Civil associations for Politick Government Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord viz. In the time of Seth. No question but Adam had worshipped God before as well as Abel and a Family-Religion had been preserved but as mankind increased in distinct Families they knit together in Companies to solemnize the worship of God * Stillingfleet's Irenicum cap. 1. § 1. pa. 23. Hence as some think those that incorporated together for such ends were called the Sons of God Sons by profession tho not Sons by Adoption As those of Corinth were Saints by profession tho in such a Corrupted Church they could not be all so by regeneration yet Saints as being of a Christian society and calling upon the name of Christ that is worshipping God in Christ tho they might not be all Saints in Spirit and Practise So Cain and Abel met together to worship Gen 4.3 at the end of the days at a set time God setled a publick worship among the Jews instituted Synagogues for their Convening together whence call'd the Synagogues of God * Psa 74.8 The Sabbath was instituted to acknowledge God a Common Benefactor Publick worship keeps up the Memorials of God in a world prone to Atheism and a sense of God in a heart prone to forgetfulness The Angels sung in Company not singly at the Birth of Christ * Luke 2.13 and praised God not only with a simple elevation of their Spiritual nature but audibly by forming a voice in the air Affections are more lively Spirits more raised in publick than private God will Credit his own ordinance Fire increaseth by laying together many Coals on one place so is devotion inflamed by the union of many hearts and by a joynt presence Nor can the approach of the last day of Judgment or particular Judgments upon a Nation give a Writ of ease from such assemblies Heb. 10.25 Not forsaking the assembling our selves together but so much the more as you see the day approaching Whether it be understood of the day of Judgment or the day of the Jewish destruction and the Christian persecution the Apostle uses it as an argument to quicken them to the observance not to encourage them to a neglect Since therefore natural light informs us and Divine institution Commands us publickly to acknowledge our selves the Servants of God it implies the service of the body Such acknowledgments cannot be without visible Testimonies and outward exercises of devotion as well as inward affections This promotes Gods honour checks others prophaness allures men to the same expressions of duty And tho there may be hypocrisy and an outward garb without an inward frame yet better a moiety of worship than none at all better acknowledge Gods right in one than disown it in both 3. Jesus Christ the most Spiritual worshipper worshipt God with his body He Prayed orally and kneeled Father if it be thy Will c. * Luke 22.41 42. He blessed with his mouth Father I thank thee * Mat. 11.26 He lifted up his eyes as well as elevated his Spirit when he praised his Father for mercy received or begged for the blessings his Disciples wanted * John 11.41 John 12.1 The strength of the Spirit must have vent at the outward members The holy men of God have employed the body in significant expressions of worship Abraham in falling on his face Paul in kneeling employing their Tongues lifting up their hands Tho Jacob was bedrid yet he would not worship God without some devout expression of Reverence t is in one place leaning upon his staff * Heb. 11.21 in another bowing himself upon his beds head * Gen. 47.31 The reason of the diversity is in the Heb. word which without vowels may be red Mittah a bed or Matteh a staff howsoever both signifie a Testimony of adoration by a reverent gesture of the body Indeed in Angels and separated Souls a worship is performed purely by the Spirit but whiles the Soul is in conjunction with the body it can hardly perform a serious act of worship without some tincture upon the outward man and reverential composure of the body Fire cannot be in the clothes but it will be felt by the members nor flames be pent up in the Soul without bursting out in the body The heart can no more restrain it self from breaking out than Joseph could enclose his affections without expressing them in tears to his Brethren * Gen. 45.1 2. We Believe and therefore speak * 2 Cor. 4.13 To conclude God hath appointed some parts of worship which cannot be performed without the body as Sacraments we have need of them because we are not wholly spiritual and incorporeal Creatures The Religion which consists in externals only is not for an intellectual nature A worship purely intellectual is too sublime for a nature allyed to sense and depending much upon it The Christian mode of worship is proportioned to both It makes the sense to assist the mind and elevates the spirit above the sense Bodily worship helps the spiritual The members of the body reflect back upon the heart the voice bars distractions the tongue sets the heart on fire in good as well as in evil T is as much against the light of nature to serve God without external significations as to serve him only with them without the intention of the mind As the invisible God declares himself to men by visible works and signs so should we declare our invisible frames by visible expressions God hath given us a soul and body in conjunction and we are to serve him in the same manner he hath framed us 2. The second thing I am to shew is what Spiritual worship is In general the whole Spirit is to be employed The name of God is not sanctifyed but by the engagement of our Souls Worship is an Act of the understanding applying it self to the knowledge of the excellency of God and actual thoughts of his Majesty recognizing him as the supreme Lord and Governour of the world which is natural knowledge beholding the glory of his Attributes in the Redeemer which is Evangelical knowledge This is the sole act of the Spirit of Man The same reason is for all our worship as for our thanksgiving This must be done with understanding Psal 47.7 Sing ye praise with understanding with a knowledge and sense of his greatness goodness and Wisdom T is also an act of the Will whereby the Soul adores and reverenceth his Majesty is ravisht with his amiableness embraceth his goodness enters it self into an intimate Communion with this most lovely object and pitcheth all his affections upon him We must worship God understandingly t is not else a reasonable service The nature of God and the Law of God abhor a blind offering we must worship him heartily else we offer him a dead Sacrifice A reasonable service is that wherein the mind doth truly act something with God
than a Rock can carve it self into the Statue of a man or a Serpent that is an Enemy to Man could or would raise it self to the Nobility of the humane Nature That Soul that by Nature would strip God of his Rights cannot without a Divine Power be made conformable to him and acknowledg sincerely and cordially the Rights and Glory of God 7. We may here see the reason why there can be no justification by the best and strongest works of Nature Can that which hath Atheism at the root justifie either the action or person What strength can those works have which have neither Gods Law for their Rule nor his Glory for their End that are not wrought by any spiritual strength from him nor tend with any spiritual affection to him Can these be a foundation for the most holy God to pronounce a Creature righteous They will justifie his Justice in condemning but cannot sway his Justice to an Absolution Every natural man in his works picks and chuses he owns the Will of God no further than he can wring it to sute the law of his Members and minds not the honour of God but as it justles not with his own glory and secular ends Can he be righteous that prefers his own Will and his own Honour before the Will and Honour of the Creator However mens actions may be beneficial to others what reason hath God to esteem them wherein there is no respect to him but themselves whereby they dethrone him in their thoughts while they seem to own him in their religious works Every day reproves us with something different from the Rule Thousands of wandrings offer themselves to our eyes Can Justification be expected from that which in it self is matter of despair 8. See here the cause of all the apostacy in the World Practical Atheism was never conquered in such They are still alienated from the Life of God and will not live to God as he lives to himself and his own honour * Eph. 4.17 18. They loath his Rule and distaste his Glory are loth to step out of themselves to promote the ends of another find not the satisfaction in him as they do in themselves They will be Judges of what is good for them and righteous in it self rather than admit of God to judge for them When men draw back from Truth to Error 't is to such opinions which may serve more to foment and cherish their Ambition Covetousness or some beloved Lust that dispates with God for precedency and is designed to be served before him John 12.42.43 They love the praise of men more than the praise of God A preferring man before God was the reason they would not confess Christ and God in him 9. This shews us the excellency of the Gospel and Christian Religion It sets man in his due place and gives to God what the Excellency of his Nature requires ∴ It lays man in the dust from whence he was taken and sets God upon that Throne where he ought to si◠Man by Nature would annihilate God and deisie himself the Gospel glorifies God and annihilates Man In our first revolt we would be like him in knowledge in the means he hath provided for our recovery he designs to make us like him in Grace The Gospel shews our selves to be an Object of Humiliation and God to be a glorious Object for our Imitation The Light of Nature tells us there is a God the Gospel gives us a more magnificent report of him The light of Nature condemns gross Atheism and that of the Gospel condemns and conquers spiritual Atheism in the hearts of men Use 2. Of Exhortation 1. Let us labour to be sensible of this Atheism in our Nature and be humbled for it How should we lye in the Dust and go bowing under the humbling thoughts of it all our days Shall we not be sensible of that whereby we spill the blood of our Souls and give a stabb to the heart of our own Salvation Shall we be worse than any Creature not to bewail that which tends to our destruction He that doth not lament it cannot challenge the Character of a Christian hath nothing of the divine Life and Love planted 〈◊〉 his Soul Not a man but shall one day be sensible when the Eternal God shall call him out to Examination and charge his Conscience to discover every Crime which will then own the Authority whereby it acted when the heart shall be torn open and the secrets of it brought to publick view and the World and Man himself shall see what a viperous Brood of corrupt Principles and Ends nested in his Heart Let us therefore be truly sensible of it till the consideration draw tears from our Eyes and sorrow from our Souls Let us urge the thoughts of it upon our hearts till the Core of that Pride be eaten out and our Stubborness changed into Humility Till our Heads become Waters and our Eyes Fountains of tears and be a spring of Prayer to God to change the heart and mortifie the Atheism in it and consider what a sad thing it is to be a practical Atheist And who is not so by Nature 1. Let us be sensible of it in our selves Have any of our hearts been a Soyl wherein the Fear and Reverence of God hath naturally grown Have we a desire to know him or a will to embrace him Do we delight in his Will and love the remembrance of his Name Are our respects to him as God equal to the speculative knowledge we have of his Nature Is the heart wherein he hath stampt his Image reserved for his Residence Is not the world more affected than the Creator of the world as though that could contribute to us a greater happiness than the Author of it Have not Creatures as much of our love fear trust nay more than God that framed both them and us Have we not too often relyed upon our own strength and made a Calf of our own wisdom and said of God as the Israelites of Moses As for this Moses we wot not what is become of him Exod. 32.1 and given oftener the glory of our good success to our Dragg and our Net to our Craft and our Industry than to the wisdom and blessing of God Are we then free from this sort of Atheism * Lawson body of Divinity pa. 153. 154. 'T is as impossible to have two Gods at one time in one heart as to have two Kings at one time in full power in one Kingdom Have there not been frequent neglects of God Have we not been deaf whilst he hath knocked at our doors slept when he hath sounded in our Ears as if there had been no such Being as a God in the world How many struglings have been against our approaches to him Hath not folly often been committed with vain imaginations starting up in the time of Religious Service which we would scarce vouchsafe a look to at another time
first of Genesis in the whole Chapter unto the finishing the Work in six Days God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a Name of Power and that Thirty two times in that Chapter but after the the finishing the six days Work he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which according to their notion is a Name of Goodness and Kindness * Mercer 9.7 col 1 2. His Power is first visible in framing the World before his Goodness is visible in the sustaining and preserving it It was by this Name of Power and Almighty that he was known in the first Ages of the World not by his Name Jehovah Exod. 6.3 And I appeared unto Abraham Isaack and Jacob by the name of God Almighty but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them Not but that they were acquainted with the Name but did not experience the intent of the Name which signified his Truth in the performance of his Promises They knew him by that name as promising but they knew him not by that Name as performing He would be known by his Name Jehovah True to his Word when he was about to effect the Deliverance from Egypt a Type of the Eternal Redemption wherein the Truth of God in performing of his first Promise is gloriously magnified And hence it is that God is called Almighty more in the Book of Job than in all the Scripture besides I think about Thirty two times and Jehovah but once which is Job 12.9 unless in Job 38. when God is introduc'd speaking himself which is an Argument of Jobs living before the Deliverance from Egypt when God was known more by his Works of Creation than by the performance of his Promises before the Name Jehovah was formally publish'd Indeed this Attribute of his Eternal Power is the first thing visible and intelligible upon the first glance of the eye upon the Creatures †Rom. 1.20 Bring a man out of the Cave where he hath been Nurst without seeing any thing out of the confines of it and let him lift up his Eyes to the Heavens and take a prospect of that glorious body the Sun then cast them down to the Earth and behold the Surface of it with its Green cloathing the first Notion which will start up in his Mind from that spring of Wonders is that of Power which he will at first adore with a Religious astonishment The Wisdom of God in them is not so presently apparent till after a more exquisite consideration of his Works and Knowledge of the properties of their natures the conveniency of their situations and the usefulness of their functions and the order wherein they are linkt together for the good of the Universe 2. By this Creative Power God is often distinguisht from all the Idols and False gods in the World And by this Title he sets forth himself when he would act any great and wonderful Work in the World He is great above all gods for he hath done whatsoever he pleased in Heaven and in Earth Psal 135.5 6. Upon this is founded all the Worship he challengeth in the World as his peculiar glory Revel 4.11 Thou art worthy Oh Lord to receive glory honour and power for thou hast Created all things And Rev. 10.6 I have made the Earth and created Man upon it I even my hands have stretched out the Heavens and all their Host have I commanded Isai 45.12 What is the issue Verse 16. They shall be ashamed and confounded all of them that are makers of Idols And the weakness of Idols is exprest by this Title The gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth Jer. 10.11 The portion of Jacob is not like them for he is the former of all things Verse 16. What is not that God able to do that hath created so great a World How doth the Power of God appear in Creation 1. In making the World of Nothing When we say the World was made of Nothing we mean that there was no Matter existent for God to work upon but what he rais'd himself in the first act of Creation In this regard the Power of God in Creation surmounts his Power in Providence Creation supposeth nothing Providence supposeth something in Being Creation intimates a Creature making Providence speaks a thing already made and capable of Government and in Government God uses second Causes to bring about his Purposes 1. The World was made of nothing The Earth which is describ'd as the first Matter without any form or ornament without any distinction or figures was of Gods forming in the Bulk before he did adorn it with his Pensil * Gen. 1.1 2. †Suarez Vol. 3. p. 33. God in the beginning creating the Heaven and the Earth includes two things First That those were created in the beginning of time and before all other things Secondly That God begun the Creation of the World from those things Therefore before the Heavens and the Earth there was nothing absolutely created and therefore no Matter in being before an act of Creation past upon it It could not be Eternal because nothing can be Eternal but God it must therefore have a beginning If it had a beginning from it self then it was before it was If it acted in the making it self before it was made then it had a being before it had a being for that which is nothing can act nothing The action of any thing supposeth the existence of the thing which acts It being made it was not before it was made for to be made is to be brought into being It was made then by another and that Maker is God 'T is necessary that the first Original of things was from nothing When we see one thing to arise from another we must suppose an Original of the first of each kind As when we see a Tree spring up from a Seed we know that Seed came out of the bowels of another Tree it had a Parent and it had a Matter we must come to some First or else we run into an endless Maze We must come to some first Tree some first Seed that had no cause of the same kind no matter of it but was meer nothing ‖ Suarez Vol. 3. p. 6. Creation doth suppose a production â—â—â—m nothing because if you suppose a thing without any real or actual Existence 't is not capable of any other production then from nothing Nothing must be supposed before the World or we must suppose it Eternal and that is to deny it to be a Creature and make it God The Creation of spiritual Substances such as Angels and Souls evince this those things that are purely spiritual and consist not of matter cannot pretend to any Original from Matter and therefore they rose up from nothing If spiritual things arose from nothing much more may corporeal because they are of a lower nature than spiritual And he that can create a higher Nature of nothing can create an
* 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
be a guide that disdain to follow him To think we firmly believe a God without living conformable to his Law is an idle and vain imagination The true and sensible Notion of a God cannot subsist with disorder and an affected unrighteousness This contempt is seen 1. In any presumptuous breach of any part of his Law Such sins are frequently called in Scripture Rebellions which are a denial of the Allegiance we owe to him By a wilful refusal of his right in one part we root up the foundation of that rule he doth justly challenge over us His Right is as extensive to command us in one thing as in another And if it be disowned in one thing t is vertually disowned in all and the whole Statute book of God is contemned Jam. 2.10.11 Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all A willing breaking one part tho there be a willing observance of all the other points of it is a breach of the whole because the Authority of God which gives sanction to the whole is slighted The obedience to the rest is dissembled For the Love which is the root of all obedience is wanting For Love is the fulfilling the whole Law * Rom. 13. â—â— The rest are obeyed because they cross not carnal desire so much as the other and so t is an observance of himself not of God Besides the Authority of God which is not prevalent to restrain us from the breach of one point would be of as little force with us to restrain us from the breach of all the rest did the allurements of the flesh give us as strong a diversion from the one as from the other And tho the Command that is transgrest be the least in the whole Law yet the Authority which enjoyns it is the same with that which enacts the greatest And it is not so much the matter of the command as the Authority commanding which lays the obligation 2. In the natural averseness to the declarations of Gods Will and mind which way so ever they tend Since man affected to be as God he desires to be boundless he he would not have Fetters tho they be Golden ones and conduce to his happiness tho the Law of God be a strength to them yet they will not Isa 30.15 In returnning shall be your strength and you would not They would not have a bridle to restrain them from running into the pit nor be hedged in by the Law tho for their security As if they thought it too slavish and low Spirited a thing to be guided by the Will of another Hence man is compared to a Wild-Ass that loves to snuff up the wind in the Wilderness at her pleasure rather than come under the guidance of God * Jer. 2 2â— From whatsoever quarter of the Heavens you pursue her she will run to the other The Israelites could not indure what was Commanded * Heb. 12 â—â— tho in regard of the Moral part agreeable to what they found written in their own Nature And to the observance whereof they had the highest obligations of any people under Heaven since God had by many prodigies delivered them from a cruel slavery The memory of which prefac'd the Decalogue Exod. 20.2 I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of bondage They could not think of the rule of their duty but they must reflect upon the grand incentive of it in their Redemption from Aegyptian thraldome Yet this people were cross to God which way soever he moved When they were in the Brick-kilns they cryed for deliverance when they had heavenly Manna they longed for their Onions and Garlick In Num. 14.3 They repent of their deliverance from Egypt and talk of returning again to seek the Remedy of their Evils in the hands of their cruellest Enemies and would rather put themselves into the Irons whence God had delivered them than believe one word of the Promise of God for giving them a fruitful Land But when Moses tells them Gods Order that they should turn back by the way of the Red-Sea * ver 25. and that God had confirmed it by an Oath that they should not see the Land of Canaan * ver 28. They then run cross to this Command of God and instead of marching towards the Red-Sea which they had wished for before they will go up to Canaan as in spight of God and his threatning We will go to the Place which the Lord hath promised v. 40. which Moses calls a Transgressing the Comandment of the Lord v. 41. They would presume to go up notwithstanding Moses his Prohibition and are smitten by the Amalekites When God gives them a Precept with a Promise to go up to Canaan they long for Egypt when God commands them to return to the Red-Sea which was nearer to the place they longed for they will shift sides and go up to Canaan * Num. 21.4 5. Daillê Serm. 1 Cor. 10. Ser. 9 p. 234. 235. 40. And when they found they were to traverse the Solitudes of the Desart they took Pett against God and instead of thanking him for the late Victory against the Cananites they reproach him for his Conduct from Egypt and the Manna wherewith he nourished them in the Wilderness They would not go to Canaan the way God had chosen nor preserve themselves by the means God had ordained They would not be at Gods disposal but complain of the badness of the way and the lightness of Manna empty of any necessary juyce to sustain their Nature They murmuringly sollicite the Will and Power of God to change all that Order which he had resolved in his Council and take another conformable to their vain foolish desires And they signified thereby that they would invade his Conduct and that he should act according to their fancy which the Psalmist calls a tempting of God and limiting the Holy One of Israel Psal 78.41 To what point soever the Declarations of God stand the Will of Man turns the quite contrary way Is not the carriage of this Nation the best then in the world A discovery of the depth of our natural corruption how cross Man is to God And that charge God brings against them may be brought against all men by Nature that they despise his Judgements and have a rooted Abhorrency of his Statutes in their Soul Levit. 26.43 No sooner had they recovered from one Rebellion but they revolted to another So difficult a thing it is for mans nature to be rendred capable of conforming to the Will of God The carriage of this People is but a Copy of the Nature of Mankind and is written for our admonition 1 Cor. 10.11 From this temper men are said to make void the Law of God * Psal 119.126 To make it of no obligation an antiquated and moth-eaten Record And the Pharisees by setting up their
it as a Sacrifice to Devils It was not the intention of Jeroboam to establish Priests to the Devil when he Consecrated them to the service of his Calves for Jehu afterwards calls them the Servants of the Lord 2 King 10.23 See if there be here none of the Servants of the Lord to distinguish them from the Servants of Baal signifying that the true God was Worshipped under those Images and not Baal nor any of the Gods of the Heathens yet the Scripture couples the Calves and Devils together and ascribes the Worship given to one to be given to the other * 2 Cron. 11.15 He ordained him Priests for the high places and for the Devils and for the Calves which he had made so that they were Sacrifices to Devils notwithstanding the intention of Jeroboam and his Subjects that had set them up and worshipped them because they were contrary to the mind of God and agreeable to the Doctrine and mind of Satan tho the object of their worship in their own intention were not the Devil but some deified man or some Canonized Saint The intention makes not a good action If so when men kill the best Servants of God with a design to do God service as our Saviour foretels * Joh. 16.2 the action would not be Murder yet who can call it otherwise since God is wronged in the persons of his servants Since most of the worship of the world which mens corrupt natures incline them to is false and different from the revealed will of God t is a practical acknowledgment of the Devil as the Governour by acknowleding and practising those Doctrines which have not the stamp of Divine Revelation upon them but were minted by Satan to depress the Honour of God in the world It doth concern men then to take good heed that in their acts of worship they have a Divine rule otherwise it is an owning the Devil as the rule for there is no medium Whatsoever is not from God is from Satan But to bring this closer to us and consider that which is more common among us Men that are in a natural condition and Wedded to their lusts are under the paternal Government of Satan Joh. 8.44 Ye are of your Father the Devil and the lusts of your Father you will do If we divide sin into Spiritual and carnal which division comprehends all the Devils authority is owned in both In spiritual we conform to his example because those he commits In carnal we obey his will because those he directs He acts the one and sets us a Copy He tempts to the other and gives us a kind of a precept Thus man by nature being a willing servant of sin is more desirous to be bound in the Devils Iron Chain than in Gods silken Cords What greater Atheism can there be than to use God as if he were inferior to the Devil to take the part of his greatest Enemy who drew all others into the faction against him to pleasure Satan by offending God and gratifie our adversary with the injury of our Creator For a Subject to take arms against his Prince with the deadliest Enemy both himself and Prince hath in the whole world adds a greater blackness to the Rebellion 2. The more visible rule preferred before God in the World is man The opinion of the world is more our rule than the precept of God and many mens abstinence from sin is not from a sense of the Divine Will no nor from a priciple of reason but from an affection to some man on whom they depend or fear of punishment from a superior The same principle with that in a ravenous beast who abstains from what he desires for fear only of a stick or Club Men will walk with the Herds go in fashion with the most speak and act as the most do While we conform to the world we cannot perform a reasonable service to God nor prove nor approve practically what the good and acceptable Will of God is The Apostle puts them in opposition to one another * Rom. 12.1 2. This appears 1. In complying more with the dictates of men than the Will of God Men draw encouragement from Gods forbearance to sin more freely against him but the fear of punishment for breaking the Will of Man lays a restraint upon them The fear of man a is more powerful curb to restrain men in their duty than the fear of God So we may please a Friend a Master a Governour we are regardless whither we please God or no Men pleasers are more than God pleasers Man is more advanced as a rule than God when we submit to human orders and stagger and dispute against Divine Would not a Prince think himself slighted in his authority if any of his Servants should decline his commands by the order of one of his subjects And will not God make the same account of us when we deny or delay our obedience for fear of one of his Creatures In the fear of man we as little acknowledge God for our Soveraign as we do for our comforter Isa 51.12 13. I even I am he that comforteth you who art thou thou shouldst be affraid of a man that shall die c. and forgettest the Lord thy maker c. We put a slight upon God as if he were not able to bear us out in our duty to him and uncapable to ballance the strength of an arm of flesh 2. In observing that which is materially the Will of God not because t is his Will but the injunctions of men As the word of God may be received yet not as his word so the Will of God may be performed yet not as his Will T is materially done but not formally obeyed An action and obedience in that action are two things as when man Commands the ceasing from all works of the ordinary calling on the Sabbath t is the same that God enjoyns the Cessation or attendance of his servants on the hearing the word are conformable in the matter of it to the Will of God but it is only conformable in the obediential part of the acts to the Will of man when it is done only with respect to a human precept As God hath a right to enact his laws without consulting his Creature in the way of his government So man is bound to obey those Laws without consulting whither they be agreeable to mens laws or no If we act the Will of God because the Will of our superiors concurs with it we obey not God in that but man a human Will being the rule of our obedience and not the Divine This is to vilifie God and make him inferior to man in our esteem and a valuing the rule of man above that of our Creator Since God is the highest perfection and infinitely good whatsoever rule he gives the Creature must be good else it cannot proceed from God A base thing cannot be the product of an infinite excellency
are coupled here together that which hath Wealth and that which hath those glorious Creatures in Heaven for its Object And though some may think it a light Sin yet the Crime being of deeper guilt a denial of God deserves a severer punishment and falls under the Sentence of the just Judge of all the Earth under that Notion which Job intimates in those words this also were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judge The kissing the hand to the Sun Moon or any Idol was an external Sign of Religious Worship among those and other Nations This is far less than an inward hearty Confidence and an affectionate Trust If the motion of the hand be much more is the affection of the heart to an excrementitious Creature or a brutish Pleasure is a Denial of God and a kind of an Abjuring of him siince the Supream Affection of the Soul is undoubtedly and solely the Right of the Soveraign Creator and not to be given in common to others as the outward gesture may in a way of civil respect Nothing that is an Honour peculiar to God can be given to a Creature without a plain exclusion of God to be God it being a disowning the rectitude and excellency of his Nature If God should command a Creature such a Love and such a Confidence in any thing inferior to him He would deny himself his own Glory He would deny himself to be the most excellent Being Can the Romanists be free from this when they call the Cross Spem unicam and say to the Virgin In te Domina speravi as Bonaventure c. Good reason therefore have Worldlings and Sensualists persons of immoderate fondness to any thing in the world to reflect upon themselves since though they own the Being of a God they are guilty of so great disrespect to him that cannot be excused from the title of an unworthy Atheism And those that are renewed by the Spirit of God may here see ground of a daily Humiliation for the frequent and too common Excursions of their Souls in Creature Confidences and Affections whereby they fall under the charge of an act of practical Atheism though they may be free from an habit of it 3. The third thing is Man would make himself the end of all Creatures Man would fit in the Seat of God and set his heart as the heart of God as the Lord saith of Tyrus Ezek. 28.2 What is the consequence of this but to be esteemed the chief Good and end of other Creatures A thing that the heart of God cannot but be set upon it being an inseparable Right of the Deity who must deny himself if he deny this affection of the Heart Since it is the nature of Man deriv'd from his Root to desire to be equal with God it follows that he desires no Creature should be equal with him but subservient to his ends and his glory He that would make himself God would have the Honour proper to God He that thinks himself worthy of his own supream affection thinks himself worthy to be the Object of the supream affection of others Whosoever counts himself the chiefest Good and last End would have the same place in the thoughts of others Nothing is more natural to Man than a desire to have his own Judgment the Rule and Measure of the Judgments and Opinions of the rest of Mankind He that sets himself in the Place of the Prince doth by that act challenge all the Prerogatives and Dues belonging to the Prince and apprehending himself fit to be a King apprehends himself also worthy of the Homage and Fealty of the Subjects He that loves himself chiefly and all other things and persons for himself would make himself the end of all Creatures It hath not been once or twice only in the World that some vain Princes have assumed to themselves the title of Gods and caused Divine Adorations to be given to them and Altars to smoke with Sacrifices for their Honour What hath been practised by one is by Nature seminally in all We would have all pay an Obedience to us and give to us the Esteem that is due to God This is evident 1. In Pride When we entertain an high Opinion of our selves and act for our own Reputes we dispossess God from our own hearts and while we would have our Fame to be in every mans mouth and be admired in the hearts of men we would chase God out of the hearts of others and deny his Glory a Residence any where else that our Glory should reside more in their minds than the Glory of God that their thoughts should be filled with our Atchievements more than the Works and Excellency of God with our Image and not with the Divine Pride would paramount God in the affections of others and justle God out of their Souls and by the same reason that man doth thus in the Place where he lives he would do so in the whole world and press the whole Creation from the Service of their true Lord to his own Service Every proud man would be counted by others as he counts himself the highest chiefest piece of Goodnes and be adored by others as much as he adores and admires himself No proud man in his self-love and self-admiration thinks himself in an Error and if he be worthy of his own admiration he thinks himself worthy of the highest esteem of others that they should value him above themselves and value themselves only for him What did Nebuchadnezzar intend by setting up a Golden Image and commanding all his Subjects to worship it upon the highest Penalty he could inflict but that all should aim only at the pleasing his Humor 2. In using the Creatures contrary to the End God has appointed God created the World and all things in it as steps whereby men might ascend to a Prospect of him and the acknowledgment of his Glory and we would use them to dishonour God and gratifie our selves He appointed them to supply our necessities and support our rational delights and we use them to cherish our sinful lusts We wring groans from the Creature in diverting them from their true scope to one of our own fixing when we use them not in his service but purely for our own and turn those things he created for himself to be instruments of Rebellion against him to serve our turns and hereby endeavour to defeat the ends of God in them to establish our own ends by them This is a high dishonour to God a Sacrilegious undermining of his Glory * Sabunde Tit. 200. P. 352. to reduce what God hath made to serve our own glory and our own pleasure It perverts the whole Order of the World and directs it to another end than what God hath constituted to another intention contrary to the intention of God and thus Man makes himself a God by his own Authority As all things were made by God so they are for God but while we
from some powerful Principle so that every one may subscribe to the speech of the Apostle that when we would do good evil is present with them No reason of this can be rendred but the natural temper of our Souls and an affecting a distance from God under any consideration For though our guilt first made the breach yet this aversion to a converse with him steps up without any actual reflections upon our guilt which may render God terrible to us as an offended Judge Are we not often also in our attendance upon him more pleased with the modes of Worship which gratifie our fancy than to have our Souls inwardly delighted with the Object of Worship himself This is a part of our natural Atheism To cast such duties off by total neglect or in part by affecting a coldness in them is to cast off the Fear of the Lord. * Job 15.4 Not to call upon God and not to know him are one and the same thing Jer. 10.25 Either we think there is no such Being in the world or that he is so slight a one that he deserves not the respect he calls for or so impotent and poor that he cannot supply what our necessities require 3. No desire of a thorough return to him The first man fled from him after his defection though he had no refuge to fly to but the grace of his Creator Cain went from his presence would be a Fugitive from God rather than a Suppliant to him when by Faith in and application of the promised Redeemer he might have escaped the wrath to come for his Brothers blood and mitigated the sorrows he was justly sentenced to bear in the World Nothing will separate prodigal Man from commoning with Swine and make him return to his Father but an empty Trough Have we but husks to feed on we shall never think of a Fathers presence It were well if our sores and indigence would drive us to him but when our strength is devoured we will not return to the Lord our God nor seek him for all this * Hos 7.10 Not his drawn Sword as a God of Judgment nor his mighty Power as a Lord nor his open Arms as the Lord their God could move them to turn their eyes and their hearts towards him The more he invites us to partake of his grace the further we run from him to provoke his wrath The louder God called them by his Prophets the closer they stuck to their Baal * Hos 11.2 We turn our backs when he stretches out his hand stop our ears when he lifts up his voice We fly from him when he courts us and shelter our selves in any bush from his merciful hand that would lay hold upon us nor will we set our faces towards him till our way be hedged up with thorns and not a gap left to creep out any by-way * Hos 2.6.7 Whosoever is brought to a return puts the Holy-Ghost to the pain of striving he is not easily brought to a spiritual subjection to God nor perswaded to a Surrender at a Summons but sweetly over power'd by storm and victoriously drawn into the Arms of God God stands ready but the heart stands off Grace is full of intreaties and the Soul full of excuses Divine love offers and Carnal self-love rejects Nothing so pleases us as when we are furthest from him as if any thing were more amiable any thing more desirable than himself 4. No desire of any close imitation of him When our Saviour was to come as a Refiners fire to purifie the Sons of Levi the cry is who shall abide the day of his coming Mal. 3.2 3. Since we are alienated from the Life of God we desire no more naturally to live the Life of God than a Toad or any other Animal desires to live the Life of a Man No heart that knows God but hath a holy ambition to imitate him No Soul that refuseth him for a Copy but is ignorant of his Excellency Of this temper is all Mankind naturally Man in Corruption is as loth to be like God in Holiness as Adam after his Creation was desirous to be like God in Knowledge his Posterity are like their Father who soon turned his back upon his original Copy What can be worse than this Can the denial of his Being be a greater injury than this contempt of him as if he had not goodness to deserve our remembrance nor amiableness fit for our converse as if he were not a Lord fit for our subjection nor had a Holiness that deserved our imitation For the use of this It serves 1. For Information 1. It gives us occasion to admire the wonderful Patience and Mercy of God How many Millions of practical Atheists breath every day in his Air and live upon his Bounty who deserve to be Inhabitants in Hell rather than Possessors of the Earth An infinite Holiness is offended an infinite Justice is provoked yet an infinite Patience forbears the Punishment and an infinite Goodness relieves our wants The more we had merited his Justice and forfeited his Favour the more is his affection inhanc'd which makes his hand so liberal to us At the first invasion of his rights he mitigates the terror of the threatning which was set to defend his Law with the grace of a Promise to relieve and recover his rebellious Creature * Gen. 3.15 Who would have looked for any thing but tearing Thunders sweeping Judgments to rase up the foundations of the apostate world But oh how great are his Bowels to his aspiring Competitors Have we not experimented his Contrivances for our good though we have refused him for our happiness Has he not opened his Arms when we spurned with our Feet held out his alluring mercy when we have brandisht against him a rebellious sword Has he not intreated us while we have invaded him as if he were unwilling to lose us who are ambitious to destroy our selves Has he yet denyed us the care of his Providence while we have denyed him the rights of his Honour and would appropriate them to our selves Has the Sun forborn shining upon us though we have shot our Arrows against him Have not our Beings been supported by his Goodness while we have endeavoured to climb up to his Throne and his mercies continued to charm us while we have used them as weapons to injure him Our own necessities might excite us to own him as our happiness but he adds his invitations to the voice of our wants Has he not promised a Kingdom to those that would strip him of his Crown and proclaimed Pardon upon Repentance to those that would take away his Glory And hath so twisted together his own end which is his Honour and mans true end which is his Salvation that a man cannot truly mind himself and his own Salvation but he must mind Gods glory and cannot be intent upon Gods honour but by the same act he promotes himself
