meltings flights In the highest raptures the body is most insensible Strong Spiritual affections are abstracted from outward sense 6. Spiritual worship is performed with acting Spiritual habits When all the living springs of Grace are opened as the Fountains of the deep were in the deluge the Soul and all that is within it all the Spiritual impresses of God upon it erect themselves to bless his holy name * Psa 103.1 This is necessary to make a worship Spiritual As natural agents are determined to act sutable to their proper nature So rational agents are to act conformable to a rational being When there is a conformity between the act and the nature whence it flows t is a good act in its kind if it be rational t is a good rational act because sutable to its principle As a Man endowed with reason must act sutable to that endowment and exercise his reason in his acting So a Christian endued with Grace must act sutable to that nature and exercise his Grace in his acting Acts done by a natural inclination are no more human acts than the natural acts of a beast may be said to be human Tho they are the acts of a Man as he is the efficient cause of them yet they are not human acts because they arise not from that principle of Reason which denominates him a man So acts of worship performed by a bare exercise of reason are not Christian and Spiritual acts because they come not from the principle which constitutes him a Christian Reason is not the principle for then all rational Creatures would be Christians They ought therefore to be acts of a higher principle Exercises of that Grace whereby Christians are what they are Not but that rational acts in worship are due to God for worship is due from us as men and we are setled in that rank of being by our reason Grace doth not exclude reason but ennobles it and calls it up to another form But we must not rest in a bare rational worship but exert that principle whereby we are Christians To worship God with our reason is to worship him as Men To worship God with our grace is to worship him as Christians and so Spiritually But to worship him only with our bodies is no better than Brutes Our desires of the word are to issue from the regenerate principle 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word It seems to be not a comparison but a restriction All worship must have the same spring and be the exercise of that principle otherwise we can have no Communion with God Friends that have the same habitual dispositions have a fundamental fitness for an agreeable converse with one another but if the temper wherein their likeness consists be languishing and the string out of tune there is not an actual fitness and the present indisposition breaks the converse and renders the Company troublesome Tho we may have the habitual graces which compose in us a resemblance to God yet for want of acting those sutable dispositions we render our selves unfit for his converse and make the worship which is fundamentally Spiritual to become actually carnal As the Will cannot naturally act to any object but by the exercise of its affections So the heart cannot Spiritually act towards God but by the exercise of graces This is Gods Musick Eph. 5.19 Singing and making melody to God in your hearts Singing and all other acts of worship are outward but the Spiritual melody is by grace in the heart Col. 3.16 This renders it a Spiritual worship for it is an effect of the fulness of the Spirit in the Soul as v. 19. But be filled with the Spirit The overflowing of the Spirit in the heart setting the Soul of a beliver thus on work to make a Spiritual melody to God shews that something higher than bare reason is put in tune in the heart Then is the fruit of the Garden pleasant to Christ when the holy Spirit the North and South wind blow upon the spices and strike out the fragrancy of them * Cant. 4.16 Since God is the Author of graces and bestows them to have a glory from them they are best employed about him and his service T is fit he should have the Cream of his own gifts Without the exercise of grace we perform but a work of nature and offer him a few dry bones without marrow The whole set of graces must be one way or other exercised If any treble be wanting in a Lute there will be a great defect in the Musick If any one Spiritual string be dull the Spiritual harmony of worship will be spoiled And therefore 1. First Faith must be acted in worship A confidence in God A natural worship cannot be performed without a natural confidence in the goodness of God Whosoever comes to him must regard him as a Rewarder and a faithful Creator * Heb. 11.6 A Spiritual worship cannot be performed without an Evangelical confidence in him as a gracious Redeemer To think him a Tyrant meditating revenge damps the Soul to regard him as a gracious King full of tender bowels Spirits the affections to him The mercy of God is the proper object of trust Psal 33.18 The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy The worship of God in the old Testament is most described by fear In the new Testamen by faith Fear or the worship of God and hope in his mercy are linkt together when they go hand in hand the accepting eye of God is upon us When we do not trust we do not worship * Zeph. 3.2 Those of Judah had the Temple worship among them especially in Josiah's time Zeph. 3.2 the time of that Prophecy yet it was accounted no worship because no trust in the Worshippers Interest in God cannot be improved without an exercise of Faith The Gospel worship is prophecied of to be a confidence in God as in a Husband more than in a Lord Hos 2.16 Thou shalt call me Ishi and shalt call me no more Baali Thou shalt call me that is thou shalt worship me Worship being often comprehended under Invocation More confidence is to be exercised in a Husband or Father than in a Lord or Master If a Man have not Faith he is without Christ and though a Man be in Christ by the habit of Faith â—e performs a duty out of Christ without an act of Faith Without the habit of Faith our persons are out of Christ and without the exercise of Faith the duties are out of Christ As the want of Faith in a person is the death of the Soul so the want of Faith in a Service is the death of the Offering Though a man were at the cost of an Ox yet to kill it without bringing it to the door of the Tabernacle was not a Sacrifice but a Murder * Levit. 17.3 4. The Tabernacle
