of Wickedness to excite a just Indignation What was there but ingratitude to Divine Bounty and Rebellion against Divine Soveraignty The Royalty of God was attempted the Supremacy of Divine knowledge above Mans own knowledge envied the Riches of Goodness whereby he lived and breathed slighted There is a discontent with God upon an unreasonable Sentiment that God had denied a knowledge to him which was his right and due when there should have been an humble acknowledgment of that unmerited Goodness which had not only given him a Being above other Creatures but placed him the Governor and Lord of those that were inferior to him What alienation of his understanding was there from knowing God and of his will from loving him A Debauch of all his Faculties A Spiritual Adultery in preferring not only one of Gods Creatures but one of his desperate Enemies before him thinking him a wiser Counsellor than Infinite Wisdom and imagining him possessed with kinder affections to him than that God who had newly Created him Thus he joyns in League with Hell against Heaven with a Fallen Spirit against his Bountiful Benefactor and enters into Society with Rebels that just before commenc'd a War against his and their common Soveraign He did not only falter in but cast off the Obedience due to his Creator endeavoured to purloin his Glory and actually murder'd all those that were vertually in his Loyns * Rom. 5.12 Sin enter'd into the World by him and Death by Sin and passed upon all Men taking them off from their Subjection to God to be Slaves to the damn'd Spirits and Heirs of their Misery And after all this he adds a foul imputation on God taxing him as the Author of his Sin and thereby stains the Beauty of his Holiness But notwithstanding all this God stops not up the Floodgates of his Goodness nor doth he entertain Fiery Resolutions against Man but brings forth a healing Promise and sends not an Angel upon Commission to Reveal it to him but Preaches it himself to this Forlorn and Rebellious Creature †Gen. 3.15 2. Could there be any thing in this Fallen Creature to allure God to the Expression of his Goodness Was there any good action in all his Carriage that could plead for a readmission of him to his former State Was there one good quality left that could be an Orator to perswade Divine Goodness to such a gracious Procedure Was there any Moral Goodness in Man after this Debauch that might be an Object of Divine Love What was there in him that was not rather a provocation than an allurement Could you expect that any Perfection in God should find a Motive in this ungrateful Apostate to open a Mouth for him and be an Advocate to support him and bring him off from a just Tribunal Or after Divine Goodness had begun to pity and plead for Man is it not wonderful that it should not discontinue the Plea after it found Mans Excuse to be as black as his Crime * Gen. 3.12 and his Carriage upon his Examination to be as disobliging as his first Revolt It might well be expected that all the Perfections in the Divine Nature would have entered into an association eternally to treat this Rebel according to his deserts What attractives were there in a silly Worm much less in such compleat Wickedness inexcusable Enmity infamous Rebellion to design a Redeemer for him and such a Person as the Son of God to a Fleshy Body an Eclipse of Glory and an ignominious Cross The meaness of Man was further from alluring God to it than the dignity of Angels 3. Was there not a World of demerit in Man to animate Grace as well as Wrath against him We were so far from deserving the opening any Streams of Goodness that we had merited Floods of devouring Wrath. What were all Men but Enemies to God in a high manner Every offence was infinite as being committed against a Being of Infinite Dignity it was a stroke at the very Being of God A resistance of all his Attributes it would degrade him from the height and Perfection of his Nature it would not by its good will suffer God to be God If he that hates his Brother is a Murderer of his Brother he that hates his Creator is a Murderer of the Deity * Joh. 1.3.15 and every Carnal mind is Enmity to God †Rom. 8.7 Every Sin envies him his Authority by breaking his Precept and envies him his Goodness by defacing the Marks of it Every Sin comprehends in it more than Men or Angels can conceive That God who only hath the clear apprehensions of his own Dignity hath the sole clear apprehensions of Sins Malignity All Men were thus by Nature those that Sinned before the coming of the Redeemer had been in a State of Sin those that were to come after him would be in a State of Sin by their Birth and be Criminals as soon as ever they were Creatures All Men as well the Glorifi'd as those in the Flesh at the coming of the Redeemer and those that were to be born after were consider'd in a State of Sin by God when he bruis'd the Redeemer for them All were filthy and unworthy of the Eye of God All had employ'd the Faculties of their Souls and the Members of their Bodies which they enjoyed by his Goodness against the interest of his Glory Every Rational Creature had made himself a Slave to those Creatures over whom he had been appointed a Lord subjected himself as a Servant to his Inferior and strutted as a Superior against his Liberal Soveraign and by every Sin rendred himself more a Child of Satan and Enemy of God and more worthy of the Curses of the Law and the Torments of Hell Was it not now a mighty Goodness that would surmount those high Mountains of Demerit and elevate such Creatures by the Depression of his Son Had we been possessed of the highest Holiness a Reward had been the natural effect of Goodness It was not possible that God should be unkind to a Righteous and Innocent Creature
happiness This he doth not only in his general proclamations but in his particular wooings those inward courtings of his Spirit solliciting them with more diligence if they would observe it to their happiness than the Devil tempts them to the ways of their Misery As he was first in Christ reconciling the World when the World looked not after him so he is first in his Spirit wooing the World to accept of that Reconciliation when the World will not listen to him How often doth he flash up the Light of Nature and the Light of the Word in Mens hearts to move them not to lie down in sparks of their own kindling but to aspire to a better happiness and prepare them to be subject to a higher Mercy If they would improve his present intreaties to such an end And what are his Threatnings design'd for but to move the Wheel of our Fears that the Wheel of our Desire and Love might be set on Motion for the embracing his Promise They are not so much the Thunders of his Justice as the loud Rhetorick of his good Will to prevent Mens Misery under the Vials of Wrath. 'T is his kindness to feare Men by threatnings that Justice might not strike them with the Sword 'T is not the destruction but the preserving Reformation that he aims at He hath no pleasure in the death of the Wicked This he confirms by his Oath * Ezek. 33.11 His threatnings are gracious Expostulations with them Why will ye die O house of Israel They are like the noise a favourable Officer makes in the Street to warn the Criminal he comes to seize upon to make his escape He never used his Justice to crush Men till he had used his Kindness to allure them All the dreadful descriptions of a future Wrath as well as the lively descriptions of the happiness of another World are designed to perswade Men The Honey of his Goodness is in the Bowels of those roaring Lyons such pains doth Goodness take with Men to make them Candidates for Heaven 2. How readily doth he receive Men when they do return We have Davids Experience for it †Psal 32.5 I said I will confess my Transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my Sin Selah A sincere look from the Creature draws out his Arms and opens his Bosom he is ready with his Physick to heal us upon a resolution to acquaint him with our Disease and by his Medicines prevents the putting our Resolution into a Petition The Psalmist adds a Selah to it as a special Note of Thankfulness for Divine Goodness He doth not only stand ready to receive our Petitions while we are speaking but answers us before we call * Isai 65.24 listening to the Motions of our Hearts as well as to the supplications of our Lips He is the true Father that hath a quicker pace in meeting than the Prodigal hath in returning Who would not have his Embraces and Caresses interrupted by his Confession †Luke 15.20 21 22. The Confession follows doth not precede the Fathers Compassion How doth he rejoyce in having an opportunity to express his Grace when he hath prevail'd with a Rebel to throw down his Arms and lie at his Feet and this because he delights in Mercy * Mic. 7.18 He delights in the Expressions of it from himself and the acceptance of it by his Creature 3. How meltingly doth he bewail Mans wilful refusal of his Goodness 'T is a mighty Goddness to offer Grace to a Rebel a mighty Goodness to give it him after he hath a while stood off from the terms An astonishing Goodness to regret and lament his wilful perdition He seems to utter those words in a sigh †Psal 81.13 Oh that my People had hearkned unto me and Israel had walked in my way 'T is true God hath not Humane Passions but his Affections can not be exprest otherwise in a way intelligible to us The Excellency of his Nature is above the Passions of Men but such Expressions of himself manifest to us the sincerity of his Goodness and that were he capable of our Passions he would express himself in such a manner as we do And we find incarnate Goodness bewailing with tears and sighs the ruine of Jerusalem * Luke 19.42 By the same reason that when a Sinner returns there is joy in Heaven upon his obstinacy there is sorrow in Earth The one is as if a Prince should Cloth all his Court in Triumphant Scarlet upon a Rebels Repentance And the other as if a Prince should put himself and his Court in Mourning for a Rebels obstinate refusal of a Pardon when he lies at his Mercy Are not now these affectionate invitations and deep bewailings of their perversity high Testimonies of Divine Goodness Do not the unwearied repetitions of Gracious Encouragements deserve a higher name than that of meer Goodness What can be a stronger Evidence of the sincerity of it than the sound of his saving voice in our enjoyments the motion of his Spirit in our hearts and his grief for the neglect of all These are not Testimonies of any want of Goodness in his Nature to answer us or willingness to express it to his Creature Hath he any mind to deceive us that thus entreats us The Majesty of his Nature is too great for such shifts or if it were not the despicableness of our condition would render him above the using any Who would charge that Physician with want of kindness that freely offers his Soveraign Medicine importunes Men by the love they have to their health to take it and is dissolved into tears and sorrow when he finds it rejected by their peevish and conceited humor 7. Divine Goodness is eminent in the Sacraments he hath affixt to this Covenant especially in the Lords Supper As he gave himself in his Son so he gives his Son in the Sacrament He doth not only give him as a Sacrifice upon the Cross for the Expiation of our Crimes but as a Feast upon the Table for the noâ—â—ishment of our Souls In the one he was given to be offer'd in this he gives him to be partaked of with all the Fruits of his Death Under the Image of the Sacramental Signs every Believer doth eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the great Mediator of the Covenant The words of Christ This is my Body and this is my Blood are true to the end of the World * Matth. 26.26 28. This is the most delicious Viand of Heaven the most exquisite Dainty Food God can feed us with the delight of the Deity the admiration of Angels A Feast with God is great but a Feast on God is greater Under those Signs that Body is presented that which was conceived by the Spirit inhabited by the Godhead bruised by the Father to be our Food as well as our Propitiation is presented to us on the Table That Blood which satisfied Justice washt
