least conduce to thy comfort or happiness Now possibly thou canst be merry enough without God thou hadst rather have his room than his company preferrest a life without him before a life with him and sayest unto him Depart from me I desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Job 21.14 And the reason of this Atheism and Prophaneness is thine ignorance thou knowest not what a fountain of life what bowels of love what an hive of sweetness what an ocean of happiness the blessed incomparable God is neither believest what Scripture speaks hereof but when once thou enterest into the other world and hast lost this God irrecoverably thou shalt know what thou hast lost but then if ever that saying of the wise man will be verified He that encreaseth knowledge encreaseth sorrow Eccles 1.18 And then thou shalt believe the truth of the glass of Scripture in its representations of the beautiful face of God though thy faith will be the faith of a Devil to thy terror and torment Ah Sinner when thou shalt know and believe what a vast treasure what a River of pleasure what a perfect good what fulness of joy what solid comfort what real satisfaction what a weight of glory thou hast lost for ever without the least hopes and possibility of regaining and lost for base vile sordid lusts for a little foolish brutish momentany pleasure what thoughts thinkest thou will then seize thee what anguish and remorse surprize thee Ah how wilt thou loath and hate and curse thy self for thy folly and madness thou wilt gnash thy teeth for envy at them that sit at Heavens Table feasting with the fruit of the tree of life and drinking of the pure Rivers of water which flow from the throne of God and the Lamb and thou wilt weep and wail for thy own distraction that thou shouldst refuse the offers of all those dainties and delicates and delights when they were made to thee in the day of thy life that thou shouldst shut thy own mouth and wilfully refuse all those rich and costly Cordials and shut the door of heaven and happiness against thee with thine own hands Ah Sinner little little dost thou know at the present what it is to lose this God Other losses may be corrective but this is destructive God whips in others but he Executes in this Other losses may be the part of his Children but this is the Portion of Devils All joy all comfort is stab'd to the heart pierced through the heart blood of it is let out with this one word sharper than any two-edged Sword Depart Write this man comfortless as it was said of one Jer. 22. ult a man that shall not prosper all his dayes Write this poor Soul comfortless a Soul that shall not have a bit of bread a drop of water a glimpse of light a moments ease or crum of comfort all the long day of eternity Ah Friend think of it betimes Woe be to thee if God depart from thee Hos 9.12 2. Their misery consisteth in this also that they shall have this incomparable God for their enemy As there is no friend like God and therefore their privative misery must be great exceeding great unconceivably great so there is no enemy like God and therefore the positive misery of Sinners must be matchless and beyond all comparisons The greater any ones power and anger are the greater their misery is who fall under the stroak of that power and the force of that anger God is incomparable in power he worketh arbitrarily irresistably omnipotently he hath a mighty and an almighty arm God is incomparable in anger his anger roots up pulls down kills makes horrid slaughters removeth the mountains shaketh the foundations of the earth is a consuming fire burning and wasting all that comes near it Thou even thou art to be feared Psal 90. for none may stand when thou art angry Woe therefore to them that have this God for their Enemy it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 12.23 David chose rather to fall into the hands of God than men 2 Sam. 24.14 because he was a child of God though afflicted sharply by him for love can consist with anger though not with hatred and therefore desired since he must be scourged to be whipt by a loving Father who would consider his strength what he could bear as well as his fault and offence and accordingly use his rod rather than by a cruel enemy who hated him and had not the least mercy or pity for him Beside this world is the Stage whereon the mercy of God acteth its part Justice must have its course and solemn triumph in the other world He is here good to all his Sun shineth and Rain falleth upon the just and unjust Ps 145.9 Math. 5.45 Therefore it 's better for any man upon earth to fall into the hands of God than the best Friend or nearest Relation in the world But the Sinner is the object only of Gods wrath of his hatred of his abhorrency after death God then puts off all pity all tenderness all bowels towards him and the other world is the place wherein his Justice that is now clouded and eclipsed shall shine forth in its full force and strength and appear in all its beauty and brightness And therefore it must of necessity be a fearful thing for a poor creature to fall into the hands of the living God to have nothing but his naked flesh his own weak Soul to bear the stroak of infinite power set on and urged to strike home by infinite anger and that for ever All the wrackings and torturings the extream pains and aches the violent Convulsions and consternations the dreadful horror and anguish