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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44137	A discourse of the knowledge of God, and of our selves I. by the light of nature, II. by the sacred Scriptures / written by Sir Matthew Hale, Knight ... for his private meditation and exercise ; to which are added, A brief abstract of the Christian religion, and, Considerations seasonable at all times, for the cleansing of the heart and life, by the same author.	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.	1688 (1688)	Wing H240; ESTC R4988	321,717	542

Job 33.14 he useth a sharper and louder Messenger he speaks that he may not strike and if he strikes it is unwillingly Lam. 3.33 and that he may not destroy and destroys nor rejects not till his strokes prove fruitless Isa 1.5 Why should ye be stricken any more till there be no remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 He endures with long-suffering even the Vessels ordained to wrath Rom. 9.22 His Spirit did strive with the old World Gen. 6.3 was grieved forty years with the passages of a rebellious people Psal 95.10 pressed with our sins as a Cart under sheaves Amos 2.13 and yet no final destruction That admirable Expostulation of God's merciful Patience Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I see thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim I am God and not man. As if he should have said 'T is true thou art Ephraim and Israel a People that I have known of all the Families of the Earth Amos 3.2 a People that I have chosen and thou art called by my Name but by how much the nearer thou art unto me by so much the greater is thy Ingratitude That which in another People would be a Sin is in thee Rebellion and Apostasie Admah and Zeboim were a People that knew me not that never entred into Covenant with me they had no light to guide them but that of Nature and when they sinned my wrath broke out in the most eminent Judgment that ever was heard of But thou hast been a Vine of my own planting and watering and dressing and yet thy fruit hath been the fruit of Sodom thou hast made me to serve with thy sins and according to the number of thy Cities were thy Gods O Israel Jer. 11.13 Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me Isa 1.3 And should I not be avenged upon such a people as this How can I How can I not make thee as Admah and set thee as Zeboim If a man as thou art should but once shew but a grain of that ingratitude unto thee which thou multipliest towards me days without number thy Revenges would be as high as thy Power and thou wouldest justifie thy severest dealings with him nay if I thy Lord that can owe thee nothing but Wrath should withdraw but any of my own Blessings from thee thou art ready to throw off all and presently to upbraid me with thy unuseful Services What profit have I if I be cleansed from my sins Job 35.3 And how canst thou after all this expect any thing from me but that my Wrath should burn against thee like fire till thou wert consumed and that I should stir up all the fury of my Jealousie towards you O but Ephraim I am God and not man and therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed my Mercy and my Patience are not the narrow qualities or habits of a mortal Man but the infinite Attributes of an Infinite God. Though I can see nothing in thee but what deserves my wrath I can find that in my self that sends out my compassion a heart turned by returning upon my own Mercy and repentings kindled upon the considerations of my own Covenant with thy Fathers kindled by a Sacrifice that thou little thinkest of even the Sacrifice of my own Son I will not therefore execute the fierceness of my anger although it be thy duty to repent Sinner yet I will repent of my wrath even before thou repent of thy sin it may be my long-sufferings will as it should do lead thee to repentance Rom. 2.4 But if after all this thou despisest the riches of my Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering know that thou treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and that day will surely find thee and then thou wilt find that every days forbearance and patience that thou hast had and abused hath ripened and improved thy Guilt and made thy sin out of measure sinful and will add weight and fire to my wrath which like a Talent of Lead shall everlastingly lye upon that treasure of thy Sin and Guilt 2. His Pardoning Mercy Those tender and pathetical Expressions of God's Mercy in pardoning Sin upon Repentance and turning to him carry more weight than it is possible for our Spirits to arise unto Isa 1.18 Come now and let us reason together though your sins were as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red as crimson they shall be like wool Isa 43.24 25. Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my ways higher than your ways Jer. 3.12 Go and proclaim these words Return thou back-sliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord and will not keep anger for ever only acknowledge thine iniquity c. FINIS A Catalogue of what Books are Printed and Publish'd written by Sir Matthew Hale K● sometime Chief Justice of the King's Bench and are to be Sold by Will. Shrowsbery at the Sign of the Bible in Duke-lane THE Primitive Origination of Mankind considered and examined according to the Light of Nature Folio Contemplations Moral and Divine in Two Parts Octavo An Essay touching the Gravitation or non-Gravitation of Fluid Bodies Octavo Difficiles Nugae Or Observations touching the Torricellian Experiment Octavo Observations touching the Principles of Natural Motions especially touching Rarefaction and Condensation Octavo The Life and Death of Pomponius Atticus with Observations Political and Moral Committed to the Press since his Death viz. 1. Pleas of the Crown or a Methodical Summary of the principal Matters relating to that subject Octavo 2. A short Treatise touching Sheriffs Accounts Octavo 3. Several Tracts 1. Three Discourses of Religion viz. 1. The Ends and Uses of it and the Errours of men touching it 2. The Life of Religion and Superadditions to it 3. The Superstructions upon it and Animosities about it 2. A short Treatise touching Provision for the Poor 3. A Letter to his Children advising them how to behave themselves in their Speech 4. A Letter to one of his Sons after his recovery from the Small Pox. Octavo * Of this the Author hath written more largely in his Origination of Mankind * All which and divers others the Author hath largely prosecuted in another Work in the 6. first Parts This he hath likewise more largely handled in the 7. Part of the same Work. Of the Law of Nature the Author hath written a particular tract * That the Willing still continues the same shall be and is and hath been are the several relations of the thing willed which is capable of these successions of duration they are not relations that may fall upon that will which is incapable of them or upon the acts of it V. Originat 1. c. 2. * Of this the Author hath written a large Tract which he finished but a little before his Death and it was the last Work he meddled with This the Author hath elsewhere considered in two or three several little Tracts upon this Subject Of thi● the Author hath p●o●●ss● and more largely w●●tten in other Works Jam. 1.17 Mal. 3.6 〈◊〉 Rom. 2.26

and Moral And we may observe that even in this fundamental Truth That there is a God where these and the like Instructions are wanting Men that are naturally endued with the same Faculties of Reason and Understanding with us have not or not so clearly this Principle as among Atheists and Pagans 2. This Book sheweth us clearly the Essence Nature and Attributes of God as far forth as is comprehensible by our humane Understanding Many of these are by the help of natural Reason and Discourse legible in the things that are seen so far forth as to leave our Ignorance thereof unexcusable Rom. 1.20 yet as in the former so much more in this our Reason is helped and strengthened in our speedy discovery and firmer assent thereunto as likewise appears by the many Errors of Men of the same Faculties with us even concerning these Principles Herein we learn his Vnity Deut. 6.4 The Lord our ●●d is one Lord. His Self-sufficiency and Subsistence of himself Exod. 3.14 I am that I am His Imm●sity ● Kings 8.27 Behold the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee His Vbiquity Deut. 4.39 The Lord he is God in Heaven above and upon Earth beneath Psal 13.9 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or fly from thy presence Jer. 23.24 Can any hide himself that I shall not see him Do not I fill Heaven and Earth His Eternity Psal 90.2 Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. His Omniscience and intellectual Nature Psal 94.10 11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of Man that they are vanity Prov. 15.11 Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more the Hearts of the Children of Men His Omnipotence Gen. 17.1 I am the Almighty God. Psal 145.3 His Greatness is unsearchable His Wisdom Jer. 10.12 He hath established the World by his Wisdom and hath stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion Psal 147.5 His Vnderstanding is infinite His Will the only motive of all his actions Prov. 16.14 The Lord hath made all things for himself Exod. 33.19 And will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy Isa 43.25 I am he that blotted out thy transgressions for my own sake Himself the End of all de doth Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself Irresistibility Prov. 21.30 There is no Wisdom nor Vnderstanding nor Counsel against the Lord. Invisible Exod. 33.19 No Man can see my face and live Immutability Matth. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not Psal 102.6 Thou art the same and thy years have no end Isa 40.28 Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary there is no searching of his Vnderstanding It is true in these and the like Expressions or Attributions unto the Divine Nature we are nevertheless to observe 1. That it is impossible for any thing below God himself fully and clearly to understand the Nature or Essence of God because he is actually Infinite and nothing besides himself hath or can have an Act of his Intellect spacious enough to comprehend what is actually Infinite Hand Arm Goings Ways wherein nevertheless the Scripture whiles it useth these Expressions to help our Understanding and excite our Affections it nevertheless provides Cautions to avoid grossness and mistakes that so it may appear that they are only helps to us not derogations to the incomprehensible Purity Perfection and Majesty of God and for that very reason not any one thing so much fenced out by it as Image-making and Worshiping 3. By this Book we are taught the manner of his Subsistence in three Persons the Father the Word and the Spirit and that these three are one The Plurality of Persons in one Essence is a Mystery that is not attainable by all the Reason in the World and is but obscurely hinted in the Old Testament Gen. 1.26 c. and therefore it seems not understood by the Jews but in the New Testament more plainly related the diversity of Persons of the Father and Son in one Essence John 14.9 John 17.5 22. The Spirit All three together Matth. 