God said and he there owns him ver 5. Ye shall become as Gods He owns God in the question he asks the Woman and perswades our first Parents to be Gods themselves And in all stories both Ancient and Modern the Devil was never able to Tincture mends minds with a professed denial of the Deity which would have opened a door to a world of more wickedness than hath been acted and took away the bar to the breaking out of that evil which is naturally in the hearts of men to the greater prejudice of human societies He wanted not malice to rase out all the Notions of God but power He knew it was impossible to effect it and therefore in vain to attempt it He set up himself in several places of the ignorant world as a God but never was able to overthrow the opinion of the being of a God The impressions of a Deity were so strong as not to be struck out by the malice and power of Hell What a folly is it then in any to contradict or doubt of this Truth which all the periods of time have not been able to wear out which all the Wars and Quarrels of men with their own Consciences have not been able to destroy which Ignorance and Debauchery it s two greatest Enemies cannot weaken which all the falsehoods and errors which have reigned in one or other part of the world have not been able to banish which lives in the consents of men in spight of all their wishes to the contrary and hath grown stronger and Shone clearer by the improvements of natural reason 3. Natural and innate which pleads strongly for the perpetuity of it T is natural tho some think it not a Principle writ in the heart of man * Pink. Eph. 6. pag. 10. 11. t is so natural that every man is born with a restless instinct to be of some kind of Religion or other which implies some object of Religion The impression of a Deity is as common as reason and of the same age with reason * King en Jonah pag. 16. T is a Relique of knowledg after the fall of Adam like fire under ashes which sparkles as soon as ever the heap of ashes is opened A notion sealed up in the Soul of every man * Amyrant des Religious pag. 6. 5. 8. 9. else how could those people who were unknown to one another separate by Seas and Mounts differing in various customes and manner of living had no mutual intelligence one with another light upon this as a common Sentiment if they had not been guided by one uniforme reason in all their minds by one nature common to them all though their Clymates be different their tempers and constitutions various their imaginations in somethings as distant from one another as Heaven is from Earth the Ceremonies of their Religion not all of the same kind Yet wherever you find human nature you find this setled perswasion So that the Notion of a God seems to be twisted with the nature of man and is the first natural branch of Common reason or upon either the first inspection of a man into himself and his own state and constitution or upon the first sight of any external visible object Nature within man and nature without man agree upon the first meeting together to form this Sentiment that there is a God T is as natural as any thing we call a Common Principle One thing which is called a Common Principle and natural is that the whole is greater than the parts If this be not born with us yet the exercise of reason essential to man settles it as a certain Maxim upon the dividing any thing into several parts he finds every part less than when they were altogether By the same exercise of reason we cannot cast our eyes upon any thing in the world or exercise our understandings upon our selves but we must presently imagine there was some cause of those things some cause of my self and my own being so that this Truth is as natural to man as any thing he can call most natural or a Common Principle It must be confest by all that there is a Law of nature writ upon the hearts of men which will direct them to commendable actions if they will attend to the writing in their own Consciences This Law cannot be considered without the notice of a Law-giver For t is but a natural and obvious conclusion that some superior hand engrafted those principles in man since he finds something in him twitching him upon the pursuit of uncomely actions though his heart be mightily enclined to them man knows he never planted this principle of Reluctancy in his own Soul he can never be the cause of that which he cannot be friends with If he were the cause of it why doth he not rid himself of it No man would endure a thing that doth frequently molest and disquiet him if he could casheir it T is therefore sown in man by some hand more powerful than man which riseth so high and is rooted so strong that all the force that man can use cannot pull it up If therefore this principle be natural in man and the Law of Nature be natural the Notion of a Law-giver must be as natural as the Notion of a Printer or that there is a Printer is obvious upon the sight of a stamp imprest After this the multitude of effects in the World step in to strengthen this beam of natural light and the direct Conclusion from thence is that that power which made those outward objects implanted this inward principle This is sown in us born with us and sprouts up with our growth or as one saith * Chaâ—leâ—â—â— t is like Letters carved upon the bark of a young plant which grows up together with us and the longer it grows the Letters are more legible This is the ground of this universal consent and why it may well be termed natural This will more evidently appear to be natural because 1. This consent could not be by meer Tradition 2. Nor by any mutual intelligence of Governors to keep people in aw which are two things the Atheist pleads the first hath no strong foundation and that other is as absurd and foolish as it is wicked and abominable 3. Nor was it fear first introduced it 1. It could not be my meer Tradition Many things indeed are entertained by posterity which their Ancestors delivered to them and that out of a common reverence to their Fore-Fathers and an opinion that they had a better prospect of things than the increase of the corruption of suceeding ages would permit them to have But if this be a Tradition handed from our Ancestors they also must receive it from theirs we must then ascend to the first man we cannot else escape a confounding ourselves with running into infinite was it then the only Tradition he left to them is it not probable he acquainted them with
so ever doth never contradict it self And this is so convincing an argument of the Existence of God that God never vouchsafed any Miracle or put forth any act of Omnipotency besides what was evident in the Creatures for the satisfaction of the Curiosity of any Atheist or the evincing of his Being as he hath done for the Evidencing those Truths which were not written in the book of nature or for the restoring a decayed worship or the protection or deliverance of his people Those Miracles in publishing the Gospel indeed did demonstrate the existence of some supream Power but they were not seals designedly affixt for that but for the confirmation of that truth which was above the ken of purblind Reason and purely the birth of Divine Revelation Yet what proves the Truth of any Spiritual Doctrine proves also in that act the Existence of the Divine Author of it The Revelation alwayes implies a Revealer and that which manifests it to be a Revelation manifests also the supream Revealer of it By the same light the Sun manifests other things to us it also manifests it self But what Miracles could rationally be supposed to work upon an Atheist who is not drawn to a sence of the Truth proclaimed aloud by so many wonders of the Creation Let us now proceed to the demonstration of the Atheists Folly T is a Folly to deny or doubt of a Soveraign Being incomprehensible in his Nature infinite in his Essence and Perfections independent in his Operations who hath given Being to the whole frame of sensible and intelligible Creatures and governs them according to their several natures by an unconceivable Wisdom who fills the Heavens with the Glory of his Majesty and the Earth with the influences of his Goodness 'T is a Folly inexcusable to renounce in this case all appeal to universal consent and the joynt assurances of the Creatures Reason 1. 'T is a Folly to deny or doubt of that which hath been the acknowledged Sentiment of all Nations in all places and ages There is no Nation but hath owned some kind of Religion and therefore no Nation but hath consented in the notion of a supream Creator and Governor 1. This hath been universal 2. It hath been constant and uninterrupted 3. Natural and innate First I. It hath been universally assented to by the Judgments and practices of all Nations in the World 1. No Nation hath been exempt from it All Histories of former and latter Ages have not produced any one Nation but fell under the force of this Truth Though they have differed in their Religions they have agreed in this Truth here both Heathen Turk Jew and Christian center without any Contention No quarrel was ever commenced upon this score though about other opinions Wars have been sharp and Enmities Irriconcilable The notion of the Existence of a Deity was the same in all Indians as well as Britains Americans as well as Jews It hath not been an opinion peculiar to this or that people to this or that Sect of Philosophers but hath been as universal as the reason whereby men are differenc'd from other Creatures so that some have rather defin'd man by animal religiosum then animal rationale 'T is so twisted with Reason that a man cannot be accounted rational unless he own an object of Religion Therefore he that understands not this renounceth his Humanity when he renounceth a Divinity No instance can be given of any one people in the World that disclaimed it It hath been owned by the Wise and ignorant by the learned and stupid by those who had no other guide but the dimmest light of Nature as well as by those whose Candles were snuft by a more polite Education and that without any solemne debate and contention Though some Philosophers have been known to change their opinions in the concerns of Nature yet none can be proved to have absolutely changed their opinion concerning the Being of a God One died for asserting one God none in the former Ages upon record hath died for asserting no God Go to the utmost bounds of America you may find people without some broken peices of the Law of nature but not without this signature and stamp upon them though they wanted commerce with other Nation except as Savage as themselves in whom the light of nature was as it were sunk into the Socket who are but one remove from Brutes who cloath not their bodies cover not their shame yet were they as soon known to own a God as they were known to be a people they were possessed with the Notion of a Supream Being the Author of the World had an object of Religious adoration put up Prayers to the Deity they owned for the good things they wanted and the diverting the evils they feared no people so untamed where absolute perfect Atheism hath gained a footing Not one Nation of the World known in the time of the Romans that were without their Ceremonies whereby they signified their devotion to a Deity They had their places of Worship where they made their Vows presented their Prayers offered their Sacrifices and implored the Assistance of what they thought to be a God And in their distresses run immediatly without any deliberation to their Gods so that the notion of a Deity was as inward and setled in them as their own Souls and indeed runs in the blood of mankind the distempers of the understanding cannot utterly deface it you shall scarce find the most distracted Bedlam in his raving sits to deny a God though he may Blaspheme and fancy himself one 2. Nor doth the Idolatry and multiplicity of Gods in the World weaken but confirm this universal consent Whatsoever unworthy conceits men have had of God in all Nations or whatsoever degrading representations they have made of him yet they all concur in this that there is a Supream Power to he ador'd Tho one People worshipped the Sun others the Fire and the Egyptians gods out of their Rivers Gardens and Fields yet the Notion of a Deity existent who created and governed the World and conferred daily benefits upon them was maintained by all tho applyed to the Stars and in part to those sordid Creatures All the Dagons of the World establish this Truth and fall down before it Had not the Nations owned the Being of a God they had never offered Incense to an Idol Had there not been a deep impression of the Existence of a Deity they had never exalted Creatures below themselves to the honour of Altars Men could not so easily have been deceived by forged Deities if they had not had a Notion of a real one Their fondness to set up others in the place of God evidenced a natural knowledg that there was one who had a right to be worshipped If there were not this sentiment of a Deity no man would ever have made an Image of a peice of Wood worshipp'd it pray'd to it and said deliver me for thou art my God
God and his nature which would be a bar to much of that wickedness which overflows in the lives of men 5. Nor is it unuseful to those who effectually beleive and love him * Coccei Sum. Theol. c. 8. § 1. for those who have had a converse with God and felt his powerful influences in the secrets of their hearts to take a prospect of those satisfactory accounts which reason gives of that God they adore and love to see every Creature justifie them in their owning of him and affections to him Indeed the Evidences of a God striking upon the Conscience of those who resolve to cleave to sin as their cheifest darling will dash their pleasures with unwelcome mixtures I shall further premise this That the folly of Atheism is evidenced by the light of Reason Men that will not listen to Scripture as having no counterpart of it in their Souls cannot easily deny natural Reason which riseth up on all sides for the justification of this Truth There is a natural as well as a revealed Knowledg and the Book of the Creatures is legible in declaring the Being of a God as well as the Scriptures are in declaring the Nature of a God there are outward objects in the World and common Principles in the Conscience whence it may be inferr'd For 1. God in regard of his Existence is not only the discovery of Faith but of Reason God hath revealed not only his Being but some sparks of his eternal Power and Godhead in his Works as well as in his Word Rom. 1.19 20. God hath shewed it unto them how * Aquin. in his works by the things that are made t is a discovery to our Reason as shining in the Creatures and an object of our Faith as breaking out upon us in the Scriptures 't is an Article of our Faith and an Article of our Reason Faith supposeth natural knowledge as Grace supposeth nature Faith indeed is properly of things above Reason purely depending upon Revelation What can be demonstrated by natural light is not so properly the object of Faith though in regard of the addition of a certainty by Revelation it is so The beleif that God is which the Apostle speaks of * Heb. 11.6 is not so much of the bare Existence of God as what God is in Relation to them that seek to him viz. a Rewarder The Apostle speaks of the Faith of Abel the Faith of Enoch such a Faith that pleases God But the Faith of Abel testified in his sacrifice and the Faith of Enoch testified in his walking with God was not simply a Faith of the Existence of God Cain in the time of Abel other men in the World in the time of Enoch beleived this as well as they But it was a Faith joyned with the Worship of God and desires to please him in the way of his own appointment so that they beleived that God was such as he had declared himself to be in his promise to Adam such an one as would be as good as his word and bruise the Serpents head He that seeks to God according to the mind of God must beleive that he is such a God that will pardon sin and justifie a seeker of him that he is a God of that ability and will to Justifie a sinner in that way he hath appointed for the clearing the Holiness of his Nature and vindicating the Honour of his Law violated by man No man can seek God or love God unless he beleive him to be thus and he cannot seek God without a discovery of his own mind how he would be sought For it is not a seeking God in any way of mans Invention that renders him capable of this desired fruit of a Reward He that beleives God as a Rewarder must beleive the promise of God concerning the Messiah Men under the Conscience of sin cannot tell without a divine discovery whither God will reward or how he will reward the seekers of him and therefore cannot act towards him as an object of Faith Would any man seek God meerly because he is or love him because he is if he did not know that he should be acceptable to him The bare Existence of a thing is not the ground of affection to it but those qualities of it and our interest in it which render it amiable and delightful How can men whose Consciences sly in their faces seek God or love him without this knowledge that he is a Rewarder Nature doth not shew any way to a sinner how to reconcile Gods provoked Justice with his Tenderness The Faith the Apostle speaks of here is a Faith that eyes the reward as an encouragement and the Will of God as the Rule of its acting he doth not speak simply of the Existence of God I have spoken the more of this place because the Socinians * Voet. Theol natural cap. 3. § 1. p. 22. use this to decry any natural knowledge of God and that the Existence of God is only to be known by Revelation so that by that reason any one that lived without the Scripture hath no ground to beleive the being of a God The Scripture ascribes a knowledge of God to all Nations in the world Rom. 1.19 not only a faculty of knowing if they had arguments and demonstrations as an ignorant man in any art hath a faculty to know but it ascribes an actual knowledge ver 19. manifest in them ver 21. They knew God not they might know him they knew him when they did not care for knowing him the notices of God are as intelligible to us by reason as any object in the world is visible he is written in every Letter 2. We are often in the Scripture sent to take a prospect of the Creatures for a discovery of God The Apostles drew arguments from the Topicks of nature when they discoursed with those that owned the Scripture Rom. 1.19 As well as when they treated with those that were ignorant of it as Acts 14.16 17. And among the Philosophers of Athens Acts 17.27 29. such arguments the Holy Ghost in the Apostles thought sufficient to convince men of the Existence Unity Spirituality and Patience of God * Voet Theol. natural cap. 3. § 1. p. 22. Such arguments had not been used by them and the Prophets from the visible things in the world to silence the Gentiles with whom they dealt had not this Truth and much more about God been demonstrable by natural Reason they knew well enough that probable arguments would not satisfie peircing and inquisitive minds In Pauls account the Testimony of the Creatures was without contradiction God himself justifies this way of proceeding by his own example and remits Job to the consideration of the Creatures to spell out something of his Divine Perfections * Job 28.39.40 c. T is but one truth in Philosophy and Divinity That which is false in one cannot be true in another Truth in what appearance
* Isa 44.17 They applyed a general Notion to a perticular Image The difference is in the manner and immediate object of worship not in the formal ground of worship The worship sprung from a true Principal though it was not applyed to a right object While they were rational Creatures they could not deface the Notion yet while they were corrupt Creatures it was not difficult to apply themselves to a wrong object from a true principle A blind man knows he hath a way to go as well as one of the clearest sight but because of his blindness he may miss the way and stumble into a Ditch No man would be impos'd upon to take a Bristol Stone instead of a Diamond if he did not know that there were such things as Diamonds in the World nor any man spread forth his hands to an Idol if he were altogether without the sense of a Deity Whether it be a false or a true God men apply to yet in both the natural sentiment of a God is evidenc'd all their mistakes were grafts inserted in this Stock since they would multiply gods rather than deny a Deity * Charron de la Sagesse Livr 1. Cha. 7. p. 43. 44. How should such a general submission be entered into the by all the world so as to adore things of a base alloy if the force of Religion were not such that in any fashion a man would seek the satisfaction of his natural instinct to some object of worship This great diversity confirms this consent to be a good argument for it evidenceth it not to be a Cheat combination or conspiracy to deceive or a mutual intelligence but every one finds it in his climate yea in himself * Gassend Phys § 1. lib. 4. Ca. 2. p. 291. People would never have given the Title of a God to men or Brutes had there not been a pre-existing and unquestioned perswasion that there was such a Being how else should the Notion of a God come into their minds the Notion that there is a God must be more ancient 3. Whatsoever disputes there have been in the World this of the existence of God was never the subject of contention All other things have been questioned What Jarrings were there among Philosophers about natural things into how many parties were they split with what animosities did they maintain their several judgments but we hear of no solemn Controversies about the Existence of a Supream Being this never met with any considerable contradiction no Nation that hath put other things to question would ever suffer this to be disparaged so much as by a publick doubt * Amyrant des Religion p. 50. We find among the Heathen contentions about the Nature of God and the number of gods some asserted an innumerable multitude of gods some affirmed him to be subject to birth and death some affirmed the intire World was God others fancied him to be a circle of a bright Fire others that he was a Spirit diffused through the whole World Yet they unanimously concurr'd in this as the judgment of Universal Reason that there was such a sovereign Being And those that were sceptical in every thing else and asserted that the greatest certainty was that there was nothing certain profest a certainty in this The question was not whether there was a First Cause but why it was * Gassend Phys § 1. lâ—b 4. Ca. 2. p. 291. 'T is much the same thing as the disputes about the Nature and matter of the Heavens the Sun and Planets tho there be great diversity of Judgments yet all agree that there are Heavens Sun Planets so all the Contentions among men about the Nature of God weaken not but rather confirm that there is a God since there was never a publick formal debate about his Existence Those that have been ready to pull out one anothers eyes for their dissent from their judgments sharply censured one anothers sentiments envied the births of one anothers wits alwayes shook hands with an unanimous consent in this never censured one another for being of this perswasion never called it into question as what was never controverted among men professing Christianity but acknowledged by all though contending about other things has reason to be judged a certain Truth belonging to the Christian Religion so what was never subjected to any Controversy but acknowledged by the whole World hath reason to be imbraced as a Truth without any doubt 4. This Vniversal Consent is not prejudiced by some few Dissenters History doth not reckon twenty profest Atheists in all Ages in the compass of the whole World Gassend Phys § 1. lib. 4. cap. 7. p. 282. and we have not the name of any one absolute Atheist upon Record in Scripture yet it is questioned whether any of them noted in History with that infamous name were down-right denyers of the Existence of God but rather because they disparaged the Deities commonly worshipped by the Nations where they lived as being of a clearer reason to discern that those qualities vulgarly attributed to their gods as lust and luxury wantonness and quarrels were unworthy of the nature of a God But suppose they were really what they are termed to be what are they to the multitude of men that have sprung out of the loyns of Adam not so much as one grain of ashes is to all that were ever turned into that form by any fires in your Chimnies And many more were not sufficient to weigh down the contrary consent of the whole World and bear down an universal impression Should the Laws of a Country agreed universally to by the whole Body of the People be accounted vain because a hundred men of those millions disapprove of them when not their reason but their folly and base interest perswades them to dislike them and dispute against them * Gassend ibid. p. 290. What if some men be blind shall any conclude from thence that eyes are not natural to men shall we say that the notion of the Existence of God is not natural to men because a very small number have been of a contrary opinion shall a man in a dungeon that never saw the Sun deny that there is a Sun because one or two blind men tell him there is none when thousands assure him there is Why should then the exceptions of a few not one to millions discredit that which is voted certainly true by the joynt consent of the World Add this too that if those that are reported to be Atheists had had any considerable reason to step aside from the common perswasion of the whole world 't is a wonder it met not with entertainment by great numbers of those who by reason of their notorious wickedness and inward disquiets might reasonably be thought to wish in their hearts that there were no God 'T is strange if there were any reason on their side that in so long a space of time as hath run
