be of an eternal duration then Christ is God Eternity is the Property of God but it is ascribed to Christ He is before all things * Col. 1.17 i. e. all created things He is therefore no Creature and if no Creature eternal All things were created by him both in Heaven and in Earth Angels as well as Men * Col. 1.16 whether they be Thrones or Dominions If all things were his Creatures then he is no Creature if he were all things were not created by him or he must create himself He hath no difference of time for he is the same yesterday to day and for ever * Heb. 13.8 Rev. 1.8 He which is and which was and which is to come The same with the Name of God I am which signifies his Eternity He is no more to day than he was yesterday nor will be any other to morrow than he is to day And therefore Melchisedeck whose Descent Birth and Death Father and Mother Beginning and End of days are not upon Record was a Type of the Existence of Christ without difference of time * Heb. 7.3 Having neither beginning of Days nor end of Life but made like the Son of God The suppression of his Birth and Death was intended by the Holy-Ghost as a Type of the excellency of Christ's person in regard of his Eternity and the duration of his Charge in regard of his Priest-hood As there was an appearance of an Eternity in the suppression of the Race of Melchisedeck so there is a true Eternity in the Son of God How could the Eternity of the Son of God be exprest by any resemblance so well as by such a suppression of the Beginning and End of this great Person different from the custom of the Spirit of God in the Old-Testament who often records the Generations and Ends of holy Men and why might not this which was a kind of a shadow of Eternity be a representation of the true Eternity of Christ as well as the restoration of Isaac to his Father without death is said to be a figure of the Resurrection of Christ after a real death * Mestraezat in loc Melchisedeck is only mentioned once without any record of his extraction in his appearance to Abraham after his victory as if he came from Heaven only for that action and instantly disappeared again as if he had been an eternal person And Christ himself hints his own eternity * John 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father He goes to the Father as he came from the Father He goes to the Father for everlasting so he came from the Father from everlasting there is the same duration in coming forth from the Father as in returning to the Father But more plainly * John 17.5 He speaks of a Glory that he had with the Father before the world was when there was no Creature in being this is an actual glory and not only in Decree For a decreed glory Believers had and why may not every one of them say the same words Father glorify me with that glory which I had with thee before the world was if it were only a glory in decree Nay it may be said of every man he was before the world was because he was so in decree Christ speaks of something peculiar to him a Glory in actual possession before the world was glorify me embrace honour me as thy Son whereas I have now been in the eyes of the world handled disgracefully as a Servant If it were only in decree why is not the like expression used of others in Scripture as well as of Christ Why did he not use the same words for his Disciples that were then with him who had a glory in decree His Eternity is also mentioned in the Old-Testament * Prov. 8.22 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old If he were the work of God he existed before himself if he existed before all the works of God 't is so not properly meant of the essential wisdom of God since the discourse runs in the name of a Person and several passages there are which belong not so much to the essential wisdom of God as v. 13. The evil way and the froward mouth do I hate which belongs rather to the holiness of God than to the essential wisdom of God besides it is distinguisht from Jehovah as possessed by him and rejoycing before him Yet plainer * Mica 5 2. Out of thee i. e. Bethlehem shall he come forth to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the wayes of Eternity There are two goings forth of Christ described one from Bethlehem in the days of his incarnation and another from Eternity The Holy-Ghost adds after his prediction of his incarnation his going out from everlasting that none should doubt of his Deity If this going out from everlasting were only in the purpose of God it might be said of David and of every Creature And in Isa 9.6 He is particularly called the Everlasting or Eternal Father Not the Father in the Trinity but a Father to us yet eternal the Father of Eternity As he is the mighty God so he is the everlasting Father Can such a title be ascribed to any whose being depends upon the Will of another and may be dasht out at the pleasure of a Superior As the Eternity of God is the ground of all Religion so the Eternity of Christ is the ground of the Christian Religion Could our Sins be perfectly expiated had he not an eternal Divinity to answer for the offences committed against an eternal God Temporary sufferings had been of little validity without an infiniteness and eternity in his person to add weight to his passion 2. If God be eternal he knows all things as present * Petav. All things are present to him in his Eternity for this is the notion of Eternity to be without succession If Eternity be one indivisible point and is not diffused into preceding and succeeding parts then that which is known in it or by it is perceived without any succession For knowledge is as the substance of the person knowing if that hath various actions and distinct from it self then it understands things in differences of time as time presents them to view But since Gods Being depends not upon the revolutions of time so neither doth his Knowledge it exceeds all motions of years and days comprehends infinite spaces of past and future God considers all things in his Eternity in one simple knowledge as if they were now acted before him * Acts 15.18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à seculo from eternity Gods Knowledge is coeternal with him If he knows that in time which
and the Change is the greater where the Distance is the greater As it was a more signal mark of Power to change a Dead Man to life than to change a Sick Man to health so that the change here being from a Term of a greater distance is more Powerful than the Creation of Heaven and Earth Therefore whereas Creation is said to be wrought by his Hands and the Heavens by his Fingers or his Word Conversion is said to be wrought by his Arm ‖ Isai 53.1 In Creation we had an Earthly by Conversion a Heavenly state In Creation Nothing is changed into Something in Conversion Hell is transform'd into Heaven which is more than the turning Nothing into a glorious Angel In that Thanksgiving of our Saviour for the revelation of the knowledge of himself to Babes the simple of the World he gives the Title to his Father of Lord of Heaven and Earth †Mat. 11.5 intimating it to be an act of his Creative and Preserving Power that Power whereby he formed Heaven and Earth hath preserved the standing and governed the motions of all Creatures from the beginning of the World 'T is resembled to the most Magnificent Act of Divine Power that God ever put forth viz. that in the Resurrection of our Saviour * Eph. 1.19 wherein there was more than an ordinary impression of Might 'T is not so small a Power as that whereby we speak with Tongues or whereby Christ opened the Mouths of the Dumb and the Ears of the Deaf or unloosed the Cords of Death from a Person 'T is not that Power whereby our Saviour wrought those stupendous Miracles when he was in the World but that Power which wrought a Miracle that amaz'd the most knowing Angels as well as ignorant Man The taking off the weight of the Sin of the World from our Saviour and advancing him in his Humane Nature to rule over the Angelical Host making him Head of Principalities and Powers as much as to say as great as all that Power which is display'd in our Redemption from the first foundation to the last line in the superstructure 'T is therefore often set forth with an Emphasis as Excellency of power †2 Cor. 4.7 and Glorious power ‖ 2 Pet. 1.3 To glory and vertue we Translate it but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Through glory and vertue that is by a glorious vertue or strength 2. The Instrument whereby it is wrought is dignified with the title of Power The Gospel which God useth in this great affair is called The Power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 and the Rod of his strength Psal 110.2 And the day of the Gospel's appearance in the heart is emphatically called The day of Power verse 3. wherein he brings down strong holds and towring Imaginations * Grotlus in Luke 1.19 And therefore the Angel Gabriel which Name signifies the Power of God was always sent upon those Messages which concerned the Gospel as to Daniel Zechary Mary The Gospel is the Power of God in way a of Instrumentality but the Almightiness of God is the Principal in a way of Efficiency The Gospel is the Scepter of Christ but the Power of Christ is the Mover of that Scepter The Gospel is not as a bare Word spoken and proposing the thing but as back'd with a higher efficacy of Grace As the Sword doth instrumentally cut but the Arm that wields it gives the blow and makes it successful in the stroak But this Gospel is the Power of God because he edgeth this by his own Power to surmount all resistance and vanquish the greatest Malice of that Man he designs to work upon The Power of God is conspicuous 1. In turning the Heart of Man against the strength of the Inclinations of Nature In the forming of Man of the Dust of the Ground as the Matter contributed nothing to the Action whereby God formed it so it had no Principle of resistance contrary to the design of God But in Converting the Heart there is not only wanting a principle of Assistance from him in this work but the whole strength of Corrupt Nature is alarm'd to combat against the Power of his Grace When the Gospel is presented the Understanding is not only ignorant of it but the Will perverse against it the one doth not relish and the other doth not esteem the Excellency of the Object The Carnal wisdom in the Mind contrives against it and the Rebellâ—ous Will puts the orders in execution against the Counsel of God which requires the invincible Power of God to enlighten the dark Mind to know what it slights and the fierce Will to embrace what it loaths The stream of Nature cannot be turned but by a Power above Nature 'T is not all the Created Power in Heaven and Earth can change a Swine into a Man or a venemous Toad into a holy and illustrious Angel Yet this work is not so great in some respect as the stilling the fierceness of Nature the silencing the swelling Waves in the heart and the casting out those brutish Affections which are born and grow up with us There would be no or far less resistance in a meer Animal to be chang'd into a Creature of a higher rank than there is in a Natural Man to be turned into a serious Christian There is in every Natural Man a stoutness of heart a stiff-neck unwillingness to good forwardness to evil Infinite Power quells this stoutness demolisheth these strong holds turns this wild Ass in her course and routs those Armies of turbulent Nature against the Grace of God To stop the Flouds of the Sea is not such an act of Power as to turn the Tyde of the Heart This Power hath been employ'd upon every Convert in the World What would you say then if you knew all the Chanels in which it hath run since the days of Adam If the alteration of one Rocky heart into a Pool of Water be a wonder of Power what then is the calming and sweetning by his Word those One hundred forty four Thousand of the Tribes of Israel and that numberless Multitude of all Nations and People that shall stand before the Throne * Revel 7.3 which were all naturally so many raging Seas Not one Converted Soul from Adam to the last that shall be in the End of the World but is a Trophy of the Divine Conquest None were pure Volunteers nor listed themselves in his Service till he put forth his strong Arm to draw them to him No mans Understanding but was chain'd with Darkness and fond of it no Man but had Corruption in his Will which was dearer to him than any thing else which could be propos'd for his True happiness These things are most evident in Scripture and Experience 2. As 't is wrought against the Inclinations of Nature so against a multitude of Corrupt habits rooted in the Souls of Men. A distemper in its first invasion may more
are the foundation of a solemn Honour to be returned to him by his Creatures If a Man make a curious Engine we honour him for his Skill If another vanquish a vigorous Enemy we admire him for his Strength And shall not the efficacy of Gods Power in Creation Government Redemption enflame us with a sense of the Honour of his Name and Perfections We admire those Princes that have vast Empires numerous Armies that have a Power to conquer their Enemies and preserve their own People in peace How much more ground have we to pay a mighty Reverence to God who without Trouble and Weariness made and manages this vast Empire of the World by a Word and Beck What sensible thoughts have we of the noise of Thunder the power of the Sun the storms of the Sea These things that have no Understanding have struck Men with such a Reverence that many have ador'd them as gods What Reverence and Adoration doth this Mighty Power joyned with an Infinite Wisdom in God demand at our hands All Religion and Worship stands especially upon two Pillars Goodness and Power in God if either of these were defective all Religion would faint away We can expect no entertainment with him without Goodness nor any benefit from him without Power This God Prefaceth to the Command to Worship him the benefit his Goodness had conferr'd upon them and the Powerful manner of conveyance of it to them 2 Kings 17.36 The Lord brought you up from the Land of Egypt with great Power and an Out-stretched Arm him shall you fear and him shall you worship and to him shall you do sacrifice Because this Attribute is a main foundation of Prayer the Lords Prayer is concluded with a doxology of it For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory As he is Rich possessing all Blessings so he is Powerful to confer all Blessings on us and make them efficacious to us * Capel in 1 Tim. 1.17 The Jews repeat many times in their Prayers some say an hundred times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King of the World 't is both an Awe and an Encouragement We could not without consideration of it pray in Faith of success nay we could not pray at all if his Power were defective to help us and his Mercy too weak to relieve us Who would sollicite a Lifeless or lie a prostrate Suppliant to a feeble Arm Upon this Ability of God Our Saviour built his Petitions Heb. 5.7 He offered up strong Cries unto him that was able to save him from death Abraham's Faith hung upon the same string Rom. 4.21 and the Captiv'd Church supplicates God to act according to the greatness of his Power Psal 79.11 In all our Addresses this is to be ey'd and considered God is able to help to relieve to ease me let my Misery be never so great and my Strength never so weak Matt. 8.2 If thou wilt thou canst make me clean was the Consideration the Leper had when he came to worship Christ he was clear in his Power and therefore worshipped him though he was not equally clear in his Will All Worship is shot wrong that is not directed to and conducted by the thoughts of this Attribute whose assistance we need When we beg the Pardon of our Sins we should eye Mercy and Power when we beg his righting us in any case where we are unjustly opprest we do not eye Righteousness without Power when we plead the performance of his Promise we do not regard his Faithfulness only without the Prop of his Power As Power ushers in all the Attributes of God in their exercise and manifestation in the World so should it be the Butt our eyes should be fixed upon in all our acts of Worship As without his Power his other Attributes would be useless so without due Apprehensions of his Power our Prayers will be Faithless and Comfortless The Title in the Lords Prayer directs us to a prospect both of his Goodness and Power his Goodness in the word Father his Greatness Excellency and Power in the word Heaven The heedless Consideration of the Infiniteness of this Perfection roots up Piety in the midst of us and makes us so careless in Worship Did we more think of that Power that rais'd the World out of nothing that orders all Creatures by an an act of his Will that perform'd so great an Exploit as that of our Redemption when masterless sin had triumphed over the World we should give God the honour and adoration which so great an excellency challengeth and deserves at our hands though we our selves had not been the work of his hands or the monuments of his strength how could any Creature engross to it self that reverence from us which is due to the powerful Creator of whom it comes infinitely short in strength as well as wisdome 7. From this we have a ground for the belief of the Resurrection God aims at the glory of his Power as well as the glory of any other Attribute Moses else would not have cull'd out this as the main Argument in his pleading with God for the sheathing the Sword which he began to draw out against them in the Wilderness Numb 14.16 The Nations will say because the Lord was not able to bring these People into the Land which he sware to them c. As the finding out the particulars of the dust of our Bodies discovers the vastness of his Knowledge so to raise them will manifest the glory of his Power as much as Creation Bodies that have mouldred away into multitudes of Atoms been resolved into the Elements passed through varieties of changes been sometimes the matter to lodge the form of a Plant or been turned into the substance of a Fish or Foul or vapour'd up into a Cloud and been part of that matter which hath compacted a Thunder-bolt dispos'd of in places far distant scatter'd by the Winds swallowed and concocted by Beasts for these to be called out from their different places of abode to meet in one Body and be restored to their former Consistency in a marriage union in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.22 't is a Consideration that may justly amaze us and our shallow Understandings are too feeble to comprehend it But is it not credible since all the Disputes against it may be silenced by reflections on Infinite Power which nothing can oppose for which nothing can be esteemed too difficult to effect which doth not imply a Contradiction in it self It was no less amazing to the blessed Virgin to hear a Message that she should Conceive a Son without knowing a Man but she is quickly answered by the Angel with a Nothing is impossible to God Luke 1.34 37. The distinct parts of our Bodies cannot be hid from his All-seeing Eye where-ever they are lodged and in all the Changes they pass through as was discoursed when the Omniscience of God was handled shall then the collection of them
2. Readiness to exercise it upon due occasions He hath prepared his Throne he is not at a loss he needs not stay for a Commission or Instructions from any how to act He hath all things ready for the assistance of his People he hath Rewards and Punishments his Treasures and Axes the great marks of Authority lying by him the one for the good the other for the wicked His Mercy he keeps by him for Thousands Exod. 34.7 His Arrows he hath prepared by him for Rebels Psal 7.13 3. Wise management of it 'T is prepared preparations imply prudence the Government of God is not a rash and heady Authority A Prince upon his Throne a Judge upon the Bench manages things with the greatest discretion or should be supposed so to do 4. Successfulness and duration of it He hath prepared or Established 'T is fixed not tottering 't is an immoveable Dominion all the strugglings of Men and Devils cannot overturn it nor so much as shake it 'T is Established above the reach of obstinate Rebels he cannot be deposed from it he cannot be mated in it His Dominion as himself abides for ever And as his Counsel so his Authority shall stand and he will do all his pleasure Isaiah 46.10 His Throne in the Heavens This is an expression to signifie the Authority of God for as God hath no member properly though he be so represented to us so he hath properly no Throne It signifies his power of Reigning and Judging A Throne is proper to Royalty the Seat of Majesty in its excellency and the place where the deepest respect and homage of Subjects is paid and their Petitions presented That the Throne of God is in the Heavens that there he sits as a Soveraign is the opinion of all that acknowledge a God when they stand in need of his Authority to assist them their eyes are lifted up and their heads stretched out to Heaven so his Son Christ prayed he lifted up his Eyes to Heaven as the place where his Father sat in Majesty as the most adorable object John 17.1 Heaven hath the Title of his Throne as the Earth hath that of his Footstool Isaiah 66.1 And therefore Heaven is sometimes put for the Authority of God Dan. 4.26 After that thou shalt have known that the Heavens do rule i. e. That God who hath his Throne in the Heavens orders earthly Princes and Scepters as he pleases and rules over the Kingdoms of the World His Throne in the Heavens Notes 1. The Glory of his Dominion The Heavens are the most stately and comely peices of the Creation His Majesty is there most visible his glory most splendid Psal 19.1 The Heavens speak out with a full mouth his Glory 'T is therefore called the Habitation of his Holiness and of his Glory Isaiah 63.15 There is the greater glister and brightness of his Glory The whole Earth indeed is full of his Glory full of the beams of it the Heaven is full of the body of it as the rayes of the Sun reach the Earth but the full Glory of it is in the Firmament In Heaven his Dominion is more acknowledged by the Angels standing at his beck and by their readiness and swiftness obeying his Commands going and returning as a flash of lightning Ezek. 1.14 His Throne may well be said to be in the Heavens since his Dominion is not disputed there by the Angels that attend him as it is on Earth by the Rebels that arm themselves against him 2. The Supremacy of his Empire The Heavens are the loftiest part of the Creation and the only fit Palace for him 't is in the Heavens his Majesty and Dignity are so sublime that they are elevated above all Earthly Empires 3. Peculiarly of this Dominion He rules in the Heavens alone There is some shadow of Empire in the World Royalty is communicated to men as his Substitutes He hath disposed a vicarious Dominion to men in his footstool the Earth he gives them some share in his Authority and therefore the Title of his Name Psal 82.6 I have said ye are Gods but in Heaven he reigns alone without any Substitutes his Throne is there He gives out his orders to the Angels himself the marks of his Immediate soveraignty are there most visible He hath no Vicars General of that Empire His Authority is not delegated to any Creature he rules the blessed Spirits by himself but he rules Men that are on his Footstool by others of the same kind men of their own nature 4. The vastness of his Empire The Earth is but a spot to the Heavens What is England in a Mapp to the whole Earth but a spot you may cover with your Finger Much less must the whole Earth be to the extended Heavens 'T is but a little point or Atome to what is visible the Sun is vastly bigger than it and several Stars are supposed to be of a greater bulk than the Earth and how many and what Heavens are beyond the ignorance of man cannot understand If the Throne of God be there 't is a larger Circuit he rules in than can well be conceived You cannot conceive the many millions of little particles there are in the Earth and if all put together be but as one point to that place where the Throne of God is seated how vast must his Empire be He rules there over the Angels which excell in strength those Hosts of his which do his pleasure in comparison of whom all the Men in the World and the power of the greatest Potentates is no more than the strength of an Ant or Fly multitudes of them encircle his Throne and listen to his orders without roving and execute them without disputing And since his Throne is in the Heavens it will follow that all things under the Heaven are parts of his Dominion his Throne being in the highest place the inferior things of Earth cannot but be subject to him and it necessarily includes his influence on all things below because the Heavens are the cause of all the motion in the World the immediate thing the Earth doth naturally address to for Corn Wine and Oyl above which there is no superior but the Lord. Hosea 2.21 22. The Earth hears the Corn Wine and Oyl the Heavens hear the Earth and the Lord hears the Heavens 5. The easiness of managing this Government His Throne being placed on high he cannot but behold all things that are done below the height of a place gives advantage to a pure and clear Eye to behold things below it Had the Sun an Eye nothing could be done in the open Air out of its ken The Throne of God being in Heaven he easily looks from thence upon all the Children of Men. Psal 14.2 The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand He looks not down from Heaven as if he were in regard of his presence confined there but he looks down
