up and the Devil stands ready to tempt us to self-confidence You know how it was with Paul * 2 Cor. 12. from v. 1. to v. 7. His buffetings were occasions to render him more spiritual than his raptures because more humble God suffers those wandrings starts and distractions to prevent our spiritual pride which is as a Worm at the root of spiritual worship and mind us of the dusty frame of our Spirits how easily they are blown away As he sends sickness to put us in mind of the shortness of our breath and the easiness to lose it God would make us ashamed of our selves in his presence that we may own that what is good in any duty is meerly from his Grace and Spirit and not from our selves That with Paul we may cry out by Grace we are what we are and by Grace we do what we do We may be hereby made sensible that God can alway find something in our exactest worship as a ground of denying us the successful fruit of it If we cannot stand upon our duties for Salvation what can we bottom upon in our selves If therefore they are occasions to make us out of love with any righteousness of our own to make us break our hearts for them because we cannot keep them out If we mourn for them as our sins and count them our great afflictions we have attained that brokeness which is a choice ingredient in a spiritual Sacrifice Though we have been disturbed by them yet we are not robbed of the success we may behold an answer of our worship in our humiliation in spite of all of them 2. For the baseness of our Nature These unsteady motions help us to discern that heap of vermin that breeds in our nature Would any man think he had such an averseness to his Creator and Benefactor such an unsutableness to him such an estrangedness from him were it not for his inspection into his distracted frames God suffers this to hang over us as a Rod of Correction to discover and fetch out the folly of our hearts Could we imagin our natures so highly contrary to that God who is so infinitely amiable so desirable an Object or that there should be so much folly and madness in the heart as to draw back from God in those services which God hath appointed as pipes through which to communicate his grace to convey himself his love and goodness to the Creature If therefore we have a deep sense of and strong reflections upon our base nature and bewail that mass of aversness which lies there and that fulness of irreverence towards the God of our mercies the Object of our worship 't is a blessed improvement of our wandrings and diversions Certainly if any Israelite had brought a lame and rotten Lamb to be sacrificed to God and afterward had bewailed it and laid open his heart to God in a sensible and humble confession of it That Repentance had been a better Sacrifice and more acceptable in the sight of God than if he had brought a sound and a living Offering 2. When they are occasions to make us prize duties of worship When we argue as rationally we may that they are of singular use since our corrupt hearts and a malicious Devil doth chiefly endeavour to hinder us from them And that we find we have not those gadding thoughts when we are upon worldly business or upon any sinful design which may dishonour God and wound our Souls This is a sign Sin and Satan dislike worship for he is too subtle a Spirit to oppose that which would further his Kingdom As it is an argument the Scripture is the Word of God because the wickedness of the world doth so much oppose it so it is a ground to believe the profitableness and excellency of worship because Satan and our own unruly hearts do so much interrupt us in it If therefore we make this use of our cross steps in worship to have a greater value for such duties more affections to them and desires to be frequent in them Our hearts are growing spiritual under the weights that would depress them to carnality 3. When we take a rise from hence to have heavenly admirations of the graciousness of God That he should pity and pardon so many slight addresses to him and give any gracious returns to us Though men have foolish rangings every day and in every duty yet free grace is so tender as not to punish them Gen. 8.21 And the Lord smelt a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not curse the Ground for mans sake for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth 'T is observable that this was just after a Sacrifice which Noah offered to God v. 20. But probably not without infirmities common to human nature which may be grounded upon the reason God gives that though he had destroyed the Earth before because of the evil of mans imaginations Gen. 6.5 He still found evil imaginations He doth not say in the heart of Cham or others of Noah's Family but in mans heart including Noah also who had both the Judgments of God upon the former world and the mercy of God in his own preservation before his eyes yet God sawevil imaginations rooted in the nature of Man and though it were so yet he would be merciful If therefore we can after finding our hearts so vagrant in worship have real frames of thankfulness that God hath spared us and be hightned in our admirations at Gods giving us any fruit of such a distracted worship we take advantage from them to be raised into an Evangelical frame which consists in the humble acknowledgments of the grace of God When David takes a review of those tumultuous passions which had rufled his mind and possessed him with unbelieving notions of God in the persons of his Prophets * Psal 116.11 how high doth his Soul mount in astonishment and thankfulness to God for his mercy * verse 12. Notwithstanding his distrust God did graciously perform his promise and answer his desire Then it is what shall I render to the Lord His heart was more affected for it because it had been so passionate in former distrusts 'T is indeed a ground of wondring at the patience of the Spirit of God that he should guide our hearts when they are so apt to start out as it is the patience of a Master to guide the hand of his Scholar while he mixes his writing with many blots 'T is not one or two infirmities the Spirit helps us in and helps over but many * Rom. 8.26 'T is a sign of a spiritual heart when he can take a rise to bless God for the renewing and blowing up his affections in the midst of so many incursions from Satan to the contrary and the readiness of the heart too much to comply with them 4. When we take occasion from thence to prize the mediation of Christ The
and Truth in the inward parts * Psal 51.6 And therefore infinite Goodness and Holiness cannot but hate worship presented to him with deceitful carnal and flitting affections They must be more nauseous to God than a putrified Carcass can be to Man They are the prophanings of that which should be the habitation of the Spirit They make the Spirit the seat of duty a filthy dung-hill and are as loathsome to God as Mony-changers in the Temple were to our Saviour We see the evil of carnal frames and the necessity and benefit of spiritual frames For further help in this last let us practise thesâ— following directions Direction 1. Keep up spiritual frames out of worship To avoid low affections we must keep our hearts as much as we can in a setled elevation If we admit unworthy dispositions at one time we shall not easily be rid of them at another * Fitzherbert Pol. in relig part 2. cap. 19. § 12. As he that would not be bitten with Gnats in the Night must keep his windows shut in the Day when they are once entred 't is not easie to expel them In which respect one adviseth to be such out of worship as we would be in worship If we mix spiritual affections with our worldly employments worldly affections will not mingle themselves so easily with our heavenly engagements If our hearts be spiritual in our outward calling they will scarce be carnal in our religious service If we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfil the lusts of the Flesh * Gal. 5.16 A spiritual walk in the day will hinder carnal lustings in worship The Fire was to be kept alive upon the Altar when Sacrifices were not offered from morning till night from night till morning as well as in the very time of Sacrifice A spiritual life and vigour out of worship would render it at its season sweet and easie and preserve a spontaneity and preparedness to it and make it both natural and pleasant to us Any thing that doth unhinge and discompose our Spirits is inconsistent with religious services which are to be performed with the greatest sedateness and gravity All irregular passions disturb the serenity of the Spirit and open the door for Satan * Eph. 4.26.27 Saith the Apostle Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the Devil Where wrath breaks the Lock the Devil will quickly be over the Threshold and though they be allayed yet they leave the heart sometime after like the Sea rowling and swelling after the storm is ceased Mixture with ill company leaves a tincture upon us in worship Ephraims allying himself with the Gentiles bred an indifferency in Religion Hos 7.8 Ephraim hath mixed himself with the People Ephraim is a Cake not turn'd It will make our hearts and consequently our services half Dough as well as half bak'd These and the like make the holy Spirit withdraw himself and then the Soul lies like a wind-bound Vessel and can make no way When the Sun departs from us it carries its Beams away with it then doth Darkness spread it self over the Earth and the Beasts of the Forests creep out * Psal 1â—4 2â— When the Spirit withdraws a while from a good man it carries away though not habitual yet much of the exciting and assisting grace and then carnal dispositions perk up themselves from the bosome of natural corruption To be spiritual in worship we must bar the door at other times against that which is contrary to it As he that would not be infected with a contagious disease carries some Preservative about with him and inures himself to good scents To this end be much in secret ejaculations to God these are the purest slights of the Soul that have more of fervor and less of carnality they preserve a liveliness in the Spirit and make it more fit to perform solemn stated worship with greater freedom and activity A constant use of this would make our whole lives lives of worship As frequent sinful acts strengthen habits of sin so frequent religious acts strengthen habits of grace Direction 2. Excite and exercise particularly a love to God and dependence on him Love is a commanding affection a uniting graces it draws all the faculties of the Soul to one Center The Soul that loves God when it hath to do with him is bound to the beloved Object It can mind nothing else during such impressions When the affection is set to the worship of God every thing the Soul hath will be bestowed upon it As David's disposition was to the Temple 1 Chron. 