that hath rightly and resolvedly determined of his end hath virtually resolved a thousand controversies that others are unsatisfied and erroneous in He that is resolved that his End is to Please and Glorifie God and to enjoy him for ever is easily resolved whether a holy life or a sensual and worldly be the way whether the way be to be Godly or to make a mock at Godliness whether Covetousness and Riches Ambition and Preferment Voluptuousness and Fleshly pleasures be the means to attain his End whether it will be attained rather by the studying of the Word of God and meditating on it day and night and by holy conference and fervent prayer and an obedient life or by negligence or worldliness or drunkenness or gluttony or cards and dice or beastly filthiness or injustice and deceit Know once but whither it is that we are going and its easie to know whether the Saint or the Swine or the Swaggerer be in the way But a man that doth mistake his End is out of his way at the first step and the further he goes the further he is from true felicity and the more he erreth and the further he hath to go back again if ever he return Every thing that a man doth in the world which is not for the right end the Heavenly felicity is an act of foolishness and errour how splendid soever the Matter or the Name may make it appear to ignorant men Every word that an ungodly person speaketh being not for a right End is in him but sin and folly however materially it may be an excellent and useful Truth While a miserable soul hath his back upon God and his face upon the world every step he goeth is an act of folly as tending unto his further misery It can be no act of wisdome which tendeth to a mans damnation When such a wretch begins to enquire and bethink him where he is and whither he is going and whither he should go and to think of turning back to God then and never till then he is beginning to come to himself and to be wise Luk. 15. 17. Till God and Glory be the End that he aimeth at and seriously bends his study heart and life to seek though a man were searching into the mysteries of nature though he were studying or discussing the notions of Theology though he were admired for his earning and wisdome by the world and cryed up as the Oracle of the Earth he is all the while but playing the fool and going a cleanlier way to Hell than the grosser sinners of the world For â—s he wise that knoweth not whether Heaven or Earth be better whether God or his Flesh should be obeyed whether everlasting joyes or the transitory pleasures of sin should be preferred or that seemeth to be convinced of the truth in these and such like cases and yet hath not the wit to make his choice and bend his life according to his conviction He cannot be wise that practically mistakes his End 3. He that walketh with God doth know those things with a deep effectual heart-changing knowledge which other men know but superficially by the halves and as in a dream And true wisdome consisteth in the Intensiveness of the knowledge subjectively as much as in the extensiveness of it objectively To see a few things in a narrow room perspicuously and clearly doth shew a better eye-sight than in the open Air to see many things obscurely so as scarce to discern any of them aright â—â—ke him that saw men walk like trees The clearness and 〈◊〉 of knowledge which makes it effectual to its proper use 〈…〉 greatness and excellency of it Therefore it is that unlearned men that love and fear the Lord may well be said to be incomparably more wise and knowing men than the most learned that are ungodly As he hath more riches that hath a little Gold or Jewels than he that hath many load of stones so he that hath a deep effectual knowledge of God the Father and the Redeemer and of the life to come is wiser and more knowing than he that hath only a notional knowledge of the same things and of a thousand more A wicked man hath so much knowledge as teacheth him to speak the same words of God and Christ and Heaven which a true Believer speaks but not so much as to work in him the same affections and choice nor so much as to cause him to do the same work As it is a far more excellent kind of knowledge which a man hath of any Country by travel and habitation there than that which cometh but by reading or report or which a man hath of meat of fruits of wine by eating and drinking than that which another hath by hearsay so is the inward heart-affecting knowledge of a true believer more excellent than the flashy notions of the ungodly Truth simply as Truth is not the highest and most excellent object of the mind But Good as Good must be apprehended by the Understanding and commended to the Will which entertaineth it with Complacency adhereth to it with Choice and Resolution prosecuteth it with Desire and Endeavour and Enjoyeth it with Delight And though it be the Understanding which apprehendeth it yet it is the Heart or Will that rellisheth it and tasteth the greatest sweetness in it working upon it with some mixture of internal sense which hath made some ascribe a knowledge of Good as such unto the Will. And it is the Wills intention that causeth the Understanding to be denominated Practical And therefore I may well say thâ—t it is Wisdom indeed when it reacheth to the heart No man knoweth the Truth of God so well as he that most firmly Believeth him And do man knoweth the Goodness of God so well as he that Loveth him most No man knoweth his Power and Mercy so well as he that doth most confidently Trust him And no man knoweth his Justice and Dreadfulness so well as he that feareth him No man knoweth or believeth the Glory of Heaven so well as he that most esteemeth desireth and seeketh it and hath the most Heavenly Heart and Conversation Ho man believeth in Jesus Christ so well as he that giveth up himself unto him with the greatest Love and Thankfulness and Trust and Obedience As James saith Shew mee thy Faith by thy works so say I Let me know the measure and value of my knowledge by my Heart and Life That is wisdome indeed which conformeth a man to God and saveth his soul This only will be owned as wisdome to eternity when dreaming notions will prove but folly 4. He that walketh with God hath an infallible Rule and taketh the right course to have the best acquaintance with it and skill to use it The Doctrine that informeth him is Divine It is from Heaven and not of Men And therefore if God be wiser than man he is able to make his Disciples wisest and Teaching will more certainly and
