a Wilderness become Waters and speak a Chaos into a beautiful frame of Heaven and Earth He can act our souls with infinite more ease than our souls can act our bodies he can fix in us what motions frames inclinations he pleases he can come and settle in our hearts with all his Treasures 'T is an encouragement to confide in him when we petition him for spiritual Blessings As he is a Spirit he is possessed with spiritual Blessings * Eph. 1.3 A Spirit delights to bestow things sutable to its Nature do Bodies are to communicate what is agreeable to theirs As he is a Father of Spirits we may go to him for the Welfare of our Spirits he being a Spirit is as able to repair our Spirits as he was to create them As he is a Spirit he is indefatigable in acting The members of the body tire and flagg but whoever heard of a Soul wearied with being active Whoever heard of a weary Angel In the purest Simplicity there is the greatest Power the most efficacious Goodness the most reaching Justice to affect the Spirit that can insinuate it self every where to punish wickedness without weariness as well as to comfort goodness God is active because he is Spirit and if we be like to God the more spiritual we are the more active we shall be 6. Inference God being a Spirit is immortal His being immortal and being invisible are joyned together * 1 Tim. 1.17 Spirits are in their nature incorruptible they can only perish by that hand that framed them Every compounded thing is subject to mutation but God being a pure and simple Spirit is without corruption without any shadow of change * James 1.17 Where there is composition there is some kind of repugnancy of one part against the other and where there is repugnancy there is a capability of dissolution God in regard of his infinite spirituality hath nothing in his own nature contrary to it can have nothing in himself which is not himself The world perishes friends change and are dissolved bodies moulder because they are mutable God is a Spirit in the highest excellency and glory of Spirits nothing is beyond him nothing above him no contrariety within him This is our comfort if we devote our selves to him this God is our God this Spirit is our Spirit this is our all our immutable our incorruptible support a Spirit that cannot die and leave us 7. Inference If God be a Spirit we see how we can only converse with him by our Spirits Bodies and Spirits are not sutable to one another We can only see know embrace a Spirit with our Spirits He judges not of us by our corporeal actions nor our external devotions by our masks and disguises He fixes his eye upon the frame of the heart bends his ear to the groans of our Spirits He is not pleased with outward pomp He is not a Body therefore the beauty of Temples delicacy of Sacrifices fumes of Incense are not grateful to him by those or any external action we have no communion with him A Spirit when broken is his delightful Sacrifice * Psal 51.17 We must therefore have our Spirits fitted for him be renewed in the spirit of our minds * Eph. 4.23 that we may be in a posture to live with him and have an intercourse with him We can never be united to God but in our Spirits Bodies unite with Bodies Spirits with Spirits The more spiritual any thing is the more closely doth it unite Air hath the closest union nothing meets together sooner than that when the parts are divided by the interposition of a body 8. Inference If God be a Spirit he can only be the true satisfaction of our Spirits Spirit can only be fill'd with Spirit Content flows from likeness and sutableness As we have a resemblance to God in regard of the spiritual nature of our Soul so we can have no satisfaction but in him Spirit can no more be really satisfied with that which is corporeal than a beast can delight in the company of an Angel Corporeal things can no more fill a hungry Spirit than pure Spirit can feed an hungry Body God the highest Spirit can only reach out a full content to our spirits Man is Lord of the Creation nothing below him can be fit for his converse nothing above him offers it self to his converse but God We have no correspondence with Angels The influence they have upon us the protection they afford us is secret and undiscern'd but God the highest Spirit offers himself to us in his Son in his Ordinances is visible in every Creature presents himself to us in every providence to him we must seek in him we must rest God had no rest from the Creation till he had made Man and Man can have no rest in the Creation till he rests in God * Psal 90.1 God only is our dwelling place our Souls should only long for him our Souls should only wait upon him * Psal 63.1 The Spirit of Man never riseth to its original glory till it be carried up on the wings of Faith and Love to its original Copy The face of the Soul looks most beautiful when it is turned to the face of God the Father of Spirits when the derived Spirit is fixed upon the original Spirit drawing from it Life and Glory Spirit is only the receptacle of Spirit God as Spirit is our Principle we must therefore live upon him God as Spirit hath some resemblance to us as his Image we must therefore only satisfie our selves in him 9. Inference If God be a Spirit we should take most care of that wherein we are like to God Spirit is nobler than Body we must thererefore value our Spirits above our Bodies The Soul as Spirit partakes more of the Divine Nature and deserves more of our choycest cares If we have any love to this Spirit we should have a real affection to our own Spirits as bearing a stamp of the spiritual Divinity the chiefest of all the works of God as it is said of Behemoth Job 40.19 .. That which is most the Image of this immense Spirit should be our Darling So David calls his Soul Psal 35.17 Shall we take care of that wherein we partake not of God and not delight in the Jewel which hath his own Signature upon it God was not only the Framer of Spirits and the End of Spirits but the Copy and Exemplar of Spirits God partakes of no corporeity he is pure Spirit But how do we act as if we were only matter and body We have but little kindness for this great Spirit as well as our own if we take no care of his immediate offspring since he is not only Spirit but the Father of Spirits * Heb. 12.9 10. Inference If God be a Spirit let us take heed of those sins which are spiritual Paul distinguisheth between the filth of the Flesh and that of
that we might now serve God in a more spiritual manner and with more spiritual frames 6. Proposition The Service and worship the Gospel settles is spiritual and the performance of it more spiritual Spirituality is the Genius of the Gospel as Carnality was of the Law the Gospel is therefore called Spirit We are abstracted from the imployments of Sense and brought neerer to a Heavenly State The Jews had Angels Bread poured upon them we have Angels Service prescribed to us the Praises of God Communion with God in Spirit through his Son Jesus Christ and stronger foundations for spiritual affections 'T is called a reasonable service * Rom. 12.1 t is suted to a rational nature tho it finds no friendship from the Corruption of reason It prescribes a service fit for the reasonable faculties of the Soul and advanceth them while it employs them The word reasonable may be translated word service * V. Hammond in loc as well as reasonable service an Evangelical service in opposition to a Law service All Evangelical service is reasonable and all truly reasonable service is Evangelical The matter of the worship is Spiritual it consists in love of God faith in God recourse to his goodness Meditation on him and Communion with him It lays aside the Ceremonial Spiritualizeth the moral The Commands that concerned our duty to God as well as those that concerned our duty to our Neighbour were reduced by Christ to their Spiritual intention The Motives are Spiritual t is a state of more grace as well as of more truth * John 1.17 supported by Spiritual promises beaming out in Spiritual priviledges heaven comes down in it to Earth to Spiritualize Earth for Heaven The manner of worship is more Spiritual higher flights of the Soul stronger ardours of affections sincerer aims at his glory mists are removed from our minds Cloggs from the Soul more of love than fear faith in Christ kindles the affections and works by them The assistances to Spiritual worship are greater The Spirit doth not drop but is plentifully poured out It doth not light sometimes upon but dwells in the heart Christ suted the Gospel to a Spiritual heart and the Spirit changeth a carnal heart to make it fit for a Spiritual Gospel He blows upon the Garden and causes the spices to flow forth And often makes the Soul in worship like the Chariots of Aminadab in a quick and nimble motion Our blessed Lord and Saviour by his death discovered to us the nature of God and after his ascension sent his Spirit to fit us for the worship of God and converse with him One Spiritual Evangelical believing breath is more delightful to God than millions of Altars made up of the richest pearls and smoaking with the costliest oblations because it is Spiritual And a mite of Spirit is of more worth than the greatest weight of flesh One holy Angel is more excellent than a whole world of meer bodies 7. Proposition Yet the worship of God with our bodies is not to be rejected upon the account that God requires a Spiritual worship Tho we must perform the weightier duties of the Law yet we are not to omit and leave undone the lighter precepts Since both the Magnalia and minutula legis the greater and the lesser duties of the Law have the stamp of Divine authority upon them As God under the Ceremonial Law did not Command the worship of the body and the observation of outward rites without the engagement of the Spirit so neither doth he Command that of the Spirit without the peculiar attendance of the body The Schwelk sendians denied bodily worship And the indecent postures of many in publick attendance intimate no great care either of Composing their bodies or Spirits A morally discomposed body intimates a tainted heart Our Bodies as well as our Spirits are to be presented to God * Rom. 12.1 Our bodies in lieu of the Sacrifices of Beasts as in the Judaical institutions body for the whole man a living Sacrifice not to be slain as the Beasts were but living a new life in a holy posture with Crucified affections This is the inference the Apostle makes of the priviledges of Justification Adoption Coheirship with Christ which he had before discoursed of Priviledges conferred upon the person and not upon a part of man 1. Bodily worship is due to God He hath a right to an Adoration by our bodies as they are his by Creation his right is not diminisht but increased by the blessing of Redemption 1 Cor. 6.20 For you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and your Spirits which are Gods The Body as well as the Spirit is redeemed since our Saviour suffered Crucifixion in his body as well as Agonies in his Soul Body is not taken here for the whole man as it may be in Rom. 12. But for the material part of our nature it being distinguisht from the Spirit If we are to render to God an obedience with our bodies we are to render him such Acts of worship with our bodies as they are capable of As God is the Father of Spirits so he is the God of all flesh Therefore the flesh he hath framed of the Earth as well as the noble portion he hath breathed into us cannot be denyed him without apalpable in justice The service of the body we must not deny to God unless we will deny him to be the author of it and the exercise of his providential care about it The mercies of God are renewed every day upon our bodies as well as our Souls and therefore they ought to express a fealty to God for his bounty everyday * Sherman's Greek in the Temple pa. 61.62 both are from God both should be for God Man consists of Body and Soul the service of Man is the service of both The body is to be Sanctified as well as the Soul and therefore to be offered to God as well as the Soul Both are to be glorified both are to glorifie As our Saviours Divinity was manifested in his body so should our Spirituality in ours To give God the service of the body and not of the Soul is hypocrisie to give God the service of the Spirit and not of the body is sacriledge to give him neither Atheism If the only part of man that is visible were exempted from the service of God there could be no visible Testimonies of piety given upon any occasion Since not a moiety of man but the whole is Gods Creature he ought to pay a homage with the whole and not only with a moiety of himself 2. Worship in societies is due to God but this cannot be without some bodily expressions The law of nature doth as much direct men to combine together in publick societies for the acknowledgment of God as in Civil Communities for self preservation and order And the notice of a society for Religion is more Ancient than the mention of
might be ordered as an Answer to his former Petition Psal 19.12 Cleanse thou me from my secret sins and as he did earnestly pray after his Fall so no doubt but he endeavour'd a thorough Sanctification Psal 51.7 Purge me wash me and that he meant not only a Sanctification from that single Sin but from all Root and Branch is evident by that Complaint of the slaw in his Nature verse 5. the Dross and Chaff which lies in the heart is hereby discovered and an opportunity administred of throwing it out and searching all the corners of the Heart to discover where it lay As God sometimes takes occasion from one Sin to reckon with Men in a way of Justice for others so he sometimes takes occasion from the commission of one Sin to bring out all the actions against the Sinner to make him in a way of gracious Wisdom set more cordially upon the work of Sanctification A great Fall sometimes hath been the occasion of a Mans Conversion The Fall of Mankind occasioned a more blessed Restoration and the Falls of particular Believers ofttimes occasion a more extensive Sanctification Thus the only Wise God makes poysons in Nature to become Medicines in a way of Grace and Wisdom 5. Hereby the growth in Grace is furthered 'T is a wonder of Divine Wisdom to substract sometimes his Grace from a Person and let him fall into Sin thereby to occasion the increase of habitual Grace in him and to augment it by those ways that seem'd to depress it By making Sins an occasion of a more vigorous acting the contrary Grace the Wisdom of God makes our Corruptions in their own nature destructive to become profitable to us Grace often breaks out more strongly afterwards as the Sun doth with its heat after it hath been mask'd and interrupted with a Mist They often through the mighty working of the Spirit make us more humble and Humility fits us to receive more Grace from God †James 4.6 How doth Faith that sunk under the Waves lift up its head again and carry the Soul out with a greater liveliness What ardours of Love what flouds of Repenting Tears what severity of Revenge what horrours at the remembrance of the Sin what Tremblings at the appearance of a second Temptation So that Grace seems to be be awaken'd to a new and more vigorous life ‖ 2 Cor. 7.11 The broken Joynt is many times stronger in the Rupture than it was before The Luxuriancy of the Branches of Corruption is an occasion of purging and purging is with a design to make Grace more fruitful John 15.2 He purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit Thus Divine Wisdom doth both sharpen and brighten us by the dust of Sin and ripen and mellow the fruits of Grace by the dung of Corruption Grace grows the stronger by opposition as the Fire burns hottest and clearest when it is most surrounded by a cold Air and our Natural heat reassumes a new strength by the coldness of the Winter The foyl under a Diamond though an imperfection in it self increaseth the beauty and lustre of the Stone The Enmity of Man was a commendation of the Grace of God It occasioned the breaking out of the Grace of God upon us and is an occasion by the Wisdom and Grace of God of the increase of Grace many times in us How should the Consideration of Gods Incomprhensible Wisdom in the management of Evil swallow us up in Admiration who brings forth such beauty such eminent Discoveries of himself such excellent good to the Creature out of the bowels of the greatest Contrarieties making dark Shadows serve to display and beautisie to our Apprehensions the Divine Glory If Evil were not in the World Men would not know what Good is They would not behold the lustre of Divine Wisdom as without Night we could not understand the beauty of the Day Though God is not the Author of Sin because of his Holiness yet he is the Administrator of Sin by his Wisdom and accomplisheth his own Purposes by the Iniquities of his Enemies and the Lapses and Infirmities of his Friends Thus much for the Second The Government of Man in his Lapsed state and the Government of Sin wherein the Wisdom of God doth wonderfully appear III. The Wisdom of God appears in the Government of Man in his Conversion and Return to him If there be a Counsel in framing the lowest Creature and in the minutest passages of Providence there must needs be a higher Wisdom in the government of the Creature to a Supernatural End and framing the Soul to be a monument of his Glory The Wisdom of God is seen with more Admirations and in more varieties by the Angels in the Church than in the Creation * Eph. 3.10 that is in forming a Church out of the Rubbish of the World out of Contrarieties and Contradictions to him which is greater than the framing a Celestial and Elementary World out of a rude Chaos The most glorious Bodies in the World even those of the Sun Moon and Stars have not such stamps of Divine Skill upon them as the Soul of Man nor is there so much of Wisdom in the Fabrick and Faculties of that as in the reduction of a blind wilful rebellious Soul to its own happiness and Gods glory Eph. 1.11 12. He worketh all things according to the counsel of his own Will that we should be for the praise of his glory If all things then this which is none of the least of his works To the praise of the glory of his Goodness in his work and to the praise of the Rule of his work his Counsel in both the act of his Will and the act of his Wisdom The restoring of the Beauty of the Soul and its fitness for its true end speaks no less Wisdom than the first draught of it in Creation And the application of Redemption and bringing forth the fruits of it is as well an act of his Prudence as the contrivance was of his Counsel Divine Wisdom appears First In the Subjects of Conversion His Goodness reigns in the very Dust and he erects the Walls and Ornaments of his Temple from the Clay and Mud of the World He passes over the Wise and Noble and Mighty that may pretend some grounds of boasting in their own natural or acquired Endowments and pitches upon the most contemptible Materials wherewith to build a Spiritual Tabernacle for himself 1 Cor. 1.26 27. The foolish and weak things of the World those that are naturally most unfit for it and most refractory to it Herein lies the Skill of an Architect to render the most knotty crooked and inform Pieces by his Art subservient to his main purpose and design Thus God hath ordered from the beginning of the World contrary Tempers various Humors diverse Nations as Stones of several Natures to be a Building for himself fitly framed together and to be his own Family †1 Cor. 3.7 Who will