29.3 Carnal frames like the Fouls will be lighting upon the Sacrifice but not when it is enflam'd Though the scent of the flesh invite them yet the heat of the fire drives them to their distance A flaming love will singe the Flies that endeavour to interrupt and disturb us The happiness of Heaven consists in a full attraction of the Soul to God by his glorious influence upon it There will be such a diffusion of his goodness throughout the Souls of the Blessed as will unite the affections perfectly to him These affections which are scattered here will be there gathered into one flame moving to him and centring in him Therefore the more of a heavenly frame possesses our affections here the more settled and uniform will our hearts be in all their motions to God and operations about him Excite a dependence on him Pro. 16.3 Commit thy works to the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established Let us go out in Gods strength and not in our own vain is the help of man in any thing and vain is the help of the heart 'T is through God only we can do valiantly in spiritual concerns as well as temporal the want of this makes but slight impressions upon the Spirit Direction 3. Nourish right conceptions of the Majesty of God in your minds Let us consider that we are drawing to God the most amiable Object the best of Beings worthy of infinite honour and highly meriting the highest affections we can give a God that made the world by a word that upholds the great frame of Heaven and Earth a Majesty above the conceptions of Angels who uses not his power to strike us to our deserved punishment but his love and bounty to allure us a God that gave all the Creatures to serve us and can in a trice make them as much our Enemies as he hath now made them our Servants Let us view him in his greatness and in his goodness that our hearts may have a true value of the worship of so great a Majesty and count it the most worthy employment with all diligence to attend upon him When we have a fear of God it will make our worship serious when we have a joy in God it will make our worship durable Our affections will be raised when we represent God in the most reverential endearing and obliging
circumstances We honour the Majesty of God when we consider him with due reverence according to the greatness and perfection of his works and in this reverence of his Majesty doth worship chiefly consist Low thoughts of God will make low frames in us before him If we thought God an infinite glorious Spirit how would our hearts be lower than our knees in his presence How humbly how believingly pleading is the Psalmist when he considers God to be without comparison in the Heavens to whom none of the Sons of the Mighty can be likened when there was none like to him in strength or faithfulness round about * Psal 89.6 7 8. We should have also deep impressions of the Omniscience of God and remember we have to deal with a God that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins to whom the most secret temper is as visible as the loudest words are Audible that though man judges by outward expressions God judges by inward affections As the Law of God regulates the inward frames of the heart so the eye of God pitches upon the inward intentions of the Soul If God were visibly present with us should we not approach to him with strong affections summon our Spirits to attend upon him behave our selves modestly before him Let us consider he is as really present with us as if he were visible to us let us therefore preserve a strong sense of the presence of God No man but one out of his wits when he were in the presence of a Prince and making a Speech to him would break off at every Period and run after the catching of Butter-flyes Remember in all worship you are before the Lord to whom all things are open and naked Direction 4. Let us take heed of inordinate desires after the world As the world steals away a mans heart from the Word so it doth from all other worship It chokes the Word * Mat. 13.27 it stifles all the spiritual breathings after God in every duty The edge of the Soul is blunted by it and made too dull for such sublime exercises The Apostles rule in Prayer when he joyns sobriety with watching unto Prayer 1 Pet. 4.7 is of concern in all worship sobriety in the pursuite and use of all wordly things A man drunk with worldly fumes cannot watch cannot be heavenly affectionate spiritual in service There is a magnetick force in the Earth to hinder our flights to Heaven Birds when they take their first flights from the Earth have more flutterings of their wings than when they are mounted further in the Air and got more without the Sphear of the Earths attractiveness the motion of their wings is more steady that you can scarce perceive them stir they move like a Ship with a full Gale The world is a clog upon the Soul and a bar to spiritual frames 'T is as hard to elevate the heart to God in the midst of a hurry of worldly affairs as it is difficult to meditate when we are near a great noise of waters falling from a Precipice or in the midst of a Volly of Muskets Thick claiy affections bemire the heart and make it unfit for such high flights it is to take in worship Therefore get your hearts clear from worldly thoughts and desires if you would be more spiritual in worship 5. Let us be deeply sensible of our present wants and the supplies we may meet with in worship Cold affections to the things we would have will grow cooler Weakness of desire for the communications in worship will freez our hearts at the time of worship and make way for vain and foolish diversions A Begger that is ready to perish and knows he is next door to ruin will not slightly and dully began Alms and will not be diverted from his importunity by every slight call or the moving of an Atom in the Air. Is it Pardon we would have Let us apprehend the blackness of sin with the aggravations of it as it respects God Let us be deeply sensible of the want of pardon and worth of mercy and get our affections into such a frame as a condemned man would do Let us consider that as we are now at the Throne of Gods grace we shall shortly be at the Bar of Gods Justice and if the Soul should be forlorn there how fixedly and earnestly would it plead for mercy Let us endeavour to stir up the same affections now which we have seen some dying men have and which we suppose despairing Souls would have done at Gods Tribunal * Guliel Paris Rhetor. Divin cap. 26. p. 350. Col. 1. We must be sensible that the life or death of our Souls depends upon worship Would we not be ashamed to be ridiculous in our carriage while we are eating and shall we not be ashamed to be cold or garish before God when the Salvation of our Souls as well as the Honour of God is concerned If we did see the heaps of sins the eternity of punishment due to them If we did see an angry and offended Judge If we did see the riches of mercy the glorious outgoings of God in the Sanctuary the blessed Doles he gives out to men when they spiritually attend upon him both the one and the other would make us perform our duties humbly sincerely earnestly and affectionately and wait upon him with our whole Souls to have misery averted and mercy bestowed Let our sense of this be encouragâ—d by the consideration of our Saviour presenting his merits With what affection doth he present his merits his blood shed upon the Cross now in Heaven And shall our hearts be cold and frozen flitting and unsteady when his affectioâ—s are so much concerned Christ doth not present any Mans case and duties without a sense of hiâ— wants and shall we have none of our own Let me add this let us affect our hearts with a sense of what supplies we haâ—â— met with in former worship The delightful remembrance of what converâ—â— we have had with God in former worship would spiritualize our hearts for the present worship Had Peter had a view of Christs glory in the Mount fresh in his thoughts he would not so easily have turned his back upon his Master Nor would the Israelites have been at leasure for their Idolatry had they preserved the sense of the Majesty of God discovered in his late Thunders from Mount Sinai 6. If any thing intrudes that may choak the Worship cast it speedily out We cannot hinder Satan and our own Corruption from presenting Coolers to us but we may hinder the success of them We cannot hinder the Gnats from buzzing about us when we are in our business but we may prevent them from setling upon us A man that is running on a considerable Errand will shun all unnecessary discourse that may make him forget or loyter in his business What though there may be something offered that is good in it self yet if it hath a