and the flesh leadeth no man to his Salvation Gods motions are all for our Eternal good though they seem to be for our temporal hurt The motions of the flesh are for our Eternal hurt though at present they seem to be for our Corporal benefit If at any time you be at a loss and your carnal friends or your commodity or pleasure adviseth you one way and the Word of God and his faithful Ministers advise you another way use but your Reason well and consider whether God or those that contradict him be the wiser and accordingly suit your practice Alas man thy friend is ignorant and knows not what is good for himself Thy flesh is ignorant and knows not what is good for thy soul But God knoweth all things Your flesh and friends do feel what pleaseth them at present and judge accordingly but what will be hereafter they understand not or consider not But God knoweth as well what will be as what is He counselleth you as one that knoweth how your actions will appear at last and what it is that will save you or undo you to all eternity If you be but sick it s too to one but the Counsel of your Physition and of your Appetite will differ And if you will obey your Physition before your Appetite for your health or life should you not obey God before it for your Salvation Do you think in your Consciences that any that perswade you to a careless worldly fleshly life are as Wise as God that perswadeth you to the contrary you dare not say so with your tongues and yet the most dare say so with their lives O how justly do the ungodly perish that deliberately choose a brutish appetite a malignant world and a malicious Devil as a wiser or fitter conducter then the Lord But blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly but his delight is in the Law of the Lord Psal. 1. 1 2. And wo to the ungodly that reject and set at nought the counsel of the Lord Prov. 1. 25 30. Luke 7. 30. and will have none of it that wait not for his counsel Psal. 106. 13. that rehell against the words of God and contemn the counsel of the most High Psal. 107. 11. And wo to them that take counsel against the Lord and his Christ that they may break asunder his bondt and cast away his obligations Psal. 2. 1 2 3. And wo to them that are given up to the lusts of their own hearts and to walk in their own counsels Psal. 81. 12. For by their own counsels shall they fall Psal. 5. 10. But had they harkened to the Lord and walked in his way with the fulness of his blessings would he have satisfied them Psal. 81. 13 16. Resolve therefore what ever the flesh or the world say that the Testimonies of God shall be your Counsellors Psal. 119. â—4 and bless the Lord that giveth thee counsel Psal. 16. 7. For his counsel is infallible having guided thee by his counsel be will bring thee to his glory Psal 73. 24. 3. The Infinite Wisdome of God must resolve the soul to Rest in his determinations We are most certain that God is not deceived Though all men seem Lyers to you let God be true for it is impossible for him to lye Heb. 6. 18. If our Reason be to seek so is not God When we are saying with Nicodemus How can these things be God knoweth how and it is enough for us to know that they are so If Infinite wisdome say the word Believe it though all the world contradict it Though proud unbelievers say that the words of God are improbable let them know that God is not at a loss when ever mens dark understandings are at a loss The Sun is not taken out of the firmament when ever a man closeth or loseth his eyes What will those cavillers puzzle the Almighty will they pose Omniscience Doth it follow that the course of the Planets and the Heavens and all the Creatures are out of order if these silly Moles understand not the order of them No more will it follow that any word of God is false or any Rule of God is crooked because they see not its truth and rectitude Shall dust and ashes judge the Lord who hath been his Counseller and with whom hath he advised for the making redeeming or governing of the world There is no Rest to an inquisitive soul but in the Infinite wisdome of the Lord. Find once that it is his word and enquire no further It s madness to demand a further proof As all Goodness is comprized in his Will and Love so all Truth is comprized in his Wisdom and Revelations There are no Arguments but what are lower and subordinate to this And therefore if thy Reason be at a loss as to the cause or manner yet hast thou the greatest Reason to believe that all is just and true that proceedeth from the Wisdom of the Lord. Iâ— flesh and blood and all the world gain say it yet Rest in the Word of God 4. And that 's the next effect that Gods Omniscience should have upon our minds Take all the sayings of men as folly that are against the Lord. Let them be high or low learned or unlearned if they contradict the God of Infinite wisdome take it but as the words of a distracted man Did you ever meet with any man of them that durst say he was wiser than God himself Herod that was eaten to death with vermine was applauded by the flattering crowd but with this acclamation It is the voice of a God and not of a man Act. 12. 22. And will you say of any man that he is wiser than God If you dare not say so how dare you hear them and believe them against the Word of God How dare you be drawn from a holy life or from a selfdenying duty or from the truth of God by the words of a man yea perhaps of a very sot that speaks against the Word of God! To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to these it is because there is no Light in them Isa. 8. 20. 5. The Infinite wisdom of God should establish our confidence concerning the fulfilling of all his Word He will not fail for want of Knowledge when he spoke that Prophesie that Promise or that Threatning he perfectly knew all things that would come to pass to all eternity He knew therefore what he said when he gave out his Word and therefore will fulfill it Heaven and earth may pass away but one Iota or tittle of his word shall not pass away till all be accomplished Mat. 5. 18 6. And from the Infinite wisdom of God the Church must be encouraged in its greatest straits and against all the cunning subtilty of their enemies Are we ever in such straits that God knows not how to bring us out when we see no way for our deliverance doth
Related to us as our Lord By a Lord we mean strictly a Proprietary or Owner as you are the Owner of your goods or any thing that is your Own Secondly He is Related to us as our Ruler our Governour or King This riseth from our nature made to be Ruled in order to our End being Rational Voluntary Agents and also from the Dominion and blessed nature of God who only hath Right to the Government of the world and only is fit and capable of Ruling it Thirdly He is Related also to us as our Benefactor or Father freely and of his bounty giving us all the good that we do receive His first Relation in this Trinity answereth his first Property in the Trinity He is our Almighty Creator and therefore is our Owner or our Lord. The second of these Relations answereth the second Property of God He is most Wise and made an Impress of his Wisdom on the Rational Creature and therefore is our Governour The third Relation answereth the third property of God As he is most Good so he is our Benefactor Psal. 119. 68. Thou art Good and dost Good Mans nature and disposition is known by his Works though he be a free agent For the Tree is known by its fruit Mat. 7. 17. And so Gods nature is known by his works as far as is fit for us here to know though he be a free agent In each of these Relations God hath other special Attributes which are denominated from his Relations or his following works As he is our Lord or Owner his proper Attribute is to be Absolute having so full a title to us that he may do with us what he list Mat. 20. 