in its highest Elevation and widest extent there was the least written and so there is the least account given of those times But to Conclude with respect to this Treatise now presented to this present Age If any say Other Pens have been Employed upon the same Subject with it I would answer It is not easie to pitch upon any Theme that hath never had an exercise upon it or to walk in any path wherein are not found the Traces of any Man's foot But this I can say I have not knowingly followed any Man that went before me And though there are some Learned discourses in the World about Atheisme yet I find them too abstruse for Common understanding and meddle little with the Practical Improvements which are to be made of that which is styled Natural Theology which I chiefly aimed at in this undertaking though I have performed it but in part in what is now Published Having in a Reserve by me in my Papers an account of those several Attributes of God that are Evidenceable from the Works of his Creation with Practical Inferences upon them for the advancement of true Gospel holiness But I cannot reach so far at present I have taken some spare hours to Transcribe these few Meditations for the Press wherein I have Inserted a few Quotations as they did occur to me for my Reading hath been but small Though it may be what I have Inserted may make what I have written not more acceptable to many Readers How ever Printed Books being exposed to the view of all let every one take the benefit as he can I have nothing farther to offer here but to begg of the Reader to pardon the Errata's both of the Author and the Printer and to pray that God would both pardon and amend the great Errata's of the Age That the Supreme Deity of Heaven and Earth and true Religion that is relative to him may find more Cordial and Practical respect from this present Age wherein is wrapt up Mens Eternal Interess and the present Interess of our own Nation And that any Essays to this end may be attended with a Divine Blessing and particularly this that is sincerely intended towards it how ever weakly managed by a poor unworthy Instrument Novemb. 17. 1673. Matthew Barker Natural Theology OR The Knowledge of God from the Works of Creation Accommodated and improved to the Service of Christianity ROM 1. 20. For the Invisible Things of Him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and God-head so that they are without excuse CHAP. I. The Scope of the Text. How the Gentiles though without the written Law yet are under Sin What the Law of Nature is How Adam had the knowledge of his Creator What meant by the Invisible Things of God Though Invisible yet how seen What meant by the Creation of the World What difference betwixt the Creation of the World and things made Why the Apostle only mentions God's eternal Power and God-head How the Gentiles are without excuse by the Light of Nature THe Scope of the Apostle in the first part of this Epistle is to assert and prove the great Doctrine of Justification by Faith and not by the Works of the Law And to make his way to it He first proveth all men to be under sin And all Man-kind being divided into Jew and Gentile he first proves the Gentile to be under sin in this first Chapter and the Jew in the Second And those that are under Sin cannot be justified by the Works of the Law and therefore must of necessity have recourse to the Righteousness of Faith being convicted of Sin by the Law Now lest it might be argued How could the Gentile be under sin not having the Written Law made known unto them Vnderstand it of Gentiles without the Church for it was the Jew to whom were committed the Oracles of God and where there is no Law there is no transgression The Apostle therefore in this Chapter tells us they had the Law of Nature which was God's Law which though it is not written in Ink and Paper yet it is written in the Hearts of all Men and in the visible Works of God's Creation and the Gentiles thereupon are convicted to be under Sin not following the Light and Conduct of that Universal Law For as a Law is Directive and Preceptive it ministreth Knowledge and commandeth Practice So was the Law of Nature to the Gentiles it had a Light in it whereby they might attain some knowledge of God and it had a force in it to urge them upon the performance of Duty and Service to Him answerable to that knowledg But because they darkned this Light in themselves as in vers 21. Their foolish heart was darkned and they did not follow the conduct of it but retained the Truth in unrighteousness hereupon they are convinced of Sin for they did neither take up those worthy Conceptions of God's Being which the Law of Nature might direct them to as the Apostle speaks in vers 21 22. neither did they manage their conversation towards men with that justice sobriety equity and charity as that Law did both direct and urge them to as the Apostle doth at large declare in the enumeration of those several Vices which they lived in the practice of in the last part of the Chapter Now this Law of Nature as written in the Hearts of Men he speaketh of in the Verse before the Text calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which may be known of God manifest in them And as written in the Works of Creation he speaks it of these words of the Text For the Invisible Things of Him from the Creation of the World are seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead And hence he infers they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without excuse And so I am come to the Text. I having already spoken from another Scripture at large of the Glory of God as manifested in Christ and of the Glory of Christ as manifested in the Gospel-Ministration my intention from this Text is to set forth the Glass of the World's Creation wherein we may behold and from whence we may evince both the Being of God or his Deity and many Attributes and Properties of his Being And whereas all Theology consisteth of two Parts either that which is called Natural or that which consisteth of Supernatural Revelation the former I shall here speak of By Natural Theology that all may understand I mean that knowledge of God and our duty to Him which the Light of Nature may lead Man up to and which is concreat with his Soul The Image of God upon Man in his first Creation consisted in Knowledge as well as Holiness and the knowledge Adam had of his Creator was partly by the Character of his Being engraven upon his Soul which is by some stiled verbum
Bullocks Lambs Sheep Goats Swine and in some cases Men and Children as their own Poets Virgil and Plautus c. and so Plutarch and others of their Moral Writers affirm and these they offered up to appease their gods when any Calamities fell upon them Illius aras Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet Agnus Haedum Neptuno Taurum tibi Pulcher Apollo Virgil. And of their Humane Sacrifices see Lact. lib. 1. p. 81 82 83. and Dr. Owen's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 307. They offered Placatory Sacrifices to such gods of whom they feared harm and Propitiatory to such of whom they expected good as Dr. Jackson Observes But these they used not with any respect to Christ who was the end of the Institution of all the Expiatory or Propitiatory Sacrifices and gave them their Vertue and Efficacy and so they could not avail them to what they designed as the very use of them they borrowed either from the Sacrifice of Noah conveighed in the notice of it down to his Posterity or from some acquaintance they might have with the Jewish Laws rather than from any Dictates of Natural Light howsoever improved by them For what-ever may be said concerning Sacrifices called Gratulatory offered by way of Thanksgiving that a principle of Natural Gratitude might lead them to their use by giving part of the whole to acknowledg the whole from God yet who can imagine it concerning Expiatory Sacrifices that ever the Light of Nature could lead them to think that the slaying of a Bruit Creature as a Sheep or a Lamb or a Goat c. should be able to reconcile God to Man or be a meet Satisfaction to the offended Deity for his sin or indeed be pleasing to God at all And though this was the practice of the Jews yet they were led to it by God's Institution and not by the Light of Nature And though some have said that the continuance of Nature in its course and the benefits that are thereby daily conveighed from God to the World do declare to all Men that he is some-way reconciled else Man's sin would either have dissolved or at least interrupted this beneficial course of Nature yet this cannot lead Man to the true Propitiatory nor to the way of enjoying the benefit thereof By these common benefits of Nature God left not himself without witness to the Gentiles and for which they ought to have been thankful but by these they could not understand that they had favour with God were not under God's displeasure for their sin seeing the worst of men partaked of them as well as others and the Beasts as well as Men. It 's true something may hence be gathered of the benignity and goodness of the Nature of God his long-suffering and patience whereby they might be encouraged to go to him for Mercy and Pardon but the way wherein God hath appointed to bestow this pardoning Mercy they could not know by any natural Light And what respect God may have to some among the Gentiles that best improved that Light and had recourse to his general Mercy without the distinct knowledg of a Saviour which they had not means to attain I shall rather leave it amongst the Secrets of God's Counsel than make determination therein But we that have the Scriptures know that all Man's Reconciliation is by the death of the Son of God And that pardon of sin is by Faith in his Blood which things the Light of Nature is a meer stranger too 3. As to the true knowledg of sin the Scriptures give a more distinct account than any that can be known by Nature Some grosser sins may be known by it but the secret Obliquities of the Heart and Life are not detected but by a straiter Rule than the Light or Law of Nature The Apostle Rom. 7. professeth he had not known Lust to be sin except the Law of God had said Thou shalt not covet It is the Commandment of God that David saith is exceeding broad can only discover sin in the full latitude of it And which made the Apostle say By the Law is the knowledg of sin And therefore the Law was first briefly published upon Mount Sinai and afterwards explained and urged upon the People by Moses as appears in the Book of Deuteronomy that they might being under the conviction of sin look towards the Messiah for Salvation who was yet to come which needed not have been could the Law of Nature have given a perfect Knowledg and Conviction Of it the Scriptures resolve that great Question unde malum discoursing of it in the first original of it as also in the due merit of it and the punishment it leadeth to As for sins that are more strictly Evangelical as Unbelief in Christ c. As the Light of Nature doth not discover the Gospel so neither can it do sins against it For this we must have recourse to the Word of Christ and to his Spirit Whom he promised to send to convince the World of sin because they believed not on him for the Light of Nature could not evidence it to be sin 4. If we speak also of the satisfaction of the Soul in possessing the chief Good Here also Scripture-Light excels that of Nature There was nothing did more exercise the Minds of the wiser Heathens than this to find out and enjoy this Good and nothing were they more divided in their Judgments about But the Reason was because they wanted the true knowledg of God and knew not the way to the fruition of him who alone is this chief Good of Man But here the Scriptures again supply the defect of Nature's Light which reveal to us not only that God is and what he is but that Everlasting Covenant of his Grace made in Jesus Christ wherein and whereby he offers himself to Men to become their God and to take them for his People And there we find this summum Bonum this chief good The Philosophers of old Yea all Men are as Merchants seeking this godly Pearl but they find it not until they are by Scripture-Light led to it And we may say of it as Job speaks of Wisdom The Depth saith It is not in me and the Sea saith It is not with me It cannot be gotten for Gold neither shall Silver be weighed for the price thereof c. and therefore is not found in Silver or Gold Destruction and Death say We have heard the same thereof with our Ears Those that are in the Grave or Hell may have heard of it but where there is no Good there cannot be found this chief Good But the Word of God tells the Living of it shews it to them and invites them to the possessing of it 5. With respect to the Worship of God The Light of Nature doth dictate that God ought to be worshipt but Scripture-Revelation is requisite to guide us unto the right way of Worship I know there is Natural Worship founded upon the Right of