10.9 Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. An Invader and Oppressor of his Neighbors and reputed the Introducer of a new Worship and being the first that built Cities after the flood as Cain was the first Builder of them before the flood built also Idolatry with them And erected a new Worship and was so far from strengthing that Notion the people had of God that he endeavoured to corrupt it The first Idolatry in common Histories being noted to proceed from that part of the World the Ancientest Idol being at Babylon and supposed to be first invented by this Person Whence by the way perhaps Rome is in the Revelations called Babylon with respect to that similitude of their Saint-Worship to the Idolatry first set up in that place * Or if we understand it as some think that he defended his invasions under a pretext of the preserving Religion it assures us that there was a notion of an object of Religion before since no Religion can be without an object of Worship T is evident Politicians have often changed the Worship of a Nation but it is not upon record that the first thoughts of an object of Worship ever entred into the minds of people by any trick of theirs But to return to the present Argument the Being of a God is owned by some Nations that have scarce any form of policy among them T is as wonderful how any wit should hit upon such an Invention as it is absur'd to ascribe it to any humane device if there were not prevailing Arguments to constrain the consent Besides how is it possible they should deceive themselves What is the reason the greatest Politicians have their fears of a Deity upon their unjust practices as well as other men they intended to befool How many of them have had forlorn Consciences upon a Death bed upon the consideration of a God to answer an account to in another world Is it credible they should be frighted by that wherewith they knew they beguiled others No man satisfying his pleasures would impose such a deceipt upon himself o render and make himself more miserable than the Creatures he hath dominion over 2. It is unaccountable how it should indure so long a time That this Policy should be so fortunate as to gain ground in the Consciences of men and exercise an Empire over them and meet with such an universal success If the Notion of a God were a a State-Engine and introduced by some Politick Grandees for the ease of Government and preserving people with more facility in order how comes it to pass the first broachers of it were never upon record there is scarce a false opinion vented in the World but may as a stream be traced to the first head and fountain The Inventors of particular forms of worship are known and the reasons why they prescribed them known but what Grandee was the Author of this who can pitch a time and person that sprung up this Notion If any be so insolent as to impose a cheat he can hardly be supposed to be so successful as to deceive the whole world for many ages Impostures pass not free through the whole world without Examination and discovery Falsities have not been universally and constantly owned without controul and question If a cheat imposeth upon some Towns and Countries he will be found out by the more peircing enquiries of other places and it is not easy to name any Imposture that hath walked so long in its disguise in the World without being unmasked and whipped out by some Nation or other If this had been a meer trick there would have been as much craft in some to discern it as there was in others to contrive it No Man can be imagined so wise in a Kingdom but others may be found as wise as himself And it is not conceivable that so many clear sighted men in all ages should be ignorant of it and not endeavour to free the world from so great a falsity * Fotherby a Theomastix p. 64. It cannot be found that a trick of State should always beguile men of the most piercing insights as well as the most credulous That a few crafty men should befool all the wisemen in the world and the world lie in a beleif of it and never like to be freed from it What is the reason the succeeding Politicians never knew this Stratagem since their Maxims are usually handed to their Successors And there is not a Richlieu but leaves his Axioms to a Mazarine This perswasion of the Existence of God ows not it self to any Imposture or subtelty of Men If it had not been agreable to common Nature and Reason it could not so long have born sway The imposed yoke would have been cast off by Multitudes Men would not have charged themselves with that which was attended with consequences displeasing to the Flesh and hindred them from a full swing of their rebellious Passions such a shackle would have mouldred of it self or been broke by the extravigances humane nature is enclin'd unto The wickedness of men without question hath prompted them to endeavour to unmask it if it were a Cosenage but could never yet be so successful as to free the world from a perswasion or their own Consciences from the tincture of the Existence of a Deity It must be therefore of an ancienter Date than the Craft of States-men and descend into the world with the first appearance of humane nature Time which hath rectified many Errors improves this Notion makes it shock down its roots deeper and spread its branches larger It must be a natural Truth that shines clear by the detection of those Errors that have befooled the World and the wit of Man is never able to name any humane Author that first insinuated it into the beleifs of men 3. Nor was it Fear first introduced it Fear is the Consequent of Wickedness As Man was not created with any inherent sin so he was not created with any terrifying fears the one had been against the Holiness of the Creator the other against his Goodness Fear did not make this Opinion but the Opinion of the Being of a Dâ—ity was the cause of this Fear after his sense of angring the Deity by his Wickedness The Object of Fear is before the Act of Fear there could not be an Act of Fear exercised about the Deity till it was beleived to be existent and not only so but Offended For God as existent only is not the Object of Fear or Love 't is not the Existence of a thing that excites any of those Affections but the Relation a thing bears to us in particular God is good and so the object of Love as well as just and thereby the object of Fear He was as much called Love * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mens or Mind in regard of his Goodness and Understanding by the Heathens as much as by any other Name Neither
sense and those that have life and sense are made for those that are endued with reason When the Psalmist admiringly considers the Heavens Moon and Starrs he intimates man to be the end for which they were Created Psal 8.3 4. What is man that thou art mindful of him He expresseth more particularly the Dominion that Man hath over the beasts of the field the fowl of the Air and whatsoever passes through the paths of the Sea vers 6.7.8 and concludes from thence the excellency of Gods Name in all the Earth All things in the World one way or other Center in an usefulness for man some to feed him some to clothe him some to delight him others to instruct him some to exercise his wit and others his strength Since man did not make them he did not also order them for his own use If they conspire to serve him who never made them they direct man to acknowledge an other who is the joynt Creator both of the Lord and the Servants under his Dominion And therefore as the inferior natures are ordered by an invisible hand for the good of man so the nature of man is by the same hand ordered to acknowledge the Existence and the glory of the Creator of him This visible order man knows he did not constitute he did not settle those Creatures in subserviency to himself they were placed in that order before he had any acquaintance with them or Existence of himself which is a question God puts to Job to consider of Job 38.4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding All is ordered for Mans use the Heavens answer to the Earth as a roof to a floor both composing a delightful habitation for man vapors ascend from the Earth and the Heaven concocts them and returns them back in welcome showers for the supplying of the Earth * Jer. 10.13 The light of the Sun descends to beautifie the Earth and imploys its heat to midwife its fruits and this for the good of the community whereof Man is the head and though all Creatures have distinct natures and must act for particular ends according to the Law of their Creation yet there is a joynt combination for the good of the whole as the common end just as all the Rivers in the world from what part soever they come whether North or South fall into the Sea for the supply of that mass of waters which loudly proclaims some infinitely wise nature who made those things in so exact an harmony * Morn de verit cap. 1. pag. 7. As in a Clock the hammer which strikes the bell leads us to the next Wheel that to another the little wheel to a greater whence it derives its motion this at last to the spring which acquaints us that there was some Artist that framed them in this subordination to one another for this orderly motion 4. This order or Subserviency is regular and uniforme Every thing is determined to its peculiar nature * Amiraut The Sun and Moon make day and night months and years determine the seasons never are defective in coming back to their station and place they wander not from their Roads shock not against one another nor hinder one another in the functions assigned them From a small grain or seed a Tree springs with body root bark leaves fruit of the same shape figure smell tast that there should be as many parts in one as in all of the same kind and no more and that in the Womb of a sensitive Creature should be formed one of the same kind with all the due members and no more and the Creature that produceth it knows not how it is formed or how t is perfected If we say this is nature this nature is an intelligent being if not how can it direct all causes to such uniforme ends If it be intelligent this nature must be the same we call God Who ordered every herb to yeild seed and every fruit-Tree to yeild fruit after its kind and also every Beast and every creeping thing after its kind Gen. 11 12 24. And every thing is determined to its particular season The sap riseth from the Root at its appointed time enlivening and cloathing the branches with a new Garment at such a time of the Suns returning not wholly hindered by any accidental coldness of the weather it being often colder at its return than it was at the Suns departure All things have their Seasons of flourishing budding blossoming bringing forth fruit they ripen in their seasons cast their leaves at the same time throw off their old cloaths and in the spring appear with new Garments but still in the same fashion * Coccei sum Theol. cap. 8. § 77. The Winds and the Rain have their seasons and seem to be administred by laws for the profit of man No satisfactory cause of those things can be ascribed to the Earth the Sea to the Air or Stars Can any understand the spreading of his clouds or the noise of his Tabernacle Job 38.29 The natural reason of those things cannot be demonstrated without recourse to an infinite and intelligent being Nothing can be rendred capable of the direction of those things but a God This regularity in Plants and Animals is in all Nations The Heavens have the same motion in all parts of the world all men have the same Law of nature in their mind all Creatures are stampt with the same law of Creation In all parts the same Creatures serve for the same use and though there be different Creatures in India and Europe yet they have the same subordination the same subserviency to one another and ultimately to man which shows that there is a God and but one God who tunes all those different strings to the same notes in all places Is it nature meerly conducts these natural causes in due measures to their proper effects without interfering with one another Can meer nature be the cause of those musical proportions of time You may as well conceive a Lute to sound its own strings without the hand of an Artist a City well Governed without a Governor an Army keep its Stations without a General as imagine so exact an order without an Orderer Would any Man when he hears a Clock strike by sit intervals the hour of the day imagine this regularity in it without the direction of one that had understanding to manage it He would not only regard the motion of the Clock but commend the diligence of the Clock-Keeper 5. This order and Subserviency is constant Children change the customes and manners of their Fathers Magistrats change the Laws they have received from their Ancestors and enact new ones in their room But in the world all things consist as they were created at the beginning The Law of nature in the Creatures hath met with no change * Petav. ex Athanas Tâ—eol Dog tom 1. lib. 1.
office We must come to some supream Judge who can Judge Conscience it self As a man can have no surer evidence that he is a being than because he thinks he is a thinking being So there is no surer evidence in nature that there is a God than that every man hath a natural principle in him which continually cites him before God and puts him in mind of him and makes him one way or other fear him and reflects upon him whether he will or no A man hath less power over his Conscience than over any other faculty He may choose whether he will exercise his understanding about or move his will to such an object but he hath no such Authority over his Conscience he cannot limit it or cause it to cease from acting and reflecting and therefore both that and the law about which it acts are settled by some supream Authority in the mind of man and this is God Fourthly IV. The evidence of a God results from the vastness of desires in man and the real dissatisfaction he hath in every thing below himself Man hath a boundless appetite after some Soveraign Good As his understanding is more capacious than any thing below so is his Appetite larger This affection of desire exceeds all other affections Love is determined to something known Fear to something apprehended but Desires approach nearer to Infiniteness and pursue not only what we know or what we have a glimps of but what we find wanting in what we already enjoy That which the desire of man is most naturally carryed after is Bonum some fully satisfying good We desire knowledge by the sole impulse of reason but we desire Good before the excitement of reason and the desire is always after Good but not always after Knowledge Now the Soul of man finds an imperfection in every thing here and cannot scrape up a perfect satisfaction and felicity In the highest fruitions of worldly things t is still pursuing something else which speaks a defect in what it already hath The world may afford a felicity for our dust the body but not for the inhabitant in it t is two mean for that Is there any one Soul among the Sons of men that can upon a due enquiry say it was at rest and wanted no more that hath not sometimes had desires after an immaterial Good The Soul follows hard after such a thing and hath frequent looks after it Psal 63.8 Man desires a stable Good but no sublunary thing is so And he that doth not desire such a Good wants the rational nature of a man This is as natural as Understanding Will and Conscience Whence should the Soul of man have those desires How came it to understand that something is still wanting to make its nature more perfect if there were not in it some notion of a more perfect being which can give it rest Can such a capacity be supposed to be in it without something in being able to satisfie it If so the noblest Creature in the world is miserablest and in a worse condition than any other Other Creatures obtain their ultimate desires they are filled with good Psal 104.28 And shall man only have a vast desire without any possibility of enjoyment Nothing in man is in vain He hath objects for his affections as well as affections for objects Every Member of his body hath its end and doth attain it Every affection of his Soul hath an object and that in this World and shall there be none for his desire which comes nearest to infinite of any affection planted in him This boundless desire had not its original from man himself Nothing would render it self restless something above the bounds of this world implanted those desires after a higher Good and made him restless in every thing else And since the Soul can only rest in that which is infinite there is something infinite for it to rest in Since nothing in the world though a man had the whole can give it a satisfaction there is something above the world only capable to do it otherwise the Soul would be always without it and be more in vain than any other Creature There is therefore some infinite being that can only give a contentment to the Soul and this is God And that goodness which implanted such desires in the Soul would not do it to no purpose and mock it in giving it an infinite desire of satisfaction without intending it the pleasure of enjoyment if it doth not by its own folly deprive it self of it The felicity of human nature must needs exceed that which is allotted to other Creatures 4. And last Reason Fourth Reason As t is a folly to deny that which all Nations in the World have consented to which the frame of the world evidenceth which man in his Body Soul Operations of Conscience witnesseth to So t is a folly to deny the Being of God which is witnessed unto by extraordinary occurrences in the world 1. In extraordinary Judgments When a just revenge follows abominable crimes especially when the Judgment is suted to the sin by a strange Concatenation and succession of Providences methodized to bring such a particular punishment When the sin of a Nation or person is made legible in the inflicted Judgment which testifies that it cannot be a casual thing The Scripture gives us an account of the necessity of such Judgments to keep up the reverential thoughts of God in the World Psal 9.16 The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes the wicked is snared in the work of his own hand And Jealousy is the name of God Exod. 34.14 Whose name is Jealous He is distinguisht from false Gods by the Judgments which he sends as men are by their names Extraordinary Prodigies in many Nations have been the Heralds of extraordinary Judgments and presages of the particular Judgments which afterwards they have felt of which the Roman Histories and others are full That there are such things is undeniable and that the events have been answerable to the threatning unless we will throw away all human Testimonies and count all the Histories of the World Forgeries Such things are evidences of some invisible Power which orders those affairs And if there be invisible Powers there is also an efficacious cause which moves them A Government certainly there is among them as well as in the world and then we must come to some supream Governour which presides over them Judgments upon notorious offenders have been evident in all ages The Scripture gives many instances I shall only mention that of Herod Agrippa which Josephus mentions * Lib. 19. Antiq. Act. 12.21.22.23 He receives the flattering applause of the people and thought himself a God But by the suddain stroak upon him was forced by his torture to confess another I am God saith he in your account but a higher calls me away The will of the Heavenly Deity is to be endured The Angel
God foolishly he never spake nor thought any thing unworthy of the Majesty and righteousness of God Yet afterwards we find him warping he nicknames the affliction to be Gods oppression of him and no act of his goodness Job 10.3 Is it good for thee that thou shouldst oppress He seems to charge God with injustice for punishing him when he was not wicked for which he appeals to God thou knowest that I am not wicked v. 7. and that God acted not like a Creator v. 8. If our projects are disappointed what fretfulness against Gods management are our hearts rackt with How do uncomely passions bubble upon us interpretatively at least wishing that the arms of his power had been bound and the eye of his omniscience been hoodwinkt that we might have been left to our own liberty and designs And this oftentimes when we have more reason to bless him than repine at him The Israelites murmured more against God in the Wilderness with Manna in their mouths than they did at Pharoah in the Brickilns with their Garlike and Onyons between their Teeth Tho we repine at Instruments in our afflictions yet God counts it a reflection upon himself The Israelites speaking against Moses was in Gods interpretation a Rebellion against himself * Numb 16.41 compar'd with 17 10. And Rebellion is alwaies a desire of imposing Laws and Conditions upon those against whom the Rebellion is raised The sottish dealings of the Vine-dressers in Franconia with the Statue of St. Vrban the Protector of the Vines upon his own day is an Emblem of our dealing with God If it be a clear day and portend a prosperous Vintage they honour the Statue and drink healths to it if it be a rainy day and presage a scantiness they daub it with durt in indignation We cast out our mire and durt against God when he acts cross to our wishes and flatter him when the wind of his Providence joyns it self to the tide of our interest Men set a high price upon themselves and are angry God values them not at the same rate as if their Judgment concerning themselves were more piercing than his This is to disannul Gods Judgment and condemn him and count our selves righteous as t is Job 40.8 This is the Epidemical disease of human nature they think they deserve Caresses instead of Rods and upon crosses are more ready to tear out the heart of God than reflect humbly upon their own hearts When we accuse God we applaud our selves and make our selves his superiors intimating that we have acted more righteously to him than he to us which is the highest manner of imposing Laws upon him as that Emperor accused the Justice of God for snatching him out of the World too seen * Caelum suspiciens vitam c. Vita Titi ca. 10. What an high piece of Practical Atheism is this to desire that that infinite wisdom should be guided by our folly and asperse the righteousness of God rather than blemish our own Instead of silently submitting to his Will and adoring his Wisdom we declaim against him as an unwise and unjust Governour We would invert his order make him the Steward and our selves the proprietors of what we are and have we deny our selves to be sinners and our mercies to be forfeited 4. T is evidenced in Envying the gifts and prosperities of others Envy hath a deep tincture of practical Atheism and is a cause of Atheism * Because wicked men flourish in the world Solicitor nullos esse putare Deos. We are unwilling to leave God to be the proprietor and do what he will with his own and as a Creator to do what he pleases with his Creatures We assume a liberty to direct God what Portions when and how he should bestow upon his Creatures We would not let him chuse his own favourites and pitch upon his own instruments for his Glory As if God should have askt Counsel of us how he should dispose of his benefits We are unwilling to leave to his wisdom the management of his own Judgments to the wicked and the dispensation of his own love to our selves This temper is natural T is as ancient as the first age of the world Adam envyed God a felicity by himself and would not spare a Tree that he had reserved as a mark of his Soveraignty The passion that God had given Cain to employ against his sin he turns against his Creator He was wroth with God * Gen. 4.5 and with Abel but envy was at the root because his Brothers Sacrifice was accepted and his refused How could he envy his accepted person without reflecting upon the accepter of his offering Good men have not been free from it Job questions the goodness of God that he should shine upon the Counsel of the wicked Job 10.3 Jonah had too much of self in fearing to be counted a false Prophet when he came with absolute denunciations of wrath Jonah 4.2 And when he could not bring a volley of destroying Judgments upon the Ninevites he would shoot his fury against his Master envying those poor people the benefit and God the honour of his mercy And this after he had been sent into the Whales belly to learn humiliation which tho he exercised there yet those two great branches of self-pride and envy were not lopt off from him in the belly of hell And God was fain to take pains with him and by a Gourd scarce makes him ashamed of his peevishness Envy is not like to cease till all Atheism be Cashiered and that is in Heaven This sin is an imitation of the Devil whose first sin upon Earth was Envy as his first sin in Heaven was Pride T is a wishing that to our selves which the Devil asserted as his right to give the Kingdoms of the World to whom he pleased * Luke 4.6 T is an anger with God because he hath not given us a Patent for Government It utters the same Language in disparagement of God as Absolom did in reflection on his Father If I were King in Israel Justice should be better managed If I were Lord of the world there should be more Wisdom to discern the merits of men and more righteousness in distributing to them their several portions Thus we impose Laws upon God and would have the righteousness of his Will submit to the corruptions of ours and have him lower himself to gratifie our minds rather than fulfill his own We charge the Author of those gifts with injustice that he hath not dealt equally or with ignorance that he hath mistook his mark In the same breath that we censure him by our peevishness we would Guide him by our Wills This is an unreasonable part of Atheism If all were in the same state and condition the order of the world would be impaired Is God bound to have a care of thee and neglect all the world besides Shall the Earth be forsaken for thee *
