have all the Utensils of the Sanctuary employed about his service to be holy The Inwards of the Sacrifice were to be rinsed thrice * As the Jewish Doctors observe on Lev. 1.9 The Crop and Feathers of sacrificed Doves was to be hung Eastward towards the entrance of the Temple at a distance from the Holy of Holies where the presence of God was most eminent * Lev. 1.16 When Aaron was to go into the Holy of Holies he was to sanctifie himself in an extraordinary manner * Lev. 16.4 The Priests were to be bare footed in the Temple in the exercise of their Office shoes alway were to be put off upon holy ground Look to thy foot when thou goest to the House of God saith the wise man Eccles 5.1 Strip the affections the feet of the Soul of all the dirt contracted discard all earthly and base thoughts from the heart A Beast was not to touch the Mount Sinai without losing his Life Nor can we come near the Throne with brutish affections without losing the life and fruit of the worship An unholy Soul degrades himself from a Spirit to a Brute and the worship from spiritual to brutish If any unmortified sin be found in the Life as it was in the comers to the Temple It taints and pollutes the Worship * Isa 1.15 All worship is an acknowledgment of the excellency of God as he is holy * Jer. 7.9 10. Hence it is called a sanctifying Gods Name How can any person sanctifie Gods Name that hath not a holy resemblance to his Nature If he be not holy as he is holy he cannot worship him according to his excellency in Spirit and in Truth No worship is spiritual wherein we have not a communion with God But what intercourse can there be between a holy God and an impure Creature between Light and Darkness We have no fellowship with him in any service unless we walk in the Light in service and out of service as he is Light * 1 John 1.7 The Heathen thought not their Sacrifices agreeable to God without washing their hands whereby they signified the preparation of their hearts before they made the Oblation Clean hands without a pure heart signify nothing The frame of our hearts must answer the purity of the outward Symbols Psal 26.6 I will wash my hands in Innocence so will I compass thine Altar oh Lord He would observe the appointed Ceremonies but not without cleansing his heart as well as his hands Vain Man is apt to rest upon outward acts and rites of worship But this must alway be practised The words are in the present Tense I wash I compass Purity in worship ought to be our continual Care If we would perform a spiritual service wherein we would have communion with God it must be in Holiness If we would walk with Christ it must be in white * Revel 3.4 alluding to the white Garments the Priests put on when they went to perform their service As without this we cannot see God in Heaven so neither can we see the beauty of God in his own Ordinances 11. Spiritual worship is performed with spiritual ends with raised aims at the glory of God No duty can be spiritual that hath a carnal aim Where God is the sole Object he ought to be the principal End In all our actions he is to be our End as he is the principle of our Being much more in Religious Acts as he is the Object of our worship The worship of God in Scripture is exprest by the seeking of him * Heb. 11.6 Him not our selves all is to be referred to God As we are not to live to our selves that being the sign of a carnal state so we are not to worship for our selves Rom. 14.7 8. As all actions are denominated good from their end as well as their object so upon the same account they are denominated spiritual The end spiritualizeth our natural actions much more our religious Then are our faculties devoted to him when they center in him If the intention be evil there is nothing but darkness in the whole service Luke 11.34 The first institution of the Sabbath the solemn day for worship was to contemplate the glory of God in his stupendous works of Creation and render him a homage for them Revel 4.11 Thou art worthy oh Lord to receive Honour Glory and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created No worship can be returned without a glorifying of God and we cannot actually glorify him without direct aims at the promoting his honour As we have immediately to do with God so we are immediately to mind the praise of God As we are not to content our selves with habitual grace but be rich in the exercise of it in worship so we are not to acquiesce in habitual aims at the glory of God without the actual outflowings of our hearts in those aims 'T is natural for Man to worship God for self Self-righteousness is the rooted aim of Man in his worship since his revolt from God and being sensible it is not to be found in his natural actions he speaks for it in his moral and religious By the first Pride we flung God off from being our Soveraign and from being our end since a Pharisaical Spirit struts it in nature not only to do things to be seen of men but to be admired by God Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted and thou takest no knowledge This is to have God worship them instead of being worshipped by them Cain's carriage after his Sacrifice testified some base end in his worship he came not to God as a Subject to a Soveraign but as if he had been the Soveraign and God the Subject and when his design is not answered and his desire not gratified he proves more a Rebel to God and a Murderer of his Brother Such base scents will rise up in our worship from the body of death which cleaves to us and mix themselves with our services as Weeds with the Fish in the Net David therefore after his People had offered willingly to the Temple beggs of God that their hearts might be prepared to him * 1 Cron. 29.18 that their hearts might stand right to God without any squinting to self-ends Some present themselves to God as poor men offer a present to a great person not to honour him but to gain for themselves a reward richer than their gift What profit is it that we have kept his Ordinance c Mal. 3.14 Some worship him intending thereby to make him amends for the wrong they have done him wipe off their scores and satisfie their debts as though a spiritual wrong could be recompensed with a bodily service and an infinite Spirit be outwitted and appeased by a carnal flattery Self is the Spirit of Carnality To pretend a homage to God and intend only the advantage of self is rather
* 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
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
and his own happiness So loth is God to give any just occasion of dissatisfaction to his Creature as well as dishonour himself All those wonders of his mercy are inhanc'd by the hainousness of our Atheism a multitude of gracious thoughts from him above the multitude of contempts from us * Psal 106. â— What Rebells in actual Arms against their Prince aiming at his Life ever found that favour from him to have all their necessaries richly afforded them without which they would starve and without which they would be unable to manage their attempts as we have received from God Had not God had riches of goodness forbearance and long suffering and infinite riches too the despight the world hath done him in refusing him as their Rule Happiness and End would have emptied him long agoe * Rom. 2.4 2. It brings in a Justification of the exercise of his Justice If it gives us occasion loudly to praise his Patience it also stops our mouths from accusing any acts of his Vengeance What can be too sharp a recompence for the despising and disgracing so great a Being The highest contempt merits the greatest anger and when we will not own him for our happiness 't is equal we should feel the misery of separation from him If he that is guilty of Treason deserves to lose his Life what punishment can be thought great enough for him that is so disingenious as to prefer himself before a God so infinitely good and so foolish as to invade the rights of one infinitely powerful 'T is no injustice for a Creature to be for ever left to himself to see what advantage he can make of that self he was so busily imployed to set up in the place of his Creator The Soul of Man deserves an infinite punishment for despising an infinite good And it is not unequitable that that self which Man makes his Rule and Happiness above God should become his Torment and Misery by the Righteousness of that God whom he despised 3. Hence ariseth a necessity of a new state and frame of Soul to alter an Atheistical Nature We forget God Think of him with reluctancy Have no respect to God in our course and acts This cannot be our original state God being infinitely good never let man come out of his hands with this actual unwillingness to acknowledge and serve him He never intended to dethrone himself for the work of his hands or that the Creature should have any other end than that of his Creator As the Apostle saith in the Case of the Galatians Error Gal. 5.8 This perswasion came not of him that called you so this frame comes not from him that created you How much therefore do we need a restoring Principle in us Instead of ordering our selves according to the Will of God we are desirous to fulfil the Wills of the Flesh * Ephes 2.3 There is a necessity of some other principle in us to make us fulfil the Will of God since we were created for God not for the Flesh We can no more be voluntarily serviceable to God while our serpentine nature and Devillish habits remain in us than we can suppose the Devil can be willing to glorifie God while the nature he contracted by his fall abides powerfully in him Our Nature and Will must be changed that our actions may regard God as our End that