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
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
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
his loathing of sin and the sprinklings of his Judgments in the World and the horrible expectations of terrified Consciences confirm it But what are all these Testimonies to the highest evidence that can possibly be given in the sheathing the Sword of his wrath in the heart of his Son If a Father should order his Son to take a mean Garb below his Dignity order him to be dragg'd to Prison seem to throw off all Affection of a Father for the severity of a Judge condemn his Son to a horrible Death be a Spectator of his bleeding Condition withhold his hand from asswaging his Misery regard it rather with Joy than Sorrow give him a bitter Cup to drink and stand by to see him drink it off to the bottom dregs and all and sâ—ash frowns in his face all the while and this not for any fault of his own but the Rebellion of some Subjects he undertook for and that the Offenders might have a pardon seal'd by the Blood of the Son the sufferer all this would evidence his detestation of the Rebellion and his affection to the Rebels his hatred to their Crime and his love to their Welfare This did God do He delivered Christ up for our Offences Rom. 8.32 the Father gave him the Cup John 18 18. the Lord bruised him with pleasure Isa 53.10 and that for sin â—e transfer'd upon the shoulders of his Son the pain we had merited that the Criminal might be restored to the place he had forfeited He hates the sin so as to condemn it for ever and wrap it up in the Curse he had threatned and loves the sinner believing and repenting so as to mount him to an expectation of a happiness exceeding the first state both in glory and perpetuity Instead of an Earthly Paradise lays the Foundation of an Heavenly Mansion brings forth a weight of Glory from a weight of Misery separates the comfortable light of the Sun from the scorching heat we had deserved at his hands Thus hath Gods hatred of sin been manifested He is at an eternal Defiance with sin yet nearer in alliance with the sinner than he was before the Revolt As if man's miserable Fall had endeared him to the Judge This is the wisdom and prudence of Grace wherein God hath abounded Eph. 1.9 A wisdom in twisting the happy restoration of the broken Amity with an everlasting Curse upon that which made the breach both upon sin the Cause and upon Satan the Seducer to it Thus is hatred and love in their highest glory manifested together Hatred to sin in the death of Christ more than if the torments of Hell had been undergone by the sinner and love to the sinner more than if he had by an absolute and simple Bounty bestowed upon him the possession of Heaven because the gift of his Son for such an end is a greater token of his boundless Affections than a reinstating Man in Paradise Thus is the wisdom of God seen in Redemption consuming the sin and recovering the sinner 6. The wisdom of God is evident in overturning the Devil's Empire by the Nature he had vanquish'd and by ways quite contrary to what that malicious Spirit could imagine The Devil indeed read his own doom in the first Promise and found his ruin resolved upon by the means of the Seed of the Woman but by what Seed was not so easily known to him * And indeed the 〈◊〉 â—â—racles managed by the Devils declared that they were not long to hold their Scepter in the World but the Hebrew Child should vanquish them And the methods whereby it was to be brought about was a Mystery kept secret from the malicious Devils since it was not discovered to the obedient Angels He might know from Isa 53. that the Redeemer was assured to divide the Spoil with the strong and rescue a part of the lost Creation out of his hands and that this was to be effected by making his Soul an offering for sin But could he imagine which way his Soul was to be made such an Offering He shrewdly suspected Christ just after his Inauguration into his Office by Bapism to be the Son of God But did he ever dream that the Messiah by dying as a reputed Malefactor should be a Sacrifice for the expiation of the sin the Devil had introduced by his subtilty Did he ever imagine a Cross should dispossess him of his Crown and that dying groans should wrest the Victory out of his hands He was conquer'd by that Nature he had cast headlong into ruin A Woman by his subtilty was the occasion of our death and a Woman by the conduct of the only wise God brings forth the Author of our Life and the Conquerour of our Enemies The Flesh of the old Adam had infected us and the Flesh of the new Adam cures us 1 Cor. 15.21 By man came death by man also came the resurrection from the dead We are killed by the old Adam and raised by the new As among the Israelites a fiery Serpent gave the wound and a brazen Serpent administers the Cure The Nature that was deceived bruiseth the Deceiver and razeth up the Foundations of his Kingdom Satan is defeated by the Counsels he took to secure his Possession and loses the Victory by the same means whereby he thought to preserve it His tempting the Jews to the sin of Crucifying the Son of God had a contrary success to his tempting Adam to eat of the Tree The first death he brought upon Adam ruined us and the death he brought by his Instrumâ—nts upon the second Adam restored us By a Tree if one may so say he had Triumphed over the World and by the fruit of a Tree one hanging upon a Tree he is dischâ—â—ged of his power over us Heb. 2.14 Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death And thus the Devil ruins his own Kingdom while he thinks to confirm inlarge it And is defeated by his own policy whereby he thought to continue the World under his chains and deprive the Creator of the World of his purposed honour What deeper Counsell could he resolve upon for his own security than to be instrumental in the death of him who was God the terror of the Devil himself and to bring the Redeemer of the World to expire with disgrace in the sight of a multitude of men Thus did the Wisdom of God shine forthin restoring us by methods seemingly repugnant to the end he aimed at above the suspition of a subtle Devil whom he intended to baffle Could he Imagine that we should be healed by stripes quickned by death purified by blood crowned by a cross advanced to the highest honour by the lowest humility comforted by sorrows glorified by disgrace absolved by condemnation and made rich by poverty That the sweetest hony should at once spring out of the belly of a dead Lion the Lion of the tribe of Judah and out of the bosom of the living God
to King Redeemer He hath revok'd the Law of works as a Covenant releas'd the penalty of it from the beleiving sinner by transferring it upon the surety who interpos'd himself by his own will and divine designation He hath establish'd another Covenant upon other promises in a higher root with greater Priviledges and easier terms Had not God had this right of Soveraignty not a man of Adam's posterity could have been blessed he and they must have lain groaning under the misery of the fall which had render'd both himself and all in his Loyns unable to observe the Terms of the first Covenant He hath as some speak dispens'd with his own Moral Law in some cases in commanding Abraham to Sacrifice his Son his only Son a Righteous Son a Son whereof he had the promise that in Isaac should his Seed be call'd yet he was commanded to Sacrifice him by the right of his absolute Soveraignty as the supream Lord of the Lives of his Creatures from the highest Angel to the lowest Worm whereby he bound his Subjects to this Law not himself Our Lives are due to him when he calls for them and they are a just forâ—â—it to him at the very moment we sin at the very moment we come into the World by reason of the venom of our nature against him and the disturbance the first sin of man whereof we are inheritors gave to his Glory Had Abraham sacrificed his Son of his own head he had sinned yea in attempting it but being Authoriz'd from Heaven his act was Obedience to the Soveraign of the World who had a power to dispense with his own Law and with this Law he had before dispens'd in the case of Cains Murder of Abel as to the immediate punishment of it with death which indeed was setled afterwards by his Authority but then omitted because of the paucity of men and for the peopling the World but setled afterwards when there was almost though not altogether the like occasion of omitting it for a time 3. His Soveraignty appears in punishing the Transgression of his Law 1. This is a branch of Gods Dominion as Lawgiver So was the vengeance God would take upon the Amalekites Exod. 17.16 The Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have War The Hebrew is the hand upon the Throne of the Lord as in the margent As a Lawgiver he saves or destroyes James 4.12 He acts according to his own Law in a congruity to the sanction of his own precepts though he be an Arbitrary Lawgiver appointing what Laws he pleases yet he is not an Arbitrary Judge As he commands nothing but what he hath a right to command so he punisheth none but whom he hath a right to punish and with such punishment as the Law hath denounced All his acts of Justice and inflictions of Curses are the effects of this Soveraign Dominion Psal 29.10 He sits King upon the Flouds Upon the deluge of Waters wherewith he drown'd the World say some 'T is a right belonging to the Authority of Magistrates to pull up the infectious weeds that corrupt a Common-Wealth 'T is no less the right of God as the Lawgiver and Judge of all the Earth to subject Criminals to his vengeance after they have rendered themselves abominable in his Eyes and carried themselves unworthy Subjects of so great and glorious a King The first name whereby God is made known