God yet I may call it a subjective Idolatry in regard of the frame fit only to be presented to some sensless stock We intimate God to be no better than an Idol and to have no more knowledge of us and insight into us than an Idol can have If we did believe him to be the living God we durst not come before him with services so unsutable to him and reproaches of him 3. 'T is against the infiniteness of God We should worship God with those boundless affections which bear upon them a Shadow or Image of his Infiniteness such are the desires of the Soul which know no limits but start out beyond whatsoever enjoyment the heart of man possesses No creeping Creature was to be offered to God in Sacrifice but such as had leggs to run or wings to fly For us to come before God with a light creeping frame is to worship him with the lowest finite affections as though any thing though never so mean or torn might satisfie an infinite Being as though a poor shallow Creature could give enough to God without giving him the heart when indeed we cannot give him a worship proportionable to his infiniteness did our hearts swell as large as Heaven in our desires for him in every act of our duties 4. 'T is against the spirituality of God God being a Spirit calls for a worship in Spirit to withold this from him implies him to be some gross corporeal matter As a Spirit he looks for the heart a wrestling heart in Prayer a trembling heart in the Word * Isa 66.2 To bring nothing but the Body when we come to a spiritual God to beg spiritual benefits to wait for spiritual communications which can only be dispensed to us in a spiritual manner is unsutable to the spiritual nature of God A meer carnal service implicitely denies his spirituality which requires of us higher engagements than meer corporeal ones Worship should be rational not an imaginative service wherein is required the activity of our noblest faculties and our fancy ought to have no share in it but in subserviency to the more spiritual part of our Soul 5. 'T is against the supremacy of God As God is one and the only Soveraign so our hearts should be one cleaving wholly to him and undivided from him In pretending to deal with him we acknowledge his Deity and Soveraignty but in with holding our choicest faculties and affections from him and the starting of our minds to vain Objects we intimate their equality with God and their right as well as his to our hearts and affections 'T is as if a Princess should commit Adultery with some base Scullion while she is before her Husband which would be a plain denial of his sole right to her It intimates that other things are superior to God they are true Soveraigns that ingross our hearts If a man were addressing himself to a Prince and should in an instant turn his back upon him upon a beck or nod from some inconsiderable person is it not an evidence that that person that invited him away hath a greater soveraignty over him than that Prince to whom he was applying himself And do we not discard Gods absolute dominion over us when at the least beck of a corrupt inclination we can dispose of our hearts to it and alienate them from God As they in Ezek. 33.32 left the service of God for the service of their covetousness which evidenced that they owned the authority of sin more than the authority of God This is not to serve God as our Lord and absolute Master but to make God serve our turn and submit his Soveraignity to the Supremacy of some unworthy affection The Creature is preferred before the Creator when the heart runs most upon it in time of religious worship and our own carnal interest swallows up the affections that are due to God 'T is an an Idol set up in the heart * Ezek. 14.4 in his solemn presence and attracts that devotion to it self which we only owe to our Soveraign Lord and the more base and contemptible that is to which the Spirit is devoted the more contempt there is of Gods dominion Judas his kiss with a hail Master was no act of worship or an owning his Masters authority but a designing the satisfaction of his Covetousness in the betraying of him 6. 'T is against the Wisdom of God God as a God of order has put earthly things in subordination to heavenly and we by this unworthy carriage invert this order and put heavenly things in subordination to earthly in placing mean and low things in our hearts and bringing them so placed into Gods presence which his Wisdom at the Creation put under our feet A service without spiritual affections is a sacrifice of Fools Eccles 5.1 which have lost their Brains and Understandings A foolish Spirit is very unsutable to an infinitely wise God Well may God say of such a one as Achish of David who seemed mad Why have you brought this Fellow to play the Mad-man in my presence Shall this Fellow come into my House 1 Sam. 21.15 7. 'T is against the Omnisciency of God To carry it fair without and impertinently within is as though God had not an all-seeing eye that could pierce into the heart and understand every motion of the inward faculties As though God were easily cheated with an outward fawning service like an Apothecaries box with a guilded title that may be full of Cobwebs within What is such a carriage but a design to deceive God when with Herod we pretend to worship Christ and intend to murder all the motions of Christ in our Souls A heedless Spirit an estrangement of our Souls a giving the Rains to them to run out from the presence of God to see every Reed shaken with the Wind is to deny him to be the Searcher of hearts and the Discerner of secret thoughts as though he could not look through us to the darkness and remoteness of our minds but were an ignorant God who might be put off with the worst as well as the best in our Flock If we did really believe there were a God of infinite Knowledge who saw our frames and whether we came drest with Wedding-garments sutable to the duties we are about to perform should we be so garish and put him off with such trivial stuff without any reverence of his Majesty 8. 'T is against the Holiness of God To alienate our Spirits is to offend him while we pretend to worship him Though we may be mighty officious in the external part yet our base and carnal affections make all our worship but as a heap of Dung and who would not look upon it as an affront to lay Dung before a Prince's Throne Pro. 21.27 The Sacrifice of the Wicked is an abomination How much more when he brings it with a wicked mind A putrified Carcass under the Law had not been so great an affront
circumstances We honour the Majesty of God when we consider him with due reverence according to the greatness and perfection of his works and in this reverence of his Majesty doth worship chiefly consist Low thoughts of God will make low frames in us before him If we thought God an infinite glorious Spirit how would our hearts be lower than our knees in his presence How humbly how believingly pleading is the Psalmist when he considers God to be without comparison in the Heavens to whom none of the Sons of the Mighty can be likened when there was none like to him in strength or faithfulness round about * Psal 89.6 7 8. We should have also deep impressions of the Omniscience of God and remember we have to deal with a God that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins to whom the most secret temper is as visible as the loudest words are Audible that though man judges by outward expressions God judges by inward affections As the Law of God regulates the inward frames of the heart so the eye of God pitches upon the inward intentions of the Soul If God were visibly present with us should we not approach to him with strong affections summon our Spirits to attend upon him behave our selves modestly before him Let us consider he is as really present with us as if he were visible to us let us therefore preserve a strong sense of the presence of God No man but one out of his wits when he were in the presence of a Prince and making a Speech to him would break off at every Period and run after the catching of Butter-flyes Remember in all worship you are before the Lord to whom all things are open and naked Direction 4. Let us take heed of inordinate desires after the world As the world steals away a mans heart from the Word so it doth from all other worship It chokes the Word * Mat. 13.27 it stifles all the spiritual breathings after God in every duty The edge of the Soul is blunted by it and made too dull for such sublime exercises The Apostles rule in Prayer when he joyns sobriety with watching unto Prayer 1 Pet. 4.7 is of concern in all worship sobriety in the pursuite and use of all wordly things A man drunk with worldly fumes cannot watch cannot be heavenly affectionate spiritual in service There is a magnetick force in the Earth to hinder our flights to Heaven Birds when they take their first flights from the Earth have more flutterings of their wings than when they are mounted further in the Air and got more without the Sphear of the Earths attractiveness the motion of their wings is more steady that you can scarce perceive them stir they move like a Ship with a full Gale The world is a clog upon the Soul and a bar to spiritual frames 'T is as hard to elevate the heart to God in the midst of a hurry of worldly affairs as it is difficult to meditate when we are near a great noise of waters falling from a Precipice or in the midst of a Volly of Muskets Thick claiy affections bemire the heart and make it unfit for such high flights it is to take in worship Therefore get your hearts clear from worldly thoughts and desires if you would be more spiritual in worship 5. Let us be deeply sensible of our present wants and the supplies we may meet with in worship Cold affections to the things we would have will grow cooler Weakness of desire for the communications in worship will freez our hearts at the time of worship and make way for vain and foolish diversions A Begger that is ready to perish and knows he is next door to ruin will not slightly and dully began Alms and will not be diverted from his importunity by every slight call or the moving of an Atom in the Air. Is it Pardon we would have Let us apprehend the blackness of sin with the aggravations of it as it respects God Let us be deeply sensible of the want of pardon and worth of mercy and get our affections into such a frame as a condemned man would do Let us consider that as we are now at the Throne of Gods grace we shall shortly be at the Bar of Gods Justice and if the Soul should be forlorn there how fixedly and earnestly would it plead for mercy Let us endeavour to stir up the same affections now which we have seen some dying men have and which we suppose despairing Souls would have done at Gods Tribunal * Guliel Paris Rhetor. Divin cap. 26. p. 350. Col. 1. We must be sensible that the life or death of our Souls depends upon worship Would we not be ashamed to be ridiculous in our carriage while we are eating and shall we not be ashamed to be cold or garish before God when the Salvation of our Souls as well as the Honour of God is concerned If we did see the heaps of sins the eternity of punishment due to them If we did see an angry and offended Judge If we did see the riches of mercy the glorious outgoings of God in the Sanctuary the blessed Doles he gives out to men when they spiritually attend upon him both the one and the other would make us perform our duties humbly sincerely earnestly and affectionately and wait upon him with our whole Souls to have misery averted and mercy bestowed Let our sense of this be encouragâ—d by the consideration of our Saviour presenting his merits With what affection doth he present his merits his blood shed upon the Cross now in Heaven And shall our hearts be cold and frozen flitting and unsteady when his affectioâ—s are so much concerned Christ doth not present any Mans case and duties without a sense of hiâ— wants and shall we have none of our own Let me add this let us affect our hearts with a sense of what supplies we haâ—â— met with in former worship The delightful remembrance of what converâ—â— we have had with God in former worship would spiritualize our hearts for the present worship Had Peter had a view of Christs glory in the Mount fresh in his thoughts he would not so easily have turned his back upon his Master Nor would the Israelites have been at leasure for their Idolatry had they preserved the sense of the Majesty of God discovered in his late Thunders from Mount Sinai 6. If any thing intrudes that may choak the Worship cast it speedily out We cannot hinder Satan and our own Corruption from presenting Coolers to us but we may hinder the success of them We cannot hinder the Gnats from buzzing about us when we are in our business but we may prevent them from setling upon us A man that is running on a considerable Errand will shun all unnecessary discourse that may make him forget or loyter in his business What though there may be something offered that is good in it self yet if it hath a
his Seal nor can any raze it out * Turretin's Sermons p. 3â—2 When the Church is either scatter'd like Dust by Persecution or over-grown with Superstition and Idolatry that there is scarce any grain of true Religion appearing as in the time of Elijah who complain'd that he was left alone as if the Church had been rooted out of that corner of the World * 1 Kings 19.14 18. yet God knew that he had a number fed in a Cave and had reserved seven thousand Men that had preserved the purity of his Worship and not bow'd their knee to Baal Christ knew his Sheep as well as he is known of them yea better than they can know him * John 10.14 History acquaints us that Cyrus had so vast a memory that he knew the name of every particular Souldier in his Army which consisted of diverse Nations Shall it be too hard for an infinite Understanding to know every one of that Host that march under his Banners may he not as well know them as know the number qualities influences of those Stars which lie conceal'd from our Eye as well as those that are visible to our Sense Yes he knows them as a General to employ them as a Shepherd to preserve them He knows them in the World to guard them and he knows them when they are out of the World to gather them and cull out their Bodies though wrapped up in a Cloud of the putrified Carcases of the Wicked As he knew them from all Eternity to elect them so he knows them in time to cloth their Persons with Righteousness to protect their Persons in Calamity according to his good pleasure and at last to raise and reward them according to his Promise 4. We may take Comfort from hence That our sincerity cannot be unknown to an infinite Vnderstanding Not a way of the Righteous is conceal'd from him and therefore they shall stand in Judgment before him * Psal 1.6 The Lord knows the way of the Righteous He knows them to observe them and he knows them to Reward them How comfortable is it to appeal to this Attribute of God for our integrity with Hezekiah 2 Kings 20.3 Remember Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Christ himself is brought in in this Prophetical Psalm drawing out the Comfort of this Attribute Psal 40.9 I have not restrain'd my Lips Oh Lord thou knowest meaning his faithfulness in declaring the Righteousness of God Job follows the same steps Also now behold my Record is in Heaven and my Witness is on high * Job 16 1â— My Innocence hath the Testimony of Men but my greatest support is in the Records of God Also now or besides the Testimony of my own Heart I have another Witness in Heaven that knows the Heart and can only judge of the principles of my actions and clear me from the scorns of my Friends and the accusations of Men with a justification of my Innocence He repeats it twice to take the greater comfort in it God knows that we do that in the simplicity of our Hearts which may be judged by Men to be done for unworthy and sordid ends He knows not only the outward action but the inward affection and praises that which Men often dispraise and writes down that with an Euge Well done good and faithful Servant which Men daube with their severest Censures * Rom. 2.29 How refreshing is it to consider that God never mistakes the appearance for reality nor is lead by the judgment of Man He sits in Heaven and laughs at their follies and Censures If God had no sounder and no more piercing a Judgment than Man woe be to the sincerest Souls that are often judged Hypocrites by some What a happiness is it for Integrity to have a Judge of infinite Understanding who will one day wipe off the durt of Worldly Reproaches Again God knows the least dram of Grace and Righteousness in the Hearts of his People though but as a smoking Flax or the least bruise of a saving conviction * Mat. 12.20 and knows it so as to cherish it he knows that work he hath begun and never hath his Eye off from it to abandon it 5. The consideration of this excellent Perfection in God may comfort us in our secret Prayers sighs and works If God were not of infinite Understanding to pierce into the Heart what comfort hath a poor Creature that hath a scantiness of Expressions but a Heart in a flame If God did not understand the Heart Faith and Prayer which are internal works would be in vain How could he give that Mercy our Hearts plead for if he were ignorant of our inward Affections Hypocrites might scale Heaven by lofty Expressions and a Sincere Soul come short of the happiness he is prepared for for want of flourishing Gifts Prayer is an internal work words are but the Garment of Prayer Meditation is the Body and Affection the Soul and Life of Prayer Give Ear to my words Oh Lord consider my Meditation * Psal 5.1 Prayer is a Rational act an act of the mind not the act of a Parrot Prayer is an act of the Heart though the speaking Prayer is the work of the Tongue Now God gives Ear to the words but he considers the Meditation the frame of the Heart Consideration is a more exact notice than hearing the act only of the Ear. Were not God of an infinite Understanding and Omniscient he might take fine Clothes a heap of Garments for the Man himself and be put off by glittering words without a Spiritual Frame What matter of rejoycing is it that we call not upon a deaf and ignorant Idol but on one that listens to our secret Petitions to give them a dispatch that knows our desires afar off and from the infiniteness of his Mercy joyn'd with his Omniscience stands ready to give us a return Hath he not a Book of Remembrance for them that fear him and for their sighs and ejaculations to him as well as their discourses of him * Mal. 3.16 and not only what Prayers they utter but what gracious and holy thoughts they have of him That thought upon his Name Though millions of supplications be put up at the same time yet they have all a distinct File as I may say in an infinite Understanding which perceives and comprehends them all As he observes millions of Sins committed at the same time by a vast number of Persons to Record them in order to Punishment so he distinctly discerns an infinite number of Cries at the same moment to Register them in order to an Answer A sigh cannot scape an infinite Understanding though crowded among a mighty multitude of Cries from others or cover'd with many unwelcome distractions in our selves no more than a believing touch from the Woman that had the Bloudy Issue could be conceal'd from Christ and be undiscern'd from the press of
from it The meeting of a Divine Truth and the Heart of Man is like the meeting of two Tides the weaker swells and foams We have a natural Antipathy against a Divine Rule and therefore when it is clapt close to our Consciences there is a snuffing at it high reasonings against it corruption breaks out more strongly As Water poured on Lime sets it on Fire by an Antiperistasis and the more Water is cast upon it the more furiously it burns Or as the Sun Beams shining upon a Dung-hill makes the steams the thicker and the stench the noysomer neither being the positive cause of the smoke in the Lime or the stench in the Dung-hill but by accident the causes of the eruption Rom. 7.8 But Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence for without the Law Sin was dead Sin was in a languishing posture as if it were dead like a lazy Garrison in a City till upon an Alarm from the Adversary it takes Arms and revives its courage all the sin in the heart gathers together its force to maintain its standing like the vapours of the Night which unite themselves more closely to resist the Beams of the rising Sun Deep Conviction often provokes fierce Opposition sometimes Disputes against a Divine Rule end in Blasphemies Acts 13.45 Contradicting and Blaspheming are coupled together Men naturally desire things that are forbidden and reject things commanded from the corruption of Nature which affects an unbounded Liberty and is impatient of returning under that Yoke it hath shaken off and therefore rageth against the bars of the Law as the Waves roar against the restraint of a bank When the Understanding is dark and the Mind Ignorant Sin lies as dead * Thes Salmur De Spiritu Servitutis Thes 19. a man scarce knows he hath such Motions of Concupiscence in him he finds not the least breath of Wind but a full calm in his Soul but when he is awakened by the Law then the vitiousness of nature being sensible of an Invasion of its Empire arms it self against the Divine Law and the more the Command is urged the more vigorously it bends its strength and more insolently lifts up it self against it he perceives more and more Atheistical Lusts than before all manner of Concupiscence more leprous and contagious than before When there are any motions to turn to God a reluctancy is presently perceived Atheistical thoughts bluster in the mind like the wind they know not whence they come nor whether they go So unapt is the heart to any acknowledgement of God as his Ruler and any re-union with him Hence men are said to resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 to fall against it as the word signifies as a stone or any ponderous body falls against that which lies in its way They would dash to pieces or grind to powder that very motion which is made for their instruction and the Spirit too which makes it and that not from a fit of passion but an habitual repugnance Ye always resist c. 2. External 't is a fruit of Atheism in the fourth verse of this Psalm Who eat up my people as they eat bread How do the revelations of the Mind of God meet with opposition And the Carnal World like dogs bark against the shining of the Moon So much men hate the Light that they spurn at the Lanthorns that bear it And because they cannot endure the Treasure often fling the earthen vessels against the ground wherein it is held If the entrance of Truth render the Market worse for Diana's Shrines the whole City will be in an uproar * Act. 19.24.28.29 When Socrates upon natural Principles confuted the Heathen Idolatry and asserted the unity of God the whole cry of Athens a learned University is against him and because he opposed the publick received Religion though with an undoubted Truth he must end his Life by Violence How hath every Corner of the World steam'd with the blood of those that would maintain the Authority of God in the World The Devils Children will follow the steps of their Father and endeavour to bruise the Heel of Divine Truth that would endeavour to break the Head of corrupt Lust 5. Men often seem desirous to be acquainted with the Will of God not out of any respect to his Will and to make it their Rule but upon some other Consideration Truth is scarce received as truth There is more of Hypocrisie than Sincerity in the pale of the Church and attendance on the Mind of God The outward dowry of a religious Profession makes it often more desirable than the Beauty Judas was a follower of Christ for the Bag not out of any affection to the Divine Revelation Men sometime pretend a desire to be acquainted with the Will of God to satisfie their own passions rather than to conform to Gods Will The Religion of such is not the judgment of the Man but the passion of the Brute Many entertain a Doctrine's for the persons sake rather than a person for the Doctrine sake and believe a thing because it comes from a Man they esteem as if his lips were more Canonical than Scripture The Apostle implies in the Commendation he gives the Thessalonians * 1 Thes 2.13 that some receive the Word for human interest not as it is in truth the Word and Will of God to command and govern their Consciences by its Soveraign Authority Or else they have the Truth of God as St. James speaks of the Faith of Christ with respect of persons * Jam. 2.2 and receive it not for the sake of the Fountain but of the Channel So that many times the same Truth delivered by another is disregarded which when dropping from the fancy and mouth of a Man 's own Idol is cryed up as an Oracle This is to make not God but Man the Rule For though we entertain that which materially is the Truth of God yet not formally as his Truth but as conveyed by one we affect And that we receive a Truth and not an Error we ow the obligation to the honesty of the Instrument and not to the strength and clearness of our own Judgment Wrong considerations may give admittance to an unclean as well as a clean beast into the Ark of the Soul That which is contrary to the Mind of God may be entertained as well as that which is agreeable 'T is all one to such that have no respect to God what they have As it is all one to a Spunge to suck up the foulest water or the sweetest wine when either is applyed to it 6. Many that entertain the Notions of the Will and Mind of God admit them with unsettled and wavering Affections There is a great Levity in the heart of Man The Jews that one day applaud our Saviour with Hosannahs as their King vote his Crucifixion the next and use him as a Murderer We begin in the Spirit and
end in the Flesh Our hearts like Lute-strings are changed with every change of weather with every appearance of a Temptation scarce one motion of God in a thousand prevails with us for a setled abode 'T is a hard task to make a signature of those Truths upon our affections which will with ease pass currant with our understandings Our affections will as soon lose them as our understandings embrace them The heart of Man is unstable as water * Gen. 49.4 Jam. 1.8 Some were willing to rejoyce in Johns Light which reflected a lustre on their minds but not in his heat which would have conveyed a warmth to their hearts and the Light was pleasing to them but for a season * Joh. 5.35 while their corruptions lay as if they were dead not when they were awakened Truth may be admitted one day and the next day rejected As Austin saith of a wicked Man he loves the Truth shining but he hates the Truth reproving This is not to make God but our own humor our rule and measure 7. Many desire an acquaintance with the Law and Truth of God with a design to improve some lust by it To turn the Word of God to be a Pander to the Breach of his Law This is so far from making Gods Will our Rule that we make our own vile affections the Rule of his Law How many forced Interpretations of Scripture have been coyned to give content to the lusts of men and the Divine Rule forced to bend and be squared to mens loose and carnal apprehensions 'T is a part of the instability or falseness of the heart to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction * 2 Pet. 3.16 which they could not do if they did not first wring them to countenance some detestable Error or filthy Crime In Paradise the first Interpretation made of the first Law of God was point blank against the mind of the Law-giver and venemous to the whole Race of Mankind Paul himself feared that some might put his Doctrine of Grace to so ill a use as to be an Altar and Sanctuary to shelter their Presumption Rom. 6.1.15 shall we then continue in Sin that Grace may abound Poysonous Consequences are often drawn from the sweetest Truths As when Gods Patience is made a Topick whence to argue against his Providence * Psal 94.1 or an encouragement to commit Evil more greedily as though because he had not presently a revenging Hand he had not an all seeing Eye Or when the Doctrine of Justification by Faith is made use of to depress a holy life or Gods readiness to receive returning sinners an encouragement to defer repentance till a death bed A Lyar will hunt for shelter in the reward God gave the Midwifes that lyed to Pharaoh for the preservation of the Males of Israel and Rahabs saving the Spies by false intelligence God knows how to distinguish between grace and corruption that may lie close together or between something of moral goodness and moral evil which may be mixed We find their fidelity rewarded which was a moral good but not their lye approved which was a moral evil Nor will Christs conversing with sinners be a plea for any to thrust themselves into evil Company Christ conversed with sinners as a Physitian with diseased persons to cure them not approve them others with profligate persons to receive infection from them not to communicate holiness to them Satans Children have studied their Fathers art who wanted not perverted Scripture to second his Temptations against our Saviour * How often do carnal hearts turn Divine Revelation to carnal ends as the Sea fresh water into salt As meâ—â—â—â—ject the precepts of God to carnal interests so they subject the truths of God to â—â—â—nal fancies When men will allegorize the Word and make a humorous and crazy fancy the Interpreter of Divine oracles and not the Spirit speaking in the Word This is to enthrone our own imaginations as the rule of Gods Law and depose his Law from being the rule of our reason This is to riflle truth of its true mind and intent T is more to rob a man of his reason the essential constitutive part of man than of his estate This is to refuse an intimate acquaintance with his Will We shall never tell what is the matter of a precept or the matter of a promise if we impose a sense upon it contrary to the plain meaning of it Thereby we shall make the Law of God to have a distinct sense according to the variety of mens imaginations and so make every mans fancy a Law to himself Now that this unwillingness to have a Spiritual acquaintance with Divine Truth is a disowning God as our rule and a setting up self in his stead is evident because this unwillingness respects Truth 1. As it is most Spiritual and Holy A fleshly mind is most contrary to a Spiritual Law and particularly as it is a searching and discovering Law that would dethrone all other rules in the Soul As men love to be without a Holy God in the world so they love to be without a holy Law the transcript and image of Gods Holiness in their hearts and without holy men the lights kindled by the Father of lights As the holiness of God so the holiness of the Law most offends a carnal heart Isa 30.11 Cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us prophecy to us right things They could not endure God as a holy one Herein God places their Rebellion rejecting him as their rule ver 9. Rebellious Children that will not hear the Law of the Lord. The more pure and precious any discovery of God is the more it is disrelisht by the world As Spiritual sins are sweetest to a carnal heart so Spiritual truths are most distastful The more of the brightness of the Sun any beam conveys the more offensive it is to a distempered eye 2. As it doth most relate to or lead to God The Devil directs his fiercest batteries against those Doctrines in the Word and those Graces in the heart which most exalt God debase man and bring men to the lowest subjection to their Creator Such is the Doctrine and grace of justifying faith That men hate not knowledge as knowledge but as it directs them to choose the fear of the Lord was the determination of the Holy Ghost long ago Prov. 1.29 for that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Whatsoever respects God clears up guilt witnesses mans revolt to him rouzeth up Conscience and moves to a return to God a man naturally runs from as Adam did from God and seeks a shelter in some weak bushes of error rather than appear before it Not that men are unwilling to inquire into and contemplate some Divine Truths which lie furthest from the heart and concern not themselves immediatly with the rectifying the soul They may view them with such a pleasure as
and his own happiness So loth is God to give any just occasion of dissatisfaction to his Creature as well as dishonour himself All those wonders of his mercy are inhanc'd by the hainousness of our Atheism a multitude of gracious thoughts from him above the multitude of contempts from us * Psal 106. â— What Rebells in actual Arms against their Prince aiming at his Life ever found that favour from him to have all their necessaries richly afforded them without which they would starve and without which they would be unable to manage their attempts as we have received from God Had not God had riches of goodness forbearance and long suffering and infinite riches too the despight the world hath done him in refusing him as their Rule Happiness and End would have emptied him long agoe * Rom. 2.4 2. It brings in a Justification of the exercise of his Justice If it gives us occasion loudly to praise his Patience it also stops our mouths from accusing any acts of his Vengeance What can be too sharp a recompence for the despising and disgracing so great a Being The highest contempt merits the greatest anger and when we will not own him for our happiness 't is equal we should feel the misery of separation from him If he that is guilty of Treason deserves to lose his Life what punishment can be thought great enough for him that is so disingenious as to prefer himself before a God so infinitely good and so foolish as to invade the rights of one infinitely powerful 'T is no injustice for a Creature to be for ever left to himself to see what advantage he can make of that self he was so busily imployed to set up in the place of his Creator The Soul of Man deserves an infinite punishment for despising an infinite good And it is not unequitable that that self which Man makes his Rule and Happiness above God should become his Torment and Misery by the Righteousness of that God whom he despised 3. Hence ariseth a necessity of a new state and frame of Soul to alter an Atheistical Nature We forget God Think of him with reluctancy Have no respect to God in our course and acts This cannot be our original state God being infinitely good never let man come out of his hands with this actual unwillingness to acknowledge and serve him He never intended to dethrone himself for the work of his hands or that the Creature should have any other end than that of his Creator As the Apostle saith in the Case of the Galatians Error Gal. 5.8 This perswasion came not of him that called you so this frame comes not from him that created you How much therefore do we need a restoring Principle in us Instead of ordering our selves according to the Will of God we are desirous to fulfil the Wills of the Flesh * Ephes 2.3 There is a necessity of some other principle in us to make us fulfil the Will of God since we were created for God not for the Flesh We can no more be voluntarily serviceable to God while our serpentine nature and Devillish habits remain in us than we can suppose the Devil can be willing to glorifie God while the nature he contracted by his fall abides powerfully in him Our Nature and Will must be changed that our actions may regard God as our End that we may delightfully meditate on him and draw the motives of our obedience from him Since this Atheism is seated in Nature the change must be in our Nature Since our first aspirings to the rights of God were the fruits of the Serpents breath which tainted our Nature there must be a removal of this taint whereby our Natures may be on the side of God against Satan as they were before on the side of Satan against God There must be a supernatural Principle before we can live a supernatural Life i. e. live to God since we are naturally alienated from the Life of God The aversion of our Natures from God is as strong as our inclination to evil we are disgusted with one and pressed with the other we have no will no heart to come to God in any service This Nature must be broken in pieces and new moulded before we can make God our Rule and our End While mens deeds are evil they cannot comply with God * Joh. 3.19 20. much less while their natures are evil Till this be done all the service a man performs riseth from some evil imagination of the heart which is evil only evil and that continually * Gen. 6.5 from wrong Notions of God wrong Notions of Duty or corrupt Motives All the pretences of Devotion to God are but the Adoration of some golden Image Prayers to God for the ends of self are like those of the Devil to our Saviour when he askt leave to go into the Herd of Swine The Object was right Christ the end was the destruction of the Swine and the satisfaction of their malice to the Owners There is a necessity then that depraved ends should be removed that that which was Gods end in our framing may be our end in our acting viz. his glory which cannot be without a change of Nature We can never honour him supreamly whom we do not supreamly love Till this be we cannot glorifie God as God though we do things by his Command and Order no more than when God imployed the Devil in afflicting Job * Job 1. His performance cannot be said to be good because his end was not the same with Gods he acted out of Malice what God commanded out of Soveraignity and for gracious designs Had God imployed an Holy Angel in his design upon Job the Action had been good in the Affliction because his Nature was holy and therefore his ends holy but bad in the Devil because his ends were base and unworthy 4. We may gather from hence the difficulty of Conversion and Mortification to follow thereupon What is the reason men receive no more impression from the Voice of God and the Light of his Truth than a dead man in the Grave doth from the roaring Thunder or a blind Mole from the Light of the Sun 'T is because our Atheism is as great as the deadness of the one or the blindness of the other The Principle in the heart is strong to shut the door both of the thoughts and affections against God If a Friend oblige us we shall act for him as for our selves We are won by intreaties soft words overcome us but our hearts are as deaf as the hardest Rock at the call of God Neither the joys of Heaven proposed by him can allure us nor the flasht terrors of Hell affright us to him as if we conceived God unable to bestow the one or execute the other The true reason is God and self contest for the Deity The Law of Sin is God must be at the foot-stool the Law of God is Sin
the Spirit * 2 Cor. 7.1 By the one we defile the Body by the other we defile the Spirit which in regard of its Nature is of kin to the Creator To wrong one who is neer of kin to a Prince is worse than to injure an inferior Subject When we make our Spirits which are most like to God in their Nature and framed according to his Image a stage to act vain imaginations wicked desires and unclean affections we wrong God in the excellency of his Work and reflect upon the nobleness of the Patern we wrong him in that part where he hath stampt the most signal Character of his own spiritual nature we defile that whereby we have only converse with him as a Spirit which he hath ordered more immediately to represent him in this Nature than all corporeal things in the world can and make that Spirit with whom we desire to be joyned unfit for such a knot Gods Spirituality is the root of his other perfections We have already heard he could not be infinite omnipresent immutable without it Spiritual sins are the greatest root of bitterness within us As grace in our Spirits renders us more like to a spiritual God so spiritual sins bring us into a conformity to a degraded Devil * Eph. 2.2 3. Carnal sins change us from men to brutes and spiritual sins devest us of the Image of God for the Image of Satan We should by no means make our Spirits a Dung-hill which bear upon them the Character of the spiritual Nature of God and were made for his residence Let us therefore behave our selves towards God in all those ways which the spiritual nature of God requires us A DISCOURSE OF Spiritual Worship HAVING thus dispatcht the first proposition God is a Spirit It will not be amiss to handle the inference our Saviour makes from that proposition which is the second observation propounded Doct. That the Worship due from us to God ought to be Spiritual and Spiritually performed Spirit and Truth are understood variously Either we are to Worship God 1. Not by legal ceremonies The Evangelical administration being called Spirit in opposition to the legal ordinances as carnal and Truth in opposition to them as typical As the whole Judaical service is called flesh so the whole Evangelical service is called Spirit Or Spirit may be opposed to the worship at Jerusalem as it was carnal Truth to the worship on the Mount Gerizim because it was false They had not the true object of worship nor the true Medium of worship as those at Jerusalem had Their worship should cease because it was false and the Jewish worship should cease because it was carnal There is no need of a Candle when the Sun spreads it beams in the Air no need of those Ceremonies when the Sun of righteousness appeared They only served for Candles to instruct and direct men till the time of his coming The shadows are chased away by the displaying the substance so that they can be of no more use in the worship of God since the end for which they were instituted is expired and that discovered to us in the Gospel which the Jews sought for in vain among the baggage and stuff of their Ceremonies 2. With a Spiritual and sincere frame In Spirit i. e. with Spirit with the inward operations of all the faculties of our Souls and the cream and flower of them And the reason is because there ought to be a worship sutable to the nature of God And as the worship was to be Spiritual so the exercise of that worship ought to be in a Spiritual manner * Lingend Tom. 2. p. 777. It shall be a worship in Truth because the true God shall be adored without those vain imaginations and phantastick resemblances of him * Taylors Exemplar Preface § 30. which were common among the blind Gentiles and contrary to the glorious nature of God and unworthy ingredients in Religious services It shall be a worship in Spirit without those carnal rites the degenerate Jews rested on Such a posture of Soul which is the life and ornament of every service God looks for at your hands There must be some proportion between the object adored and the manner in which we adore it It must not be a meer Corporeal worship because God is not a body but it must rise from the Center of our Soul because God is a Spirit If he were a body a bodily worship might sute him Images might be fit to represent him but being a Spirit our bodily services enter us not into communion with him Being a Spirit we must banish from our minds all carnal imaginations of him and separate from our Wills all cold and dissembled affections to him We must not only have a loud voice but an elevated Soul not only a bended knee but a broken heart not only a supplicating tone but a groaning Spirit not only a ready ear for the word but a receiving heart and this shall be of greater value with him than the most costly outward services offered at Gerizim or Jerusalem Our Saviour certainly meant not by worshipping in Spirit only the matter of the Evangelical service as opposed to the legal administration without the manner wherein it was to be performed T is true God always sought a worship in Spirit he expected the heart of the worshipper should joyn with his instituted rights of adoration in every exercise of them But he expects such a carriage more under the Gospel administration because of the clearer discoveries of his nature made in it and the greater assistances conveyed by it I shall therefore 1. Lay down some general propositions 2. Shew what this Spiritual worship is 3. Why we must offer to God a Spiritual service 4. The Vse 1. Some general propositions Proposition 1. First The right exercise of worship is founded upon and riseth from the Spirituality of God * Ames medul lib. 2. cap. 4. § 20. The first ground of the worship we render to God is the infinite excellency of his nature which is not only one attribute but results from all For God as God is the object of worship and the Notion of God consists not in thinking him wise good just but all those infinitely beyond any Conception And hence it follows that God is an object infinitely to beloved and honoured His goodness is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as a motive of our homage Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Fear in the Scripture dialect signifies the whole worship of God Acts 10.35 But in every Nation he that fears him is accepted of him * So 2 Kings 17.32 33. If God should act towards men according to the rigors of his Justice due to them for the least of their Crimes there could be no exercise of any affection but that of despair which could not engender a worship of God which ought to be joyned with love not
