not as the coming of Angels that leave heaven and begin to be on earth where they were not before but such a presence as can be ascribed only to God who fills heaven and earth Again If all things were made by him then he was present with all things which were made for where there is a presence of power there is also a presence of essence and therefore he is still present for the right and power of Conservation follows the power of Creation And according to this divine nature he promiseth his presence with his Church * Mat. 18.20 There am I in the midst of them And †Mat. 28.20 I am with you alway even to the end of the world i. e. by his Divinity for he had before told them * Mat. 26.11 that they were not to have him alway with them i. e. according to his Humanity but in his Divine nature he is present with and walks in the midst of the golden Candlesticks If we understand it of a presence by his spirit in the midst of the Church doth it invalidate his essential presence No he is no less than the Spirit whom he sends and therefore as little confin'd as the Spirit is who dwells in every believer and this may also be inferr'd from Joh. 10.30 My father and I are one not one by consent tho' that be included but one in power for he speaks not of their consent but of their joint power in keeping his people Where there is a Unity of Essence there is a Unity of Presence 2. Here is a confirmation of the spiritual nature of God If he were an infinite body he could not fill heaven and earth but with the exclusion of all creatures Two bodies cannot be in the same space they may be near one another but not in any of the same points together A body bounded he hath not for that would destroy his Immensity he could not then fill heaven and earth because a body cannot be at one and the same time in two different spaces but God doth not fill heaven at one time and the earth at another but both at the same time Besides a limited body cannot be said to fill the whole earth but one particular space in the earth at a time A body may fill the earth with its vertue as the Sun but not with its substance Nothing can be every where with a corporeal weight and mass but God being infinite is not tied to any part of the World but penetrates all and equally acts by his infinite power in all 3. Here is an argument for Providence His presence is mention'd in the Text in order to his government of the affairs of the world Is he every where to be unconcern'd with every thing Before the World had a being God was present with himself since the World hath a being he is present with his creatures to exercise his Wisdom in the ordering as he did his Power in the production of them As the Knowledg of God is not a bare contemplation of a thing so his Presence is not a bare inspection into a thing Were it an idle careless Presence it were a Presence to no purpose which cannot be imagin'd of God Infinite Power Goodness and Wisdom being every where present with his Essence are never without their exercise He never manifests any of his perfections but the manifestation is full of some indulgence and benefit to his Creatures It cannot be supposed God should neglect those things wherewith he is constantly present in a way of efficiency and operation He is not every where without acting every where Cyri◠Wherever his Essence is there is a power and virtue worthy of God every where dispens'd He governs by his presence what he made by his power and is present as an Agent with all his works His Power and Essence are together to preserve them while he pleases as his Power and his Essence were together to create them when he saw good to do it Every creature hath a stamp of God and his presence is necessary to keep the impression standing upon the creature As all things are his works they are the objects of his cares and the wisdom he employ'd in framing them will not suffer him to be careless of them His presence with them engageth him in honour not to be a negligent Governour His Immensity fits him for government and where there is a fitness there is an exercise of government where there are objects for the exercise of it He is worthy to have the Universal rule of the World he can be present in all places of his Empire there is nothing can be done by any of his subjects but in his sight As his Eternity renders him King alway so his Immensity renders him King every where If he were only present in heaven it might occasion a suspicion that he minded only the things of heaven and had no concern for things below that vast Body but if he be present here his Presence hath a tendency to the government of those things with which he is present We are all in him as Fish in the Sea and he bears all creatures in the womb of his Providence and the arms of his Goodness 'T is most certain that his Presence with his people is far from being an idle one for when he promises to be with them he adds some special Cordial as I will be with thee and bless thee * Gen. 26.3 Jer. 15.20 I am with thee and I will strengthen thee I will help thee I will uphold thee †Isa 41.10.14 Infinite goodness will never countenance a negligent Presence 4. The Omnipotence of God i◠inferr'd from hence If God be present every where he must needs know what is done every where 'T is for this end he proclaims himself a God filling heaven and earth in the Text. Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord I have heard what the Prophets say that prophesie lyes in my Name If I fill heaven and earth the most secret thing cannot be hid from my sight An Intelligent Being cannot be every where present and more intimate in every thing than it can be in it self but he must know what is done without what is thought within Nothing can be obscure to him who is in every part of the world in every part of his creatures Not a thought can start up but in his sight who is present in the souls and minds of every thing How easie is it with him to whose Essence the world is but a point to know and observe every thing done in this world as any of us can know what is done in one point of place where we are present If Light vvere an understanding being it vvould behold and knovv every thing done vvhere it diffuseth it self God is light as light in a Chrystal glass all vvithin it all vvithout it and is not