we may delightfully meditate on him and draw the motives of our obedience from him Since this Atheism is seated in Nature the change must be in our Nature Since our first aspirings to the rights of God were the fruits of the Serpents breath which tainted our Nature there must be a removal of this taint whereby our Natures may be on the side of God against Satan as they were before on the side of Satan against God There must be a supernatural Principle before we can live a supernatural Life i. e. live to God since we are naturally alienated from the Life of God The aversion of our Natures from God is as strong as our inclination to evil we are disgusted with one and pressed with the other we have no will no heart to come to God in any service This Nature must be broken in pieces and new moulded before we can make God our Rule and our End While mens deeds are evil they cannot comply with God * Joh. 3.19 20. much less while their natures are evil Till this be done all the service a man performs riseth from some evil imagination of the heart which is evil only evil and that continually * Gen. 6.5 from wrong Notions of God wrong Notions of Duty or corrupt Motives All the pretences of Devotion to God are but the Adoration of some golden Image Prayers to God for the ends of self are like those of the Devil to our Saviour when he askt leave to go into the Herd of Swine The Object was right Christ the end was the destruction of the Swine and the satisfaction of their malice to the Owners There is a necessity then that depraved ends should be removed that that which was Gods end in our framing may be our end in our acting viz. his glory which cannot be without a change of Nature We can never honour him supreamly whom we do not supreamly love Till this be we cannot glorifie God as God though we do things by his Command and Order no more than when God imployed the Devil in afflicting Job * Job 1. His performance cannot be said to be good because his end was not the same with Gods he acted out of Malice what God commanded out of Soveraignity and for gracious designs Had God imployed an Holy Angel in his design upon Job the Action had been good in the Affliction because his Nature was holy and therefore his ends holy but bad in the Devil because his ends were base and unworthy 4. We may gather from hence the difficulty of Conversion and Mortification to follow thereupon What is the reason men receive no more impression from the Voice of God and the Light of his Truth than a dead man in the Grave doth from the roaring Thunder or a blind Mole from the Light of the Sun 'T is because our Atheism is as great as the deadness of the one or the blindness of the other The Principle in the heart is strong to shut the door both of the thoughts and affections against God If a Friend oblige us we shall act for him as for our selves We are won by intreaties soft words overcome us but our hearts are as deaf as the hardest Rock at the call of God Neither the joys of Heaven proposed by him can allure us nor the flasht terrors of Hell affright us to him as if we conceived God unable to bestow the one or execute the other The true reason is God and self contest for the Deity The Law of Sin is God must be at the foot-stool the Law of God is Sin
his nature in our Spirits rather than our bodies * Petav. Theol. Dog Tom. 1. lib. 2. cap. 1. pa. 104. It was a fancy of Eugubinus that when God set upon the actual Creation of man he took a bodily form for an Exemplar of that which he would express in his work and therefore that the words of Moses * Gen. 1.26 are to be understood of the body of man because there was in Man such a shape which God had then assumed To let alone Gods forming himself a body for that work as a groundless fancy Man can in no wise be said to be the image of God in regard of the substance of his body but beasts may as well be said to be made in the Image of God whose bodies have the same Members as the body of Man for the most part and excell Men in the acuteness of the senses and swiftness of their motion agility of body greatness of strength and in some kind of ingenuities also wherein Man hath been a Scholar to the brutes and beholden to their skill The Soul comes nearest the nature of God as being a Spiritual substance yet considered singly in regard of its Spiritual substance cannot well be said to be the image of God A beast because of its Corporeity may as well be called the image of a Man for there is a greater similitude between man and a brute in the rank of bodies than there can be between God and the highest Angels in the rank of Spirits If it doth not consist in the substance of the Soul much less can it in any similitude of the body This Image consisted partly in the state of man as he had dominion over the Creatures partly in the nature of man as he was an intelligent being and thereby was capable of having a grant of that Dominion but principally in the conformity of the Soul with God in the frame of his Spirit and the holiness of his actions Not at all in the figure and form of his body Physically tho morally there might be as there was a rectitude in the body as an instrument to conform to the holy motions of the soul as the holiness of the soul sparkled in the actions and members of the body If man were like God because he hath a body whatsoever hath a body hath some resemblance to God and may be said to be in part his image But the truth is the essence of all Creatures cannot be an image of the immense essence of God 2. If God be a pure Spirit T is unreasonable to frame any Image or picture of God * Jamblyc protrept cap. 21. Symb. 24. Some Heathens have been wiser in this than some Christians Pythagoras forbad his Scholars to engrave any shape of him upon a Ring because he was not to be comprehended by sense but conceived only in our minds our hands are as unable to fashion him as our eyes to see him * Austin de Civitat Dei lib. 4. cap. 31. out of Varro The ancient Romans worshipped their Gods 170. years before any material representations of them * Tacitus and the Ancient Idolatrous Germans thought it a wicked thing to represent God in a human shape Yet some and those no Romanists labour to defend the making Images of God in the resemblance of man because he is so represented in Scripture he may be * Gerhard loc Comun vol. 4. Exegesis de naturâ Dei cap. 8. § 1. saith one conceived so in our minds and figured so to our sense If this were a good reason why may he not be pictured as a Lyon Horn Eagle Rock since he is under such Metaphors shadowed to us The same ground there is for the one as for the other What tho man be a nobler Creature God hath no more the body of a man than that of an Eagle and some perfections in other Creatures represent some excellencies in his nature and actions which cannot be figur'd by a human shape as strength by the Lyon swiftness and readiness by the wings of the Bird. But God hath absolutely prohibited the making any Image whatsoever of him and that with terrible threatnings Exod. 20.5 I the Lord am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon their Children and Deut. 5.8 9. After God had given the Israelites the Commandment wherein he forbad them to have any other Gods before him he forbids all figuring of him by the hand of man * Amiraut Morale Christiene Tom. 1. p. 294. not only Images but any likness of him either by things in Heaven in the earth or in the water How often doth he discover his indignation by the Prophets against them that offer to mould him in a Creature form This law was not to serve a particular dispensation or to endure a particular time but it was a declaration of his Will invariable in all places and all times being founded upon the immutable nature of his being and therefore agreeable to the Law of nature otherwise not chargeable upon the Heathens And therefore when God had declared his nature and his works in a stately and Majestick eloquence he demands of them To whom they would liken him or what likeness they would compare unto him Isa 40.18 Where they could find any thing that would be a lively image and resemblance of his infinite excellency Founding it upon the infiniteness of his nature which necessarily implies the Spirituality of it God is infinitely above any Statue and those that think to draw God by a stroak of a pensil or form him by the engravings of Art are more stupid than the Statues themselves To shew the unreasonableness of it Consider 1. T is impossible to fashion any image of God If our more capacious Souls cannot grasp his nature our weaker sense cannot frame his image T is more possible of the two to comprehend him in our minds than to frame him in an image to our sense He inhabits inaccessible light As it is impossible for the eye of man to see him t is impossible for the art of man to paint him upon walls and carve him out of wood None knows him but himself none can describe him but himself * Cocceius sum Theol. cap. 9. pa. 47. § 35. Can we draw a figure of our own Souls and express that part of our selves wherein we are most like to God Can we extend this to any bodily figure and divide it into parts How can we deal so with the Original Copy whence the first draught of our Souls was taken and which is infinitely more Spiritual than Men or Angels No Corporeal thing can represent a Spiritual substance there is no proportion in nature between them God is a simple infinite immense eternal invisible incorruptible being A Statue is a compounded finite limited temporal visible and corruptible body God is a living Spirit but a Statue nor sees nor hears nor perceives any thing But suppose God