at the Presence of the Council that had their hands yet reeking with the Blood of his Master but being filled with the Holy Ghost seems to dare the Power of the Priests and Jewish Governours and is as confident in the Council Chamber as he had been cowardly in the High Priests Hall †Acts 4.9 c. the efficacy of Grace triumphing over the Fearfulness of Nature Whence should this Ardor and Zeal to propagate a Doctrine that had already born the Scars of the Peoples Fury be but from a mighty Power which changed those Hares into Lions and stript them of their Natural Cowardize â—o cloath them with a Divine Courage making them in a moment both Wise and Magnanimous alienating them from any Consultations with Flesh and Blood As soon as ever the Holy Ghost came upon them as a mighty rushing Wind they move up and down for the Interest of God as Fish after a great Clap of Thunder are rowz'd and move more nimbly on the top of the Water therefore that which did so fit them for this undertaking is called by the title of Power from on high Luke 24.49 III. The Divine Power appears in the Means whereby it was propagated 1. By Means different from the Methods of the World Not by force of Arms as some Religions have taken root in the World Mahomets Horse hath trampled upon the Heads of Men to imprint an Alcoran in their Brains and robb'd Men of their Goods to plant their Religion But the Apostles bore not this Doctrine through the World upon the Points of their Swords they presented a Bodily death where they would bestow an Immortal life They employ'd not Troops of Men in a Warlike posture which had been possible for them after the Gospel was once spread they had no Ambition to subdue Men unto themselves but to God they coveted not the Possessions of others design'd not to enrich themselves invaded not the Rights of Princes nor the Liberties and Properties of the People They rifled them not of their Estates nor scar'd them into this Religion by a fear of losing their Worldly happiness The Arguments they used would naturally drive them from an entertainment of this Doctrine rather than allure them to be Proselytes to it Their design was to change their Hearts not their Government to wean them from the love of the World to a love of a Redeemer to remove that which would ruine their Souls It was not to enslave them but ransom them they had a warfare but not with Carnal weapons but such as were mighty through God for the pulling down of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 they used no weapons but the Doctrine they preach'd Others that have not gained Conquests by the Edge of the Sword and the Stratagems of War have extended their Opinions to others by the strength of Humane Reason and the Insinuations of Eloquence But the Apostles had as little flourish in their Tongues as edge upon their Swords Their Preaching was not with the enticing words of Mans wisdom * 1 Cor. 2.4 their Presence was mean and their Discourses without varnish their Doctrine was plain a Crucified Christ a Doctrine unlac'd ungarnisht untoothsom to the World but they had the demonstration of the Spirit and a mighty Power for their Companion in the work The Doctrine they preached viz. the Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are called the Powers not of this World but of the World to come †Heb. 6.5 No less than a Supernatural Power could conduct them in this Attempt with such weak Methods in Humane appearance 2. Against all the Force Power and Wit of the World The Divisions in the Eastern Empire and the feeble and consuming State of the Western contributed to Mahomets Success ‖ Dailâ—é 15. Serm. p. 57. But never was Rome in a more flourishing condition Learning Eloquence Wisdom Strength were at the highest pitch Never was there a more diligent Watch against any Innovations never was that State governed by more severe and suspicious Princes than at the time when Tiberius and Nero held the Rains No time seemed to be more unfit for the entrance of a New Doctrine than that Age wherein it begun to be first publish'd never did any Religion meet with that Opposition from Men. Idolatry hath been often setled without any Contest but this hath suffered the same Fate with the Institutor of it and endured the Contradictions of Sinners against it self And those that publish'd it were not only without any Worldly prop but expos'd themselves to the Hatred and Fury to the Racks and Tortures of the strongest Powers on Earth It never set foot in any place but the Country was in an uproar †Acts 19.28 Swords were drawn to destroy it Laws made to suppress it Prisons provided for the Professors of it Fires kindled to consume them and Executioners had a perpetual employment to stifle the progress of it Rome in its Conquest of Countries chang'd not the Religion Rites and Modes of their Worship They alter'd their Civil Government but left them to the liberty of their Religion and many times joyned with them in the Worship of their Peculiar gods and sometime imitated them at Rome instead of abolishing them in the Cities they had subdued But all their Councils were assembled and their Force was bandied against the Lord and against his Christ and that City that kindly receiv'd all manner of Superstitions hated this Doctrine with an irreconcileable hatred It met with Reproaches from the Wise and Fury from the Potentates it was derided by the one as the greatest Folly and persecuted by the other as contrary to God and Mankind the one were afraid to lose their Esteems by the Doctrine and the other to lose their Authority by a Sedition they thought a change of Religion would introduce The Romans that had been Conquerors of the Earth feared Intestine Commotions and the falling asunder the Links of their Empire Scarce any of their first Emperors but had their Swords dy'd Red in the Blood of the Christians The Flesh with all its Lusts the World with all its Flatteries the Statesmen with all their Craft and the Mighty with all their Strength joyn'd together to extirpate it Though many Members were taken off by the Fires yet the Church not only lived but flourish'd in the Furnace Converts were made by the Death of Martyrs and the Flames which consumed their Bodies were the occasion of firing Mens hearts with a Zeal for the Profession of it Instead of being extinguish'd the Doctrine shone more bright and multiplied under the Sickles that were employed to cut it down God ordered every Circumstance so both in the Persons that publish'd it the Means whereby and the Time when that nothing but his Power might appear in it without any thing to dim and darken it IV. The Divine Power was conspicuous in the great success it had under all these difficulties Multitudes were Prophecied of to
a bitter potion we are rather haled than run to it There is a contradiction of sin within us against our service as there was a contradiction of sinners without our Saviour against his doing the Will of God Our hearts are unweildy to any Spiritual service of God we are fain to use a violence with them sometimes Hezekiah it is said walked before the Lord with a perfect heart 2 Kings 20.9 he walked he made himself to walk Man naturally cares not for a walk with God If he hath any Communion with him t is with such a dulness and heaviness of Spirit as if he wished himself out of his Company Mans nature being contrary to holiness hath an aversion to any act of homage to God because Holiness must at least be pretended In every duty wherein we have a Communion with God Holiness is requisite Now as men are against the truth of Holiness because it is unsutable to them so they are not friends to those duties which require it and for some space divert them from the thoughts of their beloved lusts The word of the Lord is a Yoke Prayer a drudgery Obedience a strange Element We are like fish that drink up iniquity like water * Job 15.16 and come not to the bank without the force of an Angle No more willing to do service for God than a fish is of it self to do service for Man T is a constrained act to satisfie Conscience and such are servile not Son-like performances and spring from bondage more than affection If Conscience like a task Master did not scourge them to duty they would never perform it Let us appeal to our selves whether we are not more unwilling to secret Closet hearty duty to God than to joyn with others in some external service as if those inward services were a going to the rack and rather our pennance than priviledg How much service hath God in the world from the same principle that Vagrants perform their task in Bridewel How glad are many of evasions to back them in the neglect of the Commands of God of Corrupt reasonings from the flesh to way-lay an Act of obedience and a multitude of excuses to blunt the edge of the precept The very service of God shall be a pretence to deprive him of the obedience due to him Saul will not be ruled by Gods Will in the destroying the Cattle of the Amalekites but by his own and will impose upon the Will and Wisdom of God Judging God mistaken in his Command and that the Cattle God thought fittest to be meat to the fouls were fitter to be Sacrifices on the Altar * 1 Sam. 15.3.9.15.21 If we do perform any part of his Will is it not for our own ends to have some deliverance from trouble Isa 26.16 In trouble have they visited thee they poured out a Prayer when thy Chastening was upon them In affliction he shall find them kneeling in Homage and Devotion In prosperity he shall feel them kicking with contempt they can poure out a Prayer in distress and scarce drop one when they are delivered 2. There is a slightness in our service of God We are loath to come into his