was a Type of Christ and a look to him is necessary in every spiritual Sacrifice As there must be Faith to make any act an act of obedience so there must be Faith to make any act of worship spiritual That service is not spiritual that is not vital and it cannot be vital without the exercise of a vital Principle All spiritual life is hid in Christ and drawn from him by Faith * Gal. 2.20 Faith as it hath relation to Christ makes every act of worship a living act and consequently a spiritual act Habitual unbelief cuts us off from the Body of Christ Rom. 11.20 Because of unbelief they were broken off and a want of actuated belief breaks us off from a present communion with Christ in Spirit As unbelief in us hinders Christ from doing any mighty work so unbelief in us hinders us from doing any mighty spiritual duty So that the exercise of Faith and a confidence in God is necessary to every duty 2. Love must be acted to render a worship spiritual Though God commanded love in the Old-Testament yet the manner of giving the Law bespoke more of Fear than Love The dispensation of the Law was with Fire Thunder c. proper to raise horror and benum the Spirit which effect it had upon the Israelites when they desired that God would speake no more to them Grace is the Genius of the Gospel proper to excite the affection of Love The Law was given by the disposition of Angels with signs to amaze the Gospel was usher'd in with the songs of Angels composed of peace and good-will calculated to ravish the Soul Instead of the terrible voice of the Law do this and live The comfortable voice of the Gospel is Grace Grace Upon this account the principle of the Old testament was Fear and the Worship often exprest by the Fear of God The principle of the New-testament is Love The Mount Sinai gendreth to Bondage * Gal. 4.44 Mount Sion from whence the Gospel or Evangelical Law goes forth gendreth to Liberty and therefore the Spirit of Bondage unto Fear as the Property of the Law is opposed to the State of Adoption the principle of Love as the property of the Gospel * Rom. 8.15 And therefore the worship of God under the Gospel or New-testament is oftner exprest by Love than Fear as proceeding from higher principles and acting nobler passions In this State we are to serve him without fear * Luke 1.74 without a Bondage-fear not without a fear of unworthy treating him with a fear of his goodness as it is prophesied of * Hos 9.9 Goodness is not the object of terror but reverence God in the Law had more the garb of a Judge in the Gospel of a Father The name of a Father is sweeter and bespeaks more of affection As their services were with a feeling of the thunders of the Law in their Consciences so is our worship to be with a sense of Gospel-grace in our Spirits Spiritual worship is that therefore which is exercised with a spiritual and heavenly affection proper to the Gospel The heart should be enlarged according to the liberty the Gospel gives of drawing neer to God as a Father As he gives us the nobler relation of Children we are to act the nobler qualities of Children Love should act according to its nature which is desire of Union desire of a moral union by Affections as well as a mystical union by Faith as flame aspires to reach flame and become one with it In every act of worship we should endeavour to be united to God and become one Spirit with him This Grace doth spiritualize Worship In that one word Love God hath wrapt up all the devotion he requires of us 'T is the total sum of the first Table Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 'T is to be acted in every thing we do But in Worship our hearts should more solemnly rise up and acknowledge him amiable and lovely since the Law is stript of its cursing power and made sweet in the blood of the Redeemer Love is a thing acceptable of it self but nothing acceptable without it The gifts of one man to another are spiritualized by it We would not value a Present without the affection of the Donor Every man would lay claim to the love of others though he would not to their Possessions Love is Gods right in every service and the noblest thing we can bestow upon him in our adorations of him Gods gifts to us are not so estimable without his love not our services valuable by him without the exercise of a choice affection Hezekiah regarded not his deliverance without the love of the Deliverer In love to my Soul thou hast delivered me * Isa 38.17 So doth God say in love to my honour thou hast worshipped me So that Love must be acted to render our worship spiritual 3. A spiritual sensibleness of our own weakness is necessary to make our worship spiritual Affections to God cannot be without relentings in our selves When the eye is spiritually fixed upon a spiritual God the heart will mourn that the worship is no more spiritually sutable The more we act love upon God as amiable and gracious the more we should exercise grief in our selves as we are vile and offending Spiritual worship is a melting worship as well as an elevating worship It exalts God and debaseth the Creature The Publican was more spiritual in his humble address to God when the Pharisee was wholly carnal with his swelling language A spiritual love in worship will make us grieve that we have given him so little and could give him no more 'T is a part of spiritual duty to bewail our carnality mixed with it as we receive mercies spiritually when we receive them with a sense of Gods goodness and our own vileness in the same manner we render a spiritual worship 4. Spiritual desires for God render the service spiritual When the Soul follows hard after him * Psal 63.8 pursues after God as a God of infinite and communicative goodness with sighs and groans unutterable A spiritual Soul seems to be transformed into hunger and thirst and becomes nothing but desire A carnal Worshipper is taken with the beauty and magnificence of the Temple a spiritual Worshipper desires to see the glory of God in the Sanctuary * Psal 63.2 He pants after God As he came to worship to find God he boyls up in desires for God and is loth to go from it without God the living God Psal 42.2 He would see the Vrim and the Thummim the unusual sparkling of the stones upon the High-priests Breast-plate That deserves not the title of spiritual worship when the Soul makes no longing inquiries saw you him whom my Soul loves A spiritual worship is when our desires are chiefly for God in the worship As David desires to dwell in the House of the Lord but his desire is not terminated
there but to behold the beauty of the Lord * Psal 27.4 and taste the ravishing sweetness of his presence No doubt but Elijah's desires for the enjoyment of God while he was mounting to Heaven were as fiery as the Chariot wherein he was carried Unutterable groans acted in worship are the fruit of the Spirit and certainly render it a spiritual service * Rom. 8.26 Strong appetites are agreeable to God and prepare us to eat the fruit of worship A spiritual Paul presseth forward to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and a spiritual Worshipper actually aspires in every duty to know God and the power of his Grace To desire worship as an end is carnal to desire it as a means and act desires in it for communion with God in it is spiritual and the fruit of a spiritual life 5. Thankfulness and admiration are to be exercised in spiritual services This is a worship of Spirits Praise is the adoration of the blessed Angels * Isa 6.3 and of glorified Spirits Rev. 4.11 Thou art worthy oh Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power And Rev. 5.13.14 they worship him ascribing Blessing Honour Glory and Power to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Other acts of worship are confined to this Life and leave us as soon as we have set our foot in Heaven There no notes but this of Praise are warbled out The Power Wisdom Love and Grace in the dispensation of the Gospel seat themselves in the thoughts and tongues of blessed Souls Can a worship on Earth be spiritual that hath no mixture of an eternal heavenly duty with it The worship of God in Innocence had been chiefly an admiration of him in the works of Creation and should not our Evangelical worship be an admiration of him in the works of Redemption which is a restoration to a better State After the petitioning for pardoning Grace * Hos 14.2 there is a rendring the Calves or Heifers of our lips alluding to the Heifers used in Eucharistical Sacrifices The Praise of God is the choicest Sacrifice and Worship under a dispensation of redeeming Grace This is the prime and eternal part of worship under the Gospel The Psalmist Psalm 149. and 150. speaking of the Gospel times spurrs on to this kind of worship Sing to the Lord a new Song Let the Children of Zion be joyful iâ—â—â—â—ir King Let the Saints be joyful in glory and sing aloud upon their beds Let the high praises of God be in their mouths He begins and ends both Psalms with praise ye the Lord. That cannot be a spiritual and evangelical worship that hath nothing of the praise of God in the heart The consideration of Gods adorable perfections discovered in the Gospel will make us come to him with more seriousness beg blessings of him with more confidence fly to him with a winged Faith and Love and more spiritually glorify him in our attendances upon him 7. Spiritual Worship is performed with delight The Evangelical worship is prophetically signified by keeping the Feast of Tabernacles * Zach. 14.16 they shall go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of Hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles Why that Feast when there were other Feasts observed by the Jews That was a Feast celebrated with the greatest joy typical of the gladness which was to be under the exhibition of the Messiah and a thankful comemmoration of the Redemption wrought by him It was to be celebrated five days after the solemn day of Atonement Levit. 23.34 compared with v. 27. wherein there was one of the solemnest types of the Sacrifice of the death of Christ In this Feast they commemorated their exchange of Egypt for Canaan the Manna wherewith they were fed the Water out of the Rock wherewith they were refresht In remembrance of this they poured water on the ground pronouncing those words in Isaiah they shall draw waters out of the Wells of Salvation which our Saviour referrs to himself John 7.37 inviting them to him to drink upon the last day the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles wherein this solemn Ceremony was observed Since we are freed by the death of the Redeemer from the Curses of the Law God requires of us a Joy in spiritual priviledges A sad frame in worship gives the lye to all Gospel-liberty to the Purchase of the Redeemers Death the Triumphs of his Resurrection 'T is a carriage as if we were under the influences of the legal Fire and Lightning and an entring a Protest against the Freedom of the Gospel The Evangelical worship is a Spiritual worship and Praise Joy and Delight are prophecied of as great ingredients in attendance on Gospel Ordinances Isa 12.3 4 5. What was occasion of terror in the worship of God under the Law is the occasion of delight in the worship of God under the Gospel The Justice and Holiness of God so terrible in the Law becomes comfortable under the Gospel since they have feasted themselves on the active and passive obedience of the Redeemer The approach is to God as gracious not to God as unpacified as a Son to a Father not as a Criminal to a Judge Under the Law God was represented as a Judge remembring their Sin in their Sacrifices and representing the punishment they had merited in the Gospel as a Father accepting the Atonement and publishing the Reconciliation wrought by the Redeemer Delight in God is a Gospel frame therefore the more joyful the more spiritual The Sabbath is to be a delight not only in regard of the Day but in regard of the Duties of it * Isa 58.13 in regard of the marvelous work he wrought on it raising up our blessed Redeemer on that day whereby a foundation was laid for the rendring our persons and services acceptable to God Psal 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoyce in it A lumpish frame becomes not a day and a duty that hath so noble and spiritual a mark upon it The Angels in the first act of worship after the Creation were highly joyful Job 38.7 They shouted for joy c. The Saints have particularly acted this in their Worship David would not content himself with an approach to the Altar without going to God as his exceeding joy Psal 43.4 My triumphant joy When he danced before the Ark he seems to be transformed into delight and pleasure 2 Sam. 6.14 16. He had as much delight in Worship as others had in their Harvest and Vintage And those that took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods would as joyfully attend upon the Communications of God Where there is a fullness of the Spirit there is a waking melody to God in the heart * Eph. 5.18.19 and where there is an acting of love as there is in all spiritual services the proper fruit of it is joy in a neer
him through the universal Corruption of Nature Now he hath manifested himself a God of Truth mindful of his Promise in Blessing all Nations in the Seed of Abraham The Fury of Devils and the Violence of Men could not hinder the propagation of this Gospel Its Light hath been dispersed as far as that of the Sun and that Grace that sounded in the Gentiles Ears hath bent many of their Hearts to the Obedience of it 5. Observe That Libertinism and Licentiousness find no encouragement in the Gospel It was made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith The Goodness of God is publish'd that our Enmity to him may be parted with Christs Righteousness is not offered to us to be put on that we may roul more warmly in our Lusts The Doctrine of Grace commands us to give up our selves to Christ to be accepted through him and to be ruled by him Obedience is due to God as a Soveraign Lord in his Law and 't is due out of gratitude as he is a God of Grace in the Gospel The discovery of a further perfection in God weakens not the right of another nor the obligation of the Duty the former Attribute claims at our hands The Gospel frees us from the Curse but not from the Duty and Service We are delivered from the hands of our Enemies that we might serve God in Holiness and Righteousness Luke 1.74 This is the will of God in the Gospel even our Sanctification When a Prince strikes off a Malefactors Chains though he deliver him from the punishment of his Crime he frees him not from the Duty of a Subject His Pardon adds a greater obligation than his Protection did before while he was Loyal Christs Righteousness gives us a Title to Heaven but there must be a Holiness to give us a fitness for Heaven 6. Observe That Evangelical Obedience or the Obedience of Faith is only acceptable to God Obedience of Faith Genitivus speciei noting the kind of Obedience God requires an Obedience springing from Faith animated and influenced by Faith Not Obedience of Faith as though Faith were the Rule and the Law were abrogated but to the Law as a Rule and from Faith as a Principle There is no true Obedience before Faith Heb. 11.6 Without Faith it is impossible to please God and therefore without Faith impossible to obey him A good Work cannot proceed from a defil'd Mind and Conscience and without Faith every mans Mind is darkned and his Conscience polluted * Tit. 1.15 Faith is the Band of Union to Christ and Obedience is the Fruit of Union we cannot bring forth fruit without being Branches †John 15.4 5. and we cannot be Branches without Believing Legitimate Fruit follows upon Marriage to Christ not before it Rom. 7.4 That you should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead that you should bring forth fruit unto God All Fruit before Marriage is Bastard and Bastards were excluded from the Sanctuary Our Persons must be first accepted in Christ before our Services can be acceptable those Works are not acceptable where the Person is not pardoned Good Works flow from a pure Heart but the Heart cannot be pure before Faith All the Good Works reckoned up in the 11th Chapter of the Hebrews were from this Spring those Heroes first believed and then obeyed By Faith Abel was righteous before God without it his Sacrifice had been no better than Cains By Faith Enoch pleased God and had a Divine Testimony to his Obedience before his Translation By Faith Abraham offered up Isaac without which he had been no better than a Murderer All Obedience hath its Root in Faith and is not done in our own strength but in the strength and virtue of another of Christ whom God hath set forth as our Head and Root 7. Observe Faith and Obedience are distinct though inseparable The Obedience of Faith Faith indeed is Obedience to a Gospel Command which enjoyns us to believe but it is not all our Obedience Justification and Sanctification are distinct Acts of God Justification respects the Person Sanctification the Nature Justification is first in order of Nature and Sanctification follows They are distinct but inseparable every Justified Person hath a Sanctified Nature and every Sanctified Nature supposeth a Justified Person So Faith and Obedience are distinct Faith as the Principle Obedience as the Product Faith as the Cause Obedience as the Effect the Cause and the Effect are not the same By Faith we own Christ as our Lord by Obedience we regulate our selves according to his Command The acceptance of the Relation to him as a Subject precedes the performance of our Duty By Faith we receive his Law and by Obedience we fulfil it Faith makes us Gods Children Gal. 3.26 Obedience manifests us to be Christs Disciples John 15.8 Faith is the Touchstone of Obedience the Touchstone and that which is tried by it are not the same But though they are distinct yet they are inseparable Faith and Obedience are joyned together Obedience follows Faith at the heels Faith purifies the heart and a pure Heart cannot be without pure Actions Faith unites us to Christ whereby we partake of his Liâ—e and a living Branch cannot be without fruit in its season and much fruit John 15.5 and that naturally from a newness of Spirit Rom. 7.9 not constrained by the rigors of the Law but drawn forth from a sweetness of Love for Faith works by Love The Love of God is the strong Motive and Love to God is the quickning Principle as there can be no Obedience without Faith so no Faith without Obedience After all this the Apostle ends with the celebration of the Wisdom of God To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever The rich Discovery of the Gospel cannot be thought of by a gracious Soul without a return of Praise to God and Admiration of his singular Wisdom Wise God His Power before and his Wisdom here are mentioned in conjunction in which his Goodness is included as interested in his establishing Power as the ground of all the Glory and Praise God hath from his Creatures Only Wise As Christ saith Mat. 19.17 None is good but God so the Apostle saith None Wise but God As all Creatures are unclean in regard of his Purity so they are all Fools in regard of his Wisdom yea the glorious Angels themselves * Job 4.18 Wisdom is the Royalty of God the proper Dialect of all his Ways and Works No Creature can lay claim to it He is so Wise that he is Wisdom it self Be glory through Jesus Christ As God is only known in and by Christ so he must be only worshipped and celebrated in and through Christ In him we must Pray to him and in him we must Praise him As all Mercies flow from God through Christ to us so all our Duties are to be presented to God through Christ In the Greek verbatim
of a spiritual life Did not all lie wallowing in their own filthy blood and what could the steam and noysomness of that deserve at the hands of a pure Majesty but to be cast into a sink furthest from his sight Were they not all considered in this deplorable posture with an equal proportion of poyson in their nature when God first took his pen and singled out some Names to write in the Book of life It could not be merit in any one peice of this abominable Mass that should stir up that resolution in God to set apart this person for a Vessel of Glory while he permitted another to putrifie in his own gore He loved Jacob and hated Esau though they were both parts of the common Mass the Seed of the same Loyns and lodg'd in the same Womb. 2. Nor could it â—e any foresight of works to be done in time by them or of Faith that might determine God to choose them What good could he foresee resulting from extream corruption and a nature alienated from him What could he foresee of good to be done by them but what he resolved in his own will to bestow an ability upon them to bring forth His choice of them was to a Holiness not for a Holiness preceding his determination Eph. 1.4 He hath chosen us that we might be Holy before him he ordained us to good works not for them Eph. 2.10 What is a Fruit cannot be a moving cause of that whereof it is a fruit Grace is a stream from the spring of electing love the branch is not the cause of the Root but the Root of the Branch nor the stream the cause of the spring but the spring the cause of the stream Good works suppose Grace and a good and right habit in the person as rational acts suppose reason Can any man say that the rational acts man performs after his Creation were a cause why God Created him This would make Creation and every thing else not so much an act of his will as an act of his Understanding God foresaw no rational act in man before the act of his will to give him reason nor foresees faith in any before the act of his will determining to give him Faith Eph. 2.8 Faith is the gift of God In the Salvation which grows up from this first purpose of God he regards not the works we have done as a principal motive to settle the top-stone of our happiness but his own purpose and the Grace given in Christ 2 Timothy 1.9 Who hath saved us and call'd us with a holy Calling not according to our own works but according to his own purpose and Grace which was given to us in Christ before the World began The honour of our Salvation cannot be challeng'd by our works much less the honour of the Foundation of it It was a pure gift of Grace without any respect to any spiritual much less natural perfection Why should the Apostle mention that circumstance when he speaks of God's loving Jacob and hating Esau when neither of them had done good or evil Rom. 9.11 if there were any foresight of mens works as the moving cause of his love or hatred God regarded not the works of either as the first cause of his choice but acted by his own Liberty without respect to any of their actions which were to be done by them in time If Faith be the fruit of Election the prescience of Faith doth not influence the Electing act of God Tit. 1.1 'T is called the Faith of Gods Elect. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ according to the Faith of Gods Elect. i. e. Setled in this Office to bring the Elect of God to Faith If men be chosen by God upon the foresight of Faith or not chosen till they have Faith they are not so much God's Elect as God their Elect they choose God by Faith before God chooseth them by love It had not been the Faith of Gods Elect i. e. Of those already chosen but the Faith of those that were to be chosen by God afterwards * Dalle in loc Election is the cause of Faith and not Faith the cause of Election Fire is the cause of heat and not the heat of Fire the Sun is the cause of the day and not the day the cause of the rising of the Sun Men are not chosen because they beleive but they beleive because they are chosen The Apostle did ill else to appropriate that to the Elect which they had no more interest in by vertue of their Election than the veriest Reprobate in the World If the foresight of what works might be done by his Creatures was the motive of his choosing them why did he not choose the Devils to Redemption who could have done him better service by the strength of their Nature than the whole Mass of Adam's posterity Well then there is no possible way to lay the original Foundation of this act of Election and preterition in any thing but the absolute Soveraignty of God Justice or Injustice comes not into consideration in this case There is no debt which Justice or Injustice always respects in its acting If he had pleased he might have chosen all if he had pleased he might have chosen none It was in his supream power to have resolved to have left all Adam's posterity under the rack of his Justice if he determined to snatch out any it was a part of his dominion but without any injury to the Creatures he leaves under their own guilt Did he not pass by the Angels and take man And by the same right of Dominion may he pick out some men from the common Mass and lay aside others to bear the punishment of their Crimes Are they not all his Subjects All are his Criminals and may be dealt with at the pleasure of their undoubted Lord and Soveraign This is a work of arbitrary power Since he might have chosen none or chosen all as he saw good himself 'T is at the liberty of the Artificer to determine his Wood or Stone to such a figure that of a Prince or that of a Toad and his materials have no right to complain of him since it lies wholly upon his own liberty They must have little sence of their own vileness and God's infinite excellency above them by right of Creation that will contend that God hath a lesser right over his Creatures than an Artificer over his Wood or Stone If it were at his liberty whither to redeem Man or send Christ upon such an undertaking 't is as much at his liberty and the prerogative is to be allow'd him what persons he will resolve to make capable of enjoying the fruits of that Redemption One Man was as fit a subject for Mercy as another as they all lay in their orginal guilt Why would not Divine Mercy cast its eye upon this Man as well as upon his Neighbour There was no cause in the Creature but all in God it
