office We must come to some supream Judge who can Judge Conscience it self As a man can have no surer evidence that he is a being than because he thinks he is a thinking being So there is no surer evidence in nature that there is a God than that every man hath a natural principle in him which continually cites him before God and puts him in mind of him and makes him one way or other fear him and reflects upon him whether he will or no A man hath less power over his Conscience than over any other faculty He may choose whether he will exercise his understanding about or move his will to such an object but he hath no such Authority over his Conscience he cannot limit it or cause it to cease from acting and reflecting and therefore both that and the law about which it acts are settled by some supream Authority in the mind of man and this is God Fourthly IV. The evidence of a God results from the vastness of desires in man and the real dissatisfaction he hath in every thing below himself Man hath a boundless appetite after some Soveraign Good As his understanding is more capacious than any thing below so is his Appetite larger This affection of desire exceeds all other affections Love is determined to something known Fear to something apprehended but Desires approach nearer to Infiniteness and pursue not only what we know or what we have a glimps of but what we find wanting in what we already enjoy That which the desire of man is most naturally carryed after is Bonum some fully satisfying good We desire knowledge by the sole impulse of reason but we desire Good before the excitement of reason and the desire is always after Good but not always after Knowledge Now the Soul of man finds an imperfection in every thing here and cannot scrape up a perfect satisfaction and felicity In the highest fruitions of worldly things t is still pursuing something else which speaks a defect in what it already hath The world may afford a felicity for our dust the body but not for the inhabitant in it t is two mean for that Is there any one Soul among the Sons of men that can upon a due enquiry say it was at rest and wanted no more that hath not sometimes had desires after an immaterial Good The Soul follows hard after such a thing and hath frequent looks after it Psal 63.8 Man desires a stable Good but no sublunary thing is so And he that doth not desire such a Good wants the rational nature of a man This is as natural as Understanding Will and Conscience Whence should the Soul of man have those desires How came it to understand that something is still wanting to make its nature more perfect if there were not in it some notion of a more perfect being which can give it rest Can such a capacity be supposed to be in it without something in being able to satisfie it If so the noblest Creature in the world is miserablest and in a worse condition than any other Other Creatures obtain their ultimate desires they are filled with good Psal 104.28 And shall man only have a vast desire without any possibility of enjoyment Nothing in man is in vain He hath objects for his affections as well as affections for objects Every Member of his body hath its end and doth attain it Every affection of his Soul hath an object and that in this World and shall there be none for his desire which comes nearest to infinite of any affection planted in him This boundless desire had not its original from man himself Nothing would render it self restless something above the bounds of this world implanted those desires after a higher Good and made him restless in every thing else And since the Soul can only rest in that which is infinite there is something infinite for it to rest in Since nothing in the world though a man had the whole can give it a satisfaction there is something above the world only capable to do it otherwise the Soul would be always without it and be more in vain than any other Creature There is therefore some infinite being that can only give a contentment to the Soul and this is God And that goodness which implanted such desires in the Soul would not do it to no purpose and mock it in giving it an infinite desire of satisfaction without intending it the pleasure of enjoyment if it doth not by its own folly deprive it self of it The felicity of human nature must needs exceed that which is allotted to other Creatures 4. And last Reason Fourth Reason As t is a folly to deny that which all Nations in the World have consented to which the frame of the world evidenceth which man in his Body Soul Operations of Conscience witnesseth to So t is a folly to deny the Being of God which is witnessed unto by extraordinary occurrences in the world 1. In extraordinary Judgments When a just revenge follows abominable crimes especially when the Judgment is suted to the sin by a strange Concatenation and succession of Providences methodized to bring such a particular punishment When the sin of a Nation or person is made legible in the inflicted Judgment which testifies that it cannot be a casual thing The Scripture gives us an account of the necessity of such Judgments to keep up the reverential thoughts of God in the World Psal 9.16 The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes the wicked is snared in the work of his own hand And Jealousy is the name of God Exod. 34.14 Whose name is Jealous He is distinguisht from false Gods by the Judgments which he sends as men are by their names Extraordinary Prodigies in many Nations have been the Heralds of extraordinary Judgments and presages of the particular Judgments which afterwards they have felt of which the Roman Histories and others are full That there are such things is undeniable and that the events have been answerable to the threatning unless we will throw away all human Testimonies and count all the Histories of the World Forgeries Such things are evidences of some invisible Power which orders those affairs And if there be invisible Powers there is also an efficacious cause which moves them A Government certainly there is among them as well as in the world and then we must come to some supream Governour which presides over them Judgments upon notorious offenders have been evident in all ages The Scripture gives many instances I shall only mention that of Herod Agrippa which Josephus mentions * Lib. 19. Antiq. Act. 12.21.22.23 He receives the flattering applause of the people and thought himself a God But by the suddain stroak upon him was forced by his torture to confess another I am God saith he in your account but a higher calls me away The will of the Heavenly Deity is to be endured The Angel
Minds and Consciences of Men as the Author of Nature for the preservation of the World manifests the Holiness of the Law-maker and Governour 2. His Holiness appears in the Ceremonial Law In the variety of Sacrifices for Sin wherein he writ his detestation of Vnrighteousness in bloody Characters His Holiness was more constantly exprest in the continual Sacrifices than in those rarer sprinklings of Judgments now and then upon the World which often reached not the worst but the most moderate Sinners and were the occasions of the questioning of the Righteousness of his Providence both by Jews and Gentiles In Judgments his Purity was only now and then manifest By his long Patience he might be imagin'd by some reconcil'd to their Crimes or not much concern'd in them but by the Morning and Evening Sacrifice he witness'd a perpetual and uninterrupted Abhorrence of whatsoever was Evil. Besides those the occasional Washings and Sprinklings upon Ceremonial Defilements which polluted only the Body gave an evidence that every thing that had a resemblance to Evil was loathsom to him Add also the Prohibitions of eating such and such Creatures that were filthy as the Swine that wallowed in the Mire a fit Emblem for the prophane and brutish Sinner which had a Moral signification both of the loathsomness of Sin to God and the aversion themselves ought to have to every thing that was filthy 3. This Holiness appears in the Allurements annex'd to the Law for keeping it and the Affrightments to restrain from the breaking of it Both Promises and Threatnings have their Fundamental Root in the Holiness of God and are both Branches of this peculiar Perfection As they respect the Nature of God they are Declarations of his hatred of Sin and his love of Righteousness the one belong to his Threatnings the other to his Promises both joyn together to represent this Divine Perfection to the Creature and to excite to an imitation in the Creature In the one God would render Sin odious because dangerous and curb the practice of Evil which would otherwise be Licentious In the other he would commend Righteousness and excite a love of it which would otherwise be cold By these God sutes the two great Affections of Men Fear and Hope both the branches of Self-love in Man The Promises and Threatnings are both the Branches of Holiness in God The end of the Promises is the same with the Exhortation the Apostle concludes from them 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God As the end of Precepts is to direct the end of Threatnings is to deter from Iniquity so that of the Promises is to allure to Obedience Thus God breaths out his Love to Righteousness in every Promise his Hatred of Sin in every Threatning The Rewards offerd in the one are the Smiles of pleased Holiness and the Curses thundred in the other are the Sparklings of enraged Righteousness 4. His Holiness appears in the Judgments inflicted for the violation of this Law Divine Holiness is the Root of Divine Justice and Divine Justice is the Triumph of Divine Holiness Hence both are expressed in Scripture by one word of Righteousness which sometimes signifies the rectitude of the Divine Nature and sometimes the vindicative stroak of his Arm Psal 103.6 The Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgment for all that are oppressed So Dan. 9.7 Righteousness that is Justice belongs to thee The Vials of his Wrath are filled from his implacable aversion to Iniquity All Penal Evils showred down upon the heads of Wicked men spread their root in and branch out from this Perfection All the dreadful Storms and Tempests in the World are blown up by it Why doth he rain Snares Fire and Brimstone and a horrible Tempest because the righteous Lord loveth Righteousness Psal 11.6 7. And as was observed before when he was going about the dreadfullest Work that ever was in the World the overturning the Jewish State hardening the Hearts of that Unbelieving People and casheiring a Nation once dear to him from the honour of his Protection His Holiness as the Spring of all this is applauded by the Seraphims Isai 6.3 compared with Vers 9 10 11 c. Impunity argues the approbation of a Crime and Punishment the abhorrency of it The greatness of the Crime and the Righteousness of the Judge are the first Natural Sentiments that arise in the Minds of Men upon the appearance of Divine Judgments in the World by those that are near them †Amirant Moral Tom. 5. p. 388. As when Men see Gibbets erected Scaffolds prepared Instruments of Death and Torture provided and grievous Punishments inflicted the first reflection in the Spectators is the malignity of the Crime and the detestation the Governours are possessed with 1. How severely hath he punish'd his most Noble Creatures for it The once glorious Angels upon whom he had been at greater cost than upon other Creatures and drawn more