out from the Creation of the World there could not be engaged a considerable number to frame a Society for the profession of it It hath died with the Person that started it and vanish'd as soon as it appeared To conclude this is it not folly for any man to deny or doubt of the being of a God to dissent from all mankind and stand in contradiction to humane Nature What is the general dictate of Nature is a certain Truth 'T is impossible that Nature can naturally and universally lie And therefore those that ascribe all to Nature and set it in the Place of God contradict themselves if they give not credit to it in that which it universally affirms ‖ Cicero A general consent of all Nations is to be esteemed as a Law of Nature Nature cannot plant in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity for then the Laws of Nature would be destructive to the reason and minds of men How is it possible that a falsity should be a perswasion spread through all Nations engraven upon the minds of all men men of the most towring and men of the most creeping understanding that they should consent to it in all places and in those places where the Nations have not had any known commerce with the rest of the known World A Consent not settled by any Law of Man to constrain People to a belief of it And indeed 't is impossible that any Law of man can constrain the Belief of the mind Would not he deservedly be accounted a fool that should deny that to be gold which hath been tryed and examined by a great number of knowing Goldsmiths and hath past the test of all their touch-stones what excess of folly would it be for him to deny it to be true gold if it had been tryed by all that had skill in that metal in all Nations in the World Secondly 2. It hath been a constant and uninterrupted consent It hath been as Ancient as the first age of the World no man is able to mention any time from the beginning of the World wherein this Notion hath not been universally owned t is a old as man-kind and hath run along with the course of the Sun nor can the date be fixed lower than that 1. First In all the changes of the World this hath been maintained In the overturnings of the Government of States the alteration of Modes of Worship this hath stood unshaken The reasons upon which it was founded were in all Revolutions of time accounted satisfactory and convincing nor could absolute Atheism in the changes of any Laws ever gain the favour of any one Body of people to be established by a Law When the Honour of the Heathen Idols was laid in the dust this suffered no impair The being of one God was more vigorously owned when the unreasonableness of multiplicity of Gods was manifest and grew taller by the detection of counterfeits When other parts of the Law of nature have been violated by some Nations this hath maintained its standing The long series of Ages hath been so far from blotting it out that it hath more strongly confirmed it and maketh further progress in the confirmation of it Time which hath eaten out the strength of other things and blasted meer inventions hath not been able to consume this The discovery of all other Impostures never made this by any society of men to be suspected as one It will not be easy to name any Imposture that hath walked perpetually in the world without being discovered and whipped out by some Nation or other Falsities have never been so universally and constantly owned without publick controul and question And since the world hath detected many errors of the former age and learning been increased this hath been so far from being dimm'd that it hath shone out clearer with the increase of natural knowledge and received fresh and more vigorous confirmations 2. The fears and anxieties in the Consciences of men have given men sufficient occasion to root it out had it been possible for them to do it If the Notion of the Existence of God had been possible to have been dasht out of the minds of men they would have done it rather than have suffered so many troubles in their Souls upon the Commission of sin since there did not want wickedness and wit in so many corrupt ages to have attempted it and prospered in it had it been possible How comes it therefore to pass that such a multitude of profligate persons that have been in the world since the fall of man should not have rooted out this principle and dispostest the minds of men of that which gave birth to their tormenting fears How is it possible that all should agree together in a thing which created fear and an obliligation against the Interest of the Flesh if it had been free for men to discharge themselves of it No man as far as corrupt nature bears sway in him is willing to live contrould The first Man would rather be a God himself than under one * Gen. 3.5 Why should men continue this Notion in them which shackled them in their vile inclinations if it had been in their power utterly to deface it If it were an Imposture how comes it to pass that all the wicked ages of the world could never discover that to be a cheat which kept them in continual alarums Men wanted not will to shake off such apprehensions As Adam so all his Posterity are desirous to hide themselves from God upon the Commission of sin * Gen. 3.9 and by the same reason they would hide God from their Souls What is the reason they could never attain their will and their wish by all their endeavours Could they possibly have satisfied themselves that there were no God they had discarded their fears the disturbers of the repose of their lives and been unbridled in their pleasures The wickedness of the world would never have preserved that which was a perpetual molestation to it had it been possible to be rased out But since men under the turmoils and lashes of their own Consciences could never bring their hearts to a setled dissent from this Truth it evidenceth that as it took its birth at the beginning of the world it cannot expire no not in the ashes of it nor in any thing but the reduction of the Soul to that nothing from whence it sprung This conception is so perpetual that the nature of the Soul must be dissolved before it be rooted out nor can it be extinct whiles the Soul endures 3. Let it be considered also by us that own the Scripture that the Devil deems it impossible to root out this sentiment It seems to be so perpetually fixed that the Devil did not think fit to tempt man to the denial of the Existence of a Deity but perswaded him to beleive he might ascend to that Dignity and become a God himself Gen. 3.1 Hath
10.9 Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. An Invader and Oppressor of his Neighbors and reputed the Introducer of a new Worship and being the first that built Cities after the flood as Cain was the first Builder of them before the flood built also Idolatry with them And erected a new Worship and was so far from strengthing that Notion the people had of God that he endeavoured to corrupt it The first Idolatry in common Histories being noted to proceed from that part of the World the Ancientest Idol being at Babylon and supposed to be first invented by this Person Whence by the way perhaps Rome is in the Revelations called Babylon with respect to that similitude of their Saint-Worship to the Idolatry first set up in that place * Or if we understand it as some think that he defended his invasions under a pretext of the preserving Religion it assures us that there was a notion of an object of Religion before since no Religion can be without an object of Worship T is evident Politicians have often changed the Worship of a Nation but it is not upon record that the first thoughts of an object of Worship ever entred into the minds of people by any trick of theirs But to return to the present Argument the Being of a God is owned by some Nations that have scarce any form of policy among them T is as wonderful how any wit should hit upon such an Invention as it is absur'd to ascribe it to any humane device if there were not prevailing Arguments to constrain the consent Besides how is it possible they should deceive themselves What is the reason the greatest Politicians have their fears of a Deity upon their unjust practices as well as other men they intended to befool How many of them have had forlorn Consciences upon a Death bed upon the consideration of a God to answer an account to in another world Is it credible they should be frighted by that wherewith they knew they beguiled others No man satisfying his pleasures would impose such a deceipt upon himself o render and make himself more miserable than the Creatures he hath dominion over 2. It is unaccountable how it should indure so long a time That this Policy should be so fortunate as to gain ground in the Consciences of men and exercise an Empire over them and meet with such an universal success If the Notion of a God were a a State-Engine and introduced by some Politick Grandees for the ease of Government and preserving people with more facility in order how comes it to pass the first broachers of it were never upon record there is scarce a false opinion vented in the World but may as a stream be traced to the first head and fountain The Inventors of particular forms of worship are known and the reasons why they prescribed them known but what Grandee was the Author of this who can pitch a time and person that sprung up this Notion If any be so insolent as to impose a cheat he can hardly be supposed to be so successful as to deceive the whole world for many ages Impostures pass not free through the whole world without Examination and discovery Falsities have not been universally and constantly owned without controul and question If a cheat imposeth upon some Towns and Countries he will be found out by the more peircing enquiries of other places and it is not easy to name any Imposture that hath walked so long in its disguise in the World without being unmasked and whipped out by some Nation or other If this had been a meer trick there would have been as much craft in some to discern it as there was in others to contrive it No Man can be imagined so wise in a Kingdom but others may be found as wise as himself And it is not conceivable that so many clear sighted men in all ages should be ignorant of it and not endeavour to free the world from so great a falsity * Fotherby a Theomastix p. 64. It cannot be found that a trick of State should always beguile men of the most piercing insights as well as the most credulous That a few crafty men should befool all the wisemen in the world and the world lie in a beleif of it and never like to be freed from it What is the reason the succeeding Politicians never knew this Stratagem since their Maxims are usually handed to their Successors And there is not a Richlieu but leaves his Axioms to a Mazarine This perswasion of the Existence of God ows not it self to any Imposture or subtelty of Men If it had not been agreable to common Nature and Reason it could not so long have born sway The imposed yoke would have been cast off by Multitudes Men would not have charged themselves with that which was attended with consequences displeasing to the Flesh and hindred them from a full swing of their rebellious Passions such a shackle would have mouldred of it self or been broke by the extravigances humane nature is enclin'd unto The wickedness of men without question hath prompted them to endeavour to unmask it if it were a Cosenage but could never yet be so successful as to free the world from a perswasion or their own Consciences from the tincture of the Existence of a Deity It must be therefore of an ancienter Date than the Craft of States-men and descend into the world with the first appearance of humane nature Time which hath rectified many Errors improves this Notion makes it shock down its roots deeper and spread its branches larger It must be a natural Truth that shines clear by the detection of those Errors that have befooled the World and the wit of Man is never able to name any humane Author that first insinuated it into the beleifs of men 3. Nor was it Fear first introduced it Fear is the Consequent of Wickedness As Man was not created with any inherent sin so he was not created with any terrifying fears the one had been against the Holiness of the Creator the other against his Goodness Fear did not make this Opinion but the Opinion of the Being of a Dâ—ity was the cause of this Fear after his sense of angring the Deity by his Wickedness The Object of Fear is before the Act of Fear there could not be an Act of Fear exercised about the Deity till it was beleived to be existent and not only so but Offended For God as existent only is not the Object of Fear or Love 't is not the Existence of a thing that excites any of those Affections but the Relation a thing bears to us in particular God is good and so the object of Love as well as just and thereby the object of Fear He was as much called Love * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mens or Mind in regard of his Goodness and Understanding by the Heathens as much as by any other Name Neither
of Man Folly is the disturber of Families Cites Nations The disgrace of human nature First I. T is pernicious to the World 1. It would root out the foundations of Government It demolisheth all order in Nations The being of a God is the guard of the world The sense of a God is the foundation of Civil order without this there is no tye upon the Consciences of men What force would there be in Oaths for the decisions of controversies what right could there be in Appeals made to one that had no being A City of Atheists would be a heap of confusion there could be no ground of any commerce when all the sacred bands of it in the Consciences of men were snapt asunder which are torne to peices and utterly destroyed by denying the Existence of God What Magistrate could be secure in his standing what private person could be secure in his right * Lessius de Provid p. 665. Can that then be a truth that is destructive of all publick good If the Atheists sentiment that there were no God were a truth and the contrary that there were a God were a falsity It would then follow that falsity made men good and serviceable to one another That error were the foundation of all the beauty and order and outward felicity of the world the fountain of all good to man If there were no God to believe there is one would be an error and to beleive there is none would be the greatest wisdom because it would be the greatest truth And then as it is the greatest wisdom to fear God upon the apprehension of his Existence * Psal 111 1â— So it would be the greatest error to fear him if there were none It would unquestionably follow that Error is the support of the world the spring of all human advantages and that every part of the world were obliged to a falsity for being a quiet habitation which is the most absur'd thing to imagine T is a thing impossible to be tolerated by any Prince without laying an Axe to the root of the Government 2. It would introduce all evil into the World If you take away God you take away Conscience and thereby all measures and rules of good and evil And how could any Laws be made when the measure and standard of them were removed All good Laws are founded upon the dictates of Conscience and reason upon common sentiments in human nature which spring from a sense of God So that if the foundation be demolisht the whole superstructure must tumble down A man might be a Thief a Murderer an Adulterer and could not in a strict sense be an offender The worst of actions could not be evil if a man were a God to himself a Law to himself Nothing but evil deserves a Censure and nothing would be evil if there were no God the Rector of the world against whom evil is properly committed No man can make that morally evil that is not so in it self As where there is a faint sense of God the heart is more strongly inclin'd to wickedness so where there is no sense of God the bars are removed the flood-gates set open for all wickedness to rush in upon mankind Religion pinions men from abominable practices and restrains them from being Slaves to their own passions An Atheists arms would be loose to do any thing * Lessius de Provid p. 664. Nothing so villanous and unjust but would be Acted if the natural fear of a Deity were extinguisht The first consequence issuing from the apprehension of the Existence of God is his Government of the world If there be no God then the natural consequence is that there is no supream Government of the world Such a Notion would cashiere all sentiments of good and be like a Trojan Horse whence all impurity tyranny and all sorts of mischeifs would break out upon mankind Corruption and abominable works in the text are the fruit of the fools perswasion that there is no God The perverting the ways of men oppression and extortion owe their rise to a forgetfulness of God Jer. 3.21 They have perverted their way and they have forgotten the Lord their God Ezek. 22.12 Thou hast greedily gained by extortion and hast forgotten me saith the Lord. The whole Earth would be filled with violence all flesh would corrupt their way as it was before the deluge when probably Atheism did abound more than Idolatry and if not a disowning the being yet denying the Providence of God by the posterity of Cain Those of the Family of Seth only calling upon the name of the Lord Gen. 6.11.12 compared which Gen. 4.26 The greatest sense of a Deity in any hath been attended with the greatest innocence of life and usefulness to others And a weaker sense hath been attended with a baser impurity * Iessius de Provid p. 665. If there were no God Blasphemy would be praise-worthy As the reproach of Idols is praise-worthy because we testifie that there is no Divinity in them What can be more contemptible than that which hath no being Sin would be only a false opinion of a violated Law and an offended Deity If such appresensions prevail what a wide door is opened to the worst of villanies If there be no God no respect is due to him all the Religion in the world is a trifle and Error and thus the Pillars of all human society and that which hath made Common-wealths to flourish are blown away Secondly 2 T is pernicious to the Atheist himself If he fear no future punishment he can never expect any future reward All his hopes must be confined to a Swinish and despicable manner of life without any imaginations of so much as a dram of reserved hapiness He is in a worse condition than the filliest animal which hath something to please it in its life Whereas an Atheist can have nothing here to give him a full content no more than any other man in the World and can have less satisfaction hereafter He deposeth the noble end of his own being which was to serve a God and have a satisfaction in him to seek a God and be rewarded by him And he that departs from his end recedes from his own nature All the content any Creature finds is in performing its end moveing according to its natural instinct As it is a joy to the Sun to run its race * Psal 19.5 In the same manner it is a satisfaction to every other Creature and its delight to observe the Law of its Creation What content can any man have that runs from his end opposeth his own nature denies a God by whom and for whom he was Created whose Image he bears which is the Glory of his nature and sinks into the very dregs of bruitishness How elegantly is it described by Bildad * Job 18.7.8 c. to the end his own Counsel shall cast him down terrors shall make him afraid on
dived into the depths of Nature have been more studious of the qualities of the Creatures than of the excellency of the nature or the discovery of the mind of God in them who regard only the rising and motions of the Star but follow not with the wise men its conduct to the King of the Jews How often do we see men filled with an eager thirst for all other kind of knowledge that cannot acquiesce in a twilight discovery but are inquisitive into the causes and reasons of effects yet are contented with a weak and languishing knowledge of God and his Law and are easily tired with the Proposals of them He now that nauseates the means whereby he may come to know and obey God has no intention to make the Law of God his Rule There is no man that intends seriously an end but he intends means in order to that end As when a man intends the preservation or recovery of his health he will intend means in order to those ends otherwise he cannot be said to intend his health So he that is not diligent in using means to know the mind of God has no sound intention to make the Will and Law of God his Rule Is not the inquiry after the Will of God made a work by the by and fain to lacquy after other concerns of an inferior nature if it hath any place at all in the Soul which is a despising the Being of God The Notion of the Soveraignty of God bears the same date with the Notion of his Godhead and by the same way that he reveals Himself he reveals his Authority over us whether it be by Creatures without or Conscience within All Authority over Rational Creatures consists in commanding and directing the duty of Rational Creatures in compliance with that Authority consists in obeying Where there is therefore a careless neglect of those means which convey the knowledge of Gods Will and our Duty there is an utter disowning of God as our Soveraign and our Rule 2. When any part of the Mind and Will of God breaks in upon Men they endeavour to shake it off As a Man would a Sergeant that comes to arrest him they like not to retain God in their Knowledge Rom. 1.28 A natural Man receives not the things of the Spirit of God that is into his Affection he pusheth them back as men do troublesome and importunate Beggers They have no kindness to bestow upon it They thrust with both shoulders against the Truth of God when it presseth in upon them and dash as much contempt upon it as the Pharisees did upon the Doctrine our Saviour directed against their Covetousness As men naturally delight to be without God in the world so they delight to be without any offspring of God in their thoughts Since the Spiritual Palate of Man is depraved Divine Truth is unsavoury and ungrateful to us till our taste and relish is restored by Grace Hence men damp and quench the motions of the Spirit to Obedience and Compliance with the Dictates of God strip them of their Life and Vigor and kill them in the Womb. How unable are our Memories to retain the substance of spiritual Truth but like Sand in a Glass put in at one part and runs out at the other Have not many a secret wish that the Scripture had never mentioned some truths or that they were blotted out of the Bible because they face their Consciences and discourage those boiling Lusts they would with eagerness and delight pursue Me thinks that interruption John gives our Saviour when he was upon the Reproof of their Pride looks little better * Mark 9.33.38 than a design to divert him from a discourse so much against the grain by telling him a story of their prohibiting one to cast out Devils because he followed not them How glad are men when they can raise a Battery against a Command of God and raise some smart Objection whereby they may shelter themselves from the strictness of it 3. When men cannot shake off the Notices of the Will and Mind of God they have no pleasure in the consideration of them Which could not possibly be if there were a real and fixed design to own the Mind and Law of God as our Rule Subjects or Servants that love to obey their Prince and Master will delight to read and execute their Orders The Devils understand the Law of God in their minds but they loath the impressions of it upon their Wills Those miserable Spirits are bound in Chains of Darkness evil Habits in their Wills that they have not a thought of obeying that Law they know It was an unclean Beast under the Law that did not chew the Cud 'T is a corrupt Heart that doth not chew Truth by Meditation A natural man is said not to know God or the things of God he may know them notionally but he knows them not affectionately A sensual Soul can have no delight in a spiritual Law To be sensual and not to have the Spirit are inseparable Jude 19. Natural Men may indeed meditate upon the Law and Truth of God but without delight in it if they take any pleasure in it 't is only as 't is knowledge not as it is a Rule for we delight in nothing that we desire but upon the same account that we desire it Natural Men desire to know God and some part of his Will and Law not out of a sense of their practical excellency but a natural thirst after knowledge and if they have a delight 't is in the act of knowing not in the Object known not in the Duties that stream from that Kowledge they design the furnishing their Understandings not the quickning their Affections like idle Boys that strike Fire not to warm themselves by the heat but sport themselves with the Sparks Whereas a gracious Soul accounts not only his Meditation or the Operations of his Soul about God and his Will to be sweet but he hath a joy in the object of that Meditation * Psal 104.34 Many have the knowledge of God who have no delight in Him or his Will Owls have Eyes to perceive that there is a Sun but by reason of the weakness of their sight have no pleasure to look upon a Beam of it So neither can a man by Nature love or delight in the Will of God because of his natural corruption That Law that riseth up in men for Conviction and Instruction they keep down under the power of Corruption making their Souls not the Sanctuary but Prison of Truth Rom. 1.18 They will keep it down in their hearts if they cannot keep it out of their heads and will not endeavour to know and taste the Spirit of it 4. There is farther a rising and swelling of the Heart against the Will of God 1. Internal Gods Law cast against a hard Heart is like a Ball thrown against a stone Wall by reason of the resistance rebounding the further