forsaken my Law and walked after the imaginations of their own heart When an act is known to be a sin and the Law that forbids it acknowledg'd to be the Law of God and after this a we persist in that which is contrary to it we tax his wisdom as if he did not understand what was convenient for us we would teach God knowledge * Job 21◠'t is an implicite wish that God had laid aside the holiness of his nature and framed a Law to pleasure our lusts When God calls for weeping and mourning and girding with sackcloth upon approaching Judgments then the corrupt heart is for joy and gladness eating of Flesh and drinking of Wine because to morrow they should die * Isa 〈◊〉 13. As if God had mistaken himself when he ordered them so much sorrow when their lives were so near an end and had lost his understanding when he ordered such a precept Disobedience is therefore called contention Rom. 2.8 Cententious and obey not the truth Contention against God whose truth it is that they disobey a dispute with him which hath more of wisdom in it self and conveniency for them his truth or their imaginations The more the love goodness and holiness of God appears in any command the more are we naturally averse from it and cast an imputation on him as if he were foolish unjust cruel and that we could have advised and directed him better The goodness of God is eminent to us in appointing a day for his own worship wherein we might converse with him and he with us and our souls be refresht with spiritual Communications from him and we rather use it for the ease of our bodies than the advancement of our souls as if God were mistaken and injured his Creature when he urg'd the spiritual part of duty Every disobedience to the Law is an implicite giving Law to him and a charge against him that he might have provided better for his Creature 2. In disapproving the methods of Gods government of the world If the Counsels of Heaven roul not about according to their schemes instead of adoring the unsearchable depths of his judgments they call him to the bar and accuse him because they are not fitted to their narrow Vessels as if a Nut-shell could contain an Ocean As corrupt reason esteems the highest truths foolishness so it counts the most righteous ways unequal Thus we commence a suit against God as though he had not acted righteously and wisely but must give an account of his proceedings at our tribunal This is to make our selves Gods superiors and presume to instruct him better in the government of the world As though God hinder'd himself and the world in not making us of his Privy Counsel and not ordering his affairs according to the contrivances of our dim understandings Is not this manifest in our immoderate complaints of Gods dealings with his Church as though there were a coldness in Gods affections to his Church and a glowing heat toward◠it only in us Hence are those importunate desires for things which are not established by any promise as though we would over-rule and over-perswade God to comply with our humour We have an ambition to be Gods Tutors and direct him in his Counsels Who hath been his Counsellor saith the Apostle * Rom. 11.34 Who ought not to be his Counsellor saith corrupt nature Men will find fault with God in what he suffers to be done according to their own minds when they feel the bitter fruit of it When Cain had kill'd his brother and his Conscience rackt him how sawcily and discontedly doth he answer God Gen. 4.9 Am I my brothers keeper Since thou dost own thy self the Rector of the world thou shouldst have preserved his person from my fury since thou dost accept his Sacrifice before my Offering preservation was due as well as acceptance If this temper be found on earth no wonder it is lodged in hell That deplorable person under the sensible stroke of Gods Soveraign justice would oppose his Nay to Gods will Luke 16.30 And he said nay Father Abraham but if one went to them from the dead they will repent He would presume to prescribe more effectual means than Moses and the Prophets to inform men of the danger they incurr'd by their sensuality David was displeas'd it 's said 2 Sam. 6.8 When the Lord had made a breach upon Vzzah not with Vzzah who was the object of his pity but with God who was the inflicter of that punishment When any of our friends have been struck with a Rod against our Sentiments and wishes have not our hearts been apt to swell in complaints against God as though he disregarded the goodness of such a person did not see with our eyes and measure him by our esteem of him As if he should have ask'd our Counsel before he had resolved and managed himself according to our will rather than his own If he be patient to the wicked we are apt to tax his holiness and accuse him as an enemy to his own Law If he inflict severity upon the righteous we are ready to suspect his goodness and charge him to be an enemy to his affectionate Creature If he spare the Nimrods of the World we are ready to ask where is the God of Judgment * Mal 2.17 If he afflict the Pillars of the Earth we are ready to question where is the God of Mercy 'T is impossible since the depraved nature of man and the various interests and passions in the world that infinite power and wisdome can act righteously for the good of the Universe but he will shake some corrupt interest or other upon the earth so various are the inclinations of men and such a Weather-cock Judgment hath every man in himself that the divine method he applauds this day upon a change of his interest he will cavil at the next 'T is impossible for the just orders of God to please the same person many weeks scarce many minutes together God must cease to be God or to be a holy if he should manage the concerns of the world according to the fancies of men How unreasonable is it thus to impose Laws upon God Must God revoke his own orders Govern according to the dictates of his Creature Must God who hath only power and wisdom to sway the Scepter become the obedient Subject of every mans humour and manage every thing to serve the design of a simple Creature This is not to be God but to set the Creature in his Throne Though this be not formally done yet that it is interpretatively and practically done is every hours experience 3. In impatience in our particular concerns 'T is ordinary with man to charge God in his complaints in the time of affliction Therefore 't is the commendation the Holy Ghost gives to Job Job 1.22 That in all this that is in those many waves that roll'd over him he did not charge
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