lively Lineaments of his own Excellency upon the Transgression of his Law are thrown into the Furnace of Justice without any Mercy to pity them Jude 6. And though there were but one sort of Creatures upon the Earth that bore his Image and were only fit to publish and keep up his Honour below the Heavens yet upon their Apostacy though upon a Temptation from a subtile and insinuating Spirit the Man with all his Posterity is sentenc'd to Misery in Life and Death at last and the Woman with all her Sex have standing Punishments inflicted on them which as they begun in their Persons were to reach as far as the last Member of their successive Generations So Holy is God that he will not endure a Spot in his choicest Work Men indeed when there is a crack in an excellent piece of Work or a stain upon a rich Garment do not cast it away they value it for the remaining Excellency more than hate it for the contracted Spot But God saw no Excellency in his Creature worthy regarding after the Image of that which he most esteemed in himself was defaced 2. How detestable to him are the very Instruments of Sin For the Ill use the Serpent an Irrational Creature was put to by the Devil as an Instrument in the Fall of Man the whole brood of those Animals are Curst Gen. 3.14 Cursed above all Cattle and above every Beast of the field Not only the Devils Head is threatned to be for ever bruised and as some think render'd irrecoverable upon this further Testimony of his Malice in the Seduction of Man who perhaps without this new Act might have been admitted into the Arms of Mercy notwithstanding his first Sin though the Scripture gives us no account of this only this is the only Sentence we read of pronounc'd against the Devil which puts him into an irrecoverable state by a Mortal bruising of his Head But I say He is not only punish'd but the
Organ whereby he blew in his Temptation is put into a worse condition than it was before Thus God hated the Spunge whereby the Devil deform'd his beautiful Image Thus God to manifest his detestation of Sin ordered the Beast whereby any Man was slain to be slain as well as the Malefactor Levit. 20.15 The Gold and Silver that had been abused to Idolatry and were the Ornaments of Images though good in themselves and uncapable of a Criminal Nature were not to be brought into their Houses but detested and abhorred by them because they were cursed and an abomination to the Lord. See with what loathing Expressions this Law is enjoyn'd to them Deut. 7.25 26. So contrary is the holy Nature of God to every Sin that it curseth every thing that is Instrumental in it 3. How detestable is every thing to him that is in the Sinners possession The very Earth which God had made Adam the Proprietor of was Cursed for his sake Gen. 3.17 18. It lost its Beauty and lies languishing to this day and notwithstanding the Redemption by Christ hath not recovered its health nor is it like to do till the compleating the Fruits of it upon the Children of God Rom. 8.20 21 22. The whole Lower Creation was made subject to Vanity and put into Pangs upon the Sin of Man by the Righteousness of God detesting his Offence How often hath his implacable Aversion from Sin been shewn not only in his Judgments upon the Offenders Person but by wrapping up in the same Judgment those which stood in a near relation to them Achan with his Children and Cattle are overwhelmed with Stones and burned together Josh 7.24 25. In the destruction of Sodom not only the grown Malefactors but the young Spawn the Infants at present uncapable of the same Wickedness and their Cattle were burned up by the same Fire from Heaven and the Place where their Habitations stood is at this day partly a heap of Ashes and partly an Infectious Lake that choaks any Fish that swim into it from Jordan and stifles as is related by its Vapor any Bird that attempts to fly over it Oh how detestable is Sin to God that causes him to turn a pleasant Land as the Garden of the Lord as it is styled Gen. 13.10 into a Lake of Sulphur to make it both in his Word and Works as a lasting Monument of his abhorrence of Evil 4. What design hath God in all these Acts of Severity and Vindictive Justice but to set off the lustre of his Holiness He testifies himself concerned for those Laws which he hath set as Hedges and Limits to the Lusts of Men and therefore when he breaths forth his fiery Indignation against a People he is said to get himself Honour As when he intended the Red Sea should swallow up the Egyptian Army Exod. 14.17 18. which Moses in his Triumphant Song Ecchoes back again Exod. 15.1 Thou hast triumphed gloriously gloriously in his Holiness which is the glory of his Nature as Moses himself interprets it in the Text. When Men will not own the Holiness of God in a way of Duty God will vindicate it in a way of Justice and Punishment In the destruction of Aarons Sons that were Will-worshippers and would take Strange Fire Sanctified and Glorified are coupled Lev. 10.3 He glorified himself in that Act in vindicating his Holiness before all the People declaring that he will not endure Sin and Disobedience He doth therefore in this Life more severely punish the Sins of his People when they presume upon any act of Disobedience for a Testimony that the nearness and dearness of any Person to him shall not make him unconcern'd in his Holiness or be a plea for Impurity The End of all his Judgments is to witness to the World his Abominating of Sin To Punish and Witness against Men are one and the same thing Micah 1.2 The Lord shall witness against you and it is the Witness of Gods Holiness Hos 5.5 And the Pride of Israel doth testifie to his face One renders it the Excellency of Israel and understands it of God the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here in our Translation Pride is rendred Excellency Amos 8.7 The Lord God hath sworn by his Excellency which is Interpreted Holiness Amos 4.2 The Lord God hath sworn by his Holiness What is the issue or end of this Swearing by Holiness and of his Excellency testifying against them In all those Places you will find them to be sweeping Judgments In one Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their Iniquity in another He will take them away with Hooks and their Posterity with Fish-hooks and in another He would never forget any of their works He that punisheth Wickedness in those he before used with the greatest Tenderness furnisheth the World with an undeniable Evidence of the Detestableness of it to him Were not Judgments sometimes poured out upon the World it would be believed that God were rather an Approver than an Enemy to Sin To Conclude Since God hath made a stricter Law to guide Men annex'd Promises above the merit of Obedience to allure them and Threatnings dreadful enough to affright Men from Disobedience He cannot be the Cause of Sin nor a lover of it How can he be the Author of that which he so severely forbids or love that which he delights to punish or be fondly Indulgent to any Evil when he hates the Ignorant Instruments in the Offences of his Reasonable Creatures III. The Holiness of God appears in Our Restoration 'T is in the Glass of the Gospel we behold the Glory of the Lord * 2 Cor. 3.18 that is the Glory of the Lord into whose Image we are changed but we are changed into nothing as the Image of God but into Holiness We bore not upon us by Creation nor by Regeneration the Image of any other Perfection We cannot be changed into his Omnipotence Omniscience c. but into the Image of his Righteousness This is the pleasing and glorious sight the Gospel Mirror darts in our eyes The whole Scene of Redemption is nothing else but a discovery of Judgment and Righteousness Isai 1.27 Zion shall be redeemed with Judgment and her Converts with Righteousness 1. This Holiness of God appears in the manner of our Restoration viz. by the Death of Christ. Not all the Vials of Judgments that have or shall be poured out upon the wicked World nor the flaming Furnace of a Sinners Conscience nor the Irreversible Sentence pronounc'd against the Rebellious Devils nor the Groans of the Damned Creatures give such a demonstration of Gods Hatred of Sin as the Wrath of God let loose upon his Son Never did Divine Holiness appear more beautiful and lovely than at the time our Saviours Countenance was most marr'd in the midst of his Dying Groans This himself acknowledges in that Prophetical Psalm Psal 22.1 2. when God had turned his Smiling Face from him and thrust his sharp Knife
than Men have reason to complain for the exercise of Justice in the vindication of it If God established all things in Order with Infinite Wisdom and Goodness and God silently behold for ever this Order broken would he not either charge himself with a want of Power or a want of Will to preserve the Marks of his own Goodness Would it be a kindness to himself to be careless of the breaches of his own Orders His Throne would shake yea sink from under him if Justice whereby he Sentenceth and Judgment whereby he Executes his Sentence were not the supports of it †Ps 89.14 Justice and Judgment are the habitation of thy Throne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Stability or Foundation of thy Throne So Psal 92.2 Man would forget his Relation to God God would be unknown to be Soveraign of the World were he careless of the breaches of his own Order * Psal 9.16 The Lord is known by the Judgments which he Executes Is it not a part of his Goodness to preserve the indispensible Order between himself and his Creatures His own Soveraignty which is good and the subjection of the Creature to him as Soveraign which is also good The one would not be maintained in its due place nor the other restrained in due limits without Punishment Would it be a goodness in him to see Goodness it self trampled upon constantly without some time or other appearing for the relief of it Is it not a Goodness to secure his own Honour to prevent further Evil Is it not a Goodness to discourage Men by Judgments sometimes from a contempt and ill use of his Bounty as well as sometimes patiently to bear with them and wait upon them for a Reformation Must God be bad to himself to be kind to his Enemies And shall it be accounted an unkindness and a Mark of Evil in him not to suffer himself to be always outrag'd and defy'd The World is wrong'd by Sin as well as God is injur'd by it How could God be good to himself if he righted not his own Honour Or be a good Governour of the World if he did not sometimes witness against the Injuries it receives sometimes from the works of his hands Would he be good to himself as a God to be careless of his own Honour Or good as the Rector of the World and be regardless of the Worlds Confusion That God should give an Eternal good to that Creature that declines its Duty and despiseth his Soveraignty is not agreeable to the goodness of his Wisdom or that of his Righteousness 'T is a part of Gods Goodness to love himself Would he love his Soveraignty if he saw it dayly slighted without sometimes discovering how much he values the Honour of it Would he have any esteem for his own Goodness if he beheld it trampled upon without any will to vindicate it Doth Mercy deserve the name of Cruelty because it pleads against a Creature that hath so often abused it and hath refused to have any pity exercised towards it in a Righteous and Regular way Is Soveraignty destitute of Goodness because it preserves its Honour against one that would not have it Reign