one as well as the other denies his spiritual nature This is worse for had it been lawful to represent God to the eye it could not have been done but by a bodily figure suted to the sense but since it is necessary to worship him it cannot be by a corporeal attendance without the operation of the Spirit A spiritual frame is more pleasing to God than the highest exterior adornments than the greatest gifts and the highest Prophetical illuminations The glory of the second Temple exceeded the glory of the first * Hag. 2.8 9. As God accounts the spiritual glory of Ordinances most beneficial for us so our spiritual attendance upon Ordinances is most pleasing to him He that offers the greatest services without it offers but flesh Hos 8.13 They sacrifice Flesh for the Sacrifices of my Offerings but the Lord accepts them not Spiritual frames are the Soul of Religious services all other carriages without them are contemptible to this Spirit We can never lay claim to that promise of God none shall seek my face in vain We affect a vain seeking of him when we want a due temper of Spirit for him And vain Spirits shall have vain returns 'T is more contrary to the nature of Gods Holiness to have communion with such than it is contrary to the nature of Light to have communion with Darkness To make use of this Vse 1. First it serves for information 1. If spiritual worship be required by God How sad is it for them that are so far from giving God a spiritual worship that they render him no worship at all I speak not of the neglect of publick but of private when men present not a devotion to God from one years end to the other The speech of our Saviour that we must worship God in Spirit and Truth implies that a worship is due to him from every one That is the common impression upon the Consciences of all men in the world if they have not by some constant course in gross sins hardned their Souls and stifled those natural sentiments There was never a Nation in the world without some kind of Religion and no Religion was ever without some modes to testifie a devotion The Heathens had their Sacrifices and Purifications and the Jews by Gods order had their rites whereby they were to express their Allegiance to God Consider 1. Worship is a duty incumbent upon all men 'T is a homage Mankind ows to God under the relation wherein he stands obliged to him 'T is a prime and immutable justice to own our Allegiance to him 'T is as unchangeable a truth that God is to be worshipped as that God is He is to be worshipped as God as Creator and therefore by all since he is the Creator of all the Lord of all and all are his Creatures and all are his Subjects Worship is founded upon Creation Psal 100.2 3. 'T is due to God for himself and his own essential excellency and therefore due from all 'T is due upon the account of mans nature The human rational nature is the same in all Whatsoever is due to God upon the account of mans nature and the natural obligations he hath laid upon man is due from all men because they all enjoy the benefits which are proper to their nature Man in no state was exempted nor can be exempted from it In Paradise he had his Sabbath and Sacraments Man therefore dissolves the obligation of a reasonable nature by neglecting the worship of God Religion is in the first place to be minded As soon as Noah came out of the Ark he contrived not a Habitation for himself but an Altar for the Lord to acknowledge him the Author of his preservation from the Deluge * Gen. 8.20 And wheresoever Abraham came his first business was to erect an Altar and pay his arrears of gratitude to God before he ran upon the score for new mercies * Gen. 12.7 Gen. 13.4.18 He left a testimony of worship where ever he came 2. Wholly therefore to neglect it is a high degree of Atheism He that calls not upon God saith in his heart there is no God and seems to have the sentiments of natural Conscience as to God stifled in him * Psal 14.1 4 It must arise from a conceit that there is no God or that we are equal to him adoration not being due from persons of an equal state or that God is unable or unwilling to take notice of the adoring acts of his Creatures What is any of these but an undeifying the supream Majesty When we lay aside all thoughts of paying any homage to him we are in a fair way opinionatively to deny him as much as we practically disown him Where there is no knowledge of God that is no acknowledgment of God a gap is opened to all licentiousness * Hos 4.1 2. And that by degrees brawns the Conscience and raseth out the sense of God Those forsake God that forget his holy Mountain * Isa 65.11 They do not practically own him as the Creator of their Souls or bodies 'T is the sin of Cain who turning his back upon worship is said to go out from the presence of the Lord * Gen. 4.16 Not to worship him with our Spirits is against his Law of Creation Not to worship him at all is against his act of Creation Not to worship him in truth is Hypocrisie Not to worship him at all is Atheism whereby we render our selves worse than the worms in the Earth or a toad in a Ditch 3. To perform a worship to a false God or to the true God in a false manner seems to be less a sin than to live in perpetual neglects of it Though it be directed to a false Object instead of God yet it is under the notion of a God and so is an acknowledgement of such a Being as God in the world whereas the total neglect of any worship is a practical denying of the existence of any supream Majesty Whosoever constantly omits a publick and private worship transgresses against an universally received dictate For all Nations have agreed in the common notion of worshipping God though they have disagreed in the several modes and rites whereby they would testifie that adoration By a worship of God though superstitious a veneration and reverence of such a being is maintained in the world whereas by a total neglect of worship he is vertually disowned and discarded if not from his existence yet from his Providence and Government of the world All the mercies we breath in are denied to flow from him A foolish worship owns Religion though it bespatters it As if a stranger coming into a Country mistakes a Subject for the Prince and pays that reverence to the Subject which is due to the Prince though he mistakes the object yet he owns an Authority or if he pays any respect to the true Prince of that Country after the mode of
that we should press it upon our selves And shall we be forgetful of that which every thing about us every thing within us is a mark of How come we by a power of seeing and hearing a faculty and act of understanding and will but by this Power framing us this Power assisting us What though the Thunder of his Power cannot be understood no more can any other Perfection of his Nature shall we therefore seldom think of it The Sea cannot be fathom'd yet the Merchant excuseth not himself from sailing upon the Surface of it We cannot glorifie God without due consideration of this Attribute for his Power is his Glory as much as any other and called both by the Name of Glory Rom. 6.4 speaking of Christ's Resurrection by the Glory of the Father and also the riches of his Glory Eph. 3.16 Those that have strong Temptations in their course and over-pressing Corruptions in their hearts have need to think of it out of Interest since nothing but this can relieve them Those that have experimented the working of it in their new Creation are oblig'd to think of it out of gratitude It was this mighty Power over himself that gave rise to all that pardoning Grace already conferred or hereafter expected without it our Souls had been consum'd the World overturned we could not have expected a happy Heaven but have layen yelling in an eternal Hell had not the Power of his Mercy exceeded that of his Justice and his Infinite Power executed what his Infinite Wisdom had contrived for our Redemption How much also should we be rais'd in our admirations of God and ravish our selves in contemplating that Might that can raise innumerable Worlds in those Infinite imaginary Spaces without this Globe of Heaven and Earth and exceed unconceivably what he hath done in the Creation of this 2. From the pressing the consideration of this upon our selves Let us be induc'd to trust God upon the account of his Power The main end of the revelation of his Power to the Patriarchs and of the miraculous Operations of it in Egypt was to induce them to an intire reposing themselves in God And the Psalmist doth scarce speak of the Divine Omnipotence without making this Inference from it and scarce exhorts to a trust in God but backs it with a Consideration of his Power in Creation it being the chief support of the Soul Psal 146.1 Happy is he whose hope is in the Lord his God which made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that therein is That Power is invincible that drew the World out of nothing Nothing can happen to us harder than the making the World without the concurrence of Instruments No difficulty can nonplus that strength that hath drawn all things out of nothing or out of a confus'd Matter next to nothing No Power can rifle what we commit to him 2 Tim. 1.12 He is all Power above the reach of all Power all other Powers in the World flowing from him or depending on him He is worthy to be trusted since we know him true without ever breaking his word and Omnipotent never failing of his purpose and a confidence in it is the chief act whereby we can glorifie this Power and credit his Arm. A strong God and a weak Faith in Omnipotence do not sute well together Indeed we are more engaged to a trust in Divine Power than the Ancient Patriarchs were They had the Verbal Declaration of