only sound Divines having tasted the old he did not desire the new but said the old is better Some Errours especially the Socinian he sets himself industriously against and cuts the very Sinews of them yet sometimes almost without naming them In the Doctrinal Part of several of his Discourses thou wilt find the depth of Polemical Divinity and in his Inferences from thence the sweetness of Practical some things which may exercise the profoundest Scholar and others which may instruct and edifie the weakest Christian nothing is more nervous than his Reasonings and nothing more affecting than his Applications Though he make great use of Schoolmen yet they are certainly more beholden to him than he to them he adopts their Notions but he refines them too and improves them and reforms them from the barbarousness in which they were expressed and dresseth them up in his own Language so far as the nature of the matter will permit and more clear terms are to be found and so makes them intelligible to Vulgar Capacities which in their original rudeness were obscure and strange even to Learned Heads In a word he handles the great Truths of the Gospel with that Perspicuity Gravity and Majesty which best becomes the Oracles of God and we have reason to believe that no judicious and unbiassed Reader but will acknowledge this to be incomparably the best practical Treatise the World ever saw in English upon this Subject What Dr. Jackson did to whom our Authour gave all due respect was more brief and in another way Dr. Preston did worthily upon the Attributes in his day but his Discourses likewise are more succinct when this Authours are more full and large But whatever were the mind of God in it it was not his Will that either of these two should live to finish what he had begun both being taken away when Preaching upon this Subject Happy Souls whose last breath was spent in so noble a Work * Psal 146.2 praising God while they had any being His Method is much the same in most of these Discourses both in the Doctrinal and Practical Part which will make the whole more plain and facile to ordinary Readers He rarely makes Objections and yet frequently answers them by implying them in those Propositions he lays down for the clearing up the Truths he asserts His Dexterity is admirable in the Applicatory Work where he not only brings down the highest Doctrines to the lowest Capacities but collects great varietie of proper pertinent useful and yet many times unthought of Inferences and that from those Truths which however they afford much matter for Inquisition and Speculation yet might seem unless to the most intelligent and judicious Christians to have a more remote influence upon Practice He is not like some School Writers who attenuate and rarefie the Matter they Discourse of to a degree bordering upon Annihilation at least beat it so thin that a puff of breath may blow it away spin their Thred so fine that the Cloth when made up proves useless Solidity dwindles into Niceties and what we thought we had got by their Assertions we lose by their Distinctions But if our Author have some Subtilties and superfine Notions in his Argumentations yet he condenseth them again and consolidates them into substantial and profitable Corolaries in his Applications And in them his main business is as to discipline a prophane World for its neglect of God and contempt of him in his most adorable and shining Perfections so likewise to shew how the Divine Attributes are not only infinitely excellent in themselves but a grand Foundation for all true Divine Worship and should be the great Motives to provoke men to the exercise of Faith and Love and Fear and Humility and all that holy Obedience they are called to by the Gospel And this without peradventure is the great end of all those rich Discoveries God hath in his Word made of himself to us And Reader if these elaborate Discourses of this holy Man through the Lord's blessing become a means of promoting Holiness in thee Psal 109.1 and stir thee up to love and live to the God of his praise we are well assured that his end in Preaching them is answered and so is ours in publishing them Thine in the Lord EDW. VEEL RI. ADAMS The several Discourses in this Volume VIZ. Page 1. 47. THE Existence of God and Practical Atheism from Psal 14.1 The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God c. Page 109. 129. God a Spirit and Spiritual Worship from John 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Page 179. The Eternity of God from 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 Page 203. The Immutability of God From Psal 102 26 27. They shall perish but thou shalt endure Yea all of them shall wax old like a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy years shall have no end Page 241. The Omnipresence of God from Jer. 23.24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Page 272. God's Infinite Knowledge from Psal 147.5 Great is our Lord and of great Power His Vnderstanding is infinite Page 341. God's Infinite Wisdom from Rom. 16.27 To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen Page 417. God's Infinite Power from Job 26.14 Lo these are parts of his ways but how little a portion is heard of him But the Thunder of his Power who can understand Page 493. God's Infinite Holiness From Exod. 15.11 Who is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods Who is like thee glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Page 577. God's Infinite Goodness from Mark 10.18 And Jesus said unto him Why callest thou me good There is none good but one that is God Page 697. The Dominion of God from Psal 103.19 The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all Page 787. God's Infinite Patience from Nahum 1.3 The Lord is slow to Anger and great in Power and will not all acquit the Wicked The Lord hath his way in the Whirlwind and in the Storm and the Clouds are the Dust of his feet A DISCOURSE UPON THE Existence of God Psalm 14.1 The fool hath said in his heart there is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable Works there is none that doth good THIS Psalm is a description of the deplorable corruption by Nature of every Son of Adam since the withering of that Common Root Some restrain it to the Gentiles as a Wilderness full of Bryars and Thorns as not concerning the Jews the Garden of God planted by his Grace and watered by the Dew of Heaven
aspire to the end of the Creation we deny and envy God the honour of being Creator We cannot make our selves the chief end of the Creatures against Gods Order but we imply thereby that we were their first Principle For if we lived under a sense of the Creator of them while we enjoy them for our use we should return the glory to the right Owner This is Diabolical though the Devil for his first affecting an Authority in Heaven has been hurled down from the State of an Angel of Light into that of Darkness Vileness and Misery to be the most accursed Creature living yet he still aspires to mate God contrary to the knowledge of the impossibility of success in it Neither the terrors he feels nor the future torments he doth expect do a jot abate his Ambition to be Competitor with his Creator How often hath he since his first sin arrogated to himself the Honour of a God from the blind world and attempted to make the Son of God by a particular Worship count him as the chiefest Good and Benefactor of the World * Mat. 4.9 Since all men by Nature are the Devils Children the Serpents Seed they have something of this Venom in their Natures as well as others of his qualities We see that there may be and is a prodigious Atheism lurking under the Belief of a God The Devil knows there is a God but acts like an Atheist and so do his Children 4. Man would make himself the end of God This necessarily follows upon the former Whosoever makes himself his own Law and his own End in the place of God would make God the Subject in making himself the Soveraign He that steps into the Throne of a Prince sets the Prince at his Foot-stool and while he assumes the Princes Prerogative demands a Subjection from him The Order of the Creation has been inverted by the entrance of Sin * Pascal Pens §. 30. P. 294. God implanted an affection in Man with a double aspect the one to pitch upon God the other to respect our selves but with this proviso that our affection to God should be infinite in regard of the Object and Center in him as the chiefest Happiness and highest End Our affections to our selves should be finite and refer ultimately to God as the Original of our Being But Sin hath turned Mans affections wholy to himself Whereas he should love God first and himself in order to God he now loves himself first and God in order to himself Love to God is lost and Love to self hath usurpt the Throne As God by Creation put all thing under the feet of Man * Psal 8.6 reserving the Heart for himself Man by Corruption hath dispossessed God of his Heart and put him under his own feet We often intend our selves when we pretend the Honour of God and make God and Religion a Stale to some designs we have in hand our Creator a Tool for our own ends This is evident 1. In our loving God because of some self-pleasing benefits distributed by him There is in Men a kind of natural love to God but it is but a secondary one because God gives them the good things of this world spreads their Table fills their Cup stuffs their Coffers and doth them some good turns by unexpected Providences This is not an affection to God for the unbounded Excellency of his own Nature but for his beneficence as he opens his hand for them an affection to themselves and those Creatures their Gold thier honour which their hearts are most fixed upon without a strong Spiritual Inclination that God should be glorified by them in the use of those Mercies 'T is rather a disowning of God than any love to him because it postpones God to those things they love him for This would appear to be no love if God should cease to be their Benefactor and deal with them as a Judge if he should change his outward smiles into afflicting frowns and not only shut his hand but strip them of what he sent them The Motive of their love being expired the affection raised by it must cease for want of fewel to feed it So that God is beholden to sordid Creatures of no value but as they are his Creatures for most of the Love the Sons of Men pretend to him The Devil spake truth of most men though not of Job when he said Job 1.10 They love not God for nought but while he makes a hedge about them and their Families whilest he blesseth the works of their hands and increaseth their honour in the Land 'T is like Peter's sharp reproof of his Master when he spake of the ill usage even to death he was to meet with at Hierusalem This shall not be unto thee It was as much out of love to himself as zeal for his Masters Interest knowing his Master could not be in such a Storm without some drops lighting upon himself All the Apostacies of men in the world are Witnesses to this They fawn whilest they may have a prosperous Profession but will not bear one chip of the Cross for the Interest of God They would partake of his Blessings but not endure the prick of a Launce for him As those that admired the Miracles of our Saviour and shrunk at his Sufferings A time of tryal discovers these Mercenary Souls to be more Lovers of themselves than their Maker This is a pretended love of friendship to God but a real love to a Lust only to gain by God A good mans temper is contrary Quench Hell burn Heaven said a holy Man I will love and fear my God 2. 'T is evident in abstinence from some sins not because they offend God but because they are against the Interest of some other beloved Corruption or a Bar to something men hunt after in the World When temperance is cherished not to honour God but preserve a crazy Carcass Prodigality forsaken out of a humor of Avarice Uncleaness forsaken not out of a hatred of Lust but love to their mony Declining a Denial of the Interest and Truth of God not out of affection to them but an ambitious Zeal for their own Reputation There is a kind of Conversion from Sin when God is not made the Term of it Jer. 4.1 If thou wilt return oh Israel return unto me saith the Lord. * Trap on Gen. pa. 148. When we forbear Sin as Dogs do the Meat they love they forbear not out of a hatred of the Carrion but fear of the Cudgel These are as wicked in their abstaining from Sin as others are in their furious committing it Nothing of the Honour of God and the End of his appointments is indeed in all this but the conveniences self gathers from them Again many of the motives the generality of the world uses to their Friends and Relations to draw them from Vices are drawn from self and used to prop up natural or sinful self in them Come reform
Friend to our lusts and then dig deep into the Scripture to find Crutches to support it and authorize our practices When men will thank God for what they have got by unlawful means Fathering the fruit of their cheating craft and the simplicity of their Chapmen upon God Crediting their Cousenage by his Name as men do brass mony with a thin plate of silver and the stamp and image of the Prince The Jews urge the Law of God for the crucifying his Son John 19.7 We have a Law and by that Law he is to dye And would make him a Party in their private Revenge * Sanaerson's S. Part. 2. P. 158. Thus often when we have faultered in some actions we wipe our mouths as if we sought God more than our own interest prostituting the sacred Name and Honour of God either to hatch or defend some unworthy lust against his Word Is not all this a high degree of Atheism 1. 'T is a vilifying God an abuse of the highest good Other sins subject the Creature and outward things to them but acting in Religious services for self subjects not only the highest concernments of mens Souls but the Creator himself to the Creature Nay to make God contribute to that which is the pleasure of the Devil A greater slight than to cast the gifts of a Prince to a Herd of nasty Swine It were more excusable to serve our selves of God upon the higher accounts such that materially conduce to his glory but it is an intolerable wrong to make Him and his Ordinances Caterers for our own bellies as they did * Hos â—8 13 Vid. Cocc in locum They sacrificed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the Offerer might eat not out of any reference to God but love to their Gluttony not to please him but feast themselves The Belly was truly made the God when God was served only in order to the Belly As though the blessed God had his Being and his Ordinances were enjoyned to pleasure their foolish and wanton Appetites As though the Work of God were only to patronize unrighteous ends and be as bad as themselves and become a Pander to their corrupt affections 2. Because it is a vilifying of God It is an undeifying or dethroning God 'T is an acting as if we were the Lords and God our Vassal A setting up those secular ends in the place of God who ought to be our ultimate end in every action to whom a glory is as due as his mercy to us is utterly unmerited by us He that thinks to cheat and put the Fool upon God by his pretences doth not heartily believe there is such a Being He could not have the Notion of a God without that of Omniscience and Justice an eye to see the cheat and an Arm to punish it The Notion of the one would direct him in the manner of his Services and the Sense of the other would scare him from the cherishing his unworthy ends He that serves God with a sole respect to himself is prepared for any Idolatry his Religion shall warp with the times and his interest he shall deny the true God for an Idol when his worldly interest shall advise him to it and pay the same Reverence to the basest Image which he pretends now to pay to God As the Israelites were as real for Idolatry under their basest Princes as they were Pretenders to the true Religion under those that were Pious Before I come to the use of this give me leave to evince this practical Atheism by two other Considerations 1. Vnworthy Imaginations of God The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God That is he is not such a God as you report him to be This is meant by their being corrupt in the 2. v. corrupt being taken for playing the Idolaters Exod. 32.7 We cannot comprehend God if we could we should cease to be finite and because we cannot comprehend him we erect strange Images of him in our fancies and affections And since guilt came upon us because we cannot root out the Notions of God we would debase the Majesty and Nature of God that we may have some ease in our Consciences and lye down with some comfort in the sparks of our own kindling This is universal in men by Nature God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 Not in any of his thoughts according to the excellency of his Nature and greatness of his Majesty As the Heathen did not glorify God as God so neither do they conceive of God as God They are all infected with some one or other ill opinion of him thinking him not so holy powerful just good as he is and as the natural force of a human understanding might arrive to VVe joyn a new Notion of God in our vain fancies and represent him not as he is but as we would have him to be fit for our own use and suted to our own pleasure VVe set that active power of imagination on work and there comes out a God a Calf whom we own for a Notion of God Adam cast him into so narrow a mould as to think that himself who had newly sprouted up by his Almighty power was fit to be his Corrival in knowledge and had vain hopes to grasp as much as infiniteness If he in his first declining begun to have such a conceit t is no doubt but we have as bad under a mass of Corruption VVhen holy Agur speaks of God he crys out that he had not the understanding of a Man nor the knowledge of the holy * Pro. 30.2.3 He did not think rationally of God as Man might by his strength at his first Creation There are as many Carved Images of God as there are minds of Men and as monstrous shapes as those Corruptions into which they would transform him Hence sprang 1. Idolatry Vain Imaginations first set afloat and kept up this in the world * Rom. 1 2â—.23 Vain Imaginations of the God whose glory they changed into the Image of corruptible Man They had set up vain Images of him in their fancy before they set up Idolatrous representations of him in their Temples The likening him to those Idols of Wood and Stone and various metals were the fruit of an Idea Erected in their own minds This is a mighty debasing the Divine nature and rendring him no better than that base and stupid matter they make the visible object of their adoration equalling him with those base Creatures they think worthy to be the representations of him Yet how far did this Crime spread it self in all Corners of the world not only among the more barbarous and Ignorant but the more polisht and Civilized Nations Judea only where God had placed the Ark of his presence being free from it in some intervals of time only after some sweeping Judgment And tho they vomited up their Idols undersome sharp scourge they licked them up again after the Heavens were
must be utterly deposed Now it is difficult to leave a Law beloved for a Law long agoe discarded The mind of man will hunt after any thing the will of man embrace any thing upon the proposal of mean Objects the Spirit of man spreads its wings flyes to catch them becomes one with them But attempt to bring it under the Power of God the wings flag the Creature looks liveless as though there were no spring of motion in it 'T is as much crucified to God as the holy Apostle was to the world The sin of the heart discovers its strength the more God discovers the holiness of his Will * Rom. 7.9 10 11 12. The love of Sin hath been predominant in our Nature has quasht a love to God if not extinguisht it Hence also is the difficulty of Mortification This is a work tending to the honour of God the abasing of that inordinatley aspiring humour in our selves If the Nature of Man be inclin'd to Sin as it is it must needs be bent against any thing that opposes it 'T is impossible to strike any true blow at any Lust till the true Sense of God be re-entertained in the Soyl where it ought to grow Who can be naturally willing to crucifie what is incorporated with him his flesh what is dearest to him himself Is it an easie thing for man the Competitor with God to turn his Arms against himself that self should overthrow its own Empire lay aside all its pretensions to and designs for a God-head to hew off its own members and subdue its own affections 'T is the Nature of Man to cover his sin to hide it in his bosom * Job 13.33 If I cover my Transgression as Adam not to destroy it and as unwillingly part with his carnal affections as the Legion of Devils were with the man that had been long possessed And when he is forced and fired from one he will endeavour to espouse some other Lust as those Devils desired to possess Swine when they were chased from their possession of that man 5. Here we see the reason of unbelief That which hath most of God in it meets with most aversion from us That which hath least of God finds better and stronger inclinations in us What is the reason that the heart of Man is more unwilling to embrace the Gospel than acknowledge the equity of the Law Because there is more of Gods Nature and perfection evident in the Gospel than in the Law Besides there is more reliance on God and distance from self commanded in the Gospel The Law puts a man upon his own strength the Gospel takes him off from his own bottom The Law acknowledges him to have a power in himself and to act for his own reward the Gospel strips him of all his proud and towring thoughts * 2 Cor. 10.5 brings him to his due place the foot of God orders him to deny himself as his own Rule Righteousness and End and henceforth not to live to himself * 2 Cor. 5.15 This is the true reason why men are more against the Gospel than against the Law because it doth more deify God and debase Man Hence it is easier to reduce men to some Moral Vertue than to Faith to make men blush at their outward Vices but not at the inward impurity of their Natures Hence it is observed that those that asserted that all happiness did arise from something in a mans self as the Stoicks and Epicureans did and that a wise man was equal with God were greater Enemies to the truths of the Gospel than others Acts 17.18 because it lays the Ax to the root of their principal Opinion Takes the one from their self-sufficiency and the other from their self-gratification It opposeth the brutish principle of the one which placed happiness in the pleasures of the body and the more noble principle of the other which placed happiness in the vertue of the mind The one was for a sensual the other for a moral self both disowned by the Doctrin of the Gospel 6. It informs us consequently who can be the Author of Grace and Conversion and every other good Work No practical Atheist ever yet turned to God but was turned by God and not to acknowledge it to God is a part of this Atheism since it is a robbing God of the honour of one of his most glorious Works If this practical Atheism be natural to man ever since the first taint of Nature in Paradice what can be expected from it but a resisting of the work of God and setting up all the forces of Nature against the operations of Grace till a day of power dawn and clear up upon the Soul * Psal 110.3 Not all the Angels in Heaven or men upon Earth can be imagined to be able to perswade a Man to fall out with himself Nothing can turn the Tide of Nature but a Power above Nature God took away the sanctifying Spirit from man as a Penalty for the first sin Who can regain it but by his Will and Pleasure Who can restore it but he that remov'd it Since every man hath the same fundamental Atheism in him by Nature and would be a Rule to himself and his own End he is so far from dethroning himself that all the strength of his corrupted Nature is alarm'd up to stand to their Arms upon any attempt God makes to regain the Fort. The Will is so strong against God that 't is like many wills twisted together Eph. 2.3 Wills of the Flesh we translate it the desires of the flesh Like many Threds twisted in a Cable never to be snapt asunder by a human Arm a Power and Will above ours can only untwist so many Wills in a knot Man cannot rise to an acknowledgement of God without God Hell may as well become Heaven the Devil be changed into an Angel of Light The Devil cannot but desire happiness he knows the misery into which he is fallen he cannot be desirous of that punishment he knows is reserved for him Why doth he not sanctifie God and glorifie his Creator wherein there is abundantly more pleasure than in his malicious course Why doth he not petition to recover his ancient standing He will not there are Chains of Darkness upon his faculties he will not be otherwise than he is His desire to be God of the World sways him against his own interest and out of love to his malice he will not sin at a less rate to make a diminution of his punishment Man if God utterly refuseth to work upon him is no better and to maintain his Atheism would venture a Hell How is it possible for a man to turn himself to that God against whom he hath a quarrel in his Nature the most rooted and settled habit in him being to set himself in the place of God An Atheist by Nature can no more alter his own temper and engrave in himself the Divine Nature
