Operation nor Device in the Grave whither we are going And certainly if ever we would do the Will of God in Heaven we must accustom our selves to do it here on Earth Here we are as Apprentices that must learn the Trade of Holiness that when our time is out we may be fit to be made free Denizons of the New Jerusalem Here we are to tune our Voices to the Praises of God before we come to joyn with the Heavenly Choire Here we are to learn what we must there for ever practise And thus I have done with the Petition it self Thy Will be done in Earth The next thing observable is the proportion of it As it is in Heaven But you will say Is it not utterly impossible while we are here on Earth and clogg'd with Earthly Bodies and encompassed about with manifold Infirmities Is it not impossible ever to attain unto a Celestial and Heavenly Perfection in our Obedience I Answer True it is so but yet this Prayer is not in vain for it teacheth and engageth us to aim at and endeavour after the perfect Holiness of Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect We are commanded to be Holy as God is Holy and to be Perfect as our Heavenly Father is Perfect whose Perfection is impossible for us to equalize Yet these excessive commands have their use to raise up our endeavours to a higher strain and pitch than if we were commanded somewhat within our own power As he that aims at a Star is likely to shoot much higher than he that aims at a Turf Thus though it be a thing altogether impossible for us in this Life to attain to an Angelical perfection in our Obedience yet the command that obligeth us to it and our Prayers for it are not in vain because by our utmost endeavours after further measures and degrees of Holiness we may very much assimilate our Obedience to that Obedience that is yielded to God's Will in Heaven it self and therefore this Particle As is rather a note of similitude than of equality But though our Obedience on Earth cannot be equal to the Obedience that is yielded to God in Heaven yet we pray that it may bear as much similitude proportion and conformity unto it as is possible for us to attain unto while we are here in the Body And therefore that we may the more fully understand what it is we pray for when we present this Petition to God Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven we shall briefly enquire how the Holy Angels and Blessed Spirits do the Will of God in Heaven And First Their Obedience is absolutely perfect and that both with a perfection of Parts and Degrees They do all that God enjoyns them not failing in the least Tittle of Observance and therefore they are said To follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes Revel 14.14 Hence it is ascribed to them as their proper and peculiar Character Psal 103.20 Bless the Lord ye his Angels that excel in strength that do his Commandments hearkning to the voice of his Word And again they do the whole Will of God with all their Might with all their Mind with the greatest Intention that is possible even to an Angelical Nature never are they remiss in their Service or slack in their Attendance but are continually Blessing and Praising of God standing ready to receive and execute his Commands and Commissions Now when we pray that we may do the Will of God on Earth as it is done in Heaven we pray for this Heavenly temper that we may bear an Universal respect unto all God's Commandments no more sticking or pausing at any thing that God requires of us than an Angel or a Glorified Saint would do But infolding all our Interest and Concerns in God's Glory might respect nor value nothing but what tends to the promotion of that This is to do God's Will as the Angels do it in Heaven Secondly Their Obedience is cheerful not extorted from them by violent constraints of Fear or of Suffering but it is their Eternal Delight and their Service is their Felicity And thus should we pray and endeavour to do the Will of God with Alacrity and Cheerfulness not being haled to it as our Task but esteeming the Commands of God to be as the Angels do our Glory and our great Reward But alas how infinitely short do we fall of our Pattern we think the Sabbath long and Ordinances long and tedious and are secretly glad when they are over And what should such as we are do in Heaven where there is a Sabbath as long as Eternity and nothing but Holiness there And therefore we had need pray earnestly that God would now sit and prepare us for the Work of Heaven while we are here on Earth for else Heaven will not be Heaven or a place of Happiness unto us Thirdly The Will of God is done in Heaven with zeal and ardency and therefore it is said Psal 104.4 That God maketh his Angels and Messengers a Flame of Fire And have not we abundance of need to pray for Conformity with them in this respect also We do the Will of God so coldly and indifferently that we our selves scarce take notice of what we are doing We often bring Sacrifices to God and either bring no Fire with us but are frozen and dull or else offer them up with strange Wild-fire and usually are heated more with Passion and irregular Affections than with Holy and pious Zeal And Fourthly The Will of God is done in Heaven with celerity and ready dispatch they are quick in executing the Commands of the great God and their Lord and therefore are said to have Wings and to fly Esai 6.2 And this expression of Wings and the flying of Cherubims and Angels is frequently mentioned in Scripture only to intimate to us the expedition they use in the Service of God But alas how dull and slow are we how long do we consult with Flesh and Blood and are disputing the Will of our Sovereign Lord when we should be obeying it When we are clearly convinced that such a Duty is necessary to be done how many delays and excuses and procrastinations do we make being willing to stay the leisure of every vile Lust and vain Impertinency thinking it then time enough to serve God when we have nothing else to do Certainly this is not to do the Will of God on Earth as it is done in Heaven where upon the first intimations of God's Will they take Wings and execute it speedily Fifthly The Will of God is done in Heaven with all possible Prostration Reverence and Humility And therefore it is said Rev. 4.10 that the four and twenty Elders fell down before him that sat upon the Throne and Worship him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their Crowns before the Throne Crowns are themselves Ensigns of Majesty but here they cast their very Crowns all their Dignity and Glory at the
may persuade you to a diligent search and perusal of the Scriptures The Jews indeed were so exact or rather Superstitious in this that he was judged a despiser of those Sacred Oracles who did not readily know how often every Letter of the Alphabet occurred in them This preciseness God hath made use of to deliver down his word to us unvaried and uncorrupted It is not such a scrupulous search of the Scripture I now exhort you to but as God hath left it to us a rich Depositum a dear pledge of his Love and care so we should diligently attend to a rational and profitable study of it There are but two things in the general that commend any writing to us either that it discovers knowledge or directs practice that it informs the Judgment or reforms the Life Both of these are eminently the Characters of this Book of God And therefore David tells us Psal 19.7 The Law of God converts the Soul and makes wise the simple It is a light not only to our heads but it is a Lamp unto our Feet and a light unto our paths Psal 119.105 Let us consider it as to both First In point of knowledge as it perfects the understanding and so it will appear in sundry particulars how excellent a study it is For First The Scripture discovers unto us the knowledge of those truths that the most improved natural Reason could never sift out and are intelligible only by Divine Revelation God hath Composed two Books by the diligent study of which we may come to the knowledge of himself The Book of the Creatures and the Book of the Scriptures The Book of the Creatures is written in those great Letters of Heaven and Earth the Air and Sea and by these we may spell out somewhat of God He made them for our instruction as well as our service There is not a Creature that God hath breathed abroad upon the face of the Earth but it Reads us Lectures of his infinite Power and Wisdom So that it is no absurdity to say that they are all the Works of his mouth so they are all the works of his Hands The whole World is a speaking workmanship Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead And indeed when we seriously consider how God hath poised the Earth in the midst of the Air and the whole World in the midst of a vast and boundless nothing how he hath hung out those glorious lights of Heaven the Sun the Moon and Stars and made paths in the Sky for their several courses how he hath laid the Sea on heaps and so girt it in that it may possibly overlook but not overflow the Land when we view the Variety Harmony and Law of the Creation our Reason must needs be very short if we cannot from these collect the infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of the Creator So much of God as belong to these two great Attributes of Creator and Governour of the World the Book of Nature may plainly discover to us But then there are other more retired and reserved Notions of God other truths that nearly concern our selves and our eternal Salvation to know and believe which nature could never give the least glimpse to discover What Signature is there stampt upon any of the Creatures of a Trinity in Unity of the eternal Generation or temporal Carnation of the Son of God What Creature could inform us of our first fall and guilt contracted by it Where can we find the Copy of the Covenant of Works or of grace printed upon any of the Creatures All the great Sages of the World though they were Nature's Secretaries and ransack'd its abstrusest mysteries yet all their Learning and Knowledge could not discover the Sacred Mystery of a Crucified Saviour These are truths which Nature is so far from searching out that it can scarce receive them when revealed 1. Corinth 2.14 The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned The light that can reveal these must break immediately from Heaven it self And so it did upon the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures And if it were their singular Privilege that the Holy Ghost should descend into their breasts and so possess them with Divine inspirations that what they spake or wrote became Oracular how little less is ours since the Scriptures reveal to us the very same truths which the Spirit revealed to them God heretofore spake in them and now he speaks by them unto us Their Revelations are become ours the only difference is that what God taught them by extraordinary inspiration the very same truths he teacheth us in the Scripture by the ordinary illumination of his Spirit Here therefore whilest we diligently converse in the Book of God we enjoy the privilege of Prophets The same word of God which came unto them comes also unto us and that without those severe preparations and strong agonies which sometimes they underwent before God would inspire them with the knowledge of his Heavenly truth That is the first Motive and Argument Secondly The knowledge which the Scripture teacheth is for the matter of it the most sublime and losty in the World All other sciences are but poor and beggarly Elements if compared with this What doth the Naturalist but only busie himself in digging a little drossie knowledge out of the Entrails of the Earth The Astronomer who ascends highest mounts no higher than the Coelestial Bodies the Stars and Planets which are but the out-works of Heaven But the Scripture pierceth much farther and lets us into Heaven it self There it discovers the Majesty and Glory of God upon his Throne the Eternal Son of God sitting at his right hand making a prevailing and Authoritative intercession for us The glittering train of Cherubims and Seraphims an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect So that indeed when you have this Book laid open before you you have Heaven it self and all the inconceivable glories of it laid open to your view What can be more sublime than the nature of God And yet here we have it so plainly described by all its most glorious Attributes and Perfections that the Scripture doth but beam forth light to an Eye of Faith whereby it may be inabled to see him who is invisible But if we consider those Gospel Mysteries the Scripture relates the Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ's incarnation the Mystical Union of our persons to his by our believing that the Son of God should be Substituted in the stead of guilty Sinners that he who knew no sin should be made a Sacrifice for sin and the Justice of God become reconciled to Man through the blood of God these are Mysteries so infinitely profound as are enough to puzzle a whole College of