Soul which the brute Beasts have not Though they have some resemblance of reason yet they have nothing of the impression of a Deity because they are not made to the immediate praise and glory of their Creator as Man is Which is the reason why all Nations have acknowledged and worshipped a Deity When the Apostle went forth in the execution of his Commission to preach the Gospel in the Nations of the Gentile World where-ever he came he found the People performing Worship to some Deity or other When he came to Athens he found there that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or superstitious fear and reverence of their Gods which Luke mentions in Acts 17. 22. Yea not onely at Athens which was a place of Learning but even amongst the barbarous people Which we read of in Acts 14. how they brought Garlands and would have offered Sacrifices to Barnabas and Paul which shews they had upon their hearts the sense of a Deity and some kind of religious Worship was found amongst them And their Learned Men have all along asserted the worship of a Deity to be the chief part of the Law of Nature God having a Witness for himself in every Man's Conscience But this I shall speak more of afterwards 2. The Being of God is made known by the Scriptures which throughout declare to us that God is And this is the evidence of Faith as in Heb. 11. 3. Through Faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear A Text somewhat parallel to that which I am now discoursing upon For both of them speaks of the Visible Things of Nature and the Invisible Things of God Both do speak of these Invisible things of God evidenced to the mind of man But with this difference the one doth speak of the evidence that Reason gathers from Nature the other of the evidence of Faith from the Word of God So it follows in the sixth Verse He that cometh to God must believe that he is Faith believes it from the Scriptures which give witness of him being the proper Object of Faith And God hath written his Name in clearer Characters in these than what is found in the Book of Conscience Had Natural Conscience been sufficient there had been no need of the Scriptures which were written to inform rectifie and guide Conscience wherein it is defective or erroneous So that as it is said Ideò scribuntur omnes Libri ut emendetur unus All Books are written to amend the Book of Conscience So especially we may say it of the Book of Scriptures Conscience hath thence a clearer account not only of the Will and Counsels of God but even of his very Nature and Being than by any Characters thereof it can discover within it self 3. The Being of God is also made known to us from the Works of Creation All these Works of God do preach a Deity As the Heavens are said to declare his Glory and the Firmament to shew his Handy-work Psal 19. 1. so his Name is said to be excellent in all the Earth Psal 8. 1. The Beams of his Divinity shine through the Latitude of all Created Beings And if you lay your eye in a Beam of the Sun it leads it to the Body of the Sun As in every Creature there is aliquid nihili something of nothing so there is aliquid Dei something of God Praesentemque refert quaelibet Herba Deum The Herbs we see shew God to Be. As the Philosopher being asked where his Books were answered His Books were Totius Entis naturalis Universitas The University of all natural Being And verily those that have no Books and never were at any University of Learning may in the Book of Nature and the University of created beings read and understand the Being of God Now this is the Evidence of his Being that my Text speaks of and therefore is to be the subject of my present Discourse Which I shall explain by these following Arguments Arg. 1. It is impossible for this Creation to give itself a Being The Heavens could not make themselves nor the Earth itself for then they should be before themselves Their acting before their existing which is impossible to Reason For it is a true saying in Philosophy Operari sequitur esse Operations do follow the Creatures Being both as to time and the manner of working As also Nihil producitur in actum nisi per ens in actu Nothing is produced into actual being but by some Being that doth actually exist And therefore this Creation must be brought into being by some actual Being that was before it Nil se gignit nil provenit a se Paling And what can that be but God alone Should we assert the World was made by Angels as the Carpocratians said of old yet who then made those Angels Much less could it be made by Men for they understand little of the works of it how it is made And how came Man himself first to be It s true what we read Act. 17. Of one Blood were made all Nations but not by Creation but Generation And what gave being to that one Blood There we must have recourse to a first Being and who that is the Text tells us God made of one Blood all Nations Or should we say according to the antient Philosophy now revived by some That the Universe was framed by the fortuitous concourse of innumerable Atomes of several Forms Figures and Qualities that from Eternity danced up and down in an infinite space And those that were heaviest fell lowest and made the Earth And those that were lighter took their place above them Those that were moist did coalesce into Water and those that were thin and rare into Air and the superiour Elements Which was the fond and irrational Opinion of certain Philosophers of old The account of this Opinion we find at large in Gassendus as Leucippus Lucretius and especially Epicurus But of this Opinion we need no other confutation than the exact Order of all things in Nature which could not be so by some chance or accident No more than an House exactly built could come into such a frame by the Casual meeting together of Stones and Timber And why did those Atomes fall together then and not sooner And whence is it that the course of Nature is now so fixed and constant if all things came together at first by chance all things still should fall out by chance Or if we should admit a possibility of such an orderly concourse of these Atomes yet how came these Atomes into being Did they make themselves That I shewed was impossible Were they Eternal How come they then to be changed from what they were For whatever is from Eternity mâ—st needs be the same to Eternity But he that desires a further confutation of this fancy may read what is written against it by a
Triâ—megist If Idolaters be charged with brutishness that worshipped false gods Jer. 10. 14 18. how much more the Atheist that denies a God And if the Apostle saith of them that their foolish heart was darkened when they debased him in their vain Rites and Modes of Worship Rom. 1. 18. how much more are such dark'ned with folly that deny his Being Though Hell be the Seat of perfect Wickedness yet this Speculative Atheism is not to be found there The Devils themselves believe and tremble And what a monstrous thing then is it that it should be found upon Earth And especially in that part of the Earth where Men have not only the Book of Nature but the written Word of the God of Nature as a Comment upon the works of it for men to think it an height of Wit to be able to dispute against a Deity and a piece of Gallantry to live above the fear of it Men that are rational enough in other things yet in this their Reasons are strangely blinded which shews the strange degeneracy of their Souls in things that concern another World while they are ripe and pregnant enough in things that concern this World For did Men exert their Reason in those things as they can and do in these it would conclude nothing more strongly than that God is It is the proper Office of Reason to argue from the Effect to the Cause why should it not then argue when it beholds the wonderful Works of this Creation these must needs proceed from some Infinite Cause and thereby be led up to the Being of God As when a man seeth a Tree that is extended into Boughs and Branches his thoughts are naturally led to some Root out of which it springs and so when he seeeth a River his thoughts will lead him to some Spring out of which it ariseth why then should we not when we see this visible World have our thoughts as it were naturally led up to a first Being God hath sufficiently by his Works of Creation evidenced to Mankind his Being that they might seek after him And therefore there will be no room left for any such plea in the day of Judgment for any people whatsoever in any part of the world If we had known there had been a God we would have sought him served and worshipped him Doth Man plead I never saw his Being Will we believe nothing but what our eyes see We never saw those Souls that dwell within us shall we therefore not believe we have Souls do not their operations sufficiently evidence their Being in us Nay we do not see the Air in which we breath and yet no Man denies but there is Air. And doth not the Text tell us of the invisible things of God and therefore not to be seen Or will Man plead he was not present when God made this World how shall he then know that he made it If we see an House erected according to the Rules of Art shall we not believe it is the work of some skilful Artificer though we did not stand by and see him build it But of these profest Atheists we have not many instances we read in Ancient Writers of such as Protagoras Diagoras Theodorus c. who denyed or disputed all Deity whom I find quoted and confuted by learned Bradwardine as they were before condemned by the Athenians Brad. lib. 1. Coral 1. pars secund and indeed such were exploded by the Heathen And those that were so yet were not constantly so as to maintain this Opinion to the end In mens serious and retired thoughts especially if they be under some smart affliction the Belief and Sence of a Deity returns upon them Nullus eorum in hac Opinione quod Dii non sunt ab adolescentiâ ad senectutem perseveravit Plato 1. 10. de legibus As a motion that is against Nature will some time or other recur And therefore the Philosopher said that no Man persevered in this Opinion from Youth to Old Age. Nature cannot utterly forget her first and fundamental Lesson that God is and that first Verity that is so deeply rooted in Nature that it cannot be totally blotted out Licet enim noster animus multis inquinamentis abducatur à suo naturali proposito frequens tamen illud recurrit ut exprimat innatos veritatis igniculos Pamel Adnot in Tertul. C. 17. Apo. As that Renowned Carver did grave his own Image into the Buckler of Pallas with such singular Art and Cunning that it could not be removed without defacing the whole Work For the Soul being from Divine Inspiration God hath put the Character of himself upon it which cannot be utterly defaced while its Being continues And therefore the Opinion that denies a Deity is rather a Frolick a Fancy a Dream than a grounded Opinion And when the Soul of Man is itself and converseth with it self and beholdeth the Legible Characters of God's Being written upon this whole Creation such Opinion vanisheth away But yet we find many have this sence of a Deity very weak and the Notion of it very dark in their Souls and many staggerings in their minds about it And not only amongst Heathens but even amongst themselves where the Gospel is profest and preached Yea we find in many that live under the Gospel less sence of a Deity upon their hearts than amongst the most barbarous Nations of the World But of all others these are the most monstrous who study to make themselves Atheists who set their wits on work to frame Arguments against a Deity And they do it to deliver themselves from Service and from Fear 1. From Service that they might be free from the Yoke of serving God for if they own a Deity their Reason tells them they ought to give him Worship and Service and this they account a Yoke and Burthen As those said in Malachi 1. ver 13. Behold what a weariness is it and ye have snuffed at it They think they cannot be perfect free men till they have freed themselves from all Belief and Sence of a Deity Aug. de verâ Relig C. 36. To. 1. As Austin to this purpose Quidam propterea putant nihil colendum esse ne serviant Some think no Deity is to be worshipped that they might not serve And Lucretius boasts of Epicurus that he was the first that delivered the World from the burden of Religion Humana ante oculos foedè cum vita jaceret In terris oppressa gravi sub Religione Primum Graius homo mortales tollere contra Est oculos ausus c. But are not these Men much mistaken when they have cast off the Service of God Deo parere libertas est Sen. de vita beata which is the true Liberty of Man are they not given up to the Service of base Lusts which is true Bondage And made Drudges to the God of this World who will not be the servants of the true God