as well as Heathens who used the outward Ceremonies not as signs of better things but as if they did of themselves please God and render the worshippers accepted with him without any sutable frame of the inward man * Amirald in loc It is as if he had said now you must separate your selves from all carnal modes to which the service of God is now tyed and render a worship chiefly consisting in the affectionate motions of the heart and accommodated more exactly to the condition of the object who is a Spirit In Spirit and Truth * Amirald in loc The Evangelical Service now required has the advantage of the former that was a Shadow and Figure this the Body and Truth * Muscul Spirit say some is here opposed to the legal Ceremonies Truth to hypocritical services or * Chemnit rather truth is opposed to shadows and an opinion of worth in the outward action 't is principally opposed to external Rites because our Saviour saith v. 23. The hour comes and â—oâ— is c. Had it been opposed to Hypocrisy Christ had said no new thing For God always required Truth in the inward parts and all true Worshippers had served him with a sincere Conscience and single Heart The old Patriarks did worship God in Spirit and Truth as taken for sincerity Such a Worship was always and is perpetually due to God because he always was and eternally will be a Spirit * Musâ—al And it is said the Father seeks such to worship him not shall seek He always sought it it always was performed to him by one or other in the world And the Prophets had always rebuked them for resting upon their outward Solemnities Isa 58.7 and Micah 6.8 But a Worship without legal Rites was proper to an Evangelical State and the times of the Gospel God having then exhibited Christ and brought into the world the substance of those shadows and the end of those institutions There was no more need to continue them when the true reason of them was ceased All Laws do naturally expire when the true reason upon which they were first framed is changed Or by Spirit may be meant such a Worship as is kindled in the heart by the breath of the holy Ghost Since we are dead in sin a spiritual light and flame in the heart sutable to the nature of the object of our worship cannot be raised in us without the operation of a supernatural Grace And though the Fathers could not worship God without the Spirit yet in the Gospel-times there being a fuller effusion of the Spirit the Evangelical State is called the administration of the Spirit and the newness of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 in opposition to the legal Oeconomy entitled the oldness of the Letter * Rom. 7.6 The Evangelical State is more suted to the Nature of God than any other Such a Worship God must have whereby he is acknowledged to be the true Sanctifier and Quickner of the Soul The nearer God doth approach to us and the more full his manifestations are the more spiritual is the Worship we return to God The Gospel pares off the rugged parts of the Law and Heaven shall remove what is material in the Gospel and change the Ordinances of Worship into that of a Spiritual Praise In the words there is 1. A Proposition God is a Spirit The Foundation of all Religion 2. An Inference they that worship him c. As God a Worship belongs to him as a Spirit a spiritual Worship is due to him in the inference we have 1. The manner of Worship in Spirit and Truth 2. The necessity of such a Worship must The Proposition declares the Nature of God the Inference the Duty of Man The Observations lie plain Ob. 1. God is a pure spiritual Being He is a Spirit 2. The Worship due from the Creature to God must be agreeable to the Nature of God and purely spiritual 3. The Evangelical State is suted to the Nature of God For the first D. God is a pure spiritual Being 'T is the Observation of one * Episcop insti tut l. 4. c. 3. that the plain assertion of Gods being a Spirit is found but once in the whole Bible and that is in this place which may well be wondred at because God is so often described with hands feet eyes and ears in the form and figure of a Man The spiritual Nature of God is deducible from many places but not any where as I remember asserted totidem verbis but in this Text Some alledge that place 2 Cor. 3.17 the Lord is that Spirit for the proof of it but that seems to have a different sense In the Text the Nature of God is described in that place the operations of God in the Gospel * Amyrald in loc 'T is not the Ministry of Moses or that old Covenant which communicates to you that Spirit it speaks of but it is the Lord Jesus and the Doctrin of the Gospel delivered by him whereby this Spirit and Liberty is dispensed to you He opposes here the Liberty of the Gospel to the Servitude of the Law 'T is from Christ that a Divine Vertue diffuseth it self by the Gospel 't is by him not by the Law that we partake of that Spirit * Suarez de Deo vol. 1. P. 9. Col. 2. The Spirituality of God is as evident as his Being If we grant that God is we must necessarily grant that he cannot be corporeal because a Body is of an imperfect Nature It will appear incredible to any that acknowledge God the first Being and Creator of all things that he should be a massy heavy Body and have Eyes and Ears Feet and hands as we have For the explication of it 1. Spirit is taken various ways in Scripture It signifies sometimes an aereal substance as Psal 11.6 A horrible Tempest Heb. A Spirit of Tempest Sometimes the breath which is a thin substance Gen. 6.17 All Flesh wherein is the breath of Life Heb. Spirit of Life A thin substance though it be material and corporeal is called Spirit And in the bodies of living Creatures that which is the principle of their actions is called Spirits the animal and vital Spirits And the finer parts extracted from Plants and Minerals we call Spirits Those volatile parts separated from that gross matter wherein they were immerst because they come nearest to the nature of an incorporeal substance And from this notion of the word 't is translated to signifie those substances that are purely immaterial as Angels and the Souls of Men. Angels are called Spirits Psal 104.4 who makes his Angels Spirits * Heb. 1.14 And not only good Angels are so called but evil Angels Mark 1.27 Souls of men are called Spirits Eccl. 12. And the Soul of Christ is called so John 19.30 whence God is called the God of the Spirits of all Flesh Numb 22.16 and Spirit is opposed to Flesh Isa
less vain must it be when the Bodies of Men are presented to supply the place of their Spirits As an omission of duty is a contempt of Gods Soveraign Authority so the omission of the manner of it is a contempt of it and of his amiable excellency and that which is a contempt and mockery can lay no just claim to the title of Worship Reason 4. There is in worship an approach of God to Man It was instituted to this purpose that God might give out his blessings to Man And ought not our Spirits to be prepared and ready to receive his communications We are in such acts more peculiarly in his presence In the Israelites hearing the Law it is said God was to come among them * Exod. 19.10 11. Then men are said to stand before the Lord * Deut. 10.8 God before whom I stand that is whom I worship And therefore when Cain forsook the worship of God setled in his Fathers Family * Kings 1.17 he is said to go out from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4.16 God is essentially present in the world graciously present in his Church The name of the Evangelical City is Jehovah Shammah * Ezek. 48.35 the Lord is there God is more graciously present in the Evangelical institutions than in the Legal He loves the Gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob * Psal 87.2 His Evangelical Law and Worship which was to go forth from Zion as the other did from Sinai Mic. 4.2 God delights to approach to Men and converse with them in the worship instituted in the Gospel more than in all the dwellings of Jacob. If God be graciously present ought not we to be spiritually present A liveless Carcass service becomes not so high and delectable a presence as this 'T is to thrust him from us not invite him to us 'T is to practise in the Ordinances what the Prophet predicts concerning mens usage of our Saviour Isa 53.2 There is no form no comeliness nor beauty that we should desire him A slightness in worship reflects upon the excellency of the object of worship God and his worship are so linkt together that whosoever thinks the one not worth his inward care esteems the other not worth his inward affection How unworthy a slight is it of God who profers the opening his Treasure the reimpressing his Image conferring his blessings admits us into his presence when he hath no need for us who hath millions of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise He that worships not God with his Spirit regards not Gods presence in his Ordinances and slights the great end of God in them and that perfection he may attain by them We can only expect what God hath promised to give when we tender to him what he hath commanded us to present If we put off God with a Shell he will put us off with a Husk How can we expect his heart when we do not give him ours or hope for the blessing needful for us when we render not the glory due to him It cannot be an advantagious worship without spiritual graces for those are uniting and Union is the ground of all Communion Reason 5. To have a spiritual worship is Gods end in the restoration of the Creature both in Redemption by his Son and Sanctification by his Spirit A fitness for spiritual Offerings was the end of the coming of Christ * Mal. 3.3 He should purge them as Gold and Silver by Fire a Spirit burning up their dross melting them into a holy compliance with and submission to God To what purpose That they may offer to the Lord an Offering in Righteousnes a pure Offering from a purified Spirit He came to bring us to God * 1 Pet. 3.18 in such a Garb as that we might be fit to converse with him Can we be thus without a fixedness of our Spirits on him The offering of spiritual Sacrifices is the end of making any a spiritual Habitation and a holy Priest-hood * Pet. 2.5 We can no more be Worshippers of God without a Worshippers nature than a man can be a man without humane nature As man was at first created for the honour and worship of God so the design of restoring that Image which was defaced by Sin tends to the same end We are not brought to God by Christ nor are our services presented to him if they be without our Spirits Would any man that undertakes to bring another to a Prince introduce him in a slovenly and sordid habit such a garb that he knows hateful to him Or bring the Clothes or Skin of a Man stuft with straw instead of the Person To come with our Skins before God without our Spirits is contrary to the design of God in Redemption and Regeneration If a carnal worship would have pleased God a carnal heart would have served his turn without the expence of his Spirit in Sanctification He bestows upon man a spiritual nature that he may return to him a spiritual service He enlightens the Understanding that he may have a rational service and new moulds the Will that he may have a voluntary service As it is the Milk of the Word wherewith he feeds us so it is the service of the Word wherewith we must glorifie him So much as there is of confusedness in our understanding so much of starting and levity in our Wills so much of slipperiness and skipping in our affections so much is abated of the due qualities of the worship of God and so much we fall short of the end of Redemption and Sanctification Reason 6. A spiritual worship is to be offered to God because no worship but that can be acceptable We can never be secured of acceptance without it He being a Spirit nothing but the worship in Spirit can be sutable to him What is unsutable cannot be acceptable There must be something in us to make our services capable of being presented by Christ for an actual acceptation No service is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ but as it is a spiritual Sacrifice and offered by a spiritual heart 1 Pet. 2.5 The Sacrifice is first spiritual before it be acceptable to God by Christ When it is an offering in righteousness it is then and only then pleasant to the Lord Mal. 3.3 4. No Prince would accept a gift that is unsutable to his Majesty and below the condition of the person that presents it Would he be pleased with a bottle of water for drink from one that hath his Cellar full of wine How unacceptable must that be that is unsutable to the Divine Majesty And what can be more unsutable than a withdrawing the operations of our Souls from him in the oblation of our Bodies We as little glorifie God as God when we give him only a corporeal worship as the Heathen did when they represented him in a corporeal shape * Rom. 1.21
to the Holiness of God as a frothy unmelted heart and a wanton fancy in a time of worship God is so holy that if we could offer the worship of Angels and the quintessence of our Souls in his service it would be beneath his infinite purity How unworthy then are they of him when they are presented not only without the sense of our uncleaness but sullied with the fumes and exhalations of our corrupt affections which are as so many Plague spots upon our duties contrary to the unspotted purity of the Divine Nature Is not this an unworthy conceit of God and injurious to his infinite Holiness 9. 'T is against the Love and Kindness of God 'T is a condescension in God to admit a piece of Earth to offer up a duty to him when he hath miriads of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise To admit Man to be an Attendant on him and a Partner with Angels is a high favour 'T is not a single mercy but a heap of mercies to be admitted into the presence of God Psal 5.7 I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies When the blessed God is so kind as to give us access to his Majesty do we not undervalue his kindness when we deal uncivilly with him and deny him the choicest part of our selves 'T is a contempt of his Soveraignty as our Spirits are due to him by nature a contempt of his Goodness as our Spirits are due to him by gratitude How abusive a carriage is it to make use of his mercy to encourage our impudence that should excite our fear and reverence How unworthy would it be for an indigent Debtor to bring to his indulgent Creditor an empty Purse instead of Payment When God holds out his Golden Scepter to encourage our approaches to him stands ready to give us the pardon of sin and full felicity the best things he hath Is it a fit requital of his kindness to give him a formal outside only a shadow of Religion to have the heart overswayed with other thoughts and affections as if all his profers were so contemptible as to deserve only a slight at our hands 'T is a contempt of the love and kindness of God 10. 'T is against the Sufficiency and Fullness of God When we give God our Bodies and the Creature our Spirits it intimates a conceit that there is more content to be had in the Creature than in God blessed for ever that the waters in the Cistern are sweeter than those in the Fountain Is not this a practical giving God the Lye and denying those promises wherein he hath declared the satisfaction he can give to the Spirit as he is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh If we did imagin the excellency and loveliness of God were worthy to be the ultimate Object of our affections the heart would attend more closely upon him and be terminated in him did we believe God to be all sufficient full of grace and goodness a tender Father not willing to forsake his own willing as well as able to supply their wants the heart would not so lamely attend upon him and would not upon every impertinency be diverted from him There is much of a wrong notion of God and a predominancy of the world above him in the heart when we can more savourly relish the thoughts of low inferior things than heavenly and let our Spirits upon every trifling occasion be fugitives from him 'T is a testimony that we make not God our chiefest good If apprehensions of his excellency did possess our Souls they would be fastned on him glued to him we should not listen to that rabble of foolish thoughts that steal our hearts so often from him Were our breathings after God as strong as the pantings of the Hart after the water Brooks we should be like that Creature not diverted in our Course by every Puddle Were God the predominant satisfactory Object in our eye he would carry our whole Soul along with him When our Spirits readily retreat from God in worship upon every giddy motion 't is a kind of repentance that ever we did come near him and implies that there is a fuller satisfaction and more attractive excellency in that which doth so easily divert us than in that God to whose worship we did pretend to address our selves 'T is as if when we were petitioning a Prince we should immediately turn about and make request to one of his Guard as though so mean a person were more able to give us the boon we want than the Soveraign is 2. Consideration by way of motive To have our Spirits off from God in worship is a bad sign It was not so in Innocence The heart of Adam could cleave to God the Law of God was engraven upon him he could apply himself to the fulfilling of it without any twinkling there was no folly and vanity in his mind no independency in his thoughts no duty was his burden for there was in him a proneness to and delight in all the duties of worship 'T is the Fall hath distempered us and the more unwieldiness there is in our Spirits the more carnal our affections are in worship the more evidence there is of the strength of that revolted state 1. It argues much corruption in the heart As by the eructations of the Stomach we may judge of the windiness and foulness of it so by the inordinate motions of our minds and hearts we may judge of the weakness of its complexion A strength of sin is evidenced by the eruptions and ebullitions of it in worship when they are more sudden numerous and vigorous than the motions of grace When the heart is apt like tinder to catch fire from Satan 't is a sign of much combustible matter sutable to his temptation Were not corruption strong the Soul could not turn so easily from God when it is in his presence and hath an advantagious opportunity to create a fear and aw of God in it Such base fruit could not sprout up so suddenly were there not much sap and juice in the root of sin What communion with a living root can be evidenced without exercises of an inward life That Spirit which is a Well of living waters in a gracious heart will be especially springing up when it is before God 2. It shews much affection to earthly things and little to heavenly There must needs be an inordinate affection to earthly things when upon every slight sollicitation we can part with God and turn the back upon a service glorious for him and advantagious for our selves to wedd our hearts to some idle fancy that signifies nothing How can we be said to entertain God in our affections when we give him not the precedency in our understandings but let every trifle justle the sense of God out of our minds Were our hearts fully determined to spiritual things such vanities could not seat themselves in our
of thankfulness in arrear He renders himself doubly unworthy of the mercies he wants that doth not gratefully acknowledge the mercies he hath received God scarce promised any deliverance to the Israelites and they in their distress scarce prayed for any deliverance but that from Egypt was mentioned on both sides by God to encourage them and by them to acknowledge their confidence in him The greater our dangers the more we should call to mind Gods former kindness We are not only thankfully to acknowledge the mercies bestowed upon our persons or in our age but those of former times Thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations Moses was not living in the former Generations yet he appropriates the former mercies to the present age Mercies as well Generations proceed out of the loyns of those that have gon before All Man-kind are but one Adam the whole Church but one Body In the second verse he backs his former consideration 1. By the greatness of his Power in forming the world 2. By the boundlesness of his duration From everlasting to everlasting As thou hast been our dwelling place and expended upon us the strength of thy power and riches of thy love so we have no reason to doubt the continuance on thy part if we be not wanting on our parts For the vast Mountains and fruitful Earth are the works of thy hands and there is less power requisite for our relief than there was for their Creation and though so much strength hath been upon various occasions manifested yet thy Arm is not weakned for from everlasting to everlasting thou art God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong * Amyrald in loc Thou hast always been God and no time can be assigned as the beginning of thy Being The mountains are not of so long a standing as thy self they are the effects of thy power and therefore cannot be equal to thy duration since they are effects they suppose a precedency of their cause If we would look back we can reach no further than the beginning of the Creation and account the years from the first foundation of the world but after that we must lose our selves in the Abyss of Eternity we have no Cue to guide our thoughts we can see no bounds in thy Eternity But as for Man he traverseth the world a few days and by thy order pronounced concerning all men returns to the Dust and moulders into the Grave By Mountains some understand Angels as being Creatures of a more elevated Nature By Earth they understand humane Nature the Earth being the habitation of Men. There is no need to divert in this place from the Letter to such a sense The description seems to be Poetical and amounts to this He neither began with the beginning of Time nor will expire with the End of it * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret in loc He did not begin when he made himself known to our Fathers but his Being did precede the Creation of the World before any created Being was formed and any time setled Before the Mountains were brought forth Or before they were begotten or born The word being used in those senses in Scripture before they stood up higher than the rest of the earthly Mass God had created It seems that Mountains were not casually cast up by the force of the Deluge softning the Ground and driving several parcels of it together to grow up into a massy body as the Sea doth the Sand in several places but they were at first formed by God The Eternity of God is here described 1. In his Priority Before the world 2. In the extension of his duration From everlasting to everlasting thou art God He was before the world yet he neither began nor ends He is not a Temporary but an Eternal God It takes in both parts of Eternity what was before the Creation of the world and what is after Though the Eternity of God be one permanent state without succession yet the Spirit of God suiting himself to the weakness of our conception divides it into two parts one past before the foundation of the world another to come after the destruction of the world as he did exist before all ages and as he will exist after all ages Many Truths lye coucht in the verse 1. The World hath a beginning of being It was not from Eternity it was once nothing had it been of a very long duration some Records would have remained of some memorable actions done of a longer date than any extant 2. The world owes its Being to the creating Power of God Thou hadst formed it out of nothing into being Thou that is God it could not spring into being of it self it was nothing it must have a Former 3. God was in being before the world The Cause must be before the Effect that Word which gives Being must be before that which receives Being 4. This Being was from Eternity From Everlasting 5. This Being shall endure to Eternity To Everlasting 6. There is but one God one Eternal From everlasting to everlasting thou art God None else but one hath the Property of Eternity the Gods of the Heathen cannot lay claim to it Doct. God is of an eternal duration The Eternity of God is the foundation of the stability of the Covenant the great comfort of a Christian The design of God in Scripture is to set forth his dealing with men in the way of a Covenant * Gen. 1.1 The Priority of God before all things begins the Bible In the beginning God created His Covenant can have no foundation but in his duration before and after the world * Calv. in loc And Moses here mentions his Eternity not only with respect to the Essence of God but to his faederal Providence As he is the dwelling place of his People in all Generations The duration of God for ever is more spoken of in Scripture than his Eternity à parte ante though that is the foundation of all the comfort we can take from his Immortality If he had a beginning he might have an end and so all our happiness hope and being would expire with him but the Scripture sometimes takes notice of his being without beginning as well as without end * Psal 93.2 Thou art from everlasting * Psal 41.13 Blessed be God from everlasting to everlasting * Prov. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting If his Wisdom were from everlasting himself was from everlasting Whether we understand it of Christ the Son of God or of the essential wisdom of God 't is all one to the present purpose The Wisdom of God supposeth the Essence of God as habits in Creatures suppose the being of some power or faculty as their Subject The Wisdom of God supposeth Mind and Understanding Essence and Substance The notion of Eternity is difficult as Austin said * Confes lib. 11. Confes 14. of Time If no man will ask me the