and be planted where it is not to a perfection of Number and may gain more Proselytes and Converts where it is planted to a perfection of Establishment that they may not be rooted out by the Violence of Men nor abandoned through the Judgment of God And to a perfection of Purity and Holiness by the powerful Dispensation of Gospel-Ordinances attended by the Efficacious Concurrence of the Holy Spirit But Secondly This Petition likewise respects the Church Triumphant in Heaven Nor is this praying for the Dead a thing justly condemned of Superstition and Folly for we pray not for them to alter their State which is impious and ridiculous and a Foppish Consequent upon the Figment of Purgatory But we pray for the Church Triumphant only in general that those things which are as yet defective in it may be supplied for certainly wheresoever there is any kind of imperfection we have ground to pray for the removal of it especially when God hath encouraged us to it by promise that he will remove it And therefore First We may well pray that the whole Body Mystical of Jesus Christ and every Member of it may be brought to the full Fruition of Heaven and Happiness that daily more may be admitted into the Heavenly Fellowship till their Numbers as well as their Joys be Consummate And Secondly We may pray that the Bodies of all the Saints that have slept in their Beds of Earth from the beginning of the World may be raised again out of the Dust and united to their Souls and for ever made Glorious in the Kingdom of Heaven for both these things are absolutely promised the one Rom. 8.29 30. that those whom God hath Called and Justified he will likewise Glorifie And the other is 1 Thessal 4.16 The Dead in Christ shall arise And certainly whatsoever may be the Object of our Faith Hope may be the Subject of our Prayers And this every true Christian longs and breaths after that these Days of Sin and Misery may be shortned that Christ would come in his Glory that his Mediatory Kingdom being fulfilled it might be delivered up unto the Father and that we all might be one as the Father is in him and he in the Father Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly And thus I have finished the Second Petition The Kingdom come The Third follows Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven This now follows upon the former in a most rational and admirable method for as before we pray that the Kingdom of God might come as the best adapted means to Hallow his Name so now we pray that his Will may be done by us as the clearest Declaration that we are the Subjects of his Kingdom Now here are considerable First The Petition it self Thy Will be done in Earth Secondly The Measure and Proportion of it as it is in Heaven I shall begin with the Petition in which every Word carries great Weight and Moment and therefore in the explication of it I shall shew you First What this Will of God is Secondly How his Will may be said to be done Thirdly What force this Particle thy thy Will carries in it and what it denotes Fourthly What is meant by God's Will being done in Earth And all these with all perspicuity and brevity First What this Will of God is Now the Will of God is commonly and very well distinguished into the Will of his Purpose and into the Will of his Precept his Decrees or his Commands The former respects what shall be done by him the latter what ought to be done by us Both these in Scripture are frequently called the Will of God First God's Purpose is his Will yea it is more properly his Will than his Precepts are for by this God doth absolutely determine what shall be and what shall not be and all things in the World take their Place and are ranged in their several Stations and the whole series of Causes and Effects are governed by the Ordination and Appointment of this his Sovereign Will And therefore it is said Eph. 1.11 that God worketh all things according to the Counsel of his own Will And Psal 135.6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in Heaven in Earth in the Sea and in all deep Places This is God's Will of Purpose whereby he guides and governs all Events whatsoever so that there is not the most inconsiderable Occurrence that happens not the least flight of a Sparrow nor the falling off of an Hair nor the motion of an Atome in the Air or a dust or a sand on the Earth but as it is effected by his Power and Providence so it was determined by his Will and Counsel Secondly The Precepts and Commands are likewise the Will of God but they are improperly so called because these concern not neither do they determine the Event of things but only our Duty not what shall be but what ought to be and it is called Rom. 12.2 The good and acceptable and perfect Will of God This is all contained in the Holy Scriptures which are a perfect Systeme of Precepts given us for the Government of our Lives here and for the attaining of Eternal Life hereafter and therefore it is likewise called his Revealed Will whereas the other namely the Will of Purpose is God's Secret Will until it be manifested unto us by the Events and Effects of it Now concerning this distinction of God's Will of Purpose and Precept we may note that though there be a great deal of difference yet there is no contrariety or opposition between them First They differ the one from the other not in respect of God for his Will is one infinitely pure and uncompounded Act but only in respect of the Object for there are many things which God wills by his Will of Purpose which he hath not willed by his Will of Precept His Precepts are all holy and command nothing but what is holy and acceptable This is the Will of God saith the Apostle even your Sanctification 1 Thessal 4.3 It is the highest degree of Blasphemy to impute unto God that he hath commanded us any thing but what is Holy Just and Good This were to make him the Author of Sin who hath declared himself the Punisher of it But his Will of Purpose is not restrained within bounds and Limits but extendeth it self to all Events whatsoever whether Good or Evil. And as Evils are of two sorts either the Evil of Punishment or the Evil of Sin so is God's Will of Purpose two-fold effective of the one and permissive of the other but in both most certain and infallible 1. God's Will of Purpose doth effect and bring to pass the Evil of Punishment Amos 3.6 Shall there be any Evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it For he doth both in Heaven and in Earth whatsoever pleaseth him Were it not the Will of God the World had never groaned under so many Miseries and Calamities
being thus infinite he both knows himself and all other things in himself First God perfectly knows himself he knows the boundless extent of his own being and though he be infinite and incomprehensible to all others yet is he finite and comprehended to himself and hence it follows Secondly That he knows particularly all other things For if he knew himself perfectly he must needs know all things besides himself because none can perfectly know himself that doth not fully know all that his power and strength can reach unto But now there is nothing which the power of God cannot reach for by his power he Created all things And therefore knowing his own Essence which is the cause of all he knows every thing in the secundity of his Essence Thus we have demonstrated it from the principles of Reason that God necessarily knows all things But providence denotes more than knowledge And therefore Fifthly This knowledge that is in God is not like that which we acquire 't is not a knowledge that depends upon the objects known and forms Idea's from the contemplation of things already existing But it is like the knowledge of an Artificer which causeth and produceth the things it comprehends God knows them before they are and by knowing them brings them to pass God knows all things saith St. Austin de Trinitat 15. Not because they are but therefore they are because God knew them So that his eternal knowledge and understanding gives being to every thing in the World Sixthly It appertains to him who gives being to a thing to preserve and govern it in its being And therefore God giving being to all things he also doth maintain and provide for them 'T is the very Law of Nature that he hath imprinted upon all his Creatures to provide for their own Off-spring We see with what sollicitous affection and tenderness even brute and irrational Creatures do it We are all the Off-spring of God and he our common Parent And therefore certainly he who hath inspired such Parental care in all things else doth himself much more take care to give Education to all to which he hath given being Thus you see is proved that God's Providence reacheth unto all things It might likewise be demonstrated from God's omnipresence He is present every where with and in all his Creatures and certainly he is not with them as an idle and unconcerned spectator but as the director and governour of their Actions But I shall proceed to the second sort of Arguments to prove the Divine providence And those are taken from the consideration of the frame and Compages of the World the beauty and harmony which we see in Nature The World is a Book wherein we may clearly read the wonderful Wisdom of God There is no Creature that doth not proclaim aloud that God is the wise Creator and Governour of it Who hath Gilded the Globe of the Sun and put on his Rays Who hath set its bounds and measured out its race that it should without sailing without error or mistake know how to make its daily and Annual returns and divide out times and seasons to the World Who hath given a particular Motion to all the Voluminous Orbs of Heaven and beat out a path for every Star to walk in Who hath swathed in the great and proud Ocean with a Girdle of Sand and restrains the Waves thereof that though they be higher than the Land yet they shall not overflow it Who poiseth the oppositions and contrarieties that are in Nature in so even a balance that none of them shall ever prevail to a total Destruction of the other Who brings up the great Family of brute Beasts without tumult and disorder Do not all these great and wonderful works speak forth the watchful Providence of God who as he makes them by his word so still governs them by his Power Therefore whatsoever we receive beneficial from them whatsoever seems to provide for our necessities or conveniencies it is God that hath so dispensed the Government of the World as to make it serviceable If the Heavens turn and move for us if the Stars as so many burning Torches light us in the obscurity of the Night if the Angels protect and defend us let us acknowledge all this from the Providence of God only It is he that turns the Heavens round their Axis He lights up the Stars he commands the Angels to be Ministring Spirits Guards and Centinels about us If the Fire warm us the Air refresh us the Earth support us it is God that hath kindled the Fire that hath spread forth the Air stablish'd the Earth upon the Pillars of his own decree that it should not be shaken And let us know too that when we want these Creatures for our sustentation if the Heavens if the Angels if the Earth if the Sea if all things should fail us yea bandy and set themselves against us yet God who provides for us by them can also if he please provide for us without them Thus we have dispatch'd the two general inquiries and have described and demonstrated unto you the Divine Providence The third which remains is to answer some questions and doubts which may be made and have indeed been strongly urged against the Government of the World by Providence As First If the World be governed by Providence whence comes it that wicked and ungodly Men flourish and prosper that God shines upon their Tabernacles and drops fatness upon all their paths Whereas on the conrary the Godly are often exposed to Poverty Contempt Reproaches persecuted by Men afflicted by God Would it not be as agreeable to the Divine goodness to cast abroad the Wealth the Pomp and Glory of this World with an undeciding hand leaving Men to scramble for them as they can as that he should with a particular and studied care advance those who contemn him and crush those who humbly trust and depend upon him Can I think the World is governed by the Providence of a just God when usually unjust Men govern the World under him When swaggering Sinners who despise him have power likewise to controul others Is it Wisdom to put a Sword into that hand which will turn the point of it against the giver Or Justice to impower them to all those Acts of Rapine Violence and Oppression which they commit And shall we call that Providence which is neither wise nor just One hath an unexhausted store to supply his dissolute Luxury and Riot another scarce necessaries to maintain a poor Life spent in the commands of God Here a wicked Dives who worshipped no other God but his own Belly feasts deliciously every day whilest a Godly Lazarus starves at this glutton's Gate and entertains the Dogs with licking of his Sores And what doth God's particular care furnish the glutton's Table with dayly excess who will not give the remaining Scraps to God's Children If there be Divine Providence in this what is become of the