from it The meeting of a Divine Truth and the Heart of Man is like the meeting of two Tides the weaker swells and foams We have a natural Antipathy against a Divine Rule and therefore when it is clapt close to our Consciences there is a snuffing at it high reasonings against it corruption breaks out more strongly As Water poured on Lime sets it on Fire by an Antiperistasis and the more Water is cast upon it the more furiously it burns Or as the Sun Beams shining upon a Dung-hill makes the steams the thicker and the stench the noysomer neither being the positive cause of the smoke in the Lime or the stench in the Dung-hill but by accident the causes of the eruption Rom. 7.8 But Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence for without the Law Sin was dead Sin was in a languishing posture as if it were dead like a lazy Garrison in a City till upon an Alarm from the Adversary it takes Arms and revives its courage all the sin in the heart gathers together its force to maintain its standing like the vapours of the Night which unite themselves more closely to resist the Beams of the rising Sun Deep Conviction often provokes fierce Opposition sometimes Disputes against a Divine Rule end in Blasphemies Acts 13.45 Contradicting and Blaspheming are coupled together Men naturally desire things that are forbidden and reject things commanded from the corruption of Nature which affects an unbounded Liberty and is impatient of returning under that Yoke it hath shaken off and therefore rageth against the bars of the Law as the Waves roar against the restraint of a bank When the Understanding is dark and the Mind Ignorant Sin lies as dead * Thes Salmur De Spiritu Servitutis Thes 19. a man scarce knows he hath such Motions of Concupiscence in him he finds not the least breath of Wind but a full calm in his Soul but when he is awakened by the Law then the vitiousness of nature being sensible of an Invasion of its Empire arms it self against the Divine Law and the more the Command is urged the more vigorously it bends its strength and more insolently lifts up it self against it he perceives more and more Atheistical Lusts than before all manner of Concupiscence more leprous and contagious than before When there are any motions to turn to God a reluctancy is presently perceived Atheistical thoughts bluster in the mind like the wind they know not whence they come nor whether they go So unapt is the heart to any acknowledgement of God as his Ruler and any re-union with him Hence men are said to resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 to fall against it as the word signifies as a stone or any ponderous body falls against that which lies in its way They would dash to pieces or grind to powder that very motion which is made for their instruction and the Spirit too which makes it and that not from a fit of passion but an habitual repugnance Ye always resist c. 2. External 't is a fruit of Atheism in the fourth verse of this Psalm Who eat up my people as they eat bread How do the revelations of the Mind of God meet with opposition And the Carnal World like dogs bark against the shining of the Moon So much men hate the Light that they spurn at the Lanthorns that bear it And because they cannot endure the Treasure often fling the earthen vessels against the ground wherein it is held If the entrance of Truth render the Market worse for Diana's Shrines the whole City will be in an uproar * Act. 19.24.28.29 When Socrates upon natural Principles confuted the Heathen Idolatry and asserted the unity of God the whole cry of Athens a learned University is against him and because he opposed the publick received Religion though with an undoubted Truth he must end his Life by Violence How hath every Corner of the World steam'd with the blood of those that would maintain the Authority of God in the World The Devils Children will follow the steps of their Father and endeavour to bruise the Heel of Divine Truth that would endeavour to break the Head of corrupt Lust 5. Men often seem desirous to be acquainted with the Will of God not out of any respect to his Will and to make it their Rule but upon some other Consideration Truth is scarce received as truth There is more of Hypocrisie than Sincerity in the pale of the Church and attendance on the Mind of God The outward dowry of a religious Profession makes it often more desirable than the Beauty Judas was a follower of Christ for the Bag not out of any affection to the Divine Revelation Men sometime pretend a desire to be acquainted with the Will of God to satisfie their own passions rather than to conform to Gods Will The Religion of such is not the judgment of the Man but the passion of the Brute Many entertain a Doctrine's for the persons sake rather than a person for the Doctrine sake and believe a thing because it comes from a Man they esteem as if his lips were more Canonical than Scripture The Apostle implies in the Commendation he gives the Thessalonians * 1 Thes 2.13 that some receive the Word for human interest not as it is in truth the Word and Will of God to command and govern their Consciences by its Soveraign Authority Or else they have the Truth of God as St. James speaks of the Faith of Christ with respect of persons * Jam. 2.2 and receive it not for the sake of the Fountain but of the Channel So that many times the same Truth delivered by another is disregarded which when dropping from the fancy and mouth of a Man 's own Idol is cryed up as an Oracle This is to make not God but Man the Rule For though we entertain that which materially is the Truth of God yet not formally as his Truth but as conveyed by one we affect And that we receive a Truth and not an Error we ow the obligation to the honesty of the Instrument and not to the strength and clearness of our own Judgment Wrong considerations may give admittance to an unclean as well as a clean beast into the Ark of the Soul That which is contrary to the Mind of God may be entertained as well as that which is agreeable 'T is all one to such that have no respect to God what they have As it is all one to a Spunge to suck up the foulest water or the sweetest wine when either is applyed to it 6. Many that entertain the Notions of the Will and Mind of God admit them with unsettled and wavering Affections There is a great Levity in the heart of Man The Jews that one day applaud our Saviour with Hosannahs as their King vote his Crucifixion the next and use him as a Murderer We begin in the Spirit and
end in the Flesh Our hearts like Lute-strings are changed with every change of weather with every appearance of a Temptation scarce one motion of God in a thousand prevails with us for a setled abode 'T is a hard task to make a signature of those Truths upon our affections which will with ease pass currant with our understandings Our affections will as soon lose them as our understandings embrace them The heart of Man is unstable as water * Gen. 49.4 Jam. 1.8 Some were willing to rejoyce in Johns Light which reflected a lustre on their minds but not in his heat which would have conveyed a warmth to their hearts and the Light was pleasing to them but for a season * Joh. 5.35 while their corruptions lay as if they were dead not when they were awakened Truth may be admitted one day and the next day rejected As Austin saith of a wicked Man he loves the Truth shining but he hates the Truth reproving This is not to make God but our own humor our rule and measure 7. Many desire an acquaintance with the Law and Truth of God with a design to improve some lust by it To turn the Word of God to be a Pander to the Breach of his Law This is so far from making Gods Will our Rule that we make our own vile affections the Rule of his Law How many forced Interpretations of Scripture have been coyned to give content to the lusts of men and the Divine Rule forced to bend and be squared to mens loose and carnal apprehensions 'T is a part of the instability or falseness of the heart to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction * 2 Pet. 3.16 which they could not do if they did not first wring them to countenance some detestable Error or filthy Crime In Paradise the first Interpretation made of the first Law of God was point blank against the mind of the Law-giver and venemous to the whole Race of Mankind Paul himself feared that some might put his Doctrine of Grace to so ill a use as to be an Altar and Sanctuary to shelter their Presumption Rom. 6.1.15 shall we then continue in Sin that Grace may abound Poysonous Consequences are often drawn from the sweetest Truths As when Gods Patience is made a Topick whence to argue against his Providence * Psal 94.1 or an encouragement to commit Evil more greedily as though because he had not presently a revenging Hand he had not an all seeing Eye Or when the Doctrine of Justification by Faith is made use of to depress a holy life or Gods readiness to receive returning sinners an encouragement to defer repentance till a death bed A Lyar will hunt for shelter in the reward God gave the Midwifes that lyed to Pharaoh for the preservation of the Males of Israel and Rahabs saving the Spies by false intelligence God knows how to distinguish between grace and corruption that may lie close together or between something of moral goodness and moral evil which may be mixed We find their fidelity rewarded which was a moral good but not their lye approved which was a moral evil Nor will Christs conversing with sinners be a plea for any to thrust themselves into evil Company Christ conversed with sinners as a Physitian with diseased persons to cure them not approve them others with profligate persons to receive infection from them not to communicate holiness to them Satans Children have studied their Fathers art who wanted not perverted Scripture to second his Temptations against our Saviour * How often do carnal hearts turn Divine Revelation to carnal ends as the Sea fresh water into salt As meâ—â—â—â—ject the precepts of God to carnal interests so they subject the truths of God to â—â—â—nal fancies When men will allegorize the Word and make a humorous and crazy fancy the Interpreter of Divine oracles and not the Spirit speaking in the Word This is to enthrone our own imaginations as the rule of Gods Law and depose his Law from being the rule of our reason This is to riflle truth of its true mind and intent T is more to rob a man of his reason the essential constitutive part of man than of his estate This is to refuse an intimate acquaintance with his Will We shall never tell what is the matter of a precept or the matter of a promise if we impose a sense upon it contrary to the plain meaning of it Thereby we shall make the Law of God to have a distinct sense according to the variety of mens imaginations and so make every mans fancy a Law to himself Now that this unwillingness to have a Spiritual acquaintance with Divine Truth is a disowning God as our rule and a setting up self in his stead is evident because this unwillingness respects Truth 1. As it is most Spiritual and Holy A fleshly mind is most contrary to a Spiritual Law and particularly as it is a searching and discovering Law that would dethrone all other rules in the Soul As men love to be without a Holy God in the world so they love to be without a holy Law the transcript and image of Gods Holiness in their hearts and without holy men the lights kindled by the Father of lights As the holiness of God so the holiness of the Law most offends a carnal heart Isa 30.11 Cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us prophecy to us right things They could not endure God as a holy one Herein God places their Rebellion rejecting him as their rule ver 9. Rebellious Children that will not hear the Law of the Lord. The more pure and precious any discovery of God is the more it is disrelisht by the world As Spiritual sins are sweetest to a carnal heart so Spiritual truths are most distastful The more of the brightness of the Sun any beam conveys the more offensive it is to a distempered eye 2. As it doth most relate to or lead to God The Devil directs his fiercest batteries against those Doctrines in the Word and those Graces in the heart which most exalt God debase man and bring men to the lowest subjection to their Creator Such is the Doctrine and grace of justifying faith That men hate not knowledge as knowledge but as it directs them to choose the fear of the Lord was the determination of the Holy Ghost long ago Prov. 1.29 for that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Whatsoever respects God clears up guilt witnesses mans revolt to him rouzeth up Conscience and moves to a return to God a man naturally runs from as Adam did from God and seeks a shelter in some weak bushes of error rather than appear before it Not that men are unwilling to inquire into and contemplate some Divine Truths which lie furthest from the heart and concern not themselves immediatly with the rectifying the soul They may view them with such a pleasure as
aspire to the end of the Creation we deny and envy God the honour of being Creator We cannot make our selves the chief end of the Creatures against Gods Order but we imply thereby that we were their first Principle For if we lived under a sense of the Creator of them while we enjoy them for our use we should return the glory to the right Owner This is Diabolical though the Devil for his first affecting an Authority in Heaven has been hurled down from the State of an Angel of Light into that of Darkness Vileness and Misery to be the most accursed Creature living yet he still aspires to mate God contrary to the knowledge of the impossibility of success in it Neither the terrors he feels nor the future torments he doth expect do a jot abate his Ambition to be Competitor with his Creator How often hath he since his first sin arrogated to himself the Honour of a God from the blind world and attempted to make the Son of God by a particular Worship count him as the chiefest Good and Benefactor of the World * Mat. 4.9 Since all men by Nature are the Devils Children the Serpents Seed they have something of this Venom in their Natures as well as others of his qualities We see that there may be and is a prodigious Atheism lurking under the Belief of a God The Devil knows there is a God but acts like an Atheist and so do his Children 4. Man would make himself the end of God This necessarily follows upon the former Whosoever makes himself his own Law and his own End in the place of God would make God the Subject in making himself the Soveraign He that steps into the Throne of a Prince sets the Prince at his Foot-stool and while he assumes the Princes Prerogative demands a Subjection from him The Order of the Creation has been inverted by the entrance of Sin * Pascal Pens §. 30. P. 294. God implanted an affection in Man with a double aspect the one to pitch upon God the other to respect our selves but with this proviso that our affection to God should be infinite in regard of the Object and Center in him as the chiefest Happiness and highest End Our affections to our selves should be finite and refer ultimately to God as the Original of our Being But Sin hath turned Mans affections wholy to himself Whereas he should love God first and himself in order to God he now loves himself first and God in order to himself Love to God is lost and Love to self hath usurpt the Throne As God by Creation put all thing under the feet of Man * Psal 8.6 reserving the Heart for himself Man by Corruption hath dispossessed God of his Heart and put him under his own feet We often intend our selves when we pretend the Honour of God and make God and Religion a Stale to some designs we have in hand our Creator a Tool for our own ends This is evident 1. In our loving God because of some self-pleasing benefits distributed by him There is in Men a kind of natural love to God but it is but a secondary one because God gives them the good things of this world spreads their Table fills their Cup stuffs their Coffers and doth them some good turns by unexpected Providences This is not an affection to God for the unbounded Excellency of his own Nature but for his beneficence as he opens his hand for them an affection to themselves and those Creatures their Gold thier honour which their hearts are most fixed upon without a strong Spiritual Inclination that God should be glorified by them in the use of those Mercies 'T is rather a disowning of God than any love to him because it postpones God to those things they love him for This would appear to be no love if God should cease to be their Benefactor and deal with them as a Judge if he should change his outward smiles into afflicting frowns and not only shut his hand but strip them of what he sent them The Motive of their love being expired the affection raised by it must cease for want of fewel to feed it So that God is beholden to sordid Creatures of no value but as they are his Creatures for most of the Love the Sons of Men pretend to him The Devil spake truth of most men though not of Job when he said Job 1.10 They love not God for nought but while he makes a hedge about them and their Families whilest he blesseth the works of their hands and increaseth their honour in the Land 'T is like Peter's sharp reproof of his Master when he spake of the ill usage even to death he was to meet with at Hierusalem This shall not be unto thee It was as much out of love to himself as zeal for his Masters Interest knowing his Master could not be in such a Storm without some drops lighting upon himself All the Apostacies of men in the world are Witnesses to this They fawn whilest they may have a prosperous Profession but will not bear one chip of the Cross for the Interest of God They would partake of his Blessings but not endure the prick of a Launce for him As those that admired the Miracles of our Saviour and shrunk at his Sufferings A time of tryal discovers these Mercenary Souls to be more Lovers of themselves than their Maker This is a pretended love of friendship to God but a real love to a Lust only to gain by God A good mans temper is contrary Quench Hell burn Heaven said a holy Man I will love and fear my God 2. 'T is evident in abstinence from some sins not because they offend God but because they are against the Interest of some other beloved Corruption or a Bar to something men hunt after in the World When temperance is cherished not to honour God but preserve a crazy Carcass Prodigality forsaken out of a humor of Avarice Uncleaness forsaken not out of a hatred of Lust but love to their mony Declining a Denial of the Interest and Truth of God not out of affection to them but an ambitious Zeal for their own Reputation There is a kind of Conversion from Sin when God is not made the Term of it Jer. 4.1 If thou wilt return oh Israel return unto me saith the Lord. * Trap on Gen. pa. 148. When we forbear Sin as Dogs do the Meat they love they forbear not out of a hatred of the Carrion but fear of the Cudgel These are as wicked in their abstaining from Sin as others are in their furious committing it Nothing of the Honour of God and the End of his appointments is indeed in all this but the conveniences self gathers from them Again many of the motives the generality of the world uses to their Friends and Relations to draw them from Vices are drawn from self and used to prop up natural or sinful self in them Come reform
them into a frame agreeable to the nature of God * Heb. 10.1 Heb. 9.9 nor purge the Conscience from those dead and dull dispositions which were by nature in them * Heb. 9.14 Being Carnal they could not have an efficacy to purifie the Conscience of the offerer and work Spiritual effects Had they continued without the exhibition of Christ they could never have wrought any change in us or purchased any favour for us * Burges vind pa. 256. At the best they were but shadows and came unexpressibly short of the efficacy of that person and state whose shadows they were The shadow of a man is too weak to perform what the man himself can do because it wants the life Spirit and activity of the substance The whole pomp and scene was suted more to the sensitive than the intellectual nature and like pictures pleased the fancy of Children rather than improved their reason The Jewish state was a state of Child-hood * Gal. 5.2 and that administration a Pedagogy * Gal. 4.24 The Law was a Schoolmaster fitted for their weak and Childish Capacity and could no more Spiritualize the heart than the teachings in a Primer-School can enable the mind and make it fit for affairs of State And because they could not better the Spirit they were instituted only for a time as elements delivered to an infant age which naturally lives a life of sense rather than a life of reason It was also a servile state which doth rather debase than elevate the mind rather Carnalize than Spiritualize the heart Besides t is a sense of mercy that both melts and elevates the heart into a Spiritual frame * Psa 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared And they had in that state but some glimmerings of mercy in the dayly bloody intimations of Justice There was no Sacrifice for some sins but a cutting off without the least hints of pardon and in the yearly remembrance of sin there was as much to shiver them with fear as to possess than with hopes And such a state which alwayes held them under the Conscience of sin could not produce a free Spirit which was necessary for a worship of God according to his nature 3. In their use they rather hindred than furthered a Spiritual worship In their own nature they did not tend to the obstructing a Spiritual worship for then they had been contrary to the nature of Religion and the end of God who appointed them Nor did God cover the Evangelical Doctrine under the clouds of the legal administration to hinder the people of Israel from perceiving it but because they were not yet capable to bear the splendor of it had it been clearly set before them The shining of the face of Moses was too dazling for their weak eyes and therefore there was a necessity of a veil not for the things themselves but the weakness of their eyes * 2 Cor. 3.13.14 The carnal affections of that people sunk down into the things themselves stuck in the outward pomp and pierced not through the vail to the Spiritual intent of them And by the use of them without rational conceptions they besotted their minds and became senseless of those Spiritual motions required of them Hence came all their expectations of a Carnal Messiah the veil of Ceremonies was so thick and the film upon their eyes so condensed that they could not look through the veil to the Spirit of Christ They beheld not the Heavenly Canaan for the beauty of the earthly nor minded the regeneration of the Spirit while they rested upon the purifications of the flesh The prevalency of sense and sensitive affections diverted their minds from enquiring into the intent of them Sense and matter are often cloggs to the mind and sensible objects are the same often to Spiritual motions Our Souls are never more raised than when they are abstracted from the entanglements of them A pompous worship made up of many sensible objects weakens the Spirituality of Religion Those that are most zealous for outward are usually most cold and indifferent in inward observances And those that overdo in carnal modes usually underdo in Spiritual affections This was the Jewish state * Illyric de velam Mosiâ— pa. 221. c. The nature of the Ceremonies being pompous and earthly by their show and beauty meeting with their weakness and Childish affections filled their eyes with an outward lustre allured their minds and detained them from seeking things higher and more Spiritual The kernel of those rites lay concealed in a thick shell the Spiritual glory was little seen and the Spiritual sweetness little tasted Unless the Scripture be diligently searched it seems to transfer the worship of God from true faith and the Spiritual motions of the heart and stake it down to outward observances and the opus operatum Besides the voice of the Law did only declare Sacrifices and invited the Worshipper to them with a promise of the atonement of Sin turning away the wrath of God It never plainly acquainted them that those things were Types and Shadows of something future that they were only outward purifications of the Flesh It never plainly told them at the time of appointing them that those Sacrifices could not abolish Sin and reconcile them to God Indeed we see more of them since their death and dissection in that one Epistle to the Hebrews than can be discern'd in the five Books of Moses Besides Man naturally affects a carnal Life and therefore affects a carnal Worship He designs the gratifying his sense and would have a Religion of the same nature Most men have no mind to busie their reasons about the things of sense and are naturally unwilling to raise them up to those things which are allyed to the spiritual nature of God and therefore the more spiritual any Ordinance is the more averse is the heart of man to it There is a simplicity of the Gospel from which our minds are easily corrupted by things that pleasure the sense as Eve was by the curiosity of her eye and the liquorishness of her Palate * 2 Cor. 11.3 From this Principle hath sprung all the Idolatry in the world The Jews knew they had a God who had delivered them but they would have a sensible God to go before them * Exod. 32.1 And the Papacy at this day is a Witness of the truth of this natural Corruption 4. Vpon these accounts therefore God never testified himself well pleased with that kind of Worship He was not displeased with them as they were his own institution and ordained for the representing though in an obscure manner the glorious things of the Gospel nor was he offended with those peoples observance of them For since he had commanded them it was their duty to perform them and their sin to neglect them But he was displeased with them as they were practised by them with Souls as