the Creature as Being is the title of God Nothing is so holy as God because nothing hath being as God * 1 Sam. 2.2 There is none holy as the Lord for there is none besides thee Mans life is an Image a dream which are next to nothing and if compar'd with God worse than nothing a nullity as well as a vanity Because with God only is the fountain of life * Psal 36.9 The Creature is but a drop of life from him dependent on him A drop of water is a nothing if compar'd with the vast conflux of waters and numberless drops in the Ocean How unworthy is it for dust and ashes kneaded together in time to strut against the Father of Eternity Much more unworthy for that which is nothing worse than nothing to quarrel with that which is only being and equal himself with him that Inhabits Eternity 2. What being we have had a beginning After an unaccountable Eternity was run out in the very dregs of time a few years ago we were created and made of the basest and vilest dross of the world the slime and dust of the Earth made of that wherewith Birds build their nests made of that which Creeping things make their habitation and beasts trample upon How monstrous is pride in such a Creature to aspire as if he were the Father of Eternity and as Eternal as God and so his own Eternity 3. What being we have is but of a short duration in regard of our life in this World Our life is in a constant change and flux we remain not the same an intire day youth quickly succeeds Child-hood and age as speedily treads upon the heels of youth there is a continual defluxion of minutes as there is of sands in a glass He is as a Watch wound up at the beginning of his life and from that time is running down till he comes to the bottom some part of our lives is cut off every day every minute Life is but a moment what is past cannot be recalled what is future cannot be ensured If we enjoy this moment we have lost that which is past and shall presently lose this by the next that is to come The short duration of men is set out in Scripture by such Creatures as soon disappear A worm * Job 25.6 that can scarce out live a winter Grass that withers by the summer Sun Life is a flower soon withering * Job 14.2 a vapour soon vanishing * James 4.14 a smoak soon disappearing * Psal 102.3 The strongest man is but compacted dust the fabrick must moulder the highest Mountain falls and comes to nought Time gives place to Eternity we live now and die to morrow Not a Man since the world began ever lived a day in Gods sight For no man ever lived a thousand years The longest day of any mans life never amounted to twenty four hours in the account of divine Eternity A life of so many hundred years with the addition he dyed makes up the greatest part of the History of the Patriarchs * Gen. 5. And since the life of man hath been curtaild if any be in the world eighty years he scarce properly lives sixty of them since the fourth part of time is at least consumed in sleep A greater difference there is between the duration of God and that of a Creature than between the life of one for a minute and the life of one that should live as many years as the whole globe of Heaven and Earth if changed into papers could contain figures And this life tho but of a short duration according to the period God hath determined is easily cut off the treasure of life is deposited in a brittle vessel A small stone hitting against Nebuchadnezzars Statue will tumble it down into a poor and nasty grave A Grape stone the bone of a fish a small fly in the throat a moist damp are enough to destroy an Earthly Eternity and reduce it to nothing What a Nothing then is our shortness if compared with Gods Eternity Our frailty with Gods duration How humble then should perishing Creatures be before an Eternal God with whom our days are as a hands breadth and our age as nothing * Psal 39 5. The Angels that have been of as long a duration as Heaven and Earth tremble before him the Heavens melt at his presence and shall we that are but of yesterday approach a Divine Eternity with unhumbled Souls and offer the Calves of our lips with the pride of Devils and stand upon our terms with him without falling upon our faces with a sense that we are but dust and ashes and Creatures of time How easily is it to reason out mans humility but how hard is it to reason man into it 3. Let the consideration of Gods Eternity take off our love and confidence from the world and the things thereof The Eternity of God reproaches a pursuit of the world as preferring a momentary pleasure before an everlasting God as tho a temporal world could be a better supply than a God whose years never fail Alas what is this Earth men are so greedy of and will get tho by blood and sweat What is this whole Earth if we had the entire possession of it if compared with the vast Heavens the seat of Angels and blessed Spirits T is but as an Atome to the greatest Mountain or as a drop of dew to the immense Ocean How foolish is it to prefer a drop before the Sea or an Atome before the world The Earth is but a point to the Sun the Sun with its whole Orb but a little part of the Heavens if compared with the whole Fabrick If a man had the possession of all those there could be no comparison between those that have had a beginning and shall have an end and God who is without either of them Yet how many are there that make nothing of the divine Eternity and imagine an Eternity of nothing 1. The world hath been but a of short standing T is not yet six thousand years since the foundations of it were laid and therefore it cannot have a boundless excellency as that God who hath been from everlasting doth possess If Adam had liv'd to this day and been as absolute Lord of his posterity as he was of the other Creatures had it been a competent object to take up his heart had he not been a mad man to have prefer'd this little created pleasure before an everlasting uncreated God A thing that had a dependent Beginning before that which had an independent Eternity 2. The beauties of the world are transitory and perishing The whole world is nothing else but a fluid thing the Fashion of it is a Pageantry passing away * 1 Cor. 7.31 tho the glories of it might be conceived greater than they are yet they are not consistent but transient There cannot be an entire enjoyment of them because they grow up
as considered in the Gospel Covenant his Power as well as his other Perfections are ingredients in that Cordial of Gods being our God We should never think of the Excellency of the Divine Nature without considering the Duties they demand and gathering the Hony they present 2. Obs The stability of a gracious Soul depends vpon the Wisdom as well as the Power of God It would be a disrepute to the Almightiness of God if that should be totally vanquish'd which was introduc'd by his Mighty Arm and rooted in the Soul by an irresistible Grace It would speak a want of Streng h to maintain it or a change of Resolution and so would be no honour to the Wisdom of his first design 'T is no part of the wisdom of an Artificer to let a work wherein he determin'd to shew the greatness of his Skâ—ll to be dash'd in pieces when he hath power to preserve it God design'd every gracious Soul for a piece of his workmanship * Eph. 2.10 What to have the Skill of his Grace defeated If any Soul which he hath graciously conquer'd should be wrested from him what could be thought but that his Power is enfeebled If deserted by him what could be imagin'd but that he repented of his labour and alter'd his Counsel as if rashly undertaken These Romans were rugged Pieces and lay in a filthy quarry when God came first to smooth them for so the Apostle represents them with the rest of the Heathen Rom. 1.19 and would he throw them away or leave them to the power of his Enemy after all his pains he had taken with them to fit them for his Building Did he not foresee the designs of Satan against them what stratagems he would use to defeat his Purposes strip him of the honour of his work and would God so gratifie his Enemy and disgrace his own Wisdom The deserting of what hath been acted is a real Repentance and argues an Imprudence in the first resolve and attempt The Gospel is called the Manifold wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 the fruiâ— of it in the heart of any Person which is a main design of it hath a Title to the same Character and shall this Grace which is the product of this Gospel and therefore the birth of Manifold Wisdom be supprest 'T is at Gods hand we must seek our fixedness and establishment and act Faith upon these two Attributes of God Power is no ground to expect stability without Wisdom interesting the Agent in it and finding out and applying the Means for it Wisdom is naked without Power to act and Power is useless without Wisdom to direct They are these two Excellencies of the Deity the Apostle here pitches the Hope and Faith of the Converted Romans upon for their stability 3. Obs Perseverance of Believers in Grace is a Gospel Doctrine According to my Gospel My Gospel Ministerially according to that Gospel Doctrine I have taught you in this Epistle for as the Prophets were Comments upon the Law so are the Epistles upon the Gospel This very Doctrine he had discours'd of Rom. 8.38 39. where he tells them that neither death nor life the Terrors of a cruel death or the Allurements of an honourable and pleasant life nor Principalities and Powers with all their subtilty and strength not the things we have before us nor the Promises of a future felicity by either Angels in Heaven or Devils in Hell not the highest Angel nor the deepest Devil is able to separate us us Romans from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus So that According to my Gospel may be according to that Declaration of the Gospel which I have made in this Epistle which doth not only promise the first creating Grace but the perfecting and crowning Grace for not only the being of Grace but the health liveliness and perpetuity of Grace is the fruit of the New Covenant Jer. 32.40 4. Observe That the Gospel is the sole Means of a Christians Establishment According To my Gospel that is By my Gospel The Gospel is the Instrumental cause of our Spiritual life 't is the cause also of the Continuance of it 't is the Seed whereby we were born and the Milk whereby we are nourish'd †1 Pet. 1.23 't is the Power of God to salvation ‖ 1 Pet. 2.2 and therâ—fore to all the degrees of it John 17.17 Sanctifie them by thy Truth or through thy Truth by or through his Truth he sanctifies us and by the same Truth he establisheth us The first Sanctification and the progress of it the first lineaments and the last colours are wrought by the Gospel The Gospel therefore ought to be known studied and considered by us 'T is the Charter of our Inheritance and the security for our standing The Law acquaints us with our Duty but contributes nothing to our strength and settlement 5. Observe The Gospel is nothing else but the Revelation of Christ Verse 25. According to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ The discovery of the Mystery of Redemption and Salvation in and by him 'T is Genitivus objecti that Preaching wherein Christ is declared and set out with the Benefits accruing by him This is the priviledge the Wisdom oâ— God reserved for the latter Times which the Old Testament-Church had only under a Vail 6. 'T is a part of the Excellency of the Gospel that it had the Son of God for its Publisher The Preaching of Jesus Christ It was first preached to Adam in Paradise by God and afterwards publish'd by Christ in Person to the Inhabitants of Judea It was not the Invention of Man but Copied from the bosom of the Father by him that lay in his Bosom The Gospel we have is the same which our Saviour himself preached when he was in the World He preached it not to the Romans but the same Gospel he preached is transmitted to the Romans It therefore Commands our respect who ever slights it 't is as much as if he slighted Jesus Christ himself were he in Person to sound it from his own Lips The validity of a Proclamation is derived from the Authority of the Prince that dictates it and orders it yet the greater the Person that publisheth it the more dishonour is cast upon the Authority of the Prince that enjoyns it if it be contemn'd The Everlasting God ordain'd it and the Eternal Son publish'd it 7. The Gospel was of an Eternal Resolution though of a temporary Revelation Verse 25. According to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began 'T is an Everlasting Gospel It was a Promise before the world began Tit. 1.2 It was not a new Invention but only kept secret among the Arcana in the Breast of the Almighty It was hidden from Angels for the depths of it are not yet fully made known to them their desire to look into it speaks yet a deficiency in their Knowledge of it * 1
Pet. 1.12 It was publish'd in Paradise but in such words as Adam did not fully understand It was both discover'd and clouded in the Smoke of Sacrifices It was wrapped up in a Vail under the Law but not open'd till the Death of the Redeemer It was then plainly said to the Cities of Judah Behold your God comes The whole Transaction of it between the Father and the Son which is the Spirit of the Gospel was from Eternity the Creation of the World was in order to the manifestation of it Let us not then regard the Gospel as a Novelty the consideration of it as one of Gods Cabinet Rarities should enhance our Estimation of it No Traditions of Men no Inventions of vain Wits that pretend to be wiser than God should have the same Credit with that which bears date from Eternity 8. Observe That Divine Truth is Mysterious According to the revelation of the mystery Christ manifested in the flesh The whole Scheme of Godliness is a Mystery No Man or Angel could imagine how two Natures so distant as the Divine and Human should be united how the same Person should be Criminal and Righteous how a Just God should have a Satisfaction and Sinful Man a Justification how the Sin should be punish'd and the Sinner saved None could imagine such a way of Justification as the Apostle in this Epistle declares It was a Mystery when hid under the Shadows of the Law and a Mystery to the Prophets when it sounded from their Mouths they searched it without being able to comprehend it †1 Pet. 1.10 11. If it be a Mystery 't is humbly to be submitted to Mysteries surmount Human Reason The study of the Gospel must not be with a yawning and careless frame Trades you call Mysteries are not learned sleeping and nodding Diligence is required we must be Disciples at Gods Feet As it had God for the Author so we must have God for the Teacher of it the Contrivance was his and the Illumination of our Minds must be from him As God only manifested the Gospel so he only can open our Eyes to see the Mysteries of Christ in it In Verse 26. we may observe 1. The Scriptures of the Old Testament verifie the substance of the New and the New doth evidence the Authority of the Old By the Scriptures of the Prophets made known The Old Testament credits the New and the New illustrates the Old The New Testament is a Comment upon the Prophetick part of the Old The Old shews the Promises and Predictions of God and the New shews the Performance What was foretold in the Old is fulfilled in the New the Predictions are cleared by the Events The Predictions of the Old are Divine because they are above the Reason of Man to foreknow None but an Infinite Knowledge could foretell them because none but an Infinite Wisdom could order all things for the accomplishment of them The Christian Religion hath then the surest Foundation since the Scriptures of the Prophets wherein it is foretold are of undoubted Antiquity and owned by the Jews and many Heathens which are and were the great Enemies of Christ The Old Testament is therefore to be read for the strengthning of our Faith Our Blessed Saviour himself draws the Streams of his Doctrine from the Old Testament He clears up the Promise of Eternal Life and the Doctrine of the Resurrection from the words of the Covenant I am the God of Abraham c. Mat. 22.32 And our Apostle clears up the Doctrine of Justification by Faith from Gods Covenant with Abraham Rom. 4. It must be read and it must be read as it is writ It was writ to a Gospel End it must be studied with a Gospel Spirit The Old Testament was writ to give Credit to the New when it should be manifested in the World It must be read by us to give strength to our Faith and establish us in the Doctrine of Christianity How many view it as a bare story an Almanack out of date and regard it as a dry Bone without sucking from it the Evangelical Marrow Christ is in Genesis Abrahams Seed in Davids Psalms and the Prophets the Messiah and Redeemer of the World 2. Observe the Antiquity of the Gospel Is made manifest by the Scriptures of the Prophets It was of as Ancient a date as any Prophesy The first Prophesy was nothing else but a Gospel Charter it was not made at the Incarnation of Christ but made manifest It then rose up to its Meridian lustre and sprung out of the Clouds wherewith it was before obscur'd The Gospel was preached to the Ancients by the Prophets as well as to the Gentiles by the Apostles Heb. 4.2 Vnto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them To them first to us after to them indeed more cloudy to us more clear but they as well as we were Evangeliz'd as the word signifies The Covenant of Grace was the same in the Writings of the Prophets and the Declarations of the Evangelists and Apostles Though by our Saviours Incarnation the Gospel Light was clearer and by his Ascension the Effusions of the Spirit fuller and stronger yet the Believers under the Old Testament saw Christ in the Swadling Bands of Legal Ceremonies and the Lattice of Prophetical Writings they could not else offer one Sacrifice or read one Prophesy with a Faith of the right stamp Abrahams Justifying Faith had Christ for its Object though it was not so Explicit as ours because the Manifestation was not so clear as ours 3. All Truth is to be drawn from Scripture The Apostle refers them here to the Gospel and the Prophets The Scripture is the Source of Divine Knowledge not the Traditions of Men nor Reason separate from Scripture Whosoever brings another Doctrine coyns another Christ nothing is to be added to what is written nothing detracted from it He doth not send us for Truth to the Puddles of Human Inventions to the Enthusiasms of our Brain not to the See of Rome no nor to the Instructions of Angels but the Writings of the Prophets as they clear up the Declarations of the Apostles The Church of Rome is not made here the Standard of Truth but the Scriptures of the Prophets are to be the Touch-stone to the Romans for the Trial of the Truth of the Gospel 4. How great is the Goodness of God The Borders of Grace are enlarged to the Gentiles and not hid under the Skirts of the Jews He that was so long the God of the Jews is now also manifest to be the God of the Gentiles The Gospel is now made known to all Nations according to the Commandment of the Everlasting God Not only in a way of Common Providence but Special Grace in Calling them to the Knowledge of himself and a Justification of them by Faith He hath brought Strangers to him to the Adoption of Children and lodged them under the Wings of the Covenant that were before alienated from
place of the Original of their Ancestors and their affection to the Country wherein they were born might have occasioned their embracing the Idolatrous Worship of the place Afterwads the Persecutions of Antiochus scatter'd many of the Jews for their security into other Nations yet a great part and perhaps the greatest preserved their Religion and by that were obliged to come every year to Jerusalem to Offer and so were present at the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and were witnesses of the miraculous effects of it Had they not been dispers'd by Persecution had they not resided in several Countries and been acquainted with their Languages the Gospel had not so easily been diffused into several Countreys of the World The first Persecutions also raised against the Church propagated the Gospel the scattering of the Disciples enflamed their courage and dispers'd the Doctrine ‖ Acts 8.3 ccording to the Prophecy of Daniel Dan. 12.4 Many should run to and fro and knowledge should be encreased The flights and hurryings of men should enlarge the Territories of the Gospel There was not a Tribunal but the primitive Christians were cited to not a horrible Punishment but was inflicted upon them Treated they were as the dregs and offals of Mankind as the common Enemies of the World yet the Flames of the Martyrs brightned the Doctrine and the Captivity of its Professors made way for the Throne of its Empire The imprisonment of the Ark was the downfal of Dagon Religion grew stronger by Sufferings and Christianity taller by Injuries What can this be ascribed to but the conduct of a Wisdom superiour to that of Men and Devils defeating the methods of human and hellish Policy thereby making the wisdom of the World foolishness with God 1 Cor. 3.19 Fifthly The Vse I. Of Information If wisdom be an excellency of the Divine Nature then 1. Christ's Deity may hence be asserted Wisdom is the emphatical Title of Christ in Scripture Prov. 8.12 13 31. where Wisdom is brought in speaking as a distinct Person ascribing Counsel and Understanding and the Knowledge of witty Inventions to it self He is called also the power of God and the wisdom of God * 1 Cor. 1.21 And the Ancients generally understood that place Col. 2.3 In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge as an assertion of the God-head of Christ in regard of the infiniteness of his knowledge referring wisdom to his knowledge of Divine things and knowledge to his understanding of all Human things But the natural sense of the place seems to be this that all wisdom and knowledge is displayed by Christ in the Gospel and the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refer either to Christ or the mystery of God spoken of vers 2. But the Deity of Christ in regard of infinite Wisdom may be deduc'd from his Creation of things and his Government of things both which are ascribed to him in Scripture The first ascribed to him John 1.3 All things were made by him and verse 27. Without him was not any thing made that was made The second John 5.22 The Father hath committed all Judgment to the Son and both put together Col. 2.16 17. Now since he hath the Government of the World he hath the Perfections necessary to so great a Work As the Creation of the World which is ascribed to him requires an infinite power so the Government of the World requires an infinite wisdom That he hath the knowledge of the hearts of men was proved in handling the Omniscience of God That knowledge would be to little purpose without wisdom to order the motions of mens hearts and conduct all the qualities and actions of Creatures to such an end as is answerable to a wise Government we cannot think so great an Imployment can be without an Ability necessary for it The Government of Men and Angels is a great part of the glory of God and if God should intrust the greatest part of his Glory in hands unfit for so great a trust it would be an argument of weakness in God as it is in men to pitch upon unfit Instruments for particular Charges Since God hath therefore committed to him his greatest Glory the Conduct of all things for the highest end he hath a wisdom requisite for so great an end which can be no less than infinite If then Christ were a finite Person he would not be capable of an infinite Communication he could not be a Subject wherein infinite wisdom could be lodged for the terms finite and infinite are so distant that they cannot commence one another finite can never be changed into infinite no more than infinite can into finite 2. Hence we may assert The right and fitness of God for the Government of the World as he is the wisest Being Among men those who are excellent in Judgment are accounted fittest to preside over and give orders to others the wisest in a City are most capable to govern a City or at least though ignorant men may bear the Title yet the advice of the soundest and skilfullest Heads should prevail in all publick Affairs We see in Nature that the eye guides the body and the mind directs the eye * Amyâ—â—uâ— Mâ—â— â—or 1. p. 253 259. Power and Wisdome are the two Arms of Authority Wisdom knows the end and directs the means Power executes the means design'd for such an end The more splendid and strong those are in any the more Authority results from thence for the conduct of others that are of an inferiour Orb Now God being infinitely excellent in both his ability and right to the management of the World cannot be suspected the whole World is but one Commonwealth whereof God is the Monarch Did the Government of the World depend upon the Election of Men and Angels where could they pitch or where would they find Perfections capable of so great a work but in the Supream Wisdom His Wisdom hath already been apparent in those Laws whereby he formed the World into a Civil Society and the Israelites into a Commonwealth The one suted to the Consciences and Reasons of all his Subjects and the other suted to the Genius of that particular Nation drawn out of the Righteousness of the Moral Law and applicable to all Cases that might arise among them in their Government so that Moses asserts that the wisdom apparent in their Laws enacted by God as their chief Magistrate would render them famous among other Nations in regard of their Wisdom as well as their Righteousness Deut. 4.6 7 9. Also this perfection doth evidence that God doth actually govern the World It would not be a commendable thing for a man to make a curious Piece of Clock-work and take no care for the orderly motion of it Would God display so much of his Skill in framing the Heaven and Earth and none in actual guidance of them to their particular and universal ends Did he lay the Foundation in