of our Selves Man that busies himself in knowing all things else is of nothing more ignorant than of himself the Eye that beholds other things cannot see its own shape and so the Soul of Man whereby he understands other objects is usually ignorant of its own Concernments Now as the Eye that cannot see it self directly may see it self reflexively in a Glass so God hath given us his Scripture which St. James compares to a Glass James 1.23 and holds this before the Soul wherein is represented our true State and Idea There is a four-fold state of Man that we could never have attained to know but by the Scriptures His state of Integrity His state of Apostacy His state of Restitution His state of Glory The Scripture alone can reveal to us what we were in our Primitive Constitution Naturally Holy bearing the Image and Similitude of God and enjoying his Love free from all inward perturbations or outward Miseries having all the Creatures subject to us and what is much more our selves What we were in our state of Apostacy or Destitution despoiled of all our Primitive Excellencies dispossess'd of all the Happiness we enjoy'd and of all hopes of any for the future lyable every Moment to the revenge of Justice and certain once to feel it What we are in our state of Restitution through Grace begotten again to a lively hope Adopted into the Family of Heaven Redeem'd by the Blood of Christ Sanctified and Sealed by the Holy Spirit restored to the Favour and Friendship of God recovering the initials of his Image upon our Souls here on Earth and expecting the perfection of it in Heaven What we shall be in our final State of Glory cloathed with Light Crowned with Stars inebriated with pure spiritual Joys We shall see God as he is know him as we are known by him love him ardently converse with him eternally yea a state it will be so infinitely happy that 't will leave us nothing to hope for This Four-fold state of Man the Scripture doth evidently express Now these are such things as could never have entred into our Hearts to have imagined had not the word of God described them to us and thereby instructed us in the knowledge of our selves as well as of God and Christ Now let us put these six particulars together The Scripture instructs us in the knowledge of such things as are intelligible only by divine Revelation it teacheth us the most sublime and lofty Truths 't is a most inexhaustible Fountain of Knowledge the more we draw the more still springs up it teaches that Knowledge that is necessary to Salvation It is of undoubted certainty and perpetual Truth And Lastly it informs us in the knowledge of our Selves and certainly if there be any thirst in you after Knowledge there needs no more be spoken to perswade you to the diligent study of the Scripture which is a rich Store and Treasury of all Wisdom and Knowledge Thus we have seen how the Scriptures inform the Judgment Let us now briefly see how they reform the Life and what practical influence they have upon the Souls of Men. Now here the word of God hath a mighty Operation and that in sundry particulars First This is that word that convinceth and humbles the stoutest and proudest Sinners There are two sorts of secure Sinners Those who vaunt it in the Confidence of their own Righteousness and those who are secure through an insensibility of their own Wickedness Both these the word when it is set home with Power convinceth humbles and brings to the Dust It despoils the Self-Justitiary of all that false Righteousness he once boasted of and trusted to I was alive once without the Law saith St. Paul but when the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7.9 It awakens and alarms the senseless seared Sinner How many have there been that have scorned God and despised Religion whom yet one curse or threat of this word hath made to tremble and fall down before the convincing Majesty and Authority of it Secondly This is that word that sweetly comforts and raiseth them after their Dejections All other Applications to a wounded Spirit are improper and impertinent 'T is only Scripture Consolation that can ease it The leaves of this Book are like the leaves of that Tree Rev. 22. which were for the healing of the Nations The same Weapon that wounds must here work the cure Thirdly This is that word that works the mighty change upon the heart in Renovation Take a Man that runs on in vile and desperate Courses that sells himself to do Iniquity and commits all manner of Wickedness with Greediness and makes use of all the Arguments that reason can suggest these seldom reclaim any from their Debaucheries Or if in some few they do reform the Life yet they can never change the heart But now that which no other means can effect the Word of God can Psal 19.7 The Law of God is perfect converting the Soul Fourthly This is that word that strengthens and arms the People of God to endure the greatest temporal Evils only in hope of that future reward which it punisheth Fifthly This is that word that contains in it such a Collection of Rules and Duties that whosoever observes and obeys shall in the end infallibly obtain everlasting life Though I can but just mention these Heads unto you yet there is enough in them to perswade you to be diligent in the Scriptures In them saith our Saviour ye think to have Eternal Life We are all of us guilty Malefactors but God hath been pleased to afford us the Mercy of the Book And what shall we not so much as read for our Lives This is that Book according to which we must either stand or fall be acquitted or condemned Eternally The unalterable Sentence of the last day will pass upon us as it is here recorded in this Scripture Here we may before-hand know our Doom and what will become of us to all Eternity He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned 'T is said Rev. 20.12 That when the dead stood before God to be Judged the Books were opened That is the Book of Conscience and the Book of the Scripture Be perswaded to open this Book and to judge your selves out of it before the last day 'T is not a sealed Book to you you may there read what your present State is and foretell what your future will be If it be a State of Sin and Wrath search farther there are Directions how you may change this wretched State for a better If it be a State of Grace and Favour there are Rules how to preserve you in it 'T is a word suited to all Persons all Occasions all Exigencies It informs the Ignorant strengthens the Weak comforts the Disconsolate supports the Afflicted relieves the Tempted resolves the Doubtful directs all to those ways which lead to endless Happiness where as the Word of God hath dwelt richly in us so we shall dwell for ever gloriously with God FINIS
him And therefore howsoever thou mayest be advanced in Wealth or Honour or parts above others yet still remember that they are thy Brethren as they partake of the same common Nature and much more if they partake of the same special Grace Yea Christ himself who is the Lord of all is not ashamed to call them Brethren Heb. 2.11 And shalt thou who art but an Adopted Son no otherwise than the meanest Saint be ashamed of the Relation especially considering there is no Eldership nor right of First-born in the Family for they are all First-born all Kings and Heirs with Christ Jesus himself Secondly If thou art mean and low in the World this should teach thee to be well content with thy present State and Condition for God is thy Father and a Father to thee equally with the greatest There is not the highest person upon Earth but if he belong to God prefers that Relation above all his other Titles If he can write Prince King or Emperour and can afterwards subjoin a Child of God all his other Titles stand but for a Cypher with him This O Christian how mean how despised soever thou art this is thy Priviledge and a Priviledge it is that equals thee with David with Solomon and with all the great ones of the Earth that ever laid down their Diadems and Scepters at the feet of God What says the Apostle Gal. 3.28 There is neither bond nor free but all are one in Christ Jesus Thirdly Since when we Pray we must say Our Father this teacheth us to interest one another in our Prayers Our Father would not have us selfish so much as in our Prayers but in the very entrance into them we are put in mind of the Communion of Saints to beg those Blessings for all that belong to God which we ask for our selves for as Christ hath made us all Kings so he hath made all Priests to God and his Father Now the Office of a Priest is Intercession And therefore when we go to God we should bear upon our Breasts the Name of our Brethren and present them before God through the Intercession and Mediation of Jesus Christ our Great High-Priest that both we and they may be accepted of God And this we ought to do both in publick and private It is true in our secret Prayers we may pray particularly for our selves and we have frequent instances for it in Scripture yet ought we in every Prayer that we make to God to be mindful of the State and Condition of our Brethren Yea and it is very Lawful and Commendable even in secret between God and our own Souls in those cases that are common to us with the rest of God's Saints and People to joyn them in our Prayers and although we are all alone yet to say Our Father For we find Daniel praying Dan. 9.17 O Our God when yet he was in secret O Our God hear the Prayer of thy Servant And this is to shew that near and entire Communion which ought to be between all the Saints praying with and praying for all the Members of the Body of Jesus Christ and esteeming their Interest as our own Fourthly This shews us likewise the high Priviledge of the Children of God that they have a Stock of Prayers going to Heaven for them from all their fellow Saints throughout the World yea from those whom they never knew whom they never heard of yet are they continually appearing before the Throne of Grace on their behalf And thou who wouldst think it a great Favour if thou wert interested in the Prayers of some who are mighty in Prayer and whom thou hast begged to recommend thy Condition to God mayest here have abundant Comfort in that thou art nearly concerned and interested in all the Prayers that are put up to God throughout the whole World by all those that are most prevalent at the Throne of Grace yea which is more thou hast an interest in all the Prayers that have ever been preferred to Heaven by all the Saints from the beginning of the World unto this very day for not only this present Church but the Church in all Ages is the Body of Christ and every Member of it imitates the Pattern of Christ's Intercession John 17.20 Neither Pray I for these alone but for all those that