morally carnal in the practises as the Ceremonies were materially carnal in their substance It was not their disobedience to observe them but it was a disobedience and a contempt of the end of the institution to rest upon them to be warm in them and cold in morals They fed upon the Bone and neglected the Marrow pleased themselves with the Shell and sought not for the Kernel They joyned not with them the internal Worship of God Fear of him with Faith in the promised Seed which lay vail'd under those Coverings Hos 6.6 I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice and the Knowledge of God more than burnt Offerings And therefore he seems sometimes weary of his own institutions and calls them not his own but their Sacrifices their Feasts Isa 1.11 14. They were his by appointment theirs by abuse The Institution was from his goodness and condescension therefore his the corruption of them was from the vice of their Nature therefore theirs He often blamed them for their carnality in them shew'd his dislike of placing all their Religion in them gives the Sacrificers upon that account no better a title than that of the Princes of Sodom and Gomorrah * Isa 1.10 And compares the Sacrifices themselves to the cutting off a Dog's Neck Swines Blood and the Murder of a Man * Isa 66.3 And indeed God never valued them or exprest any delight in them He despised the Feasts of the Wicked Amos 5.21 and had no esteem for the material Offerings of the Godly Psal 50.13 Will I eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the blood of Goats which he speaks to his Saints and People before he comes to reprove the Wicked which he begins v. 16. But to the Wicked God said c. So slightly he esteemed them that he seems to disown them to be any part of his Command when he brought his People out of the Land of Egypt Jer. 7.21 I spake not to your Fathers nor commanded them concerning burnt Offerings and Sacrifices He did not value and regard them in comparison of that inward frame which he had required by the moral Law that being given before the Law of Ceremonies obliged them in the first place to an observance of those Precepts They seemed to be below the Nature of God and could not of themselves please him None could in reason perswade themselves that the death of a Beast was a proportionable Offering for the sin of a Man or ever was intended for the expiation of Transgression In the same rank are all our bodily services under the Gospel A loud voice without Spirit bended bulrushes without inward affections are no more delightful to God than the Sacrifices of Animals 'T is but a change of one Brute for another of a higher species a meer Brute for that part of man which hath an agreement with Brutes Such a service is a meer animal service and not spiritual 5. And therefore God never intended that sort of Worship to be durable and had often mentioned the change of it for one more spiritual It was not good or evil in it self whatsoever goodness it had was solely deriv'd to it by institution and therefore it was mutable It had no conformity with the spiritual nature of God who was to be worshipped nor with the rational nature of man who was to worship And therefore he often speaks of taking away the New-Moons and Feasts and Sacrifices and all the ceremonial Worship as things he took no pleasure in to have a Worship more suted to his excellent Nature But he never speaks of removing the Gospel Administration and the worship prescribed there as being more agreeable to the nature and perfections of God and displaying them more illustriously to the World The Apostle tells us it was to be disannul'd because of its weakness * Heb. 7.18 A determinate time was fixed for its duration till the accomplishment of the truth figured under that Pedagogy * Gal. 4.2 Some of the modes of that worship being only typical must naturally expire and be insignificant in their use upon the finishing of that by the Redeemer which they did prefigure And other parts of it though God suffered them so long because of the weakness of the Worshipper yet because it became not God to be alway worshipped in that manner he would reject them and introduce another more spiritual and elevated Incense and a pure Offering should be offered every where unto his Name * Mal. 1.11 * Pascal Pen. 142. He often told them he would make a new Covenant by the Messiah and the old should be rejected that the former things should not be remembred and the things of old no more considered when he should do a new thing in the Earth * Isa 43.18.19 Even the Ark of the Covenant the Symbol of his presence and the glory of the Lord in that Nation should not any more be remembered and visited * Jer. 3.16 That the Temple and Sacrifices should be rejected and others established That the Order of the Aaronical Priest-hood should be abolisht and that of Melchisedeck set up in the stead of it in the Person of the Messiah to endure for ever * Psal 110. That Jerusalem should be changed a new Heaven and Earth created a Worship more conformable to Heaven more advantagious to Earth God had proceeded in the removal of some parts of it before the time of taking down the whole furniture of this house The Pot of Manna was lost Vrim and Thumim ceased the glory of the Temple was diminish'd and the ignorant people wept at the sight of the one without raising their Faith and Hope in the consideration of the other which was promised to be filled with a spiritual glory And as soon as ever the Gospel was spread in the World God thundred out his judgments upon that place in which he had fixed all those legal Observances so that the Jews in the Letter and Flesh could never practise the main part of their worship since they were expelled from that place where it was only to be celebrated 'T is one thousand six hundred years since they have been deprived of their Altar which was the foundation of all the Levitical-worship and have wandred in the world without a Sacrifice a Prince or Priest an Ephod or Teraphim * Hos 3.4 And God fully put an end to it in the Command he gave to the Apostles and in them to us in the presence of Moses and Elias to hear his Son only Matth. 17.5 Behold a voice out of the Cloud which said this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him And at the death of our Saviour testified it to that whole Nation and the World by the rending in twain the vail of the Temple The whole frame of that service which was carnal and by reason of the corruption of Man weakned is nulled and a spiritual worship is made known to the world
of thankfulness in arrear He renders himself doubly unworthy of the mercies he wants that doth not gratefully acknowledge the mercies he hath received God scarce promised any deliverance to the Israelites and they in their distress scarce prayed for any deliverance but that from Egypt was mentioned on both sides by God to encourage them and by them to acknowledge their confidence in him The greater our dangers the more we should call to mind Gods former kindness We are not only thankfully to acknowledge the mercies bestowed upon our persons or in our age but those of former times Thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations Moses was not living in the former Generations yet he appropriates the former mercies to the present age Mercies as well Generations proceed out of the loyns of those that have gon before All Man-kind are but one Adam the whole Church but one Body In the second verse he backs his former consideration 1. By the greatness of his Power in forming the world 2. By the boundlesness of his duration From everlasting to everlasting As thou hast been our dwelling place and expended upon us the strength of thy power and riches of thy love so we have no reason to doubt the continuance on thy part if we be not wanting on our parts For the vast Mountains and fruitful Earth are the works of thy hands and there is less power requisite for our relief than there was for their Creation and though so much strength hath been upon various occasions manifested yet thy Arm is not weakned for from everlasting to everlasting thou art God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong * Amyrald in loc Thou hast always been God and no time can be assigned as the beginning of thy Being The mountains are not of so long a standing as thy self they are the effects of thy power and therefore cannot be equal to thy duration since they are effects they suppose a precedency of their cause If we would look back we can reach no further than the beginning of the Creation and account the years from the first foundation of the world but after that we must lose our selves in the Abyss of Eternity we have no Cue to guide our thoughts we can see no bounds in thy Eternity But as for Man he traverseth the world a few days and by thy order pronounced concerning all men returns to the Dust and moulders into the Grave By Mountains some understand Angels as being Creatures of a more elevated Nature By Earth they understand humane Nature the Earth being the habitation of Men. There is no need to divert in this place from the Letter to such a sense The description seems to be Poetical and amounts to this He neither began with the beginning of Time nor will expire with the End of it * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret in loc He did not begin when he made himself known to our Fathers but his Being did precede the Creation of the World before any created Being was formed and any time setled Before the Mountains were brought forth Or before they were begotten or born The word being used in those senses in Scripture before they stood up higher than the rest of the earthly Mass God had created It seems that Mountains were not casually cast up by the force of the Deluge softning the Ground and driving several parcels of it together to grow up into a massy body as the Sea doth the Sand in several places but they were at first formed by God The Eternity of God is here described 1. In his Priority Before the world 2. In the extension of his duration From everlasting to everlasting thou art God He was before the world yet he neither began nor ends He is not a Temporary but an Eternal God It takes in both parts of Eternity what was before the Creation of the world and what is after Though the Eternity of God be one permanent state without succession yet the Spirit of God suiting himself to the weakness of our conception divides it into two parts one past before the foundation of the world another to come after the destruction of the world as he did exist before all ages and as he will exist after all ages Many Truths lye coucht in the verse 1. The World hath a beginning of being It was not from Eternity it was once nothing had it been of a very long duration some Records would have remained of some memorable actions done of a longer date than any extant 2. The world owes its Being to the creating Power of God Thou hadst formed it out of nothing into being Thou that is God it could not spring into being of it self it was nothing it must have a Former 3. God was in being before the world The Cause must be before the Effect that Word which gives Being must be before that which receives Being 4. This Being was from Eternity From Everlasting 5. This Being shall endure to Eternity To Everlasting 6. There is but one God one Eternal From everlasting to everlasting thou art God None else but one hath the Property of Eternity the Gods of the Heathen cannot lay claim to it Doct. God is of an eternal duration The Eternity of God is the foundation of the stability of the Covenant the great comfort of a Christian The design of God in Scripture is to set forth his dealing with men in the way of a Covenant * Gen. 1.1 The Priority of God before all things begins the Bible In the beginning God created His Covenant can have no foundation but in his duration before and after the world * Calv. in loc And Moses here mentions his Eternity not only with respect to the Essence of God but to his faederal Providence As he is the dwelling place of his People in all Generations The duration of God for ever is more spoken of in Scripture than his Eternity à parte ante though that is the foundation of all the comfort we can take from his Immortality If he had a beginning he might have an end and so all our happiness hope and being would expire with him but the Scripture sometimes takes notice of his being without beginning as well as without end * Psal 93.2 Thou art from everlasting * Psal 41.13 Blessed be God from everlasting to everlasting * Prov. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting If his Wisdom were from everlasting himself was from everlasting Whether we understand it of Christ the Son of God or of the essential wisdom of God 't is all one to the present purpose The Wisdom of God supposeth the Essence of God as habits in Creatures suppose the being of some power or faculty as their Subject The Wisdom of God supposeth Mind and Understanding Essence and Substance The notion of Eternity is difficult as Austin said * Confes lib. 11. Confes 14. of Time If no man will ask me the
any Creature is from Grace and Gift Naturally we tend to nothing as we come from nothing This Creature-mutability is not our sin yet it should cause us to lye down under a sense of our own nothingness in the presence of the Creator The Angels as Creatures though not corrupt cover their faces before him And the Arguments God uses to humble Job though a fallen Creature are not from his Corruption for I do not remember that he taxed him with that but from the greatness of his Majesty and excellency of his Nature declared in his Works * Job 38.39 40.41 And therefore Men that have no sense of God and humility before him forget that they are Creatures as well as corrupt ones How great is the distance between God and us in regard of our inconstancy in good which is not natural to us by Creation For the mind and affections were regular and by the great Artificer were pointed to God as the Object of Knowledge and Love We have the same faculties of Understanding Will and Affection as Adam had in Innocence but not with the same Light the same Bias and the same Ballast Man by his fall wounded his head and heart the wound in his head made him unstable in the Truth and that in his heart unstedfast in his Affections He changed himself from the Image of God to that of the Devil from Innocence to Corruption and from an ability to be stedfast to a perpetual Inconstancy His Silver became Dross and his Wine was mixed with Water * Isa 1.22 He changed 1. To inconstancy in Truth opposed to the Immutability of Knowledge in God How are our Minds floating between Ignorance and Knowledge Truth in us is like those Ephemera Creatures of a days continuance springs up in the Morning and expires at Night How soon doth that fly away from us which we have had not only some weak flashes of but which we have learned and have had some relish of The Devil stood not in the Truth * John 8.44 and therefore manages his Engines to make us as unstable as himself Our Minds reel and corrupt reasonings oversway us like Spunges we suck up Water and a light compression makes us spout it out again Truths are not engraven upon our hearts but writ as in Dust defaced by the next puff of Wind carried about with every Wind of Doctrin Eph. 4.14 Like a Ship without a Pilot and Sails at the courtesy of the next Storm or like Clouds that are Tenants to the Wind and Sun moved by the Wind and melted by the Sun The Galatians were no sooner called into the Grace of God but they were removed from it * Gal. 1.6 Some have been reported to have menstruam fidem kept an Opinion for a Month and many are like him that believed the Souls Immortality no longer than he had Plato's Book of that Subject in his hand * Sedgwick Christs Counsel p. 230. One likens such to Children they play with Truths as Children do with Babies one while embrace them and a little after throw them into the Durt How soon do we forget what the Truth is delivered to us and what it represented us to be * James 1.23.24 Is it not a thing to be bewailed that Man should be such a Weathercock turned about with every Breath of Wind and shifting Aspects as the Wind shifts Points 2. Inconstancy in Will and Affections opposed to the Immutability of Will in God We waver between God and Baal and while we are not only resolving but upon motion a little way look back with a hankring after Sodom Sometimes lifted up with heavenly intentions and presently cast down with earthly cares like a Ship that by an advancing Wave seems to aspire to Heaven and the next fall of the Waves makes it sink down to the Depths We change Purposes oftner than Fashions and our Resolutions are like Letters in water whereof no mark remains We will be as John to day to love Christ and as Judas to morrow to betray him and by an unworthy levity pass into the Camp of the Enemies of God resolv'd to be as holy as Angels in the Morning when the Evening beholds us as impure as Devils How often do we hate what before we loved and shun what before we longed for And our Resolutions are like Vessels of Christal which break at the first knock are dasht in pieces by the next Temptation Saul resolved not to persecute David any more but you soon find him upon his old game Pharaoh more than once promised and probably resolved to let Israel go but at the end of the storm his purposes vanish * Exod. 8.27 32. When an Affliction pincheth Men they intend to change their course and the next news of ease changes their intentions Like a Bow not fully bent in their inclinations they cannot reach the Mark but live many years between resolutions of Obedience and affections to Rebellion * Psal 78.17 And what promises men make to God are often the fruit of their Passion their Fear not of their Will The Israelites were startled at the terrors wherewith the Law was delivered and promised obedience * Exod. 20.19 but a Month after forgat them and make a Golden Calf and in the sight of Sinai call for and dance before their Gods * Exod. 32. Never people more unconstant Peter who vowed an Allegiance to his Master and a Courage to stick to him forswears him almost with the same breath Those that cry out with a zeal the Lord he is God shortly after return to the service of their Idols * 1 Kings 18.39 That which seems to be our pleasure this day is our vexation to morrow A Fear of a Judgment puts us into a religious pang and a Love to our Lusts reduceth us to a rebellious inclination As soon as the danger is over the Saint is forgotten Salvation and Damnation present themselves to us touch us and ingender some weak wishes which are dissolved by the next allurements of a carnal interest No hold can be taken of our promises no credit is to be given to our resolutions 3. Inconstancy in practice How much beginning in the Spirit and ending in the Flesh one day in the Sanctuary another in the Stews clear in the morning as the Sun and clouded before noon in Heaven by an excellency of Gifts in Hell by a course of prophanness Like a Flower which some mention that changes its colour three times a day one part white then purple then yellow The Spirit lusts against the Flesh and the Flesh quickly triumphs over the Spirit In a good man how often is there a Spiritual Lethargy Tho he doth not openly defame God yet he doth not alwayes glorifie him He doth not forsake the truth but he doth not alwayes make the attainment of it and settlement in it his business This levity discovers it self in religious duties when I would do
