God the first-born of every Creature For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by him and for him And he is before all things and by him all things consist And he is the Head of the Body the Church who is the beginning the first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the Preheminence For it pleased the Father that in him all Fulness should dwell And having made Peace through the Blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself whether things in Earth or things in Heaven God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds Who being the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the Word of his Power when he had by himself purged our Sins sat down on the Right-hand of the Majesty on high For unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Because God hath appointed a Day in the which he will judg the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given Assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead Now it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass than one tittle of the Law to fail The Son of Man shall come in his Glory and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit upon the Throne of his Glory and before him shall all Nations be gathered Then the foolish Virgins that neglected opportunity to provide Oil shall be excluded Heaven They that in divers Instances agreed in one Consent to prefer and over-value present Animal Enjoyments before the Lord's Invitation to his Marriage-Supper shall never taste of Eternal Life They that thought it a hard Saying and not to be born the Command of our Lord to crucify the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts to renounce a vain Conversation and a Conformity to the Fashion of the World which passeth away that refuse to deny self to take up the Cross to cut off right Hand and Foot and pluck out right Eye and cast them away All such must hear and perish for ever under that dreadful Word Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But on the other side to those who believed the Truth as it is in Jesus without contradicting or blaspheming received it in Love and the Obedience of Faith not holding it in Unrighteousness the King shall say Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World But where shall ungodly Sinners appear that send after the Lord Jesus into Heaven this Rebel Message We will not have this Man to reign over us That renounce the Satisfaction and Redemption of Christ that blasphemously deny the Deity of Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory they shall say to the Mountains and Rocks Fall on us and hide us from the Face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb For the great Day of his Wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Few Men have been found in any Age or Country to have filled their Hearts with such profligate Madness to deny God Indeed Cicero saith that Epicurus while in words he allowed a Deity he did really and by pretended Notions utterly disavow the Providence of God without which the Name of God must be an empty and contemptible Sound For as Cicero observes if the Fear of God and Reverential Regard to the actual Providence of God be denied or weakened thereby also the common Faith and Security of human Society and the Ground and Foundation of universal commutative and distributive Justice is altogether subverted The Psalmist affirms that the Fool hath said in his Heart there is no God That is the Disposition and working of his Heart in the desperate Wickedness and unexpressible Deceitfulness of all its Purposes and vain Imagination to avow the casting off the regard of God Therefore the Psalmist immediately adds They have done abominable Works there is none that doth good Accordingly the Psalmist again expresses The Transgression of the wicked saith within my Heart that there is no Fear of God before his Eyes For he flattereth himself in his own Eyes until his Iniquity be found to be hateful It is therefore most irrational Dementation to detract from the infinite Perfections of the Eternal God for thereby Man is left in a wretched Condition more abject than that of the Beast which perishes liable to the Miseries of this Life without the help of the Awe and Encouragement of future Punishments and Rewards There needs not any Foreign Topick of Argumentation to prove the Existence of God and his absolute Soveraignty over all Beings For the Conscience of Good and Evil radicated in every human Intelligence is a continual and unanswerable Evidence of the infinite Perfections of the Eternal God blessed for ever It is most absurd Folly and Contradiction to own a Nominal God and to deny the Essential Attributes of the infinite Perfection of the Deity Eternal Being Truth and Goodness are the infinite Perfections of one Almighty All-sufficient God Eternity of Being implies Original Essential Existence absolutely simple altogether independent wholly immutable universally powerful every-where present From whence flows Almighty Power to create and uphold all things according to his Will to be the only Cause of all other Beings and of all Causes of their Life with all distinct and proper Abilities thereof of their Operation with all the Powers of Exercise Rules or Limits to direct and govern and End of Performance Of their Subsistence with all Circumstances of Time and Place for the Beginning Continuance or Progress and finishing their Course with all diversity and alterations of Condition therein Sustentation and Regulation as necessarily flowing from and depending upon God as Origination Truth is original eternal infinite Righteousness and Holiness and Knowledg the Perfection of excellent Eminence whereby the Divine Majesty and Essence is infinitely exalted above and separated from all possibility of Communion with or Respect unto Vanity Impurity Unrighteousness or Wickedness and doth satisfyingly rest in his own All-sufficient Soveraignty Thence derives and dispenses to all Creatures the Law of Truth to guide and direct inherently the Sustentation Operation and final Determination of all Beings according to their several respective Natures for the mutual Support Preservation and Comfort of the Universe all in subordinate necessary Subjection to the supreme Obedience unto the Will of God and ultimate