in Scripture is Elohim Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God Created the Heaven and Earth A name which signifies his power of judging in the opinion of some Criticks from him it is deriv'd to earthly Magistrates their Judgment is said therefore to be the Judgement of God Deut. 1.17 When Christ came he propos'd this great motive of Repentance from the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand the Kingdom of his Grace whereby to invite men the Kingdom of his Justice in the punishment of the neglecters of it whereby to terrifie men Punishments as well as Rewards belong to Royalty it issued accordingly those that believ'd and repented came under his gracious Scepter those that neglected and rejected it fell under his Iron Rod. Jerusalem was destroy'd the Temple demolish'd the Inhabitants lost their lives by the edge of the Sword or linger'ed them out in the chains of a miserable Captivity This term of Judge which signifies a Soveraign right to govern and punish Delinquents Abraham gives him when 〈◊〉 came to root out the People of Sodom and make them the examples of his veâ—geance Gen. 18.25 2. Punishing the Transgressions of his Law This is necessary branch of Dominion His Soveraignty in making Laws would be a trifle if there were not also an Authority to vindicate those Laws from Contempt and Injury he would be a Lord only spurn'd at by Rebels Soveraignty is not preserved without Justice When the Psalmist speaks of the Majesty of God's Kingdom he tells us that Righteousness and Judgment are the Habitation of his Throne Psal 97.1 2. These are the Engines of Divine dignity which render him glorious and majestick A Legislative power would be trampled on without executive by this the reverential apprehensions of God are preserved in the Wâ—rld He is known to be Lord of the World by the Judgements which he executes Psal 9.16 When he seems to have lost his dominion or given it up in the World he recovers it by punishment When he takes some away with a Whirlwind and in his Wrath the natural consequence men make of it is this Surely there is a God that Judgeth the Earth Psal 58.9.11 He reduceth the Creature by the lash of his judgments that would not acknowledge his Authority in his precepts Those sins which disown his Government in the Heart and Conscience as Pride inward blasphemy c. he hath reserved a time hereafter to reckon for He doth not presently shoot his arrows into the marrow of every delinquent but those sins which traduce his Government of the World and tear up the Foundations of humane converse and a publick respect to him he reckons with particularly here as well as hereafter that the Life of his Soveraignty might not always faint in the World 3. This of punishing was the second discovery of his dominion in the World His first act of Soveraignty was the giving a Law the next his appearance in the State of a judge When his orders were violated he rescues the honour of them by an execution of Justice He first judg'd the Angels punishing the evil ones for their crime the first Court he kept among them as a Governour was to give them a Law the second Court he kept was as a Judge trying the Delinquents and adjudging the Offenders to be reserved in Chains of darkness till the final Execution Jude 6. And at the same time probably he confirmed the good ones in their obedience by Grace So the first discovery of his dominion to man was the giving him a precept the next was the inflicting a punishment for the
according to God's order Ezek. 37.24 25. David my servant shall be King over them and my servant David shall be their Prince for ever He shall be a Prince over them but my servant in that principality in the exercise and duration of it The Soveraignty of God is paramount in all that Christ hath done as a Priest or shall do as a King The VSE 1. For Instruction 1. How great is the contempt of this soveraignty of God Man naturally would be free from Gods Empire to be a slave under the Dominion of his own lust The soveraignty of God as a Law-giver is most abhorr'd by man Levit. 26.43 The Israelites the best people in the World were apt by nature not only to despise but abhorre his Statutes There is not a Law of God but the corrupt heart of man hath an abhorrency of How often do men wish that God had not enacted this or that Law that goes against the grain and in wishing so wish that he were no soveraign or not such a soveraign as he is in his own â—â—ture but one according to their corrupt model This is the great quarrel between God and Man whither he or they shall be the soveraign Ruler He should not by the Will of Man rule in any one Village in the World Gods vote should not be predominant in any one thing There is not a Law of his but is expos'd to contempt by the perverseness of Man Prov. 1.21 Ye have set at nought all my Counsel and would have none of my reproof Septuag Ye have made all my Counsels without Authority The nature of man cannot endure one precept of God nor one rebuke from him And for this cause God is at the expence of Judgements in the World to assert his own Empire to the Teeth and Consciences of men Psal 59.13 Lord consume them in wrath and let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the Earth The Dominion of God is not slighted by any Creature of this World but Man all others observe it by observing his Order whither in their natural motions or preternaral irruptions they punctually act according to their Commission Man only speaks a Dialect against the strain of the whole Creation and hath none to imitate him among all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth but only among those in Hell Man is more impatient of the yoke of God than of the yoke of Man There are not so many rebellions committed by inferiors against their superiors and fellow Creatures as are committed against God A willing and easie sinning is an equalling the Authority of God to that of Man Hos 6.7 They like men have transgrest my Covenant * Munster They have made no more account of breaking my Covenant than if they had broken some league or compact made with a meer man so slightly do they esteem the Authority of God Such a disesteem of the divine Authority is a vertual undeifying of him To slight his soveraignty is to stab his Deity Since the one cannot be preserved without the support of the other his life would expire with his Authority How base and brutish is it for vile dust and mouldring clay to lift up it self against the Majesty of God whose Throne is in the Heavens who sways his Scepter over all parts of the World A Majesty before whom the Devils shake and the highest Cherubims tremble 'T is as if the Thistle that can presently be trod down by the foot of a wild Beast should think it self a match for the Cedar of Lebanon as the phrase is 2 Kings 14.9 Let us consider this in general and also in the ordinary practise of men First In General 1. All sin in its nature is a contempt of the Divine Dominion As every act of Obedience is a confirmation of the Law and consequently a subscription to the Authority of the Lawgiver Deut 27.26 so every breach to it is a conspiracy against the soveraignty of the Law-giver setting up our Will against the Will of God is an Articling against his Authority as setting up our reason against the methods of God is an Articling against his Wisdom the intendment of every act of sin is to wrest the Scepter out of God's hand The Authority of God is the first attribute in the Deity which it directs its edge against 't is called therefore a transgression of his Law 1 John 3.4 And therefore a slight or neglect of the Majesty of God and the not keeping his Commands is call'd a forgetting God Deut. 8.11 i. e. a forgetting him to be our absolute Lord. As the first notion we have of God as a Creator is that of his Soveraignty so the first perfection that sin struck at in the violation of the Law was his soveraignty as a Lawgiver Breaking the Law is a dishonouring God Rom. 2.23 a Snatching off his Crown to obey our own Wills before the Will of God is to preferre our selves as our own Soveraigns before him Sin is a wrong and injury to God not in his Essence that is above the reach of a Creature nor in any thing profitable to him or pertaining to his own intrinsick advantage not an injury to God in himself but in his Authority in those things which pertain to his Glory a disowning his due right and not using his goods according to his will Thus the whole world may be call'd as God calls Chaldea a Land of Rebels Jer. 50.21 Go up against the Land of Merathaim or Rebels Rebels not against the Jews but against God The mighty opposition in the heart of man to the Supremacy of God is discovered Emphatically by the Apostle Rom. 8.7 in that expression The carnal mind is enmity against God i. e. against the Authority of God because it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be It refuseth not subjection to this or that part but to the whole to every mark of Divine Authority in it it will not lay down its arms against it nay it cannot but stand upon its terms against it the Law can no more be fulfill'd by a carnal mind than it can be disowned by a soveraign God God is so Holy that he cannot alter a Righteous Law and man is so averse that he cares not for nay cannot fulfil one Tittle so much doth the Nature of man swell against the Majesty of God Now an enmity to the Law which is in every sin implies a perversity against the Authority of God that enacted it 2. All sin in its nature is the despoyling God of his sole soveraignty which was probably the first thing the Devil aim'd at That pride was the sin of the Devil the Scripture gives us some account of when the Apostle adviseth not a novice or one that hath but lately embraced the Faith to be chosen a Bishop 1 Tim. 3.6 Least being lifted up with Pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil Least he fall into the same sin for
