to discuss the doubts which may arise from the consideration of that unequal and as it would seem unjust disposal of Men besides other things which may be instanced And without the help of Revelation all that can be known of GOD by meer Nature will not be effectual to counterpoise the corruption of our Natures and to restrain us from following Sensual and Brutish appetites which being cherished drown all sense of GOD and cast out all Fear and Regard for Him As Faith in the Divine Revelations of the Scripture is requisite to qualifie us for being Worshippers of the True GOD So in the next place it is necessarie that we adore the God-head according to that Incomprehensible Mysterie of the Trinity Reason and Scripture both teach That there is but One True GOD For it is impossible there can be more then One supreme Infinite Beeing But though Reason do not yet Scripture doth declare as plainly and clearly as it doth any thing that in the Unity of the God-head there are a Trinity of the Persons viz. the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost each of which is proposed to us as the due Object of all Divine Adoration therefore who do not adore all three and all three as one God doth not adore the true God For the true God is this Trinitie of Persons as he hath plainly manifested Himself and manifested it for this end that he may be so worshipped and acknowledged by men That the Trinitie is not contained within that Idea of God which we have by Nature will not excuse the disbelief thereof when clearly revealed as I suppose every one will find who layeth aside their prejudice We are as much oblidged to believe the word of God as the dictats of our own Reason and when Men will not believe God's word because their Reason cannot fathom the depth of it nor easilie conceive the truth thereof as in the present case then they make an Idol of their Reason and may be said rather to adore it then GOD Seing they will not acknowledge him according to what he really is in himselâ—… which he hath also plainlie declared but according to the appearance of their own Imaginations If the nature and essence of God agree with their sentiments they are very ready to own and acknowledge him but if it differ in any thing from these then they are Stubborn and Refractory Which I may fitly compare to those who make a nice distinction betwixt the name and Authority of the King and his person the King's Authority they profess to regard as much as any but however they are still Plotting and Rebelling against His Person If one should take away Omnipotency from God all would acknowledg that it is not God reallie but a fantome of his own devising which he pays worship too For that is no God which is not Omnipotent Now he doth the same who removes Veracitie from God for Truth as properly belongs to him as Power And therefore as the consideration of God's Omnipotencie doth oblidge us to believe that he can work not only above what we our selves can doe but beyond our conception for all things must be possible to him so the consideration of his Veracity oblidgeth us no less to believe all to be true which he speaks and declares though our reason cannot comprehend it If God had pleased he might have made the mystery of the Trinity and the other Mysteries of the Gospel more intelligible But then he would have wanted the homage and acknowledgement which is due from our understandings which the Scripture calls the Obedience of Faith and which is no less reasonable then the obedience of the will and actions He who doth not submit his will to the laws of God cannot be said to own him or his Authority Neither he who refuseth to yeeld His judgement to God to be informed by him And the withdrawing the submiâ—…on of our understandings will not be excused by paying the obedience of our wills for one duty will not make up the breach of another which is as necessary of it self Hence it is that Faith is so much spoken of in Scripture and made so necessary a duty to the being accounted Righteous before God and therefore also it is that Abraham is proposed for our Patern who against hope believed in hope for being not weak in Faith he staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God being fully perswaded that what he had Promised he was able also to perform and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness Now saith the Scripture it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we likewise believe By this rule Socinians and Quakers will be cut off from the pretences of Worshipping the true God for as much Reason as the one sets up for and for as great Pietie as the other endeavours to make a shew of Thirdly that the True GOD may be our GOD it is absolutly necessarie that we pay all divine worship to Him alone and not share it among others besides him for seing there is but One GOD therefore to have more Objects of divine Worship is to be guilty of Idolatrie and Idolatrie and the worship of the true GOD cannot agree together It is certain that GOD will not accept of their worship who pay the same adoration to others besides him Therefore the First command which He gave to his People of old was this Thou shalt