God can be well-pleased with sinners even through the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God who purgethi'geth our Consciences from the dead Works of Sin to serve the Living God For by one Offering he hath perfected ever them that are sanctisied Therefore to imagine any Possibility of the Pardon of Sin without out the atoning Propitiation and Satisfaction only obtained by the Blood of Christ is an evil Figment to palliate the desperate Wickedness and Sinfulness of Sin to make void the Law of perpetual Righteousness which is the inâ—sible Rule and Judg of all Affections and Actions and doth indeed effectually contemn and blaspheme the infinite Majesty Holiness and Justice of God the Creator and Preserver of all Beings and consequently miserably deprives a Sinner of that strong Consolation given by God to those that fly for Refuge unto Christ to obtain by his Resurrection the Evidence of his compleat Satisfaction to Divine Justice the Answer of a good Conscience The Worshippers thus purged as the Scripture saith having no more Conscience of Sins the Lord having laid on him the Iniquities of us all who do the Work of God to believe on him whom he hath sent For this is the true Cabala the faithful Saying and worthy of all Acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save even chief Sinners In the Cases of Life and Death according to universal Justice in the World it is fatal not only to be an Outlaw flying from Justice Mute in refusing to answer Justice but it proves no less mortal to suggest a Plea which the Law will not allow If a Criminal condemned to die be favoured with some Reprieve and then by the Soveraign's Commission intrusted with an important Imployment the faithful Discharge of that Trust is meer Duty but not Merit and he remains still a condemned Malefactor liable to the former Sentence by the Law of Attaint and Death from which not any thing can deliver but a Pardon from the Soveraign laid hold on and legally pleaded by the Criminal It is thus according to the Rule of Righteousness between the Judg of all the World and every Mortal Creature that God might be just and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Therefore we must not be ignorant of Saton's Devices the Popish Doctrine of Merit by Works sprinkled as they say by the Blood of Christ available to Justification and Salvation is an Antichristian Departure from the Faith and the teaching of Lies in Hypocrisy For there cannot be any Work possible to be accepted by Divine Justice but what is an Act of Obedience to the Law and the best Performances of such is but as our Saviour saith that of an unprofitable Servant When we shall have done all those things which are commanded us we must say We have done that which was our Duty to do Therefore the Observance of a present Duty the Neglect or Male-performance whereof would be criminal Guilt cannot in any just Construction be assumed or imputed to expiate a precedent Transgression guilty of Felony and Treason Yet this Truth doth not in any degree exempt from the Obedience of Faith which is the inseparable and indispensable Obligation and Duty annexed to the Covenant of Grace So that there is not in the least degree any Pretence for Antinomian Libertinism For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us that denying Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Because Faith unites us to the Principle of Life and works in us by Love which is the Operation or Activity of Life in the fulfilling of the Law There is also another Method of the Depths of Satan to cloud the Glory of God's free Grace and the compleat Merit of Christ's Satisfaction and Righteousness and also to shake the Confidence of a Sinner's Hope to obtain Remission and Acceptance by suborning the Act of Faith to share in the Merits of Christ Now how weak and unreasonable this Supposition is will appear by the Consideration of parallel Cases of Civil and Natural Instances in Judicature Tho the guilty Person cannot have Benefit unless he plead the Royal Pardon yet there is no Virtue in the Plea and humble Claim but only in the extensive Validity of the Pardon Likewise in desperate Sickness or deadly Wound the healing Virtue is not in the meer Application or receiving the Sovereign Balm or Elixir not withstanding the Patient cannot be healed without the Reception or Application of the Remedy Thus it is with a Sinner before the Divine Tribunal Faith believes the Truth and Goodness of the Promise and embraces and relies upon it that is upon the Redemption purchased by Jesus Christ for compleat Salvation from the Condemnation and Corruption of sinful Death for Reconciliation and Acceptance with God and for Participation of Eternal Life which is in Christ Jesus to be communicated to all those who by Faith receive Christ and so have an Union of Life with Christ Now as in the Body the Artery and Nerve is the Ligament the Vessel and Conveyance for vital Union and Motion unto all the Members by the Blood and Animal Spirits So Faith to the Soul is a Means of vital Union with Christ and of the Application and Merits of Christ All which is effected by the Spirit of Christ without which we are none of Christ's and Faith it self is dead The Look of one stung with the deadly fiery Serpent to the Brazen Serpent had no share in the healing Virtue of that Divine Ordinance yet without looking up to the Brazen Serpent the Person stung could receive no Benefit but must die So Faith hath no justifying Virtue inherent in it self For what may prevail to justify must make the Conscience perfect Consequently the Efficient of Perfection must of it self be perfect but Faith cannot be such for it is not of our selves it is the Gift of God Now whatsoever is received is received according to the Measure and Capacity of the Recipient which 〈…〉 and frail 〈…〉 it cannot be 〈…〉 the Law was weak and 〈…〉 through the Flesh so even the Gift of Faith is not able through the remainder of Corruption to perform any perfect Work Therefore the Scripture represents the Lord Jesus Christ under the Notion of the most tender Compassion to the weak in Faith that he will not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax but will bring forth Judgment unto Victory which proceeds not from any Virtue and Power inherent in the Work of Faith but from the Righteousness and Strength which only is to be found in the Lord Jesus by perishing Sinners who sly for Refuge unto the Hope that is set before them Jesus Christ the Son of God Even as the Man-slayer under the Law could not be secure from the Avenger of