hath a pompous Tomb of gaudy Marble Stone Wise Cato but a little One the mighty Pompey none Yet all this while we dream of Godds and dream we do I wis For Godds are none or if there be how can they suffer this Men cannot see a righteous and equal distribution of Rewards and Punishments Whereupon are ready to say with the Atheist whom Tully mentions Cic. de naturâ Deorum p. 196. Vitam regit Fortuna non Sapientia It is Fortune not Wisdom governs the Life of Man And as Ovid speaks as some think moved by the indignity of Tully's untimely death Dum rapiunt mala fata bonos ignoscite fesso Sollicitor nullos esse putare Deos. What are the Godds that bear the sway When bad Fates take good Men away And another of the Heathen Poets speaks of such in his Time who thought there was no Divine Providence but all things came to pass by Fortuitous Causes Sunt qui in Fortunae jam casibus omnio ponunt Juvenal Et Mundum nullo credunt rectore moveri Naturâ volvente vices lucis anni Atque adeò intrepidi quaecunque altaria jurant Some now there be that deem the World by slippery chance doth slide That Dayes and Years do run their round without or Rule or Guide Save Nature and Dame Fortunes Wheeel and hence sans shame or fear Of God or Man by Altars all they desperately do swear Men deny Providence and so thence step into Atheism But because Men cannot wade into the depths of God's Providence shall they therefore conclude there is no Providence and no God Was it not better for Man when he sees he cannot with the short line of his Reason reach the bottom of God's Works cry out with the Apostle Rom. 11. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the Depth But let Men with David enter God's Sanctuary and take a view of things in the Light of Faith and the Scriptures and then they shall see the Reason of those things that at present they are offended and stumble at There they may see Reasons why the Wicked for a while go unpunished and why the Righteous meet with afflictions in the World there they may see the Compass that Providence hath taken about before it finisht its Work there they may see how Providence hath brought one contrary out of another and made the Saints afflictions to usher in their mercies and the prosperity of the Wicked to be the fore-runner of their greater fall There they may also learn the wise End that God hath in the chastisements of his People and suffering the wicked to prosper and to triumph a while over the Church and the Cause of Truth and Holiness in the World 4. Again Atheism ariseth in the hearts of men from the diversity of Opinions that have been and still are in the World about Religion As Polutheism of old was an occasion of Atheism For when men set up many ridiculous Godds to be worshipped no wonder though they caused many to deride them and to cast off all sense of Religion So many now observing diversity of Opinions about Religion are hereby led to think there is no Religion and if no Religion then there is no God at least there is little sense of a Deity upon his Heart that hath no Religion As it fared in Philosophy the many differences of Opinions therein made some at last turn Scepticks and doubt of every thing And so in Divinity according to that known and true Apothegm Theologia Sceptica tandem exit in Atheismo Sceptical Divinity ends in Atheism And men by seeing the various Judgments that are about Religion begin to question every thing and fix in nothing till at last they settle in Atheism But ought not men rather argue seeing that all do embrace some Religion or other therefore certainly there is a true Religion though many mistake it And Religion is embraced by all with respect to a Deity Will men say there is no such thing as Pleasure because one Man affects one kind of Pleasure and another another kind and there is no such thing as Government because some people affect one kind and others another kind and no such Being as the Soul because Philosophers differed about its Definition It rather proves the contrary The variety of Sentiments about Religion should make men to search out the true rather than to cast off all and when they have found it to hold it fast and observe it with all honourable respect to that God that is the Object of it and say with the Church in Mich. 4. 5. All Nations will walk in the Name of their God and we will walk in the Name of the Lord our God for ever and for ever 5. It ariseth in some from pride of heart as the Psalmist speaks Psal 10. 4. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts or as the Margent reads it All his thoughts are there is no God A proud Man doth secretly affect a Deity would be a God to himself and therefore desires not to own a Deity because he hath no heart to stoop to him It was Pharaoh's Pride as well as his Ignorance that made him to disown the true God the God of Israel and say Who is the Lord that I should obey his Voice Exod. 5. 2. And that pride of Senacherib that made him think himself superior to all the Godds of the Nations that he had conquered and to the God of Israel also would easily lead him to cast off the sense and acknowledgment of any Deity at all As you read the Story of him Isa 36. 19 20. And those that we read of Psal 12. 3 4. Whose tongue speaketh proud things saying with our tongue we will prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us discovered herein the prevalency of Pride and Atheism in their hearts As Pride did first lead the Humane Nature to affect a Being like God so it is that also that leads men to disacknowledg him and set up themselves in his room It was this Pride in the Prince of Tyrus that made him say I am a God and do sit in the Seat of God Ezek. 28. 2. It was Pride in Herod that made him take Divine Honour to himself upon the acclamations of the people to his Oration It is the Voice of a God not of a Man Acts 12. 22. And what was it but Pride in Alexander Caligula Claudius Domitian and others who would be accounted Godds when here upon Earth And he that deifies himself will soon deny the true God 6. Atheism springs from inconsideration Mens minds are so alienated from God and Divine Things and so immerst in the Affairs of the World that they can find no time to sit down and consider what even Reason it self might suggest to them concerning the necessary existence of a Deity Though Reason cannot lead men to the knowledg of Christ's
Mediatorship and the Mysteries of the Gospel the notice whereof we have from Divine Revelation yet if stirred up and improved it might lead men to the knowledg of a Creator and a first Being The Creation of the World carries in it a rational evidence of a Deity to the Reasonable Creature As God calls upon Idolaters that worship the Work of mens hands An Image that they bore upon their Shoulders and set him in his place to shew themselves men Isa 46. 6 7 8. Had they but considered and consulted with their reason as men they would never have worshipt a dumb Idol And so God tells them Isa 44. 19. None considereth in his Heart neither is there knowledg and understanding to say I have burnt part of it in the fire yea I have baked Bread upon the Coals thereof c. and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination shall I fall down to the stock of a Tree So it is in the present case Did men consider the Creation of the World and the Characters of a Deity that are written upon it and did they use their rational faculty and argue as men and as they can do in other things they would not run into Atheism 7. It ariseth also from that little regard that men see is had to God in the World When men observe how little the generality of Man-kind do take notice of him so as to fear him to honour him to ingage him with them in their Affairs they are tempted to think thereby there is no such Being And though men with their tongues say they believe his Being yet mens actions speak otherwise and actions carry more evidence to the World than words and so Atheism is propagated by Example And the innate notions of a Deity in the hearts of men are much corrupted and stifled by the general contempt of God in the World When Children observe that their Parents take little notice of God and Subjects observe the same in their Prince and Tenants in their Landlords and the Unlearned observe the same in many that are Learned Yea when People shall observe their Ministers debaucht and regardless of God how strangely is Atheism propagated hereby But if men well considered how all Man-kind fell from God in the first Adam and how the minds of all men are now by Nature darkned and alienated from him and the dominion that sin hath got in the hearts of men they need not hence haesitate in their minds about the Being of God because the generality of men have so little respect unto him For till the Grace of God renews Man's Nature he will by a course of sin grow up into that hardness and security as to live as it were without God in the World especially if men live at ease and enjoy outward prosperity For the Sense of a Deity is much excited in men by trouble and affliction As in Jonah's Ship when the Mariners were in a Storm Jonah 2. 14 16. every one then was calling upon his God offered Sacrifice and made Vows And the like account we have in the Psalmist Psal 107. where men are in a stormy Sea reel to and fro like a drunken Man and are at their wits end then they cry to the Lord in their distresses But in prosperity men think they have no need of God and so cast off all respect to him And David himself who in his prosperity said My Mountain standeth strong I shall never he moved when God hid his Face and he troubled then saith he I cryed unto the Lord and to the Lord I made supplication Psal 30. 6 7 8. 