shall believe in me The difference is that Christ's Intercession was Authoritative theirs only Charitative And thus much shall suffice to be spoken concerning God's Goodness and Mercy expressed in those Words Our Father The next expression sets forth his Glory and Greatness Which art in Heaven But is not God every where present Doth he not fill Heaven and Earth and all things Yea is it not said that the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him How then are our Prayers to be directed to God in Heaven only since he is as well on Earth as in Heaven And were he only in Heaven and not every where present on Earth it would be in vain for us to pray because our Prayers could never reach his Ears nor arrive to his notice I Answer It is true God is every where present and all that we think we think in him and all that we speak we speak unto him he understands the silent motion of our Lips when we whisper a Prayer to him in our Closets yea the secret motions of our Hearts when we only think a Prayer Therefore when our Saviour bids us direct our Prayers to our Father in Heaven this doth not imply that God is no where present or that he no where hears Prayer but only in Heaven But this expression is used First Because Heaven is the most Glorious Place of God's residence where he hath more especially established his Throne of Grace and there sits upon it Now because it is a most Glorious and Majestical thing to hear the Suits and receive the Petitions that are tendred to him therefore the Scripture ascribes it to the most Glorious and Majestical Place and that is to Heaven And therefore we are commanded to pray to our Father which is in Heaven to keep alive a due sense of his Majesty upon our Hearts He would not have us think it a mean and trivial thing to have our Prayers heard and therefore he represents himself to us arayed in all his Glory and sitting upon his Throne in the highest Heavens willing to be thought a God never more Glorious than when he is a God hearing Prayer Secondly Our Prayers are directed to our Father in Heaven because though he hears them wheresoever they are uttered yet he no where hears them with acceptance but only in Heaven and the Reason is because our Prayers are acceptable only as they are presented before God through the Intercession of Christ Now Christ performs his Mediatory Office only in Heaven for he performs it in both Natures as he is God and Man and so he is only in Heaven And therefore we are still concerned to pray
to our Father in Heaven God indeed hears us upon Earth for there is not a Word in our Tongue but behold O Lord thou knowest it altogether but this will not avail us unless God hears our Prayers a second time as repeated over in the Intercession of Jesus Christ and perfumed with the much Incense which he offers up with the Prayers of all the Saints Since then we are directed to pray to our Father which is in Heaven This First May inform us that there is no circumstance of time or place that can hinder us from praying for Heaven is over thee and open to thee wheresoever thou art there is no Clime so remote which is not over-spread with that Pavillion and thou art in all places equally near to Heaven and God is in it sitting upon his Throne of Grace to receive and answer thy Requests wheresoever thou offerest them up unto him And therefore we find in the Scripture some praying in God's House of Prayer some making their Houses Houses of Prayer St. Peter pray'd on the House-top when he fell into his Trance Isaac in the open Fields our Saviour on a Mountain Jonas in a Whale's Belly Abraham's Servant in his Journey and Asa in the midst of a tumultuous and bloody Battel yea whatsoever thou art doing thou mayest pray so long as Heaven is over thee and God in it Whatsoever Company thou art in whatsoever Employment thou art about thou mayest still pray for thy Father that is in Heaven still hears thee He hears thy Thoughts and thy Desires when either they are too big or when it is not expedient to articulate them into Words Indeed the Voice in Prayer is not always necessary nay sometimes it is not convenient yea it is never necessary but only upon three Accounts First As that which God requires should be employed in his Service for this was a great end why it was given us that therewith we might Bless and Praise God With the Tongue saith the Apostle we bless God even the Father Jam. 3.9 Or Secondly When in Secret it may be a means to help to raise up our Affections keeping it still within the bounds of Decency and Privacy Or Thirdly In our joyning with others it helps likewise to raise and quicken their Affections otherwise were it not for these three Reasons the Voice is no more necessary to make our Wants and Desires known unto God than it is to make them known to our own Hearts For thy Father which is in Heaven is not certainly excluded from any part of the Earth he is with thee and lays his Ear to thy very Heart and hears the Voice of thy Thoughts when thy Tongue is silent And thou mayest whatsoever work or business thou art doing dart up a Prayer and a winged Desire unto him which shall be as acceptable and effectual as the more solemn performance of this Duty at stated times Secondly Is thy Father in Heaven thy Prayers then should be made so as to pierce the Heavens where God is But how can this be done since the distance between Heaven and us is so infinite This is not to be done by the intension of raising thy Voice but by the intension of raising thy Zeal and Spirit for Zeal and Affection is a strong Bow that will shoot a Petition through Heaven it self Let all thy Petitions therefore be ardent and carry Fire in them and this will cause them to ascend to the Element of pure Celestial Fire from whence thy Breast was at first inflamed It is a most remarkable place Exod. 14.15 when the Red Sea was before the Israelites and the Aegyptians pursuing them behind and unpassable Mountains on each side the People murmuring and Moses their Captain and Guide in an unextricable Streight we read not of any Vocal Prayer that Moses then put up and yet God calls to him Why cryest thou unto me a Prayer it was not so much as accented not so much as whispered and yet so strong and powerful that it pierced Heaven and was louder in the Ears of God than the Voice of Thunder And thus much shall suffice to be spoken concerning the Preface of this Prayer Our Father which art in Heaven Let us now proceed unto the Petitions themselves the first three of which relate unto God's Glory the other to our Temporal and Spiritual Good Of those which relate to God's Glory the First desireth the advancement of this Glory it self Hallowed be thy Name The Second The means of effecting it Thy Kingdom come The Third The manifestation of it Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven I begin with the First of these Hallowed be thy Name In the Explication of which we shall enquire First What is to be understood by the Name of God Secondly What it is to Hallow this Name of God Thirdly What is contained in this Petition and what we pray for when we say Hallowed be thy Name First What is meant by the Name of God To this I Answer That the Name of God is any perfection ascribed to him whereby he hath been pleased to make himself known to the Sons of Men For Names are given to this very intent that they might declare what the thing is to which that Name doth belong Thus when God had created Adam and made him Lord of this visible World he caused the Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Air to pass before him as it were to do Homage to their new Sovereign and to receive Names from him which according to the plenitude and perfection of his knowledge did then aptly serve to express their several Natures and were not only Names but Definitions too So when mention is made in Scripture of the Name of God it signifies some expression of his infinite Essence in which he is pleased graciously to condescend to the weakness of our capacity and to spell out himself to us sometimes by one perfection and sometimes by another since it is utterly impossible for us finite Creatures to have a full and comprehensive knowledge of that Being which is infinite for so God is only known to himself being as infinite to all others so finite to his own Knowledge and Understanding And therefore he hath displayed before us his Name to give us some help and advantage to conceive somewhat of him though his Nature and Essence are in themselves incomprehensible to us and shall be so for ever even in Heaven it self Now this Name of God may well be distinguished into two sorts his Titles and his Attributes First His Titles are his Name and so he is in Scripture frequently called Jehovah God Lord Creator and the like and most of these his Titles are relative respecting us so his Name of Creator denotes his infinite Power giving Being to all things Lord and King signifie his Dominion and Authority in disposing and governing all that he hath made Father signifies his Care and Goodness in providing for his
Creatures Redeemer his Mercy and Grace in delivering them from Temporal Evils and Calamities or especially from Eternal Death and Destruction Now these relative Titles though they properly belong unto God yet are they not absolutely essential to him but connote a respect unto the Creatures And therefore though before the Creation of the World God was for ever the same infinitely Blessed Being that he now is and by the Creation of it no accession was made to his infinitely perfect Nature for in him there is no variableness nor shadow of turning but he is yesterday and to day and the same for ever yet could he not be called by the Name of Creator or Lord or Redeemer or Father unless in respect of his Eternal Son But all these Titles result from the Relations wherein we stand unto God of Creatures Subjects and Children These Names therefore had their beginning some in the beginning of time and some since and yet they do very properly signifie unto us that God who is without beginning or end Secondly As his Titles so his Attributes are his Name and these are of two sorts either incommunicable or communicable First The incommunicable Attributes of God and these are those which are so proper to the Divine Essence that there is scarce the least foot-steps or resemblance of them to be found in any of the Creatures and such are his Eternity which denotes a duration as well without beginning as without end For though there are some Creatures whose Beings shall never have a period set to them as Angels and Men yet there is no Creature that never had no beginning of its existence And so God's Infiniteness and Immensity filling all places and exceeding all which was most excellently set forth in that most significant yet unintelligible Paradox of the Heathen Philosopher That God was a Circle whose Centre was every where but its Circumference no where His simplicity also excluding all Composition and Mixture which no Creature doth for take the most simple of them as Angels and the separate Souls of Men yet they are at least compounded in their Essences and Powers and Acts for the Power of Understanding is not the Soul nor the Act of Understanding the Power therefore in these there is one thing and another But it is not so in God but whatsoever is in God is God himself being one most pure and simple Act. Hence follows his immutability and unchangeableness there being nothing in God which was not from all Eternity And in the same rank are his Omnipotency and All-sufficiency his Omniscience and Independency and the like which are incommunicable Attributes and cannot without Blasphemy be ascribed unto any of the Creatures Secondly There are other Attributes of God that are communicable and are so called because they may in some Analogy and Resemblance be found in the Creatures also so to be Holy Just Merciful True Powerful and the like are the Names of God and yet may be ascribed to the Creatures So in that most Triumphant Declaration of his Name to Moses Exod. 34.5 6 7. we find that the most of the Letters that compose it may be found in some degrees even among Men the Lord proclaimed his Name the Lord God Merciful and Gracious Long-suffering and Abundant in Goodness and Truth forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin Now this Name of God Merciful and Gracious Long-suffering and Abundant in Goodness which he seems so much to delight and glory in and which he adorns with such fair flourishes he himself would have us to own and intimate Luk. 6.36 Be ye merciful as your Father is merciful To aspire to a resemblance with God in his incommunicable Attributes and Name is a most horrid and blasphemous Presumption a Pride that cast the Devils from Heaven to Hell But to aspire to a resemblance unto God in his communicable Name is the tendency of Grace and the effect of the Spirit of God conforming us in some measure to his Purity and making us partakers in this sence of the Divine Nature And therefore it is press'd upon us Levit. 