presence and when we do come we are loth to continue with him We pay not an Homage to him heartily as to our Lord and Governour we regard him not as our Master whose work we ought to do and whose Honour we ought to aime at 1. In regard of the matter of service When the torn the lame and the sick is offered to God * Mal. 1.13.14 so thin and lean a Sacrifice that you may have thrown it to the ground with a puff so some understand the meaning of you have snufft at it Men have naturally such slight thoughts of the Majesty and Law of God that they think any service is good enough for him and conformable to his Law The dullest and deadest times we think fittest to pay God a service in when sleep is ready to close our eyes and we are unfit to serve our selves we think it a fit time to open our hearts to God How few Morning Sacrifices hath God from many persons and Families Men leap out of their beds to their carnal pleasures or worldly employments without any thought of their Creator and Preserver or any reflection upon his Will as the rule of our dayly obedience And as many reserve the dregs of their Lives their Old-age to offer up their Souls to God So they reserve the Dreggs of the Day their sleeping time for the offering up their service to Him How many grudge to spend their best time in the serving the Will of God and reserve for him the sickly and rheumatick part of their Lives the remainder of that which the Devil and their own Lusts have fed upon Would not any Prince or Governour judge a Present half eaten up by Wild-beasts or that which died in a Ditch a contempt of his Royalty A corrupt thing is too base and vile for so great a King as God is whose Name is dreadful * Mal. 1.14 When by Age Men are weary of their own Bodies they would present them to God yet grudgingly as if a tired body were too good for him snuffing at the Command for Service God calls for our best and we give him the worst 2. In respect of Frame We think any frame will serve Gods turn which speaks our slight of God as a Ruler Man naturally performs duty with an unholy heart whereby it becomes an abomination to God Pro. 28.9 He that turns away his Ear from hearing the Law even his prayers shall be an abomination to God The Services which he commands he hates for their evil frames or corrupt ends Amos 5.21 I hate I despise your Feast-days I will not smell in your Solemn Assemblies God requires gracious services and we give him corrupt ones We do not rouze up our hearts as David called upon his Lute and Harp to awake Psal 57.8 Our hearts are not given to him we put him off with bodily exercise The heart is but Ice to what it doth not affect 1. There is not that natural vigor in the observance of God which we have in worldly business When we see a liveliness in men in other things change the Scene into a motion towards God how suddenly doth their vigoâ— shrink and their hearts freeze into sluggishness Many times we serve God as lanâ—guishingly as if we were afraid he should accept us and pray as coldly as if we were unwilling he should hear us and take away that lust by which we are Governed and which Conscience forces us to pray against as if we were afraid God should set up his own throne and Government in our hearts How fleeting are we in Divine Meditation how sleepy in Spiritual exercises but in other exercises active The Soul doth not awaken it self and excite those animal and vital Spirits which it will in bodily recreations and
and in another business but would have thrust them away with indignation Had they stept in to interrupt our worldly Affairs they would have been troublesome Intruders but while we are with God they are acceptable Guests How unwilling have our hearts been to fortifie themselves with strong and influencing considerations of God before we addrest to him Is it not too often that our lifelesness in Prayer proceeds from this Atheism a neglect of seeing what Arguments and Pleas may be drawn from the didine perfections to second our suit in hand and quicken our hearts in the service Whence are those indispositions to any spiritual duty but because we have not due thoughts of the Majesty Holiness Goodness and Excellency of God Is there any duty which leads to a more particular inquiry after him or a more clear vision of him but our hearts have been ready to rise up and call it cursed rather than blessed Are not our minds bemisted with an ignorance of him our wills drawn by aversion from him our affections rising in distast of him More willing to know any thing than his Nature and more industrious to do any thing than his Will Do we not all fall under some one or other of these considerations Is it not fit then that we should have a sense of them 'T is to be bewail'd by us that so little of God is in our hearts when so many evidences of the love of God are in the Creatures that God should be so little our end who hath been so much our Benefactor that he should be so litte in our thoughts who sparkles in every thing which presents it self to our eyes 2. Let us be sensible of it in others We ought to have a just execration of the too open iniquity in the midst of us and imitate holy David whose tears plentifully gusht out because men kept not Gods Law * Psa 119.136 And is it not a time to exercise this pious lamentation Hath the wicked Atheism of any age been greater or can you find worse in Hell than we may hear of and behold on Earth How is the excellent Majesty of God adored by the Angels in Heaven despised and reproached by men on Earth as if his name were publisht to be matter of their sport What a gasping thing is a natural sense of God among men in the World Is not the Law of God accompanied with such dreadful threatnings and curses made light of as if men would place their honour in being above or beyond any sense of that glorious Majesty How many wallow in Pleasures as if they had been made men only to turn brutes and their Souls given them only for Salt to keep their bodies from putrifying T is as well a part of Atheism not to be sensible of the abuses of Gods name and Laws by others as to violate them our selves What is the language of a stupid senselesness of them but that there is no God in the world whose glory is worth a vindication and deserves our regards That we may be sensible of the unworthiness of neglecting God as our Rule and end consider 1. The Vnreasonableness of it as it concerns God 1. First T is a high contempt of God T is an inverting the order of things a making God the highest to become the lowest and self the lowest to become the highest To be guided by every base Companion some idle vanity some carnal interest is to acknowledge an excellency abounding in them which is wanting in God An equity in their orders and none in Gods precepts A goodness in their promises and a falsity in Gods As if infinite excellency were a meer vanity and to act for God were the debasement of our reason to act for self or some pitiful Creature or sordid lust were the glory and advancement of it To prefer any one sin before the honour of God is as if that sin had been our Creator and Benefactor as if it were the original cause of our being and support Do not men pay as great a homage to that as they do to God Do not their minds eagerly pursue it Are not the revolvings of it in their fancies as delightful to them as the remembrance of God to a holy Soul Do any obey the Commands of God with more readiness than they do the orders of their base affections Did Peter leap more readily into the Sea to meet his Master than many into the jaws of Hell to meet their Dalilah's How cheerfully did the Israelites part with their Ornaments for the sake of an Idol who would not have spared a moiety for the honour of their Deliverer * Exod. 32.3 All the people brake off the golden ear-rings If to make God our end is the principal duty in nature then to make ourselves or any thing else our end is the greatest vice in the rank of evils Secondly T is a contempt of God as the most amiable object God is infinitely excellent and desirable Zach. 9.17 How great is his goodness and how great is his beauty There is nothing in him but what may ravish our affections none that knows him but finds attractives to keep them with him He hath nothing in him which can be a proper object of contempt no defects or shadow of evil there is infinite excellency to charm us and infinite goodness to allure us the Author of our beings the Benefactor of our lives Why then should Man which is his Image be so base as to slight the beautiful original which stampt it on him He is the most lovely object therefore to be studied therefore to be honoured therefore to be followed In regard of his perfection he hath the highest right to our thoughts All other beings were eminently contained in his essence and were produced by his infinite power The Creature hath nothing but what it hath from God And is it not unworthy to prefer the Copy before the original to fall in love with a Picture instead of the beauty it represents The Creature which we advance to be our rule and end can no more report to us the true amiableness of God than a few Colours mixed and suted together upon a peice of cloth can the moral and intellectual loveliness of the Soul of Man To contemn God one moment is more base than if all Creatures were contemned by us for ever because the excellency of Creatures is to God like that of a drop to the Sea or a spark to the glory of unconceivable millions of Suns As much as the excellency of God is above our conceptions so much doth the debasing of him admit of unexpressible aggravations 2. Consider the ingratitude in it That we should resist that God with our hearts who made us the work of his hands and count him as nothing from whom we derive all the good that we are or have There is no contempt of Man but steps in here to aggravate our slighting of God Because there