his Power and many of them little other Evidence of it than in the Creation of the World and their Faith in God being establish'd in this first discovery of his Omnipotence drew out it self further to believe That whatsoever God promised by his Word he was able to perform as well as the Creation of the World out of nothing which seems to be the intendment of the Apostle Hebr. 11.3 Not barely to speak of the Creation of the World by God which was a thing the Hebrews understood well enough from their Ancient Oracles but to shew the Foundation of the Patriarchs Faith viz. God making the World by his Word and what use they made of the Discovery of his Power in that to lead them to believe the Promise of God concerning the Seed of the Woman to be brought into the World But we have not only the same Foundation but superadded Demonstrations of this Attribute in the Conception of our Saviour the Union of the two Natures the glorious Redemption the Propagation of the Gospel and the new Creation of the World They relied upon the naked Power of God without those more illustrious Appearances of it which have been in the Ages since and arriv'd to their notice We have the wonderful Effects of that which they had but obscure Expectations of 1. Consider Trust in God can never be without taking in God's Power as a concurrent Foundation with his Truth 'T is the main ground of Trust and so set forth in the Prophet Isa 26.4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength And the Faith of the Ancients so recommended Hebr. 11. had this chiefly for its ground and the Faith in Gospel-times is called a Trusting on his Arm Isa 51.5 All the Attributes of God are the Objects of our Veneration but they do not equally contribute to the producing Trust in our hearts his Eternity Simplicity Infiniteness Amyrant Moral Tom. 5. p. 170. ravish and astonish our Minds when we consider them But there is no immediate tendency in their Nature to allure us to a confidence in him no not in an innocent State much less in a laps'd and revolted Condition But the other Perfections of his Nature as his Holiness Righteousness Mercy are amiable to us in regard of the immediate Operations of them upon and about the Creature and so have something in their own Nature to allure us to repose our selves in him But yet those cannot engage to an intire trust in him without reflecting upon his Ability which can only render those useful and successful to the Creature For whatsoever bars stand in the way of his holy righteous and merciful proceedings towards his Creatures are not overmaster'd by those Perfections but by that Strength of his which can only relieve us in concurrence with the other Attributes How could his Mercy succour us without his Arm or his Wisdom guide us without his Hand or his Truth perform Promises to us without his strength As no Attribute can act without it so in our addresses to him upon the account of any particular Perfection in the Godhead according to our indigency one eye must be perpetually fixed upon this of his Power and our Faith would be feeble and dispirited without eying this Without this his Holiness which hates sin would not be regarded and his Mercy pitying a grieving sinner would not be valued As this Power is the ground of a wicked man's fear so it is the ground of a good man's trust This
God speaking of the opposite to it the Vncleaness and Prophaness of the Gentiles We are only alienated from that which we are bound to imitate but this is the Perfection alway set out as the Pattern of our Actions Be you holy as I am Holy no other is proposed as our Copy Alienated from that Purity of God which is as much as his Life without which he could not live If he were stript of this he would be a dead God more than by the want of any other Perfection His Swearing by it intimates as much He Swears often by his own Life As I live saith the Lord so he Swears by his Holiness as if it were his Life and more his Life than any other Let me not live or Let me not be Holy are all one in his Oath His Deity could not outlive the Life of his Purity II. As it seems to challenge an Excellency above all his other Perfections so 't is the glory of all the rest As it is the glory of the Godhead so 't is the glory of every Perfection in the Godhead As his Power is the Strength of them so his Holiness is the Beauty of them As all would be weak without Almightiness to back them so all would be uncomly without Holiness to adorn them Should this be sullied all the rest would lose their Honour and their comfortable Efficacy As at the same instant that the Sun should lose its Light it would lose its Heat its Strength its generative and quickening virtue As Sincerity is the lustre of every Grace in a Christian so is Purity the splendor of every Attribute in the Godhead His Justice is a holy Justice his Wisdom a holy Wisdom his Arm of Power a Holy Arm Psal 98.1 his Truth or Promise a Holy Promise Psal 105.42 Holy and True go hand in hand Revel 6.10 His Name which signifies all his Attributes in conjunction is Holy Psal 103.1 Yea he is Râ—ghteous in all his waies and Holy in all his works Psal 145 17. 'T is the Rule oâ— all his Acts the Source of all his Punishments If every Attribute of the Deity were a distinct Member Purity would be the Form the Soul the Spirit to animate them Without it his Patience would be an Indulgence to Sin his Mercy a Fondness his Wrath a Madness his Power a Tyranny his Wisdom an unworthy Subtilty 'T is this gives a Decorum to all His Mercy is not exercis'd without it since he pardons none but those that have an Interest by Union in the Obedience of a Mediator which was so delightful to his Infinite Purity His Justice which Guilty man is apt to tax with Cruelty and Violence in the exercise of it is not acted out of the compass of this Rule In Acts of Mans vindictive Justice there is something of Impurity Perturbation Passion some mixture of Cruelty but none of these fall upon God in the severest Acts of Wrath. When God appears to Ezekiel in the resemblance of Fire to signifie his Anger against the House of Judah for their Idolatry from his Loyns downward there was the appearance of Fire but from the Loyns upward the appearance of Brightness as the colour of Amber Ezek. 8.2 His Heart is clear in his most Terrible acts of Vengeance 't is a pure Flame wherewith he scorcheth and burns his Enemies He is Holy in the most fiery appearance This Attribute therefore is never so much applauded as when his Sword hath been drawn and he hath manifested the greatest fierceness against his Enemies The Magnificent and Triumphant expression of it in the Text follows just upon Gods Miraculous defeat and ruine of the Egyptian Army The Sea covered them they sank as Lead in the mighty waters Then it follows Who is like unto thee oh Lord glorious in Holiness And when it was so celebrated by the Seraphims Isai 6.3 it was when the Posts moved and the House was filled with smoke v. 4. which are signs of Anger Psal 18.7 8. And when he was about to send Isaiah upon a Message of Spiritual and Temporal Judgments that he would make the heart of that people fat and their ears heavy and their eyes shut waste their Cities without Inhabitant and their Houses without Man and make the Land desolate Verses 9 10 11 12. and the Angels which here applaud him for his Holiness are the Executioners of his Justice and here called Seraphims from burning or fiery Spirits as being the Ministers of his Wrath. His Justice is part of his Holiness whereby he doth reduce into order those things that are out of order When he is consuming Men by his Fury he doth not diminish but manifest Purity Zephany 3.5 The just Lord is in the midst of her he will do no Iniquity Every Action of his is free from all tincture of Evil. 'T is also celebrated with Praise by the four Beasts about his Throne when he appears in a Covenant garb with a Rain-bow about his Throne and yet with Thundrings and Lightnings shot out against his Enemies Revel 4.8 compared with vers 3.5 to shew that all his Acts of Mercy as well as Justice are clear from any stain This is the Crown of all his Attributes the Life of all his Decrees the Brightness of all his Actions Nothing is Decreed by him nothing is acted by him but what is worthy of the Dignity and becoming the Honour of this Attribute For the better understanding this Attribute observe 1. The Nature of this Holiness 2. The Demonstration of it 3. The Purity of his Nature in all his Acts about Sin 4. The Vse of all to our selves First The Nature of Divine Holiness In General The Holiness of God Negatively is a perfect and unpolluted freedom from all Evil. As we call Gold pure that is not embased by any Dross and that Garment clean that is free from any Spot so the Nature of God is estranged from all shadow of Evil all imaginable contagion Positively 'T is the Rectitude or Integrity of the Divine Nature or that conformity of it in Affection and Action to the Divine Will as to his Eternal Law whereby he works with a becomingness to his own Excellency and whereby he hath a delight and complacency in every thing agreeable to his Will and an abhorrency of every thing contrary thereunto As there is no darkness in his Understanding so there is no spot in his Will As his Mind is possessed with all Truth so there is no deviation in his Will from it He loves all Truth and Goodness He hates all falsity and Evil. In regard of his Righteousness he loves Righteousness Psal 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth righteousness and hath no pleasure in wickedness Psal 5.4 He values Purity in his Creatures and detests all Impurity whether inward or outward ‖ Martin de Deo p. 86. We may indeed distinguish the Holiness of God from his Righteousness in our Conceptions Holiness is a Perfection absolutely considered in the Nature