entertain a Soul of a heavenly extraction form'd by the breath of God * Gen. 2.7 He brought Light out of thick Darkness and living Creatures Fish and Foul out of inanimate waters †Gen. 1.20 and gave a power of spontaneous motion to things arising from that Matter which had no living motion To convert one thing into another is an evidence of infinite Power as well as creating things of nothing for the distance between life and not life is next to that which is between being and not being God first forms Matter out of Nothing and then draws upon and from this indisposed Chaos many excellent Pourtraitures Neither Earth nor Sea were capable of producing living Creatures without an infinite Power working upon it and bringing into it such variety and multitude of Forms and this is called by some mediate Creation as the producing the Chaos which was without form and void is called immediate Creation Is not the power of the Potter admirable in forming out of temper'd Clay such varieties of neat and curious Vessels that after they are fashion'd and past the Furnace look as if they were not of any kin to the Matter they are formed of And is it not the same with the Glass-maker that from a little melted gelly of Sand and Ashes or the Dust of Flint can blow up so pure a Body as Glass and in such varieties of shapes and is not the Power of God more admirable because infinite in speaking out so beautiful a World out of nothing and such varieties of living Creatures from Matter utterly indispos'd in its own nature for such forms 3. And this conducts to a third thing were in the power of God appears in that He did all this with the greatest ease and facility 1. Without Instruments As God made the World without the advice so without the assistance of any other He stretched forth the Heavens alone and spread abroad the Earth by himself Isai 44.24 He had no engine but his Word no pattern or model but himself What need can he have of Instruments that is able to create what Instruments he pleases Where there is no resistance in the Object where no need of preparation or instrumental advantage in the Agent there the actual determination of the Will is sufficient to a production What Instrument need we to the thinking of a Thought or an act of our Will Men indeed cannot act any thing without Tools the best Artificer must be beholden to something else for his noblest works of Art The Carpenter cannot work without his Rule and Ax and Saw and other Instruments The Watch-maker cannot act without his File and Pliars But in Creation there is nothing necessary to Gods bringing forth a World but a simple act of his Will which is both the principal cause and instrumental He had no Scaffolds to rear it no Engines to polish it no Hammers or Mattocks to clod and work it together 'T is a miserable Error to measure the actions of an Infinite Cause by the imperfect model of a Finite since by his own Power and Out-stretched Arm he made the Heaven and the Earth * Jer. 32.17 ‖ Gassend What excellency would God have in his work above others if he needed Instruments as Feeble men do Every Artificer is counted more admirable that can frame curious Works with the less matter fewer Tools and assistances God uses Instruments in his Works of Providence not for necessity but for the display of his Wisdom in the management of them yet those Instruments were originally framed by him without Instruments Indeed some of the Jews thought the Angels were the Instruments of God in creating Man and that those words Gen. 1.26 Let us make Man in our own image were spoken to Angels But certainly the Scripture which denies God any Counsellor in the model of Creation †Isai 40.12 13 14. doth not joyn any Instrument with him in the operation which is every where ascribed to himself without created assistance Isai 45.18 It was not to Angels God spake in that affair if so Man was made after the image of Angels if they were Companions with God in that work But it is every where said Gen. 1.27 that Man was made after the image of God Again the image wherein Man was created was that of dominion over the lower Creatures as appears verse 26. which we find not conferr'd upon Angels and it is not likely that Moses should introduce the Angels as Gods Privy Counsel of whose Creation he had not mention'd one syllable Let us make Man rather signifies the Trinity and not spoken in a Royal style as some think Which of the Jewish Kings writ in the style We That was the custom of later Times and we must not measure the language of Scripture by the style of Europe of a far later date than the penning the History of the Creation If Angels were his Counsellors in the Creation of the material World what Instrument had he in the Creation of Angels If his own Wisdom were the Director and his own Will the producer of the one why should we not think that he acted by his sole Power in the other 'T is concluded by most that the Power of Creation cannot be deriv'd to any Creature it being a work of Omnipotency The drawing Something out from Nothing cannot be communicated without a communication of the Deity it self The educing things from Nothing exceeds the capacity of any Creature and the Creature is of too feeble a Nature to be elevated to so high a degree 'T is very unreasonable to think that God needed any such aid If an Instrument were necessary for God to create the World then he could not do it without that Instrument If he could not he were not then All-sufficient in himself if he depended upon any thing without himself for the production or consummation of his Works And it might be enquired how that Instrument came into Being If it begun to be and there was a time when it was not it must have its Being from the Power of God and then why could not God as well create all things without an Instrument as create that Instrument without an Instrument For there was no more Power necessary to a producing the whole without Instruments than to produce one Creature without an Instrument No Creature can in its own nature be an Instrument of Creation If any such Instrument were used by God it must be elevated in a miraculous and supernatural way and what is so an Instrument is in effect no Instrument for it works nothing by its own nature but from an elevation by a Superior nature and beyond its own nature All that power in the Instrument is truly the Power of God and not the power of the Instrument And therefore what God doth by an Instrument he could do as well without If you should see one apply a Straw to Iron for the cutting of it
Means belongs to the Will and the accomplishment of the whole is an act of Power 'T is a hard matter to determine which is most necessary Wisdom stands in as much need of Power to perfect as Power doth of Wisdom to model and draw out a scheme though Wisdom directs Power must effect Wisdom and Power are distinct things among Men A Poor man in a Cottage may have more Prudence to Advise than a Privy Counsellor and a Prince more power to act than wisdom to conduct A Pilot may direct though he be lame and cannot climb the Masts and spread the Sails But God is wanting in nothing neither in Wisdom to design nor in Will to determine nor in Power to accomplish His Wisdom is not feeble nor his Power foolish A Powerful wisdom could not act what it would and a Foolish power would act more than it should The Power exprest in his Government is shadow'd forth in the Living Creatures which are Gods Instruments in it 'T is said Every one of them had four faces that of a Man to signifie Wisdom of a Lion Ezek. 1.10 Eagle the strongest among Birds to signifie their Courage and Strength to perform their offices This Power is evident in the Natural Moral Gracious Government There is a Natural Providence which consists in the preservation of all things propagation of them by Corruptions and Generations and in a Co-operation with them in their motions to attain their ends Moral Government is of the Hearts and Actions of Men. Gracious Government as respecting the Church I. His Power is evident in Natural Government 1. In Preservation God is the great Father of the World to nourish it as well as create it * Daâ—â—◠〈◊〉 1 Cor. 10. p. 102. Man and Beast would perish if there were not Herbs for their food and Herbs would wither and perish if the Earth were not watered with fruitful showers This some of the Heathens acknowledg'd in their worshipping God under the image of an Ox a useful Creature by reason of its strength to which we owe so much of our food in Corn. Hence God is styled the Preserver of Man and Beast Psal â—6 6. Hence the Jews called God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Place because he is the subsistence of all things By the same Word whereby he gave Being to things he gives to them continuance and duration in Being to such a term of time As they were created by his word they are supported by his word Heb. 1.3 The same powerful Fiat Gen. 1.11 Let the Earth bring forth Grass when the Plants peep'd upon Man out of nothing is exprest every Spring when they begin to lift up their heads from their naked Roots and Winter graves The resurrection of Light every morning the reviving the pleasure of all things to the eye the watering the Vallies from the Mountain Springs the curbing the natural appetite of the Waters from covering the Earth every draught that the Beast drink every lodging the Fowls have every bit of Food for the sustenance of Man and Beast is ascribed to the Opening of his hand the diffusing of his Power Psal 104.27 c. as much as the first Creation of things and endowing them with their particular nature Whence the Plants Verse 16. which are so serviceable are called the Trees of the Lord of Jehovah that hath only Being and Power in himself The whole Psalm is but the description of his preserving as the first of Genesis is of his creating Power 'T is by this Power Angels have so many Thousand years remained in the power of understanding and willing By this Power things distant in their natures have been joyned together a Spiritual Soul and a Dusty Body knit in a Marriage knot By this Power the Heavenly Bodies have for so many Ages roul'd in their Spheres and the Tumultuous Elements have persisted in their order By this hath the Matter of the World been to this day continued and as capable of entertaining forms as it was at the first Creation What an amazing sight would it be to see a man hold a Pillar of the Exchange upon one of his Fingers What is this to the Power of God who holds the waters in the hollow of his hand metes out the Heaven with a span and weighs the Mountains in scales and the Hills in a ballance Isai 40.12 †Daillé Melange Part 2. p. 457 c. ‖ The preserving the Earth from the violence of the Sea is a plain instance of this Power How is that raging Element kept pent within those lists where he first lodged it continues its course in its Channel without overflowing the Earth and dashing in pieces the lower part of the Creation The natural scituation of the Water is to be above the Earth because it is lighter and to be immediately under the Air because it is heavier than that thinner Element Who restrains this natural quality of it but that God that first formed it The word of Command at first Hitherto shalt thou go and no further keeps those Waters linkt together in their Den that they may not ravage the Earth but be useful to the Inhabitants of it And when once it finds a gap to enter what power of Earth can hinder its passage How fruitless sometimes is all the Art of Man to send it to its proper Channel when once it hath spread its mighty waves over some Countries and trampled part of the inhabited Earth under its feet It hath triumphed in its victory and withstood all the power of Man to conquer its force 'T is only the Power of God that doth bridle it from spreading it self over the whole Earth And that his Power might be more manifest he hath set but a weak and small bank against it Though he hath bounded it in some places by mighty Rocks which lift up their heads above it yet in most places by feeble Sand. How often is it seen in every stormy motion when the waves boil high and roul furiously as if they would swallow up all the neighbouring Houses upon the Shoar when they come to touch those Sandy limits they bow their heads fall flat and sink into the Lap whence they were raised and seem to foam with Anger that they can march no further but must split themselves at so weak an obstacle Can the Sand be thought to be the cause of this The weakness of it gives no footing to such a thought Who can apprehend that an enraged Army should retire upon the opposition of a Straw in an Infants hand Is it the nature of the Water It s retirement is against the natural quality of it pour but a little upon the ground and you always see it spread it self No cause can be rendred in nature 't is a standing Monument of the Power of God in the preservation of the World and ought to be more taken notice of by us in this Island surrounded with it than
God that can do what he pleases nothing so difficult but he can effect nothing so strong but he can over-rule You need not dread Men since you have One to restrain them nor fear Devils since you have One to chain them No Creature but is acted by this Power no Creature but must fall upon the withdrawing of this Power It was not all laid out in Creation 'T is not weakned by his Preservation of things he yet hath a fulness of Power and a residue of Spirit For whom should that Eternal Arm of the Lord be displayed and that Incomprehensible Thunder of his Power be shot out but for those for whose sake and for whose Comfort it is revealed in his Word In Particular 1. Here is Comfort in all Afflictions and Distresses Our Evils can never be so great to oppress us as his Power is great to deliver us The same Power that brought a World out of a Chaos and constituted and hath hitherto preserved the regular Motion of the Stars can bring Order out of our Confusions and Light out of our Darkness When our Saviour was in the greatest distress and beheld the face of his Father frowning while he was upon the Cross in his Complaint to him he exerciseth Faith upon his Power Math. 27.46 Eli Eli My God my God why hast thou forsaken me that is My strong my strong El is a Name of Power belonging to God He comforts himself in his Power while he complains of his Frowns Follow his Pattern and forget not that Power that can scatter the Clouds as well as gather them together The Psalmists support in his Distress was in the Creative Power of God Psal 121.2 My help comes from the Lord which made Heaven and Earth 2. 'T is Comfort in all strong and stirring Corruptions and mighty Temptations 'T is by this we may arm our selves and be strong in the power of his might Ephes 6.10 By this we may conquer Principalities and Powers as dreadful as Hell but not so mighty as Heaven By this we may triumph over Lusts within too strong for an Arm of Flesh By this the Devils that have possessed us may be cast out the batter'd Walls of our Souls may be repaired and the Sons of Anak laid slat That Power that brought Light out of Darkness and overmaster'd the deformity of the Chaos and set bounds to the Ocean and dried up the Red Sea by a Rebuke can quell the Tumults in our Spirits and level Spiritual Goliahs by his Word When the Disciples heard that terrifying Speech of our Saviour concerning Rich men that it was easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God Mat. 19.24 to entertain the Gospel which commanded Self-denial and that because of the Allurements of the World and the strong Habits in their Soul Christ refers them to the Power of God verse 26. who could expel those ill Habits and plant good ones With Men this is impossible but with God all things are possible There is no resistance but he can surmount no strong hold but he can demolish no Tower but he can level 3. 'T is Comfort from hence that all Promises shall be performed Goodness is sufficient to make a Promise but Power is necessary to perform a Promise Men that are honest cannot often make good their words because something may intervene that may shorten their Ability but nothing can disable God without diminishing his Godhead He hath an Infiniteness of Power to accomplish his Word as well as an Infiniteness of Goodness to make and utter his Word That Might whereby he made Heaven and Earth and his keeping Truth for ever are joyn'd together Psal 146.5 6. His Fathers Faithfulness and His Creative Power are link'd together 'T is upon this Basis the Covenant and every part of it is established and stands as firm as the Almightiness of God whereby he sprung up the Earth and rear'd the Heavens No power can resist his will Rom. 9.19 Who can disannul his purpose and turn back his hand when it is stretched out Isai 14.27 His Word is unalterable and his Power is invincible He could not deceive himself for he knew his own strength when he promised No unexpected event can change his Resolution because nothing can happen without the compass of his Foresight No Created Strength can stop him in his Action because all Creatures are ready to serve him at his Command not the Devils in Hell nor all the Wicked men on Earth since he hath strength to restrain them and an Arm to punish them What can be too hard for him that created Heaven and Earth Hence it was that when God Promised any thing anciently to his People he used often the Name of the Almighty the Lord that created Heaven and Earth as that which was an undeniable Answer to any Objection against any thing that might be made against the greatness and stupendiousness of any Promise by that Name in all his Works of Grace was he known to them Exod. 6.3 When we are sure of his Will we need not question his Strength since he never over-engageth himself above his Ability He that could not be resisted by nothing in Creation nor vanquish'd by Devils in Redemption can never want Power to glorifie his Faithfulness in his Accomplishment of whatsoever he hath promised 4. From this Infiniteness of Power in God we have ground of Assurance for Perseverance Since Conversion is resembled to the Works of Creation and Resurrection two great Marks of his Strength he doth not surely employ himself in the first work of Changing the Heart to let any Created strength baffle that Power which he began and intends to glorifie It was this Might that struck off the Chain and expell'd that strong one that possessed you What if you are too weak to keep him out of his lost possession will God lose the glory of his first strength by suffering his foiled Adversary to make a re-entry and regain his former usurpation His Outstretched Arm will not do less by his Spiritual than it did by his National Israel It guarded them all the way to Canaan and left them not to shift for themselves after he had struck off the Fetters of Egypt and buried their Enemies in the Red Sea Deut. 1.31 This Greatness of the Father above all our Saviour makes the ground of Believers continuance for ever against the blasts of Hell and engines of the World John 10.29 My Father is greater than all and none is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hands Our keeping is not in our own weak hands but in the hands of him who is mighty to save That Power of God keeps us which intends our salvation In all fears of falling away shelter your selves in the Power of God He shall be holden up saith the Apostle speaking concerning one weak in Faith and no other Reason is rendred by him but this for