29.2 You shall be Holy for I the Lord your God am Holy And Mat. 5.48 Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Now these communicable Attributes of God though they may in some respects be found in the Creatures yet then are they properly the Names of God when they are applyed to him free from all those Imperfections with which they are necessarily attended in the Creatures Abstract them from all Imperfections and we may apply them to God as his Name Now these Imperfections are of two sorts either Privative or Negative A Creature is then said to be Privatively imperfect when he falls short of what he ought to be And so are the best of Men imperfect in this Life Merciful they are but still retain a mixture of Cruelty Patient they are but still they have Impatience mix'd with it Holy they are but yet not Spotless as the Law requires them to be And therefore in ascribing Holiness Mercy and Patience unto God we must be sure to separate from them all such Imperfections as are found in us through the mixture of the contrary Corruptions with those Graces otherwise they will be so far from being the Name of God that they will prove Blasphemous Derogatives from him neither is this enough but we must remove all Negative imperfections also Now a Creature is said to be Negatively imperfect when though it hath all the perfections that is due unto it or required from it yet it hath not all perfection that is possible or imaginable Thus the Holy Angels and the Spirits of just Men in Heaven although they are made perfect so as to exclude all Privative imperfection their Holiness and their Graces there being as perfect as they should be and as God requires from them yet have they a Negative imperfection that is there is some perfection of those Graces and of that Holiness further possible which they have not nor is it within the Sphere of their Natures to attain unto in which sence it is said Job 4.8 He chargeth his Angels with Folly that is not as if they wanted any Wisdom or Righteousness that was due unto their Natures but they had not all that Wisdom that was possible and so were at least Negatively imperfect In all perfections of the Creatures whether Angels or Men be they never so great or excellent there are Three imperfections that will necessarily attend them First That they have them not originally from themselves but derivatively from another who is the Author and Embellisher of their Natures Secondly That they have them not unchangeably but may not only increase but decrease yea or utterly lose them Thirdly That they have them not infinitely but in a stinted and limited measure Now in all the communicable Attributes of the Divine Nature remove from them these Three Negative Imperfections and then apply them
Feet of God and make their chiefest excellency it self do Homage to him that is King of kings and Lord of lords And so should we in all our serving of God do it with reverence and godly fear preserving upon our Hearts an awful sense and regard of the dreadful Majesty before whom we appear Sixthly The Will of God is done in Heaven with constancy and perseverance They serve God Day and Night Rev. 7.15 and are never weary of his work no more than they are of their own Happiness for his Service is their Happiness and their Obedience their Glory And thus should we pray and endeavour that we might do the Will of God constantly and perseveringly for it is perseverance that crowns all other Graces and God hath promised to Crown our perseverance with Glory and Eternal Life And thus we see briefly in these Six Particulars how the Will of God is done in Heaven To conclude this Is there no other nor lower Pattern set us than the perfect Obedience of Angels and Glorified Spirits Let us not then content our selves with a comparative Obedience and by measuring our selves with those that are worse think highly of our own Perfections Let us not applaud our selves with the boasting Pharisee with a Lord I thank thee I am not as other Men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers What is this to the Pattern that God hath set us for our imitation Perhaps thou dost but all this while compare thy self with those that are in Hell and dost God's Will not much better than such have done if this be all that thou canst plead for thy self Whereas God hath set thee Examples for thy imitation in Heaven Dost thou endeavour to do his Will as Seraphims and Cherubims and the whole Host of Blessed Spirits Thou livest it may be not so like a Devil as others do but dost thou live like an Angel Dost thou serve God with the same proportionable Zeal Ardency Delight and Constancy as those Holy Spirits do who always stand in the presence of God ready press'd to do his Will if not neither endeavourest after so high a degree of Obedience and Purity know that thy imitation of any lower Example than that of Heaven can never suffice to bring thee to Heaven And thus I have finished the Three first Petitions of this excellent Prayer namely those that relate unto God for the Petitions contained herein as I said in the beginning were such as immediately concerned God's Glory or such as immediately concerned our good The First I have already considered I now come to treat of those Petitions which immediately concern our own Good and that is either our Temporal or our Spiritual Good Our Temporal Good in praying for our daily Bread Our Spiritual Good in the two last Petitions wherein we pray for the Forgiveness of our Sins past and for Deliverance from Sin for time to come I begin with the First of these our Requests or Petitions for Temporal Blessings contained in the Fourth Petition Give us this Day our daily Bread and here I shall consider First The Order and then the Petition it self First The Order and that is remarkable upon two Accounts First Whereas this Petition is placed in the midst and encompassed about with others that relate unto Spiritual Blessings so that after we have prayed for the Glory of God our Saviour teacheth us to make mention of our Temporal Wants and so to pass on again to beg Spiritual Mercies for our Souls This may instruct us in the Government of our Lives to use worldy Comforts as here we pray for them Spiritual and Heavenly things are our greatest Concernments and should be our greatest care with these we should begin and with these we should end only God allows us the World as an Inn we may call in at it and refresh our selves with the Comforts and Accommodations that we find but we must not dwell nor set up our rest there We are all Strangers and Pilgrims upon Earth Heaven is our Country and thither we are travelling only in our Journey we may call and bait at the World and take what we find provided for us with Sobriety and Thankfulness And therefore this Bread that we here pray for is elsewhere called the Staff of Bread Psal 105.16 He brake the Staff of Bread Ezek. 5.6 I will break your Staff of Bread And all this is to put us in Mind that we are to ask for and to use these Earthly Enjoyments only as Travellers that make use of a Staff for their help and support whilst they are in their passage home And we are hereby also taught to crave no more than will suffice for our convenient Supplies otherwise we make our Staff our Burden and our Support it self a Load and Pressure Secondly It is observable that though we are commanded to seek first the Kingdom of God and its Righteousness with a Promise that all other Earthly things shall be added to us yet here our Saviour places the Petition for Temporal Blessings before the Two Petitions we present to God for Spiritual Blessings and this Order hath seemed so strange and incongruous to some that hereupon alone they have been moved to affirm that this Bread which we here ask is not any Temporal good thing but the Bread of Life even Jesus Christ himself as shall be shown more by and by Now this Order doth not intimate to us that Earthly Blessings are better and more considerable than Heavenly or that they should have the preference in our esteem or desires I hope there are none of us so brutish nor so far degenerated into Beasts as to account the poor Enjoyments of this Life more valuable than the Pardon of Sin and those Spiritual Mercies that are in a tendency to Eternal Life and Happiness But First Our Saviour useth this method in his Prayer in conformity to the method of Divine Providence towards us which first gives us Life and the necessities of it and then Orders us Spiritual and Heavenly Blessings as an accession and happy addition to those Natural good things he bestows upon us Secondly Because we are usually more sensible of our Temporal than of our Spiritual wants our Saviour therefore doth by degrees raise up our Desires by the one to the other for seeing we are commanded to pray for the supply even of our Temporal necessities which are but trivial in regard of the necessities of our Souls we cannot but be convinced that we ought to be much more earnest and importunate with God for Spiritual Mercies than for Temporal by how much our Spiritual wants are more important and of vaster consequence than our Temporal When therefore thou comest to this Petition think with thy self O Christian if I must pray fervently and affectionately for my daily Bread which can only nourish my vile Carcase for a few short years a Carcase that must notwithstanding all these recruits shortly moulder into Dust and it self become meat for Worms How
united force of Nature should they make head against God would but dash themselves in pieces by dashing against the Rock of ages whose Counsels and Purposes shall stand firm though all the World dissent from them and endeavour to oppose them yea the Power of God is so absolute and sovereign that the greatest Created Powers are but Instruments for God to make use of to bring about his own designs and therefore they are compared to Axes and Saws and Staves Esai 10.15 Shall the Ax boast it self against him that heweth therewith or shall the Saw magnifie it self against him that shaketh it Yea in verse 5. God is said to take up a great King and a great Nation only as a Rod to Chastise his People with O Assyrian the Rod of mine anger and the Staff in their hand is mine indignation And as a Staff a Rod or an Ax cannot move themselves without the hand and guidance of him that makes use of them So neither can the Mightiest Princes nor the most Powerful People move themselves but by the Power and Direction of God who applies them as so many Tools or Instruments to whatsoever work he pleaseth Now upon all these Accounts Power may be thus eminently ascribed unto God Thine is the Power Yet when we affirm God's Power to be thus Sovereign and Infinite it doth not therefore follow that it must take all things whatsoever within its reach and extent for there are several things which as St. Austin speaks lib. 5. de Civitate Dei cap. 10. God cannot do because he is Omnipotent Quaedam Deus non potest quia est Omnipotens First God cannot do the things that are contradictory He cannot Will the same thing to be and not be at the same time That there should be a Body without quantity or any other Corporeal property belonging to it as the Papists absurdly dream in their Monstrous Doctrine of Transubstantiation for when they have recourse to the Almighty Power of God by which they say That those things which are naturally impossible may be effected As for the same Body to be in ten thousand places at once For the same Body to have quantity as it hath in Heaven and no quantity as in the Sacrament We truly Answer that the Power of God never reacheth to verifie contradictions and that it is as great a