had a body t is impossible to mould an Image of it in the true glory of that body Can the Statue of an excellent Monarch represent the Majesty and air of his Countenance tho made by the skilfullest workman in the world If God had a body in some measure suted to his excellency were it possible for Man to make an exact Image of him who cannot picture the light heat motion magnitude and dazling property of the Sun The excellency of any Corporeal nature of the least Creature the temper instinct artifice are beyond the power of a Carving tool much more is God 2. To make any Corporeal representations of God is unworthy of God 'T is a disgrace to his nature Whosoever thinks a Carnal corruptible Image to be fit for a representation of God renders God no better than a Carnal and Corporeal being 'T is a kind of debasing an Angel who is a Spiritual nature to represent him in a bodily shape who is as far removed from any fleshliness as Heaven from Earth much more to degrade the glory of the Divine nature to the lineaments of a man The whole stock of Images is but a lie of God Jer. 10 8 14. A Doctrin of vanities and falsehood It represents him in a false garb to the world and sinks his glory into that of a corruptible Creature * Rom. 1.25 It impairs the reverence of God in the minds of men and by degrees may debase mens apprehensions of God * Rom. 1.22 and be a means to make them believe he is such a one as themselves and that not being free from the figure he is not also free from the imperfections of their bodies Corporeal Images of God were the fruits of base imaginations of him and as they sprung from them so they contribute to a greater corruption of the notions of the Divine nature The Heathens begun their first representations of him by the Image of a corruptible Man then of birds till they descended not only to four footed beasts but creeping things even Serpents as the Apostle seems to intimate in his enumeration Rom. 1.23 It had been more honourable to have continued in human representations of him than have sunk so low as beasts and Serpents the baser Images tho the first had been infinitely unworthy of him he being more above a man though the noblest Creature than Man is above a Worm a Toad or the most despicable creeping thing upon the Earth To think we can make an Image of God of a piece of Marble or an Ingot of Gold is a greater debasing of him than it would be of a great Prince if you should represent him in the statue of a Frog When the Israelites represented God by a Calf 't is said they sinned a great sin Exod. 32.31 And the sin of Jeroboam who intended only a representation of God by the Calves at Dan and Bethel is called more emphatically * Hosea 10.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wickedness of your wickedness the very skum and dreggs of wickedness As men debased God by this so God debased men for this he degraded the Israelites into Captivity under the worst of their Enemies and punished the Heathens with spiritual Judgments as uncleaness through the lusts of their own hearts Rom. 1.24 which is repeated again in other expressions v. 26 27. as a meet recompence for their disgracing the spiritual nature of God Had God been like to Man they had not offended in it But I mention this to shew a probable reason of those base lusts which are in the midst of us that have scarce been exceeded by any Nation viz. the unworthy and unspiritual conceits of God which are as much a debasing of him as material Images were when they were more rife in the world and may be as well the cause of those spiritual Judgments upon men as the worshipping molten and carved Images were the cause of the same upon the Heathen 3. Yet this is natural to Man Wherein we may see the contrariety of Man to God Though God be a Spirit yet there is nothing Man is more prone to than to represent him under a corporeal form The most famous Guides of the Heathen world have fashioned him not only according to the more honourable Images of men but beastialized him in the form of a Brute The Egyptians whose Country was the School of Learning to Greece were notoriously guilty of this brutishness in worshiping an Ox for an Image of their God and the Philistines their Dagon in a figure composed of the Image of a Woman and a Fish * Daille super Cor. 1.10 Ser. 3. Such representations were ancient in the Oriental parts The Gods of Laban that he accuseth Jacob of stealing from him are supposed to be little figures of men * Gen. 31.30.34 Such was the Israelites Golden-Calf their worship was not terminated on the Image but they worshipped the true God under that representation They could not be so brutish as to call a Calf their Deliverer and give so him great a Title these be thy Gods oh Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt Exod. 32.4 or that which they knew belonged to the true God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. * Gen. 3.16 17. They knew the Calf to be formed of their Ear-rings but they had consecrated it to God as a representation of him Though they chose the form of the Egyptian Idol yet they knew that Apis Osiris and Isis the Gods the Egyptians adored in that figure had not wrought their Redemption from Bondage but would have used their force had they been possessed of any to have kept them under the Yoke rather than have freed them from it The Feast also which they celebrated before that Image is called by Aaron the Feast of the Lord Exod. 32.5 a Feast to Jehovah the incommunicable name of the Creator of the world 'T is therefore evident that both the Priest and the People pretended to serve the true God not any false Divinity of Egypt That God who had rescued them from Egypt with a mighty hand divided the Red-Sea before them destroyed their Enemies conducted them fed them by miracle spoken to them from Mount Sinai and amazed them by his Thundrings and Lightnings when he instructed them by his Law a God they could not so soon forget And with this representing God by that Image they are charged by the Psalmist Psal 106.19 20. they made a Calf in Horeb and changed their glory into the similitude of an Ox that eateth Grass They changed their glory that is God the glory of Israel so that they took this figure for the Image of the true God of Israel their own God not the God of any other Nation in the world Jeroboam intended no other by his Calves but Symbols of the presence of the true God instead of the Ark and the Propitiatory which remained among the Jews We see the inclination
of its existence would be vain for since God is a Being Chance which is nothing could not bring forth something and by the same reason that he sprung up by chance he might totally vanish by chance What a strange notion of a God would this be Such a God that had no life in himself but from chance Since he hath life in himself and that there was no cause of his existence he can have no cause of his limitation and can no more be determined to a time than he can to a place What hath life in it self hath life without bounds and can never desert it nor be deprived of it So that he lives necessarily and it is absolutely impossible that he should not live whereas all other things live and move and have their being in him * Acts 17.28 and as they live by his Will so they can return to nothing at his Word 3. If God were not eternal he were not immutable in his nature 'T is contrary to the nature of immutability to be without eternity for whatsoever begins is changed in its passing from not being to being It began to be what it was not and if it ends it ceaseth to be what it was It cannot therefore be said to be God If there were either beginning or ending or succession in it Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not Job 37.23 Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out God argues here saith Calvin from his unchangeable nature as Jehovah to his immutability in his purpose Had he not been eternal there had been the greatest change from nothing to something A change of Essence is greater than a change of purpose God is a Sun glittering always in the same glory No growing up in Youth no passing on to Age If he were not without succession standing in one point of Eternity there would be a change from past to present from present to future The Eternity of God is a Shield against all kind of mutability If any thing sprang up in the Essence of God that was not there before he could not be said to be either an eternal or an unchanged Substance 4. God could not be an infinitely perfect Being if he were not eternal A finite duration is inconsistent with infinite perfection Whatsoever is contracted within the limits of time cannot swallow up all perfections in it self God hath an unsearchable perfection * Job 11.7 Canst thou by searching find out God canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection He cannot be found out He is infinite because he is incomprehensible Incomprehensibility ariseth from an infinite perfection which cannot be fathom'd by the short line of Man's Understanding His Essence in regard of its diffusion and in regard of its duration is incomprehensible as well as his action If God therefore had beginning he could not be infinite if not infinite he did not possess the highest perfection because a perfection might be conceived beyond it If his Being could fail he were not perfect Can that deserve the name of the highest perfection which is capable of corruption and dissolution To be finite and limited is the greatest imperfection for it consists in a denial of being He could not be the most blessed Being if he were not always so and should not for ever remain to be so and whatsoever perfections he had would be sowred by the thoughts that in time they would cease and so could not be pure perfections because not permanent But He is blessed from everlasting to everlasting * Psal 41.13 Had he a beginning he could not have all perfection without limitation he would have been limited by that which gave him beginning that which gave him being would be God and not himself and so more perfect than he But since God is the most soveraign perfection than which nothing can be imagined perfecter by the most capacious understanding He is certainly eternal being infinite nothing can be added to him nothing detracted from him 5. God could not be Omnipotent Almighty if he were not Eternal The title of Almighty agrees not with a nature that had a beginning whatsoever hath a beginning was once nothing and when it was nothing could act nothing Where there is no being there is no power Neither doth the title of Almighty agree with a perishing nature He can do nothing to purpose that cannot preserve himself against the outward force and violence of Enemies or against the inward causes of corruption and dissoluon No account is to be made of Man because his breath is in his Nostrils * Isa 2.22 Could a better account be made of God if he were of the like condition He could not properly be almighty that were not always mighty If he be omnipotent nothing can impair him He that hath all power can have no hurt * Voet. Natural Theol. p. 310. If he doth whatsoever he pleaseth nothing can make him miserable since misery consists in those things which happen against our will The Almightiness and Eternity of God are linkt together * Rev. 1.8 I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and Ending saith the Lord which was and which is and which is to come the Almighty * Rev. 1.8 Almighty because Eternal and Eternal because Almighty 6. God would not be the first Cause of all if he were not Eternal But he is the first and the last the first cause of all things the last end of all things * Rev. 1.8 Ficin de Immort l. 2. cap. 5. That which is the first cannot begin to be it were not then the first it cannot cease to be Whatsoever is dissolved is dissolved into that whereof it doth consist which was before it and then it was not the first * Coccei Sum Theol. cap. 8 The world might not have been it was once nothing it must have some cause to call it out of nothing Nothing hath no power to make it self something there is a superior Cause by whoso Will and Power it comes into Being and so gives all the Creatures their distinct forms This Power cannot but be eternal it must be before the world the Founder must be before the Foundation * Crellins de Deo cap. 18. p. 43. and his Existence must be from Eternity or we must say nothing did exist from Eternity And if there were no being from Eternity there could not now be any being in time What we see and what we are must arise from it self or some other it cannot from it self If any thing made it self it had a power to make it self it then had an active power before it had a being It was something in regard of Power and was nothing in regard of Existence at the same time Suppose it had a Power to produce it self this power must be conferred upon it by another and so the power of producing it self was not from it self but from another But if the power of being was from
Nature Knowledge or Will in both an inability an inability in him to continue the same or an inability in him to resist the Power of another 6. The World could not be ordered and governed but by some Principle or Being which were immutable Principles are alway more fixed and stable than things which proceed from those Principles and this is true both in Morals and Naturals Principles in Conscience whereby men are governed remain firmly engraven in their Minds The Root lies firmly in the Earth while Branches are shaken with the Wind. The Heavens the cause of Generation are more firm and stable than those things which are wrought by their influence All things in the world are moved by some Power and Vertue which is stable and unless it were so no Order would be observed in motion no Motion could be regularly continued He could not be a full satisfaction to the infinite desire of the Souls of his People Nothing can truly satisfie the Soul of Man but Rest and nothing can give it rest but that which is perfect and immutably perfect for else it would be subject to those agitations and variations which the Being it depends upon is subject to The Principle of all things must be immutable * â—â—herby Athâ—â—masux p. 3.8 Gerâ—â—d loc com which is described by some by a Unity the Principle of Number wherein there is a resemblance of Gods Unchangeableness A Unite is not variable it continues in its own Nature immutably an Unite It never varies from it self it cannot be changed from it self but is as it were so omnipotent towards others that it changes all Numbers If you add any Number it is the beginning of that Number but the Unite is not encreased by it a new Number ariseth from that Addition but the Unite stil remains the same and adds value to other Figures but receives none from them 3. The third thing to speak to is That Immutability is proper to God and incommunicable to any Creature Mutability is natural to every Creature as a Creature and Immutability is the sole perfection of God He only is infinite Wisdom able to fore-know future Events He only is infinitely powerful able to call forth all means to effect So that wanting neither Wisdom to contrive nor Strength to execute he cannot alter his Counsel None being above him nothing in him contrary to him and being defective in no Blessedness and Perfection he cannot vary in his Essence and Nature Had not Immutability as well as Eternity been a Property folely pertaining to the Divine Nature as well as creative Power and eternal Duration the Apostles Argument to prove Christ to be God from this perpetual sameness had come short of any convincing strength These words of the Text he applies to Christ Heb 1.10 11 12. They shall be changed but thou art the same There had been no strength in the reason if Immutability by Nature did belong to any Creature The changeablness of all Creatures is evident 1. Of corporeal Creatures it is evident to sense All Plants and Animals as they have their duration bounded in certain limits so while they do exist they proceed from their rise to their fall they pass through many sensible alterations from one degree of growth to another from buds to blossoms from blossoms to flowers and fruits they come to their pitch that Nature hath set them and return back to the state from whence they sprung there is not a day but they make some acquisition or suffer some loss they dye and spring up every day nothing in them more certain than their inconstancy The Creature is subject to vanity * Rom 8. â—â— The heavenly Bodies are changing their place the Sun every day is running his Race and stays not in the same Point and though they are not changed in their Essence yet they are in their Place Some indeed say there is a continual generation of Light in the Sun as there is a loss of Light by the casting out its Beams as in a Fountain there is a flowing out of the Streams and a continual generation of supply And though these heavenly Bodies have kept their standing and motion from the time of their Creation yet both the Suns standing still in Joshuah's time and its going back in Hezekiah's time shew that they are changeable at the pleasure of God But in Man the change is perpetually visible every day there is a change from Ignorance to Knowledge from one Will to another from Passion to Passion sometimes sad and sometimes cheerful sometimes craving this and presently nauseating it his Body changes from health to sickness or from weakness to strength some alteration there is either in Body or Mind Man who is the noblest Creature the subordinate end of the Creation of other things cannot assure himself of a consistency and fixedness in any thing the short space of a day no not of a minute all his Months are Months of vanity * Job 7.3 whence the Psalmist calls Man at the best estate altogether vanity a meer heap of vanity * Psal 35. As he contains in his Nature the Nature of all Creatures so he inherits in his Nature the Vanity of all Creatures A little World the Center of the World and of the Vanity of the World yea lighter than Vanity * Psal 62.9 more moveable than a Feather tost between Passion and Passion daily changing his end and changing the means An Image of nothing 2. Spiritual Natures as Angels They change not in their Being but that is from the indulgence of God They change not in their Goodness but that is not from their Nature but Divine Grace in their Confirmation but they change in their Knowledge they know more by Christ than they did by Creation * 1 Tim. 3.16 They have an addition of Knowledge every day by the providential dispensations of God to his Church * Eph. 3 1â— and the increase of their Astonishment and Love is according to the increase of their Knowledge and Insight They cannot have a new discovery without new admirations of what is discovered to them There is a change in their joy when there is a change in a Sinner * Luke 15 1â— They were changed in their Essence when they were made such glorious Spirits of nothing Some of them were changed in their Will when of holy they became impure The good Angels were changed in their Understandings when the Glories of God in Christ were presented to their view and all can be changed in their Essence again and as they were made of nothing so by the Power of God may be reduced to nothing again So glorified Souls shall have an unchanged operation about God for they shall behold his Face without any grief or fear of loss without vagrant thoughts but they can never be unchangeable in their Nature because they can never pass from finite to infinite No Creature can be unchangeable in its
are nearer to us than our flesh to our bones than the air to our breath he cannot be far from them that live and have every motion in him The Apostle doth not say By him but in him to shew the inwardness of his Presence As Eternity is the perfection whereby he hath neither beginning nor end Immutability is the perfection whereby he hath neither increase nor diminution so Immensity or Omnipresence is that whereby he hath neither bounds nor limitation As he is in all time yet so as to be above time so is he in all places yet so as to be above limitation by any place It was a good Expression of a Heathen to illustrate this That God is a Sphere or Circle whose Center is every where and Circumference no where His meaning was that the Essence of God was indivisible i. e. could not be divided It cannot be said here and there the lines of it terminate 't is like a line drawn out in infinite spaces that no point can be conceived where its length and breadth ends The Sea is a vast mass of waters yet to that it is said Hitherto shalt thou go and no further But it cannot be said of Gods Essence hitherto it reaches and no further here it is and there it is not 'T is plain that God is thus immense because he is infinite we have Reason and Scripture to assent to it though we cannot conceive it We know that God is eternal though Eternity is too great to be measured by the short line of a created understanding We cannot conceive the Vastness and Glory of the Heavens much less that which is so great as to fill Heaven and Earth yea * 1 King 8.27 not to be contained in the Heaven of Heavens Things are said to be present or in a place 1. Circumscriptivè as circumscribed This belongs to things that have quantity as bodies that are encompass'd by that place wherein they are and a body fills but one particular space wherein it is and the space is commensurate to every part of it and every member hath a distinct place The hand is not in the same particular space that the foot or head is 2. Definitivè which belongs to Angels and Spirits which are said to be in a point yet so as that they cannot be said to be in another at the same time 3. Repletivè filling all places this belongs only to God As he is not measured by time to he is not limited by place A Body or Spirit because finite fills but one space God because infinite fills all yet so as not to be contained in them as Wine and Water is in a Vessel He is from the height of the Heavens to the bottom of the Deeps in every point of the World and in the whole Circle of it yet not limited by it but beyond it Now this hath been acknowledged by the wisest in the world Some indeed had other Notions of God The more ignorant sort of the Jews confin'd him to the Temple * Hierom. on Isa 66.1 And God intimates that they had such a thought when he asserts his presence in Heaven and Earth in opposition to the Temple they built as his House and the place of his Rest * Hammond on Matth. 6.7 And the Idolaters among them thought their Gods might be at a distance from them which Elias intimates in the scoff he puts upon them * 1 King 18.17 Cry aloud for he is a God meaning Baal either he is talking or he is pursuing or he is in a journey and they follow his advice and cried louder v. 28. whereby it is evident they looked not on it as a mock but as a truth And the Syrians call'd the God of Israel the God of the hills as though his presence were fixed there and not in the valleys * 1 King 20.23 and their own Gods in the Valleys and not in the Mountains they phansied every God to have a particular Dominion and presence in one place and not in another and bounded the Territories of their Gods as they did those of their Princes * Med. Diatrib vol. 1. p 71 72. And some thought him tied to and shut up in their Temples and Groves wherein they worshipped him * Dought Analec excurs 61. 113. Some of them thought God to be confined to Heaven and therefore sacrificed upon the highest Mountains that the steam might ascend nearer Heaven and their Praises be heard better in those places which were nearest to the Habitation of God But the wiser Jews acknowledged it and therefore call'd God place * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grot. upon Mat. 5.16 Mares contra Volk lib. 1. cap. 27. p. 494 whereby they denoted his immensity he was not contain'd in any place every part of the World subsists by him He was a place to himself greater than any thing made by him And the wiser Heathens acknowledged it also †Vide Minut. Fel. p. 20. One calls God a mind passing through the universal nature of things Another That he was an infinite and immense Air * Plotia Enead 6. lib 5. cap 4. Another That it is as natural to think God is every where as to think that God is Hence they call'd God the Soul of the World that as the Soul is in every part of the Body to quicken it so is God in every part of the World to support it And there are some resemblances of this in the World though no Creature can fully resemble God in any one perfection for then it would not be a Creature but God But Air and Light are some weak resemblances of it Air is in all the spaces of the World in the Pores of all Bodies in the Bowels of the Earth and extends it self from the lowest Earth to the highest Regions and the Heavens themselves are probably nothing else but a refin'd kind of Air and Light diffuseth it self through the whole Air and every part of it is truly Light as every part of the Air is truly Air and though they seem to be mingled together yet they are distinct things and not of the same Essence so is the Essence of God in the whole World not by diffusion as Air or Light not mixed with any Creature but remaining distinct from the Essence of any Created Being Now when this hath been own'd by men instructed only in the School of Nature 't is a greater shame to any acquainted with the Scripture to deny it For the understanding of this there shall be some Propositions premis'd in general 1. This is Negatively to be understood Our Knowledge of God is most by withdrawing from him or denying to him in our conceptions any weaknesses or imperfections in the Creature As the infiniteness of God is a denial of limitation of Being so Immensity or Omnipresence is a denial of limitation of place And when we say God is totus in every place we must understand it
All People are under Gods Care but he has a particular regard to his Church This is the Signet on his hand as a Bracelet upon his arm this is his Garden which he delights to dress if he prunes it it is to purge it if he Digs about his Vine and wounds the Branches 't is to make it more Beautiful with new Clusters and restore it to a fruitful Vigour 2. All great deliverances are to be ascrib'd to God as the principal Author whosoever are the Instruments The Lord doth build up Jerusalem he gathers together the outâ—â—â—s of Israel This great deliverance from Babylon is not to be ascrib'd to Cyrus or Darius or the rest of our favourers 't is the Lord that doth it we had his Promise for it we have now his Performance Let us not ascribe that which is the effect of his Truth only to the good Will of men 't is Gods act not by Might nor by Power nor by Weapons of War or strength of Horses but by the Spirit of the Lord. He sent Prophets to comfort us while we were exiles and now he hath stretched out his own Arm to work our deliverance according to his Word blind man looks so much upon Instruments that he hardly takes notice of God either in Afflictions or Mercies and this is the cause that robs God of so much Prayer and Praise in the World Verse 3. He heals the broken in heart and binds up their Wounds He hath now restored those who had no hope but in his Word he hath dealt with them as a tender and skilful Chirurgeon he hath applyed his curing Plaisters and dropped in his Soveraign Balsams he hath now furnisht our fainting hearts with refreshing Cordials and comforted our Wounds with strengthning Ligatures How gracious is God that restores Liberty to the Captives and Righteousness to the Penitent mans misery is the fittest opportunity for God to make his Mercy illustrious in it self and most welcome to the Patient He proceeds verse 4. Wonder not that God calls together the out-casts and singles them out from every corner for a return why can he not do this as well as tell the number of the Stars and call them all by their Names Ver. 4. There are none of his People so despicable in the eye of man but they are known and regarded by God tho' they are clouded in the World yet they are the Stars of the World and shall God number the inanimate Stars in the Heavens and make no account of his living Stars on the Earth no wherever they are dispersed he will not forget them however they are afflicted he will not despise them the Stars are so numerous that they are innumerable by man some are visible and known by men others lie more hid and undiscovered in a confused Light as those in the Milky-way man cannot see one of them distinctly God knows all his People As he can do what is above the power of man to perform so he understands what is above the skill of man to discover shall man measure God by his scantiness Proud man must not equal himself to God nor cut God as short as his own Line He tells the number of the Stars and calls them all by their Names He hath them all in his List as Generals the Names of their Soldiers in their Muster-Roll for they are his Host which he Marshals in the Heavens as Isa 40.26 where you have the like Expression he knows them more distinctly than man can know any thing and so distinctly as to call them all by their Names He knows their Names that is their natural offices influences the different degrees of heat and light their order and motion and all of them the least glimmering Star as well as the most glaring Planet this man cannot do Tell the Stars if thou be able to number them Gen. 15.5 saith God to Abraham whom Josephus represents as a great Astronomer yea they cannot be numbred Jer. 33.22 and the uncertainty of the Opinions of men evidenceth their ignorance of their number some reckoning 1022 others 1025 others 1098 others 7000 besides those that by reason of their mixture of Light with one another cannot be distinctly discern'd and others perhaps so high as not to be reach'd by the eye of man To impose Names on things and Names according to their Natures is both an Argument of Power and Dominion and of Wisdom and Understanding from the imposition of Names upon the Creatures by Adam the Knowledg of Adam is generally concluded and it was also a fruit of that Dominion God allowed him over the Creatures Now he that Numbers and Names the Stars that seem to lie confus'd among one another as well as those that appear to us in an unclouded Night may well be suppos'd accurately to know his People tho' lurking in secret Caverns and know those that are fit to be Instruments of their deliverance the one is as easy to him as the other and the Number of the one as distinctly known by him as the Multitude of the other For great is our Lord and of great Power his Vnderstanding is Infinite Ver. 5. He wants not Knowledg to know the objects nor Power to effect his Will concerning them Of great Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Much Power plenteous in Power so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Psal 5.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a multitude of Power as well as a multitude of Mercy a Power that exceeds all Created Power and Understanding His Vnderstanding is Infinite You may not imagine how he can call all the Stars by Name the multitude of the visible being so great and the multitude of the invisible being greater but you must know that as God is Almighty so he is Omniscient and as there is no end of his Power so no account can exactly be given of his Understanding His Vnderstanding is Infinite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No number or account of it and so the same Words are rendred Joel 1.6 a Nation strong and without number No end of his Understanding Syriack no measure no bounds †His Essence is Infinite and so is his Power and Understanding and so vast is his Knowledg that we can no more comprehend it than we can measure spaces that are without limits or tell the minutes or hours of Eternity Who then can fathom that whereof there is no number but which exceeds all so that there is no searching of it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he knows Universals he knows Particulars We must not take understanding here as noting a faculty but the use of the understanding in the knowledg of things and the Judgment in the consideration of them and so it is often used In the Verse there is a description of God 1. In his Essence great is our Lord. 2. In his Power of great Power 3. In his Knowledg his Vnderstanding is Infinite his Understanding is his Eye
and his Power is his Arm. Of his Infinite Vnderstanding I am to Discourse Doctrine God hath an Infinite Knowledg and Vnderstanding All Knowledg Omnipresence which before we spake of respects his Essence Omniscience respects his Understanding according to our manner of Conception This is clear in Scripture hence God is called a God of Knowledg 1 Sam. 2.3 The Lord is a God of Knowledg Heb. Knowledges in the Plural Number of all kind of Knowledg 't is spoken there to quell mans Pride in his own reason and parts what is the Knowledg of man but a spark to the whole Element of Fire a grain of Dust and worse than nothing in comparison of the Knowledg of God as his Essence is in comparison of the Essence of God All kind of Knowledg He knows what Angels know what Man knows and infinitely more he knows himself his own operations all his Creatures the notions and thoughts of them he is understanding above understanding mind above mind the mind of minds the light of lights this the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the Etimology of it of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see to contemplate and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scio The Names of God signify a nature viewing and piercing all things and the attribution of our senses to God in Scripture as Hearing and Seeing which are the Senses whereby Knowledg enters into us signifies Gods Knowledg 1. The Notion of Gods Knowledg of all things lies above the ruines of Nature it was not obliterated by the Fall of Man It was necessary offending man was to know that he had a Creator whom he had injured that he had a Judg to Try and Punish him since God thought fit to keep up the World it had been kept up to no purpose had not this notion been continued alive in the minds of men there would not have been any practice of his Laws no bar to the worst of Crimes If men had thought they had to deal with an Ignorant Deity there could be no practice of Religion Who would lift up his eyes or spread his hands towards Heaven if he imagin'd his Devotion were directed to a God as blind as the Heathens imagin'd Fortune To what boot would it be for them to make Heaven and Earth resound with their Cries if they had not thought God had an Eye to see them and an Ear to hear them And indeed the very notion of a God at the first blush speaks him a Being endued with Understanding no man can imagine a Creator void of one of the noblest Perfections belonging to those Creatures that are the Flower and Cream of his Works 2. Therefore all Nations acknowledg this as well as the Existence and Being of God * No Nation but had their Temples particular Ceremonies of Worship and presented their Sacrifices which they could not have been so vain as to do without an acknowledgment of this Attribute This notion of Gods Knowledg owed not its rise to Tradition but to natural implantation it was born and grew up with every rational Creature Though the several Nations and men of the World agreed not in one kind of Deity or in their Sentiments of his Nature or other Perfections some judging him Clothed with a fine and pure Body others judging him an uncompounded Spirit some fixing him to a seat in the Heavens others owning his Universal Presence in all parts of the World yet they all agreed in the Universality of his Knowledge and their own Consciences reflecting their Crimes unknown to any but themselves would keep this notion in some vigor whether they would or no. Now this being implanted in the minds of all men by nature cannot be false for nature imprints not in the minds of all men an assent to a falsity Nature would not pervert the reason and minds of men Universal notions of God are from Original not lapsed Nature Agamemnon Homer Il. 3. v 8. making a Covenant with Priam invocates the Su◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and preserved in mankind in order to a restoration from a lapsed state The Heathens did acknowledg this in all the solemn Covenants solemniz'd with Oaths and the invocation of the Name of God this Attribute was suppos'd They confest Knowledg to be peculiar to the Deity Scientia Deorum vita saith Cicero Some called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mens mind pure understanding without any note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inspector of all As they called him Life because he was the Author of Life so they called him intellectus because he was the Author of all Knowledg and Understanding in his Creatures And one being askt Whether any man could be hid from God no saith he not so much as thinking Some call him the Eye of the World * Gamach in 1 Pa. Aqui. Q. 14. cap. 1. p. 119. Clem. Alexand. strom lib. 6. and the Egyptians represented God by an Eye on the top of a Scepter because God is all Eye and can be ignorant of nothing And the same Nation made Eyes and Ears of the most excellent Metals Consecrating them to God and hanging them up in the midst of their Temples in signification of Gods seeing and hearing all things hence they called God Light as well as the Scripture because all things are visible to him For the better understanding of this we will enquire 1. What kind of Knowledg or Vnderstanding there is in God 2. What God knows 3. How God knows things 4. The proof that God knows all things 5. The Vse of all to our selves I. What kind of Vnderstanding or Knowledg there is in God The Knowledg of God in Scripture hath various Names according to the various relations or objects of it In respect of present things 't is called Knowledg or Sight in respect of things past Remembrance in respect of things future or to come 't is called Fore-Knowledg or Prescience 1 Pet. 1.2 in regard of the Vniversality of the Objects it is called Omniscience in regard of the simple Vnderstanding of things 't is called Knowledg in regard of acting and modelling the ways of acting 't is called Wisdom and Prudence Eph. 1.8 He must have Knowledg otherwise he could not be Wise Wisdom is the Flower of Knowledg and Knowledg is the Root of Wisdom As to what this Knowledg is if we know what Knowledg is in man we may apprehend what it is in God removing all Imperfection from it and ascribing to him the most eminent way of understanding because we cannot comprehend God but as he is pleased to condescend to us in his own ways of Discovery that is under some way of similitude to his perfectest Creatures therefore we have a notion of God by his Understanding and Will Understanding whereby he conceives and apprehends things Will whereby he extends himself in acting according to his Wisdom and whereby he doth approve or disapprove Yet we must not measure his Understanding
him he therefore knows innumerable Worlds innumerable Angels with higher Perfections than any of them which he hath Created have So that if the World should last many Millions of Years God knows that he can every day Create another World more capacious than this and having Created an unconceivable number he knows he could still Create more So that he beholds infinite Worlds infinite numbers of Men and other Creatures in himself infinite kinds of things infinite species and individuals under those kinds even as many as he can Create if his Will did order and determine it Ficin de immort lib. 2. cap. 10. for not being ignorant of his own Power he cannot be ignorant of the effects wherein it may display and discover it self A comprehensive knowledg of his own Power doth necessarily include the objects of that power so he knows whatsoever he could effect and whatsoever he could permit if he pleased to do it If God could not understand more than he hath created he could not create more than he hath created for it cannot be conceived how he can create any thing that he is ignorant of what he doth not know he cannot do he must know also the extent of his own goodness and how far any thing is capable to partake of it so much therefore as any detract from the Knowledg of God they detract from his Power 3. 'T is further evident that God knows all possible things because he knew those things which he has created before they were created when they were yet in a possibility If God knew things before they were created he knew them when they were in a possibility and not in actual reality 'T is absurd to imagine that his Understanding did lacquy after the creatures and draw knowledg from them after they were created 'T is absurd to think that God did create before he knew what he could or would create If he knew those things he did create when they were possible he must know all things which he can create and therefore all things that are possible To conclude this We must consider that this Knowledg is of another kind than his knowledg of things that are or shall be He sees possible things as possible not as things that ever are or shall be If he saw them as existing or future and they shall never be this knowledg would be false there would be a deceit in it which cannot be He knows those things not in themselves because they are not nor in their causes because they shall never be he knows them in his own Power not in his Will He understands them as able to produce them not as willing to effect them Things possible he knows only in his Power things future he knows both in his Power and his Will as he is both able and determin'd in his own good pleasure to give being to them Those that shall never come to pass he knows only in himself as a sufficient cause those things that shall come into being he knows in himself as the efficient cause and also in their immediate second causes This should teach us to spend our thoughts in the admirations of the excellency of God and the divine Knowledg his Understanding is infinite 2. God knows all things past This is an argument used by God himself to elevate his Excellency above all the commonly adored Idols Isa 41.22 Let them shew the former things what they be that we may consider them and know the latter end of them He knows them as if they were now present and not past for indeed in his Eternity there is nothing past or future to his knowledg This is called remembrance in Scripture as when God remembred Rachels prayer for a child Gen. 30.22 and he is said to put tears into his bottle and write them in his Book of Accompts which signifies the exact and unerring knowledg in God of the minute circumstances past in the World and this knowledg is called a book of remembrance Mal. 3.16 signifying the perpetual presence of things past before him There are two elegant expressions signifying the certainty and perpetuity of Gods knowledg of sins past Job 14.17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag and thou sowest up my iniquity A Metaphor taken from men that put up in a bag the money they would charily keep tye the bag sow up the holes and bind it hard that nothing may fall out or a vessel wherein they reserve liquors and daub it with pitch and glutinous stuff that nothing may leak out but be safely kept till the time of use Or else as some think from the bags Attorneys carry with them full of Writings when they are to manage a Cause against a person Thus we find God often in Scripture calling to mens minds their past actions upbraiding them with their ingratitude wherein he testifies his remembrance of his own past benefits and their Crimes His knowledg in this regard hath something of infinity in it since tho' the sins of all men that have been in the World are finite in regard of number yet when the sins of one man in thoughts words and deeds are numberless in his own account and perhaps in the count of any creature the sins of all the vast numbers of men that have been or shall be are much more numberless it cannot be less than infinite knowledg that can make a collection of them and take a survey of them all at once If past things had not been known by God how could Moses have been acquainted with the Original of things How could he have declared the former transactions wherein all Histories are silent but the Scripture How could he know the cause of mans present misery so many ages after wherewith all Philosophy was unacquainted How could he have writ the order of the Creation the particulars of the sin of Adam the circumstances of Cains murder the private speech of Lamech to his Wives if God had not revealed them And how could a Revelation be made if things past were forgotten by him Do we not remember many things done among men as well as by our selves and reserve the forms of divers things in our minds which rise as occasions are presented to draw them forth And shall not God much more who hath no cloud of darkness upon his understanding A man that makes a curious Picture hath the form of it in his mind before he made it and if the fire burn it the form of it in his mind is not destroyed by the fire but retained in it Gods memory is no less perfect than his understanding If he did not know things past he could not be a righteous Governour or exercise any judicial act in a righteous manner he could not dispense Rewards and Punishments according to his promises and threatnings if things that were past could be forgotten by him he could not require that which is past Eccles 3 15. if he did not remember that
which is past And tho' God be said to forget in Scripture and not to know his People and his People pray to him to remember them as if he had forgotten them Psal 119 49. This is improperly ascrib'd to God * Bradward As God is said to repent when he changes things according to his Counsel beyond the expectation of men so he is said to forget when he defers the making good his Promise to the Godly or his Threatnings to the Wicked this is not a defect of Memory belonging to his mind but an act of his Will When he is said to remember his Covenant 't is to Will Grace according to his Covenant when he is said to forget his Covenant 't is to intercept the influences of it whereby to punish the Sin of his People and when he is said not to know his People 't is not an absolute forgetfulness of them but withdrawing from them the Testimonies of his Kindness and clouding the Signs of his favour so God in Pardon is said to forget Sin not that he ceaseth to know it but ceaseth to punish it 'T is not to be meant of a simple forgetfulness or a lapse of his Memory but of a Judicial Forgetfulness so when his People in Scripture Pray Lord Remember thy Word unto thy Servant no more is to be understood but Lord fulfil thy Word and Promise to thy Servant 3. He knows things Present Heb. 4.13 All things are naked and opened unto the Eyes of him with whom we have to do This is grounded upon the Knowledg of himself 't is not so difficult to know all Creatures exactly as to know himself because they are finite but himself is infinite he knows his own Power and therefore every thing through which his Omnipotence is diffus'd all the acts and objects of it not the least thing that is the Birth of his Power can be conceal'd from him he knows his own Goodness and therefore every object upon which the warm beams of his Goodness strike he therefore knows distinctly the properties of every Creature because every Property in them is a Ray of his Goodness he is not only the efficient but the exemplary cause therefore as he knows all that his Power hath wrought as he is the efficient so he knows them in himself as the pattern As a Carpenter can give an account of every part and passage in a House he hath built by consulting the Model in his own mind whereby he built it He looked upon all things after he had made them and pronounc'd them good Gen. 1.3 full of a natural goodness he had endowed them with he did not ignorantly pronounce them so and call them good whether he knew them or not and therefore he knows them in particular as he knew them all in their first Presence Is there any reason he should be ignorant of every thing now present in the World or that any thing that derives an existence from him as a free cause should be concealed from him If he did not know things present in their particularities many things would be known by man yea by Beasts which the infinite God were ignorant of and if he did not know all things present but only some 't is possible for the most Blessed God to be deceived and be miserable Ignorance is a Calamity to the Understanding He could not prescribe Laws to his Creatures unless he knew their Natures to which those Laws were to be suited no not natural Ordinances to the Sun Moon and Heavenly Bodies and inanimate Creatures unless he knew the vigour and vertue in them to execute those Ordinances for to prescribe Laws above the nature of things is inconsistent with the Wisdom of Government he must know how far they were able to obey whether the Laws were suted to their ability And for his rational Creatures Whether the Punishments annext to the Law were proper and suited to the Transgression of the Creature 1. First He knows all Creatures from the highest to the lowest the least as well as the greatest He knows the Ravens and their young ones Job â—â— 41. the Drops of Rain and Dew which he hath begotten Job 38. â—â— every Bird in the Air as well as any man doth what he hath in a Cage at home Psal 50.11 I know all the Fowls in the Mountains and the wild Beasts in the Field which some read creeping things The Clouds are numbred in his Wisdom Job 38.37 every Worm in the Earth every drop of Rain that falls upon the ground the flakes of Snow and the knots of Hail the Sands upon the Sea-shore the Hairs upon the Head 't is no more absurd to imagine that God knows them than that God made them they are all the effects of his Power as well as the Stars which he calls by their Names as well as the most glorious Angel and blessed Spirit he knows them as well as if there were none but them in particular for him to know the least things were framed by his Art as well as the greatest the least things partake of his goodness as well as the greatest he knows his own Arts and his own Goodness and therefore all the Stamps and Impressions of them upon all his Creatures he knows the immediate causes of the least and therefore the effects of those causes Since his knowledg is infinite it must extend to those things which are at the greatest distance from him to those which approach nearest to not Being since he did not want Power to Create he cannot want Understanding to know every thing he hath Created the dispositions qualities and vertues of the minutest Creature Nor is the Vnderstanding of God embas'd and suffers a diminution by the Knowledg of the vilest and most inconsiderable things Is it not an imperfection to be ignorant of the nature of any thing and can God have such a defect in his most perfect Understanding Is the Understanding of man of an impurer Alloy by knowing the nature of the rankest Poysons by understanding a Fly or a small Insect or by considering the deformity of a Toad Is it not generally counted a note of a Dignified mind to be able to Discourse of the Nature of them Was Solomon who knew all from the Cedar to the Hysop debas'd by so Rich a Present of Wisdom from his Creator Is any Glass defil'd by presenting a Deformed Image Is there any thing more vile than the imaginations which are only evil and continually doth not the mind of man descend to the mud of the Earth play the Adulterer or Idolater with mean objects suck in the most unclean things yet God knows these in all their circumstances in every appearance inside and outside Is there any thing viler than some thoughts of men than some actions of men their unclean Beds and Gluttonous Vomiting and Luciferian Pride yet do not these fall under the Eye of God in all their Nakedness The Second Person 's taking