Holy-Ghost for the Apostle would never have called the Spirit of God his own Spirit but with my Spirit that is a sincere frame of heart A Carnal-worship whether under the Law or Gospel is when we are busied about external rites without an inward compliance of Soul God demands the heart * Pro. 23.26 my Son give me thy heart not give me thy tongue or thy lips or thy hands these may be given without the heart but the heart can never be bestowed without these as its attendants A heap of services can be no more welcome to God without our Spirits than all Jacobs Sons could be to Joseph without the Benjamin he desired to see God is not taken with the Cabinet but the Jewel He first respected Abels Faith and Sincerity and then his Sacrifice he disrespected Cains Infidelity and Hypocrisie and then his Offering * Moulin Sermons Decad. 4. Ser. 4. P. 80. For this cause he rejected the Offerings of the Jews the Prayers of the Pharisees and the Alms of Ananias and Sapphira because their hearts and their duties were at a distance from one another In all spiritual Sacrifices our Spirits are Gods portion Under the Law the Reins were to be consumed by the Fire on the Altar because the secret intentions of the heart were signified by them Psal 7.9 The Lord trieth the Heart and the Reins It was an ill Omen among the Heathen if a Victim wanted a heart The Widows Mites with her heart in them were more esteemed than the richer Offerings without it Not the quantity of service but the will in it is of account with this infinite Spirit All that was to be brought for the framing of the Tabernacle was to be offered willingly with the heart * Exod. 25.7 The more of Will the more of Spirituality and Acceptableness to God Psal 119.108 Accept the Free-will-offering of my lips Sincerity is the Salt which seasons every Sacrifice The heart is most like to the object of worship The heart in the body is the spring of all vital actions and a spiritual Soul is the spring of all spiritual actions How can we imagin God can delight in the meer service of the Body any more than we can delight in converse with a Carcass Without the heart 't is no worship 'T is a Stage-play an acting a part without being that person really which is acted by us A Hypocrite in the notion of the word is a Stage-player We may as well say a man may believe with his body as worship God only with his body Faith is a great ingredient in Worship and it is with the heart Man believes unto Righteousness * Rom. 10.10 We may be truly said to worship God though we want perfection but we cannot be said to worship him if we want sincerity A Statue upon a Tomb with eyes and hands lifted up offers as good and true a service it wants only a voice the gestures and postures are the same nay the service is better 't is not a mockery it represents all that it can be framed to But to worship without our Spirits is a presenting God with a Picture an Eccho Voice and nothing else a Complement a meer Lye a compassing him about with Lyes * Hos 11.12 Without the heart the tongue is a Lyar and the greatest Zeal dissembling with him To present the Spirit is to present with that which can never naturally dye to present him only the Body is to present him that which is every day crumbling to dust and will at last lye rotting in the Grave To offer him a few Raggs easily torn a Skin for a Sacrifice a thing unworthy the Majesty of God a fixed eye and elevated hands with a sleepy Heart and earthly Soul are pitiful things for an ever blessed and glorious Spirit Nay it is so far from being spiritual that it is Blasphemy To pretend to be a Jew outwardly without being so inwardly is in the Judgment of Christ to blaspheme * Revel 2.9 And is not the same title to be given with as much reason to those that pretend a worship and perform none Such a one is not a spiritual Worshipper but a blaspheming Devil in Samuel's Mantle 4. Spiritual Worship is performed with an unitedness of heart The heart is not only now and then with God but united to fear or worship his name * Psal 86.11 A spiritual duty must have the engagement of the Spirit and the thoughts tyed up to the spiritual Object The union of all the parts of the heart together with the body is the life of the body and the moral union of our hearts is the life of any duty A heart quickly flitting from God makes not God his treasure he slights the worship and therein affronts the Object of Worship All our thoughts ought to be ravished with God bound up in him as in a bundle of life But when we start from him to gaze after every feather and run after every bubble we disown a full and affecting excellency and a satisfying sweetness in him When our thoughts run from God 't is a testimony we have no spiritual affection to God Affection would stake down the thoughts to the Object affected 'T is but a Mouth-love as the Prophet phraseth it * Ezek. 33.31 But their hearts go after their Covetousness Covetous Objects pipe and the heart danceth after them and thoughts of God are shifted off to receive a multitude of other imaginations The heart and the service stayed a while together and then took leave of one another The Psalmist * Psal 39.18 still found his heart with God when he awak'd still with God in spiritual affections and fixed meditations A carnal heart is seldom with God either in or out of worship If God should knock at the heart in any duty it would be found not at home but straying abroad Our worship is spiritual when the door of the heart is shut against all Intruders as our Saviour commands in Closet-duties * Mat. 6.6 It was not his meaning to command the shutting the Closet-door and leave the Heart-door open for every thought that would be apt to haunt us Worldly affections are to be laid aside if we would have our worship spiritual This was meant by the Jewish custom of wiping or washing off the dust of their feet before their entrance into the Temple and of not bringing mony in their girdles To be spiritual in worship is to have our Souls gathered and bound up wholly in themselves and offered to God Our Loyns must be girt as the fashion was in the Eastern Countries where they wore long Garments that they might not waver with the Wind and be blown between their leggs to obstruct them in their travel Our faculties must not hang loose about us He is a carnal Worshipper that gives God but a piece of his heart as well as he that denies him the whole of it that hath
have all the Utensils of the Sanctuary employed about his service to be holy The Inwards of the Sacrifice were to be rinsed thrice * As the Jewish Doctors observe on Lev. 1.9 The Crop and Feathers of sacrificed Doves was to be hung Eastward towards the entrance of the Temple at a distance from the Holy of Holies where the presence of God was most eminent * Lev. 1.16 When Aaron was to go into the Holy of Holies he was to sanctifie himself in an extraordinary manner * Lev. 16.4 The Priests were to be bare footed in the Temple in the exercise of their Office shoes alway were to be put off upon holy ground Look to thy foot when thou goest to the House of God saith the wise man Eccles 5.1 Strip the affections the feet of the Soul of all the dirt contracted discard all earthly and base thoughts from the heart A Beast was not to touch the Mount Sinai without losing his Life Nor can we come near the Throne with brutish affections without losing the life and fruit of the worship An unholy Soul degrades himself from a Spirit to a Brute and the worship from spiritual to brutish If any unmortified sin be found in the Life as it was in the comers to the Temple It taints and pollutes the Worship * Isa 1.15 All worship is an acknowledgment of the excellency of God as he is holy * Jer. 7.9 10. Hence it is called a sanctifying Gods Name How can any person sanctifie Gods Name that hath not a holy resemblance to his Nature If he be not holy as he is holy he cannot worship him according to his excellency in Spirit and in Truth No worship is spiritual wherein we have not a communion with God But what intercourse can there be between a holy God and an impure Creature between Light and Darkness We have no fellowship with him in any service unless we walk in the Light in service and out of service as he is Light * 1 John 1.7 The Heathen thought not their Sacrifices agreeable to God without washing their hands whereby they signified the preparation of their hearts before they made the Oblation Clean hands without a pure heart signify nothing The frame of our hearts must answer the purity of the outward Symbols Psal 26.6 I will wash my hands in Innocence so will I compass thine Altar oh Lord He would observe the appointed Ceremonies but not without cleansing his heart as well as his hands Vain Man is apt to rest upon outward acts and rites of worship But this must alway be practised The words are in the present Tense I wash I compass Purity in worship ought to be our continual Care If we would perform a spiritual service wherein we would have communion with God it must be in Holiness If we would walk with Christ it must be in white * Revel 3.4 alluding to the white Garments the Priests put on when they went to perform their service As without this we cannot see God in Heaven so neither can we see the beauty of God in his own Ordinances 11. Spiritual worship is performed with spiritual ends with raised aims at the glory of God No duty can be spiritual that hath a carnal aim Where God is the sole Object he ought to be the principal End In all our actions he is to be our End as he is the principle of our Being much more in Religious Acts as he is the Object of our worship The worship of God in Scripture is exprest by the seeking of him * Heb. 11.6 Him not our selves all is to be referred to God As we are not to live to our selves that being the sign of a carnal state so we are not to worship for our selves Rom. 14.7 8. As all actions are denominated good from their end as well as their object so upon the same account they are denominated spiritual The end spiritualizeth our natural actions much more our religious Then are our faculties devoted to him when they center in him If the intention be evil there is nothing but darkness in the whole service Luke 11.34 The first institution of the Sabbath the solemn day for worship was to contemplate the glory of God in his stupendous works of Creation and render him a homage for them Revel 4.11 Thou art worthy oh Lord to receive Honour Glory and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created No worship can be returned without a glorifying of God and we cannot actually glorify him without direct aims at the promoting his honour As we have immediately to do with God so we are immediately to mind the praise of God As we are not to content our selves with habitual grace but be rich in the exercise of it in worship so we are not to acquiesce in habitual aims at the glory of God without the actual outflowings of our hearts in those aims 'T is natural for Man to worship God for self Self-righteousness is the rooted aim of Man in his worship since his revolt from God and being sensible it is not to be found in his natural actions he speaks for it in his moral and religious By the first Pride we flung God off from being our Soveraign and from being our end since a Pharisaical Spirit struts it in nature not only to do things to be seen of men but to be admired by God Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted and thou takest no knowledge This is to have God worship them instead of being worshipped by them Cain's carriage after his Sacrifice testified some base end in his worship he came not to God as a Subject to a Soveraign but as if he had been the Soveraign and God the Subject and when his design is not answered and his desire not gratified he proves more a Rebel to God and a Murderer of his Brother Such base scents will rise up in our worship from the body of death which cleaves to us and mix themselves with our services as Weeds with the Fish in the Net David therefore after his People had offered willingly to the Temple beggs of God that their hearts might be prepared to him * 1 Cron. 29.18 that their hearts might stand right to God without any squinting to self-ends Some present themselves to God as poor men offer a present to a great person not to honour him but to gain for themselves a reward richer than their gift What profit is it that we have kept his Ordinance c Mal. 3.14 Some worship him intending thereby to make him amends for the wrong they have done him wipe off their scores and satisfie their debts as though a spiritual wrong could be recompensed with a bodily service and an infinite Spirit be outwitted and appeased by a carnal flattery Self is the Spirit of Carnality To pretend a homage to God and intend only the advantage of self is rather
Corruptions will certainly be subdued in his voluntary subjects The Covenant I will be your God implyes protection government and relief which are all grounded upon Soveraignty That therefore which is our greatest burden will be remov'd by his Soveraign power Micah 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities If the outward enemies of the Church shall not bear up against his Dominion and perpetuate their rebellions unpunisht those within his people shall as little bear up against his Throne without being destroy'd by him The billows of our own hearts and the raging waves within us are as much at his beck as those without us And his Soveraignty is more eminent in quelling the corruptions of the heart than the commotions of the World in reigning over mens Spirits by changing them or curbing them more than over mens bodies by pinching and punishing them The remainders of Satans Empire will moulder away before him since he that is in us is a greater Soveraign than he that is in the World 1 Joh. 4.4 His enemies will be laid at his feet and so neveâ— shall prevail against him when his Kingdom shall come He could not be Lord of any man as a happy creature if he did not by his power make them happy and he could not make them happy unless by his Grace he made them holy He could not be praised as a Lord of Glory if he did not make some creatures glorious to praise him And an Earthly Creature could not praise him perfectly unless he had every grain of enmity to his Glory taken out of his heart Since God is the only Soveraign he only can still the commotions in our spirits and pull down all the Ensigns of the Devil's royalty he can wast him by the powerful word of his lips 4. Hence is a strong encouragement for Prayer My King was the strong compellation David us'd in Prayer as an argument of comfort and confidence as well as that of My God Psal 5 2. Hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God To be a King is to have an Office of Government and Protection He gives us liberty to approach to him as the Judge of all Heb. 12.23 i. e. As the Governour of the World we pray to one that hath the whole Globe of Heaven and Earth in his hand and can do whatsoever he will Though he be higher than the Cherubims and transcendently above all in Majesty yet we may soar up to him with the wings of our Soul Faith and Love and lay open our cause and find him as gracious as if he were the meanest subject on Earth rather than the most soveraign God in Heaven He hath as much of tenderness as he hath of Authority and is pleased with Prayer which is an acknowledgment of his Dominion an honouring of that which he delights to honour For Prayer in the notion of it imports thus much that God is the Rector of the World that he takes notice of humane affairs that he is a careful just wise Governour a store-house of blessing a fountain of goodness to the indigent and a releif to the oppressed What have we reason to fear when the soveraign of the World gives us liberty to approach to him and lay open our case That God who is King of the whole Earth not only of a few Villages or Cities in the Earth but the whole Earth and not only King of this dreggy place of our dross but of Heaven having prepar'd or established his Throne in the most glorious place of the Creation 5. Here is comfort in afflictions As a soveraign he is the Author of Afflictions as a soveraign he can be the remover of them he can command the waters of affliction to go so far and no farther If he speaks the Word a disease shall depart as soon as a servant shall from your presence with a Nod. If we are banisht from one place he can command a shelter for us in another If he orders Moab a Nation that had no great kindness for his people to let his outcasts dwell with them they shall entertain them and afford them sanctuary Isaiah 16.4 Again God chastneth as a soveraign but teacheth as a Father Psal 99.12 The exercise of his Authority is not without an exercise of his goodness He doth not correct for his own pleasure or the Creature 's torment but for the Creature 's instruction though the rod be in the hand of a soveraign yet it is tinctur'd with the kindness of divine bowels He can order them as a soveraign to mortifie our flesh and try our Faith In the severest tempest the Lord that rais'd the Wind against us which shatter'd the ship and tore its rigging can change that contrary wind for a more happy one to drive us into the Port. 6. 'T is a comfort against the projects of the Churches adversaries in times of publick commotions The consideration of the Divine soveraignty may arm us against the threatnings of mighty ones and the menaces of persecutors God hath Authority above the Crowns of men and a Wisdom superior to the cabals of men None can move a step without him he hath a negative voice upon their Counsels a negative hand upon their motions their politick resolves must stop at the point he hath prescrib'd them Their formidable strength cannot exceed the limits he hath set them their overreaching wisdom expires at the breath of God There is no Wisdom nor Vnderstanding nor Counsel against the Lord. Prov. 21.30 Not a bullet can be discharg'd nor a Sword drawn a wall battered nor a person dispatcht out of the world without the leave of God by the mightiest in the World The instruments of Satan are no more free from his soveraign restraint than their inspirer they cannot pull the hook out of their nostrils nor cast the bridle out of their mouths This soveraign can shake the Earth rend the Heavens overthrow Mountains the most Mountainous opposers of his interest Though the Nations rush in against his people like the rushing of many waters God shall rebuke them they shall be chased as the chaff of the Mountains before the Wind and like a rolling thing before the Whirlwind Isaiah 17.13 So doth he often burst in pieces the most mischievous designs and conducts the oppressed to a happy port He often turns the severest tempests into a calm as well as the most peaceful calm into a horrible storm How often hath a well-rigg'd ship that seemed to spâ—rn the Sea under her feet and beat the waves before her to a foam been swallowed up into the bowels of that Element over whose back she rode a little before God never comes to deliver his Church as a Governour but in a wrathful posture Ezek. 20.23 Surely saith the Lord with a mighty hand and with an out stretched arm and with fury pour'd out will I rule over you not with fury poured out upon the Church but fury pour'd out upon her Enemies as the words
But the Apostle the best Interpreter rectifies this in extending it by name to Jews as well as Gentiles Rom. 3.9 We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin And v. 10.11 12. Cites part of his Psalm and other passages of Scripture for the further evidence of it concluding by Jews and Gentiles every person in the world naturally in this State of Corruption The Psalmist first declares the Corruption of the faculties of the Soul the fool hath said in his heart Secondly the streams issuing from thence they are corrupt c. the first in Athestical principles the other in unworthy practices and lays all the Evil Tyranny Lust and Persecutions by men as if the World were only for their sake upon the neglects of God and the Atheism cherished in their hearts The fool a term in Scripture signifying a wicked man used also by the Heathen Philosophers to signifie a vicious person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as coming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the extinction of life in Men Animals and Plants so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken * Isa 40.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the flower fadeth Isa 28.1 a plant that hath lost all that juyce that made it lovely and useful So a fool is one that hath lost his Wisdom and right notion of God and Divine things which were communicated to man by creation one dead in sin yet one not so much void of rational faculties as of Grace in those faculties not one that wants reason but abuses his reason In Scripture the word signifies foolish ‖ Mais 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put together Deut. 32.6 Oh foolish people and unwise * Said in his heart that is he thinks or he doubts or he wishes The thoughts of the heart are in the nature of words to God though not to men T is used in the like case of the Atheistical person Psal 10.11.13 He hath said in his heart God hath forgotten he hath said in his heart thou wilt not require it He doth not form a Syllogism as Calvin speaks that there is no God he dares not openly publish it though he dares secretly think it He can not rase out the thoughts of a Deity though he endeavors to blot those Characters of God in his Soul He hath some doubts whither there be a God or no He wishes there were not any and sometimes hopes there is none at all He could not so ascertain him self by convincing arguments to produce to the World but he tampered with his own heart to bring it to that perswasion and smothered in himself those notices of a Deity which is so plain against the light of nature that such a man may well be called a fool for it There is no God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non potestas Domini Chaldae T is not Jehovah which name signifies the Essence of God as the Prime and Supream being But Eloahia which name signifies the Providence of God * Muis. God as a Rector and Judge Not that he denyes the Existence of a Supream being that Created the World but his regarding the Creatures his Government of the world and consequently his reward of the Righteous or Punishments of the Wicked * Cocceius There is a threefold denyal of God 1. Quoad exisientiam this is absolute Atheism 2. Quoad Providentiam or his inspection into or care of the things of the World bounding him in the Heavens 3. Quoad naturam in regard of one or other of the perfections due to his nature Not owning him as the Egyptians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the denyal of the Providence of God most understand this * Eugubin in cloc not excluding the absolute Atheist as Diagoras is reported to be nor the Sceptical Atheist as Protagoras who doubted whither there were a God Those that deny the Providence of God do in effect deny the being of God for they strip him of that Wisdom Goodness Tenderness Mercy Justice Righteousness which are the Glory of the Deity And that principle of a greedy desire to be uncontroul'd in their Lusts which induceth men to a denyal of Providence that thereby they might stifle those seeds of fear which infect and embitter their sinful pleasures may as well lead them to deny that there is any such being as a God That at one blow their fears may be dasht all in peices and dissolved by the removal of the Foundation As men who desire liberty to commit works of darkness would not have the lights in the House dimm'd but extinguished What men say against Providence because they would have no check in their Lusts they may say in their hearts against the existence of God upon the same account little difference between the dissenting from the one and disowning the other They are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good He speaks of the Atheist in the singular the fool of the corruption issuing in the life in the plural Intimating that though some few may choak in their hearts the sentiments of God and his Providence and positively deny them yet there is something of a secret Atheism in all which is the fountain of the evil practices in their lives not an utter disowning of the Being of a God but a denyal or doubting of some of the rights of his nature * Atheism absolute is not in all mens judgements but practical is in all mens actions The Apostle in the Romans applying the later part of it to all mankind but not the former As the word translated corrupt signifies When men deny the God of purity they must needs be polluted in Soul and Body and grow brutish in their actions When the sense of Religion is shaken off all kind of wickedness is eagerly rusht into whereby they become as loathsome to God as putrified carcases are to men * Atheism absolute is not in all mens judgements but practical is in all mens actions The Apostle in the Romans applying the later part of it to all mankind but not the former As the word translated corrupt signifies Not one or two evil actions is the product of such a principle but the whole scene of a mans life is corrupted and becomes execrable No man is exempted from some spice of Atheism by the depravation of his nature which the Psalmist intimates there is none that doth good Though there are indelible convictions of the being of a God that they cannot absolutely deny it yet there are some Atheistical bublings in the hearts of men which Evidence themselves in their actions As the Apostle Tit. 1.16 They profess that they know God but in works they deny him Evil works are a dust stirred up by an Atheistical breath He that habituates himself in some sordid lust can scarcly be said seriously and firmly to believe that there
He Created the world for his glory a people for himself that he might have the Honour of his works That since we live and move in him and by him we should live and move to him and for him It was the condemnation of the Heathen world that when they knew there was a God they did not give him the Glory due to him * Rom. 1.21 He that denyes his being is an Atheist to his essence He that denyes his worship is an Atheist to his Honour 5. If it be a folly to deny the being of God It will be our Wisdom then since we acknowledge his being often to think of him Thoughts are the first issue of a Creature as reasonable * Pro. 4.23 He that hath given us the faculty whereby we are able to think should be the principal object about which the power of it should be exercised T is a Justice to God the Author of our understandings a Justice to the nature of our understandings that the noblest faculty should be imployed about the most excellent object Our minds are a beam from God and therefore as the Beams of the Sun when they touch the Earth should reflect back upon God As we seem to deny the being of God not to think of him we seem also to unsoul our Souls in misimploying the activity of them any other way like Flies to be oftner on Dunghils than Flowers T is made the black mark of an ungodly Man or an Atheist that God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 What comfort can be had in the being of God without thinking of him with Reverence and delight A God forgotten is as good as no God to us A DISCOURSE UPON PRACTICAL ATHEISM Psalm 14.1 Doct. 2. PRACTICAL Atheism is natural to Man in his depraved state and very frequent in the hearts and lives of Men. The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God He regards him as little as if he had no being He said in his heart not with his tongue nor in his head He never firmly thought it nor openly asserted it Shame put a Bar to the first and natural reason to the second Yet perhaps he had sometimes some doubts whether there were a God or no He wished there were not any and sometimes hoped there were none at all He could not rase out the Notion of a Deity in his mind but he neglected the fixing the sence of God in his heart and made it too much his business to deface and blot out those Characters of God in his Soul which had been left under the ruines of original nature Men may have Atheistical hearts without Atheistical heads Their reasons may defend the Notion of a Deity while their hearts are empty of affection to the Deity Jobs Children may curse God in their hearts tho not with their lips * Job 1.5 There is no God Most understand it of a denial of the Providence of God as I have said in opening the former Doctrine He denies some essential Attribute of God or the exercise of that Attribute in the world * So the Chalde reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non potestas denying the authority of God in the world He that denies any essential Attribute may be said to deny the being of God Whosoever denies Angels or men to have Reason and Will denies the human and Angelical nature because Understanding and Will are essential to both those Natures there could neither be Angel nor Man without them No Nature can subsist without the perfections essential to that Nature nor God be conceived of without His The Apostle tells us Eph. 2.12 that the Gentiles were without God in the World So in some sence all unbelievers may be termed Atheists for rejecting the Mediator appointed by God they reject that God who appointed him But this is beyond the intended scope Natural Atheism being the only subject Yet this is deducible from it That the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not only belong to those who deny the Existence of God or to those who contemn all sence of a Deity and would root the Conscience and Reverence of God out of their Souls But it belongs also to these who give not that Worship to God which is due to him Who Worship many Gods or who Worship one God in a false and superstitious manner when they have not right conceptions of God nor intend an adoration of him according to the excellency of his Nature All those that are unconcerned for any particular Religion fall under this Character Though they own a God in general yet are willing to acknowledge any God that shall be coined by the powers under whom they live The Gentiles were without God in the world without the true Notion of God not without a God of their own framing This general or practical Atheism is natural to men 1. Not natural by Created but by corrupted Nature T is against nature as nature came out of the hand of God But universaly natural as nature hath been sophisticated and infected by the Serpents breath Inconsideration of God or misrepresentations of his nature are as agreeable to corrupt nature as the disowning the being of a God is contrary to common reason God is not denied naturâ sed vitiis * Augustin de Civit. Dei 2. T is universally natural The wicked are estranged from the Womb Psa 58.3 They go astray as soon as they be born their poyson is like the poyson of a Serpent The wicked And who by his birth hath a better title They go astray from the dictates of God and the rule of their Creation as soon as ever they be born Their poyson is like the poyson of a Serpent which is radically the same in all of the sames species T is seminally and fundamentally in all men though there may be a stronger restraint by a Divine hand upon some men than upon others This principle runs through the whole stream of Nature The natural bent of every mans heart is distant from God When we attempt any thing pleasing to God t is like the climbing up a Hill against nature when any thing is displeasing to him t is like a Current running down the Channel in its natural course When we attempt any thing that is an acknowledgment of the Holiness of God we are fain to rush with Armes in our hands through a multitude of natural passions and fight the way through the oppositions of our own sensitive appetite How softly do we naturally sink down into that which sets us at a greater distance from God There is no active potent efficacious sence of a God by nature The heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Eccl. 8.11 The heart in the singular number as if there were but one Common heart beat in all mankind and bent as with own pulse with a joynt consent and force to wickedness without a sence of the Authority
of God in the Earth as if one heart acted every Man in the world The great Apostle cites the Text to verefie the charge he brought against all mankind * Rom. 3.9 10.11.12 In his interpretation the Jews who owned one God and were dignified with special priviledges as well as the Gentiles that maintained many Gods are within the compass of this Character The Apostle leaves out the first part of the Text the fool hath said in his heart but takes in the latter part and the verses following He charges all because all every man of them was under sin There is none that seeks God and ver 19. He adds what the law saith it speaks to those that are under the Law That none should imagine he included only the Gentiles and exempted the Jews from this description The Leprosie of Atheism had infected the whole Mass of human nature No Man among Jews or Gentiles did naturally seek God and therefore all were void of any spark of the practical sence of the Deity The effects of this Atheism are not in all externally of an equal size Yet in the fundamentals and radicals of it there is not a hairs difference between the best and the worst men that ever traversed the world The distinction is laid either in common Grace bounding and suppressing it or in special Grace killing and crucifying it T is in every one either triumphant or militant reigning or deposed No Man is any more born with sensible acknowledgments of God than he is born with a clear knowledge of the nature of all the Stars in the Heavens or Plants upon the Earth None seeks after God * Coccei None seek God as his rule as his end as his happiness which is a debt the Creature naturally owes to God he desires no communion with God He places his happiness in any thing inferior to God He prefers every thing before him glorifies every thing above him he hath no delight to know him he regards not those paths which lead to him he loves his own filth better than Gods Holiness his actions are tinctured and dyed with self and are void of that respect which is due from him to God The noblest Faculty of Man his Understanding wherein the remaining Lineaments of the Image of God are visible the highest Operation of that Faculty which is Wisdom is in the Judgment of the Spirit of God Devilish whiles it is earthly and sensual * Jam. 3.15 and the Wisdom of the best man is no better by Nature a legion of impure Spirits possess it Devilish as the Devil who though he believe there is a God yet acts as if there were none and wishes he had no Superior to prescribe him a Law and inflict that punishment upon him which his Crimes have merited Hence the Poyson of Man by Nature is said to be like the Poyson of a Serpent alluding to that serpentine temptation which first infected Mankind and changed the nature of Man into the likeness of that of the Devil * Psal 58.4 So that notwithstanding the Harmony of the World that presents men not only with the Notice of the Being of a God but darts into their minds some remarks of his Power and Eternity yet the thoughts and reasonings of Man are so corrupt as may well be called Diabolical and as contrary to the Perfection of God and the original Law of their Nature as the actings of the Devil are For since every natural Man is a Child of the Devil and is acted by the Diabolical Spirit he must needs have that Nature which his Father hath and the Infusion of that Venom which the Spirit that acts him is possessed with though the full Discovery of it may be restrained by various Circumstances Eph. 2.2 To conclude though no man or at least very few arrive to a round and positive Conclusion in their hearts that there is no God yet there is no man that naturally hath in his heart any reverence of God In general before I come to a particular Proof take some Propositions Proposition 1. Actions are a greater discovery of a Principle than Words The Testimony of Works is louder and clearer than that of Words and the Frame of mens hearts must be measured rather by what they do than by what they say There may be a mighty distance between the Tongue and the Heart but a Course of Actions is as little guilty of lying as Interest is according to our common saying All outward Impieties are the branches of an Atheism at the root of our Nature as all pestilential sores are expressions of the Contagion in the Blood Sin is therefore frequently called Ungodliness in our English Dialect Mens Practices are the best Indexes of their Principles The Current of a Mans Life is the counter-part of the Frame of his Heart Who can deny an Error in the Spring or Wheels when he perceives an Error in the hand of the Dial Who can deny an Atheism in the Heart when so much is visible in the Life The Tast of the water discovers what Mineral 't is strained through A practical Denial of God is worse than a verbal because deeds have usually more of deliberation than words words may be the fruit of a Passion but a set of evil actions are the fruit and evidence of a predominant evil Principle in the Heart All slighting words of a Prince do not argue an habitual Treason but a succession of overt treasonable Attempts signifie a setled treasonable disposition in the Mind Those therefore are more deservedly termed Atheists who acknowledge a God and walk as if there were none than those if there can be any such that deny a God and walk as if there were one A Sense of God in the Heart would burst out in the Life Where there is no reverence of God in the Life 't is easily concluded there is less in the Heart What doth not influence a Man when it hath the addition of the Eyes and censures of outward Spectators and the care of a Reputation so much the God of the world to strengthen it and restrain the action must certainly have less power over the Heart when it is single without any other concurrence The Flames breaking out of a house discover the Fire to be much stronger and fiercer within The Apostle judgeth those of the Circumcision who gave heed to Jewish Fables to be Denyers of God though he doth not tax them with any notorious Prophaness Tit. 1.16 They profess that they know God but in works they deny him he gives them Epithites contrary to what they arrogated to themselves * Illyric They boasted themselves to be holy the Apostle calls them abominable They bragged that they fulfilled the Law and observed the Traditions of their Fathers the Apostle calls them disobedient or unperswadable They boasted that they only had the Rule of Righteousness and a sound Judgment concerning it the Apostle said they had a
Reprobate Sense and unfit for any good work and judges against all their vain glorious braggs that they had not a Reverence of God in their Hearts there was more of the Denial of God in their Works than there was Acknowledgement of God in their Words Those that have neither God in their Thoughts nor in their Tongues nor in their Works cannot properly be said to acknwledge him Where the Honour of God is not practically owned in the lives of men the Being of God is not sensibly acknowledged in the hearts of men The Principle must be of the same kind with the Actions if the Actions be Atheistical the Principal of them can be no better Prop. 2. All Sin is founded in a secret Atheism Atheism is the Spirit of every Sin all the Flouds of Impieties in the World break in at the Gate of a secret Atheism And though several sins may disagree with one another yet like Herod and Pilate against Christ they joyn hand in hand against the interest of God Though lusts and pleasures be divers yet they are all united in Disobedience to him * Tit. 3.3 All the wicked inclinations in the heart and strugling motions secret repinings self applauding confidences in our own wisdom strength c. envy ambition revenge are sparks from this latent fire the language of every one of these is I would be a Lord to my self and would not have a God Superior to me The variety of sins against the first and second Table the neglects of God and violences against Man are derived from this in the Text first the Fool hath said in his heart and then follows a legion of Devils As all vertuous actions spring from an acknowledgment of God so all vitious actions rise from a lurking Denial of him All licentiousness goes glib down where there is no sense of God Abraham judged himself not secure from Murder nor his Wife from Defilement in Gerar if there were no Fear of God there * Gen. 20.11 He that makes no Conscience of Sin has no regard to the Honour and consequently none to the Being of God By the Fear of God men depart from Evil Pro. 16.6 By the non-regarding of God men rush into Evil. Pharaoh opprest Israel because he knew not the Lord. If he did not deny the Being of a Deity yet he had such an unworthy Notion of God as was inconsistent with the Nature of a Deity he a poor Creature thought himself a Mate for the Creator In sins of Ommission we own not God in neglecting to perform what he enjoyns In sins of Commission we set up some lust in the place of God and pay to that the Homage which is due to our Maker In both we disown him in the one by not doing what he commands in the other by doing what he forbids We deny his Soveraignty when we violate his Laws we disgrace his Holiness when we cast our filth before his Face we disparage his Wisdom when we set up another Rule as the Guide of our Actions than that Law he hath fixed we slight his Sufficiency when we prefer a satisfaction in sin before a happiness in Him alone and his Goodness when we judge it not strong enough to attract us to him Every sin invades the Rights of God and strips him of one or other of his Perfections 'T is such a vilifying of God as if he were not God as if he were not the supream Creator and Benefactor of the World as if we had not our Being from Him as if the Air we breathed in the Food we lived by were our own by right of Supreamacy not of Donation For a Subject to slight his Soveraign is to slight his Royalty or a Servant his Master is to deny his Superiority Prop. 3. Sin implies that God is unworthy of a Being Every Sin is a kind of cursing God in the Heart * Job 1.5 an aim at the destruction of the Being of God not actually but vertually not in the intention of every Sinner but in the nature of every Sin That Affection which excites a man to break his Law would excite him to annihilate his Being if it were in his power A Man in every sin aims to set up his own will as his rule and his own glory as the end of his actions against the will and glory of God and could a Sinner attain his end God would be destroyed God cannot out live his will and his glory God cannot have another rule but his own will nor another end but his own honour Sin is called a turning the back upon God * Jer. 32.33 Deut. 32.15 a kicking against him * Jer. 32.33 Deut. 32.15 as if he were a slighter person than the meanest beggar What greater contempt can be shew'd to the meanest vilest person than to turn the back lift up the heel and thrust away with indignation All which actions though they signifie that such a one hath a Being yet they testifie also that he is unworthy of a Being that he is an unuseful Being in the world and that it were well the world were rid of him All Sin against Knowledge is called a Reproach of God * Numb 15.30 Ezek. 20.27 Reproach is a vilifying a man as unworthy to be admitted into Company We naturally Judge God unfit to be conversed with God is the term turned from by a sinner Sin is the term turned to which implies a greater excellency in the nature of sin than in the nature of God And as we naturally Judge it more worthy to have a being in our affections so consequently more worthy to have a being in the world than that infinite nature from whom we derive our beings and our all and upon whom with a kind of disdain we turn our backs Whosoever thinks the Notion of a Deity unfit to be cherished in his mind by warm Meditation implies that he cares not whether he hath a being in the world or no. Now tho the light of a Deity shines so clearly in Man and the stings of Conscience are so smart that he cannot absolutely deny the being of a God yet most Men endeavour to smother this knowledge and make the Notion of a God a sapless and useless thing Rom. 1.28 They like not to retain God in their knowledge It is said Cain went out from the presence of the Lord Gen. 4.16 That is from the Worship of God Our refusing or abhorring the presence of a man implies a carelessness whether he continue in the World or no T is a using him as if he had no being or as if we were not concerned in it Hence all men in Adam under the Emblem of the prodigal are said to go into a far Country Not in respect of place because of Gods Omnipresence but in respect of acknowledgment and affection they mind and love any thing but God And the descriptions of the Nations of the world lying in the Ruines of Adams fall