the everlasting chains of darkness the never dying worm and the fire that never goeth out of the Devils and damned are but the expressions and fruits of the matchless power and anger of this incomparable God Therefore they are called Wrath Rom. 2.4 the wrath of God John 3. ult and wrath to come 1 Thess 1. ult Reader think of it if the wrath of a King a man like thy self though cloathed with more civil power and strength be as the roaring of a Lyon which makes all the Beasts of the Forrest to quake and tremble Amos 3.6 Prov. 10.12 what then is the wrath of an Almighty infinite God If he wound his friends the objects of his eternal choice the travail of his Beloved Sons Soul those on whom he intendeth to glorifie the riches of his love and grace for ever in the day of his anger for their disobedience with the wound of an enemy yea with the wounds of a cruel one Jer. 30.14 if he break their bones and cause the Arrow of his Quiver to enter into their Reins if he fill their Souls with bitterness and make them drunk with wormwood if he makes them water their Couches with Tears and go mourning all the day
Excellency with some Considerations to enforce it Chap. 27. Comforts to those that have this incomparable God for their Portion PSALM 89.6 For who in the Heavens can be compared to the Lord who among the Sons of the Mighty can be likened to the Lord. CHAP. I. The Preface and meaning of the Text. IT is certain that our happiness in the other World will consist in part in our perfect knowledge of the blessed and boundlesse God When we shall know him as we are known of him we shall be blessed as he is blessed and when we shall see him as he is we shall be like him in purity and felicity we shall be fully satisfied with his likeness and his love Rich must be the delight which the most large and noble faculty of man his understanding shall receive in its intimate acquaintance with and clear full apprehension of the highest Truth And it is as certain that our holiness in this World doth not a little depend upon our knowledge of him whose Name alone is excellent None wander from him prefer the Flesh and World before him and in their whole lives walk contrary to him but from their ignorance of him They are estranged from the life of God i. e. a spiritual heavenly conversation through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their Hearts Eph. 4.18 Dark corners of an House are filled with Dust dark Cellars with Vermine and dark Hearts with cursed Lusts None are enlarged in desires after God or ravished with delight in God or can cast their Souls and all their Concerns on God but those that are acquainted with him They who know his beauty and bounty cannot but love him and they who know his power and faithfulness cannot but trust him They who know thy Name will put their trust in thee Psal 9.10 Whence comes it to pass that Believers can trample on the Riches and Treasures and Wealth of this beggarly World that they can lay their white and yellow Earth their Silver and Gold at the Apostles Feet that they can suffer the spoiling of their Goods not onely patiently but joyfully Heb. 10.34 but from the knowledge of him who is true riches Luke 16.11 Substance Prov. 8.21 an enduring Substance Job 10.34 A bottomless Mine of unsearchable Riches Eph. 3.8 Whence is it that they can refuse to be called the Sons of Kings Daughters that they can contemn Honours and Preferments spurn Crowns and Scepters under their Feet but from the knowledge of him who is their Crown of Glory their Diadem of Renown and the praise of all his Saints Heb. 11.24 25. That which to the sensual Worldling is so glorious hath no glory in the Believers Eye by reason of the Lord of Glory who doth so infinitely excel Whence is it that they can hate Father Mother Wife Child Liberty yea Life it self and leave all at the Call and Command of their Maker but from the knowledge of him who is as Elkanah said to Hannah better to them then ten Sons then all Relations then the whole Creation Those Stars vanish and disappear when once this Sun of Righteousness ariseth How quickly how quietly without any hesistancy or reluctancy will Abraham leave his Country and Kindred and Fathers House when once the God of Glory appeareth to him Acts 9.2 3 4. In a word whence is it that they escape the pollutions of the World in which others are mired drown'd and destroyed but through the knowledge of God 2 Pet. 2.20 Well may our Lord Jesus say It is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent To know God affectionately as our chiefest good so as to give him our superlative esteem and intensest love is spiritual life here in the habit or principle as also in the act and exercise of it and it is the beginning seed preparation way of our eternal life hereafter But who can know that being which infinitely passeth all knowledge He that would know God fully must be God himself and he who would tell you what God is in any measure answerable to his excellency had need to know him as he is known of him And supposing I were able to speak of the perfection of God as one that like the great Apostle had been caught up into the third Heavens I question whether if I had a Tongue to speak of him after that manner ye had Ears to hear of him or Hearts to understand what I should speak But though I am not able to speak nor you to hear of God according to his perfection yet through the assistance of