Holy-Ghost for the Apostle would never have called the Spirit of God his own Spirit but with my Spirit that is a sincere frame of heart A Carnal-worship whether under the Law or Gospel is when we are busied about external rites without an inward compliance of Soul God demands the heart * Pro. 23.26 my Son give me thy heart not give me thy tongue or thy lips or thy hands these may be given without the heart but the heart can never be bestowed without these as its attendants A heap of services can be no more welcome to God without our Spirits than all Jacobs Sons could be to Joseph without the Benjamin he desired to see God is not taken with the Cabinet but the Jewel He first respected Abels Faith and Sincerity and then his Sacrifice he disrespected Cains Infidelity and Hypocrisie and then his Offering * Moulin Sermons Decad. 4. Ser. 4. P. 80. For this cause he rejected the Offerings of the Jews the Prayers of the Pharisees and the Alms of Ananias and Sapphira because their hearts and their duties were at a distance from one another In all spiritual Sacrifices our Spirits are Gods portion Under the Law the Reins were to be consumed by the Fire on the Altar because the secret intentions of the heart were signified by them Psal 7.9 The Lord trieth the Heart and the Reins It was an ill Omen among the Heathen if a Victim wanted a heart The Widows Mites with her heart in them were more esteemed than the richer Offerings without it Not the quantity of service but the will in it is of account with this infinite Spirit All that was to be brought for the framing of the Tabernacle was to be offered willingly with the heart * Exod. 25.7 The more of Will the more of Spirituality and Acceptableness to God Psal 119.108 Accept the Free-will-offering of my lips Sincerity is the Salt which seasons every Sacrifice The heart is most like to the object of worship The heart in the body is the spring of all vital actions and a spiritual Soul is the spring of all spiritual actions How can we imagin God can delight in the meer service of the Body any more than we can delight in converse with a Carcass Without the heart 't is no worship 'T is a Stage-play an acting a part without being that person really which is acted by us A Hypocrite in the notion of the word is a Stage-player We may as well say a man may believe with his body as worship God only with his body Faith is a great ingredient in Worship and it is with the heart Man believes unto Righteousness * Rom. 10.10 We may be truly said to worship God though we want perfection but we cannot be said to worship him if we want sincerity A Statue upon a Tomb with eyes and hands lifted up offers as good and true a service it wants only a voice the gestures and postures are the same nay the service is better 't is not a mockery it represents all that it can be framed to But to worship without our Spirits is a presenting God with a Picture an Eccho Voice and nothing else a Complement a meer Lye a compassing him about with Lyes * Hos 11.12 Without the heart the tongue is a Lyar and the greatest Zeal dissembling with him To present the Spirit is to present with that which can never naturally dye to present him only the Body is to present him that which is every day crumbling to dust and will at last lye rotting in the Grave To offer him a few Raggs easily torn a Skin for a Sacrifice a thing unworthy the Majesty of God a fixed eye and elevated hands with a sleepy Heart and earthly Soul are pitiful things for an ever blessed and glorious Spirit Nay it is so far from being spiritual that it is Blasphemy To pretend to be a Jew outwardly without being so inwardly is in the Judgment of Christ to blaspheme * Revel 2.9 And is not the same title to be given with as much reason to those that pretend a worship and perform none Such a one is not a spiritual Worshipper but a blaspheming Devil in Samuel's Mantle 4. Spiritual Worship is performed with an unitedness of heart The heart is not only now and then with God but united to fear or worship his name * Psal 86.11 A spiritual duty must have the engagement of the Spirit and the thoughts tyed up to the spiritual Object The union of all the parts of the heart together with the body is the life of the body and the moral union of our hearts is the life of any duty A heart quickly flitting from God makes not God his treasure he slights the worship and therein affronts the Object of Worship All our thoughts ought to be ravished with God bound up in him as in a bundle of life But when we start from him to gaze after every feather and run after every bubble we disown a full and affecting excellency and a satisfying sweetness in him When our thoughts run from God 't is a testimony we have no spiritual affection to God Affection would stake down the thoughts to the Object affected 'T is but a Mouth-love as the Prophet phraseth it * Ezek. 33.31 But their hearts go after their Covetousness Covetous Objects pipe and the heart danceth after them and thoughts of God are shifted off to receive a multitude of other imaginations The heart and the service stayed a while together and then took leave of one another The Psalmist * Psal 39.18 still found his heart with God when he awak'd still with God in spiritual affections and fixed meditations A carnal heart is seldom with God either in or out of worship If God should knock at the heart in any duty it would be found not at home but straying abroad Our worship is spiritual when the door of the heart is shut against all Intruders as our Saviour commands in Closet-duties * Mat. 6.6 It was not his meaning to command the shutting the Closet-door and leave the Heart-door open for every thought that would be apt to haunt us Worldly affections are to be laid aside if we would have our worship spiritual This was meant by the Jewish custom of wiping or washing off the dust of their feet before their entrance into the Temple and of not bringing mony in their girdles To be spiritual in worship is to have our Souls gathered and bound up wholly in themselves and offered to God Our Loyns must be girt as the fashion was in the Eastern Countries where they wore long Garments that they might not waver with the Wind and be blown between their leggs to obstruct them in their travel Our faculties must not hang loose about us He is a carnal Worshipper that gives God but a piece of his heart as well as he that denies him the whole of it that hath
his Seal nor can any raze it out * Turretin's Sermons p. 3â—2 When the Church is either scatter'd like Dust by Persecution or over-grown with Superstition and Idolatry that there is scarce any grain of true Religion appearing as in the time of Elijah who complain'd that he was left alone as if the Church had been rooted out of that corner of the World * 1 Kings 19.14 18. yet God knew that he had a number fed in a Cave and had reserved seven thousand Men that had preserved the purity of his Worship and not bow'd their knee to Baal Christ knew his Sheep as well as he is known of them yea better than they can know him * John 10.14 History acquaints us that Cyrus had so vast a memory that he knew the name of every particular Souldier in his Army which consisted of diverse Nations Shall it be too hard for an infinite Understanding to know every one of that Host that march under his Banners may he not as well know them as know the number qualities influences of those Stars which lie conceal'd from our Eye as well as those that are visible to our Sense Yes he knows them as a General to employ them as a Shepherd to preserve them He knows them in the World to guard them and he knows them when they are out of the World to gather them and cull out their Bodies though wrapped up in a Cloud of the putrified Carcases of the Wicked As he knew them from all Eternity to elect them so he knows them in time to cloth their Persons with Righteousness to protect their Persons in Calamity according to his good pleasure and at last to raise and reward them according to his Promise 4. We may take Comfort from hence That our sincerity cannot be unknown to an infinite Vnderstanding Not a way of the Righteous is conceal'd from him and therefore they shall stand in Judgment before him * Psal 1.6 The Lord knows the way of the Righteous He knows them to observe them and he knows them to Reward them How comfortable is it to appeal to this Attribute of God for our integrity with Hezekiah 2 Kings 20.3 Remember Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart Christ himself is brought in in this Prophetical Psalm drawing out the Comfort of this Attribute Psal 40.9 I have not restrain'd my Lips Oh Lord thou knowest meaning his faithfulness in declaring the Righteousness of God Job follows the same steps Also now behold my Record is in Heaven and my Witness is on high * Job 16 1â— My Innocence hath the Testimony of Men but my greatest support is in the Records of God Also now or besides the Testimony of my own Heart I have another Witness in Heaven that knows the Heart and can only judge of the principles of my actions and clear me from the scorns of my Friends and the accusations of Men with a justification of my Innocence He repeats it twice to take the greater comfort in it God knows that we do that in the simplicity of our Hearts which may be judged by Men to be done for unworthy and sordid ends He knows not only the outward action but the inward affection and praises that which Men often dispraise and writes down that with an Euge Well done good and faithful Servant which Men daube with their severest Censures * Rom. 2.29 How refreshing is it to consider