was so as that he never began Is to come so as that he never shall end By whom all things are what they are who hath both eternal knowledge to remember our service and eternal goodness to reward It. A DISCOURSE UPON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. Psalm 102.26 27. They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old as a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy years shall have no end THIS Psalm contains a Complaint of a People pressed with a great Calamity some think of the Jewish Church in Babylon others think the Psalmist doth here personate Mankind lying under a state of corruption because he wishes for the coming of the Messiah to accomplish that Redemption promised by God and needed by them Indeed the title of the Psalm is a Prayer of the Afflicted when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the Lord Whether afflicted with the sense of corruption or with the sense of oppression And the Redemption by the Messiah which the ancient Church looked upon as the fountain of their Deliverance from a sinful or a servile Bondage is in this Psalm spoken of A set time appointed for the discovery of his mercy to Sion v. 13. An appearance in glory to build up Sion v. 16. The loosing of the Prisoner by Redemption and them that are appointed to Death v. 20. The calling of the Gentiles v. 22. And the latter part of the Psalm wherein are the verse I have read are applied to Christ Heb. 1. Whatsoever the design of the Psalm might be many things are intermingled that concern the Kingdom of the Messiah and Redemption by Christ Some make three parts of the Psalm 1. A Petition plainly delivered v. 1.2 Hear my Prayer oh Lord and let my cry come unto thee c. 2. The Petition strongly and argumentatively enforced and pleaded v. 3. from the misery of the Petitioner in himself and his reproach from his Enemies 3. An acting of Faith in the expectation of an Answer in the general Redemption promised v. 12 13. But thou oh Lord shalt endure for ever thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion The Heathen shall fear thy Name The first part is the Petition pleaded the second part is the Petition answered in an assurance that there should in time be a full deliverance * Pareus The design of the Pen-man is to confirm the Church in the truth of the Divine Promises that though the foundations of the World should be ript up and the Heavens clatter together and the whole Fabrick of them be unpinn'd and fall to pieces the firmest parts of it dissolved yet the Church should continue in its stability because it stands not upon the changeableness of Creatures but is built upon the immutable Rock of the truth God which is as little subject to change as his Essence They shall perish thou shalt change them As he had before ascribed to God the foundation of Heaven and Earth * verse 25. so he ascribes to God here the destruction of them Both the beginning and end of the World are here ascertained There is nothing indeed from the present appearance of things that can demonstrate the cessation of the world The Heaven and Earth stand firm the motions of the heavenly Bodies are the same their beautie is not decayed Individuals corrupt but the Species and Kinds remain The Successions of the Year observe their due order but the Sin of Man renders the change of the present appearance of the world necessary to accomplish the design of God for the glory of his Elect. The Heavens do not naturally perish as some fancied an old age of the world wherein it must necessarily decay as the Bodies of Animals do or that the parts of the Heavens are broken off by their rubbing one against another in their motion and falling to the Earth are the Seeds of those things that grow among us * Plin. Hist lib. 2. cap. 3. The Earth and Heavens He names here the most stable parts of the world and the most beautiful parts of the Creation those that are freest from corruptibility and change to illustrate thereby the Immutability of God that though the Heavens and Earth have a Prerogative of fixedness above other parts of the world and the Creatures that reside below the Heavens remain the same as they were created and the Center of the Earth retains its fixedness and are as beautiful and fresh in their age as they were in their youth many years ago notwithstanding the change of the Elements Fire and Water being often turned into Air so that there may remain but little of that Air which was first created by reason of the continual transmutation yet this firmness of the Earth and Heavens is not to be regarded in comparison of the unmoveableness and fixedness of the Being of God As their beauty comes short of the glory of his Being so doth their firmness come short of his stability Some by Heavens and Earth understand the Creatures which reside in the Earth and those which are in the Air which is called Heaven often in Scripture but the ruin and fall of these being seen every day had been no fit illustration of the unchangeableness of God They shall perish they shall be changed 1. They may perish say some they have it not from themselves that they do not perish but from thee who didst endue them with an incorruptible nature They shall perish if thou speakest the word Thou canst with as much ease destroy them as thou didst create them But the Psalmist speaks not of their possibility but the certainty of their perishing 2. They shall perish in their qualities and motion not in their substance say others They shall cease from that motion which is designed properly for the generation and corruption of things in the Earth but in regard of their substance and beauty they shall remain As when the strings or Wheels of a Clock or Watch are taken off the material parts remain though the motion of it and the use for discovering the time of the day ceaseth * Coccei in loc To perish doth not signify alway a falling into nothing an annihilation by which both the matter and the form are destroyed but a ceasing of the present apearance of them a ceasing to be what they now are as a man is said to perish when he dies whereas the better part of man doth not cease to be The figure of the Body moulders away and the matter of it returns to Dust but the Soul being immortal ceaseth not to act when the Body by reason of the absence of the Soul is uncapable of acting So the Heavens shall perish the appearance they now have shall vanish and a more glorious and incorruptible frame be erected by the power and goodness of God The dissolution of Heaven and Earth is meant by the