may be further considered that in this way of Redemption his Holiness in the hatred of Sin seems to be valued above any other Attribute He proclaims the value of it above the Person of his Son since the Divine Nature of the Redeemer is disguised obscur'd and vail'd in order to the restoring the Honour of it And Christ seems to value it above his own Person since he submitted himself to the Reproaches of Men to clear this Perfection of the Divine Nature and make it Illustrious in the eyes of the World You heard before at the beginning of the handling this Argument It was the Beauty of the Deity the Lustre of his Nature the Link of all his Attributes his very Life he values it equal with Himself since he swears by it as well as by his Life And none of his Attributes would have a due Decorum without it 'T is the glory of Power Mercy Justice Wisdom that they are all Holy So that though God had an Infinite tenderness and compassion to the Fallen Creature yet it should not extend it self in his relief to the prejudice of the Rights of his Purity He would have this triumph in the Tenderness of his Mercy as well as the Severities of his Justice His Mercy had not appeared in its true colours nor attain'd a regular End without Vengeance on Sin It would have been a Compassion that would in sparing the Sinner have encourag'd the Sin and affronted Holiness in the Issues of it Had he dispersed his Compassions about the World without the regard to his Hatred of Sin his Mercy had been too cheap and his Holiness had been contemn'd His Mercy would not have Triumph'd in his own Nature whilst his Holiness had suffered He had exercised a Mercy with the impairing his own Glory But now in this way of Redemption the Rights of both are secured both have their due lustre The Odiousness of Sin is equally discovered with the greatest of his Compassions an Infinite Abhorrence of Sin and an Infinite Love to the World march hand in hand together Never was so much of the Irreconcileableness of Sin to him set forth as in the moment he was opening his Bowels in the Reconciliation of the Sinner Sin is made the chiefest Mark of his Displeasure while the Poor Creature is made the highest Object of Divine Pity There could have been no motion of Mercy with the least Injury to Purity and Holiness In this way Mercy and Truth Mercy to the Misery of the Creature and Truth to the Purity of the Law have met together the Righteousness of God and the Peace of the Sinner have kissed each other Psal 85.10 II. The Holiness of God in his Hatred of Sin appears in our Justification and the Conditions he requires of all that would enjoy the benefit of Redemption His Wisdom hath so temper'd all the Conditions of it that the Honour of his Holiness is as much preserved as the Sweetness of his Mercy is experimented by us All the Conditions are Records of his exact Purity as well as of his condescending Grace Our Justification is not by the Imperfect works of Creatures but by an exact and Infinite Righteousness as great as that of the Deity which had been Offended It being the Righteousness of a Divine Person upon which account it is call'd the Righteousness of God not only in regard of Gods appointing it and Gods accepting it but as it is a Righteousness of that Person that was God and is God Faith is the Condition God requires to Justification but not a dead but an active Faith such a Faith as purifies the heart †James 2.22 Acts 15.9 He calls for Repentance which is a Moral retracting our Offences and an approbation of contemn'd Righteousness and a violated Law an endeavour to regain what is lost and to pluck out the heart of that Sin we have committed He requires Mortification which is called Crucifying whereby a Man would strike as full and deadly a blow at his Lusts as was struck at Christ upon the Cross and make them as certainly die as the Redeemer did Our own Righteousness must be condemned by us as impure and imperfect We must disown every thing that is our own as to Righteousness in reverence to the Holiness of God and the valuation of the Righteousness of Christ He hath resolved not to bestow the Inheritance of Glory without the Root of Grace None are partakers of the Divine Blessedness that are not partakers of the Divine Nature There must be a renewing of his Image before there be a vision of his face * He◠12.14 He will not have Men brought only into a Relative state of Happiness by Justification without a Real state of Grace by Sanctification And so resolved he is in it that there is no admittance into Heaven of a starting but a persevering Holiness Rom. 2.7 a patient continuance in well doing Patient under the sharpness of Affliction and continuing under the Pleasures of Prosperity Hence it is that the Gospel the restoring Doctrine hath not only the motives of Rewards to allure us to Good and the danger of Punishments to scare us from Evil as the Law had but they are set forth in a higher strain in a way of stronger engagement the Rewards are Heavenly and the Punishments Eternal And more powerful Motives besides from the choicer Expressions of Gods Love in the Death of his Son The whole Design of it is to re-instate us in a resemblance to this Divine Perfection whereby he shews what an Affection he hath to this Excellency of his Nature and what a detestation he hath of Evil which is contrary to it 3. It appears in the actual Regeneration of the Redeemed Souls and a carrying it on to a full perfection As Election is the effect of Gods Soveraignty our Pardon the fruit of his Mercy our Knowledge a stream from his Wisdom our Strength an impression of his Power so our Purity is a beam from his Holiness The whole work of Sanctification and the preservation of it our Saviour begs for his Disciples of his Father under this Title John 17.11 17. Holy Father keep them through thy own name and sanctifie them through thy Truth as the proper Source whence Holiness was to flow to the Creature As the Sun is the proper Fountain whence Light is derived both to the Stars above and Bodies here below Whence He is not only called Holy but the Holy One of Israel Isai 43.15 I am the Lord your Holy One the Creator of Israel Displaying his Holiness in them by a new Creation of them as his Israel As the rectitude of the Creature at the first Creation was the effect of his Holiness so the Purity of the Creature by a New Creation is a draught of the same Perfection He is called the Holy One of Israel more in Isaiah that Evangelical Prophet in erecting Zion and forming a People for himself than in the whole Scripture
Hosannas because without some such conceit it was not probable they should so soon change their note and vote him to the Cross in so short a time after they had applauded him as if he had been upon a Throne but their being defeated of strong Expectations usually ended in a more ardent Fury This turbulent and seditious humour God directs in another Chanel suppresseth all Occurrences that might excite them to a Rebellion against the Romans which if he had given way to the crucifying Christ which was God's design to bring about at that time had not probably been effected and the Salvation of Mankind been hindred or stood at a stay for a time God therefore orders such Objects and Occasions that might direct this seditious Humour to another Chanel which would else have run out in other Actions which had not been conducing to the great Design he had then in the World Is it not the right of God and without any blemish to his Holiness to use those Corruptions which he finds sown in the Nature of his Creature by the hand of Satan and to propose such Objects as may excite the exercise of them for his own service Sure God hath as much right to serve himself of the Creature of his own framing and what Natures soever they are possessed with and to present Objects to that purpose as a Faulconer hath to offer this or that Bird to his Hawk to exercise his courage and excite his ravenousness without being termed the Author of that ravenousness in the Creature God planted not those Corruptions in the Jews but finds them in those Persons over whom he hath an absolute Soveraignty in the right of a Creator and that of a Judge for their sins And by the right of that Soveraignty may offer such Objects and Occasions which though innocent in themselves he knows they will make use of to ill purposes but which by the same decree that he resolves to present such Occasions to them he also resolves to make use of them for his own glory * This I have spoken of before but it is necessary now 'T is not conceivable by us what way that Death of Christ which was necessary for the Satisfaction of Divine Justice could be brought about without ordering the evil of some mens hearts by special Occasions to effect his purpose we cannot suppose that Christ can be guilty of any Crime that deserved Death by the Jewish Law had he been so a Criminal he could not have been a Redeemer A perfect Innocence was necessary to the design of his coming Had God himself put him to that Death without using Instruments of Wickedness in it by some remarkable hand from Heaven the Innocence of his Nature had been for ever eclipsed and the voluntariness of his Sacrifice had been obscur'd The strangeness of such a Judgment would have made his innocence incredible he could not reasonably have been propos'd as an Object of Faith What to believe in one that was struck dead by a hand from Heaven The propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption had wanted a Foundation and though God might have raised him again the certainty of his Death had been as questionable as his Innocence in dying had he not been raised But God orders every thing so as to answer his own most wise and holy ends and maintain his Truth and the fulfilling the Predictions of the minutest Concerns about them and all this by presenting Occasions innocent in themselves which the Corruptions of the Jews took hold of and whereby God unknown to them brought about his own Decrees And may not this be conceived without any taint upon God's Holiness for when there are Seeds of all sin in mans Nature why may not God hinder the sprouting up of this or that kind of Seed and leave liberty to the growth of the other and shut up other ways of sinning and restrain men from them and let them loose to that Temptation which he intends to serve himself of hiding from them those Objects which were not so serviceable to his purpose wherein they would have sinned and offer others which he knew their Corruption would use ill and were serviceable to his ends since the depravation of their Natures would necessarily hurry them to evil without restraining Grace as a Scale will necessarily rise up when the weight in it which kept it down is taken away 7. Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by withdrawing his Grace from a sinful Creature whereby he falls into more sin That God withdraws his Grace from men and gives them up sometimes to the fury of their Lusts is as clear in Scripture as any thing Deut. 29.4 Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear c. Judas was delivered to Satan after the Sop and put into his power for despising former Admonitions He often leaves the Rains to the Devil that he may use what efficacy he can in those that have offended the Majesty of God he withholds further influences of Grace or withdraws what before he had granted them Thus he withheld that Grace from the Sons of Eli that might have made their Fathers pious Admonitions effectual to them 1 Sam. 2.25 They hearkned not to the voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them He gave Grace to Eli to reprove them and withheld that Grace from them which might have enabled them against their natural Corruption and obstinacy to receive that Reproof But the Holiness of God is not blemisht by this 1. Because the act of God in this is only negative †Testard d◠natur grat Thes 150 151. Amy. on divers Texts p. 311. Thus God is said to harden men Not by positive hardning or working any thing in the Creature but by not working not softening leaving a man to the hardness of his own heart whereby it is unavoidable by the depravation of mans Nature and the fury of his Passions but that he should be further hardned and increase unto more ungodliness as the Expression is 2 Tim. 2.16 As a man is said to give another his life when he doth not take it away when it lay at his mercy so God is said to harden a man when he doth not mollifie him when it was in his power and inwardly quicken him with that Grace whereby he might infallibly avoid any further provoking of him God is said to harden men when he removes not from them the Incentives to sin curbs not those Principles which are ready to comply with those Incentives withdraws the common assistances of his Grace concurs not with counsels and admonitions to make them effectual flasheth not in the convincing light which he darted upon them before If hardness follows upon God's withholding his softening Grace 't is not by any positive act of God but from the natural hardness of Man If you put Fire near to Wax or Rosin both will melt but
God is then considered in a disposition contrary to this which can be nothing but his Righteousness If you that are unholy and have so much Corruption in you to render you cruel can bestow upon your Children the good things they want how much more shall God who is holy and hath nothing in him to check his mercifulness to his Creatures grant the Petitions of his Suppliants 'T was this Attribute edg'd the siduciary importunity of the Souls under the Altar for the revenging their blood unjustly shed upon the Earth Rev. 6.10 How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth Let not thy holiness stand with folded Arms as careless of the eminent Sufferings of those that fear thee we implore thee by the holiness of thy Nature and the truth of thy Word 2. This renders him fit to be confided in for the comfort of our Souls in a broken condition The reviving the hearts of the spiritually afflicted is a part of the holiness of his Nature Isa 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble He acknowledgeth himself the lofty One they might therefore fear he would not revive them but he is also the holy One and therefore he will refresh them he is not more lofty than he is holy besides the argument of the immutability of his Promise and the might of his Power here is the holiness of his Nature moving him to pity his drooping Creature His Promise is usher'd in with the name of power high and lofty One to bar their distrust of his strength and with a declaration of his holiness to check any despair of his Will There is no ground to think I should be false to my word or misemploy my Power since that cannot be because of the holiness of my Name and Nature 3. This renders him fit to be confided in for the maintenance of grace and protection of us against our spiritual Enemies What our Saviour thought an argument in Prayer we may well take as a ground of our confidence In the strength of this he puts up his sute when in his mediatory Capacity he intercedes for the preservation of his People John 17.11 Holy Father keep through thy own Name those that thou hast given me that they may be one as we are Holy Father not merciful Father or powerful or wise Father but holy and Verse 25. righteous Father Christ pleads that Attribute for the performance of God's Word which was laid to pawn when he past his word For it was by his Holiness that he swore That his seed should endure for ever and his Throne as the Sun before him †Psal 89.36 which is meant of the perpetuity of the Covenant which he made with Christ and is also meant of the preservation of the mystical Seed of David and the perpetuating his loving kindness to them ‖ Vers 32 33. Grace is an Image of God's holiness and therefore the holiness of God is most proper to be used as an Argument to interest and engage him in the preservation of it In the midst of Church provocations he will not utterly extinguish because he is the holy One in the midst of her * Hos 11.9 Nor in the midst of Judgments will he condemn his people to death because he is their holy one †Hab. 1.12 but their Enemies shall be ordained for Judgment and established for Correction One Prophet assures them in the Name of the Lord upon the strength of this Perfection and the other upon the same ground is confident of the protection of the Church because of Gods holiness engag'd in an inviolable Covenant 3. Comfort Since holiness is a glorious Perfection of the Nature of God he will certainly value every holy Soul 'T is of a greater value with him than the Souls of all men in the World that are destitute of it Wicked men are the worst of vilenesses meer dross and dunghil ‖ Psal 12.8 The vilest mâ—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Purity then which is contrary to wickedness must be the most precious thing in his esteem he must needs love that quality which he is most pleas'd with in himself as a father looks with most delight upon the child which is possess'd with those dispositions he most values in his own nature His Countenance doth behold the upright Ps 11.7 He looks upon them with a full and open Face of favour with a countenance clear unmaskt and smiling with a Face full of delight Heaven it self is not such a pleasing Object to him as the Image of his own increated holiness in the created holiness of Men and Angels As a man esteems that most which is most like him of his own Generation more than a piece of Art which is meerly the product of his wit or strength And he must love holiness in the Creature he would not else love his own Image and consequently would undervalue himself He despiseth the Image the wicked bears * Psal 73.20 but he cannot disesteem his own stamp on the godly he cannot but delight in his own work his choice work the Master-piece of all his works the new Creation of things that which is next to himself as being a Divine Nature like himself †2 Pet. 1.4 When he overlooks strength parts knowledge he cannot overlook this He sets apart him that is godly for himself Psal 4.3 as a peculiar Object to take pleasure in he reserves such for his own complacency when he leaves the rest of the World to the Devils power he is choice of them above all his other works and will not let any have so great a propriety in them as himself If it be so dear to him here in its imperfect and mixt condition that he appropriates it as a peculiar Object for his own delight how much more will the unspotted purity of glorified Saints be infinitely pleasing to him So that he will take less pleasure in the material Heavens than in such a Soul Sin only is detestable to God and when this is done away the Soul becomes as lovely in his account as before it was loathsome 4. 'T is comfort upon this account That God will perfect holiness in every upright Soul We many times distrust God and despond in our selves because of the infinite holiness of the Divine Nature and the dunghil Corruptions in our own but the holiness of God engageth him to the preservation of it and consequently to the perfection of it as appears by our Saviour's Argument Joh. 17.11 Holy Father keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me to what end that they may be one as we are one with us in the resemblances of Purity And the holiness of the Soul is used as an Argument by