8. Again it arises from the Hypocrisy and Apostacy of some that have made high pretensions to the wayes of God and Communion with him When it shall appear to the World that these have made use of the Name of God only to serve a Carnal Design and their Profession hath been nothing else but Policy to advance some selfish Interest Many are ready hence to conclude that all that is talked about a Deity and Religion in the World is but Pretene or Fancy and that Grace it self is but Nomen inane as one said of Vertue a vain Name For it is presumed if any have found out God and the good of Religion it is such as these and if they had found them and enjoyed them they would never have forsaken them Now this Apostacy is either General from all Religion when Men run into down-right Profaneness and Debauchery Or particular when men forsake their particular Professions and Principles that they have shewed Zeal in and do it for Carnal Ends many are apt to be shaken hereupon not only with respect to the Truth of the particular perswasions of such Men but as to the Truth of all Religion and all Deity For what sense any Man hath of a Deity will be manifested in that particular Way of Religion that he is ingaged in And he that forsakes that particular Way whether in it self it be true or false for some corrupt end as he will himself be in danger of running into Atheism so it will have a bad influence to draw others to it also Again this Apostasie is either through a Man 's own Corrupt Inclinations or else occasioned by some External Coaction As when a Man to avoid Fines Penalties or other Persecutions shall practise contrary to the Dictates of his Conscience And a Three fold evil ariseth hence one is To them that thus practise against Conscience Another to them that urge them to it And a third to them that shall be scandalized and hereupon prejudiced against Religion it self and so are upon the very Threshold of Atheism But may it not be replyed Shall all be judged by some If some have been false in their Profession have not others been faithful Are there not Instances of thousands that have forsaken all and laid down their Lives upon the Cause and Conscience of their Religion and confidence of this Principle that God is Which should more confirm our belief thereof than the Hypocrisie or Apostasie of others shake it and weaken it I know this Apostasie is a great scandal to the World and in all Ages it hath been a Stumbling-Block and never greater than at this day And wo to the World because of such Offences And they must needs come as Christ speaks Mat. 18. 7. And as Heresies must come to make manifest mens Integrity and Soundness in the Faith 1 Cor. 11. 19. so these Apostasies come to try mens stability in the grand Foundations of Religion 9. Many are so drown'd in the Life of Sense that they cannot believe the Existence of Invisible Things They can believe the Existence of the Works of Nature because they are visible to Sense but the Invisible Things of God out of which these Works spring they cannot believe A Sensualist his Language is Tell not me of a God whom I never saw of Heaven and Invisible Powers and the Pleasures I
never felt give me Houses and Lands Corn and Wine and these good Things that mine Eye can see my Mouth can taste and my Hands can feel These Invisible Things the Syriack Version renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Recondita Dei The Hidden Things of God and being hidden out of mens sight they regard them not they believe them not But what O Man wilt thou believe nothing but what thine Eyes can see Are there not Spiritual Beings in the Creation as wel as Corporeal Shal we with the Sadduces deny Angels and Spirits And are not Spiritual Beings out of the reach of corporeal Sight or Sense And are not these Spiritual Beings the most perfect and excellent and therefore God being the most excellent Being he must needs be the purest Spirit and so must be thereby invisible to Sense Do we not read of Moses Heb. 11. He endured as seeing him that is invisible And of Paul 2 Cor. 4. Whilst we look not at things that are seen but at things that are not seen And of those Believers 1 Pet. 1. Whom having not seen you love And had men Faith it would be to them an evidence of Things not seen it would lead them up to that which is Invisible but being immerst in the Life of Sense they cannot reach so high and so God is to them as if he was not 10. Philosophy and State-Policy have been great Causes of Atheism I put them together that I might not multiply Particulars 1. Philosophy Though in it self it is a good Hand-maid to Divinity yet the Mistress hath been wronged by her Maid The courting of Nature hath kept many from espousing true Divinity So long as they can find a natural cause of things they will not at least heartily own a Deity And therefore it is observed that Atheism first began where Philosophy was in its highest improvement namely among the Grecians But I touched upon this before As it is said of Pliny he being inquisitive to find out the Reason of the Smoaking of Mount Vesuvius went so near to it that he was choaked in the Smoak So many by their curious enquiries into Natural Causes have choaked the Innate Notices of a Deity within their Hearts He that wrote a Discourse called Philosophia Theologiae Ancillans Baron Philosophy ministring to Divinity set Philosophy in its right place and to make the Encrease of the one the Decrease of the other is the highest abuse of it 2. State Policy The Politician seeth he shall never accomplish his Designs if he be over-awed by Conscience and Sense of a Deity He must not be a slave to his Promises or stand in fear either of making or breaking an Oath He must not be confined within the narrow Rules of Religion or Righteousness He may see it his interest sometimes to seem Religious but to be so indeed is not for his turn which is according to the advice of Machiavel to the young Prince And hence ariseth Atheism 11. It ariseth from a forgetfulness of God As the Psalmist speaks of such Psal 51. 22. Consider this ye that forget God Men do not exercise their Minds in thoughts of God and so forget him And a Person or Thing that are not in our Thoughts are forgotten and being forgotten are as if they were not Though men have additional knowledge to the Natural Notions of a Deity yet if this Knowledge be not stirred up and exercised it will not prevent the growth of Atheism in ther Hearts When men set not God in the view of their Minds look not on him either in Mercies or Afflictions and carry on their Affairs from day to day without respect to him this is forgetting him whereby they are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without God in the World As we know Fire if it be not stirred or blown up will be ready to go out So will the Notices of the Being of God in the Soul if they be not daily excited in us and there is nothing Man is more apt to forget than God Whiles he remembers every thing else that concerns him he is most prone to a forgetfulness of him whom he should most of all remember Let Man but follow the natural bent of his own Heart and he will seldom have God in his Thoughts and have little or no respect to him in the Actions of his Life And so God is forgotten and is as if he was not And the great Adversary of God in the World the Devil will be sure to assist with his Temptations that mens thoughts may be diverted and alienated from the true God that he himself might reign as God in the World He is said to be the Ruler of the darkness of this World and therefore seeks to propagate darkness not only by hindring the Light of the Gospel from shining into mens hearts but by extinguishing the very Light of Natural Conscience and so to propagate his own Rule and Government Lastly Atheism ariseth from detaining the Truth of God in Unrighteousness the sin that is charged upon the Heathen Men sin against the Innate Notion of a Deity in their Hearts till at last the force of it is quite lost by giving way to fleshly Lusts against the Dictates of their Natural Light they smother it And it is at best but as a Spark covered in an heap of Ashes that doth neither give Light or Heat When men to gratifie their Lusts will debauch their Conscience they will hereby by degrees sear it For Nemo repentè fit Turpissimus And men grow up to a profligacy in sin as they by sinning against their Conscience do by degrees benum and stupifie it As it is said of the Gentiles Rom. 1. 18. they first detained the Truth that was naturally in their Hearts and then God gave them up to vile affections c. vers 24. And not following the Light of Nature were given up to sins against Nature vers 27. And Ephes 4. 18. the Apostle speaks of the Gentiles they walked first in vanity of Mind and then came to be past feeling there the Sense of a Deity is gone and then they gave up themselves to all uncleanness with greediness vers 19. Thus I have shewn some of those Causes out of which Atheism grows and is cherisht in the hearts of men And was it only found in the dark parts of the World where the Gospel shines not it was the less to be wondred at but it is found even amongst our selves and is become a spreading Leprosie in the Heads but especially the Hearts of multitudes at this day And I verily believe there is to be found less sence of a Deity upon many Christians so call'd that live in the mid'st of Gospel-Light than in any part of the World For if we look to the Heathens they all acknowledge some Deity or other so they have a Religious respect to it and have some awful impressions upon their Hearts towards it will lavish Gold out of the Bag and
head and fell flat on his face Then he confesseth I have sinned and if it displease thee I will go back again Numb 22. 31 34. When sinners eyes are so far opened that they can behold and do powerfully believe the Being of God it is the first step towards their return and repentance And the Works of Creation may be serviceable to this end Though they cannot lead men of themselves either to that knowledg of God or knowledg of Sin as might effect evangelical Repentance yet the belief and sense of a Deity that may result from thence may be the first step towards it And we know how God brought Job to abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes by setting before him the glory and greatness of his Being in the several works of Creation and giving him a spiritual sight of himself therein as we read in the five last Chapters of that Book So that Repentance may not only be helpt thereby as to its first beginning in the hearts of the Impenitent but furthered also in the Hearts of true Saints 4. Taking up the Cross of Christ which we read of in the Scriptures but not in the Works of Nature However the knowledge we have of God's Being from those Works will further this Christian Duty For it is certain what-ever it is that strengthens this grand Principle in us that God is will enable us the better to suffer Persecution And upon the full belief of this did so many thousand Martyrs offer up their lives as I said before as knowing that it was for God's sake and from him they should have a reward Was there no God it was madness and folly in them to have so suffered and had they not well believed it they would not have been able to suffer To you it is given saith the Apostle first to believe and then to suffer Phil. 1. 29. It is said of Moses Heb. 11. 