28.19 1 John 5.7 The Manner of the Subsistence in Unity of Essence and Trinity of Persons is of that transcendent and incomprehensible Nature that as it could never be discovered without an immediate revelation from God himself so being discovered it is scarce conceptible by us The Disputes concerning it farther than it is there revealed are groundless and dangerous for it is utterly impossible that the Notion of Personality or Subsistence as we take it up from these inferiour Beings can fit that which is the highest and most arcane Mystery of the infinite Being and consequently those Disputes which are built upon those disproportionable Notions are not without a necessity of erring CHAP. II. Of the Acts and Works of God and 1. Of his Eternal Counsel 4. THE next great Point that we learn in this Book is concerning the Acts or Works of God 1. His Eternal Counsel 2. The Execution of that Counsel 1. Creation 2. Providence 1. General Concerning all things 2. Special Concerning Man. 1. Concerning the Eternal Counsel of God whereby he did predetermine all things that should be from all Eternity This as it evidently appears in all the Prophecies of the Old Testament which were fulfilled in their times so by divers Affirmations even of God himself by his Spirit The Creation Prov. 8.27 When he prepared the Heavens 29. When he appointed the Foundations of the Earth Job 38.4 When I laid the Foundations of the Earth 10. and brake up for it my decreed place The Redemption of Man by Christ 1 Pet. 1.20 Who was foreordained before the Foundation of the World. Acts 2.23 Him by the determinate Counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken c. Election of his Church and People Rom. 9.11 The Purpose of God according to Election The Successes of Nations and Kingdoms Isa 14.26 27. This is the Purpose that is purposed upon the whole Earth c. For the Lord hath purposed and who shall disanul it Dan. 4.35 The Extorted Confession of Nebuchadnezzar The particular and voluntary motions of Men Isa 10.5 O Assyrian the Rod of mine Anger c. yet he thinketh not so Jer. 10.23 The way of Man is not in himself Prov. 20.24 Man's goings are of the Lord. Prov. 21.30 There is no Wisdom nor Counsel against the Lord. The most contingent and inconsiderable Events that are the casting of a Lot Prov. 16.33 The falling of a Sparrow Matth. 10.29 Now touching the Counsel of the Almighty we are to distinguish between the act of Counsel and the act of Knowledge the first is properly an act of his Will predetermining what shall be the latter an act of his infinite understanding which foresees what shall be

the two latter for his love to himself makes him love all things else in order meerly to himself and so far forth only as is conducible to his own mistaken good so that God shall be no longer loved served or obeyed than he is subservient to that End. Now it is easie from this Consideration to see the Original of most of the Evil in the World whether it relates to God to Men or to a Man's self From this Original grows the very Hatred of God. This distemper wrought by sin in our Souls hath not only deprived God of our chiefest Love which we justly owe to him and turned that Love into our selves but hath made us haters of God by our corrupred Nature Rom. 1.30 He strengtheneth himself against the Almighty Job 25.25 that say unto God Depart from us Job 22.17 For having made himself his End he cannot chuse but be a hater of God upon a double ground 1. Because the Presence and Purity and Commands and Admonitions of God either by his Word or Conscience or the outward Dispensations of Providence do extreamly thwart that End which we pursue Hence grow the Blasphemies in the World Revel 16.21 Men blasphemed God because of the hail The Disappointment and Controll and Interruption that Men have in the pursuit of their Ends do make them hate the Presence the Word the very Being of God himself because they take it to be a hinderance of their End and their Happiness 2. The Soul that was once united to God is by sin gone a whoring from him and hath taken up another End yet God in Mercy still perswades the Soul to return Turn O back-sliding Children saith the Lord for I am married unto you Jer. 3. The skill of the enemy of God within us is as much as may be to divert the access of such perswasions to the Soul or the Entertainment of them lest thereby he should be dispossess'd and therefore as Ahitophel to Absolom to secure his Party with impossibility of reconciliation to his Father perswades him to the highest Villany that so he might be abhorred of his Father 2 Sam. 16.21 so the Devil and Sin in us ingage the Soul in the greatest Villanies and Blasphemies against God that so the Soul abhorring God