that God never mistakes the appearance for reality nor is lead by the judgment of Man He sits in Heaven and laughs at their follies and Censures If God had no sounder and no more piercing a Judgment than Man woe be to the sincerest Souls that are often judged Hypocrites by some What a happiness is it for Integrity to have a Judge of infinite Understanding who will one day wipe off the durt of Worldly Reproaches Again God knows the least dram of Grace and Righteousness in the Hearts of his People though but as a smoking Flax or the least bruise of a saving conviction * Mat. 12.20 and knows it so as to cherish it he knows that work he hath begun and never hath his Eye off from it to abandon it 5. The consideration of this excellent Perfection in God may comfort us in our secret Prayers sighs and works If God were not of infinite Understanding to pierce into the Heart what comfort hath a poor Creature that hath a scantiness of Expressions but a Heart in a flame If God did not understand the Heart Faith and Prayer which are internal works would be in vain How could he give that Mercy our Hearts plead for if he were ignorant of our inward Affections Hypocrites might scale Heaven by lofty Expressions and a Sincere Soul come short of the happiness he is prepared for for want of flourishing Gifts Prayer is an internal work words are but the Garment of Prayer Meditation is the Body and Affection the Soul and Life of Prayer Give Ear to my words Oh Lord consider my Meditation * Psal 5.1 Prayer is a Rational act an act of the mind not the act of a Parrot Prayer is an act of the Heart though the speaking Prayer is the work of the Tongue Now God gives Ear to the words but he considers the Meditation the frame of the Heart Consideration is a more exact notice than hearing the act only of the Ear. Were not God of an infinite Understanding and Omniscient he might take fine Clothes a heap of Garments for the Man himself and be put off by glittering words without a Spiritual Frame What matter of rejoycing is it that we call not upon a deaf and ignorant Idol but on one that listens to our secret Petitions to give them a dispatch that knows our desires afar off and from the infiniteness of his Mercy joyn'd with his Omniscience stands ready to give us a return Hath he not a Book of Remembrance for them that fear him and for their sighs and ejaculations to him as well as their discourses of him * Mal. 3.16 and not only what Prayers they utter but what gracious and holy thoughts they have of him That thought upon his Name Though millions of supplications be put up at the same time yet they have all a distinct File as I may say in an infinite Understanding which perceives and comprehends them all As he observes millions of Sins committed at the same time by a vast number of Persons to Record them in order to Punishment so he distinctly discerns an infinite number of Cries at the same moment to Register them in order to an Answer A sigh cannot scape an infinite Understanding though crowded among a mighty multitude of Cries from others or cover'd with many unwelcome distractions in our selves no more than a believing touch from the Woman that had the Bloudy Issue could be conceal'd from Christ and be undiscern'd from the press of
Brethren on Earth would direct God a way to prevent their ruine by sending one from the dead to school them as a more effectual Means than Moses and the Prophets Luke 16.29 30. 'T is a Temper also to be found on Earth what else was the language of Sauls saving the Amalekites Cattle against the plain Command of God 1 Sam. 15.15 As if God in his Fury had overshot himself and overlooked his Altar in dâ—priving it of so great a Booty for its Service As if it were an unwise thing in God to lose the Prey of so many stately Cattle that might make the Altar smoke with their Entrails and serve to expiate the Sins of the People and therefore he would rectifie that which he thought to be an oversight in God and so magnifies his own Prudence and Discretion above the Divine We will not let God act as he thinks fit but will be directing him and teaching him knowledge Job 21.22 As if God were a Statue an Idol that had Eyes and saw not Hands but acted not and could be turned as an Image may be to what quarter of the Heaven we please our selves The Wisdom of God is unbyast he orders nothing but what is fittest for his End and we would have our shallow Brains the byass of Gods acting And will not God resent such an Indignity as a reflection upon his Wisdom as well as Authority when we intimate that we have better Heads than he and that he comes short of us in Understanding 5. In Murmuring and Impatience One demands a Reason why he hath this or that Cross Why he hath been deprived of such a Comfort lost such a Venture languisheth under such a Sickness is tormented with such Pains opprest by Tyrannical Neighbours is unsuccessful in such Designs In these and such like the Wisdom of God is questioned and defam'd All Impatience is a suspicion if not a condemnation of the Prudence of Gods Methods and would make Human Feebleness and Folly the Rule of Gods dealing with his Creatures This is a presuming to instruct God and a reproving him for Unreasonableness in his Proceedings when his dealings with us do not exactly answer our Fancies and Wishes as if God who made the World in Wisdom wanted Skill for the management of his Creatures in it Job 40.2 Shall he that contends with the Almighty instruct him he that reproveth God let him answer it We that are not wise enough to know our selves and what is needful for us presume to have Wit enough to guide God in his dealing with us The Wisdom of God rendred Job more useful to the World by his Afflictions in making him a Pattern of Patience than if he had continued him in a confluence of all Worldly Comforts wherein he had been beneficial only in communicating his Morsels to his Poor Neighbours All Murmuring is a fastening Error upon unerring Wisdom 6. In Pride and Haughtiness of Spirit No Proud man but sets his Heart as the heart of God Ezek. 28.2 3. The Wisdom of God hath given to Men divers Offices set them in divers places some have more honourable Charges some meaner Not to give that respect their Offices and Places call for is to quarrel with the Wisdom of God and overturn the Rank and Order wherein he hath placed things 'T is unfit we should affront God in the disposal of his Creatures and intimate to him by our Carriage that he had done more wisely in placing another and that he hath done foolishly in placing this or that Man in such a Charge Sometimes Men are unworthy the Place they fill they may be set there in Judgment to themselves and others But the Wisdom of God in his management of things is to be honoured and regarded 'T is an infringing the Wisdom of God when we have a vain Opinion of our selves and are blind to others When we think our selves Monarchs and treat others as Worms or Flies in comparison of us He would reduce all things to his own honour perverts the Order of the World and would constitute another Order than what the Wisdom of God hath established and move them to an End contrary to the intention of God and charges God with want of Discretion and Skill 7. Distrust of Gods Promise is an impeachment of his Wisdom A secret Reviling of it as if he had not taken due consideration before he past his Word or a suspicion of his Power as if he could not accomplish his Word We trust the Physicians Skill with our Bodies and the Lawyers Counsel with our Estates but are loath to rely upon God for the concerns of our Lives If he be Wise to dispose of us why do we distrust him If we distrust him why do we embrace an opinion of his Wisdom Vnbelief also is a contradiction to the Wisdom of God in the Gospel c. but that I have already handled in a Discourse of the Nature of Vnbelief III. Use of Comfort God hath an Infinite Wisdom to conduct us in our Affairs rectifie us in our Mistakes and assist us in our Straits 'T is an inestimable priviledge to have a God in Covenant with us so Wise to communicate all Good to prevent all Evil who hath Infinite ways to bring to pass his gracious Intentions towards us How unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out Rom. 11.33 His Judgments or Decrees are incomprehensibly Wise and the ways of effecting them are as wise as his Resolves effected by them We can a little search into his Methods of Acting as we can into his Wisdom of Resolving both his Judgments and Ways are unsearchable 1. Comfort in all Straits and Afflictions There is a Wisdom in inflicting them and a Wisdom in removing them He is wise to sute his Medicines to the humor of our Disease though he doth not to the humor of our Wills He cannot mistake the nature of our Distemp r or the virtue of his own Physick Like a skilful Physician he sometime prescribes bitter Potions and sometimes cheering Cordials according to the strength of the Malady and necessity of the Patient to reduce him to health As nothing comes from him but what is for our good so nothing is acted by him in a rash and temerarious way His Wisdom is as Infinite as his Goodness and as exact in managing as his Goodness is plentiful in streaming out to us He understands our Griefs weighs our Necessities and no Remedies are beyond the reach of his Contrivance When our feeble Wits are bewildred in a maze and at the end of their Line for a rescue the Remedies unknown to us are not unknown to God When we know not how to prevent a Danger the Wise God hath a Thousand Blocks to lay in the way When we know not how to free our selves from an oppressive Evil he hath a Thousand ways of Relief He knows how to Time our Crosses and his own Blessings The heart of a Wise God as well as