27. He endured as seeing him that is invisible And my Text saith The invisible Things of God and his God-head are seen in the Works of Creation so that the seeing of the Invisible God even in the Works of God as well as his Word may enable us the better to endure suffering And however Atheistical Men may account it folly to suffer yet from this Principle believed That God is a Christian can demonstrate his sufferings for God to be most rational upon the grounds of truest Reason And if you understand taking up Christ's Cross as some do for the crucifixion of the Flesh though this be also an Evangelical Duty yet it is furthered and promoted by a practical believing the Being of God to which the Works of Creation do contribute much As Atheism and not believing God's Being doth open a wide Door of Liberty to the Flesh so the true believing it will engage Man to restrain and crucifie it As when there was no King in Israel Every Man did that which was right in his own eyes much more if men believe not there is a God in Heaven But now the setting of an Almighty Infinite God the Creator of the World in the view of the Soul How doth this dash sin out of countenance as it did in Joseph How can I commit this wickedness and sin against God What shall I sin against and before that God which made Heaven and Earth that God that hath stampt the Characters of his Being round about me upon me and within me If there be a God as I see the undeniable evidence of it in his Works Shall I maintain an Idol-Lust as a false god in mine own heart And shall he who is the supream Being find any thing set up in my mind above him and he that is the chief Good find any Good standing as Competitor with him in my Affections And that God that made all things for himself shall I not live unto him as my ultimate End and live no more to my self in the serving of the Lusts of mine own Heart and Mind 4. If we speak of those Institutions of the Gospel which are the Ordinances of Divine Worship and not made known by the Light of Nature yet we may derive strength from Nature's Light to enforce their Authority upon our obedience Though we cannot do it ex antecedenti because the Light of Nature doth not reveal them yet we may do it a consequenti seeing they are acknowledged from the Scripture to be the Ordinances of God For the Light of Nature tells men there is a God it then tells men this God ought to be worshipped now the Scriptures that Christians receive as the Word of God tell men that these Institutions are his Commands and Rule for Worship and therefore the very Light of Nature that declares a God to us doth also thereby urge us to give obedience that therein we may give worship to him I deny not but God is to be obeyed and worshipped upon a newer and more Evangelical account as our Redeemer in Jesus Christ and as we are purchased by his Blood yet a Christian may and ought to strengthen his Obligation to Obedience herein from the evidence he finds of God's Being and so of his Sovereignty over his Creatures from the Works of his Creation For as when we find an Institution upon a moral Duty evidenced by the Law of Nature that Law is strengthned thereby so we may derive Strength from the Law of Nature to make those Institutions that are not contained therein more obligatory to us As God himself doth confirm this Truth when he speaks to Israel Levit. 19. 30. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary I am the Lord. The true owning God's Being that he is Jehovah the Lord will strongly oblige us to give obedience to Worship that is of pure Institution The first Commandment of the Law well received gives life and vigour to the Second that speaks of this Instituted Worship 5. Or Lastly The believing the fulfilling what God hath spoken in his Word and that the Counsels of his Mind revealed therein shall take place is another Gospel-Duty Now when we believe his Being from the Creation of the World and there see how his Word was fulfilled when he said Let there be Light and let there be a Firmament c. and it was so We may hence strengthen our Faith concerning the accomplishment of his Word that is written whether the Word of Promise to his Children or Threatning to his Adversaries When Sarah doubted the fulfilling God's Promise to her What said the Angel Is any thing too hard for Jehovah Which Name of God we do not read of until his Creation was finished and he had given being to all his Works as appears by Gen. 2. 4. being before that called Elohim Now Jehovah that gave being to the Works of Creation can he not also give being to his Word Can there be greater difficulty in the fulfilling of his Word than in creating all Things out of Nothing After God had
set before Job the Works of Creation Job thence concludes I know thou canst do every thing Job 42. 2. And the Psalmist having said Psal 33. 6. By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made c. And Vers 9. For be spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast He hence makes this Inference That his Counsel shall stand for ever and the thoughts of his Heart to all Generations His secret Counsel shall take place but that is not the Object of our Faith but his Counsel revealed in his Word And we may strengthen our Faith concerning it by looking upon him as the Creator of the World For when and wheresoever God speaks his Word never returns in vain when he spake in the Creation of the World his Word took place and so shall his Word in the Scripture where he is speaking in every Age of the World Inference Now from all this I have said we may consider how much it doth concern us to revive and strengthen upon our Souls the impressions of God's Being For though these Impressions be fundamentally in every Man's Nature yet in some they are more lively and operative than in others And it is no easie thing to preserve the powerful Sense of a Deity upon our hearts I mean such a Sense as may be prevalent to resist temptations and overpower the corruption of Nature For we see for the most part how this Seed of Nature is choaked in the hearts of men For this end let God be much in your sight behold him in the Works of his Creation and Providence and in all your wayes acknowledg him Concern him in all your Affairs converse much with him in Prayer endeavour to bring your Reasons under more powerful Convictions of the necessity of his Being And especially let Christians strengthen their Faith in it from the Word of God and the Evidence of the Spirit in their Hearts For it is an Act of Faith truly to believe God's Being as Heb. 11. 3. And it is one work that the Spirit is conversant about in the Hearts of Saints to strengthen this belief and to make it more efficacious upon their Hearts For this Faith hath its degrees as well as that which hath Christ the Promise or Heaven for its Object And by feeling the Divine Influences of the Spirit upon our Souls we may be more confirmed in this belief than by any Arguments from Reason He that would have the Boughs and Branches thrive doth seek to cherish the Root So all Religion growing originally out of this Root viz. the effectual belief of God's Being we should be daily strengthening it in our selves And as the withering of the Branches ariseth from the decay and rotting of the Root so if it be well examined mens decay in Religion their neglect of Duty and falling into immoralities and vicious practices doth radically spring from the decay of the belief and lively sense of God's Being in their Souls CHAP. VI. The several Moral Duties that result from Man to God as the Creator of the World Self-Debasement Dependance Awful-Fear Praise Admiration which is described in the Ground Kind and proper Effects of it BUt yet further to improve the Doctrine in hand I shall next speak of some other Duties which are more expresly in the Law of Nature and the great parts of Natural Worship and which a Christian by considering God as the Creator of the World is obliged to perform 1. Is to humble and debase our selves before him Considering him in the greatness of his Works which yet are but the shadow of his Greatness And if all Nations before him are but as the drop of a Bucket and the dust of the Ballance How humbly should this make us to walk before him and come unto him When David looked upon part of God's Creation in Psal 8. it had this effect upon him to make him shrink into a narrow compass of self-esteem O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth thou hast set thy Glory above the Heavens And vers 3. When I consider thy Heavens the Work of thy Fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained What is Man that thou art mindful of him c And it was the course that God took with Job to take down his Spirit and to lay him at his foot to set himself before him as the Creator of the World Job 38. 3 4. Gird up now thy loyns like a man c. Where wast thou when I laid the Foundations of the Earth Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest Or who hath stretched the Line upon it c and so he proceeds in the following Chapters and it had this effect for he was brought hereby to acknowledg himself vile chap. 40. 4. and to ahhor himself and repent in dust and ashes Job 42. 6. The words may be read Wherefore I despise my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that meant upon the account of his Parvity and Nothingness compared with the great God as well as his sinfulness and folly And to lie in the Dust is the deepest expression of an humbled Soul Or as one glosseth upon the words It grieves me what I have spoke against the great God Cum ipse pulvis sim abjectissimus when as I my self am but Dust and most contemptible Can a Man behold God in the vast Works of his Creation and not be self-debased and as it were self-annihilated thereby and say as one speaks Lord thou art an Abyss of Being and I of Nothing especially considering how infinitely his Greatness transcends them all They tell us that the Earth is but as a Punctum a small Point in comparison of the Heavens but Earth and Heaven both are less than a Punctum compared with the great God For there is some proportion betwixt Finite and Finite but none betwixt Finite and Infinite And therefore the Prophet Isaiah to express this infinite disproportion speaks thus Chap. 40. 17. All Nations before him are nothing and they are accounted to him less than nothing and vanity Which is to shew that betwixt him and the Works of his Creation there is indeed no proportion at all So that our minds may behold God's greatness in the greatness of his Works and much more in the littleness and nothingness of these Works compared with his Greatness and from both should lay us very low and humble us deeply before him It made Solomon have a mean opinion of the great House he had built considering the great God that was to dwell in it 1 Kings 8. 27. Behold the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee much less this House that I have builded It is Man's unacquaintedness with the great Creator of the World that makes him admire any greatness in himself or in the greatest things of this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Philosopher Men that have true greatness of mind are not so apt to wonder as men of
in that light of the Knowledg of God that hath already shined into their hearts For this New Creation begins in Light as the first did which the Apostle takes notice of 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our hearts And as he proceeded in the first Creation till the whole was made perfect so will he do in the New where he hath begun a good Work he will perfect it he will proceed from that first Light of Grace wherein he shined into the Soul to the perfection of his Work in the eternal Light of Glory 4. Observe also that our Reconciler to God is he that made the World As the Apostle in Col. 1. 1. speaks of Christ as the Creator of the World vers 16. and then as our Reconciler by the Blood of his Cross v. 20. And having made peace by the Blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself How may this strengthen our Faith in Christ's Blood seeing it is the Blood of him that made the World As it doth manifest stupendious love that the Creator should die for his Creature so it may assure us that his death must needs be infinitely meritorious Under the Law the Blood of Creatures was shed for the People but that could of it self merit nothing but now under the New-Testament there is the Blood of the Creator shed for us Here is the Lord of all Life himself dying and he that gave Being to all things emptying himself and as it were made nothing What unspeakable Merit must hence arise for us Certainly the merit of the Creator must needs infinitely exceed all demerit of the Creature And as hence we may conclude an infinite merit so we may observe the fitness of him that was the Creator to make Reconciliation for us Who so fit to look after poor lost Creatures as he that made them He had the greatest property in us and therefore was concerned most to look after us As when the Sheep are wandred the Praprietor is the fittest Person to take care for the bringing them home again So that as our Creator he had not only Jus Proprietatis the Right of Property to redeem us but also Jus Idoneitatis the Right of Fitness also 5. Lastly We may hence take notice of the Bounty and Goodness of Christ Jesus our Saviour We may see it in the Creation of the World which is every where filled with the Effects hereof When he made the World he shewed not only his Power but the infinite benignity and goodness of his Nature And this Nature he hath still whereby we may encourage our selves to go to him for spiritual Blessings beholding the Creation filled with his common Blessings As from the Afflictions and Temptations of his Humane Nature we may be encouraged to go to him for succour when we are tempted and tryed So from the infinite benignity of his Divine Nature shining forth in his Creation we may be encouraged to ask the things that are necessary for our Salvation Hath he in his creating Goodness provided food for every Creature when it was not asked and will he not give thee bread for thy Soul when thou goest and askest him for it Did his Goodness so freely flow out to his whole Creation and hath that Nature no goodness remaining in it to his own People that are nearer to him than any other Creature And are not only Parts of his Natural but the Subjects of his New-Creation which as it is Spiritual is the better part of it But secondly As all Things were made by Christ so also for him as the Scripture in many places asserts Col. 1. 