not to own it but erect an Idol in its place Ezra was of another mind when he ascribed to the good hand of God the providing Ministers for the Temple and not to his own care and diligence * Ezra 8.18 And Nehemiah the success he had with the King in the behalf of his Nation and not solely to his favour with the Prince * Neh. 2.8 or the arts he used to please him 2. The second Information is this If God be so good 't is a certain Argument that Man is fallen from his Original State 'T is the complaint of Man sometimes that other Creatures have more of Earthly Happiness than Men have live freer from cares and trouble and are not rackt with that sollicitousness and anxiety as Man is Have not such distempers to embitter their lives 'T is a good ground for Man to look into himself and consider whether he hath not some ways or other disobliged God more than other Creatures can possibly do We often find that the Creatures Men have need of in this State do not answer the expectation of Man Cursed be the ground for thy sake * Gen. 3.17 A fruitful Land is made barren Thorns and Thistles triumph upon the face of the Earth instead of good Fruit. Is it like that that Goodness which is as infinite as his Power and knows no more limits than his Almightiness should imprint so many scars upon the World if he had not been hainously provoked by some miscarriage of his Creature Infinite Goodness could never move Infinite Justice to inflict Punishment upon Creatures if they had not highly Merited it We cannot think that any Creature was blemisht with a Principle of Disturbance as it came first out of the hand of God All things were certainly settled in a due order and dependance upon one another Nothing could be ungrateful and unuseful to Man by the Original Law of their Creation If there had it had not been Goodness but Evil and Baseness that had Created the World When we see therefore the Course of Nature overturn'd the Order Divine Goodness had placed disturb'd and the Creatures pronounced good and useful to Man employ'd as Instruments of Vengeance against him We must conclude some horrible blot upon Humane Nature and very odious to a God of Infinite Goodness And that this blot was dasht upon Man by himself and his own fault for it is repugnant to the Infinite Goodness of God to put into the Creature a Sinning Nature to hurry him into Sin and then punish him for that which he had imprest upon him The Goodness of God inclines him to love goodness wherever he finds it and not to punish any that have not deserved it by their own Crimes The Curse we therefore see the Creatures groan under the disorders in Nature the frustrating the expectations of Man in the Fruits of the Earth and plentiful Harvests the trouble he is continually expos'd to in the World which tedders down his Spirit from more generous Employments shews that Man is not what he was when Divine Goodness first Erected him but hath admitted into his Nature something more uncomely in the Eye of God and so hainous that it puts his Goodness sometimes to a stand and makes him lay aside the Blessings his hand was fill'd with to take up the Arms of Vengeance wherewith to fight against the World Divine Goodness would have secur'd his Creatures from any such invasions and never us'd those things against Man which he design'd in the first frame for Mans service were there not some detestable disorder risen in the Nature of Man which makes God with-hold his Liberality and change the dispensation of his numerous Benefits into Legions of Judgments The Consideration of the Divine Goodness which is a Notion that Man naturally concludes to be inseparable from the Deity would to an unbyast Reason verifie the History of those Punishments settled upon Man in the third Chapter of Genesis and make the whole seem more probable to Reason at the first Relation This instruction naturally flows from the Doctrine of Divine Goodness If God be so good it is a certain Argument that Man is fallen from his Original State 3. The third Information is this If God be infinitely good there can be no just complaint against God if Men be punisht for abusing his Goodness Man had nothing nay it was impossible he could have any thing from infinite Goodness to disoblige him but to engage him God never did nay never could draw his Sword against Man till Man had had slighted him and affronted him by the strength of his own Bounty 'T is by this God doth justifie his severest proceedings against Men and very seldom charges them with any else as the matter of their provocations * Hosea 2.9 Therefore will I return and take away my Corn in the time thereof and my Wine in the season thereof and will recover my Wool and my Flax. And in Ezek. 16. after he had drawn out a Bill of Complaint against them and inserted onâ—y the abuse of his Benefits as a justification of what he intended to do He concludes Verse 27. Behold therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee and dimâ—nisht thy ordinary food and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee When Men suffer they suffer justly they were not constrained by any Violence or forced by any necessity nor provok't by any ill usage to turn head against God but broke the bands of the strongest Obligations and most tender Allurements What Man what Devil can justly blame God for punishing them after they had been so intolerably bold as to fly in the face of that Goodness that had oblig'd them by giving them beings of a higher elevation than to inferior Creatures and furnishing them with sufficient strength to continue in their first Habitation Man seems to have less reason to accuse God of rigor than Devils since after his unreasonable Revolt a more express Goodness than that which Created him hath sollicited him to Repentance Courted him by melting Promises and Expostulations added undeniable Arguments of Bounty and drawn out the choicest Treasures of Heaven in the gift of his Son to prevail over Mens perversity And yet Man after he might arrive to the height and happiness of an Angel will be fond of continuing in the meanness and misery of a Devil and more strongly link himself to the Society of the damn'd Spirits wherein by his first Rebellion he had incorporated himself Who can blame God for vindicating his own Goodness from such desperate contempts and the extream ingratitude of Man * Petav. Theolog. Dogmat Vol. 1. p. 407. If God be good 't is our happiness to adhere to him If we depart from him we depart from Goodness and if Evil happen to us we cannot blame God but our selves for our departure Why are Men happy Because they cleave to God Why are Men miserable Because they
recede from God 'T is then our own fault that we are miserable God cannot be charg'd with any injustice if we be miserable since his Goodness gave means to prevent it and afterwards added means to recover us from it but all despis'd by us The Doctrine of Divine Goodness justifies every Stone laid in the Foundation of Hell and every Spark in that burning Furnace since it is for the abuse of Infinite Goodness that it was kindled 4. The fourth Information Here is a certain Argument both for Gods fitness to govern the World and his actual Government of it 1. This renders him fit for the Government of the World and gives him a full Title to it This Perfection doth the Psalmist Celebrate throughout the 107 Psalm where he declares Gods Works of Providence vers 8 15 21 32. Power without goodness would deface instead of preserving Ruine is the fruit of rigor without kindness But God because of his infinite and immutable goodness cannot do any thing unworthy of himself and uncomely in it self or destructive to any Moral goodness in the Creature 'T is impossible he should do any thing that is base or act any thing but for the best because he is essentially and naturally and therefore necessarily good As a good Tree cannot bring forth bad Fruit so a good God cannot produce evil acts no more than a pure Beam of the Sun can engender so much as a mite of darkness or infinite Heat produce any particle of Cold. As God is so much Light that he can be no Darkness so he is so much Gâ—od that he can have no Evil and because there is no Evil in him nothing simply Evil can be produced by him Since he is good by Nature all evil is against his Nature and God can do nothing against his Nature It would be a part of impotence in him to Will that which is Evil and therefore the Misery Man feels as well as the Sin whereby he deserves that Misery are said to be from himself * Hos 13.9 Oh Israel thou hast destroy'd thy self And though God sends Judgments upon the World we have shewn these to be intended for the support and vindication of his Goodness And Hezekiah judg'd no otherewise when after the threatning of the Devastation of his House the Plundering his Treasures and Captivity of his Posterity He replies Good is the Word of the Lord which thou hast spoken * Isai 39.8 God cannot act any thing that is base and Cruel because his Goodness is as infinite as his Power and his Power acts nothing but what his Wisdom directs and his Goodness moves him to Wisdom is the Head in Government Omniscience the Eye Power the Arm and Goodness the Heart and Spirit in them that animates all 2. As Goodness renders him fit to govern the World so God doth actually govern the World Can we understand this Perfection aright and yet imagine that he is of so Morose a Disposition as to neglect the care of his Creatures That his Excellency which was display'd in framing the World should withdraw and wrap up it self in his own Bosom without looking out and darting it self out in the disposal of them Can that which moved him first to Erect a World suffer him to be unmindful of his own Work Would he design first to display it in Creation and afterwards obscure the Honour of it That cannot be Entitled an Infinite permanent Goodness which should be so indifferent as to let the Creatures tumble together as they please without any order after he had Moulded them in his hand If Goodness be diffusive and communicative of it self can it consist with the Nature of it to extend it self to the giving the Creatures Being and then withdraw and contract it self not caring what becomes of them 'T is the Nature of Goodness after it hath communicated it self to enlarge its Channels That Fountain that springs up in a little hollow part of the Earth doth in a short progress increase its