15. Rom. 9. 21. As he is our Ruler his proper Attribute is to be our Soveraign or Supream there being none above him nor co-ordinate with him nor any Power of Government but what is derived from him As he is our Benefactor it is his prerogative to be our Chief or All the Alpha and Omega the Fountain or first Efficient cause of all that we receive or hope for and the End or ultimate final cause that can make us Happy by fruition and that we must still intend As these are the Attributes of God in these his great Relations so in Respect to the Works of these Relations he hath other subordinate Attributes As he is our Owner it is his Work to Dispose of us and his proper Attribute to be most Free. As he is our Ruler it is his work to Govern us which is first by making Laws for us and then by teaching and perswading us to keep them and lastly by executing them which is by Judging Rewarding and Punishing In respect to all these his principal Attribute is to be Just or Righteous In which is comprehended his Truth or Faithfulness his Holiness his Mercy and his terrible dreadfulness As his Attributes appear in the Assertions of his word he is True his Veracity being nothing but his Power Wisdom and Goodness expressing themselves in his Word or Revelations For he that is Able to do what he will and so wise as to Know all things and so Good as to Will nothing but what is Good cannot possibly lye For every lie is either for want of Power or Knowledge or Goodness He that is most Able and Knowing need not deceive by Lying And he that is most Good will not do it without need As his first properties appear in the word of Promise he is called Faithful which is his Truth in making good a word of grace As he Commandeth Holy duties and condemneth sin as the most detestable thing by a pure righteous Law so he is called Holy and also as the fountain of this Law and the Grace that sanctifieth his people As he fulfilleth his promises and rewardeth and defendeth men according to his word so he is called Merciful and Gracious as a Governour where his Mercy is considered as limited or ordinate by his laws As he fulfilleth his Threatnings he is called Angry wrathful terrible dreadful holy jealous c. But he is Just in all And as these are his Attributes as our Soveraign Ruler so as our Benefactor his special Attribute is to be Gracious or Bountiful or Benign or to be Loving and inclined to do good These are the Attributes of God resulting from his Nature as appearing in his Image in the Creation Laws and the person of his Son and resulting from his Relations and the works of those Relations even as he is our Creator in Unity and our Lord or Owner our Ruler and Benefactor in Trinity Were it not my purpose to consine my self to this short discovery of the nature attributes and works of God but to run deeper into the rest of the body of Divinity I should come down to the fall and work of Redemption and shew you in the Gospel and all the ordinances c. the footsteps of this Method of Trinity in Unity which I have here begun but that were to digress Besides what is said we might name you many Attributes of God that are commonly called Negative and do but distinguish him from the Imperfect Creature by setting him above us Infinitely in his perfections Man hath a Body but God is not a Body but a spirit Man is mutable but God Immutable Man is Mortal but God Immortal c. And now as I have shewed you these Properties Relations and Attributes of God so I must next tell you that we also stand in answerable counter-relations unto him and must have the qualities and do the works that answer those Relations 1. As God is our Almighty Creator so we are his Creatures impotent and insufficient for our selves We owe him therefore all that a Creature can owe his Maker that hath but our receivings 2. In this Relation is contained a Trinity of Relations 1. We are his Own as he is our Lord. 2. We are his subjects as he is our Ruler 3. We are his Children as he is our Father or his obliged Beneficiaries as he is our Benefactor And now having opened to your observation the Image of God and the extrinsick seals I have ripened the discourse so far that I may fitlyer shew you How the Impression of this Image of God is to be made upon the soul of the Believer CHAP. II. Of the Knowledge of Gods Being 1. HE that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. The first thing to be imprinted on the soul is that there is a God that he is a real most Trascendent Being As sure as the Sun that shineth hath a Being and the Earth that beareth us hath a being so sure hath God that made them a Being infinitely more excellent then theirs As sure as the streams come from the fountain and as sure as Earth and Stones and Beasts and Men did never make themselves nor do uphold themselves or continue the
feel though they are such as were sanctified never so early before actual sin had time to breed those evil habits which therefore certainly were born with us And if the Image of God consisting in true holiness be not natural or born in every Infant in the world then Original sin must needs be born with them for that sin is either only or chiefly the Privation of that Image or Holiness He that will say that this Image is not requisite to Infants and so that the absence of it is a meer negation doth make them bruits and not of the race of man whom God created after his Image and leaves them uncapable of Heaven or Hell or any other life then beasts have And he that thinks so of Infants to day may think so of himself to morrow And he that will affirm that this Image or Holiness is born with every Infant into the world so wilfully contradicteth common evidence which appeareth in the contrary effects that he is not worthy to be further talkt with One thing more I will propound yet to the contrary-minded Can they say that any Infants are saved or not If not either they perish as bruits which is a bruitish opinion or they live in misery and then they had sin that did deserve it yea if they think that any of them perish in the wrath to come it must be for sin If they think that any of them are saved it is either by covenant or without there is some promise for it or there is none If none then no man can say that any of them are saved For who hath known the mind of the Lord without his Revelation It is arrogancy to tell the world of the saving of any that God did no way reveal that he will save But if they plead a Revelation or promise it is either the Covenant of Nature or of Grace a promise contained in Nature Law or Gospel The former cannot be affirmed not only because the dissenters themselves deny any such Covenant to have been in nature or any way made to Adam but because there is no such Covenant or promise in Nature to be found for the Salvation of all Infants and if not for all then for none and because it is contrary to abundance of plain passages in the Scriptures that assure us there is but One Covenant of Salvation now in force and that all the world shall become guilty before God and every mouth be stopped Rom. 3. 