some might take in beholding the Miracles of our Saviour who could not endure his searching Doctrine The light of speculation may be pleasant but the light of conviction is grievous that which galls their Consciences and would affect them with a sense of their duty to God Is it not easy to perceive that when a man begins to be serious in the concerns of the Honour of God and the duty of his soul he feels a reluctancy within him even against the pleas of Conscience which evidenceth that some unworthy principle has got footing in the hearts of men which fights against the declarations of God without and the impressions of the Law of God within at the same time when a man 's own Conscience takes part with it which is the substance of the Apostles discourse Rom. 7.15 16 c. Close discourses of the Honour of God and our duty to him are irksome when men are upon a merry pin They are like a damp in a Mine that takes away their breath they shuffle them out as soon as they can and are as unwilling to retain the-speech of them in their mouths as the knowledge of them in their hearts Gracious speeches instead of bettering many men distemper them as sometimes sweet perfumes affect a weak head with aches 3. As t is most contrary to self Men are unwilling to acquaint themselves with any truth that leads to God because it leads from self Every part of the Will of God is more or less displeasing as it sounds harsh against some carnal interest men would set above God or as a Mate with him Man cannot desire any intimacy with that Law which he regards as a Bird of prey to pick out his right eye or gnaw off his right hand his lust dearer than himself The reason we have such hard thoughts of Gods Will is because we have such high thoughts of our selves T is a hard matter to Believe or Will that which hath no affinity with some principle in the understanding and no interest in our Will and Passions Our unwillingness to be acquainted with the Will of God ariseth from the disproportion between that and our corrupt hearts We are alienated from the life of God in our minds Eph. 41 18 19. As we live not like God so we neither think or Will as God There is an antipathy in the heart of man against that Doctrine which teaches us to deny our selves and be under the rule of another But whatsoever favours the ambition lusts and profits of men is easily entertainable Many are fond of those Sciences which may enrich their understandings and grate not upon their sensual delights Many have an admirable dexterity in finding out Philosophical reasons Mathematical demonstrations or raising observations upon the Records of History and spend much time and many serious and affectionate thoughts in the study of them In those they have not immediatly to do with God their beloved pleasures are not impaired T is a satisfaction to self without the exercise of any hostility against it But had those Sciences been against self as much as the Law and Will of God they had long since been rooted out of the World Why did the Young-man turn his back upon the Law of Christ because of his worldly self Why did the Pharisees mock at the Doctrine of our Saviour and not at their own traditions because of Covetous self Why did the Jews slight the person of our Saviour and put him to death after the reading so many Credentials of his being sent from Heaven because of ambitious self that the Romans might not come and take away their Kingdom If the Law of God were fitted to the humors of self it would be readily and cordially observed by all men Self is the measure of a world of seeming Religious actions while God seems to be the object and his Law the motive self is the rule and end Zach. 7.5 Did you fast unto me c. 2 As men discover their disowning the Will of God as a rule by unwillingness to be acquainted with it so they discover it by the contempt of it after they cannot avoid the Notions and some impressions of it The rule of God is burthensome to a sinner he flies from it as from a frightful bug-bear and unpleasant Yoke Sin against the knowledge of the Law is therefore called a going back from the Commandment of Gods lips Job 23.12 A casting Gods word behind them * Psal 50.17 as a contemptible thing fitter to be trodden in the durt than lodged in the heart Nay it is a casting it off as an abominable thing for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Hos 8.3 Israel hath cast off the thing that is good an utter refusal of God Jer. 44.16 As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken In the slight of his precepts his essential perfections are slighted In disowning his Will as a Rule we disown all those attributes which flow from his Will as Goodness Righteousness and Truth As an Act of the Divine understanding is supposed to precede the Act of the Divine Will so we slight the infinite reason of God Every Law tho it proceeds from the Will of the Law-giver and doth formally consist in an Act of the Will yet it doth presuppose an act of the understanding If the Commandment be holy just and good as it is Rom. 7.12 if it be the image of Gods holiness a transcript of his righteousness and the efflux of his goodness then in every breach of it durt is cast upon those Attributes which shine in it and a slight of all the regards he hath to his own Honour and all the provisions he makes for his Creature This Atheism or contempt of God is more taken notice of by God than the matter of the sin it self As a respect to God in a weak and imperfect obedience is more than the matter of the obedience it self because it is an acknowledgment of God So a contempt of God in an act of disobedience is more than the matter of the disobedience The Creature stands in such an Act not only in a posture of distance from God but defiance of him It was not the bare act of Murder and Adultery which Nathan charged upon David but the Atheistical principle which Spirited those evil acts The despising the Commandment of the Lord was the venom of them * 2 Sam. 12. ◠1◠T is possible to break a Law without contempt But when men pretend to believe there is a God and that this is the Law of God it shews a contempt of his Majesty * Claud. Men naturally account Gods Laws too strict his Yoak too heavy and his limits too strait And he that liveth in a contempt of this Law curseth God in his life How can they believe there is a God who despise him as a Ruler How can they believe him to
Traditions against the Will of God are said to make his Law of none effect to strip it of all its Authority as the word signifies Mat. 15.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. We have the greatest slight of that Will of God which is most for his Honour and his greatest Pleasure 'T is the Nature of Man ever since Adam to do so Hos 6.6.7 God desired Mercy and not Sacrifice the Knowledge of Himself more than burnt Offering but they like men as Adam have transgressed the Covenant invade Gods Rights and not let him be Lord of one Tree We are more curious Observers of the Fringes of the Law than of the greater concerns of it The Jews were diligent in Sacrifices and Offerings which God did not urge upon them as Principals but as Types of other things but negligent of the Faith which was to be established by him Holiness Mercy Pity which concerned the Honour of God as Governour of the World and were imitations of the Holiness and Goodness of God they were Strangers to This is Gods Complaint Isa 1.11 12. and 16 17. We shall find our hearts most averse to the observation of those Laws which are Eternal and Essential to Righteousness such that he could not but command as he is a Righteous Governour in the observation of which we come nearest to him and express his Image more clearly As those Laws for an inward and spiritual Worship a supreme Affection to him God in regard of his Righteousness and Holiness of his Nature and the Excellency of his Being could not command the contrary to these But this part of his Will our hearts most swell against our corruption doth most snarle at whereas those Laws which are only positive and have no intrinsick Righteousness in them but depend purely upon the Will of the Law-giver and may be changed at his pleasure which the other that have an intrinsick Righteousness in them cannot we better comply with than that part of his Will that doth express more the Righteousness of his Nature * Psal 5◠6.17 19. such as the Ceremonial part of Worship and the Ceremonial Law among the Jews We are more willing to observe Order in some outward attendances and glavering devotions than discard secret affections to evil crucify inward lusts and delightful thoughts A hanging down the head like a bulrish is not difficult but the breaking the heart like a Potters vessel to shreds and dust a sacrifice God delights in whereby the excellency of God and the vileness of the Creature is owned goes against the grain To cut off an outward branch is not so hard as to hack at the root What God mosts loaths as most contrary to his Will we most love No sin did God so severely hate and no sin were the Jews more enclined unto than that of Idolatry The Heathen had not changed their God as the Jews had changed their glory Jer. 2.11 And all men are naturally tainted with this sin which is so contrary to the holy and excellent nature of God By how much the more defect there is of purity in our respects to God by so much the more respect there is to some Idol within or without us to humor custom and interest c. Never did any Law of God meet with so much opposition as Christianity which was the design of God from the first promise to the exhibiting the Redeemer and from thence to the end of the World All people drew Swords at first against it The Romans prepared Yokes for their Neighbors but provided Temples for the Idols those people Worshipped But Christianity the choicest design and most delightful part of the Will of God never met with a kind entertainment at first in any place Rome that entertained all others persecuted this with Fire and Sword tho sealed by greater Testimonies from Heaven than their own Records could report in favour of their Idols 4. In running the greatest hazards and exposing our selves to more trouble to cross the Will of God than is necessary to the observance of it T is a vain charge men bring against the Divine precepts that they are rigorous severe difficult When besides the contradiction to our Saviour who tells us his Yoke is easy and his Burthen light they thwart their own calm reason and Judgment Is there not more difficulty to be Vicious Covetous Violent Cruel than to be Vertuous Charitable Kind Doth the Will of God enjoyn that that is not conformable to right reason and secretly delightful in the exercise and issue And on the contrary what doth Satan and the world engage us in that is not full of molestation and hazard Is it a sweet and comely thing to combat continually against our own Consciences and resist our own light and commence a perpetual quarrel against our selves as we ordinarily do when we sin They in the Prophet Mich. 6.6 7 8. would be at the expence of thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyl if they could compass them yea would strip themselves of their Natural affection to their first-born to expiate the sin of their Soul rather then to do Justice love mercy and walk humbly with God things more conducible to the Honour of God the welfare of the world the security of their Souls and of a more easie practice than the offerings they wished for Do not men then disown God when they will walk in ways hedged with thorns wherein they meet with the Arrows of Conscience at every turn in their sides and slidedown to an everlasting punishment sink under an intolerable slavery to contradict the Will of God When they will prefer a sensual satisfaction with a combustion in their Consciences violation of their reasons gnawing cares and weary travels before the Honour of God the dignity of their Natures the happiness of peace and health which might be preserved at a cheaper rate than they are at to destroy them 5. In the unwillingness and awkardness of the heart when it is to pay God a service Men do evil with both hands earnestly * Mich. 7.3 but do good with one hand faintly no life in the heart nor any diligence in the hand What slight and loose thoughts of God doth this unwillingness imply T is a wrong to his providence as tho we were not under his Government and had no need of his assistance A wrong to his excellency as tho there were no aimableness in him to make his service desirable An injury to his goodness and power as if he were not able or willing to reward the Creatures obedience or careless not to take notice of it T is a sign we receive little satisfaction in him and that there is a great unsutableness between him and us 1. There is a kind of constraint in the first engagement We are rather prest to it than enter our selves Volunteers What we call service to God is done naturally much against our Wills t is not a delightful food but
are coupled here together that which hath Wealth and that which hath those glorious Creatures in Heaven for its Object And though some may think it a light Sin yet the Crime being of deeper guilt a denial of God deserves a severer punishment and falls under the Sentence of the just Judge of all the Earth under that Notion which Job intimates in those words this also were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judge The kissing the hand to the Sun Moon or any Idol was an external Sign of Religious Worship among those and other Nations This is far less than an inward hearty Confidence and an affectionate Trust If the motion of the hand be much more is the affection of the heart to an excrementitious Creature or a brutish Pleasure is a Denial of God and a kind of an Abjuring of him siince the Supream Affection of the Soul is undoubtedly and solely the Right of the Soveraign Creator and not to be given in common to others as the outward gesture may in a way of civil respect Nothing that is an Honour peculiar to God can be given to a Creature without a plain exclusion of God to be God it being a disowning the rectitude and excellency of his Nature If God should command a Creature such a Love and such a Confidence in any thing inferior to him He would deny himself his own Glory He would deny himself to be the most excellent Being Can the Romanists be free from this when they call the Cross Spem unicam and say to the Virgin In te Domina speravi as Bonaventure c. Good reason therefore have Worldlings and Sensualists persons of immoderate fondness to any thing in the world to reflect upon themselves since though they own the Being of a God they are guilty of so great disrespect to him that cannot be excused from the title of an unworthy Atheism And those that are renewed by the Spirit of God may here see ground of a daily Humiliation for the frequent and too common Excursions of their Souls in Creature Confidences and Affections whereby they fall under the charge of an act of practical Atheism though they may be free from an habit of it 3. The third thing is Man would make himself the end of all Creatures Man would fit in the Seat of God and set his heart as the heart of God as the Lord saith of Tyrus Ezek. 28.2 What is the consequence of this but to be esteemed the chief Good and end of other Creatures A thing that the heart of God cannot but be set upon it being an inseparable Right of the Deity who must deny himself if he deny this affection of the Heart Since it is the nature of Man deriv'd from his Root to desire to be equal with God it follows that he desires no Creature should be equal with him but subservient to his ends and his glory He that would make himself God would have the Honour proper to God He that thinks himself worthy of his own supream affection thinks himself worthy to be the Object of the supream affection of others Whosoever counts himself the chiefest Good and last End would have the same place in the thoughts of others Nothing is more natural to Man than a desire to have his own Judgment the Rule and Measure of the Judgments and Opinions of the rest of Mankind He that sets himself in the Place of the Prince doth by that act challenge all the Prerogatives and Dues belonging to the Prince and apprehending himself fit to be a King apprehends himself also worthy of the Homage and Fealty of the Subjects He that loves himself chiefly and all other things and persons for himself would make himself the end of all Creatures It hath not been once or twice only in the World that some vain Princes have assumed to themselves the title of Gods and caused Divine Adorations to be given to them and Altars to smoke with Sacrifices for their Honour What hath been practised by one is by Nature seminally in all We would have all pay an Obedience to us and give to us the Esteem that is due to God This is evident 1. In Pride When we entertain an high Opinion of our selves and act for our own Reputes we dispossess God from our own hearts and while we would have our Fame to be in every mans mouth and be admired in the hearts of men we would chase God out of the hearts of others and deny his Glory a Residence any where else that our Glory should reside more in their minds than the Glory of God that their thoughts should be filled with our Atchievements more than the Works and Excellency of God with our Image and not with the Divine Pride would paramount God in the affections of others and justle God out of their Souls and by the same reason that man doth thus in the Place where he lives he would do so in the whole world and press the whole Creation from the Service of their true Lord to his own Service Every proud man would be counted by others as he counts himself the highest chiefest piece of Goodnes and be adored by others as much as he adores and admires himself No proud man in his self-love and self-admiration thinks himself in an Error and if he be worthy of his own admiration he thinks himself worthy of the highest esteem of others that they should value him above themselves and value themselves only for him What did Nebuchadnezzar intend by setting up a Golden Image and commanding all his Subjects to worship it upon the highest Penalty he could inflict but that all should aim only at the pleasing his Humor 2. In using the Creatures contrary to the End God has appointed God created the World and all things in it as steps whereby men might ascend to a Prospect of him and the acknowledgment of his Glory and we would use them to dishonour God and gratifie our selves He appointed them to supply our necessities and support our rational delights and we use them to cherish our sinful lusts We wring groans from the Creature in diverting them from their true scope to one of our own fixing when we use them not in his service but purely for our own and turn those things he created for himself to be instruments of Rebellion against him to serve our turns and hereby endeavour to defeat the ends of God in them to establish our own ends by them This is a high dishonour to God a Sacrilegious undermining of his Glory * Sabunde Tit. 200. P. 352. to reduce what God hath made to serve our own glory and our own pleasure It perverts the whole Order of the World and directs it to another end than what God hath constituted to another intention contrary to the intention of God and thus Man makes himself a God by his own Authority As all things were made by God so they are for God but while we
aspire to the end of the Creation we deny and envy God the honour of being Creator We cannot make our selves the chief end of the Creatures against Gods Order but we imply thereby that we were their first Principle For if we lived under a sense of the Creator of them while we enjoy them for our use we should return the glory to the right Owner This is Diabolical though the Devil for his first affecting an Authority in Heaven has been hurled down from the State of an Angel of Light into that of Darkness Vileness and Misery to be the most accursed Creature living yet he still aspires to mate God contrary to the knowledge of the impossibility of success in it Neither the terrors he feels nor the future torments he doth expect do a jot abate his Ambition to be Competitor with his Creator How often hath he since his first sin arrogated to himself the Honour of a God from the blind world and attempted to make the Son of God by a particular Worship count him as the chiefest Good and Benefactor of the World * Mat. 4.9 Since all men by Nature are the Devils Children the Serpents Seed they have something of this Venom in their Natures as well as others of his qualities We see that there may be and is a prodigious Atheism lurking under the Belief of a God The Devil knows there is a God but acts like an Atheist and so do his Children 4. Man would make himself the end of God This necessarily follows upon the former Whosoever makes himself his own Law and his own End in the place of God would make God the Subject in making himself the Soveraign He that steps into the Throne of a Prince sets the Prince at his Foot-stool and while he assumes the Princes Prerogative demands a Subjection from him The Order of the Creation has been inverted by the entrance of Sin * Pascal Pens §. 30. P. 294. God implanted an affection in Man with a double aspect the one to pitch upon God the other to respect our selves but with this proviso that our affection to God should be infinite in regard of the Object and Center in him as the chiefest Happiness and highest End Our affections to our selves should be finite and refer ultimately to God as the Original of our Being But Sin hath turned Mans affections wholy to himself Whereas he should love God first and himself in order to God he now loves himself first and God in order to himself Love to God is lost and Love to self hath usurpt the Throne As God by Creation put all thing under the feet of Man * Psal 8.6 reserving the Heart for himself Man by Corruption hath dispossessed God of his Heart and put him under his own feet We often intend our selves when we pretend the Honour of God and make God and Religion a Stale to some designs we have in hand our Creator a Tool for our own ends This is evident 1. In our loving God because of some self-pleasing benefits distributed by him There is in Men a kind of natural love to God but it is but a secondary one because God gives them the good things of this world spreads their Table fills their Cup stuffs their Coffers and doth them some good turns by unexpected Providences This is not an affection to God for the unbounded Excellency of his own Nature but for his beneficence as he opens his hand for them an affection to themselves and those Creatures their Gold thier honour which their hearts are most fixed upon without a strong Spiritual Inclination that God should be glorified by them in the use of those Mercies 'T is rather a disowning of God than any love to him because it postpones God to those things they love him for This would appear to be no love if God should cease to be their Benefactor and deal with them as a Judge if he should change his outward smiles into afflicting frowns and not only shut his hand but strip them of what he sent them The Motive of their love being expired the affection raised by it must cease for want of fewel to feed it So that God is beholden to sordid Creatures of no value but as they are his Creatures for most of the Love the Sons of Men pretend to him The Devil spake truth of most men though not of Job when he said Job 1.10 They love not God for nought but while he makes a hedge about them and their Families whilest he blesseth the works of their hands and increaseth their honour in the Land 'T is like Peter's sharp reproof of his Master when he spake of the ill usage even to death he was to meet with at Hierusalem This shall not be unto thee It was as much out of love to himself as zeal for his Masters Interest knowing his Master could not be in such a Storm without some drops lighting upon himself All the Apostacies of men in the world are Witnesses to this They fawn whilest they may have a prosperous Profession but will not bear one chip of the Cross for the Interest of God They would partake of his Blessings but not endure the prick of a Launce for him As those that admired the Miracles of our Saviour and shrunk at his Sufferings A time of tryal discovers these Mercenary Souls to be more Lovers of themselves than their Maker This is a pretended love of friendship to God but a real love to a Lust only to gain by God A good mans temper is contrary Quench Hell burn Heaven said a holy Man I will love and fear my God 2. 'T is evident in abstinence from some sins not because they offend God but because they are against the Interest of some other beloved Corruption or a Bar to something men hunt after in the World When temperance is cherished not to honour God but preserve a crazy Carcass Prodigality forsaken out of a humor of Avarice Uncleaness forsaken not out of a hatred of Lust but love to their mony Declining a Denial of the Interest and Truth of God not out of affection to them but an ambitious Zeal for their own Reputation There is a kind of Conversion from Sin when God is not made the Term of it Jer. 4.1 If thou wilt return oh Israel return unto me saith the Lord. * Trap on Gen. pa. 148. When we forbear Sin as Dogs do the Meat they love they forbear not out of a hatred of the Carrion but fear of the Cudgel These are as wicked in their abstaining from Sin as others are in their furious committing it Nothing of the Honour of God and the End of his appointments is indeed in all this but the conveniences self gathers from them Again many of the motives the generality of the world uses to their Friends and Relations to draw them from Vices are drawn from self and used to prop up natural or sinful self in them Come reform
lay the Plot of our own Affairs and then come to God not for Counsel but Blessing Self only shall give us counsel how to act but because we believe there is a God that governs the world we will desire him to contribute success God is not consulted with till the Counsel of self be fixed then God must be the Executor of our Will Self must be the Principal and God the Instrument to hatch what we have contrived 'T is worse when we beg of God to favour some sinful Aim the Psalmist implies this Psal 66.18 If I regard Iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Iniquity regarded as the aim in Prayer renders the Prayer succesless and the Suppliant an Atheist in debasing God to back his Lust by his holy Providence The Disciples had determined Revenge and because they could not act it without their Master they would have him be their Second in their vindictive passion Luke 9.55 Call for fire from Heaven We scarce seek God till we have modell'd the whole Contrivance in our own Brains and resolved upon the Methods of Performance as though there were not a fullness of Wisdom in God to guide us in our resolves as well as Power to breath Success upon them 4. In impatience upon the refusal of our desires How often do mens Spirits rise against God when he steps not in with the Assistance they want If the glory of God swayed more with them than their private interest they would let God be Judge of his own glory and rather magnifie his Wisdom than complain of his want of Goodness Selfish hearts will charge God with neglect of them if he be not as quick in their supplies as they are in their desires like those in Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our Souls and thou takest no knowledge When we aim at Gods glory in our importunities we shall fall down in humble Submissions when he denies us whereas self riseth up in bold Expostulations as if God were our Servant and had neglected the service he owed us not to come at our call We over-value the satisfactions of self above the honour of God Besides if what we desire be a sin our impatience at a refusal is more intolerable 'T is an anger that God will not lay aside his holiness to serve our corruption 5. In the actual aims men have in their Duties In Prayer for temporal things when we desire Health for our own ease Wealth for our own sensuality Strength for our revenge Children for the increase of our Family Gifts for our applause as Simon Magus did the Holy-Ghost or when some of those ends are aimed at This is to desire God not to serve himself of us but to be a Servant to our worldly interest our vain glory the greatning of our names c. In spiritual mercies begged for When pardon of sin is desired only for our own security from eternal Vengeance Sanctification desired only to make us fit for everlasting blessedness Peace of Conscience only that we may lead our lives more comfortably in the world when we have not actual intentions for the glory of God or when our thoughts of Gods honour are overtopt by the aims of self advantage Not but that as God hath prest us to those things by motives drawn from the Blessedness derived to our selves by them so we may desire them with a resepect to our selves but this respect must be contained within the due banks in subordination to the glory of God not above it nor in an equal ballance with it Gurnall Part. 3. Pag. 337. That which is nourishing or medicinal in the first or second degree is in the fourth or fifth degree meer destructive poyson Let us consider it seriously though a Duty be heavenly doth not some base end smut us in it 1. How is it with our Confessions of Sin Are they not more to procure our Pardon than to shame our selves before God or to be freed from the chains that hinder us from bringing him the glory for which we were created or more to partake of his benefits than to honour him in acknowledging the rights of his Justice Do we not bewail sin as it hath ruined us not as it opposed the Holiness of God Do we not shuffle with God and confess one sin while we reserve another as if we would allure God by declaring our dislike of one to give us liberty to commit Wantoness with another not to abhor our selves but to daub with God 2. Is it any better in our private and Family Worship Are not such Assemblies frequented by some where some upon whom they have a dependance may eye them and have a better opinion of them and affection to them If God were the sole end of our hearts would they not be as glowing under the sole eye of God as our tongues or carriages are seemingly serious under the eye of man Are not Family duties performed by some that their voices may be heard and their reputation supported among Godly Neighbours 3. Is not the Charity of many men tainted with this end self * Mat. 6.1 as the Pharisees were while they set the miserable Object before them but not the Lord bestowing Alms not so much upon the necessities of the people as the friendship we owe them for some particular respects Or casting our bread upon those Waters which stream down in the sight of the world that our Doles may be visible to them and commended by them Or when we think to oblige God to pardon our transgressions as if we merited it and Heaven too at his hands by bestowing a few pence upon indigent persons And 4. Is it not the same with the Reproofs of men Is not Heat and Anger carried out with full Sail when our worldly interest is prejudic'd and becalm'd in the concerns of God Do not many Masters reprove their Servants with more vehemency for the neglect of their Trade and Business than the neglect of Divine Duties and that upon Religious Arguments pretending the honour of God that they may mind their own interest But when they are negligent in what they owe to God no noyse is made they pass without rebuke Is not this to make God and Religion a Stale to their own ends 'T is a part of Atheism not to regard the injuries done to God as Tiberius * Dei injuria Deo curae Let Gods wrongs be looked to or cared for by himself 5. Is it not thus in our seeming Zeal for Religion As Demetrius and the Craftsmen at Ephesus cried up aloud the greatness of Diana of the Ephesians not out of any true zeal they had for her but their gain which was increased by the confluence of her Worshippers and the Sale of her own Shrines Acts 19.24.28 4. In making use of the Name of God to countenance our Sin When we set up an opinion that is a
sin lies in the neglect of these all grace lies in the practice of them Without some degree of the mortification of these we cannot make profitable and comfortable approaches to God When we come with Idols in our hearts we shall be answered according to the multitude and the baseness of them too * Ezek. 14.4 What expectation of a good look from him can we have when we come before him with undeifying thoughts of him a Petition in our mouths and a Sword in our hearts to stab his honour To this purpose 1. Be often in the views of the excellencies of God When we have no intercourse with God by delightful Meditations we begin to be estranged from him and prepare our selves to live without God in the world Strangness is the Mother and Nurse of disaffection We slight men sometimes because we know them not The very beasts delight in the Company of men when being tamed and familiar they become acquainted with their disposition A dayly converse with God would discover so much of loveliness in his nature so much of sweetness in his ways that our injurious thoughts of God would wear off and we should count it our honour to contemn our selves and magnifie him By this means a slavish fear which is both a dishonour to God and a torment to the Soul * 1 Joh. 4.18 and the root of Atheism will be cast out and an ingenious fear of him wrought in the heart Exercised thoughts on him would issue out in affections to him which would engage our hearts to make him both our rule and our end This course would stifle any temptations to gross Atheism wherewith good Souls are sometimes haunted by confirming us more in the belief of a God and discourage any attempts to a deliberate practical Atheism We are not like to espouse any principle which is confuted by the delightful converse we dayly have with him The more we thus enter into the presence Chamber of God the more we cling about him with our affections the more vigorous and lively will the true Notion of God grow up in us and be able to prevent any thing which may dishonour him and debase our Souls Let us therefore consider him as the only happiness Set up the true God in our understandings possess our hearts with a deep sense of his desirable excellency above all other things This is the main thing we are to do in order to our great business All the directions in the world with the neglect of this will be insignificant Ciphers The neglect of this is Common and is the basis of all the mischiefs which happen to the Souls of men 2. To this purpose Prize and study the Scripture We can have no delight in Meditation on him unless we know him and we cannot know him but by the means of his own Revelation When the Revelation is despised the Revealer will be of little esteem Men do not throw off God from being their rule till they throw off Scripture from being their guide and God must needs be cast off from being an end when the Scripture is rejected from being a Rule Those that do not care to know his Will that love to be ignorant of his nature can never be affected to his honour Let therefore the subtilties of reason vail to the Doctrine of faith and the humor of the Will to the Command of the word 3. Take heed of sensual pleasures And be very watchful and cautious in the use of those comforts God allows us Job was afraid when his Sons feasted that they should Curse God in their hearts * Job 1.4 It was not without cause that the Apostle Peter joyned sobriety with watchfulness and Prayer 1 Pet. 4.7 The end of all things is at hand be ye therefore sober and watch unto Prayer A moderate use of worldly comforts Prayer is the great acknowledgment of God and too much sensuality is a hindrance of this and a step to Atheism Belshazzars lifting himself up against the Lord and not glorifying of God is charged upon his sensuality Dan. 5.23 Nothing is more apt to quench the Notions of God and root out the Conscience of him than an addictedness to sensual pleasures Therefore take heed of that snare 4. Take heed of sins against knowledge The more sins against knowledge are committed the more careless we are and the more careless we shall be of God and his honour We shall more fear his judicial power and the more we fear that the more we shall disaffect that God in whose hand vengeance is and to whom it doth belong Atheism in conversation proceeds to Atheism in affection and that will endeavour to sink into Atheism in opinion and Judgment The Sum of the Whole And now consider in the whole what has been spoken 1. Man would set himself up as his own Rule He disowns the Rule of God is unwilling to have any acquaintance with the Rule God sets him negligent in using the means for the knowledge of his Will and Endeavours to shake it off when any notices of it breaks in upon him VVhen he cannot expel it he hath no pleasure in the Consideration of it and the heart swels against it VVhen the Notions of the Will of God are entertained it is on some other Consideration or with wavering and unsetled affections Many times men designe to improve some lust by his truth This unwillingness respects Truth as t is most Spiritual and holy as it most relates and leads to God as it is most contrary to self He is guilty of Contempt of the Will of God which is seen in every presumptuous breach of his Law In the natural aversions to the declaration of his Will and mind which way soever he turns In slighting that part of his Will which is most for his honour In the awkwardness of the heart when it is to pay God a service A constraint in the first engagement slightness in the service in regard of the matter in regard of the frame without a natural vigour Many distractions much weariness in deserting the Rule of God when our expectations are not answered upon our service in breaking promises with God Man naturally owns any other Rule rather than that of Gods prescribing The Rule of Satan the Will of Man In complying more with the dictates of Men than the Will of God In observing that which is materially so not because it is his Will but the injunctions of Men. In obeying the Will of Man when it is contrary to the Will of God This Man doth in order to the setting up himself This is natural to Man as he is corrupted Men are disatisfied with their own Consciences when they contradict the desires of self Most actions in the world are done more because they are agreeable to self than as they are honourable to God As they are agreable to natural and moral self or sinful self 'T is evident in neglects of taking Gods
Essence as in his Veracity and Faithfulness They are perfections belonging to his Nature But if he were not a pure Spirit he could not be immutable by Nature 7. If God were not a pure Spirit He could not be omnipresent He is in Heaven above and the Earth below * Deut. 4.39 He fills Heaven and Earth * Jer. 23.24 The Divine Essence is at once in Heaven and Earth but it is impossible a Body can be in two places at one and the same time Since God is every where he must be spiritual Had he a Body he could not penetrate all things he would be circumscribed in place He could not be every where but in parts not in the whole one member in one place and another in another for to be confined to a particlar place is the property of a Body But since he is diffused through the whole World higher than Heaven deeper than Hell longer than the Earth broader than the Sea * Job 11.8 he hath not any corporeal matter If he had a Body wherewith to fill Heaven and Earth there could be no Body besides his own 'T is the Nature of Bodies to bound one another and hinder the extending of one another Two Bodies cannot be in the same place in the same point of Earth one excludes the other And it will follow hence that we are nothing no substances meer illusions there could be no place for any Body else * Gamacheus Theol. Tom. 1. Quos 3. C. 1. If his Body were as bigg as the World as it must be if with that he filled Heaven and Earth there would not be room for him to move a hand or a foot or extend a finger for there would be no place remaining for the motion 8. If God were not a Spirit he could not be the most perfect Being The more perfect any thing is in the rank of Creatures the more spiritual and simple it is as Gold is the more pure and perfect that hath least mixture of other Metals If God were not a Spirit there would be Creatures of a more excellent Nature than God as Angels and Souls which the Scripture calls Spirits in opposition to Bodies There is more of perfection in the first notion of a Spirit than in the notion of a Body God cannot be less perfect than his Creatures and contribute an excellency of being to them which he wants himself If Angels and Souls possess such an excellency and God want that excellency he would be less than his Creatures and the excellency of the Effect would exceed the excellency of the Cause But every Creature even the highest Creature is infinitely short of the perfection of God for whatsoever excellency they have is finite and limited 't is but a spark from the Sun a drop from the Ocean but God is unboundedly perfect in the highest manner without any limitation and therefore above Spirits Angels the highest Creatures that were made by him An infinite sublimity a pure act to which nothing can be added from which nothing can be taken In him there is light and no darkness * 1 John 1.5 spirituality without any matter perfection without any shadow or taint of imperfection Light pierceth into all things preserves its own purity and admits of no mixture of any thing else with it Question It may be said If God be a Spirit and it is impossible he can be otherwise than a Spirit how comes God so often to have such Members as we have in our Bodies ascribed to him not only a Soul but particular bodily parts as heart arms hands eyes ears face and back-parts And how is it that he is never called a Spirit in plain words but in this Text by our Saviour Answ 'T is true many parts of the Body and natural affections of the human nature are reported of God in Scripture Head * Dan. 7.9 Eyes and Eye-lids * Psal 11.4 Apple of the Eye Mouth c. our Affections also Grief Joy Anger c. But it is to be considered 1. That this is in condescension to our weakness God being desirous to make himself known to Man * Loquitur lex secund ling. filiorum hominum was the H. saying whom he created for his Glory humbles as it were his own Nature to such representations as may sute and assists the capacity of the Creature Since by the condition of our nature nothing erects a notion of it self in our understanding but as it is conducted in by our sence God hath served himself of those things which are most exposed to our sence most obvious to our understandings to give us some acquaintance with his own Nature and those things which otherwise we were not capable of having any notion of As our Souls are linkt with our Bodies so our knowledge is linkt with our sence that we can scarce imagin any thing at first but under a corporeal form and figure till we come by great attention to the Object to make by the help of reason a separation of the spiritual substance from the corporeal fancy and consider it in its own nature We are not able to conceive a Spirit without some kind of resemblance to something below it nor understand the actions of a Spirit without considering the operations of a human Body in its several Members As the Glories of another Life are signified to us by the pleasures of this so the Nature of God by a gracious condescension to our capacities is signified to us by a likeness to our own The more familiar the things are to us which God uses to this purpose the more proper they are to teach us what he intends by them Answ 2. All such representations are to signifie the acts of God as they hear some likeness to those which we perform by those members he ascribes to himself So that those members ascribed to him rather note his visible operations to us than his invisible Nature and signifie that God doth some works like to those which men do by the assistance of those Organs of their Bodies * Amyral de Trin. p. 218. 219. So the wisdom of God is called his Eye because he knows that with his mind which we see with our eyes The efficiency of God is called his Hand and Arm because as we act with our hands so doth God with his Power The divine Efficacies are signified By his eyes and ears we understand his Omniscience by his face the manifestation of his Favour by his mouth the revelation of his Will by his nostrils the acceptation of our Prayers by his bowels the tenderness of his Compassion by his heart the sincerity of his Affections by his hand the strength of his Power by his feet the ubiquity of his Presence And in this he intends instruction and comfort By his eyes he signifies his watchfulness over us By his ears his readiness to hear the crys of the oppressed * Psal 34.15 By his Arm his