Streams and widen the Passages through which it runs It would be a blemish to Divine Goodness if it did desert what it made and leave things to wild Confusions which would be if a good hand did not manage them and a good Mind preside over them This is the Lesson intended to us by all his Judgments * Dan. 4.17 That the living may know that the Most High Rules in the Kingdoms of Men. If he doth not actually govern the World he must have devolv'd it somewhere either to Men or Angels Not to Men who naturally want a goodness and Wisdom to govern themselves much more to govern others exactly And besides the misinterpretations of actions they are liable to the want of Patience to bear with the provocations of the World Since some of the best at one time in the World and in the greatest example of meekness and sweetness would have kindled a Fire in Heaven to have consumed the Samaritans for no other affront than a non Entertainment of their Master and themselves * Luke 9.54 Nor hath he committed the disposal of things to Angels either good or bad though he useth them as Instruments in his Government yet they are not the principal Pilots to Steer the World Bad Angels certainly are not they would make continual Ravages meditate Ruine never defeat their own Counsels which they manage by the Wicked as their Instruments in the World nor fill their Spirits with disquiet and restlesness when they are engaged in some Ruinous Design as often is experienc'd Nor hath he committed it to the good Angels who for ought we know are not more numerous than the evil ones are But besides we can scarcely think their Finite Nature capable of so much goodness as to bear the innumerable Debaucheries Villanies Blasphemies vented in one year one week one day one hour throughout the World Their Zeal for their Creator might well be suppos'd to move them to testifie their affection to him in a constant and speedy Righting of his injured Honour upon the heads of the Offenders The evil Angels have too much Cruelty and would have no care of Justice but take pleasure in the Blood of the most Innocent as well as the most Criminal And the good Angels have too little tenderness to suffer so many Crimes Since the World therefore continues without those flouds of Judgments which it daily merits since notwithstanding all the provocations the order of it is preserved 'T is a testimony that an Infinite Goodness holds the Helm in his hands and spreads its warm Wings over it 5. The fifth Information is this Hence we may infer the ground of all Religion 't is this Perfection of Goodness As the Goodness of God is the lustre of all his Attributes so it is the Foundation and Link of all true Religious Worship The natural Religion of the Heathens was introduc'd by the consideration of Divine Goodness in the Being he had bestow'd upon
there was not from Eternity any Creature under the Government of it but in regard of the foundation of it his Essence his Excellency 't is Eternal As God was from eternity Almighty but there was no exercise or manifestation of it till he began to Create Men are Kings only for a time their lives expire like a Lamp and their dominion is extinguisht with their lives they hand their Empire by Succession to others but many times it is snapt off before they are cold in their Graves How are the famous Empires of the Chaldeans Medes Persians and Greeks mouldred away and their place knows them no more And how are the wings of the Roman Eagle cut and that Empire which overspread a great part of the World hath lost most of its Feathers and is confin'd to a narrower compass The dominion of God flourisheth from one Generation to another He sits King for ever Psal 29.10 His session signifies the establishment and for ever the duration and he sits now his Soveraignty is as absolute as powerful as ever How many Lords and Princes hath this or that Kingdom had In how many Families hath the Scepter lodg'd When as God hath had an uninterrupted dominion As he hath been always the same in his Essence he hath been always glorious in his Soveraignty Among men he that is Lord to day may be stript of it to morrow the dominions in the World vary he that is a Prince may see his Royalty upon the Wings and feel himself laden with Fetters And a Prisoner may be lifted from his Dungeon to a Throne But there can be no diminution of God's Government His Throne is from Generation to Generation Lament 5.19 It cannot be shaken His Scepter like Aarons Rod is alway's green It cannot be wrested out of his hands none rais'd him to it Nâ—ne therefore can depose him from it it bears the same splendor in all humane affairs he is an eternal an immortal King 1 Tim. 1.17 As he is eternally Mighty so he is eternally Soveraign and being an eternal King he is a King that gives not a momentary and perishing but a durable and Everlasting Life to them that obey him A durable and eternal punishment to them that resist him IIII. Wherein this Dominion and Soveraignty consists and how 't is manifested 1. The first act of Soveraignty is the making Laws This is Essential to God no Creatures Will can be the first rule to the Creature but only the Will of God He only can prescribe man his duty and establish the rule of it hence the Law is call'd the Royal Law James 2.8 It being the first and clearest manifestation of Soveraignty as the power of Legislation is of the Authority of a Prince Both are joyn'd together in Isaiah 53.22 The Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King Legislative power being the great mark of Royalty God as a King enacts Laws by his own proper Authority and his Law is a Declaration of his own Soveraignty and of mens moral subjection to him and dependance on him * Suarez de Legib. p. 23. His Soveraignty doth not appear so much in his promises as in his precepts A man's power over another is not discovered by promising For a promise doth not suppose the promiser either superior or inferior to the person to whom the promise is made 'T is not an exercising Authority over another but over a man's self No man forceth another to the acceptance of his promise but only proposeth and encourageth to an embracing of it But commanding supposeth always an Authority in the person giving the precept It obligeth the person to whom the command is directed A promise obligeth the person by whom the promise is made God by his command binds the Creature by his promise he binds himself He stoops below his Soveraignty to lay obligations upon his own Majesty By a precept he binds the Creature by a promise he encourageth the Creature to an observance of his precept What Laws God makes man is bound by vertue of his Creation to observe that respects the Soveraignty of God What promises God makes man is bound to beleive but that respects the faithfulness of God God manifested his dominion more to the Jews than to any other people in the World He was their Lawgiver both as they were a Church and a Commonwealth As a Church he gave them Ceremonial Laws for the regulating their Worship As a State he gave them Judicial Laws for the ordering their Civil Affairs and as both he gave them Moral Laws upon which both the Laws of the Church and State were founded This dominion of God in this regard will be manifest 1. In the Supremacy of it The sole power of making Laws doth originally reside in him James 4.12 There is one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy By his own Law he Judges of the eternal States of Men and no Law of man is obligatory but as it is agreeable to the Laws of this supream Lawgiver and pursuant to his righteous rules for the Government of the World The power that the Potentates of the World have to makes Laws is but derivative from God If their dominion be from him as it is For by him Kings Reign Prov. 8.15 Their Legislative power which is a prime flower of their Soveraignty is deriv'd from him also And the Apostle resolves it into this original when he orders us to be subject to the higher powers not only for wrath but for Conscience sake Rom. 13.5 Conscience in its operations solely respects God And therefore when it is exercised as the principle of Obedience to the Laws of Men 't is not with a respect to them singly considered but as the Majesty of God appears in their station and in their decrees This power of giving Laws was acknowledged by the Heathen to be solely in God by way of original And therefore the greatest Lawgivers among the Heathen pretended their Laws to be received from some Deity or supernatural power by special Revelation now whither they did this seriously acknowledging themselves this part of the dominion of God For it is certain that what soever just orders were issued out by Princes in the World was by the secret influence of God upon their Spirits Prov. 8.15 By me Princes Decree Justice by the secret conduct of Divine Wisdom or whither they pretended it only as a publick Engine to enforce upon people the observance of their Decrees and gain a greater credit to their Edicts yet this will result from it that the people in general entertain'd this common notion that God was the great Lawgiver of the World The first founders of their Societies could never else have so absolutely gain'd upon them by such a pretence These was always a Revelation of a Law from the mouth of God in every age The exhortation of Eliphaz to Job Job 22.22 Of receiving a Law from the mouth of God at the time before
Why did he give Grace to Abel and not to Cain since they both lay in the same womb and equally deriv'd from their Parents a taint in their Nature But that he would show a standing example of his Soveraignty to the future ages of the World in the first posterity of man Why did he give Grace to Abraham and separate him from his Idolatrous Kindred to dignifie him to be the root of the Messiah Why did he confine his promise to Isaac and not extend it to Ishmael the Seed of the same Abraham by Hagar or to the Children he had by Keturah after Sarahs death What reason can be alledged for this but his Soveraign Will Why did he not give the fallen Angels a moment of Repentance after their sin but condemned them to irrevocable pains Is it not as free for him to give Grace to whom he please as Create what Worlds he please to form this corrupted clay into his own Image as to take such a parcel of dust from all the rest of the Creation whereof to compact Adam's body Hath he not as much jurisdiction over the sinful mass of his Creatures in a new Creation as he had over the Chaos in the old And what reason can be rendered of his advancing this part of matter to the nobler dignity of a Star and leaving that other part to make up the dark body of the Earth To compact one part into a glorious Sun and another part into a hard Rock but his Royal Prerogative What is the reason a Prince subjects one Malefactor to punishment and lifts up another to a place of truth and profit That Pharoah honoured the Butler with an attendance on his Person and remitted the Baker to the hands of the Executioner It was his pleasure And is not as great a right due to God as is allow'd to the worms of the Earth What is the reason he hardens a Pharoah by a denying him that Grace which should mollifie him and allows it to another 'T is because he will Rom. 9.18 Whom he will he hardens Hath not man the liberty to pull up the