16. All things were made by him and far him It was usually said by the Jews All things were made for the Messias Rev. 4. ult Thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created The first Adam was set over the works of God's Hand but he sinning against his Creator it came into the hand of the second Adam and all things were put under his Feet But this fell out not by chance or accident but according to the Counsel of God when the World was made And accordingly the management of the Creation hath been in his hands from the beginning as it appears in the Records of the Old Testament And when he came into our Nature our Humanity was invested in this power with the Divine Person of Christ especially at his Resurrection and Ascention into Heaven and therefore he speaks as if it was then given him Matth. 28. All power is given me both in Heaven and Earth And John 17. Thou hast given him power over all flesh c. Now this was in the Counsel of Heaven and this was the end of this Worlds Creation that being put under the Dominion of Jesus Christ it might be governed and all things managed therein to the highest exaltation of the Glory of God For this Son of God 1. He brings forth the Knowledg of the eternal Counsels of God concerning Man's Redemption wherein he shews forth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deep things of God Wherein the infinite Wisdom Mercy Love Justice and Holiness of God are manifested in the World in the most resplendent edition of them And for that end he hath inspired men by his Spirit in the several Ages of the World whereby this great Mystery might be made known to the Glory of his Father For though there have been Prophets speaking of it ever since the World began Luk. 1. 70. yet it was by the Spirit of Christ that they so spake 1 Pet. 1. 11. 2. He hath also delivered to men the Rules of Worship and Obedience and such as conduce more in the practice of them to the honour of God than what was performable in Man's Primitive State the Conditions of Life under the New-Covenant being more to his Glory than those of the â—ormer were 3. He hath in all Ages been gathering in some of the Children of men into a state of Salvation out of that lost and ruined state into which the sin of the first Adam had cast them acquainting them with the Counsel of God for that end giving them his Spirit to enlighten their Minds and to sanctifie their Hearts and so forming them to the praise of God and as Vessels of Mercy preparing them for his Glory And this he did before his Incarnation 4. In the fulness of time he came himself into the flesh of Man and brought forth upon the Stage of the World that great Mystery of the Incarnation When also he declared the infinite Love and the Counsels and Purposes of the Heart of God more fully than had before been made known encountred and conquered the utmost Temptations of Satan and the World and then offered up that great Sacrifice of himself for to make atonement for sin which had been signified from the beginning of the World And then being buried
proceeding from the more imperfect to the more perfect Works Making Man last shews he is the most perfect part of his Creation And God shewed this respect to him also herein that he would not make him till he had Built and richly furnisht the World to be a fit habitation for him And it is Evident that God had Man in his eye when he was erecting framing and furnishing of it for it is exactly fitted to the nature necessity and delight of Man as he had Christ in his eye when he made Man And indeed when God had finisht the rest of his Creation he did Epitomize it all in Man for in his constitution we have Mortal and Immortal Visible and Invisible Corporeal and Incorporeal Material and Immaterial the Superior and Inferior World joyn'd together to the making of one person So that man is utriusque mundi nexus as Scaliger speaks And there is not such a creature as Man upon this account in the whole Creation Whereupon David that knew well his curious frame speaks largely of the workmanship of God herein Psal 139. v. 13. 14 15. 16. verses Thou hast possessed my Reins thou hast covered me in my Mothers Womb. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made Marvelous are thy Works and that my Soul knoweth right well My Substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth So that God having imprest so much of his own Likeness and bestowed such peculiar Workmanship upon Man he hath laid a foundation for strong Arguments to evince his Being to us therefrom If we look upon his body How curiously and rationally are the several Organs Vessels and Members thereof fitted to their several Functions in nature and each of them contributing in their several offices to one general End which is the life of Man How do the Veins and Arteries meet about the heart Nature sending succour from all parts to it as being the chief Seat of life And again the heart doth by them convey Blood and Spirits to the whole Body it being the chief Fountain of life And to give but one instance more in that which seems to be the most contemptible part of the Body which is the humours of it In these we may take notice of a Divine Wisdom Choler that is hot and of a fiery quality is useful to quicken the body and to stirr up Nature to ' its proper Functions and by ' its heat to prevent the coagulation and corruption of the blood And the Melancholick humour being thick and gross is useful to retain the natural and Vital Spirits that they may not be too Volatile and evaporate And the Phlegmatick humour which is more watery cool and moist is of use to cool and attenuate the blood and so make it fitter for Motion Now if the Wisdom of the Creator appears in these meanest things which are as it were the Excrements of Nature how much more in the noble parts of the Body But I must not nay I cannot speak of these things as an Anatomist or Physician But we may behold this frame and admiring say Oh how exquisitly are the Eyes turned the Ears and Nostrils bored the Fingers branched the Joynts coupled the Nerves extended the Veins diffused the Bones firmed and fastned I remember what I have long since read in the Poet concerning the several Parts of Man's body Ossibus ex denis bis Centenisque Novenis Constat Homo decies bis dentibus et duo denis Ex trecentenis decies sex quinqueque venis c. And so he proceeds And in the least part of man something may bee seen of God In so much that Galen though before a meer Naturalist and so an Atheist upon the observing the curious Structure of Man's Body could not forbear the giving an Hymn of Praise to the wise Creator and framer of it And it is so every way perfect that if a Man had an hundred years given him as it is said of one to find out some defect in it he would not be able to do it As among the Heathens they had a God calld Momus who made it his work to Carp at the works of the other Gods But let a Man study to find out something to Carp at in this exquisite frame he shall be able rationally to find nothing Many indeed will pretend there are Errata's in the Works of Providence which they could correct but it is because they understand them not But what Errata's can they find in the Works of Creation and particularly this of the body of Man This is one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that my Text mentions of the things that God made wherein we may behld his Eternal power and Godhead And if a Man would play the part of Zoilus to repreprehend this Poem as he did Homers he would but shew himself Ignorant and Impious at once So that Man need not go far to fetch an Argument for the Being of God he carries an Evident one continually about him in his own body Especially if man did but know himself in this his meaner part Did he but know the curious frame of the eye and the several Tunicles and Humours belonging to it whereby it is fitted for seeing And did he then but know how the eye doth see How the raies that come from one point in the Object do meet in one point in the bottom of the Eye Did he also know the various Workmanship of the Ear and understand how an Articulate voice should pass through the fluid medium of the Air and enter the Ear Articulated as it comes from the mouth of the speaker To give but one Instance more in that work of Nature which is proper to Man and that is Speech It is wonderful to consider how a little breath should be modulated into so many distinct syllabical sounds by the nimble touches of the Tongue in the several parts of the Mouth and by other instruments of Speech But these common works of Nature we wonder not at partly because they are common and partly because so little understood yet if duly considered they carry in them a clear evidence of the Being of God But to pass to the more sublime part of Man which is his Soul which doth so much the more clearly demonstrate God's Being to us by how much he hath stampt more of his own likeness upon it And 1. We may argue from the Capacity of the Soul which manifestly extends beyond the things of this World And is capable of enjoying a greater good then any of this Creation in regard that no finite good doth satisfie it Now if it be capable of a greater good surely there is such a good for there is no Capacity in Nature in vain As there is no Vacuity in Nature Quaelibet potentia appetit objectum sibi Conveniens Aquin. 3. p. q. 78. Art 1. Appetitus appetitum sunt ut