the Majesty of the Creator of the world and the excellency of Religion No Nation no person did ever assert that the vilest part of man was enough for the most excellent Being as God is That a bodily service could be a sufficient acknowledgment of the greatness of God or a sufficient return for the bounty of God * Amyraut Ib. Man could not but know that he was to act in Religion conformably to the Object of Religion and to the excellency of his own Soul The notion of a God was sufficient to fill the mind of man with admiration and reverence and the first conclusion from it would be to honour God and that he have all the affection placed on him that so infinite and spiritual a Being did deserve The progress then would be that this excellent Being was to be honoured with the motions of the Understanding and Will with the purest and most spiritual powers in the nature of man because he was a spiritual Being and had nothing of matter mingled with him Such a brutish imagination to suppose that blood and fumes beasts and incense could please a Deity without a spiritual frame cannot be supposed to befal any but those that had lost their reason in the rubbish of sense Meer rational nature could never conclude that so excellent a Spirit would be put off with a meer animal service an attendance of matter and body without Spirit when they themselves of an inferior nature would be loath to sit down contented with an outside service from those that belong to them So that this instruction of our Saviour that God is to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth is conformable to the sentiments of nature and drawn from the most undeniable principles of it The excellency of Gods nature and the excellent constitution of human faculties concur naturally to support this perswasion This was as natural to be known by men as the necessity of Justice and Temperance for the support of human societies and bodies 'T is to be feared that if there be not among us such brutish apprehensions there are such brutish dealings with God in our services against the light of nature when we place all our worship of God in outward attendances and drooping countenances with unbelieving frames and formal devotions when Prayer is muttered over in private slightly as a Parrot learns lessons by rote not understanding what it speaks or to what end it speaks it not glorifying God in Thought and Spirit with Understanding and Will 3. Spiritual Worship therefore was always required by God and always offered to him by one or other Man had a perpetual obligation upon him to such a worship from the nature of God and what is founded upon the nature of God is unvariable This and that particular mode of worship may wax old as a Garment and as a Vesture may be folded up and changed as the expression is of the Heavens * Heb. 1.11 12. But God endures for ever his spirituality fails not therefore a worship of him in Spirit must run through all ways and rites of Worship God must cease to be Spirit before any service but that which is spiritual can be accepted by him The light of Nature is the light of God the light of nature being unchangeable what was dictated by that was alway and will alway be required by God The worship of God being perpetually due from the Creature the worshipping him as God is as perpetually his right Though the outward expressions of this Honour were different one way in Paradice for a worship was then due since a solemn time for that worship was appointed another under the Law another under the Gospel the Angels also worship God in Heaven and fall down before his Throne yet though they differ in rites they agree in this necessary ingredient All rites though of a different shape must be offered to him not as Carcasses but animated with the affections of the Soul Abels Sacrifice had not been so excellent in Gods esteem without those gracious habits and affections working in his Soul * Heb. 11.4 Faith works by Love his heart was on fire as well as his Sacrifice Cain rested upon his Present perhaps thought he had obliged God he depended upon the outward Ceremony but sought not for the inward purity It was an offering brought to the Lord * Gen. 4.5 he had the right object but not the right manner Gen. 4.7 If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted And in the Command afterwards to Abraham Walk before me and be thou perfect was the direction in all our religious acts and walkings with God A sincere act of the Mind and Will looking above and beyond all Symbolls extending the Soul to a pitch far above the Body and seeing the day of Christ through the vail of the Ceremonies was required by God And though Moses by Gods order had instituted a multitude of carnal Ordinances Sacrifices Washings Oblations of sensible things and recomended to the people the diligent observation of those Statutes by the allurements of promises and denouncing of threatnings as if there were nothing else to be regarded and the true workings of Grace were to be buried under a heap of Ceremonies yet sometimes he doth point them to the inward worship and by the Command of God requires of them the Circumcision of the Heart Deut. 10.16 the turning to God with all their heart and all their Soul Deut. 30.10 whereby they might recollect that it was the engagement of the Heart and the worship of the Spirit that was most agreeable to God and that he took not any pleasure in their observance of Ceremonies without true Piety within and the true purity of their thoughts 4. 'T is therefore as much every mans duty to worship God in Spirit as it is their duty to worship him Worship is so due to him as God as that he that denies it disowns his Deity And spiritual worship is so due that he that waves it denies his spirituality 'T is a debt of Justice we owe to God to worship him and it is as much a debt of Justice to worship him according to his Nature Worship is nothing else but a rendring to God the honour that is due to him and therefore the right posture of our Spirits in it is as much or more due than the material worship in the modes of his own prescribing that is grounded both upon his Nature and upon his Command this only upon his Command that is perpetually due whereas the Channel wherein outward worship runs may be dryed up and the River diverted another way Such a worship wherein the mind thinks of God feels a sense of God has the Spirit consecrated to God the Heart glowing with affections to God 'T is else a mocking God with a feather A rational Nature must worship God with that wherein the Glory of God doth most sparkle in him God is most visible in the frame
that we might now serve God in a more spiritual manner and with more spiritual frames 6. Proposition The Service and worship the Gospel settles is spiritual and the performance of it more spiritual Spirituality is the Genius of the Gospel as Carnality was of the Law the Gospel is therefore called Spirit We are abstracted from the imployments of Sense and brought neerer to a Heavenly State The Jews had Angels Bread poured upon them we have Angels Service prescribed to us the Praises of God Communion with God in Spirit through his Son Jesus Christ and stronger foundations for spiritual affections 'T is called a reasonable service * Rom. 12.1 t is suted to a rational nature tho it finds no friendship from the Corruption of reason It prescribes a service fit for the reasonable faculties of the Soul and advanceth them while it employs them The word reasonable may be translated word service * V. Hammond in loc as well as reasonable service an Evangelical service in opposition to a Law service All Evangelical service is reasonable and all truly reasonable service is Evangelical The matter of the worship is Spiritual it consists in love of God faith in God recourse to his goodness Meditation on him and Communion with him It lays aside the Ceremonial Spiritualizeth the moral The Commands that concerned our duty to God as well as those that concerned our duty to our Neighbour were reduced by Christ to their Spiritual intention The Motives are Spiritual t is a state of more grace as well as of more truth * John 1.17 supported by Spiritual promises beaming out in Spiritual priviledges heaven comes down in it to Earth to Spiritualize Earth for Heaven The manner of worship is more Spiritual higher flights of the Soul stronger ardours of affections sincerer aims at his glory mists are removed from our minds Cloggs from the Soul more of love than fear faith in Christ kindles the affections and works by them The assistances to Spiritual worship are greater The Spirit doth not drop but is plentifully poured out It doth not light sometimes upon but dwells in the heart Christ suted the Gospel to a Spiritual heart and the Spirit changeth a carnal heart to make it fit for a Spiritual Gospel He blows upon the Garden and causes the spices to flow forth And often makes the Soul in worship like the Chariots of Aminadab in a quick and nimble motion Our blessed Lord and Saviour by his death discovered to us the nature of God and after his ascension sent his Spirit to fit us for the worship of God and converse with him One Spiritual Evangelical believing breath is more delightful to God than millions of Altars made up of the richest pearls and smoaking with the costliest oblations because it is Spiritual And a mite of Spirit is of more worth than the greatest weight of flesh One holy Angel is more excellent than a whole world of meer bodies 7. Proposition Yet the worship of God with our bodies is not to be rejected upon the account that God requires a Spiritual worship Tho we must perform the weightier duties of the Law yet we are not to omit and leave undone the lighter precepts Since both the Magnalia and minutula legis the greater and the lesser duties of the Law have the stamp of Divine authority upon them As God under the Ceremonial Law did not Command the worship of the body and the observation of outward rites without the engagement of the Spirit so neither doth he Command that of the Spirit without the peculiar attendance of the body The Schwelk sendians denied bodily worship And the indecent postures of many in publick attendance intimate no great care either of Composing their bodies or Spirits A morally discomposed body intimates a tainted heart Our Bodies as well as our Spirits are to be presented to God * Rom. 12.1 Our bodies in lieu of the Sacrifices of Beasts as in the Judaical institutions body for the whole man a living Sacrifice not to be slain as the Beasts were but living a new life in a holy posture with Crucified affections This is the inference the Apostle makes of the priviledges of Justification Adoption Coheirship with Christ which he had before discoursed of Priviledges conferred upon the person and not upon a part of man 1. Bodily worship is due to God He hath a right to an Adoration by our bodies as they are his by Creation his right is not diminisht but increased by the blessing of Redemption 1 Cor. 6.20 For you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your Spirits which are Gods The Body as well as the Spirit is redeemed since our Saviour suffered Crucifixion in his body as well as Agonies in his Soul Body is not taken here for the whole man as it may be in Rom. 12. But for the material part of our nature it being distinguisht from the Spirit If we are to render to God an obedience with our bodies we are to render him such Acts of worship with our bodies as they are capable of As God is the Father of Spirits so he is the God of all flesh Therefore the flesh he hath framed of the Earth as well as the noble portion he hath breathed into us cannot be denyed him without apalpable in justice The service of the body we must not deny to God unless we will deny him to be the author of it and the exercise of his providential care about it The mercies of God are renewed every day upon our bodies as well as our Souls and therefore they ought to express a fealty to God for his bounty everyday * Sherman's Greek in the Temple pa. 61.62 both are from God both should be for God Man consists of Body and Soul the service of Man is the service of both The body is to be Sanctified as well as the Soul and therefore to be offered to God as well as the Soul Both are to be glorified both are to glorifie As our Saviours Divinity was manifested in his body so should our Spirituality in ours To give God the service of the body and not of the Soul is hypocrisie to give God the service of the Spirit and not of the body is sacriledge to give him neither Atheism If the only part of man that is visible were exempted from the service of God there could be no visible Testimonies of piety given upon any occasion Since not a moiety of man but the whole is Gods Creature he ought to pay a homage with the whole and not only with a moiety of himself 2. Worship in societies is due to God but this cannot be without some bodily expressions The law of nature doth as much direct men to combine together in publick societies for the acknowledgment of God as in Civil Communities for self preservation and order And the notice of a society for Religion is more Ancient than the mention of
Civil associations for Politick Government Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord viz. In the time of Seth. No question but Adam had worshipped God before as well as Abel and a Family-Religion had been preserved but as mankind increased in distinct Families they knit together in Companies to solemnize the worship of God * Stillingfleet's Irenicum cap. 1. § 1. pa. 23. Hence as some think those that incorporated together for such ends were called the Sons of God Sons by profession tho not Sons by Adoption As those of Corinth were Saints by profession tho in such a Corrupted Church they could not be all so by regeneration yet Saints as being of a Christian society and calling upon the name of Christ that is worshipping God in Christ tho they might not be all Saints in Spirit and Practise So Cain and Abel met together to worship Gen 4.3 at the end of the days at a set time God setled a publick worship among the Jews instituted Synagogues for their Convening together whence call'd the Synagogues of God * Psa 74.8 The Sabbath was instituted to acknowledge God a Common Benefactor Publick worship keeps up the Memorials of God in a world prone to Atheism and a sense of God in a heart prone to forgetfulness The Angels sung in Company not singly at the Birth of Christ * Luke 2.13 and praised God not only with a simple elevation of their Spiritual nature but audibly by forming a voice in the air Affections are more lively Spirits more raised in publick than private God will Credit his own ordinance Fire increaseth by laying together many Coals on one place so is devotion inflamed by the union of many hearts and by a joynt presence Nor can the approach of the last day of Judgment or particular Judgments upon a Nation give a Writ of ease from such assemblies Heb. 10.25 Not forsaking the assembling our selves together but so much the more as you see the day approaching Whether it be understood of the day of Judgment or the day of the Jewish destruction and the Christian persecution the Apostle uses it as an argument to quicken them to the observance not to encourage them to a neglect Since therefore natural light informs us and Divine institution Commands us publickly to acknowledge our selves the Servants of God it implies the service of the body Such acknowledgments cannot be without visible Testimonies and outward exercises of devotion as well as inward affections This promotes Gods honour checks others prophaness allures men to the same expressions of duty And tho there may be hypocrisy and an outward garb without an inward frame yet better a moiety of worship than none at all better acknowledge Gods right in one than disown it in both 3. Jesus Christ the most Spiritual worshipper worshipt God with his body He Prayed orally and kneeled Father if it be thy Will c. * Luke 22.41 42. He blessed with his mouth Father I thank thee * Mat. 11.26 He lifted up his eyes as well as elevated his Spirit when he praised his Father for mercy received or begged for the blessings his Disciples wanted * John 11.41 John 12.1 The strength of the Spirit must have vent at the outward members The holy men of God have employed the body in significant expressions of worship Abraham in falling on his face Paul in kneeling employing their Tongues lifting up their hands Tho Jacob was bedrid yet he would not worship God without some devout expression of Reverence t is in one place leaning upon his staff * Heb. 11.21 in another bowing himself upon his beds head * Gen. 47.31 The reason of the diversity is in the Heb. word which without vowels may be red Mittah a bed or Matteh a staff howsoever both signifie a Testimony of adoration by a reverent gesture of the body Indeed in Angels and separated Souls a worship is performed purely by the Spirit but whiles the Soul is in conjunction with the body it can hardly perform a serious act of worship without some tincture upon the outward man and reverential composure of the body Fire cannot be in the clothes but it will be felt by the members nor flames be pent up in the Soul without bursting out in the body The heart can no more restrain it self from breaking out than Joseph could enclose his affections without expressing them in tears to his Brethren * Gen. 45.1 2. We Believe and therefore speak * 2 Cor. 4.13 To conclude God hath appointed some parts of worship which cannot be performed without the body as Sacraments we have need of them because we are not wholly spiritual and incorporeal Creatures The Religion which consists in externals only is not for an intellectual nature A worship purely intellectual is too sublime for a nature allyed to sense and depending much upon it The Christian mode of worship is proportioned to both It makes the sense to assist the mind and elevates the spirit above the sense Bodily worship helps the spiritual The members of the body reflect back upon the heart the voice bars distractions the tongue sets the heart on fire in good as well as in evil T is as much against the light of nature to serve God without external significations as to serve him only with them without the intention of the mind As the invisible God declares himself to men by visible works and signs so should we declare our invisible frames by visible expressions God hath given us a soul and body in conjunction and we are to serve him in the same manner he hath framed us 2. The second thing I am to shew is what Spiritual worship is In general the whole Spirit is to be employed The name of God is not sanctifyed but by the engagement of our Souls Worship is an Act of the understanding applying it self to the knowledge of the excellency of God and actual thoughts of his Majesty recognizing him as the supreme Lord and Governour of the world which is natural knowledge beholding the glory of his Attributes in the Redeemer which is Evangelical knowledge This is the sole act of the Spirit of Man The same reason is for all our worship as for our thanksgiving This must be done with understanding Psal 47.7 Sing ye praise with understanding with a knowledge and sense of his greatness goodness and Wisdom T is also an act of the Will whereby the Soul adores and reverenceth his Majesty is ravisht with his amiableness embraceth his goodness enters it self into an intimate Communion with this most lovely object and pitcheth all his affections upon him We must worship God understandingly t is not else a reasonable service The nature of God and the Law of God abhor a blind offering we must worship him heartily else we offer him a dead Sacrifice A reasonable service is that wherein the mind doth truly act something with God
meltings flights In the highest raptures the body is most insensible Strong Spiritual affections are abstracted from outward sense 6. Spiritual worship is performed with acting Spiritual habits When all the living springs of Grace are opened as the Fountains of the deep were in the deluge the Soul and all that is within it all the Spiritual impresses of God upon it erect themselves to bless his holy name * Psa 103.1 This is necessary to make a worship Spiritual As natural agents are determined to act sutable to their proper nature So rational agents are to act conformable to a rational being When there is a conformity between the act and the nature whence it flows t is a good act in its kind if it be rational t is a good rational act because sutable to its principle As a Man endowed with reason must act sutable to that endowment and exercise his reason in his acting So a Christian endued with Grace must act sutable to that nature and exercise his Grace in his acting Acts done by a natural inclination are no more human acts than the natural acts of a beast may be said to be human Tho they are the acts of a Man as he is the efficient cause of them yet they are not human acts because they arise not from that principle of Reason which denominates him a man So acts of worship performed by a bare exercise of reason are not Christian and Spiritual acts because they come not from the principle which constitutes him a Christian Reason is not the principle for then all rational Creatures would be Christians They ought therefore to be acts of a higher principle Exercises of that Grace whereby Christians are what they are Not but that rational acts in worship are due to God for worship is due from us as men and we are setled in that rank of being by our reason Grace doth not exclude reason but ennobles it and calls it up to another form But we must not rest in a bare rational worship but exert that principle whereby we are Christians To worship God with our reason is to worship him as Men To worship God with our grace is to worship him as Christians and so Spiritually But to worship him only with our bodies is no better than Brutes Our desires of the word are to issue from the regenerate principle 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word It seems to be not a comparison but a restriction All worship must have the same spring and be the exercise of that principle otherwise we can have no Communion with God Friends that have the same habitual dispositions have a fundamental fitness for an agreeable converse with one another but if the temper wherein their likeness consists be languishing and the string out of tune there is not an actual fitness and the present indisposition breaks the converse and renders the Company troublesome Tho we may have the habitual graces which compose in us a resemblance to God yet for want of acting those sutable dispositions we render our selves unfit for his converse and make the worship which is fundamentally Spiritual to become actually carnal As the Will cannot naturally act to any object but by the exercise of its affections So the heart cannot Spiritually act towards God but by the exercise of graces This is Gods Musick Eph. 5.19 Singing and making melody to God in your hearts Singing and all other acts of worship are outward but the Spiritual melody is by grace in the heart Col. 3.16 This renders it a Spiritual worship for it is an effect of the fulness of the Spirit in the Soul as v. 19. But be filled with the Spirit The overflowing of the Spirit in the heart setting the Soul of a beliver thus on work to make a Spiritual melody to God shews that something higher than bare reason is put in tune in the heart Then is the fruit of the Garden pleasant to Christ when the holy Spirit the North and South wind blow upon the spices and strike out the fragrancy of them * Cant. 4.16 Since God is the Author of graces and bestows them to have a glory from them they are best employed about him and his service T is fit he should have the Cream of his own gifts Without the exercise of grace we perform but a work of nature and offer him a few dry bones without marrow The whole set of graces must be one way or other exercised If any treble be wanting in a Lute there will be a great defect in the Musick If any one Spiritual string be dull the Spiritual harmony of worship will be spoiled And therefore 1. First Faith must be acted in worship A confidence in God A natural worship cannot be performed without a natural confidence in the goodness of God Whosoever comes to him must regard him as a Rewarder and a faithful Creator * Heb. 11.6 A Spiritual worship cannot be performed without an Evangelical confidence in him as a gracious Redeemer To think him a Tyrant meditating revenge damps the Soul to regard him as a gracious King full of tender bowels Spirits the affections to him The mercy of God is the proper object of trust Psal 33.18 The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy The worship of God in the old Testament is most described by fear In the new Testamen by faith Fear or the worship of God and hope in his mercy are linkt together when they go hand in hand the accepting eye of God is upon us When we do not trust we do not worship * Zeph. 3.2 Those of Judah had the Temple worship among them especially in Josiah's time Zeph. 3.2 the time of that Prophecy yet it was accounted no worship because no trust in the Worshippers Interest in God cannot be improved without an exercise of Faith The Gospel worship is prophecied of to be a confidence in God as in a Husband more than in a Lord Hos 2.16 Thou shalt call me Ishi and shalt call me no more Baali Thou shalt call me that is thou shalt worship me Worship being often comprehended under Invocation More confidence is to be exercised in a Husband or Father than in a Lord or Master If a Man have not Faith he is without Christ and though a Man be in Christ by the habit of Faith â—e performs a duty out of Christ without an act of Faith Without the habit of Faith our persons are out of Christ and without the exercise of Faith the duties are out of Christ As the want of Faith in a person is the death of the Soul so the want of Faith in a Service is the death of the Offering Though a man were at the cost of an Ox yet to kill it without bringing it to the door of the Tabernacle was not a Sacrifice but a Murder * Levit. 17.3 4. The Tabernacle
was a Type of Christ and a look to him is necessary in every spiritual Sacrifice As there must be Faith to make any act an act of obedience so there must be Faith to make any act of worship spiritual That service is not spiritual that is not vital and it cannot be vital without the exercise of a vital Principle All spiritual life is hid in Christ and drawn from him by Faith * Gal. 2.20 Faith as it hath relation to Christ makes every act of worship a living act and consequently a spiritual act Habitual unbelief cuts us off from the Body of Christ Rom. 11.20 Because of unbelief they were broken off and a want of actuated belief breaks us off from a present communion with Christ in Spirit As unbelief in us hinders Christ from doing any mighty work so unbelief in us hinders us from doing any mighty spiritual duty So that the exercise of Faith and a confidence in God is necessary to every duty 2. Love must be acted to render a worship spiritual Though God commanded love in the Old-Testament yet the manner of giving the Law bespoke more of Fear than Love The dispensation of the Law was with Fire Thunder c. proper to raise horror and benum the Spirit which effect it had upon the Israelites when they desired that God would speake no more to them Grace is the Genius of the Gospel proper to excite the affection of Love The Law was given by the disposition of Angels with signs to amaze the Gospel was usher'd in with the songs of Angels composed of peace and good-will calculated to ravish the Soul Instead of the terrible voice of the Law do this and live The comfortable voice of the Gospel is Grace Grace Upon this account the principle of the Old testament was Fear and the Worship often exprest by the Fear of God The principle of the New-testament is Love The Mount Sinai gendreth to Bondage * Gal. 4.44 Mount Sion from whence the Gospel or Evangelical Law goes forth gendreth to Liberty and therefore the Spirit of Bondage unto Fear as the Property of the Law is opposed to the State of Adoption the principle of Love as the property of the Gospel * Rom. 8.15 And therefore the worship of God under the Gospel or New-testament is oftner exprest by Love than Fear as proceeding from higher principles and acting nobler passions In this State we are to serve him without fear * Luke 1.74 without a Bondage-fear not without a fear of unworthy treating him with a fear of his goodness as it is prophesied of * Hos 9.9 Goodness is not the object of terror but reverence God in the Law had more the garb of a Judge in the Gospel of a Father The name of a Father is sweeter and bespeaks more of affection As their services were with a feeling of the thunders of the Law in their Consciences so is our worship to be with a sense of Gospel-grace in our Spirits Spiritual worship is that therefore which is exercised with a spiritual and heavenly affection proper to the Gospel The heart should be enlarged according to the liberty the Gospel gives of drawing neer to God as a Father As he gives us the nobler relation of Children we are to act the nobler qualities of Children Love should act according to its nature which is desire of Union desire of a moral union by Affections as well as a mystical union by Faith as flame aspires to reach flame and become one with it In every act of worship we should endeavour to be united to God and become one Spirit with him This Grace doth spiritualize Worship In that one word Love God hath wrapt up all the devotion he requires of us 'T is the total sum of the first Table Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 'T is to be acted in every thing we do But in Worship our hearts should more solemnly rise up and acknowledge him amiable and lovely since the Law is stript of its cursing power and made sweet in the blood of the Redeemer Love is a thing acceptable of it self but nothing acceptable without it The gifts of one man to another are spiritualized by it We would not value a Present without the affection of the Donor Every man would lay claim to the love of others though he would not to their Possessions Love is Gods right in every service and the noblest thing we can bestow upon him in our adorations of him Gods gifts to us are not so estimable without his love not our services valuable by him without the exercise of a choice affection Hezekiah regarded not his deliverance without the love of the Deliverer In love to my Soul thou hast delivered me * Isa 38.17 So doth God say in love to my honour thou hast worshipped me So that Love must be acted to render our worship spiritual 3. A spiritual sensibleness of our own weakness is necessary to make our worship spiritual Affections to God cannot be without relentings in our selves When the eye is spiritually fixed upon a spiritual God the heart will mourn that the worship is no more spiritually sutable The more we act love upon God as amiable and gracious the more we should exercise grief in our selves as we are vile and offending Spiritual worship is a melting worship as well as an elevating worship It exalts God and debaseth the Creature The Publican was more spiritual in his humble address to God when the Pharisee was wholly carnal with his swelling language A spiritual love in worship will make us grieve that we have given him so little and could give him no more 'T is a part of spiritual duty to bewail our carnality mixed with it as we receive mercies spiritually when we receive them with a sense of Gods goodness and our own vileness in the same manner we render a spiritual worship 4. Spiritual desires for God render the service spiritual When the Soul follows hard after him * Psal 63.8 pursues after God as a God of infinite and communicative goodness with sighs and groans unutterable A spiritual Soul seems to be transformed into hunger and thirst and becomes nothing but desire A carnal Worshipper is taken with the beauty and magnificence of the Temple a spiritual Worshipper desires to see the glory of God in the Sanctuary * Psal 63.2 He pants after God As he came to worship to find God he boyls up in desires for God and is loth to go from it without God the living God Psal 42.2 He would see the Vrim and the Thummim the unusual sparkling of the stones upon the High-priests Breast-plate That deserves not the title of spiritual worship when the Soul makes no longing inquiries saw you him whom my Soul loves A spiritual worship is when our desires are chiefly for God in the worship As David desires to dwell in the House of the Lord but his desire is not terminated
will to please him longings to enjoy him as a holy and sanctifying God in his Ordinances as well as a blessed and glorified God in Heaven What do we expect in our approaches from him That which may make divine impressions upon us and more exactly conform us to the divine nature Or do we design nothing but an empty formality a rowling eye and a filling the Air with a few words without any openings of heart to receive the incomes which according to the nature of the duty might be conveyed to us Can this be a spiritual worship The Soul then closely waits upon him when its expectation is only from him Psal 62.6 Are our hearts seasoned with a sense of sin a sight of our spiritual wants raised notions of God glowing affections to Him strong appetite after a spiritual fulness Do we rouze up our sleepy Spirits and make a Covenant with all that is within us to attend upon him So much as we want of this so much we come short of a spiritual worship In Psal 57.7 My heart is fixed oh God my heart is fixed David would fix his heart before he would engage in a praising act of worship He appeals to God about it and that with doubling the expression as being certain of an inward preparedness Can we make the same appeals in a fixation of Spirit 2. How are our hearts fixed upon him How do they cleave to him in the duty Do we resign our Spirits to God and make them an intire Holocaust a whole burnt-offering in his worship Or do we not willingly admit carnal thoughts to mix themselves with spiritual duties and fasten our minds to the Creature under pretences of directing them to the Creator Do we not pass a meer complement on God by some superficial act of devotion while some covetous envious ambitious voluptuous imagination may possess our minds Do we not invert Gods Order and worship a Lust instead of God with our Spirits that should not have the least service either from our Souls or Bodies but with a spiritual disdain be sacrificed to the just indignation of God How often do we fight against his Will while we cry hail Master instead of crucifying our own thoughts crucifying the Lord of our Lives Our outward carriage plausible and our inward stark naught Do we not often regard iniquity more than God in our hearts in a time of worship Roul some filthy imagination as a sweet morsel under our tongues and taste more sweetness in that than in God Do not our Spirits smell rank of Earth while we offer to Heaven and have we not hearts full of thick Clay as their hands were full of blood * Isa 1.15 When we sacrifice do we not wrap up our Souls in communion with some sordid fancy when we should entwine our Spirits about an amiable God While we have some fear of him may we not have a love to something else above him This is to worship or swear by the Lord and by Malchom * Zeph. 1.5 How often doth an Apish-fancy render a service inwardly ridiculous under a grave outward posture skipping to the Shop Ware-house Compting-house in the space of a short Prayer And we are before God as a Babel a confusion of internal languages and this in those parts of worship which are in the right use most agreeable to God profitable for our selves ruinous to the Kingdom of Sin and Satan and means to bring us into a closer communion with the Divine Majesty Can this be a spiritual worship 3. How do we act our graces in worship Though the Instrument be strung if the strâ—ngs be not wound up what melody can be the issue All readiness and alacrity discover a strength of nature and a readiness in Spirituals discovers a spirituality in the heart As unaffecting thoughts of God are not spiritual thoughts so unaffecting addresses to God are not spiritual addresses Well tâ—en what awakenings and elevations of Faith and Love have we What strong outflowings of our Souls to him What indignation against Sin What admirations of redeeming Grace How low have we brought our corruptions to the foot-stool of Christ to be made his conquered Enemies How straitly have we claspt ouâ— Faith about the Cross and Throne of Christ to become his intimate Spouse Do we in hearing hang upon the lips of Christ in prayer take hold of God and wil not let him go in confessions rent the Caul of our hearts and indite our Souls before him with a deep humility Do we act more by a soaring love than a drooping fear So far as our Spitits are servile so far they are legal and carnal so much as they are free and spontaneous so much they are evangelical and spiritual As men under the Law are subject to the constraint of Bondage * Heb. 2.15 all their life-time in all their worship so under the Gospel they are under a constraint of love * 2 Cor. 5.14 How then are believing affections exercised which are alway accompanied with holy fear a fear of his goodness that admits us into his presence and a fear to offend him in our act of worship So much as we have of forced or feeble affection so much we have of carnality 4. How do we find our hearts after worship By an after carriage we may judge of the spirituality of it 1. How are we as to inward strength When a worship is spiritually performed grace is more strengthened corruption more mortified The Soul like Sampson after his awakening goes out with a renewed strength As the inward man is renewed day by day that is every day so it is renewed in every worship Every shower makes the grass and fruit grow in good ground where the root is good and the weeds where the ground is naught The more prepared the heart is to obedience in other duties after worship the more evidence there is that it hath been spiritual in the exercise of it 'T is the end of God in every dispensation as in that of John Baptist To make ready a People prepared for the Lord * Luke 1 17. When the heart is by worship prepared for fresh acts of obedience and hath a more exact watchfulness against the incroachments of Sin As carnal men after worship sprout up in spiritual wickedness so do spiritual Worshippers in spiritual graces Spiritual fruits are a sign of a spiritual frame When men are more prone to sin after duty 't is a sign there was but little communion with God in it and a greater strength of sin because such an act is contrary to the end of worship which is the subduing of Sin 'T is a sign the Physick hath wrought well when the stomach hath a better appetite to its appointed food and worship hath been well performed when we have a stronger inclination to other acts well pleasing to God and a more sensible distaste of those temptations we too much relisht before 'T is a sign of
up and the Devil stands ready to tempt us to self-confidence You know how it was with Paul * 2 Cor. 12. from v. 1. to v. 7. His buffetings were occasions to render him more spiritual than his raptures because more humble God suffers those wandrings starts and distractions to prevent our spiritual pride which is as a Worm at the root of spiritual worship and mind us of the dusty frame of our Spirits how easily they are blown away As he sends sickness to put us in mind of the shortness of our breath and the easiness to lose it God would make us ashamed of our selves in his presence that we may own that what is good in any duty is meerly from his Grace and Spirit and not from our selves That with Paul we may cry out by Grace we are what we are and by Grace we do what we do We may be hereby made sensible that God can alway find something in our exactest worship as a ground of denying us the successful fruit of it If we cannot stand upon our duties for Salvation what can we bottom upon in our selves If therefore they are occasions to make us out of love with any righteousness of our own to make us break our hearts for them because we cannot keep them out If we mourn for them as our sins and count them our great afflictions we have attained that brokeness which is a choice ingredient in a spiritual Sacrifice Though we have been disturbed by them yet we are not robbed of the success we may behold an answer of our worship in our humiliation in spite of all of them 2. For the baseness of our Nature These unsteady motions help us to discern that heap of vermin that breeds in our nature Would any man think he had such an averseness to his Creator and Benefactor such an unsutableness to him such an estrangedness from him were it not for his inspection into his distracted frames God suffers this to hang over us as a Rod of Correction to discover and fetch out the folly of our hearts Could we imagin our natures so highly contrary to that God who is so infinitely amiable so desirable an Object or that there should be so much folly and madness in the heart as to draw back from God in those services which God hath appointed as pipes through which to communicate his grace to convey himself his love and goodness to the Creature If therefore we have a deep sense of and strong reflections upon our base nature and bewail that mass of aversness which lies there and that fulness of irreverence towards the God of our mercies the Object of our worship 't is a blessed improvement of our wandrings and diversions Certainly if any Israelite had brought a lame and rotten Lamb to be sacrificed to God and afterward had bewailed it and laid open his heart to God in a sensible and humble confession of it That Repentance had been a better Sacrifice and more acceptable in the sight of God than if he had brought a sound and a living Offering 2. When they are occasions to make us prize duties of worship When we argue as rationally we may that they are of singular use since our corrupt hearts and a malicious Devil doth chiefly endeavour to hinder us from them And that we find we have not those gadding thoughts when we are upon worldly business or upon any sinful design which may dishonour God and wound our Souls This is a sign Sin and Satan dislike worship for he is too subtle a Spirit to oppose that which would further his Kingdom As it is an argument the Scripture is the Word of God because the wickedness of the world doth so much oppose it so it is a ground to believe the profitableness and excellency of worship because Satan and our own unruly hearts do so much interrupt us in it If therefore we make this use of our cross steps in worship to have a greater value for such duties more affections to them and desires to be frequent in them Our hearts are growing spiritual under the weights that would depress them to carnality 3. When we take a rise from hence to have heavenly admirations of the graciousness of God That he should pity and pardon so many slight addresses to him and give any gracious returns to us Though men have foolish rangings every day and in every duty yet free grace is so tender as not to punish them Gen. 8.21 And the Lord smelt a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not curse the Ground for mans sake for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth 'T is observable that this was just after a Sacrifice which Noah offered to God v. 20. But probably not without infirmities common to human nature which may be grounded upon the reason God gives that though he had destroyed the Earth before because of the evil of mans imaginations Gen. 6.5 He still found evil imaginations He doth not say in the heart of Cham or others of Noah's Family but in mans heart including Noah also who had both the Judgments of God upon the former world and the mercy of God in his own preservation before his eyes yet God sawevil imaginations rooted in the nature of Man and though it were so yet he would be merciful If therefore we can after finding our hearts so vagrant in worship have real frames of thankfulness that God hath spared us and be hightned in our admirations at Gods giving us any fruit of such a distracted worship we take advantage from them to be raised into an Evangelical frame which consists in the humble acknowledgments of the grace of God When David takes a review of those tumultuous passions which had rufled his mind and possessed him with unbelieving notions of God in the persons of his Prophets * Psal 116.11 how high doth his Soul mount in astonishment and thankfulness to God for his mercy * verse 12. Notwithstanding his distrust God did graciously perform his promise and answer his desire Then it is what shall I render to the Lord His heart was more affected for it because it had been so passionate in former distrusts 'T is indeed a ground of wondring at the patience of the Spirit of God that he should guide our hearts when they are so apt to start out as it is the patience of a Master to guide the hand of his Scholar while he mixes his writing with many blots 'T is not one or two infirmities the Spirit helps us in and helps over but many * Rom. 8.26 'T is a sign of a spiritual heart when he can take a rise to bless God for the renewing and blowing up his affections in the midst of so many incursions from Satan to the contrary and the readiness of the heart too much to comply with them 4. When we take occasion from thence to prize the mediation of Christ The