sluce and let the water run into what part of the ground he pleases What is the reason some have not a heart to understand the beauty of his ways Because the Lord doth not give it them Deut. 29.4 Why doth he not give all his converts an equal measure of his sanctifying Grace some have Mites and some have Treasures Why doth he give his Grace to some sooner to some later some are inspir'd in their infancy others not till a full age and after some not till they have fallen into some gross sin as Paul some betimes that they may do him service others later as the Thief upon the Cross and presently snatcheth them out of the World Some are weaker some stronger in nature some more beautiful and lovely others more uncomely and sluggish 'T is so in supernaturals What reason is there for this but his own will This is instead of all that can be assigned on the part of God He is the free disposer of his own Goods and as a Father may give a greater portion to one Child than to another And what reason of complaint is there against God may not a Toad complain that God did not make it a man and give it a portion of reason Or a Fly complain that God did not make it an Angel and give it a Garment of Light had they but any spark of understanding as well as man complain that God did not give him Grace as well as another Unless he sincerely desir'd it and then was denyed it he might complain of God though not as Soveraign yet as a promiser of Grace to them that ask it God doth not render his Soveraignty formidable he shuts not up his Throne of Grace from any that seek him he invites man his Arms are open and the Scepter stretched out and no man continues under the arrest of his Lusts but he that is unwilling to be otherwise and such a one hath no reason to complain of God 3. His Soveraignty is manifest in disposing the means of Grace to some not to all He hath caus'd the Sun to shine bright in one place while he hath left others benighted and deluded by the Devils Oracles Why do the Evangelical dews fall in this or that place and not in another Why was the Gospel publisht in Rome so soon and not in Tartary Why hath it been extinguisht in some places as soon almost as it had been kindled in them Why hath one place been honoured with the beams of it in one age and been covered with darkness the next One Country hath been made a sphear for this Star that directs to Christ to move in and afterwards it hath been taken away and placed in another Sometimes more clearly it hath shone sometimes more darkly in the same place what is the reason of this 'T is true something of it may be referred to the Justice of God but much more to the Soveraignty of God That the Gospel is publisht latter and not sooner the Apostle tell us is according to the Commandement of the Everlasting God Rom. 16.26 1. The means of Grace after the Families from Adam became distinct were never granted to all the World After that fatal breach in Adam's Family by the death of Abel and Cain's separation we read not of the means of Grace continued among Cain's Posterity it seems to be continued in Adam's sole Family and not publisht in Societies till the time of Seth. Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord. It was continued in that Family till the Deluge which was 1523 years after the Creation according to some or 1656 years according to others After that when the World degenerated it was communicated to Abraham and setled in the posterity that descended from Jacob Though he left not the World without a witness of himself and some sprinklings of revelations in other parts as appears by the book of Job and the discourses of his Friends 2. The Jews had this priviledge granted them above other Nations to have a clearer Revelation of God God separated them from all the World to honour them with the depositum of his Oracles Rom. 3.2 To them were committed the Oracles of God In which regard all other Nations are said to be without God as being destitute of so great a priviledge Eph. 2.12 The Spirit blew in Canaan when the Lands about it felt not the saving breath of it He hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them Psal 147.20 The rest had no warnings from the Prophets no dictates from Heaven but what they had by the light of Nature the view of the works of Creation and the Administration of Providence and what remain'd among them of some ancient Traditions deriv'd from Noah which in tract of time were much defaced We read but
Ver. 12. He shall gather them i. e. Those conspiring Nations as sheaves into the floor then he sounds a Trumpet to Sion Arise and thresh O Daughter of Sion for I will make thy Horn Iron and thy Hoofs Brass and thou shalt beat in pieces many people And I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord and their substance unto the Lord of the whole Earth I will make them and their Councels them and their strength the monuments and signal marks of my Empire over the whole Earth When you see the cunningest designs baffled by some small thing intervening when you see men of profound Wisdom infatuated mistake their way and grope in the noon day as in the night Job 5.14 bewildred in a plain way When you see the hopes of mighty attempters dasht into despair their triumphs turn'd into funerals and their joyful expectations into sorrowful disappointments when you see the weak devoted to destruction victorious and the most presumptuous defeated in their purposes then read the divine Dominion in the desolation of such devices How often doth God take away the Heart and Spirit of grand designs and burst a mighty wheel by snatching but one man out of the World How often doth he cut off the spirits of Princes Psal 76.12 either from the World by death or from the execution of their projects by some unforeseen interruption or from favouring those contrivances which before they cherish'd by a change of their minds How often hath confidence in God and religious Prayer edg'd the weakest and smallest number of weapons to make a carnage of the carnally confident How often hath presumption been disappointed and the contemn'd Enemy rejoyc'd in the spoils of the proud expectant of victory * Causin symb lib. 2. cap. 65. Phydias made the Image of Nemesis or revenge at Marathon of that Marble which the haughty Persians despising the weakness of the Athenian forces brought with them to erect a Trophy for an expected but an ungain'd victory Hamans neck by a sudden turn was in the Halter when the Jews necks were design'd to the block Julian design'd the overthrow of all the Christians just before his breast was peirced by an unexpected Arrow The Powder-Traytors were all ready to give fire to the Mine when the Soveraign hand of Heaven snatch'd away the match Thus the great Lord of the World cuts off men on the pinacle of their designs when they seem to threaten Heaven and Earth Puts out the Candle of the wicked which they thought to use to light them to the execution of their purposes turns their own Counsels into a curse to themselves and a blessing to their Adversaries and makes his greatest Enemies contribute to the effecting his purposes How may we take notice of Gods absolute disposal of things in private affairs when we see one man with a small measure of Prudence and little Industry have great success and others with a greater measure of Wisdom and greater toil and labour find their enterprizes melt between their fingers It was Solomons observation That the race was not to the swift nor the battle to the strong neither bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor yet favour to men of skill Eccles 9.11 Many things might interpose to stop the swift in his race and damp the courage of the most valiant Things do not happen according to mens ability but according to the over-ruling Authority of God God never yet granted man the dominion of his own way no more than to be Lord of his own time the way of man is not in himself it is not in him that walketh to direct his steps Jerem. 10.23 He hath given man a power of acting but not the soveraignty to command success He makes even those things which men intended for their security to turn to their ruine Pilate delivered up Christ to be accounted a friend to Caesar and Caesar soon after proves an Enemy to him removes him from his Government and sends him into banishment The Jews imagined by the crucifying Christ to keep the Roman Ensigns at a distance from them and this hasted their march by Gods soveraign disposal which ended in a total desolation He makes the Judges fools Job 12.17 by taking away his light from their understanding and suffering them to go on in the vanity of their own Spirits that his soveraignty in the management of things may be more apparent For then he is known to be Lord when he snares the wicked in the work of his own hands Psal 9.16 You have seen much of this doctrine in your experience and if my judgment fail me not you will yet see much more 5. The Dominion of God is manifest in sending his Judgments upon whom he please He kills and makes alive he wounds and heals whom he pleaseth His thunders are his own and he may cast them upon what subjects he thinks good He hath a right in a way of Justice to punish all men he hath his choice in a way of Soveraignty to pick out whom he please to make the examples of it Might not some Nations be as wicked as those of Sodom and Gomorrah yet have not been scorcht with the like dreadful flames Zoar was untoucht while the other Cities her Neighbours were burnt to ashes Were there never any places and persons successors in Sodoms guilt Yet those only by his Soveraign Authority are separated by him to be the examples of his Eternal vengeance Jude 7. Why are not sinners as Sodom like as those ancient ones scalded to death by the like fiery drops 't is because it is his pleasure and the same reason is to be rendered why he would in a way of Justice cut off the Jews for their sins and leave the Gentiles untoucht in the midst of their Idolatries When the Church was consumed because of her iniquities they acknowledg'd Gods Soveraignty in this Isaiah 64.7 8. We are the Clay and thou art our Potter and we all the work of thy hands thou hast a liberty either to break or preserve us Judgments move according to Gods order When the Sword hath a charge against Askelon and the Sea shoar thither it must march and touch not any other place or person as it goes though there may be demerit enough for it to punish Jer. 47.6 7. When the Prophet had spake to the Sword Oh thou Sword of the Lord how long will it be â—re thou be quiet Put up thy self into thy scabbard rest and be still The Prophet answers for the Sword how can it be quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Askelon there hath he appointed it If he hath appointed a judgment against London or Westminster or any other place there it shall drop there it shall peirce and in no other place without a like charge God as a Soveraign gives instructions to every Judgment when and against whom it shall march and what Cities what Persons it shall arrest