the Majesty of the Creator of the world and the excellency of Religion No Nation no person did ever assert that the vilest part of man was enough for the most excellent Being as God is That a bodily service could be a sufficient acknowledgment of the greatness of God or a sufficient return for the bounty of God * Amyraut Ib. Man could not but know that he was to act in Religion conformably to the Object of Religion and to the excellency of his own Soul The notion of a God was sufficient to fill the mind of man with admiration and reverence and the first conclusion from it would be to honour God and that he have all the affection placed on him that so infinite and spiritual a Being did deserve The progress then would be that this excellent Being was to be honoured with the motions of the Understanding and Will with the purest and most spiritual powers in the nature of man because he was a spiritual Being and had nothing of matter mingled with him Such a brutish imagination to suppose that blood and fumes beasts and incense could please a Deity without a spiritual frame cannot be supposed to befal any but those that had lost their reason in the rubbish of sense Meer rational nature could never conclude that so excellent a Spirit would be put off with a meer animal service an attendance of matter and body without Spirit when they themselves of an inferior nature would be loath to sit down contented with an outside service from those that belong to them So that this instruction of our Saviour that God is to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth is conformable to the sentiments of nature and drawn from the most undeniable principles of it The excellency of Gods nature and the excellent constitution of human faculties concur naturally to support this perswasion This was as natural to be known by men as the necessity of Justice and Temperance for the support of human societies and bodies 'T is to be feared that if there be not among us such brutish apprehensions there are such brutish dealings with God in our services against the light of nature when we place all our worship of God in outward attendances and drooping countenances with unbelieving frames and formal devotions when Prayer is muttered over in private slightly as a Parrot learns lessons by rote not understanding what it speaks or to what end it speaks it not glorifying God in Thought and Spirit with Understanding and Will 3. Spiritual Worship therefore was always required by God and always offered to him by one or other Man had a perpetual obligation upon him to such a worship from the nature of God and what is founded upon the nature of God is unvariable This and that particular mode of worship may wax old as a Garment and as a Vesture may be folded up and changed as the expression is of the Heavens * Heb. 1.11 12. But God endures for ever his spirituality fails not therefore a worship of him in Spirit must run through all ways and rites of Worship God must cease to be Spirit before any service but that which is spiritual can be accepted by him The light of Nature is the light of God the light of nature being unchangeable what was dictated by that was alway and will alway be required by God The worship of God being perpetually due from the Creature the worshipping him as God is as perpetually his right Though the outward expressions of this Honour were different one way in Paradice for a worship was then due since a solemn time for that worship was appointed another under the Law another under the Gospel the Angels also worship God in Heaven and fall down before his Throne yet though they differ in rites they agree in this necessary ingredient All rites though of a different shape must be offered to him not as Carcasses but animated with the affections of the Soul Abels Sacrifice had not been so excellent in Gods esteem without those gracious habits and affections working in his Soul * Heb. 11.4 Faith works by Love his heart was on fire as well as his Sacrifice Cain rested upon his Present perhaps thought he had obliged God he depended upon the outward Ceremony but sought not for the inward purity It was an offering brought to the Lord * Gen. 4.5 he had the right object but not the right manner Gen. 4.7 If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted And in the Command afterwards to Abraham Walk before me and be thou perfect was the direction in all our religious acts and walkings with God A sincere act of the Mind and Will looking above and beyond all Symbolls extending the Soul to a pitch far above the Body and seeing the day of Christ through the vail of the Ceremonies was required by God And though Moses by Gods order had instituted a multitude of carnal Ordinances Sacrifices Washings Oblations of sensible things and recomended to the people the diligent observation of those Statutes by the allurements of promises and denouncing of threatnings as if there were nothing else to be regarded and the true workings of Grace were to be buried under a heap of Ceremonies yet sometimes he doth point them to the inward worship and by the Command of God requires of them the Circumcision of the Heart Deut. 10.16 the turning to God with all their heart and all their Soul Deut. 30.10 whereby they might recollect that it was the engagement of the Heart and the worship of the Spirit that was most agreeable to God and that he took not any pleasure in their observance of Ceremonies without true Piety within and the true purity of their thoughts 4. 'T is therefore as much every mans duty to worship God in Spirit as it is their duty to worship him Worship is so due to him as God as that he that denies it disowns his Deity And spiritual worship is so due that he that waves it denies his spirituality 'T is a debt of Justice we owe to God to worship him and it is as much a debt of Justice to worship him according to his Nature Worship is nothing else but a rendring to God the honour that is due to him and therefore the right posture of our Spirits in it is as much or more due than the material worship in the modes of his own prescribing that is grounded both upon his Nature and upon his Command this only upon his Command that is perpetually due whereas the Channel wherein outward worship runs may be dryed up and the River diverted another way Such a worship wherein the mind thinks of God feels a sense of God has the Spirit consecrated to God the Heart glowing with affections to God 'T is else a mocking God with a feather A rational Nature must worship God with that wherein the Glory of God doth most sparkle in him God is most visible in the frame
will to please him longings to enjoy him as a holy and sanctifying God in his Ordinances as well as a blessed and glorified God in Heaven What do we expect in our approaches from him That which may make divine impressions upon us and more exactly conform us to the divine nature Or do we design nothing but an empty formality a rowling eye and a filling the Air with a few words without any openings of heart to receive the incomes which according to the nature of the duty might be conveyed to us Can this be a spiritual worship The Soul then closely waits upon him when its expectation is only from him Psal 62.6 Are our hearts seasoned with a sense of sin a sight of our spiritual wants raised notions of God glowing affections to Him strong appetite after a spiritual fulness Do we rouze up our sleepy Spirits and make a Covenant with all that is within us to attend upon him So much as we want of this so much we come short of a spiritual worship In Psal 57.7 My heart is fixed oh God my heart is fixed David would fix his heart before he would engage in a praising act of worship He appeals to God about it and that with doubling the expression as being certain of an inward preparedness Can we make the same appeals in a fixation of Spirit 2. How are our hearts fixed upon him How do they cleave to him in the duty Do we resign our Spirits to God and make them an intire Holocaust a whole burnt-offering in his worship Or do we not willingly admit carnal thoughts to mix themselves with spiritual duties and fasten our minds to the Creature under pretences of directing them to the Creator Do we not pass a meer complement on God by some superficial act of devotion while some covetous envious ambitious voluptuous imagination may possess our minds Do we not invert Gods Order and worship a Lust instead of God with our Spirits that should not have the least service either from our Souls or Bodies but with a spiritual disdain be sacrificed to the just indignation of God How often do we fight against his Will while we cry hail Master instead of crucifying our own thoughts crucifying the Lord of our Lives Our outward carriage plausible and our inward stark naught Do we not often regard iniquity more than God in our hearts in a time of worship Roul some filthy imagination as a sweet morsel under our tongues and taste more sweetness in that than in God Do not our Spirits smell rank of Earth while we offer to Heaven and have we not hearts full of thick Clay as their hands were full of blood * Isa 1.15 When we sacrifice do we not wrap up our Souls in communion with some sordid fancy when we should entwine our Spirits about an amiable God While we have some fear of him may we not have a love to something else above him This is to worship or swear by the Lord and by Malchom * Zeph. 1.5 How often doth an Apish-fancy render a service inwardly ridiculous under a grave outward posture skipping to the Shop Ware-house Compting-house in the space of a short Prayer And we are before God as a Babel a confusion of internal languages and this in those parts of worship which are in the right use most agreeable to God profitable for our selves ruinous to the Kingdom of Sin and Satan and means to bring us into a closer communion with the Divine Majesty Can this be a spiritual worship 3. How do we act our graces in worship Though the Instrument be strung if the strâ—ngs be not wound up what melody can be the issue All readiness and alacrity discover a strength of nature and a readiness in Spirituals discovers a spirituality in the heart As unaffecting thoughts of God are not spiritual thoughts so unaffecting addresses to God are not spiritual addresses Well tâ—en what awakenings and elevations of Faith and Love have we What strong outflowings of our Souls to him What indignation against Sin What admirations of redeeming Grace How low have we brought our corruptions to the foot-stool of Christ to be made his conquered Enemies How straitly have we claspt ouâ— Faith about the Cross and Throne of Christ to become his intimate Spouse Do we in hearing hang upon the lips of Christ in prayer take hold of God and wil not let him go in confessions rent the Caul of our hearts and indite our Souls before him with a deep humility Do we act more by a soaring love than a drooping fear So far as our Spitits are servile so far they are legal and carnal so much as they are free and spontaneous so much they are evangelical and spiritual As men under the Law are subject to the constraint of Bondage * Heb. 2.15 all their life-time in all their worship so under the Gospel they are under a constraint of love * 2 Cor. 5.14 How then are believing affections exercised which are alway accompanied with holy fear a fear of his goodness that admits us into his presence and a fear to offend him in our act of worship So much as we have of forced or feeble affection so much we have of carnality 4. How do we find our hearts after worship By an after carriage we may judge of the spirituality of it 1. How are we as to inward strength When a worship is spiritually performed grace is more strengthened corruption more mortified The Soul like Sampson after his awakening goes out with a renewed strength As the inward man is renewed day by day that is every day so it is renewed in every worship Every shower makes the grass and fruit grow in good ground where the root is good and the weeds where the ground is naught The more prepared the heart is to obedience in other duties after worship the more evidence there is that it hath been spiritual in the exercise of it 'T is the end of God in every dispensation as in that of John Baptist To make ready a People prepared for the Lord * Luke 1 17. When the heart is by worship prepared for fresh acts of obedience and hath a more exact watchfulness against the incroachments of Sin As carnal men after worship sprout up in spiritual wickedness so do spiritual Worshippers in spiritual graces Spiritual fruits are a sign of a spiritual frame When men are more prone to sin after duty 't is a sign there was but little communion with God in it and a greater strength of sin because such an act is contrary to the end of worship which is the subduing of Sin 'T is a sign the Physick hath wrought well when the stomach hath a better appetite to its appointed food and worship hath been well performed when we have a stronger inclination to other acts well pleasing to God and a more sensible distaste of those temptations we too much relisht before 'T is a sign of
of thankfulness in arrear He renders himself doubly unworthy of the mercies he wants that doth not gratefully acknowledge the mercies he hath received God scarce promised any deliverance to the Israelites and they in their distress scarce prayed for any deliverance but that from Egypt was mentioned on both sides by God to encourage them and by them to acknowledge their confidence in him The greater our dangers the more we should call to mind Gods former kindness We are not only thankfully to acknowledge the mercies bestowed upon our persons or in our age but those of former times Thou hast been our dwelling place in all Generations Moses was not living in the former Generations yet he appropriates the former mercies to the present age Mercies as well Generations proceed out of the loyns of those that have gon before All Man-kind are but one Adam the whole Church but one Body In the second verse he backs his former consideration 1. By the greatness of his Power in forming the world 2. By the boundlesness of his duration From everlasting to everlasting As thou hast been our dwelling place and expended upon us the strength of thy power and riches of thy love so we have no reason to doubt the continuance on thy part if we be not wanting on our parts For the vast Mountains and fruitful Earth are the works of thy hands and there is less power requisite for our relief than there was for their Creation and though so much strength hath been upon various occasions manifested yet thy Arm is not weakned for from everlasting to everlasting thou art God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong * Amyrald in loc Thou hast always been God and no time can be assigned as the beginning of thy Being The mountains are not of so long a standing as thy self they are the effects of thy power and therefore cannot be equal to thy duration since they are effects they suppose a precedency of their cause If we would look back we can reach no further than the beginning of the Creation and account the years from the first foundation of the world but after that we must lose our selves in the Abyss of Eternity we have no Cue to guide our thoughts we can see no bounds in thy Eternity But as for Man he traverseth the world a few days and by thy order pronounced concerning all men returns to the Dust and moulders into the Grave By Mountains some understand Angels as being Creatures of a more elevated Nature By Earth they understand humane Nature the Earth being the habitation of Men. There is no need to divert in this place from the Letter to such a sense The description seems to be Poetical and amounts to this He neither began with the beginning of Time nor will expire with the End of it * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret in loc He did not begin when he made himself known to our Fathers but his Being did precede the Creation of the World before any created Being was formed and any time setled Before the Mountains were brought forth Or before they were begotten or born The word being used in those senses in Scripture before they stood up higher than the rest of the earthly Mass God had created It seems that Mountains were not casually cast up by the force of the Deluge softning the Ground and driving several parcels of it together to grow up into a massy body as the Sea doth the Sand in several places but they were at first formed by God The Eternity of God is here described 1. In his Priority Before the world 2. In the extension of his duration From everlasting to everlasting thou art God He was before the world yet he neither began nor ends He is not a Temporary but an Eternal God It takes in both parts of Eternity what was before the Creation of the world and what is after Though the Eternity of God be one permanent state without succession yet the Spirit of God suiting himself to the weakness of our conception divides it into two parts one past before the foundation of the world another to come after the destruction of the world as he did exist before all ages and as he will exist after all ages Many Truths lye coucht in the verse 1. The World hath a beginning of being It was not from Eternity it was once nothing had it been of a very long duration some Records would have remained of some memorable actions done of a longer date than any extant 2. The world owes its Being to the creating Power of God Thou hadst formed it out of nothing into being Thou that is God it could not spring into being of it self it was nothing it must have a Former 3. God was in being before the world The Cause must be before the Effect that Word which gives Being must be before that which receives Being 4. This Being was from Eternity From Everlasting 5. This Being shall endure to Eternity To Everlasting 6. There is but one God one Eternal From everlasting to everlasting thou art God None else but one hath the Property of Eternity the Gods of the Heathen cannot lay claim to it Doct. God is of an eternal duration The Eternity of God is the foundation of the stability of the Covenant the great comfort of a Christian The design of God in Scripture is to set forth his dealing with men in the way of a Covenant * Gen. 1.1 The Priority of God before all things begins the Bible In the beginning God created His Covenant can have no foundation but in his duration before and after the world * Calv. in loc And Moses here mentions his Eternity not only with respect to the Essence of God but to his faederal Providence As he is the dwelling place of his People in all Generations The duration of God for ever is more spoken of in Scripture than his Eternity à parte ante though that is the foundation of all the comfort we can take from his Immortality If he had a beginning he might have an end and so all our happiness hope and being would expire with him but the Scripture sometimes takes notice of his being without beginning as well as without end * Psal 93.2 Thou art from everlasting * Psal 41.13 Blessed be God from everlasting to everlasting * Prov. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting If his Wisdom were from everlasting himself was from everlasting Whether we understand it of Christ the Son of God or of the essential wisdom of God 't is all one to the present purpose The Wisdom of God supposeth the Essence of God as habits in Creatures suppose the being of some power or faculty as their Subject The Wisdom of God supposeth Mind and Understanding Essence and Substance The notion of Eternity is difficult as Austin said * Confes lib. 11. Confes 14. of Time If no man will ask me the