Power This Title is superior to any Title given to any of the Prophets in regard of their Predictions and therefore I should take it rather as the note of his perfect understanding than of his perfect teaching and discovering as Calvin doth He is not only the Revealer of what he knows so were the Prophets according to their measures but the Counsellor of what he revealed having a perfect understanding of all the Counsels of God as being interested in them as the mighty God He calls himself by the peculiar Title of God and declares that he will manifest himself by this Prerogative to all the Churches Rev. 2.23 And all the Churches shall know that I am he which searches the Reins and Hearts the most hidden operations of the minds of men that lye locked up from the view of all the World besides And this was no new thing to him after his Ascension for the same Perfection he had in the time of his earthly flesh Luke 6.8 he knew their Thoughts his eyes are therefore compar'd Cant. 5.12 to Doves eyes which are clear and quick and to a flame of fire Rev. 1.14 not only heat to consume his Enemies but Light to discern their contrivances against the Church he pierceth by his knowledg into all parts as fire pierceth into the closest particle of Iron and separates between the most united parts of Metals and some tell us he is called a Roe from the perspicacity of his Sight as well as from the swiftness of his motion 1. He hath a perfect Knowledg of the Father he knows the Father and none else knovvs the Father Angels knovv God men knovv God but Christ in a peculiar manner knovvs the Father no man knows the Son but the Father neither knows any man the Father save the Son Mat. 11.27 he knows so as that he learns not from any other he doth perfectly comprehend him vvhich is beyond the reach of any Creature vvith the addition of all the Divine Vertue not because of any incapacity in God to reveal but the incapacity of the Creature to receive finite is uncapable of being made infinite and therefore incapable of comprehending infinite so that Christ cannot be Deus factus made of a Creature a God to comprehend God for then of finite he vvould become infinite vvhich is a contradiction As the Spirit is God because he searches the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 that is comprehends them Potav Theo. dogmat Tom. 1. p. 467. c. as the Spirit of a man doth the things of a man now the Spirit of man understands vvhat it Thinks and vvhat it Wills so the Spirit of God understands vvhat is in the Understanding of God and vvhat is in the Will of God He hath an absolute knovvledg ascrib'd to him and such as could not be ascrib'd to any thing but a Divinity Novv if the Spirit knovvs the deep things of God and takes from Christ vvhat he shevvs to us of him John 16.15 he cannot be ignorant of those things himself he must knovv the depths of God that affords us that Spirit that is not ignorant of any of the Counsels of the Fathers Will since he comprehends the Father and the Father him he is in himself infinite for God whose Essence is infinite is infinitely knowable but no Created understanding can infinitely know God The infiniteness of the object hinders it from being understood by any thing that is not infinite Though a Creature should understand all the works of God yet it cannot be therefore said to understand God himself As tho' I may understand all the volitions and motions of my Soul yet it doth not follow that therefore I understand the whole nature and substance of my Soul or if a man understood all the effects of the Sun that therefore he understands fully the nature of the Sun But Christ knows the Father he lay in the Bosom of the Father was in the greatest intimacy with him John 1.18 and from this intimacy with him he saw him and knew him so he knows God as much as he is knowable and therefore knows him perfectly as the Father knows himself by a comprehensive Vision this is the knowledg of God wherein properly the infiniteness of his understanding appears And our Saviour uses such expressions which manifest his Knowledg to be above all Created Knowledg and such a manner of knowledg of the Father as the Father hath of him 2. Christ knows all Creatures That knowledg which comprehends God comprehends all Created things as they are in God 't is a knowledg that sinks to the depths of his Will and therefore extends to all the acts of his Will in Creation and Providence by knowing the Father he knows all things that are contained in the Vertue Power and Will of God whatsoever the Father doth that the Son doth John 5.19 As the Father therefore knows all things he is the cause of so doth the Son know all things he is the worker of as the perfect making of all things belongs to both so doth the perfect knowledg of all things belong to both where the action is the same the knowledg is the same Now the Father did not Create one thing and Christ another but all things were Created by him and for him all things both in Heaven and Earth Col. 1.16 as he knows himself as the cause of all things and the end of all things he cannot be ignorant of all things that were effected by him and are referred to him he knows all Creatures in God as he knows the Essence of God and knows all Creatures in themselves as he knows his own acts and the fruits of his Power those things must be in his Knowledg that were in his Power all the Treasures of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God are hid in him Col. 2.3 Now it is not the Wisdom of God to know in part and be in part ignorant He cannot be ignorant of any thing since there is nothing but what was made by him John 1.3 and since it is less to know than Create for we know many things which we cannot make Petav. Theolo Dogmat. Tom. 1. p. 467. If he be the Creator he cannot but be the discerner of what he made this is a part of Wisdom belonging to an Artificer to know the nature and quality of what he makes Since he cannot be ignorant of what he furnisht with Being and with various endowments he must know them not only universally but particularly 3. Christ knows the hearts and affections of men Peter scruples not to ascribe to him this knowledg among the knowledg of all other things John 21.17 Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee From Christs knowledg of all things he concludes his knowledg of the inward frames and dispositions of men To search the heart is the sole Prerogative of God 1 Kings 8.39 for thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the Children of men