attempters and often oversets the disturbers of the peace of the World 3. Information God can do no wrong since he is absolute soveraign Man may do wrong Princes may oppress and rifle but it is a crime in them so to do Because their power is a power of Government and not of propriety in the goods or lives of their subjects but God cannot do any wrong whatsoever the clamours of Creatures are Because he can do nothing but what he hath a soveraign right to do If he takes away your goods he takes not away any thing that is yours more than his own since though he intrusted you with them he devested not himself of the propriety When he takes away our lives he takes what he gave us by a temporary donation to be surrendred at his call We can claim no right in any thing but by his will He is no debtor to us and since he owes us nothing he can wrong us in nothing that he takes away His own soveraignty excuseth him in all those acts which are most distastful to the Creature If we crop a medicinal plant for our use or a flower for our pleasure or kill a Lamb for our food we do neither of them any wrong Because the original of them was for our use and they had their life and nourishment and pleasing qualities for our delight and support and are not we much more made for the pleasure and use of God than any of those can be for us Of him and to him are all things Rom. 11.36 Hath not God as much right over any one of us as over the meanest Worm Though there be a vast difference in nature between the Angels in Heaven and the Worms on Earth yet they are all one in regard of subjection to God he is as much the Lord of the one as the other as much the proprietor of the one as the other as much the Governour of the one as the other Not a cranny in the World is exempt from his jurisdiction Not a mite or grain of a Creature exempt from his propriety He is not our Lord by election he was a Lord before we were in being he had no terms put upon him who capitulated with him and set him in his Throne by Covenant What Oath did he take to any subject at his first investiture in his Authority His right is as natural as eternal as himself As natural as his existence and as necessary as his Deity Hath he any Law but his own will What wrong can he do that breaks no Law that fulfils his Law in every thing he doth by fulfilling his own will which as it is absolutely soveraign so it is infinitely righteous In what soever he takes from us then he cannot injure us 't is no crime in any man to seize upon his own goods to vindicate his own honour and shall it be thought a wrong in God to do such things Besides the occasion he hath from every man and that every day provoking him to do it He seems rather to wrong himself by forbearing such a seizure than wrong us by executing it 4. If God have a soveraignty over the whole World then merit is totally excluded His right is so absolute over all Creatures that he neither is nor can be a debtor to any not to the undefiled holiness of the blessed Angels much less to poor earthly worms those blessed Spirits enjoy their glory by the title of his soveraign pleasure not by vertue of any obligation devolving from them upon God Are not the faculties whereby they and we perform any act of obedience his grant to us Is not the strength whereby they and we are enabled to do any thing pleasing to him a gift from him Can a vassal merit of his Lord or a slave of his Master by using his tools and employing his strength in his service though it was a strength he had naturally not by donation from the man in whose service it is employ'd God is Lord of all all is due to him how can we oblige him by giving him what is his own more his to whom it is presented than ours by whom it is offered * Austin He becomes not a debtor by receiving any thing from us but by promising something to us 5. If God hath a soveraign dominion over the whole World then hence it follows that all Magistrates are but soveraigns under God He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords all the Potentates of the World are no other than his Lieutenants moveable at his pleasure and more at his disposal than their subjects are at theirs Though they are dignified with the title of Gods yet still they are at an infinite distance from the supream Lord. Gods under God not to be above him not to be against him The want of the due sence of their subordination to God hath made many in the World act as soveraigns above him more than soveraigns under him Had they all bore a deep conviction of this upon their spirits such audacious language had never dropt from the mouth of Pharoah who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go Exod. 5.2 Presuming that there was no superior to controul him nor any in Heaven able to be a match for him Darius had never publisht such a doting Edict as to prohibit any petition to God Nero had never fir'd Rome and sung at the sight of the devouring flames nor ever had he ript up his mothers belly to see the Womb where he first lodg'd and received a life so hateful to his Country Nor would Abner and Joab the two Generals have accounted the death of men but a sport and interlude 2 Sam. 2.14 Let the young men arise and play before us what play it was the next verse acquaints you with thrusting their Swords into one anothers sides They were no more troubled at the death of thousands than a man is to kill a fly or a flea Had a sence of this but hover'd over their Souls People in many Countries had not been made their foot-balls and used worse than their dogs Nor had the lives of millions worth more than a World been expos'd to Fire and Sword to support some sordid lust or breach of Faith upon an idle quarrel and for the depredation of their Neighbours estates the flames of Cities had not been so bright nor the streams of blood so dâ—ep nor the cries of innocents so loud In Particular 1. If God be soveraign All under-Soveraigns are not to rule against him but to be obedient to his Orders If they rule by his Authority Prov. 8.15 they are not to rule against his interest they are not to imagine themselves as absolute as God and that their Laws must be of as soveraign Authority against his honour as the Divine are for it If they are his Leiutenants on Earth they ought to act according to his Orders No man but will account a Governour or a
Corruptions will certainly be subdued in his voluntary subjects The Covenant I will be your God implyes protection government and relief which are all grounded upon Soveraignty That therefore which is our greatest burden will be remov'd by his Soveraign power Micah 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities If the outward enemies of the Church shall not bear up against his Dominion and perpetuate their rebellions unpunisht those within his people shall as little bear up against his Throne without being destroy'd by him The billows of our own hearts and the raging waves within us are as much at his beck as those without us And his Soveraignty is more eminent in quelling the corruptions of the heart than the commotions of the World in reigning over mens Spirits by changing them or curbing them more than over mens bodies by pinching and punishing them The remainders of Satans Empire will moulder away before him since he that is in us is a greater Soveraign than he that is in the World 1 Joh. 4.4 His enemies will be laid at his feet and so neveâ— shall prevail against him when his Kingdom shall come He could not be Lord of any man as a happy creature if he did not by his power make them happy and he could not make them happy unless by his Grace he made them holy He could not be praised as a Lord of Glory if he did not make some creatures glorious to praise him And an Earthly Creature could not praise him perfectly unless he had every grain of enmity to his Glory taken out of his heart Since God is the only Soveraign he only can still the commotions in our spirits and pull down all the Ensigns of the Devil's royalty he can wast him by the powerful word of his lips 4. Hence is a strong encouragement for Prayer My King was the strong compellation David us'd in Prayer as an argument of comfort and confidence as well as that of My God Psal 5 2. Hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God To be a King is to have an Office of Government and Protection He gives us liberty to approach to him as the Judge of all Heb. 12.23 i. e. As the Governour of the World we pray to one that hath the whole Globe of Heaven and Earth in his hand and can do whatsoever he will Though he be higher than the Cherubims and transcendently above all in Majesty yet we may soar up to him with the wings of our Soul Faith and Love and lay open our cause and find him as gracious as if he were the meanest subject on Earth rather than the most soveraign God in Heaven He hath as much of tenderness as he hath of Authority and is pleased with Prayer which is an acknowledgment of his Dominion an honouring of that which he delights to honour For Prayer in the notion of it imports thus much that God is the Rector of the World that he takes notice of humane affairs that he is a careful just wise Governour a store-house of blessing a fountain of goodness to the indigent and a releif to the oppressed What have we reason to fear when the soveraign of the World gives us liberty to approach to him and lay open our case That God who is King of the whole Earth not only of a few Villages or Cities in the Earth but the whole Earth and not only King of this dreggy place of our dross but of Heaven having prepar'd or established his Throne in the most glorious place of the Creation 5. Here is comfort in afflictions As a soveraign he is the Author of Afflictions as a soveraign he can be the remover of them he can command the waters of affliction to go so far and no farther If he speaks the Word a disease shall depart as soon as a servant shall from your presence with a Nod. If we are banisht from one place he can command a shelter for us in another If he orders Moab a Nation that had no great kindness for his people to let his outcasts dwell with them they shall entertain them and afford them sanctuary Isaiah 16.4 Again God chastneth as a soveraign but teacheth as a Father Psal 99.12 The exercise of his Authority is not without an exercise of his goodness He doth not correct for his own pleasure or the Creature 's torment but for the Creature 's instruction though the rod be in the hand of a soveraign yet it is tinctur'd with the kindness of divine bowels He can order them as a soveraign to mortifie our flesh and try our Faith In the severest tempest the Lord that rais'd the Wind against us which shatter'd the ship and tore its rigging can change that contrary wind for a more happy one to drive us into the Port. 6. 'T is a comfort against the projects of the Churches adversaries in times of publick commotions The consideration of the Divine soveraignty may arm us against the threatnings of mighty ones and the menaces of persecutors God hath Authority above the Crowns of men and a Wisdom superior to the cabals of men None can move a step without him he hath a negative voice upon their Counsels a negative hand upon their motions their politick resolves must stop at the point he hath prescrib'd them Their formidable strength cannot exceed the limits he hath set them their overreaching wisdom expires at the breath of God There is no Wisdom nor Vnderstanding nor Counsel against the Lord. Prov. 21.30 Not a bullet can be discharg'd nor a Sword drawn a wall battered nor a person dispatcht out of the world without the leave of God by the mightiest in the World The instruments of Satan are no more free from his soveraign restraint than their inspirer they cannot pull the hook out of their nostrils nor cast the bridle out of their mouths This soveraign can shake the Earth rend the Heavens overthrow Mountains the most Mountainous opposers of his interest Though the Nations rush in against his people like the rushing of many waters God shall rebuke them they shall be chased as the chaff of the Mountains before the Wind and like a rolling thing before the Whirlwind Isaiah 17.13 So doth he often burst in pieces the most mischievous designs and conducts the oppressed to a happy port He often turns the severest tempests into a calm as well as the most peaceful calm into a horrible storm How often hath a well-rigg'd ship that seemed to spâ—rn the Sea under her feet and beat the waves before her to a foam been swallowed up into the bowels of that Element over whose back she rode a little before God never comes to deliver his Church as a Governour but in a wrathful posture Ezek. 20.23 Surely saith the Lord with a mighty hand and with an out stretched arm and with fury pour'd out will I rule over you not with fury poured out upon the Church but fury pour'd out upon her Enemies as the words