contradiction to affirm a Body to be in more places than one at once or to be and not to have quantity especially to have it and not to have it as it is to affirm that it is a Body and no Body Secondly God cannot do any thing which may justly bring upon him the imputation of sin for sin is not from Power but from Weakness since all Impiety consists of defect and all defect is from impotence And therefore the Apostle tells us James 1.13 God cannot be tempted with evil Holiness and Purity is an essential Attribute of the Divine Essence and therefore God can as soon not be as be the Author of sin for all sin must arise either from weakness in the understanding or perverseness in the Will but the Divine Vnderstanding is infinitely clear and therefore cannot be dazled with the false shews and appearances of evil and the Divine Will is infinitely Holy and conformed to the Sovereign Rule of his Sapience and Wisdom And therefore where there is no possibility of ignorance in the one nor of irregularity in the other there can be no obliquity in those Actions which proceed from both but they must all needs be most Holy Just and Righteous Thirdly God cannot do any thing that argues him mutable and unconstant He cannot change his purposes nor break his Promises nor alter the thing that is gone out of his Lips And tho' the Scripture makes frequent mention of God's Repenting himself of what he hath done So we read Gen. 6.6 It repented the Lord that he made Man Exod. 32.19 The Lord repented of the Evil that he thought to do unto his People 2 Sam. 24.16 And the Lord repented him of the evil Yet these and such like expressions are spoken only by way of Accommodation to our Capacities and spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compassionately and after the manner of Men but must be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after such a manner as is befitting God For as Men when they repent of what they have made do again destroy it and act contrary to their former actings So because God doth sometimes act contrary to his former actings he is said to Repent of what he had done although in strict propriety of Speech the immutability of his Essence is such that all his purposes and Counsels stand firm and fixed for ever Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not James 1.17 With him is no variableness nor shadow of turning And therefore because of this Eternal fixedness of God's purpose it is said That he cannot deny himself 2 Tim. 2.13 That he cannot lye Tit. 1.2 and that it is impossible that God should lye Heb. 6.18 because these things imply inconstancy and fickleness which is always an effect of weakness for whensoever we alter our Counsels and Resolutions it is because we see some inconvenience would follow upon them which we did not before consider which to impute to God were the highest Blasphemy Now these three things only excepted all other things in the World fall within the compass of God's Power He is able to do all things as Origen speaks excellently the doing whereof would not deny him to be God or to be Holy or to be Wise And therefore he cannot bring to pass contradictions nor can he alter his Eternal Purposes for this would derogate from his infinite Wisdom He cannot be the Author of sin for this would be a stain and blot upon his infinite Purity and Holiness and both would be impotency rather than Power and were he weak enough to do those things he would not be God for it is Essential to God to be infinitely Wise and infinitely Holy Let us now briefly shew how this consideration of the Power of God may be made use of as a prevalent Argument for the strengthening of our Faith in Prayer and the assuring of us that we shall obtain what we ask for our Saviour hath taught us to subjoyn it to all our Petitions as a Reason why we should ask and as a motive why we should speed For thine is the Power Now the great strength of this lies here in that it must needs be a mighty encouragement to our Faith to reflect and consider that whatsoever we ask we ask it of a God that is able to give it us he is not a weak impotent Deity but a God who hath all Power in his hands and therefore can effect whatsoever we desire of him Behold what care God hath taken to strengthen our Faith when we pray unto him There are but two things that can make us doubt of speeding in our Requests
17.12 A Glorious high Throne from the beginning is the place of our Sanctuary Yea not only his Throne but that which might seem more despicable his very Foot-stool is Glorious Esa 6.13 I will make the place of my Feet Glorious Now this Essential Glory of God is both immutable and incomprehensible First The Essential Glory of God is immutable the same for ever no addition can be made unto it nor no diminution from it for before there were ever any Creatures extant God was the same Glorious Being that now he is Our Praises and Acknowledgements can no more contribute to this Glory than the Eye that sees the Sun can increase the Light of it for God's Attributes that are his Glory are no adventitious accidental things that may be assumed or laid aside at pleasure but they are all as necessary as his Nature is And therefore though he be said to cloath himself with Light and Glory as with a Garment yet is it a Garment that cannot be put on or off But whatsoever God is in any one moment of Eternity the same he is from all Eternity unto all Eternity He is the Lord who changeth not and with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning Indeed there are some Titles in God's Style which seem not to have been always appertaining to him and in respect of his Eternal Being may appear as new Stars in the Heavens and argue some alteration and change in his Glory as to be Creator the Lord and Governor of this World which he was not from all Eternity nor could be till the Creatures were formed But here we must carefully distinguish between the Absolute and Relative Attributes of God His Absolute Titles and Attributes are such as belong unto him simply without depending upon any respect or reference to any thing without and besides himself and so he is Infinite Eternal Wise Holy and Merciful in himself and was so for ever before there were any Created Objects unto which or upon which he might manifest these his Attributes But now the Relative Titles of God have a time wherein they began and wherein they shall likewise cease as to be a Creator and Preserver of the World as it now stands wherein though there may be daily mutations yet God is the same immutable because these are only extrinsecal denominations and arise merely from that change that is made upon the Creature not from any change that is made in God for still his Power is the same whether he exert it in Creating or no His Wisdom is invariably the same before he manifested it in the Government of the World as since and in all the mutations that he brings upon the World he is still the same immutable and unchangeable God Only as those who Sail think the Shore removes when it is but the Ship So are we subject to the same mistakes and are apt to think God is changed when only our selves are changed that he moves from not being a Creator to be a Creator when in Truth we only move from not being Creatures to be Creatures And therefore when we say God is now a Creator which once he was not it implieth no more change in God than it would in any Object which now is seen which before was not seen and this is only a different external denomination that makes no real change in the thing But it may be these Speculations are too abstruse and therefore I shall not detain you longer in them Secondly As the Essential Glory of God is immutable so is it also incomprehensible for it is infinite and the entire perfection of the Deity It is the very Face of God and therefore Exod. 33.15 When Moses desired God to shew him his Glory God Answers him in the 20 verse Thou canst not see my Face for there can no Man see my Face and live And although the Angels in Heaven and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect have brighter and more radient discoveries made unto them of the Glory of God than any that we can bear yet neither they nor any other Creature can possibly comprehend the full Latitude and utmost extent of that Glory any more than it is possible for a finite thing to contain what is infinite And hence it follows that when the Scripture promiseth us as one great part of our Reward that we shall see God as he is 1 John 3.7 We must not understand it as if ever we could arrive to such a capacity as to see and know God as he is in his infinite Essence for God's Essence being altogether indivisible to know God essentially were to know him comprehensively to know him as much as he is to be known in himself that is to know him as much as he knows himself which is impossible for no finite Understanding can comprehend an infinite Object And yet our sight and knowledge of God shall so far surmount those dim and glimmering discoveries which here he makes of himself to us that comparatively the Apostle might well call it a seeing him as he is and a knowing him as we are known by him And thus much for the Essential Glory of God which is himself and his own Infinite and Eternal Excellencies and Perfections But besides this Secondly There is another Glory of God and that is his Declarative Glory which is nothing else but that visible Splendor and Lustre that reflects from his Essential Glory upon the notice and admiration of his Creatures So that there is a very great difference between God's being Glorious and being Glorified God is always equally Glorious in himself so he was before the Foundations of the World were laid Before ever there were any Creatures to Celebrate his Praise But he is Glorified by his Creatures declaring and setting forth the infinite Excellencies that are in his Essence We cannot set any new Gems in his Diadem which did not shine there before but when we observe and admire those several coruscations of his Attributes which appear in those various methods that God takes to manifest them then are we said to give Glory unto God His Holiness is always the same but when we endeavour to imitate it then we Glorifie it His Power is always the same but we Glorifie it when we depend upon it His Mercy and Goodness is always the same but we are said to Glorifie it when we praise and extol it And therefore God tells us Psal 50.23 Whoso offereth Praise Glorifieth me We can add nothing to God by all the Glory that we ascribe unto him but then we are said to give him Glory when we admire and adore and celebrate those Glories that are in him And so St. John 12.28 Christ prays Father Glorifie thy Name that is make thine Essential Glory the Glory and Brightness of thine Attributes conspicuous to the World to which Request there was an Answer returned from Heaven I have both Glorified it and will Glorifie it again that is