interest of the rest of the World that they should have been extinguisht for the instruction of their contemporaries and posterity The best of them had turned all Religion into a fable coyn'd a World of rites some unnatural in themselves and most of them unbecoming a rational creature to offer and a Deity to accept Yet he did not presently arm himself against them with Fire and Sword nor stopt the course of their Generations nor tare out all those reliques of natural light which were left in their minds He did not do what he might have done but he winkt at the times of that ignorance Act. 17.30 their ignorant Idolatry for that it referrs to ver 29. They thought the God-head was like to Gold or Silver or stone graven by Art and mens device 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 overlooking them He demean'd himself so as if he did not take notice of them He winkt as if he did not see them and would not deal so severely with them the eye of his Justice seem'd to wink in not calling them to an account for their sin 3. His slowness to anger is manifest to the Israelites You know how often they are call'd a stiff-necked people they are said to do evil from their youth i. e. from the time wherein they were erected a Nation and Common-wealth and that the City had been a provocation of his anger and of his fury from the day that they built it even to this day i. e. the day of Jeremiah's Prophesie that he should remove it from before his face Jer. 32.31 From the dayes of Solomon say some which is too much a curtailing of the Text as though their provocations had taken date no higher than from the time of Solomon's rearing the Temple and beautifying the City whereby it seem'd to be a new Building They began more early they scarce discontinued their revolting from God they were a grief to him 40 years together in the Wilderness Psal 95.10 Yet he suffer'd their manners Act. 13.18 He bore with their ill behaviour and sawcyness towards him And no sooner was Joshua's head laid and the Elders that were their conductors gathered to their fathers but the next Generation forsook God and smutted themselves with the Idolatry of the Nations Judg. 2.7.10 11. And when he punished them by prospering the Arms of their enemies against them they were no sooner delivered upon their cry and humiliation but they began a new Scene of Idolatry And though he brought upon them the power of the Babylonian Empire and laid chains upon them to bring them to their right mind And at 70 years end he struck off their chains by altering the whole posture of affairs in that part of the World for their sakes Overturning one Empire and settling another for their Restoration to their antient City And though they did not after disown him for their God and set up Baal in his Throne yet they multiplyed foolish traditions whereby they impaired the Authority of the Law yet he sustained them with a wonderful Patience and preferred them before all other people in the first offers of the Gospel And after they had outrag'd not only his servants the Prophets but his Son the Redeemer yet he did not forsake them but employed his Apostles to sollicit them and publish among them the Doctrine of Salvation So that his treating this people might well be call'd much long suffering it being above 1500 years wherein he bore with them or mildly punished them far less than their deserts Their coming out of Egypt being about the year of the World 2450 and their final destruction as a Common-wealth not till about 40 years after the death of Christ And all this while his Patience did sometimes wholly restrain his Justice and sometimes let it fall upon them in some few drops but made no total devastation of their Country nor wrote his revenge in extraordinary bloody Characters till the Roman conquest wherein he put a period to them both as a Church and State In particular this Patience is manifest 1. In his giving warnings of Judgments before he orders them to go forth He doth not punish in a passion and hastily He speakes before he strikes and speakes that he may not strike Wrath is publisht before it is executed and that a long time An 120 years Advertisement was given to a debauch'd World before the Heavens were open'd to spout down a deluge upon them He will not be accused of coming unawares upon a people He inflicts nothing but what he foretold either immediately to the people that provoke him or anciently to them that have been their fore-runners in the same provocation Hos 7.12 I will chastise them as their Congregation hath heard Many of the leaves of the Old Testament are full of those Presages and Warnings of approaching judgment These make up a great part of the Volume of it in various Editions according to the State of the several provoking times Warnings are given to those people that are most abominable in his sight Zeph. 2.1 2. Gather your selves together yea gather together Oh Nation not desired 't is a Meiosis Oh Nation abhorr'd before the decree bring forth He sends his Heralds before he sends his Armies He summons them by the voice of his Prophets before he confounds them by the voice of his Thunders When a parley is beaten a white flagg of Peace is hung out before a black flagg of fury is set up He seldom cuts down men by his Judgments before he hath hewed them by his Prophets Hos 6.5 Not a remarkable judgment but was foretold the Floud to the Old World by Noah The Famine to Egypt by Joseph The Earthquake by Amos. Amos 1.1 The storm from Chaldea by Jeremy The Captivity of the Ten Tribes by Hosea The total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Christ himself He hath chosen the best persons in the World to give those intimations Noah the most Righteous person on the earth for the Old World And his Son the most beloved person in Heaven for the Jews in the later time And in other parts of the World and in the later times where he hath not warned by Prophets he hath supplyed it by Prodigies in the Air and Earth Histories are full of such Items from Heaven Lesser judgments are fore-warners of greater as Lightnings before Thunder are Messengers to tell us of a succeeding clap 1. He doth often give warning of Judgments He comes not to extremity till he hath often shaken the rod over Men He thunders often before he crusheth them with his Thunder-bolt He doth not till after the first and second admonition punish a rebel as he would have us reject a Heretick He speaks once yea twice Job 33.14 and man percieves it not He sends one Message after another and waits the success of many messages before he strikes Eight Prophets were order'd to acquaint the Old World with approaching judgment 2 Pet. 2.5 He saved
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
party we disaffect So the Will of God may be performed not as his Will but as it may gratifie some selfish consideration when we will please God so far as it may not displease our selves and serve him as our Master so far as his Command may be a Servant to our humor When we consider not who it is that Commands but how short it comes of displeasing that sin which Rules in our heart pick and chuse what is least burdensom to the flesh and distastful to our lusts He that doth the Will of God not out of Conscience of that Will but because it is agreeable to himself casts down the Will of God and sets his own Will in the place of it takes the Crown from the head of God and places it upon the head of self If things are done not because they are Commanded by God but desirable to us t is a disobedient obedience a conformity to Gods Will in regard of the matter a conformity to our own Will in regard of the motive either as the things done are agreeable to natural and moral self or sinful self 1. As they are agreeable to natural or moral self When men will practise some points of Religion and walk in the track of some Divine precepts not because they are Divine but because they are agreeable to their humor or constitution of nature from the sway of a natural bravery the Byas of a secular interest not from an ingenuous sense of Gods Authority or a voluntary submission to his Will As when a man will avoid excess in drinking not because it is dishonourable to God but as it is a blemish to his own reputation or an impair of the health of his body Doth this deserve the name of an observance of the Divine injunction or rather an obedience to our selves Or when a man will be liberal in the distribution of his Charity not with an eye to Gods precept but in compliance with his own natural compassion or to pleasure the generosity of his nature The one is obedience to a mans own preservation the other an obedience to the interest or impulse of a moral Vertue T is not respect to the rule of God but the Authority of self and at the best is but the performance of the material part of the Divine Rule without any concurrence of a Spiritual motive or a Spiritual manner That only is a maintaining the rights of God when we pay an observance to his rule without examining the agreeableness of it to our secular interest or consulting with the humour of flesh and blood when we will not decline his service though we find it cross and hath no affinity with the pleasure of our own nature Such an obedience as Abraham manifested in his readiness to sacrifice his Son Such an obedience as our Saviour demands in cutting off the right hand When we observe any thing of divine order upon the account of its suitableness to our natural Sentiments we shall readily divide from him when the interest of nature turns it's point against the interest of Gods honour we shall fall off from him according to the change we find in our own humours And can that be valued as a setting up the rule of God which must be depos'd