cause of the evil actions of men God acts nothing but withholds his Power he doth not enlighten their minds nor encline their wills so powerfully as to expel their darkness and root out those evil Habits which possess them by Nature God could if he would savingly enlighten the minds of all men in the World and quicken their hearts with a new Life by an invincible Grace but in not doing it there is no positive act of God but a cessation of Action We may with as much reason say that God is the Cause of all the sinful Actions that are committed by the Corporation of Devils since their first Rebellion because he leaves them to themselves and bestows not a new Grace upon them As say God is the Cause of the sins of those that he overlooks and leaves in that state of Guilt wherein he found them God did not pass by any without the consideration of sin so that this act of God is not repugnant to his Holiness but conformable to his Justice 4. Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by his secret will to suffer sin to enter into the World God never willed sin by his preceptive Will It was never founded upon or produced by any word of his as the Creation was He never said Let there be sin under the Heaven as he said Let there be Water under the Heaven Nor doth he will it by infusing any Habit of it or stirring up Inclinations to it no God tempts no man James 1.13 Nor doth he will it by his approving Will 't is detestable to him nor ever can be otherwise He cannot approve it either before Commission or after 1. The Will of God is in some sort concurrent with sin He doth not properly will it but he wills not to hinder it to which by his Omnipotence he could put a bar If he did positively will it it might be wrought by himself and so could not be evil If he did in no sort will it it would not be committed by his Creature Sin entred into the World either God willing the permission of it or not willing the permission of it The latter cannot be said for then the Creature is more powerful than God and can do that which God will not permit God can if he be pleased banish all sin in a moment out of the World He could have prevented the Revolt of Angels and the Fall of Man they did not sin whether he would or no He might by his Grace have stept in the first Moment and made a special impression upon them of the Happiness they already possessed and the Misery they would incur by any wicked attempt He could as well have prevented the sin of the fallen Angels and confirmed them in Grace as of those that continued in their happy state He might have appeared to man informed him of the Issue of his Design and made secret impressions upon his heart since he was acquainted with every avenue to his Will God could have kept all sin out of the world as well as all Creatures from breathing in it he was as well able to bar sin for ever out of the World as to let Creatures lye in the Womb of nothing wherein they were first wrapped To say God doth will sin as he doth other things is to deny his Holiness to say it entred without any thing of his Will is to deny his Omnipotence If he did necessitate Adam to fall what shall we think of his Purity If Adam dâ—d fall without any concern of God's Will in it what shall we say of his Soveraignty The one taints his Holiness and the other clips his Power If it came without any thing of his Will in it and he did not foresee it where is his Omniscience If it entred whether he would or no where is his Omnipotence Rom. 9.19 Who hath resisted his Will There cannot be a lustful Act in Abimelech if God will withhold his Power Gen. 20.6 I withheld thee Nor a cursing word in Balaam's Mouth unless God give power to speak it Numb 22.38 Have I now any power at all to say any thing The Word that God puts in my mouth that shall I speak As no Action could be sinful if God had not forbidden it so no sin could be committed if God did not will to give way to it 2. God doth not will sin directly and by an efficacious Will He doth not directly will it because he hath prohibited it by his Law which is a discovery of his Will So that if he should directly will sin and directly prohibite it he would will good and evil in the same manner and there would be Contradictions in God's Will To will sin absolutely is to work it Psal 115.3 God hath done whatsoever he pleased God cannot absolutely will it because he cannt work it * Rispolis God wills good by a positive decree because he hath decreed to effect it He wills evil by a privative decree because he hath decreed not to give that Grace which would certainly prevent it †Bradward lib. 1 cap. 34. God wills it secundum quid God doth not will sin simply for that were to approve it but he wills it in order to that Good his Wisdom will bring forth from it He wills not sin for it self but for the event To will sin as sin or as purely evil is not in the capacity of a Creature neither of Man nor Devil The Will of a Rational Creature cannot will any thing but under the appearance of good of some good in the sin it self or some good in the issue of it Much more is this far from God ‖ Aquin. cont Gent. l. 1. c. 95. who being infinitely good cannot will evil as evil and being infinitely knowing cannot will that for good which is evil Infinite Wisdom can be under no Errour or Mistake To will sin as sin would be an unanswerable blemish on God but to will to suffer it in order to good is the glory of his Wisdom It could never have peep'd up its head unless there had been some decree of God concerning it And there had been no decree of God concerning it had he not intended to bring good and glory out of it If God did directly will the discovery of his Grace and Mercy to the World he did in some sort will sin as that without which there could not have been any appearance of Mercy in the World For an Innocent Creature is not the Object of Mercy but a Miserable Creature and no Rational Creature but must be sinful before it be miserable 3. God wills the permission of sin He doth not positively will sin but he positively wills to permit it And though he doth not approve of sin yet he approves of that act of his Will whereby he permits it For since that sin could not enter into the World without some concern of God's Will about it that act of his Will that gave way
torments the Person that acts it 't is black and abominable and hath not a mite of Goodness in the Nature of it If it ends in any good 't is only from that Infinite Transcendency of skill that can bring Good out of Evil as well as Light out of Darkness Therefore God did not permit it as Sin but as it was an occasion for the manifestation of his own Glory Though the Goodness of God would have appear'd in the Preservation of the World as well as it did in the Creation of it yet his Mercy could not have appear'd without the Entrance of Sin because the Object of Mercy is a Miserable Creature but Man could not be Miserable as long as he remained Innocent The Reign of Sin opened a door for the Reign and Triumph of Grace Rom. 5.21 As sin hath reigned unto death so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life Without it the Bowels of Mercy had never sounded and the ravishing Musick of Divine Grace could never have been heard by the Creature Mercy which renders God so amiable could never else have beam'd out to the World Angels and Men upon this occasion beheld the stirrings of Divine Grace and the Tenderness of Divine Nature and the glory of the Divine Persons in their several Functions about the Redemption of Man which had else been a Spring shut up and a Fountain sealed the Song of Glory to God and Good will to Men in a way of Redemption had never been Sung by them It appears in his dealings with Adam that he permitted his Fall not only to shew his Justice in punishing but principally his Mercy in rescuing since he proclaims to him first the Promise of a Redeemer to bruise the Serpents head before he setled the Punishment he should smart under in the World †Gen. 3.15 16 17. And what fairer prospect could the Creature have of the Holiness of God and his Hatred of Sin than in the edge of that Sword of Justice which punished it in the Sinner but glitter'd more in the Punishment of a Surety so near Allied to him Had not Man been Criminal he could not have been Punishable nor any been punishable for him And the Pulse of Divine Holiness could not have beaten so quick and been so visible without an exercise of his Vindicative Justice He left Mans mutable Nature to fall under Vnrighteousness that thereby he might commend the Righteousness of his own Nature * Rom. 3.7 Adams Sin in its Nature tended to the ruine of the World and God takes an occasion from it for the glory of his Grace in the Redemption of the World He brings forth thereby a new Scene of Wonders from Heaven and a surprizing Knowledge on Earth As the Sun breaks out more strongly after a Night of Darkness and Tempest As God in Creation framed a Chaos by his Power to manifest his Wisdom in bringing Order out of Disorder Light out of Darkness Beauty out of Confusion and Deformity when he was able by a Word to have made all Creatures stand up in their Beauty without the precedency of a Chaos So God permitted a Moral Chaos to manifest a greater Wisdom in the repairing a broken Image and restoring a deplorable Creature and bringing out those Perfections of his Nature which had else been wrapt up in a perpetual silence in his own bosom †But of the Wisdom of God in the permitting Sin in order to Redeâ—ption I have handled in the Attribute of Wisdom It was therefore very congruous to the Holiness of God to permit that which he could make subservient for his own glory and particularly for the manifestation of this Attribute of Holiness which seems to be in opposition to such a permission 5. Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by his concurrence with the Creature in the material part of a sinful Act. Some to free God from having any hand in Sin deny his concurrence to the Actions of the Creature because if he concurs to a sinful Action he concurs to the Sin also Not understanding how there can be a distinction between the Act and the Sinfulness or Viciousness of it and how God can concur to a Natural Action without being stain'd by that Moral Evil which cleaves to it For the understanding of this observe 1. There is a concurrence of God to all the acts of the Creature Acts 17.28 In him we live and move and have our being We depend upon God in our Acting as well as in our Being There is as much an efficacy of God in our Motion as in our Production as none have life without his Power in producing it so none have any operation without his Providence concurring with it In him or by him that is by his Virtue preserving and governing our Motions as well as by his Power bringing us into Being Hence Man is compared to an Ax Isai 10.15 an Instrument that hath no action without the cooperation of a Superiour Agent handling it And the Actions of the Second Causes are ascrib'd to God the Grass that is the product of the Sun Rain and Earth he is said to make to grow upon the Mountains Psal 147.8 and the Skin and Flesh which is by Natural generation he is said to cloath us with Job 10.5 in regard of his co-working with Second Causes according to their Natures As nothing can exist so nothing can operate without him let his Concurrence be removed and the Being and Action of the Creature cease Remove the Sun from the Horizon or a Candle from a Room and the Light which flowed from either of them ceaseth Without Gods preserving and concurring Power the course of Nature would sink and the Creation be in vain ‖ Suarez Metaph part 1. p. 552. All Created things depend upon God as Agents as well as Beings and are subordinate to him in a way of Action as well as in a way of Existing If God suspend his Influence from their Action they would cease to act as the Fire did from burning the Three Children as well as if God suspend his Influence from their Being they would cease to be God supports the Nature whereby Actions are wrought the Mind where Actions are consulted and the Will where Actions are determin'd and the Motive power whereby Actions are produced The Mind could not contrive nor the Hand act a Wickedness if God did not support the Power of the one in designing and the Strength of the other in executing a wicked Intention Every faculty in its Being and every faculty in its Motion hath a dependance upon the Influence of God To make the Creature Independent upon God in any thing which speaks Perfection as Action considered as Action is is to make the Creature a Soveraign Being Indeed we cannot imagine the Concurrence of God to the good Actions of Men since the Fall without granting a Concurrence of God to evil Actions because there is no Action so purely
it is a representation of the Divinity and a holy man ought to esteem himself excellent in being such in his measure as his God is and puts his principal felicity in the possession of the same purity in Truth This is the refin'd Complexion of the Angels that stand before his Throne The Devils lost their comliness when they fell from it It was the honour of the humane Nature of our Saviour not only to be united to the Deity but to be sanctified by it He was fairer than all the Children of men because he had a holiness above the Children of men Grace was poured into his lips Psal 45.2 It was the Jewel of the reasonable Nature in paradise Conformity to God was mans original happiness in his created state and what was naturally so cannot but be immutably so in its own Nature The beauty of every copyed thing consists in its likeness to the Original Every thing hath more of loveliness as it hath greater impressions of its first Pattern In this regard holiness hath more of beauty on it than the whole Creation because it partakes of a greater excellency of God than the Sun Moon and Stars No greater glory can be than to be a conspicuous and visible Image of the invisible and holy and blessed God As this is the splendor of all the Divine Attributes so it is the flower of all a Christians Graces the Crown of all Religion 'T is the glory of the Spirit In this regard the Kings Daughter is said to be all glorious within * Psal 45.13 'T is more excellent than the soul itself since the greatest soul is but a deformed piece without it A Diamond without lustre †Vaughan p. 4 5. What are the noble faculties of the Soul without it but as a curious rusty Watch a delicate heap of Disorder and confusion 'T is impossible there can be beauty where thâ—re are a multitude of spots and wrinkles that blemish a Countenance ‖ Eph. 5.27 It can never be in its true brightness but when it is perfect in Purity when it regains what it was possessed of by Creation and dispossessed of by the fall and recovers its primitive temper We are not so beautiful by being the work of God as by having a stamp of God upon us Worldly greatness may make men honourable in the sight of creeping worms Soft lives ambitious reaches luxurious pleasures and a pompous Religion render no man excellent and noble in the sight of God This is not the excellency and nobility of the Deity which we are bound to resemble Other lines of a Divine Image must be drawn in us to render us truly excellent 4. 'T is our life What is the life of God is truly the life of a rational Creature * Amirald in Heb. p. 101 102. The life of the body consists not in the perfection of its Members and the integrity of its Organs these remain when the body becomes a Carcass but in the presence of the Soul and its vigorous animation of every part to perform the distinct offices belonging to each of them The life of the Soul consists not in its being or spiritual substance or the excellency of its Faculties of understanding and will but in the moral and becoming operations of them The spirit is only life because of righteousness * Rom. 8.10 The Faculties are turned by it to acquit themselves in their functions according to the will of God the absence of this doth not only deform the Soul but in a sort annihilate it in regard of its true essence and end Grace gives a Christian being and a want of it is the want of a true being Cor. 1.15.10 When Adam devested himself of his original righteousness he came under the force of the threatning in regard of a spiritual death Every person is morally dead whiles he lives an unholy life †1. Tim. 5 6. What life is to the body that is righteousness to the Spirit and the greater measure of holiness it hath the more of life it hath because it is in a greater nearness and partakes more fully of the fountain of life Is not that the most worthy life which God makes most account of without which his life could not be a pleasant and blessed life but a life worse than death What a miserable life is that of the men of the World that are carried with greedy inclinations to all manner of unrighteousness whither their interests or their lusts invite them The most beautiful body is a Carcass and the most honorable person hath but a brutish life ‖ Psal 49.20 miserable Creatures when their life shall be extinct without a Divine rectitude when all other things will vanish as the shadows of the night at the appearance of the Sun Holiness is our life 5. 'T is this only fits us for Communion with God Since it is our beauty and our life without it what Communion can an excellent God have with deformed Creatures a living God with dead Creatures Without Holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 The Creature must be stript of his Unrighteousness or God of his Purity before they can come together Likeness is the ground of Communion and of Delight in it The opposition between God and unholy Souls is as great as that between light and darkness * 1 John 1.6 Divine fruition is not so much by a union of Presence as a union of Nature Heaven is not so much an outward as an inward life the foundation of Glory is laid in Grace a resemblance to God is our vital happiness without which the Vision of God would not be so much as a cloudy and shadowy happiness but rather a torment than a felicity unless we be of a like nature to God we cannot have a pleasing fruition of him Some Philosophers think that if our Bodies were of the same nature with the Heavens of an Ethereal Substance the nearness to the Sun would cherish not scorch us Were we partakers of a Divine nature we might enjoy God with delight whereas remaining in our unlikeness to him we cannot think of him and approach to him without terrour As soon as sin had stript man of the Image of God he was an Exile from the comfortable presence of God unworthy for God to hold any correspondence with He can no more delight in a defiled person than a man can take a Toad into intimate converse with him he would hereby discredit his own Nature and justifie our Impurity The holiness of a Creature only prepares him for an eternal conjunction with God in glory Enoch's walking with God was the cause of his being so soon wafted to the place of a full fruition of him he hath as much delight in such as in Heaven it self one is his Habitation as well as the other The one is his habitation of Glory and the other is the house of his Pleasure If he dwell in Zion it must be
together No Perfection of the Divine Nature is more eminently nor more speedily visible in the whole Book of the Creation than this His Greatness shines not in any part of it where his Goodness doth not as gloriously glister Whatsoever is the Instrument of his Work as his Power Whatsoever is the Orderer of his Work as his Wisdom yet nothing can be Ador'd as the Motive of his VVork but the Goodness of his Nature This only could induce him to resolve to Create His VVisdom then steps in to dispose the Methods of what he resolved And his Power follows to execute what his VVisdom hath disposed and his Goodness design'd His Power in making and his VVisdom in ordering are subservient to his Goodness and this Goodness which is the end of the Creation is as visible to the Eyes of Men as legible to the Understanding of Men as his Power in forming them and his VVisdom in tuning them And as the Book of Creation so the Records of his Government must needs acquaint them with a great part of it when they have often beheld him stretching out his Hand to supply the Indigent relieve the Oppressed and punish the Oppressors and give them in their Distresses what might fill their Hearts with Food and Gladness 'T is this the Apostle * 1 Rom. 20 21. means by his Godhead which he links with his Eternity and Power as clearly seen in the things that are made as in a pine Glass For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead The Godhead which comprehends the whole Nature of God as discoverable to his Creatures was not known yea was impossible to be known by the VVorks of Creation There had been nothing then reserv'd to be manifested in Christ But his Goodness which is properly meant there by his Godhead was as clearly visible as his Power The Apostle upbraids them with their Unthankfulness and argues their inexcusableness because the Arm of his Power in Creation made no due impressions of fear upon their Spirits nor the Beams of his Goodness wrought in them sufficient sentiments of Gratitude Their not glorifying God was a contempt of the former and their not being thankful was a slight of the later God is the Object of Honor as he is Powerful and the Object of Thankfulness properly as he is bountiful All the Idolatry of the Heathens is a clear testimony of their common sentiment of the Goodness of God Since the more eminently useful any person was in some advantagious Invention for the benefit of Mankind they thought he merited a Rank in the number of their Deities The Italians esteemed Pythagoras a God because he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †Iamblych vit Pythag. lib. 1. col 6. p 43. To be Good and Useful was an Approximation to the Divine Nature Hence it was that when the Lystrians saw a resemblance of the Divine Goodness in the charitable and miraculous Cure of one of their Crippled Citizens presently they mistook Paul and Barnabas for Gods and inferred from thence their right to Divine VVorship inquiring into nothing else but the visible Character of their goodness and usefulness to capacitate them for the Honor of a Sacrifice †Acts 14 8 9 10 11. Hence it was that they adored those Creatures that were a common Benefit as the Sun and Moon which must be founded upon a praeexistent Notion not only of the Being but of the Bounty and Goodness of God which was naturally implanted in them and legible in all Gods VVorks And the more beneficial any thing was to them and the more sensible advantages they received from it the higher station they gave it in the rank of their Idols and bestow'd upon it a more solemn VVorship An absurd mistake to think every thing that was sensibly good to them to be God cloathing himself in such a form to be adored by them And upon this account the Aegyptians worshipped God under the figure of an Ox and the East Indians in some parts of their Country Deifie a Heyfer intimating the Goodness of God as their Nourisher and Preserver in giving them Corn whereof the Ox is an instrument in serving for Plowing and preparing the Ground 2. The Notion of Goodness is inseparable from the Notion of a God VVe cannot own the Existence of God but we must confess also the Goodness of his Nature Hence the Apostle gives to his Goodness the Title of his Godhead as if Goodness and Godhead were convertible terms * Rom. 1.20 As it is indissoluby linkt with the Being of a Deity so it cannot be sever'd from the Notion of it We as soon Undeify him by denying him Good as by denying him Great Optimus Maximus the Best Greatest was the name whereby the Romans entitled Him His Nature is as Good as it is Majestick so doth the Psalmist join them * Psal 145.6 7. I will declare thy Greatness they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great Goodness They considered his Goodness before his Greatness in putting Optimus before Maximus Greatness without Sweetness is an unruly and affrighting Monster in the VVorld like a vast turbulent Sea always casting out Mire and Dirt. Goodness is the brightness and loveliness of our Majestical Creator To fancy a God without it is to fancy a miserable scanty narrow-hearted savage God and so an unlovely and horrible Being For he is not a God that is not Good he is not a God that is not the highest Good Infinite Goodness is more necessary to and more straitly joined with an infinite Deity than infinite Power and infinite VVisdom We cannot conceive him God unless we conceive him the highest Good having nothing superiour to Himself in Goodness as he hath nothing Superiour to Himself in Excellency and Perfection No man can possibly form a Notion of God in in his Mind and yet form a Notion of something better than God for whoever thinks any thing better than God fancieth a God with some defect By how much the better he thinks that thing to be by so much the more imperfect he makes God in his thoughts This Notion of the Goodness of God was so natural that some Philosophers and others being startled at the Evil they saw in the World fancy'd besides a good God an evil Principle the Author of all Punishments in the World This was ridiculous for those two must be of equal Power or one inferiour to the other If Equal the Good could do nothing but the Evil one would restrain him and the Evil one could do nothing but the Good one would contradict him So they would be always contending and never conquering If one were inferiour to the other then there would be nothing but what that Superiour order'd Good if the Good one were Superiour and nothing but Evil if the Bad one were Superiour In the prosecution of