more distractions jogg us the more need we should see of going out to a Saviour by Faith One part of our Saviours Office is to stand between us and the infirmities of our worship As he is an Advocate he presents our services and pleads for them and us * 1 John 2.1 for the sins of our duties as well as for our other sins Jesus Christ is an High-priest appointed by God to take away the iniquities of our holy things which was typified by Aarons Plate upon his Mitre * Exod. 28.36 38. Were there no imperfections were there no creeping up of those Froggs into our minds we should think our worship might merit acceptance with God upon its own account But if we behold our own weakness that not a tear a groan a sigh is so pure but must have Christ to make it entertainable that there is no worship without those blemishes and upon this throw all our services into the Arms of Christ for acceptance and sollicite him to put his merits in the front to make our ciphers appear valuable 't is a spiritual act the design of God in the Gospel being to advance the honour and mediation of his Son That is a spiritual and evangelical act which answers the evangelical design The design of Satan and our own corruption is defeated when those interruptions make us run swifter and take faster hold on the High-priest who is to present our worship to God and our own Souls receive comfort thereby Christ had temptations offered to him by the Devil in his Wilderness retirement that from an experimental knowledge he might be able more compassionatly to succour us * Heb. 2.18 we have such assaults in our retir'd worship especially that we may be able more highly to value him and his mediation 3. Let us not therefore be discouraged by those interruptions and starts of our hearts 1. If we find in our selves a strong resistance of them The Flesh will be lusting that cannot be hindered yet if we do not fulfil the lusts of it rise up at its command and go about its work we may be said to walk in the Spirit * Gal. 5.16 17. We walk in the Spirit if we fulfil not the lusts of the Flesh though there be a lusting of the Flesh against the Spirit So we worship in the Spirit though there be carnal thoughts arising if we do not fulfil them though the stirring of them discovers some contrariety in us to God yet the resistance manifests that there is a principle of contrariety in us to them that as there is something of Flesh that lusts against the Spirit so there is something of Spirit in worship which lusts against the Flesh We must take heed of omitting worship because of such in-rodes and lying down in the mire of a total neglect If our Spirits are made more lively and vigorous against them If those cold vapours which have risen from our hearts make us like a Spring in the midst of the cold Earth more warm There is in this case more reason for us to bless God than to be discouraged God looks upon it as the disease not the wilfulness of our nature as the weakness of the Flesh not the willingness of the Spirit If we would shut the door upon them it seems they are unwelcome company Men do not use to lock their doors upon those they love If they break in and disturb us with their impertinencies we need not be discomforted unless we give them a share in our affections and turn our back upon God to entertain them If their presence makes us sad their flight would make us joyful 2. If we find our selves excited to a stricter watch over our hearts against them As Travellers will be careful when they come to places where they have been rob'd before that they be not so easily surprized again We should not only lament when we have had such foolish imaginations in worship breaking in upon us but also bless God that we have had no more since we have hearts so fruitful of weeds We should give God the glory when we find our hearts preserved from these intruders and not boast of our selves but return him our praise for the watch and guard he kept over us to preserve us from such Thieves Let us not be discomforted for as the greatness of our sins upon our turning to God is no hinderance to our justification because it doth not depend upon our conversion as the meritorious cause but upon the infinite value of our Saviours satisfaction which reaches the greatest sins as well as the least so the multitude of our bewail'd distractions in worship are not a hinderance to our acceptation because of the uncontroulable power of Christs intercession Vse 3. Is for exhortation Since Spiritual worship is due to God and the Father seeks such to worship him how much should we endeavour to satisfie the desire and order of God and act conformable to the Law of our Creation and the love of Redemption Our end must be the same in worship which was Gods end in Creation and Redemption to glorifie his name set forth his perfections and be rendred fit as Creatures and Redeemed ones to partake of that grace which is the fruit of worship An Evangelical dispensation requires a Spiritual homage to neglect therefore either the matter or manner of Gospel duties is to put a slight upon Gospel priviledges The manner of duty is ever of more value than the matter the Scarlet dye is more precious than the cloth tinctured with it God respects more the diposition of the Sacrificer than the multitude of the Sacrifices * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Abstinentia The Solemn feasts appointed by God were but Dung as managed by the Jews Mâ—â— 2.3 The heart is often welcome without the body but the body never graâ—â—ful without the heart The inward acts of the Spirit require nothing from without to constitute them good in themselves but the outward acts of devotion require inward acts to render them savory to God As the goodness of outward acts consists not in the acts themselves so the acceptableness of them results not from the acts themselves but from the inward frame animating and quickning those acts as blood and Spirits running through the veins of a duty to make it a living service in the sight of God Imperfections in worship hinder not Gods acceptation of it if the heart Spirited by Grace be there to make it a sweet Savour The stench of burning flesh and fat in the legal Sacrifices might render them noysome to the outward senses but God smelt a sweet savour in them as they respected Christ When the heart and Spirit are offered up to God it may be a savory duty though attended with unsavory imperfections But a thousand Sacrifices without a stamp of faith a thousand Spiritual duties with an habitual carnality are no better than stench with God The heart must
be purged as well as the Temple was by our Saviour of the Thieves that would rob God of his due worship Antiquity had some Temples wherein it was a crime to bring any gold therefore those that came to worship laid their gold aside before they went into the Temple We should lay aside our worldly and trading thoughts before we address to worship Isa 26.9 With my Spirit within me will I seek thee early Let not our minds be gadding abroad and exil'd from God and themselves It will be thus when the desire of our Soul is to his name and the remembrance of him ver 8. When he hath given so great and admirable a gift as that of his Son in whom are all things necessary to Salvation Righteousness Peace and pardon of sin we should manage the remembrance of his name in worship with the closest unitedness of heart and the most Spiritual affections The motion of the Spirit is the first act in Religion to this we are obliged in every act The Devil requires the Spirit of his votaries should God have a less dedication than the Devil Motives to back this exhortation 1. Not to give God our Spirit is a great sin T is a mockery of God not worship contempt not adoration whatever our outward fervency or protestations may be * Nâ—n valet prâ—testatio câ—ntra jactum is a rule in the civil law Every alienation of our hearts from him is a real scorn put upon him The acts of the Soul are real and more the acts of the man than the acts of the body because they are the acts of the choicest part of man and of that which is the first spring of all bodily motions 't is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Inrenal speech whereby we must speak with God To give him therefore only an external form of worship without the life of it is a taking his name in vain We mock him when we mind not what we are speaking to him or what he is speaking to us when the motions of our hearts are contrary to the motions of our tongues when we do any thing before him slovenly impudently or rashly As in a Lutinisi it is absurd to sing one Tune and play another so it is a foul thing to tell God one thing with our lips and think another thing with our hearts 't is a sin like that the Apostle chargeth the Heathens with Rom. 1.28 they like not to retain God in their knowledge their stomachs are sick while they are upon any duty and never leave working till they have thrown up all the spiritual part of Worship and rid themselves of the thoughts of God which are as unwelcome and troublesome Guests to them When men behave themselves in the sight of God as if God were not God they do not only defame him but deny him and violate the unchangeable perfections of the Divine Nature 1. 'T is against the Majesty of God When we have not awful thoughts of that great Majesty to whom we address when our Souls cleave not to him when we petition him in Prayer or when he gives out his Orders to us in his Word 'T is a contempt of the Majesty of a Prince if whiles he is speaking to us we listen not to him with reverence and attention but turn our backs on him to play with one of his Hounds or talk with a Begger or while we speak to him to rake in a Dunghill Solomon adviseth us to keep our foot when we go to the House of God * Eccles 5.1 Our affections should be steady and not slip away again why v. 2. because God is in Heaven c. He is a God of Majesty earthly durty frames are unsutable to the God of Heaven low Spirits are unsutable to the most High We would not bring our mean Servants or durty Dogs into a Princes Presence Chamber yet we bring not only our worldly but our prophane affections into Gods presence We give in this case those services to God which our Governour would think unworthy of him * Mal. 1.8 The more excellent and glorious God is the greater contempt of him it is to suffer such foolish affections to be Competitors with him for our hearts 'T is a scorn put upon him to converse with a Creature while we are dealing with him but a greater to converse in our thoughts and fancies with some sordid lust which is most hateful to him And the more aggravation it attracts in that we are to apprehend him the most glorious Object sitting upon his Throne in time of worship and our selves standing as vile Creatures before him supplicating for our lives and the conveyances of grace and mercy to our Souls As if a grand Mutineer instead of humbly begging the pardon of his offended Prince should present his Petition not only scribled and blotted but besmeared with some loathsome excrement 'T is unbecoming the Majesty both of God and the worship it self to present him with a Picture instead of Substance and bring a world of nasty affections in our hearts and ridiculous toys in our heads before him and worship with indisposed and heedless Souls Malac. 1.14 He is a great King therefore address to him with fear and reverence 2. 'T is against the Life of God Is a dead worship proportioned to a living God The separation of heavenly affections from our Souls before God makes them as much a Carcass in his sight as the divorce of the Soul makes the Body a Carcass When the affections are separated worship is no longer worship but a dead offering a liveless bulk for the essence and spirit of worship is departed Though the Soul be present with the Body in a way of information yet it is not present in a way of affection and this is the worst for it is not the separation of the Soul from informing that doth separate a man from God but the removal of our affections from him If a man pretend an application to God and sleep and snore all the time without question such a one did not worship In a careless worship the heart is morally dead while the eyes are open The heart of the Spouse * Cant. 5.2 waked whiles her eyes slept and our hearts on the contrary sleep while our eyes wake Our blessed Saviour hath died to purge our Consciences from dead works and frames that we may serve the living God * Heb. 9.14 to serve God as a God of Life Davids Soul cried and fainted for God under this consideration * Psal 42.2 But to present our Bodies without our Spirits is such a usage of God that implies he is a dead Image not worthy of any but a dead and heartless service Like one of those Idols the Psalmist speaks of * Psal 115.5 that have eyes and see not ears and hear not no life in it Though it be not an objective Idolatry because the worship is directed to the true
to the Holiness of God as a frothy unmelted heart and a wanton fancy in a time of worship God is so holy that if we could offer the worship of Angels and the quintessence of our Souls in his service it would be beneath his infinite purity How unworthy then are they of him when they are presented not only without the sense of our uncleaness but sullied with the fumes and exhalations of our corrupt affections which are as so many Plague spots upon our duties contrary to the unspotted purity of the Divine Nature Is not this an unworthy conceit of God and injurious to his infinite Holiness 9. 'T is against the Love and Kindness of God 'T is a condescension in God to admit a piece of Earth to offer up a duty to him when he hath miriads of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise To admit Man to be an Attendant on him and a Partner with Angels is a high favour 'T is not a single mercy but a heap of mercies to be admitted into the presence of God Psal 5.7 I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies When the blessed God is so kind as to give us access to his Majesty do we not undervalue his kindness when we deal uncivilly with him and deny him the choicest part of our selves 'T is a contempt of his Soveraignty as our Spirits are due to him by nature a contempt of his Goodness as our Spirits are due to him by gratitude How abusive a carriage is it to make use of his mercy to encourage our impudence that should excite our fear and reverence How unworthy would it be for an indigent Debtor to bring to his indulgent Creditor an empty Purse instead of Payment When God holds out his Golden Scepter to encourage our approaches to him stands ready to give us the pardon of sin and full felicity the best things he hath Is it a fit requital of his kindness to give him a formal outside only a shadow of Religion to have the heart overswayed with other thoughts and affections as if all his profers were so contemptible as to deserve only a slight at our hands 'T is a contempt of the love and kindness of God 10. 'T is against the Sufficiency and Fullness of God When we give God our Bodies and the Creature our Spirits it intimates a conceit that there is more content to be had in the Creature than in God blessed for ever that the waters in the Cistern are sweeter than those in the Fountain Is not this a practical giving God the Lye and denying those promises wherein he hath declared the satisfaction he can give to the Spirit as he is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh If we did imagin the excellency and loveliness of God were worthy to be the ultimate Object of our affections the heart would attend more closely upon him and be terminated in him did we believe God to be all sufficient full of grace and goodness a tender Father not willing to forsake his own willing as well as able to supply their wants the heart would not so lamely attend upon him and would not upon every impertinency be diverted from him There is much of a wrong notion of God and a predominancy of the world above him in the heart when we can more savourly relish the thoughts of low inferior things than heavenly and let our Spirits upon every trifling occasion be fugitives from him 'T is a testimony that we make not God our chiefest good If apprehensions of his excellency did possess our Souls they would be fastned on him glued to him we should not listen to that rabble of foolish thoughts that steal our hearts so often from him Were our breathings after God as strong as the pantings of the Hart after the water Brooks we should be like that Creature not diverted in our Course by every Puddle Were God the predominant satisfactory Object in our eye he would carry our whole Soul along with him When our Spirits readily retreat from God in worship upon every giddy motion 't is a kind of repentance that ever we did come near him and implies that there is a fuller satisfaction and more attractive excellency in that which doth so easily divert us than in that God to whose worship we did pretend to address our selves 'T is as if when we were petitioning a Prince we should immediately turn about and make request to one of his Guard as though so mean a person were more able to give us the boon we want than the Soveraign is 2. Consideration by way of motive To have our Spirits off from God in worship is a bad sign It was not so in Innocence The heart of Adam could cleave to God the Law of God was engraven upon him he could apply himself to the fulfilling of it without any twinkling there was no folly and vanity in his mind no independency in his thoughts no duty was his burden for there was in him a proneness to and delight in all the duties of worship 'T is the Fall hath distempered us and the more unwieldiness there is in our Spirits the more carnal our affections are in worship the more evidence there is of the strength of that revolted state 1. It argues much corruption in the heart As by the eructations of the Stomach we may judge of the windiness and foulness of it so by the inordinate motions of our minds and hearts we may judge of the weakness of its complexion A strength of sin is evidenced by the eruptions and ebullitions of it in worship when they are more sudden numerous and vigorous than the motions of grace When the heart is apt like tinder to catch fire from Satan 't is a sign of much combustible matter sutable to his temptation Were not corruption strong the Soul could not turn so easily from God when it is in his presence and hath an advantagious opportunity to create a fear and aw of God in it Such base fruit could not sprout up so suddenly were there not much sap and juice in the root of sin What communion with a living root can be evidenced without exercises of an inward life That Spirit which is a Well of living waters in a gracious heart will be especially springing up when it is before God 2. It shews much affection to earthly things and little to heavenly There must needs be an inordinate affection to earthly things when upon every slight sollicitation we can part with God and turn the back upon a service glorious for him and advantagious for our selves to wedd our hearts to some idle fancy that signifies nothing How can we be said to entertain God in our affections when we give him not the precedency in our understandings but let every trifle justle the sense of God out of our minds Were our hearts fully determined to spiritual things such vanities could not seat themselves in our
understandings and divide our Spirits from God Were our hearts ballanced with a love to God the world could never steal our hearts so much from his worship but his worship would draw our hearts to it It shews a base neutrality in the greatest concernments a halting between God and Baal a contrariety between Affection and Conscience when natural Conscience presses a man to duties of worship and his other affections pull him back draw him to carnal objects and make him slight that whereby he may honour God God argues the prophaness of the Jews hearts from the wickedness they brought into his house and acted there Jer. 23.11 Yea in my house that is my worship I found their wickedness saith the Lord. Carnality in worship is a kind of an Idolatrous frame when the heart is renewed Idols are cast to the Moles and the Batts Isa 2.20 3. It shews much hypocrisie to have our Spirits off from God The mouth speaks and the carriage pretends what the heart doth not think there is a dissent of the heart from the pretence of the body Instability is a sure sign of Hypocrisie Double thoughts argue a double heart The Wicked are compared to Chaff * Psal 1.4 for the uncertain and various motions of their minds by the least wind of fancy The least motion of a carnal Object diverts the Spirit from God as the scent of Carrion doth the Raven from the flight it was set upon The People of God are called Gods Spouse and God calls himself their Husband whereby is noted the most intimate union of the Soul with God and that there ought to be the highest love and affection to him and faithfulness in his worship but when the heart doth start from him in worship it is a sign of the unstedfastness of it with God and a disrelish of any communion with him It is as God complains of the Israelites a going a whoreing after our own imaginations As grace respects God as the object of worship so it looks most upon God in approaching to him Where there is a likeness and love there is a desire of converse and intimacy if there be no spiritual entwining about God in our worship it is a sign there is no likeness to him no true sense of him no renewed image of God in us Every living Image will move strongly to joyn it self with its original Copy and be glad with Jacob to sit steadily in those Chariots that shall convey him to his beloved Joseph Motion 3. Consider the danger of a carnal worship 1. We lose the comfort of worship The Soul is a great Gainer when it offers a spiritual worship and as great a loser when it is unfaithful with God Treachery and perfidiousness hinder commerce among men so doth Hypocrisie in its own nature communion with God God never promised any thing to the Carcass but to the Spirit of worship God hath no obligation upon him by any word of his to reward us with himself when we perform it not to himself When we give an outside worship we have only the outside of an ordinance We can expect no kernel when we give God only the shell He that only licks the outside of the Glass can never be refreshed with the rich Cordial enclosed within A cold and lazy formality will make God to withdraw the light of his countenance and not shine with any delightful communications upon our Souls but if we come before him with a liveliness of affections and steadiness of heart he will draw the vail and cause his glory to display it self before us An humble praying Christian and a warm affectionate Christian in worship will soon find a God who is delighted with such frames and cannot long withold himself from the Soul When our hearts are enflamed with love to him in worship 't is a preparation to some act of love on his part whereby he intends further to gratifie us When John was in the Spirit on the Lords day that is in spiritual employment and meditation and other duties he had that great Revelation of what should happen to the Church in all ages * Rev 1.10 His being in the Spirit intimates his ordinary course on that day and not any extraordinary act in him though it was followed with an extraordinary discovery of God to him When he was thus engaged he heard a voice behind him God doth not require of us spirituality in worship to advantage himself but that we might be prepared to be advantaged by him If we have a clear and well disposed eye 't is not a benefit to the Sun but fits us to receive benefits from his Beams Worship is an act that perfects our own Souls they are then most widened by spiritual frames to receive the influence of divine blessings as an eye most opened receives the fruit of the Suns light better than the eye that is shut The communications of God are more or less according as our spiritual frames are more or less in our worship God will not give his blessings to unsutable hearts What a nasty Vessel is a carnal heart for a spiritual communication The chief end of every duty enjoyned by God is to have communion with him and therefore it is called a drawing near to God 'T is impossible therefore that the outward part of any duty can answer the end of God in his institution 'T is not a bodily appearance or gesture whereby men can have communion with God but by the impressions of the heart and reflections of the heart upon God Without this all the rich streams of grace will run besides us and the growth of the Soul be hindered and impaired A diligent hand makes rich saith the wise man a diligent heart in spiritual worship brings in rich incomes to the humble and spiritual Soul 2. It renders the worship not only unacceptable but abominable to God It makes our Gold to become Dross it soyls our duties and bespotts our Souls A carnal and unsteady frame shews an indifferency of Spirit at best and luke warmness is as ungrateful to God as heavy and nauseous meat is to the stomach he spues them out of his mouth * Rev. 3.16 As our gracious God doth overlook infirmities where intentions are good and endeavours serious and strong so he loaths the services where the frames are stark naught Psal 66.118 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my Prayer Luke warm and indifferrent services stink in the Nostrils of God The heart seems to loath God when it starts from him upon every occasion when it is unwilling to employ it self about and stick close to him And can God be pleased with such a frame The more of the Heart and Spirit is in any service the more real goodness there is in it and the more savoury it is to God the less of the Heart and Spirit the less of goodness and the more nauseous to God who loves Righteousness
and Truth in the inward parts * Psal 51.6 And therefore infinite Goodness and Holiness cannot but hate worship presented to him with deceitful carnal and flitting affections They must be more nauseous to God than a putrified Carcass can be to Man They are the prophanings of that which should be the habitation of the Spirit They make the Spirit the seat of duty a filthy dung-hill and are as loathsome to God as Mony-changers in the Temple were to our Saviour We see the evil of carnal frames and the necessity and benefit of spiritual frames For further help in this last let us practise thesâ— following directions Direction 1. Keep up spiritual frames out of worship To avoid low affections we must keep our hearts as much as we can in a setled elevation If we admit unworthy dispositions at one time we shall not easily be rid of them at another * Fitzherbert Pol. in relig part 2. cap. 19. § 12. As he that would not be bitten with Gnats in the Night must keep his windows shut in the Day when they are once entred 't is not easie to expel them In which respect one adviseth to be such out of worship as we would be in worship If we mix spiritual affections with our worldly employments worldly affections will not mingle themselves so easily with our heavenly engagements If our hearts be spiritual in our outward calling they will scarce be carnal in our religious service If we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfil the lusts of the Flesh * Gal. 5.16 A spiritual walk in the day will hinder carnal lustings in worship The Fire was to be kept alive upon the Altar when Sacrifices were not offered from morning till night from night till morning as well as in the very time of Sacrifice A spiritual life and vigour out of worship would render it at its season sweet and easie and preserve a spontaneity and preparedness to it and make it both natural and pleasant to us Any thing that doth unhinge and discompose our Spirits is inconsistent with religious services which are to be performed with the greatest sedateness and gravity All irregular passions disturb the serenity of the Spirit and open the door for Satan * Eph. 4.26.27 Saith the Apostle Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the Devil Where wrath breaks the Lock the Devil will quickly be over the Threshold and though they be allayed yet they leave the heart sometime after like the Sea rowling and swelling after the storm is ceased Mixture with ill company leaves a tincture upon us in worship Ephraims allying himself with the Gentiles bred an indifferency in Religion Hos 7.8 Ephraim hath mixed himself with the People Ephraim is a Cake not turn'd It will make our hearts and consequently our services half Dough as well as half bak'd These and the like make the holy Spirit withdraw himself and then the Soul lies like a wind-bound Vessel and can make no way When the Sun departs from us it carries its Beams away with it then doth Darkness spread it self over the Earth and the Beasts of the Forests creep out * Psal 1â—4 2â— When the Spirit withdraws a while from a good man it carries away though not habitual yet much of the exciting and assisting grace and then carnal dispositions perk up themselves from the bosome of natural corruption To be spiritual in worship we must bar the door at other times against that which is contrary to it As he that would not be infected with a contagious disease carries some Preservative about with him and inures himself to good scents To this end be much in secret ejaculations to God these are the purest slights of the Soul that have more of fervor and less of carnality they preserve a liveliness in the Spirit and make it more fit to perform solemn stated worship with greater freedom and activity A constant use of this would make our whole lives lives of worship As frequent sinful acts strengthen habits of sin so frequent religious acts strengthen habits of grace Direction 2. Excite and exercise particularly a love to God and dependence on him Love is a commanding affection a uniting graces it draws all the faculties of the Soul to one Center The Soul that loves God when it hath to do with him is bound to the beloved Object It can mind nothing else during such impressions When the affection is set to the worship of God every thing the Soul hath will be bestowed upon it As David's disposition was to the Temple 1 Chron. 29.3 Carnal frames like the Fouls will be lighting upon the Sacrifice but not when it is enflam'd Though the scent of the flesh invite them yet the heat of the fire drives them to their distance A flaming love will singe the Flies that endeavour to interrupt and disturb us The happiness of Heaven consists in a full attraction of the Soul to God by his glorious influence upon it There will be such a diffusion of his goodness throughout the Souls of the Blessed as will unite the affections perfectly to him These affections which are scattered here will be there gathered into one flame moving to him and centring in him Therefore the more of a heavenly frame possesses our affections here the more settled and uniform will our hearts be in all their motions to God and operations about him Excite a dependence on him Pro. 16.3 Commit thy works to the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established Let us go out in Gods strength and not in our own vain is the help of man in any thing and vain is the help of the heart 'T is through God only we can do valiantly in spiritual concerns as well as temporal the want of this makes but slight impressions upon the Spirit Direction 3. Nourish right conceptions of the Majesty of God in your minds Let us consider that we are drawing to God the most amiable Object the best of Beings worthy of infinite honour and highly meriting the highest affections we can give a God that made the world by a word that upholds the great frame of Heaven and Earth a Majesty above the conceptions of Angels who uses not his power to strike us to our deserved punishment but his love and bounty to allure us a God that gave all the Creatures to serve us and can in a trice make them as much our Enemies as he hath now made them our Servants Let us view him in his greatness and in his goodness that our hearts may have a true value of the worship of so great a Majesty and count it the most worthy employment with all diligence to attend upon him When we have a fear of God it will make our worship serious when we have a joy in God it will make our worship durable Our affections will be raised when we represent God in the most reverential endearing and obliging
tendency to despoil God of his honour and our selves of the spiritual intentness in worship send it away Those that weed a Field of Corn examin not the nature and particular virtues of the Weeds but consider only how they choak the Corn to which the native juyce of the Soil is design'd Consider what you are about and if any thing interpose that may divert you or cool your affections in your present worship cast it out 7. As to private worship let us lay hold of the most melting oportunities and frames When we find our hearts in a more than ordinary spiritual frame let us look upon it as a Call from God to attend him Such impressions and motions are Gods Voice inviting us into communion with him in some particular act of worship and promising us some success in it When the Psalmist had a secret motion to seek Gods face and complied with it * Psal 27.8 the issue is the encouragement of his heart which breaks out into an exhortation to others to be of good courage and wait on the Lord v. 13 14. Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart wait I say on the Lord. * Reynold's One blow will do more on the Iron when it is hot than a hundred when it is cold Melted Metals may be stampt with any impression but once hardned will with difficulty be brought into the figure we intend 8. Let us examin our selves at the end of every act of worship and chide our selves for any carnality we perceive in them Let us take a review of them and examin the reason why art thou so low and carnal oh my Soul As David did of his disquietedness Psalm 42.5 Why art thou cast down oh my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me If any unworthy frames have surprized us in worship let us seek them out after worship call them to the bar make an exact scrutiny into the causes of them that we may prevent their incursions another time let our pulses beat quick by way of anger and indignation against them This would be a repairing what hath been amiss otherwise they may grow and clogg an after worship more than they did a former Dayly examination is an Antidote against the temptations of the following day and constant examination of our selves after duty is a Preservative against vain encroachments in following duties and upon the finding them out let us apply the blood of Christ by Faith for our Cure and draw strength from the death of Christ for the conquest of them and let us also be humbled for them God lifts up the humble When we are humbled for our carnal frames in one duty we shall find our selves by the Grace of God more elevated in the next A DISCOURSE UPON THE ETERNITY OF GOD. Psalm 90.2 Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God THE Title of this Psalm is a Prayer The Author Moses Some think not only this but the Ten following Psalms were composed by him The Title wherewith he is dignified is The Man of God as also in Deut. 33.1 One inspir'd by him to be his Interpreter and deliver his Oracles One particularly directed by him * Coccei in Loc. One who as a Servant did diligently employ himself in his Masters business and acted for the Glory of God * Austin in Loc. He was the Minister of the Old Testament and the Prophet of the New There are two parts of this Psalm * Pareus in loc 1. A complaint of the frailty of Mans Life in general verse 3 4 5 6. And then a particular complaint of the condition of the Church v. 8 9 10. 2. A Prayer v. 12. But before he speaks of the shortness of humane life he fortifies them by the consideration of the refuge they had and should find in God v. 1. Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations We have had no settled abode in the Earth since the time of Abraham's being called out from Vr of the Chaldees We have had Canaan in a promise we have it not yet in possession We have been exposed to the Cruelties of an oppressing Enemy and the incommodities of a desert Wilderness we have wanted the fruits of the Earth but not the dews of Heaven Thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations Abraham was under thy Conduct Isaac and Jacob under thy Care Their Posterity were multiplied by thee and that under their oppressions Thou hast been our Shield against dangers our security in the times of trouble When we were pursued to the Red-sea it was not a Creature delivered us and when we feared the pinching of our Bowels in the Desert it was no Creature rain'd Manna upon us Thou hast been our dwelling place Thou hast kept open house for us sheltered us against storms and preserved us from mischief as a house doth an Inhabitant from wind and weather and that not in one or two but in all Generations Some think an allusion is here made to the Ark to which they were to have recourse in all emergencies Our refuge and defence hath not been from created things not from the Ark but from the God of the Ark. Observe 1. God is a perpetual refuge and security to his People His Providence is not confin'd to one Generation 't is not one Age only that tastes of his bounty and compassion His eye never yet slept nor hath he suffered the little Ship of his Church to be swallowed up though it hath been tost upon the waves He hath always been an Haven to preserve us a House to secure us He hath alway had compassions to pity us and power to protect us He hath had a Face to shine when the world hath had an angry Countenance to frown * Theodoret in loc He brought Enoch home by an extraordinary translation from a brutish world and when he was resolved to reckon with men for their brutish lives he lodged Noah the Phoenix of the world in an Ark and kept him alive as a spark in the midst of many waters whereby to rekindle a Church in the world In all Generations he is a dwelling place to secure his people here or entertain them above His Providence is not wearied nor his Care fainting He never wanted Will to relieve us For he hath been our refuge Nor ever can want Power to support us for he is a God from everlasting to everlasting The Church never wanted a Pilot to steer her and a Rock to shelter her and dash in pieces the waves which threaten her 2. How worthy is it to remember former benefits when we come to beg for new Never were the Records of Gods mercies so exactly revised as when his people have stood in need of new Editions of his Power How necessary are our wants to stir us up to pay the rent