upon the mutable interest of an inconstant mind Esau had no regard to God in delaying the execution of his resolution to shorten his brothers dayes though he was awed by the reverence of his Father to delay it he considered perhaps how justly he might lie under the imputation of hastening crazy Isaacs death by depriving him of a beloved Son But had the old mans head been laid neither the contrary command of God nor the nearness of a fraternal relation could have bound his hands from the act no more than they did his heart from the resolution Gen. 27.41 Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him and Esau said in his heart the days of mourning for my father are at hand then will I slay my brother So many Children that expect at the death of their Parents great Inheritances or Portions may be observant of them not in regard of the rule fixed by God but to their own hopes which they would not frustrate by a disobligement Whence is it that many men abstain from gross sins but in love to their reputation Wickedness may be acted privately which a mans one credit puts a bar to the open commission of The preserving his own esteem may divert him from entring into a brothell house to which he hath set his mind before against a known precept of his Creator As Pharaoh parted with the Israelites so do some men with their blemishing sins not out of a sense of Gods rule but the smart of present Judgments or fear of a future wrath Our security then and reputation is set up in the place of God This also may be and is in renewed men who have the law written in their hearts that is an habitual disposition to an agreement with the law of God when what is done is with a respect to this habitual inclination without eying the divine precept which is appointed to be their rule This also is to set up a creature as renewed self is instead of the Creator and that Law of his in his word which ought to be the rule of our actions Thus it is when men chuse a moral life not so much out of respect to the law of nature as it is the law of God but as it is a law become one with their souls and constitutions There is more of self in this than consideration of God For if it were the latter the revealed law of God would upon the same reason be received as well as his natural law From this principle of self morality comes by some to be advanced above Evangelical dictates 2. As they are agreeable to sinful self Not that the commands of God are suited to bolster up the corruptions of men no more than the law can be said to excite or revive sin * Rom. 7.8 9. But it is like a scandal taken not given an occasion taken by the tumultuousness of our depraved nature The Pharisees were devout in long Prayers not from a sense of duty or a care of Gods honour but to satisfie their ambition and rake together fuel for their covetuousness * Math. 23.14 You devour Widdows Houses and for a pretence makes long Prayers that they might have the greater esteem and richer offerings to free by their prayers the souls of deceased persons from Purgatory an opinion that some think the Jewish Synagogue had then entertain'd * Gerrard in loc since some of their Doctors have defended such a notion Men may observe some Precepts of God to have a better conveniency to break others Jehu was ordered to cut off the house of Ahab The service he undertook was in it self acceptable but corrupt nature misacted that which
from some powerful Principle so that every one may subscribe to the speech of the Apostle that when we would do good evil is present with them No reason of this can be rendred but the natural temper of our Souls and an affecting a distance from God under any consideration For though our guilt first made the breach yet this aversion to a converse with him steps up without any actual reflections upon our guilt which may render God terrible to us as an offended Judge Are we not often also in our attendance upon him more pleased with the modes of Worship which gratifie our fancy than to have our Souls inwardly delighted with the Object of Worship himself This is a part of our natural Atheism To cast such duties off by total neglect or in part by affecting a coldness in them is to cast off the Fear of the Lord. * Job 15.4 Not to call upon God and not to know him are one and the same thing Jer. 10.25 Either we think there is no such Being in the world or that he is so slight a one that he deserves not the respect he calls for or so impotent and poor that he cannot supply what our necessities require 3. No desire of a thorough return to him The first man fled from him after his defection though he had no refuge to fly to but the grace of his Creator Cain went from his presence would be a Fugitive from God rather than a Suppliant to him when by Faith in and application of the promised Redeemer he might have escaped the wrath to come for his Brothers blood and mitigated the sorrows he was justly sentenced to bear in the World Nothing will separate prodigal Man from commoning with Swine and make him return to his Father but an empty Trough Have we but husks to feed on we shall never think of a Fathers presence It were well if our sores and indigence would drive us to him but when our strength is devoured we will not return to the Lord our God nor seek him for all this * Hos 7.10 Not his drawn Sword as a God of Judgment nor his mighty Power as a Lord nor his open Arms as the Lord their God could move them to turn their eyes and their hearts towards him The more he invites us to partake of his grace the further we run from him to provoke his wrath The louder God called them by his Prophets the closer they stuck to their Baal * Hos 11.2 We turn our backs when he stretches out his hand stop our ears when he lifts up his voice We fly from him when he courts us and shelter our selves in any bush from his merciful hand that would lay hold upon us nor will we set our faces towards him till our way be hedged up with thorns and not a gap left to creep out any by-way * Hos 2.6.7 Whosoever is brought to a return puts the Holy-Ghost to the pain of striving he is not easily brought to a spiritual subjection to God nor perswaded to a Surrender at a Summons but sweetly over power'd by storm and victoriously drawn into the Arms of God God stands ready but the heart stands off Grace is full of intreaties and the Soul full of excuses Divine love offers and Carnal self-love rejects Nothing so pleases us as when we are furthest from him as if any thing were more amiable any thing more desirable than himself 4. No desire of any close imitation of him When our Saviour was to come as a Refiners fire to purifie the Sons of Levi the cry is who shall abide the day of his coming Mal. 3.2 3. Since we are alienated from the Life of God we desire no more naturally to live the Life of God than a Toad or any other Animal desires to live the Life of a Man No heart that knows God but hath a holy ambition to imitate him No Soul that refuseth him for a Copy but is ignorant of his Excellency Of this temper is all Mankind naturally Man in Corruption is as loth to be like God in Holiness as Adam after his Creation was desirous to be like God in Knowledge his Posterity are like their Father who soon turned his back upon his original Copy What can be worse than this Can the denial of his Being be a greater injury than this contempt of him as if he had not goodness to deserve our remembrance nor amiableness fit for our converse as if he were not a Lord fit for our subjection nor had a Holiness that deserved our imitation For the use of this It serves 1. For Information 1. It gives us occasion to admire the wonderful Patience and Mercy of God How many Millions of practical Atheists breath every day in his Air and live upon his Bounty who deserve to be Inhabitants in Hell rather than Possessors of the Earth An infinite Holiness is offended an infinite Justice is provoked yet an infinite Patience forbears the Punishment and an infinite Goodness relieves our wants The more we had merited his Justice and forfeited his Favour the more is his affection inhanc'd which makes his hand so liberal to us At the first invasion of his rights he mitigates the terror of the threatning which was set to defend his Law with the grace of a Promise to relieve and recover his rebellious Creature * Gen. 3.15 Who would have looked for any thing but tearing Thunders sweeping Judgments to rase up the foundations of the apostate world But oh how great are his Bowels to his aspiring Competitors Have we not experimented his Contrivances for our good though we have refused him for our happiness Has he not opened his Arms when we spurned with our Feet held out his alluring mercy when we have brandisht against him a rebellious sword Has he not intreated us while we have invaded him as if he were unwilling to lose us who are ambitious to destroy our selves Has he yet denyed us the care of his Providence while we have denyed him the rights of his Honour and would appropriate them to our selves Has the Sun forborn shining upon us though we have shot our Arrows against him Have not our Beings been supported by his Goodness while we have endeavoured to climb up to his Throne and his mercies continued to charm us while we have used them as weapons to injure him Our own necessities might excite us to own him as our happiness but he adds his invitations to the voice of our wants Has he not promised a Kingdom to those that would strip him of his Crown and proclaimed Pardon upon Repentance to those that would take away his Glory And hath so twisted together his own end which is his Honour and mans true end which is his Salvation that a man cannot truly mind himself and his own Salvation but he must mind Gods glory and cannot be intent upon Gods honour but by the same act he promotes himself