may be abhorred of him Thus Sin taking occasion by the Command works in the Soul all manner of Concupiscence Rom. 7.6 From hence likewise proceeds the Slavish Fear of God. We have shewen before that all Love of God is accompanied with the Fear of God but this Fear is without the Love of God but proceeds from Love to our selves as a Man fears that which he doubts will be destructive to that which he makes his End. When God sent Lions among the captive Israelites it is said they feared the Lord and served their own gods 2 Kings 17.33 their fear and their Love was divided From hence proceeds Atheism it self for it begins in the Affection not in the Understanding The desire of that not to be which the corrupted Soul conceives an impediment or check to the prosecution of his supream End is that which at length breeds a half perswasion in the Understanding that that which he desires should not be indeed is not From hence proceed Idolatries and misapprehensions of God. When we will not frame our selves to God we endeavour to frame him to our selves thou thoughtest I was such an one at thou art And from this cause are all those will-worships contrary to the Command of God. Did our chiefest Love settle upon God our Obedience would be Universal but especially in this matter of his worship but when we make our selves our Ends we measure him out such a Worship as may best please our selves and suit with our own Contentment From hence proceeds Hypocrisie a Form of Godliness without the power thereof 2 Tim. 3.5 The Power of Godliness which is nothing else but the entire and intense Love of God cannot consist with that End a Man hath chosen viz. himself yet the shape and form of it according as the occasion is is conducible to his Ease Greatness or Preferment so the same self-love puts on the shadow and rejects the substance In matters relative to others From this making a Man's self his End proceed all the acts and habits of Injustice Oppression Cruelty Malice Envy that is in the World because he that makes himself his End doth with all vigor pursue that which he conceives good for himself and if he meet with any obstacle or fear of an obstacle from another it engageth per fas nefas the ruine of that which he finds so hindring him for all these Acts proceed from the Love of himself In reference to a Man's self He that makes himself his own End is subservient unto himself to the uttermost in the pursuit and enjoyment of all those things which may please and content himself according to the varieties of Constitutions Ages and Circumstances If it be in the Lusts of the Flesh it will teach him to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 It will put him upon studies and inquiries and pursuits of unnatural impurities Rom. 1.26 it will make him give himself over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness Ephes 4.19 because what a Man makes his chiefest End he strives by all means to please in whatsoever way it discovers its delight or acceptation If it be in Luxury and delights in Meat and Drink it will make a Man to serve his Belly Rom. 16.18 It will make a Man's Belly his God Phil. 3.19 A Man making himself his End observes which way the vein of his mind and delight runs he doth serve that affection or delight with the same intenseness of pursuit as if it were his God for what a Man makes his End he makes his God. If it be in the Lust of the Eyes after Wealth or Possessions a Man pursues that with the same violence as a Heart well set pursues after God There shall nothing stand in his way neither the Command of God nor Lives nor Laws nor Justice nor Reputation nor a Man 's own quiet ease health life For Self hath discovered her self in this desire and he doth pursue the satisfaction of it as the first-born of his End. The like for the Pride of Life Ambition c. And from hence grows the Pride of the Heart of Man. Every Man that makes not God his Chiefest Good and highest End makes himself so But this Self discovers it self according to varieties of Constitutions and Circumstances Self in one Man is his Lust in another his Wealth in another his Honour Power and Command in another Wit Learning Policy And these he pursues as the first-born of his End And such as is his earnestness in the pursuit such is his fulness and contentedness when he enjoys or thinks he enjoys it and that especially in those pursuits that are less bruitish makes the Man

that belongs to another thy heavenly Father knoweth thou hast need of all these things he is thy Father and therefore is willing to furnish thee with what shall be convenient for thee and he is thy Heavenly Father that wants not Power to do it he can supply thee in the ordinary way of his Providence and if there be need he can do it by the extraordinary work of his Power he can command Water out of a dry Rock as to the Israelites or out of a dry Bone as to Samson he can give thee Bread from Heaven he can feed Elijah by a Raven and can extend the Widows Barrel of Meal and Cruise of Oyl as large as the time and exigence of her Necessity Save thy self therefore the trouble of an unnecessary Care but commit thy way unto the Lord Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass Thy Care may rob thy self of thy quietness and may rob thy God of his due but it is thy Dependance only upon him that can with ease and contentedness supply thy wants Diligence and Industry in that lawful Employment wherein his Providence hath placed thee is thy Duty and therefore observe it but Sollicitousness and Anxiousness is thy Sin and therefore avoid it Learn to obey him in what he commands and learn to wait upon him in what he promises 2. In our Love Set not thy Heart upon thy Wealth Psal 62.10 nor make it thy Treasure for if thou dost it will be master of thy Heart for where thy Treasure is there will thy Heart be Matth. 