This unchangeableness of Gods Will shews him as ready to accept any that come to him as ever he was so that we may with confidence make our addresses to him since he cannot change his affections to goodness The fear of change in a friend hinders a full reliance upon him An assurance of stability encourages hope and confidence This attribute is the strongest Prop for faith in all our addresses t is not a single perfection but the glory of all those that belong to his nature for he is unchangeable in his love Jer. 31.3 in his truth Psal 117.2 The more solemn Revelation of himself in this name Jehovah which signifies chiefly his Eternity and immutability was to support the Israelites faith in expectation of a deliverance from Egypt that he had not retracted his purpose and his promise made to Abraham for giving Canaan to his posterity * Exod. 3.14 15 16 17. Herein is the basis and strength of all his promises therefore saith the Psalmist those that know thy name will put their trust in thee * Psal 9.10 Those that are Spiritually acquainted with thy name Jehovah and have a true sense of it upon their hearts will put their trust in thee His goodness could not be distrusted if his unchangeableness were well apprehended and considered All distrust would fly before it as darkness before the Sun it only gets advantage of us when we are not well grounded in his name and if ever we trusted God we have the same reason to trust him for ever Isa 26.4 Trust in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength or as t is in the Hebrew a Rock of Ages that is perpetually unchangeable We find the traces of Gods immutability in the Creatures he has by his peremptory decree set bounds to the Sea hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed * Job 38.11 Do we fear the Sea overflowing us in this Island No because of his fixt decree And is not his promise in his Word as unchangeable as his Word concerning inanimate things as good a ground to rest upon 1. The Covenant stands unchangeable Mutable Creatures break their Leagues and Covenants and snap them asunder like Sampsons Cords when they are not accommodated to their interests But an unchangeable God keeps his the Mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee nor shall the Covenant of my peace be removed * Isa 54.10 The Heaven and Earth shall sooner fall asunder and the strongest and firmest parts of the Creation crumble to dust sooner than one Iota of my Covenant shall fail It depends upon the unchangeableness of his Will and the unchangeableness of his word and therefore is called the immutability of his Counsel Heb. 6.17 T is the fruit of the everlasting purpose of God whence the Apostle links purpose and grace together * 2 Tim. 1.9 A Covenant with a Nation may be changeable because it may not be built upon the Eternal purpose of God to put his fear in the heart but with respect to the Creatures obedience Thus God chose Jerusalem as the place wherein he would dwell for ever * Psal 132.14 yet he threatens to depart from them when they had broken Covenant with him and the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the City to the Mountain on the east side * Ezek. 11.33 The Covenant of grace doth not run I will be your God if you will be my people But I will be their God and they shall be my people Hos 2.19 c. I will betroth thee to me for ever I will say thou art my people and they shall say thou art my God His everlasting purpose is to write his Laws in the hearts of the elect He puts a condition to his Covenant of Grace the condition of faith and he resolves to work that condition in the hearts of the Elect and therefore believers have two immutable pillars for their support stronger than those erected by Solomon at the porch of the Temple 1 Kings 7.21 called Jakin and Boaz to note the firmness of that building dedicated to God these are Election or the standing Counsel of God and the Covenant of grace He will not revoke the Covenant and blot the names of his elect out of the book of life 2. Perseverance is ascertained It consists not with the Majesty of God to call a person effectually to himself to day to make him sit for his Eternal love to give him faith and take away that faith to morrow his effectual call is the the fruit of his Eternal Election and that Counsel hath no other foundation but his constant and unchangeable Will a foundation that stands sure and therefore called the foundation of God and not of the Creature the foundation of God stands sure the Lord knows who are his * 2 Tim. 2.19 T is not founded upon our own natural strength it may be then subject to change as all the products of nature are The fallen Angels had Created Grace in their innocency but lost it by their fall * Turretin Ser. p. 322. Were this the foundation of the Creature it might soon be shaken since man after his revolt can ascribe nothing constant to himself but his own inconstancy But the foundation is not in the infirmity of nature but the strength of grace and of the grace of God who is immutable who wants not vertue to be able nor kindness to be willing to preserve his own foundation To what purpose doth our Saviour tell his Disciples their names were written in Heaven * Luk. 10.20 but to mark the infallible certainty of their Salvation by an opposition to those things which perish and have their names written in the Earth * Jer. 17.23 or upon the sand where they may be defaced And why should Christ order his Disciples to rejoyce that their names were written in Heaven if God were changeable to blot them out again or why should the Apostle assure us that tho God had rejected the greatest part of the Jews he had not therefore rejected his people elected according to his purpose and immutable Counsel because there are none of the elect of God but will come to Salvation For saith he the Election hath obtained it * Rom. 11.7 that is all those that are of the Election have obtained it and the others are hardned Where the Seal of Sanctification is stampt it is a testimony of Gods Election and that foundation shall stand sure The foundation of the Lord stands sure having this Seal the Lord knows who are his that is the foundation the naming the name of Christ or believing in Christ and departing from iniquity is the Seal * Cocceius As t is impossible when God calls those things that are not but that they should spring up into being and appear before
manifestation of himself If by his dwelling in heaven be meant his whole essence why is it not also to be meant by his dwelling in the Ark It was not sure part of his essence that was in heaven and part of his essence that was on earth his essence would then be divided and can it be imagined that he should be in Heaven and the Ark at the same time and not in the spaces between Could his essence be split into fragments and a gap made in it that two distant spaces should be fill'd by him and all between be empty of him So that Gods being said to dwell in Heaven and in the Temple is so far from impairing the truth of this doctrine that it more confirms and evidences it 2. Nor do the Expressions of God's coming to us or departing from us impair this Doctrine of his Omnipresence God is said to hide his face from his People * Psal 10.1 to be far from the Wicked and the Gentiles are said to be afar off viz. from God †Prov. 15.29 and upon the manifestation of Christ made near †Eph 2.17 These must not be understood of any distance or nearness of his Essence for that is equally near to all persons and things but of some other special way and manifestation of his Presence Thus God is said to be in Believers by Love as they are in him * 1 Joh. 4.15 He that abides in love abides in God and God in him He that loves is in the thing beloved and when two love one another they are in one another God is in a Righteous man by a special grace and far from the Wicked in regard of such special Works and God is said to be in a place by a special manifestation as when he was in the Bush * Exod. 3. or manifesting his Glory upon Mount Sinai †Exod. 24.16 The Glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai God is said to hide his face when he withdraws his comforting Presence disturbs the repose of our hearts flasheth Terror into our Consciences when he puts men under the smart of the Cross as tho' he had ordered his Mercy utterly to depart from them or when he doth withdraw his special assisting Providence from us in our affairs so he departed from Saul when he withdrew his direction and Protection from him in the concerns of his Government * 1 Sam. 16.14 The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul i. e. the Spirit of Government God may be far from us in one respect and near to us in another far from us in regard of Comfort yet near to us in regard of Support when his Essential Presence continues the same this is a necessary consequent upon the infiniteness of God the other is an act of the Will of God so he was said to forsake Christ in regard of his obscuring his Glory from his Humane Nature and inflicting his Wrath tho' he was near to him in regard of his Grace and preserved him from contracting any spot in his Sufferings We do not say the Sun is departed out of the Heavens when it is be-misted it remains in the same part of the Heavens passes on its course tho' its Beams do not reach us by reason of the Bar between us and it The Soul is in every part of the Body in regard of its Substance and constantly in it tho' it doth not act so spritely and vigorously at one time as at another in one and the same Member and discover it self so sensibly in its Operations so all the various effects of God towards the Sons of men are but divers Operations of one and the same Essence He is far from us or near to us as he is a Judg or a Benefactor when he comes to Punish it notes not the approach of his Essence but the stroak of his Justice when he comes to Benefit 't is not by a new access of his Essence but an efflux of his Grace he departs from us when he leaves us to the Frowns of his Justice he comes to us when he encircles us in the Arms of his Mercy but he was equally present with us in both dispensations in regard of his Essence And likewise God is said to come down * Gen. 11.5 And the Lord came down to see the City when he doth some signal and wonderful Works which attract the minds of men to the acknowledgment of a Supream Power and Providence in the World who judg'd God absent and careless before 3. Nor is the Essential Presence of God with all Creatures any disparagement to him Since it was no disparagement to Create the Heaven and the Earth 't is no disparagement to him to him to fill them if he were Essentially present with them when he created them 't is no dishonour to him to be Essentiall present with them to support them if it were his Glory to Create them by his Essence when they were nothing Can it be his disgrace to be present by his Essence since they are something and something good and very good in his Eye * Gen. 1.31 God saw every thing and behold it was very good or mighty good all ordered to declare his Goodness Wisdom Power and to make him adorable to man and therefore took complacency in tehm There is a Harmony in all things a Combination in them for those glorious Ends for which God Created them and is it a disgrace for God to be present with his own Harmonious composition Is it not a Musicians Glory to touch with his fingers the Trebble the least and tenderest string as well as the strongest and greatest Base Hath not every thing some Stamp of Gods own Being upon it since he eminently contains in himself the Perfections of all his Works whatsoever hath Being hath a Foot-step of God upon it who is all Being every thing in the Earth is his Foot-Stool having a mark of his Foot upon it all declare the Being of God because they had their Being from God and will God account it any disparagement to him to be present with that which confirms his Being and the glorious Perfections of his nature to his intelligent Creatures the meanest things are not without their Vertues which may boast Gods being the Creator of them and rank them in the midst of his Works of Wisdom as well as Power Doth God debase himself to be present by his Essence with the things he hath made more than he doth to know them by his Essence Is not the least thing known by him How not by a faculty or act distinct from his Essence but by his Essence it self How is any thing disgraceful to the Essential Presence of God that is not disgraceful to his Knowledge by his Essence Besides would God make any thing that should be an invincible reason to him to part with his own infiniteness by a contraction of his own Essence into a less compass than
ignorant of vvhat is done vvithin and vvithout no ignorance can be fastned upon him vvho hath an Universal Presence Hence by the way we may take notice of the wonderful Patience of God who bears with so many provocations not from a Principle of Ignorance for he bears with Sins that are committed near him in his sight Sins that he sees and cannot but see 5. Hence may be infer'd the Incomprehensibility of God He that fills Heaven and Earth cannot be contain'd in any thing he fills the Understandings of Men the Understandings of Angels but is comprehended by neither 't is a rashness to think to find out any bounds of God there 's no measuring of an infinite Being if it were to be measur'd it were not infinite but because it is infinite it is not to be measured God sits above the Cherubims * Ezek. 10.1 above the fulness above the brightness not only of a humane but a created understanding Nothing is more present than God yet nothing more hid he is Light and yet obscurity * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dyonisius called God his Perfections are visible yet unsearchable We know there is an infinite God but it surpasseth the compass of our minds we know there is no Number so great but another may be added to it but no man can put it in practice without losing himself in a maze of Figures What is the reason we comprehend not many nay most things in the World partly from the Excellency of the object and partly from the Imperfection of our understandings How can we then comprehend God who exceeds all and is exceeded by none contains all and is contained by none is above our understanding as well as above our sense as considered in himself infinite as consider'd in comparison with our understandings incomprehensible who can with his eye measure the breadth length and depth of the Sea and at one cast view every dimension of the Heavens God is greater and we cannot know him Job 36.26 he fills the understanding as he fills Heaven and Earth yet is above the understanding as he is above Heaven and Earth He is known by Faith enjoy'd by love but comprehended by no mind God is not contain'd in that one Syllable God by it we apprehend an excellent and unlimited nature himself only understands himself and can unveil himself 6. How wonderful is God and how nothing are Creatures Ascribe the Greatness to our God * Deut. 33.3 He is admirable in the consideration of his Power in the extent of his understanding and no less wonderful in the immensity of his Essence That as Austin saith he is in the World yet not confin'd to it he is out of the World yet not debarr'd from it he is above the World yet not elevated by it he is below the World yet not deprest by it he is above all equall'd by none he is in all not because he needs them but they stand in need of him this as well as Eternity makes a vast disproportion between God and the Creature The Creature is bounded by a little space and no space is so great as to bound the Creator By this we may take a prospect of our own nothingness as in the consideration of Gods Holiness we are minded of our own impurity and in the thoughts of his Wisdom have a view of our own folly and in the meditation of his Power have a sense of our weakness so his Immensity should make us according to our own nature appear little in our own eyes What little little little things are we to God less than an Atome in the Beams of the Sun poor drops to a God that fills Heaven and Earth and yet dare we to strut against him and dash our selves against a Rock If the consideration of our selves in comparison with others be apt to puff us up the consideration of our selves in comparison with God will be sufficient to pull us down if we consider him in the greatness of his Essence there is but little more proportion between him and us than between being and not being than between a Drop and the Ocean How should we never think of God without a Holy Admiration of his Greatness and a deep sense of our own littleness and as the Angels cover their faces before him with what awe should creeping Worms come into his Sight and since God fills Heaven and Earth with his Presence we should fill Heaven and Earth with his Glory for this end he Created Angels to Praise him in Heaven and men to Worship him on Earth that the Places he fills with his Presence may be filled with his Praise We should be swallow'd up in admirations of the Immensity of God as men are at the first sight of the Sea when they behold a mass of Waters without beholding the bounds and immense depth of it 7. How much is this Attribute of God forgotten or contemned We pretend to believe him to be present every where and yet many live as if he were present no where 1. 'T is commonly forgotten or not believ'd All the extravagancies of men may be traced to the forgetfulness of this Attribute as their Spring The first Speech Adam spake in Paradice after his fall testified his unbelief of this * Gen. 3.10 I heard thy Voyce in the Garden and I hid my self his ear understood the voice of God but his mind did not conclude the Presence of God he thought the Trees could shelter him from him whose eye was present in the minutest parts of the Earth he that thought after his Sin that he could hide himself from the Presence of his Justice thought before that he could hide himself from the Presence of his Knowledge and being deceived in the one he would try what would be the fruit of the other In both he forgets if not denies this Attribute either corrupt notions of God or a slight belief of what in general men assent unto gives Birth to every Sin In all Transgressions there is something of Atheism either denying the Being of God or a dash upon some Perfection of God a not believing his Holiness to hate it his Truth that threatens his Justice to punish it and his Presence to observe it Tho' God be not afar off in his Essence he is afar off in the apprehension of the Sinner Drexel Nicet lib. 2. cap. 10. There is no wicked man but if he be an Atheist he is a Heretick and to gratify his Lust will fancy himself to be out of the Presence of his Judge His reason tells him God is present with him his Lust presseth him to embrace the season of a sensual Pleasure he will forsake his Reason and prove a Heretick that he may be an undisturbed Sinner and Sins doubly both in the error of his mind and the vileness of his practice he will conceit God with those in Job Job 22.14 Vail'd with thick Clouds and not able to
the thronging multitudes Our groans are as audible and intelligible to him as our words and he knows what is the mind of his own Spirit though exprest in no plainer language than sobs and heavings * Rom. 8.27 Thus David cheers up himself under the neglects of his Friends Psal 38.9 Lord my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee Not a groan of a panting Spirit shall be lost till God hath lost his knowledge Not a Petition forgotten while God hath a Record nor a Tear dried while God hath a Bottle to reserve it in * Psal 56.8 Our secret works are also known and observed by him not only our outward labour but our inward love in it Heb. 6.10 If with Isaac we go privately into the Field to meditate or secretly cast our Bread upon the Waters he keeps his Eye upon us to Reward us and returns the Fruit into our own Bosoms * Mat. 6.4.6 Yea though it be but a Cup of cold Water from an inward Spring of love given to a Disciple He sees your works and your labour and faith and patience in working them * Rev. 2.2 all the marks of your industry and strength of your intentions and Will be as exact at last in order to a due Praise as to open Sins in order to a just Recompence * 1 Cor. 4.5 6. The Consideration of this excellent Attribute affords Comfort in the Afflictions of good Men. He knows their Pressures as well as hears their Cries * Exod. 3.7 His Knowledge comes not by information from us but his Compassionate listening to our Cries springs from his own Inspection into our Sorrows He is affected with them before we make any discovery of them He is not ignorant of the best Season when they may be usefully inflicted and when they may be profitably removed The Tribulation and Poverty of his Church is not unknown to him Rev. 2.8 9. I know thy Works and Tribulation c. He knows their Works and what Tribulation they meet with for him He sees their extremities when they are toiling against the Wind and Tide of the World * Mark 6.48 Yea the natural exigencies of the multitude are not neglected by him he discerns to take care of them Our Saviour considered the three days fasting of his Followers and miraculously provides a Dish for them in the Wilderness No good Man is ever out of Gods Mind and therefore never out of his Compassionate Care His Eye pierceth into their Dungeons and pities their Miseries Joseph may forget his Brethren and the Disciples not know Christ when he walks upon the Midnight Waves and Turbulent Sea * Barlow's Man 's Refuge p. 29 30. but a Lyons Den cannot obscure a Daniel from his Sight nor the depths of the Whales Belly bury Jonah from the Divine Understanding He discerns Peter in his Chains and Stephen under the Stones of Martyrdom He knows Lazarus under his tatter'd Rags and Abel wallowing in his Blood His Eye and Knowledge goes along with his People when they are transplanted into Foreign Countreys and sold for Slaves into the Islands of the Grecians for he will raise them out of the place Joel 3.6 7. He would defeat the hopes of the Persecutors and applaud the Patience of his People He knows his People in the Tabernacle of Life and in the Valley of the Shadow of Death Psal 23. He knows all penal Evils because he commissions and directs them He knows the Instruments because they are his Sword * Psal 17.13 and he knows his gracious Sufferer because he hath his Mark He discerns Job in his Anguish and the Devil in his Malice By the direction of this Attribute he orders Calamities and rescues from them Thou hast seen it for thou beholdest mischief and spight * Psal 10.14 That is the Comfort of the Psalmist and the Comfort of every Believer and the Ground of committing themselves to God under all the injustice of Men. 7. 'T is a Cofmort in all our Infirmities As he knows our Sins to charge them so he knows the weakness of our Nature to pity us As his infinite Understanding may scare us because he knows our Transgressions so it may relieve us because he knows our natural mutability in our first Creation He knows our frame he remembers that we are dust * Psal 103.14 'T is the reason of the precedent Verses why he removes our Transgression from us why he is so backward in Punishing so patient in waiting so forward in pitying Why He doth not only remember our Sins but remember our frame or forming what brittle though clear Glasses we were by Creation how easie to be crackt He remembers our impotent and weak Condition by Corruption what a sink we have of vain imaginations that remain in us after Regeneration he doth not only consider that we were made according to his Image and therefore able to stand but that we were made of Dust and weak Matter and had a sensitive Soul like that of Beasts as well as an intellectual Nature like that of Angels and therefore liable to follow the dictates of it without exact care and watchfulness If he remembred only the first there would be no issue but Indignation but the Consideration of the latter moves his Compassion How miserable should we be for want of this Perfection in the Divine Nature whereby God remembers and reflects upon his past act in our first frame and the mindfulness of our Condition excites the motion of his Bowels to us Had he lost the knowledge how he first framed us did he not still remember the mutability of our Nature as we were form'd and stampt in his Mint How much more wretched would our Condition be than it is If his remembrance of our Original be one ground of his Pity the sense of his Omniscience should be a ground of our Comfort in the stirring of our infirmities He remembers we were but Dust when he made us and yet remembers we are but Dust while he preserves and forbears us 8. 'T is some Comfort in the fears of some lurking Corruption in our Hearts We know by this whither to address our selves for the search and discovery of it Perhaps some Blessings we want are retarded some Calamities we understand not the particular cause of are inflicted some Petitions we have put up hang too long for an Answer and the Chariot Wheels of Divine Goodness move slow and are long in coming Let us beg the Aid of this Attribute to open to us the Remoras to discover what base Affection there is that retards the Mercies we want or attracts the Affliction we feel or bars the Door against the return of our supplications What our dim sight cannot discover the clear Eye of God can make visible to us Job 10.2 Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me As in want of Pardon we particularly plead his Mercy and in our desires for the