Drops as well as the fuller Streams are of the same Fountain and relish of the Nature of it And though he do not make all Men partake of the riches of his Grace after the corruption of their Nature Is his Goodness disgraced hereby Or doth he merit the Title of Cruelty Will any diminish the goodness of a Father for his not setting up his Son after he hath foolishly and wilfully proved Bankrupt or not rather admire his liberality in giving him so large a Stock to Trade with when he first set him up in the World 2. The goodness of God to Creatures is to be measured by their distinct Vsefulness to the Common End It were better for a Toad or Serpent to be a Man i. e. better for the Creature it self if it were advanced to a higher degree of Being but not better for the Universe He could have made every Pebble a living Creature and every living Creature a Rational one But that he made every thing as we see it was a goodness to the Creature it self But that he did not make it of a higher Elevation in Nature was a part of his goodness to the Rational Creature If all were Rational Creatures there would have been wanting Creatures of an Inferior Nature for their conveniency There would have wanted the manifestation of the variety and fulness of his goodness Had all things in the World been Rational Creatures much of that goodness which he hath communicated to Rational Creatures would not have appear'd How could Man have shew'd his skill in Taming and Managing Creatures more mighty than himself What Materials would there have been to manifest the goodness of God bestowed upon the Reasonable Creatures for framing Excellent Works and Inventions Much of the Goodness of God had lain wrapt up from Sense and Understanding All other things partake not of so great a goodness as Man yet they are so subservient to that goodness pour'd forth on Man that little of it coulâ— have been seen without them Consider Man every Member in his Body hath a goodness in it self but a greater goodness as referred to the whole without which the goodness of the more noble part would not be manifested The Head is the most excellent Member and hath greater Impressions of Divine Goodness upon it in regard that it is the Organ of Understanding Were every Member of the Body a Head what a deformed Monster would Man be If he were all Head where would be feet for Motion And Arms for Action Man would be fit only for Thought and not for Exercise The goodness of God in giving Man so noble a part as the Head could not be known without a Tongue whereby to Express the Conception of his Mind and without Feet and Hands whereby to act much of what he conceives and determines and execute the resolves of his Will All those have a goodness in themselves an honour a comeliness from the goodness of God * 1 Cor. 12.22 23. but not so great a goodness as the nobler part Yet if you consider them in their Functions and refer them to that excellent Member which they serve their Inferior goodness is absolutely necessary to the goodness of the other without which the goodness of the Head and Understanding would lie in obscurity be insignificant to the whole World and in a great measure to the Person himself that wants such Members 3. The goodness of God is more seen in this inequality If God were equally good to all it would destroy Commerce Unity the Links of Humane Society damp Charity and render that useless which is one of the noblest and delightfullest Duties to be exercised here It would cool Prayer which is excited by wants and is a necessary demonstration of the Creatures dependance on God But in this inequality every Man hath enough in his Enjoyments for Praise and in his VVants matter for his Prayer Besides the inequality of the Creature is the Ornament of the World What pleasure could a Garden afford if there were but one sort of Flowers or one sort of Plants Far less than when there is variety to please the Sight and every other Sense Again the freedom of Divine Goodness which is the glory of it is evident hereby Had he been alike good to all it would have lookt like a necessary not a free act But by the inequality it is manifest that he doth not do it by a Natural necessity as the Sun shines but by a voluntary Liberty as being the entire Lord and free Disposer of his own Goods And that it is the gift of the pleasure of his VVill as well as the Efflux of his Nature That he hath not a Goodness without VVisdom but a VVisdom as rich as his Bounty 4. The goodness of God could not be equally communicated to all after their settlement in their several Beings Because they have not a capacity in their Natures for it He doth bestow the Marks of his Goodness according to that natural capacity of fitness he perceives in his Creatures As the VVater of the Sea fills every Creek and Gulf with different measures according to the compass each have to contain it And as the Sun doth disperse Light to the Stars above and the places below to some more to some less according to the measures of their Reception God doth not do good to all Creatures according to the greatness of his own Power and the extent of his own VVealth but according to the capacity of the Subject Not so much good as he can do but so much good as the Creature can receive The Creature would sink if God would pour out all his Goodness upon it As Moses would have perished if God should have shewn him all his Glory * Exod. 33.18 20. He doth manifest more Goodness to his Reasonable Creatures because they are more capable of acknowledging and setting forth his Goodness 5. God ought to be allow'd the free disposal of his own Goodness Is not God the Lord of his own Gifts and will you not allow him the priviledge of having some more peculiar Objects of his love and pleasure which you allow without blame to Man and use your self without any sense of a Crime Is a Prince esteem'd good though he be not equally bountiful to all his Servants nor equally gracious in pardoning all his Rebels And shall the goodness of the great Soveraign of the World be impeacht notwithstanding those mighty distributions of it because he will act according to his own VVisdom and Pleasure and not according to Mens fancies and humors Must Purblind Reason be the Judge and Director how God shall dispose of his own rather than his own Infinite VVisdom and Soveraign VVill Is God less good because there are number less nothings which he is able to bring into being He could Create a VVorld of more Creatures than he hath done doth he therefore wish evil to them by letting them remain in that nothing from
Judgments upon some to form a new Generation for himself He destroy'd an old World to raise a new one more Righteous As a Man pulls down his old Buildings to erect a sounder and more stately Fabrick To sum up what hath been said in this particular How could God be a Friend to Goodness if he were not an Enemy to Evil How could he shew his enmity to Evil without revenging the abuse and contempt of his Goodness God would rather have the Repentance of a Sinner than his Punishment but the Sinner would rather expose himself to the severest frowns of God than pursue those Methods wherein he hath setled the conveyances of his kindness You will not come to me that you might have Life saith Christ How is Eternity of Punishment inconsistent with the Goodness of God Nay how can God be good without it If Wickedness always remain in the Nature of Man Is it not fit the Rod should always remain on the Back of Man Is it a want of goodness that keeps an incorrigible Offender in Chains in a Bridewell While Sin remains it 's fit it should be Punished Would not God else be an Enemy to his own Goodness and shew favour to that which doth abuse it and is contrary to it He hath threatned Eternal Flames to Sinners that he might the more strongly excite them to a Reformation of their Ways and a Practice of his Precepts In those Threatnings he hath manifested his Goodness And can it be bad in him to defend what his Goodness hath Commanded and Execute what his Goodness hath Threatned His Truth is also a part of his Goodness for it is nothing but his Goodness performing that which it oblig'd him to do That is the first thing Severe Judgments in the World are no Impeachments of his Goodness 2. The Afflictions God inflicts upon his Servants are no violations of his Goodness Sometimes God aflicts Men for their Temporal and Eternal good for the good of their Grace in order to the good of their Glory which is a more excellent Good than Afflictions can be an Evil. The Heathens reflected upon Vlysses his hardship as a Mark of Jupiters goodness and love to him that his Virtue might be more conspicuous By strong Persecutions brought upon the Church her Lethargy is Cur'd her Chaff Purg'd the glorious Fruit of the Gospel brought forth in the lives of her Children The number of her Proselytes multiply and the strength of her weak ones is increased by the Testimonies of Courage and Constancy which the stronger present to them in their Sufferings Do those good Effects speak a want of goodness in God who brings them into this condition By those he cures his People of their Corruptions and promotes their Glory by giving them the honour of suffering for the Truth and raiseth their Spirits to a Divine pitch The Epistles of Paul to the Ephes Philip. and Colos wrote by him while he was in Nero's Chains seem to have a higher strain than some of those he wrote when was at liberty As for Afflictions they are Marks of a greater measure of Fatherly Goodness than he discovers to those that live in an uninterrupted Prosperity who are not dignifi'd with that glorious Title of Sons as those are that he chasteneth * Heb. 12.6 7. Can any question the goodness of the Father that Corrects his Child to prevent his Vice and Ruine and breed him up to Vertue and Honour It would be a Cruelty in a Father leaving his Child without Chastisement to leave him to that Misery an ill Education would reduce him to God judges us that we might not be condemned with the World †1 Cor. 11.32 Is it not a greater Goodness to separate us from the World to Happiness by his Scourge than to leave us to the condemnation of the World for our Sins Is it not a greater Goodness to make us smart here than to see us scorcht hereafter As he is our Shepherd it is no part of his Enmity or ill will to us to make us feel sometimes the weight of his Shepherds Crook to reduce us from our Stragling The visiting our Transgressions with Rods and our Iniquities with Stripes is one of the Articles of the Covenant of Grace wherein the greatest lustre of his Goodness appears * Psal 89.33 The advantage and gain of our Afflictions is a greater Testimony of his Goodness to us than the pain can be of his Unkindness The Smart is well recompenced by the accession of clearer Graces It is rather a high Mark of his Goodness than an Argument for the want of it that he treats us as his Children and will not suffer us to run into that Destruction we are more ambitious of than the Happiness he hath prepared for us and by Afflictons he fits us for the partaking of by imparting his Holiness together with the inflicting his Rod †Heb. 12.10 That is the third thing God is Good The Fourth thing is The manifestation of this Goodness in Creation Redemption and Providence 1. In Creation This is apparent from what hath been said before That no other Attribute could be the Motive of his Creating but his Goodness His Goodness was the Cause that he made any thing and his Wisdom was the Cause that he made every thing in Order and Harmony He pronounced every thing good i. e. such as became his Goodness to bring forth into Being and rested in them more as they were Stamps of his Goodness than as they were Marks of his Power or Beams of his Wisdom And if all Creatures were able to answer to this Question What that was which Created them The Answer would be Almighty Power but employed by the Motion of Infinite Goodness * Cusan p. 228. All the varieties of Creatures are so many Apparitions of this Goodness Though God be one yet he cannot appear as a God but in variety As the greatness of Power is not manifest but in variety of Works and an Acute Understanding not discover'd but in variety of Reasonings so an Infinite Goodness is not so apparent as in variety of Communications 1. The Creation proceeds from Goodness 'T is the Goodness of God to extract such multitude of things from the depths of nothing Because God is Good things have a Being If he had not been Good nothing could have been Good Nothing could have imparted that which it possessed not Nothing but Goodness could have communicated to things an Excellency which before they wanted Being is much more Excellent than nothing By this Goodness therefore the whole Creation was brought out of the dark Womb of Nothing This formed their Natures this beautified them with their several Ornaments and Perfections whereby every thing was enabled to act for the good of the Common World God did not Create things because he was a Living Being but because he was a Good Being No Creature brought forth any thing in the World meerly because it is
upon it and perhaps never think of it more after he is satisfied 4. And Lastly Imitate this Goodness of God If his Goodness hath such an influence upon us as to make us love him it will also move us with an ardent Zeal to imitate him in it Christ makes this use from the Doctrine of Divine Goodness * Matth. 5.44 45. Do good to them that hate you that you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he makes his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good As Holiness is a Resemblance of Gods Purity so Charity is a Resemblance of Gods Goodness And this our Saviour calls Perfection Verse 48. Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect As God would not be a perfect God without Goodness so neither can any be a perfect Christian without Kindness Charity and Love being the splendour and loveliness of all Christian Graces as Goodness is the splendour and loveliness of all Divine Attributes This and Holiness are order'd in the Scripture to be the grand Patterns of our imitation Imitate the Goodness of God in two things 1. In relieving and assisting others in distress Let our heart be as large in the capacity of Creatures as God's is in the capacity of a Creator A large heart from him to us and a strait heart from us to others will not suit Let us not think any so far below us as to be unworthy of our Care since God thinks none that are infinitely distant from him too mean for his His infinite Glory mounts him above the Creature but his infinite Goodness stoops him to the meanest Works of his hands As he lets not the Transgressions of Prosperity pass without punishment so he lets not the distress of his Afflicted People pass him without support Shall God provide for the ease of Beasts and shall not we have some tenderness towards those that are of the same Blood with our selves and have as good Blood to boast of as runs in the Veins of the mightiest Monarch on Earth and as mean and as little as they are can lay claim to as ancient a Pedigree as the stateliest Prince in the World who cannot ascend to Ancestors beyond Adam Shall we glut our selves with Divine Beneficence to us and wear his Livery only on our own backs forgeting the Afflictions of some dear Joseph when God who hath an unblemisht felicity in his own Nature looks out of himself to view and relieve the miseries of poor Creatures Why hath God increased the Doles of his Treasures to some more than others Was it meerly for themselves or rather that they might have a bottom to attain the honour of imitating him Shall we embezzel his Goods to our own use as if we were absolute Proprietors and not Stewards entrusted for others Shall we make a difficulty to part with something to others out of that abundance he hath bestow'd upon any of us Did not his Goodness strip his Son of the Glory of Heaven for a time to enrich us and shall we shrug when we are to part with a little to pleasure him 'T is not very becoming for any to be backward in supplying the necessities of others with a few morsels who have had the happiness to have had their greatest necessities supplied with his Sons Blood He demands not that we should strip our selves of all for others but of a pittance something of superfluity which will turn more to our account than what is vainly and unprofitably consumed on our Backs and Bellies If he hath given much to any of us 't is rather to lay aside part of the Income for his Service Else we would Monopolize Divine Goodness to our selves and seem to distrust under our present Experiments his future Kindness as though the last thing he gave us was attended with this language Hoard up this and expect no more from me Use it only to the glutting your Avarice and feeding your Ambition which would be against the whose scope of Divine Goodness If we do not endeavour to write after the Comely Copy he hath set us we may provoke him to harden himself against us and in wrath bestow that on the Fire or on our Enemies which his Goodness hath imparted to us for his Glory and the supplying the necessities of poor Creatures And on the contrary he is so delighted with this kind of imitation of him that a Cup of cold Water when there is no more to be done shall not be unrewarded 2. Imitate God in his Goodness in a kindness to our worst Enemies The best Man is more unworthy to receive any thing from God than the worst can be to receive from us How kind is God to those that blaspheme him and gives them the same Sun and the same Showers that he doth to the best Men in the World Is it not more our glory to imitate God in doing good to thâ—se that hate us than to imitate the Men of the World in requiting evil by a return of a sevenfold mischief This would be a goodness which would vanquish the hearts of Men and render us greater than Alexanders and Caesars who did only triumph over miserable Carcases Yea it is to triumph over our selves in being good against the sentiments of Corrupt Nature Revenge makes us Slaves to our Passions as much as the Offenders and good Returns render us Victorious over our Adversaries * Rom. 12.21 Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good When we took up our Arms against God his Goodness contrived not our Ruine but our Recovery This is such a Goodness of God as could not be discover'd in an Innocent State While Man had continued in his Duty he could not have been guilty of an Enmity And God could not but affect him unless he had denied himself So this of being good to our Enemies could never have been practised in a State of Rectitude since where was a perfect Innocence there could be no spark of Enmity to one another It can be no disparagement to any Mans Dignity to cast his influences on his greatest Opposers since God who acts for his own Glory thinks not himself disparag'd by sending forth the Streams of his Bounty on the wickedest Persons who are far meaner to him than those of the same Blood can be to us Who hath the worse thoughts of the Sun for shining upon the Earth that sends up Vapours to Cloud it It can be no disgrace to resemble God if his Hand and Bowels be open to us let not ours be shut to any A DISCOURSE UPON GODS Dominion PSALM CIII Verse 19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens And his Kingdom Ruleth over all THE Psalm begins with the praise of God wherein the Penman excites his soul to a right and elevated management of so great a duty Ver. 1. Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his
long can be referred to nothing but the same cause What is the reason the vail continues so long upon the heart of the Jews that is promised one time or other to be taken off Why doth God delay the accomplishment of those glorious predictions of the happiness and interest of that people is it because of the sin of their Ancestors a reason that cannot bear much weight If we cast it upon that account their conversion can never be expected can never be effected if for the sins of their Ancestors is it not also for their own sins Do their sins grow less in number or less venimous or provoking in quality by this delay Is not their Blasphemy of Christ as malitious their hatred of him as strong and rooted as ever Do they not as much approve of the bloody act of their Ancestors since so many ages are past as their Ancestors did applaud it at the time of the Execution Have they not the same disposition and will discovered sufficiently by the scorn of Christ and of those that profess his Name to act the same thing over again were Christ now in the same state in the world and they invested with the same power of Government If their Conversion were deferr'd one age after the death of Christ for the sins of their prâ—ceding Ancestors is it to be expected now since the present generation of the Jews in all Countries have the sins of those remote the succeeding and their more immediate Ancestors lying upon them This therefore cannot be the reason but as it was the Soveraign pleasure of God to foretell his intention to overcome the stoutness of their hearts so it is his Soveraign pleasure that it shall not be perform'd till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in Rom. 11.25 As he is Lord of his own Grace so he is Lord of the Time when to dispense it Why did God create the world in 6 days which he could have erected and beautified in a moment Because it was his pleasure so to do Why did he frame the World when he did and not many ages before Because he is Master of his own work Why did he not resolve to bring Israel to the fruition of Canaan till after four hundred years Why did he draw out their deliverance to so long time after he began to attempt it Why such a multitude of Plagues upon Pharoah to work it when he could have cut short the work by one mortal blow upon the Tyrant and his accomplices It was his Soveraign pleasure to act so though not without other reasons intelligible enough by looking into the story Why doth he not bring man to a perfection of stature in a moment after his Birth but let him continue in a tedious infancy in a semblance to beasts for want of an exercise of reason Why doth he not bring this or that man whom he intends for service to a fitness in an instant but by long tracts of Study and through many Meanders and Labyrinths VVhy doth he transplant a hopeful person in his youth to the pleasures of another VVorld and let another of an eminent Holiness continue in the misery of this and wade through many Floods of Afflictions VVhat can we chiefly referre all these things to but his Soveraign pleasure The times are determined by God Acts 17.26 3. The Dominion of God is manifested as a Governor as well as a Law-giver and Proprietor 1. In disposing of States and Kingdomes Psa l. 75.7 God is Judge he puls down one and sets up another Judge is to be taken not in the same sence that we commonly use the word for a judicial Minister in a way of tryal but for a Governour as you know the extraordinary Governours rais'd up among the Jews were call'd Judges whence one intire Book in the Old Testament is so denominated the Book of Judges God hath a Prerogative to change times and seasons Dan. 2.21 i. e. The Revolutions of Government whereby times are alter'd * Mr. Mede in one of his Letters How many Empires that have spread their wings over a great part of the world have had their Carkasses torn in peices and unheard off Nations pluckt of the wings of the Roman Eagle after it had prey'd upon many Nations of the World And the Macedonian Empire was as the dew that is dried up a short time after it falls He erected the Chaldaean Monarchy us'd Nebuchadnezzar to overthrow and punish the ungrateful Jews and by a Soveraign act gave a great parcel of Land into his hands and what he thought was his right by conquest was Gods donative to him You may read the Chartâ—r to Nebuchadnezzar whom he terms his Servant Jer. 27.6 And now I have given all those Lands the Lands are mentioned verse 3. Into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my Servant Which Decree he pronounceth after his asserting his right of Soveraignty over the whole Earth ver 5. After that he puts a period to the Chaldaean Empire and by the same Soveraign Authority decrees Babylon to be a spoil to the Nations of the North Countrey and delivers her up as a spoil to the Persian Jer. 50.9 10. And this for the manifestation of his Soveraign Dominion that he was the Lord that made peace and created evil Isaiah 45.6 7. God afterwards overthrows that by the Grecian Alexander prophesied of under the figure of a Goat with one horn between his Eyes Dan. 8. The swift current of his Victories as swift as his motion shew'd it to be from an extraordinary hand of Heaven and not either from the policy or strength of the Macedonian His strength in the Prophet is described to be less being but one horn running against the Persian describ'd under the figure of a Ramm with two horns * Josephus And himself acknowledg'd a Divine motion exciting him to that great attempt when he saw Joddus the High Priest coming out in his Priestly Robes to meet him at his approach to Jerusalem whom he was about to Worship acknowledging that the Vision which put him upon the Persian War appear'd to him in such a garb What was the reason Israel was rent from Judah and both split into two distinct Kingdoms Because Rehoboam would not hearken to sober and sound Counsels but follow the advice of upstarts What was the reason he did not harken to sound advice since he had so advantagious an Education under his Father Solomon the wisest Prince of the World The Cause was from the Lord. 1 Kings 12.15 That he might perform what he had before spoke In this he acted according to his Royal Word but in the first resolve he acted as a Soveraign Lord that had the disposal of all Nations in the world And though Ahab had a numerous posterity Seventy Sons to inherit the Throne after him yet God by his Soveraign Authority gives them up into the hands of Jehu who strips them of their lives and hopes together not