over him Would he not seem by such a regardlesness to renounce his own Essence undervalue and undermine his own Goodness if he had not an implacable aversion to whatsoever is contrary to it If Men turn Grace into Wantonness is it not more reasonable he should turn his Grace into Justice All his Attributes which are parts of his Goodness engage him to punish Sin without it his Authority would be vilified his Purity stain'd his Power derided his Truth disgraced his Justice scorn'd his Wisdom slighted He would be thought to have dissembled in his Laws and be judged according to the Rules of Reason to be void of true Goodness 4. Punishment is not the primary Intention of God 'T is his Goodness that he hath no mind to Punish and therefore he hath put a bar to Evil by his Prohibitions and Threatnings that he might prevent Sin and consequently any occasions of severity against his Creature * Zarnovecius de satisfact Part. 1. cap. 1. p. 3 4. The principal Intention of God in his Law was to encourage Goodness that he might reward it And when by the commission of Evil God is provoked to Punish and takes the Sword into his hand he doth not act against the Nature of his Goodness but against the first intention of his Goodness in his Precepts which was to Reward As a good Judge principally intendeds in the Exercise of his Office to protect good Men from Violence and maintain the honour of the Laws yet consequently to punish bad men without which the Protection of the good would not be secured nor the Honour of the Law be supported And a good Judge in the Exercise of his Office doth principally intend the incouragement of the good and wisheth there were no wickedness that might occasion Punishment and when he doth Sentence a Malefactor in order to the Execution of him he doth not act against the goodness of his Nature but pursuant to the Duty of his Place but wisheth he had no occasion for such severity Thus God seems to speak of himself †Isaiah 28.21 He calls the act of his Wrath his Strange Work his Strange Act A work not against his Nature as the Governor of the World but against his first Intention as Creator which was to manifest his Goodness Therefore he moves with a slow pace in those Acts brings out his Judgments with relentings of heart and seems to cast out his Thunderbolts with a trembling hand He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men * Lam. 3.33 And therefore he delights not in the death of a Sinner †Ezek. 33.11 Not in Death as Death in Punishment as Punishment but as it reduceth the suffering Creature to the Order of his Precept or reduceth him into order under his Power or reforms others who are Spectators of the Punishment upon a Criminal of their own Nature God only hates the Sin not the Sinner He desires only the destruction of the one * Suarez Vol. 1. de Deo lib. 3. cap. 7. p. 146. not the misery of the other The Nature of a Man doth not displease him because it is a work of his own Goodness but the Nature of the Sinner displeaseth him because it is a work of the Sinners own extravagance Divine Goodness pitcheth not its hatred primarily upon the Sinner but upon the Sin But since he cannot punish the Sin without punishing the Subject to which it cleaves the Sinner falls under his lash Who ever regards a good Judge as an Enemy to the Malefactor but as an Enemy to his Crime when he doth Sentence and Execute him 5. Judgments in the World have a goodness in them therefore they are no Impeachments of the Goodness of God 1. A Goodness in their preparations He
sports much less the powers of the Soul whereby t is evident we prefer the latter before any service to God Since there is a fulness of Animal Spirits why might they not be excited in holy duties as well as in other operations but that there is a reluctancy in the Soul to exercise its Supremacy in this case and perform any thing becoming a Creature in subjection to God as a Ruler 2. T is evident also in the distractions we have in his service How loth are we to serve God fixedly one hour nay a part of an hour notwithstanding all the thoughts of his Majesty and the Eternity of glory set before our eye What man is there since the fall of Adam that served God one hour without many wandrings and unsutable thoughts unfit for that service How ready are our hearts to start out and unite themselves with any worldly objects that please us 3. Weariness in it evidenceth it To be weary of our dulness signifies a desire to be weary of service signifies a discontent to be ruled by God How tired are we in the performance of Spiritual duties when in the vain triflings of time we have a perpetual motion How will many willingly revel whole nights when their hearts will flag at the Threshold of a Religious service Like Dagon * 1 Sam. 5.4 lose both our heads to think and hands to act when the Ark of God is present Some in the Prophet wished the new Moon and the Sabbath over that they might sell their Corn and be busied again in their worldly affairs * Amos 8.5 A slight and weariness of the Sabbath was a slight of the Lord of the Sabbath and of that freedom from the Yoke and rule of sin which was signified by it The design of the Sacrifices in the new Moon was to signifie a rest from the tyranny of sin and a consecration to the Spiritual service of God Servants that are quickly weary of their work are weary of the Authority of their Master that enjoyns it If our hearts had a value for God it would be with us as with the needle to the Load-stone there would be upon his beck a speedy motion to him and a fixed union with him When the Judgments and affections of the Saints shall be fully refined in glory they shall be willing to behold the face of God and be under his Government to Eternity without any weariness As the holy Angels have owned God as their Soveraign neer these six thousand years without being weary of running on his Errands But alas while the flesh clogs us there will be some Reliques of unwillingness to hear his Injunctions and weariness in performing them tho men may excuse those things by extrinsick causes yet Gods unerring Judgment calls it a weariness of himself Isa 43.22 Thou hast not called upon me oh Jacob but thou hast been weary of me ch Israel Of this he taxeth his own people when he tells them he would have the beasts of the Field The Dragons and the Owls the Gentiles that the Jews counted no better than such to honour him and acknowledge him their rule in a way of duty ver 20.21 6. This contempt is seen in a deserting the rule of God when our expectations are not answered upon our service When services are performed from carnal principles they are soon cast off when carnal ends meet not with desired satisfaction But when we own our selves Gods Servants and God our Master our eyes will wait upon him till he have mercy on us * Psal 123.2 T is one part of the duty we owe to God as our Master in Heaven to continue in Prayer Col. 4.1 2. And by the same reason in all other service and to watch in the same with thanksgiving To watch for occasions of praise to watch with chearfulness for further manifestations of his Will strength to perform it success in the performance that we may from all draw matter of praise As we are in a posture of obedience to his precepts so we should be in a posture of waiting for the blessing of it But naturally we reject the duty we owe to God if he do not speed the blessing we expect from him How many do secretly mutter the same as they in Job 21.15 What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit shall we have if we Pray to him They serve not God out of Conscience to his Commands but for some carnal profit and if God make them to wait for it they will not stay his leasure but cease solliciting him any longer Two things are exprest that God was not worthy of any Homage from them What is the Almighty that we should serve him and that the service of him would not bring them in a good Revenue or an advantage of that kind they expected Interest drives many men on to some kind of service and when they do not find an advance of that they will acknowledge God no more but like some beggers if you give them not upon their asking and calling you good Master from blessing they will turn to cursing How often do men do that secretly practically if not plainly which Jobs Wife advised him to Curse God and cast off that disguise of integrity they had assumed Job 2.9 Dost thou still retain thy integrity Curse God What a stir and puling and crying is here Cast off all thoughts of Religious service and be at Daggers drawing with that God who for all thy service of him has made thee so wretched a spectacle to men and a banquet for worms The like temper is deciphered in the Jews Mal. 3.14 T is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances that we have walked mournfully before the Lord What profit is it that we have regarded his Statutes and carryed our selves in a way of subjection to God as our Soveraign when we inherit nothing but sorrow and the Idolatrous Neighbors swim in all kind of pleasures as if it were the most miserable thing to acknowledge God If men have not the benefits they expect they think God unrighteous in himself and injurious to them in not conferring the favour they imagine they have merited And if they have not that recompence they will deny God that subjection they owe to him as Creatures Grace moves to God upon a sense of duty corrupt nature upon a sense of Interest Sincerity is encouraged by gracious returns but is not melted away by Gods delay or refusal Corrupt nature would have God at its back and steers a course of duty by hope of some carnal profit not by a sense of the Soveraignty of God 7. This contempt is seen in breaking promises with God * Reyn. One while the Conscience of a man makes vows of new obedience and perhaps binds himself with many an Oath but they prove like Jonahs Gourd withering the next day after their birth This was Pharaohs