good evil is present with me * Rom. 7.21 Never more present than when we have a mind to do good and never more present than when we have a mind to do the best and greatest good How hard is it to make our thoughts and affections keep their stand place them upon a good Object and they will be frisking from it as a Bird from one bough one fruit to another We vary postures according to the various objects we meet with The course of the World is a very airy thing suted to the uncertain motions of that Prince of the power of the Air which works in it * Eph. 2.2 This ought to be bewail'd by us Tho we may stand fast in the truth tho we may spin our resolutions into a firm web tho the Spirit may triumph over the flesh in our practice yet we ought to bewail it because inconstancy is our nature and what fixedness we have in good is from grace What we find practised by most men is natural to all * Lawrence of Faith p. 262. As face answers to face in a glass so doth heart to heart * Pro. 27.19 a face in the glass is not more like a natural face whose image it is than one mans heart is naturally like another 1. 'T is natural to those out of the Church Nebuchadnezzar is so affected with Daniels prophetick Spirit that he would have none accounted the true God but the God of Daniel * Dan. 2.47 How soon doth this notion slip from him and an image must be set up for all to worship upon pain of almost cruel painful death Daniels God is quite forgotten The miraculous deliverance of the three Children for not worshipping his Image makes him settle a Decree to secure the Honour of God from the reproach of his Subjects * Dan. 3.29 yet a little while after you have him strutting in his Palace as if there were no God but himself 2. 'T is natural to those in the Church The Israelites were the only Church God had in the World and a notable Example of inconstancy After the Miracles of Aegypt they murmured against God when they saw Pharaoh marching with an Army at their Heels They desired food and soon nauseated the Manna they were before fond of when they came into Canaan They sometimes worshipped God and sometimes Idols not only the Idols of one Nation but of all their Neighbours In which regard God calls this his Heritage a Speckled Bird * Jer. 12.9 a Peacock saith Hierom inconstant made up of varieties of Idolatrous colours and Ceremonies This levity of Spirit is the root of all mischeif it scatters our thoughts in the Service of God it is the cause of all revolts and Apostacies from him it makes us unfit to receive the communications of God whatsoever we hear is like words writ in sand ruffled out by the next gale whatsoever is put into us is like precious liquor in a palsie hand soon spilt It breeds distrust of God when we have an uncertain judgment of him we are not like to confide in him an uncertain judgment will be followed with a distrustful heart In fine where it is prevalent it is a certain sign of ungodliness to be driven with the wind like chaffe and to be ungodly is all one in the judgment of the Holy Ghost Psal 1.4 the ungodly are like the chaff which the wind drives away which signifies not their destruction but their disposition for their destruction is inferred from it ver 5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgment How contrary is this to the unchangeable God who is alwayes the same and would have us the same in our religious Promises and Resolutions for good 4. If God be immutable 't is sad news to those that are resolved in wickedness or careless of returning to that duty he requires Sinners must not expect that God will alter his will make a breach upon his nature and violate his own Word to gratifie their lusts No 't is not reasonable God should dishonour himself to secure them and cease to be God that they may continue to be wicked by changing his own nature that they may be unchanged in their vanity God is the same goodness is as amiable in his sight and Sin as abominable in his eyes now as it was at the beginning of the world Being the same God he is the same Enemy to the Wicked as the same Friend to the Righteous He is the same in Knowledge and cannot forget sinful acts He is the same in Will and cannot approve of unrighteous Practices Goodness cannot but be alway the Object of his Love and Wickedness cannot but be alway the Object of his Hatred And as his aversion to Sin is alway the same so as he hath been in his Judgments upon Sinners the same he will be still for the same perfection of Immutability belongs to his Justice for the punishment of Sin as to his Holiness for his disaffection to Sin Though the Covenant of Works was changeable by the crime of man violating it yet it was unchangeable in regard of Gods justice vindicating it which is inflexible in the punishment of the breaches of his Law The Law had a preceptive part and a minatory part When man changed the observation of the Precept the righteous nature of God could not null the execution of the threatning He could not upon the account of this perfection neglect his just word and countenance the unrighteous transgression Tho there were no more rational Creatures in being but Adam and Eve yet God subjected them to that death he had assured them of and from this immutability of his Will ariseth the necessity of the suffering of the Son of God for the relief of the apostate Creature His Will in the second Covenant is as uncâ—aâ—â—eable as that in the first only repentance is settled as the condition of the second which was not indulged in the first and without repentance the sinner must iâ—â—voâ—â—bly pâ—rish or God must change his nature There must be a change in man there can be nâ—â—â—e in God his bow is bent his arrows are ready if the wicked do not turn * Psal 7.11 There is not an Atheist an hypocrite a prophane person that ever was upon the Earth but Gods Soul abhorred him as such and the like he will abhor for ever While any therefore continue so they may sooner expect the Heavens should roul as they please the Sun stand still at their order the Stars change their course at their beck than that God should change his nature which is opposite to prophaness and vanity Who hath hardned himself against him and hath prospered * Job 9.4 Use 2. Of comfort The immutability of a good God is a strong ground of consolation Subjects wish a good Prince to live for ever as being loath to change him but care not how soon they are rid of an Oppressor
out By this means what God is infinitely by Nature we shall come tâ— be finitely immutable by Grace as much as the capacity of a Creature can contain GODS OMNIPRESENCE Jeremiah 23.24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord THE occasion of this Discourse begins vers 16. where God admonisheth the people not to hearken to the words of the false Prophets which spake a Vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They made the people vain by their Insinuations of Peace when God had proclaimed War and Calamity and uttered the Dreams of their Phansies and not the Visions of the Lord and so turned the people from the expectation of the evil day which God had threatned ver 17. They say still unto them that despise me The Lord hath said Ye shall have peace and they say unto every one that walks after the Imagination of his own heart No evil shall come upon you And they invalidate the Prophesies of those whom God had sent v. 18. Who hath stood in the Counsel of the Lord and hath perceived and heard his word Who hath marked his word and heard it Who hath stood in the Counsel of the Lord Are they acquainted with the Secrets of God more than we Who have the word of the Lord if we have not Or it may be a continuation of Gods Admonition Believe not those Prophets for who of them have been acquainted with rhe Secrets of God or by what means should they learn his Counsel No assure your selves a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury even a grievous whirlwind it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked v. 19. A whirlwind shall come from Babylon 't is just at the door and shall not be blown over it shall fall with a witness upon the wicked people and the deceiving Prophets and sweep them together into Captivity For v. 20. The anger of the Lord shall not return until he have executed and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart My fury shall not be a childish fury that quickly languisheth but shall accomplish whatsoever I threaten and burn so hot as not to be cool till I have satisfied my vengeance in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly v. 20. when the storm shall beat upon you you shall then know that the Calamities shall answer the words you have heard When the Conquerour shall waste your Grounds demolish your Houses and manacle your hands then shall you consider it and have the wishes of Fools that you had had your eyes in your heads before you shall then know the falsness of your Guides and the truth of may Prophets and discern who stood in the Counsel of the Lord and subscribe to the Messages I have sent you Some understand this not only of the Babylonish Captivity but refer it to the time of Christ and the false Doctrine of mens own Righteousness in opposition to the Righteousness of God understanding this Verse to be partly a threatning of Wrath which shall end in an advantage to the Jews who shall in the latter time consider the falsness of their Notions about a legal Righteousness and so make it a promise they shall then know the intent of the Scripture and in the latter days the latter end of the World when time shall be near the rouling up they shall reflect upon themselves they shall look upon him whom they have pierced and till these latter days they shall be hardned and believe nothing of Evangelical truths Now God denieth that he sent those Prophets v. 21. I have not sent these Prophets yet they ran I have not spoken to them yet they prophesyed They have intruded themselves without a Commission from me whatsoever their Brags are The reason to prove it is v. 22. If they had stood in my Counsel if they had been instructed and inspired by me they would have caused my people to hear my words they would have regulated themselves according to my word and have turned them from their evil way i. e. endeavoured to shake down their false confidences of peace and make them sensible of their false Notions of me and my ways Now because those false Prophets could not be so impudent as to boast that they prophecied in the Name of God when they had not Commission from him unless they had some secret Sentiment that they and their intentions were hid from the Knowledg and Eye of God He adds v. 23. Am I a God at hand and not a God a far off Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him Have I not the power of seeing and knowing what they do what they design what they think Why should I not have such a power since I fill Heaven and Earth by my essence Am I a God at hand and not a God afar off He excludes here the Doctrine of those that excluded the Providence of God from extending its self to the inferior things of the earth which error was ancient as ancient as the time of Job as appears by their opinion That Gods eyes were hood-winkt and mufled by the thickness of the Clouds and could not pierce through their dark and dense body * Job 22.14 Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not * Munster Vatablus Castalio Oecolamp Some refer it to time Do you imagine me a God new fram'd like your Idols beginning a little time ago and not existing before the foundation of the World yea from Eternity a God afar off further than your acutest understandings can reach I am of a longer standing and you ought to know my Majesty But it rather refers to place than time Do you think I do not behold every thing in the earth as well as in Heaven Am I lockt up within the walls of my Palace and cannot peep out to behold the things done in the World or that am I so linkt to pleasure in the place of my Glory as earthly Kings are in their Courts that I have no mind or leasure to take notice of the carriages of men upon earth God doth not say He was a far off but only gives an account of the inward thoughts of their minds or at least of the Language exprest by their Actions The Interrogation carries in it a strong Affirmation and assures us more of Gods care and the folly of men in not considering it Am I a God at hand and not a God afar off Can any hide himself in secret places Heb. in Hiddenesses in the deepest Cells What are you besotted by your base Lusts that you think me a God careless ignorant blind that I can see nothing but as a purblind man what is very near my eye Are you so out of your wits that you imagine you can deceive me Do not all your behaviours speak such a Sentiment to
by our own or think it to be of so gross a Temper as a Created mind that he hath Eyes of Flesh or sees or knows as man sees Job 10.4 We can no more measure his Knowledg by ours than we can measure his Essence by our Essence As he hath an incomprehensible Essence to which ours is but as a Drop of a Bucket so he hath an incomprehensible Knowledg to which ours is but as a grain of Dust or meer Darkness his thoughts are above our thoughts as the Heavens are above the Earth The Knowledg of God is variously divided by the Schools and acknowledg'd by all Divines 1. A Knowledg visionis simplicis intelligentiae the one we may call a Sight the other an Vnderstanding the one refers to sense the other to the mind 1. A Knowledg of Vision or Sight Thus God knows himself and all things that really were are or shall be in time all those things which he hath Decreed to be tho' they are not yet actually sprung up in the World but lye couchant in their Causes 2. A Knowledg of Intelligence or simple Vnderstanding the object of this is not things that are in Being or that shall by any Decree of God ever be existent in the World but such things as are possible to be wrought by the Power of God tho' they shall never in the least peep up into Being but lye for ever wrapt up in Darkness and nothing Suarez de Deo lib. 3. cap. 4. p. 130. This also is a necessary Knowledg to be allowed to God because the object of this Knowledg is necessary The possibility of more Creatures than ever were or shall be is a conclusion that hath a necessary Truth in it as it is necessary that the power of God can produce more Creatures tho' it be not necessary that it should produce more Creatures so it is necessary that whatsoever the Power of God can work is possible to be And as God knows this possibility so he knows all the objects that are thus possible and herein doth much consist the Infiniteness of his Knowledg as shall be shewn presently These two kinds of Knowledg differ That of Vision is of things which God hath Decreed to be tho' they are not yet That of Intelligence is of things which never shall be yet they may be or are possible to be if God please to Will and Order their Being one respects things that shall be the other things that may be and are not repugnant to the Nature of God to be The Knowledg of Vision follows the Act of Gods Will and supposeth an Act of Gods Will before Decreeing things to be If we could suppose any first or second in Gods Decree we might say God knew them as possible before he Decreed them he knew them as future because he Decreed them For without the Will of God Decreeing a thing to come to pass God cannot know that it will infallibly come to pass But the Knowledg of Intelligence stands without any Act of his Will in order to the Being of those things he knows he knows possible things only in his Power he knows other things both in his Power as able to effect them and in his Will as determining the Being of them such Knowledg we must grant to be in God for there is such a kind of knowledg in man for man doth not only know and see what is before his eyes in this World but he may have a conception of many more Worlds and many more Creatures which he knows are possible to the Power of God 2. Secondly There is a speculative and practical knowledg in God 1. A speculative knowledg is when the truth of a thing is known without a respect to any working or practical operation The knowledg of things possible is in God only speculative Suarez de Deo lib. 3. cap. 4. p. 138. and some say Gods knowledg of himself is only speculative because there is nothing for God to work in himself and tho' he knows himself yet this knowledg of himself doth not terminate there but flowers into a love of himself and delight in himself yet this love of himself and delight in himself is not enough to make it a practical knowledg because it is natural and naturally and necessarily flows from the knowledg of himself and his own Goodness he cannot but love himself and delight in himself upon the knowledg of himself But that which is properly practise is where there is a dominion over the action and it is wrought not naturally and necessarily but in a way of freedom and counsel As when we see a beautiful Flower or other thing there ariseth a delight in the mind this no man will call Practise because it is a natural affection of the Will arising from the virtue of the object without any consideration of the Understanding in a practical manner by counselling commanding c. 2. A Practical knowledg which tends to operation and practise and is the principle of working about things that are known as the knowledg an Artificer hath in an Art or Mystery This knowledg is in God the knowledg he hath of the things he hath decreed is such a kind of knowledg for it terminates in the act of Creation which is not a natural and necessary act as the loving himself and delighting in himself is but wholly free for it was at his liberty whether he would create them or no this is called discretion Jer. 10.12 He hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion Such also is his knowledg of the things he hath created and which are in being for it terminates in the government of them for his own glorious ends 'T is by this knowledg the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down their dew Prov 3 20. This is a knowledg whereby he knows the essence qualities and properties of what he creates and governs in order to his own glory and the common good of the World over which he resides so that speculative knowledg is Gods knowledg of himself and things possible practical knowledg is his knowledg of his creatures and things governable yet in some sort this practical knowledg is not only of things that are made but of things which are possible which God might make tho' he will not for as he knows that they can be created so he knows how they are to be created and how to be governed tho' he never will create them This is a practical knowledg for it is not requisite to constitute a knowledg practical actually to act but that the knowledg in it self be referrible to action Suarez de Deo l. 3. c. 4. p. 140. 3. There is a knowledg of approbation as well as apprehension This the Scripture often mentions words of understanding are used to signifie the acts of affection This knowledg adds to the simple act of the understanding the complacency and pleasure of the will and is
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
Pet. 1.12 It was publish'd in Paradise but in such words as Adam did not fully understand It was both discover'd and clouded in the Smoke of Sacrifices It was wrapped up in a Vail under the Law but not open'd till the Death of the Redeemer It was then plainly said to the Cities of Judah Behold your God comes The whole Transaction of it between the Father and the Son which is the Spirit of the Gospel was from Eternity the Creation of the World was in order to the manifestation of it Let us not then regard the Gospel as a Novelty the consideration of it as one of Gods Cabinet Rarities should enhance our Estimation of it No Traditions of Men no Inventions of vain Wits that pretend to be wiser than God should have the same Credit with that which bears date from Eternity 8. Observe That Divine Truth is Mysterious According to the revelation of the mystery Christ manifested in the flesh The whole Scheme of Godliness is a Mystery No Man or Angel could imagine how two Natures so distant as the Divine and Human should be united how the same Person should be Criminal and Righteous how a Just God should have a Satisfaction and Sinful Man a Justification how the Sin should be punish'd and the Sinner saved None could imagine such a way of Justification as the Apostle in this Epistle declares It was a Mystery when hid under the Shadows of the Law and a Mystery to the Prophets when it sounded from their Mouths they searched it without being able to comprehend it †1 Pet. 1.10 11. If it be a Mystery 't is humbly to be submitted to Mysteries surmount Human Reason The study of the Gospel must not be with a yawning and careless frame Trades you call Mysteries are not learned sleeping and nodding Diligence is required we must be Disciples at Gods Feet As it had God for the Author so we must have God for the Teacher of it the Contrivance was his and the Illumination of our Minds must be from him As God only manifested the Gospel so he only can open our Eyes to see the Mysteries of Christ in it In Verse 26. we may observe 1. The Scriptures of the Old Testament verifie the substance of the New and the New doth evidence the Authority of the Old By the Scriptures of the Prophets made known The Old Testament credits the New and the New illustrates the Old The New Testament is a Comment upon the Prophetick part of the Old The Old shews the Promises and Predictions of God and the New shews the Performance What was foretold in the Old is fulfilled in the New the Predictions are cleared by the Events The Predictions of the Old are Divine because they are above the Reason of Man to foreknow None but an Infinite Knowledge could foretell them because none but an Infinite Wisdom could order all things for the accomplishment of them The Christian Religion hath then the surest Foundation since the Scriptures of the Prophets wherein it is foretold are of undoubted Antiquity and owned by the Jews and many Heathens which are and were the great Enemies of Christ The Old Testament is therefore to be read for the strengthning of our Faith Our Blessed Saviour himself draws the Streams of his Doctrine from the Old Testament He clears up the Promise of Eternal Life and the Doctrine of the Resurrection from the words of the Covenant I am the God of Abraham c. Mat. 22.32 And our Apostle clears up the Doctrine of Justification by Faith from Gods Covenant with Abraham Rom. 4. It must be read and it must be read as it is writ It was writ to a Gospel End it must be studied with a Gospel Spirit The Old Testament was writ to give Credit to the New when it should be manifested in the World It must be read by us to give strength to our Faith and establish us in the Doctrine of Christianity How many view it as a bare story an Almanack out of date and regard it as a dry Bone without sucking from it the Evangelical Marrow Christ is in Genesis Abrahams Seed in Davids Psalms and the Prophets the Messiah and Redeemer of the World 2. Observe the Antiquity of the Gospel Is made manifest by the Scriptures of the Prophets It was of as Ancient a date as any Prophesy The first Prophesy was nothing else but a Gospel Charter it was not made at the Incarnation of Christ but made manifest It then rose up to its Meridian lustre and sprung out of the Clouds wherewith it was before obscur'd The Gospel was preached to the Ancients by the Prophets as well as to the Gentiles by the Apostles Heb. 4.2 Vnto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them To them first to us after to them indeed more cloudy to us more clear but they as well as we were Evangeliz'd as the word signifies The Covenant of Grace was the same in the Writings of the Prophets and the Declarations of the Evangelists and Apostles Though by our Saviours Incarnation the Gospel Light was clearer and by his Ascension the Effusions of the Spirit fuller and stronger yet the Believers under the Old Testament saw Christ in the Swadling Bands of Legal Ceremonies and the Lattice of Prophetical Writings they could not else offer one Sacrifice or read one Prophesy with a Faith of the right stamp Abrahams Justifying Faith had Christ for its Object though it was not so Explicit as ours because the Manifestation was not so clear as ours 3. All Truth is to be drawn from Scripture The Apostle refers them here to the Gospel and the Prophets The Scripture is the Source of Divine Knowledge not the Traditions of Men nor Reason separate from Scripture Whosoever brings another Doctrine coyns another Christ nothing is to be added to what is written nothing detracted from it He doth not send us for Truth to the Puddles of Human Inventions to the Enthusiasms of our Brain not to the See of Rome no nor to the Instructions of Angels but the Writings of the Prophets as they clear up the Declarations of the Apostles The Church of Rome is not made here the Standard of Truth but the Scriptures of the Prophets are to be the Touch-stone to the Romans for the Trial of the Truth of the Gospel 4. How great is the Goodness of God The Borders of Grace are enlarged to the Gentiles and not hid under the Skirts of the Jews He that was so long the God of the Jews is now also manifest to be the God of the Gentiles The Gospel is now made known to all Nations according to the Commandment of the Everlasting God Not only in a way of Common Providence but Special Grace in Calling them to the Knowledge of himself and a Justification of them by Faith He hath brought Strangers to him to the Adoption of Children and lodged them under the Wings of the Covenant that were before alienated from