and expire every moment and slipaway between our fingers while we are using them Have we not heard of Gods dispersing the greatest Empires like Chaff before a whirlwind or as smoke out of a Chimny * Hos 13.3 which tho it appears as a compacted cloud as if it would choak the Sun is quickly scattered into several parts of the Air and becomes invisible Nettles have often been heirs to stately Palaces as God threatens Israel * Hos 9.6 We cannot promise our selves over night any thing the next day A Kingdom with the glory of a throne may be cut off in a morning * Hos 10.15 The new wine may be taken from the mouth when the Vintage is ripe the devouring locust may snatch away both the hopes of that and the harvest * Joel 1.15 they are therefore things which are not and Nothing cannot be a fit object for confidence or affection * Prov. 23.5 Wilt thou set thy eies upon that which is not for riches certainly make themselves wings They are not properly beings because they are not stable but flitting They are not because they may not be the next moment to us what they are this they are but Cisterns not Springs and broken Cisterns not sound and stable no solidity in their substance nor stability in their duration What a foolish thing is it then to prefer a transient felicity a meer nullity before an eternal God What a senseless thing would it be in a man to prefer the Map of a Kingdom which the hand of a Child can teare in pieces before the Kingdom shadowed by it How much more inexcusable is it to value things that are so far from being Eternal that they are not so much as duskie resemblances of an Eternity Were the things of the world more glorious than they are yet they are but as a counterfeit Sun in a Cloud which comes short of the true Sun in the heavens both in glory and duration and to esteem them before God is unconceivably baser than if a man should Value a parti-colour'd bubble in the Air before a durable rock of Diamonds The comforts of this world are as Candles that will end in a Snuff whereas the felicity that flows from an eternal God is like Sun that shines more and more to a perfect day 3. They cannot therefore be fit for a soul which was made to have an interest in Gods Eternity The soul being of a perpetual nature was made for the fruition of an Eternal good without such a good it can never be perfect Perfection that noble thing riseth not from any thing in this world nor is a title due to a Soul while in this world 't is then they are said to be made perfect when they arrive at that entire conjunction with the eternal God in another life * Heb. 12.23 The soul cannot be enobled by an acquaintance with these things or establish'd by adependence on them they cannot confer what a rational nature should desire or supply it with what it wants The soul hath a resemblance to God in a post-Eternity Why should it be drawn aside by the blandishments of earthly things to neglect its true establishment and lacquey after the Body which is but the shadow of the Soul and was made to follow it and serve it But while it busieth it self altogether in the concerns of a perishing body and seeks satisfaction in things that glide away it becomes rather a body than soul descends below its nature reproacheth that God who hath imprinted upon it an image of his own Eternity and loseth the comfort of the everlastingness of its Creator How shall the whole world if our lives were as durable as that be an happy Eternity to us who have Souls that shall survive all the delights of it which must fry in those flames that shall fire the whole frame of nature at the general conflagration of the world * 2 Pet. 3.10 4. Therefore let us provide for an happy interest in the Eternity of God Man is made for an eternal state The Soul hath such a perfection in its nature that it is fit for Eternity and cannot display all its operations but in Eternity To an Eternity it must go and live as long as God himself lives Things of a short duration are not proportion'd to a Soul made for an eternal continuance to see that it be a comfortable Eternity is worth all our care Man is a forecasting Creature and considers not only the present but the future too in his provisions for his family and shall he disgrace his nature in casting off all consideration of a future Eternity Get possession therefore of the eternal God A portion in this life is the lot of those who shall be for ever miserable * Psal 17.14 But God an everlasting portion is the lot of them that are design'd for happiness * Psal 73.26 God is my portion for ever Time is short * 1 Cor. 7.29 The whole time for which God design'd this building of the world is of a little compass 't is a Stage erected for rational Creatures to act their parts upon for a few thousand years the greatest part of which time is run out and then shall time like a rivulet fall into the Sea of Eternity from whence it sprung As Time is but a slip of Eternity so it will end in Eternity our advantages consist in the present instant what is past never promised a return and cannot be fetcht back by all our vows What is future we cannot promise our selves to enjoy we may be snatcht away before it comes Every minute that passeth speaks the fewer remaining till the time of death And as we are every hour further from our beginning we are nearer our end The Child born this day grows up to grow nothing at last In all Ages there is but a step between us and Death as David said of himself * 1 Sam. 20.3 The little time that remains for the Devil till the day of Judgment envenoms his wrath he rageth because his time is short * Rev. 13 1â— The little time that remains between this moment and our death should quicken our diligence to inherit the endless and unchangeable Eternity of God 5. Often meditate on the Eternity of God The Holiness Power and Eternity of God are the fundamental Articles of all Religion upon which the whole body of it leans His Holiness for conformity to him his Power and Eternity for the support of Faith and Hope The strong and incessant Cries of the four Beasts representing that Christian Church are holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come * Revel 4.8 Though his Power is intimated yet the chiefest are his Holiness three times exprest and his Eternity which is repeated v. 9. who lives for ever and ever This ought to be the constant practice in the Church of the Gentiles
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
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
into his heart which forced that Terrible cry from him My God my God why hast thou forsaken me he adores this Perfection of Holiness v. 3. But thou art holy Thy Holiness is the Spring of all this sharp Agony and for this thou Inhabitest and shalt for ever inhabit the Praises of all thy Israel Holiness drew the Vail between Gods Countenance and our Saviours Soul Justice indeed gave the stroke but Holiness order'd it In this his Purity did sparkle and his Irreversible Justice manifested that all those that commit Sin are worthy of death this was the perfect Index of his Righteousness †Rom 3 2◠that is of his Holiness and Truth then it was that God that is Holy was sanctified in Righteousness Isai 5.16 It appears the more if you consider 1. The Dignity of the Redeemers Person One that had been from Eternity had laid the Foundations of the World had been the Object of the Divine Delight He that was God blessed for ever becomes a Curse He who was blessed by Angels and by whom God blessed the World must be seiz'd with Horrour The Son of Eternity must bleed to death Where did ever Sin appear so irreconcileable to God Where did God ever break out so furiously in his detestation of Iniquity The Father would have the most Excellent Person one next in order to himself and Equal to him in all the glorious Perfections of his Nature * Phil 2.6 Die on a Disgraceful Cross and be exposed to the flames of Divine Wrath rather than Sin should live and his Holiness remain for ever disparaged by the Violations of his Law 2. The near Relation he stood in to the Father He was his own Son that he delivered up Rom. 8.32 His Essential Image as dearly beloved by him as himself yet he would abate nothing of his Hatred of those Sins imputed to one so dear to him and who never had done any thing contrary to his Will The strong Cries utter'd by him could not cause him to cut off the least Fringe of this Royal Garment nor part with a Thred the Robe of his Holiness was woven with The Torrent of Wrath is open'd upon him and the Fathers Heart beats not in the least notice of Tenderness to Sin in the midst of his Sons Agonies †Lingend Tom. 3. p. 699 700. God seems to lay aside the Bowels of a Father and put on the garb of an Irreconcileable Enemy Upon which account probably our Saviour in the midst of his Passion gives him the Title of God not of Father the Title he usually before Addrest to him with Math. 27.46 My God my God not My Father my Father why hast thou forsaken me He seems to hang upon the Cross like a disinherited Son while he appear'd in the garb and rank of a Sinner Then was his Head loaded with Curses when he stood under that Sentence of Cursed is every one that hangs upon a Tree Gal. 3.13 and look'd as one forlorn and rejected by the Divine Purity and Tenderness God dealt not with him as if he had been one in so near a Relation to him He left him not to the Will only of the Instruments of his Death he would have the chiefest blow himself of bruising of him Isai 53.10 It pleased the Lord to bruise him the Lord because the power of Creatures could not strike a blow strong enough to satisfie and secure the Rights of Infinite Holiness It was therefore a Cup temper'd and put into his hands by his Father a Cup given him to drink In other Judgments he lets out his Wrath against his Creatures in this he lets out his Wrath as it were