What is the Vniversal Kingdom or Church of God A. It is a Company of true Believers who have Eternal and Invisible Communion with God by his Spirit and their Faith Q. What observe you of both A. Its Mixture and Imperfection for in the Visible Church there is a great Mixture of Persons the Bad with the Good in the Invisible there is a great Mixture in Persons of Evil with Good and Sin with Grace Q. You have formerly told us that the Church of Christ in its Progress is the Church Militant either Visible or Invisible and that the Church of Christ in its Consummation is the Church Triumphant What is this Church Triumphant A. The general Assembly of such glorious Angels as never fell and such glorified Saints as are raised from their Fall Q. What is that Kingdom which in this Petition we pray may come A. Not the Universal Kingdom of God which is the VVorld for his Dominion therein is always the same but onely the peculiar Kingdom which is his Church and more especially that part of it which is Militant on Earth Q. In what Respects may God's Kingdom be said to come A. In Three 1. First In respect of the Means of Grace and Salvation which are the VVord and Sacraments for where these are dispersed there God's Kingdom is erected 2. Secondly In respect of the Efficacy of this Means in the Conversion of Sinners whereby they are brought into the Invisible Kingdom of Christ 3. Thirdly In respect of the Perfection of this Kingdom for then God's Kingdom comes when the Saint's Graves are increased when their Souls are received into Heaven and when both Souls and Bodies are consummated in Glory Q. What do we pray for when we say Thy Kingdom come A. 1. First That God should plant his Church where it is not That all the Kingdoms of the Earth may become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ 2. Secondly That his Ordinances may be purely and powerfully administred his word truly preached which is the Law of his Kingdom and his Sacraments duely dispens'd which are the Seals of it 3. Thirdly That God would send into his Church able and faithfull Ministers to be faithfull Stewards of the Mysteries of the Gospel 4. Fourthly That the Ministery of the Word may be successfull to the Conversion of those that hear it 5. Fifthly That all the Churches of Christ may be kept from Errour Schism Superstition and Idolatry and that true Doctrine and due Discipline may be continued in them to the End of the World Q. But may we not pray also for the Church Triumphant in Heaven A. We may for the fulfilling of what is promised 1. First That the Number of them may be compleated 2. Secondly That their Persons may be compleated That the Bodies of those Saints which now sleep in the Dust may be raised united to their Souls and both made Eternally glorious in the Kingdom of Heaven Q. Is not this praying for the Dead so justly condemned of Popish Superstition A. No for we pray not for another State as the Papists do when they pray for Souls to be delivered out of Purgatory but we pray for the Perfection of the same State in which the Souls of the Faithful already are we pray not for their Release out of Torments but for a joyfull Resurrection which both they and we expect and whatsoever may be the Object of our Faith and Hope may well be the Subject of our Prayers Q. Which is the third Petition A. Thy VVill be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Q. How is the Will of God distinguisht A. Into the Will of his Purpose or the Will of his Precept or into his secret and revealed Will. Q. What is the Will of God's Purpose A. His Eternal Counsels and Decrees whereby he hath fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass Q. What is the Will of Gods Precept A. His holy Laws contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament wherein he hath revealed to us the Duties we ought to perform for the obtaining of Eternal Life Q. How do these two Wills differ A. 1. First In that there are many things which God wills by his VVill of Purpose that he hath not willed by his VVill of Precept For God commands nothing but what is Holy yet he purposeth to permit many things that are Evil. 2. Secondly In that we may effectually resist his Will of Precept so as to hinder the Accomplishment of it as we do whensoever we sin but we cannot resist the Will of God's Purpose though many times to endeavour it is our indispensible Duty Q. Ought not the Will of the Creature to be conformed to the Will of God in all things A. Yes to the Will of his Precept for that alone is the Rule of our Obedience But in all things to conform to the Will of his Purpose may involve us in the greatest Guilt Acts 2.23 Being delivered by the determinate Counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain Q. Is there not then a manifest repugnance between God's Will of Purpose and of Precept A. No for the Object of God's VVill of Purpose is Event but of his VVill of Precept Duty and it is no contradiction for God to will or permit that to be which he hath willed or commanded us not to do Q. Which of these do we pray may be done A. VVe especially and absolutely pray that the VVill of God's Precept may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Q. What considerations may excite us to be earnest in this Request A. First because there is a great reluctancy in our corrupt Nature against the holy VVill of God therefore we ought earnestly to pray that he by his Grace would subdue it Secondly because the Glory of God is deeply concern'd in doing his Will for by this we own his Sovereignty and our Subjection to his Laws and Kingdom Thirdly because our own Interest is deeply concern'd in it for it is onely by doing his Will we can inherit the Promises Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments Q. Ought we not absolutely to pray that God's Will of Purpose may be done A. No And that because many things are brought to pass by this Will which we ought to pray against as Temporal Evils and the Permission of Sin Q. How then do the Saints in Scripture pray for the Accomplishment of this Will of God as in 1 Sam. 3.18 And Samuel told him every whit and hid nothing from him and he said It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 2 Sam. 15.26 But if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him Acts 21.14 And when he would not be perswaded we ceased saying The Will of the Lord be done And our Saviour Luke 22.42 Saying Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless
Power in it self infinite A. It is for his Power is his Essence Q. How doth it appear that God's Power is infinite A. 1. By the Works of Creation for it requires an infinite Power to bring something out of nothing 2. By the many Miracles which have been wrought in the World above and contrary to the Course of Nature Q. How then have many Men wrought Miracles as Moses Elijah and the Apostles A. They wrought them not by any proper Vertue of their own but onely as the Moral Instruments at whose Presence or Intercession God was pleased to manifest his Power as a Seal to that Commission they had received from him Q. Is God's Power infinite likewise in the common Effects of Nature A. It is for it is no less Power that preserves and moves the Creatures than did at first Create them Q. Is there nothing impossible with God A. Yes there are several things which God cannot do because he is Omnipotent Q. What are they A. Such as in the General the doing of them would deny him to be God or to be holy or to be wise Q. What are they more particularly A. God cannot do things that are contradictory or rather such things cannot be done as to make the same thing to be and not to be at the same time or that the same Body should at once have quantity and extension in Heaven and no quantity nor extension in the Host as the Papists affirm of their breaden God for this were contrary to his Wisdom 2. God cannot do any thing that may justly bring upon him the Imputation of Sin for this were contrary to his Holiness 3. God cannot do any thing that may argue him mutable and inconstant for this were contrary to his Being 2 Tim. 2.13 If we believe not yet he abideth faithfull he cannot deny himself Heb. 6.18 That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye Q. Is it not a Diminution of the Power of God that he cannot do those things A. No for these things argue Weakness and Defect not Power Q. Why hath our Saviour taught us to subjoin this Acknowledgment of the Power of God to our Petitions A. To encourage our Faith by considering that whatsoever we ask we ask it of a God who is able to give it us yea and to do for us abundantly above whatsoever we are able to ask or think Q. What is the third Attribute ascribed to God in the Doxology A. Glory in these words And the Glory Q. What is Glory A. Glory is any Perfection or Excellency that either is or deserves to be accompanied with Fame and Renown Q. How is God's Glory distinguished A. Into his Essential and Declarative Glory Q. What is the Essential Glory of God A. All those Attributes which Eternally and Immutably belong unto the Divine Nature So Holiness is his Glory Exod. 15.11 Glorious in Holiness His Power is his Glory 2 Thes 1.9 They shall be punished from i. e. by the Glory of his Power His Majesty is his Glory Psal 145.11 I will speak of the glorious Honour of thy Majesty His Grace and Mercy is his Glory Ephes 1.6 To the Praise of the Glory of his Grace And from all these united results the Glory of his Name Deut. 28.58 That thou mayest fear this Glorious and Fearfull Name the Lord thy God Q. What is the Declarative Glory of God A. The Manifestation of his Attributes so that they are observed to his Praise and Honour Q. What is it to glorify God A. To glorifie God is to admire and celebrate the Divine Attributes shining forth in those ways and works wherein he is pleased to express them Q. Do we by glorifying God add any thing to his Glory A. We can neither add unto nor diminish from the Essential Glory of God for his infinite Perfections are the same for ever But we may add to his Declarative Glory by setting forth his Attributes and we detract from it by hindering the Manifestation of them Q. By what Means doth God declare his Glory A. By three especially 1. By his Works Psal 19.1 The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy Work 2. By his Word which discovers to us those Attributes which we could never have known by the Works of Creation and Providence and therefore both Law and Gospel are said to be glorious 2 Cor. 3.9 For if the Ministration of Condemnation be Glory much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness exceed in Glory 3. By his Son who is the Brightness of his Glory Heb. 13. Who being the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person And in whom the Perfections of the God-head are most visibly displayed Q. Why doth our Saviour in the Doxology peculiarly appropriate Glory unto God Thine is the Glory A. For three Reasons 1. Because all that is excellent and glorious in the Creatures is in God infinitely more perfect than in them being neither limited by his Nature nor allayed with Contraries 1 John 1.5 That God is Light and in him is no Darkness at all 2. Because all Glory in respect of God is but Darkness and Obscurity Job 25.5 Behold even to the Moon and it shineth not yea the Stars are not pure in his Sight 3. Because all the Excellencies and Glories of Creatures serve onely to set forth and declare the Glory of God Q Why hath our Saviour added the Acknowledgment of God s Glory at the End of the Petitions he hath taught us to present A. That the Consideration thereof may be a Means to strengthen our Faith for the obtaining those good things which we pray for Q. How is the Consideration of the Glory of God an Argument to strengthen our Faith in Prayer A. Many ways according to the Petitions we prefer 1. The Glory is God's therefore his Name shall be hallowed for to sanctifie the Name of God is to glorifie him Lev. 10.3 I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the People I will be glorified 2. The Glory is God's and therefore his Kingdom shall come for where should a King be honoured but in his Kingdom 3. The Glory is God's therefore his Will shall be done for our Obedience is the greatest Glory we can give John 15.8 Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much Fruit so shall ye be my Disciples 4. The Glory is God's and therefore he will provide for us daily Bread for it is not God's Honour that any of his Family should want things convenient for them Exod. 16.7 And in the Morning then shall ye see the Glory of the Lord. 5. The Glory is God's and therefore he will forgive our Trespasses for it is his Honour and Royalty to pardon penitent Offenders Prov. 19 11. And it is his Glory to pass over a Transgression Ephes 1.6 7. To the Praise of the Glory of his Grace Vers 7. In whom we have Redemption through his