by their observation of the motion of Heavenly Bodies many years before they happen Cusanus can they be hid from God with whom are the reasons of all things Fuller's Pifgab l. 2. p. 2â—1 an expert Gardener by knowing the Root in the depth of Winter can tell what Flowers and what Fruit it will bear and the Month when they will peep out their heads and shall not God much more that knows the Principles of all his Creatures and is exactly privy to all their natures and qualities know what they will be and what operations shall be from those Principles Now if God did know things only in their causes his Knowledg would not be more excellent than the knowledg of Angels and men tho' he might know more than they of the things that will come to pass from every cause singly and from the concurrence of many Now as God is more excellent in Being than his Creature so he is more excellent in the objects of his Knowledg and the manner of his Knowledg well then shall a certain knowledg of something future and a conjectural knowledg of many things be found among men and shall a determinate and infallible knowledg of things to come be found no where in no Being If the conjecture of future things savours of ignorance and God knows them only by conjecture there is then no such thing in Being as a perfect intelligent Being and so no God 4. God knows his own Decree and Will and therefore must needs know all future things If any thing be future or to come to pass it must be from it self or from God not from it self then it would be independent and absolute if it hath its futurity from God then God must know what he hath decreed to come to pass those things that are future in necessary causes God must know because he willed them to be causes of such effects he therefore knows them because he knows what he willed The knowledg of God cannot arise from the things themselves for then the knowledg of God would have a cause without him and Knowledg which is an eminent Perfection would be conferred upon him by his Creatures But as God sees things possible in the glass of his own power so he sees things future in the Glass of his own Will in his effecting Will if he hath Decreed to produce them in his permitting Will as he hath Decreed to suffer them and dispose of them Nothing can pass out of the rank of things meerly possible into the order of things future before some Act of Gods Will hath passed for its futurition Chequell 'T is not from the infiniteness of his own Nature simply considered that God knows things to be future Coccei sum Theol. p. 50. for as things are not future because God is infinite for then all possible things should be future so neither is any thing known to be future only because God is infinite but because God hath Decreed it his declaration of things to come is founded upon his appointment of things to come Coccei sum Theol. p. 50. In Isa 44.7 it is said and who as I shall call and declare it since I appointed the ancient people and the things that are coming Gamaul in Aquin Part 1. q. 14. cap. 3. p. 124. Nothing is Created or ordered in the World but what God Decreed to be Created and ordered God knows his own Decree and therefore all things which he hath Decreed to exist in time not the minutest part of the World could have existed without his Will not an action can be done without his Will as Life the Principle so Motion the fruit of that Life is by and from God as he decreed Life to this or that thing so he decreed motion as the effect of Life and Decreed to exert his Power in concurring with them for producing effects natural from such causes for without such a concourse they could not have acted any thing or produced any thing and therefore as for natural things which we call necessary causes God foreseeing them all particularly in his own Decree foresaw also all effects which must necessarily flow from them because such causes cannot but act when they are furnisht with all things necessary for action He knows his own Decrees and therefore necessarily knows what he hath Decreed or else we must say things come to pass whether God will or no or that he Wills he knows not what but this cannot be for known unto God are all his Works from the beginning of the World Acts 15.18 Now this necessarily flows from that Principle first laid down That God knows himself since nothing is future without Gods Will if God did not know future things he would not know his own Will for as things possible could not be known by him unless he knew the fulness of his own Power so things future could not be known by his Understanding unless he knew the resolves of his own Will Maimonid More Nevoch Part 3. Cap. 21. P. 393. 394. Thus the Knowledg of God differs from the Knowledg of men Gods knowledg of his Works precedes his Works mans knowledg of Gods works follows his works just as an Artificers knowledg of a Watch Instrument or Engine which he would make is before his making of it he knows the motions of it and the reason of those motions before it is made because he knows what he hath determin'd to Work he knows not those motions from the consideration of them after they were made as the Spectator doth who by viewing the Instrument after it is made gains a knowledg from the sight and consideration of it till he understands the reason of the whole so we know things from the consideration of them after we see them in being and therefore we know not future things But Gods Knowledg doth not arise from things because they are but because he Wills them to be and therefore he knows every thing that shall be because it cannot be without his Will as the Creator and maintainer of all things knowing his own substance he knows all his Works 5. If God did not know all future things he would be mutable in his Knowledg If he did not know all things that ever were or are to be there would be upon the appearance of every new object an addition of Light to his Understanding and therefore such a Change in him as every new knowledg causes in the mind of a man or as the Sun works in the World upon its rising every morning scattering the darkness that was upon the face of the Earth if he did not know them before they came he would gain a knowledg by them when they came to pass which he had not before they were effected his Knowledg would be new according to the newness of the objects and multiplyed according to the multitude of the objects If God did not know things to come as perfectly as he knew things
the cause of all Sin in the World Hos 7.2 they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their Wickedness they speak not to their hearts nor make any reflection upon the infiniteness of my Knowledg 't is a high contempt of God as if he were an Idol a senseless Stock or Stone in all evil practices this is denyed We know God sees all things yet we live and vvalk as if he knevv nothing We call him Omniscient and live as if he vvere ignorant we say he is all eye yet act as if he were wholly blind In particular this Attribute is injured By invading the peculiar rights of it by presuming on it and by a practical denyal of it 1. By invading the peculiar rights of it 1. By invocation of Creatures Praying to Saints by the Romanists is a disparagement to this Divine Excellency he that knows all things is only fit to have the Petitions of men presented to him Prayer supposeth an Omniscient Being as the object of it no other Being but God ought to have that honour acknowledged to it no Understanding but his is infinite no other Presence but his is every where to implore any deceased Creature for a supply of our wants is to ovvn in them a Property of the Deity and make them Deities that vvere but men and increase their Glory by a diminution of Gods Honour in ascribing that Perfection to Creatures which belongs only to God Alas they are so far from understanding the desires of our Souls that they know not the words of our Lips 'T is against reason to address our Supplications to them that neither understand us nor discern us Isa 63.16 Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledges us not The Jews never called upon Abraham tho' the Covenant vvas made vvith him for the vvhole Seed not one departed Saint for the vvhole Four Thousand Years betvveen the Creation of the World and the coming of Christ vvas ever Prayed to by the Israelites or ever imagin'd to have a share in Gods Omniscience so that to pray to St. Peter St. Paul much less to St. Roch St. Swithin St. Martin St. Francis c. is such a Superstition that hath no footing in the Scripture Daillè Melang part 2. p. 560. 561. To desire the Prayers of the Living with whom we have a Communion who can understand and grant our desires is founded upon a mutual Charity but to implore persons that are absent at a great distance from us with whom we have not nor know how to have any Commerce supposeth them in their departure to have put off Humanity and commenc'd Gods and endued with some part of the Divinity to understand our Petitions we are indeed to cherish their Memories consider their Examples imitate their Graces and observe their Doctrines we are to follow them as Saints but not elevate them as Gods in ascribing to them such a knowledg which is only the necessary right of their and our common Creator As the invocation of Saints mingles them with Christ in the exercise of his Office so it sets them equal with God in the Throne of his Omniscience As if they had as much credit with God as Christ in a way of Mediation and as much knowledg of mens affairs as God himself Omniscience is peculiar to God and incommunicable to any Creature 't is the foundation of all Religion and therefore one of the choicest acts of it viz. Prayer and Invocation To direct our Vows and Petitions to any else is to invade the peculiarity of this Perfection in God and to rank some Creatures in a Partnership with him in it 2. This Attribute is injured by curiosity of Knowledg Especially of future things which God hath not discovered in natural causes or supernatural Revelation 'T is a common error of mens Spirits to aspire to know what God would have hidden and to pry into Divine Secrets and many men are more willing to remain without the knowledg of those things which may with a little industry be attained than be divested of the curiosity of enquiring into those things which are above their reach 't is hence that some have laid aside the Study of the common remedies of Nature to find out the Philosophers Stone which scarce any ever yet attempted but sunk in the Enterprise Amyraut Moral Tom. 3. p. 75. c. From this inclination to know the most abstruse and difficult things it is that the horrors of Magick and the vanities of Astrology have sprung whereby men have thought to find in a commerce with Devils and the Jurisdiction of the Stars the events of their Lives and the disposal of States and Kingdoms Hence also arose those Multitudes of ways of Divination invented among the Heathen and practised too commonly in these Ages of the World This is an invasion of Gods Prerogative to whom secret things belong Deut. 29.29 Secret things belong unto the Lord our God but revealed things belong to us and our Children 'T is an intolerable boldness to attempt to fathom those the knowledg whereof God hath reserved to himself and to search that which God will have to surpass our Understandings whereby we more truly envy God a knowledg superior to our own than we in Adam imagin'd that he envyed us Ambition is the greatest cause of this Ambition to be accounted some great thing among men by reason of a Knowledg estrang'd from the common mass of mankind but more especially that soaring Pride to be equal with God which lurks in our nature ever since the Fall of our first Parents This is not yet laid aside by man though it was the first thing that embroyl'd the World with the Wrath of God Some think a curiosity of Knowledg was the cause of the fall of Devils I am sure it was the foyl of Adam and is yet the Crime of his Posterity had he been contented to know what God had furnisht him with neither he nor his Posterity had smarted under the Venom of the Serpents Breath All curious and bold enquiries into things not revealed are an attempt upon the Throne of God and are both sinful and pernicious like to glaring upon the Sun where instead of a greater acuteness we meet with blindness and too dearly buy our ignorance in attempting a superfluous knowledg As Gods Knowledg is destin'd to the government of the World so should ours be to the advantage of the World and not degenerate into vain speculations 3. This Attribute is injur'd by swearing by Creatures To swear by the Name of God in a Righteous Cause Cajetan Sum. p. 190. when we are lawfully call'd to it by a Superior Power or for the necessary decision of some Controversy for the ends of Charity and Justice is an act of Religion and a part of Worship founded upon and directed to the honour of this Attribute by it we acknowledg the glory of his infallible Knowledg of all things but to Swear by false Gods
him he knows what Angels and Men do and infinitely more what is known by them obscurely is known by him clearly What is known by man after it is done was known by God before it was wrought By his wisdom as much as by any thing he infinitely differs from all his Creatures as by wisdom Man differs from a Brute We cannot frame a notion of God without conceiving him infinitely wise We should render him very inconsiderable to imagine him furnisht with an infinite knowledge and not have an infinite wisdom to make use of that knowledge or to fancy him with a mighty power destitute of prudence Knowledge without prudence is an eye without motion and power without discretion is an arm without a head a hand to act without understanding to contrive and model a strength to act without reason to know how to act It would be a miserable notion of a God to fancy him with a brutish and unguided power The Heathens therefore had and could not but have this natural notion of God Plato therefore calls him Mens †Eugub per. Philosoph lib. 1. cap. 5. and Cleanthes used to call God Reason and Socrates thought the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too magnificent to be attributed to any thing else but God alone Arguments to prove that God is wise Reas 1. God could not be infinitely perfect without wisdom A rational Nature is better than an irrational Nature A man is not a perfect man without reason how can God without it be an infinitely perfect God Wisdom is the most eminent of all Vertues all the other perfections of God without this would be as a body without an eye a soul without understanding A Christian's Graces want their lustre when they are destitute of the guidance of wisdom Mercy is a feebleness and Justice a cruelty Patience a timerousness and Courage a madness without the conduct of wisdom so the Patience of God would be cowardise his Power an oppression his Justice a tyranny without wisdom as the Spring and Holiness as the Rule No attribute of God could shine with a due lustre and brightness without it Power is a great perfection but wisdom a greater * Licet magnum sit posse majus tamen est sapere Wisdom may be without much power as in Bees and Ants but power is a tyrannical thing without wisdom and righteousness The Pilot is more valuable because of his skil than the Gally Slave because of his strength and the conduct of a General more estimable than the might of a private Souldier Generals are chosen more by their skill to guide than their strength to act What a Clod is a man without Prudence what a Nothing would God be without it This is the Salt that gives relish to all other perfections in a Creature This is the Jewel in the Ring of all the Excellencies of the Divine Nature and Holiness is the splendor of that Jewel Now God being the first Being possesses whatsoever is most noble in any Being If therefore Wisdom which is the most noble perfection in any Creature were wanting to God he would be deficient in that which is the highest Excellency God being the living God as he is frequently termed in Scripture he hath therefore the most perfect manner of living and that must be a pure and intellectual life Being essentially living he is essentially in the highest degree of living As he hath an infinite life above all Creatures so he hath an infinite intellectual life and therefore an infinite Wisdom whence some have called God not sapientem but super-sapientem †Suarez Vol. 1 lib. 1. cap. 3 p. 10. not only wise but above all wisdom Reas 2. Without infinite Wisdom he could not govern the World Without wisdom in forming the Matter which was made by Divine power the World could have been no other than a Chaos and without wisdom in Government it could have been no other than a heap of Confusion without wisdom the World could not have been created in the posture it is Creation supposeth a determination of the will putting power upon acting the determination of the will supposeth the counsel of the understanding determining the will No work but supposeth understanding as well as will in a rational Agent As without skill things could not be created so without it things cannot be governed Reason is a necessary perfection to him that presides over all things Without knowledge there could not be in God a foundation for Government and without wisdom there could not be an exercise of Government and without the most excellent wisdom he could not be the most excellent Governour He could not be an universal Governour without a universal wisdom nor the sole Governour without an unimitable wisdom nor an independent Governour without an original and independent wisdom nor a perpetual Governour without an incorruptible wisdom He would not be the Lord of the World in all points without skill to order the affairs of it Power and wisdom are foundations of all Authority and Government Wisdom to know how to rule and command Power to make those Commands obeyed No regular Order could issue out without the first nor could any order be enforced without the second A feeble wisdom and a brutish power seldom or never produce any good effect Magistracy without wisdom would be a frantick power a rash conduct like a strong arm when the eye is out it strikes it knows not what and leads it knows not whither Wisdom without power would be like a great body without feet * Amirant moral like the knowledge of a Pilot that hath lost his arm who though he knows the Rule of Navigation and what Course to follow in his Voyage yet cannot mannage the Helm But when those two wisdom and power are link't together there ariseth from both a fitness for Government There is wisdom to propose an end and both wisdom and power to employ means that conduct to that end And therefore when God demonstrates to Job his right of Government and the unreasonableness of Job's quarrelling with his proceedings he chiefly urgeth upon him the consideration of those two excellencies of his Nature power and wisdom which are exprest in his Works †Chap. 38 39 40 41. A Prince without wisdom is but a Title without a Capacity to perform the Office no man without it is fit for government Nor could God without wisdom exercise a just Dominion in the World He hath therefore the higest wisdom since he is the universal Governour That wisdom which is able to govern a Family may not be able to govern a City and that wisdom which governs a City may not be able to govern a Nation or Kingdom much less a World The bounds of God's government being greater than any his wisdom for government must needs surmount the wisdom of all ‖ Amyrald desert Theâ—l p. 111. And though the Creatures be not in number actually infinite yet they
various stops to a delightful Harmony So is the Wisdom of God seen in framing the World then in tuning it and afterwards in the motion of the several Creatures The Fabrick of the World is called the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.21 After that in the Wisdom of God the World by Wisdom knew not God i. e. by the Creation the World knew not God the framing Cause is there put for the Effect and the Work framed Because the Divine Wisdom stept forth in the Creatures to a publick appearance as if it had presented it self in a visible shape to Man giving Instructions in and by the Creatures to know and adore him What we translate 1 Gen. 1. In the beginning God Created the Heaven and the earth the Targum expresseth In wisdom God created the Heaven and the Earth Both bear a stamp of this perfection on them * Omne opus naturae est opus intelligentiae And when the Apostle tels the Romans Rom. 1.20 the invisible things of God were clearly understood by the things that are made the word he uses is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this signifies a work of labour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a work of skill or a Poem The whole Creation is a Poem every Species a Stanza and every individual Creature a Verse in it The Creation presents us with a prospect of the Wisdom of God as a Poem doth the Reader with the wit and fancy of the Composer By wisdom he created the Earth Pro. 3.19 and stretched out the Heavens by discretion Jer. 10.12 There is not any thing so mean so small but Glitters with a beam of Divine skill and the consideration of them would justly make every man subscribe to that of the Psalmist O Lord how manifold are thy works in Wisdom hast thou made them all Psal 104.24 All the least as well as the greatest and the meanest as well as the noblest even those creatures which seem ugly and deformed to us as Toads c. because they fall short of those perfections which are the dowry of other Animals In these there is a footstep of Divine Wisdom since they were not produced by him at random but determin'd to some particular end and design'd to some usefulness as parts of the World in their several natures and stations God could never have had a satisfaction in the review of his works and pronounced them good or comly as he did Gen. 1.31 had they not been agreeable to that eternal original Copy in his own mind 'T is said he was refresh't viz. with that review Exod. 31.17 which could not have been if his piercing eye had found any defect in any thing which had sprung out of his hand or an unsutableness to that end for which he Created them He seems to do as a man that hath made a curious and polite work with exact care to peer about every part and line if he could perceive any imperfection in it to rectify the mistake But no defect was found by the infinitely wise God upon this second examination This Wisdom of the Creation appears 1. In the variety 2. In the beauty 3. The fitness of every Creature for its use 4 The subordination of one Creature to another and the joint concurrence of all to one common end 1. In the Variety Psal 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works How great a variety is there 〈◊〉 Animals and Plants with a great variety of forms Shapes Figurations Colours various smels vertues and qualities and this rarity is produced from one and the same Matter as Beasts and Plants from the Earth Gen. 1.11.24 Let the Earth bring forth living Creatures and the Earth brought forth grass and the herb yielding seed after his kind Such diversity of Fowl and Fish from the water Gen. 1.20 Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath life and Fowl that may fly Such a beautiful and active variety from so dul a matter as the Earth so solid a variety from so fluid a matter as the Water so noble a piece as the body of man with such variety of members fit to entertain a more excellent Soul as a guest from so mean a matter as the dust of the ground Gen. 2.7 This extraction of such variety of forms out of one single and dul matter is the Chimistry of Divine wisdom 'T is a greater skill to frame noble Bodies of vile Matter as varieties of precious Vessels of Clay and Earth than of a nobler Matter as Gold and Silver Again all those varieties propagate their kind in every particular and quality of their nature uniformly bring forth exact copies according to the first pattern God made of the kind Gen. 1.11.12.24 Consider also how the same piece of ground is garnisht with Plants and Flowers of several vertues Fruits Colours Scents without our being able to perceive any variety in the Earth that breeds them and not so great a difference in the Roots that bear them Add to this the diversities of Birds of different Colours Shapes Notes consisting of various Parts Wings like Oars to cut the Air Tails as the Rudder of a Ship to guide their motion How various also are the Endowments of the Creatures some have Vegetation and the power of growth others have the addition of Sense and others the excellency of Reason something wherein all agree and something wherein all differ variety in unity and unity in variety The wisdom of the Workman had not been so conspicuous had there been only one degree of goodness The greatest skill is seen in the greatest variety The comliness of the Body is visible in the variety of Members and their usefulness to one another What an inform thing had Man been had he been all Ear or all Eye If God had made all the Stars to be Suns it would have been a demonstration of his Power but perhaps less of his Wisdom No Creatures with the Natures they now have could have continued in being under so much heat There was no less Wisdom went to the frame of the least than to the greatest Creature It speaks more art in a Limner to paint a Landskip exactly than to draw the Sun though the Sun be a more glorious Body I might instance also in the different Characters and Features imprinted upon the Countenances of Men and Women the differences of Voices and Statures whereby they are distinguisht from one another These are the Foundations of Order and of Human Society and Administration of Justice what Confusion would have been if a grown-up Son could not be known from his Father the Magistrate from the Subject the Creditor from the Debtor the Innocent from the Criminal The Laws God hath given to Mankind could not have been put in execution This variety speaks the wisdom of God 2. The wisdom of the Creation appears in the beauty and order and scituation of the several Creatures Eccles 3.11 He hath
of his goodness and wisdom †Lessius Winds are fitted to purifie the Air to preserve it from Putrefaction to carry the Clouds to several parts to refresh the parched Earth and assist her Fruits And also to serve for the Commerce of one Nation with another by Navigation God in his wisdom and goodness walks upon the wings of the Wind Psal 104.3 ‖ Daille melan part 2. p. 472 473. Rivers are appointed to bathe the Ground and render it fresh and lively they fortifie Cities are the limits of Countreys serve for Commerce they are the Watring-pots of the Earth and the Vessels for Drink for the living Creatures that dwell upon the Earth God cut those Chanels for the wild Asses the Beasts of the Desart which are his Creatures as well as the rest Psal 104.10 12 13. Trees are appointed for the Habitations of Birds Shadows for the Earth Nourishment for the Creatures Materials for Building and Fuel for the relief of man against Cold. The Seasons of the Year have their use the Winter makes the Juice retire into the Earth fortifies Plants and fixes their Roots It moystens the Earth that was dried before by the heat of Summer and cleanseth and prepares it for a new fruitfulness The Spring calls out the Sap in new Leaves and Fruit The Summer consumes the superfluous moisture and produceth Nourishment for the Inhabitants of the World * Daille melang part 1. p. 477 c. The Day and Night have also their usefulness The Day gives Life to Labour and is a guide to Motion and Action Psal 104.23 The Sun ariseth man goeth forth to his labour until the Evening It warms the Air and quickens Nature without Day the World would be a Chaos an unseen Beauty The Night indeed casts a Vail upon the bravery of the Earth but it draws the Curtains from that of Heaven though it darkens below it makes us see the Beauty of the World above and discovers to us a glorious part of the Creation of God the Tapistry of Heaven and the Motion of the Stars hid from us by the eminent light of the Day It procures a Truce from Labour and refresheth the Bodies of Creatures by recruiting the Spirits which are scattered by watching It prevents the ruin of Life by a reparation of what was wasted in the Day It takes from us the sight of Flowers and Plants but it washeth their Face with Dews for a new Appearance next Morning The length of the Day and Night is not without a Mark of Wisdom were they of a greater length as the length of a Week or Month the one would too much dry and the other too much moisten and for want of Action the Members would be stupified The perpetual Succession of Day and Night is an Evidence of the Divine Wisdom in tempering the travel and rest of Creatures Hence the Psalmist tells us Psal 74.16 17. The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast prepared the light of the Sun and made Summer and Winter i. e. they are of God's framing not without a wise counsel and end Hence let us ascend to the Bodies of living Creatures and we shall find every Member fitted for use What a Curiosity is there in every Member Every one fitted to a particular use in their situation form temper and mutual agreement for the good of the whole The Eye to direct the Ear to receive Directions from others the Hands to act the Feet to move Every Creature hath Members fitted for that Element wherein it resides And in the Body some parts are appointed to change the Food into Blood others to refine it and others to distribute and convey it to several parts for the maintenance of the whole The Heart to mint vital Spirits for preserving Life and the Brain to coin Animal Spirits for Life and Motion the Lungs to serve for the cooling the Heart which else would be parcht as the ground in Summer The Motion of the Members of the Body by one act of the Will and also without the Will by a natural Instinct is an admirable Evidence of Divine Skill in the Structure of the Body so that well might the Psalmist cry out Psal 139.14 I am fearfully and wonderfully made But how much more of this Divine Perfection is seen in the Soul A Nature furnisht with a Faculty of Understanding to judge of things to gather in things that are distant and to reason and draw Conclusions from one thing to another with a Memory to treasure up things that are past with a Will to apply it self so readily to what the Mind judges fit and comely and fly so speedily from what it judges ill and hurtful The whole World is a Stage every Creature in it hath a part to act and a Nature suted to that part and end 't is design'd for and all concur in a joint Language to publish the Glory of Divine Wisdom they have a Voice to proclaim the Glory of God Psal 19.1 3. And it is not the least part of God's Skill in framing the Creatures so that upon Man's Obedience they are the Chanels of his Goodness and upon Man's Disobedience they can in their Natures be the Ministers of his Justice for the punishing of offending Creatures 4. Fourthly This Wisdom is apparent in the linking all these useful parts together so that one is subordinate to the other for a common end All parts are exactly suted to one another and every part to the whole though they are of different Natures as Lines distant in themselves yet they meet in one common Center the good and the preservation of the Universe they are all joynted together as the word translated framed * Heb. 11.3 signifies knit by fit Bands and Ligaments to contribute mutual Beauty Strength and Assistance to one another like so many Links of a Chain coupled together that though there be a distance in place there is a unity in regard of connexion and end there is a consent in the whole Hosea 2.21 22. The Heavens hear the Earth and the Earth hears the Corn and the Wine and the Oyl The Heavens communicate their qualities to the Earth and the Earth conveys them to the Fruits she bears †Dalle 15. Serm. p. 17◠The Air distributes Light Wind and Rain to the Earth the Earth and the Sea render to the Air Exhalations and Vapours and all together charitably give to the Plants and Animals that which is necessary for their nourishment and refreshment The Influences of the Heavens animate the Earth and the Earth affords matter in part for the Influences it receives from the Regions above Living Creatures are maintain'd by Nourishment Nourishment is conveyed to them by the Fruits of the Earth the Fruits of the Earth are produced by means of Rain and Heat Matter for Rain and Dew is raised by the heat of the Sun and the Sun by its motion distributes heat and quickning vertue to all parts of
Stock for the Redeemer yet God gave a Son from that Unlawful Bed whereof Christ came according to the flesh Gen. 38.29 compared with Mat. 1.3 Jonahs Sin was probably the first and remote occasion of the Ninivites giving credit to his Prophesy His Sin was the cause of his Punishment and his being slung into the Sea might facilitate the reception of his Message and excite the Ninivites Repentance whereby a Cloud of severe Judgment was blown away from them 'T is thought by some That when Jonah passed through the Streets of Niniveh with his Proclamation of Destruction he might be known by some of the Mariners of that Ship from whence he was cast Over-board into the Sea and might after their Voyage be occasionally in that City the Metropolis of the Nation and the place of some of their Births and might acquaint the People that this was the same Person they had cast into the Sea by his own consent for his acknowledg'd running from the Presence of the Lord for that he had told them Jonah 1.10 and the Marriners Prayer Verse 14. evidenceth it whereupon they might conclude his Message worthy of Belief since they knew from such Evidences that he had sunk into the Bowels of the Waters and now saw him safe in their Streets by a Deliverance unknown to them and that therefore that Power that delivered him could easily verifie his Word in the threatned Judgment Had Jonah gone at first without committing that Sin and receiving that Punishment his Message had not been judged a Divine Prediction but a fruit of some Enthusiastick madness His Sin upon this account was the first occasion of averting a Judgment from so great a City 3. The good of the Sinner himself is sometimes promoted by Divine Wisdom ordering the Sin As God had not permitted Sin to enter upon the World unless to bring Glory to himself by it so he would not let Sin remain in the little World of a Believers Heart if he did not intend to order it for his good What is done by Man to his damage and disparagement is directed by Divine Wisdom to his advantage not that it is the intent of the Sin or the Sinner but it is the event of the Sin by the Ordination of Divine Wisdom and Grace As without the Wisdom of God permitting Sin to enter into the World some Attributes of God had not been Experimentally known so some Graces could not have been exercis'd For where had there been an Object for that Noble Zeal in vindicating the Glory of God had it not been invaded by an Enemy The intenseness of Love to him could not have been so strong had we not an Enemy to hate for his sake Where had there been any place for that Noble part of Charity in holy Admonitions and Compassion to the Souls of our Neighbours and Endeavours to reduce them out of a destructive to a happy Path Humility would not have had so many grounds for its growth and exercise and holy Sorrow had had no fewel And as without the appearance of Sin there had been no exercise of the Patience of God so without Afflictions the Fruits of Sin there had been no ground for the exercise of the Patience of a Christian one of the Noblest parts of Valour Now Sin being Evil and such as cannot but be Evil hath no respect in it self to any good and cannot work a gracious End or any thing profitable to the Creature nay it is a hindrance to any good and therefore what good comes from it is Accidental occasioned indeed by Sin but efficiently caused by the over-ruling Wisdom of God taking occasion thereby to display it self and the Divine Goodness The Sins and Corruptions remaining in the Heart of a Man God orders for good and there are good effects by the direction of his Wisdom and Grace I. As the Soul respects God 1. God often brings forth a sensibleness of the necessity of Dependance on him The Nurse often lets the Child slip that it may the better know who supports it and may not be too venturous and confident of its own strength Peter would trust in Habitual Grace and God suffers him to Fall that he might trust more in Assisting Grace Mat. 26.35 Though I should die with thee yet I will not deny thee God leaves sometimes the brightest Souls in an Eclipse to manifest that their Holiness and the preservation of it depend upon the darting out his Beams upon them As the Falls of Men are the effects of their coldness and remisness in Acts of Faith and Repentance so the fruit of these Falls is often a running to him for Refuge and a deeper sensibleness where their Security lies It makes us Lower our swelling Sails and come under the Lee and Protection of Divine Grace When the Pleasures of Sin answer the expectations of a Revolted Creature he reflects upon his former state and sticks more close to God when before God had little of hâ—s Company Hos 2.7 I will return to my first husband for then it was better with me than now As God makes the Sins of Men sometimes an occasion of their Conversion so he sometimes makes them an occasion of a further Conversion Onesimus run from Philemon and was met with by Paul who proved an Instrument of his Conversion Philem. 10. My Son Onesimus whom I have begotten in my Bonds His slight from his Master was the occasion of his Regeneration by Paul a Prisoner The Falls of Believers God orders to their further stability He that is fallen for want of using his Staff will Lean more upon it to preserve himself from the like Disaster God by permitting the Lapses of Men doth often make them despair of their own strength to subdue their Enemies and rely upon the strength of Christ wherein God hath laid up Power for us and so becomes stronger in that strength which God hath ordained for them We are very apt to trust in our selves and have confidence in our own worth and strength and God lets loose Corruptions to abate this swelling humor This was the reason of the Apostle Pauls Thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12.9 whether it were a Temptation or Corruption or Sickness that he might be sensible of his own inability and where the sufficiency of Grace for him was placed He that is in danger of Drowning and hath the Waves come over his head will with all the might he hath lay hold upon any thing near him which is capable to Save him God lets his People sometâ—mes sink into such a condition that they may lay the faster hold on him who is near to all that call upon him 2. God hereby raiseth higher Estimations of the value and virtue of the Blood of Christ As the great Reason why God permitted Sin to enter into the World was to honour himself in the Redeemer so the Continuance of Sin and the Conquests it sometimes makes in Renewed Men are to honour the Infinite
by the throng and his death hath brought a defeat to his Army and deliverance to the other Party that were upon the brink of ruine Thus doth the Wisdom of God link things together according to Natural order to work out his intended preservation of a People 2. In the season of Deliverance The Timing of Affairs is a part of the Wisdom of Man and an eminent part of the Wisdom of God It is in due season he sends the former and the latter Rain when the Earth is in the greatest Indigence and when his Influences may most contribute to the bringing forth and ripening the Fruit. The dumb Creatures have their meat from him in due season * Psal 104.27 And in his due season have his darling People their Deliverance When Paul was upon his Journey to Damascus with a Persecuting Commission he is struck down for the security of the Church in that City The Nature of the Lion is changed in due season for the preservation of the Lambs from worrying The Israelites are miraculously rescued from Egypt when their Wits were at a loss when their danger to Human understanding was unavoidable when Earth and Sea refus'd protection then the Wisdom and Power of Heaven stept in to effect that which was past the skill of the Conductors of that Multitude And when the Lives of the Jews lay at the stake and their Necks were upon the Block at the mercy of their Enemies Swords by an Order from Shushan not only a Reprieve but a Triumph arrives to the Jews by the Wisdom of God guiding the Affair whereby of Persons design'd to execution they are made Conquerors and have opportunity to exercise their Revenge instead of their Patience proving Triumphers where they expected to be Sufferers †Esih 8 9. How strangely doth God by secret ways bow the hearts of Men and the nature of things to the execution of that which he designs notwithstanding all the resistance of that which would traverse the security of his People How often doth he trap the wicked in the work of their own hands make their confidence to become their ruine and ensnare them in those Nets they wrought and laid for others Psal 9.16 The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands He scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts Luke 1.51 in the height of their hopes when their designs have been laid so deep in the Foundation and knit and cemented so close in their superstructure that no Human Power or Wisdom could raze them down He hath then disappointed their Projects and befool'd their Craft How often hath he kept back the Fire when it hath been ready to devour broke the Arrows when they have been prepared in the Bow turned the Spear into the bowels of the Bearers and wounded them at the very instant they were ready to wound others 3. In suting Instruments to his purpose He either finds them sit or makes them on a suddain fit for his gracious ends If he hath a Tabernacle to build he will sit a Bezaleel and an Aholiab with the Spirit of wisdom and Understanding in all cunning workmanship Exod. 31.3 6. If he finds them crooked pieces he can like a wise Architect make them strait Beams for the rearing his House and for the honour of his Name He sometimes picks out men according to their natural Tempers and employs them in his Work Jehu a man of a furious Temper and ambitious Spirit is called out for the destruction of Ahab's House Moses a man furnisht with all Egyptian wisdom fitted by a generous Education prepared also by the Affliction he met with in his flight and one who had had the benefit of conversation with Jethro a man of more than an ordinary wisdom and goodness as appears by his prudent and religious Counsel this man is called out to be the Head and Captain of an opprest People and to rescue them from their Bondage and settle the first National Church in the World So Elijah a high spirited man of a hot and angry temper one that sl ghted the Frowns and undervalued the Favour of Princes is set up to stem the Torrent of the Israelitish Idolatry So Luther a man of the same temper is drawn out by the same Wisdom to encounter the Corruptions in the Church against such Opposition which a milder Temper would have sunâ— under The Earth in Rev. 12.16 is made an Instrument to help the woman When the Grandees of that Age transferred the Imperial Power upon Constantine who became afterwards a protecting and nursing Father to the Church a thnig end which many of his Favourers never design'd nor ever dreamt of But God by his infinite Wisdom made these several Designs like several Arrows shot at Rovers meet in one Mark to which he directed them viz. in bringing forth an Instrument to render Peace to the World and Security and Increase to his Church 3. The wisdom of God doth wonderfully appear in Redemption His wisdom in Creation ravisheth the Eye and Understanding his wisdom in Government doth no less affect a curious Observer of the Links and Concatenation of the Means but his wisdom in Redemption mounts the Mind to a greater astonishment The works of Creation are the Footsteps of his wisdom the work of Redâ—mption is the Face of his wisdom A man is better known by the Features of his Face than by the Prints of his Feet We with open face or a revealed face beholding the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Face there refers to God not to us the glory of God's wisdom is now open and no longer covered and vailed by the shadows of the Law As we behold the Light glorious as scattered in the Air before the appearance of the Sun but more gloriously in the Face of the Sun when it begins its Race in our Horizon All the wisdom of God in Creation and Government in his variety of Laws was like the light the three first days of the Creation disperst about the World but the fourth day it was more glorious when all gathered into the Body of the Sun Gen. 1.4 16. So the Light of Divine wisdom and glory was scattered about the World and so more obscure till the fourth Divine day of the World about the four thousandth year it was gathered into one Body the Sun of Righteousness and so shone out more gloriously to Men and Angels All things are weaker the thinner they are extended but stronger the more they are united and compacted in one Body and Appearance In Christ in the dispensation by him as well as in his Person were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Coloss 2.3 Some Doles of wisdom were given out in Creation but the Treasures of it opened in Redemption the highest degrees of it that ever God did exert in the World Christ is therefore called the wisdom of God as well as the power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 and the Gospel is called