Aim and Regard to the Glory of God The Effect of this eternal Truth is the Stream of Truth the Law of universal Justice Righteousness Equity by God implanted in the Nature of all Rational Creatures to direct and judg all their Affections and Actions This is Truth scoffed by the Profane vainly discoursed by Morosophists found possessed and enjoyed as the Happiness of all that fear and love God This assigns the End to all Controversy is the Standard of Conscience and the Basis of all Rational Conversation The Manifestation of this Truth is the revealed Will of God For Knowledg in God both satisfyingly comprehends the All-sufficient Perfection of the Divine Essence and effectually determines and appoints the Nature Operation Use and End of all Beings to his Glory According to the Conformity to or Alienation from this Eternal Truth is the Result of Happiness or Misery to every Rational Being For Divine Truth and Goodness are convertible and inseparable God only is good originally essentially infinitely eternally all-sufficiently Goodness is the Root the Branches are Love God is Love Mercy God is the Father of Mercies Consolation God is the God of all Comfort Patience and Long-suffering God is the God of Patience and his Long-suffering is Salvation his Loving-kindness is better than Life Forgiveness is with the Lord that he may be feared Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is Mercy and with him is plenteous Redemption But this abundant Mercy is not in any respect Encouragement to Presumption or continuance in Sin for that is to despise the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth to Repentance but after the Hardness and Impenitency of Heart treasureth unto it self Wrath against the day of Wrath and Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God God that dwells in Light inaccessible cannot be perceived and apprehended in any other Manifestation than as he is pleased to reveal himself which can only be in his Word wherein tho there be sufficient Evidence to satisfy a created Intelligence what is the infinite Excellence of the Divine Object of Worship yet it remains absolutely impossible for the most exalted created Mind fully to comprehend the Perfection of the Divine Essence Notwithstanding what is revealed thereof as the Object of Faith is replenished with immense Goodness and Beauty to be the all-sufficient and necessary Felicity of an immortal Rational Creature Thus the highest and deepest Mystery concerning the Deity tho not possible to be investigated by human Capacity yet being revealed by the Word of Divine Truth necessarily constrains the Understanding Will and Affections to adore believe and receive in Love the Truth of this glorious Mystery The Manifestation of the Divine Essence cannot possibly be arrived at but by such Revelation as God is pleased to make of himself No Man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any Man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him Neither can any Man say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost The Ladder of Divine Knowledge by which the Mind ascends to God the Top whereof reacheth to Heaven is yet set upon the Earth For altho the very Light is a Covering to the Glory of God yet things material visible and humanly intelligible present the Shadows of excellent Evidence subservient unto the incomprehensible Perfection of Light and Truth of the Trinity in Unity of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost the only and true God blessed for ever There are Signatures in the Nature of created Beings to assist the Mind in its Ascent of approach to behold the Goodness of the glorious Mystery of the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence The Doctrine of the blessed Trinity is shadowed in all Beings viz. a Trinity of Subsistences in Unity of Essence In every individual material Substance there is Height Length and Breadth In every the same Luminary Orb there is Light Heat fructifying Influence In every Man Understanding Will Affection yet the same univocal Soul In the Godhead was always acknowledged Entity Truth Goodness subsisting in Unity always from the Foundation of the World declared to be eternal Truth of God The holy Scripture declares in the Trinity of the Godhead distinct Properties yet one and the same Infinite Essence and in every Person of the Godhead Attributes incommunicable to any but God Creation of all things is assigned to the Son of God to the eternal Word of God John 1.1 2 3. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God The same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made Both the Creation and the Sustentation of all things are assigned to the Son of God Heb. 1.1 2 3. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds Who being the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the Word of his Power when he had by himself purged our Sins sat down on the Right-hand of the Majesty on high The Knowledg of the Heart of every Man is assigned to the Son of God Joh. 2.25 Who needed not that any should testify of Man for he knew what was in Man Compared with I Kings 8.39 For thou even thou only knowest the Hearts of all the Children of Men. Isa 6.1 5. the Prophet saith I saw also the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up Then said I Wo is me for mine Eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts This Vision of Jehova is expresly applied to our Lord Jesus Christ Joh. 12.41 These things said Esaias when he saw his Glory and spake of him Also Joh. 2.24 25. But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all Men And needed not that any should testify of Man for he knew what was in Man I Joh. 5.20 speaking of Jesus Christ This is the true God and Eternal Life Also to the Holy Ghost the Scripture assigns the Creation of the World Gen. 1.2 And the Earth was without Form and void and Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the Waters And God said Let there be Light and there was Light Likewise the Works of Divine Providence Isa 63.10 But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit Where is he that put his holy Spirit within him The Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest so didst thou lead thy People to make thy self a glorious Name The Work of Regeneration is ascribed to the Holy Ghost John 3.5 Except a Man be born of the Water and of the