your self take other courses you will smut your Reputation and be despicable you will destroy your Estate and commence a Beggar your Family will be undone and you may rott in a Prison Not laying close to them the Duty they owe to God the Dishonour which accrues to him by their unworthy courses and the ingratitude to the God of their mercies Not that the other motives are to be laid aside and slighted Mint and Cummin may be tithed but the weightier concerns are not to be omitted But this shews that self is the Byas not only of men in their own course but in their dealings with others What should be subordinate to the Honour of God and the Duty we owe to him is made superior 3. 'T is evident In performing Duties meerly for a selfish Interest Making our selves the End of Religious Actions paying a Homage to that while we pretend to render it to God Zach. 7.5 Did you at all fast unto me even unto me Things ordained by God may fall in with carnal ends affected by our selves and then Religion is not kept up by any interest of God in the Conscience but the interest of self in the Heart We then sanctifie not the Name of God in the Duty but gratifie our selves God may be the Object self is the End and a Heavenly Object is made subservient to a Carnal Design Hypocrisie passes a Complement on God and is called Flattery Psal 78.36 They did flatter him with their lips c. They gave him a parcel of good words for their own preservation Flattery in the old Notion among the Heathens is a Vice more peculiar to serve our own turn and purvey for the Belly They knew they could not subsist without God and therefore gave him a parcel of good words that he might spare them and make Provision for them Israel is an empty Vine * Hos 10.1 a Vine say some with large Branches and few Clusters but brings forth Fruit to himself while they professed Love to God with their lips It was that God should promote their covetous designs and preserve their Wealth and Grandeur * Ezek. 33.31 In which respect an Hypocrite may be well termed a Religious Atheist an Atheist maskt with Religion The chief Arguments which prevail with many men to perform some Duties and appear Religious are the same that Hamor and Shechem used to the people of their City to submit to Circumcision viz. the ingrossing of more Wealth Gen. 34.21 22. If every Male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised shall not their Cattel and their Substance and every Beast of theirs be ours This is seen 1. In unweildiness to Religious Duties where self is not concern'd With what lively thoughts will many approach to God when a Revenue may be brought in to support their own ends But when the Concerns of God only are in it the Duty is not the Delight but the Clogg such feeble Devotions that warm not the Soul unless there be somthing of self to give strength and heat to them Jonah was sick of his work and run from God because he thought he should get no honour by his Message Gods Mercy would discredit his Prophecy * Johuah 4.2 Thoughts of disadvantage cut the very sinews of service You may as well perswade a Merchant to venture all his Estate upon the inconstant Waves without hopes of Gain as prevail with a natural man to be serious in Duty without expectation of some warm Advantage What profit should we have if we pray to him is the natural Question Job 21.15 What profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my Sin Job 35.3 I shall have more good by my sin than by my service 'T is for God that I dance before the Ark saith David therefore I will be more vile 2 Sam. 6.2 T is for self that I pray saith a natural Man therefore I will be more Warm and quick Ordinances of God are observed only as a point of interest and Prayer is often most fervent when it is least Godly and most selfish Carnal Ends and Affections will pour out lively Expressions If there be no delight in the means that lead to God there is no delight in God himself Because Love is appetitus unionis a desire of Union and where the Object is desireable the means that brings us to it would be delightful too 2. In calling upon God only in a time of necessity How officious will men be in affliction to that God whom they neglect in their Prosperity When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and inquired after God and they remembred that God was their Rock Psal 78.34 They remembred him under the Scourge and forgate him under his Smiles They visit the Throne of Grace knock loud at Heavens Gates and give God no rest for their early and importunate Devotions when under Distress But when their desires are answered and the Rod removed they stand aloof from him and rest upon their own bottom as Jer. 2.31 We are Lords we will come no more unto thee When we have need of him he shall find us Clients at his Gate and when we have served our turn he hears no more of us Like Noahs Dove sent out of the Ark that returned to him when she found no rest on the Earth but came not back when she found a footing else where How often do men apply themselves to God when they have some business for him to do for them And then too they are loath to put it solely into his hand to manage it for his own honour but they presume to be his Directors that he may manage it for their glory Self spurrs men on to the Throne of Grace they desire to be furnisht with some Mercy they want or to have the Clouds of some Judgments which they fear blown over This is not affection to God but to our selves As the Romans worshipped a Quartane Ague as a Goddess and Timorem Pallorem Fear and Paleness as Gods not out of any affection they had to the Disease or the Passion but for fear to receive any hurt by them Again when we have gained the Mercy we need how little do we warm our Souls with the consideration of that God that gave it or lay out the Mercy in his service We are importunate to have him our friend in our necessities and are ungratefully careles of him and his injuries he suffers by us or others When he hath discharged us from the Rock where we stuck we leave him as having no more need of him and able to do well enough without him As if we were petty Gods our selves and only wanted a lift from him at first This is not to glorifie God as God but as our Servant not an honouring of God but a self seeking He would hardly begg at Gods door if he could pleasure himself without him 3. In begging his Assistance to our own Projects When we
had a body t is impossible to mould an Image of it in the true glory of that body Can the Statue of an excellent Monarch represent the Majesty and air of his Countenance tho made by the skilfullest workman in the world If God had a body in some measure suted to his excellency were it possible for Man to make an exact Image of him who cannot picture the light heat motion magnitude and dazling property of the Sun The excellency of any Corporeal nature of the least Creature the temper instinct artifice are beyond the power of a Carving tool much more is God 2. To make any Corporeal representations of God is unworthy of God 'T is a disgrace to his nature Whosoever thinks a Carnal corruptible Image to be fit for a representation of God renders God no better than a Carnal and Corporeal being 'T is a kind of debasing an Angel who is a Spiritual nature to represent him in a bodily shape who is as far removed from any fleshliness as Heaven from Earth much more to degrade the glory of the Divine nature to the lineaments of a man The whole stock of Images is but a lie of God Jer. 10 8 14. A Doctrin of vanities and falsehood It represents him in a false garb to the world and sinks his glory into that of a corruptible Creature * Rom. 1.25 It impairs the reverence of God in the minds of men and by degrees may debase mens apprehensions of God * Rom. 1.22 and be a means to make them believe he is such a one as themselves and that not being free from the figure he is not also free from the imperfections of their bodies Corporeal Images of God were the fruits of base imaginations of him and as they sprung from them so they contribute to a greater corruption of the notions of the Divine nature The Heathens begun their first representations of him by the Image of a corruptible Man then of birds till they descended not only to four footed beasts but creeping things even Serpents as the Apostle seems to intimate in his enumeration Rom. 1.23 It had been more honourable to have continued in human representations of him than have sunk so low as beasts and Serpents the baser Images tho the first had been infinitely unworthy of him he being more above a man though the noblest Creature than Man is above a Worm a Toad or the most despicable creeping thing upon the Earth To think we can make an Image of God of a piece of Marble or an Ingot of Gold is a greater debasing of him than it would be of a great Prince if you should represent him in the statue of a Frog When the Israelites represented God by a Calf 't is said they sinned a great sin Exod. 32.31 And the sin of Jeroboam who intended only a representation of God by the Calves at Dan and Bethel is called more emphatically * Hosea 10.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wickedness of your wickedness the very skum and dreggs of wickedness As men debased God by this so God debased men for this he degraded the Israelites into Captivity under the worst of their Enemies and punished the Heathens with spiritual Judgments as uncleaness through the lusts of their own hearts Rom. 1.24 which is repeated again in other expressions v. 26 27. as a meet recompence for their disgracing the spiritual nature of God Had God been like to Man they had not offended in it But I mention this to shew a probable reason of those base lusts which are in the midst of us that have scarce been exceeded by any Nation viz. the unworthy and unspiritual conceits of God which are as much a debasing of him as material Images were when they were more rife in the world and may be as well the cause of those spiritual Judgments upon men as the worshipping molten and carved Images were the cause of the same upon the Heathen 3. Yet this is natural to Man Wherein we may see the contrariety of Man to God Though God be a Spirit yet there is nothing Man is more prone to than to represent him under a corporeal form The most famous Guides of the Heathen world have fashioned him not only according to the more honourable Images of men but beastialized him in the form of a Brute The Egyptians whose Country was the School of Learning to Greece were notoriously guilty of this brutishness in worshiping an Ox for an Image of their God and the Philistines their Dagon in a figure composed of the Image of a Woman and a Fish * Daille super Cor. 1.10 Ser. 3. Such representations were ancient in the Oriental parts The Gods of Laban that he accuseth Jacob of stealing from him are supposed to be little figures of men * Gen. 31.30.34 Such was the Israelites Golden-Calf their worship was not terminated on the Image but they worshipped the true God under that representation They could not be so brutish as to call a Calf their Deliverer and give so him great a Title these be thy Gods oh Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt Exod. 32.4 or that which they knew belonged to the true God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. * Gen. 3.16 17. They knew the Calf to be formed of their Ear-rings but they had consecrated it to God as a representation of him Though they chose the form of the Egyptian Idol yet they knew that Apis Osiris and Isis the Gods the Egyptians adored in that figure had not wrought their Redemption from Bondage but would have used their force had they been possessed of any to have kept them under the Yoke rather than have freed them from it The Feast also which they celebrated before that Image is called by Aaron the Feast of the Lord Exod. 32.5 a Feast to Jehovah the incommunicable name of the Creator of the world 'T is therefore evident that both the Priest and the People pretended to serve the true God not any false Divinity of Egypt That God who had rescued them from Egypt with a mighty hand divided the Red-Sea before them destroyed their Enemies conducted them fed them by miracle spoken to them from Mount Sinai and amazed them by his Thundrings and Lightnings when he instructed them by his Law a God they could not so soon forget And with this representing God by that Image they are charged by the Psalmist Psal 106.19 20. they made a Calf in Horeb and changed their glory into the similitude of an Ox that eateth Grass They changed their glory that is God the glory of Israel so that they took this figure for the Image of the true God of Israel their own God not the God of any other Nation in the world Jeroboam intended no other by his Calves but Symbols of the presence of the true God instead of the Ark and the Propitiatory which remained among the Jews We see the inclination