the wisdom of God Christ is the wisdom of God principally and the Gospel instrumentally as it is the power of God instrumentally to subdue the heart to himself This is wrapped up in the appointing Christ as Redeemer and open'd to us in the revelation of it by the Gospel 1. It is a hidden wisdom In this regard God is said in the Text to be only wise and it is said to be a hidden wisdom 1 Tim. 1.17 and wisdom in a mystery 1 Cor. 2.7 incomprehensible to the ordinary Capacity of an Angel more than the abstruse qualities of the Creatures are to the understanding of man No wisdom of Men or Angels is able to search all the Veins of this Mine to tell all the threds of this Web or to understand the lustre of it they are as far from an ability fully to comprehend it as they were at first to contrive it That wisdom that invented it can only comprehend it In the uncreated Understanding only there is a clearness of light without any shadow of darkness We come as short of full apprehensions of it as a Child doth of the Counsel of the wisest Prince It is so hidden from us that without Revelation we could not have the least imagination of it and though it be revealed to us yet without the help of an Infiniteness of Understanding we cannot fully fathom it 'T is such a tractate of Divine wisdom that the Angels never before had seen the Edition of it till it was publish'd to the World Eph. 3.10 To the intent that now unto Principalities and Powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Now made known to them not before and now made known to them in the heavenly places They had not the knowledge of all heavenly Mysteries though they had the possession of heavenly Glory They knew the Prophecies of it in the Word but attained not a clear Interpretation of those Prophecies till the things that were prophecied of came upon the Stage 2. Manifold wisdom So 't is called As manifold as mysterious Variety in the Mystery and Mystery in every part of the Variety It was not one single act but a variety of Counsels met in it a conjunction of excellent ends and excellent means The glory of God the salvation of Man the defeat of the Apostate Angels the discovery of the blessed Trinity in their Nature Operations their combin'd and distinct Acts and Expressions of Goodness The means are the conjunction of two Natures infinitely distant from one another the union of Eternity and Time of Mortality and Immortality Death is made the way to Life and Shame the path to Glory The weakness of the Cross is the reparation of man and the Creature is made wise by the foolishness of preaching fallen man grows rich by the poverty of the Redeemer and man is filled by the emptiness of God The Heir of Hell made a Son of God by God's taking upon him the form of a Servant the Son of Man advanc'd to the highest degree of Honour by the Son of God becoming of no reputation 'T is called Eph. 1.8 abundance of wisdom and prudence Wisdom in the Eternal Counsel contriving a way Prudence in the Temporary Revelation ordering all Affairs and Occurrences in the World for the attaining the end of his Counsel Wisdom refers to the Mystery Prudence to the manifestation of it in fit ways and convenient seasons Wisdom to the contrivance and order Prudence to the execution and accomplishment In all things God acted as became him as a wise and just Governour of the World Heb. 2.10 Whether the wisdom of God might not have found out some other way or whether he were in regard of the necessity and naturalness of his Justice limited to this is not the question But that it is the best and wisest way for the manifestation of his glory is out of question This wisdom will appear in the different Interests reconciled by it In the Subject the second Person in the Trinity wherein they were reconciled In the two Natures wherein he accomplish'd it whereby God is made known to man in his Glory Sin eternally condemned and the repenting and believing sinner eternally rescued The honour and righteousness of the Law vindicated both in the Precept and Penalty The Devil's Empire overthrown by the same Nature he had overturned and the Subtilty of Hell defeated by that Nature he had spoiled The Creature engaged in the very act to the highest Obedience and Humility that as God appears as a God upon his Throne the Creature might appear in the lowest posture of a Creature in the depths of resignation and dependance the publication of this made in the Gospel by ways congruous to the wisdom which appeared in the execution of his Counsel and the Conditions of enjoying the fruit of it most wise and resonable 1. The greatest different Interests are reconcil'd Justice in punishing and Mercy in pardoning For man had broken the Law and plung'd himself into a Gulf of Misery The Sword of Vengeance was unsheathed by Justice for the punishment of the Criminal The Bowels of Compassion were stirred by Mercy for the rescue of the Miserable Justice severely beholds the Sin and Mercy compassionately reflects upon the Misery Two different claims are entred by those concerned Attributes Justice votes for Destruction and Mercy votes for Salvation Justice would draw the Sword and drench it in the blood of the Offender Mercy would stop the Sword and turn it from the breast of the Sinner Justice would edge it and Mercy would blunt it The Arguments are strong on both sides 1. Justice pleads I Arraign before thy Tribunal a Rebel who was the glorious Work of thy Hands the Center of thy rich Goodness and a Counterpart of thy own Image he is indeed miserable whereby to excite thy Compassion but he is not miserable without being Criminal Thou didst create him in a state and with ability to be otherwise The riches of thy Bounty aggravate the blackness of his Crime He is a Rebel not by necessity but will What constraint was there upon him to listen to the Counsels of the Enemy of God What force could there be upon him since it is without the compass of any Creature to work upon or constrain the Will Nothing of Ignorance can excuse him the Law was not ambiguously express'd but in plain words both as to Precept and Penalty it was writ in his Nature in legible Characters Had he received any disgust from thee after his Creation it would not excuse his Apostacy since as a Soveraign thou wert not obliged to thy Creature Thou hadst provided all things richly for him he was crowned with glory and honour Thy infinite power had bestowed upon him an Habitation richly furnished and varieties of Servants to attend him Whatever he viewed without and whatever he viewed within himself were several Marks of thy Divine Bounty to engage him to Obedience Had
us and how ignorant they are of what they possess It will cause us to reflect upon the deeper Impressions of Wisdom in the frame of our own Bodies and Souls an excellency far superiour to theirs this would make us admire the magnificence of his Wisdom and Goodness and sound forth his Praise for advancing us in dignity above other Works of his hands and stamping on us by Infinite Art a Nobler Image of himself And by such a Comparison of our selves with the Creatures below us we should be induced to act excellently according to the nature of our Souls not brutishly according to the nature of the Creatures God hath put under our feet 5. By the Contemplation of the Creatures we may receive some assistance in clearing our knowledge in the Wisdom of Redemption Though they cannot of themselves inform us of it yet since God hath revealed his Redeeming Grace they can illustrate some particulars of it to us Hence the Scripture makes use of the Creatures to set forth things of a higher orb to us Our Saviour is called a Sun a Vine and a Lion the Spirit likened to a Dove Fire and Water The Union of Christ and his Church is set forth by the Marriage Union of Adam and Eve God hath placed in Corporeal things the Images of Spiritual and wrapped up in his Creating Wisdom the representations of his Redeeming Grace Whence some call the Creatures Natural Types of what was to be transacted in a new formation of the World and Allusions to what God intended in and by Christ 6. The Meditation of Gods Wisdom in the Creatures is in part a beginning of Heaven upon Earth No doubt but there will be a perfect opening of the Model of Divine Wisdom Heaven is for clearing what is now obscure and a full discovering of what seems at present intricate Psal 36.9 In his light shall we see light All the Light in Creation Government and Redemption The Wisdom of God in the New Heavens and the New Earth would be to little purpose if that also were not to be regarded by the Inhabitants of them As the Saints are to be restored to the state of Adam and higher so they are to be restored to the employment of Adam and higher But his employment was to behold God in the Creatures The World was so soon depraved that God had but little joy in and Man but little knowledge of his Works And since the Wisdom of God in Creation is so little seen by our Ignorance here would not God lose much of the glory of it if the glorified Souls should lose the understanding of it above When their Darkness shall be expelled and their Advantages improved when the Eye that Adam lost shall be fully restored and with a greater clearness when the Creature shall be restored to its true End and Reason to its true Perfection * Rom. 8.21 22. when the Fountains of the depths of Nature and Government shall be opened Knowledge shall increase and according to the increase of our Knowledge shall the admiration of Divine Wisdom increase also The Wisdom of God in Creation was not surely intended to lie wholly unobserved in the greatest part of it but since there was so little time for the full observation of it there will be a time wherein the Wisdom of God shall enjoy a resurrection and be fully contemplated by his understanding and glorified Creature II. Exhortation Study and admire the Wisdom of God in Redemption This is the Duty of all Christians We are not called to understand the great depth of Philosophy we are not called to a skill in the Intricacies of Civil Government or understand all the methods of Physick but we are called to be Christians that is Studiers of Divine Evangelical Wisdom There are first Principles to be learned but not those Principles to be rested in without a further progress Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on to perfection Duties must be practised but knowledge is not to be neglected The study of Gospel Mysteries the harmony of Divine Truths the sparkling of Divine Wisdom in their mutual combination to the great ends of Gods Glory and Mans Salvation is an Incentive to Duty a Spur to Worship and particularly to the greatest and highest part of Worship that part which shall remain in Heaven the Admiration and Praise of God and Delight in him If we acquaint not our selves with the Impressions of the glory of Divine Wisdom in it we shall not much regard it as worthy our observance in regard of that Duty The Gospel is a Mystery and as a Mystery hath something Great and Magnificent in it worthy of our daily inspection we shall find fresh Springs of New wonders which we shall be invited to adore with a Religious Astonishment It will both raise and satisfie our Longings Who can come to the depths of God manifested in the flesh How amazing is it and unworthy of a slight thought that the Death of the Son of God should purchase the happy Immortality of a Sinful Creature and the glory of a Rebel be wrought by the Ignominy of so great a Person That our Mediator should have a Nature whereby to Covenant with his Father and a Nature whereby to be a Surety for the Creature How admirable is it that the Fallen Creature should receive an advantage by the Forfeiture of his Happiness How Mysterious is it that the Son of God should bow down to Death upon a Cross for the satisfaction of Justice and rise Triumphantly out of the Grave as a declaration that Justice was contented and satisfied That he should be exalted to Heaven to Intercede for us and at last return into the World to receive us and invest us with a Glory for ever with himself Are these things worthy of a Careless regard or a Blockish amazement What Understanding can pâ—erce into the depths of the Divine Doctrine of the Incarnation and Birth of Christ the indissoluble Union of the two Natures What Capacity is able to measure the miracles of that Wisdom found in the whole Draught and Scheme of the Gospel Doth it not merit then to be the Object of our daily Meditation How comes it to pass then that we are so little curious to concern our Thoughts in those Wonders that we scarce taste or sip of these Delicacies That we busie our selves in Trifles and consider what we shall eat and in what fashion we shall be drest please our selves with the ingeniousness of a Lace or Feather admire a Moth-eaten Manuscript or some Half-worn piece of Antiquity and think our time Ill-spent in the contemplating and celebrating that wherein God hath busied himself and Eternity is design'd for the perpetual expressions of How Inquisitve are the Blessed Angels with what vigour do they renew their daily Contemplations of it and receive a fresh Contentment from it still learning and still enquiring 1 Pet. 1.12 their Eye is
what God hath hid as to be careless of what God hath manifested Too great an inquisitiveness beyond our line is as much a provoking arrogance as a blockish negligence of what is revealed is a slighting ingratitude 2. Submit to God in his Precepts and Methods Since they are the results of Infinite Wisdom disputes against them are not tolerable What orders are given out by Infallible Wisdom are to be entertained with respect and reverence though the reason of them be not visible to our purblind minds Shall God have less respect from us than Earthly Princes whose Laws we observe without being able to pierce into the exact reason of them all Since we know he hath not a Will without an Understanding our observance of him must be without Repining we must not think to mend our Creators Laws and presume to judg and condemn his Righteous Statutes If the flesh rise up in opposition we must cross its motions and Silence its Murmurings his Will should be an acceptable Will to us because it is a wise Will in itself God hath no need to impose upon us and deceive us He hath just and righteous waies to attain his glory and his Creatures good To deceive us would be to dishonour himself and contradict his own nature He cannot impose false injurious Precepts or unavailable to his subjects happiness not false because of his Truth not injurious because of his Goodness not vain because of his Wisdom Submit therefore to him in his Precepts and in his Methods too The honour of his Wisdom and the interest of our Happiness calls for it Had Noah disputed with God about building an Ark and listned to the scoffs of the sensless World he had perished under the same fate and lost the honour of a Preacher and worker of righteousness Had not the Israelites been their own enemies if they had been permitted to be their own guides and returned to the Egyptian bondage and furnaces instead of a liberty and earthly felicity in Canaan Had our Saviour gratified the Jews by descending from the Cross and freeing himself from the power of his Adversaries he might have had that Faith from them which they promised him but It had been a faith to no purpose because without ground they might have believed him to be the Son of God but he could not have been the Saviour of the World His death the great ground and object of Faith had been unaccomplished they had believed a God pardoning without a content to his Iustice and such a Faith could not have rescued them from falling into eternal Misery The Precepts and Methods of Divine Wisdom must be submitted to 3. Submit to God in all Crosses and Revolutions Infinite Wisdom cannot err in any of his paths or step the least hairs bredth from the way of Righteousness There is the Understanding of God in every motion an Eye in every Wheel the Wheel that goes over us and crusheth us We are led by Fancy more than Reason We know no more what we ask or what is fit for us than the Mother of Zebedees children did when she Petitioned Christ for her sons advancement when he came into his Temporal Kingdom * Mat. 20.22 The things we desire might pleasure our Fancy or Appetite but impair our health One man complains for want of Children but knows not whither they may prove Comforts or Crosses Another for want of Health but knows not whither the health of his Body may not prove the disease of his Soul We migh◠lose in Heavenly things if we possess in Earthly things what we long for God in regard of his infinite Wisdom is fitter to carve out a condition than we our selves our Shallow reason and self-love would wish for those things that are injurious to God to our selves to the World but God alwaies chooses what is best for his Glory and what is best for his Creatures either in regard of themselves or as they stand in relation to him or to others as parts of the World We are in danger from our self-love in no danger in complying with Gods Wisdom When Rachel would dye if she had no Children she had Children but Death with one of them †Gen. 30.1 Good men may conclude that whatsoever is done by God in them or with them is best and fittest for them because by the Covenant which makes over God to them as their God the conduct of his Wisdom is assured to them as well as any other Attribute And therefore as God in every transaction appears as their God so he appears as their wise Director and by this Wisdom he extracts good out of evill makes the affliction which destroys our outward Comforts consume our inward Defilements And the waves which threatned to swallow up the vessel to cast it upon the shore And when he hath occasion to manifest his Anger against his People his Wisdom directs his Wrath. In Judgment he hath a work to do upon Zion and when that work is done he punishes the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria ‖ Isa 10 1◠As in the answers of Prayer he doth give oftentimes above what we ask or think Eph. 3.20 so in outward concerns he doth above what we can expect or by our short-sightedness conclude will be done Let us therefore in all things frame our minds to the Divine Wisdom and say with the Psalmist Psal 47.4 The Lord shall chuse our inheritance and condition for us 6. Exhortation Censure not God in any of his waies Can we Understand the full scope of Divine Wisdom in Creation which is perfected before our Eyes Can we by a rational knowledge walk over the whole Surface of the Earth and wade through the Sea Can we Understand the Nature of the Heavens Are all or most or the thousandth part of the particles of Divine Skil known by us yea or any of them throughly known How can we then Understand his deeper methods in things that are but of yesterday that we have not had a time to View We should not be too quick or too rash in our Judgments of him The best that we attain to is but feeble conjectures at the designs of God As there is something hid in whatsoever is revealed in his Word so there is some thing inaccessible to us in his Works as well as in his Nature and Majesty In our Saviours act in washing his Disciples feet he checkt Peters contradiction John 13.7 What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter God were not infinitely wise if the reason of all his acts were obvious to our Shallowness He is no profound States-man whose inward intention can be sounded by vulgar Heads at the first act he starts in his designed method The wise God is in this like wisemen that have not breasts like glasses of Christal to discover all that they intend There are secrets of Wisdom above our reach * Iob 11.6 nay when
again their departed Souls either for weal or woe The Grave or Hell the place of punishment is naked before him as distinctly discern'd by him as a naked Body in all its lineaments by us or a dissected Body is in all its parts by a skilful Eye Destruction hath no covering none can free himself from the Power of his Hand Every person in the bowels of Hell every person punished there is known to him and feels the Power of his Wrath. From the lower parts of the World he ascends to the consideration of the Power of God in the Creation of Heaven and Earth He stretches out the North over the empty places * Verse 7. The North or the North-pole over the Air which by the Greeks was called void or empty because of the tenuity and thinness of that Element and he mentions here the North or North-pole for the whole Heaven because it is more known and apparent than the Southern-pole And hangs the Earth upon nothing The massie and weighty Earth hangs like a thick Globe in the midst of a thin Air that there is as much Air on the one side of it as on the other The Heavens have no prop to sustain them in their height and the Earth hath no basis to support it in its place The Heavens are as if you saw a Curtain stretched smooth in the Air without any hand to hold it and the Earth is as if you saw a Ball hanging in the Air without any solid Body to under-prop it or any Line to hinder it from falling both standing Monuments of the Omnipotence of God He then takes notice of his daily Power in the Clouds He binds up the waters in his thick Clouds and the Cloud is not rent under them * Verse 8. He compacts the Waters together in Clouds and keeps them by his Power in the Air against the force of their natural gravity and heaviness till they are fit to flow down upon the Earth and perform his pleasure in the places for which he designs them The Cloud is not rent under them the thin Air is not split asunder by the weight of the Waters contain'd in the Cloud above it He causes them to distill by drops and strains them as it were through a thin Lawn for the refreshment of the Earth and suffers them not to fall in the whole lump with a violent torrent to waste the industry of Man and bring Famine upon the World by destroying the Fruits of the Earth What a wonder would it be to see but one intire drop of water hang it self but one Inch above the ground unless it be a Bubble which is preserved by the Air inclosed within it What a wonder would it be to see a Gallon of Water contain'd in a thin Cobweb as strongly as in a Vessel of Brass Greater is the wonder of Divine Power in those thin Bottles of Heaven as they are called †Job 38.37 and therefore called his Clouds here as being daily Instances of his Omnipotence That the Air should sustain those rouling Vessels as it should seem weightier than it self That the force of this Mass of Waters should not break so thin a Prison and hasten to its proper place which is below the Air That they should be daily confin'd against their natural inclination and held by so slight a Chain That there should be such a gradual and successive falling of them as if the Air were pierced with holes like a Gardiners watring-pot and not fall in one intire body to drown or drench some parts of the Earth These are hourly Miracles of Divine Power as little regarded as clearly v sible He proceeds Verse 9. He holds back the face of his Throne and spreads the Cloud upon it The Clouds are design'd as â—â—rtains to cover the Heavens as well as Vessels to water the Earth ‖ Psal 147.8 As a Tapestry Curtain between the Heavens the Throne of God Isa 66.1 and the Earth his Footstool the Heavens are called his Throne because his Power doth most shine forth there and magnificently declare the glory of God and the Clouds are as a Skreen between the scorching heat of the Sun and the tender Plants of the Earth and the weak Bodies of Men. From hence he descends to the Sea and considers the Divine Power apparent in the bounding of it Verse 10. He hath compassed the Waters with bounds till the day and night come to an end This is several times mention'd in Scripture as a signal Mark of Divine strength * Job 38.8 Prov. 8.27 He hath measured a place for the Sea and struck the Limits of it as with a Compass that it might not mount above the Surface of the Land and ruin the ends of the Earths Creation and this while day and night have their mutual turns till he shall make an end of time by removing the measures of it The bounds of the tumultuous Sea are in many places as weak as the Bottles of the upper Waters the one is contain'd in thin Air and the other restrain'd by weak Sands in many places as well as by stubborn Rocks in others that though it swells foams roars and the Waves encourag'd and egg'd on by strong Winds come like Mountains against the Shore they overflow it not but humble themselves when they come near to those Sands which are set as their Lists and Limits and retire back to the Womb that brought them forth as if they were ashamed and repented of their proud Invasion Or else it may be meant of the Tydes of the Sea and the stated time God hath set it for its ebbing and flowing till night and day come to an end †Coccei in loc both that the fluid Waters should contain themselves within due bounds and keep their perpetual orderly motion are amazing Argumens of Divine Power He passes on to the Consideration of the Commotions in the Air and Earth raised and still'd by the Power of God The Pillars of Heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof By Pillars of Heaven are not meant Angels as some think but either the Air called the Pillars of Heaven in regard of place as it continues and knits together the parts of the World as Pillars do the upper and nether parts of a Building As the lowest parts of the Earth are called the Foundations of the Earth so the lowest parts of the Heaven may be called the Pillars of Heaven * Coccei Or else by that Phrase may be meant Mountains which seem at a distance to touch the Sky as Pillars do the top of a Structure and so it may be spoken according to vulgar Capacity which imagines the Heavens to be sustained by the two extream parts of the Earth as a Convex Body or to be archt by Pillars whence the Scripture according to common apprehensions mentions the ends of the Earth and the utmost parts of the Heavens tho they have properly no end as being round
The Power of God is seen in those Commotions in the Air and Earth by Thunders Lightnings Storms Earth-quakes which rack the Air and make the Mountains and Hills tremble as Servants before a frowning and rebuking Master And as he makes motions in the Earth and Air so is his Power seen in their Influences upon the Sea He judges the Sea with his power and by his understanding he smites through the proud †Verse 12. At the Creation he put the Waters into several Channels and caused the dry Land to appear barefac'd for a Habitation for Man and Beasts or rather he splits the Sea by Storms as though he would make the bottom of the Deep visible and rakes up the Sands to the Surface of the Waters and marshals the Waves into Mountains and Valleys After that he smites through the proud that is humbles the proud Waves and by allaying the Storm reduceth them to their former Level The Power of God is visible as well in rebuking as in awakning the winds he makes them sensible of his Voice and according to his Pleasure exasperates or calms them The striking through the proud here is not probably meant of the destruction of the Egyptian Army for some guess that Job died that year †Drusius in loc or about the time of the Israelites coming out of Egypt So that this Discourse here being in the time of his Affliction could not point at that which was done after his restoration to his temporal Prosperity And now at last he sums up the Power of God in the chiefest of his Works above and the greatest wonder of his Works below Verse 13. By his Spirit he hath garnisht the Heavens his hand hath formed the crooked Serpent c. The greater and lesser Lights Sun Moon and Stars the Ornaments and Furniture of Heaven and the Whale a prodigious Monument of Gods Power often mention'd in Scripture to this purpose and in particular in this Book of Job ‖ Job 41. and called by the same name of Crooked Serpent Isa 27.1 where it is applied by way of Metaphor to the King of Assyria or Egypt or all Oppressors of the Church Various Interpretations there are of this crooked Serpent Some understanding that Constellation in Heaven which Astronomers call the Dragon some that Combination of weaker Stars which they call the Galaxia which winds about the Heavens But it is most probable that Job drawing near to a conclusion of his Discourse joyns the two greatest Testimonies of Gods Power in the World the highest Heavens and the lowest Leviathan which is here called a bar Serpent * As the word signifies in the Hebrew in regard of his strength and hardness as mighty Men are called bars in Scripture Jer. 51.30 Her bars are broken things And in regard of this Power of God in the Creation of this Creature 't is particularly mention'd in the Catalogue of Gods Works Gen. 1.21 And God created great Whales all the other Creatures being put into one sum and not particularly exprest And now he makes the use of this Lecture in the Text Loe these are parts of his ways but how little a portion is heard of him but the thunder of his Power who can understand This is but a small Landskip of some of his Works of Power the outsides and extremities of it more glorious things are within his Palaces Though those things argue a stupendous Power of the Creator in his Works of Creation and Providence yet they are nothing to what may be declared of his Power And what may be declared is nothing to what may be conceived and what may be conceived is nothing to what is above the conceptions of any Creature These are but little Crumbs and Fragments of that infinite Power which is in his Nature like a drop in comparison of the mighty Ocean a hiss or whisper in comparison of a mighty Voice of Thunder †Oecolamp This which I have spoken is but like a Spark to the fiery Region a few lines by the by a drop of speech The thunder of his Power Some understand it of Thunder literally for material Thunder in the Air The Thunder of his Power that is according to the Hebrew Dialect his powerful Thunder This is not the sense the nature of Thunder in the Air doth not so much exceed the capacity of human understanding 't is therefore rather to be understood Metaphorically The Thunder of his Power that is the greatness and immensity of his Power manifested in the magnificent Miracles of Nature in the consideration whereof men are astonished as if they had heard an unusual Clap of Thunder So Thunder is used Job 39.25 The Thunder of the Captains that is strength and force of the Captains of an Army And verse 19. God speaking to Job of a Horse saith Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder that is strength And Thunder being a mark of the Power of God some of the Heathen have called God by the name of a Thunderer The ancient Gawl◠worshipped him under the name of Taranis The Greeks called Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Thor whence our Thursday is derived signifieth Thunderer a title the Germans gave their God And Toran in the British Language signifies Thunder Voss Idolo lib. 2. cap. 33. Camb. Britan. p. 17. As Thunder pierceth the lowest places and alters the state of things so doth the Power of God penetrate into all things whatsoever the Thunder of his Power that is the Greatness of his Power as the strength of Salvation Psal 20.6 that is a mighty Salvation Who can understand Who is able to count all the Monuments of his Power How doth this little which I have spoken of exceed the capacity of our Understanding and is rather the matter of our astonishment than the object of our comprehensive knowledge The Power of the greatest Potentate or the mightiest Creature is but of small extent None but have their limits It may be understood how far they can act in what sphere their activity is bounded But when I have spoken all of Divine Power that I can when you have thought all that you can think of it your Souls will prompt you to conceive something more beyond what I have spoken and what you have thought His Power shines in every thing and is beyond every thing There is infinitely more Power lodged in his Nature not exprest to the World The understanding of Men and Angels centred in one Creature would fall short of the perception of the Infiniteness of it All that can be comprehended of it are but little Fringes of it a small Portion No man ever discours'd or can of Gods Power according to the magnificence of it No Creature can conceive it God himself only comprehends it God himself is only able to express it Mans power being limited his Line is too short to measure the incomprehensible Omnipotence of God The thunder of his Power who can understand
Will which no Effects which he hath wrought can drain and put to a stand As he can raise Stones to be Children to Abraham * Mat. 3.9 so with the same mighty Word whereby he made one World he can make Infinite numbers of Worlds to be the Monuments of his Glory After the Prophet Jeremy 32.17 had spoke of Gods Power in Creation he adds And nothing is too hard for thee For one World that he hath made he can create Millions For one Star which he hath beautified the Heavens with he could have garnisht it with a Thousand and multiplied if he had pleased Rom. 4.17 every one of those into Millions for he can call things that are not not some things but all things possible The barren Womb of Nothing can no more resist his Power now to educe a World from it than it could at first No doubt but for one Angel which he hath made he could make many Worlds of Angels He that made one with so much ease as by a Word cannot want Power to make many more till he wants a Word The Word that was not too weak to make One cannot be too weak to make Multitudes If from One Man he hath in a way of Nature multiplied so many in all Ages of the World and covered with them the whole Face of the Earth he could in a Supernatural way by One Word multiply as many more 'T is the breath of the Almighty that gives life Job 33.4 He can create infinite Species and kinds of Creatures more than he hath created more variety of Forms For since there is no searching of his Greatness there is no conceiving the numberless possible effects of his Power The Understanding of Man can conceive Numberless things possible to be more than have been or shall be And shall we imagine that a Finite Understanding of a Creature hath a greater Omnipotency to conceive things possible than God hath to produce things possible When the Understanding of Man is tyr'd in its Conceptions it must still be concluded That the Power of God extends not only to what can be conceiv'd but infinitely beyond the measures of a Finite faculty Touching the Almighty we cannot find him out he is excellent in power and in judgment Job 36.23 For the Understanding of Man in its Conceptions of more kind of Creatures is limited to those Creatures which are It cannot in its own Imagination conceive any thing but what hath some foundation in and from something already in Being It may frame a new kind of Creature made up of a Lion a Horse an Ox but all those parts whereof its Conception is made have distinct Beings in the World though not in that composition as his Mind mixes and joyns them But no question but God can create Creatures that have no resemblance with any kind of Creatures yet in Being 'T is certain that if God only knows those things which he hath done and will do and not all things possible to be done by him his knowledge were finite so if he could do no more than what he hath done his Power would be finite 1. Creatures have a power to act about more objects than they do The Understanding of man can frame from one Principle of Truth many Conclusions and Inferences more than it doth Why cannot then the Power of God frame from one first Matter an infinite number of Creatures more than have been created The Almightiness of God in producing real Effects is not inferiour to the Understanding of man in drawing out real Truths An Artificer that makes a Watch supposing his liâ—e and health can make many more of a different form and motion And a Limner can draw many Draughts and frame many Pictures with a new variety of Colours according to the richness of his Fancy If these can do so that require a preexistent Matter fram'd to their hands God can much more who can raise beautiful Structures from nothing As long as men have matter they can diversifie the matter and make new Figures from it So long as there is nothing God can produce out of that nothing whatsoever he pleases We see the same in Inanimate Creatures A spark of Fire hath a vast Power in it it will kindle other things increase and enlarge it self Nothing can be exempt from the active force of it It will alter by consuming or refining whatsoever you offer to it It will reach all and refuse none and by the efficacious power of it all those new Figures which we see in Metals are brought forth When you have exposed to it a multitude of things still add more it will exert the same strength yea the vigour is increased rather than diminisht The more it catcheth the more fiercely and irresistibly it will act you cannot suppose an end oâ— its operation or a decrease of its strength as long as you can conceive its duration and continuance This must be but a weak shadow of that infinite Power which is in God Take another Instance in the Sun It hath power every year to produce Flowers and Plants from the Earth and as is able to produce them now as it was at the first lighting it and rearing it in the Sphear wherein it moves And if there were no kind of Flowers and Plants now created the Sun hath a power residing in it ever since its first Creation to afford the same warmth to them for the nourishâ—ng and bringing them forth Whatsoever you can conceive the Sun to be able to do in regard of Plants that can God do in regard of Worlds produce more Worlds than the Sun doth Plants every year without weariness without languishment The Sun is able to influence more things than it doth and produce numberless effects but it doth not do so much as it is able to do because it wants matter to work upon God therefore who wants no matter can do much more than he doth He can either act by second Causes if there were more or make more second Causes if he pleas'd 2. God is the most free Agent Every free Agent can do more than he will do Man being a free Creature can do more than ordinarily he doth will to do God is most free as being the Spring of Liberty in other Creatures He acts not by a necessity of Nature as the waves of the Sea or the motions of the Wind and therefore is not determin'd to those things which he hath already called forth into the World If God be infinâ—tely wise in contrivance he could contrive more than he hath and therefore can effect more than he hath effected He doth not act to the extent of his Power upon all occasions 'T is according to his will that he works Eph. 1. 'T is not according to his work that he wills his work is an evidence of his will but not the rule of his will His Power is not the rule of his Will but hâ—s Will is the disposer of
Wisdom which contriv'd them and his own Will which resolv'd them not to do that which he had decreed to do This would be a diffidence in his Wisdom and a change of his Will The impossibility of them is no result of a want of Power no mark of an Imperfection of Feebleness and Impotence but the Perfection of Immutability and Unchangeableness Thus have I endeavoured to give you a right Notion of this excellent Attribute of the Power of God in as plain terms as I could which may serve us for a matter of Meditation Admiration Fear of him Trust in him which are the proper Uses we should make of this Doctrine of Divine Power The want of a right understanding of this Doctrine of the Divine Power hath caused many to run into mighty Absurdities I have therefore taken the more pains to explain it II. The second thing I proposed is the Reasons to prove God to be Omipotent The Scripture describes God by this Attribute of Power Psal 115.3 He hath done whatsoever he pleased It sometimes sets forth his Power in a way of derision of those that seem to doubt of it When Sarah doubted of his ability to give her a Child in her old Age Gen. 18.14 Is any thing too hard for the Lord They deserve to be scoff't that will despoil God of his strength and measure him by their shallow Models And when Moses uttered something of unbelief of this Attribute as if God were not able to feed 600000 Israelites besides Women and Children which he aggravates by a kind of imperious scoff Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them Or shall all the fish of the Sea be gathered together for them c. Numb 11.23 God takes him up short vers 23. Is the Lords hand waxed short What can any weakness seize upon my Hand Can I not draw out of my own Treasures what is needful for a supply The Hand of God is not at one time strong and another time feeble Hence it is that we read of the Hand and Arm of God an out-stretched Arm because the strength of a man is exerted by his Hand and Arm the Power of God is called the Arm of his Power and the right hand of his Strength Sometimes according to the different manifestation of it it is exprest by Finger when a less power is evidenc'd by Hand when something greater by Arm when more mighty than the former Since God is Eternal without limits of time he is also Almighty without limits of strength As he cannot be said to be more in Being now than he was before so he is neither more nor less in strength than he was before As he cannot cease to be so he cannot cease to be Powerful because he is Eternal His Eternity and Power are link't together as equally demonstrable * Rom. 1.20 God is called the God of Gods El Elohim †Dan. 11.36 the Mighty of Mighties whence all mighty persons have their activity and vigor He is called the Lord of Hosts as being the Creator and Conductor of the heavenly Militia Reason 1. The Power that is in Creatures demonstrates a greater and an unconceivable Power in God Nothing in the World is without a power of Activity according to its Nature No Creature but can act something The Sun warms and enlightens every thing It sends its Influences upon the Earth into the bowels of the Earth into the depths of the Sea All Generations owe themselves to its instrumental Vertue How powerful is a small Seed to rise into a mighty Tree with a lofty top and extensive branches and send forth other Seeds which can still multiply into numberless Plants How wonderful is the Power of the Creator who hath endowed so small a Creature as a Seed with so fruitful an Activity Yet this is but the vertue of a limited nature God is both the producing and preserving cause of all the vertue in any Creature in every Creature The power of every Creature belongs to him as the Fountain and is truly his Power in the Creature As he is the first Being he is the original of all Being as he is the first Good he is the Spring of all Goodness as he is the first Truth he is the source of all Truth so as he is the first Power he is the Fountain of all Power 1. He therefore that communicates to the Creature what power it hath contains eminently much more power in himself Psal 94.10 He that teaches man knowledge shall not he know So he that gives created Beings power shall not he be Powerful The first Being must have as much Power as he hath given to others He could not transfer that upon another which he did not transcendently possess himself The sole cause of created Power cannot be destitute of any Power in himself We see that the power of one Creature transcends the power of another Beasts can do the things that Plants cannot do besides the power of growth they have a power of sense and progressive motion Men can do more than Beasts they have rational Souls to measure the Earth and Heavens and to be repositories of multitudes of things Notions and Conclusions We may well imagine Angels to be far superior to man The power of the Creator must far surmount the power of the Creature and must needs be Infinite for if it be limited it is limited by himself or by some other if by some other he is no longer a Creator but a Creature for that which limits him in his Nature did communicate that Nature to him not by himself for he would not deny himself any necessary Perfection We must still conclude a reserve of Power in him that he that made these can make many more of the same kind 2. All the power which is distinct in the Creatures must be united in God One Creature hath a strength to do this another to do that every Creature is as a Cistern filled with a particular and limited power according to the capacity of its nature from this Fountain all are distinct Streams from God But the strength of every Creature though distinct in the rank of Creatures is united in God the Center whence those lines were drawn the Fountain whence those Streams were deriv'd If the power of one Creature be admirable as the power of an Angel which the ‖ Psal 103.20 Psalmist saith excelleth in strength how much greater must the power of a Legion of Angels be How unconceivably superior the power of all those numbers of spiritual Natures which are the excellent Works of God Now if all this particular power which is in every Angel distinct were compacted in one Angel how would it exceed our Understanding and be above our power to form a distinct Conception of it What is thus divided in every Angel must be thought united in the Creator of Angels and far more excellent in him Every thing is in a more noble