How wonderful is this Wisdom of God! That the seed of the woman born of a mean Virgin brought forth in a stable spending his days in affliction misery and poverty without any pomp and splendor passing some time in a Carpenters shop with Carpenters tools and afterwards exposed to a horrible and disgraceful death Mark 6 6. should by this way pull down the gates of Hell subvert the kingdom of the Devil and be the hammer to break in pieces that power which he had so long exercised over the World Thus became he the Author of our life by being bound for a while in the chains of death and arrived to a principality over the most malicious powers by being a prisoner for us and the anvâ—l of their rage and fury 7. The Wisdom of God appears In giving us this way the surest ground of comfort and the strongest incentive to obedience The Rebel is reconciled and the rebellion shamed God is propitiated and the sinner sanctified by the same blood What can more contribute to our comfort confidence than Gods richest gift to us What can more enflame our love to him than our recovery from death by the oblation of his Son to misery and death for us It doth as much engage our duty as secure our happiness It presents God glorious and gracious and therefore every way fit to be trusted in regard of the interest of his own glory in it and in regard of the effusions of his grace by it It renders the Creature obliged in the highest manner and so awakens his industry to the strictest and noblest obedience Nothing so effectual as a crucified Christ to wean us from sin and stifle all motions of despair a means in regard of the Justice signaliz'd in it to make man to hate the sin which had ruined him and a means in regard of the love exprest to make him delight in that Law he had violated 2. Cor. 5.14 15. The love of Christ and therefore the love of God exprest in it constrains us no longer to live to our selves 1. It is a ground of the highest comfort and confidence in God Since he hath given such an evidence of his impartial truth to his threatning for the honour of his Justice we need not question but he will be as punctual to his promise for the honour of his mercy T is a ground of confidence in God since he hath redeemed us in such a way as glorifies the steadiness of his veracity as well as the severity of his Justice We may well trust him for the performance of his promise since we have experience of the execution of his threatning his mâ—rciful truth will as much engage him to accomplish the one as his just truth did to inflict the other The goodness which shone forth in weaker rays in the Creation breaks out with stronger beams in redemption And the mercy which before the appearance of Christ was manifested in some small Rivulets diffuseth itself like a boundless Ocean That God that was our Creator is our Redeemer the Repayrer of our Breaches and the Restorer of our Paths to dwell in And the plenteous Redemption from all Iniquity manifested in the Incarnation and Passion of the Son of God is much more a ground of hope in the Lord than it was in the past Ages when it could not be said the Lord hath but the Lord shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities Psal 130.8 It is a full Warrant to cast our selves into his Arms. 2. At incentive to obedience 1. The Commands of the Gospel require the obedience of the Creature There is not one Precept in the Gospel which interferes with any rule in the Law but strengthens it and represents it in its true exactness The heat to scorch us is allaied but the light to direct us is not extinguisht Not the least allowance to any sin is granted not the least affection to any sin is indulg'd The Law is temper'd by the Gospel but not null'd and cast out of doors by it It enacts that none but those that are sanctified shall be glorified that there must be Grace here if we expect Glory hereafter that we must not presume to expect an admittance to the Vision of Gods face unless our Souls be clothed with a robe of Holiness Heb. 12.14 It requires an obedience to the whole Law in our intention and purpose and an endeavour to observe it in our actions It promotes the honour of God and ordains a universal Charity among men it reveals the whole Counsel of God and furnisheth men with the holiest Laws 2. It presents to us the exactest pattern for our Obedience The redeeming Person is not only a Propitiation for the sin but a pattern to the sinner 1 Pet. 2.21 The Conscience of man after the fall of Adam approved of the reason of the Law but by the corruption of Nature man had no strength to perform the Law The possibility of keeping the Law by Human Nature is evidenced by the Appearance and life of the Redeemer and an assurance given that it shall be advanc'd to such a state as to be able to observe it We aspire to it in this life and have hopes to attain it in a future And while we are here the Actor of our Redemption is the copy for our Imitation The Pattern to imitate is greater than the Law to be ruled by What a lustre did his Vertues cast about the World How attractive are his Graces With what high Examples for all Duties has he furnish'd 〈◊〉 out of the copy of his Life 3. It presents us with the strongest motives to Obedience Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness What Chains bind faster and closer than love Here is love to our nature in his Incarnation love to us though Enemies in his Death and Passion Encouragements to Obedience by the proffers of Pardon for former Rebellions By the disobedience of man God introduceth his redeeming Grace and ingageth his Creature to more Ingenious and excellent returns than his Innocent state could oblige him to In his Created state he had goodness to move him he hath the same goodness now to oblige him as a Creature and a greater love and mercy to oblige him as a repaired Creature and the terror of Justice is taken off which might invenom his Heart as a Criminal In his revolted state he had misery to discourage him in his redeemed state he hath love to attract him Without such a way black despaire had seized upon the Creature exposed to a remediless misery And God would have had no returns of love from the best of his earthly Works But if any sparks of Ingenuity be left they will be excited by the efficacy of this Argument The willingness of God to receive returning sinners is manifested in the highest degree and the willingness of a sinner to return to him in duty hath the strongest engagements He hath done as much to
the Arms of a Redeemer by whom the Guilt is wip'd of and the filth shall be totally washed away Though he hates their sin and cannot but hate it yet he loves their Persons as being united as Members to the Mediator and Mystical Head A man may love a gangren'd Member because 't is a Member of his own Body or a Member of a dear Relation but he loaths the gangrene in it more than in those wherein he is not so much concern'd Though God's hatred of Believers Persons is removed by Faith in the Satisfactory Death of Jesus Christ yet his Antipathy against sin was not taken away by that Blood nay it was impossible it should It was never design'd nor had it any capacity to alter the unchangeable Nature of God but to manifest the unspottedness of his Will and his eternal Aversion to any thing that was contrary to the Purity of his Being and the Righteousness of his Laws 4. Perpetually This must necessarily follow upon the others He can no more cease to hate Impurity than he can cease to love Holiness If he should in the least instant approve of any thing that is filthy in that moment he would disapprove of his own Nature and Being there would be an interruption in his love of himself which is as Eternal as it is Infinite How can he love any sin which is contrary to his Nature but for one moment without hating his own Nature which is essentially contrary to sin Two Contraries cannot be loved at the same time God must first begin to hate himself before he can approve of any evil which is directly opposite to himself We indeed are changed with a Temptation sometimes bear an affection to it and sometimes testifie an indignation against it but God is always the same without any shadow of change and is angry with the wicked every day Psal 7.11 that is uninterruptedly in the nature of his Anger though not in the effects of it God indeed may be reconciled to the Sinner but never to the sin for then he should renounce himself deny his own Essence and his own Divinity if his inclinations to the love of Goodness and his aversion from Evil could be changed if he suffered the Contempt of the one and encouraged the Practise of the other 4. God is so holy that he cannot but love Holiness in others Not that he owes any thing to his Creature but from the unspeakable holiness of his Nature whence affections to all things that bear a resemblance of him do flow as Light shoots out from the Sun or any glittering Body 'T is essential to the infinite Righteousness of his Nature to love Righteousness wherever he beholds it Psal 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth righteousness He cannot because of his Nature but love that which bears some agreement with his Nature that which is the curious Draught of his own Wisdom and Purity He cannot but be delighted with a Copy of himself He would not have a holy Nature if he did not love Holiness in every Nature His own Nature would be denied by him if he did not affect every thing that had a Stamp of his own Nature upon it There was indeed nothing without God that could invite him to manifest such Goodness to man as he did in Creation But after he had stampt that rational Nature with a Righteousness convenient for it it was impossible but that he should ardently love that Impression of himself because he loves his own Deity and consequently all things which are any Sparks and Images of it And were the Devils capable of an act of Righteousness the Holiness of his Nature would incline him to love it even in those dark and revolted Spirits 5. God is so holy that he cannot positively will or encourage sin in any How can he give any Encouragement to that which he cannot in the least approve of or look upon without loathing not only the Crime but the Criminal Light may sooner be the cause of Darkness than Holiness it self be the cause of Unholiness absolutely contrary to it 'T is a Contradiction that he that is the Fountain of Good should be the source of Evil as if the same Fountain should bubble up both sweet and bitter Streams salt and fresh * Jam. 3.11 Since whatsoever Good is in man acknowledges God for its Author it follows that men are Evil by their own fault There is no need for men to be incited to that to which the Corruption of their own Nature doth so powerfully bend them Water hath a forcible principle in its own Nature to carry it downward it needs no force to hasten the motion God tempts no man but every man is drawn away by his own Lust Jam. 1 13.14 All the preparations for glory are from God Rom. 9.23 but men are said to be fitted to destruction Verse 22. but God is not said to fit them they by their Iniquities fit themselves for ruine and he by his long suffering keeps the destruction from them for a while 1. First God cannot command any Vnrighteousness As all Vertue is summ'd up in a love to God so all Iniquity is summ'd up in an enmity to God Every wicked Work declares a man an Enemy to God Col. 1.21 Enemies in your minds by wicked Works If he could command his Creature any thing which bears an enmity in its Nature to himself he would then implicitly command the hatred of himself and he would be in some measure a hater of himself He that commands another to deprive him of his Life cannot be said to bear any love to his own Life God can never hate himself and therefore cannot command any thing that is hateful to him and tends to a hating of him and driving the Creature further from him In that very moment that God should command such a thing he would cease to be Good What can be more absur'd to imagine then that infinite Goodness should enjoyn a thing contrary to it self and contrary to the essential Duty of a Creature and order him to do any thing that bespeaks an enmity to the Nature of the Creator or a deflouring and disparaging his Works God cannot but love himself and his own Goodness he were not otherwise Good and therefore cannot order the Creature to do any thing opposite to this Goodness or any thing hurtful to the Creature it self as Unrighteousness is 2. Nor can God secretly inspire any Evil into us 'T is as much against his Nature to incline the heart to sin as it is to command it As it is impossible but that he should love himself and therefore impossible to enjoyn any thing that tends to a hatred of himself by the same reason it is as impossible that he should infuse such a Principle in the heart that might carry a man out to any act of Enmity against him To enjoyn one thing and incline to another would be an Argument of such insincerity unfaithfulness contradiction to
Will because there was a flaw contracted in that Nature that came right and true out of his hand And as he that winds up his disordered Watch is in the same manner the cause of its motion then as he was when it was regular yet by that act of his he is not the cause of the false motion of it but that is from the deficiency of some part of the Watch it self So though God concurs to that Action of the Creature whereby the Wickedness of the Heart is drawn out yet is not God therefore as Unholy as the Heart 5. God hath one End in his Concurrence and Man another in his Action So that there is a Righteous and often a gracious End in God when there is a base and unworthy End in Man God concurs to the substance of the Act Man produceth the circumstance of the Act whereby it is Evil. God orders both the Action wherein he concurs and the Sinfulness over which he presides as a Governour to his own Ends. In Josephs case Man was sinful and God merciful his Brethren acted Envy and God design'd Mercy Gen. 45.4 5. They would be rid of him as an Eyesore and God concurr'd with their Action to make him their Preserver Gen. 50.20 Ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good God concur'd to Judas his action of betraying our Saviour he supported his Nature while he contracted with the Priests and supported his Members while he was their Guide to apprehend him God's end was the manifestation of his choicest love to Man and Judas his end was the gratification of his own Covetousness The Assyrian did a Divine Work against Hierusalem but not with a Divine end * Isa 10.5.6 â— He had a mind to enlarge his Empire enrich his Coffers with the Spoil and gain the Title of a Conqueror he is desirous to Invade his Neighbours and God employs him to punish his Rebels but he means not so nor doth his heart think so He intended not as God intended The Axe doth not think what the Carpenter intends to do with it But God used the rapine of an Ambitious Nature as an Instrument of his Justice As the exposing Malefactors to wild Beasts was an ancient Punishment whereby the Magistrate intended the execution of Justice and to that purpose used the natural fierceness of the Beasts to an end different from what those ravaging Creatures aim'd at God concur'd with Satan in spoiling Job of his Goods and scarifying his Body God gave Satan license to do it Job 1.12 21. and Job acknowledges it to be God's act But their ends were different God concurred with Satan for the clearing the Integrity of his Servant when Satan aim'd at nothing but the provoking him to Curse his Creator The Physician applies Leeches to suck the superfluous blood but the Leeches suck to glut themselves without any regard to the intention of the Physician and the welfare of the Patient In the same act where men intend to hurt God intends to correct so that his concurrence is in a holy manner while men commit unrighteous actions A Judge commands the Executioner to execute the Sentence of Death which he hath justly pronounced against a Malefactor and admonisheth him to do it out of love to Justice the Executioner hath the Authority of the Judge for his Commission and the protection of the Judge for his Security The Judge stands by to countenance and secure him in the doing of it but if the Executioner hath not the same intention as the Judge viz. a love to Justice in the performance of his Office but a private hatred to the Offender the Judge though he commanded the fact of the Executioner yet did not command this Error of his in it and though he protects him in the Fact yet he owns not this corrupt disposition in him in the doing of what was enjoyn'd him as any act of his own To Conclude this Since the Creature cannot act without God cannot lift up a Hand or move his Tongue without God's preserving and upholding the Faculty and preserving the power of Action and preserving every Member of the Body in its actual Motion and in every circumstance of its Motion we must necessarily suppose God to have such a way of concurrence as doth not intrench upon his Holiness We must not equal the Creature to God by denying its dependence on him Nor must we imagine such a concurrence to the sinfulness of an act as stains the Divine Purity which is I think sufficiently salv'd by distinguishing the matter of the act from the evil adhering to it For since all evil is founded in some good the evil is distinguishable from the good and the deformity of the action from the action it self which as it is a created act hath a dependance on the will and influence of God And as it is a sinful act is the product of the will of the Creature 6. Proposition The holiness of God is not blemisht by proposing Objects to a man which he makes use of to sin There is no Object propos'd to man but is directed by the Providence of God which influenceth all motions in the World and there is no Object propos'd to man but his active Nature may according to the goodness or badness of his disposition make a good or an ill use of That two men one of a charitable the other of a hard-hearted disposition meet with an indigent and necessitous Object is from the Providence of God yet this indigent person is relieved by the one and neglected by the other There could be no action in the World but about some Object there could be no Object offer'd to us but by Divine Providence the active Nature of man would be in vain if there were not Objects about which it might be exercis'd Nothing could present it self to man as an Object either to excite his Grace or awaken his Corruption but by the conduct of the Governour of the World That David should walk upon the Battlements of his Palace and Bathsheba be in the Bath at the same time was from the Divine Providence which orders all the affairs of the World * 2 Sam. 117. and so some understand Jer. 6.21 Thus saith the Lord I will lay stumbling blocks before this People and the Fathers and Sons together shall fall upon them Since they have offered Sacrifices without those due qualifications in their hearts which were necessary to render them acceptable to me I will lay in their way such Objects which their Corruption will use ill to their further sin and ruin so Psal 105.25 He turned their heart to hate his people that is by the multiplying his People he gave occasion to the Egyptians of hating them instead of caressing them as they had formerly done But God's Holiness is not blemisht by this for 1. This proposing or presenting of Objects invades not the liberty of any man The Tree of the Knowledge of Good