the Holy Ghost so much may be spoken and heard of him as may tend to our present Sanctification and future Salvation Though we cannot see him as he is yet we may see him as he is not though the height of his being be above the reach of our Understandings we may get some-what nearer to him and indeed we have no other way while we are here then by climbing upon the shoulders of all created excellencies and there proclaiming That none in the Heavens is to be compared to the Lord that none among the Sons of the Mighty is like unto the Lord. In the words the Psalmist compareth God with and prefereth God before the highest the greatest in Heaven and Earth In the words we have a Comparison and a Praelation 1. A Comparison and this is between God and those that are most excellent in Heaven and the mightiest on Earth 2. A Praelation or preferring God before whatsoever is excellent in Heaven or Earth The Interrogation is a strong negation as is frequent in Scripture Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my Sin i. e. None can say I have made my Heart clean or am pure from my Sin So Exod. 15.11 Who is like to thee O Lord among the gods Who is like thee glorious in Holiness fearful in Praises doing Wonders that is None is like Thee among the gods none is so glorious in Holiness so fearful in Praises such a wonder-working God as thou art Thus the Psalmist understandeth the Text For who in the Heavens is to be compared to the Lord Who among the Sons of the Mighty can be likened to the Lord i. e. None in the Heavens none among the Sons of the Mighty on Earth is comparable to Jehovah The interpretation of the words I shall first give you the meaning of the words and then lay down the Doctrine which will be the foundation of my Discourse on the Subject For this causal Particle gives the reason why Saints and Angels should joyn together in the praise of God The Heavens shall praise thy Wonders O Lord Verse 5. thy faithfulness also in the Congregation of the Saints For who in the Heavens is to be compared to the Lord. By the Heavens Calvin understandeth the holy Angels who rejoyce in the Churches welfare
apprehended deserted by his Father and Brethren that he should die be pierced not have a Bone broken be buried make his Grave with the Rich and the Wicked and rise again from the Dead and reap the fruit of all his Passion to his full satisfaction He hath fore-told the state of the World and the Church in the Revelations from the Primitive times to the dissolution of the World though it 's written in short-hand and in dark Characters And can any Men or Angels fore-tell such things God challengeth all the gods to do this Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are gods Isa 41.21 22 23. The certain Prediction of future Contingents is such an inseparable Prerogative of the Deity and such a special Priviledge of the Original of all things that he ingageth to own their Supremacy and acknowledge their Sovereignty who can do it It 's such a Jewel in his Crown that none ever shared in it I have declared the former things from the beginning I did them suddenly and they came to pass I have even from the beginning declared it to thee before it came to pass I shewed it to thee Isa 48.3 5. It 's peculiar to him who worketh all in all to fore-know and fore-tell whatsoever shall come to pass Acts 15.18 Known to God are all his Works from the beginning of the World yea from all eternity For he stood on the high Mountain of eternity and thence had a full view of all that his will would produce and whatsoever should come to pass CHAP. XVI God incomparable in his Word as it is converting affrighting and comforting 3. GOD is incomparable in the effects of his Word His Words are Works they are operative as well as declarative of his Pleasure What he speaketh hath Power and Vertue in it as well as Weight and Value 1. It is efficacious in converting the Soul The word of God can stop the tide of nature when it runneth with the greatest violence yea it can turn it the quite contrary way Let a man be in the height of his Strength in the heat of his Youth ruffling and bussling among the Sparks of the times taking a large draught of carnal Pleasures and having a full gust of sensual Delights making his whole life but a diversion from one Pleasure to another as if he were sent into the Earth as Leviathan into the waters only to play and sport there when this man is in his best estate in the Zenith of Health and Strength in the Meridian of his Age promising himself a long day of life and putting the day of death far from him and thereby giving himself the more liberty to the service of his Lusts yet if the word of God come to this man who sucketh in Wind as the wild Asses Colt it makes him pluck in his Plumes bid adieu to his foolish Pleasures leave his most beloved Lusts loath himself for ever loving them it alters the man's Palat that is bitter now which was sweet before and he cannot savour what formerly was his heaven and happiness it changeth the bent and frame of his heart that now he forsaketh with detestation what formerly he followed after as his onely felicity and chiefest good The wild man is tame the obstinate man is pliable and the distracted man is recover'd to his wits Psal 119.9 Men and Angels may perswade but God only can prevail The words of Creatures may work for an outward reformation but the word of God alone for an inward