easily be cured than when it becomes Chronical and inveterate The strength of a Disease or the complication of many magnifies the Power of the Physician and efficacy of the Medicine that tames and expels it What Power is that which hath made Men stoop when Natural habits have been grown Giants by Custome when the putrefaction of Nature hath engendred a multitude of Worms when the Vlcers are many and deplorable when many Cords wherewith God would have bound the Sinner have been broken and like Sampson the wicked Heart hath gloried in its strength and grown more proud that it hath stood like a strong Fort against those Batteries under which others have fallen flat Every Proud thought every Evil habit captivated serves for matter of Triumph to the Power of God †2 Cor. 10.5 What resistance will a multitude of them make when one of them is enough to hold the Faculty under its dominion and intercept its Operations So many Customary habits so many Old natures so many different strengths added to Nature every one of them standing as a Barricado against the way of Grace all the Errors the Vnderstanding is possessed with think the Gospel Folly all the Vices the Will is filled with count it the Fetter and Band. Nothing so contrary to Man as to be thought a Fool nothing so contrary to Man as to enter into slavery 'T is no easie matter to plant the Cross of Christ upon a Heart guided by many Principles against the Truth of it and byast by a World of Wickedness against the Holiness of it Nature renders a Man too feeble and indispos'd and Custome renders a Man more weak and unwilling to change his Hue ‖ Jer. 13.23 To dispossess Man then of his Self-esteem and Self-excellency to make room for God in the Heart where there was none but for Sin as dear to him as himself to hurle down the Pride of Nature to make stout Imaginations stoop to the Cross to make desires of Self-advancement sink under a Zeal for the glorifying of God and an over-ruling design for his Honour is not to be ascrib'd to any but an Out-stretched Aâ—m wielding the Sword of the Spirit To have a Heart full of the Fear of God that was just before filled with a Contempt of him to have a sense of his Power an eye to his Glory admiring Thoughts of his Wisdom a Faith in his Truth that had lower Thoughts of him and all his Perfections than he had of a Creature To have a hatred of his Habitual Lusts that had brought him in much Sensitive pleasure to loath them as much as he loved them to cherish the Duties he hated to live by Faith in and Obedience to the Redeemer who was before so heartily under the conduct of Satan and Self to chase the acts of Sin from his Members and the pleasing thoughts of Sin from his Mind to make a stout Wretch willingly fall down crawl upon the ground and adore that Saviour whom before he out-dar'd is a Triumphant Act of Infinite Power that can subdue all things to it self and break those multitude of Locks and Bolts that were upon us 3. Against a multitude of Temptations and Interests The Temptations Rich Men have in this World are so numerous and strong that the entrance of one of them into the Kingdom of Heaven that is the entertainment of the Gospel is made by our Saviour an impossible thing with Men and procurable only by the Power of God * Luke 18.24 25 26. The Divine Strength only can separate the World from the Heart and the Heart from the World There must be an Incomprehensible Power to chase away the Devil that had so long so strong a footing in the Affections to render the Soyl he had sown with so many Tares and Weeds capable of good Grain to make Spirits that had found the sweetness of Worldly prosperity wrapt up all their Happiness in it and not only bent down but as it were buried in Earth and Mud to be loosened from those beloved Cords to disrelish the Earth for a Crucified Christ I say this must be the effect of an Almighty Power 4. The Manner of Conversion shews no less the Power of God There is not only an irresistible Force used in it but an agreeable Sweetness The Power is so Efficacious that nothing can vanquish it and so Sweet that none did ever complain of it The Almighty Vertue displays it self Invincibly yet without Constraint compelling the Will without offering Violence to it and making it cease to be Will Not forcing it but changing it not dragging it but drawing it making it will where before it nill'd removing the Corrupt Nature of the Will without invading the Created Nature and Rights of the Faculty not working in us against the Physical nature of the Will but working to will †Phil. 2.13 This work is therefore called Creation Resurrection to shew its Irresistible Power 'T is called Illumination Perswasion Drawing to shew the suitableness of its Efficacy to the nature of the Humane Faculties 'T is a drawing with Cords which testifies an Invincible strength but with Cords of Love which testifies a Delightful conquest 'T is hard to determine whether it be more Powerful than Sweet or more Sweet than Powerful 'T is no mean part of the Power of God to twist together Victory and Pleasure to give a blow as delightful as strong as pleasing to the Sufferer as it is sharp to the Sinner II. The Power of God in the application of Redemption is evident in the Pardoning a Sinner 1. In the Pardon it self The Power of God is made the ground of his Patience or the reason why he is Patient is because he would shew his Power ‖ Rom. 9.22 'T is a part of Magnanimity to pass by Injuries As weaker Stomacks cannot concoct the tougher food so weak Minds cannot digest the harder Injuries He that passes over a Wrong is superiour to his Adversary that does it When God speaks of his own Name as Merciful he speaks first of himself as Powerful Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God that is the Lord the strong Lord Jehovah the strong Jehovah Let the Power of my Lord be great saith Moses when he prays for the Forgiveness of the People * Numb 14.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be exalted Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stâ—ength c. The word Jigdal is written with a great Jod or a Jod above the other Letters The Power of God in Pardoning is advanc'd beyond an ordinary strain beyond the Creative strength In the Creation he had power over the Creatures in this power over himself In Creation not Himself but the Creatures were the Object of his Power in that no Attribute of his Nature could article against his Design In the Pardon of a Sinner after many Overtures made to him and refus'd by him God exerciseth a power over himself for the Sinner hath dishonour'd God prâ—â—ok'd his
when it was something by the sole vertue of his Power and good Will to it without any motive from any thing else than Himself because there was nothing else but Himself But since he sees his own stamp in things without Himself in the Creature which is a kind of motive or moving Object to Divine Goodness to preserve it when there was nothing without Himself that could be any motive to Him to Create it As when God hath created a Creature and it falls into misery that misery of the Creature though it doth not necessitate his mercy yet meeting with such an affection as mercy in his Nature is a moving Object to excite it As the repentance of Nineveh drew forth the exercise of his pity and preserving goodness Certainly since God is Good he is Bountiful and if Bountiful he is Provident He would seem to envy and malign his Creatures if he did not provide for them while he intends to use them But infinite Goodness cannot be affected with envy For all envy implies a want of that good in our selves which we regard with so evil an eye in another But God being infinitely blessed hath not the want of any good that can be a rise to such an uncomely disposition The Jews thought that Divine Goodness extended only to them in an immediate and particular Care and left all other Nations and things to the guidance of Angels But the Psalmist Psal 107. a Psalm calculated for the celebration of this Perfection in the continued course of his Providence throughout all Ages of the World ascribes to Divine Goodness immediately all the advantages men meet with He helps them in their actions presides over their motions inspects their several conditiâ—ns labours day and night in a perpetual care of them The whole life of the World is linkt together by Divine Goodness Every thing is ordered by him in the place where he hath set it without which the World would be stript of that Excellency it hath by Creation 1. First This Goodness is evident in the Care he hath of all Creatures There is a peculiar goodness to his People but this takes not away his general goodness to the World Though a Master of a Family hath a choicer affection to those that have an Affinity to him in Nature and stand in a nearer Relation as his Wife Children Servants yet he hath a regard to his Cattle and other Creatures he nourisheth in his House All things are not only before his eyes but in his Bosom He is the Nurse of all Creatures supplying their wants and sustaining them from that nothing they tend to * Psal 104.24 The Earth is full of his Riches not a creek or cranny but partakes of it Abundant Goodness daily hovers over it as well as hatcht it * Gulielmus Parasien p. 184. The whole World swims in the rich Bounty of the Creator as the Fish do in the largeness of the Sea and Birds in the spatiousness of the Air. The Goodness of God is the River that Waters the whole Earth As a lifeless Picture casts its eye upon every one in the Room so doth a living God upon every thing in the World And as the Sun illuminates all things which are capable of partaking of its light and diffuseth its Beams to all things which are capable of receiving them So doth God spread