Man if he stand thy Bounty will be eminent yet there is no room for Mercy to act unless by the Commission of sin he exposeth himself to Misery and if sin enter into another World I have little hopes to be heard then if I am rejected now Worlds will be perpetually created by Goodness Wisdom and Power Sin entring into these Worlds will be perpetually punished by Justice and Mercy which is a Perfection of thy Nature will for ever be commanded silence and lye wrapt up in an eternal Darkness Take occasion now therefore to expose me to the knowledge of thy Creature since without Misery Mercy can never set foot into the World Mercy pleads if man be ruined the Creation is in vain Justice pleads if man be not sentenced the Law is in vain Truth backs Justice and Grace abets Mercy What shall be done in this seeming Contradiction Mercy is not manifested if man be not pardoned Justice will complain if man be not punished 3. An expedient is found out by the wisdom of God to answer these Demands and adjust the Differences between them The wisdom of God answers I will satisfie your Pleas. The Pleas of Justice shall be satisfied in punishing and the Pleas of Mercy shall be received in pardoning Justice shall not complain for want of Punishment nor Mercy for want of Compassion I will have an infinite Sacrifice to content Justice and the Vertue and Fruit of that Sacrifice shall delight Mercy Here shall Justice have punishment to accept and Mercy shall have Pardon to bestow The Rights of both are preserved and the Demands of both amicably accorded in punishment and pardon by transferring the punishment of our Crimes upon a Surety exacting a Recompence from his Blood by Justice and conferring life and salvation upon us by Mercy without the expence of one drop of our own Thus is Justice satisfied in its Severities and Mercy in its Indulgences The riches of Grace are twisted with the terrors of Wrath. The bowels of Mercy are wound about the flaming Sword of Justice and the Sword of Justice protects and secures the bowels of Mercy Thus is God righteous without being cruel and merciful without being unjust his Righteousness inviolable and the World recoverable Thus is a resplendent Mercy brought forth in the midst of all the Curses Confusions and Wrath threatned to the Offender This is the admirable temperament found out by the wisdom of God His Justice is honoured in the Sufferings of Man's Surety and his Mercy is honoured in the application of the Propitiation to the Offender Rom. 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Had we in our Persons been Sacrifices to Justice Mercy had for ever been unknown had we been solely fostered by Mercy Justice had for ever been secluded had we being guilty been absolved Mercy might have rejoyced and Justice might have complained had we been solely punished Justice would have triumphed and Mercy grieved But by this medium of Redemption neither hath ground of Complaint Justice hath nothing to charge when the Punishment is inflicted Mercy hath whereof to boast when the Surety is accepted The Debt of the Sinner is transferred upon the Surety that the Merit of the Surety may be conferred upon the Sinner so that God now deals with our sins in a way of consuming Justice and with our Persons in a way of relieving Mercy 'T is highly better and more glorious than if the Claim of one had been granted with the exclusion of the Demand of the other It had then been either an unrighteous Mercy or a merciless Justice 'T is now a righteous Mercy and a merciful Justice 2. The Wisdom of God appears in the Subject or Person wherein these were accorded The second Person in the blessed Trinity There was a congruity in the Sons undertaking and effecting it rather than any other Person according to the order of the Persons and the several functions of the Persons as represented in Scripture The Father after Creation is the Law-giver and presents man with the Image of his own Holiness and the way to his Creatures happiness But after the Fall man was too impotent to perform the Law and too polluted to enjoy a Felicity Redemption was then necessary not that it was necessary for God to redeem man but it was necessary for man's happiness that he should be recovered To this the second Person is appointed that by Communion with him man might derive a happiness and be brought again to God But since man was blind in his Vnderstanding and an Enemy in his will to God there must be the exerting of a Vertue to enlighten his mind and bend his Will to understand and accept of this Redemption And this work is assigned to the third Person the Holy Ghost 1. It was not congruous that the Father should assume Human Nature and suffer in it for the Redemption of man He was first in order he was the Law-giver and therefore to be the Judge As Lawgiver it was not convenient he should stand in the stead of the Law-breaker and as Judge it was as little convenient he should be reputed a Malefactor That he who had made a Law against sin denounced a Penalty upon the commission of sin and whose part it was actually to punish the sinner should become sin for the wilful Transgressor of his Law He being the Rector how could he be an Advocate and Intercessor to himself How could he be the Judge and the Sacrifice A Judge and yet a Mediator to himself If he had been the Sacrifice there must be some Person to examine the validity of it and pronounce the Sentence of acceptance Was it agreeable that the Son should sit upon a Throne of Judgment and the Father stand at the Bar and be responsible to the Son That the Son should be in the place of a Governour and the Father in the place of the Criminal That the Father should be bruised * Isa 53.10 by the Son as the Son was by the Father †Zach. 13 70. that the Son should awaken a Sword against the Father as the Father did against the Son that the Father should be sent by the Son as the Son was by the Father * Gal. 4.4 The order of the Persons in the blessed Trinity had been inverted and disturbed Had the Father been sent he had not been first in order the Sender is before the Person sent As the Father begets and the Son is begotten Joh. 1.14 so the Father sends and the Son is sent He whose order is to send cannot properly send himself 2. Nor was it congruous that the Spirit should he sent upon this Affair If the Holy Ghost had been sent to redeem us and the Son to apply
time to the World And the Wisdom of God in them would be amazing if we could understand the analogy between every Ceremony in the Law and the thing signified by it As it cannot buâ— affect a diligent Reader to observe that little account of them we have by the Apostle Paul sprinkled in his Eipstles and more largely in that to the Hebrews As the Political Laws of the Jews flowed from the depth of the Moral Law so their Ceremonial did from the depth of Evangelical Counsels and all of them had a special relation to the honour of God and the debasing the Creature Though God formed the Mass and Matter of the World at the first creation at once yet his Wisdom took six days time for the disposing and adorning it The more illustrious truths of God are not to be comprehended on a suddain by the weakness of men Christ did not declare all Truths to his Disciples in the time of his life because they were not able at that present to bear them John 16.12 Ye cannot bear them now Some were reserved for his Resurrection others for the coming of the Spirit and the full discovery of all kept back for another World This Doctrine God figured out in the Law Oracled by the Prophets and unvail'd by Christ and his Apostles 2. The Wisdom of God appeared in using all proper means to render the belief of it easie 1. The most minute things that were to be transacted were predicted in the ancient foregoing Age long before the comeing of the Redeemer The vinegar and gall offered to him upon the Cross the parting his Garments the not breaking of his Bones the piercing of his Hands and Feet the betraying of him the slighting of him by the multitude all were exactly painted and represented in variety of Figures There was Light enough to good men not to mistake him and yet not so plain as to hinder bad men from being Serviceable to the counsels of God in the crucifying of him when he came 2. The translation of the Old Testament from the private Language of the Jews into the most publick Language of the World That Translation which we call Septuagint from Hebrew into Greeks some years before the coming of Christ that Tongue being most diffused at that time by reason of the Macedonian Empire raised by Alexander and the University of Athens to which other Nations resorted for Learning and Education This was a preparation for the Sons of Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Shem. By this was the entertainment of the Gospel facilitated When they compar'd the Prophecies of the Old Testament with the Declarations of the New and found things so long predicted before they were transacted in the publick view 3. By ordering concurrent Testimonies as to matter of Fact that the matter of Fact was not deniable That there was such a Person as Christ that his Miracles were stupendous that hâ—s Doctrine did not incline to Sedition that he affected not Worldly Applause that he did suffer at Jerusalem was acknowledged by all Not a man among the greatest Enemies of Christians was found that denied the matter of Fact And this great truth that Christ is the Messiah and Redeemer hath been with universal consent owned by all the Professors of Christianity throughout the World Whatever Bickerings there have been among them about some particular Doctrines they all centred in that Truth of Christ's being the Redeemer The first publication of this Doctrine was sealed by a thousand Miracles and so illustrious that he was an utter Stranger to the World that was ignorant of them 4. In keeping up some Principles and Opinions in the World to facilitate the belief of this or render men inexcusable for rejecting of it The Incarnation of the Son of God could not be so strange to the World if we consider the general belief of the Appearances †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their Gods among them that the Epicureans and others that denied any such Appearances were counted Atheists * Dionis Halicar Antiq. l. 2. p. 128. And Pythagoras was esteemed to be one not of the inferiour Genij and Lunar Daemons but one of the higher Gods who appeared in a Human Body for the curing and rectifying mortal Life †Iamblych Vit. Pythag. l. 1. cap. 6. p. 44. lib. 2. c. 19. p. 94. And himself tells Abaris the Scythian that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he took the flesh of man that men might not be astonished at him and in a fright fly from his Instructions It was not therefore accounted an irrational thing among them that God should be Incarnate But indeed the great stumbling block was a crucified God But had they known the holy and righteous Nature of God the Malice of sin the universal Corruption of Human Nature the first threatning and the necessity of vindicating the honour of the Law and clearing the Justice of God the Notion of his crucifixion would not have appeared so incredible since they believed the possibility of an Incarnation Another Principle was that universal One of Sacrifices for Expiation and rendring God propitious to man and was practised among all Nations I remember not any wherein this Custom did not prevail for it did even among those People where the Jews as being no trading Nation had not any Commerce and also in America found out in these latter Ages It was not a Law of Nature no man can find any such thing written in his own heart but a Tradition from Adam Now that among the loss of so many other Doctrines that were handed down from Adam to his immediate Posterity as in particular that of the Seed of the Woman which one would think a necessary Appendix to that of Sacrificing This latter should be preserved as a Fragment of an ancient Tradition seems to be an Act of Divine Wisdom to prepare men for the entertainment of the Doctrine of the great Sacrifice for the Expiation of the sin of the World And as the Apostle forms his Argument from the Jewish Sacrifices in the Epistle to the Hebrews for the convincing them of the end of the death of Christ so did the Ancient Fathers make use of this practise of the Heathen to convince them of the same Doctrine 5. The wisdom of God appeared in the time and circumstances of the first solemn publication of the Gospel by the Apostles at Jerusalem The Relation you may read in Acts 2. from verse 1. to the 12th The Spirit was given to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost a time wherein there were multitudes of Jews from all Nations not only near but remote that heard the great things of God spoken in the several Languages of those Nations where their Habitations were fixed and that by twelve illiterate men that two or three hours before knew no Language but that of their Native Country It was the custom of the Jews that dwelt among other Nations at a
Sun and not that Worldly wisdom which is like a Shadow For that Wisdom whose effects are not so outwardly glorious but inwardly sweet seek it from him and seek it in his Word that is the Transcript of Divine Wisdom through his Precepts understanding is to be had* †Psal 119 1â—4 As the wisdom of Men appears in their Laws so doth the Wisdom of God in his Statutes By this means we arrive to a Heavenly sagacity If these be rejected what Wisdom can be in us a dream and conceit only Jer. 8. They have rejected the word of the Lord and what Wisdom is in them Who knows how to order any concerns as he ought or any one faculty of his Soul Therefore desire Gods direction in outward concerns in personal family in Private and Publick He hath not only a Wisdom for our Salvation but for our outward Direction He doth not only guide us in the one and leave Satan to manage us in the other Those that go with Saul to a Witch of Endor go to Hell for craft and prefer the Wisdom of the hostile Serpent before the holy Counsel of a Faithful Creator If you want health in your Body you advise with a Phisitian if direction for your Estate you resort to a Lawyer If passage for a voyage you address to a Pilot why not much more your selves your all to a Wise God As Pliny said concerning a Wise man Oh sir how many Cato's are there in that wise Person how much more Wisdom than men or Angels possess is infinitely centered in the Wise God 5. Submit to the Wisdom of God in all cases What else was inculcated in the first Precept forbidding man to eat of the Fruit of the tree of Knowledge of good and evil but that he should take heed of the swelling of his mind against the Wisdom of God T is a Wisdom Incomprehensible to flesh and blood We should adore it in our minds and resign up our selves to it in our practise How unreasonable are repinings against God whereby a Creatures Ignorance endites and judges a Creators Prudence Were God weak in Wisdom and only mighty in Power we might suspect his Conduct Power without Wisdom and goodness is an unruly and ruinous thing in the World But God being Infinite in one as well as the other we have no reason to be jealous of him and repine against his methods Why should we quarrel with him that we are not as high or as wealthy as others that we have not presently the Mercy we want If he be Wise we ought to stay his time and wait his leasure because he is a God of Judgment Esa 30.18 Presume not to shorten the time which his discretion hath fixed t is a folly to think to do it By impatience we cannot hasten relief we alienate him from us by debasing him to stand at our bar disturb our selves lose the comfort of our lives and the sweetness of his mercy Submission to God we are in no case exempted from because there is no case wherein God doth not direct all the acts of his Will by Counsel Whatsoever is drawn by a strait rule must be right and strait the rule that is right in it self is the measure of the straitness of every thing else Whatsoever is wrought in the World by God must be Wise Good Righteous because God is essentially Wisdom Goodness and Righteousness Submit to God 1. in his Revelations 1. Measure them Not by Reason The truths of the gospel must be received with a self emptiness and annnihilation of the Creature If our Reason seems to lift up itself against Revelation because it finds no testimony for it in its own light Consider how Crazy it is in natural and obvious things and therefore sure it is not strong enough to enter into the depths of Divine Wisdom The Wisdom of God in the Gospel is too great an Ocean to be contained or laved out by a Cockleshell It were not infinite if it were not beyond our finite reach our Reason must as well stoop to his Wisdom as our Wills to his Soveraignty How great a vanity is it for a Glow-worm to boast that it is as full of light as the Sun in the firmament for reason to leave its proper sphear is to fall into confusion and thicken its own darkness We should settle our selves in the belief of the Scripture and confirm our selves by a meditation on those many undeniable arguments for its divine authority The fulfilling of its predictions the antiquity of the writing the holiness of the precepts the heavenliness of the Doctrine the glorious effects it hath produced and doth yet produce different from human methods of success and submit our reason to the voice of so high a Majesty 2. Not to be too curiously inquisitive into what is not Revealed There is something hid in whatsoever is Revealed We know the son of God was begotten from eternity but how he was begotten we are ignorant We know there is a Union of the Divine Nature wi h the Human and that the Fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily but the manner of its inhabitation we are in a great part ignorant of We know God hath chosen some and refused others and that he did it with Counsel but the reason why he chose this man and not that we know not we can referr it to nothing but Gods Soveraign pleasure 'T is revealed that there will be a day wherein God shall judge the World but the particular time is not reveal d. We know that God Created the World in Time but why he did not create the World millions of years before we are ignorant of and our Reasons would be be wildred in their too much curiosity If we ask why he did not create it before we may as well ask why he did create it then And may not the same qâ—â—â—â—ion be ask'd if the World had been Created millions of years before it was That he Created in it six days and not in an instant is revealed but why he did not do it in a moment since we are sure he was able to do it is not revealed Are the reasons of a wise mans proceedings hid from us and shall we presume to dive into the reason of the proceedings of an only wise God which he hath Judged not expedient to discover to us Some sparks of his Wisdom he hath caused to issue out to exercise and delight our Minds others he keeps within the center of his own breast We must not go about to unlock his Cabinet As we cannot reach to the utmost lines of his Power so we cannot grasp the intimate reasons of his Wisdom We must still remember that which is Finite can never be able to comprehend the Reasons Motives and Methods of that which is Infinite It doth not become us to be resty because God hath not admitted us into the Debates of Eternity We are as little to be curious at
is exercised by his concurring Power as well as every moment of our Life supported by his preserving Power What an infinite variety of motions is there in the whole World in universal Nature to all which God concurs all which he conducts even the motions of the meanest as well as the greatest Creatures which demonstrate the indefatigable Power of the Governour 'T is an Infinite Power which doth act in so many varieties whereby the Soul forms every Thought the Tongue speaks every Word the Body exerts every Action What an Infinite Power is that which presides over the birth of all things concurs with the motion of the Sap in the â—ree Rivers on the Earth Clouds in the Air every drop of Rain fleece of Snow crack of Thunder Not the least motion in the World but is under an actual influence of this Almighty Mover And lest any should scruple the Concurrence of God to so many Varieties of the Creatures motion as a thing utterly unconceivable let them consider the Sun a natural image and shadow of the Perfections of God doth not the power of that finite Creature extend it self to various Objects at the same moment of time How many Insects doth it animate as Flies c. at the same moment throughout the World How many several Plants doth it erect at its appearance in the Spring whose Roots lay mourning in the Earth all the foregoing Winter What multitudes of Spires of Grass and nobler Flowers doth it Midwife in the same hour It warms the Air melts the Blood cherishes Living Creatures of various kinds in distinct places without tiring And shall the God of this Sun be less than his Creature 3. And since I speak of the Sun consider the Power of God in the Motion of it * A Lapide in 1. cap. Gen. 16. Lessius de Perfect divin p. 90 91. The vastness of the Sun is computed to be at the least 166 Times bigger than the Earth and its distance from the Earth some tell us to be about Four Millions of Miles whence it follows that it is whirl'd about the World with that swiftness that in the space of an Hour it runs a Million of Miles which is as much as if it should move round about the surface of the Earth Fifty times in one hour * Lessius de Providen p. 633. Voss de Idol lib. 2. cap. 2. which vastness exceeds the swiftness of a Bullet shot out of a Canon which is computed to fly not above Three mile in a Minute So that the Sun runs further in one Hours space than a Bullet can in Five thousand if it were kept in motion so that if it were near the Earth the swiftness of its motion would shatter the whole frame of the World and dash it in pieces so that the Psalmist may well say It runs a race like a strong Man Psal 19.5 What an Incomprehensible Power is that which hath communicated such a strength and swiftness to the Sun and doth daily influence its Motion especially since after all those years of its motion wherein one would think it should have spent it self we behold it every day as vigorous as Adam did in Paradice without limping without shattering it self or losing any thing of its natural Spirits in its unwearied motion How great must that Power be which hath kept this great body so intire and thus swiftly moves it every day Is it not now an Argument of Omnipotency to keep all the strings of Nature in tune to wind them up to a due pitch for the harmony he intended by them to keep things that are contrary from that Confusion they would naturally fall into to prevent those Jarrings which would naturally result from their various and snarling qualities to preserve every Being in its true nature to propagate every kind of Creature order all the Operations even the meanest of them when there are such innumerable Varieties But let us consider that this Power of preserving things in their station and motion and the renewing of them is more stupendous than that which we commonly call Miraculous We call those Miracles which are wrought out of the track of Nature and contrary to the usual stream and current of it which Men wonder at because they seldom see them and hear of them as things rarely brought forth in the World when the truth is there is more of Power exprest in the ordinary station and motion of Natural causes than in those extraordinary exertings of Power Is not more Power signaliz'd in that whirling motion of the Sun every hour for so many Ages than in the suspending of its motion one Day as it was in the days of Joshua That Fire should continually ravage and consume and greedily swallow up every thing that is offer'd to it seems to be the effect of as admirable a Power as the stopping of its appetite a few moments as in the case of the Three Children Is not the rising of some small Seeds from the ground Faucher sur Act. Vol. 2. p. 47. with a multiplication of their numerous posterity an effect of as great a Power as our Saviours seeding many Thousands with a few Loaves by a secret augmentation of them Is not the Chimical producing so pleasant and delicious a Fruit as the Grape from a dry Earth insipid Rain and a sour Vine as admirable a token of Divine Power as our Saviours turning Water into Wine Is not the cure of Diseases by the application of a simple inconsiderable Weed or a slight Infusion as wonderful in it self as the Cure of it by a powerful word What if it be naturally design'd to heal what is that Nature who gave that Nature who maintains that Nature who conducts it cooperates with it Doth it work of it self and by its own strength why not then equally in all in one as well as another Miracles indeed affect more because they testifie the immediate operation of God without the concurrence of second Causes not that there is mere of the Power of God shining in them than in the other II. This Power is evident in Moral Government 1. In the restraint of the Malicious nature of the Devil Since Satan hath the Power of an Angel and the Malice of a Devil what safety would there be for our Persons from destruction what security for our Goods from rifling by this invisible potent and envious Spirit if his Power were not restrain'd and his Malice curb'd by one more Mighty than himself How much doth he envy God the glory of his Creation and Man the use and benefit of it How desirous would he be in regard of his passion how able in regard of his strength and subtilty to overthrow or infect all Worship but what was directed to himself to manage all things according to his lusts turn all thing topsie-turvy plague the World burn Cities Houses plunder us of the supports of Nature waste Kingdoms c. if he were not held in