which this Book chiefly respects The meditation of his converting Grace manifested to Paul ravisht the Apostles heart but not without the triumphant consideration of his Immortality and Eternity which are the principal parts of the Doxology * 1 Tim. 1.15.16 17. Now unto the King Eternal immortal invisible only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever It could be no great transport to the Spirit to consider him glorious without considering him immortal The unconfinedness of his perfections in regard of time presents the Soul with matter of the greatest complacency The happiness of our Souls depends upon his other Attributes but the perpetuity of it upon his Eternity Is it a comfort to view his immense Wisdom his overflowing Goodness his tender Mercy his unerring Truth What comfort were there in any of those if it were a Wisdom that could be bafled a Goodness that could be dampt a Mercy that can expire and a Truth that can perish with the Subject of it Without Eternity what were all his other Perfections but as glorious yet withering Flowers a great but a decaying Beauty By a frequent meditation of Gods Eternity we should become more sensible of our own vanity and the worlds triflingness How nothing should our selves How nothing would all other things appear in our eyes How coldly should we desire them How feebly should we place any trust in them Should we not think our selves worthy of contempt to dote upon a perishing glory to expect support from an Arm of Flesh when there is an eternal Beauty to ravish us an eternal Arm to protect us Asaph when he considered God a Portion for ever thought nothing of the Glories of the Earth or the Beauties of the created Heavens worth his appetite or complacency but God * Psal 73.25 26 Besides an elevated frame of heart at the consideration of Gods Eternity would batter down the strong holds and engines of any temptation A slight temptation will not know where to find and catch hold of a Soul high and hid in a meditation of it and if it doth there will not be wanting from hence preservatives to resist and conquer it What transitory pleasures will not the thoughts of Gods Eternity stifle When this work busieth a Soul 't is too great to suffer it to descend to listen to a sleeveless errand from Hell or the World The wanton allurements of the Flesh will be put off with indignation The profers of the world will be ridiculous when they are cast into the Ballance with the Eternity of God which sticking in our thoughts we shall not be so easy a Prey for the Fowlers Ginn Let us therefore often meditate upon this but not in a bare speculation without engaging our affections and making every notion of the Divine Eternity end a in sutable impression upon our hearts This would be much like the Disciples gazing upon the Heavens at the ascension of their Master while they forgat the practice of his Orders * Acts 1.11 We may else find something of the nature of God and lose our selves not only in Eternity but to Eternity 2. And hence the second part of the Exhortation is to something which concerns us with a respect to God 1. If God be eternal How worthy is he of our choicest affections and strongest desires of communion with him Is not every thing to be valued according to the greatness of its Being How then should we love him who is not only lovely in his nature but eternally lovely having from everlasting all those perfections centred in himself which appear in time If every thing be lovely by how much the more it partakes of the nature of God who is the chief Good how much more infinitely lovely is God who is superior to all other goods and eternally so Not a God of a few minutes months years or millions of years not of the dreggs of time or the top of time but of Eternity above time unconceivably immense beyond time The loving him infinitely perpetually is an act of homage due to him for his eternal excellency We may give him the one since our Souls are immortal though we cannot the other because they are finite Since he encloseth in himself all the excellencies of Heaven and Earth for ever he should have an affection not only of time in this woâ—â—â— but of eternity in the future and if we did not owe him a love for what we are by him we owe him a love for what he is in himself and more for what he is than for what he is to us He is more worthy of our affections because he is the eternal God than because he is our Creator because he is more excellent in his nature than in his transient actions The beams of his goodness to us are to direct our thoughts and affections to him but his own eternal excellency ought to be the ground and foundation of our affections to him And truly since nothing but God is eternal nothing but God is worth the loving and we do but a just right to our love to pitch it upon that which can always possess us and be possessed by us upon an Object that cannot deceive our affection and put it out of countenance by a dissolution And if our happiness consists in being like to God we should imitate him in loving him as he loves himself and as long as he loves himself God cannot do more to himself than love himself he can make no addition to his Essence nor diminution from it What should we do less to an eternal Being than to bestow affections upon him like his own to himself since we can find nothing so durable as himself for which we should love it 2. He only is worthy of our best Service The Ancient of days is to be served before all that are younger than himself Our best obedience is due to him as a God of unconfined excellency Every thing that is excellent deserves a veneration sutable to its excellency As God is infinite he hath right to a boundless service as he is eternal he hath right to a perpetual service As Service is a debt of Justice upon the account of the excellency of his nature so a perpetual service is as much a debt of justice upon the account of his Eternity If God be infinite and eternal he merits an honour and comportment from his Creatures suted to the unlimited perfection of his Nature and the duration of his Being How worthy is the Psalmists resolution I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise to my God while I have any being * Psal 104.33 'T is the use he makes of the endless duration of the Glory of God and will extend to all other service as well as praise To serve other things or to serve our selves is too vast a service upon that which is nothing In devoting our selves to God we serve him that is that
any Creature is from Grace and Gift Naturally we tend to nothing as we come from nothing This Creature-mutability is not our sin yet it should cause us to lye down under a sense of our own nothingness in the presence of the Creator The Angels as Creatures though not corrupt cover their faces before him And the Arguments God uses to humble Job though a fallen Creature are not from his Corruption for I do not remember that he taxed him with that but from the greatness of his Majesty and excellency of his Nature declared in his Works * Job 38.39 40.41 And therefore Men that have no sense of God and humility before him forget that they are Creatures as well as corrupt ones How great is the distance between God and us in regard of our inconstancy in good which is not natural to us by Creation For the mind and affections were regular and by the great Artificer were pointed to God as the Object of Knowledge and Love We have the same faculties of Understanding Will and Affection as Adam had in Innocence but not with the same Light the same Bias and the same Ballast Man by his fall wounded his head and heart the wound in his head made him unstable in the Truth and that in his heart unstedfast in his Affections He changed himself from the Image of God to that of the Devil from Innocence to Corruption and from an ability to be stedfast to a perpetual Inconstancy His Silver became Dross and his Wine was mixed with Water * Isa 1.22 He changed 1. To inconstancy in Truth opposed to the Immutability of Knowledge in God How are our Minds floating between Ignorance and Knowledge Truth in us is like those Ephemera Creatures of a days continuance springs up in the Morning and expires at Night How soon doth that fly away from us which we have had not only some weak flashes of but which we have learned and have had some relish of The Devil stood not in the Truth * John 8.44 and therefore manages his Engines to make us as unstable as himself Our Minds reel and corrupt reasonings oversway us like Spunges we suck up Water and a light compression makes us spout it out again Truths are not engraven upon our hearts but writ as in Dust defaced by the next puff of Wind carried about with every Wind of Doctrin Eph. 4.14 Like a Ship without a Pilot and Sails at the courtesy of the next Storm or like Clouds that are Tenants to the Wind and Sun moved by the Wind and melted by the Sun The Galatians were no sooner called into the Grace of God but they were removed from it * Gal. 1.6 Some have been reported to have menstruam fidem kept an Opinion for a Month and many are like him that believed the Souls Immortality no longer than he had Plato's Book of that Subject in his hand * Sedgwick Christs Counsel p. 230. One likens such to Children they play with Truths as Children do with Babies one while embrace them and a little after throw them into the Durt How soon do we forget what the Truth is delivered to us and what it represented us to be * James 1.23.24 Is it not a thing to be bewailed that Man should be such a Weathercock turned about with every Breath of Wind and shifting Aspects as the Wind shifts Points 2. Inconstancy in Will and Affections opposed to the Immutability of Will in God We waver between God and Baal and while we are not only resolving but upon motion a little way look back with a hankring after Sodom Sometimes lifted up with heavenly intentions and presently cast down with earthly cares like a Ship that by an advancing Wave seems to aspire to Heaven and the next fall of the Waves makes it sink down to the Depths We change Purposes oftner than Fashions and our Resolutions are like Letters in water whereof no mark remains We will be as John to day to love Christ and as Judas to morrow to betray him and by an unworthy levity pass into the Camp of the Enemies of God resolv'd to be as holy as Angels in the Morning when the Evening beholds us as impure as Devils How often do we hate what before we loved and shun what before we longed for And our Resolutions are like Vessels of Christal which break at the first knock are dasht in pieces by the next Temptation Saul resolved not to persecute David any more but you soon find him upon his old game Pharaoh more than once promised and probably resolved to let Israel go but at the end of the storm his purposes vanish * Exod. 8.27 32. When an Affliction pincheth Men they intend to change their course and the next news of ease changes their intentions Like a Bow not fully bent in their inclinations they cannot reach the Mark but live many years between resolutions of Obedience and affections to Rebellion * Psal 78.17 And what promises men make to God are often the fruit of their Passion their Fear not of their Will The Israelites were startled at the terrors wherewith the Law was delivered and promised obedience * Exod. 20.19 but a Month after forgat them and make a Golden Calf and in the sight of Sinai call for and dance before their Gods * Exod. 32. Never people more unconstant Peter who vowed an Allegiance to his Master and a Courage to stick to him forswears him almost with the same breath Those that cry out with a zeal the Lord he is God shortly after return to the service of their Idols * 1 Kings 18.39 That which seems to be our pleasure this day is our vexation to morrow A Fear of a Judgment puts us into a religious pang and a Love to our Lusts reduceth us to a rebellious inclination As soon as the danger is over the Saint is forgotten Salvation and Damnation present themselves to us touch us and ingender some weak wishes which are dissolved by the next allurements of a carnal interest No hold can be taken of our promises no credit is to be given to our resolutions 3. Inconstancy in practice How much beginning in the Spirit and ending in the Flesh one day in the Sanctuary another in the Stews clear in the morning as the Sun and clouded before noon in Heaven by an excellency of Gifts in Hell by a course of prophanness Like a Flower which some mention that changes its colour three times a day one part white then purple then yellow The Spirit lusts against the Flesh and the Flesh quickly triumphs over the Spirit In a good man how often is there a Spiritual Lethargy Tho he doth not openly defame God yet he doth not alwayes glorifie him He doth not forsake the truth but he doth not alwayes make the attainment of it and settlement in it his business This levity discovers it self in religious duties when I would do
out By this means what God is infinitely by Nature we shall come tâ— be finitely immutable by Grace as much as the capacity of a Creature can contain GODS OMNIPRESENCE Jeremiah 23.24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord THE occasion of this Discourse begins vers 16. where God admonisheth the people not to hearken to the words of the false Prophets which spake a Vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They made the people vain by their Insinuations of Peace when God had proclaimed War and Calamity and uttered the Dreams of their Phansies and not the Visions of the Lord and so turned the people from the expectation of the evil day which God had threatned ver 17. They say still unto them that despise me The Lord hath said Ye shall have peace and they say unto every one that walks after the Imagination of his own heart No evil shall come upon you And they invalidate the Prophesies of those whom God had sent v. 18. Who hath stood in the Counsel of the Lord and hath perceived and heard his word Who hath marked his word and heard it Who hath stood in the Counsel of the Lord Are they acquainted with the Secrets of God more than we Who have the word of the Lord if we have not Or it may be a continuation of Gods Admonition Believe not those Prophets for who of them have been acquainted with rhe Secrets of God or by what means should they learn his Counsel No assure your selves a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury even a grievous whirlwind it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked v. 19. A whirlwind shall come from Babylon 't is just at the door and shall not be blown over it shall fall with a witness upon the wicked people and the deceiving Prophets and sweep them together into Captivity For v. 20. The anger of the Lord shall not return until he have executed and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart My fury shall not be a childish fury that quickly languisheth but shall accomplish whatsoever I threaten and burn so hot as not to be cool till I have satisfied my vengeance in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly v. 20. when the storm shall beat upon you you shall then know that the Calamities shall answer the words you have heard When the Conquerour shall waste your Grounds demolish your Houses and manacle your hands then shall you consider it and have the wishes of Fools that you had had your eyes in your heads before you shall then know the falsness of your Guides and the truth of may Prophets and discern who stood in the Counsel of the Lord and subscribe to the Messages I have sent you Some understand this not only of the Babylonish Captivity but refer it to the time of Christ and the false Doctrine of mens own Righteousness in opposition to the Righteousness of God understanding this Verse to be partly a threatning of Wrath which shall end in an advantage to the Jews who shall in the latter time consider the falsness of their Notions about a legal Righteousness and so make it a promise they shall then know the intent of the Scripture and in the latter days the latter end of the World when time shall be near the rouling up they shall reflect upon themselves they shall look upon him whom they have pierced and till these latter days they shall be hardned and believe nothing of Evangelical truths Now God denieth that he sent those Prophets v. 21. I have not sent these Prophets yet they ran I have not spoken to them yet they prophesyed They have intruded themselves without a Commission from me whatsoever their Brags are The reason to prove it is v. 22. If they had stood in my Counsel if they had been instructed and inspired by me they would have caused my people to hear my words they would have regulated themselves according to my word and have turned them from their evil way i. e. endeavoured to shake down their false confidences of peace and make them sensible of their false Notions of me and my ways Now because those false Prophets could not be so impudent as to boast that they prophecied in the Name of God when they had not Commission from him unless they had some secret Sentiment that they and their intentions were hid from the Knowledg and Eye of God He adds v. 23. Am I a God at hand and not a God a far off Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him Have I not the power of seeing and knowing what they do what they design what they think Why should I not have such a power since I fill Heaven and Earth by my essence Am I a God at hand and not a God afar off He excludes here the Doctrine of those that excluded the Providence of God from extending its self to the inferior things of the earth which error was ancient as ancient as the time of Job as appears by their opinion That Gods eyes were hood-winkt and mufled by the thickness of the Clouds and could not pierce through their dark and dense body * Job 22.14 Thick clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not * Munster Vatablus Castalio Oecolamp Some refer it to time Do you imagine me a God new fram'd like your Idols beginning a little time ago and not existing before the foundation of the World yea from Eternity a God afar off further than your acutest understandings can reach I am of a longer standing and you ought to know my Majesty But it rather refers to place than time Do you think I do not behold every thing in the earth as well as in Heaven Am I lockt up within the walls of my Palace and cannot peep out to behold the things done in the World or that am I so linkt to pleasure in the place of my Glory as earthly Kings are in their Courts that I have no mind or leasure to take notice of the carriages of men upon earth God doth not say He was a far off but only gives an account of the inward thoughts of their minds or at least of the Language exprest by their Actions The Interrogation carries in it a strong Affirmation and assures us more of Gods care and the folly of men in not considering it Am I a God at hand and not a God afar off Can any hide himself in secret places Heb. in Hiddenesses in the deepest Cells What are you besotted by your base Lusts that you think me a God careless ignorant blind that I can see nothing but as a purblind man what is very near my eye Are you so out of your wits that you imagine you can deceive me Do not all your behaviours speak such a Sentiment to
All People are under Gods Care but he has a particular regard to his Church This is the Signet on his hand as a Bracelet upon his arm this is his Garden which he delights to dress if he prunes it it is to purge it if he Digs about his Vine and wounds the Branches 't is to make it more Beautiful with new Clusters and restore it to a fruitful Vigour 2. All great deliverances are to be ascrib'd to God as the principal Author whosoever are the Instruments The Lord doth build up Jerusalem he gathers together the outâ—â—â—s of Israel This great deliverance from Babylon is not to be ascrib'd to Cyrus or Darius or the rest of our favourers 't is the Lord that doth it we had his Promise for it we have now his Performance Let us not ascribe that which is the effect of his Truth only to the good Will of men 't is Gods act not by Might nor by Power nor by Weapons of War or strength of Horses but by the Spirit of the Lord. He sent Prophets to comfort us while we were exiles and now he hath stretched out his own Arm to work our deliverance according to his Word blind man looks so much upon Instruments that he hardly takes notice of God either in Afflictions or Mercies and this is the cause that robs God of so much Prayer and Praise in the World Verse 3. He heals the broken in heart and binds up their Wounds He hath now restored those who had no hope but in his Word he hath dealt with them as a tender and skilful Chirurgeon he hath applyed his curing Plaisters and dropped in his Soveraign Balsams he hath now furnisht our fainting hearts with refreshing Cordials and comforted our Wounds with strengthning Ligatures How gracious is God that restores Liberty to the Captives and Righteousness to the Penitent mans misery is the fittest opportunity for God to make his Mercy illustrious in it self and most welcome to the Patient He proceeds verse 4. Wonder not that God calls together the out-casts and singles them out from every corner for a return why can he not do this as well as tell the number of the Stars and call them all by their Names Ver. 4. There are none of his People so despicable in the eye of man but they are known and regarded by God tho' they are clouded in the World yet they are the Stars of the World and shall God number the inanimate Stars in the Heavens and make no account of his living Stars on the Earth no wherever they are dispersed he will not forget them however they are afflicted he will not despise them the Stars are so numerous that they are innumerable by man some are visible and known by men others lie more hid and undiscovered in a confused Light as those in the Milky-way man cannot see one of them distinctly God knows all his People As he can do what is above the power of man to perform so he understands what is above the skill of man to discover shall man measure God by his scantiness Proud man must not equal himself to God nor cut God as short as his own Line He tells the number of the Stars and calls them all by their Names He hath them all in his List as Generals the Names of their Soldiers in their Muster-Roll for they are his Host which he Marshals in the Heavens as Isa 40.26 where you have the like Expression he knows them more distinctly than man can know any thing and so distinctly as to call them all by their Names He knows their Names that is their natural offices influences the different degrees of heat and light their order and motion and all of them the least glimmering Star as well as the most glaring Planet this man cannot do Tell the Stars if thou be able to number them Gen. 15.5 saith God to Abraham whom Josephus represents as a great Astronomer yea they cannot be numbred Jer. 33.22 and the uncertainty of the Opinions of men evidenceth their ignorance of their number some reckoning 1022 others 1025 others 1098 others 7000 besides those that by reason of their mixture of Light with one another cannot be distinctly discern'd and others perhaps so high as not to be reach'd by the eye of man To impose Names on things and Names according to their Natures is both an Argument of Power and Dominion and of Wisdom and Understanding from the imposition of Names upon the Creatures by Adam the Knowledg of Adam is generally concluded and it was also a fruit of that Dominion God allowed him over the Creatures Now he that Numbers and Names the Stars that seem to lie confus'd among one another as well as those that appear to us in an unclouded Night may well be suppos'd accurately to know his People tho' lurking in secret Caverns and know those that are fit to be Instruments of their deliverance the one is as easy to him as the other and the Number of the one as distinctly known by him as the Multitude of the other For great is our Lord and of great Power his Vnderstanding is Infinite Ver. 5. He wants not Knowledg to know the objects nor Power to effect his Will concerning them Of great Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Much Power plenteous in Power so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Psal 5.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a multitude of Power as well as a multitude of Mercy a Power that exceeds all Created Power and Understanding His Vnderstanding is Infinite You may not imagine how he can call all the Stars by Name the multitude of the visible being so great and the multitude of the invisible being greater but you must know that as God is Almighty so he is Omniscient and as there is no end of his Power so no account can exactly be given of his Understanding His Vnderstanding is Infinite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No number or account of it and so the same Words are rendred Joel 1.6 a Nation strong and without number No end of his Understanding Syriack no measure no bounds †His Essence is Infinite and so is his Power and Understanding and so vast is his Knowledg that we can no more comprehend it than we can measure spaces that are without limits or tell the minutes or hours of Eternity Who then can fathom that whereof there is no number but which exceeds all so that there is no searching of it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he knows Universals he knows Particulars We must not take understanding here as noting a faculty but the use of the understanding in the knowledg of things and the Judgment in the consideration of them and so it is often used In the Verse there is a description of God 1. In his Essence great is our Lord. 2. In his Power of great Power 3. In his Knowledg his Vnderstanding is Infinite his Understanding is his Eye
Human Nature tho' it obscur'd yet it did not disparage the Deity or bring any disgrace to it Is Gold the worse for being formed into the Image of a Fly doth it not still retain the nobleness of the Metal When men are despis'd for descending to the knowledg of mean and vile things 't is because they neglect the knowledg of the greater and Sin in their enquiries after lesser things with a neglect of that which concerns more the Honour of God and the Happiness of themselves to be ambitious of such a Knowledg and careless of that of more concern is criminal and contemptible But God knows the greatest as well as the least mean things are not known by him to exclude the knowledg of the greater nor are vile things govern'd by him to exclude the order of the better The Deformity of Objects known by God doth not deform him nor defile him he doth not view them without himself but within himself wherein all things in their Ideas are Beautiful and Comely Our knowledg of a Deformed thing is not a Deforming of our Understanding but is beautiful in the Knowledg tho' it be not in the object nor is there any fear that the Understanding of God should become material by knowing material things any more than our Understandings lose their Spirituality by knowing the nature of Bodies 't is to be observed therefore that only those senses of men as seeing hearing smelling which have those qualities for their objects that come nearest the nature of spiritual things as Light Sounds fragrant Odours are ascrib'd to God in Scripture not Touching or Tasting which are senses that are not exercis'd without a more immediate commerce with gross matter and the reason may be because we should have no gross thoughts of God as if he were a body and made of matter like the things he knows 2. As he knows all Creatures so God knows all the actions of Creatures He counts in particular all the ways of men Doth he not see all my ways and count all my steps Job 31.4 He tells their wandrings as if one by one Psal 56.8 His eyes are upon all the ways of man and he sees all his goings Job 34.21 a Metaphor taken from men when they look wistly with fixed Eyes upon a thing to view it in every circumstance whence it comes whether it goes to observe every little motion of it Gods Eye is not a wandring but a fixed Eye and the ways of man are not only before his eyes but he doth exactly ponder them Prov. 5.21 as one that will not be ignorant of the least Mite in them but weigh and examine them by the Standard of his Law he may as well know the motions of our Members as the Hairs of our Heads the smallest actions before they be whether Civil Natural or Religious fall under his Cognizance what meaner than a man carrying a Pitcher yet our Saviour foretels it Luke 22.10 God knows not only what men do but what they would have done had he not restrained them what Abimelech would have done to Sarah had not God put a Bar in his way Gen. 20.6 What a man that is taken away in his Youth would have done had he lived to a riper Age yea he knows the most secret words as well as actions the words spoken by the King of Israel in his Bed-Chamber were revealed to Elisha 2 Kings 6.12 and indeed how can any action of man be conceal'd from God Can we view the various actions of a heap of Ants or a Hive of Bees in a glass without turning our Eyes and shall not God behold the actions of all men in the World which are less than Bees or Ants in his Sight and more visible to him than an Ant-Hill or Bee-Hive can be to the acutest eye of man 3. As God knows all the actions of Creatures so he knows all the Thoughts of Creatures The thoughts are the most closetted acts of man hid from men and Angels unless disclos'd by some outward Expressions but God descends into the depths and abysses of the Soul discerns the most inward contrivances nothing is impenetrable to him the Sun doth not so much enlighten the Earth as God understands the Heart all thoughts are as visible to him as Flies and Motes enclos'd in a body of transparent Chrystal this man naturally allows to God Men often speak to God by the motions of their minds and secret Ejaculations which they would not do if it were not naturally implanted in them that God knows all their inward motions the Scripture is plain and positive in this He tries the Heart and the Reins Psal 7.9 as men by the use of Fire discern the drossy and purer parts of Metals The secret intentions and aims the most lurking affections seated in the Reins he knows that which no man no Angel is able to know which a man himself knows not nor makes any particular reflection upon yea he weighs the Spirit Prov. 16.2 he exactly numbers all the devices and inclinations of men as men do every piece of Coyn they tell out of a heap He discerns the Thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4.12 all that is in the mind all that is in the affections every stirring and purpose so that not one thought can be withheld from him Job 42.2 yea Hell and Destruction are before him much more then the Hearts of the Children of men Prov. 15.11 he works all things in the Bowels of the Earth and brings forth all things out of that Treasure say some but more naturally God knows the whole state of the dead all the receptacles and Graves of their bodies all the bodies of men consumed by the Earth or devoured by living Creatures things that seem to be out of all Being he knows the Thoughts of the Devils and Damned Creatures whom he hath cast out of his care for ever into the arms of his Justice never more to cast a delightful glance towards them not a secret in any Soul in Hell which he hath no need to know because he shall not judg them by any of the Thoughts they now have since they were condemned to punishment is hid from him much more is he acquainted with the Thoughts of living men the counsels of whose hearts are yet to be manifested in order to their Tryal and Censure yea he knows them before they spring up into actual being Psal 139.2 thou understandest my Thoughts afar off my Thoughts that is every Thought tho' innumerable Thoughts pass through me in a day and that in the Sourse and Fountain when it is yet in the Womb before it is our Thought if he knows them before their Existence before they can be properly called ours much more doth he know them when they actually spring up in us he knows the tendency of them where the Bird will light when it is in flight he knows them exactly he is therefore called a discerner or criticizer of the Heart
Heb. 4.12 As a Critick discerns every Letter Point and Stop he is more intimate with us than our Souls with our Bodies and hath more the Possession of us than we have of our selves he knows them by an inspection into the heart not by the Mediation of second causes by the looks or gestures of men as men may discern the Thoughts of one another 1. God discerns all good motions of the Mind and Will These he puts into men and needs must God know his own act he knew the Son of Jeroboam to have some good thing in him towards the Lord God of Israel 1 Kings 14.13 and the integrity of David and Hezekiah the freest motions of the Will and Affections to him Lord thou knowest that I love thee saith Peter John 21.17 Love can be no more restrain'd than the Will it self can A man may make another to grieve and desire but none can force another to Love 2. God discerns all the evil motions of the Mind and Will Every imagination of the Heart Gen. 6.5 the vanity of mens thoughts Psal 94.11 their inward darkness and deceitful disguises No wonder that God who fashion'd the heart should understand the motions of it Psal 33.13 15. He looks from Heaven and beholds all the Children of men he fashioneth their hearts alike and considers all their Works Doth any man make a Watch and yet be ignorant of its motion Did God fling away the Key to this secret Cabinet when he framed it and put off the power of unlocking it when he pleased He did not surely frame it in such a posture as that any thing in it should be hid from his Eye he did not fashion it to be Priviledged from his Government which would follow if he were ignorant of what was Minted and Coined in it He could not be a Judg to punish men if the inward frames and Principles of mens actions were concealed from him an outward action may glitter to an outward eye yet the secret spring be a desire of applause and not the Fear and Love of God If the inward frames of the heart did lye covered from him in the secret recesses of the heart those plausible acts which in regard of their Principles would merit a Punishment would meet with a Reward and God should bestow Happiness where he had denounced Misery As without the knowledg of what is just he could not be a Wise Law-giver so without the knowledg of what is inwardly committed he could not be a Righteous Judg acts that are rotten in the spring might be judged good by the fair colour and appearance This is the glory of God at the last day to manifest the secrets of all hearts 1 Cor. 4.5 and the Prophet Jeremiah links the power of Judging and the Prerogative of trying the Hearts together Jer. 11.20 but thou O Lord of Hosts that Judgest Righteously that tryest the Reins and the Heart and Jer. 17.10 I the Lord search the Heart I try the Reins to what end even to give every man according to his way and according to the fruit of his doings And indeed his binding up the whole Law with that command of not coveting evidenceth that he will Judg men by the inward affections and frames of their hearts Again God sustains the mind of man in every act of thinking In him we have not only the Principle of Life but every motion the motion of our minds as vvell as of our members In him we live and move c. Acts 17.28 Since he supports the vigor of the faculty in every act can he be ignorant of those acts vvhich spring from the faculty to vvhich he doth at that instant communicate povver and ability Novv this knovvledg of the Thoughts of men is 1. An incommunicable Property belonging only to the Divine Vnderstanding Creatures indeed may knovv the thoughts of others by Divine Revelation but not by themselves no Creature hath a Key immediately to open the minds of men and see all that lodgeth there no Creature can Fathom the heart by the Line of Created Knowledge Daille serm Part 1. p. 230. Devils may have a conjectural Knowledg and may guess at them by the acquaintance they have with the Disposition and Constitution of men and the Images they behold in their Fancies and by some marks which an inward imagination may stamp upon the Brain Blood Animal Spirits Face c. But the knowing the Thougnts meerly as Thought without any Impression by it is a Royalty God appropriates to himself as the main secret of his Government and a Perfection declarative of his Deity as much as any else Jer. 17.9 10. the heart of man is desperately wicked who can know it yes there is one and but one I the Lord search the Heart I try the Reins Man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks upon the Heart 1 Sam. 16.7 where God is distinguisht by this Perfection from all men whatsoever others may know by Revelation as Elisha did what was in Gehazi's heart 2 Kings 5.26 But God knows a man more than any man knows himself What person upon earth understands the windings and turnings of his own heart what reserves it will have what contrivances what inclinations all which God knows exactly 2. God acquires no new Knowledg of the thoughts and heart by the Discovery of them in the actions He would then be but equal in this part of Knowledg to his Creature no man or Angel but may thus arrive to the Knowledg of them God were then excluded from an absolute Dominion over the prime work of his lower Creation he would have made a Creature superior in this respect to himself upon whose Will to discover his knowledg of their inward intentions should depend and therefore when God is said to search the heart we must not understand it as if God were ignorant before and was fain to make an exact scrutiny and enquiry before he attained what he desired to know but God condescends to our capacity in the expression of his own Knowledg signifying that his Knowledg is as compleat as any mans Knowledg can be of the designs of others after he hath sifted them by a strict and through examination and wrung out a discovery of their intentions that he knows them as perfectly as if he had put them upon the rack and forced them to make a discovery of their secret Plottings Nor must we understand that in Gen. 22.12 where God saith after Abraham had stretched out his hand to Sacrifice his Son Now I know that thou fearest God as though God was ignorant of Abrahams gracious disposition to him did Abrahams drawing his Knife furnish God with a new Knowledg no God knew Abrahams pious inclinations before Gen. 18.19 I know him that he will command his Children after him c. Knowledg is sometimes taken for approbation then the sense will be now I approve this Fact as a Testimony of thy fear of me since thy
man that understands the disposition of his Child or Servant knows before what he will do upon such an occasion may not God much more who knows the inclinations of all his Creatures and from Eternity run with his eyes over all the works he intended Our Wills are in the number of causes and since God knows our Wills as causes better than we do our selves why should he be ignorant of the effects God determines to give Grace to such a man not to give it to another but leave him to himself and suffer such temptations to assault him now God knowing the corruption of man in the whole mass and in every part of it is it not easy for him to foreknow what the future actions of the Will will be when the Tinder and Fire meet together and how such a man will determine himself both as to the substance and manner of the action Is it not easy for him to know how a corrupted Temper and a Temptation will suit God is exactly privy to all the gall in the hearts of men and what Principles they will have before they have a Being He knows their thoughts afar off Psal 139.2 as far off as Eternity as some explain the words and thoughts are as voluntary as any thing he knows the power and inclinations of men in the order of second causes he understands the corruption of men as well as the Poyson of Dragons and the Venom of Asps this is laid up in store with him and sealed among his Treasures Deut. 32.33 34. Among the Treasures of his foreknowledg say some What was the cruelty of Hazael but a free act yet God knew the frame of his heart and what acts of murder and oppression would spring from that bitter fountain before Hazael had conceived them in himself 2 Kings 8.12 as a man that knows the Mineral through which Waters pass may know what rellish they will have before they appear above the earth so our Saviour knew how Peter would deny him he knew what quantity of Powder would serve for such a Battery in what measure he would let loose Satan how far he would leave the Reins in Peters hands and then the issue might easily be known and so in every act of man God knows in his own Will what measure of Grace he will give to determine the Will to good and what measure of Grace he will withdraw from such a person or not give to him and consequently how far such a person will fall or not God knows the inclinations of the Creature he knows his own Permissions what degrees of Grace he will either allow him or keep from him according to which will be the degree of his Sin This may in some measure help our Conceptions in this tho' as was said before the manner of Gods foreknowledg is not so easily explicable 3. Gods foreknowledg of mans voluntary actions doth not necessitate the Will of man The foreknowledg of God is not deceived nor the liberty of mans Will diminisht I shall not trouble you with any School distinctions but be as plain as I can laying down several Propositions in this case Proposition 1. 'T is certain all necessity doth not take away liberty Indeed a compulsive necessity takes away liberty but a necessity of immutability removes not liberty from God why should then a necessity of Infallibility in God remove liberty from the Creature God did necessarily create the World because he Decreed it yet freely because his Will from Eternity stood to it he freely Decreed it and freely created it as the Apostle saith in regard of Gods Decrees who hath been his Councellor Rom. 11.34 so in regard of his actions I may say who hath been his compeller he freely decreed and he freely created Jesus Christ necessarily took our flesh because he had covenanted with God so to do yet he acted freely and voluntarily according to that Covenant otherwise his Death had not been efficacious for us A good man doth naturally necessarily love his Children yet voluntarily 'T is part of the happiness of the Blessed to love God unchangeably yet freely for it would not be their happiness if it were done by compulsion What is done by force cannot be called felicity because there is no delight or complacency in it and tho' the Blessed love God freely yet if there were a possibility of change it would not be their Happiness their Blessedness would be dampt by their fear of falling from this Love and consequently from their nearness to God in whom their happiness consists God foreknows that they will Love him for ever but are they therefore compell'd for ever to love him If there were such a kind of constraint Heaven would be rendered burdensome to them and so no Heaven Again Gods foreknowledg of what he will do doth not necessitate him to do he foreknew that he would create a World yet he freely created a World Gods foreknowledg doth not necessitate himself why should it necessitate us more than himself We may instance in ourselves When we Will a thing we necessarily use our faculty of Will and when we freely Will any thing 't is necessary that we freely Will but this necessity doth not exclude but include liberty or more plainly when a man writes or speaks whilst he writes or speaks those actions are necessary because to speak and be silent to write and not to write at the same time are impossible yet our writing or speaking doth not take away the power not to write or to be silent at that time if a man would be so for he might have chose whether he would have spoke or writ So there is a necessity of such actions of man which God foresees that is a necessity of infallibility because God cannot be deceived but not a coactive necessity as if they were compelled by God to act thus or thus 2. No man can say in any of his voluntary actions that he ever found any force upon him When any of us have done any thing according to our Wills can we say we could not have done the contrary to it were we determin'd to it in our own intrinsick nature or did we not determine our selves Did we not act either according to our reason or according to outward allurements did we find any thing without us or within us that did force our Wills to the embracing this or that Whatever action you do you do it because you judg it fit to be done or because you will do it What tho' God foresaw that you would do so and that you would do this or that did you feel any force upon you did you not act according to your nature God foresees that you will Eat or Walk at such a time do you find any thing that moves you to Eat but your own appetite or to Walk but your own Reason and Will If Prescience had impos'd any necessity upon man should we not probably have found some kind of