have no other Gods before ME. Intimating thereby that the very foundation of true Religion and the very first thing to be done in the Acknowledgment of the true God is to resolve to Worship him only according to what our Saviour saith thou shalt Worship the LORD thy GOD and him only shalt thou serve Matth 4 10. This Ioshua understood well and laid plainly before the Children of Israel in his last solemn speech to them wherein he endeavoured to reclaime them from Idolatrous practices that is the paying divine respect to any other besides the True GOD by shewing the absurdity thereof and its inconsistencie with the Worship and service of the true GOD for having bidden them choose whom they would serve lest they might have thought that they could well enough both serve Him who had done so much for them and others besides he roundly tells them ye cannot serve the Lord for he is an holy God he is a Iealous God He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins if ye foresake the Lord and serve strange gods then he will turn and do you hurt and consume you after that he hath done you good And when the People expressed their resolution to serve the LORD that they might give a true Testimonie thereof he said to them Now therefore put away the strange gods which are among you and incline your heart unto the LORD GOD of Israel
such and the like cases and circumstances We are all ready enough to make Vows and Promises I know not if we be all as ready to perform and accomplish them It 's to be feared that too many are like bad Debitors who either altother refuse the payment of their debt or else shift it off from day to day and thereby do declare their folly and disingenuity and monstruous ingratitude If GOD hath been so gracious as to hear us should not we also be faithful in keeping the Promises we made to Him following Davids practice Psalm 66. 13. where he saith I will go into thy house with burnt offerings I will pay Thee my Vows which my lips have uttered and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble And again Psalm 116. 12. having asked himself What shall I render unto the LORD for all His benefits towards me His answer resolution was I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the LORD I will pay my Vows unto the LORD in the presence of all His People See and consider then I pray you what have been your particular Vows and Promises at any time and labour now to keep them faithfully Did you promise to be more Holy to have a greater Love and Zeal for GOD Did you Vow to be more studious to advance his Glory to be more Just and Honest in your Dealings more kind to your Neighbours and more Charitable to the Poor Did you at any time pass your word that you would Pray oftner and more fervently in privat by your selves and take a care that the Worship of GOD be observed in your Family That you would forbear Swearing and Drinking loose and prophane company did you promise greater Sobriety temperance Did you engage to bridle your passion To be watchfull against Anger and Wrath and to study Calmness and Peace Did you engage to be more contented with your Allowances and more thankfull for them Did you vow to keep the Church better To be a more Devout and attentive Hearer of GOD'S Word and of the Instructions of his Servants Have ye devoted any particular time for privat retirements and Converse with GOD or any particular Moity of your Estates for Pious uses Whether these or whatever else have been the matter of your Vows see that ye both Remember them and also give diligence to observe them neither mince thy Vows nor defer the paying of them Let it not be said that thou art liberall in thy promises but sparing in thy performances Like him who when he was in Hazard of perishing at Sea promised a rich offering but when he came to land put it off with a penny matter Keep thy Word to GOD and doe it chearfully without grudging Let not our present Ease and Prosperity blot out the Sense and Memory of his past Loving Kindness neither let us account any thing too good for God or too much to be given him We can give him nothing but what is his own for all that we have we received from him and we can do nothing to him but what is our bounden duty And withall let us Remember that we may have yet need of his Kindness We may yet fall into straits and trouble be seized with Sickness and in fear of Death and then how much will it concern us to have him our friend but how and with what confidence can we cry unto him if we now deal deceitfully with God and break the word which we have uttered That therefore we may avoid the Divine Vengeance and Displeasure and also have GOD to be our refuge and a present help in the time of trouble let us Vow and pay our Vows unto the LORD and keep every thing which hath gone out of our lips Thus we have spoken of Vows in Generall have shewed the Nature of them what Obligation there is on us to make them what Caution should be used in the making of them and what care to keep them when they are made CHAP. II. Of Jacob's Requests Mens Wisdom discernable by the matter of their Desires GOD deny's no Requests but what are unreasonable and improper all that is