Glory belonging to all the Attributes of God 'T is not a single perfection of the Divine Nature nor is it limited to particular Objects thus and thus disposed Mercy and Justice have their distinct objects and distinct acts Mercy is conversant about a Penitent Justice conversant about an obstinate Sinner In our notion and conception of the Divine Perfections his Perfections are different The Wisdom of God is not his Power nor his Power his Holiness but Immutability is the Center wherein they all unite There is not one Perfection but may be said to be and truly is immutable none of them will appear so glorious without this Beam this Sun of Immutability which renders them highly excellent without the least shadow of imperfection How cloudy would his Blessedness be if it were changeable How dim his Wisdom if it might be obscur'd How feeble his Power if it were capable to be sickly and languish How would Mercy lose much of its lustre if it could change into wrath and Justice much of its dread if it could be turned into Mercy while the object of Justice remains unfit for Mercy and one that hath need of Mercy continues only fit for the Divine Fury But unchangeableness is a Thread that runs through the whole Web 'T is the enamel of all the rest none of them without it could look with a triumphant aspect His Power is unchangeable * Isa 26.4 In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength his Mercy and his Holiness endure for ever He never could nor ever can look upon iniquity * Hab. 1.13 He is a Rock in the righteousness of his ways the truth of his word the holiness of his proceedings and the rectitude of his nature All are exprest Deut. 32.4 He is a Rock his work is perfect for all his ways are Judgment A God of Truth and without Iniquity just and right is he All that we consider in God is unchangeable for his Essence and his Properties are the same and therefore what is necessarily belonging to the Essence of God belongs also to every perfection of the nature of God none of them can receive any addition or diminution From the unchangeableness of his nature the Apostle James 1.17 infers the unchangeableness of his Holiness and himself in Mal. 3.6 the unchangeableness of his Counsel 3. Vnchangeableness doth necessarily pertain to the Nature of God 'T is of the same necessity with the rectitude of his Nature He can no more be changeable in his Essence than he can be unrighteous in his Actions God is a necessary Being He is necessarily what he is and therefore is unchangeably what he is Mutability belongs to contingency If any perfection of his nature could be separated from him he would cease to be God What did not possess the whole Nature of God could not have the Essence of God 'T is reciprocated with the Nature of God Whatsoever is immutable by Nature is God whatsoever is God is immutable by Nature Some Creatures are immutable by his Grace and Power * Archbolâ— Serm. God is holy happy wise good by his Essence Angels and Men are made holy wise happy strong and good by Qualities and Graces The Holiness Happiness and Wisdom of Saints and Angels as they had a beginning so they are capable of increase and diminution and of an end also for their standing is not from themselves or from the nature of created strength holiness or wisdom which in themselves are apt to fail and finally to decay but from the stability and confirmation they have by the Gift and Grace of God The Heaven and Earth shall be changed and after that renewal and reparation they shall not be changed Our Bodies after the Resurrection shall not be changed but for ever be made conformable to the glorious Body of Christ * Phil. 3.21 but this is by the powerful Grace of God So that indeed those things may be said afterwards rather to be unchanged than unchangeable because they are not so by nature but by soveraign dispensation As Creatures have not necessary Beings so they have not necessary Immutability Necessity of being and therefore Immutability of being belongs by nature only to God otherwise if there were any change in God he would be sometimes what he was not and would cease to be what he was which is against the nature and indeed against the natural notion of a Deity Let us see then 1. In what regards God is immutable 2. Prove that God is immutable 3. That this is proper to God and incommunicable to any Creature 4. Some propositions to clear the unchangeableness of God from any thing that seems contrary to it 5. The Use First in what respects God is unchangeable 1. God is unchangeable in his Essence He is unalterably fixed in his Being that not a Particle of it can be lost from it not a Mite added to it If a Man continue in being as long as Methuselah Nine hundred and Sixty nine years yet there is not a day nay an hour wherein there is not some alteration in his substance though no substantial part is wanting yet there is an addition to him by his Food a diminution of something by his Labour He is always making some acquisition or suffering some loss But in God there can be no alteration by the accession of any thing to make his substance greater or better or by diminution to make it less or worse He who hath no being from another cannot but be always what he is God is the first Being an independent Being He was not produced of himself or of any other but by nature always hath been and therefore cannot by himself or by any other bechanged from what he is in his own nature That which is not may as well assume to it self a Being as he who hath and is all Being have the least change from what he is Again because he is a Spirit he is not subject to those mutations which are found incorporeal and bodily Natures Because he is an absolutely simple Spirit not having the least particle of composition he is not capable of those changes which may be in created Spirits 1. If his Essence were mutable God would not truly be It could not be truly said by himself I am that I am * Exod. 3.14 if he were such a Thing or Being at this time and a different Being at another time Whatsoever is changed properly is not because it doth not remain to be what it was That which is changed was something is something and will be something a Being remains to that thing which is changed yet though it may be said such a thing is yet it may be also said such a thing is not because it is not what it was in its first being 't is not now what it was 't is now what it was not 't is another thing than it was it was another thing than it is it will be another thing than
if God understands his own Power and Excellency nothing can be hid from him that was brought forth by that Power as well as nothing can be unknown to him that that Power is able to produce * Bradwardin p. 6. If God knows nothing besides himself he may then believe there is nothing beside himself we shall then fancy a God miserably mistaken If he knows nothing besides himself then things were not Created by him or not understandingly and voluntarily Created but drop'd from him before he was aware To think that the first cause of all should be ignorant of those things he is the cause of is to make him not a voluntary but natural Agent and therefore necessary and then that the Creature came from him as Light from the Sun and moisture from the Water this would bean absurd opinion of the Worlds Creation if God be a voluntary Agent as he is he must be an intelligent Agent The faculty of Will is not in any Creature without that of Understanding also If God be an intelligent Agent his knowledg must extend as far as his operation and every object of his operation unless we imagine God hath lost his Memory in that long Tract of time since the first Creation of them An Artificer cannot be ignorant of his own Work If God knows himself he knows himself to be a Cause how can he know himself to be a Cause unless he know the Effects he is the Cause of One relation implies another a man cannot know himself to be a Father unless he hath a Child because it is a name of relation and in the notion of it refers to another The name of cause is a name of relation and implies an effect If God therefore know himself in all his Perfections as the Cause of things he must know all his acts what his Wisdom contrived what his Counsel determin'd and what his Power effected The knowledg of God is to be suppos'd in a free determination of himself and that knowledg must be perfect both of the object act and all the circumstances of it How can his Will freely produce any thing that was not first known in his Understanding From this the Prophet argues the understanding of God and the unsearchableness of it because he is the Creator of the ends of the earth Isa 40.28 and the same reason David gives of Gods Knowledg of him and of every thing he did and that afar off because he was formed by him Psal 139.2 15 16. As the perfect making of things only belongs to God so doth the perfect knowledg of things 't is absurd to think that God should be ignorant of what he hath given Being to that he should not know all the Creatures and their qualities the Plants and their vertues as that a man should not know the Letters that are formed by him in Writing Every thing bears in it self the mark of Gods Perfections and shall not God know the representation of his own vertue 5. Without this Knowledg God could no more be the Governour than he could be the Creator of the World Knowledg is the Basis of Providence to Know things is before the Government of things a practical knowledg cannot be without a theoretical knowledg Nothing could be directed to its proper end without the knowledg of the nature of it and its suitableness to answer that end for which it is intended As every thing even the minutest falls under the conduct of God so every thing falls under the knowledg of God A Blind Coach-man is not able to hold the Reins of his Horses and direct them in right Paths Since the Providence of God is about particulars his Knowledg must be about particulars he could not else govern them in particular nor could all things be said to depend upon him in their Being and Operations Providence depends upon the knowledg of God and the exercise of it upon the Goodness of God it cannot be without Understanding and Will Understanding to know what is convenient and Will to perform it When our Saviour therefore speaks of Providence he intimates these two in a special manner Your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things Mat. 6.32 and goodness in Luke 11.13 The reason of Providence is so joyned with Omniscience that they cannot be separated What a kind of God would he be that were ignorant of those things that were governed by him The ascribing this Perfection to him asserts his Providence for it is as easy for one that knows all things to look over the whole World if writ with Monosyllables in every little particular of it as it is with a man to take a view of one Letter in an Alphabet Sabund Tit. 84. much changed Again if God were not Omniscient how could he reward the Good and punish the Evil the works of men are either rewardable or punishable not only according to their outward circumstances but inward Principles and Ends and the degrees of Venom lurking in the heart The exact discerning of these without a possibility to be deceived is necessary to pass a right and infallible Judgment upon them and proportion the censure and punishment to the Crime Without such a Knowledg and discerning men would not have their due nay a Judgment just for the matter would be unjust in the manner because unjustly past without an understanding of the merit of the Cause 'T is necessary therefore that the Supream Judg of the World should not be thought to be blindfold when he distributes his Rewards and Punishments and muffle his face when he passes his Sentence 'T is necessary to ascribe to him the knowledg of mens thoughts and intentions the secret wills and aims the hidden works of darkness in every mans Conscience because every mans work is to be measured by the Will and inward frame 'T is necessary that he should perpetually retain all those things in the indelible and plain records of his Memory that there may not be any work without a just proportion of what is due to it This is the glory of God to discover the secrets of all hearts at last as 1 Cor. 4.5 the Lord shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the Counsels of all hearts and then shall every man have praise of God This knowledg fits him to be a Judg the reason why the ungodly shall not stand in Judgment is because God knows their ways which is implyed in his knowing the way of the righteous * Psal 1.5 6. I now proceed to the Vse VSE the first is of information or instruction If God hath all knowledg then 1. Jesus Christ is not a meer Creature The two Titles of wonderful Counsellor and mighty God are given him in conjunction Isa 9.6 not only the Angel of the Covenant as he is called Malach. 3.1 or the Executor of his Counsels but a Counsellor in conjunction with him in Counsel as well as