19. and that by the deeds of the Law no flesh shall be justified in his sight v. 20. Gal. 2. 16. And if righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2. 21. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse Gal. 3. 10. And that no man is Justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident for the just shall live by faith and the Law is not of faith but The man that doth them shall live in them And certainly the Law of nature requireth not less then Moses Law to a mans justification if not more And if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded All under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that belive Gal. 3. 21 22. By the fulness of this evidence it is easie to see that Infants and all mankind are sinners and therefore have need of the Redeemer 2. To know God as our Redeemer containeth the knowledge of the great ends of our Redemption and of the manifestation of God to man thereby Having treated of these in the Book forecited I shall now say but this in brief It is beyond dispute that God could have made man capable of Glory and kept him from falling by confirming grace and without a Redeemer setled him in felicity as he did the Angels He that foresaw mans fall and necessity of a Saviour could easily have prevented that sin and necessity But he would not he did not but chose rather to permit it and save man by the way of a Redeemer In which his Infinite wisdom is exceedingly manifested And in Christ who is the Power and Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. among others these excellent effects are declared to us which the way of Redemption attaineth above what the saving us on the terms of Nature would have attained 1. God is now wonderfully admired and magnified in the person of the Redeemer Angels themselves desire to pry into this mysterie 1 Pet. 1. 12. As the frame of Nature is set us to see God in where we daily as in a glass behold him and admire him so the person of the Redeemer and work of Incarnation and Redemption is set the Angels for their contemplation and admiration as well as us Eph. 3. 10. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God And in the glorious perfection and dignity of the Redeemer will God be everlastingly glorified For his greatest works do greatliest honour him And as the sun doth now to us more honour him then a star so the glorified person of the Redeemer doth more honour God then man or Angels 1 Pet. 3. 23. He is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him Eph. 1. 20 21 22. Being raised from the dead God hath set him at his own right hand in heavenly places far above all principalities and powers and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the Head over all things to the Church which is his Body the fulness of him that filleth all in all Heb. 1. 3. Who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high being made so much better then the Angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name then they And here a very great truth appeareth which very many overlook that the exaltation of the person of the Redeemer and the glory that God will have in him is a higher and more principal part of Gods intent in the sending of him to be Incarnate and Redeem us then the glorifying of man and of God by us Christ will be more glorious then men or Angels and therefore will more glorifie God and God will eternally take more complacency in him then in men or Angels And therefore though in several respects He is for us and the means of our felicity and we are for him and the means of his glory as the Head is for the Body and the Body
Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier So that Infants themselves must be Sanctified or be none of the Church of Christ which consisteth of Baptized Sanctified persons Except a man be born again even of the Spirit as well as water he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Joh. 3. 3 5 6. and therefore the fleshly birth producing not a Spiritual creature will not save without the Spiritual birth The words are most plain not only against them that deny Original sin but against them that misunderstanding the nature of Redemption do think that all Infants are meerly by the price paid put into a state of Salvation and have the pardon of their Original sin in common attending their natural Birth But these men should consider 1. That this text and constant experience tell us that the new Birth doth not thus commonly to all accompany the natural birth and yet without the new birth none can be saved nor without Holiness any see God 2. That Pardon of sin is no mans upon the bare suffering of Jesus Christ but must be theirs by some Covenant or Promise conveying to them a Right to the benefits of his suffering And therefore no man can be said to be pardoned or saved without great arrogancy in the affirmer that hath not from God a promise of such mercy But no man can shew any Promise that giveth Remission of Original sin to all Infants Produce it or presume not to affirm it lest you fall under the heavy doom of those that add to his holy Word The Promise is to the faithful and their seed The rest are not the children of the promise but are under the commination of the violated Law which indeed is dispensable and therefore we cannot say that God will pardon none of them but withal we cannot say that he will unless he had told us so All the world are in a necessity of a Sanctifier and therefore most certainly even since Christs death they are naturally corrupted 2. And as our Belief in the Holy Ghost as Sanctifier engageth us to acknowledge our Original sin and misery so doth it engage us to magnifie his renewing work of grace and be convinced of the necessity of it and to confess the insufficiency of corrupted nature to its own renovation As no man must dishonour the work of our Creator and therefore our faculties of Reason and natural Freewill are not to be denyed or reproached so must we be as careful that we dishonour not the works of our Redeemer or Sanctifier and therefore the viciousness and ill disposedness of these faculties and the thraldom of our wills to their own misinclinations and to concupiscence must be confessed and the need of Grace to work the cure It is not ingenuous for us when God made it so admirable a part of his work in the world to Redeem us and save us from our sin and misery that we should hide or deny our diseases and make our selves believe that we have but little need of the Physician and so that the cure is no great matter and consequently deserveth no great praise I know the Church is troubled by men of dark yet self-conceited minds that in these points are running all into extreams One side denying the Sapiential method and the other the Omnipotential way of God in our recovery One plainly casting our sin and misery principally on God and the other as plainly robbing the Redeemer and holy Spirit of the honour of our recovery But it is the latter that my subject leadeth me now to speak to I beseech you take heed of any conceit that would draw you to extenuate the honour of our Sanctifier Dare you contend against the Holy Ghost for the integrity of your natures or the honour of your cure surely he that hath felt the power of this renewing grace and found how little of it was from himself nay how much he was an enemy to it will be less inclined to extenuate the praise of grace then unexperienced men will be Because the case is very weighty give me leave by way of Question to propound these considerations to you Quest. 