this Sentiment when the Jews Educated by God in a wiser School were wedded to that Notion The Pharisees were highly fond of it it was the only Argument they used in Prayer for Divine Blessing You have one of them boasting of his frequency in Fasting and his exactness in paying his Tithes †Luke 19.12 as if God had been beholding to him and could not without manifest wrong deny him his demand And Paul confesseth it to be his own Sentiment before his Conversion he accounted this Righteousness of the Law gain to him * Phil. 3.7 he thought by this to make his Market with God The whole Nation of the Jews affected it †Rom. 10.3 Going about to Establish their own Righteousness compassing Sea and Land to make out a Righteousness of their own as the Pharisees did to make Proselytes The Papists follow their Steps and Dispute for Justification by the Merit of Works and find out another Key of Works of Supererogation to unlock Heavens Gate than what ever the Scripture informed us of 'T is from hence also that Men are so ready to make Faith as a Work the cause of our Justification Man foolishly thinks he hath enough to set up himself after he hath proved Bankrupt and lost all his Estate This Imagination is born with us and the best Christians may find some sparks of it in themselves when there are springings up of joy in their Hearts upon the more close performance of one Duty than of another as if they had wiped off their Scores and given God a satisfaction for their former neglects We have forsaken all and follow'd thee was the boast of his Disciples What shall we have therefore was a Branch of this Root †Mat. 19.27 Eternal Life is a gift not by any Obligation of Right but an abundance of goodness 't is owing not to the dignity of our Works but the magnificent Bounty of the Divine Nature and must be sued for by the Title of God's Promise not by the Title of the Creatures Services We may observe 3. How insufficient are some Assents to Divine Truth and some Expressions of Affection to Christ without the Practice of Christian Precepts This Man Addrest to Christ with a profound Respect acknowledging him more than an ordinary Person with a more Reverential Carriage than we read any of his Disciples paid to him in the day of his Flesh he fell down at his Feet kist his Knees as the Custom was when they would testifie the great Respect they had to any eminent Person especially to their Rabbins All this some think to be included in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †Vers 17. Lightfoot in loc He seems to acknowledge him the Messiah by giving him the Title of Good a Title they did not give to their Doctors of the Chair He breaths out his opinion that he was able to instruct him beyond the ability of the Law He came with a more than ordinary Affection to him and expectation of advantage from him evident by his departing sad when his expectations were frustrated by his own perversity it was a sign he had a high esteem of him from whom he could not part without marks of his Grief What was the cause of his refusing the instructions he pretended such an affection to receive He had Possessions in the World How soon do a few drops of Wordly advantages quench the first Sparks of an ill grounded love to Christ How vain is a complemental and cringing devotion without a supream preference of God and valuation of Christ above every outward allurement We may observe this 4. We should never admit any thing to be ascrib'd to us which is proper to God Why callest thou me Good There is none Good but One that is God If you do not acknowledge me God ascribe not to me the Title of Good It takes off all those Titles which fawning Flatterers give to Men Mighty Invincible to Princes Holiness to the Pope We call one another Good without considering how Evil and Wise without considering how Foolish Mighty without considering how Weak and Knowing without considering how Ignorant No man but hath more of Wickedness than Goodness of Ignorance than Knowledge of Weakness than Strength God is a jealous God of his own Honour he will not have the Creature share with him in his Royal Titles 'T is a part of Idolatry to give Men the Titles which are due to God a kind of a Worship of the Creature together with the Creator Worms will not stand out but assault Herod in his Purple when he Usurps the Prerogative of God and prove stiff and invincible Vindicators of their Creators Honor when summoned to Arms by the Creators Word †12 Acts 22.23 The Observation which I intend to prosecute is this Doct. Pure and Perfect Goodness is only the Royal Prerogative of God Goodness is a choice Perfection of the Divine Nature This is the true and genuine Character of God He is Good He is Goodness Good in Himself Good in his Essence Good in the Highest Degree possessing whatsoever is Comely Excellent Desirable the Highest Good because the First Good whatsoever is perfect Goodness is GOD whatsoever is truly Goodness in any Creature is a resemblance of God * Ficin in Dionys. de divin nom cap 511. All the Names of God are comprehended in this one of Good All Gifts all variety of Goodness are contained in him as one common Good He is the efficient cause of all Good by an over-flowing Goodness of his Nature He refers all things to Himself as the end for the representation of his own Goodness Truly God is Good †Psal 73.1 Certainly it is an undoubted Truth 't is written in his Works of Nature and his Acts of Grace * Exod. 34.6 He is abundant in Goodness And every thing is a Memorial not of some few Sparks but of his greater Goodness †Psal 145.7 This is often celebrated in the Psalms and Men invited more than once to Sing forth the Praises of it * Psal 107.8.15.21.31 It may better be admired than sufficiently spoken of or thought of as it Merits 'T is discovered in all his Works as the Goodness of a Tree in all its Fruits 't is easie to be seen and more pleasant to be contemplated In General 1. All Nations in the World have acknowledged GOD Good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was one of the Names the Platonists exprest him by and Good and God are almost the same words in our Language All as readily consented in the Notion of his Goodness as in that of his Deity Whatsoever divisions or disputes there were among them in the other Perfections of God they all agreed in this without dispute saith Synesius * Empedocles One calls him Venus in regard of his Loveliness †Hesiod Another calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love as being the Band which tyes all things
because he doth not act for his own profit but for his Creatures welfare and the manifestation of his own Goodness He sends out his Beams without receiving any addition to himself or substantial advantage from his Creatures 'T is from this Perfection that he loves whatsoever is good and that is whatsoever he hath made For every Creature of God is good * 1 Tim. 4.4 Every Creature hath some Communications from him which cannot be without some Affection to them Every Creature hath a Footstep of Divine Goodness upon it God therefore loves that goodness in the Creature else he would not love himself †Cajetan in secund ' secundae Qu. 34. Ar. 3. God hates no Creature no not the Devils and Damn'd as Creatures he is not an Enemy to them as they are the Works of his Hands He is properly an Enemy that doth simply and absolutely wish Evil to another but God doth not absolutely wish Evil to the Damned that Justice that he inflicts upon them the deserved Punishment of their Sin is part of his Goodness as shall afterward be shewn This is the most pleasant Perfection of the Divine Nature His Creating Power amazes us His Conducting Wisdom astonisheth us His Goodness as furnishing us with all Conveniencies delights us and renders both his amazing Power and astonishing Wisdom delightful to us As the Sun by effecting things is an Emblem of Gods Power by discovering things to us is an Emblem of his Wisdom but by refreshing and comforting us is an Emblem of his Goodness And without this refreshing Vertue it communicates to us we should take no pleasure in the Creatures it produceth nor in the Beauties it discovers As God is Great and Powerful he is the Object of our Understanding but as Good and Bountiful he is the Object of our Love and Desire 6. The Goodness of God comprehends all his Attributes All the Acts of God are nothing else but the Effluxes of his Goodness distinguisht by several names according to the Objects it is exercised about As the Sea though it be one Mass of Water yet we distinguish it by several names according to the Shores it washeth and beats upon as the Brittish and German Ocean though all be one Sea When Moses long'd to see his Glory God tells him he would give him a prospect of his Goodness †Exod. 33.19 I will make all my goodness to pass before thee His Goodness is his Glory and Godhead as much as is delightfully visible to his Creatures and whereby he doth benefit Man I will cause my Goodness or Comeliness as Calvin renders it to pass before thee what is this but the Train of all his lovely Perfections springing from his Goodness * Exod. 34.6 The whole Catalogue of Mercy Grace long-suffering abundance of truth summed up in this one word All are Streams from this Fountain he could be none of this were he not first Good When it confers Happiness without Merit 't is Grace when it bestows Happiness against Merit 't is Mercy when he bears with provoking Rebels ' its long-suffering when he performs his Promise 't is Truth when it meets with a person to whom it is not oblig'd 't is Grace when he meets with a person in the World to which he hath obliged himself by Promise 't is Truth * Herle upon Wisdom cap. 5. p. 41. 42. when it Commiserates a Distressed Person 't is Pity when it supplies an Indigent Person 't is Bounty when it succours an Innocent Person 't is Righteousness and when it pardons a Penitent Person 't is Mercy all summ'd up in this one name of Goodness And the Psalmist expresseth the same Sentiment in the same words †Ps 145.7 8. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works He is first Good and then Compassionate Righteousness is often in Scripture taken not for Justice but Charitableness This Attribute saith one †Ingelo Bentivolio Vran Book 4. p. 260 261. is so full of God that it doth defie all the rest and verifie the Adorableness of him His Wisdom might contrive against us His Power bear too hard upon us one might be too hard for an Ignorant and the other too mighty for an Impotent Creature His holiness would scare an impure and guilty Creature but his goodness conducts them all for us and makes them all amiable to us Whatever Comeliness they have in the Eye of a Creature whatever Comfort they afford to the Heart of a Creature we are oblig'd for all to his goodness This puts all the rest upon a delightful Exercise this makes his Wisdom design for us and this makes his Power to act for us This Vails his Holiness from affrighting us and this Spirits his Mercy to relieve us †Daille Melang part 2. p. 704 705. All his acts towards Man are but the Workmanship of this What moved him at first to Create the World out of nothing and erect so noble a Creature as Man endow'd with such excellent gifts was it not his goodness What made him separate his Son to be a Sacrifice for us after we had endeavoured to raze out the first marks of his favour Was it not a strong bubling of goodness What moves him to reduce a Fallen Creature to the due sense of his Duty and at last bring him to an Eternal Felicity is it not only his goodness This is the Captain Attribute that leads the rest to act This attends them and Spirits them in all his ways of acting This is the Complement and Perfection of all his Works had it not been for this which set all the rest on work nothing of his Wonders had been seen in Creation nothing of his Compassions had been seen in Redemption The Second thing is some Propositions to explain the Nature of this Goodness 1. He is good by his own Essence God is not only good in his Essence but good by his Essence The Essence of every created thing is good so the unerring God pronounced every thing which he had made * Gen. 1.31 The Essence of the worst Creatures yea of the impure and Savage Devils is good but they are not good per essentiam for then they could not be bad Malicious and Oppressive God is good as he is God and therefore good by himself and from himself not by participation from another He made every thing good but none made him good Since his goodness was not received from another he is good by his own Nature He could not receive it from the things he Created they are later than he Since they received all from him they could bestow nothing on him and no God preceded him in whose Inheritance and Treasures of Goodness he could be a Successor He is absolutely
Judgments upon some to form a new Generation for himself He destroy'd an old World to raise a new one more Righteous As a Man pulls down his old Buildings to erect a sounder and more stately Fabrick To sum up what hath been said in this particular How could God be a Friend to Goodness if he were not an Enemy to Evil How could he shew his enmity to Evil without revenging the abuse and contempt of his Goodness God would rather have the Repentance of a Sinner than his Punishment but the Sinner would rather expose himself to the severest frowns of God than pursue those Methods wherein he hath setled the conveyances of his kindness You will not come to me that you might have Life saith Christ How is Eternity of Punishment inconsistent with the Goodness of God Nay how can God be good without it If Wickedness always remain in the Nature of Man Is it not fit the Rod should always remain on the Back of Man Is it a want of goodness that keeps an incorrigible Offender in Chains in a Bridewell While Sin remains it 's fit it should be Punished Would not God else be an Enemy to his own Goodness and shew favour to that which doth abuse it and is contrary to it He hath threatned Eternal Flames to Sinners that he might the more strongly excite them to a Reformation of their Ways and a Practice of his Precepts In those Threatnings he hath manifested his Goodness And can it be bad in him to defend what his Goodness hath Commanded and Execute what his Goodness hath Threatned His Truth is also a part of his Goodness for it is nothing but his Goodness performing that which it oblig'd him to do That is the first thing Severe Judgments in the World are no Impeachments of his Goodness 2. The Afflictions God inflicts upon his Servants are no violations of his Goodness Sometimes God aflicts Men for their Temporal and Eternal good for the good of their Grace in order to the good of their Glory which is a more excellent Good than Afflictions can be an Evil. The Heathens reflected upon Vlysses his hardship as a Mark of Jupiters goodness and love to him that his Virtue might be more conspicuous By strong Persecutions brought upon the Church her Lethargy is Cur'd her Chaff Purg'd the glorious Fruit of the Gospel brought forth in the lives of her Children The number of her Proselytes multiply and the strength of her weak ones is increased by the Testimonies of Courage and Constancy which the stronger present to them in their Sufferings Do those good Effects speak a want of goodness in God who brings them into this condition By those he cures his People of their Corruptions and promotes their Glory by giving them the honour of suffering for the Truth and raiseth their Spirits to a Divine pitch The Epistles of Paul to the Ephes Philip. and Colos wrote by him while he was in Nero's Chains seem to have a higher strain than some of those he wrote when was at liberty As for Afflictions they are Marks of a greater measure of Fatherly Goodness than he discovers to those that live in an uninterrupted Prosperity who are not dignifi'd with that glorious Title of Sons as those are that he chasteneth * Heb. 12.6 7. Can any question the goodness of the Father that Corrects his Child to prevent his Vice and Ruine and breed him up to Vertue and Honour It would be a Cruelty in a Father leaving his Child without Chastisement to leave him to that Misery an ill Education would reduce him to God judges us that we might not be condemned with the World †1 Cor. 11.32 Is it not a greater Goodness to separate us from the World to Happiness by his Scourge than to leave us to the condemnation of the World for our Sins Is it not a greater Goodness to make us smart here than to see us scorcht hereafter As he is our Shepherd it is no part of his Enmity or ill will to us to make us feel sometimes the weight of his Shepherds Crook to reduce us from our Stragling The visiting our Transgressions with Rods and our Iniquities with Stripes is one of the Articles of the Covenant of Grace wherein the greatest lustre of his Goodness appears * Psal 89.33 The advantage and gain of our Afflictions is a greater Testimony of his Goodness to us than the pain can be of his Unkindness The Smart is well recompenced by the accession of clearer Graces It is rather a high Mark of his Goodness than an Argument for the want of it that he treats us as his Children and will not suffer us to run into that Destruction we are more ambitious of than the Happiness he hath prepared for us and by Afflictons he fits us for the partaking of by imparting his Holiness together with the inflicting his Rod †Heb. 12.10 That is the third thing God is Good The Fourth thing is The manifestation of this Goodness in Creation Redemption and Providence 1. In Creation This is apparent from what hath been said before That no other Attribute could be the Motive of his Creating but his Goodness His Goodness was the Cause that he made any thing and his Wisdom was the Cause that he made every thing in Order and Harmony He pronounced every thing good i. e. such as became his Goodness to bring forth into Being and rested in them more as they were Stamps of his Goodness than as they were Marks of his Power or Beams of his Wisdom And if all Creatures were able to answer to this Question What that was which Created them The Answer would be Almighty Power but employed by the Motion of Infinite Goodness * Cusan p. 228. All the varieties of Creatures are so many Apparitions of this Goodness Though God be one yet he cannot appear as a God but in variety As the greatness of Power is not manifest but in variety of Works and an Acute Understanding not discover'd but in variety of Reasonings so an Infinite Goodness is not so apparent as in variety of Communications 1. The Creation proceeds from Goodness 'T is the Goodness of God to extract such multitude of things from the depths of nothing Because God is Good things have a Being If he had not been Good nothing could have been Good Nothing could have imparted that which it possessed not Nothing but Goodness could have communicated to things an Excellency which before they wanted Being is much more Excellent than nothing By this Goodness therefore the whole Creation was brought out of the dark Womb of Nothing This formed their Natures this beautified them with their several Ornaments and Perfections whereby every thing was enabled to act for the good of the Common World God did not Create things because he was a Living Being but because he was a Good Being No Creature brought forth any thing in the World meerly because it is
Provision he had made for him in the World and the Commission given him to Increase and Multiply and to Rule as a Lord over his other Works whereas he could not so easily have imagined himself capable of being expos'd to such an extraordinary Calamity as an Eternal Death without some signification of it from God 'T is easily concludable that Eternal Life was supposed to be promised to be conferr'd upon him if he stood as well as Eternal Death to be inflicted on him if he Rebell'd * Suarez de Gratia Vol 1. p. 126 127. Now this Eternal Life was not due to his Nature but it was a pure Beam and Gift of Divine Goodness For there was no proportion between Mans Service in his Innocent Estate and a Reward so great both for Nature and duration It was a higher Reward than can be imagined either due to the Nature of Man or upon any Natural Right claimable by his Obedience All that could be expected by him was but a Natural Happiness not a Supernatural As there was no necessity upon the account of Natural Righteousness so there was no necessity upon the account of the Goodness of God to elevate the Nature of Man to a Supernatural Happiness meerly because he Created him For though it be necessary for God when he would Create in regard of his Wisdom to Create for some End yet it was not necessary that End should be a Supernatural End and Happiness since a Natural Blessedness had been sufficient for Man And though God in Creating Angels and Men intellectual and Rational Creatures did make them necessary for himself and his own Glory yet it was not necessarily for him to order either Angels or Men to such a Felicity as consists in a clear Vision and so high a Fruition of himself for all other things are made by him for himself and yet not for the Vision of himself God might have Created Man only for a Natural Happiness according to the Perfection of his Natural Faculties and had dealt Bountifully with him if he had never intended him a Supernatural Blessedness and an Eternal Recompence But what a largeness of Goodness is here to design Man in his Creation for so rich a Blessedness as an Eternal Life with the Fruition of himself He hath not only given to Man all things which are necessary but design'd for Man that which the poor Creature could not imagine He garnisht the Earth for him and garnisht him for an Eternal Felicity had he not by slighting the Goodness of God stript himself of the present and forfeited his future Blessedness 2. The second thing is the manifestation of this Goodness in Redemption The whole Gospel is nothing but one entire Mirror of Divine Goodness The whole of Redemption is wrapt up in that one Expression of the Angels Song Luke 2.14 Good will towards Man The Angels Sang but one Song before which is upon Record but the Matter of it seems to be the Wisdom of God chiefly in Creation Job 38.7 compar 9. v. 5 6 8 9. The Angels are there meant by the Morning Stars The visible Stars of Heaven were not distinctly form'd when the Foundations of the Earth were laid And the Title of the Sons of God verifies it since none but Creatures of understanding are dignifi'd in Scripture with that Title There they Celebrate his Wisdom in Creation here his Goodness in Redemption which is the intire Matter of the Song 1. Goodness was the Spring of Redemption All and every part of it owes only to this Perfection the appearance of it in the World This only excited Wisdom to bring forth from so great an Evil as the Apostacy of Man so great a Good as the Recovery of him When Man fell from his Created Goodness God would evidence that he could not fall from his Infinite Goodness That the greatest Evil could not surmount the ability of his Wisdom to contrive nor the Riches of his Bounty to present us a Remedy for it Divine Goodness would not stand by a Spectator without being Reliever of that Misery Man had plung'd himself into but by astonishing Methods it would recover him to Happiness who had wrested himself out of his hands to fling himself into the most deplorable Calamity And it was the greater since it surmounted those Natural Inclinations and those strong Provocations which he had to shower down the Power of his Wrath. What could be the Source of such a Procedure but this Excellency of the Divine Nature Since no Violence could force him nor was there any Merit to perswade to such a Restoration This under the name of his Love is render'd the sole cause of the Redeeming Death of the Son It was to commend his Love with the highest Gloss and in so singular a manner that had not its parallel in Nature nor in all his other Works and reaches in the brightness of it beyond the manifested extent of any other Attribute * Rom. 5.8 It must be only a miraculous Goodness that induced him to expose the Life of his Son to those difficulties in the World and Death upon the Cross for the freedom of sordid Rebels His great End was to give such a demonstration of the liberality of his Nature as might be attractive to his Creature remove its shakings and tremblings and encourage its approaches to him 'T is in this he would not only manifest his Love but assume the name of Love By this Name the Holy Ghost calls him in relation to this good will manifested in his Son †1 John 4.8 9. God is love In this is manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him He would take the Name he never exprest himself in before He was Jehovah in regard of the truth of his Promise so he would be known of old He is Goodness in regard of the grandeur of his Affection in the Mission of his Son And therefore he would be known by the Name of Love now in the days of the Gospel 2. It was a Pure Goodness He was under no obligation to pity our Misery and repair our Ruines He might have stood to the terms of the first Covenant and exacted our Eternal Death since we had committed an infinite Transgression He was under no tie to put off the Robes of a Judge for the Bowels of a Father and erect a Mercy-seat above his Tribunal of Justice * Rada Controvers Part. 3. p. 363. The reparation of Man had no necessary connexion with his Creation It follows not that because Goodness had extracted us from nothing by a mighty Power that it must lift us out of wilful Misery by a mighty Grace Certainly that God who had no need of Creating us had far less need of Redeeming us For since he Created one World he could have as easily destroyed it and rear'd another It had not been unbecoming the Divine Goodness