of them this must be either out of Sloth but how incompatible is laziness to a pure and infinite activity or out of Majesty but 't is no less for the glory of his Majesty to conduct them than it was for the glory of his Power to erect them into Being he that counts nothing unworthy of his Arms to make nothing unworthy of his Understanding to know why should he count any thing unworthy of his Wisdom to govern If he knows them to neglect them it must be because he hath no Will to it or no Goodness for it either of these would be a stain upon God to want Goodness is to be Evil and to want Will is to be negligent and scornful which are inconsistent with an Infinite Active Goodness Doth a Father neglect providing for the wants of the Family which he knows or a Physician the cure of that Disease he understands God is Omniscient he therefore sees all things he is good he doth not therefore neglect any thing but conducts it to the end he appointed it There is nothing so little that can escape his Knowledg and therefore nothing so little but falls under his Providence nothing so sublime as to be above his Understanding and therefore nothing can be without the compass of his Conduct nothing can escape his Eye and therefore nothing can escape his Care nothing is known by him in vain as nothing was made by him in vain there must be acknowledg'd therefore some end of this knowledg of all his Creatures Instruct 3. Hence then will follow the certainty of a day of Judgment To what purpose can we imagine this Attribute of Omniscience so often declared and urg'd in Scripture to our consideration but in order to a government of our practise and a future Tryal Every Perfection of the Divine Nature hath sent out brighter Rays in the World than this of his Infinite Knowledg his Power hath been seen in the Being of the World and his Wisdom in the Order and Harmony of the Creatures his Grace and Mercy hath been plentifully poured out in the mission of a Redeemer and his Justice hath been elevated by the Dying-Groans of the Son of God upon the Cross But hath his Omniscience yet met with a Glory proportionable to that of his other Perfections all the Attributes of God that have appeared in some beautiful glimmerings in the World wait for a more full manifestation in Glory as the Creatures do for the manifestation of the Sons of God Rom. 8.19 But especially this since it hath been less evidenced than others and as much or more abused than any it expects therefore a publick righting in the eye of the World There have been indeed some few sparks of this Perfection sensibly struck out now and then in the World in some horrors of Conscience which have made men become their own Accusers of unknown Crimes in bringing out hidden Wickedness to a publick view by various Providences This hath also been the design of sprinklings of Judgments upon several Generations as Psal 90.8 We are consumed by thy Anger and by thy Wrath we are troubled thou hast set our Iniquities before thee and our secret Sins in the light of thy Countenance The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Youth as well as secret i.e. Sins committed long ago and that with secrecy By this he hath manifested that secret Sins are not hid from his eye Tho' inward Terrors and outward Judgments have been let loose to worry men into a belief of this yet the corruptions of men would still keep a contrary notion in their minds that God hath forgotten that he hides his face from Transgression and will not regard their Impiety Psal 10.11 There must therefore be a time of Tryal for the publick demonstration of this Excellency that it may receive its due Honour by a full Testimony that no secrecy can be a shelter from it As his Justice which consists in giving every one his due could not be Glorified unless men were called to an account for their actions so neither would his Omniscience appear in its illustrious colours without such a manifestation of the secret motions of mens hearts and of Villanies done under Lock and Key when none were conscious to them but the committers of them Novv the last Judgment is the time appointed for the opening of the Books Dan. 7.10 The Book of Gods Records and Conscience the counter-part were never fully opened and read before only novv and then some some pages turn'd to in particular Judgments and out of those Books shall men be judged according to their Works Rev. 20.12 Then shall the defaced Sins be brought vvith all their circumstances to every mans memory the Counsels of mens hearts fled far from their present remembrance all the habitual knovvledg they had of their ovvn actions shall by Gods knovvledg of them be excited to an actual revievv and their vvorks not only made manifest to themselves but notorious to the World All the Words Thoughts Deeds of men shall be brought forth into the light of their ovvn minds by the infinite Light of Gods understanding reflecting on them His Knovvledg renders him an unerring Witness as vvell as his Justice a swift Witness Mal. 3.5 a svvift Witness because he shall vvithout any circuit or length of Speech convince their Consciences by an invvard illumination of them to take notice of the blackness and deformity of their hearts and vvorks In all Judgments God is somevvhat knovvn to be the searcher of hearts the time of Judgment is the time of his remembrance Hos 8.13 Now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins but the great instant or now of the full glorifying it is the grand day of account This Attribute must have a time for its full Discovery and no time can be fit for it but a time of a general reckoning Justice cannot be exercis'd without Omniscience for as Justice is a giving to every one his due so there must be knowledg to discern what is due to every man the searching the heart is in order to the rewarding the works 4. This Perfection in God gives us ground to believe a Resurrection Who can think this too hard for his Power since not the least Atome of the Dust of our Bodies can escape his Knowledg An infinite Understanding comprehends every mite of a departed Carcass this will not appear impossible nor irrational to any upon a serious consideration of this excellency in God The body is perished the matter of it hath been since clothed with different forms and figures part of it hath been made the body of a Worm part of it returned to the Dust that hath been blown away by the Wind part of it hath been concocted in the Bodies of Cannibals Fish ravenous Beasts the Spirits have evaporated into Air part of the Blood melted into Water what then is the matter of the body annihilated is that wholly perished no the
it runs thus To the alone Wise God through Jesus Christ to him be glory for ever But we must not understand it as if God were Wise by Jesus Christ but that Thanks is to be given to God through Christ because in and by Christ God hath revealed his Wisdom to the World The Greek hath a Repetition of the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not exprest in the Translation To him be glory Beza expungeth this Article but without reason for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To him and joyning this The only Wise God with the 25th Verse To him that is of Power to establish you Reading it thus To him that is of Power to establish you the only Wise God leaving the rest in a Parenthesis it runs smoothly To him be glory through Jesus Christ And Crellius the Socinian observes that this Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some leave out might be industriously inserted by the Apostle to shew that the Glory we ascribe to God is also given to Christ We may Observe That neither in this place nor any where in Scripture is the Virgin Mary or any of the Saints associated with God or Christ in the Glory ascrib'd to them In the Words there is 1. An Appropriation of Wisdom to God and a Remotion of it from all Creatures Only wise God 2. A Glorifying him for it The Point I shall insist upon is Doctr. That Wisdom is a transcendent Excellency of the Divine Nature We have before spoken of the Knowledge of God and the Infiniteness of it The next Attribute is the Wisdom of God Most confound the Knowledge and Wisdom of God together but there is a manifest distinction between them in our conception I shall handle it thus 1. Shew what Wisdom is Then lay down 2. Some Propositions about the Wisdom of God And shew 3. That God is Wise and only Wise 4. Wherein his Wisdom appears 5. The Vse I. What Wisdom is Wisdom among the Greeks first signified an eminent Perfection in any Art or Mystery so a good Statuary Engraver or Limner was called Wise as having an excellent Knowledge in his particular Art But afterwards the Title of Wise was appropriated to those that devoted themselves to the contemplation of the highest things that served for a Foundation to Speculative Sciences †A myrant Moral Iom 3. p. 123. But ordinarily we count a Man a Wise Man when he conducts his Affairs with discretion and governs his Passions with moderation and carries himself with a due proportion and harmony in all his concerns But in Particular Wisdom consists 1. In acting for a right End The chiefest part of Prudence is in fixing a right End and in chusing fit Means and directing them to that scope To shoot at random is a mark of Folly As he is the wisest Man that hath the noblest End and fittest Means so God is Infinitely Wise as he is the most excellent Being so he hath the most excellent End As there is none more excellent than himself nothing can be his End but himself As he is the Cause of all so he is the End of all and he puts a true Byass into all the Means he useth to hit the Mark he aims at Of him and through him and to him are all things Rom. 11.36 2. Wisdom consists in observing all Circumstances for Action He is counted a Wise man that lays hold of the fittest Opportunities to bring his designs about that hath the fullest foresight of all the little Intrigues which may happen in a Business he is to manage and Times every part of his Action in an exact harmony with the proper Minutes of it God hath all the Circumstances of things in one entire Image before him he hath a prospect of every little Creek in any design He sees what Second Causes will act and when they will act this or that yea he determines them to such and such Acts so that it is impossible he should be mistaken or miss of the due Season of bringing about his own Purposes As he hath more Goodness than to deceive any so he hath more Understanding than to be mistaken in any thing Hence the Time of the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour is called the Fulness of Time the proper Season for his coming Every Circumstance about Christ was Tim'd according to the Predictions of God even so little a thing as not parting his Garment and the giving him Gall and Vinegar to drink And all the Blessings he showrs down upon his People according to the Covenant of Grace are said to come in his season Ezek. 34.25 26. 