of them this must be either out of Sloth but how incompatible is laziness to a pure and infinite activity or out of Majesty but 't is no less for the glory of his Majesty to conduct them than it was for the glory of his Power to erect them into Being he that counts nothing unworthy of his Arms to make nothing unworthy of his Understanding to know why should he count any thing unworthy of his Wisdom to govern If he knows them to neglect them it must be because he hath no Will to it or no Goodness for it either of these would be a stain upon God to want Goodness is to be Evil and to want Will is to be negligent and scornful which are inconsistent with an Infinite Active Goodness Doth a Father neglect providing for the wants of the Family which he knows or a Physician the cure of that Disease he understands God is Omniscient he therefore sees all things he is good he doth not therefore neglect any thing but conducts it to the end he appointed it There is nothing so little that can escape his Knowledg and therefore nothing so little but falls under his Providence nothing so sublime as to be above his Understanding and therefore nothing can be without the compass of his Conduct nothing can escape his Eye and therefore nothing can escape his Care nothing is known by him in vain as nothing was made by him in vain there must be acknowledg'd therefore some end of this knowledg of all his Creatures Instruct 3. Hence then will follow the certainty of a day of Judgment To what purpose can we imagine this Attribute of Omniscience so often declared and urg'd in Scripture to our consideration but in order to a government of our practise and a future Tryal Every Perfection of the Divine Nature hath sent out brighter Rays in the World than this of his Infinite Knowledg his Power hath been seen in the Being of the World and his Wisdom in the Order and Harmony of the Creatures his Grace and Mercy hath been plentifully poured out in the mission of a Redeemer and his Justice hath been elevated by the Dying-Groans of the Son of God upon the Cross But hath his Omniscience yet met with a Glory proportionable to that of his other Perfections all the Attributes of God that have appeared in some beautiful glimmerings in the World wait for a more full manifestation in Glory as the Creatures do for the manifestation of the Sons of God Rom. 8.19 But especially this since it hath been less evidenced than others and as much or more abused than any it expects therefore a publick righting in the eye of the World There have been indeed some few sparks of this Perfection sensibly struck out now and then in the World in some horrors of Conscience which have made men become their own Accusers of unknown Crimes in bringing out hidden Wickedness to a publick view by various Providences This hath also been the design of sprinklings of Judgments upon several Generations as Psal 90.8 We are consumed by thy Anger and by thy Wrath we are troubled thou hast set our Iniquities before thee and our secret Sins in the light of thy Countenance The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Youth as well as secret i.e. Sins committed long ago and that with secrecy By this he hath manifested that secret Sins are not hid from his eye Tho' inward Terrors and outward Judgments have been let loose to worry men into a belief of this yet the corruptions of men would still keep a contrary notion in their minds that God hath forgotten that he hides his face from Transgression and will not regard their Impiety Psal 10.11 There must therefore be a time of Tryal for the publick demonstration of this Excellency that it may receive its due Honour by a full Testimony that no secrecy can be a shelter from it As his Justice which consists in giving every one his due could not be Glorified unless men were called to an account for their actions so neither would his Omniscience appear in its illustrious colours without such a manifestation of the secret motions of mens hearts and of Villanies done under Lock and Key when none were conscious to them but the committers of them Novv the last Judgment is the time appointed for the opening of the Books Dan. 7.10 The Book of Gods Records and Conscience the counter-part were never fully opened and read before only novv and then some some pages turn'd to in particular Judgments and out of those Books shall men be judged according to their Works Rev. 20.12 Then shall the defaced Sins be brought vvith all their circumstances to every mans memory the Counsels of mens hearts fled far from their present remembrance all the habitual knovvledg they had of their ovvn actions shall by Gods knovvledg of them be excited to an actual revievv and their vvorks not only made manifest to themselves but notorious to the World All the Words Thoughts Deeds of men shall be brought forth into the light of their ovvn minds by the infinite Light of Gods understanding reflecting on them His Knovvledg renders him an unerring Witness as vvell as his Justice a swift Witness Mal. 3.5 a svvift Witness because he shall vvithout any circuit or length of Speech convince their Consciences by an invvard illumination of them to take notice of the blackness and deformity of their hearts and vvorks In all Judgments God is somevvhat knovvn to be the searcher of hearts the time of Judgment is the time of his remembrance Hos 8.13 Now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins but the great instant or now of the full glorifying it is the grand day of account This Attribute must have a time for its full Discovery and no time can be fit for it but a time of a general reckoning Justice cannot be exercis'd without Omniscience for as Justice is a giving to every one his due so there must be knowledg to discern what is due to every man the searching the heart is in order to the rewarding the works 4. This Perfection in God gives us ground to believe a Resurrection Who can think this too hard for his Power since not the least Atome of the Dust of our Bodies can escape his Knowledg An infinite Understanding comprehends every mite of a departed Carcass this will not appear impossible nor irrational to any upon a serious consideration of this excellency in God The body is perished the matter of it hath been since clothed with different forms and figures part of it hath been made the body of a Worm part of it returned to the Dust that hath been blown away by the Wind part of it hath been concocted in the Bodies of Cannibals Fish ravenous Beasts the Spirits have evaporated into Air part of the Blood melted into Water what then is the matter of the body annihilated is that wholly perished no the
performance of his Promise we argue with him from his faithfulness so in the fear of any insincerity or hidden Corruption we should implore his Omnscience For as God is a God in Covenant our God our God in the whole of his Nature so the Perfections of his Nature are employed in their several Stations as assistances of his Creatures This was David's Practice and Comfort after that large Meditation on the Omniscience and Omnipresence of God he turns his thoughts of it into Petitions for the employment of it in the concerns of his Soul and begs a Mercy suitable to the glory of this Perfection Psal 139.23 Search me Oh God and trie my heart trie me and know my thoughts Dive to the bottom Verse 24. And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way Everlasting His desire is not barely that God should know him for it would be senseless to beg of God that he should have Mercy or faithfulness or power or knowledge in his Nature but he desires the exercise of this Attribute in the discovery of himself to himself in order to his sight of any wicked way and Humiliation for it and Reformation of it in order to his Conduct to Everlasting Life As we may appeal to this Perfection to Judge us when the sincerity of our Actions is Censured by others so we may implore it to search us when our sincerity is question'd by our selves That our Minds may be enlightned by a Beam from his Knowledge and the little Thieves may be pull'd out of their Dens in our Hearts by the hand of his Power In particular it is our Comfort that we can and our necessity that we must Address particularly to this when we engage solemnly in a work of self-examination that we may have a clearer Eye to direct us than our own that we may not mistake Brass for Gold or counterfeit Graces for true that nothing that is filthy and fit to be cast out may escape our Sight and preserve its Station And we need not question the laying at the Door of this neglect viz. not calling in this Attribute to our Aid whose proper Office it is as I may so say to search and enquire all the mistakes ill success and fruitlessness of our endeavours in self-examination because we would engage in it in the pitiful strength of our own dimness and not in the light of Gods Countenance and the assistance of his Eye which can discern what we cannot see and discover that to us which we cannot manifest to our selves 'T is a Comfort to a learner of an Art to have a skilful Eye to overlook his work and inform him of the defects Beg the help of the Eye of God in all your searches and self-examinations 9. The Consideration of this Attribute is Comfortable in our assurances of and reflections upon the pardon of Sin or seeking of it As God punishes Men for Sin according to his knowledge of them which is greater than the knowledge their own Consciences have of them so he pardons according to his knowledge He pardons not only according to our knowledge but according to his own He is greater than any Mans Heart to condemn for that which a Man is at present ignorant of and greater than our Hearts to pardon that which is not at present visible to us He knows that which the most watchful Conscience cannot take a survey of If God had not an infinite Understanding of us how could we have a perfect and full pardon from him It would not stand with his Honour to pardon he knew not what He knows what Crimes we have to be pardon'd when we know not all of them our selves that stand in need of a gracious Remission His Omniscence beholds every Sin to charge it upon our Saviour If he knows our Sins that are black he knows every mite of Christs Righteousness which is pure and the utmost extent of his Merits as well as the demerit of our iniquities As he knows the filth of our Sin he also knows the covering of our Saviour He knows the value of the Redeemers Sufferings and exactly understands every Plea in the intercession of our Advocate Though God knows our Sins oculo indice yet he doth not see them oculo judice with a Judicial Eye His Omniscience stirs not up his Justice to Revenge but his Mercy to Pity His infinite Understanding of what Christ hath done directs him to disarm his Justice and sound an Alarm to his Bowels As he understands better than we what we have committed so he understands better than we what our Saviour hath merited and his Eye directs his Hand in the blotting out Guilt and applying the Remedy 3. The third Use shall be to Sinners to humble them and put them upon serious Consideration This Attribute speaks terrible things to a Profligate Sinner Basil thinks that the ripping open the Sins of the Damned to their faces by this Perfection of God is more terrible than their other Torments in Hell God knows the Persons of Wicked Men not one is exempted from his Eye he sees all the actions of Men as well as he knows their Persons Job 11.11 He knows vain Men he sees wickedness also Job 34.21 His Eye is upon all their goings He hears the most private Whispers Psal 139.4 the scope manner circumstance of speaking he knows it altogether He understands all our thoughts the first bubblings of that bitter Spring Psal 139.2 The quickest glances of the Fancy the closest musings of the Mind and the abortive wouldings or wishes of the Will the language of the Heart as well as the language of the Tongue Not a foolish thought or an idle word not a wanton glance or a dishonest action Not a negligent service or a distracting fancy but is more visible to him than the filth of a Dunghill can be to any Man by the help of a Sun Beam How much better would it be for desperate Sinners to have their Crimes known to all the Angels in Heaven and Men upon Earth and Devils in Hell than that they should be known to their Soveraign whose Laws they have violated and to their Judge whose Righteousness obligeth him to revenge the injury 1. Consider What a poor Refuge is secrecy to a Sinner Not the Mysts of a foggy Day nor the obscurity of the darkest Night not the closest Curtains nor the deepest Dungeon can hide any Sin from the Eye of God Adam is known in his Thickets and Jonah in his Cabin Achan's Wedge of Gold is discern'd by him though buried in the Earth and hooded with a Tent. Shall Sarah be unseen by him when she mockingly laughs behind the Door Shall Gehazy tell a Lye and comfort himself with an imagination of his Masters ignorance as long as God knows it Whatsoever works Men do are not hid from God whither done in the darkness or Day-light in the Mid-night darkness or the Noon-day Sun He is all Eye
been handed down to them by their Predecessors which Paul * 1 Tim. 6.20 entitles a Science falsly so called either meant of the Philosophers or the Gnosticks They presum'd that they were able to measure all things by their own Reason whence when the Apostle came to preach the Doctrine of the Gospel at Athens the great School of Reason in that Age they gave him no better a Title than that of a Babler Acts 17.18 and openly mocked him verse 32. a Seed gatherer ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that hath no more brain or sense than a Fellow that gathers up Seeds that are spilt in a Market or one that hath a vain and empty found without Sense or Reason like a foolish Mountebank so slightly did those Rationalists of the World think of the Wisdom of Heaven That the Son of God should veil himself in a Mortal Body and suffer a disgraceful Death in it were things above the ken of Reason Besides the World had a general disesteem of the Religion of the Jews and were prejudic'd against any thing that came from them Whence the Romans that used to incorporate the gods of other Conquer'd Nations in their Capitol never moved to have the God of Israel worshipped among them Again they might argue against it with much fleshly Reason Here is a Crucified God preached by a Company of Mean and Ignorant persons What Reason can we have to entertain this Doctrine since the Jews who as they tell us had the Prophecies of him did not acknowledge him Surely had there been such Predictions they would not have Crucified but Crowned their King and expected from him the Conquest of the Earth under their Power What reason have we to entertain him whom his own Nation among whom he lived with whom he conversed so unanimously by the Vote of the Rulers as well as the Rout rejected It was impossible to conquer Minds possessed with so many Errors and applauding themselves in their own Reason and to render them capable of receiving Revealed Truths without the influence of a Divine Power 2. It was contrary to the Customes of the World The strength of Custome in most Men surmounts the strength of Reason and Men commonly are so wedded to it that they will be sooner divorc'd from any thing than the Modes and Patterns received from their Ancestors The endeavouring to change Customes of an ancient standing hath begotten Tumults and furious Mutinies among Nations though the change would have been much for their advantage This Doctrine struck at the Root of the Religion of the World and the Ceremonies wherein they had been educated from their Infancy delivered to them from their Ancestors confirm'd by the customary Observance of many Ages rooted in their Mindss and establish'd by their Laws Acts 18.13 This Fellow perswadeth us to worship God contrary to the Law against Customes to which they ascrib'd the happiness of their States and the prosperity of their People and would put in the place of this Religion they would abolish a new one instituted by a Man whom the Jews had condemn'd and put to death upon a Cross as an Impostor Blasphemer and Seditions person It was a Doctrine that would change the Customes of the Jews who were intrusted with the Oracles of God It would bury for ever their Ceremonial Riâ—â—s delivered to them by Moses from that God who had with a mighty hand brought them out of Egypt consecrated their Law with Thunders and Lightnings from Mount Sinai at the time of its publication backt it with severe Sanctions confirm'd it by many Miracles both in the Wilderness and their Canaan and had continued it for so many Hundred years They could not but remember how they had been ravaged by other Nations and Judgments sent upon them when they neglected and slighted it and with what great success they were follow'd when they valued and observed it and how they had abhorred the Author of this new Religion who had spoken slightly of their Traditions till they put him to death with Infamy Was it an easie matter to divorce them from that Worship upon which were entail'd as they imagin'd their Peace Plenty and Glory things of the dearest regard with Mankind The Jews were no less devoted to their Ceremonial Traditions than the Heathen were to their Vain Superstitions This Doctrine of the Gospel was of that nature that the state of Religion all over the Earth must be overturned by it the Wisdom of the Greeks must vail to it the Idolatry of the People must stoop to it and the prophane Customes of Men must moulder under the weight of it Was it an easie matter for the Pride of Nature to deny a customary Wisdom to entertain a new Doctrine against the Authority of their Ancestors to inscribe Folly upon that which hath made them admir'd by the rest of the World Nothing can be of greater esteem with Men than the Credit of their Law-givers and Founders the Religion of their Fathers and Prosperity of themselves hence the Minds of Men were sharpned against it The Greeks the Wisest Nation slighted it as Foolish the Jews the Religious Nation stumbled at it as contrary to the received Interpretations of Ancient Prophecies and Carnal Conceits of an Earthly glory The dimmest Eye may behold the difficulty to change Custome a Second Nature 'T is as hard as to change a Wolf into a Lamb to level a Mountain stop the course of the Sun or change the Inhabitants of Africk into the colour of Europe Custome dips Men in as durable a Dye as Nature The difficulties of carrying it on against the Divine Religion of the Jew and rooted Customes of the Gentiles were unconquerable by any but an Almighty Power And in this the Power of God hath appeared wonderfully 3. It was contrary to the Sensuality of the World and the Lusts of the Flesh How much the Gentiles were over-grown with base and unworthy Lusts at the time of the Publication of the Gospel needs no other Memento than the Apostles Discourse Rom. 1. As there was no Error but prevail'd upon their Minds so there was no brutish Affection but was wedded to their Hearts The Doctrine proposed to them was not easie it flatter'd not the Sense but checked the Stream of Nature It thundred down those three great Engines whereby the Devil had subdued the World to himself the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the pride of Life Not only the most sordid Affections of the Flesh but the more refin'd Gratifications of the Mind It stript Nature both of Devil and Man of what was commonly esteem'd great and vertuous That which was the root of their Fame and the satisfaction of their Ambition was struck at by this Ax of the Gospel The first Article of it ordered them to deny themselves not to presume upon their own worth to lay their Understandings and Wills at the foot of the Cross and resign them up to one newly
embrace it whence the Prophet Isaiah after the Prophecy of the Death of Christ Isai 53. calls upon the Church to enlarge her Tents and lengthen out her Cords to receive those Multitudes of Children that should call her Mother Isai 54.2 3. for she should break forth on the right hand and on the left and her seed should inherit the Gentiles The Idolaters and Persecutors should list their Names in the Muster-Roll of the Church Presently after the Descent of the Holy Ghost from Heaven upon the Apostles you find the hearts of Three thousand melted by a plain declaration of this Doctrine who were a little before so far from having a Favourable thought of it that some of them at least if not all had exprest their Rage against it in Voting for the Condemning and Crucifying the Author of it †Acts 2.41 42. But in a moment they were so altered that they breath out Affections instead of Fury neither the respect they had to their Rulers nor the honour they bore to their Priests not the derisions of the People nor the threatning of Punishment could stop them from owning it in the face of multitudes of Discouragements How wonderful is it that they should so soon and by such small Means pay a reverence to the Servants who had none for the Master that they should hear them with patience without the same Clamor against them as against Christ Crucifie them Crucifie them But that their hearts should so suddenly be enflam'd with Devotion to him dead whom they so much abhorred when living It had gained footing not in a Corner of the World but in the most famous Cities in Jerusalem where Christ had been Crucified in Antioch where the Name of Christians first began in Corinth a place of Ingenious Arts and Ephesus the Seat of a noted Idol In less than Twenty years there was never a Province of the Roman Empire and scarce any part of the known World but was stor'd with the Professors of it Rome that was the Metropolis of the Idolatrous World had multitudes of them sprinkled in every Corner whose Faith was spoken of throughout the World * Rom. 1.8 The Court of Nero that Monster of Mankind and the cruellest and sordid'st Tyrant that ever breathed was not empty of sincere Votaries to it there were Saints in Caesars house while Paul was under Nero's Chain ‖ Phil. 4. And it maintain'd its standing and flourish'd in spite of all the force of Hell 250 years before any Soveraign Prince espoused it The Potentates of the Earth had conquer'd the Lands of Men and subdued their Bodies these vanquisht Hearts and Wills and brought the most beloved Thoughts under the Yoke of Christ So much did this Doctrine overmaster the Consciences of its Followers that they rejoyced more at their Yoke than others at their Liberty and counted it more a glory to die for the honour of it than to live in the profession of it Thus did our Saviour Reign and gather Subjects in the midst of his Enemies in which respect in the first discovery of the Gospel he is describ'd as a Mighty Conqueror Revel 6.2 and still conquering in the greatness of his strength How great a Testimony of his Power is it that from so small a Cloud should rise so glorious a Sun that should chase before it the Darkness and Power of Hell Triumph over the Idolatry Superstition and Prophaness of the World This plain Doctrine vanquisht the Obstinacy of the Jews baffled the Understanding of the Greeks humbled the Pride of the Grandees threw the Devil not only out of Bodies but Hearts tore up the foundation of his Empire and planted the Cross where the Devil had for many Ages before established his Standard How much more than a humane Force is illustrious in this whole Conduct Nothing in any Age of the World can parallel it it being so much against the Methods of Nature the Disposition of the World and considering the Resistance against it seems to surmount even the Work of Creation Never were there in any Profession such multitudes not of Bedlams but Men of Sobriety Acuteness and Wisdom that expos'd themselves to the fury of the Flames and challenged Death in the most terrifying shapes for the Honour of this Doctrine To conclude This should be often meditated upon to form our Understandings to a full assent to the Gospel and the Truth of it the want of which Consideration of Power and the Customariness of an Education in the outward Profession of it is the ground of all the Prophaneness under it and Apostacy from it the disesteem of the Truth it declares and the neglect of the Duties it enjoyns The more we have a prospect and sense of the Impressions of Divine Power in it the more we shall have a Reverence of the Divine Precepts III. The Third thing is The Power of God appears in the application of Redemption as well as in the Person Redeeming and the publication and propagation of the Doctrine of Redemption 1. In the planting Grace 2. In the Pardon of Sin 3. In the preserving Grace 1. In the planting Grace There is no Expression which the Spirit of God hath thought fit in Scripture to resemble this Work to but argues the exerting of a Divine Power for the effecting of it When it is exprest by Light it is as much as the Power of God in creating the Sun when by Regeneration 't is as much as the Power of God in forming an Infant and fashioning all the Parts of a Man when it is called Resurrection 't is as much as the rearing of the Body again out of putrified Matter when it is called Creation 't is as much as erecting a comly World out of meer Nothing or an inform and uncomly Mass As we could not contrive the Death of Christ for our Redemption so we cannot form our Souls to the Acceptation of it the Infinite efficacy of Grace is as necessary for the one as the Infinite Wisdom of God was for laying the Platform of the other 'T is by his Power we have whatsoever pertains to Godliness as well as Life * 2 Pet. 1.3 He puts his Fingers upon the handle of the Lock and turns the Heart to what Point he pleases the Action whereby he performs this is exprest by a word of Force †Colos 1.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath snatcht us from the power of Darkness the Action whereby it is perform'd manifests it In reference to this Power it is called Creation which is a production from Nothing and Conversion is a production from something more uncapable of that state than meer Nothing is of Being There is a greater distance between the Terms of Sin and Righteousness Corruption and Grace than between the Terms of Nothing and Being The greater the distance is the more Power is requir'd to the producing any thing As in Miracles the Miracle is the greater where the Change is the greater
and the Change is the greater where the Distance is the greater As it was a more signal mark of Power to change a Dead Man to life than to change a Sick Man to health so that the change here being from a Term of a greater distance is more Powerful than the Creation of Heaven and Earth Therefore whereas Creation is said to be wrought by his Hands and the Heavens by his Fingers or his Word Conversion is said to be wrought by his Arm ‖ Isai 53.1 In Creation we had an Earthly by Conversion a Heavenly state In Creation Nothing is changed into Something in Conversion Hell is transform'd into Heaven which is more than the turning Nothing into a glorious Angel In that Thanksgiving of our Saviour for the revelation of the knowledge of himself to Babes the simple of the World he gives the Title to his Father of Lord of Heaven and Earth †Mat. 11.5 intimating it to be an act of his Creative and Preserving Power that Power whereby he formed Heaven and Earth hath preserved the standing and governed the motions of all Creatures from the beginning of the World 'T is resembled to the most Magnificent Act of Divine Power that God ever put forth viz. that in the Resurrection of our Saviour * Eph. 1.19 wherein there was more than an ordinary impression of Might 'T is not so small a Power as that whereby we speak with Tongues or whereby Christ opened the Mouths of the Dumb and the Ears of the Deaf or unloosed the Cords of Death from a Person 'T is not that Power whereby our Saviour wrought those stupendous Miracles when he was in the World but that Power which wrought a Miracle that amaz'd the most knowing Angels as well as ignorant Man The taking off the weight of the Sin of the World from our Saviour and advancing him in his Humane Nature to rule over the Angelical Host making him Head of Principalities and Powers as much as to say as great as all that Power which is display'd in our Redemption from the first foundation to the last line in the superstructure 'T is therefore often set forth with an Emphasis as Excellency of power †2 Cor. 4.7 and Glorious power ‖ 2 Pet. 1.3 To glory and vertue we Translate it but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Through glory and vertue that is by a glorious vertue or strength 2. The Instrument whereby it is wrought is dignified with the title of Power The Gospel which God useth in this great affair is called The Power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 and the Rod of his strength Psal 110.2 And the day of the Gospel's appearance in the heart is emphatically called The day of Power verse 3. wherein he brings down strong holds and towring Imaginations * Grotlus in Luke 1.19 And therefore the Angel Gabriel which Name signifies the Power of God was always sent upon those Messages which concerned the Gospel as to Daniel Zechary Mary The Gospel is the Power of God in way a of Instrumentality but the Almightiness of God is the Principal in a way of Efficiency The Gospel is the Scepter of Christ but the Power of Christ is the Mover of that Scepter The Gospel is not as a bare Word spoken and proposing the thing but as back'd with a higher efficacy of Grace As the Sword doth instrumentally cut but the Arm that wields it gives the blow and makes it successful in the stroak But this Gospel is the Power of God because he edgeth this by his own Power to surmount all resistance and vanquish the greatest Malice of that Man he designs to work upon The Power of God is conspicuous 1. In turning the Heart of Man against the strength of the Inclinations of Nature In the forming of Man of the Dust of the Ground as the Matter contributed nothing to the Action whereby God formed it so it had no Principle of resistance contrary to the design of God But in Converting the Heart there is not only wanting a principle of Assistance from him in this work but the whole strength of Corrupt Nature is alarm'd to combat against the Power of his Grace When the Gospel is presented the Understanding is not only ignorant of it but the Will perverse against it the one doth not relish and the other doth not esteem the Excellency of the Object The Carnal wisdom in the Mind contrives against it and the Rebellâ—ous Will puts the orders in execution against the Counsel of God which requires the invincible Power of God to enlighten the dark Mind to know what it slights and the fierce Will to embrace what it loaths The stream of Nature cannot be turned but by a Power above Nature 'T is not all the Created Power in Heaven and Earth can change a Swine into a Man or a venemous Toad into a holy and illustrious Angel Yet this work is not so great in some respect as the stilling the fierceness of Nature the silencing the swelling Waves in the heart and the casting out those brutish Affections which are born and grow up with us There would be no or far less resistance in a meer Animal to be chang'd into a Creature of a higher rank than there is in a Natural Man to be turned into a serious Christian There is in every Natural Man a stoutness of heart a stiff-neck unwillingness to good forwardness to evil Infinite Power quells this stoutness demolisheth these strong holds turns this wild Ass in her course and routs those Armies of turbulent Nature against the Grace of God To stop the Flouds of the Sea is not such an act of Power as to turn the Tyde of the Heart This Power hath been employ'd upon every Convert in the World What would you say then if you knew all the Chanels in which it hath run since the days of Adam If the alteration of one Rocky heart into a Pool of Water be a wonder of Power what then is the calming and sweetning by his Word those One hundred forty four Thousand of the Tribes of Israel and that numberless Multitude of all Nations and People that shall stand before the Throne * Revel 7.3 which were all naturally so many raging Seas Not one Converted Soul from Adam to the last that shall be in the End of the World but is a Trophy of the Divine Conquest None were pure Volunteers nor listed themselves in his Service till he put forth his strong Arm to draw them to him No mans Understanding but was chain'd with Darkness and fond of it no Man but had Corruption in his Will which was dearer to him than any thing else which could be propos'd for his True happiness These things are most evident in Scripture and Experience 2. As 't is wrought against the Inclinations of Nature so against a multitude of Corrupt habits rooted in the Souls of Men. A distemper in its first invasion may more
Justice abus'd his Goodness done injury to all those Attributes which are necessary to his relief It was not so in Creation nothing was uncapable of disobliging God from bringing it into Being The Dust which was the Matter of Adams Body needâ—d only the extrinsick Power of God to form it into a Man and inspire it with a living Soul It had not render'd it self obnoxious to Divine Justice nor was capable to excite any disputes between his Perfections But after the entrance of Sin and the merit of Death thereby there was a resistance in Justice to the free Remission of Man God was to exercise a Power over himself to answer his Justice and pardon the Sinner as well as a power over the Creature to reduce the Run-away and Rebel Unless we have recourse to the Infiniteness of Gods Power the infiniteness of our Guilt will weigh us down We must consider not only that we have a mighty Guilt to press us but a mighty God to relieve us In the same act of his being our Righteousness he is our Strength In the Lord have I righteousness and strength Isai 45.24 2. In the sense of Pardon When the Soul hath been wounded with the sense of sin and its Iniquities have star'd it in the face the raising the Soul from a despairing condition and lifting it above those Waters which terrified it to cast the light of Comfort as well as the light of Grace into a heart covered with more than an Egyptian Darkness is an act of his Infinite and Creating Power Isai 57.19 I create the fruit of the lips peace Men may wear out their Lips with numbring up the Promises of Grace and Arguments of Peace but all will signifie no more without a Creative Power than if all Men and Angels should call to that White upon the Wall to shine as splendidly as the Sun God only can create Jerusalem and every Child of Jerusalem a rejoycing * Isai 65.18 A Man is no more able to apply to himself any word of Comfort under the sense of Sin than he is able to Convert himself and turn the proposals of the Word into gracious Affections in his heart To restore the joy of Salvation is in Davids Judgment an act of Soveraign Power equal to that of creating a clean heart Psal 51.10 12. Alas 't is a state like to that of Death as Infinite Power can only raise from Natural death so from a Spiritual death also from a Comfortless death In his favour there is life in the want of his Favour there is death The Power of God hath so placed Light in the Sun that all Creatures in the World all the Torches upon Earth kindled together cannot make it Day if that doth not rise so all the Angels in Heaven and Men upon Earth are not competent Chirurgions for a wounded Spirit The cure of our Spiritual Ulcers and the pouring in Balm is an Act of Soveraign Creative Power 'T is more visible in silencing a Tempestuous Conscience than the Power of our Saviour was in the stilling the stormy Winds and the roaring Waves As none but Infinite Power can remove the Guilt of Sin so none but Infinite Power can remove the Despairing sense of it III. This Power is evident in the preserving Grace As the Providence of God is a manifestation of his Power in a continued Creation so the preservation of Grace is a manifestation of his Power in a continued Regeneration To keep a Nation under the Yoke is an act of the same Power that subdu'd it 'T is this that strengthens Men in suffering against the Fury of Hell †Colos 1.13 't is this that keeps them from falling against the force of Hell the Fathers hand John 10.29 His strength abates and moderates the violence of Temptations his Staff sustains his People under them his Might defeats the Power of Satan and bruiseth him under a Believers feet The Counterworkings of Indwelling Corruption the reluctances of the Flesh against the breathings of the Spirit the fallacy of the Senses and the rovings of the Mind have ability quickly to stifle and extinguish Grace if it were not maintain'd by that Powerful blast that first inbreathed it No less Power is seen in perfecting it than was in planting it ‖ 2 Pet. 1.3 no less in fulfilling the work of Faith than in ingrafting the Word of Faith 2 Thess 1.11 The Apostle well understood the Necessity and Efficacy of it in the preservation of Faith as well as in the firâ—t infusion when he expresses himself in those terms of a Greatness or Hyperbole of Power his Mighty Power or the Power of his Might Ephes 1.19 The Salvation he bestows and the Strength whereby he effects it are joyned together in the Prophets Song Isai 12.2 The Lord is my strength and my salvation And indeed God doth more magnifie his Power in continuing a Believer in the World a weak and half-rigg'd Vessel in the midst of so many Sands whereon it might split so many Rocks whereon it might dash so many Corruptions within and so many Temptations without than if he did immediately transport him into Heaven and cloth him with a perfectly Sanctified Nature To Conclude What is there then in the World which is destitute of Notices of Divine Power Every Creature affords us the Lesson all acts of Divine Government are the marks of it Look into the Word and the manner of its propagation instructs us in it your Changed Natures your Pardoned Guilt your Shining Comfort your quell'd Corruptions the standing of your staggering Graces are sufficient to preserve a sense and prevent a forgetfulness of this great Attribute so necessary for your support and conducing so much to your comfort Vses I. Of Information and Instruction 1. If Incomprehensible and Infinite Power belongs to the Nature of God then Jesus Christ hath a Divine Nature because the Acts of Power proper to God are ascribed to him This Perfection of Omnipotence doth unquestionably pertain to the Deity and is an incommunicable Property and the same with the Essence of God He therefore to whom this Attribute is ascribed is essentially God This is challenged by Christ in conjunction with Eternity Revel 1.8 I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty This the Lord Christ speaks of himself He who was equal with God proclaims himself by the Essential title of the Godhead part of which he repeats again verse 11. and this is the Person which walks in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks the Person that was dead and now lives vers 17 18. which cannot possibly be meant of the Father the first Person who can never come under that denomination of having been dead Being therefore adorn'd with the same Title he hath the same Deity and though his Omnipotence be only positively asserted v. 8. yet his Eternity being asserted v. 11 17. it inferreth
God is able to make him to stand Rom. 14.4 5. From this Attribute of the Infinite Power of God we have a ground of comfort in the lowest estate of the Church Let the state of the Church be never so deplorable the condition never so desperate that Power that created the World and shall raise the Bodies of men can create a happy state for the Church and raise her from an overwhelming Grave Though the Enemies trample upon her they cannot upon the Arm that holds her which by the least motion of it can lift her up above the heads of her Adversaries and make them feel the thunder of that Power that none can understand By the blast of God they perish and by the breath of his nostrils they are consumed Job 4.9 they shall be scattered as Chaff before the wind If once he draw his hand out of his bosom all must fly before him or sink under him * Psal 74.11 And when there is none to help his own Arm sustains him and brings salvation †Isa 63.5 and his fury doth uphold him What if the Church totter under the underminings of Hell What if it hath a sad heart and wet eyes In what a little moment can he make the night turn into day and make the Jews that were preparing for death in Shushan triumph over the necks of their Enemies and march in one hour with Swords in their hands that expected the last hour ropes about their necks Esth 9.1.5 If Israel be pursued by Pharoah the Sea shall open its arms to protect them If they be thirsty a Rock shall spout out Water to refresh them If they be hungry Heaven shall be their Granary for Manna If Jerusalem be besieg'd and hath not Force enough to encounter Senacherib an Angel shall turn the Camp into an Aceldema a Field of Blood His People shall not want deliverances till God want a power of working Miracles for their security He is more jealous of his Power than the Church can be of her Safety And if we should want other Arguments to press him we may implore him by virtue of his Power For when there is nothing in the Church as a Motive to him to save it there is enough in his own Name and the illustration of his Power Psal 106.8 Who can grapple with the Omnipotency of that God who is jealous of and zealous for the honour of it And therefore God for the most part takes such opportunities to deliver wherein his Almightiness may be most conspicuous and his Counsels most admirable He awakened not himself to deliver Israel till they were upon the brink of the Red Sea nor to rescue the three Children till they were in the fiery Furnace nor Daniel till he was in the Lions Den. 'T is in the weakness of his Creature that his strength is perfected not in a way of addition of perfectness to it but in a way of manifestation of the perfection of it As it is the perfection of the Sun to shine and enlighten the World not that the Sun receives an increase of light by the darting of his Beams but discovers his Glory to the admiration of Men and pleasure of the World If it were not for such occasions the World would not regard the Mightiness of God nor know what Power were in him It traverses the Stage in its fulness and liveliness upon such occasions when the Enemies are strong and their strength edg'd with an intense hatred and but little time between the contrivance and execution 'T is a great comfort that the lowest Distresses of the Church are a fit Scene for the discovery of this Attribute and that the Glory of God's Omnipotence and the Churches Security are so straitly link't together 'T is a promise that will never be forgotten by God and ought never to be forgotten by us that in this Mountain the hand of the Lord shall rest ‖ Isa 25.10 that is the Power of the Lord shall abide and Moab shall be trodden under him even as Straw is trodden down for the Dunghill And the Plagues of Babylon shall come in one day death and mourning and famine for strong is the Lord who judges her Rev. 18.8 Use III The Third Vse is for Exhortation 1. Meditate on this Power of God and press it often upon your Minds We conclude many things of God that we do not practically suck the comfort of for want of deep thoughts of it and frequent inspection into it We believe God to be true yet distrust him we acknowledge him powerful yet fear the motion of every straw Many Truths though assented to in our Understandings are kept under hatches by corrupt Affections and have not their due influence because they are not brought forth into the open air of our Souls by meditation If we will but search our hearts we shall find it is the Power of God we often doubt of When the heart of Ahaz and his Subjects trembled at the Combination of the Syrian and Israelitish Kings against him for want of a confidence in the Power of God God sends his Prophet with Commission to work a miraculous sign at his own choice to rear up his fainting heart and when he refus'd to ask a sign out of diffidence of that Almighty Power the Prophet complains of it as an affront to his Master * Isa 7.12 13. Moses so great a Friend of God was overtaken with this kind of unbelief after all the Experiments of God's miraculous Acts in Egypt the Answer God gives him manifests this to be at the Core Is the Lord's hand waxed short Numb 11.23 For want of actuated thoughts of this we are many times turned from our known duty by the blast of a Creature as though man had more power to dismay us than God hath to support us in his commanded way The belief of God's Power is one of the first steps to all Religion without settled thoughts of it we cannot pray lively and believingly for the obtaining the Mercies we want or the averting the Evils we fear we should not love him unless we are persuaded he hath a Power to bless us nor fear him unless we were perswaded of his Power to punish us The frequent thoughts of this would render our Faith more stable and our Hopes more stedfast it would make us more feeble to sin and more careful to obey When the Virgin stagger'd at the Message of the Angel that she should bear a Son he in his Answer turns her to the Creative power of God Luke 1.35 The Power of the highest shall over-shadow thee Which seems to be in allusion to the Spirits moving upon the face of the Deep and bringing a comely World out of a confus'd Mass Is it harder for God to make a Virgin conceive a Son by the power of his Spirit than to make a World Why doth he reveal himself so often under the title of Almighty and press it upon us but