by our Prayers we shall receive in his Service and to his Praise Psal 50.15 And call upon me in the Day of Trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Q. What directions have we concerning the Seasons and Frequency of praying A. The Scripture commands us to pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5.17 Pray without ceasing To pray always and not to faint Luke 18.1 And he spake a Parable to this end that Men ought always to pray and not to faint To pray always with all Prayer and Supplication Ephes 6.18 Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit Q. Must we therefore be always so actually ingaged in this Duty as to do nothing but pray A. No For therefore we pray that we may obtain Grace from God to perform other Duties of Religion and a Christian Life neither ought the Duties of our particular Callings to be neglected by us for we justle out one Duty by another besides the sinfull Omission of what we should perform that which we do perform becomes unacceptable because unseasonable and so we commit two Sins in doing one Duty Q. What then is it to pray without ceasing A. Prayer may be said to be without ceasing four ways 1. When we observe a constant Course of a Prayer at fixt and appointed Times Thus Gen. 8. ult God promised that Winter and Summer Day and Night should not cease And so the daily Sacrifice is called a continual burnt-offering Exod. 29.42 And yet it was offered onely Morning and Evening 2. When we are frequent and importunate in our Prayers so Acts 12.5 The Church is said to make Prayers for Peter without ceasing And our Saviour spake the Parable of the importunate Widow to this end That men ought always to pray and not to faint Luke 18.1 3. When we frequently dart up short mental Prayers and Ejaculations unto God which we may and ought to do whatsoever else we are employed about Neh. 2.4 So I prayed to the God of Heaven 4. When we keep our hearts in a praying Frame and Temper so that they are on all Occasions fit and ready to pour out themselves before God in Prayer and thus we habitually pray always Q. What must we observe to maintain and cherish such a praying Spirit A. Two things especially 1. That we ingulf not our selves too deeply in the Businesses and Pleasures of this Life for these will dark and deaden the heart to Prayer 2. That we fall not into the Commission of any known and presumptuous Sin For guilt will fill us with slavish Fear and Shame and both will drive us from God Q. What are the kinds of Prayer A. Three 1. Publick As we are Members of the Church 2. Private As we stand engaged in Family Relation And 3. Secret As we are particular Christians Q. Who is to send up publick Prayers A. The Minister and all the Congregation joining with him And these Prayers though they must needs be more general yet with all are more effectual than any other Matt. 18.19 Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on Earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven Q. Who is to make private or family Prayers A. Every Master and Governour of a Family And this he is not to do seldomer than every Morning and Evening In the Morning Prayer is the Key that opens the Treasury of God's Mercies In the Evening it is the Key that shuts us up under his Protection and Safe-guard TWO SERMONS Preached by the same AUTHOR A Discourse upon Providenec Matth. x. 29 30. Are not two Sparrows sold for a Farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father But the very Hairs of your Head are all numbred THe Mystery of God's Providence next to that of Man's Redemption is the most Sublime and Inscrutable 'T is easie in both to run our selves off our Reason For as Reason confesseth it self at a loss when it attempts a search into those Eternal decrees of electing Sinners to Salvation and designing Christ to save them so must it likewise when it attempts to trace out all those entangled Mazes and Labyrinths wherein the Divine Providence walks We may sooner tire reason in such a pursuit than satisfie it unless it be some kind of satisfaction when we have driven it to a Non-plus to relieve our selves with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out This knowledge therefore being too wonderful for us I shall not presume to conduct you into that secret Place that pavillion of Clouds and surrounding Darkness where God sits holding the Rudder of the World and steering it through all the Floatings of Casualty and Contingency to his own foreordained ends where he grasps and turns the great Engine of Nature in his hands fastening one Pin and loosing another moving and removing the several Wheels of it and framing the whole according to the Eternal Idea of his own understanding Let us content us to consider so much of God's Providence as may affect us with comfort in reflecting on that particular care which he takes of us rather than with wonder and astonishment by too bold a prying into those hidden methods whereby he exerciseth it Our Saviour Christ in this Chapter giving Commission to his Apostles and sending them forth to preach the Gospel obviates an Objection they might make concerning the great danger that would certainly attend such an undertaking To send them upon such an hated employment would be no other than to thrust them upon the Rage and Malice of the World to send them forth as Sheep into the midst of Wolves who would doubtless worry and devour them sure we are to have our Message derided our Persons injured and that holy name of thine on which we summon them to believe Blasphemed and Reviled and tho our word may prove a word of life to some few of the Hearers yet to us who are the Preachers of it it will prove no other than Death A vile and wretched world the whilest when the Gospel of Peace and Reconciliation shall thus stir up Enmity and Persecution against the Embassadours who are appointed to Proclaim it Now to this our Saviour Answers First By shewing what the extent of their Adversaries power is how far it can reach and what mischief it can do when God permits it to rage to the very utmost And this he doth in the 28th Verse the verse immediately foregoing the Text Fear not them who kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul Or as St. Luke expresseth it Chap. 12.4 They can kill the Body but after that have no more they can do Alas are such Men to be feared who when they do their worst can only destroy your worst part which if they do not yet Accidents
illapse and penetration of the Divine Influence he powerfully sways and determines them which way he pleaseth And from this part of his Providence brancheth forth his permission of Evil Actions and his concurrence to good both by the assistance of his common and likewise of his special Grace and lastly his general influence into all the Actions of our Lives all which we are inabled to perform by the Almighty power of the Divine Providence which as at first it bestowed upon us natural faculties so by a constant concurrence doth exite and assist those faculties to their respective operations Secondly God by his governing providence distributes rewards and punishments according to our actions And this part of his providence is oftentimes remarkable even in this present Life when we see retributions of Divine Mercy and Vengeance signally proportioned according to Mens demerits but the more especial manifestation and execution of it is commonly adjourned to the Life to come and then all the seeming inequalities of God's dispensations here will be fully adjusted in the eternal recompence of the Godly and eternal punishment of the wicked and impenitent Now by this Almighty providence God over-rules and sways all things to his own glory There is nothing comes to pass but God hath his ends in it and will certainly make his own ends out of it though the World seem to run at random and affairs to be hudled together in blind confusion and rude disorder yet God sees and knows the Concatenation of all causes and effects and so governs them that he makes a perfect harmony out of all those seeming Jarrings and Discords As you may observe it in the wheels of a Watch though they all move with contrary motions one to the other yet they are useful and necessary to make it go right so is it in these inferiour things the proceedings of Divine providence are all regular and orderly to his own ends in all the thwartings and contrarieties of second causes We have this express'd in that mysterious Vision Eccles 1.18 where the providences of God are set forth by the Emblem of a Wheel within a Wheel one intersecting and crossing another yet they are described to be full of eyes round about What is this but to denote unto us that though providences are as turning and unstable as Wheels though they are as thwart and cross as one Wheel within another yet these Wheels are all Nailed round with Eyes God sees and chuses his way in the most intricate and intangled providences that are and so governs all things that whilst each pursues its own inclination they are all over-ruled to promote his glory This is providence the two great parts of which are preservation and Government and the great end of both these the glory of the Almighty and All-wise God And this is it which our Saviour speaks of when he tells the Jews John 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto viz. in preserving and governing his Creatures and I work Secondly The second General propounded was to demonstrate to you That all things in the World are governed by the Divine Providence The Old Philosophers among the Heathens had very different notions concerning the Government of the World Some held that all things were governed by an imperious and inevitable fate to which God himself was Subject So Chrysippus and the Stoicks Others thought that all was left to blind chance and whatsoever came to pass here below was only casual and fortuitous so the Epicureans Others that the great God regarded only the more glorious affairs of Heaven but had committed the care of Earthly concernments unto inferiour Spirits as his under Officers and Deputies So most of the Platonists though their master was Orthodox Others that God's providence reached only to the great and important matters of this World but that it was too much a disparagement to his infinite Majesty to look after the motion of every Straw and Feather and to take care of every trivial and inconsiderable Occurrence in this World So speaks Cicero in his Book de natura Deorum Magna Dii curant parva neglignut vide Ariani Epictet lib. 1. cap. 12. How much better is that most excellent saying of St. Austin Tu sic curas unumquemque nostrum tanquam solum cures sic omnes tanquam singulos God takes as much care of every particular as if each were all and as much care of all as if all were but one particular And to demonstrate this all disposing providence of God I shall take two ways First From the consideration of the nature and perfection of the Deity Secondly From the contemplation of that beauty and order which we may observe in the World It is most necessary that we should have our hearts well Establish'd in the firm and unwavering belief of this truth that whatsoever comes to pass be it good or evil we may look up to the hand and disposal of all to God and if it be good may acknowledge it with praise if evil bear it with patience since he dispenseth both the one and the other the good to reward us and the evil to try us Now first To demonstrate it from the being and nature of God This I shall do in these following Propositions which I shall lay down as so many steps and gradations First That there is a God is undoubtedly clear by the light of Nature Never was there any People so barbarous and stupid but did firmly assent to this truth without any other proof than the deep impress upon their hearts and the observation of visible objects that there was a Deity 'T is neither a Problem of reason nor yet strictly an Article of Faith but the unforced dictate of every Man 's Natural Conscience where Conscience is not violently perverted and under the force of those vices whose interest it is that there should be no God Never was there any Nation that worshipp'd none but their great sottishness was that they worshipp'd many Secondly As all confess there is a God so likewise that this God must necessarily have in himself all perfections as being the first Principle and Source of all things All these perfections of Wisdom Power Knowledge or the like that we see scattered up and down among the Creatures must all be concentred in God and that in a far more eminent degree because whatever is found in Creatures is but derived and borrowed from him and therefore it must needs follow that because it is of more perfection to be infinite in each perfection therefore God is infinite in them all Thirdly Among all the perfections that are dispersed among the Creatures the most excellent is knowledge and understanding For this is a property that agrees only to Angels and Men who are the top and flower of the Creation and therefore certainly this perfection of the Creatures is to be found in God yea and that infinitely His knowledge and wisdom therefore is infinite Fourthly His knowledge