freedom in the exerting them what time he judgeth most convenient in his Wisdom God is necessarily holy and is necessarily angry with sin his nature can never like it and cannot but be displeased with it yet he hath a liberty to restrain the effects of this anger for a time without disgracing his holiness or being interpreted to act unrighteously As well as a Prince or State may suspend the execution of a Law which they will never break only for a time and for a publick benefit If God should presently execute his Justice this perfection of patience which is a part of his goodness would never have an opportunity of discovery Part of his Glory for which he Created the World would lye in obscurity from the knowledge of his creature His Justice would be signal in the destruction of sinners but this stream of his goodness would be stopt up from any motion One perfection must not cloud another God hath his seasons to discover all one after another The times and seasons are in his own power Act. 1.7 The seasons of manifesting his own perfections as well as other things Succession of them in their distinct appearance makes no invasion upon the rights of any If justice should complain of an injury from patience because it is delaid patience hath more reason to complain of an injury from justice that by such a plea it would be wholly obscur'd and unactive For this perfection hath the shortest time to act its part of any it hath no stage but this World to move in Mercy hath a Heaven and Justice a Hell to display it self to Eternity but long suffering hath only a short liv'd earth for the compass of its operation Again Justice is so far from being wrong'd by Patience that it rather is made more illustrious and hath the fuller scope to exercise it self 'T is the more righted for being deferred and will have stronger grounds than before for its activity The equity of it will be more apparent to every reason the objections more fully answered against it when the way of dealing with sinners by patience hath been slighted When this dam of long suffering is remov'd the floods of fiery justice will rush down with more force and violence Justice will be fully recompenc'd for the delay when after Patience is abused it can spread it self over the offender with a more unquestionable Authority it will have more arguments to hit the sinner in the teeth with and silence him There will be a sharper edge for every stroke the sinner must not only pay for the score of his former sins but the score of abus'd patience so that justice hath no reason to commence a suit against God's slowness to anger What it shall want by the fulness of mercy upon the truly penitent it will gain by the contempt of patience on the impenitent abusers When men by such a carriage are ripen'd for the stroke of justice justice may strike without any regret in it self or pull-back from mercy The contempt of long suffering will silence the pleas of the one and spirit the severity of the other To conclude since God hath glorified his justice on Christ as a surety for sinners his patience is so far from interfering with the rights of his justice that it promotes it 'T is dispensed to this end that God might pardon with honour both upon the score of purchased mercy and contented justice that by a penitent sinners return his mercy might be acknowledg'd free and the satisfaction of his Justice by Christ be glorified in believing for he is long suffering from an unwillingness that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 i. e. All to whom the promise is made for to such the Apostle speaks and calls it long suffering to us ward And Repentance being an acknowledgment of the demerit of sin and a breaking off unrighteousness gives a particular glory to the freeness of mercy and the equity of Justice II. The 2d thing How this patience or slowness to anger is manifested 1. To our First Parents His slowness to anger was evidenced in not directing his Artillery against them when they first attempted to rebel He might have struck them dead when they began to bite at the temptation and were inclinable to a surrender for it was a degree of sinning and a breach of Loyalty as well though not so much as the consummating Act. God might have given way to the floods of his wrath at the first spring of man's aspiring thoughts when the monstrous motion of being as God began to be curdled in his heart But he took no notice of any of their Embryo sins till they came to a ripeness and started out of the womb of their minds into the open Air And after he had brought his sin to perfection God did not presently send that death upon him which he had merited but continued his Life to the space of 930 years Gen. 5.5 The Sun and Stars were not arrested from doing their Office for him Creatures were continued for his use the earth did not swallow him up nor a Thunderbolt from Heaven raze out the memory of him Though he had deserved to be treated with such a severity for his ungrateful demeanour to his Creator and Benefactor and affecting an equality with him yet God continued him with a sufficiency for his content after he turned rebel though not with such a liberality as when he remain'd a Loyal Subject And though he foresaw that he would not make an end of sinning but with an end of living he used him not in the same manner as he had used the Devils He added dayes and years to him after he had deserved death and hath for this 5000 years continued the propagation of Mankind and derived from his loyns an innumerable posterity and hath crown'd multitudes of them with hoary heads He might have extinguisht humane race at the first but since he hath preserved it till this day it must be interpreted nothing else but the effect of an admirable Patience 2. His slowness to anger is manifest to the Gentiles What they were we need no other witness than the Apostle Paul who summs up many of their crimes Rom. 1.29.30 31 32. He doth preface the Catalogue with a comprehensive expression being filled with all unrighteousness And concludes it with a dreadful aggravation They not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them They were so soakt and naturaliz'd in wickedness that they had no delight and found no sweetness in any thing else but what was in it self abominable All of them were plung'd in Idolatry and Superstition none of them but either set up their great men or creatures beneficial to the World and some the damned Spirits in his stead and paid an adoration to insensible Creatures or Devils which was due to God Some were so deprav'd in their lives and actions that it seem'd to be the
He sends but a few drops out of the Cloud which he might make to break in the gross and fall down upon our heads to overwhelm us he abates much of what he might do When he might sweep away a whole Nation by deluges of water corruption of the Air or convulsions of the Earth or by other wayes that are not wanting at his order He picks out only some Persons some Families some Cities sends a plague into one house and not into another here is Patience to the stock of a Nation while he inflicts punishment upon some of the most notorious sinners in it Herod is suddenly snatcht away being willingly flattered into the thoughts of his being a God God singl'd out the chief in the herd for whose sake he had been affronted by the rabble Act. 12.22 23. Some find him sparing them while others feel him destroying them He arrests some when he might seize all all being his Debtors And often in great desolations brought upon a people for their sin he hath left a stump in the Earth as Daniel speakes Dan. 4.15 for a Nation to grow upon it again and arise to a stronger constitution He doth punish less than our iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 and rewards us not according to our iniquities Psal 103.10 The greatness of any punishment in this Life answers not the greatness of the crime Though there be an equity in whatsoever he doth yet there is not an equality to what we deserve Our iniquities would justifie a severer treating of us His Justice goes not here to the end of its line 't is stopped in its progress and the blows of it weakned by his Patience He did not curse the Earth after Adam's fall that it should bring forth no fruit but that it should not bring forth fruit without the wearysome toyl of man and subjected him to distempers presently but inflicted not death immediately while he punished him he supported him And while he expelled him from Paradise he did not order him not to cast his eye towards it and conceive some hopes of regaining that happy place 5. His Patience is seen in giving great mercies after provocations He is so slow to anger that he heaps many kindnesses upon a rebel instead of punishment There is a prosperous wickedness wherein the provokers strength continues firm The troubles which like Clouds drop upon others are blown away from them and they are not plagued like other men that have a more worthy demeanour towards God Psal 73.3 4 5. He doth not only continue their lives but sends out fresh beams of his goodness upon them and calls them by his Blessings that they may acknowledge their own fault and his bounty which he is not obliged to by any gratitude he meets with from them but by the richness of his own patient nature for he finds the unthank fulness of men as great as his benefits to them He doth not only continue his outward mercies while we continue our sins but sometimes gives fresh benefits after new provocations that if possible he might excite an ingenuity in men When Israel at the Red Sea flung dirt in the face of God by quarrelling with his servant Moses for bringing them out of Egypt and mis-judging God in his design of deliverance and were ready to submit themselves to their former oppressors Exod. 14.11 12. which might justly have urged God to say to them take your own course yet he is not only patient under their unjust charge but makes bare his Arm in a deliverance at the Red Sea that was to be an amazing monument