against Himself against his Son One as dear to him as himself As in his making Creatures his Power over Nothing to bring it into Being appear'd but in pardoning Sin he hath power over himself so in punishing Creatures his Holiness appears in his Wrath against Creatures against Sinners by inherency But by punishing Sin in his Son his Holiness sharpens his Wrath against him who was his Equal and only a reputed Sinner As if his Affection to his own Holiness surmounted his Affection to his Son For he chose to suspend the breakings out of his Affections to his Son and see him plunged in a sharp and Ignominious Misery without giving him any visible Token of his Love rather than see his Holiness lie groaning under the Injuries of a Transgressing World 3. The Value he puts upon his Holiness appears further in the Advancement of this Redeeming Person after his Death Our Saviour was Advanc'd not barely for his Dying but for the respect he had in his Death to this Attribute of God Heb. 1.9 Thou hast loved Righteousness and hated Iniquity therefore God even thy God hath Anointed thee with the Oil of Gladness c. By Righteousness is meant this Perfection because of the opposition of it to Iniquity Some think Therefore to be the final Cause as if this were the sense Thou art anointed with the Oil of Gladness that thou mightest love Righteousness and hate Iniquity But the Holy Ghost seeming to speak in this Chapter not only of the Godhead of Christ but of his Exaltation the Doctrine whereof he had begun in Verse 3. and prosecutes in the following Verses I would rather understand Therefore For this cause or reason hath God anointed thee not to this end Christ indeed had an Unction of Grace whereby he was fitted for his Mediatory Work He had also an Unction of Glory whereby he was rewarded for it In the first regard it was a qualifying him for his Office in the second regard it was a solemn Inaugurating him in his Royal Authority And the Reason of his being setled upon a Throne for ever and ever is because he loved Righteousness He suffered himself to be pierced to Death that Sin the Enemy of Gods Purity might be destroy'd and the Honour of the Law the Image of Gods Holiness might be repair'd and fulfilled in the Fallen Creature He restored the Credit of Divine Holiness in the World in manifesting by his Death God an irreconcileable Enemy to all Sin in abolishing the Empire of Sin so hateful to God and restoring the rectitude of Nature and new framing the Image of God in his chosen Ones And God so valued this Vindication of his Holiness that he confers upon him in his Humane Nature an Eternal Royalty and Empire over Angels and Men. Holiness was the great Attribute respected by Christ in his dying and manifested in his Death and for his Love to this God would bestow an Honour upon his Person in that Nature wherein he did vindicate the Honour of so dear a Perfection In the Death of Christ he shewed his Resolution to preserve its Rights In the Exaltation of Christ he evidenced his mighty pleasure for the Vindication of it In both the Infinite value he had for it as dear to him as his Life and Glory 4. It
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
when he describes him in his Wrath and Fury and is Furious Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord of hot Anger God will vindicate his own Glory and have his right on his Enemies in a way of punishment if they will not give it him in a way of Obedience * Ribera in loc 'T is three times repeated to shew the certainty of the judgment And the name of Lord added to every one to intimate the Power wherewith the Judgment should be executed 'T is not a Fatherly correction of Children in a way of Mercy but an offended soveraigns destruction of his Enemies in a way of vengeance There is an anger of God with his own people which hath more of Mercy than Wrath in this his Rod is guided by his bowels There is a fury of God against his Enemies where there is sole Wrath without any tincture of Mercy when his Sword is all edge without any Balsom-drops upon it Such a fury as David deprecates Psal 6.1 Oh Lord rebuke me not in thy Anger nor chasten me in thy sore displeasure with a fury untempered with Grace and insupportable Wrath. He reserves Wrath for his Enemies He lays it up in his Treasury to be brought out and expended in a due season Wrath is supplied by our Translators and is not in the Hebrew He reserves what that which is too sharp to be exprest too great to be conceiv'd A vengeance it is And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He reserves it He that hath an infinite Wrath he reserves it that hath a strength and power to execute it VERSE 3. The Lord is slow to Anger Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of broad Nostrils The Anger of God is exprest by this word which signifies Nostrils As Job 9.13 If God will not withdraw his Anger Heb. his nostril And the Anger whereby the wicked are consum'd is called the breath of Nostrils Job 4.9 and when he is angry smoak and fire are said to go out of his Nostrils 2 Sam. 2.9 and in the 74th Psalm 1. Why doth thy anger smoak Heb. Why do thy Nostrils smoak So the rage of a Horse when he is provokt in battle is call'd the Glory of his Nostrils Job 39.20 He breaths quick fumes and neighs with fury And slowness to anger is here exprest by the phrase of long or wide Nostrils Because in a vehement anger the blood boyling about the heart exhales mens Spirits which fume up and break out in dilated Nostrils But where the passages are straiter the spirits have not so quick a vent and therefore raise more motions within Or because the wider the Nostrils are the more cool Air is drawn in to temper the heat of the heart where the angry spirits are gather'd And so the passion is allay'd and sooner calm'd God speaks of himself in Scripture often after the rate of Men Jeremy prays Jer. 15.15 That God would not take him away in his long-suffering Heb. in the length of his Nostrils i. e. Be not slow and backward in thy anger against my Persecutors as to give them time and opportunity to destroy me The Nostrils as well as other members of a humane Body are ascribed to God He is slow to anger he hath anger in his nature but is not always in the execution of it And great in Power This may referre to his Patience as the cause of it or as a barr to the abuse of it 1. He is slow to anger and great in power i. e. his power moderates his Anger he is not so impotent as to be at the command of his passions as men are He can restrain his anger under just provocations to exercise it His power over himself is the cause of his slowness to wrath As Numb 14.17 Let the power of my Lord be great saith Moses when he pleads for the Israelites pardon Men that are great in the World are quick in passions and are not so ready to forgive an injury or bear with an offender as one of a meaner rank 'T is a want of a power over a mans self that makes him do unbecoming things upon a provocation A Prince that can bridle his passion is a King over himself as well as over his Subjects God is slow to Anger because great in Power He hath no less power over himself than over his Creatures He can sustain great injuries without an immediate and quick revenge He hath a power of Patience as well as a power of Justice 2. Or thus he is slow to Anger and great in Power He is slow to Anger but not for want of Power to revenge himself his Power is as great to punish as his Patience to spare It seems thus that slowness to Anger is brought in as an objection against the revenge proclaimed What do you tell us of vengeance vengeance nothing but such repetitions of vengeance As though we were ignorant that God is slow to Anger 'T is true saith the Prophet I acknowledge it as much as you that God is slow to Anger but withall great in Power His Anger certainly succeeds his abus'd Patience he will not always bridle in his Wrath but one time or other let it march out in fury against his Adversaries The Assyrians who had captiv'd the Ten Tribes and been victorious a little against the Jews might think that the God of Israel had been conquered by their Gods as well as the People professing him had been subdued by their arms That God had lost all his power and the Jews might argue from Gods Patience to his Enemies against the credit of the Prophets denouncing revenge The Prophet answers to the terror of the one and the comfort of the other That this indulgence to his Enemies and not accounting with them for their Crimes proceeded from the greatness of his Patience and not from any debility in his power As it refers to the Assyrian it may be rendered thus You Ninivites upon your Repentance after Jonahs thundring of Judgments are Witnesses of the slowness of God to Anger and had your punishments deferr'd But falling to your old sins you shall find a real punishment and that he hath as much Power to execute his ancient threatnings as he had then compassion to recall them His Patience to you then was not for want of power to ruine you but was the effect of his goodness towards you As it refers to the Jews it may be thus paraphrased do not despise this threatning against your Enemies because of the greatness of their might the seeming stability of their Empire and the terror they posseâ—s all the Nations with round about them It may be long before it comes but assure your selves the threatning I denounce shall certainly be executed though he hath Patience to endure them a hundred thirty five years for so long it was before Nineveh was destroy'd after this threatning as * p. 359. col 1â— Ribera in loc computes from the years of the reign of the Kings of Judah