his Wings over the whole Creation and neglects nothing wherein he sees a mark of his first creating Goodness His Godness is seen 1. In preserving all things * Psal 36.6 Oh Lord thou preservest Man and Beast Not only Man but Beasts and Beasts as well as Men. Man as the most excellent Creature and Beasts as being serviceable to Man and Instruments of his Worldly Happiness He continues the Species of all things concurs with them in their distinct Offices and quickens the Womb of Nature He visits Man every day and makes him feel the effects of his Providence in giving him fruitful seasons and filling his heart with food and gladness * Acts 14.17 as witnesses of his Liberality and Kindness to Man The Earth is visited and watered by the River of God He settles the furrows of the Earth and makes it soft with showers that the Corn may be nourished in its Womb and spring up to Maturity He crowns the year with his Goodness and his paths drop fatness The little Hills rejoice on every side The Pastures are clothed with Flocks and the Vallies are covered over with Corn as the Psalmist elegantly * Psal 65.9 10. Psal 107.35.36 He waters the ground by his Showers and preserves the little Seed from the Rapine of Animals He draws not out the evil Arrows of Famine as the expression is * Ezek. 5.16 Every day shines with new Beams of his Divine Goodness The vastness of this City and the multitudes of living Souls in it is an astonishing Argument What streams of nourishing necessaries are daily convey'd to it Every Mouth hath Bread to sustain it and among all the number of Poor in the Bowels and Skirts of it how rare is it to hear of any starv'd to death for want of it Every day he spreads a Table for us and that with varieties and fills our Cups * Psal 23.5 He shortens not his hand nor withdraws his Bounty The Increase of one year by his Blessing restores what was spent by the former He is the strength of our life * Psal 27.1 continuing the vigour of our Limbs and the health of our Bodies secures us from terrors by night and the Arrows of Diseases that fly by day * Psal 91.5 Sets a hedge about our Estates * Job 1.10 and defends them against the attempts of violence Preserves our Houses from flames that might consume them and our persons from the dangers that lie in wait for them Watcheth over us in our goings out and our comings in * Psal 221.8 and way-lays a Thousand dangers we know not of And employs the most glorious Creatures in Heaven in the service of mean Men upon Earth * Psal 91 1â— Not by a faint Order but a pressing Charge over them to keep them in all his ways Those that are his immediate Servants before his Throne he sends to Minister to them that were once his Rebels By an Angel he conducted the affairs of Abraham * Gen. 24.7 And by an Angel secur'd the life of Ishmael †Gen. 21.17 Glorious Angels for mean Man Holy Angels for impure Man Powerful Angels for weak Man How in the midst of great dangers doth his sudden light dissipate our great darkness and create a deliverance out of nothing How often is he found a present help in time of trouble When all other assistance seems to stand at a distance He flies to us beyond our expectations and raises us upon the sudden from the pit of our dejectedness as well as that of our danger exceeding our wishes
to guide us and a Cordial to refresh us 'T is a Lamp to our Feet and a Medicine for our Diseases a Purifier of our Filth and a Restorer of us in our faintings He hath by his Goodness seal'd the truth of it by his efficacy on multitudes of Men He hath made it the Word of Regeneration * Jam. 1.18 Men wilder and more monstrous than Beasts have been tam'd and chang'd by the power of it It hath rais'd multitudes of dead Men from a Grave fuller of horrour than any Earthly one Again Goodness was in all ages sending his Letters of Advice and Counsel from Heaven till the Canon of the Scripture was clos'd Sometimes he wrote to chide a froward People sometimes to chear up an oppressed and disconsolate People according to the State wherein they were as we may observe by the several Seasons wherein parts of Scripture were written It was his Goodness that he first reveal'd any thing of his Will after the Fall it was a further degree of Goodness that he would add more Cubits to its Stature before he would lay aside his Pensil it grew up to that bulk wherein we have it And his Goodness is further seen in the preserving it He hath triumphed over the powers that opposed it and shewed himself good in the Instruments that propagated it He hath maintain'd it against the blasts of Hell and spread it in all Languages against the obstructions of Men and Devils The Sun of his Word is by his kindness preserv'd in our Horizon as well as the Sun in the Heavens How admirable is Divine Goodness He hath sent his Son to die for us and his written Word to instruct us and his Spirit to edge it for an entrance into our Souls He hath open'd the Womb of the Earth to nourish us and sent down the Records of Heaven to direct us in our Pilgrimage He hath provided the Earth for our habitation while we are Travellers and sent his Word to acquaint us with a felicity at the end of our Journey and the way to attain in another World what we want in this viz. a happy Immortality 5. His Goodness in his Government is evident In Conversions of Men. Though this Work be wrought by his Power yet his Power was first sollicited by his Goodness It was his rich Goodness that he would employ his power to pierce the scales of a heart as hard as those of the Leviathan It was this that opened the Ears of Men to hear him and draws them from the hurry of Worldly cares and the Charms of Sensual Pleasures and which is the top of all the impostures and Cheats of their own hearts It is this that sends a spark of his wrath into Mens consciencies to put them to a stand in sin that he might not send down a shower of Brimstone eternally to consume their persons This it was that first shewed you the Excellency of the Redeemer and brought you to taste the sweetness of his Bloud and find your security in the Agonies of his Death 'T is his Goodness to call one man and not another to turn Paul in his course and lay hold of no other of his companions 'T is his Goodness to call any when he is not bound to call one 1. 'T is his Goodness To pitch upon mean and despicable Men in the eye of the World To call this poor Publican and over-look that proud Pharisee this Man that sits upon a Dunghil and neglect him that glisters in his Purple His Majesty is not enticed by the lofty Titles of Men nor which is more worth by the Learning and Knowledge of Men. Not many Wise not many Mighty * Cor. 1.26 27 28. not many Doctâ—rs not many Lords though some of them but his Goodness condescends to the base things of the World and things which are despised The Poor receive the Gospel * Mat. 11.5 when those that are more acute and furnisht with a more apprehensive Reason are not toucht by it 2. The worst Men. He seizeth sometimes upon Men most soyl'd and neglects others that seem more clean and less polluted He turns Men in their course in sin that by their infernal practices have seem'd to have gone to School to Hell and to have suckt in the sole instructions of the Devil He lays hold upon some when they are most under actual demerit and snatcheth them as Fire-brands out of the Fire as upon Paul when fullest of rage against him And shoots a Beam of Grace where nothing could be justly expected but a Thunder-bolt of Wrath. 'T is his Goodness to visit any when they lie putrifying in their loathsome Lusts To draw near to them who have been guilty of the greatest contempt of God and the light of Nature The murdering Manassehs persecuting Sauls Christ-crucifying Jews Persons in whom Lusts had had a peaceable possession and Empire for many years 3. His Goodness appears In converting Men possest with the greatest enmity against him while he was dealing with them All were in such a state and framing contrivances against him when Divine Goodness knockt at the door * Col. 1.21 He lookt after us when our backs were turned upon him and sought us when we slighted him and were a gain-saying People * Rom. 10.21 when we had shaken off his convictions and contended with our Maker and mustered up the Powers of Nature against the Alarms of Conscience strugled like wild Bulls in a Net and blunted those Darts which stuck in our Souls Not a Man that is turn'd to him but had lifted up the heel against his Gospel-Grace as well as made light of his Creating Goodness Yet it hath employed it self about such ungrateful Wretches to polish those knotty and rugged pieces for Heaven And so invincibly that he would not have his Goodness defeated by the fierceness and rebellion of the Flesh Though the thing was more difficult in it self if any thing may be said to have a difficulty to Omnipotency than to make a Stone live or to turn a Straw into a Marble-Pillar The Malice of the Flesh makes a Man more unfit for the one than the nature of the straw unfits it for the other 4. His Goodness appears in turning Men When they were pleased with their own misery and unable to deliver themselves When they preferr'd a Hell before him and were in love with their own Vileness when his Call was our torment and his neglect of us had been accounted our felicity Was it not a mighty Goodness to keep the Light close to our Eyes when we endeavoured to blow it out and the corrosive near to our hearts when we endeavoured to tear it off being more fond of our Disease than the Remedy We should have been scalded to death with the Sodomites had not God laid his good hand upon us and drawn us from the approaching ruine we affected and were loath to be freed from And had we been displeased with our state