to the World in all Ages and afterwards when they repiningly quarrelled with him in their wants in the Wilderness he did not only not revenge himself upon them or cast off the conduct of them but bore with them by a miraculous long suffering and supplyed them with miraculous provision Manna from Heaven and Water from a Rock Food is given to support us and Cloaths to cover us and Divine Patience makes the creatures which we turn to another use than what they were at first intended for serve us contrary to their own Genius For had they reason no question but they would complain to be subjected to the service of man who hath been so ungrateful to their Creator and groan at the abuse of God's Patience in the abuse they themselves suffer from the hands of man 6. All this is more manifest if we consider the provocations he hath Wherein his slowness to Anger infinitely transcends the Patience of any creature nay the Spirits of all the Angels and Glorified Saints in Heaven would be too narrow to bear the sins of the World for one day nay not so much as the sins of Churches which is a little spot in the whole World 't is because he is the Lord one of an infinite power over himself that not only the whole Mass of the Rebellious World but of the Sons of Jacob either considered as a Church and Nation springing from the loyns of Jacob or considered as the Regenerate part of the World sometimes called the Seed of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 A Jonah was angry with God for recalling his Anger from a sinful people Had God committed the Government of the World to the Glorified Saints who are perfect in Love and Holiness the World would have had an end long ago They would have acted that which they sue for at the hands of God and is not granted them Rev. 6.10 How long Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth God hath designs of Patience above the World above the unsinning Angels and perfectly renewed Spirits in Glory The greatest Created long suffering is infinitely disproportion'd to the Divine Fire from Heaven would have been showred down before the greatest part of a day were spent if a Created Patience had the conduct of the World though that creature were possessed with the spirit of Patience extracted from all the creatures which are in Heaven or are or ever were upon the earth Methinks Moses intimates this for as soon as God had passed by proclaiming his Name gracious and long suffering As soon as ever Moses had paid his Adoration he falls a Praying that God would go with the Israelites Exod. 34.8 9. For it is a stiffneck'd people What an Argument is here for God to go along with them He might rather since he had heard him but just before say he would by no means clear the guilty desire God to stand further off from them for fear the fire of his wrath should burst out from him to burn them as he did the Sodomites But he considers that as none but God had such anger to destroy them so none but God had such a Patience to bear with them 'T is as much as if he should have said Lord if thou should'st send the most tender hearted Angel in Heaven to have the guidance of this people
they would be a lost people A period will quickly be set to their lives no Created strength can restrain its power from crushing such a stiff-neck'd people Flesh and Blood cannot bear them nor any Created Spirit of a greater might 1. Consider the greatness of the provocations No light matter but actions of a great defiance What is the practical Language of most in the World but that of Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should obey him How many question his being and more his Authority What blasphemies of him what reproaches of his Majesty Men drinking up iniquity like water and with a hast and ardency rushing into sin as the horse into the battle What is there in the reasonable creature that hath the quickest capacity and the deepest obligation to serve him but opposition and enmity a slight of him in every thing yea the services most seriously performed unsuited to the royalty and purity of so great a Being Such provocations as dare him to his face that are a burden to so righteous a Judge and so great a lover of the Authority and Majesty of his Laws That were there but a spark of anger in him 't is a wonder it doth not shew it self When he is invaded in all his attributes 't is astonishing that this single one of Patience and Meekness should with-stand the assault of all the rest of his perfections His being which is attack'd by sin speakes for vengeance his Justice cannot be imagin'd to stand silent without charging the sinner His Holiness cannot but encourage his Justice to urge its pleas and be an Advocate for it His Omniscience proves the truth of all the charge and his abused mercy hath little encouragement to make opposition to the Indictment Nothing but Patience stands in the gap to keep off the arrest of judgment from the sinner 2. His Patience is manifest if you consider the multitudes of these provocations Every man hath sin enough in a day to make him stand amazed at Divine Patience and to call it as well as the Apostle did all long suffering 1 Tim. 1.16 How few duties of a perfectly right stamp are performed What unworthy considerations mix themselves like dross with our purest and sincerest Gold How more numerous are the respects of the Worshippers of him to themselves than unto him How many services are paid him not out of love to him but because he should do us no hurt and some service When we do not so much design to please him as to please our selves by expectations of a reward from him What Master would endure a servant that endeavoured to please him only because he should not kill him Is that former charge of God upon the Old World yet out of date That the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man was only evil and that continually Gen. 6.5 Was not the New World as chargeable with it as the Old Certainly it was Gen. 8.21 And is of as much force this very minute as it was then How many are the sins against knowledge as well as those of ignorance Presumptuous sins as well as those of infirmity How numerous those of Omission and Commission * Lessius pag. 152. 'T is above the reach of any man's understanding to conceive all the Blasphemies Oaths Thefts Adulteries Murders Oppressions contempt of Religion the open Idolatries of Turks and Heathens the more spiritual and refin'd Idolatries of others Add to those the ingratitude of those that profess his name their pride earthlyness carelesness sluggishness to divine duties and in every one of those a multitude of provocations The whole man being engag'd in every sin the understanding contriving it the will embracing it the affections complying with it and all the members of the body instruments in the acting the unrighteousness of it Every one of these faculties bestowed upon men by him are armed against him in every act and in every employment of them there is a distinct provocation though center'd in one sinful end and object What are the offences all the men of the World receive from their fellow creatures to the injuries God receives from men but as a small dust of earth to the whole mass of Earth and Heaven too What multitudes of sins is one prophane wretch guilty of in the space of 20 40 50 years Who can compute the vast number of his transgressions from the first use of reason to the time of the separation of his Soul from his Body from his entrance into the World to his exit What are those to those of a whole Village of the like Inhabitants What are those to those of a great City Who can number up all the foul mouth'd Oaths the beastly excess the goatish uncleanness committed in the space of a day year twenty years in this City much less in the whole Nation least of all in the whole World Were it no more than the common Idolatry of former ages when the whole World turn'd their backs upon their Creator and passed him by to sue to a Creature a stock or stone or a degraded spirit How provoking would it be to a Prince to see a whole City under his Dominion deny him a respect and pay it to his scullion or the common Executioner he employs Add to this the unjust invasions of Kings the oppressions exercised upon men all the private and publick sins that have been in the World ever since it began The Gentiles were describ'd by the Apostle Rom. 1.29 30 31. in a black character They were haters of God yet how did the Riches of his patience preserve multitudes of such disingenuous persons and how many millions of such haters of him breath every day in his Air and are maintained by his bounty have their tables sprâ—â—d and their cups fill'd to the brim and that too in the midst of reiterated belchings of their enmity against him All are under sufficient provocations of him to the highest indignation The presiding Angels over Nations could not forbear in Love and Honour to their Governour to arm themselves to the destruction of their several charges if Divine patience did not set them a pattern and their obedience incline them to expect his Orders before they act what their zeal would prompt them to The Devils would be glad of Commission to destroy the World but that his patience puts a stop to their fury 〈◊〉 well as his own Justice 3. Consider the long time of this patience He spread out his handâ— all the day to a rebellious World Isaiah 65.2 All mens day all Gods day which is a thousand years he hath born with the gross of mankind with all the Nations of the World in a long succession of ages for five thousand years and upwards already and will bear with them till the time comes for the World dissolution He hath suffered the monstrous acts of men and endur'd the contradictions of a sinful World against himself from the first sin of Adam