use them no better than Men do devouring Fish and untam'd Beasts with a Hook in the Nose and a Bridle in the Mouth Those States-men in Isa 29.15 thought their Contrivances too deep for God to fathom and too close for God to frustrate They seek deep to hide their Counsels from the Lord surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the Potters Clay of no more force and understanding than a Potters Vessel which understands not its own form wrought by the Artificer nor the use it is put to by the Buyer and Possessor or shall be esteemed as a Potters Vessel that can be as easily flung back into the Mass from whence it was taken as preserved in the Figure it is now endued with No secret Designer is shrowded from Gods sight or can be shelter'd from Gods Arm He understands the Venom of their Hearts better than we can feel it and discovers their inward fury more plainly than we can see the Sting or Teeth of a Viper when they are opened for mischief and to what purpose doth God know and see them but in order to deliver his People from them in his own due time I know their sorrow and am come down to deliver them * Ex. 3.7 8. The Walls of Jerusalem are continually before him he knows therefore all that would undermine and demolish them None can hurt Zion by any ignorance or inadvertency in God 'T is observable that our Saviour assuming to himself a different Title in every Epistle to the Seven Churches doth particularly ascribe to himself this of Knowledge and Wrath in that to Thyatira an Emblem or Description of the Romish State * Rev. 2 1â— And unto the Angel of the Church of Thyatira write These things saith the Son of God who hath his Eyes like to a flame of Fire and his Feet like fine Brass His Eyes like a flame of Fire are of a piercing nature insinuating themselves into all the Pores and parts of the Body they encounter with and his Feet like Brass to crush them with is explained Verse 23. I will k ll her Children with Death and all the Churches shall know that I am he which searches the Reins and the Heart and I will give to every one of you according to your works He knows every design of the Romish Party design'd by that Church of Thyatira * For the Evidence of it I refer you to Dr. More 's Exposition of the seven Churches worthy every Learned and Vnderstanding Mans reading and of every sober Romanist Jezabel there signifies a whorish Church such a Church as shall act as Jezabel Ahab's Wife who was not only a Worshipper of Idols but propagated Idolatry in Israel slew the Prophets persecuted Elijah murdered Naboth the Name whereof signifies Prophesie seiz'd upon his Possession And if it be said that Verse 19. this Church was commended for her Works Faith Patience 't is true Rome did at first strongly profess Christianity and maintain'd the interest of it but afterwards fell into the practice of Jezabel and committed Spiritual Adultery And is she to be owned for a Wife that now plays the Harlot because she was honest and modest at her first Marriage * Coc. in loc And though she shall be destroy'd yet not speedily Verse 22. I will cast her into a Bed seems to intimate the destruction of Jezabel not to be at once and speedily but in a lingring way and by degrees as Sicknes consumes a Body 2. This Perfection of God fits him to be a special Object of Trust If he were forgetful what comfort could we have in any Promise How could we depend upon him if he were ignorant of our State His Compassions to pity us his Readiness to relieve us his Power to protect and assist us would be insignificant without his Omniscience to inform his Goodness and direct the Arm of his Power This Perfection is as it were Gods Office of Intelligence As you go to your Memorandum Book to know what you are to do so doth God to his Omniscience This Perfection is Gods Eye to acquaint him with the necessities of his Church and directs all his other Attributes in their exercise for and about his People You may depend upon his Mercy that hath promised and upon his Truth to perform upon his Sufficiency to supply you and his Goodness to relieve you and his Righteousness to reward you because he hath an infinite Understanding to know you and your wants you and your services And without this knowledge of his no comfort could be drawn from any other Perfection none of them could be a sure Nail to hang our hopes and confidence upon This is that the Church alway Celebrated Psal 105.7 He hath remembred his Covenant for ever and the Word which he hath commanded to a thousand generations And Verse 42. He remembred his holy Promise and he remembred for them his Covenant * Psal 106.45 He remembers and understands his Covenant therefore his Promise to perform it and therefore our Wants to supply them 3. And the rather because God knows the Persons of all his own He hath in his infinite Understanding the exact number of all the individual Persons that belong to him 2 Tim. 2.19 The Lord knows them that are his He knows all things because he hath Created them and he knows his People because he hath not only made them but also chose them He could no more choose he knew not what than he could Create he knew not what He knows them under a double Title of Creation as Creatures in the common Mass of Creation as new Creatures by a particular act of Separation He cannot be ignorant of them in time whom he fore-knew from Eternity His knowledge in time is the same he had from Eternity He fore-knew them that he intended to give the Grace of Faith unto and he knows them after they believe because he knows his own act in bestowing Grace upon them and his own Mark and Seal wherewith he hath stampt them No doubt but he that calls the Stars of Heaven by their names * Psal 147.4 knows the number of those living Stars that sparkle in the Firmament of his Church He cannot be ignorant of their Persons when he numbers the Hairs of their Heads and hath Registred their Names in the Book of Life As he only had an infinite Mercy to make the choice so he only hath an infinite Understanding to comprehend their Persons We only know the Elect of God by a Moral assurance in the Judgment of Charity when the Conversation of Men is according to the Doctrine of God We have not an infallible knowledge of them we may be often mistaken Judas a Devil may be judged by Man for a Saint till he be stript of his disguise God only hath an infallible knowledge of them he knows his own Records and the Counterparts in the hearts of his People None can counterfeit