renovation He only that made the Heart can mend it Humane Counsels may do somewhat towards the hiding of the corruptions of Nature but Divine instructions are only effectual for the healing of corrupted Nature The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul Psal 19.7 Converting the Soul The Law of man may bind the Body to its good behaviour but the Law of God alone can bring the Soul to its good behaviour To turn a Lion into a Lamb Darkness into Light a Stone into Flesh Death into Life all which is done in conversion can be effected by the Word of none but a God Isa 11.8 9 10. Eph. 5.8 Ezek. 26. Eph. 2.1 5. No word but his can take a Cions off from its own natural stock and ingraft it into a new stock Rom. 11.17 James 1.21 2 Cor. 10.4 Acts 2.41 Acts 4.4 2. It is efficacious in affrighting the Sinner He speaks not as Men or Angels to the Ears only but to the hidden-man of the Heart and shatters it in pieces he plants his Batteries of Threatnings and Terrors and Curses against the inward man of the Conscience and puts it into an Ague of trembling and shaking Fits as we see in Herod Acts 24.27 and levels it to the ground This word in the mouth of a poor Prisoner at the Bar frights the proud sturdy Judge on the Bench. When God speaks he makes the best people afraid and cry out Let not God speak to us least we die and the best of that people exceedingly to quake and fear Exod. 19.19 Heb. 12.21 The Voice of the Lord is terrible it shaketh the Cedars of Lebanon it shattereth the Oakes of Bashan Psal 29. Those that were Monsters of Mankind for Cruelty and Barbarousness for Stupidity and Searedness by his Word have been terrified in their Spirits wounded in their Consciences cut to the Heart and forced to call out Sirs What shall we do to be saved Acts 2.37 The most stubborn sensless Sinner whom neither Mercies nor Miseries could move or melt who mocked at the Curses of the Law and the Wrath of the Lord and as Leviathan laughed at the shaking of those Spears whom as the man possessed with the Devil no Cords could hold no Chains could fasten but he burst all asunder when the Word of the Lord hath been spoken to him instead of flying in his face as formerly when men have spoken to him he hath fallen down at his feet been filled with fears and frights felt the very Fire of Hell flaming in his conscience and become a very Magor Missabib fear or terror to himself round about The Word of God hath stuck in his Heart as the Arrow in the side of the Buck allowing no ease whithersoever he hath gone in the night scaring him with Dreams and terrifying him with Visions in the day admitting no rest in his Flesh nor quietness in his Bones forcing him in all Places and in all Companies still to carry his Jaylour his Tormentor his Executioner along with him and at last that he might escape a partial and temporal to leap into a total an eternal Hell Ah who knoweth the Power of his Anger of his angry word or is able to fear him according to his wrath Psal 90.11 I may challenge every Man every Angel as God himself doth Job Hast thou an Arm like God Canst thou thunder with thy Voice like him Job 40.9 If he utter his word of
But the knowledg of God purifieth the soul As the Sun conveyeth heat along with its light so grace is multiplied through the knowledge of God 2 Pet. 1.2 When Moses had convers'd with God in the Mount his feet shone that the Jews could not behold him When a Soul hath once acquainted himself with the blessed God his life will shine with holiness therefore David counselleth his Son Solomon to know the God of his Fathers and to serve him with a perfect heart and willing mind first to know him then to serve him 1 Chron. 28.9 This knowledge must needs be a sanctifying knowledge because it renders sin abominable the world contemptible God honourable and the soul the more humble The knowledge of God will render sin most abominable to the Soul it renders sin to be exceeding sinful The miseries that befall us in our estates names bodies souls nay all the curses of the Law and torments of the damned do not discover the ugly loathsome features and monstrous deformed nature of sin like the knowledge of this incomparable God Job confesseth his sin Job 42.2 I uttered things that I understood not nay he abhorreth himself for his sin v. 5. But whence came he who sometime justifyed himself too much now to abhor himself He gives us the reason or cause of it I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear I had some knowledge of thee before but now mine eyes see thee I now have a clearer and fuller knowledge of thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes The more we know the greatest good the more we shall hate the greatest evil The knowledge of God will render the world contemptible to a Christian None undervalue the Creature but those who have had a sight of the Creator neither can any trample on the riches honours and pleasures of this world but those who know him who is the riches and honours and pleasures of the other world They who never saw the Sun wonder at a Candle and they who never knew the blessed God wonder at and are fond of poor low things mean small pitiful things on earth But the whole world with all its Crowns and Scepters and Diadems and Delights is but a dunghill to him that hath seen the incomparable God Moses could refuse the honour of being the adopted Child of a Kings Heir reject the