necessary to compleat ones Happiness is contained in the particulars which Jacob here askes of the first viz. the Divine Presence what it is and how excellent a Blessing with an Exhortation to seek after it HAving taken occasion in the former Chapter upon Iacobs Vowing to speak of Vows in general we come next to treat of this Vow in particular in which we have to consider these two things viz. What he promised unto GOD and what he craves of him as the condition of the Performance of that Promise This last stands first in the Text and therefore we shall handle it first Now Iacob craves here three things of GOD first that GOD would be with him that is his Presence Secondly that he would keep him in his way which is his Protection Thirdly that he would afford him his necessary maintenance of Food and Raiment these are his desires And in the fourth place you have the end for which he asks these things and it is that he may be brought back to his Fathers house in peace Iacob may seem at first to ask no great matter his requests look not very big and 't is true they are modest and reasonable But yet if they be duely considered and seriously canvass'd they will be found to comprehend all that is necessary to compleat ones Happiness There is nothing that discovers men more than their Requests and Petitions for they do certainly speak out the sentiments of their mind and what it is their Hearts set most value upon It was once wittily said to a young man speak that I may see thee thereby signifying that we know Men better by their Words than by their Faces But this especially holds true when their Words express their Desires A Fool may be known by his desires and a Wise man by his For by these we may perceive easily what Knowledge and Understanding one hath and what Inclinations and Dispositions whether they have taken up right Measures of things and do judge according to their true Nature or only according to their outward appearance Fools look only to the outward appearance and if a thing glister or make any big or splendid shew they covet it whatever it be in it self But Wise men peirce through into the inward nature of things seek only what is Solide and Substantial Good and Useful like as the Patriarch did here For in that he sought these and no other things from GOD it shews him to have been Wise and Understanding that he had e're this time weighed and pondered all things as they relate to Man and found out what was Good Proper and necessary for him And truely would we restrain our Desires to these things Iacob here mentions if we would make these all we aime at in reference to this Life we should both Act
Advantage which we might procure him doth freely and heartily set himself to please us or to assist us in our Affairs If a Man visits a sick Friend and watches at his pillow for Charities sake and because of his old Affection we approve it but if he does it in hope of a Legacy he is a Vulture saith Seneca and only watcheth for the Carâ—…ass So he is a Mercenary and sordid person who respecteth more the Benefits which fall from GOD then GOD himself and GOD will not much regard this Man's service but he indeed shall please him who being acted not so much out of Self-interest as out of a pure regard to GOD doth Serve and Obey him who makes the Glory of GOD his chief end and who aims at nothing more then to please him and who is more glad of the Occasion thereof then of any external Advantage which redound by it Non sine praemio diligitur Deus saith holy Bernard etsi absque praemii intuitu diligendus sit that is GOD is never loved without a reward albeit he is not to be loved chiefly for the Reward our Love to Him can never be unprofitable but yet it should not be Mercenary for it should not seek its own things The Soul that loveth GOD should not require a greater Reward of its Love then GOD himself or if it require any other thing it doth not love GOD but that other thing But Thirdly though we must chiefly serve GOD for himself and what we do to him and for him must in the first place be out of pure love to him yet we may have also a respect to our selves and to our own proper good this doth not hinder the other these two are not inconsistent together to love our selves and to desire our own Happiness needs not imped but should rather further our Loving GOD above all things The best way of loving our selves is to endeavour the enjoyment of GOD ille satis se diligit qui sedulo agit ut summo fruatur bono There are implanted in our very Nature great desires of Happiness and it is impossible to root them out we shall as soon cease to be as cease to have Desires for our Preservation and well being or not to intend this in all we do and therefore it is certainly Lawfull to have an eye to our own Good and Felicity providing that we subject this to the Glory of GOD and make it subordinate to the Desires of pleasing him It doth not Spoil or cast a Blot upon a Son's respect and love to his Father that he minds and seeks his own interest doth expect a share in his Father's Inheritance if so be he do it not to the greif and displeasure of his Father neither doth it shew that we want True Love to God that