Provision he had made for him in the World and the Commission given him to Increase and Multiply and to Rule as a Lord over his other Works whereas he could not so easily have imagined himself capable of being expos'd to such an extraordinary Calamity as an Eternal Death without some signification of it from God 'T is easily concludable that Eternal Life was supposed to be promised to be conferr'd upon him if he stood as well as Eternal Death to be inflicted on him if he Rebell'd * Suarez de Gratia Vol 1. p. 126 127. Now this Eternal Life was not due to his Nature but it was a pure Beam and Gift of Divine Goodness For there was no proportion between Mans Service in his Innocent Estate and a Reward so great both for Nature and duration It was a higher Reward than can be imagined either due to the Nature of Man or upon any Natural Right claimable by his Obedience All that could be expected by him was but a Natural Happiness not a Supernatural As there was no necessity upon the account of Natural Righteousness so there was no necessity upon the account of the Goodness of God to elevate the Nature of Man to a Supernatural Happiness meerly because he Created him For though it be necessary for God when he would Create in regard of his Wisdom to Create for some End yet it was not necessary that End should be a Supernatural End and Happiness since a Natural Blessedness had been sufficient for Man And though God in Creating Angels and Men intellectual and Rational Creatures did make them necessary for himself and his own Glory yet it was not necessarily for him to order either Angels or Men to such a Felicity as consists in a clear Vision and so high a Fruition of himself for all other things are made by him for himself and yet not for the Vision of himself God might have Created Man only for a Natural Happiness according to the Perfection of his Natural Faculties and had dealt Bountifully with him if he had never intended him a Supernatural Blessedness and an Eternal Recompence But what a largeness of Goodness is here to design Man in his Creation for so rich a Blessedness as an Eternal Life with the Fruition of himself He hath not only given to Man all things which are necessary but design'd for Man that which the poor Creature could not imagine He garnisht the Earth for him and garnisht him for an Eternal Felicity had he not by slighting the Goodness of God stript himself of the present and forfeited his future Blessedness 2. The second thing is the manifestation of this Goodness in Redemption The whole Gospel is nothing but one entire Mirror of Divine Goodness The whole of Redemption is wrapt up in that one Expression of the Angels Song Luke 2.14 Good will towards Man The Angels Sang but one Song before which is upon Record but the Matter of it seems to be the Wisdom of God chiefly in Creation Job 38.7 compar 9. v. 5 6 8 9. The Angels are there meant by the Morning Stars The visible Stars of Heaven were not distinctly form'd when the Foundations of the Earth were laid And the Title of the Sons of God verifies it since none but Creatures of understanding are dignifi'd in Scripture with that Title There they Celebrate his Wisdom in Creation here his Goodness in Redemption which is the intire Matter of the Song 1. Goodness was the Spring of Redemption All and every part of it owes only to this Perfection the appearance of it in the World This only excited Wisdom to bring forth from so great an Evil as the Apostacy of Man so great a Good as the Recovery of him When Man fell from his Created Goodness God would evidence that he could not fall from his Infinite Goodness That the greatest Evil could not surmount the ability of his Wisdom to contrive nor the Riches of his Bounty to present us a Remedy for it Divine Goodness would not stand by a Spectator without being Reliever of that Misery Man had plung'd himself into but by astonishing Methods it would recover him to Happiness who had wrested himself out of his hands to fling himself into the most deplorable Calamity And it was the greater since it surmounted those Natural Inclinations and those strong Provocations which he had to shower down the Power of his Wrath. What could be the Source of such a Procedure but this Excellency of the Divine Nature Since no Violence could force him nor was there any Merit to perswade to such a Restoration This under the name of his Love is render'd the sole cause of the Redeeming Death of the Son It was to commend his Love with the highest Gloss and in so singular a manner that had not its parallel in Nature nor in all his other Works and reaches in the brightness of it beyond the manifested extent of any other Attribute * Rom. 5.8 It must be only a miraculous Goodness that induced him to expose the Life of his Son to those difficulties in the World and Death upon the Cross for the freedom of sordid Rebels His great End was to give such a demonstration of the liberality of his Nature as might be attractive to his Creature remove its shakings and tremblings and encourage its approaches to him 'T is in this he would not only manifest his Love but assume the name of Love By this Name the Holy Ghost calls him in relation to this good will manifested in his Son †1 John 4.8 9. God is love In this is manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him He would take the Name he never exprest himself in before He was Jehovah in regard of the truth of his Promise so he would be known of old He is Goodness in regard of the grandeur of his Affection in the Mission of his Son And therefore he would be known by the Name of Love now in the days of the Gospel 2. It was a Pure Goodness He was under no obligation to pity our Misery and repair our Ruines He might have stood to the terms of the first Covenant and exacted our Eternal Death since we had committed an infinite Transgression He was under no tie to put off the Robes of a Judge for the Bowels of a Father and erect a Mercy-seat above his Tribunal of Justice * Rada Controvers Part. 3. p. 363. The reparation of Man had no necessary connexion with his Creation It follows not that because Goodness had extracted us from nothing by a mighty Power that it must lift us out of wilful Misery by a mighty Grace Certainly that God who had no need of Creating us had far less need of Redeeming us For since he Created one World he could have as easily destroyed it and rear'd another It had not been unbecoming the Divine Goodness
Estimation When the Excellency of his Nature and the Expressions of his Bounty are in conjunction the Excellency of his own Nature renders him estimable in a way of Justice and the greatness of his Benefits renders him valuable in a way of Gratitude The first ravisheth and the other allures and melts He hath enough in his Nature to attract and sufficient in his Bounty to engage our Affections The Excellency of his Nature is strong enough of it self to blow up our Affections to him were there not a Malignity in our hearts that represents him under the Notion of an Enemy therefore in regard of our Corrupt State the consideration of Divine Largesses comes in for a share in the Elevation of our Affections For indeed 't is a very hard thing for a Man to love another though never so well qualified and of an eminent Vertue while he believes him to be his Enemy and one that will severely handle him though he hath before received many good turns from him The Vertue Valour and Courtesie of a Prince will hardly make him affected by those against whom he is in Arms and that are daily pilfer'd by his Souldiers unless they have hopes of a Reparation from him and future security from injuries Christ in the Repetition of the Command to love God with all our mind with all our heart and with all our Soul i. e. with such an ardency above all things which glitter in our Eye or can be Created by him considers him as our God * Mat. 22.37 And the Psalmist considers him as one that had kindly employ'd his power for him in the eruption of his love Psal 18.1 I will love thee Oh Lord my strength And so in Psal 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications An esteem of the Benefactor is inseparable from gratitude for the received Benefits And should not then the unparallell'd kindness of God advance him in our thoughts much more than slighter Courtesies do a Created Benefactor in ours 'T is an obligation on every Mans Nature to answer Bounty with gratitude and Goodness with love Hence you never knew any Man nor can the Records of Eternity produce any Man or Devil that ever hated any Person or any thing as good in it self 'T is a thing absolutely repugnant to the Nature of any Rational Creature The Devils hate not God because he is good but because he is not so good to them as they would have him because he will not unlock their Chains turn them into liberty and restore them to Happiness i. e. because he will not desert the Rights of abus'd Goodness But how should we send up flames of love to that God since we are under his direct Beams and enjoy such plentiful influences If the Sun is comely in it self yet 't is more amiâ—ble to us by the light we see and the warmth we feel 1. The greatness of his Benefits have reason to affect us with a love to him The Impress he made upon our Souls when he extracted us from the darkness of nothing The Comeliness he hath put upon us by his own Breath The Care he took of our Recovery when we had lost our selves The Expence he was at for our Regaining our defac'd Beauty The gift he made of his Son The Affectionate Calls we have heard to over-master our Corrupt Appetites move us to Repentance and make us disaffect our beloved Misery The loud sound of his Word in our Ears and the more inward knocking 's of his Spirit in our Heart The offering us the Gift of himself and the Everlasting Happiness he Courts us to besides those common favours we enjoy in the World which are all the Streams of his rich Bounty The voice of all is loud enough to sollicite our love and the Merit of all ought to be strong enough to engage our love There is none like the God of Jesurun who rides upon the Heaven in thy help and in his Excellency on the Sky * Deut. 33.26 2. The unmeritedness of them doth inhance this 'T is but reason to love him who hath loved us first * 1 John 4.19 Hath he placed his delight upon were nothing and after they were Sinful and shall he set his delight upon such vile Persons and shall not we set our love upon so Excellent an Object as himself How base are we if his goodness doth not constrain us to affect him who hath been so free in his favour to us who have merited the quite contrary at his hands If his tender Mercies are over all his Works * Psal 145.9 He ought for it to be esteem'd by all his Works that are capable of a Rational Estimation 3. Goodness in Creatures makes them estimable much more should the Goodness of God render him lovely to us If we love a little spark of goodness in this or that Creature if a drop be so delicious to us shall not the immense Sun of Goodness the ever-flowing Fountain of all be much more delightful The Original Excellency always out-strips what is deriv'd from it If so mean and contracted an Object as a little Creature deserves Estimation for a little Mite communicated to it so great and extended a goodness as is in the Creator much more merits it at our hands He is good after the infinite methods of a Deity A weak Resemblance is lovely much more amiable then must be the incomprehensible Original of that Beauty We love Creatures for what we think to be good in them though it may be hurtful And shall we not love God who is a real and unblemisht Goodness And from whose hand are pour'd out all those Blessings that are conveyed to us by second Causes The Object that delights us the Capacity we have to delight in it are both from him Our love therefore to him should transcend the Affection we bear to any Instruments he moves for our welfare Among the Gods there is none like thee O Lord neither are there any Works like unto thy Works * Psal 86.8 Among the pleasantest Creatures there is none like the Creator nor any Goodness like unto his Goodness Shall we love the Food that Nourisheth us and the Medicine that Cures us and the Silver whereby we furnish our selves with useful Commodities Shall we love a Horse or Dog for the benefits we have by them And shall not the Spring of all those draw our Souls after it and make us aspire to the honour of loving and embracing him who hath stor'd every Creature with that which may pleasure us But instead of endeavouring to parallel our Affection with his Kindness we endeavour to make our Disingenuity as extensive and towring as his Divine Goodness 4. This is the true end of the manifestation of his Goodness that he might appear amiable and have a Return of Affection Did God display his Goodness only to be thought of or to be loved 'T is the want of
such a return that he hath usually aggravated from the Benefits he hath bestow'd upon Men. Every thought of him should be attended with a Motion sutable to the Excellency of his Nature and Works Can we think those nobler Spirits the Angels look upon themselves or those Frames of things in the Heavens and Earth without starting some practical Affection to him for them Their knowledge of his Excellency and Works cannot be a lazy Contemplation 'T is impossible their Wills and Affections should be a thousand Miles distant from their Understandings in their Operations 'T is not the least part of his condescending Goodness to Court in such Methods the Affections of us Worms and manifest his desire to be beloved by us Let us give him then that Affection he deserves as well as demands and which cannot be with-held from him without horrible Sacriledge There is nothing worthy of love besides him Let no Fire be kindled in our hearts but what may ascend directly to him 7. The seventh Instruction is this This renders God a fit Object of trust and confidence Since none is good but God none can be a full and satisfactory Ground or Object of confidence but God As all things derive their beings so they derive their helpfulness to us from God they are not therefore the principal Objects of trust but that Goodness alone that renders them fit Instruments of our support They can no more challenge from us a stable Confidence than they can a Supream Affection 'T is by this the Psalmist allures Men to a trust in him * Psal 34.8 Taste and see how good the Lord is What is the consequence Blessed is the Man that trusts in thee The Voice of Divine Goodness sounds nothing more intelligibly and a taste of it produceth nothing more effectually than this As the Vials of his Justice are to make us fear him so the Streams of his Goodness are to make us rely on him As his Patience is design'd to broach our Repentance so his Goodness is most proper to strengthen our assurance in him That Goodness which surmounted so many difficulties and conquer'd so many motions that might be made against any repeated Exercise of it after it had been abus'd by the first Rebellion of Man That Goodness that after so much contempt of it appeared in such a Majestick tenderness and threw aside those impediments which Men had cast in the way of Divine Inclinations This Goodness is the foundation of all reliance upon God Who is better than God And therefore Who more to be trusted than God As his Power cannot act any thing weakly so his Goodness cannot act any thing unbecomingly and unworthy of his Infinite Majesty And here consider 1. Goodness is the first motive of trust Nothing but this could be the encouragement to Man had he stood in a State of Innocence to present himself before God The Majesty of God would have constrain'd him to keep his due distance but the Goodness of God could only hearten his Confidence 'T is nothing else now that can preserve the same temper in us in our lapsed Condition To regard him only as the Judge of our Crimes will drive us from him but only the regard of him as the Donor of our Blessings will allure us to him The principal Foundation of Faith is not the Word of God but God himself and God as consider'd in this Perfection As the Goodness of God in his Invitations and Providential Blessings leads us to Repentance * Rom. 2.4 so by the same reason the Goodness of God by his Promises leads us to Reliance If God be not first believed to be good he would not be believed at all in any thing that he speaks or swears If you were not satisfied in the goodness of a Man though he should swear a thousand times you would value neither his Word nor Oath as any security Many times where we are certain of the goodness of a Man we are willing to trust him without his promise This Divine Perfection gives Credit to the Divine Promises they of themselves would not be a sufficient ground of trust without an apprehension of his truth nor would his truth be very comfortable without a belief of his good will whereby we are assured that what he promises to give he gives liberally free and without regret The truth of the Promiser makes the Promise Credible but the goodness of the Promiser makes it chearfully relied on In Psal 73. Asaphs Penitential Psalm for his distrust of God he begins the first Verse with an assertion of this Attribute v. 1. Truly God is good to Israel and ends with this fruit of it Verse 28. I will put my trust in the Lord God 'T is a mighty ill Nature that receives not with assurance the Dictates of Infinite Goodness that cannot deceive or frustrate the hopes we conceive of him that is unconceivably more abundant in the breast and inclinations of the Promiser than expressible in the words of his Promise All true faith works by love * Gal. 5.6 and therefore necessarily includes a particular eying of this Excellency in the Divine Nature which renders him amiable and is the Motive and Encouragement of a love to him His Power indeed is a foundation of trust but his Goodness is the principal Motive of it His Power without good Will would be dangerous and could not allure Affection and his good Will without Power would be useless and though it might merit a love yet could not create a Confidence both in conjunction are strong grounds of hope Especially since his Goodness is of the same infinity with his Wisdom and Power and that he can be no more wanting in the effusions of this upon them that seek him than in his Wisdom to contrive or his Power to effect his Designs and Works 2. This goodness is more the foundation and motive of trust under the Gospel than under the Law They under the Law had more evidences of Divine Power and their trust eyed that much though there was an eminency of goodness in the frequent deliverances they had yet the Power of God had a more glorious dress than his Goodness because of the extraordinary and miraculous ways whereby he brought those deliverances about Therefore in the Catalogue of Believers in Heb. 11. you shall find the Power of God to be the Center of their Rest and Trust and their Faith was built upon the extraordinary Marks of Divine Power which were frequently visible to them But under the Gospel goodness and love was intended by God to be the chief Object of trust suitable to the Excellency of that Dispensation he would have an Exercise of more ingenuity in the Creatures Therefore 't is said Hosea 3.5 A promise of Gospel-times They shall fear God and his goodness in the later days when they shall return to seek the Lord and David their King 'T is not said they shall fear God and his Power but
the Lord and his goodness or the Lord for his goodness Fear is often in the Old Testament taken for Faith or Trust This Divine Goodness the Object of Faith is that goodness discover'd in David their King the Messiah our Jesus God in this Dispensation recommends his goodness and love and reveals it more clearly than other Attributes that the Soul might have more prevailing and sweeter attractives to confide in him 3. A confidence in him gives him the glory of his goodness Most Nations that had nothing but the light of Nature thought it a great part of the Honour that was due to God to implore his Goodness and cast their Cares upon it To do good is the most honourable thing in the World and to acknowledge a goodness in a way of confidence is as high an honour as we can give to it and a great part of gratitude for what it hath already exprest Therefore we find often that an acknowledgment of one Benefit received was attended with a trust in him for what they should in the future need * Psal 56.13 Thou hast delivered my Soul from Death wilt thou not deliver my Feet from falling So 2 Cor. 1.10 And they who have been most eminent for their trust in him have had the greatest Elogies and Commendations from him As a diffidence doth disparage this Perfection thinking it meaner and shallower than it is so Confidence highly honours it We never please him more than when we trust in him * Psal 147.11 The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him in them that hope in his Mercy He takes it for an Honour to have this Attribute exalted by such a Carriage of his Creature He is no less offended when we think his heart straitned as if he were a Parcimonious God than when we think his Arm shortned as if he were an impotent and feeble God Let us therefore make this use of his Goodness to hearten our Faith When we are scar'd by the terrours of his Justice when we are dazled by the arts of his Wisdom and confounded by the splendour of his Majesty we may take refuge in the Sanctuary of his Goodness this will encourage us as well as astonish us Whereas the consideration of his other Attributes would only amaze us but can never refresh us but when they are consider'd marching under the Conduct and Banners of this When all the other Perfections of the Divine Nature are lookt upon in conjunction with this Excellency each of them send forth ravishing and benign influences upon the applying Creature 'T is more advantageous to depend upon Divine Bounty than our own Cares We may have better assurance upon this account in his Cares for us than in ours for our selves Our goodness for our selves is Finite and besides we are too ignorant His goodness is Infinite and attended with an infinite Wisdom we have reason to distrust our selves not God We have reason to be at rest under that kind influence we have so often experimented He hath so much goodness that he can have no deceit His goodness in making the Promise and his goodness in working the heart to a Reliance on it are grounds of trust in him * Psal 119.49 Remember thy word to thy Servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope If his Promise did not please him why did he make it If Reliance on the Promise doth not please him why did his Goodness work it It would be inconsistent with his Goodness to mock his Creature and it would be the highest Mockery to publish his Word and Create a temper in the heart of his supplicant suited to his Promise which he never intended to satisfie He can as little wrong his Creature as wrong himself and therefore can never disappoint that Faith which in his own methods casts it self into the arms of his Kindness and is his own Workmanship and calls him Author That Goodness that imparted it self so freely in Creation will not neglect those nobler Creatures that put their trust in him This renders God a fit Object for trust and confidence 8. The eighth Instruction This renders God worthy to be obeyed and honour'd There is an Excellency in God to allure as well as Soveraignty to enjoyn Obedience The infinite Excellency of his Nature is so great that if his Goodness had promised us nothing to encourage our Obedience we ought to prefer him before our selves devote our selves to serve him and make his glory our greatest content but much more when he hath given such admirable Expressions of his Liberality and stor'd us with hopes of richer and fuller Streams of it When David consider'd the Absolute Goodness of his Nature and the Relative Goodness of his Benefits he presently expresseth an ardent desire to be acquainted with the Divine Statutes that he might make ingenuous returns in a dutiful observance * Psal 119.68 Thou art good and thou dost good teach me thy Statutes As his Goodness is the Original so the acknowledgment of it is the end of all which cannot be without an observance of his Will His Goodness requires of us an ingenuous not a servile Obedience And this is Establisht upon two Foundations 1. Because the Bounty of God hath laid upon us the strongest Obligations The strength of an Obligation depends upon the greatness and numerousness of the Benefits received The more Excellent the favours are which are conferr'd upon any Person the more right hath the Benefactor to claim an observance from the Person better'd by him Much of the Rule and Empire which hath been in several Ages conferred by Communities upon Princes hath had its first spring from a sense of the advantages they have receiv'd by them either in protecting them from their Enemies or rescuing them from an ignoble Captivity in enlarging their Territories or increasing their Wealth Conquest hath been the Original of a constrain'd but Beneficence always the Original of a voluntary and free Subjection * Amyrald Discert p. 65. Obedience to Parents is founded upon their right because they are instrumental in bestowing upon us Being and Life and because this of life is so great a benefit the Law of Nature never dissolves this Obligation of Obeying and Honouring Parents 'T is as long liv'd as the Law of Nature and hath an universal practice by the strength of that Law in all parts of the World And those rightful Chains are not unlockt but by that which unties the knot between Soul and Body Much more hath God a Right to be obey'd and reverenced who is the principal Benefactor and mov'd all those second Causes to impart to us what conduc'd to our advantage The just Authority of God over us results from the superlativeness of his Blessings he hath pour'd down upon us which cannot be equall'd much less exceeded by any other As therefore upon this account he hath a claim to our choicest Affections so he hath also to most exact Obedience and