Noah the 8th person a Preacher of Righteousness bringing in the Flood upon the World of the ungodly called the 8th in respect of his Preaching not in regard of his preservation He was the 8th Preacher in order from the begining of the World that endeavoured to restore the World to the way of Righteousness Most indeed consider him here as the 8th person saved so do our Translators and therefore add Person which is not in the Greek Some others consider him here as the 8th Preacher of Righteousness reckoning Enoch the Son of Seth the first grounding it upon Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call on the Name of the Lord Hebr. Then it was began to call in the Name of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. He began to call in the Name of the Lord which others render he began to preach or call upon men in the Name of the Lord. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to Preach or to call upon men by Preaching Prov. 1.21 Wisdom cryeth or preaches And if this be so as it is very probable 't is easie to reckon him the 8th Preacher by numbering the successive heads of the Generations Gen. 5. Beginning at Enosh the first Preacher of Righteousness * Vid. Gells 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So many there were before God choakt the Old World with water and swept them away 'T is clear he often did admonish by his Prophets the Jews of their sin and the wrath which should come upon them One Prophet Hosea Prophesied 70 years for he Prophesied in the dayes of 4 Kings of Judah and one of Israel Jeroboam the Son of Joash Hos 1.1 or Jeroboam the second of that name Vzziah King of Judah in whose Reign Hosea Prophesied lived 38 years after the death of Jeroboam The Second Jotham Vzziah's Successor Reign'd 16 years Ahaz 16 Hezekiah 29 years Now take nothing of Hezekiah's time and Date the beginning of his Prophesie from the last year of Jeroboam's Reign and the time of Hosea's Prophesie will be 70 years compleat Wherein God warned those people and waited the return particularly of Israel * Sanctius Prolegom in Hosea Prolog the 3d. and not less than 5 of those we call the lesser Prophets were sent to foretell the destruction of the Ten Tribes and to call them to Repentance Hosea Joel Amos Micah Jonah And though we have nothing of Jonah's Prophesie in this concern of Israel yet that he lived in the time of the same Jeroboam and Prophesied things which are not upon record in the book of Jonah is clear 2 King 14.25 And besides those Isaiah Prophesied also in the Reign of the same Kings as Hosea did Isa 1.1 And it is God's usual method to send forth his servants and when their admonitions are slighted he Commissions others before he sends out his destroying Armies Mat. 22.3 4 7. 2. He doth often give warning of Judgments that he might not pour out his wrath He summons them to a surrender of themselves and a return from their Rebellion that they might not feel the force of his Armes He offers peace before he shakes off the dust of his feet that his despised peace might not return in vain to him to sollicite a revenge from his anger He hath a right to punish upon the first Commission of a crime but he warns men of what they have deserved of what his Justice moves him to inflict that by having recourse to his mercy he might not exercise the rights of his Justice God sought to kill Moses for not circumcising his Son Exod. 4.24 Could God that sought it miss of a way to do it Could a creature lurch or flie from him God put on the garb of an enemy that Moses might be discouraged from being an instrument of his own ruine God manifested an anger against Moses for his neglect as if he would then have destroyed him that Moses might prevent it by casting off his carelesness and doing his duty He sought to kill him by some evident sign that Moses might escape the judgment by his obedience He threatens Niniveh by the Prophet with destruction that Niniveh's Repentance might make void the Prophesie He fights with men by the Sword of his mouth that he might not pierce them by the Sword of his wrath He threatens that men might prevent the execution of his threatning He terrifies that he might not destroy but that men by humiliation may lie prostrate before him and move the bowels of his mercy to a louder sound than the voice of his Anger He takes time to whet his Sword that men may turn themselves from the edge of it He roars like a Lion that men by hearing his voice may shelter themselves from being torn by his Wrath. There is patience in the sharpest threatning that we may avoid the scourge Who can charge God with an eagerness to revenge that sends so many Heralds and so often before he strikes that he might be prevented from striking His threatnings have not so much of a black flag as of an Olive branch He lifts his up hand before he strikes that men might See and avert the stroke Isaiah 26.11 2. His Patience is manifest in long delaying his threatned Judgements though he finds no Repentance in the Rebels He doth sometimes delay his lighter punishments because he doth not delight in torturing his Creatures but he doth longer delay his destroying punishments such as put an end to mens happiness and remit them to their final and unchangeable state because he doth not delight in the death of a Sinner While he is preparing his arrows he is waiting for an occasion to lay them aside and dull their points that he may with honour march back again and disband his Armies He brings lighter smarts sooner that men might not think him asleep but he suspends the more terrible judgments that men might be led to Repentance He scatters not his consuming fires at the first but brings on ruining vengeance with a slow pace sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed Eccles 8.11 The Jews therefore say that Michael the Minister of Justice flyes with one wing but Gabriel the Minister of Mercy with two An 120 years did God wait upon the old World and delay their punishment all the time the Ark was preparing 1 Pet. 3.20 Wherein that wicked Generation did not enjoy only a bare patience but a striving patience Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall not always strive with man yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years the days wherein I will strive with him that his Long-suffering might not lose all its fruit and remit the objects of it into the hands of consuming Justice It was the Tenth Generation of the World from Adam when the deluge overflow'd it so long did God bear with them And the Tenth Generation from Noah wherein Sodom was consumed God did not come to keep his Assizes in Sodom till the cry of their sins was very
abused and the World to go contrary to its natural end But since he did not level the World with its first nothing but healed the World so favourably it was evident that his patience pointed the World to a further design of Mercy and Goodness in him To imagine that God had no other design in his long-suffering but that of vengeance had been a notion unsuitable to the Goodness and Wisdom of God He would never have pretended himself to be a Friend if he had harboured nothing but enmity in his heart against them It had been far from his Goodness to give them a cause to suspect such a design in him as his patience certainly did had he not intended it Had he preserv'd men only for punishment 't is more like he would have treated men as Princes do those they reserve for the Axe or Halter give them only things necessary to uphold their lives till the day of Execution and not have bestowed upon them so many good things to make their lives delightful to them nor have furnisht them with so many excellent means to please their senses and recreate their minds it had been a mocking of them to treat them at the rate if nothing but punishment had been intended towards them If the end of it to lead men to Repentance were easily intelligble by them as the Apostle intimates Rom. 2.4 Which is to be linkt with the former chapter a discourse of the Gentiles Not knowing saith he that the riches of his forbearance and goodness leads thee to repentance it also gives them some ground to hope for pardon For what other argument can more induce to Repentance than expectation of Mercy upon a relenting and acknowledging the crime Without a design of pardoning Grace his patience would have been in a great measure exercis'd in vain For by meer patience God is not reconcil'd to a sinner no more than a Prince to a Rebel by bearing with him Nor can a sinner conclude himself in the favour of God no more than a Rebel can conclude himself in the favour of his Prince only this he may conclude that there is some hopes he may have the grant of a pardon since he hath time to sue it out And so much did the patience of God naturally signifie that he was of a reconcilable temper and was willing men should sue out their pardon upon Repentance otherwise he might have magnified his Justice and condemned men by the Law of Works 2. He therefore exercised so much patience to wait for mens Repentance All the notices and warnings that God gives men of either publick or personal calamities is a continual invitation to Repentance This was the common interpretation the Heathens made of extraordinary Presages and Prodigies which shew'd as well the delays as the approaches of Judgments What other notion but this that those warnings of Judgments witness a slowness to Anger and a willingness to turn his arrows another way should move them to multiply sacrifices go weeping to their Temples sound out prayers to their Gods and shew all those other Testimonies of a Repentance which their blind understandings hit upon If a * Amyraldus moral Tom. 2. p. 186. Prince should sometimes in a light and gentle manner punish a criminal and then relax it and shew him much kindness and afterwards inflict upon him another kind of punishment as light as the former and less than was due to his crime what could the Malefactor suspect by such a way of proceeding but that