and he is punctually obeyed by them as a Soveraign Lord. All Creatures stand ready for his call and are prepared to be Executioners of his vengeance when he speaks the word they are his Hosts by Creation and in array for his service at the sound of his Trumpet or beat of his Drum they troop together with their Arms in their hands to put his Orders exactly in execution 6. The Dominion of God is manifest in appointing to every man his calling and station in the World If the hairs of every mans head fall under his Soveraign care the Calling of every man wherein he is to glorifie God and serve his Generation which is of a greater concern than the hairs of the head falls under his Dominion He is the Master of the great Family and divides to every one his work as he pleaseth The whole work of the Messiah the time of every action as well as the hour of his Passion was ordered and appointed by God The separation of Paul to the Preaching of the Gospel was by the Soveraign disposal of God Rom. 1.1 By the same exercise of his Authority that he sets every man the bounds of his habitation Acts 17.26 he prescribes also to him the nature of his work He that ordered Adam the Father of mankind his work and the place of it the dressing the Garden Gen. 2.15 doth not let any of his posterity be their own choosers without an influence of his Soveraign direction on them Though our Callings are our work yet they are by Gods order wherein we are to be faithful to our great Master and Ruler 7. The Dominion of God is manifest in the means and occasions of mens Conversion Sometimes one occasion sometimes another one word lets a man go another arrests him and brings him before God and his own Conscience 't is as God gives out the order He lets Paul be a Prisoner at Jerusalem that his cause should not be determined there moves him to appeal to Caesar not only to make him a Prisoner but a Preacher in Caesars Court and render his chains an occasion to bring in a Harvest of Converts in Nero's Palace 1 Phil. 12.13 His bonds in or for Christ are manifest in all the Palace not the bare knowledge of his bonds but the soveraign design of God in those Bonds and the success of them the bare knowledge of them would not make others more confident for the Gospel as it follows v. 14. without a providential design of them Onesimus running from his Master is guided by Gods soveraign order into Pauls Company and thereby into Christ's arms and he who came a fugitive returns a Christian. Phil. 10.15 Some by a strong affliction have had by the Divine soveraignty their understandings awakened to consider and their wills spirited to conversion Monica being call'd Meribibula or toss-pot was brought to consider her way and reform her Life A word hath done that at one time which hath often before fallen without any fruit Many have come to suck in the Eloquence of the Minister and have found in the Hony for their Ears a sting for their Consciences Austin had no other intent in going to hear Ambrose but to have a tast of his famous Oratory but while Ambrose spake a Language to his Ear God spake a heavenly Dialect to his heart No reason can be render'd of the order and timing and influence of those things but the soveraign pleasure of God who will attend one occasion and season with his blessing and not another 8. The Dominion of God is manifest in disposing of the Lives of men He keeps the key of Death as well as that of the Womb in his own hand he hath given man a Life but not power to dispose of it or lay it down at his pleasure And therefore he hath ordered man not to murder not another not himself man must expect his call and grant to dispose of the Life of his Body Why doth he cut the thred of this mans Life and spin anothers out to a longer term Why doth one die an inglorious death and another more honourable One silently drops away in the multitude while another is made a Sacrifice for the Honour of God or the safety of his Countrey This is a mark of Honour he gives to one and not to another Phil. 1.29 To you it is given The manner of Peters death was appointed John 21.19 Why doth a small and slight Disease against the Rules of Physick and the Judgment of the best Practitioners dislodge one mans Soul out of his Body while a greater Disease is master'd in another and discharges the Patient to enjoy himself a longer time in the Land of the Living Is it the effect of means so much as of the soveraign disposer of all things If means only did it the same means would alway work the same effect and sooner master a dwarfish than a Gyant-like Distemper Our times are only in Gods hands Psal 31.15 Either to cut short or continue long As his soveraignty made the first Marriage knot so he reserves the sole Authority to himself to make the Divorce 4. The Dominion of God is manifest in his being a Redeemer as well as Law-giver Proprietor and Governour His Soveraignty was manifest in the Creation in bestowing upon this or that part of matter a form more excellent than upon another He was a Law-giver to Men and Angels and prescribed them rules according to the Councel of his own Will These were his Creatures and perfectly at his disposal but in Redemption a soveraignty is exercised over the Son the second Person in the Trinity one equal with the Father in essence and works by whom the worlds were created and by whom they do consist The whole Gospel is nothing else but a declaration of his soveraign pleasure concerning Christ and concerning us in him 't is therefore call'd the Mystery of his Will Eph. 1.9 The Will of God as distinct from the Will of Christ a purpose in himself not mov'd thereunto by any the whole design was fram'd in the Deity and as much the purpose of his soveraign Will as the contrivance of his immense Wisdom He decreed in his own pleasure to have the second person assume our Nature for to deliver mankind from that misery whereinto it was fallen The whole of the Gospel and the Priviledges of it are in that chapter resolved into the will and pleasure of God God is therefore called the head of Christ 1 Cor. 11.3 As Christ is superior to all men and the man superior to the woman so is God superior to Christ and of a more eminent dignity in regard of the constituting him mediator Christ is Subject to God as the Body to the Head Head is a Title of Government and Soveraignty and Magistrates were called the heads of the People As Christ is the head of Man so is God the head of Christ and as man is subject to Christ so is Christ
as he would have done those sinners in whose stead he suffer'd Without this Act of Soveraignty in God we had for ever perished For if we could suppose Christ laying down his life for us without the pleasure and order of God he could not have been said to have born our punishment What could he have undergone in his Humanity but a temporal death but more than this was due to us even the wrath of God which far exceeds the calamity of a meer bodily death The Soul being principal in the crime was to be principal in the punishment The wrath of God could not have dropt upon his Soul and render'd it so full of Agonies without the hand of God A creature is not capable to reach the Soul neither as to comfort nor terror and the Justice of God could not have made him a sufferer if it had not first consider'd him a sinner by imputation or by inhaerency and actual commission of a crime in his own person The latter was far from Christ who was holy harmless and undefiled He must be considered then in the other state of imputation which could not be without a Soveraign appointment or at least concession of God For without it he could have had no more Authority to lay down his life for us than Abraham could have had to have sacrific'd his son or any man to expose himself to death without a call Nor could any Plea have been entred in the Court of Heaven either by Christ for us or by us for our selves And though the death of so great a person had been meritorious in it self it had not been meritorious for us or accepted for us Christ is deliver'd up by him Rom. 8.32 in every part of that condition wherein he was and suffer'd and to that end that we might become the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 That we might have the Righteousness of him that was God imputed to us or that we might have a Righteousness as great and proportion'd to the Righteousness of God as God requir'd It was an act of Divine Soveraignty to account him that was Righteous a sinner in our stead and to account us who were sinners Righteous upon the merit of his death 4. This was done by the command of God by God as a Law-giver having the supream Legislative and Praeceptive Authority In which respect the whole work of Christ is said to be an answer to a Law not one given him but put into his heart as the Law of nature was in the heart of man at first Psal 40.7 8. Thy Law is within my heart This Law was not the Law of Nature or Moral Law though that was also in the heart of Christ but the command of doing those things which were necessary for our Salvation and not a command so much of doing as of dying The Moral Law in the heart of Christ would have done us no good without the Mediatory Law We had been where we were by the sole observance of the Precepts of the Moral Law without his suffering the penalty of it The Law in the heart of Christ was the Law of suffering or dying the doing that for us by his death which the blood of Sacrifices was unable to effect Legal Sacrifices thou would'st not thy Law is within my heart i. e. thy Law ordered me to be a Sacrifice It was that Law his obedience to which was principally accepted and esteem'd and that was principally his passive his obedience to death Phil. 2.8 This was the special command received from God that he should dye John 10.18 'T is not so clearly manifested when this command was given whither after the incarnation of Christ or at the point of his constitution as Mediator upon the transaction between the father and the son concerning the affair of Redemption The promise was given before the World began Tit. 1.2 Might not the Precept be given before the World began to Christ as consider'd in the quality of Mediator and Redeemer Precepts and Promises usually attend one another Every Covenant is made up of both Christ consider'd here as the Son of God in the Divine Nature was not capable of a command or promise but consider'd in the relation of Mediator between God and Man he was capable of both Promises of Assistance were made before his actual incarnation of which the Prophets are full why not Precepts for his obedience since long before his incarnation this was his speech in the Prophet thy Law is within my heart However a command a law it was which is a fruit of the Divine Soveraignty That as the Soveraignty of God was impeached and violated by the disobedience of Adam it might be own'd and vindicated by the obedience of Christ That as we fell by disloyalty to it we might rise by the highest submission to it in another head infinitely superior in his person to Adam by whom we fell 5. This Soveraignty of God appears in exalting Christ to such a Soveraign dignity as our Redeemer * Lessius de perfect divin lib. 10. p. 65. Some indeed say that this Soveraignty of Christ's Humane Nature was natural and the right of it resulted from its Union with the Divine as a Lady of mean condition when Espous'd and Marryed to a Prince hath by virtue of that a natural right to some kind of jurisdiction over the whole Kingdom because she is one with the King But to wave this the Scripture placeth wholly the conferring such an Authority upon the pleasure and will of God As Christ was a gift of God's Soveraign will to us so this was a gift of God's Soveraign will to Christ Matt. 28.28 All power is given me And he gave him to be head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.22 God gave him a name above every name Phil. 2.9 And therefore his Throne he sits upon is call'd the Throne of his Father Rev. 3.21 And he committed all Judgment to the Son i. e. All Government and Dominion An Empire in Heaven and Earth Joh. 5.22 and that because he is the son of Man v. 27. which may be understood that the Father hath given him Authority to exercise that Judgment and Government as the son of man which he Originally had as the son of God or rather because he became a servant and humbled himself to death he gives him this Authority as the reward of his Obedience and Humility conformable to Phil. 2.9 This is an act of the high Soveraignty of God to obscure his own Authority in a sence and take into association with him or vicarious subordination to him the Humane Nature of Christ as united to the Divine Not only lifting it above the heads of all the Angels but giving that person in our nature an Empire over them whose nature was more excellent than ours Yea the Soveraignty of God appears in the whole management of this Kingly Office of Christ for it is managed in every part of it
a day or two but continually In whatsoever day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye but not understanding his dying that very day he should eat of it Referring day to the extensiveness of the prohibition as to time But to leave this as uncertain it may be answered that as in some threatnings a condition is implyed though not exprest as in that positive denouncing of the destruction of Niniveh Jonah 3.4 Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroy'd the condition is imply'd unless they humble themselves and repent for upon their Repentance the sentence was deferred So here in the day thou eatest thereof thou shall dye the death or certainly dye unless there be a way found for the expiation of thy crime and the righting my honour This condition in regard of the event may as well be asserted to be implyed in this threatning as that of Repentance was in the other Or rather thou shalt dye thou shalt die spiritually thou shalt loose that image of mine in thy nature that Righteousness which is as much the Life of thy Soul as thy Soul is the life of thy Body that Righteousness whereby thou art enabled to live to me and thy own happiness What the Soul is to the Body a quickning Soul that the image of God is to the Soul a quickning image Or thou shalt dye the death or certainly dye thou shalt be liable to death * Perer in loc And so it is to be understood not of an actual death of the Body but the merit of death and the necessity of death thou wilt be obnoxious to death which will be avoided if thou dost forbear to eat of the forbidden fruit thou shalt be a guilty person and so under a sentence of death that I may when I please inflict it on thee Death did come upon Adam that day because his nature was vitiated He was then also under an expectation of death he was obnoxious to it though that day it was not poured out upon him in the full bitterness and gall of it As when the Apostle saith Rom. 8.10 The Body is dead because of sin he speaks to the Living and yet tells them the body was dead because of sin he means no more than that it was under a sentence and so a necessity of dying though not actually dead So thou shalt be under the sentence of death that day as certainly as if that day thou shouldst sink into the dust And as by his Patience towards man not sending forth death upon him in all the bitter ingredients of it his Justice afterwards was more eminent upon mans surety than it would have been if it had been then employ'd in all its severe operations upon man So was his Veracity eminent also in making good this threatning in inflicting the punishment included in it upon our nature assum'd by a mighty person and upon that person in our nature who was infinitely higher than our nature 2. His justice and righteousness are not prejudiced by his patience There is a hatred of the sin in his holiness and a sentence past against the sin in his justice though the execution of that sentence be suspended and the person reprieved by patience which is implyed Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Sentence is past but a speedy execution is stopt Some of the Heathens who would not imagine God unjust and yet seeing the villanies and oppressions of men in the World remain unpunisht and frequently beholding prosperous wickedness to free him from the charge of injustice denyed his providence and actual Government of the World for if he did take notice of humane affairs and concern himself in what was done upon the Earth they could not think an infinite goodness and Justice could be so slow to punish oppressors and relieve the miserable and leave the World in that disorder under the injustice of men They judged such a patience as was exercised by him if he did govern the World was drawn out beyond the line of fit and just Is it not a presumption in men to prescribe a rule of Righteousness and conveniency to their Creator It might be demanded of such whether they never injur'd any in their lives and when certainly they have one way or other would they not think it a very unworthy if not unjust thing that a person so injur'd by them should take a speedy and severe revenge on them And if every man should do the like would there not be a speedy dispatch made of Mankind Would not the World be a shambles and men rush forwards to one anothers destruction for the wrongs they have mutually received If it be accounted a virtue in man and no unrighteousness not presently to be all on fire against an offence by what right should any question the consistency of Gods patience with his justice Do we praise the lenity of Parents to children and shall we disparage the long suffering of God to men We do not censure the righteousness of Physitians and Chirurgeons because they cut not off a corrupt member this day as well as to morrow And is it just to asperse God because he doth deferr his vengeance which man assumes to himself a right to do We never account him a bad Governour that deferrs the tryal and consequently the condemnation and execution of a notorious offender for important reasons and beneficial to the publick either to make the nature of his crime more evident or to find out the rest of his complices by his discovery A Governour indeed were unjust if he commanded that which were unrighteous and forbad that which were worthy and commendable But if he delayes the execution of a convict offender for weighty reasons either for the benefit of the state whereof he is the Ruler or for some advantage to the offender himself to make him have a sence of and a regret for his offence we account him not unjust for this God doth not by his patience dispense with the holiness of his Law nor cut off any thing from its due Authority If men do strengthen themselves by his long suffering against his Law 't is their fault not any unrighteousness in him He will take a time to vindicate the Righteousness of his own commands if men will wholly neglect the time of his patience in forbearing to pay a dutiful observance to his Precept If Justice be natural to him and he cannot but punish sin yet he is not necessitated to consume sinners as the fire doth stubble put into it which hath no command over its own qualities to restrain them from acting But God is a free agent and may choose his own time for the distribution of that punishment his nature leads him to Though he be naturally just yet it is not so natural to him as to deprive him of a dominion over his own acts and a
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
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
or Wisdom to have let Man perpetually wallow in that Sink wherein he had plung'd himself since he was Criminal by his own will and therefore Miserable by his own fault Nothing could necessitate this Reparation If Divine Goodness could not be obliged by the Angelical Dignity to repair that Nature he is further from any Obligation by the meaness of Man to repair Humane Nature There was less necessity to restore Man than to restore the fallen Angels What could Man do to oblige God to a Reparation of him since he could not render him a Recompence for his Goodness manifested in his Creation He must be much more impotent to render him a Debtor for the Redemption of him from Misery Could it be a salary for any thing we had done Alass we are so far from Meriting it that by our daily Demerits we seem ambitious to put a stop to any further Effusions of it We could not have complain'd of him if he had left us in the Misery we had courted since he was bound by no Law to bestow upon us the Recovery we wanted When the Apostle speaks of the Gospel of Redemption he giveth it the Title of the Gospel of the Blessed God †2 Tim. 1.11 It was the Gospel of a God abounding in his own Blessedness which receiv'd no addition by Mans Redemption If he had been blessed by it it had been a goodness to himself as well as to the Creature It was not an Indigent Goodness needing the receiving any thing from us but it was a pure Goodness streaming out of it self without bringing any thing into it self for the Perfection of it There was no Goodness in us to be the Motive of his Love but his Goodness was the Fountain of our Benefit 3. It was a distinct Goodness of the whole Trinity In the Creation of Man we find a general Consultation * Gen. 1.26 without those distinct Labours and Offices of each Person and without those rais'd Expressions and Marks of Joy and Triumph as at Mans Restoration In this there are distinct Functions The Grace of the Father the Merit of the Son and the Efficacy of the Spirit The Father makes the Promise of Redemption the Son Seals it with his Blood and the Spirit applies it The Father Adopts us to be his Children the Son Redeems us to be his Members and the Spirit Renews us to be his Temples In this the Father testifies himself well pleased in a Voice The Son proclaims his own delight to do the will of God and the Spirit hastens with the Wing of a Dove to fit him for his work And afterwards in his apparition in the likeness of Fiery Tongues manifests his zeal for the propagation of the Redeeming Gospel 4. The Effects of it proclaim his great Goodness 'T is by this we are deliver'd from the Corruption of our Nature the Ruine of our Happiness the deformity of our Sins and the punishment of our Transgressions He frees us from the Ignorance wherewith we were darkned and from the Slavery wherein we were fetter'd When he came to make Adams Process after his Crime instead of pronouncing the Sentence of Death he had merited he utters a Promise that Man could not have expected His Kindness swells above his provoked Justice and while he chaseth him out of Paradise he gives him hopes of regaining the same or a better Habitation and is in the whole more ready to prevent him with the Blessings of his Goodness than charge him with the horrour of his Crimes †Gen. 3.17 'T is a Goodness that pardons us more Transgressions than there are Moments in our Lives and overlooks as many Follies as there are Thoughts in our Heart He doth not only relieve our wants but restores us to our Dignity 'T is a greater Testimony of Goodness to instate a Person in the highest Honour than barely to supply his present Necessity 'T is an admirable Pity whereby he was inclin'd to Redeem us and an incomparable Affection whereby he was resolv'd to exalt us What can be desir'd more of him than his Goodness hath granted He hath sought us out when we were lost and Ransom'd us when we were Captives He hath Pardon'd us when we were Condemn'd and rais'd us when we were Dead In Creation he rear'd us from nothing in Redemption he delivers our Understanding from ignorance and vanity and our Wills from impotence and obstinacy and our whole Man from a Death worse than that nothing he drew us from by Creation 5. Hence we may consider the height of this Goodness in Redemption to exceed that in Creation He gave Man a Being in Creation but did not draw him from unexpressible Misery by that act His Liberality in the Gospel doth infinitely surpass what we admire in the Works of Nature His Goodness in the latter is more astonishing to our belief than his Goodness in Creation is visible to our Eye There is more of his Bounty exprest in that one Verse * Joh. 3.16 So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son than there is in the whole Volume of the World 'T is an incomprehensible so a so that all the Angels in Heaven cannot Analyze and few Comment upon or understand the dimensions of this so In Creation he form'd an Innocent Creature of the Dust of the Ground in Redemption he restores a Rebellious Creature by the Blood of his Son It is greater than that Goodness manifested in Creation 1. In regard of the difficulty of effecting it In Creation meer nothing was vanquisht to bring us into Being In Redemption sullen Enmity was conquer'd for the enjoyment of our Restoration In Creation he subdued a Nullity to make us Creatures In Redemption his Goodness overcomes his Omnipotent Justice to restore us to Felicity A word from the Mouth of Goodness inspir'd the Dust of Mens Bodies with a living Soul but the Blood of his Son must be shed and the Laws of Natural Affection seem to be overturn'd to lay the Foundation of our renew'd Happiness In the first Heaven did but speak and the Earth was form'd In the second Heaven it self must sink to Earth and be clothed with dusty Earth to reduce Mans Dust to its Original State 2. This Goodness is greater than that manifested in Creation in regard of its Cost This was a more expensive Goodness than what was laid out in Creation The redemption of one Soul is pretious †Psal 49.8 much more costly than the whole Fabrick of the World or as many Worlds as the understandings of Angels in their utmost extent can conceive to be Created For the effecting of this God parts with his dearest Treasure and his Son Eclipses his choicest Glory For this God must be made Man Eternity must suffer Death the Lord of Angels must weep in a Cradle and the Creator of the World must hang like a Slave he must be in a Manger in Bethlehem and die upon a Cross on