of Man yet God knows them better then the Spirit of Man yea he knows the Spirit it self and that better then it knows it self Let then Christians walk continually under an awful sence of this And take heed of all sin because it is all known especially that of Hypocrisie an Hypocrite pleaseth himself that he is not known to Men But let him consider that he is known to his own Conscience and that condemns him And he is known better to God then to his own Conscience and therefore God will condemn much more as knowing all things 1 Joh. 3. 20. And suppose a Man should be unknown to himself as we know the Heart of Man is deceitful not only to the deceiving of others but even of it self yet nothing in the Heart is hid to God So that when the question is put The heart is deceitful above all things who can know it It is answered I the Lord search the heart c. Jer. 17. 9 10. It should ingage every Christian to search and know his own Heart because it is searched and known of God That he that knows the Heart may find uprightness and truth in the inward parts which he is said to Love II. Consolation A true Christian may comfort himself in God's knowledge of him 1. That God knows the weakness of our Nature carries comfort in it to his people As 103. Psalm 14. He knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are dust He knows he made us at first out of the dust and he remembers it still and as he makes it to himself an Argument of pity as the Psalmist speaks in the 13. verse so we may thence also frame an Argument to our own comfort in the daily feeling we have of it 2. That he also knows the Heart is no small comfort to the upright in Heart And that 1. In respect of the obloquies censures and misjudgings of Men. 2. In respect of the failings and defects that attend our Services God can look through them all to that integrity that is in the Heart which is known to him Hezekiah was guilty of many failings but he had this to comfort him that his Heart was upright with God and that God knew this for he prays God to remember it 38. Isa 3. 3. In respect of Inability to perform what good we desire God doth not only know what we act but that desire of the Heart out of which we act and where the Desire is beyond the Act as it is in all true Saints God knows that desire to accept it though the Act falls short of it David was under such a deep sence of God's goodness to him that he knew not how sufficiently to express his thankfulness but he comforts himself in this that God knew him 2 Sam. 7. And what can David say more unto thee for thou knowest thy servant Infer II. If God be the Creator of Man it followes that Man is not his own God hath a supreme right to him as his Maker He hath made us and his we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as those words may be read Psal 100. 3. He hath made us and not we our selves And this Original Right of God cannot be alienated either by any extrinsick Power or by any Compact made by our selves Though Men sell themselves to work wickedness as Ahab did yet they cannot sell away God's right to them as their Creator As he that is the true proprietor will claim his goods where he sinds them though sold over and over by such as had no right And therefore for Men to be their own and live to themselves hath a manifold Evil wrapt up in it 1. It is Ingratitude If it be Ingratitude not to improve and devote the additional Comforts of our Being to God much more not to devote our Being it self Being it self is the greatest favour we receive from him and therefore it is the greatest unthankfulness not to give him the Praise of it by living to him If any of us should raise a Man into some good condition in the World and then should not be acknowledged by him that is thus raised we should justly brand him with Ingratitude Much more Ingratitude is it not to acknowledge God that hath raised us out of Non-being into Being When Paul desired a favour of Philemon with respect to Onesimus he presseth it by this Argument that he could tell him that he owed himself unto him Philem. 19. It would have been great ingratitude had Philemon denyed his request though he did not owe himself to the Apostle in that Supreme and absolute Right as we owe our selves to God And he that made us reasonable Creatures could have made us Brutes ought we not then to be thankful to our Creator for making us such and no Man is truly thankful that is his own and reserveth himself from him Man's service of God may be accounted reasonable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cultus rationalis Beza as making him a reasonable Creature and not a Brute Rom. 12. 1. 2. It is Injustice He that is his own and lives to himself detaineth from God that which is His and that is Injustice And as the Heathen Poet speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. all Vertue is comprehended in Justice so injustice runs through the Nature of all sin and all sin is radically comprehended in this In Mans being his own The unprofitable servant in the Parable was Condemned for not improving his Masters Talent to his use and the unjust Steward was cast out of his Office for imbezeling his Masters goods And there was injustice found in them both For Man not to improve the Talent of his Being to the use of his Creator is unjust much more to imbezel and waste it upon the service of his Lusts For what are all the faculties of our Souls and Bodies but our Masters Goods and to be devoted to his use Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 9. He mentions afterwards several sorts of sinner s but in this they all agree they are all unrighteous 3. It is folly should a Man live to himself when he cannot make himself happy Happiness is that which all desire why should then Man make himself his End when he cannot be his own happiness was Man self sufficient he need not go out of himself but be his own Principle Rule and End But seeing he is not sufficient to his own happiness it is folly for him to live to himself If Man in his fullest state of perfection was not his own happiness how much less can he be now in his Indigent empty state When Man changeth his ultimate end from himself to God he now returns to the true Wisdom and is delivered from that folly that sin had possest him with For Men imagine they can make themselves happy else they would not
Lions seek their prey of God and the Ravens cry to be fed and God is said to hear them But the Saints cry is vox Spiritus the voice of God's Spirit in their Hearts wherein they make a Spiritual and special improvement of their Common relation to God as their Creator in all the Cases formentioned And though it be but Common blessings they sometimes begg and the good things of Nature yet it is by a principle that is supernatural Infer VII Lastly We may hence take notice of the destructive and provoking Nature of Sin It provokes God to destroy the Creature that was made by him Yea that Creature which he hath bestowed peculiar Workmanship upon God loves every Creature as it is his Creature and much more Man among his Creatures how comes it then that any Man is destroyed it is because sin hath got into his Nature and his first armeth him against God his Creator and thereby his Justice comes to be armed against Man his Creature and he falls before it And therefore let no Man plead for liberty and impunity in sin because he is God's Creature As many ignorant people have no higher hope then upon this bottom He that made them will not damn them God hath given Man a Law and Rule to walk by and provided means for him in order to his Salvation but if Man refuse thus to walk and reject the means of his own happiness let him not censure his Maker as cruel to his Creature For it is not so much God's destroying Man as Man's dedestroying himself As if Jeremy the Prophet being in the miry Dungeon and having Ropes and old raggs let down to him to pull him out should yet have refused to put them under his Arms but will stay and perish there Jeremy had thereby been the cause of his own death Or as a wise and merciful King delights not to have his Subjects put to death but by wilful breaking the Law they bring it upon themselves Neither let any Man say God destroys his Creature out of his mere Sovereignty And that he made some Men on purpose to destroy them And that without any consideration of their sin he decreed them out of his own pleasure to everlasting misery And therefore here though in the close of all I shall vindicate my Text from a corrupt Interpretation which though the Grammatical construction may bear yet the Truth will not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen c. even his Eternal Power and God-head to this end that they might be without excuse As if to make men inexcusable was God's end in making himself known in the works of Creation when it is only a consequence of it through Man's default ` Some indeed have thought that God out of his absolute Sovereignty may take away from his Creature that which he hath given it as Life and Being he may annihilate what he hath Created but to make his Creature Eternally miserable which is worse then a not-Being meerly out of Sovereignty this cannot consist with his Infinite Mercy and Goodness A Man hath that Dominion over a Beast that he may take away the Life of it if he please but to put his Beast out of his mere pleasure to perpetual Torment is perfect cruelty and contrary to that mercy and humanity that belongs to the perfection of Man's Nature And therefore it cannot be imagined that any such thing can be found in God I will ascribe Righteousness to my Maker said Elihu Job 36. 3. And so we ought to ascribe Mercy and Goodness and all perfection to that God that made us all as it becomes Creatures to their Creator God might have chosen whether he would make such a Creature as Man or not he did not owe this to him to give him Being much less to make him a reasonable Creature but having made such a Creature and put him under a Law now God hath obliged himself to dispose of Man not according to mere Sovereignty but according to that Law under which he stands And if Men not so much for want of ability as out of sloth or hatred and contempt do not comply with this Law and the terms of their own happiness they are thereby self-destroyers as God charged it upon Israel of old O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self And as one well speaks Deus non prius est ultor quam homo peccator God is not a revenger till Man is first a sinner God is often said to shew mercy for his Names-sake but is never said to Plague or Punish meerly for his Names-sake And therefore why should Man complain as Salvian expostulates with the Christians of his time Why do we complain that our punishment is bitter and grievous Vnusquisque nostrum ipse se punit Every Man doth punish himself though he is also punisht of God God doth it Judicially as a righteous Judge but Man doth it Meritoriously as a guilty sinner Not but that God as an absolute Sovereign may give more of his grace and gifts to one then another for he may do what he will with his own where he is Indebted to none Neither can we conclude because Man's destruction is of himself therefore his Salvation is of himself For the one Man can effect of himself as Adam did but the other he cannot attain without God As the Sheep in the Parable that went astray of it self but came not home till the Owner found it out and brought it back upon his Shoulder 15. Luk. 4 5. Man was able to deprive himself of his Original Righteousness but it is only God can restore it As Natural privations in the Body are easily made by a Man 's own self a Man may easily destroy his own sight but it is beyond his power to restore this habit of sight According to the Axiom in Philosophy A privatione ad habitum non datur regressus There is no return in Nature from a privation to the habit again And it is much more true of Spiritual privations upon the Soul Man hath been able to bring them upon himself but he cannot of himself return to those divine habits that he is deprived of So that in those that are Saved God will have his Grace and Mercy magnified as being Saved by himself so in those that Perish he will have his Justice magnified as being destroyed by themselves Men Perish by their own Will but against God's Will I mean his Antecedent Will and as revealed in his Word For else Men Perish by God's consequent Will having rejected the means of their own Salvation So that I shall Conclude in the Conclusive words of that Learned Gentleman in his late Elaborate Discourse of the Divine Will Edward Polhil Esq it its Eternal Decrees and Holy Execution God's Will of Man's Conversion as ordinative of means is accomplished in this That there is a serious exhibition of the means