pleasures of Pharaoh's Court and prefer the reproaches of Christ before all the Treasures of Egypt when he had once got a sight of the Incomparable God Heb. 11.25 26 27. For he saw him that was invisible The knowledge of God will render God more honourable in our esteems The more we know of many things and persons the more we sleight and despise them The more we know sin the more we loath it the more we know our selves the more we abhor our selves but the more we know God the more we love him and the more we admire him The reason of all the contempt and affronts which we offer to God is our ignorance of him The whole world lyeth in wickedness as a beast in its dung or vermine in their slime 1 Joh. 5.19 but the reason is what Christ speaks Joh. 17.25 Father the world hath not known thee for the Apostle saith had they known they would never have Crucified the Lord of Glory 1 Cor. 2.8 They who know God cannot but see infinite reason why they should love and fear and honour and please him all their dayes Why do you think is God so much wondred at and worshipped in his Church more than in other parts of the world Why doth he inhabit their highest praises Psal 22.3 and greatest blessings and thanksgivings but because he is known more there than in other parts of the world In Judah is God known therefore his name is great his name alone is excellent in Israel Psal 76.1 The knowledge of God makes us humble We never are so low in our own eyes as when we see the most high God The more we know of men that are more vain and foolish and wicked than our selves the more we are exalted and puffed up but the more we know of God of the great God the incomparable God the most holy God to whom we are as nothing less than nothing worse than nothing the more we abase our selves When David is acquainted with the excellency of God O Lord my Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth and thy glory is above the Heavens Psal 8.1 What low little diminutive thoughts hath he of himself and others v. 4. What is man or what is the Son of man What a poor pitiful contemptible thing is man What a vain empty insignificant nothing is the Son of man We are ashamed of our rush Candles or Glow-worms hide our heads in the presence of the Sun The holiest man abhors himself for his unholiness before the most Holy God So Job 25.2 Dominion and fear are with him v. 3. There is no number of his Armies v. 5. Behold even to the Moon and it shineth not and the Stars are not pure in his sight How much less man that is a worm and the Son of man that is a worm v. 6. A worm is the most despicable contemptible creature every beast trampleth on it such a creature is man in his own apprehensions when he once understandeth the incomparable God When Isaiah had seen the Lord of Hosts though he were an Holy man he cryeth out I am undone I am a man of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the Lord of Hosts Isa 6.3 4. He never saw so much of his own uncleanness as when he saw him in whose presence the Heavens are unclean Other knowledge like wind in a bladder puffeth up 1 Cor. 8.2 but the knowledge of God as fire nigh the bladder shrinks and shrivels it up to nothing 2. The knowledge of God is a satisfying knowledge A man may know much of Creatures and the more he knoweth the more unquiet and restless he is his knowledge as wind to the stomack may fill and pain and trouble him but cannot satisfie him for Creatures are not that savory meat which the heaven-born spiritual immortal Soul of man would have and must have if ever it be contented The greatest Students who have wearied and tired out their brains and bodies in the search of Natures secrets have found by experience that they spent their strength for what is not bread and their labour for what will not satisfie and they have known the truth of the Wise mans saying He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow Eccles 1.18 That knowledge which satisfieth must be of an object that is suitable in its spirituality to the nature of the Soul in its all-sufficiency to the manifold necessities of the Soul and in its immortality to the duration of the Soul if either of these be wanting in it the Soul cannot receive satisfaction by it because without all these the
148.2 3. But this incomparably excellent God is above all this worship this highest worship though he be not above it so as to despise it Psal 50.15 and ult yet he is above it so as to exceed it that his Saints and Angels though their powers are enlarged to the uttermost though the strings of their faculties are wound and screwed up to the highest pitch and peg to sound forth his praise even then they will fall infinitely short of praising and blessing him according to his deserts Nehem. 