the World without any knowledge of God or promises of Christ The Jews might sooner in a way of reason have been wrought upon than the Gentiles who were ignorant of the Prophets by whose writings they might have examined the Truth of the Apostles Declarations thus are they refus'd that were the kindred of Christ according to the Flesh and the Gentiles that were at a greater distance from him brought in by God Thus he catcheth not at the subtle and mighty Devils who had an original in spiritual nature more like to him but at weak and simple man 2. Not for any Moral perfection Because he converts the most Sinful The Gentiles steept in Idolatry and Superstition He sow'd more Faith among the Romans than in Jerusalem more Faith in a City that was the common Sewer of all the Idolatry of the Nations conquered by them than in that City which had so signally been own'd by him and had not practised any Idolatry since the Babylonish Captivity He planted Saintship at Corinth a place notorious for the infamous Worship of Venus a Superstition attended with the grossest uncleanness At Ephesus that presented the whole World with a Cup of Fornication in their Temple of Diana Among the Colossians Votaries to Cybele in a manner of Worship attended with beastly and lascivious Ceremonies And what character had the Cretians from one of their own Poets mentioned by the Apostle to Titus whom he had plac'd among them to further the progress of the Gospel but the vilest and most abominable Tit. 1.12 Lyars not to be credited Evil Beasts not to be associated with Slow Bellies fit for no service What prerogative was there in the nature of such putrefaction As much as in that of a Toad to be elevated to the dignity of an Angel What steam from such Dunghils could be welcome to him and move him to cast his eye on them and sweeten them from Heaven What treasures of worth were here to open the treasures of his Grace Were such filthy snuffs fit of themselves to be kindled by and become a lodging for a Gospel beam What invitements could he have from Lying Beastliness Gluttony but only from his own Soveraignty By this he plucked firebrands out of the fire while he left straiter and more comely sticks to consume to ashes 3. Not for any Civil Perfection Because he turns the most despicable He elevates not nature to Grace upon the account of Wealth Honour or any Civil station in the World he dispenseth not ordinarily those Treasures to those that the mistaken World foolishly admire and dote upon 1 Cor. 1.26 Not many Mighty not many Noble A purple Robe is not usually deckt with this Jewel He takes more of mouldy Clay than refin'd dust to cast into his Image and lodges his Treasures more in the earthly Vessels than in the World 's Golden ones He gives out his richest doles to those that are the scorn and reproach of the World Should he impart his Grace most to those that abound in wealth or honour it had been some foundation for a conception that he had been mov'd by those vulgarly esteem'd excellencies to indulge them more than others And such a conceit languisheth when we behold the Subjects of his Grace as void originally of any allurements as they are full of provocations Hereby he declares himself free from all Created engagements and that he is not led by any external motives in the object 4. 'T is not from any obligation which lies upon him He is indebted to none disoblig'd by all No man deserves from him any Act of Grace but every man deserves what the most deplorable are left to suffer He is obliged by the Children of wrath to nothing else but showers of wrath owes no more a debt to fall'n man than to fall'n Devils to restore them to their first station by a superlative Grace how was he more bound to restore them than he was to preserve them to catch them after they fell than to put a barr in the way of their falling God as a Soveraign gave Laws to men and a strength sufficient to keep those Laws What obligation is there upon God to repair that strength man willfully lost and extract him out of that condition into which he voluntarily plung'd himself What if man sinned by temptation which is a reason alledged by some Might not many of the Devils do so too Though there was a first of them that sinned without a temptation yet many of them might be seduced into Rebellion by the Ringleader Upon that account he is no more bound to give Grace to all men than to Devils If he promis'd life upon Obedience he threatned death upon Transgression By man's disobedience God is quit of his promise and owes nothing but punishment upon the violation of his Law Indeed man may pretend to a claim of sufficient strength from him by Creation as God is the Author of Nature and he had it but since he hath extinguisht it by his sin he cannot in the least pretend any obligation on God for a new strength If it be a peradventure whither he will give Repentance as it is 2 Tim. 2.25 There is no tye in the case a tye would put it beyond a peradventure with a God that never forfeited his obligation * Claudes sur la parabole des Noces p. 29. No Husbandman thinks himself oblig'd to bestow cost and pains manure and tillage upon one field more than another though the nature of the ground may require more yet he is at his liberty whither he will expend more upon one than another He may let it lie Fallow as long as he please God is less oblig'd to till and prune his Creatures than man is oblig'd to his Feild or Trees If a King proclaim a pardon to a company of Rebels upon the condition of each of them paying such a summe of Money their Estates before were capable of satisfying the condition but their Rebellion hath reduc'd them to an indigent condition the proclamation it self is an act of Grace the condition requir'd is not impossible in it self the Prince out of a tenderness to some sends them that summe of Money he hath by his Proclamation oblig'd them to pay and thereby enabled them to answer the condition he requires the first he doth by a Soveraign Authority the second he doth by a Soveraign bounty he was oblig'd to neither of them punishment was a debt due to all of them if he would remit it upon condition he did relax his Soveraign right and if he would by his largess make any of them capable to fulfil the condition by sending them presently a sufficient summe to pay the fine he acted as proprietor of his own goods to dispose of them in such a quantity to those to whom he was not oblig'd to bestow a mite 5. It must therefore be an Act of his meer Soveraignty This can only sit arbitrator in every gracious act
an earth-worm a mean animal as man be afraid to speak irreverently of so great a King among his pots and Strumpets Not to fear him not to reverence him is to pull his Throne from under him and make him of a lower Authority than our selves or any creature that we reverence more 5. Prayer to God and trust in him is inferr'd from his Soveraignty If he be the supream Soveraign holding Heaven and Earth in his hand disposing all things here below not committing every thing to the influence of the stars or the humours of men we ought then to apply our selves to him in every case implore the exercise of his Authority we hereby own his peculiar right over all things and persons He only is the supream head in all causes and over all persons Thine is the Kingdom concludes the Lord's Prayer both as a motive to pray Mat. 6.13 and a ground to expect what we want He that believes not God's Government will think it needless to call upon him will expect no refuge under him in a strait but make some creature-reed his support If we do not seek to him but rely upon the dominion we have over our own possessions or upon the Authority of any thing else we disown his Supremacy and Dominion over all things we have as good an opinion of our selves or of some creature as we ought to have of God We think our selves or some natural cause we seek to or depend upon as much Soveraigns as he and that all things which concern us are as much at the dispose of an inferior as of the great Lord. 'T is indeed to make a God of our selves or of the Creature When we seek to him upon all occasions we own this divine eminency we acknowledge that it is by him mens hearts are order'd the World govern'd all things dispos'd And God that is jealous of his glory is best pleas'd with any duty in the creature that doth acknowledge and desire the glorification of it which Prayer and dependance on him doth in a special manner Desiring the exercise of his Authority and the preservation of it in ordering the affairs of the World 6. Obedience naturally results from this Doctrine As his justice requires fear his goodness thankfulness his faithfulness trust his truth belief so his Soveraignty in the nature of it demands Obedience As it is most fit he should rule in regard of his excellency so it is most fit we should obey him in regard of his Authority He is our Lord and we his Subjects he is our Master and we his servants 't is righteous we should observe him and conform to his will He is every thing that speaks an Authority to command us and that can challenge an humility in us to obey As that is the truest Doctrine that subjects us most to God so he is the truest Christian that doth in his practice most acknowledge this subjection And as soveraignty is the first notion a Creature can have of God so obedience is the first and chief thing Conscience reflects upon the Creature Man holds all of God and therefore owes all the operations capable to be produced by those faculties to that soveraign power that endowed him with them Man had no being but from him he hath no motion without him he should therefore have no being but for him and no motion but according to him To call him Lord and not to act in subjection to him is to mock and put a scorn upon him Luk. 6.46 Why call you me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say 'T is like the Crucifying Christ under the Title of a King 'T is not by professions but by observance of the Laws of a Prince that we manifest a due respect to him By that we reverence that Authority that enacted them and the prudence that fram'd them This doctrine affords us motives to obey and directs us to the manner of Obedience 1. Motives to obey 1. 'T is Comely and Orderly Is it not a more becoming thing to be ruled by the will of our soveraign than by that of our lusts To observe a wise and gracious Authority than to set up inordinate appetites in the room of his Law Would not all men account it a disorder to be abominated to see a slave or vassal controul the just orders of his Lord and endeavour to subject his Masters will to his own Much more to expect God should serve our humour rather than we be regulated by his Will 'T is more orderly that subjects should obey their Governours than Governours their Subjects that Passion should obey Reason than Reason obey Passion When good Governours are to conform to Subjects and reason vail to passion 't is monstrous the one disturbs the order of a community and the other defaceth the beauty of the Soul Is it a comely thing for God to stoop to our meanness or for us to stoop to his greatness 2. In regard of the Divine Soveraignty 't is both honourable and advantagious to obey God 'T is indeed the glory of a Superior to be obey'd by his Inferior but where the soveraign is of transcendent excellency and dignity 't is an honour to a mean person to be under his immediate commands and enrolled in his service 'T is more honour to be Gods Subject than to be the greatest worldly Monarch his very service is an Empire and disobedience to him is a slavery * Servire deo regnare est 'T is a part of his soveraignty to reward any service done him Other Lords may be willing to recompence the service of their Subjects but are often rendred unable but nothing can stand in the way of God to hinder your reward if nothing stand in your way to hinder your obedience Levit. 18.5 If you keep my Statutes you shall live in them I am the Lord. Is there any thing in the World can recompence you for Rebellion against God and obedience to a Lust Saul cools the hearts of his Servants from running after David by Davids inability to give them Fields and Vineyards 1 Sam. 22.7 Will the Son of Jesse give every one of you Fields and Vineyards and make you Captains of thousands and Captains of hundreds that you have conspired against me But God hath a Dominion to requite as well as an Authority to command your obedience He is a great soveraign to bear you out in your observance of his precepts against all reproaches and violences of men and at last to crown you with eternal honour If he should neglect vindicating one time or other your loyalty to him he will neglect the maintaining and vindicating his own soveraignty and greatness 3. God in all his dispensations to man was careful to preserve the rights of his soveraignty in exacting obedience of his Creature The second thing he manifested his soveraignty in was that of a Law-giver to Adam after that of a Proprietor in giving him the possession of the
the injuries of men But as it signifies a willingness to deferr and an unwillingness to pour forth his wrath upon sinful creatures He moderates his provoked justice and forbears to revenge the injuries he daily meets with in the World He suffers no grief by mens wronging him but he restrains his arm from punishing them according to their merits And thus there is Patience in every cross a man meets with in the World because though it be a punishment 't is less than is merited by the unrighteous rebel and less than may be inflicted by a righteous and powerful God This Patience is seen in his providential works in the World He suffered the Nations to walk in their own way and the witness of his Providence to them was his giving them Rain and fruitful seasons filling their heart with food and gladness Act. 16.17 The Heathens took notice of it and signified it by feigning their God Saturn to be bound a whole year in a soft cord a cord of wool and exprest it by this Proverb The Mills of the Gods grind slowly i. e. God doth not use men with that severity that they deserve The Mills being usually â—â—nn'd by criminals condemn'd to that work * Rhodigi l. 6. c. 14. This in Scripture is frequently exprest by a slowness to anger Psal 103.8 sometimes by long suffering which is a patience with duration Psal 145.8 and Joel 2.13 He is slow to anger he takes not the first occasions of a provocation He is long suffering Rom. 9.22 and Psal 86.15 he forbears punishment upon many occasions offer'd him 'T is long before he consents to give fire to his wrath and shoot out his Thunderbolts Sin hath a loud cry but God seems to stop his eares not to hear the clamor it raises and the charge it presents He keeps his Sword a long time in the sheath One calls the Patience of God the sheath of his sword upon those words Ezek. 21.3 I will draw forth my sword out of his sheath * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret in loc This is one remarkable letter in the name of God he himself proclaims it Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God merciful gracious and long suffering And Moses pleads it in the behalf of the people Numb 14.18 where he placeth it in the first rank The Lord is long suffering and of great mercy 'T is the first spark of mercy and ushers it to its exercises in the World In the Lord's Proclamation 't is put in the middle link Mercy and Truth together Mercy could have no room to act if Patience did not prepare the way And his truth and goodness in his promise of the Redeemer would not have been manifest to the World if he had shot his Arrows as soon as men committed their sins and deserved his punishment This perfection is exprest by other phrases as keeping silence Psal 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept silence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies to behave ones self as a deaf or dumb man I did not fly in thy face as some do with great a noise upon a light provocation as if their Life Honour Estates were at the stake I did not presently call thee to the bar and pronounce judicial sentence upon thee according to the Law but demean'd my self as if I had been ignorant of thy crimes and. had not been invested with the power of judging thee for them Chald. I waited for thy Conversion God's Patience is the silence of his Justice and the first whisper of his mercy 'T is also exprest by not laying folly to men Job 24.12 Men groan under the oppressions of others yet God layes not folly to them i. e. to the oppressors God suffers them to go on with impunity He doth not deliver his people because he would try them and takes not revenge upon the unrighteous because in Patience he doth bear with them Patience is the Life of his Providence in this World He chargeth not men with their crimes here but reserves them upon impenitency for another tryal This attribute is so great a one that it is signally called by the name of perfection Matt. 5.45 48. He had been speaking of Divine goodness and Patience to evil men and he concludes be you perfect c. Implying it to be an amazing perfection in the divine nature and worthy of imitation In the prosecution of this 1. Let us consider the nature of this Patience 2. Wherein 't is manifested 3. Why God doth exercise so much Patience 4. The VSE 1. The nature of this Patience 1. 'T is part of the divine goodness and mercy yet differs from both God being the greatest goodness hath the greatest mildness Mildness is always the companion of true goodness and the greater the goodness the greater the mildness Who so Holy as Christ and who so meek God's slowness to anger is a branch or slip from his mercy Psal 145.8 The Lord is full of compassion slow to anger It differs from mercy in the formal consideration of the object Mercy respects the creature as miserable Patience respects the creature as criminal Mercy pities him in his misery and Patience bears with the sin which engender'd that misery and is giving birth to more Again Mercy is one end of Patience his long suffering is partly to glorifie his Grace so it was in Paul 1 Tim. 1.16 As slowness to anger springs from goodness so it makes mercy the butt and mark of its operations Isa 30.18 He waites that he may be gracious Goodness sets God upon the exercise of Patience and Patience sets many a sinner on running into the armes of mercy That mercy which makes God ready to embrace returning sinners makes him willing to bear with them in their sins and wait their return It differs also from goodness in regard of the object The object of goodness is every creature Angels Men all inferiour creatures to the lowest worm that crawls upon the ground The object of Patience is primarily man and secondarily those creatures that respect mens support conveniency and delight But they are not the objects of Patience as consider'd in themselves but in relation to man for whose use they were created and therefore God's Patience to them is properly his Patience with man The lower creatures do not injure God and therefore are not the objects of his Patience but as they are forfeited by man and man deserves to be depriv'd of them As man in this regard falls under the Patience of God so do those creatures which are design'd for mans good That Patience which spares man spares other creatures for him which were all forfeited by man's sin as well as his own life and are rather the testimonies of God's Patience than the proper objects of it The object of God's goodness then is the whole Creation not a Devil in Hell but as a creature is a mark of his goodness but not of his patience There is a kind
glory Pag. 83 Resignation of our selves would flow from consideration of God's Wisdom Pag. 414 415 Should from that of his Soveraignty Pag. 775 Restraint of Men and Devils by God in mercy to man Pag. 357 451 452 527 528 650 744 745 Resolutions good how soon broken Pag. 232 Resurrection of the Body no incredible Doctrine Pag. 319 320 479 480 The Power of God in that of Christ Pag. 460 Of Men ascribed to Christ Pag. 476 Reverence necessary in the worship of God Pag. 150 151 Revelations of God are not to be censured Pag. 403 404 Riches inordinate desire after them a hindrance to Spiritual worship Pag. 177 God exercises a Soveraignty in bestowing them Pag. 740 Rivers how useful Pag. 349 Rome why called Babylon Pag. 13 S. SAcraments the goodness of God in appointing them Pag. 639 Salvation of men how desirous God is of it Pag. 636 637 638 808 809 810 Sanctification deserves our thanks as much as Justification Pag. 698 Vide Holiness Satisfaction of the Soul only in God Pag. 36 37 127 128 200 Necessary for sin Pag. 549 550 Scepticks must own a first Cause Pag. 21 Scoffing at Holiness a great sin Pag. 543 544 And at Convictions in others Pag. 553 Scriptures are wrested and abused Pag. 58 59 79 Ought to be prized and studied Pag. 107 The not fulfilling some Predictions in them doth not prove God to be changeable Pag. 226 227 Of the Old Testament give credit to the New and of the New illustrate those of the Old Pag. 334 335 All Truth to be drawn thence ibid. Of the Old Testament to be studied ibid. Something in them sutable to all sorts of men Pag. 354 355 Written so as to prevent foreseen Corruptions Pag. 355 356 To study Arguments from them to defend sin a contempt of God's Holiness Pag. 542 543 The goodness of God in giving them as a Rule Pag. 652 653 654 Sea how useful Pag. 23 The Wisdom of God seen in it Pag. 349 And his Power Pag. 419 446 447 Searching the Hearts of Men how to be understood of God Pag. 287 Seasons the variety of them necessary Pag. 350 Secrecy a poor refuge to sinners Pag. 335 Secret sins cause stings of Conscience Pag. 35 313 Known to God Pag. 263 265 334 335 Shall be revealed in the Day of Judgment Pag. 318 319 Prayers and Works known to God Pag. 331 Security Men abuse God's blessings to it Pag. 668 Self man most opposite to those Truths that are most contrary to it Pag. 60 Man sets up as his own Rule Pag. 70 Dissatisfied with Conscience when it contradicts its desires Pag. 71 72 Meerly the agreeableness to it the spring of many materially good Actions Pag. 72 73 90 ad 94 153 154 Would make it the rule of God Pag. 74 ad 80 And his own end and the end of all Creatures and of God vid. End Applauding thoughts of it how common Pag. 82 Men ascribe the glory of what they have or do to it Pag. 82 83 Desire Doctrines pleasing to it Pag. 83 Highly concern'd for any injury done to it ibid. Obey it against the light of Conscience Pag. 84 How great a sin this is Pag. 84 85 The giving mercies pleasing to it the only cause of many mens love to God Pag. 90 91 Men unweildy to their duty where it is not concern'd Pag. 91 How sinful this is Pag. 94 The great Enemy to the Gospel and Conversion Pag. 101 102 Self-love threefold Pag. 80 81 The cause of all sin and hindrance of Conversion Pag. 81 82 Service of God how unwilling men are to it Pag. 63 64 Slight in the performance of it Pag. 64 65 Shew not that natural vigor in it as they do in their worldly business Pag. 65 Quickly weary of it Pag. 65 66 Desert it Pag. 66 The presence of God a comfort in it Pag. 268 Hypocritical pretences for avoiding it a denial of God's Knowledge Pag. 328 A sense of God's Goodness would make us faithful in it Pag. 681 Some called to and fitted for more eminent ones in their Generation Pag. 739 ad 744 Omissions of it a contempt of God's Soveraignty Pag. 762 763 Sin founded in a secret Atheism and Self-love Pag. 50 81 Reflects a dishonour on all the Attributes of God Pag. 50 Implies God is unworthy of a Being Pag. 50 51 Would make him a foolish impure and miserable Being Pag. 51 52 More troublesom than Holiness Pag. 63 To make it our end a great debasing of God Pag. 87 88 No excuse but an aggravation that we serve but one Pag. 87 Abstinence from it proceeds many times from an evil Cause Pag. 90 91 325 326 God's name word and mercies made use of to countenance it Pag. 94 542 543 668 669 815 Spiritual to be avoided Pag. 128 'T is folly Pag. 193 Past ones we should be humbled for Pag. 197 336 †Hath brought a Curse on the Creation Pag. 207 Vide Creatures Past known to God Pag. 282 283 All known to him and how Pag. 287 288 289 336 †337 †A sense of God's Knowledge and Holiness would check it Pag. 337 338 †554 555 Bounded by God Pag. 357 God brings glory to himself and good to the Creature out of it Pag. 358 ad 366 God hath shewn the greatest hatred of it in redemption Pag. 384 385 A contempt of God's Power Pag. 480 481 Abhorred by God Pag. 501 502 503 547 In God's People more severely punisht in this World than in others Pag. 502 503 God cannot be the Author of in others or do it himself Pag. 504 505 506 God punishes it and cannot but do so Pag. 511 547 548 549 The Instruments of it detestable to God Pag. 512 Opposite to the Holiness of God Pag. 540 To charge it on God or defend it by his word a great sin Pag. 542 543 Entrance of it into the World doth not impeach God's goodness Pag. 594 595 Those that disturb Societies most signally punisht in this life Pag. 651 A contempt of God's Dominion Pag. 752 753 754 How much God is daily provoked by it Pag. 806 807 808 823 An abuse of God's Patience Pag. 815 816 Sincerity required in Spiritual worship Pag. 143 Cannot be unknown to God Pag. 330 331 Consideration of God's Knowledge would promote it Pag. 338 339 †Sinful times in them we should be most holy Pag. 558 Sinners God hath shewn the greatest love to them and hatred to their sins Pag. 384 385 Every thing in their possession detestable to God Pag. 512 Society the goodness of God seen in the preservation of it Pag. 649 ad 652 Could not subsist without restraining Grace v. Restraint Soul the vastness of its capacity and quickness of its motion Pag. 32 33 Its union to the Body wonderful ibid. God only can satisfie it v. Satisfaction They only can converse with God Pag. 127 Should be the Objects of our chiefest care Pag. 128 We should worship God with them Pag. 132 133 The Wisdom and