we seek and aim at our own Happiness if so be we do not prefer our selves to GOD nor yet take Courses to obtain our Happiness contrary to the Will and Commands of GOD. In the LORD'S Prayer which is both a Patern of our Prayers and the rule of our Desires we are taught as in the first place to intend the Glory of GOD the hallowing of his Name the Advancement of his Kingdom and the fulfilling of his Will So thereafter to desire our own Good in the necessary Sustenance of our Soul and Bodies and in our Deliverance from Sin and Danger The Gospel doth not saith one Plainly prohibit us the Love of our selves but teacheth only to Moderate it rightly to Subject it to GOD and to referr it to Him we must not Love GOD for our selves so as that we our selves are to be considered as the Last end and GOD only to be placed in the Order of Means by the fruition of whom we may be rendred Happy but because we pertain to GOD whom we ought to Love above all things therefore also we ought to Love our selves with a reference to GOD our Good is therefore to be sought that in it we may taste the Goodness and Sweetness of God and that Gods peculiar measure so to speake may be so much the more enlarged thus our own proper love should be swallowed up in that Ocean of the Divine Love Fourthly It is not only Allowable but it is Necessary and Commanded that we propose to our selves and have still before our eyes the Eternal Rewards of the other World and We can never intend these enough They do not understand things well who study to take Peoples thoughts off these and who go about to perswade Men that that Obedience is not Perfect which is done for Heaven these are wild and Extravagant Principles and it is sometimes advanced and set forth by as Romantik a fable of a Womans going with a Torch in the one hand and a Bucket of Water in the other the one to burn up Heaven the other to drown out the fire of Hell That Men might serve GOD neither for the Hopes of the One neither out of Fear of the other It is a peece of Arrogancy to model Mens Obedience otherwise then GOD hath done and to offer to take away these things which GOD hath Ordained and which he hath proposed to Men to push them on the more forewardly in all manner of well-doing And as one saith if the Dowry which GOD hath given to Vertue and Religion were taken away they would perhaps have but few Platonick Lovers Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam Praemia si tollas However all the Saints and Servants of GOD mentioned in Scripture are said to have had the Promises of GOD for the future Life before them We are told of Moses that he had a respect unto the recompence of the Reward Heb. 11. 26. And Saint Paul proposed to himself the Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. Yea it is said of our Saviour himself that be had an eye to the Ioy which was set before him Heb. 12. 2. And St. Peter tells us the end wherefore there are given unto us such exceeding Great and Precious Promises is that thereby we might be partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1. 4. Thus it is not only Lawfull and Necessary for us to look often to that which GOD himself hath proposed to us that we may be the more Powerfully Excited and Encouraged to run the Wayes of GOD and to keep his Commandements Nay the Glory and Felicity of the other World is a thing which GOD hath chiefly before him and therefore we should have it also Obedience to the Laws of GOD is the Means only to carry it on and so the end why we should do this is to obtain that and by intending that we truly Glorifie GOD and do shew that we prefer him before all things For the Main and great Happiness of Heaven it self consists in the clear Knowledge and full Enjoyment of GOD and therefore as one saith it is too great
Iacob would have come over twice with one thing in so short a Prayer However our Translation in this agrees with the Hebrew Septuagint and the Vulgar Latine and we judge it best and more Reasonable to take the words this way Here then when Iacob promises that the LORD shall be his GOD it implies two things First that he would not serve the Gods of the Nations whither on this or the other side Iordan that he should take care not to be corrupted with the Idolatry of the rest of the World Secondly that he should Faithfully serve the GOD of his Fathers Abraham and Isaac who had here honoured him with a signal mainfestation of his Presence and that to him and to him only he should pay all the Homage Deference Worship and Service which is due from Reasonable Creatures to the true GOD. For to take One to be our GOD is to carry towards him as to such a Supreme and Infinit Beeing and to yield him what is proper from us who are so far below the Deity and who depend upon it for Life Breath and all things Thus you see what the Patriarch here engadged himself to And it doth first appear that it was not an Arbitrary Free-will-offering which he here Pitched upon it was not a thing which he could have passed over and been Blameless It is a Natural or moral duty which he and all Men as Men that is as Rational Creatures are strictly oblidged unto This is the first and great Commandement all