3. Wisdom consists In willing and acting according to the right Reason according to a right Judgment of things We never count a Wilful man a Wise man but him only that acts according to a right Rule when right Counsels are taken and vigorously executed The Resolves and Ways of God are not meer Will but Will guided by the Reason and Counsel of his own Infinite Understanding Eph. 1.11 Who works all things according to the counsel of his own will The Motions of the Divine Will are not rash but follow the Proposals of the Divine Mind He chooses that which is fittest to be done so that all his Works are graceful and all his Ways have a comeliness and decorum in them Hence all his Ways are said to be Judgment Deut. 32.4 not meer Will Hence it appears that Wisdom and Knowledge are two distinct Perfections Knowledge hath its seat in the Speculative Understanding Wisdom in the Practical Wisdom and Knowledge are evidently distinguish'd as two several gifts of the Spirit in Man 1 Cor. 12.8 To one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit Knowledge is an understanding of general Rules and Wisdom is a drawing Conclusions from those Rules in order to particular cases A Man may have the Knowledge of the whole Scripture and have all Learning in the Treasury of his Memory and yet be destitute of Skill to make use of them upon particular Occasions and unty those knotty Questions which may be proposed to him by a ready application of those Rules Again Knowledge and Wisdom may be distinguish'd in our Conception as two distinct Perfections in God The Knowledge of God is his Understanding of all things his Wisdom is the Skilful resolving and acting of all things And the Apostle in his Admiration of him owns them as distinct Oh the depths of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God Rom. 11.33 Knowledge is the Foundation of Wisdom and antecedent to it Wisdom the Superstructure upon Knowledge Men may have Knowledge without Wisdom but not Wisdom without Knowledge according to our common Proverb The greatest Clerks are not the wisest Men. All Practical Knowledge is founded in Speculation either Secundum rem as in a Man or Secundum rationem as in God They agree
in Scripture the strongest Affirmations or Negations 'T is here a strong affirmation of the Incomparableness of God and a strong denial of the worthiness of all Creatures to be partners with him in the degrees of his Excellency 'T is a preference of God before all Creatures in Holiness to which the purity of Creatures is but a shadow in desert of Reverence and Veneration he being Fearful in praises The Angels cover their Faces when they adore him in his particular Perfections Amongst the gods Among the Idols of the Nations say some Others say * River 'T is not to be found that the Heathen Idols are ever dignified with the Title of Strong or Mighty as the word translated Gods doth import and therefore understand it of the Angels or other Potentates of the World or rather inclusively of all that are noted for and can lay claim to the Title of Strength and Might upon the Earth or in Heaven God is so great and Majestick that no Creature can share with him in his Praise Fearful in praises Various are the Interpretations of this passage To be reverenc'd in praises his Praise ought to be celebrated with a Religious Fear Fear is the product of his Mercy as well as his Justice He hath forgiveness that he may be feared Psal 130.4 Or Fearful in praises whom none can praise without Amazement at the considerations of his works †Calvin None can truly praise him without being affected with Astonishment at his Greatness Or Fearful in praises | Munster whom no Mortal can sufficiently praise since he is above all Praise Whatsoever a Human Tongue can speak or an Angelical Understanding think of the Excellency of his Nature and the Greatness of his Works falls short of the vastness of the Divine Perfection A Creatures Praises of God are as much below the transcendent Eminency of God as the meaness of a Creatures Being is below the Eternal Fulness of the Creator Or rather Fearful or Terrible in praises that is in the Matter of thy Praise And the Learned Rivet concurs with me in this sense The Works of God celebrated in this Song were Terrible It was the Miraculous overthrow of the Strength and Flower of a Mighty Nation His Judgments were severe as well as his Mercy was seasonable The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Glorious and Illustrious as well as Terrible and Fearful No Man can hear the Praise of thy Name for those great Judicial Acts without some Astonishment at thy Justice the stream and thy Holiness the Spring of those Mighty Works This seems to be the sense of the following words Doing wonders Fearful in the Matter of thy Praise they being Wonders which thou hast done among us and for us Doing wonders Congealing the Waters by a Wind to make them stand like Walls for the rescue of the Israelites and melting them by a Wind for the overthrow of the Egyptians are Prodigies that challenge the greatest Adorations of that Mercy which delivered the one and that Justice which punished the other and of the Arm of that Power whereby he effected both his Gracious and his Righteous Purposes Doctr. Whence observe That the Judgments of God upon his Enemies as well as his Mercies to his People are matter of Praise The Perfections of God appear in both Justice and Mercy are so linkt together in his acts of Providence that the one cannot be forgotten whiles the other is acknowledged He is never so Terrible as in the Assemblies of his Saints and the Deliverance of them Psal 89.7 As the Creation was erected by him for his Glory so all the Acts of his Government are design'd for the same end And his Creatures deny him his due if they acknowledge not his Excellency in whatsoever dreadful as well as pleasing Garbs it appears in the World His Terror as well as his Righteousness appears when he is a God of Salvation Psal 65.5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us oh God of our Salvation But the Expression I pitch upon in the Text to handle is Glorious in Holiness He is Magnified or Honourable in Holiness so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated Isai 42.21 He will magnifie the Law and make it honourable Thy Holiness hath shone forth admirably in this last Exploit against the Enemies and Oppressors of thy People The Holiness of God is his Glory as his Grace is his Riches Holiness is his Crown and his Mercy is his Treasure This is the Blessedness and Nobleness of his Nature it renders him Glorious in himself and Glorious to his Creatures that understand any thing of this lovely Perfection Doctr. Holiness is a glorious Perfection belonging to the Nature of God Hence he is in Scripture styled often the Holy one the Holy one of Jacob the Holy one of Israel and oftner entituled Holy than Almighty and set forth by this part of his Dignity more than by any other This is more affix'd as an Epithete to his Name than any other You never find it exprest his Mighty Name or his Wise Name but his Great Name and most of all his Holy Name This is his greatest Title of Honour in this doth the Majesty and Venerableness of his Name appear When the Sinfulness of Senacherib is aggravated the Holy Ghost takes the rise from this Attribute 2 Kings 19.22 Thou hast lift up thine eyes on high even against the Holy one of Israel not against the Wise Mighty c. but against the Holy one of Israel as that wherein the Majesty of God was most illustrious 'T is upon this account he is called Light as Impurity is called Darkness both in this sense are opposed to one another He is a pure and unmixt Light free from all blemish in his Essence Nature and Operations 1. Heathens have own'd it Proclus calls him the Vndefiled Governour of the World * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Poetical Transformations of their False gods and the Extravagancies committed by them was in the account of the wisest of them an unholy thing to report and hear †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ammon in Plut. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Delphos p. 393. ‖ Gassend Tom. 1. Phys §. 1. lib. 4. cap. 2. p. 289. And some vindicate Epicurus from the Atheism wherewith he was commonly charged that he did not deny the Being of God but those Adulterous and contentious Deities the People worshipped which were Practises unworthy and unbecoming the Nature of God Hence they asserted that Vertue was an Imitation of God and a Vertuous Man bore a resemblance to God If Vertue were a Copy from God a greater Holiness must be owned in the Original And when some of them were at a loss how to free God from being the Author of Sin in the World they ascribe the birth of Sin to Matter and run into an absurd Opinion fancying it to be uncreated that thereby they might exempt God from