all affections to sin lye down in Sorrow and bewail what he hath done amiss against so tender a God Can you expect that any man that Promises you a great honour or a rich donative should demand less of you than to trust his word bear an affection to him and return him kindness Can any less be expected by a Prince than obedience from a pardoned Subject and a redeemed Captive If you have injured any man in his Body Estate Reputation would you not count it a reasonable Condition for the partaking of his Clemency and Forgiveness to express a hearty sorrow for it and a resolution not to fall into the like Crime again Such are the Conditions of the Gospel suted to the Consciences of men 5. The Wisdom of God appears in that this condition was only likely to attain the end There are but two Common Heads appointed by God Adam and Christ By one we are made a living Soul by the other a quickning Spirit By the one we are made sinners by the other we are made righteous Adam fell as a Head and all his members his whole Issue and Posterity fell with him because they proceeded from him by natural Generation But since the second Adam can not be our Head by natural Generation there must be some other way of engrafting us in him and uniting us to him as our Head which must be Moral and Spiritual this can not rationally be conceived to be by any other way than What is sutable to a reasonable Creature and therefore must be by an act of the Will Consent and Acceptance and owning the terms setled for an Admission to that Union And this is that we properly call Faith and therefore called a receiving of him John 1.12 Now this Condition of enjoying the Fruits of Redemption could not be a bare Knowledge for that is but only an act of the Understanding and doth not in itself include the act of the Will and so would have united only one Faculty to him not the whole Soul But Faith in an act both of the Understanding and Will too and principally of the Will which doth presuppose an act of the Understanding For there cannot be a Perswasion in the Will without a Proposition from the Understanding The Understanding must be convinced of the truth and goodness of a thing before the Will can be perswaded to make any motion towards it and therefore all the Promises Invitations and Proffers are suted to the Understanding and Will To the Understanding in regard of Knowledge to the Will in regard of Appetite to the Understanding as true to the Will as good To the Understanding as practical and influencing the Will 2. Nor could it be an intire Obedience That as was said before would have made the Creature have some matter of boasting and this was not sutable to the Condition he was sunk into by the fall Besides mans Nature being corrupted was rendered uncapable to obey and unable to have one thought of a due Obedience 2 Cor. 3.5 When man turned from God and upon that was turned out of Paradise his return was impossible by any strength of his own his Nature was as much corrupted as his re-entrance into Paradise was prohibited That Covenant whereby he stood in the garden required a perfection of action and intention in the observance of all the Commands of God But his Fall had crack'd his Ability to recover happiness by the terms and condition of an intire Obedience yet man being a person governable by a Law and capable of happiness by a Covenant if God would restore him and enter into a Covenant with him we must suppose it to have some Condition as all Covenants have That Condition could not be works because mans Nature was polluted Indeed had God reduced mans Body to the dust and his Soul to nothing and framed another man he might have govern'd him by a Covenant of Works But that had not been the same man that had revolted and upon his revolt was stain'd and disabled But suppose God had by any transcendent Grace wholly purified him from the stain of his former Transgression and restored to him the strength and ability he had lost might he not as easily have rebelled again And so the Condition would never have been accomplisht the Covenant never have been performed and Happiness never have been enjoyed There must be some other Condition then in the Covenant God would make for mans Security Now Faith is the most proper for receiving the Promise of Pardon of Sin Belief of those promises is the first natural reflection that a Malefactor can make upon a pardon offered him and acceptance of it is the first consequent from that beliefe Hence is Faith entitled a perswasion of and embraceing the Promises Heb 11.13 and a receiving the atonement Rom. 5.11 Thus the Wisdom of God is apparent in annexing such a Condition to the Covenant whereby man is restored as answers the end of God for his glory the State Conscience and necessity of Man and had the greatest congruity to his recovery 9. This Wisdom of God is manifest in the manner of the publishing and propagating this Doctrine of Redemption 1. In the gradual discoveries of it Flashing a great light in the face of a suddain is amazing should the Sun glare in our Eye in all its brightness on a suddain after we have been in a thick darkness it would blind us instead of comforting us So great a work as this must have several digestions God first reveals of what Seed the Redeeming Person should be the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 Then of what Nation Gen. 26.4 then of what Tribe Gen. 49.12 of the Tribe of Judah then of what Family the family of David then what works he was to do what sufferings to undergoe The first Predictions of our Saviour were obscure Adam could not well see the Redemption in the Promise for the punishment of death which succeeded in the Threatning the Promise exercised his Faith and the Obscurity and bodily Death his Humility The Promise made to Abraham was clearer than the Revelations made before yet he could not tell how to reconcile his Redemption with his Exile God supported his Faith by the Promise and exercised his Humility by making him a Pilgrim and keeping him in a perpetual dependance upon him in all his motions The Declarations to Moses are brighter than those to Abraham The delineations of Christ by David in the Psalms more illustrious than the former And all those exceeded by the Revelations made to the Prophet Isaiah and the other Prophets according as the Age did approach wherein the Redeemer was to enter into his Office God wrapt up this Gospel in a multitude of Types and Ceremonies fitted to the Infant state of the Church Gal. 4.3 An Infant State is usually affected with sensible things yet all those Ceremonies were fitted to that great end of the Gospel which he would bring forth in