when that Fire is removed they return to their natural quality of hardness and brittleness the positive act of the Fire is to melt and soften and the softness of the Rosin is to be ascribed to that but the hardness is from the Rosin it self wherein the Fire hath no influence but only a negative act by a removal of it So when God hardens a man he only leaves him to that stony heart which he derived from Adam and brought with him into the world All mens understandings being blinded and their wills perverted in Adam God's withdrawing his Grace is but a leaving them to their natural pravity which is the cause of their further sinning and not God's removal of that special light he before afforded them or restraint he held over them As when God withdraws his preserving Power from the Creature he is not the efficient but deficient cause of the Creatures destruction so in this case God only ceaseth to bind and damm up that sin which else would break out 2. The whole positive cause of this hardness is from mans corruption God infuseth not any sin into his Creatures but forbears to infuse his Grace restrain their Lusts which upon the removal of his Grace work impetuously God only gives them up to that which he knows will work strongly in their hearts And therefore the Apostle wipes off from God any positive act in that uncleaness the Heathens were given up to Rom. 1.24 Wherefore God gave them up to uncleaness through the lusts of their own hearts And verse 26. God gave them up to vile affections but they were their own affections none of Gods inspiring by adding through the lusts of their own Hearts Gods giving them up was the Logical cause or a cause by way of Argument their own Lusts were the true and natural cause their own they were before they were given up to them and belonging to none as the Author but themselves after they were given up to them The Lust in the Heart and the temptation without easily close and mix interests with one another As the Fire in a Coal pit will with the fuell if the streams derived into it for the quenching it be dam'd up The naturall Passions will run to a temptation as the Waters of a River tumble towards the Sea When a man that hath bridled in a high mettled-Horse from running out gives him the Rains or a Huntsman takes off the string that held the Dog and lets him run after the Hare are they the immediate cause of the motion of the one or the other no but the mettle and strength of the Horse and the natural inclination of the Hound both which are left to their own motions to pursue their own natural instincts Man doth as naturally tend to sin as a stone to the Center or as a weighty thing inclines to a motion to the Earth Tâ—s from the propension of mans nature that he drinks up iniquity like water and God doth no more when he leaves a man to sin by taking away the Hedge which stopt him but leave him to his natural Inclination As a man that breaks up a damm he hath placed leaves the Streams to run in their natural Chanel or one that takes away a prop from a Stone to let it fall leaves it only to that nature which inclines it to a descent both have their motion from their own Nature and man his Sin from his own Corruption * Amyrald de predest p. 107. The withdrawing the Sun-beams is not the cause of Darkness but the Shadiness of the Earth nor is the departure of the Sun the cause of Winter but the coldness of the Air and Earth which was temper'd and beaten back into the bowels of the Earth by the vigor of the Sun upon whose departure they return to their natural state The Sun only leaves the Earth and Air as it found them at the beginning of the Spring or the beginning of the Day If God do not give a man Grace to melt him yet he cannot be said to communicate to him that nature which hardens him which man hath from himself As God was not the cause of the first sin of Adam which was the root of all other so he is not the cause of the following sins which as branches spring from that root mans free-will was the cause of the first sin and the corruption of his nature by it the cause of all succeeding sins God doth not immediately harden any man but doth propose those things from whence the natural Vice of man takes an occasion to strengthen and nourish itself Hence God is said to harden Pharao'hs Heart ‖ Exod. 7.13 by concurring with the Magicians in turning their rods into Serpents which stiffened his Heart against Moses conceiving him by reason of that to have no more power than other men and was an occasion of his further hardning And Pharaoh is said to harden himself * Exod. 8.32 that is in regard of his own natural passion 3. God is holy and righteous because he doth not withdraw from man till man deserts him To say that God withdrew that Grace from Adam which he had afforded him in Creation or any thing that was due to him till he had abused the Gifts of God and turned them to an end contrary to that of Creation would be a reflection upon the Divine Holiness God was first deserted by man before man was deserted by God and man doth first contemn and abuse the common Grace of God and those reliques of natural light that enlighten every man that comes into the World †John 1 9. before God leaves him to the hurry of his own Passions Ephraim was first joyned to Idols before God pronounced the fatal sentence Let him alone ‖ Hos 4.17 And the Heathens first changed the glory of the incorruptible God before God withdrew his common Grace from the corrupted creature * Rom. 1.23 24. and they first served the Creature more then the Creator before the Creator gave them up to the slavish Chains of their vile affections †Ver. 25 26. Israel first cast off God before God cast off them but then he gave them up to their own Hearts Lusts and they walked in their own Counsels Psa 81.11 12. Since sin entred into the World by the fall of Adam and the blood of all his posterity was tainted Man cannot do any thing that is formally good not for want of faculties but for the want of a righteous habit in those faculties especially in the Will yet God discovers himself to man in the works of his hands he hath left in him footsteps of natural reason he doth attend him with common motions of his Spirit corrects him for his faults with gentle Chastisements He is neer unto all in some kind of Instructions He puts many times providential bars in their way of sinning but when they will rush into it as the Horse into
a lower measure much more will he love it in a higher degree because then his Image is more illustrious and beautiful and comes nearer to the lively lineaments of his own Infinite Purity Perfection in any thing is more lovely and amiable than Imperfection in any state and the nearer any thing arrives to Perfection the further are those things separated from it which might Cool an affection to it An increase in holiness is attended with a manifestation of his love Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keeps them he it is that loves me and he shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and I will manifest my self to him T is a testimony of love to God and God will not be behind hand with the Creature in kindness He loves a holy man for some resemblance to him in his Nature but when there is an abounding in Sanctified dispositions sutable to it there is an increase of savour The more we resemble the Original the more shall we enjoy the blessedness of that Original As any partake more of the Divine likeness they partake more of the Divine happiness 5. Exhortation Let us carry our selves holily in a spiritual manner in all our religious approaches to God Psal 93.5 Holiness becomes thy house O Lord for ever This Attribute should work in us a deep and reverential respect to God This is the reason rendred why we should worship at his foot-stool in the lowest posture of humility prostrate before him because he is holy †Psal 99.5 Shooes must be put off from our feet Exod. 3.5 that is Lusts from our Affections every thing that our souls are clogged and bemired with as the Shooe is with dirt He is not willing we should offer to him an impure soul mired hearts rotten carcasses putrified in vice rotten in iniquity Our Services are to be as free from prophaness as the sacrifices of the Law were to be free from sickliness or any blemish Whatsoever is contrary to his Purity is abhorred by him and unlovely in his sight and can meet with no other success at his hands but a disdainful turning away both of his eye and ear ‖ Isa 1.15 Since he is an Immense purity he will reject from his presence and from having any communion with him all that which is not conformable to him as light chases away the darkness of the night and will not mix with it If we stretch out our hands towards him we must put iniquity farr away from us * Job 11.13 14. the fruits of all Service will else drop off to nothing Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord When when the heart is purged by Christ sitting as a purifier of silver †Mal. 3.3 4. Not all the Incense of the Indies yield him so sweet a Savour as one spiritual act of worship from a heart estranged from the vileness of the World and ravisht with an affection to and a desire of imitating the Puririty of his Nature 6. Exhortation Let us address for holiness to God the fountain of it As he is the Author of bodily life in the Creature so he is the Author of his own life the life of God in the soul By his holiness he makes men holy as the Sun by his light enlightens the Air. He is not only the Holy One but our holy One ‖ Isa 43.15 The Lord that sanctifies us Levit. 20.8 As he hath mercy to pardon us so he hath holiness to purify us the excellency of being a Sun to comfort us and a Shield to protect us giving Grace and Glory * Psal 84.11 Grace whereby we may have Communion with him to our comfort and strength against our spiritual enemies for our defence Grace as our preparatory to glory and Grace growing up till it ripen in Glory He only can mould us into a Divine frame The great Original can only derive the excellency of his own Nature to us We are too low too lame to lift up our selves to it too much in love with our own Deformity to admit of this Beauty without a heavenly power inclining our desires for it our affections to it our willingness to be partakers of it He can as soon set the beauty of Holiness in a deformed heart as the beauty of Harmony in a confused mass when he made the World He can as soon cause the light of Purity to rise out of the darkness of Corruption as frame glorious spirits out of the insufficiency of nothing His beauty doth not decay he hath as much in himself now as he had in his eternity He is as ready to impart it as he was at the Creation only we must wait upon him for it and be content to have it by small measures and degrees There is no fear of our sanctification if we come to him as a God of holiness since he is a God of peace and the breach made by Adam is repaired by Christ Thes 1.5.23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly c. He restores the sanctifying spirit which was withdrawn by the Fall as he is a God pacified and his holiness righted by the Redeemer The beauty of it appears in its smiles upon a man in Christ and is as ready to impart it self to the reconcil'd Creature as before Iustice was to punish the rebellious one He loves to send forth the streams of this perfection into created Chanels more than any else He did not design the making the Creature so powerfull as he might because power is not such an excellency in its own Nature but as it is conducted and managed by some other excellency Power is indifferent and may be used well or ill according as the possessor of it is righteous or unrighteous God makes not the Creature so powerful as he might but he delights to make the Creature that waits upon him as holy as it can be beginning it in this world and ripening it in the other 'T is from him we must expect it and from him that we must begg it and draw Arguments from the holiness of his Nature to move him to work holiness in our Spirits We cannot have a stronger plea. Purity is the favourite of his own Nature and delights itself in the resemblances of it in the Creature Let us also go to God to preserve what he hath already wrought and imparted As we cannot attain it so we cannot maintain it without him God gave it Adam and he lost it When God gives it us we shall lose it without his influencing and preserving Grace The chanel will be without a Stream if the Fountain do not bubble it forth and the streams will vanish if the Fountain doth not constantly supply them Let us apply our selves to him for holiness as he is a God glorious in holiness By this we honour God and advantage our selves A DISCOURSE UPON THE Goodness of God Mark 10.18 And Jesus
upon a higher ground of outward Prosperity vaunt it loftily above their Neighbours the common fault of those that enjoy a Worldly Sun-shine which the Apostle observes in his Direction to Timothy * 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high-mâ—nded 'T is an ill use of Divine Blessings to be fill'd by them with Pride and Wind. Also 2. When Men abuse Plenty to Ease because they have abundance spend their time in idleness and make no other use of Divine Benefits than to trifle away their time and be utterly useless to the World 3. When they also abuse Peace and other Blessings to security As they which would not believe the threatnings of Judgment and the Storm coming from a far Country because the Lord was in Sion and her King in her * Jer. 8.19 Is not the Lord in Sion is not her King in her thinking they might continue their progress in their Sin because they had the Temple the Seat of the Divine Glory Sion and the promise of an everlasting Kingdom to David abusing the Promise of God to presumption and security and turning the Grace of God into wantonness 4. Again When they abuse the Bounty of God to sensuality and luxury mis-employing the Provisions God gives them in resolving to live like Beasts when by a good improvement of them they might attain the Life of Angels Thus is the light of the Sun abus'd to conduct them and the Fruits of the Earth abus'd to enable them to their prodigious Debauchery As we do saith one * Young of Affliction p. 34. with the Thames which brings us in Provision and we soil it with our Rubbish The more God sowes his Gifts the more we sow our Cockle and Darnel Thus we make our outward Happiness the most unhappy part of of our lives and by the strength of Divine Blessings exceed all Laws of Reason and Religion too How unworthy a Carriage is this to use the Expressions of Divine Goodness as occasions of a greater outrage and affront of him When we stab his Honour by those Instruments he puts into our hands to glorifie him as if a favorite should turn that Sword into the Bowels of his Prince wherewith he Knighted him And a Servant enricht by a Lord should hire by that Wealth Murderers to take away his life How brutish is it the more God Courts us with his Blessings the more to spurn at him with our Feet Like the Mule that lifts up its Heel against the Dam as soon as ever it hath suckt her We never beat God out of our hearts but by his own Gifts He receives no blows from Men but by those Instruments he gave them to promote their Happiness While Man is an Enjoyer he makes God a Looser by his own Blessings inflames his Rebellion by those Benefits which should kindle his love and runs from him by the strength of those favours which should endear the Donor to him Do you thus requite the Lord Oh foolish People and unwise is the Expostulati n Deut. 32.6 Divine Goodness appears in the complaint of the abuse of it in giving them Titles below their Crime and complaining more of their being unfaithful to their own Interest than Enemies to his Glory Foolish and unwise in neglecting their own Happiness a Charge below the Crime which deserved to be abominable ungrateful People to a Prodigy All this Carriage towards God is as if a Man should knock the Chirurgeon on the Head as soon as he hath set and bound up his Dislocated Members So God compares the ungrateful behaviour of the Israelites against him * Hos 7 1â— Though I have bound and strengthn'd their Arms yet do they imagine mischief against me A Metaphor taken from a Chirurgeon that applies Corroborating Playsters to a broken Limb. 9. We contemn the Goodness of God in ascribing our Benefits to other Causes than Divine Goodness Thus Israel ascribed her Felicity Plenty and Success to her Idols as Rewards which her lovers had given her * Hos 2.5.12 And this Charge Daniel brought home upon Belshazzâ—r †Dan. 5.23 Thou hast praised the Gods of Silver and Gold and Brass and Iron and the God in whose hand is thy breath and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorify'd The God who hath given success to the Arms of thy Ancestors and convey'd by their hands so large a Dominion to thee thou hast not honour'd in the same Rank with the sordidest of thy Idols 'T is the same case when we own him not as the Author of any success in our Affairs but by an over-weening conceit of our own Sagacity applaud and admire our selves and over-look the Hand that conducted us and brought our endeavours to a good issue We Eclipse the Glory of Divine Goodness by setting the Crown that is due to it upon the head of our own Industry A Sacriledge worse than Belshazzar's drinking of Wine with his Lords and Concubines in the Sacred Vessels pilfer'd from the Temple as in that place of Daniel This was the proud vaunt of the Assyrian Conqueror for which God threatens to punish the fruit of his stout heart * Isai 10.12.13 14. By the strength of my hand I have done it and by my Wisdom for I am prudent and I have removed the bounds of the People and have robbed their Treasures and I have put down the Inhabitants like a valiant Man Not a word of Divine Goodness and Assistance in all this but applauding his own Courage and Conduct This is a robbing of God to set up our selves and making Divine Goodness a Footstool to ascend into his Throne And as it is unjust so it is ridiculous to ascribe to our selves or Instruments the chief honour of any work As ridiculous as if a Soldier after a Victory should Erect an Altar to the honour of his Sword or an Artificer offer Sacrifices to the Tools whereby he compleated some excellent and useful Invention A practice that every Rational Man would disdain where he should see it 'T is a discarding any thoughts of the Goodness of God when we imagine that we chiefly owe any thing in this World to our own Industry or Wit to Friends or Means as though Divine Goodness did not open its hand to interest it self in our Affairs support our Ability direct our Counsels and mingle it self with any thing we do God is the principal Author of any advantage that accrues to us of any wise Resolution we fix upon or any proper way we take to compass it No Man can be wise in opposition to God act wisely or well without him His Goodness inspires Men with generous and magnificent Counsels and furnisheth them with fit and proportionable Means When he withdraws his hand Mens heads grow foolish and their hands feeble folly and weakness drops upon them as darkness upon the World upon the removal of the Sun 'T is an abuse of Divine Goodness
Estimation When the Excellency of his Nature and the Expressions of his Bounty are in conjunction the Excellency of his own Nature renders him estimable in a way of Justice and the greatness of his Benefits renders him valuable in a way of Gratitude The first ravisheth and the other allures and melts He hath enough in his Nature to attract and sufficient in his Bounty to engage our Affections The Excellency of his Nature is strong enough of it self to blow up our Affections to him were there not a Malignity in our hearts that represents him under the Notion of an Enemy therefore in regard of our Corrupt State the consideration of Divine Largesses comes in for a share in the Elevation of our Affections For indeed 't is a very hard thing for a Man to love another though never so well qualified and of an eminent Vertue while he believes him to be his Enemy and one that will severely handle him though he hath before received many good turns from him The Vertue Valour and Courtesie of a Prince will hardly make him affected by those against whom he is in Arms and that are daily pilfer'd by his Souldiers unless they have hopes of a Reparation from him and future security from injuries Christ in the Repetition of the Command to love God with all our mind with all our heart and with all our Soul i. e. with such an ardency above all things which glitter in our Eye or can be Created by him considers him as our God * Mat. 22.37 And the Psalmist considers him as one that had kindly employ'd his power for him in the eruption of his love Psal 18.1 I will love thee Oh Lord my strength And so in Psal 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications An esteem of the Benefactor is inseparable from gratitude for the received Benefits And should not then the unparallell'd kindness of God advance him in our thoughts much more than slighter Courtesies do a Created Benefactor in ours 'T is an obligation on every Mans Nature to answer Bounty with gratitude and Goodness with love Hence you never knew any Man nor can the Records of Eternity produce any Man or Devil that ever hated any Person or any thing as good in it self 'T is a thing absolutely repugnant to the Nature of any Rational Creature The Devils hate not God because he is good but because he is not so good to them as they would have him because he will not unlock their Chains turn them into liberty and restore them to Happiness i. e. because he will not desert the Rights of abus'd Goodness But how should we send up flames of love to that God since we are under his direct Beams and enjoy such plentiful influences If the Sun is comely in it self yet 't is more amiâ—ble to us by the light we see and the warmth we feel 1. The greatness of his Benefits have reason to affect us with a love to him The Impress he made upon our Souls when he extracted us from the darkness of nothing The Comeliness he hath put upon us by his own Breath The Care he took of our Recovery when we had lost our selves The Expence he was at for our Regaining our defac'd Beauty The gift he made of his Son The Affectionate Calls we have heard to over-master our Corrupt Appetites move us to Repentance and make us disaffect our beloved Misery The loud sound of his Word in our Ears and the more inward knocking 's of his Spirit in our Heart The offering us the Gift of himself and the Everlasting Happiness he Courts us to besides those common favours we enjoy in the World which are all the Streams of his rich Bounty The voice of all is loud enough to sollicite our love and the Merit of all ought to be strong enough to engage our love There is none like the God of Jesurun who rides upon the Heaven in thy help and in his Excellency on the Sky * Deut. 33.26 2. The unmeritedness of them doth inhance this 'T is but reason to love him who hath loved us first * 1 John 4.19 Hath he placed his delight upon were nothing and after they were Sinful and shall he set his delight upon such vile Persons and shall not we set our love upon so Excellent an Object as himself How base are we if his goodness doth not constrain us to affect him who hath been so free in his favour to us who have merited the quite contrary at his hands If his tender Mercies are over all his Works * Psal 145.9 He ought for it to be esteem'd by all his Works that are capable of a Rational Estimation 3. Goodness in Creatures makes them estimable much more should the Goodness of God render him lovely to us If we love a little spark of goodness in this or that Creature if a drop be so delicious to us shall not the immense Sun of Goodness the ever-flowing Fountain of all be much more delightful The Original Excellency always out-strips what is deriv'd from it If so mean and contracted an Object as a little Creature deserves Estimation for a little Mite communicated to it so great and extended a goodness as is in the Creator much more merits it at our hands He is good after the infinite methods of a Deity A weak Resemblance is lovely much more amiable then must be the incomprehensible Original of that Beauty We love Creatures for what we think to be good in them though it may be hurtful And shall we not love God who is a real and unblemisht Goodness And from whose hand are pour'd out all those Blessings that are conveyed to us by second Causes The Object that delights us the Capacity we have to delight in it are both from him Our love therefore to him should transcend the Affection we bear to any Instruments he moves for our welfare Among the Gods there is none like thee O Lord neither are there any Works like unto thy Works * Psal 86.8 Among the pleasantest Creatures there is none like the Creator nor any Goodness like unto his Goodness Shall we love the Food that Nourisheth us and the Medicine that Cures us and the Silver whereby we furnish our selves with useful Commodities Shall we love a Horse or Dog for the benefits we have by them And shall not the Spring of all those draw our Souls after it and make us aspire to the honour of loving and embracing him who hath stor'd every Creature with that which may pleasure us But instead of endeavouring to parallel our Affection with his Kindness we endeavour to make our Disingenuity as extensive and towring as his Divine Goodness 4. This is the true end of the manifestation of his Goodness that he might appear amiable and have a Return of Affection Did God display his Goodness only to be thought of or to be loved 'T is the want of
such a return that he hath usually aggravated from the Benefits he hath bestow'd upon Men. Every thought of him should be attended with a Motion sutable to the Excellency of his Nature and Works Can we think those nobler Spirits the Angels look upon themselves or those Frames of things in the Heavens and Earth without starting some practical Affection to him for them Their knowledge of his Excellency and Works cannot be a lazy Contemplation 'T is impossible their Wills and Affections should be a thousand Miles distant from their Understandings in their Operations 'T is not the least part of his condescending Goodness to Court in such Methods the Affections of us Worms and manifest his desire to be beloved by us Let us give him then that Affection he deserves as well as demands and which cannot be with-held from him without horrible Sacriledge There is nothing worthy of love besides him Let no Fire be kindled in our hearts but what may ascend directly to him 7. The seventh Instruction is this This renders God a fit Object of trust and confidence Since none is good but God none can be a full and satisfactory Ground or Object of confidence but God As all things derive their beings so they derive their helpfulness to us from God they are not therefore the principal Objects of trust but that Goodness alone that renders them fit Instruments of our support They can no more challenge from us a stable Confidence than they can a Supream Affection 'T is by this the Psalmist allures Men to a trust in him * Psal 34.8 Taste and see how good the Lord is What is the consequence Blessed is the Man that trusts in thee The Voice of Divine Goodness sounds nothing more intelligibly and a taste of it produceth nothing more effectually than this As the Vials of his Justice are to make us fear him so the Streams of his Goodness are to make us rely on him As his Patience is design'd to broach our Repentance so his Goodness is most proper to strengthen our assurance in him That Goodness which surmounted so many difficulties and conquer'd so many motions that might be made against any repeated Exercise of it after it had been abus'd by the first Rebellion of Man That Goodness that after so much contempt of it appeared in such a Majestick tenderness and threw aside those impediments which Men had cast in the way of Divine Inclinations This Goodness is the foundation of all reliance upon God Who is better than God And therefore Who more to be trusted than God As his Power cannot act any thing weakly so his Goodness cannot act any thing unbecomingly and unworthy of his Infinite Majesty And here consider 1. Goodness is the first motive of trust Nothing but this could be the encouragement to Man had he stood in a State of Innocence to present himself before God The Majesty of God would have constrain'd him to keep his due distance but the Goodness of God could only hearten his Confidence 'T is nothing else now that can preserve the same temper in us in our lapsed Condition To regard him only as the Judge of our Crimes will drive us from him but only the regard of him as the Donor of our Blessings will allure us to him The principal Foundation of Faith is not the Word of God but God himself and God as consider'd in this Perfection As the Goodness of God in his Invitations and Providential Blessings leads us to Repentance * Rom. 2.4 so by the same reason the Goodness of God by his Promises leads us to Reliance If God be not first believed to be good he would not be believed at all in any thing that he speaks or swears If you were not satisfied in the goodness of a Man though he should swear a thousand times you would value neither his Word nor Oath as any security Many times where we are certain of the goodness of a Man we are willing to trust him without his promise This Divine Perfection gives Credit to the Divine Promises they of themselves would not be a sufficient ground of trust without an apprehension of his truth nor would his truth be very comfortable without a belief of his good will whereby we are assured that what he promises to give he gives liberally free and without regret The truth of the Promiser makes the Promise Credible but the goodness of the Promiser makes it chearfully relied on In Psal 73. Asaphs Penitential Psalm for his distrust of God he begins the first Verse with an assertion of this Attribute v. 1. Truly God is good to Israel and ends with this fruit of it Verse 28. I will put my trust in the Lord God 'T is a mighty ill Nature that receives not with assurance the Dictates of Infinite Goodness that cannot deceive or frustrate the hopes we conceive of him that is unconceivably more abundant in the breast and inclinations of the Promiser than expressible in the words of his Promise All true faith works by love * Gal. 5.6 and therefore necessarily includes a particular eying of this Excellency in the Divine Nature which renders him amiable and is the Motive and Encouragement of a love to him His Power indeed is a foundation of trust but his Goodness is the principal Motive of it His Power without good Will would be dangerous and could not allure Affection and his good Will without Power would be useless and though it might merit a love yet could not create a Confidence both in conjunction are strong grounds of hope Especially since his Goodness is of the same infinity with his Wisdom and Power and that he can be no more wanting in the effusions of this upon them that seek him than in his Wisdom to contrive or his Power to effect his Designs and Works 2. This goodness is more the foundation and motive of trust under the Gospel than under the Law They under the Law had more evidences of Divine Power and their trust eyed that much though there was an eminency of goodness in the frequent deliverances they had yet the Power of God had a more glorious dress than his Goodness because of the extraordinary and miraculous ways whereby he brought those deliverances about Therefore in the Catalogue of Believers in Heb. 11. you shall find the Power of God to be the Center of their Rest and Trust and their Faith was built upon the extraordinary Marks of Divine Power which were frequently visible to them But under the Gospel goodness and love was intended by God to be the chief Object of trust suitable to the Excellency of that Dispensation he would have an Exercise of more ingenuity in the Creatures Therefore 't is said Hosea 3.5 A promise of Gospel-times They shall fear God and his goodness in the later days when they shall return to seek the Lord and David their King 'T is not said they shall fear God and his Power but
the Lord and his goodness or the Lord for his goodness Fear is often in the Old Testament taken for Faith or Trust This Divine Goodness the Object of Faith is that goodness discover'd in David their King the Messiah our Jesus God in this Dispensation recommends his goodness and love and reveals it more clearly than other Attributes that the Soul might have more prevailing and sweeter attractives to confide in him 3. A confidence in him gives him the glory of his goodness Most Nations that had nothing but the light of Nature thought it a great part of the Honour that was due to God to implore his Goodness and cast their Cares upon it To do good is the most honourable thing in the World and to acknowledge a goodness in a way of confidence is as high an honour as we can give to it and a great part of gratitude for what it hath already exprest Therefore we find often that an acknowledgment of one Benefit received was attended with a trust in him for what they should in the future need * Psal 56.13 Thou hast delivered my Soul from Death wilt thou not deliver my Feet from falling So 2 Cor. 1.10 And they who have been most eminent for their trust in him have had the greatest Elogies and Commendations from him As a diffidence doth disparage this Perfection thinking it meaner and shallower than it is so Confidence highly honours it We never please him more than when we trust in him * Psal 147.11 The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him in them that hope in his Mercy He takes it for an Honour to have this Attribute exalted by such a Carriage of his Creature He is no less offended when we think his heart straitned as if he were a Parcimonious God than when we think his Arm shortned as if he were an impotent and feeble God Let us therefore make this use of his Goodness to hearten our Faith When we are scar'd by the terrours of his Justice when we are dazled by the arts of his Wisdom and confounded by the splendour of his Majesty we may take refuge in the Sanctuary of his Goodness this will encourage us as well as astonish us Whereas the consideration of his other Attributes would only amaze us but can never refresh us but when they are consider'd marching under the Conduct and Banners of this When all the other Perfections of the Divine Nature are lookt upon in conjunction with this Excellency each of them send forth ravishing and benign influences upon the applying Creature 'T is more advantageous to depend upon Divine Bounty than our own Cares We may have better assurance upon this account in his Cares for us than in ours for our selves Our goodness for our selves is Finite and besides we are too ignorant His goodness is Infinite and attended with an infinite Wisdom we have reason to distrust our selves not God We have reason to be at rest under that kind influence we have so often experimented He hath so much goodness that he can have no deceit His goodness in making the Promise and his goodness in working the heart to a Reliance on it are grounds of trust in him * Psal 119.49 Remember thy word to thy Servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope If his Promise did not please him why did he make it If Reliance on the Promise doth not please him why did his Goodness work it It would be inconsistent with his Goodness to mock his Creature and it would be the highest Mockery to publish his Word and Create a temper in the heart of his supplicant suited to his Promise which he never intended to satisfie He can as little wrong his Creature as wrong himself and therefore can never disappoint that Faith which in his own methods casts it self into the arms of his Kindness and is his own Workmanship and calls him Author That Goodness that imparted it self so freely in Creation will not neglect those nobler Creatures that put their trust in him This renders God a fit Object for trust and confidence 8. The eighth Instruction This renders God worthy to be obeyed and honour'd There is an Excellency in God to allure as well as Soveraignty to enjoyn Obedience The infinite Excellency of his Nature is so great that if his Goodness had promised us nothing to encourage our Obedience we ought to prefer him before our selves devote our selves to serve him and make his glory our greatest content but much more when he hath given such admirable Expressions of his Liberality and stor'd us with hopes of richer and fuller Streams of it When David consider'd the Absolute Goodness of his Nature and the Relative Goodness of his Benefits he presently expresseth an ardent desire to be acquainted with the Divine Statutes that he might make ingenuous returns in a dutiful observance * Psal 119.68 Thou art good and thou dost good teach me thy Statutes As his Goodness is the Original so the acknowledgment of it is the end of all which cannot be without an observance of his Will His Goodness requires of us an ingenuous not a servile Obedience And this is Establisht upon two Foundations 1. Because the Bounty of God hath laid upon us the strongest Obligations The strength of an Obligation depends upon the greatness and numerousness of the Benefits received The more Excellent the favours are which are conferr'd upon any Person the more right hath the Benefactor to claim an observance from the Person better'd by him Much of the Rule and Empire which hath been in several Ages conferred by Communities upon Princes hath had its first spring from a sense of the advantages they have receiv'd by them either in protecting them from their Enemies or rescuing them from an ignoble Captivity in enlarging their Territories or increasing their Wealth Conquest hath been the Original of a constrain'd but Beneficence always the Original of a voluntary and free Subjection * Amyrald Discert p. 65. Obedience to Parents is founded upon their right because they are instrumental in bestowing upon us Being and Life and because this of life is so great a benefit the Law of Nature never dissolves this Obligation of Obeying and Honouring Parents 'T is as long liv'd as the Law of Nature and hath an universal practice by the strength of that Law in all parts of the World And those rightful Chains are not unlockt but by that which unties the knot between Soul and Body Much more hath God a Right to be obey'd and reverenced who is the principal Benefactor and mov'd all those second Causes to impart to us what conduc'd to our advantage The just Authority of God over us results from the superlativeness of his Blessings he hath pour'd down upon us which cannot be equall'd much less exceeded by any other As therefore upon this account he hath a claim to our choicest Affections so he hath also to most exact Obedience and
give ability and Grace to receive Well then what reason but the Soveraign pleasure of God can be alledged why Christ forbad the Apostles at their first Commission to Preach to the Gentiles Matth. 10.15 But at the second and standing Commission orders them to Preach to every Creature Why did he put a demurr to the resolutions of Paul and Timothy to impart light to Bithynia or Order them to go into Macedonia Was that Country more worthy upon whom lay a great part of the bloud of the world shed in Alexanders time Acts 16.6 7 9 10. Why should Corazin and Bethsaida enjoy those means that were not granted to the Tyrians and Sidonians who might probably have sooner reached out their Arms to welcome it Matth. 11.21 Why should God send the Gospel into our Island and cause it to flourish so long here and not send it or continue it in the furthest Eastern parts of the World Why should the very profession of Christianity possess so small a compass of ground in the world but five parts in Thirty the Mahometans holding six parts and the other nineteen overgrown with Paganism where either the Gospel was never planted or else since rooted up To whom will you refer this but to the same cause our Saviour doth the Revelation of the Gospel to Babes and not to the wise even to his Father For so it seemed good in thy sight Matth. 11.25 26. For so was thy good pleasure before thee as in the original 'T is at his pleasure whither he will give any a clear Revelation of his Gospel or leave them only to the light of Nature He could have kept up the first beam of the Gospel in the promise in all Nations among the Apostasies of Adam's posterity or renewed it in all Nations when it began to be darkned as well as he first publisht it to Adam after his fall But it was his Soveraign pleasure to permit it to be obscur'd in one place and to keep it lighted in another 4. His Soveraignty is manifest in the various influences of the means of Grace He saith to these waters of the Sanctuary as to the Floods of the Sea Hitherto you shall go and no further Sometimes they wash away the filth of the flesh and outward man but 〈◊〉 thâ—â— of the Spirit The Gospel Spiritualizeth some and only moralizeth others some are by the power of it struck down to Conviction but not rais'd up to Conversion Some have only the gleams of it in their Consciences and others more powerful flashes some remain in their thick darkness under the beaming of the Gospel every day in their face and after a long insensibleness are rouz'd by its light and wâ—rmth Sometimes there is such a powerful breath in it that it levels the haughty imaginations of men and lays them at its feet that before strutted against it in the pride of their Heart The foundation of this is not in the Gospel it self which is always the same nor in the Ordinances which are Channels as sound at one time as at another but divine Soveraignty that Spirits them as he pleaseth and blows when and where it lists It has sometimes conquered its thousands Acts 2.41 At another time scarce its tens sometimes the Harvest hath been great when the Labourers have been but few at another time it hath been small when the Labourers have been many Sometimes whole sheaves at another time scarce gleanings The Evangelical Net hath been sometimes full at a cast and at every cast at another time many have laboured all night and day too and catched nothing Acts 2.47 The Lord added to the Church daily The Gospel Chariot doth not alwayes return with Captives chain'd to the sides of it but sometimes blur'd and reproached wearing the marks of Hells spite instead of imprinting the marks of its own beauty In Corinth it triumph'd over many people Acts 18.10 In Athens 't is mockt and gathers but a few clusters Acts 17.32.34 God keeps the Key of the heart as well as of the Womb. The Apostles had a power of publishing the Gospel and working miracles but under the Divine conduct It was an instrumentality durante bene placito and as God saw it convenient Miracles were not upon every occasion allow'd to them to be wrought nor success upon every Administration granted to them God sometimes lent them the Key but to take out no more Treasure than was alloted to them There is a variety in the time of Gospel operation some rise out of their Graves of Sin and Beds of sluggishness at the first appearance of this Sun others lie snorting longer Why doth not God Spirit it at one season as well as at another but set his distinct periods of time but because he will show his absolute freedom And do we not sometimes experiment that after the most solemn preparations of the Heart we are frustrated of those incomes we expected Perhaps it was because we thought Divine returns were due to our preparations and God stops up the Channel and we return dryer than we came that God may confute our false opinion and preserve the honour of his own Soveraignty Sometimes we leap with John Baptist in the Womb at the appearance of Christ sometimes we lie upon a lazy bed when he knocks from Heaven Sometimes the Fleece is dry and sometimes wet and God withholds to drop down his dew of the morning upon it The dews of his word as well as the droppings of the Clouds belong to his Royalty Light will not shine into the Heart though it shine round about us without the Soveraign order of that God who commanded Light to shine out of the Darkness of the Chaos 2 Cor. 4.6 And is it not seen also in regard of the refreshing influences of the word sometimes the strongest arguments and clearest promises prevail nothing towards the quelling black and despairing imaginations when afterwards we have found them frighted away by an unexpected word that seem'd to have less vertue in it self than any that passed in vain before it The reasonings of Wisdom have dropt down like arrows against a brazâ—n wall when the speech of a weaker person hath found an efficacy 'T is God by his Soveraignty spirits one word and not another Sometimâ—s a sâ—cret word comes in which was not thought of before as dropt from Heaven and gives a refreshing when emptiness was found in all the rest One word from the lips of a Soveraign Prince is a greater Cordial than all the Harang 〈◊〉 of subjâ—â—â—â— without it What is the reason of this variety but that God woâ—lâ— encrease 〈◊〉 proof of his own Soveraignty That as it was a part of his Dominion to Create the beâ—uty of a World so it is no less to Create the peace as well as the Graâ—e of â—he heart Isaiah 57.19 I create the fruit of the lips peace Let us learn from hence to have adoring thoughts of not murmuring fanciâ—s against the Soveraignty of God To