1. Why is it think you that all must be Baptized into the Name of the Son and Holy Ghost as well as of the Father Doth it not imply that all have need of a Sanctifier and must be engaged to that end in Covenant with the Sanctifier I suppose you know that it is not to a bare Profession of our belief of the Trinity of persons that we are baptized It is our Covenant entrance into our happy Relation to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost that is then celebrated And therefore as Infants and all must be thus engaged to the Sanctifier so all must acknowledge their necessity of this mercy and the excellency of it It is essential to our Christianity that we value it desire it and receive it And therefore an error inconsistent with it proveth us indeed no Christians Mat. 28. 19. Quest. 2. Why is it think you that the Holy Ghost and this renewing work are so much magnified in the Scripture Is not the glory of it answerable to those high expressions undoubtedly it is I have already told you elsewhere of the Elogies of this work It is that by which Christ dwelleth in them and they are made a habitation of God by the spirit Eph. 3. 17. and 2. 22. They are made by it the Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. It is the Divine Power which is no other then Omnipotency that giveth us all things pertaining unto Life and Godliness 2 Pet. 1. 3. Think not I beseech you any lower of this work then is consistent with these expressions It is the opening of the blind eyes of our understanding and turning us from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and bringing us into his marvellous light Act. 26. 18. Eph. 1. 18. 1 Pet. 2. 9. It is an inward teaching of us by God Joh. 6. 45. 1 Thes. 4. 9. an effectual teaching and anointing 1 Joh. 2. 27. and a writing the Laws in our hearts and putting them in our inward parts Heb. 8. 10 11. I purposely forbear any exposition of these texts lest I seem to distort them and because I would only lay the naked Word of God before your own impartial considerations It is Gods work by the Spirit and not our own as ours that is here so much magnified And can all this signifie no more but a common bare proposal of truth and good to the intellect and will even such as ignorant and wicked men have Doth God do as much to illuminate teach and sanctifie them that never are illuminated or taught and sanctified as them that are This work of the Holy Ghost is called a quickning or making men that were dead alive Eph. 2. 1 2. Rom. 6. 11 13. It
doth sweetly relish and take pleasure in as we would do to hear an Angel speak of the Holy things of the invisible Glory 3 And Relative Holiness it self though the lowest must be H 〈…〉 ured by us Holy offices and persons in them must be Re 〈…〉 d for their Relative Holiness Holy dayes must be holily 〈…〉 rved Holy Ordinances which also participate of the 〈…〉 of the Law as significative must be reverently used Due reverence must be given even to that which is lawfully by men â—â—voted to a Holy use as are Temples and Utensils of worship and the maintenance dedicated to the service of God That which is Holy must not be devoured Prov. 20. 25. nor used as we do things common and unclean â— Gods Holiness must make us Holy we must fall in Love with it and wholly conform our selves unto it Every part of Sanctifying grace must be entertained and cherished and excited and used by us Sin must be loathsome to us because it is contrary to the Holiness of God No Toad or Snake should seem to us so ugly A dead carkass is an unpleasant sight because it sheweth us a privation of natural life But an unholy soul is incomparably a more loathsome ghastly sight because it sheweth us the privation of the life of Holiness No man can well know the odiousness of sin and the misery and loathsomeness of the unholy soul that knoweth not the Holiness of God Speak unto all the Congregation of Israel and say unto them Ye shall be Holy for I the Lord your God am Holy Lev. 19. 2. Sanctifie your selves therefore and be ye Holy for I am the Lord your God Lev. 20. 7 8. As be that hath called us is Holy so must we be holy in all manner of Conversation 1 Pet. 1. 25. It is an holy calling wherewith we are called 2 Tâ—â— 1. 9. We are sanctified to be a peculiar people to Christ Tit. 2. 14. That denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world ver 12. We are made an Holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5. Rom. 12. 1 2. We must therefore present our bodies a living sacrifice Holy acceptable to God our reasonable service For we are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be Holy and without blame Ephes. 1. 4. and are Redeemed and Sanctified by Christ that we may be presented Glorious Holy and without blemish Ephes. 5. 26 27. See therefore that you follow Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12. 14. For Blessed are the Pure in heart for they shall see him Mat. 5. 8. 3. The Holiness of God must be to us a standing unanswerable Argument to shun all temptations that would draw us to be unholy and to confound all the words of wicded men that are spoken against Holiness Remember but that God is Holy and if thou like that which is spoken against God thou art his Enemy Think on the Prophesie of Henoch Jude 14. 15. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his holy Name in vain much less that blasphemeth Holiness which is the perfection of his blessed nature 4. The Holiness of God must possess us with a sense of our Uncleanness and further our Humiliation When Isaiah heard the Seraphims cry Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his Glory Isa. 6. 3 He said Woe is mee for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts v. 5. 5. The Holiness of God must cause us to walk continually in his Fear and to take heed to all the affections of our souls and even to the manner of our behaviour when we come near to him in his Holy Worship What suffered the Beâ—shemiâ—es for unreverent looking into the Holy Ark 1 Sam 6. 19. and Uzzah but for touching it And what a dreadful example is that of the two Sons of Aaron that were slain by a devouâ—ing fire from the Lord for offering strange fire which he commanded not Lev. 10. 