in its Brightness we may behold it through a colour'd Glass whereby the lustre of it is moderated without dazling our eyes The sense of it will furnish us with a greatness of mind that little things will be contemned by us Motives of a greater alloy would have little influence upon us we should have the highest Motives to every Duty and Motives of the same strain which influence â—he Angels above It would change us not only into an Angelical Nature but a Divine Nature We should act like men of another Sphere as if we had received our Original in another World and seen with Angels the ravishing Beauties of Heaven How little would the mean Imployments of the World sink us into dirt and mud How often hath the Meditation of the Courage of a Valiant Man or Acuteness and Industry of a Learned Person spur'd on some men to an imitation of them and transform'd them into the same Nature As the looking upon the Sun imprints an Image of the Sun upon our eye that we seem to behold nothing but the Sun a while after The view of the Divine Purity would fill us with a holy generosity to imitate him more than the Examples of the best men upon Earth It was a saying of a Heathen That if Vertue were visible it would kindle a noble flame of Love to it in the heart by its ravishing beauty Shall the Infinite Purity of the Author of all Vertue come short of the strength of a Creature Can we not render that visible to us by frequent Meditation which though it be invisible in his Nature is made visible in his Law in his Ways in his Son It would make us ready to obey him since we know he cannot Command any thing that is sinful but what is holy just and good It would put all our Aff ctions in their due place elevate them above the Creature and subject them to the Creator 6. It would make us patient and contented under all God's Dispensations All penal Evils are the Fruits of his Holiness as he is Judge and Governour of the World He is not an Arbitrary Judge nor doth any Sentence pronounc'd nor Warrant for Execution issue from him but what bears upon it a Stamp of the Righteousness of his Nature he doth nothing by Passion or Unrighteousness but according to the Eternal Law of his own unstained Nature which is the Rule to him in his Works the Basis and Foundation of his Throne and Soveraign Dominion Psal 89.14 Justice or Righteousness and Judgment are the Habitation of thy Throne upon these his Soveraign Power is established So that there can be no just Complaint or Indictâ—â—â—t brought against any of his Proceedings with men How doth our Saviour who had the highest Apprehensions of God's Holiness justifie God in his deepest Distresses when he cried and was not answered in the particular he desired in that Prophetick Psalm of him Psal 22.2 3. I cry day and night but thou hearest not Thou seemest to be deaf to all my Petitions afar off from the words of my roaring but thou art holy I cast no blame upon thee All thy dealings are squar'd by thy holiness this is the only Law to thee in this I acquiesce 'T is part of thy holiness to hide thy face from me to shew thereby thy detestation of sin Our Saviour adores the Divine Purity in his sharpest Agony and a like sense of it would guide us in the same steps to acknowledge and glorifie it in our greatest desertions and afflictions especially since as they are the fruit of the holiness of his Nature so they are the means to impart to us clearer stamps of holiness according to that in himself which is the original Copy * Heb. 12.10 He melts us down as Gold to fit us for the receiving a new Impression to mortifie the Affections of the Flesh and clothe us with the Graces of his Spirit The due sense of this would make us to submit to his stroke and to wait upon him for a good issue of his dealings 2. Exhortation Is holiness a Perfection of the Divine Nature Is it the glory of the Deity Then let us glorifie this holiness of God Moses glorifies it in the Text and glorifies it in a Song which was a Copy for all Ages The whole Corporation of Seraphims have their Mouths fill'd with the praises of it The Saints whither Militant on Earth or Triumphant in Heaven are to continue the same Acclamation Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts †Rev. 4.8 Neither Angels nor glorified Spirits exalt at the same rate the Power which formed them Creatures nor Goodness which preserves them in a blessed Immortality As they do holiness which they bear some beams of in their own Nature and whereby they are capacitated to stand before his Throne Upon the account of this a Debt of Praise is demanded of all Rational Creatures by the Psalmist Psal 99.3 Let them praise thy great and terrible Name for it is holy Not so much for the greatness of his Majesty or the treasures of his Justice but as they are considered in conjunction with his holiness which renders them beautiful for it is holy Grandeur and Majesty simply in themselves are not Objects of Praise nor do they merit the Acclamations of men when destitute of Righteousness This only renders every thing else adorable and this adorns the Divine Greatness with an amiableness Isa 12.6 Great is the holy One of Israel in the midst of thee and makes his Might worthy of Praise Luke 1.49 In honouring this which is the soul and spirit of all the rest we give a glory to all the Perfections which constitute and beautifie his Nature And without the glorifying this we glorifie nothing of them though we should extoll every other single Attribute a thousand times He values no other Adoration of his Creatures unless this be interested nor accepts any thing as a glory from them Levit. 10.3 I will be sanctified in them that come near me and I will be glorified As if he had said in manifesting my Name to be holy you truly you only honour me And as the Scripture seldom speaks of this Perfection without a particular Emphasis it teaches us not to think of it without a special Elevation of heart By this act only while we are on Earth can we joyn consort with the Angels in Heaven he that doth not honour it delight in it and in the meditation of it hath no resemblance of it he hath none of the Image that delights not in the Original Every thing of God is glorious but this most of all If he built the World principally for any thing it was for the communication of his Goodness and display of his Holiness He formed the Rational Creature to manifest his Holiness in that Law whereby he was to be governed Then deprive not God of the design of his own Glory We honour this Attribute 1. When we make it
Ver. 12. He shall gather them i. e. Those conspiring Nations as sheaves into the floor then he sounds a Trumpet to Sion Arise and thresh O Daughter of Sion for I will make thy Horn Iron and thy Hoofs Brass and thou shalt beat in pieces many people And I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord and their substance unto the Lord of the whole Earth I will make them and their Councels them and their strength the monuments and signal marks of my Empire over the whole Earth When you see the cunningest designs baffled by some small thing intervening when you see men of profound Wisdom infatuated mistake their way and grope in the noon day as in the night Job 5.14 bewildred in a plain way When you see the hopes of mighty attempters dasht into despair their triumphs turn'd into funerals and their joyful expectations into sorrowful disappointments when you see the weak devoted to destruction victorious and the most presumptuous defeated in their purposes then read the divine Dominion in the desolation of such devices How often doth God take away the Heart and Spirit of grand designs and burst a mighty wheel by snatching but one man out of the World How often doth he cut off the spirits of Princes Psal 76.12 either from the World by death or from the execution of their projects by some unforeseen interruption or from favouring those contrivances which before they cherish'd by a change of their minds How often hath confidence in God and religious Prayer edg'd the weakest and smallest number of weapons to make a carnage of the carnally confident How often hath presumption been disappointed and the contemn'd Enemy rejoyc'd in the spoils of the proud expectant of victory * Causin symb lib. 2. cap. 65. Phydias made the Image of Nemesis or revenge at Marathon of that Marble which the haughty Persians despising the weakness of the Athenian forces brought with them to erect a Trophy for an expected but an ungain'd victory Hamans neck by a sudden turn was in the Halter when the Jews necks were design'd to the block Julian design'd the overthrow of all the Christians just before his breast was peirced by an unexpected Arrow The Powder-Traytors were all ready to give fire to the Mine when the Soveraign hand of Heaven snatch'd away the match Thus the great Lord of the World cuts off men on the pinacle of their designs when they seem to threaten Heaven and Earth Puts out the Candle of the wicked which they thought to use to light them to the execution of their purposes turns their own Counsels into a curse to themselves and a blessing to their Adversaries and makes his greatest Enemies contribute to the effecting his purposes How may we take notice of Gods absolute disposal of things in private affairs when we see one man with a small measure of Prudence and little Industry have great success and others with a greater measure of Wisdom and greater toil and labour find their enterprizes melt between their fingers It was Solomons observation That the race was not to the swift nor the battle to the strong neither bread to the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor yet favour to men of skill Eccles 9.11 Many things might interpose to stop the swift in his race and damp the courage of the most valiant Things do not happen according to mens ability but according to the over-ruling Authority of God God never yet granted man the dominion of his own way no more than to be Lord of his own time the way of man is not in himself it is not in him that walketh to direct his steps Jerem. 10.23 He hath given man a power of acting but not the soveraignty to command success He makes even those things which men intended for their security to turn to their ruine Pilate delivered up Christ to be accounted a friend to Caesar and Caesar soon after proves an Enemy to him removes him from his Government and sends him into banishment The Jews imagined by the crucifying Christ to keep the Roman Ensigns at a distance from them and this hasted their march by Gods soveraign disposal which ended in a total desolation He makes the Judges fools Job 12.17 by taking away his light from their understanding and suffering them to go on in the vanity of their own Spirits that his soveraignty in the management of things may be more apparent For then he is known to be Lord when he snares the wicked in the work of his own hands Psal 9.16 You have seen much of this doctrine in your experience and if my judgment fail me not you will yet see much more 5. The Dominion of God is manifest in sending his Judgments upon whom he please He kills and makes alive he wounds and heals whom he pleaseth His thunders are his own and he may cast them upon what subjects he thinks good He hath a right in a way of Justice to punish all men he hath his choice in a way of Soveraignty to pick out whom he please to make the examples of it Might not some Nations be as wicked as those of Sodom and Gomorrah yet have not been scorcht with the like dreadful flames Zoar was untoucht while the other Cities her Neighbours were burnt to ashes Were there never any places and persons successors in Sodoms guilt Yet those only by his Soveraign Authority are separated by him to be the examples of his Eternal vengeance Jude 7. Why are not sinners as Sodom like as those ancient ones scalded to death by the like fiery drops 't is because it is his pleasure and the same reason is to be rendered why he would in a way of Justice cut off the Jews for their sins and leave the Gentiles untoucht in the midst of their Idolatries When the Church was consumed because of her iniquities they acknowledg'd Gods Soveraignty in this Isaiah 64.7 8. We are the Clay and thou art our Potter and we all the work of thy hands thou hast a liberty either to break or preserve us Judgments move according to Gods order When the Sword hath a charge against Askelon and the Sea shoar thither it must march and touch not any other place or person as it goes though there may be demerit enough for it to punish Jer. 47.6 7. When the Prophet had spake to the Sword Oh thou Sword of the Lord how long will it be â—re thou be quiet Put up thy self into thy scabbard rest and be still The Prophet answers for the Sword how can it be quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Askelon there hath he appointed it If he hath appointed a judgment against London or Westminster or any other place there it shall drop there it shall peirce and in no other place without a like charge God as a Soveraign gives instructions to every Judgment when and against whom it shall march and what Cities what Persons it shall arrest