the Prince by those gently repeated chastisements had a mind to move him to a regret for his crime And what other thoughts could men naturally have of Gods conduct that he should warn them of great judgments send light afflictions which are Testimonies rather of a Patience than of a severe wrath but that it was intended to move them to a relenting and a breaking off their sins by working Righteousness Though Divine patience doth not in the event induce men to Repentance yet the natural tendency of such a treatment is to mollifie mens Hearts to overcome their obsstinacy and no man hath any reason to judge otherwise of such a proceeding The long suffering of God is Salvation saith Peter 2 Pet. 3.15 i. e. hath a tendency to Salvation in its being a sollicitation of men to the means of it For the Apostle cites Paul for the confirmation of it Even as our beloved Brother Paul hath written unto you which must refer to Rom. 2.4 It leads to Repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it conducts which is more than barely to invite it doth as it were take us by the hand and point us to the way wherein we should go and for this end it was exercised not only towards the Jews but towards the Gentiles not only towards those that are within the pale of the Church and under the dews of the Gospel but to those that are in darkness and in the shadow of death For this discourse of the Apostle was but an inference from what he had treated of in the first chapter concerning the Idolatry and ingratitude of the Gentiles since the Gentiles were to be punished for the abuse of it as well as the Jews as he intimates ver 9. 't is plain that his patience which is exercised towards the Idolatrous Gentiles was to allure them to Repentance as well as others and it was a sufficient motive in it self to perswade them to a change of their vile and gross acts to such as were morally good And there was enough in Gods dealing with them and in that light they had to engaged them to a better course than what they usually walked in And though men do abuse Gods long-suffering to encourage their impenitence and persisting in their crimes yet that they cannot reasonably imagine that to be the end of God is evident their own gripes of Conscience would acquaint them that it is otherwise They know that Conscience is a principle that God hath given them as well as Understanding and Will and other Faculties That God doth not approve of that which the voice of their own Consciences and of the Consciences of all men under natural light are utterly against And if there were really in this forbearance of God an approbation of mens crimes Conscience could not frequently and universally in all men check them for them What Authority could Conscience have to do it But this it doth in all men As the Apostle Rom. 1.22 They know the judgment of God that those that do such things which he had mentioned before are worthy of death In this thing the Consciences of all men cannot err They could not therefore conclude from hence Gods approbation of their iniquities but his desire that their Hearts should be touched with a Repentance for them The Sin of Ephraim is hid Hosea 13.12.13 i. e. God doth not presently take notice of it to order punishment he lays it in a secret place from
than Enemies to it he frees himself from any such imputation even in the judgment of those that shall feel most of his wrath 't is this renders the equity of his Justice unquestionable and the deliverance of his people righteous in the Judgment of those from whose fetters they are delivered Christ Reigns in the midst of his Enemies to shew his power over himself as well as over the heads of his Enemies to shew his power over his Rebels And though he retards his promise and suffers a great interval of time between the publication and performance sometimes years sometimes ages to pass away and little appearance of any preparation to shew himself a God of Truth 'T is not that he hath forgotten his Word or repents that ever he passed it or sleeps in a supine neglect of it but that men might not perish but bethink themselves and come as friends into his bosome rather than be crush'd as enemies under his feet 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise but is long-suffering to usward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance Hereby he shews that he would be rather pleased with the conversion than the destruction of men 3. We see the reason why sin is suffered to remain in the Regenerate To shew his Patience towards his own for since this attribute hath no other place of appearance but in this World God takes opportunity to manifest it because at the close of the World it will remain closed up in the Deity without any further operation As God suffers a multitude of sins in the World to evidence his Patience to the wicked so he suffers great remainders of sin in his people to shew his Patience to the Godly His sparing mercy is admirable before their conversion but more admirable in bearing with them after so high an Obligation as the conferring upon them special converting Grace 2. The second Vse is of comfort 'T is a vast comfort to any when God is pacified towards them but it is some comfort to all that God is yet Patient towards them though but very little to a refractory sinner His continued Patience to all speaks a possibility of the cure of all would they not stand against the way of their recovery 'T is a terror that God hath anger but it is a mitigation of that terror that God is slow to it While his Sword is in his sheath there is some hopes to prevent the drawing of it Alas if he were all fire and sword upon sin what would become of us We should find nothing else but over-flowing deluges or sweeping Pestilences or perpetual flashes of Sodom's Fire and Brimstone from Heaven He doomes us not presently to execution but gives us a long breathing time after the crime that by retiring from our iniquities and having recourse to his mercy he may be with-held for ever from signing a Warrant against us and change his Legal Sentence into an Evangelical pardon 'T is a special comfort to his people that he is a Sanctuary to them Ezek. 11.16 A place of refuge a place of Spiritual Communications But it is some refreshment to all in this life that he is a defence to them for so is his Patience call'd Numb 14.9 Their defence is departed from them Speaking to the Israelites that they should not be afraid of the Canaanites for their defence is departed from them God is no longer Patient to them since their sins be full and ripe Patience as long as it lasts is a temporary defence to those that are under the wing of it but to the believer it is a singular comfort And God is called the God of Patience and consolation in one breath Rom. 15.5 The God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be like-minded All interpreters understand it effectively The God that inspires you with comfort and cheares you with comfort grant this to you Why may it not be understood formally of the Patience belonging to the nature of God and though it be exprest in the way of Petition yet it might also be proposed as a pattern for imitation and so suits very well to the Exhortation laid down ver 1. which was to bear with the infirmities of the weak which he presseth them to ver 3. by the example of Christ And ver 5. by the Patience of God to them and so they are very well linkt together God of Patience and Consolation may well be joyned since Patience is the first step of comfort to the poor creature If it did not administer some comfortable hopes to Adam in the interval between his fall and God's coming to examine him I am sure it was the first discovery of any comfort to the creature after the sweeping the destroying deluge out of the World Gen. 9.21 After the savour of Noah's Sacrifice representing the great Sacrifice which was to be in the World had ascended up to God the return from him is a publication of his forbearing to punish any more in such a manner And though he found man no better than he was before and the imaginations of mens hearts as evil as before the deluge that he would not again smite every living thing as he had done This was the first expression of comfort to Noah after his exit from the Ark And declares nothing else but the continuance of Patience to the New World above what he had shewn to the Old 1. 'T is a comfort in that 't is an argument of his Grace to his people If he hath so rich a Patience to exercise towards his enemies he hath a greater treasure to bestow upon his friends Patience is the first attribute which steps in for our Salvation and therefore called Salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 Something else is therefore built upon it and intended by it to those that believe Those two letters of his name a God keeping Mercy for Thousands and forgiving iniquity transgressions and sin follows the other Letter of his long suffering in the Proclamation Exod. 34.6 7. He is slow to anger that he may be merciful that men may seek and recieve their pardon If he be long suffering in order to be a pardoning God he will not be wanting in pardoning those who answer the design of his forbearance of them You would not have had sparing mercy to improve if God would have deny'd you saving mercy upon the improvement of his sparing goodness If he hath so much respect to his enemies that provoke him as to endure them with much long suffering he will surely be very kind to those that obey him and conform to his will If he hath much long suffering to those that are fitted for destruction Rom. 9.22 he will have a muchness of mercy for those that are prepared for Glory by Faith and Repentance 'T is but a natural conclusion a gracious Soul may make if God had not a mind to be appeased towards me he would not have had