other are but parts and branches of this Wherefore it is that we find this set first in that sum and Abridgement of the Moral law which Moses had from GOD and delivered to the People of Israel Thou shalt have no other GODS before me Requires the same and neither less nor more then that which Iacob here Vowes and Resolves on Viz. that there shall be no declining and falling off to the Worship of false GODS and that the true GOD shall have all the Worship and Service which properly belongs to him Wherefore that we may be stirred up to imitate Iacob's Practice and to conform to his Resolutions as well as his Desires we shall GOD willing clear and make out these following Particulars First that all Men ought to Worship GOD. Secondly that they ought to be very wary in the Object of their Worship that it be the true GOD and none else whom they adore Thirdly we shall shew what Worship and Service is requisite to be payed to the true GOD. SECTION II. Of the Reasonableness and Necessity of Worshipping GOD. AS to the first that all Men ought to Worship GOD we shall not need to insist much thereon it being a confessed Principle and the very dictat of Natural Conscience So that not only those to whom the Word of GOD hath come but even such also as never had any Particular Revelation have yet looked upon themselves as oblidged to the Worship of a diety All the World have consented in this for though there be some Nations without Learning Coin Cloathes and the like instances of Politness and Civility yet none are so Barbarous as to be without the Acknowledgement of a GOD. Some considering the Natural pronâ—…ess of Men to the Worship of a GOD have defined Man to be Animal Religiosum and have made Religion and not Reason the difference betwixt him and other Creatures And indeed we never shew so much Reason or Act so much above the Inferiour Creatures as when we are taken up in the Exercise of Vertue and Religion all other Actings are but Sense and Animal motions in which there be many Brutes who do often outdoe us But when our Reason doth exerce it self in Religion it is so far above their reach that they cannot offer at an imitation Religion and the Worship of GOD doth indeed suppose that there is One which we may very well suppose it being a Truth so evident and demonstrable Every thing in Nature doth so clearly prove the existence of a Deity that we can never sufficiently admire the Blindness and Stupidity of those who call it in Question And indeed because it Argues such Stupidity some have doubted whither there be or can be any real speculative Atheists and do imagine that such as have pretended Atheism have done it only out of an ostentation of Wit and for to shew their Smartness in being able to Oppose and Dispute the plainest and most received Opinions But whither there be any Atheists or not the Beeing of a Deity may be easily made appear to any whose eyes are but open to see it His very Nature carries a Demonstration in it and all things else do prove his Existence Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba Deum If we look within our own selves there seems to be such an Impression of a GOD stamped upon our Minds as is not easily defaced and blotted out And how we could have this without a GOD is very hard if not impossible to Resolve And if we take a view of the World without either of the Parts singly by themselves or in their Conjunction together we shall discern such admirable Wisdom in their Contrivance as might be sufficient to draw the most Incredulous to an Acknowledgement for these things are either the effects of Chance or they are the Works of a Wise Agent If the last be said a Deity is granted and it will be very strange if any have the Impudence to assert the first He may believe anything in the World though never so Monstruous who can imagine blind Chance could have hit so well or that things of themselves could have jumped so luklily together as that the greatest or even infinit wisdom cannot be supposed to Rectifie or to have contrived otherwise And therefore it was well said by the Lord Verulam I had rather beleive all the fables in the Legend the Talmud the Alcoran then that this Universal Frame is without a Mind The Atheists ordinarly object against such as believe a GOD as if they were too Credulous and of an easie belief But there is more Reason to retort this upon themselves for they are the most Credulous who believe the most unlikely things or what hath the least appearance of Truth Now what can be more improbable nay impossible then that Things should be produced without any Cause or that there should be no Wisdom or Understanding where the greatest Effects and Instances thereof are to be seen Though one did take Garagantua or Don Quixot for true History or did believe the Wildest and most Unlikely Forgeries of the old Exiravagant Romances I could not yet think him so absurd or judge him to have so large a swallow as the Atheist who denies a GOD when there are so many and so great evidences and Demonstrations thereof Now if there be a GOD as certainly there is One there is nothing more clear then that He should be Worshipped The very Atheists will grant this