acknowledgment of the Immensity of Divine Power Miracles are such effects as have been wrought without the assistance and cooperation of Natural Causes yea contrary and besides the ordinary course of Nature above the reach of any Created Power Miracles have been and saith Bradwardine * Lib. 1. cap. 1. p. 38. To deny that ever such things were is uncivil 'T is inhuman to deny all the Histories of Jews and Christians whosoever denies Miracles must deny all possibility of Miracles and so must imagine himself fully skill'd in the extent of Divine Power How was the Sun suspended from its Motion for some hours Josh 10.13 The Dead raised from the Grave Those reduc'd from the brink of it that had been brought near to it by prevailing Diseases and this by a word speaking How were the famisht Lions bridled from exercising their rage upon Daniel Dan. 6.22 expos'd to them for a Prey The activity of the Fire curb'd for the preservation of the Three Children Dan. 3.15 Which proves a Deity more powerful than all Creatures No power upon Earth can hinder the operation of the Fire upon combustible Matter when they are united unless by quenching the Fire or removing the Matter But no created Power can restrain the Fire so long as it remains so from acting according to its Nature Exod. 3.2 This was done by God in the case of the Three Children and that of the Burning Bush It was as much miraculous that the Bush should not consume as it was natural that it should burn by the efficacy of the Fire upon it No Element is so obstinate and deaf but it hears and obeys his Voice and performs his Orders though contrary to its own Nature All the violence of the Creature is suspended as soon as it receives his Command †Damianus in Petar He that gave the original to Nature can take away the necessity of Nature He presides over Creatures but is not confin'd to those Laws he hath prescrib'd to Creatures He framed Nature and can turn the Channels of Nature according to his own pleasure Men dig into the bowels of Nature search into all the Treasures of it to find Medicines to cure a Disease and after all their Attempts it may prove Labour in vain But God by one Act of his Will one Word of his Mouth overturns the Victory of Death and rescues from the most desperate Diseases * Fauch in Acts Vol. 2. §. 56. All the Miracles which were wrought by the Apostles either speaking some Words or Touching with the Hand were not effected by any virtue inherent in their Words or in their Touches For such Virtue inherent in any created finite Subject would be created and finite it self and consequently were incapable to produce effects which required an infinite Virtue as Miracles do which are above the power of Nature So when our Saviour wrought Miracles it was not by any quality resident in his humane Nature but by the sole Power of his Divinity The Flesh could only do what was proper to the Flesh but the Deity did what was proper to the Deity God alone doth wonders Psal 136.4 Excluding every other cause from producing such things He only doth those things which are above the power of Nature and cannot be wrought by any Natural causes whatsoever He doth not hereby put his Omnipotence to any stress 'T is as easie with him to turn Nature out of its setled course as it was to place it in that station it holds and appoint it that course it runs All the Works of Nature are indeed Miracles and Testimonies of the Power of God producing them and sustaining them But Works above the Power of Nature being Novelties and unusual strike Men with a greater admiration upon their appearance because they are not the products of Nature but the convulsions of it I might also add as an Argument The Power of the Mind of Man to conceive more than hath been wrought by God in the World And God can work whatsoever Perfection the Mind of man can conceive Otherwise the reaches of a created Imagination and Fancy would be more extensive than the Power of God His Power therefore is far greater than the conception of any Intellectual Creature else the Creature would be of a greater capacity to conceive than God is to effect The Creature would have a power of Conception above Gods Power of Activity and consequently a Creature in some respect greater than himself Now whatsoever a Creature can conceive possible to be done is but finite in its own nature and if God could not produce what Being a created Understanding can conceive possible to be done he would be less than Infinite in Power nay he could not go to the extent of what is Finite But I have touched this before That God can create more than he hath created and in a more perfect way of Being as considered simply in themselves III. The Third general thing is to declare How the Power of God appears in Creation in Government in Redemption 1. In Creation With what Majestick Lines doth God set forth his Power in the giving Being and Endowments to all the Creatures in the World Job 38. All that is in Heaven and Earth is his and shews the greatness of his Power Glory Victory 1 Chro. 29.11 and Majesty The Heaven being so Magnificent a piece of work is called emphatically The Firmament of his Power * Psal 150.1 his Power being more conspicuous and unvail'd in that glorious Arch of the World Indeed God exalts by his Power †Job 36.22 that is exalts himself by his Power in all the Works of his hands in the smallest Shrub as well as the most glorious Sun All his Works of Nature are truly Miracles though we consider them not being blinded with too frequent and customary a sight of them yet in the neglect of all the rest the view of the Heavens doth more affect us with astonishment at the Might of Gods Arm These declare his Glory and the Firmament shews his handy work Psal 19.1 Psal 8.3 And the Psalmist peculiarly calls them His Heavens and the work of his Fingers These were immediately created by God whereas many other things in the World were brought into Being by the Power of God yet by the means of the influence of the Heavens 1. His Power is the first thing evident in the story of the Creation In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth Gen. 1.1 There 's no appearance of any thing in this declaratory Preface but of Power The Characters of Wisdom march after in the distinct formation of things and animating them with suitable qualities for an Universal good By Heaven and Earth is meant the whole mass of the Creatures By Heaven all the Aery Region with all the Host of it by the Earth is meant all that which makes the intire inferior Globe The Jews observe that in the
and effect it you would not call the Straw an Instrument in that action because there was nothing in the nature of the Straw to do it It was done wholly by some other force which might have done it as well without the Straw as with it The narrative of the Creation in Genesis removes any Instrument from God The Plants which are preserved and propagated by the influence of the Sun were created the Day before the Sun viz. on the Third day whereas the Light was collected into the body of the Sun on the Fourth day * Gen. 1.11 16. to shew that though the Plants do instrumentally owe their yearly beauty and preservation to the Sun yet they did not in any manner owe their Creation to the the Instrumental heat and vigour of it 2. God created the World by a Word by a simple Act of his Will The whole Creation is wrought by a Word Gen. 1.3 5 c. throughout the whole Chapter God said Let there be Light and God said Let there be a Firmament Not that we should understand it of a sensible Word but to express the easiness of this operation to God as easie as a word to Man We must understand it of a Powerful order of his own Will which is exprest by the Psalmist in the nature of a Command Psal 33.9 He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast and Psal 148.5 He commanded and they were created At the same instant that he willed them to stand forth they did stand forth The efficacious Command of the Creator was the Original of All things he insensibility of Nothing obeyed the act of his Will Creation is therefore enituled a Calling Rom. 4.17 He calls those things which are not as if they were To Create is no more with God than to Call and what he calls presents it self before him in the same posture that he calls it He did with more ease make a World than we can form a Thought 'T is the same ease to him to create Worlds as to decree them There needs no more than a Resolve to have things wrought at such a time and they will be according to his pleasure This Will is his Power Let there be light is the Precept of his Will and there was light is the effect of his Precept By a Word was the Matter of the Heavens and the Earth framed By a Word Things separate themselves from the rude Mass into their proper Forms By a Word Light associates it self into one body and forms a Sun By a Word are the Heavens as it were bespangled with Stars and the Earth drest with Flowers By a Word is the World both ceil'd and floor'd One act of his Will formed the World and perfected its beauty All the variety and several exploits of his Power were not caused by distinct Words or Acts of Power God utter'd not distinct Words for distinct Species as let there be an Elephant and let there be a Lion but as he produced those various Creatures out of one Matter so by one Word By one single Command those varieties of Creatures with their Clothing Ornaments distinct Notes Qualities Functions were brought forth Gen. 1.11 By one Word all the Seeds of the Earth with their various Virtues By one Word Gen 1.20 all the Fish of the Sea and Fowls of the Air in their distinct Natures Instincts Gen. 1.24 Colours By one Word all the Beasts of the Field with their varieties †August Heaven and Earth Spiritual and Corporeal Creatures Mortal and Immortal the Greater and the Less Visible and Invisible were formed with the same ease A Word made the Least and a Word made the Greatest 'T is as little difficulty to him to produce the highest Angel as the lightest Atom 'T is enough for the existence of the slateliest Cherubim for God only to will his Being It was enough for the forming and fixing the Sun to will the compacting of Light into one Body Gen. 2.7 The creation of the Soul of Man is exprest by Inspiration To shew that it is as easie with God to create a Rational Soul as for Man to breath * Theodoret. Breathing is natural to Man by a communication of Gods goodness and the creation of the Soul is as easie to God by virtue of his Almighty Word As there was no proportion between Nothing and Being so there was as little proportion between a Word and such glorious Effects A meer Voice coming from an Omnipotent Will was capable to produce such Varieties which Angels and Men have seen in all Ages of the World and this without weariness What labour is there in Willing what pain could there be in speaking a Word Isai 40.28 The Creator of the ends of the Earth is not weary And though he be said to Rest after the Creation 't is to be meant a Rest from work not a repose from weariness So great is the Power of God that without any Matter without any Instruments he could create many Worlds and with the same ease as he made this 4. I might add also the appearance of this Power in the Instantaneous production of things The ending of his Word was not only the beginning but the perfection of every thing he spake into Being not several Words to several parts and Members but one Word one breath of his Mouth one act of his Will to the whole species of the Creatures and to every Member in each Individual Heaven and Earth were created in a moment Six days went to their disposal and that comly Order we observe in the World was the work of a Week The Matter was formed as soon as God had spoken the word and in every part of the Creation as soon as God spake the word Let it be so the answer immediately is Gen. 1. It was so which notes the present standing up of the Creature according to the act of his Will And therefore †Peiâ—s p. 111. One observes that Let there be light and there was light in the Hebrew are the same words without any alteration of Letter or Point only the conjunctive Particle added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let there be light and let there be light to shew that the same instant of the speaking the Divine word was the appearance of the Creature So great was the Authority of his Will 2. We are to shew Gods Power in the Government of the World As God decreed from Eternity the Creation of things in time so he decreed from Eternity the particular ends of Creatures and their operations respecting those ends Now as there was need of his Power to execute his Decree of Creation there is also need of his Power to execute his Decree about the manner of Government ‖ Suarez Vol. 1. lib 3. cap. 10. All Government is an act of the Understanding Will and Power Prudence to design belongs to the Understanding the election of the
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
crucified at Jerusalem Honours and Wealth were to be despis'd Flesh to be tam'd the Cross to be borne Enemies to be loved Revenge to be satisfied Blood to be spilt and Torments to be endured for the Honour of One they never saw nor ever before heard of who was preached with the Circumstances of a shameful Death enough to affright them from the Entertainment And the Report of a Resurrection and glorious Ascension were things never heard of by them before and unknown in the World that would not easily enter into the belief of men The Cross Disgrace Self-denial were only discours'd of in order to the attainment of an invisible World and an unseen reward which none of their Predecessors ever returned to acquaint them with a Patient death contrary to the pride of Nature was publisht as the way to Happiness and a blessed Immortality The dearest Lusts were to be pierced to death for the honour of this new Lord. Other Religions brought Wealth and Honour this struck them off from such Expectations and presented them with no Promise of any thing in this Life but a prospect of Misery Except those inward Consolations to which before they had been utter Strangers and had never experimented It made them to depend not upon themselves but upon the sole Grace of God It decried all natural all moral Idolatry things as dear to men as the Apple of their Eyes It despoyl'd them of whatsoever the Mind Will and Affections of men naturally lay claim to and glory in It pulled Self up by the Roots unman'd carnal Man and debas'd the Principle of Honour and Self-satisfaction which the World counted at that time noble and brave In a word it took them off from themselves to act like Creatures of God's framing to know no more than he would admit them and do no more than he did command them How difficult must it needs be to reduce men that plac'd all their happiness in the Pleasures of this Life from their pompous Idolatry and brutish Affections to this mortifying Religion What might the World say Here is a Doctrine will render us a company of puling Animals Farewel Generosity Bravery Sense of Honour Courage in enlarging the Bounds of our Country for an ardent Charity to the bitterest of our Enemies Here 's a Religion will rust our Swords Canker our Arms dispirit what we have hitherto called Vertue and annihilate what hath been esteem'd worthy and comely among Mankind Must we change Conquest for Suffering the increase of our Reputation for Self-denial the natural Sentiment of Self-preservation for affecting a dreadful Death How impossible was it that a Crucified Lord and a Crucifying Doctrine should be received in the World without the mighty Operation of a Divine Power upon the Hearts of Men And in this also the Almighty Power of God did notably shine forth II. Divine Power appear'd in the Instruments employ'd for the publishing and propagating the Gospel Who were 1. Mean and worthless in themselves Not noble and dignified with an earthly Grandeur but of a low Condition meanly bred So far from any splendid Estates that they possessed nothing but their Nets without any Credit and Reputation in the World without Comliness and Strength as unfit to subdue the World by Preaching as an Army of Hares were to conquer it by War Not learned Doctors bred up at the feet of the Famous Rabbins at Jerusalem whom Paul calls the Princes of the World * 1 Cor. 2.8 nor nurs'd up in the School of Athens under the Philosophers and Orators of the time Not the Wise-men of Greece but the Fishermen of Galilee naturally skill'd in no Language but their own and no more exact in that than those of the same Condition in any other Nation Ignorant of every thing but the Language of their Lakes and their fishing Trade except Paul call'd sometime after the rest to that Imployment And after the descent of the Spirit they were ignorant and unlearned in every thing but the Doctrine they were commanded to publish for the Council before whom they were summon'd prov'd them to be so which increased their wonder at them Acts 4.13 Had it been publish't by a Voice from Heaven That Twelve poor men taken out of Boats and Creeks without any help of Learning should conquer the World to the Cross it might have been thought an Illusion against all the Reason of Men yet we know it was undertaken and accomplish't by them They publish't this Doctrine in Jerusalem and quickly spread it over the greatest part of the World Folly outwitted Wisdom and Weakness over-powred Strength The Conquest of the East by Alexander was not so admirable as the Enterprise of these poor men He attempted his Conquest with the hands of a Warlike Nation though indeed but a small number of Thirty thousand against Multitudes many Hundred thousands of the Enemies yet an Effeminate Enemy a People inur'd to Slaughter and Victory attack'd great Numbers but enfeebled by Luxury and Voluptuousness Besides he was bred up to such Enterprizes had a learned Education under the best Philosopher and a Military Education under the best Commander and a natural Courage to animate him These Instruments had no such advantage from Nature the Heavenly Treasure was placed in those Earthen Vessels as Gideons Lamps in empty Pitchers Judges 7.16 that the excellency or Hyperbole of the Power might be of God 2 Cor. 4.7 and the strength of his Arm be display'd in the infirmity of the Instruments They were destitute of earthly Wisdom and therefore despis'd by the Jews and derided by the Gentiles the Publishers were accounted Mad men and the embracers Fools Had they been Men of known natural Endowments the Power of God had been vail'd under the Gifts of the Creature 2. Therefore a Divine Power suddenly spirited them and fitted them for so great a Work Instead of Ignorance they had the knowledge of the Tongues and they that were scarce well skill'd in their own Dialect were instructed on the sudden to speak the most flourishing Languages of the World and Discourse to the People of several Nations the great things of God †Acts 2.11 Though they were not enricht with any Worldly wealth and possessed nothing yet they were so sustained that they wanted nothing in any place where they came a Table was spread for them in the midst of their bitterest Enemies Their Fearfulness was chang'd into Courage and they that a few days before skulk'd in Corners for fear of the Jews ‖ John 20.19 speak boldly in the Name of that Jesus whom they had seen put to death by the Power of the Rulers and the Fury of the People They reproach them with the Murder of their Master and out-brave that great People in the midst of their Temple with the glory of that Person they had so lately Crucified * Acts 2.23 Acts 3.13 Peter that was not long before qualm'd at the presence of a Maid was not daunted
at the Presence of the Council that had their hands yet reeking with the Blood of his Master but being filled with the Holy Ghost seems to dare the Power of the Priests and Jewish Governours and is as confident in the Council Chamber as he had been cowardly in the High Priests Hall †Acts 4.9 c. the efficacy of Grace triumphing over the Fearfulness of Nature Whence should this Ardor and Zeal to propagate a Doctrine that had already born the Scars of the Peoples Fury be but from a mighty Power which changed those Hares into Lions and stript them of their Natural Cowardize â—o cloath them with a Divine Courage making them in a moment both Wise and Magnanimous alienating them from any Consultations with Flesh and Blood As soon as ever the Holy Ghost came upon them as a mighty rushing Wind they move up and down for the Interest of God as Fish after a great Clap of Thunder are rowz'd and move more nimbly on the top of the Water therefore that which did so fit them for this undertaking is called by the title of Power from on high Luke 24.49 III. The Divine Power appears in the Means whereby it was propagated 1. By Means different from the Methods of the World Not by force of Arms as some Religions have taken root in the World Mahomets Horse hath trampled upon the Heads of Men to imprint an Alcoran in their Brains and robb'd Men of their Goods to plant their Religion But the Apostles bore not this Doctrine through the World upon the Points of their Swords they presented a Bodily death where they would bestow an Immortal life They employ'd not Troops of Men in a Warlike posture which had been possible for them after the Gospel was once spread they had no Ambition to subdue Men unto themselves but to God they coveted not the Possessions of others design'd not to enrich themselves invaded not the Rights of Princes nor the Liberties and Properties of the People They rifled them not of their Estates nor scar'd them into this Religion by a fear of losing their Worldly happiness The Arguments they used would naturally drive them from an entertainment of this Doctrine rather than allure them to be Proselytes to it Their design was to change their Hearts not their Government to wean them from the love of the World to a love of a Redeemer to remove that which would ruine their Souls It was not to enslave them but ransom them they had a warfare but not with Carnal weapons but such as were mighty through God for the pulling down of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 they used no weapons but the Doctrine they preach'd Others that have not gained Conquests by the Edge of the Sword and the Stratagems of War have extended their Opinions to others by the strength of Humane Reason and the Insinuations of Eloquence But the Apostles had as little flourish in their Tongues as edge upon their Swords Their Preaching was not with the enticing words of Mans wisdom * 1 Cor. 2.4 their Presence was mean and their Discourses without varnish their Doctrine was plain a Crucified Christ a Doctrine unlac'd ungarnisht untoothsom to the World but they had the demonstration of the Spirit and a mighty Power for their Companion in the work The Doctrine they preached viz. the Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are called the Powers not of this World but of the World to come †Heb. 6.5 No less than a Supernatural Power could conduct them in this Attempt with such weak Methods in Humane appearance 2. Against all the Force Power and Wit of the World The Divisions in the Eastern Empire and the feeble and consuming State of the Western contributed to Mahomets Success ‖ Dailâ—é 15. Serm. p. 57. But never was Rome in a more flourishing condition Learning Eloquence Wisdom Strength were at the highest pitch Never was there a more diligent Watch against any Innovations never was that State governed by more severe and suspicious Princes than at the time when Tiberius and Nero held the Rains No time seemed to be more unfit for the entrance of a New Doctrine than that Age wherein it begun to be first publish'd never did any Religion meet with that Opposition from Men. Idolatry hath been often setled without any Contest but this hath suffered the same Fate with the Institutor of it and endured the Contradictions of Sinners against it self And those that publish'd it were not only without any Worldly prop but expos'd themselves to the Hatred and Fury to the Racks and Tortures of the strongest Powers on Earth It never set foot in any place but the Country was in an uproar †Acts 19.28 Swords were drawn to destroy it Laws made to suppress it Prisons provided for the Professors of it Fires kindled to consume them and Executioners had a perpetual employment to stifle the progress of it Rome in its Conquest of Countries chang'd not the Religion Rites and Modes of their Worship They alter'd their Civil Government but left them to the liberty of their Religion and many times joyned with them in the Worship of their Peculiar gods and sometime imitated them at Rome instead of abolishing them in the Cities they had subdued But all their Councils were assembled and their Force was bandied against the Lord and against his Christ and that City that kindly receiv'd all manner of Superstitions hated this Doctrine with an irreconcileable hatred It met with Reproaches from the Wise and Fury from the Potentates it was derided by the one as the greatest Folly and persecuted by the other as contrary to God and Mankind the one were afraid to lose their Esteems by the Doctrine and the other to lose their Authority by a Sedition they thought a change of Religion would introduce The Romans that had been Conquerors of the Earth feared Intestine Commotions and the falling asunder the Links of their Empire Scarce any of their first Emperors but had their Swords dy'd Red in the Blood of the Christians The Flesh with all its Lusts the World with all its Flatteries the Statesmen with all their Craft and the Mighty with all their Strength joyn'd together to extirpate it Though many Members were taken off by the Fires yet the Church not only lived but flourish'd in the Furnace Converts were made by the Death of Martyrs and the Flames which consumed their Bodies were the occasion of firing Mens hearts with a Zeal for the Profession of it Instead of being extinguish'd the Doctrine shone more bright and multiplied under the Sickles that were employed to cut it down God ordered every Circumstance so both in the Persons that publish'd it the Means whereby and the Time when that nothing but his Power might appear in it without any thing to dim and darken it IV. The Divine Power was conspicuous in the great success it had under all these difficulties Multitudes were Prophecied of to
embrace it whence the Prophet Isaiah after the Prophecy of the Death of Christ Isai 53. calls upon the Church to enlarge her Tents and lengthen out her Cords to receive those Multitudes of Children that should call her Mother Isai 54.2 3. for she should break forth on the right hand and on the left and her seed should inherit the Gentiles The Idolaters and Persecutors should list their Names in the Muster-Roll of the Church Presently after the Descent of the Holy Ghost from Heaven upon the Apostles you find the hearts of Three thousand melted by a plain declaration of this Doctrine who were a little before so far from having a Favourable thought of it that some of them at least if not all had exprest their Rage against it in Voting for the Condemning and Crucifying the Author of it †Acts 2.41 42. But in a moment they were so altered that they breath out Affections instead of Fury neither the respect they had to their Rulers nor the honour they bore to their Priests not the derisions of the People nor the threatning of Punishment could stop them from owning it in the face of multitudes of Discouragements How wonderful is it that they should so soon and by such small Means pay a reverence to the Servants who had none for the Master that they should hear them with patience without the same Clamor against them as against Christ Crucifie them Crucifie them But that their hearts should so suddenly be enflam'd with Devotion to him dead whom they so much abhorred when living It had gained footing not in a Corner of the World but in the most famous Cities in Jerusalem where Christ had been Crucified in Antioch where the Name of Christians first began in Corinth a place of Ingenious Arts and Ephesus the Seat of a noted Idol In less than Twenty years there was never a Province of the Roman Empire and scarce any part of the known World but was stor'd with the Professors of it Rome that was the Metropolis of the Idolatrous World had multitudes of them sprinkled in every Corner whose Faith was spoken of throughout the World * Rom. 1.8 The Court of Nero that Monster of Mankind and the cruellest and sordid'st Tyrant that ever breathed was not empty of sincere Votaries to it there were Saints in Caesars house while Paul was under Nero's Chain ‖ Phil. 4. And it maintain'd its standing and flourish'd in spite of all the force of Hell 250 years before any Soveraign Prince espoused it The Potentates of the Earth had conquer'd the Lands of Men and subdued their Bodies these vanquisht Hearts and Wills and brought the most beloved Thoughts under the Yoke of Christ So much did this Doctrine overmaster the Consciences of its Followers that they rejoyced more at their Yoke than others at their Liberty and counted it more a glory to die for the honour of it than to live in the profession of it Thus did our Saviour Reign and gather Subjects in the midst of his Enemies in which respect in the first discovery of the Gospel he is describ'd as a Mighty Conqueror Revel 6.2 and still conquering in the greatness of his strength How great a Testimony of his Power is it that from so small a Cloud should rise so glorious a Sun that should chase before it the Darkness and Power of Hell Triumph over the Idolatry Superstition and Prophaness of the World This plain Doctrine vanquisht the Obstinacy of the Jews baffled the Understanding of the Greeks humbled the Pride of the Grandees threw the Devil not only out of Bodies but Hearts tore up the foundation of his Empire and planted the Cross where the Devil had for many Ages before established his Standard How much more than a humane Force is illustrious in this whole Conduct Nothing in any Age of the World can parallel it it being so much against the Methods of Nature the Disposition of the World and considering the Resistance against it seems to surmount even the Work of Creation Never were there in any Profession such multitudes not of Bedlams but Men of Sobriety Acuteness and Wisdom that expos'd themselves to the fury of the Flames and challenged Death in the most terrifying shapes for the Honour of this Doctrine To conclude This should be often meditated upon to form our Understandings to a full assent to the Gospel and the Truth of it the want of which Consideration of Power and the Customariness of an Education in the outward Profession of it is the ground of all the Prophaneness under it and Apostacy from it the disesteem of the Truth it declares and the neglect of the Duties it enjoyns The more we have a prospect and sense of the Impressions of Divine Power in it the more we shall have a Reverence of the Divine Precepts III. The Third thing is The Power of God appears in the application of Redemption as well as in the Person Redeeming and the publication and propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption 1. In the planting Grace 2. In the Pardon of Sin 3. In the preserving Grace 1. In the planting Grace There is no Expression which the Spirit of God hath thought fit in Scripture to resemble this Work to but argues the exerting of a Divine Power for the effecting of it When it is exprest by Light it is as much as the Power of God in creating the Sun when by Regeneration 't is as much as the Power of God in forming an Infant and fashioning all the Parts of a Man when it is called Resurrection 't is as much as the rearing of the Body again out of putrified Matter when it is called Creation 't is as much as erecting a comly World out of meer Nothing or an inform and uncomly Mass As we could not contrive the Death of Christ for our Redemption so we cannot form our Souls to the Acceptation of it the Infinite efficacy of Grace is as necessary for the one as the Infinite Wisdom of God was for laying the Platform of the other 'T is by his Power we have whatsoever pertains to Godliness as well as Life * 2 Pet. 1.3 He puts his Fingers upon the handle of the Lock and turns the Heart to what Point he pleases the Action whereby he performs this is exprest by a word of Force †Colos 1.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath snatcht us from the power of Darkness the Action whereby it is perform'd manifests it In reference to this Power it is called Creation which is a production from Nothing and Conversion is a production from something more uncapable of that state than meer Nothing is of Being There is a greater distance between the Terms of Sin and Righteousness Corruption and Grace than between the Terms of Nothing and Being The greater the distance is the more Power is requir'd to the producing any thing As in Miracles the Miracle is the greater where the Change is the greater
they entitle God in their Liturgy the Lord of Ages that is the Lord of the World and all Ages and Revolutions of the World from the Creation to the last Period of Time If any thing were in Being before this frame of Heaven and Earth and within the compass of Time it receiv'd Being and Duration from the Son of God The Apostle would give an Argument to prove the equity of making him Heir of all things as Mediator because he was the Framer of all things as God He may well be the Heir or Lord of Angels as well as Men who created Angels as well as Men All things were justly under his Power as Mediator since they deriv'd their Existence from him as Creator 3. But Thirdly what evasion can there be for that Coloss 1.16 By him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him He is said to be the Creator of Material and Visible things as well as Spiritual and Invisible of things in Heaven which needed no restoration as well as things on Earth which were polluted by Sin and stood in need of a new Creation How could the Angels belong to the new Creation who had never put off the honour and purity of the first Since they never divested themselves of their original Integrity they could not be reinvested with that which they never lost Besides suppose the Holy Angels be one way or other reduc'd as parts of the new Creation as being under the Mediatory Government of our Saviour as their Head and in regard of their confirmation by him in that happy state In what manner shall the Devils be ran'kd among new Creatures They are called Principalities and Powers as well as the Angels and may come under the Title of Things invisible That they are called Principalities and Powers is plain Ephes 6.12 For we wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities and Powers the Rulers of the Darkness of this World against Spiritual wickedness in high places Good Angels are not there meant for what War have Believers with them or they with Believers They are the Guardians of them since Christ hath taken away the Enmity between our Lord and theirs in whose quarrel they were engag'd against us And since the Apostle speaking of All things created by him expresseth it so that it cannot be conceived he should except any thing how come the finally Impenitent and Unbelievers which are Things in Earth and visible to be listed here in the Roll of New Creatures None of these can be called New Creatures because they are subjected to the Government of Christ no more than the Earth and Sea and the Animals in it are made New Creatures because they are all under the Dominion of Christ and his Providential Government Again the Apostle manifestly makes the Creation he here speaks of to be the Material and not the New Creation for that he speaks of afterwards as a distinct act of our Lord Jesus under the Title of Reconciliation Coloss 1.20 21. which was the restoration of the World and the satisfying for that Curse that lay upon it His intent is here to shew that not an Angel in Heaven nor a Creature upon Earth but was placed in their several degrees of excellency by the Power of the Son of God who after that act of Creation and the entrance of Sin was the Reconciler of the World through the Blood of his Cross 4. There is another place as clear John 1.3 All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made The Creation is here ascrib'd to him Affirmatively All things were made by him Negatively There was nothing made without him And the Words are Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not one thing excepting nothing including invisible things as well as things conspicuous to sense only mentioned in the story of the Creation Gen. 1. not only the intire Mass but the distinct parcels the smallest Worm and the highest Angel owe their Original to him And if not one thing then the Matter was not created to his hands and his work consisted not only in the forming things from that Matter If that one thing of Matter were excepted a chief thing were excepted if not one thing were excepted then he created Something of Nothing because Spirits as Angels and Souls are not made of any pre-existing or fore-created Matter How could the Evangelist phrase it more extensively and comprehensively This is a Character of Omnipotency to create the World and every thing in it of Nothing requires an Infinite Virtue and Power If all things were created by him they were not created by him as Man because Himself as Man was not in Being before the Creation If all things were made by him then Himself was not made Himself was not created and to be existent without being made without being created is to be unboundedly Omnipotent And if we understand it of the New Creation as they do that will not allow him an existence in his Deity before his Humanity it cannot be true of that for how could he regenerate Abraham make Simeon and Anna new Creatures who waited for the salvation of Israel and form John Baptist and fill him with the Holy Ghost even from the womb * Luke 1.15 who belong'd to the new Creation and was to prepare the way if Christ had not a Being before him The Evangelist alludes to and explains the History of the Creation in the beginning and acquaints us what was meant by God said so often viz. the Eternal Word and describes him in his Creative Power manifested in the framing the World before he describes him in his Incarnation when he came to lay the Foundation of the restoration of the World John 1.14 The Word was made flesh this Word who was with God who was God who made all things and gave Being to the most glorious Angels and the meanest Creature without exception this Word in time was made flesh 5. The Creation of things mentioned in these Scriptures cannot be attributed to him as an Instrument As if when it is said God created all things by him and by him made the Worlds we were to understand the Father to be the Agent and the Son to be a Tool in his Fathers hand as an Ax in the hand of a Carpenter or a File in the hand of a Smith or a Servant acting by Command as the Organ of his Master The Preposition Per. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not alway signifie an Instrumental cause When it is said that the Apostle gave the Thessalonians a Command by Jesus Christ 1 Thess 4 2. was Christ the Instrument and not the Lord of that Command the Apostle gave The immediate Operation of Christ dwelling in the Apostles was that whereby they gave the Commands to their Disciples When we are called by God
1 Cor. 1.9 Is he the Instrumental or Principal cause of our effectual Vocation And can the Will of God be the Instrument of putting Paul into the Apostleship or the Soveraign cause of investing him with that Dignity when he calls himself an Apostle by the will of God Ephes 1.3 And when all things are said to be through God as well as of him must he be counted the Instrumental cause of his own Creation Counsels and Judgments * Rom. 11.36 When we mortifie the deeds of the Body through the Spirit Rom. 8.13 or keep the Treasure of the Word by the Holy Ghost 2 Tim. 1.14 Is the Holy Ghost of no more dignity in such acts than Instrument Nor doth the gaining a thing by a Person make him a meer Instrument or Inferior as when a Man gains his Right in a way of Justice against his Adversary by the Magistrate is the Judge inferiour to the Suppliant If the Word were an Instrument in Creation it must be a created or uncreated Instrument If Created it could not be true what the Evangelist saith that All things were made by him since himself the Principal thing could not be made by himself if Uncreated he was God and so acted by a Divine Omnipotency which surmounts an Instrumental cause But indeed an Instrument is impossible in Creation since it is wrought only by an act of the Divine Will Do we need any Organ to an act of Volition the efficacious Will of the Creator is the cause of the Original of the Body of the World with its particular Members and exact Harmony It was form'd by a Word and establish'd by a Command †Psal 33.9 the beauty of the Creation stood up at the Precept of his Will Nor was the Son a Partial cause as when many are said to build a House one works one part and another frames another part God created all things by the immediate operation of the Son in the unity of Essence Goodness Power Wisdom not an extrinsick but a connatural Instrument As the Sun doth illustrate all things by his Light and quickens all things by his Heat so God created the Worlds by Christ as he was the brightness or splendor of his Glory the exact image of his Person which follows the declaration of his making the Worlds by him ‖ Heb. 1.3 4. to shew that he acted not as an Instrument but one in Essential conjunction with him as Light and Brightness with the Sun But suppose he did make the World as a kind of Instrument He was then before the World not bounded by Time and Eternity cannot well be conceiv'd belonging to a Being without Omnipotency He is the End as well as the Author of the Creatures * Colos 1.16 not only the Principle which gave them Being but the Sea into whose glory they run and dissolve themselves which consists not with the meaness of an Instrument 2. As Creation so Preservation is ascribed to him Colos 1.17 By him all things consist As he preceded all things in his Eternity so he establishes all things by his Omnipotency and fixes them in their several Centers that they sink not into that nothing from whence he fetched them By him they flourish in their several Beings and observe the Laws and Orders he first appointed That Power of his which extracted them from insensible Nothing upholds them in their several Beings with the same facility as he spake Being into them even by the word of his Power ‖ Heb. 1 3. and by one Creative continued Voice called all Generations from the beginning to the Period of the World * Isai 41.4 and causes them to flourish in their several seasons 'T is by him Kings reign and Princes decree justice and all things are confin'd within the limits of Government All which are Acts of an Infinite Power 3. Resurrection is also ascrib'd to him The Body crumbled to Dust and that Dust blown to several quarters of the World cannot be gathered in its distinct parts and new formed for the entertainment of the Soul without the strength of an Infinite Arm. This he will do and more change the vileness of an Earthly Body into the glory of an Heavenly one a Dusty flesh into a Spiritual Body which is an argument of a Power Invincible to which all things cannot but stoop for it is by such an operation which testifies an ability to subdue all things to himself †Phil. 3.21 especially when he works it with the same ease as he did the Creation by the power of his Voice John 5.28 All that are in the Graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth Speaking them into a restored life from insensible Dust as he did into Being from an empty Nothing The greatest acts of Power are own'd to belong to Creation Preservation Resurrection Omnipotence therefore is his Right and therefore a Deity cannot be denied to him that inherits a Perfection essential to none but God and impossible to be intrusted in or managed by the hands of any Creatures And this is no mean comfort to those that believe in him He is in regard of his Power the Horn of salvation so Zachariah sings of him Luke 1.69 Nor could there be any more Mighty found out upon whom God could have laid our help ‖ Psal 89.19 No reason therefore to doubt his ability to save to the utmost who hath the Power of Creation Preservation and Resurrection in his hands His Promises must be accomplished since nothing can resist him He hath Power to fulfil his Word and bring all things to a final issue because he is Almighty by his Outstretched Arm in the Deliverance of his Israel from Egypt for it was his Arm 1 Cor. 10. he shewed that he was able to deliver us from Spiritual Egypt The charge of Mediator to expiate Sin vanquish Hell form a Church conduct and perfect it are not to be effected by a Person of less ability than Infinite Let this Almightiness of his be the Bottom wherein to cast and fix the Anchor of our Hopes 2. Information Hence may be inferred the Deity of the Holy Ghost Works of Omnipotency are ascrib'd to the Spirit of God By the motion of the Wings of this Spirit as a Bird over her Eggs was that rude and unshapen Mass hatcht into a comly World * Gen. 1.2 So the word Moved properly signifies The Stars or perhaps the Angels are meant by the garnishing of the Heavens in the Verse before the Text were brought forth in their comliness and dignity as the ornaments of the upper World by this Spirit By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens To this Spirit Job ascribes the formation both of the Body and Soul under the Title of Almighty Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life Resurrection another work of Omnipotency is attributed to him Rom. 8.11 The Conception of our Saviour