9.5 Blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise He doth not say the name of God is exalted above the blessing and praise of men of Saints on earth in their imperfect state nor above the blessing and praise of Spirits of just men in heaven made perfect but above all blessing and praise above the blessing and praise of Men of Angels of the holiest Men of the highest Angels above all blessing and praise whatsoever and of whomsoever 6. He is so incomparably excellent that his excellencies are beyond the understanding and apprehension of Men and Angels The excellency of God is not only beyond all our expressions verbal in our words vital or real in our lives but also beyond all our apprehensions A fluent tongue may speak much of the excellency of God an enlarged rational understanding can apprehend much more The mind of man is much wider than his mouth but the excellency of God is infinitely beyond all our apprehensions of him His works are unsearchable Rom. 11.33 Lo he goeth by me and I see him not he passeth on and I perceive him not Job 9.11 He goeth by me in his works he passeth by me in the operations of his hands and I perceive him not There are such motions of God in the heavenly bodies earthly plants ordinary providences the growth of a Child in the womb c. that men are nonplust at them they are at a loss about the nature reason and mode or gradual progressions of them How much more is his being unsearchable and his essence past finding out If his footsteps are unconceivable and invisible much more is his face if his works cannot be apprehended much less can his nature because his works are in some respect finite as they are terminated on limited beings and they are also many of them visible and so obvious to our senses but his essence is wholly and altogether and in all respects infinite and is no way visible or liable to apprehension by our senses 1 Tim. 6.16 Who dwelleth in that light that is inaccessible As no mortal eye can behold the Sun in its full strength the attempt of which according to some hath struck the adventurers blind so no creature whatsoever can apprehend the incomparable God in his full beauty and brightness in his boundless excellency and perfection It 's the voice of God to Moses Thou canst not see my face for no man can see me and live Exod. 33.20 No man cloathed with a mortal body or in this estate of imperfection can behold an extraordinary created appearance of God but he is thereat filled with fears and frights Job 4.12 13 14 15. Job 21.22 Dan. 10.8.16 17. Habbak 3.16 No man no nor Angel can behold God in his infinite essence to the utmost of his perfections but would be thereat crumbled into nothing Reader if God be thus incomparably excellent that he is excellency it self the standard of all excellency that Angels hide their heads as ashamed of themselves before him that he condescendeth to shew the least respect to his high and perfect Host in Heaven that he is infinitely above all their blessings and praises all their conceptions and apprehensions what praise what honour what glory shouldst thou give to this God Though thou art unable to give him all the glory that is due to his name yea the thousand thousandth part thereof yet do thou give him all the glory thy mind will heart affections all thy faculties united together and enlarged to the utmost can possibly give him Say to thy Soul Bless the Lord O my Soul and all within me praise his holy name Psal 103.1 CHAP. XXVII Comfort to them that have the incomparable God for their portion THirdly This Doctrine may be useful by way of comfort to all the people of God If God be an incomparable God then they are incomparably blessed who take him for their God who have him for their happiness Every person or people is happy or miserable as the God is whom they serve as that is in which they place their felicity for nothing can give out more happiness to another than it hath in it self That good must of necessity be first in the cause either eminently or formally which is conveyed from it to the effect Those who serve the flesh as their God and chiefgood must needs be miserable Philip. 3.18 Rom. 16.18 Because the flesh is a base and vile Psal 49. ult a weak and impotent Isa 31.3 a fraudulent and deceitful Jer. 17.9 a fading and transitory God Psal 73.25 1 Cor. 6.23 So they who own and prize and love the world as their God and chief good of such we read the covetous man is call'd an Idolater and covetousness Idolatry Eph. 5.5 are miserable because their God is vain and empty Eccles 1.2 3. piercing and vexatious 1 Tim. 6.9 10. uncertain and unsatisfying Eccles 5.10 1 Tim. 6.17 frail and not lasting 1 Cor. 7.29 30. Prov. 23.5 Thus they who have Idols for their Gods are miserable because their Gods are poor pitiful blind deaf and impotent Deities They have eyes and see not the wants of their worshippers They have ears and hear not the supplications of their suppliants They have hands and work not for the relief of their Servants necessities or their deliverance out of their distresses and thence the Prophet infers the misery of their makers and adorers All that make them are like unto them blind and deaf and impotent as they are falshood a lie and vanity and nothing as they are 1 Cor. 8.4 1 Sam. 12.24 and so is every one that trusteth in them Psal 115.5 to 9. But the person who through Christ hath an interest in this great God the Almighty all-wise all-sufficient God is happy Happy is the people whose God is the Lord. Psal 144. ult And incomparably happy because that God who is his portion and happiness is an incomparable God Therefore as the Scripture mentions God to be incomparable in excellency it also mentions his people to be incomparable in felicity and infers their incomparableness from his incomparableness who is their God The holy Ghost tells us None is like God he hath no equal in worth and perfection Who is a God like unto thee Exod. 15.11 Among all the Gods there is none like to thee Psal 86.6 And the holy Ghost tells us also that no people is like the people of God and that