should enflame us with a zeal and fortitude to appear in the behalf of his despised Honour We honour this Holiness many other ways by preparation for our addresses to him out of a sense of his purity When we imitate it As he honours us by teaching us his Statutes * Psal 119.135 so we honour him by learning and observing them When we beg of him to shew himself a Refiner of us to make us more conformable to him in holiness and bless him for any communication of it to us it render us beautiful and lovely in his sight To conclude To honour it is the way to engage it for us To give it the glory of what it hath done by the arm of power for our rescue from Sin and beating down our Corruptions at his feet is the way to see more of its marvellous works behold a clearer brightness As unthankfulness makes him withdraw his Grace * Rom. 1.21 24. so glorifying him causes him to impart it God honours men in the same way they honour him When we honour him by acknowledging his Purity he will honour us by communicating of it to us This is the way to derive a greater excellency to our Souls 3. Exhortation Since holiness is an eminent Perfection of the Divine Nature let us labour after a Conformity to God in this Perfection The Nature of God is presented to us in the Scripture both as a pattern to imitate and a Motive to perswade the Creature to holiness ‖ i Joh. 3.3 Matth. 5.48 Lev. 11.44 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Sâ—nce it is therefore the Nature of God the more our Natures are beautified with it the more like we are to the Divine Nature 'T is not the pattern of Angels or Arch-angels that our Saviour or his Apostle proposeth for our imitation but the original of all Purity God himself The same that created us to be imitated by us Nor is an equal degree of Purity enjoyned us though we are to be pure and perfect and merciful as God is yet not essentially so for that would be to command us an impossibility in itself as much as to order us to cease to be Creatures and commence Gods No Creature can be essentially holy but by participation from the chief Fountain of holiness but we must have the same kind of holiness the same truth of holiness As a short line may be as straight as another though it parallel it not in the immense length of it A copy may have the likeness of the Original though not the same Perfection We can not be good without eying some exemplar of goodness as the Pattern No pattern is so sutable as that which is the highest Goodness and Purity That Limner that would draw the most excellent piece fixes his eyes upon the most perfect Pattern He that would be a good Orator or Poet or Artificer considers some person most excellent in each kind as the Object of his imitation Who so sit as God to be viewed as the pattern of holiness in our intendment of and endeavor after holiness The Stoicks one of the best sects of Philosophers advised their Disciples to pitch upon some eminent example of Vertue according to which to form their lives as Socrates c. But true holiness doth not only endeavour to live the life of a good man but chuses to live a divine life As before the man was alienated from the life of God †Eph. 4 1â— so upon his return he aspires after the life of God To endeavour to be like a good man is to make one Image like another to set our Clocks by other Clocks without regarding the Sun But true holiness consists in a likeness to the most exact Sampler God being the first Purity is the Rule as well as the Spring of all Purity in the Creature the chief and first Object of Imitation We disown our selves to be his Creatures if we breath not after a resemblance to him in what he is imitable There was in man as created according to God's Image a natural appetite to resemble God It was at first planted in him by the Authour of his Nature The Devils temptation of him by that Motive to transgress the Law had been as an Arrow shot against a b azen Wall had there not been a desire of some likeness to his Creator engraven upon him * Gen. 3.5 It would have had no more influence upon him than it could have had upon a meer Animal But man mistook the term he would have been like God in knowledge whereas he should have affected a greater resemblance of him in Purity O that we could exemplify God in our Nature Precepts may instruct us more but Examples affect us more one directs us but the other attracts us What can be more attractive of our imitation than that which is the Original of all Purity both in Men and Angels This conformity to him consists in an imitation of him 1. In his Law The Purity of his Nature was first visible in this Glass hence 't is called a holy Law Rom. 7.12 a pure Law Psal 19.8 Holy and pure as it is a Ray of the pure Nature of the Law-giver When our Lives are a Comment upon his Law they are expressive of his Holiness We conform to his Holiness when we regulate our selves by his Law as it is a Transcript of his Holiness We do not imitate it when we do a thing in the matter of it agreeable to that holy Rule but when we do it with respect to the Purity of the Law-giver beaming in it If it be agreeable to God's will and convenient for some design of our own and we do any thing only with a respect to that design we make not God's Holâ—ness discovered in the Law our Rule but our own conveniency 'T is not a conformity to God but a conformity of our Actions to Self As in abstinence from intemperate Courses not because the holiness of God in his Law hath prescrib'd it but because the health of our Bodies or some noble Contentments of life require it then it is not God's holiness that is our Rule but our own security conveniency or some thing else which we make a God to our selves It must be a real conformity to the Law Our holiness should shine as really in the practise as God's Purity doth in the Precept God hath not a pretence of Purity in his Nature but a reality 'T is not only a suddain boiling up of an admiration of him or a starting wish to be like him from some suddain impression upon the Fancy which is a meer temporary blaze but a setled temper of Soul loving every thing that is like him doing things out of a firm desire to resemble his Purity in the Copy he hath set not a resting in Negatives but aspiring to Positives Holy and harmless are distinct things They were distinct qualifications in our High Priest in his Obedience to the Law
it is a representation of the Divinity and a holy man ought to esteem himself excellent in being such in his measure as his God is and puts his principal felicity in the possession of the same purity in Truth This is the refin'd Complexion of the Angels that stand before his Throne The Devils lost their comliness when they fell from it It was the honour of the humane Nature of our Saviour not only to be united to the Deity but to be sanctified by it He was fairer than all the Children of men because he had a holiness above the Children of men Grace was poured into his lips Psal 45.2 It was the Jewel of the reasonable Nature in paradise Conformity to God was mans original happiness in his created state and what was naturally so cannot but be immutably so in its own Nature The beauty of every copyed thing consists in its likeness to the Original Every thing hath more of loveliness as it hath greater impressions of its first Pattern In this regard holiness hath more of beauty on it than the whole Creation because it partakes of a greater excellency of God than the Sun Moon and Stars No greater glory can be than to be a conspicuous and visible Image of the invisible and holy and blessed God As this is the splendor of all the Divine Attributes so it is the flower of all a Christians Graces the Crown of all Religion 'T is the glory of the Spirit In this regard the Kings Daughter is said to be all glorious within * Psal 45.13 'T is more excellent than the soul itself since the greatest soul is but a deformed piece without it A Diamond without lustre †Vaughan p. 4 5. What are the noble faculties of the Soul without it but as a curious rusty Watch a delicate heap of Disorder and confusion 'T is impossible there can be beauty where thâ—re are a multitude of spots and wrinkles that blemish a Countenance ‖ Eph. 5.27 It can never be in its true brightness but when it is perfect in Purity when it regains what it was possessed of by Creation and dispossessed of by the fall and recovers its primitive temper We are not so beautiful by being the work of God as by having a stamp of God upon us Worldly greatness may make men honourable in the sight of creeping worms Soft lives ambitious reaches luxurious pleasures and a pompous Religion render no man excellent and noble in the sight of God This is not the excellency and nobility of the Deity which we are bound to resemble Other lines of a Divine Image must be drawn in us to render us truly excellent 4. 