it self that it cannot be conceived to fall within the Compass of the Divine Nature †Deut. 32.4 who is a God without iniquity because a God of truth and sincerity just and right is he To bestow excellent Faculties upon Man in Creation and incline him by a suddain impulsion to things contrary to the true end of him and induce an inevitable ruin upon that Work which he had composed with so much Wisdom and Goodness and pronounced good with so much delight and Pleasure is inconsistent with that love which God bears to the Creature of his own framing To incline his Will to that which would render him the Object of his hatred the Fuel for his Justice and sink him into deplorable Misery 't is most absurd and unchristian-like to imagine 3. Nor can God necessitate man to sin Indeed sin cannot be committed by force there is no sin but is in some sort voluntary Voluntary in the root or voluntary in the branch voluntary by an immediate act of the Will or voluntary by a general or natural inclination of the Will That is not a Crime to which a man is violenc'd without any concurrence of the Faculties of the Soul to that act 't is indeed not an act but a passion a man that is forced is not an Agent but a Patient under the force But what necessity can there be upon Man from God since he hath implanted such a Principle in him that he cannot desire any thing but what is good either really or apparently and if a man mistakes the Object 't is his own fault for God hath endowed him with Reason to discern and liberty of Will to choose upon that Judgment And though 't is to be acknowledged that God hath an Absolute Soveraign Dominion over his Creature without any Limitation and may do what he pleases and dispose of it according to his own Will as a Potter doth with his Vessel Rom. 9.21 according as the Church speaks Isa 64.8 We are the Clay and thou our Potter and we all are the work of thy hand Yet he cannot pollute any undefiled Creature by virtue of that Soveraign Power which he hath to do what he will with it because such an act would be contrary to the Foundation and Right of his Dominion which consists in the excellency of his Nature his immense Wisdom and unspotted Purity If God should therefore do any such act he would expunge the right of his Dominion by blotting out that nature which renders him fit for that Dominion and the exercise of it * Amyrald disert pa 103 104. Any Dominion which is exercis'd without the Rules of goodness is not a true Soveraignty but an insupportable Tyranny God would cease to be a rightful Soveraign if he ceased to be good and he would cease to be good if he did command necessitate or by any positive operation incline inwardly the heart of a Creature directly to that which were morally evil and contrary to the eminency of his own Nature But that we may the better conceive of this let us trace Man in his first fall whereby he subjected himself and all his Posterity to the Curse of the Law and hatred of God we shall find no foot-steps either of Precept outward force or inward impulsion †Amyrald defens de Calvin p. 151. 152 The plain story of Man's Apostacy dischargeth God from any interest in the Crime as an incouragement and excuseth him from any appearance of suspicion when he shewed him the Tree he had reserved as a mark of his Soveraignty and forbad him to eat of the Fruit of it He backt the Prohibition with the threatning the greatest Evil viz. Death which could be understood to imply nothing less than the loss of all his happiness and in that couch'd an assurance of the perpetuity of his felicity if he did not rebelliously reach forth his hand to take and eat of the Fruit * Gen. 2.16 17 'T is true God had given that Fruit an excellency a goodness for food and a pleasantness to the eye †Gen. 3.6 He had given Man an appetite whereby he was capable of desiring so pleasant a Fruit but God had by Creation rang'd it under the Command of Reason if man would have kept it in its due Obedience he had fixed a severe Threatning to bar the unlawful Excursions of it He had allowed him a multitude of other Fruits in the Garden and given him liberty enough to satisfie his Curiosity in all except this only Could there be any thing more obliging to Man to let God have his reserve of that one Tree than the grant of all the rest and more deterring from any disobedient Attempt than so strict a Command spirited with so dreadful a Penalty God did not sollicite him to rebel against him A sollicitation to it and a command against it were inconsistent The Devil assaults him and God permitted it and stands as it were a Spectator of the issue of the Combat There could be no necessity upon Man to listen to and entertain the Suggestions of the Serpent He had a power to resist him and he had an answer ready for all the Devils Arguments had they been multiplied to more than they were the opposing the Order of God had been a sufficient Confutaion of all the Devils plausible reasonings That Creator who hath given me my being hath ordered me not to eat of it Though the pleasure of the Fruit might allure him yet the force of his Reason might have quell'd the liquorishness of his Sense The perpetual thinking of and sounding out the command of God had silenc'd both Satan and his own Appetite had disarm'd the Tempter and preserved his Sensitive part in its due subjection What inclination can we suppose there could be from the Creator when upon the very first offer of the Temptation Eve opposes to the Tempter the Prohibition and Threatning of God and strains it to a higher peg than we find God had delivered it in For in Gen. 2.17 't is you shall not eat of it but she adds Gen. 3.3 neither shall you touch it which was a Remark that might have had more influence to restrain her Had our first Parents kept this fixed upon their Understandings and Thoughts that God had forbidden any such act as the Eating of the Fruit and that he was true to execute the Threatning he had uttered of which Truth of God they could not but have a natural Notion with what ease might they have withstood the Devils attack'd and defeated his Design And it had been easie with them to have kept their Understandings by the force of such a thought from entertaining any contrary Imagination There is no ground for any jealousie of any Encouragements inward Impulsions or necessity from God in this Affair A discharge of God from this first sin will easily induce a freedom of him from all other sins which follow upon it God doth not then