1 2. And Aaron was awed into silence by this account from God I will be sanctified in them that come nigh mee and before all the people I will be glorified v. 3. Take heed lest unreverence or deadness or customary heartless wordy services should be brought before a Holy God Take heed of hypocritical carnal worship The Holy God will not be mocked with complements and shews CHAP. XIX 18. THe next Attribute of God to be spoken of is His Veracity Truth and Faithfulness This is the result of his perfect Wisdome Goodness and Omnipotency For because he is most Wise and Powerful he cannot be Necessitated to Lye And because he is most Good he will not Lye Though God speaketh by none but a Created Voice and signifie his Will to us by men that in themselves considered are defectible yet what he maketh his Voice shall speak Truth and what he chooseth to signifie his Will shall truly signifie it He therefore condemneth Lying in man because it is contrary to his own Veracity For if any should say that God is under no Law and therefore is not bound to speak Ttuth or not deceive a Prophet or Apostle by his Inspirations I answer that he hateth Lying as contrary to his Perfect Nature and is himself against it and cannot possibly be guilty of it because of his own Perfection and not because he is under a Law Lying comes from some Imperfection either of Knowledge Power or Goodness which can none of them befall the Lord. The Goodness of the Creature is a Goodness of Conformity to an Obliging Law and the Goodness of the Law is a Goodness of Conformity to and expression of the Good Will of God But the Goodness of God is a Perfection of Essence the Primitive Goodness which is the Fountain and Standard and End of all other Good and not a Goodness of Conformity to another And this Attribute of God is of very great use to his servants 1. From hence we must be Resolved for Duty and for a holy heavenly life because the Commands of God are serious and his Promises and Threatnings True If God were not True that tells us of these great Eternal things then might we excuse our selves from Godliness and justifie the worldling in his sensual way There is nothing of common sense and reason that can be said against a Holy life by a man that denieth not the Truth of God or of his Word And to deny Gods Truth
is most unreasonable of all O Sirs when you read and hear of the wonderful weighty matters of the Scripture of an Endless Life and the way thereto bethink you if these things be True what manner of persons you should be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness 2 Pet. 3. 11. If the Word be True that telleth us of Death and Judgement and Heaven and Hell is it time for us to sin to trifle and live unready 2. The Truth of God is the Terror of his Enemies O happymen if their Unbelief could make void the Threatnings of God and doubting of them would make them false and if their misery were as easily remedied as denied and ended as easily as now forgotten or forgotten hereafter as easily as now But true and righteous is the Lord and from the beginning his Word is true Psal. 119. 16. Not a word shall fall to the ground nor a jot or tittle pass unfufilled 3. The Truth of God is the Ground of Faith and the stay of our souls and the Rock of all our confidence and comfort A Christian did not differ from another man unless in being somewhat more deluded if God were not True But this is the foundation of all our hopes and the life of our Religion and all that we are as Christians proceeds from this Faith is animated by Gods Veracity and from thence all other Graces flow or are excited in us O Christians what a treasure is before your eyes when you open the Blessed Book of God! what life should it put into your confidence and comforts to think that all these words are true All those descriptions of the Everlasting Kingdome and all those exceeding precious Promises of this life and that which is to come and all the expressions of that exceeding Love of God unto his servants all these are the True sayings of God A faithful witness will not Lye Prov. 14. 5. much less will the faithful God Eternal Life is promised by God that cannot Lye Tit. 1. 2. Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsels confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to Lye we might have a strong Consolation who have fled for Refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Heb. 6. 17 18. Let Faith therefore live upon the Truth of God and let us be strengthned and rejoyce therein 4. Abhor all doctrines which deny the Truth and Faithfulness of God For they destroy the ground of Christian Faith of all Divine Faith and all Religion The Veracity of God is the formal Object of all Divine Faith We believe God because he cannot Lye If he can Lye and do Lye he is not credible But you will say Is there any that hold such odious doctrines Answ. I like not the charging of Persons with the consequences of their opinions which they discern not but disclaim God will not charge them with such consequences who do their best to know the truth and why should we All men have some errours whose consequences contradict some Articles of Faith It is not the persons that I perswade you to dislike but the Doctrine And the Doctrine is never the less to be abhorred because a wise or good man may hold that which doth infer it I shall now instance only in the Dominicans predetermination They that hold that it is necessary to the being of every circumstantiated act natural and free that God be the principal immediate Physical efficient predetermining cause of it do hold that he so causeth all the false speeches and writings as well as other sins that ever were spoken or written in the world not only as they are acts in genere but as these words in particular as that he so predetermined the tongues of Ananias and Saphira to say those very words which they said rather than others Now seeing it is apparent 1. That God hath not a voice but speaketh to us by a Created Voice even by Prophets and Apostles and that the Scripture was written by men 2. And that Gods Veracity which is the formal object of our Faith consisteth in his not using lying instruments nor sending a lying messenger to us it is Veracitas revelantis per alium 3. And that no way of Inspiration can make God to be any more the cause of the words or writings of an Apostle than his Immediate Physical efficient specifying predetermination doth for it can do no more than irresistibly as the first cause Physically to premove the agent to this Thought Will Word or Deed considered with all its circumstances It followeth that we have no certainty when God premoveth an Apostle or Prophet to speak true and when to speak falsly and that no words or writings are o certain truth upon any account of Gods inspiration or premotion because God not only can but doth cause all the untruths that are spoken or written in the world Therefore no Faith in Gods Revelations hath any sure foundation nor any formal object at all And so all Religion is dasht out at a stroke To say that God causeth not the falsity of the word nor the word as false but the word which is false might well be the justification of them that affirm God to be but the Universal Cause of the Word oâ— Act in genere as a Word or Act and that the specification is only from the sinner But in them that say he is the particular Cause of this word comparatively rather than another it is but a contradiction 1. For there is no other cause of the falsity which is a meer Relation but that which causeth the Rule and the Word or Writing which is false and so layeth