757 758 782 783 V. Governour and Magistrates Licentiousness the Gospel no friend to Pag. 336 Life Eternal expected by Men from something of their own vide Justification Assured to the People of God Pag. 236 683 684 Light a glorious Creature Pag. 588 Light of Nature shews the Being of a God Pag. 4 5 Limiting God a contempt of his Dominion Pag. 761 Lives of Men at God's disposal Pag. 748 Love to God sometimes arises meerly from some self-pleasing benefits Pag. 90 A necessary ingredient in Spiritual Worship Pag. 147 148 A great help to it Pag. 176 God is highly worthy of it Pag. 201 202 556 557 563 675 676 677 778 Outward expressions of it insignificant without Obedience Pag. 580 581 God's Gospel name Pag. 616 Of God to his People great Pag. 769 Lusts of Men make them Atheists Pag. 2 M. MAgistracy the Goodness of God in setling it Pag. 650 Magistraees are inferiour to God to be obedient to him Pag. 765 766 Ought to govern Justly and Righteously Pag. 766 To be obey'd ib. Man could not make himself Pag. 17 18 19 20 The World subservient to him Pag. 23 The abridgement of the Universe Pag. 29 30 608 Naturally disowns the Rule God hath set him Pag. 54 ad 67 Owns any Rule rather than God's Pag. 67 ad 70 Would set himself up as his own Rule Pag. 70 ad 74 Would give Laws to God Pag. 74 ad 80 Would make himself his own End V. End His Natural Corruption how great Pag. 452 Made holy at first Pag. 507 508 607 Yet mutable which was no blemish to God's Holiness Pag. 517 518 519 Made after God's Image Pag. 607 The World made and furnish'd for him Pag. 608 609 610 In his Corrupt estate without any motives to excite Gods Redeeming love Pag. 625 ad 628 Restored to a more excellent state than his first Pag. 641 642 Under God's Dominion Pag. 719 720 Means Vide Instrument To depend on the Power of God and neglect them is an abuse of it Pag. 483 484 Of Grace to neglect them an affront of God's Wisdom Pag. 402 403 Given to some and not to others Pag. 734 ad 737 Have various influences Pag. 737 738 Meditation on the Law of God Men have no delight in Pag. 56 Members bodily attributed to God do not prove him a Body Pag. 118 119 What sort of them attributed to him ib. With a respect to the Incarnation of Christ ib. Mercies of God to Sinners how Wonderful Pag. 99 100 A Motive to Worship Pag. 130 Former ones should be remembred when we come to beg new ones Pag. 180 Its Plea for Fallen Man Pag. 376 377 It and Justice reconcil'd in Christ Pag. 377 Holiness of God in them to be observed Pag. 557 Contempt and abuse of them vide Goodness One foundation of God's Dominion Pag. 709 710 Call for our Love of him Pag. 676 677 678 And Obedience to him Pag. 680 681 Given after great Provocations Pag. 805 806 Merit of Christ not the cause of the first resolution of God to Redeem Pag. 621 622 Not the cause of Election Pag. 728 729 Man uncapable of Pag. 764 Miracles prove the Being of a God though not wrought to that end Pag. 5 38 Wrought by God but seldom Pag. 371 The Power of God Pag. 438 The Power of God seen no more in them than in the ordinary works of Nature Pag. 450 451 Many wrought by Christ Pag. 460 Moral Goodness encouraged by God Pag. 652 Moral Law commands things good in their own Nature Pag. 51 723 The Holiness of God appears in in it Pag. 508 Holy in the matter and manner of his Precepts Pag. 508 509 Reaches the Inward Man Pag. 509 510 Perpetual ib. V. Law of God Publish'd with Majesty Pag. 724 Mortification how difficult Pag. 101 Motions of all Creatures in God Pag. 449 Variety of them in a single Creature Pag. 449 450 Mountains how useful Pag. 23 Before the Deluge Pag. 181 Mouth how curiously contrived Pag. 30 N. NAture of Man must be sanctified before it can perform Spiritual Worship Pag. 142 Human highly advanced by its union with the Son of God Pag. 628 629 Human and Divine in Christ vide Vnion Night how necessary Pag. 350 O. OBedience to God not true unless it be universal Pag. 61 Due to him upon the account of his Eternity Pag. 202 To him should be preferr'd before Obedience to Men. V. Laws Of Faith only acceptable to God Pag. 336 Distinct but inseparable from Faith ib. Shall be rewarded Pag. 354 Redemption a strong Incentive to it Pag. 387 388 Without it nothing will avail us Pag. 580 581 The goodness of God in accepting it tho imperfect Pag. 656 657 Due to God for his goodness Pag. 680 681 682 Due to God as a Soveraign Pag. 779 780 781 What kind of it due to him Pag. 781 782 783 784 Objects the proposing them to Man which God knows he will use to sin no blemish to Gods Holiness Pag. 533 ad 536 Obstinacy in Sin a contempt of Divine Power Pag. 480 481 Omissions of Prayer a practical denial of God's Knowledge Pag. 328 Of Duty a contempt of his Goodness Pag. 666 Omnipresence an Attribute of God Pag. 243 Denied by some Jews and Heathens but acknowledged by the wisest amongst them Pag. 244 245 To be understood negatively Pag. 245 Influential on all Creatures Pag. 245 246 Limited to Subjects capacitated for this or that kind of it Pag. 246 Essential ib. In all places Pag. 246 247 248 With all Creatures Pag. 248 Without mixture with them or division of himself Pag. 248 249 Not by multiplication or extension Pag. 249 But totally ib. In imaginary spaces beyond the World Pag. 249 250 251 God's incommunicable Property Pag. 251 252 Arguments to prove his Omnipresence Pag. 252 ad 256 Objections against it answer'd Pag. 257 ad 261 Ascribed to Christ Pag. 261 262 Proves God a Spirit Pag. 262 And his Providence ib. And Omniscient and Incomprehensible Pag. 263 Calls for Admiration of him Pag. 264 Forgotten and contemn'd 264 Pag. 265 Terrible to Sinners Pag. 265 266 Comfortable to the Righteous and wherein Pag. 268 Should be often thought of and the advantages of so doing Pag. 268 ad 270 Opposition in the hearts of Men naturally against the Will of God Pag. 57 P. PArdon Gods Infinite Knowledge a comfort when we reflect on it or seek it Pag. 334 †The Power of God in granting it and giving a sense of it Pag. 470 471 The Spring of all other Blessings Pag. 698 Always accompanied with Regeneration ib. Punishment remitted upon it Pag. 698 699 'T is perfect Pag. 699 Of God and his alone gives a full security Pag. 769 770 Patience under Afflictions a duty Pag. 415 God's Immutability should teach us it Pag. 237 238 A sense of God's Holiness would promote it Pag. 555 556 And his Goodness Pag. 688 Motives to it Pag. 784 785 786 The true Nature of it Pag. 786 Consideration of
Goodness of God seen in them Pag. 450 607 Spaces imaginary beyond the World God is present with Pag. 249 250 251 Spirit that God is so plainly asserted but once in Scripture Pag. 112 Various acceptations of the word Pag. 113 That God is so how to be understood ibid. God the only pure one Pag. 114 Arguments to prove God is one Pag. 115 ad 118. Objection against it answered Pag. 118 119 Spirit of God his assistance necessary to Spiritual Worship Pag. 142 Spirits of men raised up and ordered by God as be pleases Pag. 743 744 Subjection to our Superiors God remits of his own right for preserving it Pag. 651 652 Success men apt to ascribe to themselves Pag. 82 Not to be ascribed to our selves Pag. 669 670 Denied by God to some Pag. 740 Summer how necessary Pag. 350 Sun conveniently placed Pag. 22 148 Its motion useful Pag. 22 23 25 148 The Power of God seen in it Pag. 450 Lord's Supper the goodness of God in appointing it Pag. 639 Seals the Covenant of Grace Pag. 640 641 In it we have Union and Communion with Christ Pag. 641 642 The neglect of it reproved Pag. 642 Supererogation an Opinion that injures the Holiness of God Pag. 546 Superstition proceeds from vain imaginations of God Pag. 95 Swearing by any Creature an injury to God's Omniscience Pag. 323 324 T. TEmptations the Presence of God a comfort in them Pag. 266 The thoughts of it would be a Shield against them Pag. 269 The Wisdom and Power of God a comfort under them Pag. 406 486 The goodness manifested to his people under them Pag. 658 659 660 The thoughts of God's Soveraignty would arm and make us watchful against them Pag. 774 Thankfulness a necessary ingredient in Spiritual worship Pag. 148 Due to God Pag. 689 690 777 778 823 824 825 A sense of his Goodness would promote it Pag. 689 Theft an Invasion of God's Dominion Pag. 758 Thoughts should be often upon God Pag. 46 Seldom are on him Pag. 86 97 98 All known by God only Pag. 285 286 287 And by Christ Pag. 316 317 Cherishing evil ones a practical denial of God's Knowledge Pag. 327 Thoughts of God's Knowledge would make us watchful over them Pag. 338 †Threatnings the not fulfilling them sometimes argue no change in God Pag. 226 227 Are conditional ibid. The goodness of God in them Pag. 613 Go before Judgments v. Judgments Time cannot be infinite Pag. 16 Times of bestowing Mercy God orders as a Soveraign Pag. 741 Tongue how curious a Workmanship Pag. 31 Traditions old ones generally lost Pag. 11 Belief of a God not owing meerly to it ibid. Transubstantiation an absurd Doctrine Pag. 483 Trees how useful Pag. 23 350 Trust in themselves men do and not in God Pag. 83 84 We should not in the World Pag. 199 200 236 God the fit Object of it Pag. 329 386 397 489 551 552 †678 779 Means to promote it Pag. 339 †773 Should not in our own Wisdom Pag. 411 412 In our selves a contempt of God's Power and Dominion Pag. 482 759 God's Power the main ground of trusting him Pag. 489 490 And sometimes the only one Pag. 490 Should be placed in God against outward appearances Pag. 558 Goodness the first motive of it Pag. 678 More foundations of it and motives to it under the Gospel than under the Law Pag. 679 Gives God the glory of his goodness Pag. 679 680 God's Patience to the Wicked a ground for the Righteous to trust in his promise Pag. 821 Truths of God most contrary to self man most opposite to And to those that are most holy spiritual lead most to God and relate most to him Pag. 59 60 Men unconstant in the belief of them Pag. 231 232 Corrupters of them no better than Devils Pag. 541 †Evangelical shall prevail ibid. U. UBiquity of Christ's Human Nature confuted Pag. 252 Venial sins an opinion that reproaches God's Holiness Pag. 546 Vertue and Vice not Arbitrary things Pag. 51 Vnbelief the Reason of it Pag. 101 102 A contempt of Divine Power Pag. 483 And Goodness Pag. 664 665 Vnion of Soul and Body an effect of Almighty Power Pag. 33 Of two Natures in Christ made no change in his Divine Nature Pag. 224 Shews the Wisdom of God Pag. 339 ad 383 How necessary for us Pag. 381 382 383 Shews the Power of God Pag. 458 459 460 Explain'd Pag. 459 460 Vide Incarnation Vsurpations of Men an Invasion of God's Soveraignty Pag. 754 755 W. WAter an excellent Creature Pag. 588 Weakness a sensibleness of it a necessary ingredient in Spiritual Worship Pag. 148 Will of God cannot be defeated Pag. 52 Man averse to it vide Man The same with his Essence Pag. 214 Always accompanied with his Understanding ibid. Unchangeable Pag. 214 215 The unchangeableness of it doth not make things willed by him so Pag. 215 216 Free Pag. 216 How conversant about Sin Pag. 522 Will of Man not necessitated by God's Fore-knowledge Pag. 301 ad 304 Of Man subject to God Pag. 720 Winds how useful Pag. 349 Winter how useful Pag. 350 Wisdom an Attribute of God Pag. 337 What it is and wherein it consists Pag. 338 Distinct from Knowledge Pag. 338 Essential which is the same with his Essence and personal Pag. 339 In what sense God is only wise Pag. 339 ad 343 Proved to be in God Pag. 343 ad 346 Appears in Creation Pag. 346 ad 351 In government of Man as Rational Pag. 352 ad 357 As fallen and sinful Pag. 357 ad 367 As restored Pag. 367 ad 373 In Redemption Pag. 373 ad 388 In the Condition of the Covenant of Grace Pag. 388 ad 390 In the propagation of the Gospel Pag. 390 ad 395 Ascribed to Christ Pag. 395 Renders God fit to govern the World and enclines him actually to govern it Pag. 395 396 A ground of his Patience and Immutability in his Decrees Pag. 396 397 Makes him a fit Object of our Trust Pag. 397 Infers a Day of Judgment Pag. 398 Calls for a Veneration of him ibid. A ground of Prayer to him Pag. 399 Prodigiously contemn'd and wherein Pag. 399 ad 405 Comfortable to the Righteous Pag. 405 406 407 In Creation and Government should be meditated on and Motives to it Pag. 407 ad 410 In Redemption to be studied and admired Pag. 410 411 To be submitted to in his Revelations Precepts Providences Pag. 413 414 415 Not to be censured in any of his ways Pag. 415 Wisdom no Man should be proud of or trust in Pag. 411 412 Should be sought from God Pag. 412 413 World was not and could not be from Eternity Pag. 16 17 Could not make it self Pag. 17 18 19 No Creature could make it Pag. 20 Its Harmony Pag. 21 ad 27 Greedily pursued by Men Pag. 86 Inordinate desires after it a great hindrance to Spiritual Worship Pag. 177 Our Love and Confidence not to be placed in it Pag. 199 200 207 Shall not be