'T is our life What is the life of God is truly the life of a rational Creature * Amirald in Heb. p. 101 102. The life of the body consists not in the perfection of its Members and the integrity of its Organs these remain when the body becomes a Carcass but in the presence of the Soul and its vigorous animation of every part to perform the distinct offices belonging to each of them The life of the Soul consists not in its being or spiritual substance or the excellency of its Faculties of understanding and will but in the moral and becoming operations of them The spirit is only life because of righteousness * Rom. 8.10 The Faculties are turned by it to acquit themselves in their functions according to the will of God the absence of this doth not only deform the Soul but in a sort annihilate it in regard of its true essence and end Grace gives a Christian being and a want of it is the want of a true being Cor. 1.15.10 When Adam devested himself of his original righteousness he came under the force of the threatning in regard of a spiritual death Every person is morally dead whiles he lives an unholy life †1. Tim. 5 6. What life is to the body that is righteousness to the Spirit and the greater measure of holiness it hath the more of life it hath because it is in a greater nearness and partakes more fully of the fountain of life Is not that the most worthy life which God makes most account of without which his life could not be a pleasant and blessed life but a life worse than death What a miserable life is that of the men of the World that are carried with greedy inclinations to all manner of unrighteousness whither their interests or their lusts invite them The most beautiful body is a Carcass and the most honorable person hath but a brutish life ‖ Psal 49.20 miserable Creatures when their life shall be extinct without a Divine rectitude when all other things will vanish as the shadows of the night at the appearance of the Sun Holiness is our life 5. 'T is this only fits us for Communion with God Since it is our beauty and our life without it what Communion can an excellent God have with deformed Creatures a living God with dead Creatures Without Holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 The Creature must be stript of his Unrighteousness or God of his Purity before they can come together Likeness is the ground of Communion and of Delight in it The opposition between God and unholy Souls is as great as that between light and darkness * 1 John 1.6 Divine fruition is not so much by a union of Presence as a union of Nature Heaven is not so much an outward as an inward life the foundation of Glory is laid in Grace a resemblance to God is our vital happiness without which the Vision of God would not be so much as a cloudy and shadowy happiness but rather a torment than a felicity unless we be of a like nature to God we cannot have a pleasing fruition of him Some Philosophers think that if our Bodies were of the same nature with the Heavens of an Ethereal Substance the nearness to the Sun would cherish not scorch us Were we partakers of a Divine nature we might enjoy God with delight whereas remaining in our unlikeness to him we cannot think of him and approach to him without terrour As soon as sin had stript man of the Image of God he was an Exile from the comfortable presence of God unworthy for God to hold any correspondence with He can no more delight in a defiled person than a man can take a Toad into intimate converse with him he would hereby discredit his own Nature and justifie our Impurity The holiness of a Creature only prepares him for an eternal conjunction with God in glory Enoch's walking with God was the cause of his being so soon wafted to the place of a full fruition of him he hath as much delight in such as in Heaven it self one is his Habitation as well as the other The one is his habitation of Glory and the other is the house of his Pleasure If he dwell in Zion it must be
by it Pag. 623 By the command of the Father Pag. 750 Debauch'd persons wish there were no God Pag. 53 Decrees of God no succession in them Pag. 186 Unchangeable 397 477. v. Immutability Defilement God not capable of it from any Corporeal thing Pag. 126 260 261 Delight holy Duties should be performed with it Pag. 149 150 All delight in worship doth not prove it to be spiritual Pag. 150 We should examin our selves after worship what delight we had in â—t Pag. 164 Deliverances chiefly to be ascribed to God Pag. 272 273 The Wisdom of God seen in them Pag. 371 372 373 Desires of Man naturally after an infinite good Pag. 36 37 Which evidences the being of a God Pag. 37 Men naturally have no desire of Remembrance of God converse with him thorough return to him or imitation of him Pag. 97 98 99 Devil Man naturally under his Dominion Pag. 67 68 God's restraining him how great a mercy v. Restraint Shall be totally subdued by God Pag. 341 †Outwitted by God Pag. 385 386 His first sin what it was Pag. 753 754 Vide Angel Direction Men neglect to ask it of God Vide Trusting in our selves Should seek it of him Pag. 399 Not to do it how sinful Pag. 403 Should not presume to give it to him Pag. 404 Disappointments make many cast off their Obedience to God Pag. 66 God Disappoints the devices of Men Pag. 745 746 Dispensations of God with his own Law Pag. 725 726 Distance from God naturally affected by Men Pag. 97 How great it is Pag. 546 547 Distractions in the Service of God how natural Pag. 65 66 165 Will be so while we have natural Corruption within Pag. 165 166 While we are in the Devil's Precinct Pag. 166 Most frequent in time of Affliction ibid. May be improved to make us more Spiritual Pag. 166 167 168 When we are humbled for them in worship Pag. 166 167 And for the baseness of our Natures the cause of them Pag. 167 Make us prize Duties of Worship the more ibid. Fill us with admirations of the graciousness of God Pag. 167 168 Prize the mediation of Christ 168 They should not discourage us if we resist them Pag. 168 169 And if we narrowly watch against them Pag. 169 Should be speedily cast out Pag. 178 Thoughts of God's Presence a remedy against them Pag. 270 Distresses v. Afflictions Distrust of God a contempt of God's Wisdom Pag. 405 And of his Power Pag. 481 And of his Goodness Pag. 665 Too great fear of man arises from it Pag. 481 482 Vide Trusting in God and in our selves Divinity of Christ v. Christ. Of the Holy Ghost v. Holy Ghost Doctrines that are self-pleasing desired by men Pag. 83 Vide Truths Dominion of God distinguisht from his Power Pag. 704 All his other Attributes fit him for it ibid. Acknowledg'd by all Pag. 704 705 Inseparable from the notion of God ibid. We cannot suppose God a Creator without it Pag. 705 Cannot be renounced by God himself ibid. Nor communicated to any Creature Pag. 706 Its foundation Pag. 706 ad 710 It is independent Pag. 710 711 Absolute Pag. 711 ad 714 Yet not tyrannical 714 Managed with Wisdom Righteousness and Goodness Pag. 714 ad 717 'T is Eternal Pag. 721 'T is manifested as he is a Law-giver Pag. 721 ad 727 As a Proprietor Pag. 727 ad 741 As a Governor Pag. 741 ad 748 As a Redeemer Pag. 748 ad 751 The contempt of it how great Pag. 752 All sin is a contempt of it Pag. 752 753 The first thing the Devil aim'd against Pag. 753 And Adam Pag. 754 Invaded by the Usurpations of men Pag. 754 755 Wherein it is contemned as he is a Law-giver Pag. 755 ad 758 As a Proprietor Pag. 758 759 As a Governor Pag. 759 ad 763 It is terrible to the wicked Pag. 766 767 768. Comfortable to the Righteous Pag. 769 ad 772 Should be often meditated upon by us Pag. 772 The Advantages of so doing Pag. 773 774 775 It should teach us Humility Pag. 775 776 Calls for our praise and thanks Pag. 776 777 778 Should make us promote his Honour Pag. 778 779 Calls for Fear Prayer and Obedience Pag. 779 780 Affords motives to obedience Pag. 780 781 And shews the manner of it Pag. 782 783 784 Calls for Patience Pag. 784 Affords motives to it Pag. 784 785 786 Shews us the true nature of it Pag. 786 Duties of Religion performed often meerly for self interest Pag. 91 ad 94 Men unwieldy to them Pag. 91 Perform them only in affliction Pag. 92 Vid. Service of God and Worship Dwelling in Heaven and in the Ark how to be understood of God Pag. 257 258 E. EAr of man how curious an Organ Pag. 31 Earth how useful Pag. 23 The Wisdom of God seen in it Pag. 348 849 Earthly things v. World Ejaculations how useful Pag. 176 Elect God knows all their persons Pag. 330 Election evidenced by Holiness Pag. 562 The Soveraignty of God appears in it Pag. 727 728 Not grounded on Merit in the Creature Pag. 728 729 Nor on foresight of Faith and Good Works Pag. 729 730 Elements though contrary yet linkt together Pag. 22 End All Creatures conspire to one common one Pag. 22 ad 27 Pursue their several Ends though they know them not Pag. 27 28 Men have corrupt Ends in Religious Duties Pag. 78 91 92 93 94 For evil Ends Pag. 58 Desire the knowledge of God's Law for by Ends Pag. 57 58 Man naturally would make himself his his own End Pag. 80 ad 84 How sinful this is Pag. 84 85 Man would make any thing his End rathan God Pag. 85 86 87 A Creature or a Lust Pag. 87 88 How sinful this is ibid. Would make himself the End of all Creatures Pag. 88 89 How sinful this is Pag. 89 Would make himself the End of God Pag. 90 ad 94 How sinful this is Pag. 94 Cannot make God his End till converted Pag. 100 Spiritual ones required in Spiritual Worship Pag. 153 154 Many have other Ends in it Pag. 154 God orders the Hearts of all men to his own Pag. 452 453 God hath one and Man another in sin Pag. 532 533 We should make God our end Pag. 563 God makes himself his own End how to be understood Pag. 592 His Being the End of all things is one foundation of his Dominion Pag. 708 709 Not using God's gifts for the End for which he gave them how great a sin Pag. 758 759 Enemies of the Church v. Church We should be kind to our worst Enemies Pag. 692 Enjoyment of God in Heaven always fresh and glorious Pag. 195 We should endeavour after it here Pag. 685 686 Men Envy the gifts and prosperities of others Pag. 77 78 An imitation of the Devil ibid. A sense of God's Goodness would check it Pag. 689 A contempt of God's Dominion Pag. 758 Essence of God cannot be seen Pag. 115 116 is unchangeable Pag. 210 211