the foundation 2. It overthroweth all certainty of Faith if God speak to us by his Instruments those words that are false The Quod falsum as well as the Qua falsum leaveth us no ground of certainty The Dominicans therefore have but one task in which their hope is placed to excuse their opinion from plain obliterating all Divine Belief and Religion and that is to prove that there is so great a difference between Inspiration and their Physical Predetermination that God cannot by Inspiration premove to an untruth though by Physical Predetermination he may This is their task which I see not the least possibility that ever they should perform If God premove and predeterminate every Will and Tongue and Pen to every lye that is spoken or written more potently and irresistibly than I move my Pen in writing it is past my power to understand what more he can do by inspiration to interest him in the Creatures Act or at least how the difference can be so great as that one of the waies he can predetermine all men to their falsities and none the other way But of this I have written a large Disputation yet think it not needless even in a practical Treatise to
say this much here 5. The Truth of God must teach us to hate every Motion to Unbelief in our selves and others It is a hainons sin to give God the Lye though he speak to us but by his messengers Every honest man so far as he is honest is to be believed and is God less true A graceless Gallant will challenge you the field for the dishonour if you give him the Lye If you deny Gods Veracity you do not only equal him with the worst of men but with the Devil who was a Lyer from the beginning Yea you make him uncapable of being the Governour of the world or suppose him to Govern it by Deceits and Lyes Abhor therefore the first motions of Unbelief It makes men somewhat worse than Devils for the Devils know that God cannot lye and therefore they believe and tremble Unbelief of the Truth of the Word of God is the curse of the soul the enemy and bane of all Grace and Religion so far as it prevaileth Let it be the principal care and labour of your souls to settle the foundation of your Faith aright and to discern the Evidence of Divine Authority in the holy Scriptures and to extirpate the remnants of Infidelity in your hearts 6. Let the Truth and Faithfulness of God engage you to be True and Faithful to him and to each other You have promised him to be his servants be faithful in your promises You are in Covenant with him break not your Covenant Many a particular promise of Reformation you have made to God Prove not false to him that is True to you Be as good as your word to all men that you have to do with Abhor a Lye as the off-spring of the Devil who is the father of it Remember you serve a God of Truth and that it is the Rectitude and Glory of his servants to be conformable to him They say the Turks are offended at Christianity because of the lyes and falshood of Christians But sure they were but nominal Christians and no true Christians that ever they found such And its pitty that Christianity should be judged of through the world by the lives of them that never were Christians but from the teeth outward and the skin that was washt in Baptism They that will lye to God and covenant to be his holy Servants when they hate his holy service will lye to man when their commodity requireth it When they seem to Repent and honour him with their tongues They flatter him with their mouth and lye to him with their tongues for their heart is not right with him neither are they stedfast in his Covenant Psal. 78. 34 35 36 37. God saith Levit. 19. 11. Ye shall not steal nor deal fasly nor lye one to another A Righteous man hateth lying Prov. 13. 5. The lying tongue is but for a moment Prov. 12. 19. For God hateth it and it is an abomination to him Prov. 16. 16 17. The lovers and makers of lyes are shut out of the Kingdom of Christ Rev. 22. 15. But above all false Teachers that preach and prophesie lyes and deceive the Rulers and people of the Earth are abominable to God See Jer. 27. 10 14 15 16. 14. 14. 23. 25 26 32. Ezek. 13. 9 12. Isa. 54. 13. When Ahab was to be destroyed a lying spirit in the mouth of his Prophets deceived him And if a Ruler hearken to lyes all his servants are wicked Prov. 29. 2. 7. Above all false witness and perjury should be most odious to the servants of the God of Truth Prov. 19. 9. A false witness shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lyes shall perish Eccles. 5. 4 5. When thou vowest a vow to God defer not to pay it Saith David Thy Vows are upon mee O God Psal. 56. 12. And unto thee shall the Vow be performed Psal. 65. 1. Perjury is a sin that seldome scapeth vengeance even in this life The instances of Saul the first and Zedekiah the last of the Kings of Judah before their desolation are both very terrible Sauls posterity must be hanged to stay the Famine that came upon the people for his breaking a Vow that was made by Joshua and not by him though he did it in zeal for Israel 2 Sam. 21. Zedekiah's case you may see 2 Chron. 26. Ezek. 17. He that sweareth appealeth to God as the searcher of hearts and avenger of perjury The perjured person chooseth the vengeance of God He is unfit till he repent to be a member of any civil society For he dissolveth the bond of all societies He cannot well be supposed to make conscience of any sin or villany in the world against God his Country his King his Friend or Neighbour that makes no conscience of an oath It is not easie to name a greater wickedness out of Hell than to approve of perjury by Laws or Doctrine And whether the Church of Rome do so or not I only desire them to consider that have read the third Canon of the Council at Lateran under P. Innocent the third where an Approved General Council decreeth that the Pope discharge vassals from their allegiance or fidelity to those Temporal Lords that exterminate not Hereticks as they call them out of their dominions What shall restrain men from killing Kings or any villany if once the bond of oatht be nullified But Scripture saith Keep the Kings Commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God Eccles. 8 2. No man defendeth Perjury by name But to say that men that swear to do that which God commandeth or forbids not are not bound to keep that oath or that the Pope may absolve men or disoblige them that swore fidelity to Temporal Lords when once the Pope hath excommunicated them doth seem to mee of the same importance CHAP. XX. 19. THE next Attribute to be spoke of is his Mercifulness and his Long-suffering Patience which we may set together This is implied in his Goodness and the Relation of a Father before expressed Mercy is Gods Goodness inclining him to prevent or remove his creatures Misery It is not only the Miserable that are the object of it but also those that may be miserable it being as truly Mercy to keep us out of it foreseen as to deliver us out of it when we are in it Hence it is that he taketh not Pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he turn and Live And hence it is that he Afflicts not willingly nor grieves the children of men Lam. 3. 33. Not that his Mercy engageth him to do all that he can do for the salvation of every sinner or absolutely to prevent or heal his misery But it is his Attribute chiefly considered as Governour of the Rational Creature and so his Mercy is so great to all that he will destroy none but for their wilful sin and shut none among us out of Heaven but those that were guilty of contemning it God doth not