in Scripture the strongest Affirmations or Negations 'T is here a strong affirmation of the Incomparableness of God and a strong denial of the worthiness of all Creatures to be partners with him in the degrees of his Excellency 'T is a preference of God before all Creatures in Holiness to which the purity of Creatures is but a shadow in desert of Reverence and Veneration he being Fearful in praises The Angels cover their Faces when they adore him in his particular Perfections Amongst the gods Among the Idols of the Nations say some Others say * River 'T is not to be found that the Heathen Idols are ever dignified with the Title of Strong or Mighty as the word translated Gods doth import and therefore understand it of the Angels or other Potentates of the World or rather inclusively of all that are noted for and can lay claim to the Title of Strength and Might upon the Earth or in Heaven God is so great and Majestick that no Creature can share with him in his Praise Fearful in praises Various are the Interpretations of this passage To be reverenc'd in praises his Praise ought to be celebrated with a Religious Fear Fear is the product of his Mercy as well as his Justice He hath forgiveness that he may be feared Psal 130.4 Or Fearful in praises whom none can praise without Amazement at the considerations of his works †Calvin None can truly praise him without being affected with Astonishment at his Greatness Or Fearful in praises | Munster whom no Mortal can sufficiently praise since he is above all Praise Whatsoever a Human Tongue can speak or an Angelical Understanding think of the Excellency of his Nature and the Greatness of his Works falls short of the vastness of the Divine Perfection A Creatures Praises of God are as much below the transcendent Eminency of God as the meaness of a Creatures Being is below the Eternal Fulness of the Creator Or rather Fearful or Terrible in praises that is in the Matter of thy Praise And the Learned Rivet concurs with me in this sense The Works of God celebrated in this Song were Terrible It was the Miraculous overthrow of the Strength and Flower of a Mighty Nation His Judgments were severe as well as his Mercy was seasonable The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Glorious and Illustrious as well as Terrible and Fearful No Man can hear the Praise of thy Name for those great Judicial Acts without some Astonishment at thy Justice the stream and thy Holiness the Spring of those Mighty Works This seems to be the sense of the following words Doing wonders Fearful in the Matter of thy Praise they being Wonders which thou hast done among us and for us Doing wonders Congealing the Waters by a Wind to make them stand like Walls for the rescue of the Israelites and melting them by a Wind for the overthrow of the Egyptians are Prodigies that challenge the greatest Adorations of that Mercy which delivered the one and that Justice which punished the other and of the Arm of that Power whereby he effected both his Gracious and his Righteous Purposes Doctr. Whence observe That the Judgments of God upon his Enemies as well as his Mercies to his People are matter of Praise The Perfections of God appear in both Justice and Mercy are so linkt together in his acts of Providence that the one cannot be forgotten whiles the other is acknowledged He is never so Terrible as in the Assemblies of his Saints and the Deliverance of them Psal 89.7 As the Creation was erected by him for his Glory so all the Acts of his Government are design'd for the same end And his Creatures deny him his due if they acknowledge not his Excellency in whatsoever dreadful as well as pleasing Garbs it appears in the World His Terror as well as his Righteousness appears when he is a God of Salvation Psal 65.5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us oh God of our Salvation But the Expression I pitch upon in the Text to handle is Glorious in Holiness He is Magnified or Honourable in Holiness so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated Isai 42.21 He will magnifie the Law and make it honourable Thy Holiness hath shone forth admirably in this last Exploit against the Enemies and Oppressors of thy People The Holiness of God is his Glory as his Grace is his Riches Holiness is his Crown and his Mercy is his Treasure This is the Blessedness and Nobleness of his Nature it renders him Glorious in himself and Glorious to his Creatures that understand any thing of this lovely Perfection Doctr. Holiness is a glorious Perfection belonging to the Nature of God Hence he is in Scripture styled often the Holy one the Holy one of Jacob the Holy one of Israel and oftner entituled Holy than Almighty and set forth by this part of his Dignity more than by any other This is more affix'd as an Epithete to his Name than any other You never find it exprest his Mighty Name or his Wise Name but his Great Name and most of all his Holy Name This is his greatest Title of Honour in this doth the Majesty and Venerableness of his Name appear When the Sinfulness of Senacherib is aggravated the Holy Ghost takes the rise from this Attribute 2 Kings 19.22 Thou hast lift up thine eyes on high even against the Holy one of Israel not against the Wise Mighty c. but against the Holy one of Israel as that wherein the Majesty of God was most illustrious 'T is upon this account he is called Light as Impurity is called Darkness both in this sense are opposed to one another He is a pure and unmixt Light free from all blemish in his Essence Nature and Operations 1. Heathens have own'd it Proclus calls him the Vndefiled Governour of the World * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Poetical Transformations of their False gods and the Extravagancies committed by them was in the account of the wisest of them an unholy thing to report and hear †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ammon in Plut. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Delphos p. 393. ‖ Gassend Tom. 1. Phys §. 1. lib. 4. cap. 2. p. 289. And some vindicate Epicurus from the Atheism wherewith he was commonly charged that he did not deny the Being of God but those Adulterous and contentious Deities the People worshipped which were Practises unworthy and unbecoming the Nature of God Hence they asserted that Vertue was an Imitation of God and a Vertuous Man bore a resemblance to God If Vertue were a Copy from God a greater Holiness must be owned in the Original And when some of them were at a loss how to free God from being the Author of Sin in the World they ascribe the birth of Sin to Matter and run into an absurd Opinion fancying it to be uncreated that thereby they might exempt God from
than Men have reason to complain for the exercise of Justice in the vindication of it If God established all things in Order with Infinite Wisdom and Goodness and God silently behold for ever this Order broken would he not either charge himself with a want of Power or a want of Will to preserve the Marks of his own Goodness Would it be a kindness to himself to be careless of the breaches of his own Orders His Throne would shake yea sink from under him if Justice whereby he Sentenceth and Judgment whereby he Executes his Sentence were not the supports of it †Ps 89.14 Justice and Judgment are the habitation of thy Throne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Stability or Foundation of thy Throne So Psal 92.2 Man would forget his Relation to God God would be unknown to be Soveraign of the World were he careless of the breaches of his own Order * Psal 9.16 The Lord is known by the Judgments which he Executes Is it not a part of his Goodness to preserve the indispensible Order between himself and his Creatures His own Soveraignty which is good and the subjection of the Creature to him as Soveraign which is also good The one would not be maintained in its due place nor the other restrained in due limits without Punishment Would it be a goodness in him to see Goodness it self trampled upon constantly without some time or other appearing for the relief of it Is it not a Goodness to secure his own Honour to prevent further Evil Is it not a Goodness to discourage Men by Judgments sometimes from a contempt and ill use of his Bounty as well as sometimes patiently to bear with them and wait upon them for a Reformation Must God be bad to himself to be kind to his Enemies And shall it be accounted an unkindness and a Mark of Evil in him not to suffer himself to be always outrag'd and defy'd The World is wrong'd by Sin as well as God is injur'd by it How could God be good to himself if he righted not his own Honour Or be a good Governour of the World if he did not sometimes witness against the Injuries it receives sometimes from the works of his hands Would he be good to himself as a God to be careless of his own Honour Or good as the Rector of the World and be regardless of the Worlds Confusion That God should give an Eternal good to that Creature that declines its Duty and despiseth his Soveraignty is not agreeable to the goodness of his Wisdom or that of his Righteousness 'T is a part of Gods Goodness to love himself Would he love his Soveraignty if he saw it dayly slighted without sometimes discovering how much he values the Honour of it Would he have any esteem for his own Goodness if he beheld it trampled upon without any will to vindicate it Doth Mercy deserve the name of Cruelty because it pleads against a Creature that hath so often abused it and hath refused to have any pity exercised towards it in a Righteous and Regular way Is Soveraignty destitute of Goodness because it preserves its Honour against one that would not have it Reign over him Would he not seem by such a regardlesness to renounce his own Essence undervalue and undermine his own Goodness if he had not an implacable aversion to whatsoever is contrary to it If Men turn Grace into Wantonness is it not more reasonable he should turn his Grace into Justice All his Attributes which are parts of his Goodness engage him to punish Sin without it his Authority would be vilified his Purity stain'd his Power derided his Truth disgraced his Justice scorn'd his Wisdom slighted He would be thought to have dissembled in his Laws and be judged according to the Rules of Reason to be void of true Goodness 4. Punishment is not the primary Intention of God 'T is his Goodness that he hath no mind to Punish and therefore he hath put a bar to Evil by his Prohibitions and Threatnings that he might prevent Sin and consequently any occasions of severity against his Creature * Zarnovecius de satisfact Part. 1. cap. 1. p. 3 4. The principal Intention of God in his Law was to encourage Goodness that he might reward it And when by the commission of Evil God is provoked to Punish and takes the Sword into his hand he doth not act against the Nature of his Goodness but against the first intention of his Goodness in his Precepts which was to Reward As a good Judge principally intendeds in the Exercise of his Office to protect good Men from Violence and maintain the honour of the Laws yet consequently to punish bad men without which the Protection of the good would not be secured nor the Honour of the Law be supported And a good Judge in the Exercise of his Office doth principally intend the incouragement of the good and wisheth there were no wickedness that might occasion Punishment and when he doth Sentence a Malefactor in order to the Execution of him he doth not act against the goodness of his Nature but pursuant to the Duty of his Place but wisheth he had no occasion for such severity Thus God seems to speak of himself †Isaiah 28.21 He calls the act of his Wrath his Strange Work his Strange Act A work not against his Nature as the Governor of the World but against his first Intention as Creator which was to manifest his Goodness Therefore he moves with a slow pace in those Acts brings out his Judgments with relentings of heart and seems to cast out his Thunderbolts with a trembling hand He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men * Lam. 3.33 And therefore he delights not in the death of a Sinner †Ezek. 33.11 Not in Death as Death in Punishment as Punishment but as it reduceth the suffering Creature to the Order of his Precept or reduceth him into order under his Power or reforms others who are Spectators of the Punishment upon a Criminal of their own Nature God only hates the Sin not the Sinner He desires only the destruction of the one * Suarez Vol. 1. de Deo lib. 3. cap. 7. p. 146. not the misery of the other The Nature of a Man doth not displease him because it is a work of his own Goodness but the Nature of the Sinner displeaseth him because it is a work of the Sinners own extravagance Divine Goodness pitcheth not its hatred primarily upon the Sinner but upon the Sin But since he cannot punish the Sin without punishing the Subject to which it cleaves the Sinner falls under his lash Who ever regards a good Judge as an Enemy to the Malefactor but as an Enemy to his Crime when he doth Sentence and Execute him 5. Judgments in the World have a goodness in them therefore they are no Impeachments of the Goodness of God 1. A Goodness in their preparations He
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
admirable is it for God to speak so kindly to us through the pacifying Blood of the Covenant that silenc'd the terrours of the old and setled the tenderness of the new 2. His Goodness is seen in the Nature and Tenor of the new Covenant There are in this richer Streams of Love and Pity The language of one was die if thou Sin that of the other live if thou believest †Turreti ser p. 33. The old Covenant was founded upon the obedience of Man the new is not founded upon the inconstancy of Mans Will but the firmness of Divine Love and the valuable Merit of Christ The head of the first Covenant was Humane and mutable the head of the second is Divine and immutable The Curse due to us by the breach of the first is taken off by the indulgence of the second * Rom 8.1 We are by it snatcht from the Jaws of the Law to be wrapt up in the bosom of Grace †Rom. 6.14 For you are not under the Law but under Grace from the Curse and condemnation of the Law to the sweetness and forgiveness of Grace Christ bore the one being made a Curse for us * Gal. 3.13 that we might enjoy the sweetness of the other By this we are brought from Mount Sinai the Mount of Terrour to Mount Sion the Mount of Sacrificing the Type of the great Sacrifice †Heb. 12.18 22. That Covenant brought in Death upon one offence this Covenant offers Life after many offences * Rom. 5.16 â—7 That involved us in a Curse and this enricheth us with a Blessing The breaches of that expell'd us out of Paradise and the embracing of this admits us into Heaven This Covenant demands and admits of that Repentance whereof there was no mention in the first That demanded Obedience not Repentance upon a failure and though the exercises of it had been never so deep in the fall'n Creature nothing of the Laws severity had been remitted by any vertue of it Again the first Covenant demanded exact Righteousness but conveyed no cleansing vertue upon the contracting any filth The first demands a continuance in the Righteousness conferr'd in Creation the second imprints a gracious heart in Regeneration I will pour clean Water upon you I will put a new Spirit within you was the voice of the second Covenant not of the first Again as to Pardon Adams Covenant was to punish him not to pardon him if he fell That threatned Death upon Transgression this remits it That was an Act of Divine Soveraignty declaring the will of God this is an Act of Divine Grace passing an Act of Oblivion on the Crimes of the Creature That as it demanded no Repentance upon a failure so it promised no Mercy upon guilt That convened our Sin and condemned us for it this clears our guilt and comforts us under it The first Covenant related us to God as a Judge every transgression against it forfeited his indulgence as a Father The second delivers us from God as a condemning Judge to bring us under his Wing as an affectionate Father In the one there was a dreadful frown to scare us in the other a healing Wing to cover and relieve us Again in regard of Righteousness That demanded our performance of a Righteousness in and by our selves and our own strength This demands our acceptance of a Righteousness higher than ever the standing Angels had The Righteousness of the first Covenant was the Righteousness of a Man the Righteousness of the second is the Righteousness of a God †2 Cor. 5.21 Again in regard of that Obedience it demands it exacts not of us as a necessary condition the Perfection of Obedience but the sincerity of Obedience an uprightness in our intention not an unspottedness in our action an integrity in our aims and an industry in our compliance with Divine Precepts * Gen. 17.1 Walk before me and be thou perfect i. e. sincere What is hearty in our actions is accepted and what is defective is over-looked and not charg'd upon us because of the Obedience and Righteousness of our surety The first Covenant rejected all our services after Sin the services of a Person under the sentence of Death are but dead services This accepts our imperfect services after Faith in it That administred no strength to obey but supposed it This supposeth our inability to obey and confers some strength for it †Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes Again in regard of the Promises * Heb. 8.6 The old Covenant had good but the new hath better Promises of justification after guilt and sanctification after filth and glorification at last of the whole Man In the first there was provision against guilt but none for the removal of it Provision against filth but none for the cleansing of it Promise of happiness implied but not so great a one as that Life and Immortality in Heaven brought to light by the Gospel †2 Tim. 1.10 Why said to be brought to light by the Gospel because it was not only buried upon the fall of Man under the Curses of the Law but it was not so obvious to the conceptions of Man in his Innocent State Life indeed was implied to be promised upon his standing but not so glorious an immortality disclosed to be reserved for him if he stood As it is a Covenant of better Promises so a Covenant of sweeter Comforts Comforts more choice and Comforts more durable An everlasting Consolation and a good hâ—pe are the fruits of Grace i. e. the Covenant of Grace * 2 Thes 2.16 In the whole there is such a love disclosed as cannot be exprest The Apostle leaves it to every Mans mind to conceive it if he could what manner of love the Fâ—ther hath bâ—stowed upon us that we should be call'd the Sons of God †1 Joh. 3.1 It inâ—â—ates us in such a manner of the love of God as he bears to his Son the Image of his Person * John 17 2â— That the World may know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me 3. This Goodness appears in the choice gift of himsâ—lf which he hath made over in this Covenant You know how it runs in Scripture I will be their God and they shall be my People †Gen. 17.7 A propriety in the Deity is made over by it As he gave the Blood of his Son to Seal the Covenant so he gave himself as the Blessing of the Covenant He is not ashamed to be called their God * Jer. 32.38 Though he be environ'd with Millions of Angels and presides over them in an unexpressible glory he is not ashamed of his condescensions to Man and to pass over himself as the propriety of his People as well as to take them to be his 'T is a diminution of the sense of the place to understand it of
the Kingdom of Heaven 'T is very reasonable that things so great and glorious so beneficial to Men and reveal'd to them by so sound an Authority and an unerring truth should be believed The Excellency of the thing disclos'd could admit of no lower a Condition than to be believ'd and embraced There is a sort of Faith that is a Natural Condition in every thing All Religion in the World though never so false depends upon a sort of it for unless there be a belief of future things there would never be a hope of Good or a fear of Evil the two great Hinges upon which Religion moves In all kinds of Learning many things must be believed before a progress can be made Belief of one another is necessary in all acts of Humane Life without which Humane Society would be unlinkt and dissolv'd What is that Faith that God requires of us in this Covenant but a willingness of Soul to take God for our God Christ for our Mediator and the Procurer of our Happiness * Rev. 22.17 What Prince could require less upon any Promise he makes his Subjects than to be believed as true and depended on as good That they should accept his Pardon and other gracious offers and be sincere in their Allegiance to him avoiding all things that may offend him and pursuing all things that may please him Thus God by so small and reasonable a Condition as Faith le ts in the Fruits of Christs Death into our Soul and wraps us up in the fruition of all the Priviledges purchas'd by it So much he hath condescended in his Goodness that upon so slight a Condition we may plead his Promise and humbly challenge by vertue of the Covenant those good things he hath promised in his Word 'T is so reasonable a Condition that if God did not require it in the Covenant of Grace the Creature were obliged to perform it For the publishing any Truth from God naturally calls for Credit to be given it by the Creature and an entertainment of it in Practice Could you offer a more reasonable Condition your selves had it been left to your choice Should a Prince proclaim a Pardon to a profligate Wretch would not all the World cry shame of him if he did not believe it upon the highest assurances and if Ingenuity did not make him sorry for his Crimes and careful in the Duty of a Subject surely the World would cry shame of such a Person 5. 'T is a necessary Condition 1. Necessary for the honour of God A Prince is disparag'd if his Authority in his Law and if his Graciousness in his Promises be not accepted and believed What Physician would undertake a Cure if his Precepts may not be Credited 'T is the first thing in the order of Nature that the Revelation of God should be believed that the reality of his Intentions in inviting Man to the acceptance of those Methods he hath prescribed for their attaining their chief Happiness should be acknowledged 'T is a debasing Notion of God that he should give a Happiness purchased by Divine Blood to a Person that hath no value for it nor any abhorrency of those Sins that occasion'd so great a Suffering nor any will to avoid them Should he not vilifie himself to bestow a Heaven upon that Man that will not believe the offers of it nor walk in those ways that leads to it That walks so as if he would declare there was no truth in his Word nor Holiness in his Nature Would not God by such an act verifie a truth in the language of their practice viz. that he were both false and impure careless of his Word and negligent of his Holiness As God was so desirous to ensure the Consolation of Believers that if there had been a greater Being than himself to attest and for him to be Responsible to for the confirmation of his Promise he would willingly have submitted to him and have made him the Umpire * Heb. 6.19 He swore by himself because he could not swear by a greater By the same reason Had it stood with the Majesty and Wisdom of God to stoop to lower Conditions in this Covenant for the reducing of Man to his Duty and Happiness he would have done it but his Goodness could not take lower steps with the preservation of the Rights of his Majesty and the Honour of his Wisdom Would you have had him wholly submitted to the obstinate will of a Rebellious Creature and be ruled only by his terms Would you have had him receiv'd Men to Happiness after they had heightned their Crimes by a contempt of his Grace as well as of his Creating Goodness and have made them blessed under the guilt of their Crimes without an acknowledgment Should he glorifie one that will not believe what he hath reveal'd nor repent of what himself hath committed and so save a Man after a repeated unthankfulness to the most immense Grace that ever was or can be discovered and offer'd without a detestation of his ingratitude and a voluntary acceptance of his offers 'T is necessary for the honour of God that Man should accept of his terms and not give Laws to him to whom he is obnoxious as a guilty Person as well as Subject as a Creature Again it was very equitable and necessary for the honour of God that since Man fell by an unbelief of his Precept and Threatning he should not rise again without a belief of his Promise and calling himself upon his Truth in that Since he had vilified the honour of his Truth in the Threatning Since Man in his fall would lean to his own understanding against God 't is fit that in his Recovery the highest powers of his Soul his Understanding and Will should be subjected to him in an intire Resignation Now whereas Knowledge seems to have a power over its Object Faith is a full submission to that which is the Object of it Since Man intended a glorying in himself the Evangelical Covenant directs its whole battery against it that Men may glory in nothing but Divine Goodness †1 Cor. 1.29 30 31. Had Man perform'd exact Obedience by his own Strength he had had something in himself as the Matter of his Glory And though after the fall Grace had made it self illustrious in setting him up upon a new Stock yet had the same Condition of exact Obedience been setled in the same manner Man would have had something to glory in which is strook off wholly by Faith whereby Man in every act must go out of himself for a supply to that Mediator which Divine Goodness and Grace hath appointed 2. 'T is necessary for the happiness of Man That can be no contenting Condition wherein the will of Man doth not concur He that is forced to the most delicious Diet or to wear the bravest Apparel or to be stor'd with abundance of Treasure cannot be happy in those things without an esteem of them
was stain'd when they were debas'd to serve the Lusts of a Traytor instead of supporting the Duty of a Subject and employed in the defence of the Vices of Men against the Precepts and Authority of their common Soveraign This was a vilifying the Creature as it would be a vilifying the Sword of a Prince which is for the maintenance of Justice to be used for the Murder of an Innocent and a dishonouring a Royal Mansion to make it a Store-house for a Dunghil Had those things the benefit of sense they would groan under this disgrace and rise up in indignation against them that offered them this affront and turned them from their proper end When sin entred the Heavens that were made to shine upon Man and the Earth that was made to bear and nourish an innocent Creature were now subjected to serve a rebellious Creature And as Man turn'd against God so he made those instruments against God to serve his Enmity Luxury Sensuality Hence the Creatures are said to groan * Rom. 8.21 The whole Creation groans and travels in pain together until now They would really groan had they understanding to be sensible of the Outrage done them The whole Creation 'T is the pang of universal Nature the agony of the whole Creation to be alienated from the original use for which they were intended and be disjointed from their end to serve the disloyalty of a Rebel The Drunkards Cup and the Gluttons Table the Adulterers Bed and the proud Mans Purple would groan against the abuser of them But when all the fruits of Redemption shall be compleated the Goodness of God shall pour it self upon the Creatures deliver them from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God * Rom. 8.21 they shall be reduced to their true end and retun'd in their original harmony As the Creation doth passionately groan under its vanity so it doth earnestly expect and wait for its deliverance at the time of the manifestation of the Sons of God * V. 19. The manifestation of the Sons of God is the attainment of the liberty of the Creature They shall be freed from the vanity under which they are enslav'd As it entred by sin it shall vanish upon the total removal of sin What use they were design'd for in Paradise they will have afterwards except that of the nourishment of Men who shall be as Angels neither eating nor drinking The Glory of God shall be seen and contemplated in them It can hardly be thought that God made the World to be little a moment after he had reard it sullied by the Sin of Man and turn'd from its original end without thoughts of a restoration of it to its true end as well as Man to his lost happiness The World was made for Man Man hath not yet enjoyed the Creature in the first intention of them Sin made an interruption in that Fruition As Redemption restores Man to his true end so it restores the Creatures to their true use The restoration of the World to its beauty and order was the design of the Divine Goodness in the coming of Christ as it is intimated in Isaiah 11.6 7 8 9. As he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it so he came not to destroy the Creatures but to repair them To restore to God the honour and pleasure of the Creation and restore to the Creatures their felicity in restoring their Order The Fall corrupted it and the full Redemption of Men restores it The last time is called not a time of destruction but a time of restitution and that of all things * Acts 3.21 of universal nature the main part of the Creation at least All those things which were the effects of sin will be abolisht the removal of the Cause beats down the effect The disorder and unruliness of the Creature arising from the venom of Mans transgression all the fierceness of one Creature against another shall vanish The World shall be nothing but an universal smile Nature shall put on triumphant Vestments There shall be no affrighting Thunders choaking Mists venomous Vapours or poysonous Plants It would not else be a restitution of all things They are now subject to be wasted by Judgments for the sin of their Possessor but the perfection of Mans Redemptions shall free them from every misery They have an advancement at the present for they are under a more glorious head as being the possession of Christ the heavenly Adam much superiour to the first As it 's the glory of a person to be a Servant to a Prince rather than a Peasant And afterwards they shall be elevated to a better state sharing in Man's happiness as well as they did in his misery As Servants are interested in the good Fortune of their Master and better'd by his advance in his Princes favour As Man in his first Creation was mutable and liable to sin so the Creatures were liable to vanity But as Man by Grace shall be freed from the Mutability so shall the Creatures be freed from the fears of an Invasion by the vanity that sully'd them before The condition of the Servants shall be suited to that of their Lord for whom they were design'd Hence all Creatures are call'd upon to rejoice upon the Perfection of Salvation and the appearance of Christs Royal Authority in the World * Psal 96.11.12 Psal 98.7 8. If they were to be destroyed there would be no ground to invite them to triumph Thus doth Divine Goodness spread its kind Arms over the whole Creation 3. The third thing is the Goodness of God in his Government That Goodness that despised not their Creation doth not despise their conduct The same Goodness that was the head that fram'd them is the helm that guides them his Goodness hovers over the whole frame either to prevent any wild disorders unsuitable to his Creating end or to conduct them to those ends which might illustrate his Wisdom and Goodness to his Creatures His Goodness doth no less incline him to provide for them than to frame them 'T is the natural inclination of man to love what is purely the birth of his own strength or skill He is fond of preserving his own Inventions as well as laborious in inventing them 'T is the glory of a Man to preserve them as well as to produce them God loves every thing which he hath made which love could not be without a continued diffusiveness to them suitable to the end for which he made them It would be a vain Goodness if it did not interest it self in managing the World as well as erecting it Without his Government every thing in the World would justle against one another The beauty of it would be more defaced it would be an unruly Mass a confus'd Chaos rather then a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a comely World If Divine Goodness respected it when it was nothing it would much more respect it
to guide us and a Cordial to refresh us 'T is a Lamp to our Feet and a Medicine for our Diseases a Purifier of our Filth and a Restorer of us in our faintings He hath by his Goodness seal'd the truth of it by his efficacy on multitudes of Men He hath made it the Word of Regeneration * Jam. 1.18 Men wilder and more monstrous than Beasts have been tam'd and chang'd by the power of it It hath rais'd multitudes of dead Men from a Grave fuller of horrour than any Earthly one Again Goodness was in all ages sending his Letters of Advice and Counsel from Heaven till the Canon of the Scripture was clos'd Sometimes he wrote to chide a froward People sometimes to chear up an oppressed and disconsolate People according to the State wherein they were as we may observe by the several Seasons wherein parts of Scripture were written It was his Goodness that he first reveal'd any thing of his Will after the Fall it was a further degree of Goodness that he would add more Cubits to its Stature before he would lay aside his Pensil it grew up to that bulk wherein we have it And his Goodness is further seen in the preserving it He hath triumphed over the powers that opposed it and shewed himself good in the Instruments that propagated it He hath maintain'd it against the blasts of Hell and spread it in all Languages against the obstructions of Men and Devils The Sun of his Word is by his kindness preserv'd in our Horizon as well as the Sun in the Heavens How admirable is Divine Goodness He hath sent his Son to die for us and his written Word to instruct us and his Spirit to edge it for an entrance into our Souls He hath open'd the Womb of the Earth to nourish us and sent down the Records of Heaven to direct us in our Pilgrimage He hath provided the Earth for our habitation while we are Travellers and sent his Word to acquaint us with a felicity at the end of our Journey and the way to attain in another World what we want in this viz. a happy Immortality 5. His Goodness in his Government is evident In Conversions of Men. Though this Work be wrought by his Power yet his Power was first sollicited by his Goodness It was his rich Goodness that he would employ his power to pierce the scales of a heart as hard as those of the Leviathan It was this that opened the Ears of Men to hear him and draws them from the hurry of Worldly cares and the Charms of Sensual Pleasures and which is the top of all the impostures and Cheats of their own hearts It is this that sends a spark of his wrath into Mens consciencies to put them to a stand in sin that he might not send down a shower of Brimstone eternally to consume their persons This it was that first shewed you the Excellency of the Redeemer and brought you to taste the sweetness of his Bloud and find your security in the Agonies of his Death 'T is his Goodness to call one man and not another to turn Paul in his course and lay hold of no other of his companions 'T is his Goodness to call any when he is not bound to call one 1. 'T is his Goodness To pitch upon mean and despicable Men in the eye of the World To call this poor Publican and over-look that proud Pharisee this Man that sits upon a Dunghil and neglect him that glisters in his Purple His Majesty is not enticed by the lofty Titles of Men nor which is more worth by the Learning and Knowledge of Men. Not many Wise not many Mighty * Cor. 1.26 27 28. not many Doctâ—rs not many Lords though some of them but his Goodness condescends to the base things of the World and things which are despised The Poor receive the Gospel * Mat. 11.5 when those that are more acute and furnisht with a more apprehensive Reason are not toucht by it 2. The worst Men. He seizeth sometimes upon Men most soyl'd and neglects others that seem more clean and less polluted He turns Men in their course in sin that by their infernal practices have seem'd to have gone to School to Hell and to have suckt in the sole instructions of the Devil He lays hold upon some when they are most under actual demerit and snatcheth them as Fire-brands out of the Fire as upon Paul when fullest of rage against him And shoots a Beam of Grace where nothing could be justly expected but a Thunder-bolt of Wrath. 'T is his Goodness to visit any when they lie putrifying in their loathsome Lusts To draw near to them who have been guilty of the greatest contempt of God and the light of Nature The murdering Manassehs persecuting Sauls Christ-crucifying Jews Persons in whom Lusts had had a peaceable possession and Empire for many years 3. His Goodness appears In converting Men possest with the greatest enmity against him while he was dealing with them All were in such a state and framing contrivances against him when Divine Goodness knockt at the door * Col. 1.21 He lookt after us when our backs were turned upon him and sought us when we slighted him and were a gain-saying People * Rom. 10.21 when we had shaken off his convictions and contended with our Maker and mustered up the Powers of Nature against the Alarms of Conscience strugled like wild Bulls in a Net and blunted those Darts which stuck in our Souls Not a Man that is turn'd to him but had lifted up the heel against his Gospel-Grace as well as made light of his Creating Goodness Yet it hath employed it self about such ungrateful Wretches to polish those knotty and rugged pieces for Heaven And so invincibly that he would not have his Goodness defeated by the fierceness and rebellion of the Flesh Though the thing was more difficult in it self if any thing may be said to have a difficulty to Omnipotency than to make a Stone live or to turn a Straw into a Marble-Pillar The Malice of the Flesh makes a Man more unfit for the one than the nature of the straw unfits it for the other 4. His Goodness appears in turning Men When they were pleased with their own misery and unable to deliver themselves When they preferr'd a Hell before him and were in love with their own Vileness when his Call was our torment and his neglect of us had been accounted our felicity Was it not a mighty Goodness to keep the Light close to our Eyes when we endeavoured to blow it out and the corrosive near to our hearts when we endeavoured to tear it off being more fond of our Disease than the Remedy We should have been scalded to death with the Sodomites had not God laid his good hand upon us and drawn us from the approaching ruine we affected and were loath to be freed from And had we been displeased with our state
the gates of Hell shall not prevail against them That in all things they shall be more than Conquerors through him that lov'd them That the most raging Malice of Hell shall not wrest them out of his hands His Goodness is not less in performing than it was in promising And as the care of his Providence extends to the least as well as the greatest so the watchfulness of his Goodness extends to us in the least as well as in the greatest Temptation 1. The Goodness of God appears in shortening Temptations None of them can go beyond their appointed times * Dan. 11.35 The strong blast Satan breaths cannot blow nor the Waves he raises rage one minute beyond the time God allows them when they have done their work and come to the period of their time God speaks the word and the Wind and Sea of Hell must obey him and retire into their Dens The more violent Temptations are the shorter time doth God allot them The assaults Christ had at the time of his Death were of the most pressing and urging nature The Powers of Darkness were all in Arms against him the Reproaches and scorns put upon him questioning his Sonship were very sharp yet a little before his Suffering he calls it but an hour * Luke 22.53 This is your hour and the Power of Darkness A short time that Men and Devils were combin'd against him and the time of Temptation that is to come upon all the World for their trial is call'd but an hour * Rev. 3.10 In all such attempts the greatness of the rage is a certain Prognostick of the shortness of the Season Revel 12.12 2. The Goodness of God appears in strengthening his People under Temptations If he doth not restrain the Arm of Satan from striking he gives us a Sword to manage the Combat and a Shield to bear off the blow * Eph. 6.16 17. If he obscures his Goodness in one part he clears and brightens it in another He either binds the strong Man that he shall not stir or gives us Armour to render us victorious If we fall it is not for want of provision from him but for want of our putting on the Armour of God * Eph. 6.11 â—3 When we have not a strength by Nature he gives it us by Grace He often quells those Passions within which would joyn hands with and second the Temptation without He either qualifies the Temptation sutably to the force we have or else supplies us with a new strength to mate the Temptation he intends to let loose against us He knows we are but Dust and his Goodness will not have us unequally matcht The Jews that in Antiochus his time were under great Temptation to Apostacy by reason of the violence of their Persecutions were out of weakness made strong for the Combat * Heb. 11.34 The Spirit came more strongly upon Sampson when the Philistines most furiously and confidently assaulted him His Spirit is sent to strengthen his People before the Devil is permitted to tempt them * Matth. 4.2 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit Then When When the Spirit had in an extraordinary manner descended upon him Matth. 3.16 Then and not before As the Angels appeared to Christ after his Temptation to Minister to him so they appear'd to him before his Passion the time of the strongest Powers of Darkness to strengthen him for it He is so Good that when he knows our Pot-sheard strength too weak he furnisheth our Recruits from his own Omnipotence * Eph. 6 1â— Be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his Might He doth as it were breath in something of his own Almightiness to assist us in our wrestling against Principalities and Powers and make us capable to sustain the violent Storms of the Enemies 3. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations in giving great Comforts in on after them The Israelites had a more immediate provision of Manna from Heaven when they were in the Wilderness We read not that the Father spake audibly to the Son and gave him so loud a Testimony that he was his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased till he was upon the brink of strong Temptations * Mat. 3.17 Nor sent Angels to Minister immediately to his Person till after his success * Mat. 4.11 Job never had such evidences of Divine Love till after he had felt the sharp strokes of Satans Malice he had heard of God before by the hearing of the Ear but afterwards is admitted into greater familiarity * Job 42.5 He had more choice appearances clearer illuminations and more lively instructions And though his People fall into Temptation yet after their rising they have more signal Marks of his favour than others have or themselves before they fell Peter had been the Butt of Satans rage in tempting him to deny Christ and he had shamefully comply'd with the Temptation yet to him particularly must the first news of the Redeemers Resurrection be carried by Gods order in the mouth of an Angel * Mar. 16.7 Go your ways tell his Disciples and Peter We have the greatest Communion with God after a Victory The most refreshing truths after the Devil hath done his worst God is ready to furnish us with strength in a Combat and Cordials after it 4. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations in discovering and advancing inward Grace by this means The issue of a Temptation of a Christian is often like that of Christs the manifesting a greater vigor of the Divine Nature in affections to God and enmity to Sin Spices perfume not the Air with their scent till they are invaded by the Fire the truth of Grace is evidenced by them The assault of an Enemy revives and actuates that Strength and Courage which is in a Man perhaps unknown to himself as well as others till he meets with an Adversary Many seem good not that they are so in themselves but for want of a Temptation This many times verifies a Vertue which was own'd upon trust before and discovers that we had more Grace than we thought we had The sollicitations of Josephs Mistress clear'd up his Chastity We are many times under Temptation as a Candle under the Snuffer it seems to be out but presently burns the clearer Afflictions are like those Clouds which look black and Eclips the Sun from the Earth but yet when they drop refresh that Ground they seem to threaten and multiply the Grain on the Earth to serve for our Food and so our troubles while they wet us to the Skin wash much of that dust from our Graces which in a clearer day had been blown upon us Too much rest Corrupts Exercise teacheth us to manage our Weapons The Spiritual Armour would grow rusty without opportunity to furbish it up Faith receives a new heart by every Combat and by every Victory like a Fire it spreads it self further