little Souls So that this acquaintance with the great God will greaten the Soul towards God but will diminish and lessen it towards a mans self and the World in our estimation thereof 2. We ought from hence also be led to a dependance upon him for he that made Heaven and Earth must needs be sufficient to help us in all cases whatsoever The Heathens are said to trust in a God that could not save Isa 45. 20. And the Reason is given because their gods did not make Heaven and Earth as we read vers 18. He that brought all things out of the Abyss of non-entity into Being can raise us out of the lowest depth of affliction and misery He that said Let there be Light and made the Darkness vanish before it is able to bring us out of the greatest darkness of trouble He that made the Waters retreat from covering the Earth can discharge us of the Waters of Sorrow and Affliction wherewith we sometimes seem to be covered or overwhelmed The Church of Israel comforts her self in such a prospect of God Psal 124. 8. Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth That is to say Our help is in one that is All-sufficient and upon whom we may safely depend One great cause of the Saints distrustful heart-fainting fears is the not considering this Hast thou not known Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not Isa 40. 28. Why then doth Jacob faint in his distress And when we are afraid of Man it is because we forget the Lord our Maker that stretched forth the Heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth Isa 51. 13. Did we well remember this it would strengthen our Faith and vanquish our Fears and make us able under the greatest Difficulties and Dangers and Deaths to commit our Souls to him as a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4. 19. For as in the Works of Creation we behold him a powerful Creator so in Christ Jesus and the Covenant made with us in him we may behold him also a faithful Creator and so be encouraged to depend upon him and commit our selves to him 3. Hereupon we ought to have an holy awe and fear of him As the considering God the Creatour of the World should dispel distrustful fear so it ought to beget an awful fear of him All appearances of God are tremendous to the Creature As when he appeared in Transient Visions to the Prophets it struck them with dread as we read of Daniel Chap. 10. And those Beams of Glory that shone forth in Christ's Transfiguration made the Disciples fear Matth. 17. 6. So verily his appearances in in the Works of Creation are wonderful and dreadful Aquin. 1. 2. q. 41. Art 4. Here we may first wonder and then fear as the Schoolmen have made Admiration one of the kinds of Fear Greatness and Majesty are apt to strike this Heart with Fear and both these are visibly written upon God's Creation What cannot he do either for a Man or against him that is the Maker of the World what is exceeding high hath a dread in it As in Ezekiels Vision of the Wheels it 's said Chap. 1. 18. As for their Rings they were so high that they were dreadful In the Creation of the World we behold the sublimity of God's Majesty and his Wisdom and Greatness in a Stupendious Elevation As Bildad tells Job Job 25. 2. speaking of God Dominion and Fear are with him These are joyned together as Cause and Effect And he shews Job this Dominion of God in the Works of his Creation He maketh peace in his high places All the Creatures of the upper World quietly subject to the Creator's Law And vers 3. Is there any number of his Armies c. which are the Hosts in Heaven and Earth as the Creatures are called Gen. 2. 1. Here is God's Dominion which should strike us with an holy awe of him The Heathen beholding these glorious Works of the Creation had thereby a fear of a Deity imprest upon their hearts which was the occasion of that Atheistical Speech of the Poet Primus in Orbe Deos fecit timor Fear â—irst made gods upon the Earth Yet this is a Truth the Works of God's Creation should strike our Hearts with a reverend Fear of the Creatour which the Psalmist exhorts men to Let all the Earth fear the Lord let all the Inhabitants of the World stand in awe of him For he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Oh how should the whole World stand in awe of such a Being Our very praises are to be mixt with fear He is therefore said to be fearful in praises Exod. 15. 11. For those Excellencies of his Works for which we praise him have such Impressions of his Glory and Power upon them that may make men fear while they are praising of them But because I would still make my Discourse to serve the Design of true Christianity I therefore add That this Fear ought not to be afrighting or meerly astonishing to enslave the Soul or drive Man into fond superstition as it did the Heathen but such as may suit a state of Sonship and may be proper to him that is not only our Creator but our Redeemer and Father in Christ Jesus And by that Principle of Grace we have received of him as our Redeemer to fear him as our Creatour Upon this account also we owe him Praise and Admiration 1. Praise It is the ultimate end of these Works of Creation that the Creator may be praised in them and it is the ultimate end of Man to give Glory and Praise to him After God had made and finished the rest of his Works he lastly made Man that he might have a Creature to contemplate the Works of his hands and praise him in them all and by him reduce all his Works back again to himself And without question Adam as soon as he had a Being and was placed in the Theatre of this World he saw the Creator in his Works and found in himself a Principle that naturally led him to adore and magnifie him And as this Principle is renewed in any Man and the Image of God restored to him so is he disposed to the performance of it How often do we find David's heart in a rapture of praise upon the contemplation of God's Workmanship in the Worlds Creation as we may find in Psal 8. 1. Psal 33. 6 7. Psal 104. 24. And when he calls upon irrational Creatures to praise their Creator as in Psal 148. Praise him Sun and Moon praise him all ye Stars of Light Praise him ye Heavens of Heavens and ye Waters that are above the Heavens And thence he comes down to this lower World vers 7. Praise the Lord from the Earth ye Dragons and all Deeps c. All this is but to quicken up his own heart to that Duty which was
his rather than theirs And so all God's Works are said to praise him as they become to Man both the Motives and Subjects of his Praise Had this Creation sprung from God as it were by Natural Emanation or necessity of Nature as some have said as Light out of the Sun or Water from the Spring Or had he made it as men build an House because he needed an Habitation or some service from the Creatures existent therein it might seem to be some eclipse to the Glory due to him But when he was led to it only by a most free Act of his own Will and the infinite goodness of his Nature this renders him therein infinitely praise-worthy Epicurus that did not believe God to be either the Creator or Governor of the World yet said he ought to be magnified for the excellencies of his Being how much more should he be adored by us who know that all things were made by him and behold an infinite goodness manifested therein And we may from the Creation learn these three things concerning the Creator to commend him to us 1. Is Self-sufficiency For he existed of himself and is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Lact. lib. 1. p. 29. as the Oracle of Apollo once said of him and was infinitely blessed in himself before any Creature had a Being and the Creation added nothing to him 2. All Fulness and Perfection of Being existing in him for the Beings of all Creatures Infinitum quodaam Essentiae Pelagus As Damascen speaks of him with their several Perfections did spring out of his Being as Rivers out of the Sea And therefore he must needs have all Fulness and Perfection of Being in himself as what-ever is in the Effect doth either formally vertually or eminently pre-exist in the Cause Logicians that have reduced all natural things under ten Heads or Predicaments do well leave out God as Ens transcendens as a transcendent Being For he is infinitely above all natural things and his Nature infinitely differing from theirs though he comprehends all their perfections eminently in himself God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And much to that purpose we may read in Dionys Areop De divinis nominibus He is Essence Substance Life Light Wisdom Act Power c. Yet not according to what we apprehend of these things And therefore we must take heed of forming finite Images and Representations of him in our Minds as the Heathen did of old form visible Images of him to worship him by But to whom will you liken me saith the Lord Isa 40. Though God speaking in his Word to us finite Creatures represents himself to us by finite Things Se quasi finitum finitis mentibus offert Yet he is infinitely above all these things and it is a true rule nothing can be predicated univocally of God and the Creatures 3. Allosufficiency to his People For he that hath all Good eminently in himself must needs be an All-sufficient Portion For God as one saith him he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is all things that the Creature is and yet nothing that the Creature is All things are in him as in the Fountain and he that abides with God and enjoyes him he drinks at the Fountain whereas others drink at the Stream and at the Fountain the Waters are in their greatest sweetness fulness and purity And though he hath communicated Being to such innumerable Creatures yet he is not in the least exhausted in his own Being no more than the Sun is exhausted in its Light by those streams of Light it is daily pouring forth upon the World In our Metaphysicks we read a distinction of Mundus Archetypus and Mundus Emanationis The former is the Eternal God himself and the other is the Created World So that what-ever is in the World was in God before as the Archetype The Frame and Fabrick of it was first in his own infinite Mind and all the Good Beauty Sweetness that are scattered abroad among the Creatures of the Universe were all first transcendently in himself so that he must needs be All-sufficient to our Happiness For what-ever is the first Original of any Good hath the whole of that Good in it self as the Sun that is the Original of Light hath all Light in it self and so the Sea with respect to Water Now God is the Original of all that Good that is in the Creature of what-ever kind it is and therefore the whole of all Good is in himself Here we have Unity bringing forth Plurality and all Plurality eminently comprehended in Unity As Du Bartas divinely to this purpose speaks Ere Time Du Bart. first week p. 5. Form Substance Place to be themselves attain'd All God in all things was and All in God remain'd And hereupon also we may sit down and be satisfied Though we want many good things that are in the Creature and which others enjoy yet we have them all eminently in him that is the Fountain of all Good and is the totum universale the Universal whole of that partial and particular Good that the Creatures have in their several Beings Omnia habeo neque quicquam habeo nihil cum est nihil deest tamen Terent. Eunuch Acts 2. This is true in Divinity So that we need not be overwhelmed with sorrow when we meet with losses of some created finite Good if we have the Lord himself to be our God That he is a Good sufficient to make the Soul happy appears in this That the Angels are happy in God alone who are Spirits of wider Capacities than the Souls of Men. Yea God is his own Happiness much more is he sufficient to be the Creatures Happiness Whereupon we ought to acquiesce in him Now to reduce this Duty also to Christian Practice let every true Saint that is in Covenant with God praise this God as his God Let him look upon the great Creator of the World as standing in a particular Relation to himself in Jesus Christ and that infinite Goodness out of which all created Good doth originally spring to be ingaged to him to satisfie him and make him blessed for ever as the Prophet Jeremy calls the Former of all things the Portion of Jacob Jer. 10. 16. And by this he hath an advantage of lift up the Praises of God to an higher degree than the Light of Nature could ever raise Man to when he shall praise him not only as a Creator but as his God and his Portion for ever So that Praise is due to him from us But 2. we owe him also the Duty of Admiration For seeing we cannot comprehend him in the mysterious and glorious Works of his Creation we should therefore admire him As one having read an obscure Author and being askt his Judgment about it answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What I have understood in it is excellent and so I judge also is what I have not understood Or rather