Will of man Disclaim our dependance on God to hang upon the uncertain breath of a Creature in all this God is made less than man and man more than God God is depos'd and man enthron'd God made a slave and man a soveraign above him To this we may referre the solemn Addresses of some for the maintenance of the Protestant Religion according to Law the Law of Man not so much minding the Law of God resolving to make the Law the Church the State the Rule of their Religion and change that if the Laws be chang'd steering their Opinions by the compass of the Magistrates Judgment and Interest 2. The Dominion of God as a Proprietor is practically contemned 1. By Envy When we are not as flush and gay as well spread and sparkling as others this passion gnaws our Souls and we become the Executioners to wrack our selves because God is the Executor of his own pleasure The foundation of this passion is a quarrel with God to envy others the enjoyment of their Propriety is to envy God his right of disposal and consequently the propriety of his own Goods 'T is a mental Theft committed against God we rob him of his right in our will and wish 't is a Robbery to make our selves equal with God when it is not our due which is implied Phil. 2.6 when Christ is said to think it no Robbery to be equal with God We would wrest the Scepter out of his hand wish he were not the conductor of the world and that he would resign his Soveraignty and the right of the distribution of his own goods to the Capricios of our humor and ask our leave to what Subjects he should dispense his favours All Envy is either a tacit accusation of God as an usurper and assuming a right to dispose of that which doth not belong to him and so it is a denyal of his propriety or else charges him with a blind or unjust distribution and so it is a bespattering his wisdom and righteousness When God doth punish envy he vindicates his own Soveraignty as though this passion cheifly endeavoured to blast this perfection Ezek. 25.11 12. As I live saith the Lord I will do according to thy anger and according to thy envy and thou shall know that I am the Lord. The sin of envy in the Devils was immediately against the Crown of God and so was the sin of envy in the first man envying God the sole Prerogative in knowledge above himself This base humor in Cain at the preference of Abels sacrifice before his was the cause that he deprived him of his life Denying God first his right of choice and what he should accept and then invading Gods right of propriety in usurping a power over the Life and Being of his brother which solely belong'd to God 2. The Dominion of God as a proprietor is practically contemned by a violent or sâ—rreptitious taking away from any what God hath given him the possession of Since God is the Lord of all and may give the possession and dominion of things to whom he pleaseth all Theft and Purloyning all cheating and cousening another of his right is not only a crime against the true possessor depriving him of what he is intrusted with but against God as the absolute and universal proprietor having a right thereby to confer his own goods upon whom he pleaseth as well as against God as a Lawgiver forbidding such a violence The snatching away what is an others denyes man the right of possession and God the right of donation The Israelites taking the Egyptians Jewels had been Theft had it not been by a Divine license and order but cannot be slander'd with such a term after the proprietor of the whole World had alter'd the Title and alienated them by his positive grant from the Egyptians to conferr them upon the Israelites 3. The Dominion of God as a proprietor is practically contemned by not using what God hath given us for those ends for which he gave them to us God passeth things over to us with a condition to use that for his Glory which he hath bestowed upon us by his bounty He is Lord of the end for which he gives as well as Lord of what he gives the donors right of propriety is infringed when the Lands and legacies he leaves to a particular use are not employ'd to those ends to which he bequeathed them The right of the Lord of a Mannour is violated when the Copy-hold is not us'd according to the condition of the conveyance So it is an invasion of Gods soveraignty not to use the Creatures for those ends for which we are intrusted with them when we deny our selves a due and lawful support from them hence Covetousness is an invasion of his right or when we unnecessarily wast them hence prodigality disowns his propriety Or when we bestow not any thing upon the relief of others hence uncharitableness comes under the same title appropriating that to our selves as if we were the Lords when we are but the usufructuaries for our selves and Stewards for others this is to be rich to our selves not to God Luke 12.21 for so are they who employ not their wealth for the service and according to the intent of the donor Thus the Israelites did not own God the true proprietor of their Corn Wine and Oyl which God had given them for his Worship when they prepared offerings for Baal out of his Stock Hos 2.8 For she did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oyl and multiplied her Gold and Silver which they prepar'd for Baal as if they had been sole proprietors and not Factors by Commission to improve the Goods for the true owner 'T is the same invasion of Gods right to use the parts and gifts that God hath given us either as fuel for our pride or advancing self or a witty scoffing at God and Religion When we use not Religion for the honour of our Soveraign but a stool to rise by and observe his precepts outwardly not out of regard to his Authority but as a stale to our interest and furnishing self with a little concern and triflle When men will wrest his word for the favour of their lusts which God intended for the checking of them and make interpretations of it according to their humors and not according to his Will discovered in the Scripture this is to pervert the use of the best goods and depositum he hath put into our hands even divine Revelations Thus hypocrisie makes the soveraignty of God a nullity 3. The Dominion of God as a Governour is practically contemned I. In Idolatry Since Worship is an acknowledgment of Gods soveraignty to adore any Creature instead of God or to pay to any thing that homage of trust and confidence which is due to God though it be the highest Creature in Heaven or Earth is to acknowledg that soveraignty to pertain to a Creature which is challeng'd by