as his own peculiar for his own glory and service By this Redemption there results to God a right over our bodies over our Spirits over our services as well as by Creation and to shew the strength of this right the Apostle repeats it you are bought a purchase cannot be without a price paid but he adds price also bought with a price To strengthen the Title purchase gave him a new right and the greatness of the price established that right The more a man pays for a thing the more usually we say he deserves to have it he hath paid enough for it It was indeed price enough and too much for such vile Creatures as we are III. The third thing is The Nature of this Dominion 1. This Dominion is Independent His Throne is in the Heavens the Heavens depend not upon the Earth nor God upon his Creatures Since he is Independent in regard of his Essence he is so in his dominion which flows from the excellency and fulness of his Essence As he receives his Essence from none so he derives his dominion from none All other dominion except paternal Authority is rooted originally in the wills of men * Raynaud Theolog. Natural p. 760 761 762. The first Title was the consent of the People or the conquest of others by the help of those People that first consented And in the exercise of it Earthly dominion depends upon assistance of the Subjects and the Members being joyn'd with the head carry on the work of Government and prevent Civil dissentions in the support of it it depends upon the Subjects Contributions and Taxes The Subjects in their strength are the Arms and in their Purses the Sinews of Government But God depends upon none in the foundation of his Government he is not a Lord by the Votes of his Vassals Nor is it successively handed to him by any Predecessor nor constituted by the power of a Superior Nor forced he his way by War and conquest nor precariously attained it by suit or flattery or bribing promises He holds not the right of his Empire from any other he hath no Superior to hand him to his Throne and settle him by Commission He is therefore called King of Kings and Lord of Lords having none above him A great King above all Gods Psal 95.3 Needing no Licence from any when to act nor direction how to act or assistance in his action He owes not any of those to any person he was not ordered by any other to Create and therefore receives not orders from any other to rule over what he hath created He received not his power and wisdom from another and therefore is not Subject to any for the rule of his Government He only made his own Subjects and from himself hath the sole Authority his own will was the cause of their beings and his own will is the director of their actions He is not determined by his Creatures in any of his motions but determins the Creatures in all His actions are not regulated by any Law without him but by a Law within him the Law of his own Nature 'T is impossible he can have any rule without himself because there is nothing Superior to himself Nor doth he depend upon any in the exercise of his Government he needs no Servants in it when he uses Creatures it is not out of want of their help but for the manifestation of his wisdom and power What he doth by his Subjects he can do by himself The Government is upon his Shoulder Isaiah 9.6 To shew that he needs not any supporters All other governments flow from him all other Authorities depend upon him Dei Gratiâ or Dei Providentiâ is in the style of Princes As their being is deriv'd from his power so their Authority is but a branch of his dominion They are governors by Divine Providence God is Governour by his sole nature All motions depend upon the first Heaven which moves all but that depends upon nothing The Government of Christ depends upon God's increated dominion and is by Commission from him Christ assum'd not this honour to himself But he that said unto him thou art my Son bestow'd it upon him He put all things under his feet but not himself 1 Cor. 15.27 When he saith all things are put under him he is excepted which did put all things under him He sits still as an independent Governour upon his Throne 2. This dominion is Absolute If his Throne be in the Heavens there is nothing to controul him If he be independent he must needs be â—bsolute since he hath no cause in conjunction with him as Creator that can share with him in his right or restrain him in the disposal of his Creature His Authority is unlimited in this regard the Title of Lord becomes not any but God properly Tiberius thoâ—ght none of the best though one of the subtilest Princes accounted the Title of Lord a reproach to him Since he was not absolute * Sueton. de Tiberio cap. 27. 1. Absolute in regard of Freedom and Liberty 1. Thus Creation is a work of his meer Soveraignty he Created because it was his pleasure to Create Rev. 4.11 He is not necessitated to do this or that He might have chosen whether he would have fram'd an Earth and Heavens and laid the foundations of his Chambers in the Waters He was under no obligation to reduce things from nullity to existence 2. Preservation is the fruit of his Soveraignty When he had called the World to stand out he might have ordered it to return into its dark den of nothingness ript up every part of its foundation or have given being to many more Creatures than he did If you consider his absolute soveraignty why might he not have devested Adam presently of those rational perfections wherewith he had endow'd him And might he not have metamorphos'd him into some Beast and elevated some Beast into a rational nature Why might he not have degraded an Angel to a Worm and advanc'd a Worm to the nature and condition of an Angel Why might he not have revokt that grant of dominion which he had passed to man over all Creatures It was free to him to permit sin to enter into the Earth or to have excluded it out of the Earth as he doth out of Heaven 3. Redemption is a fruit of his Soveraignty By his absolute Soveraignty he might have confirmed all the Angels in their standing by Grace and prevented the revolt of any of their members from him and when there was a revolt both in Heaven and Earth it was free to him to have call'd out his Son to assume the Angelical as well as the humane nature or have exercised his dominion in the destruction of Men and Devils rather than in the Redemption of any he was under no obligation to restore either the one or the other 4. May he not impose what terms he pleases May he not impose what Laws
to King Redeemer He hath revok'd the Law of works as a Covenant releas'd the penalty of it from the beleiving sinner by transferring it upon the surety who interpos'd himself by his own will and divine designation He hath establish'd another Covenant upon other promises in a higher root with greater Priviledges and easier terms Had not God had this right of Soveraignty not a man of Adam's posterity could have been blessed he and they must have lain groaning under the misery of the fall which had render'd both himself and all in his Loyns unable to observe the Terms of the first Covenant He hath as some speak dispens'd with his own Moral Law in some cases in commanding Abraham to Sacrifice his Son his only Son a Righteous Son a Son whereof he had the promise that in Isaac should his Seed be call'd yet he was commanded to Sacrifice him by the right of his absolute Soveraignty as the supream Lord of the Lives of his Creatures from the highest Angel to the lowest Worm whereby he bound his Subjects to this Law not himself Our Lives are due to him when he calls for them and they are a just forâ—â—it to him at the very moment we sin at the very moment we come into the World by reason of the venom of our nature against him and the disturbance the first sin of man whereof we are inheritors gave to his Glory Had Abraham sacrificed his Son of his own head he had sinned yea in attempting it but being Authoriz'd from Heaven his act was Obedience to the Soveraign of the World who had a power to dispense with his own Law and with this Law he had before dispens'd in the case of Cains Murder of Abel as to the immediate punishment of it with death which indeed was setled afterwards by his Authority but then omitted because of the paucity of men and for the peopling the World but setled afterwards when there was almost though not altogether the like occasion of omitting it for a time 3. His Soveraignty appears in punishing the Transgression of his Law 1. This is a branch of Gods Dominion as Lawgiver So was the vengeance God would take upon the Amalekites Exod. 17.16 The Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have War The Hebrew is the hand upon the Throne of the Lord as in the margent As a Lawgiver he saves or destroyes James 4.12 He acts according to his own Law in a congruity to the sanction of his own precepts though he be an Arbitrary Lawgiver appointing what Laws he pleases yet he is not an Arbitrary Judge As he commands nothing but what he hath a right to command so he punisheth none but whom he hath a right to punish and with such punishment as the Law hath denounced All his acts of Justice and inflictions of Curses are the effects of this Soveraign Dominion Psal 29.10 He sits King upon the Flouds Upon the deluge of Waters wherewith he drown'd the World say some 'T is a right belonging to the Authority of Magistrates to pull up the infectious weeds that corrupt a Common-Wealth 'T is no less the right of God as the Lawgiver and Judge of all the Earth to subject Criminals to his vengeance after they have rendered themselves abominable in his Eyes and carried themselves unworthy Subjects of so great and glorious a King The first name whereby God is made known in Scripture is Elohim Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God Created the Heaven and Earth A name which signifies his power of judging in the opinion of some Criticks from him it is deriv'd to earthly Magistrates their Judgment is said therefore to be the Judgement of God Deut. 1.17 When Christ came he propos'd this great motive of Repentance from the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand the Kingdom of his Grace whereby to invite men the Kingdom of his Justice in the punishment of the neglecters of it whereby to terrifie men Punishments as well as Rewards belong to Royalty it issued accordingly those that believ'd and repented came under his gracious Scepter those that neglected and rejected it fell under his Iron Rod. Jerusalem was destroy'd the Temple demolish'd the Inhabitants lost their lives by the edge of the Sword or linger'ed them out in the chains of a miserable Captivity This term of Judge which signifies a Soveraign right to govern and punish Delinquents Abraham gives him when 〈◊〉 came to root out the People of Sodom and make them the examples of his veâ—geance Gen. 18.25 2. Punishing the Transgressions of his Law This is necessary branch of Dominion His Soveraignty in making Laws would be a trifle if there were not also an Authority to vindicate those Laws from Contempt and Injury he would be a Lord only spurn'd at by Rebels Soveraignty is not preserved without Justice When the Psalmist speaks of the Majesty of God's Kingdom he tells us that Righteousness and Judgment are the Habitation of his Throne Psal 97.1 2. These are the Engines of Divine dignity which render him glorious and majestick A Legislative power would be trampled on without executive by this the reverential apprehensions of God are preserved in the Wâ—rld He is known to be Lord of the World by the Judgements which he executes Psal 9.16 When he seems to have lost his dominion or given it up in the World he recovers it by punishment When he takes some away with a Whirlwind and in his Wrath the natural consequence men make of it is this Surely there is a God that Judgeth the Earth Psal 58.9.11 He reduceth the Creature by the lash of his judgments that would not acknowledge his Authority in his precepts Those sins which disown his Government in the Heart and Conscience as Pride inward blasphemy c. he hath reserved a time hereafter to reckon for He doth not presently shoot his arrows into the marrow of every delinquent but those sins which traduce his Government of the World and tear up the Foundations of humane converse and a publick respect to him he reckons with particularly here as well as hereafter that the Life of his Soveraignty might not always faint in the World 3. This of punishing was the second discovery of his dominion in the World His first act of Soveraignty was the giving a Law the next his appearance in the State of a judge When his orders were violated he rescues the honour of them by an execution of Justice He first judg'd the Angels punishing the evil ones for their crime the first Court he kept among them as a Governour was to give them a Law the second Court he kept was as a Judge trying the Delinquents and adjudging the Offenders to be reserved in Chains of darkness till the final Execution Jude 6. And at the same time probably he confirmed the good ones in their obedience by Grace So the first discovery of his dominion to man was the giving him a precept the next was the inflicting a punishment for the
of a spiritual life Did not all lie wallowing in their own filthy blood and what could the steam and noysomness of that deserve at the hands of a pure Majesty but to be cast into a sink furthest from his sight Were they not all considered in this deplorable posture with an equal proportion of poyson in their nature when God first took his pen and singled out some Names to write in the Book of life It could not be merit in any one peice of this abominable Mass that should stir up that resolution in God to set apart this person for a Vessel of Glory while he permitted another to putrifie in his own gore He loved Jacob and hated Esau though they were both parts of the common Mass the Seed of the same Loyns and lodg'd in the same Womb. 2. Nor could it â—e any foresight of works to be done in time by them or of Faith that might determine God to choose them What good could he foresee resulting from extream corruption and a nature alienated from him What could he foresee of good to be done by them but what he resolved in his own will to bestow an ability upon them to bring forth His choice of them was to a Holiness not for a Holiness preceding his determination Eph. 1.4 He hath chosen us that we might be Holy before him he ordained us to good works not for them Eph. 2.10 What is a Fruit cannot be a moving cause of that whereof it is a fruit Grace is a stream from the spring of electing love the branch is not the cause of the Root but the Root of the Branch nor the stream the cause of the spring but the spring the cause of the stream Good works suppose Grace and a good and right habit in the person as rational acts suppose reason Can any man say that the rational acts man performs after his Creation were a cause why God Created him This would make Creation and every thing else not so much an act of his will as an act of his Understanding God foresaw no rational act in man before the act of his will to give him reason nor foresees faith in any before the act of his will determining to give him Faith Eph. 2.8 Faith is the gift of God In the Salvation which grows up from this first purpose of God he regards not the works we have done as a principal motive to settle the top-stone of our happiness but his own purpose and the Grace given in Christ 2 Timothy 1.9 Who hath saved us and call'd us with a holy Calling not according to our own works but according to his own purpose and Grace which was given to us in Christ before the World began The honour of our Salvation cannot be challeng'd by our works much less the honour of the Foundation of it It was a pure gift of Grace without any respect to any spiritual much less natural perfection Why should the Apostle mention that circumstance when he speaks of God's loving Jacob and hating Esau when neither of them had done good or evil Rom. 9.11 if there were any foresight of mens works as the moving cause of his love or hatred God regarded not the works of either as the first cause of his choice but acted by his own Liberty without respect to any of their actions which were to be done by them in time If Faith be the fruit of Election the prescience of Faith doth not influence the Electing act of God Tit. 1.1 'T is called the Faith of Gods Elect. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ according to the Faith of Gods Elect. i. e. Setled in this Office to bring the Elect of God to Faith If men be chosen by God upon the foresight of Faith or not chosen till they have Faith they are not so much God's Elect as God their Elect they choose God by Faith before God chooseth them by love It had not been the Faith of Gods Elect i. e. Of those already chosen but the Faith of those that were to be chosen by God afterwards * Dalle in loc Election is the cause of Faith and not Faith the cause of Election Fire is the cause of heat and not the heat of Fire the Sun is the cause of the day and not the day the cause of the rising of the Sun Men are not chosen because they beleive but they beleive because they are chosen The Apostle did ill else to appropriate that to the Elect which they had no more interest in by vertue of their Election than the veriest Reprobate in the World If the foresight of what works might be done by his Creatures was the motive of his choosing them why did he not choose the Devils to Redemption who could have done him better service by the strength of their Nature than the whole Mass of Adam's posterity Well then there is no possible way to lay the original Foundation of this act of Election and preterition in any thing but the absolute Soveraignty of God Justice or Injustice comes not into consideration in this case There is no debt which Justice or Injustice always respects in its acting If he had pleased he might have chosen all if he had pleased he might have chosen none It was in his supream power to have resolved to have left all Adam's posterity under the rack of his Justice if he determined to snatch out any it was a part of his dominion but without any injury to the Creatures he leaves under their own guilt Did he not pass by the Angels and take man And by the same right of Dominion may he pick out some men from the common Mass and lay aside others to bear the punishment of their Crimes Are they not all his Subjects All are his Criminals and may be dealt with at the pleasure of their undoubted Lord and Soveraign This is a work of arbitrary power Since he might have chosen none or chosen all as he saw good himself 'T is at the liberty of the Artificer to determine his Wood or Stone to such a figure that of a Prince or that of a Toad and his materials have no right to complain of him since it lies wholly upon his own liberty They must have little sence of their own vileness and God's infinite excellency above them by right of Creation that will contend that God hath a lesser right over his Creatures than an Artificer over his Wood or Stone If it were at his liberty whither to redeem Man or send Christ upon such an undertaking 't is as much at his liberty and the prerogative is to be allow'd him what persons he will resolve to make capable of enjoying the fruits of that Redemption One Man was as fit a subject for Mercy as another as they all lay in their orginal guilt Why would not Divine Mercy cast its eye upon this Man as well as upon his Neighbour There was no cause in the Creature but all in God it
Why did he give Grace to Abel and not to Cain since they both lay in the same womb and equally deriv'd from their Parents a taint in their Nature But that he would show a standing example of his Soveraignty to the future ages of the World in the first posterity of man Why did he give Grace to Abraham and separate him from his Idolatrous Kindred to dignifie him to be the root of the Messiah Why did he confine his promise to Isaac and not extend it to Ishmael the Seed of the same Abraham by Hagar or to the Children he had by Keturah after Sarahs death What reason can be alledged for this but his Soveraign Will Why did he not give the fallen Angels a moment of Repentance after their sin but condemned them to irrevocable pains Is it not as free for him to give Grace to whom he please as Create what Worlds he please to form this corrupted clay into his own Image as to take such a parcel of dust from all the rest of the Creation whereof to compact Adam's body Hath he not as much jurisdiction over the sinful mass of his Creatures in a new Creation as he had over the Chaos in the old And what reason can be rendered of his advancing this part of matter to the nobler dignity of a Star and leaving that other part to make up the dark body of the Earth To compact one part into a glorious Sun and another part into a hard Rock but his Royal Prerogative What is the reason a Prince subjects one Malefactor to punishment and lifts up another to a place of truth and profit That Pharoah honoured the Butler with an attendance on his Person and remitted the Baker to the hands of the Executioner It was his pleasure And is not as great a right due to God as is allow'd to the worms of the Earth What is the reason he hardens a Pharoah by a denying him that Grace which should mollifie him and allows it to another 'T is because he will Rom. 9.18 Whom he will he hardens Hath not man the liberty to pull up the sluce and let the water run into what part of the ground he pleases What is the reason some have not a heart to understand the beauty of his ways Because the Lord doth not give it them Deut. 29.4 Why doth he not give all his converts an equal measure of his sanctifying Grace some have Mites and some have Treasures Why doth he give his Grace to some sooner to some later some are inspir'd in their infancy others not till a full age and after some not till they have fallen into some gross sin as Paul some betimes that they may do him service others later as the Thief upon the Cross and presently snatcheth them out of the World Some are weaker some stronger in nature some more beautiful and lovely others more uncomely and sluggish 'T is so in supernaturals What reason is there for this but his own will This is instead of all that can be assigned on the part of God He is the free disposer of his own Goods and as a Father may give a greater portion to one Child than to another And what reason of complaint is there against God may not a Toad complain that God did not make it a man and give it a portion of reason Or a Fly complain that God did not make it an Angel and give it a Garment of Light had they but any spark of understanding as well as man complain that God did not give him Grace as well as another Unless he sincerely desir'd it and then was denyed it he might complain of God though not as Soveraign yet as a promiser of Grace to them that ask it God doth not render his Soveraignty formidable he shuts not up his Throne of Grace from any that seek him he invites man his Arms are open and the Scepter stretched out and no man continues under the arrest of his Lusts but he that is unwilling to be otherwise and such a one hath no reason to complain of God 3. His Soveraignty is manifest in disposing the means of Grace to some not to all He hath caus'd the Sun to shine bright in one place while he hath left others benighted and deluded by the Devils Oracles Why do the Evangelical dews fall in this or that place and not in another Why was the Gospel publisht in Rome so soon and not in Tartary Why hath it been extinguisht in some places as soon almost as it had been kindled in them Why hath one place been honoured with the beams of it in one age and been covered with darkness the next One Country hath been made a sphear for this Star that directs to Christ to move in and afterwards it hath been taken away and placed in another Sometimes more clearly it hath shone sometimes more darkly in the same place what is the reason of this 'T is true something of it may be referred to the Justice of God but much more to the Soveraignty of God That the Gospel is publisht latter and not sooner the Apostle tell us is according to the Commandement of the Everlasting God Rom. 16.26 1. The means of Grace after the Families from Adam became distinct were never granted to all the World After that fatal breach in Adam's Family by the death of Abel and Cain's separation we read not of the means of Grace continued among Cain's Posterity it seems to be continued in Adam's sole Family and not publisht in Societies till the time of Seth. Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord. It was continued in that Family till the Deluge which was 1523 years after the Creation according to some or 1656 years according to others After that when the World degenerated it was communicated to Abraham and setled in the posterity that descended from Jacob Though he left not the World without a witness of himself and some sprinklings of revelations in other parts as appears by the book of Job and the discourses of his Friends 2. The Jews had this priviledge granted them above other Nations to have a clearer Revelation of God God separated them from all the World to honour them with the depositum of his Oracles Rom. 3.2 To them were committed the Oracles of God In which regard all other Nations are said to be without God as being destitute of so great a priviledge Eph. 2.12 The Spirit blew in Canaan when the Lands about it felt not the saving breath of it He hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Judgments they have not known them Psal 147.20 The rest had no warnings from the Prophets no dictates from Heaven but what they had by the light of Nature the view of the works of Creation and the Administration of Providence and what remain'd among them of some ancient Traditions deriv'd from Noah which in tract of time were much defaced We read but
of one Jonah sent to Niniveh but frequent Alarms to the Israelites by a multitude of Prophets commissioned by God 'T is true the door of the Jewish Church was open to what Proselytes would enter themselves and embrace their Religion and Worship but there was no publick Proclamation made in the World only God by his miracles in their deliverance from Egypt which could not but be famous among all the Neighbour Nations declared them to be a people favour'd by Heaven But the Tradition from Adam and Noah was not publickly reviv'd by God in other parts and rais'd from that Grave of forgetfulness wherein it had lain so long buried Was there any reason in them for this Indulgence God might have been as liberal to any other Nation yea to all the Nations in the World if it had been his Soveraign pleasure Any other people were as fit to be entrusted with his Oracles and be subjects for his Worship as that people yet all other Nations till the rejection of the Jews because of their rejection of Christ were strangers from the Covenant of Promise These people were part of the common mass of the World They had no prerogative in nature above Adam's posterity Were they the extract of an innocent part of his Loyns and all the other Nations drain'd out of his putrefaction Had the blood of Abraham from whom they were more immediately descended any more precious tincture than the rest of mankind They as well as other Nations were made of one Blood Acts 17.26 And that corrupted both in the spring and in the Rivulets Were they better than other Nations when God first drew them out of their slavery We have Joshua's Authority for it that they had complyed with the Egyptian Idolatry and served other Gods in that place of their servitude Joshua 24.14 Had they had an abhorrency of the superstition of Egypt while they remain'd there they could not so soon have erected a Golden Calf for Worship in imitation of the Egyptian Idols All the rest of mankind had as inviting reasons to present God with as those people had God might have granted the same priviledge to all the World as well as to them or denyed it them and endow'd all the rest of the World with his Statutes but the enriching such a small Company of people with his Divine showers and leaving the rest of the World as a barren Wilderness in Spirituals can be plac'd upon no other account originally than that of his unaccountable Soveraignty of his love to them There was nothing in them to merit such high Titles from God as his first born his peculiar Treasure the Apple of his Eye He disclaims any Righteousness in them and speaks a word sufficient to damp such thoughts in them by charging them with their wickedness while he loaded them with his benefits Deut. 9.4.6 The Lord gives thee not this Land for thy Righteousness For thou art a stiff-necked people It was an act of God's free pleasure to choose them to be a people to himself Deut. 7.6 3. God afterwards rejected the Jews gave them up to the hardness of their hearts and spread the Gospel among the Gentiles He hath cast off the Children of the Kingdom those that had been enrol'd for his subjects for many ages who seemed by their descent from Abraham to have a right to the priviledges of Abraham and called men from the East and from the West from the darkest corners of the World to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. To partake with them of the promises of the Gospel Math. 8.11 The people that were accounted accursed by the Jews enjoy the means of Grace which have been hid from those that were once dignified this 1600 years that they have neither Ephod nor Teraphim nor sacrifice nor any true Worship of God among them Hos 3.4 Why he should not give them Grace to acknowledge and own the person of the Messiah to whom he had made the promises of him for so many successive ages but let their heart be fat and their Ears heavy Isaiah 6.10 Why the Gospel at length after the Resurrection of Christ should be presented to the Gentiles not by chance but pursuant to the resolution and prediction of God declared by the Prophets that it should be so in time Why he should let so many hundreds of years passe over after the World was peopled and let the Nations all that while soak in their Idolatrous Customs Why he should not call the Gentiles without rejecting the Jews and bind them both up together in the bundle of Life Why he should acquaint some people with it a little after the publishing it in Jerusalem by the descent of the Spirit and others not a long time after Some in the first ages of Christianity enjoyed it others have it not as those in America till the last age of the World can be referred to nothing but his Soveraign pleasure What merit can be discovered in the Gentiles There is something of Justice in the case of the Jews rejection nothing but Soveraignty in the Gentiles reception into the Church If the Jews were bad the Gentiles were in some sort worse The Jews own'd the One true God without mixture of Idols though they own'd not the Messiah in his appearance which they did in a promise but the Gentiles own'd neither the one nor the other Some tell us it was for the merit of some of their Ancestors How comes the means of Grace then to be taken from the Jew who had if any people ever had meritorious Ancestors for a plea If the merit of some of their former progenitors were the Cause what was the reason the debt due to their merit was not paid to their immediate progeny or to themselves but to a posterity so distant from them and so abominably depraved as the Gentile World was at the day of the Gospel-Sun striking into their Horizon What merit might be in their Ancestors if any could be supposed in the most refined rubbish 't was so little for themselves that no Oyl could be spared out of their Lamps for others What merit their Ancestors might have might be forfeited by the succeeding Generations 'T is ordinarily seen that what honour a Father deserves in a State for publick Service may be lost by the Son forfeited by Treason and himself attainted Or was it out of a foresight that the Gentiles would embrace it and the Jews reject it that the Gentiles would embrace it in one place and not in another How did God foresee it but in his own Grace which he was resolved to display in one not in another It must be then still resolved into his Soveraign pleasure Or did he foresee it in their wills and nature What were they not all one common dross Was any part of Adam by nature better than another How did God forsee that which was not nor could be without his pleasure to
subject to God not in regard of the Divine Nature wherein there is an equality and consequently no Dominion of jurisdiction nor only in his humane nature but in the Oeconomy of a Redeemer considered as one design'd and consenting to be incarnate and take our flesh so that after this agreement God had a soveraign right to dispose of him according to the Articles consented to In regard of his undertaking and the advantage he was to bring to the Elect of God upon the Earth he calls God by the solemn Title of his Lord in that prophetick Psalm of him Psal 16.2 Oh my Soul thou hast said unto the Lord thou art my Lord my Goodness extends not unto thee but unto the Saints that are in the Earth It seems to be the speech of Christ in Heaven mentioning the Saints on Earth as at a distance from him I can add nothing to the glory of thy Majesty but the whole fruit of my Mediation and Sufferings will redound to the Saints on Earth and it may be observed that God is call'd the Lord of Hosts in the Evangelical Prophets Isaiah Haggai Zachary and Malachy more in reference to this affair of Redemption and the deliverance of the Church than for any other works of his Providence in the World 1. This Soveraignty of God appears in requiring satisfaction for the sin of man Had he indulg'd man after his fall and remitted his offence without a just compensation for the injury he had received by his Rebellion his Authority had been vilified man would always have been attempting against his jurisdiction there would have been a continual succession of Rebellions on mans part and if a continual succession of indulgences on Gods part he had quite disown'd his Authority over man and stript himself of the flower of his Crown satisfaction must have been requir'd sometime or other from the person thus rebelling or some other in his stead and to require it after the first act of sin was more preservative to the right of the Divine soveraignty than to do it after a multitude of repeated revolts God must have laid aside his Authority if he had laid aside wholly the exacting punishment for the offence of man 2. This Soveraignty of God appears in appointing Christ to this work of Redemption His soveraignty was before manifest over Angels and Men by the right of Creation there was nothing wanting to declare the highest charge of it but his ordering his own Son to become a mortal Creature the Lord of all things to become lower than those Angels that had as well as all other things receiv'd their being and beauty from him and to be reckon'd in his death among the dust and refuse of the World He by whom God created all things not only became a man but a crucified man by the Will of his Father Gal. 1.4 Who gave himself for our sins according to the Will of God to which may referre that expression Prov. 8.22 of his being possessed by God in the beginning of his way Possession is the Dominion of a thing invested in the possessor he was possessed indeed as a Son by eternal Generation He was possessed also in the beginning of his way or works of Creation as a Mediator by special constitution to this the expression seems to referre if you read on to the end of verse 31. wherein Christ speaks of his rejoycing in the habitable part of his Earth the Earth of the great God who had design'd him to this special work of Redemption He was a Son by Nature but a Mediator by Divine Will in regard of which Christ is often call'd Gods servant which is a relation to God as a Lord. God being the Lord of all things the Dominion of all things inferior to him is inseparable from him and in this regard the whole of what Christ was to do and did actually do was acted by him as the Will of God and is exprest so by himself in the Prophesie Psal 40.7 Lo I come verse 8. I delight to do thy will which are put together Heb. 10.7 Lo I come to do thy Will O God The designing Christ to this work was an act of mercy but founded on his soveraignty His compassionate bowels might have pitied us without his being soveraign but without it could not have releived us It was the Counsell of his own will as well as of his Bowels None was his Counsellor or perswader to that mercy he shew'd Rom. 11.34 Who hath been his Counsellor for it refers to that Mercy in sending the deliverer out of Sion verse 26. as well as to other things the Apostle had been discoursing of As God was at liberty to create or not to create so he was at liberty to Redeem or not to Redeem and at his liberty whither to appoint Christ to this work or not to call him out to it In giving this order to his Son his soveraignty was exercised in a higher manner than in all the orders and instructions he hath given out to Men or Angels and all the employments he ever sent them upon Christ hath names which signifie an Authority over him He is called an Angel and a Messenger Mal. 3.1 An Apostle Heb. 3.1 Declaring thereby that God hath as much Authority over him as over the Angels sent upon his Messages or over the Apostles commission'd by His Authority as he was consider'd in the quality of Mediator 3. This Soveraignty of God appears in transferring our sins upon Christ The Supream Power in a Nation can only appoint or allow of a commutation of punishment 'T is a part of Soveraignty to transferr the penalty due to the crime of one upon an other and substitute a sufferer with the sufferers own consent in the place of a criminal whom he had a mind to deliver from a deserv'd punishment God transferr'd the sins of men upon Christ and inflicted on him a punishment for them He summ'd up the debts of man charg'd them upon the score of Christ imputing to him the guilt and inflicting upon him the penalty Isa 53.6 The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all He made them all to meet upon his back He hath made him to be sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made so by the Soveraign pleasure of God A punishment for sin as most understand it which could not be Righteously inflicted had not sin been first Righteously imputed by the consent of Christ and the order of the Judge of the World This imputation could be the immediate act of none but God because he was the sole Creditor A Creditor is not bound to accept of another's suretiship but it is at his liberty whither he will or no and when he doth accept of him he may challenge the Debt of him as if he were the Principal Debtor himself Christ made himself sin for us by a voluntary submission and God made him sin for us by a full imputation and treated him penally
God as to set up the greatest Lord in a Kingdom in the Government instead of the lawful Prince is Rebellion and Usurpation And that Woman incurs the Crime of Adultery who commits it with a person of great Port and Honour as well as with one of a mean condition While men Create any thing a God they own themselves supream above the true God yea and above that which they account a God For by the right of Creation they have a superiority as it is a Deity blown up by the breath of their own imagination The Authority of God is in this sin acknowledged to belong to an Idol 't is call'd loathing of God as a husband Ezek. 16.45 all the Authority of God as a husband and Lord over them So when we make any thing or any person in the World the chief object and prop of our trust and confidence we act the same part Trust in an Idol is the formal part of Idolatry Psal 115.8 So is every one that trusts in them i. e. in Idols Whatsoever thing we make the object of our trust we rear as an Idol 't is not unlawful to have the image of a Creature but to bestow divine adoration upon it it was not unlawful for the Egyptians to possess and use Oxen but to dubb them Gods to be ador'd it was 'T is not unlawful to have Wealth and Honour nor to have gifts and parts they are the presents of God but to love them above God to fix our relyance upon them more than upon God is to rob God of his due who being our Creator ought to be our confidence What we want we are to desire of him and expect from him When we confide in any thing else we deny God the Glory of his Creation we disown him to be Lord of the World imply that our welfare is in the hands of and depends upon that thing wherein we confide 't is not only to equal it to God in soveraign power which is his own phrase Isaiah 40.25 but to preferr it before him in a reproach of him When the Hosts of Heaven shall be serv'd instead of the Lord of those Hosts When we shall lacquy after the Starrs depend barely upon their influences without looking up to the great director of the Sun 't is to pay an adoration unto a Captain in a Regiment which is due to the General When we shall make Gold our hope and say to the fine Gold thou art my confidence 't is to deny the Supremacy of that God that is above as well as if we kiss our hands in a way of adoration to the Sun in its splendor or the Moon walking in its brightness for Job couples them together Job 31.25 to 28. 'T is to prefer the Authority of Earth before that of Heaven and honour clay above the Soveraign of the World as if a Souldier should confide more in the rag of an Ensign or the fragment of a Drum for his safety than in the orders and conduct of his General It were as much as is in his power to uncommission him and snatch from him his Commanders Staff When we advance the Creature in our love above God and the Altar of our Soul smoakes with more thoughts and affections to a petty interest than to God we lift up that which was given us as a servant in the place of the Soveraign and bestow that Throne upon it which is to be kept undefil'd for the rightful Lord and subject the interest of God to the demands of the creature So much respect is due to God that none should be plac'd in the Throne of our affections equal with him much less any thing to perk above him 2. Impatience is a contempt of God as a Governour When we meet with rubbs in the way of any design when our expectations are crossed we will break through all obstacles to accomplish our projects whither God will or no. When we are too much dejected at some unexpected providence and murmur at the instruments of it as if God devested himself of his prerogative of conducting humane affairs When a little cross blows us into a Mutiny and swells us into a sawciness to implead God or makes us fret against him as the expression is Isaiah 8.21 wishing him out of his Throne No sin is so devilish as this there is not any strikes more at all the attributes of God than this against his goodness righteousness holiness wisdom and doth as little spare his Soveraignty as any of the rest What can it be else but an impious invasion of his Dominion to quarrel with him for what he doth and to say what reason hast thou to deal thus with me This Language is in the nature of all impatience whereby we question his Soveraignty and Parallel our Dominion with his When men have not that confluence of wealth or honour they greedily desir'd they bark at God and revile his Government They are angry God doth not more respectfully observe them as though he had nothing to do in their matters and were wanting in that becoming reverence which they think him bound to pay to such great ones as they are They would have God obedient to their minds and act nothing but what he receives a Commission for from their wills When we murmur 't is as if we would command his Will and wear his Crown a wresting the Scepter out of his hands to sway it our selves we deny him the right of Government disown his power over us and would be our own Sovereigns You may find the Character of it in the Language of Jehoram as many understand it 2 King 6.33 Behold this evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer This is an evil of such a nature that it could come from none but the hand of God why should I attend upon him as my Soveraign that delights to do me so much mischief that throws curses upon me when I expected blessings I 'll no more observe his directions but follow my own sentiments and regard not his Authority in the lips of his doting Prophet The same you find in the Jews when they were under God's lash Jer. 18.12 And they said there is no hope but we will walk after our own devices and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart We can expect no good from him and therefore we will be our own Soveraigns and prefer the Authority of our own imaginations before that of his Precepts Men would be their own Carvers and not suffer God to use his right as if a stone should order the Mason in what manner to hew it and in what part of the building to place it We are not ordinarily concern'd so much at the calamities of our Neigbours but swell against Heaven at a light drop upon our selves We are content God should be the Soveraign of others so that he will be a servant to us Let him deal as he will himself
interest of the rest of the World that they should have been extinguisht for the instruction of their contemporaries and posterity The best of them had turned all Religion into a fable coyn'd a World of rites some unnatural in themselves and most of them unbecoming a rational creature to offer and a Deity to accept Yet he did not presently arm himself against them with Fire and Sword nor stopt the course of their Generations nor tare out all those reliques of natural light which were left in their minds He did not do what he might have done but he winkt at the times of that ignorance Act. 17.30 their ignorant Idolatry for that it referrs to ver 29. They thought the God-head was like to Gold or Silver or stone graven by Art and mens device 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 overlooking them He demean'd himself so as if he did not take notice of them He winkt as if he did not see them and would not deal so severely with them the eye of his Justice seem'd to wink in not calling them to an account for their sin 3. His slowness to anger is manifest to the Israelites You know how often they are call'd a stiff-necked people they are said to do evil from their youth i. e. from the time wherein they were erected a Nation and Common-wealth and that the City had been a provocation of his anger and of his fury from the day that they built it even to this day i. e. the day of Jeremiah's Prophesie that he should remove it from before his face Jer. 32.31 From the dayes of Solomon say some which is too much a curtailing of the Text as though their provocations had taken date no higher than from the time of Solomon's rearing the Temple and beautifying the City whereby it seem'd to be a new Building They began more early they scarce discontinued their revolting from God they were a grief to him 40 years together in the Wilderness Psal 95.10 Yet he suffer'd their manners Act. 13.18 He bore with their ill behaviour and sawcyness towards him And no sooner was Joshua's head laid and the Elders that were their conductors gathered to their fathers but the next Generation forsook God and smutted themselves with the Idolatry of the Nations Judg. 2.7.10 11. And when he punished them by prospering the Arms of their enemies against them they were no sooner delivered upon their cry and humiliation but they began a new Scene of Idolatry And though he brought upon them the power of the Babylonian Empire and laid chains upon them to bring them to their right mind And at 70 years end he struck off their chains by altering the whole posture of affairs in that part of the World for their sakes Overturning one Empire and settling another for their Restoration to their antient City And though they did not after disown him for their God and set up Baal in his Throne yet they multiplyed foolish traditions whereby they impaired the Authority of the Law yet he sustained them with a wonderful Patience and preferred them before all other people in the first offers of the Gospel And after they had outrag'd not only his servants the Prophets but his Son the Redeemer yet he did not forsake them but employed his Apostles to sollicit them and publish among them the Doctrine of Salvation So that his treating this people might well be call'd much long suffering it being above 1500 years wherein he bore with them or mildly punished them far less than their deserts Their coming out of Egypt being about the year of the World 2450 and their final destruction as a Common-wealth not till about 40 years after the death of Christ And all this while his Patience did sometimes wholly restrain his Justice and sometimes let it fall upon them in some few drops but made no total devastation of their Country nor wrote his revenge in extraordinary bloody Characters till the Roman conquest wherein he put a period to them both as a Church and State In particular this Patience is manifest 1. In his giving warnings of Judgments before he orders them to go forth He doth not punish in a passion and hastily He speakes before he strikes and speakes that he may not strike Wrath is publisht before it is executed and that a long time An 120 years Advertisement was given to a debauch'd World before the Heavens were open'd to spout down a deluge upon them He will not be accused of coming unawares upon a people He inflicts nothing but what he foretold either immediately to the people that provoke him or anciently to them that have been their fore-runners in the same provocation Hos 7.12 I will chastise them as their Congregation hath heard Many of the leaves of the Old Testament are full of those Presages and Warnings of approaching judgment These make up a great part of the Volume of it in various Editions according to the State of the several provoking times Warnings are given to those people that are most abominable in his sight Zeph. 2.1 2. Gather your selves together yea gather together Oh Nation not desired 't is a Meiosis Oh Nation abhorr'd before the decree bring forth He sends his Heralds before he sends his Armies He summons them by the voice of his Prophets before he confounds them by the voice of his Thunders When a parley is beaten a white flagg of Peace is hung out before a black flagg of fury is set up He seldom cuts down men by his Judgments before he hath hewed them by his Prophets Hos 6.5 Not a remarkable judgment but was foretold the Floud to the Old World by Noah The Famine to Egypt by Joseph The Earthquake by Amos. Amos 1.1 The storm from Chaldea by Jeremy The Captivity of the Ten Tribes by Hosea The total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Christ himself He hath chosen the best persons in the World to give those intimations Noah the most Righteous person on the earth for the Old World And his Son the most beloved person in Heaven for the Jews in the later time And in other parts of the World and in the later times where he hath not warned by Prophets he hath supplyed it by Prodigies in the Air and Earth Histories are full of such Items from Heaven Lesser judgments are fore-warners of greater as Lightnings before Thunder are Messengers to tell us of a succeeding clap 1. He doth often give warning of Judgments He comes not to extremity till he hath often shaken the rod over Men He thunders often before he crusheth them with his Thunder-bolt He doth not till after the first and second admonition punish a rebel as he would have us reject a Heretick He speaks once yea twice Job 33.14 and man percieves it not He sends one Message after another and waits the success of many messages before he strikes Eight Prophets were order'd to acquaint the Old World with approaching judgment 2 Pet. 2.5 He saved