6.21 and if thy Heart be full of thy Wealth there will be no room for thy God Matth. 6.24 Ye cannot serve God and Mammon and If any Man love the world the Love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 If the World have thy Love it will command thy Service and controll whatsoever opposeth that Command and break through all those Fences which seem to bridle or hedge in the pursuit of that World which thou so lovest Hath God set apart a time for his own Service thy love of the World will rob him of his own time Amos 8.5 When shall the new moon be gone that we may sell corn and the sabbath that we may set forth wheat and in the day of his fast thou wilt exalt all thy labours Isa 58.3 Doth he require a portion of our Goods for his Service thou wilt be ready to rob God of his Portion Mal. 3.8 or deceive him in it and sacrifice to the Lord a corrupt thing Malach 1.14 Hath he set apart a peculiar place for his Worship thou wilt be ready with Jeroboam to set up Calves in Dan and Bethel 1 Kings 12.26 to secure thy self in the enjoyment of thy temporol Advantage Hath he imprinted his own Superscription and Image upon Man with a strict prohibition of the violation of that Image Gen. 9.6 Yet if thou become one that is greedy of Gain it will prompt thee to take away the Life of the Owner that thou mayest be his Successor Prov. 1.19 Job 31.39 It will make thee grind the faces of the Poor sell them for a pair of old Shoes set Justice to sale sell thy Master with Judas for a small inconsiderable Gain And thus the Love of the World is the root of all evil for as all the Good in Man is the Conformity to the Will of God so whatsoever interrupts this Conformity must needs be an original of Evil and this is done by the Love of the World which makes a Man reject this Conformity when it is inconsistent with that imperious Love of the World. 3. In our Confidence And this is always a concomitant of our Love to them and our Care for them for these grow out of a mistaken over-valuation of them and as that carries on our care for them and love of them so in the fruition of them upon this mistaken Estimate grows a Confidence in them Psal 49.6 They trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches Prov. 18.11 the rich man's wealth is his strong city and as an high wall in his own conceit And this was the ground of the rich Man's solacing himself in the Gospel Thou hast enough laid up for many years eat drink and be merry And from hence it is likewise that Covetousness is Idolatry for that is in truth thy God upon which thou most trustest if in a time of Prosperity thy Confidence is high and built upon thy Power or thy Wealth or thy carnal Confederacies and if in the dissipation of these thy Soul dies within thee and thy Hope is like the giving up of the Ghost it is plain the World is thy God for thy Confidence doth rise and fall and live and die with it Therefore take heed of laying the weight of thy Confidence upon the World Psal 62. Trust not in oppression c. Power belongeth only to God. Prov. 11.14 Riches profit nothing in the day of wrath 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches If God give thee Wealth and Riches look upon them as his Blessing and look upon that good and usefulness that is in them as that which comes not from themselves but from the Blessing of God and which he can when he please withdraw from them and then they will be so far from being a ground of Confidence as that they will be thy snare and occasion of thy ruine and not a foundation of thy strength Look upon them as things that cannot benefit thee in themselves whiles thou hast them unless he makes them instrumental and as things which will not abide with thee when he calls for thee or for them for Riches make themselves wings and flee away Prov. 23.5 If thou lean upon them they are a Reed and sink under thy Confidence and a broken Reed that will hurt thee in thy Dependance upon them They will disappoint thy Confidence in them and thy Confidence in them will pierce thee Jer. 2.3 The Lord hath rejected these thy confidences and thou shalt not prosper in them 3. Vnseasonableness 1. In thy Order of seeking of them seek them not in the first place but seek first that one thing which is necessary It is not necessary for thee to be rich but it is necessary for thee to be saved L●t that which is of thy greatest Concernment be the subject of thy first Endeavour Matth. 6.33 Seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all these things shall he added unto you Thou hast but a short time here and upon the improvement of that little span of time depends thine everlasting condition of Happiness or Misery And if thou imploy the first-fruits of thy Life in the gain of this World which will certainly die with thee if not before thee who can tell if thou shalt have time enough left for the great