hitherto spread his Wings over us Where can we meet with a nobler Object than Divine Goodness And what nobler work can be practiced by us than to consider it What is more sensible in all the Operations of his hands than his skill as they are consider'd in themselves and his goodness as they are consider'd in relation to us 'T is strange that we should miss the thoughts of it that we should look upon this Earth and every thing in it and yet overlook that which it is most full of viz. Divine Goodness * Psal 33 5â— It runs through the whole web of the World all is fram'd and diversifyed by Goodness 'T is one intire single Goodness which appears in various garbs and dresses in every part of the Creation Can we turn our Eyes inward and send our Eyes outward and see nothing of a Divinity in both worthy of our deepest and seriousest thoughts Is there any thing in the World we can behold but we see his Bounty since nothing was made but is one way or other beneficial to us Can we think of our daily food but we must have some reflecting thoughts on our great Caterer Can the sweetness of the Creature to our Palate obscure the sweetness of the Provider to our Minds 'T is strange that we should be regardless of that wherein every Creature without us and every sense within us and about us is a Tutor to instruct us Is it not reason we should think of the times wherein we were nothing and from thence run back to a never begun Eternity and view our selves in the thoughts of that Goodness to be in time brought forth upon this stage as we are at present Can we consider but one act of our understandings but one thought one blossom one spark of our Souls mounting upwards and not reflect upon the goodness of God to us who in that faculty that sparkles out Rational thoughts has advanced us to a nobler State and endued us with a nobler Principle than all the Creatures we see on Earth except those of our own Rank and Kind Can we consider but one foolish thought one sinful act and reflect upon the guilt and filth of it and not behold Goodness in sparing us and Miracles of Goodness in sending his Son to die for us for the Expiation of it This Perfection cannot well be out of our thoughts or at least it is horrible it should when it is writ in every line of the Creation and in a legible Rubrick in Bloody Letters in the Cross of his Son Let us think with our selves how often he hath multiplied his Blessings when we did deserve his Wrath how he hath sent one unexpected Benefit upon the heel of another to bring us with a swift pace the tidings of good will to us How often hath he deliver'd us from a Disease that had the Arrows of Death in its hand ready to pierce us How often hath he turn'd our fears into joys and our distempers into promoters of our felicity How often hath he mated a temptation sent seasonable supplies in the midst of a sore distress and prevented many dangers which we could not be so sensible of because we were in a great measure ignorant of them How should we meditate upon his goodness to our Souls in preventing some Sins in pardoning others in darting upon us the knowledge of his Gospel and of himself in the face of his Son Christ This seems to stick much upon the Spirit of Paul since he doth so often sprinkle his Epistles with the Titles of the Grace of God Riches of Grace Vnsearchable Riches of God Riches of Glory and cannot satisfie himself with the Extolling of it Certainly we should bear upon our heart a deep and quick sense of this Perfection as it was the design of God to manifest it so it would be acceptable to God for us to have a sense of it A dull receiver of his Blessings is no less nauseous to him than a dull dispenser of his Alms He loves a chearful giver * 2 Cor. 9.7 He doth himself what he loves in others He is chearful in giving and he loves we should be serious in thinking of him and have a right apprehension and sense of his Goodness 1. A right sense of his Goodness would dispose us to an ingenuous Worship of God It would damp our aversness to any act of Religion What made David so resolute and ready to Worship towards his holy Temple but the sense of his loving kindness * Psal 138.2 This would render him always in our mind a worthy Object of our Devotion a Stable Prop of our Confidence We should then adore him when we consider him as our God and our selves as the People of his Pasture and the Sheep of his hand * Psal 95.7 We should send up Prayers with strong faith and feeling and Praises with great joy and pleasure The sense of his Goodness would make us love him and our love to him would quicken our adoration of him but if we regard not this we shall have no mind to think of him no mind to act any thing towards him We may tremble at his Presence but not heartily Worship him We shall rather look upon him as a Tyrant and think no other affection due to him than what we reserve for an Oppressor viz. hatred and ill will 2. A sense of it will keep us humble A sense of it would effect that for which it self was intended viz. bring us to a Repentance for our Crimes and not suffer us to harden our selves against him When we should deeply consider how he hath made the Sun to shine upon us and his Rain to fall upon the Earth for our support the one to supple the Earth and the other to assist the Juyce of it to bring forth Fruits How would it reflect upon us our ill requitals and make us hang down our heads before him in a low posture pleasing to him and advantageous to our selves What would the first charge be upon our selves but what Moses brings in his Expostulation against the Israelites * Deut. 32.6 Do I thus requite the Lord What is this goodness for me who am so much below him for me who have so much incensed him for me who have so much abus'd what he hath allow'd It would bring to remembrance the horrour of our Crimes and set us a blushing before him when we should consider the multitude of his Benefits and our unworthy behaviour that hath not constrain'd him even against the inclination of his Goodness to punish us How little should we plead for a further liberty in Sin or palliate our former faults When we set Divine Goodness in one Column and our Transgressions in another and compare together their several Items it would fill us with a deep consciousness of our own guilt and devest us of any worth of our own in our approaches to him It would humble us that
Holy Name And because himself and all men were insufficient to offer up a praise to God answerable to the greatness of his benefits he summons in the end of the Psalm the Angels and all Creatures to joyn in consort with him Observe 1. As man is too shallow a Creature to comprehend the excellency of God so he is too dull and scanty a Creature to offer up a due praise to God both in regard of the excellency of his nature and the multitude and greatness of his benefits 2. We are apt to forget divine benefits our Souls must therefore be often jogg'd and rous'd up All that is within me every power of my Rational and every Affection of my Sensitive part All his Faculties all his Thoughts Our Souls will hang back from God in every duty much more in this if we lay not a strict charge upon them We are so void of a pure and intire love to God that we have no mind to those duties Wants will spurr us on to Prayer but a pure love to God can only spirit us to Praise We are more ready to reach out a hand to receive his Mercies than to lift up our heart to recognize them after the receipt After the Psalmist had summoned his own Soul to this task he enumerates the Divine blessings received by him to awaken his soul by a sence of them to so noble a work He begins at the first and foundation Mercy to himself the pardon of his sin and justification of his Person the renewing of his sickly and languishing nature Verse 3. Who forgives all thy iniquities and heals all thy diseases His Redemption from death or Eternal destruction his expected glorification thereupon which he speaks of with that certainty as if it were present V. 4 Who redeems thy life from destruction who Crowns thee with loving kindness and tender Mercies He makes his progress to the mercy manifested to the Church in the protection of it against or delivery of it from oppressions Verse 6. The Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgment for all that are oppressed In the discovery of his Will and Law and the glory of his merciful Name to it Verse 7 8. He made known his ways unto Moses and his acts unto the Children of Israel The Lord is Merciful and Gracious slow to Anger and plenteous in Mercy Which latter words may refer also to the free and unmerited spring of the benefits he had reckoned up Viz. The Mercy of God which he mentions also verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities And then extols the perfection of Divine mercy in the pardoning of sin Ver. 11 12. The Paternal tenderness of God Verse 13. The eternity of his Mercy Verse 17. But restrains it to the proper object Verse 11.17 To them that fear him i. e. To them that beleive in him Fear being the word commonly used for Faith in the Old Testament under the legal dispensation wherein the spirit of bondage was more eminent than the spirit of Adoption and their fear more than their confidence Observe 1. All true blessings grow up from the pardon of sin ver 3. Who forgives all thine iniquities That is the first blessing the top and Crown of all other favours which draws all other blessings after it and sweetens all other blessings with it The principal intent of Christ was Expiation of sin Redemption from iniquity the purchase of other blessings was consequent upon it Pardon of sin is every blessing vertually and in the root and spring it flows from the favor of God and is such a gift as cannot be tainted with a Curse as outward things may 2. Where sin is pardoned the soul is renewed verse 3. Who heals all thy diseases Where guilt is remitted the deformity and sickness of the soul is cur'd Forgiveness is a teeming mercy it never goes single when we have an interest in Christ as bearing the chastisement of our peace we receive also a balsom from his blood to heal the wounds we feel in our nature Isaiah 53.5 The chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed As there is a guilt in sin which binds us over to punishment so there is a contagion in sin which fills us with pestilent diseases when the one is removed the other is cur'd We should not know how to love the one without the other The renewing the soul is necessary for a delightful relish of the other blessings of God A condemn'd Malefactor infected with a Leprosie or any other loathsome distemper if pardon'd could take little comfort in his freedom from the Gibbet without a Cure of his Plague 3. God is the sole and soveraign author of all spiritual blessings Who forgives all thy iniquities and heals all thy diseases He refers all to God nothing to himself in his own merit and strength All not the pardon of one sin merited by me not the cure of one disease can I owe to my own power and the strength of my free will and the operations of nature He and he alone is the Prince of pardon the Physitian that restores me the Redeemer that delivers me 't is a Sacriledge to divide the praise between God and our selves God only can knock off our fetters expell our distempers and restore a deformed Soul to its decayed beauty 4. Gracious Souls will bless God as much for Sanctification as for Justification The initials of Sanctification and there are no more in this Life are worthy of solemn acknowledgement 'T is a sign of growth in Grace when our Hymns are made up of acknowledgments of Gods sanctifying as well as pardoning Grace In blessing God for the one we rather shew a love to our selves in blessing God for the other we cast out a pure beam of love to God because by purifying Grace we are fitted to the service of our maker prepared to every good work which is delightful to him by the other we are eas'd in our selves Pardon fills us with inward peace but Sanctification fills us with an activity for God Nothing is so capable of setting the soul in a heavenly tune as the consideration of God as a pardoner and as a healer 5. Where sin is pardon'd the punishment is remitted Verse 3 4. Who forgives all thy iniquities and Redeems thy Life from destruction A Malefactors pardon puts an end to his chains frees him from the stench of the Dungeon and fear of the Gibbet Pardon is nothing else but the remitting of guilt and guilt is nothing else but an obligation to punishment as a penal debt for sin A Creditors tearing a Bond frees the Debtor from payment and rigor 6. Growth in Grace is always annext to true Sanctification Verse 3. So that thy youth is renew'd like the Eagles Interpreters trouble themselves much about the manner of the Eagles renewing its youth and regaining its vigor * Amyrald in loc He speaks
Corruptions will certainly be subdued in his voluntary subjects The Covenant I will be your God implyes protection government and relief which are all grounded upon Soveraignty That therefore which is our greatest burden will be remov'd by his Soveraign power Micah 7.19 He will subdue our iniquities If the outward enemies of the Church shall not bear up against his Dominion and perpetuate their rebellions unpunisht those within his people shall as little bear up against his Throne without being destroy'd by him The billows of our own hearts and the raging waves within us are as much at his beck as those without us And his Soveraignty is more eminent in quelling the corruptions of the heart than the commotions of the World in reigning over mens Spirits by changing them or curbing them more than over mens bodies by pinching and punishing them The remainders of Satans Empire will moulder away before him since he that is in us is a greater Soveraign than he that is in the World 1 Joh. 4.4 His enemies will be laid at his feet and so neveâ— shall prevail against him when his Kingdom shall come He could not be Lord of any man as a happy creature if he did not by his power make them happy and he could not make them happy unless by his Grace he made them holy He could not be praised as a Lord of Glory if he did not make some creatures glorious to praise him And an Earthly Creature could not praise him perfectly unless he had every grain of enmity to his Glory taken out of his heart Since God is the only Soveraign he only can still the commotions in our spirits and pull down all the Ensigns of the Devil's royalty he can wast him by the powerful word of his lips 4. Hence is a strong encouragement for Prayer My King was the strong compellation David us'd in Prayer as an argument of comfort and confidence as well as that of My God Psal 5 2. Hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God To be a King is to have an Office of Government and Protection He gives us liberty to approach to him as the Judge of all Heb. 12.23 i. e. As the Governour of the World we pray to one that hath the whole Globe of Heaven and Earth in his hand and can do whatsoever he will Though he be higher than the Cherubims and transcendently above all in Majesty yet we may soar up to him with the wings of our Soul Faith and Love and lay open our cause and find him as gracious as if he were the meanest subject on Earth rather than the most soveraign God in Heaven He hath as much of tenderness as he hath of Authority and is pleased with Prayer which is an acknowledgment of his Dominion an honouring of that which he delights to honour For Prayer in the notion of it imports thus much that God is the Rector of the World that he takes notice of humane affairs that he is a careful just wise Governour a store-house of blessing a fountain of goodness to the indigent and a releif to the oppressed What have we reason to fear when the soveraign of the World gives us liberty to approach to him and lay open our case That God who is King of the whole Earth not only of a few Villages or Cities in the Earth but the whole Earth and not only King of this dreggy place of our dross but of Heaven having prepar'd or established his Throne in the most glorious place of the Creation 5. Here is comfort in afflictions As a soveraign he is the Author of Afflictions as a soveraign he can be the remover of them he can command the waters of affliction to go so far and no farther If he speaks the Word a disease shall depart as soon as a servant shall from your presence with a Nod. If we are banisht from one place he can command a shelter for us in another If he orders Moab a Nation that had no great kindness for his people to let his outcasts dwell with them they shall entertain them and afford them sanctuary Isaiah 16.4 Again God chastneth as a soveraign but teacheth as a Father Psal 99.12 The exercise of his Authority is not without an exercise of his goodness He doth not correct for his own pleasure or the Creature 's torment but for the Creature 's instruction though the rod be in the hand of a soveraign yet it is tinctur'd with the kindness of divine bowels He can order them as a soveraign to mortifie our flesh and try our Faith In the severest tempest the Lord that rais'd the Wind against us which shatter'd the ship and tore its rigging can change that contrary wind for a more happy one to drive us into the Port. 6. 'T is a comfort against the projects of the Churches adversaries in times of publick commotions The consideration of the Divine soveraignty may arm us against the threatnings of mighty ones and the menaces of persecutors God hath Authority above the Crowns of men and a Wisdom superior to the cabals of men None can move a step without him he hath a negative voice upon their Counsels a negative hand upon their motions their politick resolves must stop at the point he hath prescrib'd them Their formidable strength cannot exceed the limits he hath set them their overreaching wisdom expires at the breath of God There is no Wisdom nor Vnderstanding nor Counsel against the Lord. Prov. 21.30 Not a bullet can be discharg'd nor a Sword drawn a wall battered nor a person dispatcht out of the world without the leave of God by the mightiest in the World The instruments of Satan are no more free from his soveraign restraint than their inspirer they cannot pull the hook out of their nostrils nor cast the bridle out of their mouths This soveraign can shake the Earth rend the Heavens overthrow Mountains the most Mountainous opposers of his interest Though the Nations rush in against his people like the rushing of many waters God shall rebuke them they shall be chased as the chaff of the Mountains before the Wind and like a rolling thing before the Whirlwind Isaiah 17.13 So doth he often burst in pieces the most mischievous designs and conducts the oppressed to a happy port He often turns the severest tempests into a calm as well as the most peaceful calm into a horrible storm How often hath a well-rigg'd ship that seemed to spâ—rn the Sea under her feet and beat the waves before her to a foam been swallowed up into the bowels of that Element over whose back she rode a little before God never comes to deliver his Church as a Governour but in a wrathful posture Ezek. 20.23 Surely saith the Lord with a mighty hand and with an out stretched arm and with fury pour'd out will I rule over you not with fury poured out upon the Church but fury pour'd out upon her Enemies as the words