Noah the 8th person a Preacher of Righteousness bringing in the Flood upon the World of the ungodly called the 8th in respect of his Preaching not in regard of his preservation He was the 8th Preacher in order from the begining of the World that endeavoured to restore the World to the way of Righteousness Most indeed consider him here as the 8th person saved so do our Translators and therefore add Person which is not in the Greek Some others consider him here as the 8th Preacher of Righteousness reckoning Enoch the Son of Seth the first grounding it upon Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call on the Name of the Lord Hebr. Then it was began to call in the Name of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. He began to call in the Name of the Lord which others render he began to preach or call upon men in the Name of the Lord. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to Preach or to call upon men by Preaching Prov. 1.21 Wisdom cryeth or preaches And if this be so as it is very probable 't is easie to reckon him the 8th Preacher by numbering the successive heads of the Generations Gen. 5. Beginning at Enosh the first Preacher of Righteousness * Vid. Gells 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So many there were before God choakt the Old World with water and swept them away 'T is clear he often did admonish by his Prophets the Jews of their sin and the wrath which should come upon them One Prophet Hosea Prophesied 70 years for he Prophesied in the dayes of 4 Kings of Judah and one of Israel Jeroboam the Son of Joash Hos 1.1 or Jeroboam the second of that name Vzziah King of Judah in whose Reign Hosea Prophesied lived 38 years after the death of Jeroboam The Second Jotham Vzziah's Successor Reign'd 16 years Ahaz 16 Hezekiah 29 years Now take nothing of Hezekiah's time and Date the beginning of his Prophesie from the last year of Jeroboam's Reign and the time of Hosea's Prophesie will be 70 years compleat Wherein God warned those people and waited the return particularly of Israel * Sanctius Prolegom in Hosea Prolog the 3d. and not less than 5 of those we call the lesser Prophets were sent to foretell the destruction of the Ten Tribes and to call them to Repentance Hosea Joel Amos Micah Jonah And though we have nothing of Jonah's Prophesie in this concern of Israel yet that he lived in the time of the same Jeroboam and Prophesied things which are not upon record in the book of Jonah is clear 2 King 14.25 And besides those Isaiah Prophesied also in the Reign of the same Kings as Hosea did Isa 1.1 And it is God's usual method to send forth his servants and when their admonitions are slighted he Commissions others before he sends out his destroying Armies Mat. 22.3 4 7. 2. He doth often give warning of Judgments that he might not pour out his wrath He summons them to a surrender of themselves and a return from their Rebellion that they might not feel the force of his Armes He offers peace before he shakes off the dust of his feet that his despised peace might not return in vain to him to sollicite a revenge from his anger He hath a right to punish upon the first Commission of a crime but he warns men of what they have deserved of what his Justice moves him to inflict that by having recourse to his mercy he might not exercise the rights of his Justice God sought to kill Moses for not circumcising his Son Exod. 4.24 Could God that sought it miss of a way to do it Could a creature lurch or flie from him God put on the garb of an enemy that Moses might be discouraged from being an instrument of his own ruine God manifested an anger against Moses for his neglect as if he would then have destroyed him that Moses might prevent it by casting off his carelesness and doing his duty He sought to kill him by some evident sign that Moses might escape the judgment by his obedience He threatens Niniveh by the Prophet with destruction that Niniveh's Repentance might make void the Prophesie He fights with men by the Sword of his mouth that he might not pierce them by the Sword of his wrath He threatens that men might prevent the execution of his threatning He terrifies that he might not destroy but that men by humiliation may lie prostrate before him and move the bowels of his mercy to a louder sound than the voice of his Anger He takes time to whet his Sword that men may turn themselves from the edge of it He roars like a Lion that men by hearing his voice may shelter themselves from being torn by his Wrath. There is patience in the sharpest threatning that we may avoid the scourge Who can charge God with an eagerness to revenge that sends so many Heralds and so often before he strikes that he might be prevented from striking His threatnings have not so much of a black flag as of an Olive branch He lifts his up hand before he strikes that men might See and avert the stroke Isaiah 26.11 2. His Patience is manifest in long delaying his threatned Judgements though he finds no Repentance in the Rebels He doth sometimes delay his lighter punishments because he doth not delight in torturing his Creatures but he doth longer delay his destroying punishments such as put an end to mens happiness and remit them to their final and unchangeable state because he doth not delight in the death of a Sinner While he is preparing his arrows he is waiting for an occasion to lay them aside and dull their points that he may with honour march back again and disband his Armies He brings lighter smarts sooner that men might not think him asleep but he suspends the more terrible judgments that men might be led to Repentance He scatters not his consuming fires at the first but brings on ruining vengeance with a slow pace sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed Eccles 8.11 The Jews therefore say that Michael the Minister of Justice flyes with one wing but Gabriel the Minister of Mercy with two An 120 years did God wait upon the old World and delay their punishment all the time the Ark was preparing 1 Pet. 3.20 Wherein that wicked Generation did not enjoy only a bare patience but a striving patience Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall not always strive with man yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years the days wherein I will strive with him that his Long-suffering might not lose all its fruit and remit the objects of it into the hands of consuming Justice It was the Tenth Generation of the World from Adam when the deluge overflow'd it so long did God bear with them And the Tenth Generation from Noah wherein Sodom was consumed God did not come to keep his Assizes in Sodom till the cry of their sins was very
He sends but a few drops out of the Cloud which he might make to break in the gross and fall down upon our heads to overwhelm us he abates much of what he might do When he might sweep away a whole Nation by deluges of water corruption of the Air or convulsions of the Earth or by other wayes that are not wanting at his order He picks out only some Persons some Families some Cities sends a plague into one house and not into another here is Patience to the stock of a Nation while he inflicts punishment upon some of the most notorious sinners in it Herod is suddenly snatcht away being willingly flattered into the thoughts of his being a God God singl'd out the chief in the herd for whose sake he had been affronted by the rabble Act. 12.22 23. Some find him sparing them while others feel him destroying them He arrests some when he might seize all all being his Debtors And often in great desolations brought upon a people for their sin he hath left a stump in the Earth as Daniel speakes Dan. 4.15 for a Nation to grow upon it again and arise to a stronger constitution He doth punish less than our iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 and rewards us not according to our iniquities Psal 103.10 The greatness of any punishment in this Life answers not the greatness of the crime Though there be an equity in whatsoever he doth yet there is not an equality to what we deserve Our iniquities would justifie a severer treating of us His Justice goes not here to the end of its line 't is stopped in its progress and the blows of it weakned by his Patience He did not curse the Earth after Adam's fall that it should bring forth no fruit but that it should not bring forth fruit without the wearysome toyl of man and subjected him to distempers presently but inflicted not death immediately while he punished him he supported him And while he expelled him from Paradise he did not order him not to cast his eye towards it and conceive some hopes of regaining that happy place 5. His Patience is seen in giving great mercies after provocations He is so slow to anger that he heaps many kindnesses upon a rebel instead of punishment There is a prosperous wickedness wherein the provokers strength continues firm The troubles which like Clouds drop upon others are blown away from them and they are not plagued like other men that have a more worthy demeanour towards God Psal 73.3 4 5. He doth not only continue their lives but sends out fresh beams of his goodness upon them and calls them by his Blessings that they may acknowledge their own fault and his bounty which he is not obliged to by any gratitude he meets with from them but by the richness of his own patient nature for he finds the unthank fulness of men as great as his benefits to them He doth not only continue his outward mercies while we continue our sins but sometimes gives fresh benefits after new provocations that if possible he might excite an ingenuity in men When Israel at the Red Sea flung dirt in the face of God by quarrelling with his servant Moses for bringing them out of Egypt and mis-judging God in his design of deliverance and were ready to submit themselves to their former oppressors Exod. 14.11 12. which might justly have urged God to say to them take your own course yet he is not only patient under their unjust charge but makes bare his Arm in a deliverance at the Red Sea that was to be an amazing monument to the World in all Ages and afterwards when they repiningly quarrelled with him in their wants in the Wilderness he did not only not revenge himself upon them or cast off the conduct of them but bore with them by a miraculous long suffering and supplyed them with miraculous provision Manna from Heaven and Water from a Rock Food is given to support us and Cloaths to cover us and Divine Patience makes the creatures which we turn to another use than what they were at first intended for serve us contrary to their own Genius For had they reason no question but they would complain to be subjected to the service of man who hath been so ungrateful to their Creator and groan at the abuse of God's Patience in the abuse they themselves suffer from the hands of man 6. All this is more manifest if we consider the provocations he hath Wherein his slowness to Anger infinitely transcends the Patience of any creature nay the Spirits of all the Angels and Glorified Saints in Heaven would be too narrow to bear the sins of the World for one day nay not so much as the sins of Churches which is a little spot in the whole World 't is because he is the Lord one of an infinite power over himself that not only the whole Mass of the Rebellious World but of the Sons of Jacob either considered as a Church and Nation springing from the loyns of Jacob or considered as the Regenerate part of the World sometimes called the Seed of Jacob are not consumed Mal. 3.6 A Jonah was angry with God for recalling his Anger from a sinful people Had God committed the Government of the World to the Glorified Saints who are perfect in Love and Holiness the World would have had an end long ago They would have acted that which they sue for at the hands of God and is not granted them Rev. 6.10 How long Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the Earth God hath designs of Patience above the World above the unsinning Angels and perfectly renewed Spirits in Glory The greatest Created long suffering is infinitely disproportion'd to the Divine Fire from Heaven would have been showred down before the greatest part of a day were spent if a Created Patience had the conduct of the World though that creature were possessed with the spirit of Patience extracted from all the creatures which are in Heaven or are or ever were upon the earth Methinks Moses intimates this for as soon as God had passed by proclaiming his Name gracious and long suffering As soon as ever Moses had paid his Adoration he falls a Praying that God would go with the Israelites Exod. 34.8 9. For it is a stiffneck'd people What an Argument is here for God to go along with them He might rather since he had heard him but just before say he would by no means clear the guilty desire God to stand further off from them for fear the fire of his wrath should burst out from him to burn them as he did the Sodomites But he considers that as none but God had such anger to destroy them so none but God had such a Patience to bear with them 'T is as much as if he should have said Lord if thou should'st send the most tender hearted Angel in Heaven to have the guidance of this people
315 And Wisdom Pag. 344 345 The Wisdom of God appears in his government of Man as Rational Pag. 352 ad 357 As Sinful Pag. 357 ad 366 As Restored Pag. 367 368 369 The Power of God appears in Natural government Pag. 445 ad 451 Moral Pag. 451 452 453 Gracious and Judicial Pag. 453 ad 456 The Goodness of God in it Pag. 645 ad 660 God only fit for it Pag. 395 396 477 478 551 †671 672 Doth actually manage it Pag. 396 672 ad 675 Is contemned Pag. 759 ad 763 Vide Laws Governour God's Dominion as such Pag. 741 ad 748 Grace the Power of God in planting it Pag. 467 ad 470 Vide Conversion And preserving it 471 V. Perseverance God's withdrawing it no blemish to his Holiness Pag. 536 537 538 Shall be perfected in the Upright Pag. 552 God exercises a Soveraignty in bestowing and denying it Pag. 731 ad 734 Means of Grace vide Means Graces must be acted in Worship Pag. 145 ad 149 We should examine how we acted them after it Pag. 163 Growth in Grace annex'd to true Sanctification Pag. 699 Should be labour'd after Pag. 563 564 H. HAbits Spiritual to be acted in Spiritual Worship Pag. 145 146 The rooting up Evil ones shews the Power of God Pag. 469 470 Christ's sitting at Gods Right Hand doth not prove the Ubiquity of his Human Nature Pag. 251 252 Hardness how God and how Man is the cause of it Pag. 536 537 Harmony of the Creatures shew the Being and Wisdom of God Pag. 21 ad 27 Heart of Man how curiously contrived Pag. 30 We should examine our selves how our Hearts are prepared for Worship Pag. 162 How they are fixed in it and how they are after it Pag. 162 163 164 God orders all Mens to his own ends Pag. 452 453 Heaven the enjoyment of God there will be always fresh and glorious Pag. 195 Why called God's Throne Pag. 257 Heavenly Bodies subservient to the good of the World Pag. 22 23 Hosea when he Prophesied Pag. 801 Holiness a necessary ingredient in Spiritual Worship Pag. 152 153 A glorious Perfection of God Pag. 495 Own'd to be so both by Heathens and Hereticks ibid. God cannot be conceiv'd without it Pag. 495 496 It hath an excellency above all his other Perfections Pag. 496 Most loftily and frequently sounded forth by the Angels ib. He Swears by it ib. 'T is his glory and life Pag. 496 497 The glory of all the rest Pag. 497 498 What it is and how distinguish'd from Righteousness Pag. 498 His Essential and necessary Perfection Pag. 498 499 God only absolutely Holy Pag. 499 450 Causes him to abhor all Sin necessarily intensly universally and perpetually Pag. 501 502 503 Inclines him to love it in others Pag. 503 551 552 So Great that he cannot positively will and encourage Sin in others or do it himself Pag. 504 505 506 Appears in his Creation Pag. 507 508 In his Government Pag. 508 ad 513 In Redemption Pag. 513 514 515 In Justification Pag. 515 516 In Regeneration Pag. 516 Defended in all his Acts about Sin Pag. 517 ad 540 How much it is contemned in the World and wherein Pag. 540 ad 546 To hate and scoff at it in others how great a Sin Pag. 543 544 Necessarily obliges him to punish Sin Pag. 547 548 And exact satisfaction for it Pag. 549 550 Fits him for the government of the World Pag. 551 †Comfortable to Holy men Pag. 552 †Shall be perfected in the Upright Pag. 552 We should get and preserve right and strong Apprehensions of it and the advantage of so doing Pag. 552 ad 556 We should glorifie God for it and how Pag. 556 557 558 And labour after a conformity to it and wherein Pag. 558 559 563 Motives to do so Pag. 559 ad 562 And Directions Pag. 563 We should labour to grow in it Pag. 563 564 Exert it in our Approaches to God Pag. 564 Seek it at his hands Pag. 564 565 Holy Ghost his Deity proved Pag. 476 Humility a necessary ingredient in Spiritual Worship Pag. 151 152 We should examine our selves about it after Worship Pag. 164 A Consideration of God's Eternity would promote it Pag. 197 198 199 And of his Knowledge Pag. 339 †And of his Wisdom Pag. 409 And of his Power Pag. 491 And of his Holiness Pag. 553 554 And of his Goodness Pag. 668 And his Soveraignty Pag. 775 776 Hypocrites their false Pretences a virtual denial of God's Knowledge Pag. 328 It is Terrible to them Pag. 335 336 I. IDleness 't is an abuse of Gods Mercies to make them an occasion of it Pag. 668 Idolatry of the Heathens proves the belief of a God to be Universal Pag. 6 7 The first Object of it was the Heavenly Bodies Pag. 15 Springs from unworthy Imaginations of God Pag. 95 Not countenanc'd by Gods Omnipresence Pag. 260 Springs from a want of due Notion of God's Infinite Power Pag. 480 A contempt of God's Dominion Pag. 759 Jehovah signifies God's Eternity Pag. 189 And his Immutability Pag. 217 God called so but once in the Book of Job Pag. 440 Image of God in Man consists not in external form and figure Pag. 119 120 Unreasonable to make any of him Pag. 120 121 122 123 'T is Idolatry so to do Pag. 123 The defacing it an injury to God's Holiness Pag. 541 542 Man at first made after it Pag. 607 Imaginations Men naturally have unworthy ones of God Pag. 94 Vain ones the cause of Idolatry and Superstition and Presumtion Pag. 95 96 Worse than Idolatry or Atheism Pag. 96 97 An injury to God's Holiness Pag. 541 Imitation of God Man naturally hath no desire of it Pag. 99 We should strive to imitate his Immutability in that which is good Pag. 238 239 In Holiness wherein and why and how Pag. 558 ad 563 And in Goodness Pag. 691 692 Immortal God is so Pag. 127 Vide Eternity of God Immutability a Property of God Pag. 208 'T is a Perfection Pag. 208 209 A glory belonging to all his Attributes Pag. 209 Necessary to him Pag. 209 210 God is Immutable in his Essence Pag. 210 211 In Knowledge Pag. 211 ad 214 In his Will though the things willed by him are not Pag. 214 215 216 This doth not infringe his liberty Pag. 216 Immutable in regard of place Pag. 216 217 Proved by Arguments Pag. 217 ad 220 397 477 Incommunicable to any Creature Pag. 221 222 517 518 Objections against it answered Pag. 222 ad 229 Ascribed to Christ Pag. 229 230 A ground and encouragement to Worship him Pag. 230 231 How contrary to God in it Man is Pag. 231 232 233 Terrible to Sinners Pag. 233 2â—4 Comfortable to the Righteous and wherein Pag. 234 235 236 An Argument for Patience Pag. 237 Should make us prefer God before all Creatures Pag. 237 We should imitate this his Immutability in Goodness Motives to it Pag. 238 239 Impatience of Men is great when God crosses them
question what time is I know well enough what it is But if any ask me what it is I know not how to explain it So may I say of Eternity 't is easie in the word pronounced but hardly understood and more hardly exprest 't is better exprest by negative than positive words Though we cannot comprehend Eternity yet we may comprehend that there is an Eternity as though we cannot comprehend the Essence of God what he is yet we may comprehend that he is we may understand the notion of his Existence though we cannot understand the infiniteness of his Nature Yet we may better understand Eternity than Infiniteness we can better conceive a time with the addition of numberless days and years than imagin a Being without bounds whence the Apostle joyns his Eternity with his Power * Rom. 1.20 His eternal Power and God-head Because next to the Power of God apprehended in the Creature we come necessarily by reasoning to acknowledge the Eternity of God He that hath an incomprehensible Power must needs have an Eternity of Nature His Power is most sensible in the Creatures to the eye of Man and his Eternity easily from thence deducible by the reason of Man Eternity is a perpetual duration which hath neither beginning nor end Time hath both Those things we say are in time that have beginning grow up by degrees have succession of parts Eternity is contrary to Time and is therefore a permanent and immutable state a perfect possession of life without any variation It comprehends in it self all years all ages all periods of ages It never begins it endures after every duration of time and never ceaseth it doth as much out-run time as it went before the beginning of it Time supposeth something before it but there can be nothing before Eternity it were not then Eternity Time hath a continual succession the former time passeth away and another succeeds the last year is not this year nor this year the next We must conceive of Eternity contrary to the notion of time As the nature of time consists in the succession of parts so the Nature of Eternity in an infinite immutable duration * Moulin Cod. 1. Ser. 2. P. 52. Eternity and Time differ as the Sea and Rivers the Sea never changes place and is always one water but the Rivers glide along and are swallowed up in the Sea so is time by eternity A thing is said to be eternal or everlasting rather in Scripture 1. When it is of a long duration though it will have an end When it hath no measures of time determined to it so Circumcision is said to be in the Flesh for an everlasting Covenant * Gen. 17.13 not purely everlasting but so long as that administration of the Covenant should endure And so when a Servant would not leave his Master but would have his ear boared 't is said he should be a Servant for ever * Deut. 15.17 i. e. till the Jubilee which was every fiftieth year So the Meat-offering they were to offer is said to be Perpetual * Levit. 6.20 Canaan is said to be given to Abraham for an everlasting possession * Gen. 17.8 When as the Jews are expelled from Canaan which is given a Prey to the barbarous Nations Indeed Circumcision was not everlasting yet the substance of the Covenant whereof this was a sign viz. that God would be the God of Believers endures for ever and that Circumcision of the heart which was signified by Circumcision of the flesh shall remain for ever in the Kingdom of Glory It was not so much the lasting of the sign as of the thing signified by it and the Covenant sealed by it The sign had its abolition so that the Apostle is so peremptory in it that he asserts that if any went about to establish it he excluded himself from a participiation of Christ * Gal. 5.2 The Sacrifices were to be perpetual in regard of the thing signified by them viz. the death of Christ which was to endure in the efficacy of it And the Passover was to be for ever * Exod. 12.24 in regard of the Redemption signified by it which was to be of everlasting remembrance Canaan was to be an everlasting possession in regard of the glory of Heaven typified to be for ever conferr'd upon the spiritual Seed of Abraham 2. When a thing hath no end though it hath a beginning So Angels and Souls are everlasting though their being shall never cease yet there was a time when their being began they were nothing before they were something though they shall never be nothing again but shall live in endless happiness or misery But that properly is eternal that hath neither beginning nor end and thus Eternity is a Property of God In this Doctrin I shall shew 1. How God is eternal or in what respects Eternity is his Property 2. That he is eternal and must needs be so 3. That Eternity is only proper to God and not common to him with any Creature 4. The Vse 1. How God is eternal or in what respects he is so Eternity is a Negative Attribute and is a denying of God any measures of time as Immensity is a denying of him any bounds of place As Immensity is the diffusion of his Essence so Eternity is the duration of his Essence And when we say God is eternal we exclude from him all possibility of beginning and ending all flux and change As the Essence of God cannot be bounded by any place so it is not to be limited by any time as it is his Immensity to be every where so it is his Eternity to be alway * Gasseâ—d As created things are said to be somewhere in regard of place and to be present past or future in regard of time so the Creator in regard of place is everywhere in regard of time is semper * Câ—â—llius de Deo cap 18. p. 41. His duration is as endless as his Essence is boundless He always was and always will be and will no more have an End than he had a Begininng and this is an excellency belonging to the Supream Being * Lingend Tom. 2. p 496. As his Essence comprehends all beings and exceeds them and his Immensity surmounts all places so his Eternity comprehends all times all durations and infinitely excels them 1. God is without beginning In the beginning God created the World God was then before the beginning of it * Gen. 1.1 and what point can be set wherein God began if he were before the beginning of created things God was without beginning though all other things had time and beginning from him As Unity is before all Numbers so is God before all his Creatures Abraham called upon the name of the everlasting God * Gen. 21.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The eternal God 'T is opposed to the Heathen Gods which were but of Yesterday new coyn'd and
so new but the Eternal God was before the world was made In that sense it is to be understood * Rom. 16.26 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 Command of the everlasting God made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith The Gospel is not preached by the Command of a new and temporary God but of that God that was before all Ages though the manifestation of it be in time yet the purpose and resolve of it was from Eternity If there were Decrees before the foundation of the World there was a Decreer before the foundation of the World Before the foundation of the world he lov'd Christ as a Mediator * John 1◠24 A fore-ordination of him was before the foundation of the world a Choice of men and therefore a Chooser before the foundation of the world a Grace given in Christ before the world began * Eph. 1.4 and therefore a Donor of that Grace * 2 Tim. 1.9 From those places saith Crellius it appears that God was before the foundation of the world but they do not assert an absolute Eternity * Coccei Sum. p. 48. Theol. Gerhard Exeges cap. 86.4 p. 266. But to be before all Creatures is equivalent to his Being from Eternity Time began with the foundation of the world but God being before time could have no beginning in time Before the beginning of the Creation and the beginning of Time there could be nothing but Eternity nothing but what was uncreated that is nothing but what was without beginning To be in time is to have a beginning to be before all time is never to have a beginning but always to be For as between the Creator and Creatures there is no Medium so between Time and Eternity there is no Medium 'T is as easily deduced that he that was before all Creatures is Eternal as he that made all Creatures is God If he had a beginning he must have it from another or from himself if from another that from whom he received his Being would be better than he so more a God than he He cannot be God that is not Supream he cannot be Supream that owes his Being to the Power of another He would not be said only to have Immortality as he is * 1 Tim. 6.16 if he had it dependent upon another nor could he have a beginning from himself if he had given beginning to himself then he was once nothing there was a time when he was not if he was not how could he be the Cause of himself 'T is impossible for any to give a Beginning and Being to it self If it acts it must exist and so exist before it existed A thing would exist as a Cause before it existed as an Effect He that is not cannot be the Cause that he is If therefore God doth exist and hath not his Being from another he must exist from Eternity Therefore when we say God is of and from himself we mean not that God gave Being to himself but it is negatively to to be understood that he hath no cause of Existence without himself Whatsoever Number of Millions of Millions of Years we can imagin before the Creation of the World yet God was infinitely before those he is therefore called the Ancient of Days * Dan. 7.9 as being before all days and time and eminently containing in himself all times and ages Though indeed God cannot properly be called ancient that will testify that he is decaying and shortly will not be no more than he can be called young which would signify that he was not long before All created things are new and fresh but no Creature can find out any beginning of God 'T is impossible there should be any beginning of him 2. God is without end He always was always is and always will be what he is He remains always the same in Being so far from any change that no shadow of it can touch him * James 1.17 He will continue in being as long as he hath already enjoy'd it and if we could add never so many Millions of years together we are still as far from an end as from a beginning for the Lord shall endure for ever * Psal 9.7 As it is impossible he should not be being from all Eternity so it is impossible that he should not be to all Eternity The Scripture is most plentiful in testimonies of this Eternity of God à parte post or after the Creation of the world He is said to live for ever * Rev. 4.9 10. The Earth shall perish but God shall endure for ever and his years shall have no end Plants and Animals grow up from small beginnings * Psal 102.27 arrive to their full growth and decline again and have always remarkable alterations in their nature But there is no declination in God by all the revolutions of time Hence some think the incorruptibility of the Deity was signified by the Shittim or Cedar wood whereof the Ark was made it being of an incorruptible nature * Exod. 25.10 That which had no beginning of duration can never have an end or any interruptions in it Since God never depended upon any what should make him cease to be what eternally he hath been or put a stop to the continuance of his perfections He cannot will his own destruction that is against universal nature in all things to cease from being if they can preserve themselves He cannot desert his own Being because he cannot but love himself as the best and chiefest good The reason that any thing decays is either its own native weakness or a superior Power of something contrary to it * Crellius de Deo cap. 18. p. 41. There is no weakness in the nature of God that can introduce any Corruption because he is infinitely simple without any mixture Nor can he be overpowred by any thing else a weaker cannot hurt him and a stronger than he there cannot be Nor can he be outwitted or circumvented because of his infinite Wisdom As he received his Being from none so he cannot be deprived of it by any As he doth necessarily exist so he doth necessarily always exist This indeed is the Property of God nothing so proper to him as always to be Whatsoever perfections any Being hath if it be not eternal it is not divine God only is immortal * 1 Tim. 6.16 Daille in loc he only is so by a necessity of nature Angels Souls and Bodies too after the Resurrection shall be immortal not by nature but grant they are subject to return to nothing if that word that raised them from nothing should speak them into nothing again 'T is as easie with God to strip them of it as to invest them with it nay it is impossible but that they should perish if God
a power over our selves which is more noble than to be a Monarch over others A TABLE OF THE Places of Scripture Explained in this BOOK Some few of the Numbers being twice gone over the Reader may observe that this Mark †where 't is set after the Figures in this Table and the following Index directs him to the first of those Folio's and where he finds no Mark at all he is to consult the second GENESIS Chapters Verses Pages 1. 1. 346 439 440  26. 443 2. 7. 30 608  17. 796 3. 8. 803  15. 457 4. 26. 140 801 6. 6. 225 18. 19. 287 22. 12. ibid. 32. 30. 116 46. 4. 657 658 47. 31. 141 EXOD. Chapters Verses Pages 3. 11. 328  14. 187 188 4. 24. 801 6. 3. 439 440 9. 16. 454 15. 11. 494 32. 10. 602 33. 19. 585 34. 9. 806 NUMB. 34. 10. 116 DEUT. Chapters Verses Pages 32. 33 34. 300 34. 10. 116 I KINGS 8. 27. 250  39. 316 II KINGS 10. 9. 64 20. 1 4 5. 226 227 II CHRON. 11. 15. 68 JOB 4. 18. 500 9. 21. 320 12. 18. 742 743 14. 5. 293  17. 282 16. 19. 331 22. 14. 718 24. 12. 792 26. from v. 5. to the end of the Chapter 417 418 419 420 31. 26 27 28. 88 34. 21. 285 38. 7. 615 PSAL. Psalms Verses Pages 1. 4. 233 2. 4. 257 8. 4. 824 10. 11 13. 1 14. 1. 1 2 16. 2. 749 19. 1 2 3 4. 809  4. 348  9. 510  12. 288 22. 2 3 4. 558 26. 8. 257 27. 4. 497  10. 267 29. 10. 726 32. 1 2. 326 50. 21. 792 794  23. 326 51. 4. 303  6. 384 58. 3. 48  4. 49  10. 603 62. 11. 421 69. 19. 328 74. 14. 407 76. 12. 771 78. 36. 327  38. 804 90. 1. 179 180  2. 180 181  8. 318 102. 25 26 27. 203 4 5 6 7  from v. 3 to v. 28. 229 230 103. 3. 699  14. 333 † 19. 700 701 702 104. 2. 15  31. 206 207 105. 25. 534 106. 19 20. 122 111. 10. 14 113. 5. 257 130. 4. 130 139. 2. 300  7 8 9. 247 248  15 16. 30  16. 293  23 24. 233 †145. 17. 584 147. 1 2 3. 272 273  4. 273 717 718  5. 273 274 PROV Chapters Verses Pages 8. 12. 346  22. 192 749  30. 343 9. 10. 14 15. 11. 285 16. 4. 528 ECCL 8. 11. 48 ISAI 1. 10 11 14. 137 4. 2. 457 9. 6. 315 29. 15. 328 34. 4. 205 38. 1 5. 226 227 40. 15 17. 252 41. 21 22. 290 291 43. 20 21. 66 45. 5. 743  11. 769 48. 10. 657 52. 4 5. 658 54. 16. 346 66. 1. 251 JEREMY Chapters Verses Pages 6. 21. 534 7. 21. 137 12. 9. 233 15. 15. 789 16. 17. 287 21. 35 36. 205 23. from v. 16 to 24. 241 2 3 32. 31. 799 LAM 3. 33. 803 EZEK 4. 6. 802 8. 2. 497 9. 10. 803 11. 16. 657 18. 25. 790 20. 33. 771 DAN 7. 9. 124 HOSEA 1. 5. 816 2. 2 3. 804 814  16. 147  19. 769 5. 5. 513  12. 804 6. 4. 803 804  7. 752 7. 3. 69  15. 669 8. 12. 55 10. 15. 122 11. 10. 150 151  8. 804 13. 12 13. 336 †811 826 14. 2. 149 JOEL 1. 4. 804 AMOS 2. 6. 87 3. 2. 277 JONAH 3. 4 10. 226 227 MICAH 5. 2. 192 NAHUM Chapters Verses Pages 1. 1 2. 787 788  3. 788 789 790 791 HABAK. 1. 16. 86 ZEPH. 2. 1 2. 800 ZECH. 6. 1. 214 8. 3. 257 14. 16. 149 MAL. 1. 13 14. 64 3. 5. 319  6. 806 MATT. 1. 18. 457 3. 9. 423 5. 48. 792 827 7. 11. 551  23. 277 15. 6. 62 18. 10. 278 25. 12. 277 MARK 10. 18. 577 578 579 LUKE 1. 35. 456 10. 20. 235 JOHN 1. 3. 474.5 4. à 10 ad 24. 109 110  24. 110 111 112 129 130 5. 19. 472 6. 64. 317 7. 37. 149 9. 3. 712 10. 30. 262 12. 38. 303  39 41. 551 17. 5. 192 224 ACTS 7. 51. 57 17. 18. 461  28. 244 248  30. 799 ROM Chapters Verses Pages 1. 9. 143  19 20 21. 4 5 14 15   346 582  23. 257  25. 41 2. 4. 810 811 3. 9 10 11 12. 48  23. 546 547 5. 7. 584 7. 6. 135  8. 57 8. 4. 384  10. 796  21. 206  38 39. 333 9.  728  6. 135  22. 795 814 10. 18. 809 12. 1. 139 15. 5. 820 16. 25 26 27. à 341 †ad 337 I COR. 1. 21. 346 2. 2. 287  10 11. 278 10. 20 21. 68 II COR. 3. 18. 373 GAL. 3. 3. 135 EPH. 1. 10. 619  18. 374 2. 3. 102  12. 47 97 3. 10. 374 4. 6. 246 PHIL. 2. 6. 71 COL 1. 16. 473  20. 609 2. 3. 395 II TIM 1. 10. 630 631 2. 2. 235 TITUS 1. 16. 2.49 2. 19. 277 HEB. 1. 1 2 10 11. 229 230 473  9. 514 4. 12. 286 11. 3. 16 489  6. 4  16. 631  21. 141 JAMES 2. 10 11. 61 3. 15. 49 II PET. 2. 1. 795 2. 5. 801 3. 9. 798  12 13. 205 REV. 1. 10. 174 2. 18 19 22. 329 6. 10. 806  14. 205 THE INDEX A MEN are unwilling to have any Acquaintance with God Pag. 97 Vide Communion Actions a greater proof of Principles than words Pag. 49 All are known by God Pag. 285 Activity required in Spiritual Worship Pag. 144 145 Adam the greatness of his sin Pag. 625 754 Vide Man and Fall of man Additions in matters of Religion an invasion of God's Soveraignty Pag. 756 757 Vide Worship and Ceremonies Admiration ought to be exercis'd in Spiritual worship Pag. 148 Affections human in what sense ascribed to God Pag. 224 225 226 Sharp Afflictions make Atheists fear there is a God Pag. 42 43 Make us impatient Vide Impatience We should be patient under them v. Patience Many call on God only under them Pag. 92 Fill us with distraction in the Worship of God Pag. 166 The Presence of God a comfort in them Pag. 267 And his knowledge Pag. 322 The wisdom of God apparent in them Pag. 369 370 371 The wisdom of God a comfort in them Pag. 405 And his Power Pag. 485 486 And his Sovereignty Pag. 771 Do not impeach his Goodness Pag. 604 The Goodness of God seen in them Pag. 657 658 His Goodness a comfort in them Pag. 683 Acts of God's Soveraignty 711 712. The consideration of which would make us entertain them as we ought Pag. 774 775 Many neglect the serving of God till old Age. Pag. 65 Air how useful a Creature Pag. 23 Almighty how often God is so called in Scripture Pag. 421 How often in Job Pag. 440 Good Angels what benefit they have by Christ Pag.
360 618 619 Not Instruments in the Creation of Man Pag. 443 Evil not redeemed Pag. 619 620 Angels not Governors of the world Pag. 673 674 Subject to God Pag. 717 718 Men Apostatize from God when his will crosses theirs Pag. 80 In times of Persecution Pag. 90 By reason of practical Atheism Pag. 102 103 Apostles the first Preachers of the Gospel mean and worthless men Pag. 463 464 Spirited by Divine Power for spreading of it Pag. 464 465 The Wisdom of God seen in using such Instruments Pag. 393 394 Applauding our selves v. Pride Atheism opens a Door to all manner of wickedness Pag. 2. Some spice of it in all men Pag. 2 4 The greatest folly 3 ad Pag. 39 Common in our days Pag. 3 41 Strikes at the Foundation of all Religion Pag. 3 We should establish our selves against it ibid. 'T is against the light of Natural Reason Pag. 4 Against the universal consent of all Nations Pag. 6 But few if any profest it in former Ages Pag. 8 41 Would root up the Foundations of all Government Pag. 39 Introduce all evil into the world Pag. 39 40 Pernicious to the Atheist himself Pag. 40 41 The cause of Publick Judgments Pag. 41 Mens Lusts the cause of it Pag. 43 Promoted by the Devil most since the destruction of Idolatry Pag. 44 Uncomfortable Pag. 44 45 Directions against it Pag. 45 46 All sin founded in a secret Atheism Pag. 50 Practical Atheism natural to Man Pag. 47 Natural since the Fall Pag. 48 To all men ibid. Proved by Arguments 54 ad Pag. 99 We ought to be humbled for it both in our selves and others Pag. 103 104 How great a sin it is 104 ad Pag. 106 Misery will attend it Pag. 106 We should watch against it ibid. Directions against it Pag. 106 107 Atheist can never prove there is no God Pag. 41 42 All the Creatures fight against him Pag. 42 In Afflictions suspects and fears there is one Pag. 42 43 How much pains he takes to blot out the notion of a God Pag. 43 Suppose it were an even lay that there were no God yet he is very imprudent ibid. Uses not means to enform himself ibid. Atoms the World not made by a casual concourse of them Pag. 20 Attributes of God bear a comfortable respect to believers Pag. 342 Authority how distinguisht from Power Pag. 704 B. THe Best we have ought to be given to God Pag. 155 156 Blessings Spiritual God only the Author of Pag. 698 Temporal God uses a Soveraignty in bestowing them 740 Vide Riches Body of Man how curiously wrought Pag. 30 31 350 Every Human one hath different Features Pag. 31 32 God hath none v. Spirit We must worship God with our Bodies Pag. 139 140 141 Yet not with our Bodies only Vide Soul and Worship We must not conceive of God under a Bodily shape Pag. 124 125 Bodily Members ascribed to him Vide Members Brain how curious a workmanship Pag. 30 C. THe Israelites worshipped the true God under the golden Calf Pag. 122 God fits and enclines men to several Callings Pag. 356 357 650 Appoints every mans Calling Pag. 747 There is a first Cause of all things Pag. 20 21 Which doth necessarily exist and is infinitely perfect Pag. 21 We must not Censure God in his Counsels Actions or Revelations Pag. 192 193 403 404 Or in his ways Pag. 415 416 Censuring the hearts of others is an injury to God's Omniscience Pag. 324 325 Men is a contempt of God's Soveraignty Pag. 763 Ceremonial Law abolisht to promote Spiritual Worship Pag. 135 Called Flesh ibid. Not a fit means to bring the heart into a spiritual frame Pag. 135 136 Rather hindred than further'd Spiritual Worship Pag. 136 137 God never testified himself well-pleased with it nor intended it should always last Pag. 137 138 The abrogating of it doth not argue any change in God Pag. 228 229 The Holiness of God appears in it Pag. 510 511 Men are prone to bring Ceremonies of their own into God's Worship 79 Vide Worship and Additions c. Chance the World not made nor governed by it Pag. 26 Charity men have bad ends in it Pag. 93 We should exercise it Pag. 691 692 The consideration of God's Soveraignty would promote it Pag. 774 We should be Chearful in God's worship Pag. 150 Christ his Godhead proved from his Eternity Pag. 191 192 From his Omnipresence Pag. 261 262 From his Immutability Pag. 229 230 From his Knowledge of God all Creatures the hearts of men and his prescience of their Inclinations Pag. 315 316 317 From his Omnipotence manifest in Creation Preservation and Resurrection Pag. 472 ad 476 From his Holiness Pag. 551 From his Wisdom Pag. 395 Is God-man Pag. 458 Spiritual Worship offered to God through him Pag. 154 155 The imperfectness of our Services should make us prize his Mediation Pag. 168 The only fit Person in the Trinity to assume our Nature Pag. 378 379 Fitted to be our Mediator and Saviour by his two Natures Pag. 381 382 383 Should be imitated in his Holiness and often viewed by us to that end Pag. 559 563 The greatest Gift Pag. 622 ad 625 Appointed by the Father to be our Redeemer Pag. 749 750 751 The Christian Religion its Excellency Pag. 103 Of Divine Extraction Pag. 551 Most opposed in the World Pag. 63 Vide Gospel Church God's Eternity a comfort to her in all her Distresses and Threatnings of her Enemies Pag. 193 194 Under God's special Providence Pag. 272 273 His Infinite Knowledge a comfort in all subtil contrivances of men against her Pag. 328 329 Troublers of her Peace by corrupt Doctrines no better than Devils 341 †God 's Wisdom a comfort to her in her greatest dangers Pag. 406 Hath shewn his Power in her deliverance in all Ages Pag. 180 453 454 And in the destruction of her Enemies Pag. 454 455 456 Ought to take comfort in his Power in her lowest Estate Pag. 487 488 Should not fear her Enemies v. Fear His Goodness a comfort in dangers Pag. 684 How great is God's love to her Pag. 769 820 His Soveraignty a comfort to her Pag. 771 772 He will comfort her in her â—ears and destroy her Enemies Pag. 787 788 God exercises Patience towards her Pag. 812 For her sake to the wicked also Pag. 812 813 Why her Enemies are not immediately destroyed Pag. 819 Commands of God v. Laws The Holiness of God to be relied on for Comfort Pag. 551 God gives great Comforts in or after Temptations Pag. 659 Creatures cannot Comfort us if God be angry Pag. 768 Communion with God man naturally hath no desire of Pag. 98 The advantage of Communion with him Pag. 106 107 Can only be in our Spirits Pag. 127 We should desire it Pag. 201 202 Cannot be between God and sinners Pag. 548 549 Holiness only fits us for it Pag. 562 Conceptions we cannot have adequate ones of God Pag. 123 We ought to labour after as high ones as