be alwaies actually upon God but he that doth manage his calling in Holiness doth all in obedience to Gods commands and sees that his work be the work of God and he intendeth all to the glory of God or the pleasing of his blessed will and he oft reneweth these actual intentions and oft interposeth thoughts of the presence or power or love or interest of him whom he is serving He often lifteth up his soul in some holy desire or ejaculatory request to God He oft taketh occasion from what he seeth or heareth or is doing for some more spiritual meditation or discourse so that still it is God that his mind is principally employed on or for even in his ordinary work while he liveth as a Christian And it is not enough to think of God but we must think of him as God with such respect and reverence and love and trust and submission in our measure as is due from the Creature to his Creator For as some kind of speaking of him is but a taking his Name in vain so some kind of thinking of him is but a dishonouring of him by contemptuous or false unworthy thoughts Most of our walking with God consisteth in such affectionate apprehensions of him as are suitable to his blessed Attributes and Relations All the day long our thoughts should be working either on God or for God either upon some work of obedience which he hath imposed on us and in which we desire to please and honour him or else directly upon himself Our hearts must be taken up in contemplating and admiring him in magnifying his Name his Word and Works and in pleasant contentful thoughts of his benignity and of his Glory and the Glory which he conferreth on his Saints He that is unskilful or unable to manage his own thoughts with some activity seriousness and order will be a stranger to much of the holy converse which believers have with God They that have given up the Government of their thoughts and turned them loose to go which way phantasie pleaseth and present sensitive objects do invite them and to run up and down the world as masterless unruly vagrants can hardly expect to keep them in any constant attendance upon God or readiness for any sacred work And the sudden thoughts which they have of God will be rude and stupid savouring more of prophane contempt than of holiness when they should be reverent serious affectionate and practical and such as conduce to a holy composure of their hearts and lives And as we must walk with God 1. In our communion with his servants 2. And in our affectionate Meditations so also 3 In all the ordinances which he hath appointed for our Edification and his Worship 1. The Reading of the Word of God and the explication and application of it in good Books is a means to possess the mind with sound and orderly and working apprehensions of God and of his holy Truths So that in such Reading our understandings are oft illustrated with a heavenly Light and our hearts are touched with a special delightful rellish of that truth and they are secretly attracted and engaged unto God and all the powers of our souls are excited and animated to a holy obedient life 2. The same Word preached with a lively voice with clearness and affection hath a greater advantage for the same illumination and excitation of the soul. When a Minister of Christ that is truly a Divine being filled with the Knowledge and Love of God shall copiously and affectionately open to his hearers the excellencies which he hath seen and the happiness which he hath foreseen and tasted of himself it frequently through the co-operation of the Spirit of Christ doth wrap up the hearers hearts to God and bring them into a more lively knowledge of him actuating their graces and enflaming their hearts with a heavenly Love and such desires as God hath promised to satisfie Christ doth not only send his Ministers furnished with Authority from him but also furnished with his Spirit to speak of spiritual things in a spiritual manner so that in both respects he might say He that heareth you heareth mee and also by the same Spirit doth open and excite the hearts of the hearers so that it is God himself that a serious Christian is principally employed with in the hearing of his heavenly transforming Word And therefore he is affected with reverence and holy fear with some taste of heavenly delight with obediential subjection and resignation of himself to God The Word of God is powerful not only in pulling down all high exalting thoughts that rise up against God but also in lifting up depressed souls that are unable to rise unto heavenly knowledge or communion with God If some Christians could but alwaies finde as much of God upon their hearts at other times as they finde sometimes under a spiritual powerful Ministry they would not so complain that they seem forsaken and strangers to all communion with God as many of them do While God by his Messengers and Spirit is speaking and man is hearing him while God is treating with man about his reconciliation and everlasting happiness and man is seriously attending to the treaty and motions of his Lord surely this is a very considerable part of our walking and converse with God 3. Also in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ we are called to a familiar converse with God He there appeareth to us by a wonderful condescension in the representing communicating signs of the flesh and blood of his Son in which he hath most conspicuously revealed his Love and Goodness to Believers There Christ himself with his Covenant-gifts are all delivered to us by these Investing signs of his own institution even as Knighthood is given by a sword and as a House is delivered by a Key or Land by a Twig and Turf Nowhere is God so near to man as in Jesus Christ and nowhere is Christ so familiarly represented to us as in this holy Sacrament Here we are called to sit with him at his Table as his invited welcome guests to commemorate his sacrifice to feed upon his very flesh and blood that is with our mouths upon his Representative flesh and blood and with our applying Faith upon his real flesh and blood by such a feeding as belongs to Faith The Marriage-Covenant betwixt God â—ncarnate and his espoused ones is there publickly sealed celebrated and solemnized There we are entertained by God as friends and not as servants only and that at the most precious costly feast If ever a believer may on earth expect his kindest entertainment and near access and a humble intimacy with his Lord it is in the participation of this sacrifice-feast which is called The Communion because it is appointed as well for our special Communion with Christ as with one another It is here that we have the fullest intimation expression and communication of the wondrous Love of God