the injuries of men But as it signifies a willingness to deferr and an unwillingness to pour forth his wrath upon sinful creatures He moderates his provoked justice and forbears to revenge the injuries he daily meets with in the World He suffers no grief by mens wronging him but he restrains his arm from punishing them according to their merits And thus there is Patience in every cross a man meets with in the World because though it be a punishment 't is less than is merited by the unrighteous rebel and less than may be inflicted by a righteous and powerful God This Patience is seen in his providential works in the World He suffered the Nations to walk in their own way and the witness of his Providence to them was his giving them Rain and fruitful seasons filling their heart with food and gladness Act. 16.17 The Heathens took notice of it and signified it by feigning their God Saturn to be bound a whole year in a soft cord a cord of wool and exprest it by this Proverb The Mills of the Gods grind slowly i. e. God doth not use men with that severity that they deserve The Mills being usually â—â—nn'd by criminals condemn'd to that work * Rhodigi l. 6. c. 14. This in Scripture is frequently exprest by a slowness to anger Psal 103.8 sometimes by long suffering which is a patience with duration Psal 145.8 and Joel 2.13 He is slow to anger he takes not the first occasions of a provocation He is long suffering Rom. 9.22 and Psal 86.15 he forbears punishment upon many occasions offer'd him 'T is long before he consents to give fire to his wrath and shoot out his Thunderbolts Sin hath a loud cry but God seems to stop his eares not to hear the clamor it raises and the charge it presents He keeps his Sword a long time in the sheath One calls the Patience of God the sheath of his sword upon those words Ezek. 21.3 I will draw forth my sword out of his sheath * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret in loc This is one remarkable letter in the name of God he himself proclaims it Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God merciful gracious and long suffering And Moses pleads it in the behalf of the people Numb 14.18 where he placeth it in the first rank The Lord is long suffering and of great mercy 'T is the first spark of mercy and ushers it to its exercises in the World In the Lord's Proclamation 't is put in the middle link Mercy and Truth together Mercy could have no room to act if Patience did not prepare the way And his truth and goodness in his promise of the Redeemer would not have been manifest to the World if he had shot his Arrows as soon as men committed their sins and deserved his punishment This perfection is exprest by other phrases as keeping silence Psal 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept silence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies to behave ones self as a deaf or dumb man I did not fly in thy face as some do with great a noise upon a light provocation as if their Life Honour Estates were at the stake I did not presently call thee to the bar and pronounce judicial sentence upon thee according to the Law but demean'd my self as if I had been ignorant of thy crimes and. had not been invested with the power of judging thee for them Chald. I waited for thy Conversion God's Patience is the silence of his Justice and the first whisper of his mercy 'T is also exprest by not laying folly to men Job 24.12 Men groan under the oppressions of others yet God layes not folly to them i. e. to the oppressors God suffers them to go on with impunity He doth not deliver his people because he would try them and takes not revenge upon the unrighteous because in Patience he doth bear with them Patience is the Life of his Providence in this World He chargeth not men with their crimes here but reserves them upon impenitency for another tryal This attribute is so great a one that it is signally called by the name of perfection Matt. 5.45 48. He had been speaking of Divine goodness and Patience to evil men and he concludes be you perfect c. Implying it to be an amazing perfection in the divine nature and worthy of imitation In the prosecution of this 1. Let us consider the nature of this Patience 2. Wherein 't is manifested 3. Why God doth exercise so much Patience 4. The VSE 1. The nature of this Patience 1. 'T is part of the divine goodness and mercy yet differs from both God being the greatest goodness hath the greatest mildness Mildness is always the companion of true goodness and the greater the goodness the greater the mildness Who so Holy as Christ and who so meek God's slowness to anger is a branch or slip from his mercy Psal 145.8 The Lord is full of compassion slow to anger It differs from mercy in the formal consideration of the object Mercy respects the creature as miserable Patience respects the creature as criminal Mercy pities him in his misery and Patience bears with the sin which engender'd that misery and is giving birth to more Again Mercy is one end of Patience his long suffering is partly to glorifie his Grace so it was in Paul 1 Tim. 1.16 As slowness to anger springs from goodness so it makes mercy the butt and mark of its operations Isa 30.18 He waites that he may be gracious Goodness sets God upon the exercise of Patience and Patience sets many a sinner on running into the armes of mercy That mercy which makes God ready to embrace returning sinners makes him willing to bear with them in their sins and wait their return It differs also from goodness in regard of the object The object of goodness is every creature Angels Men all inferiour creatures to the lowest worm that crawls upon the ground The object of Patience is primarily man and secondarily those creatures that respect mens support conveniency and delight But they are not the objects of Patience as consider'd in themselves but in relation to man for whose use they were created and therefore God's Patience to them is properly his Patience with man The lower creatures do not injure God and therefore are not the objects of his Patience but as they are forfeited by man and man deserves to be depriv'd of them As man in this regard falls under the Patience of God so do those creatures which are design'd for mans good That Patience which spares man spares other creatures for him which were all forfeited by man's sin as well as his own life and are rather the testimonies of God's Patience than the proper objects of it The object of God's goodness then is the whole Creation not a Devil in Hell but as a creature is a mark of his goodness but not of his patience There is a kind
may be further considered that in this way of Redemption his Holiness in the hatred of Sin seems to be valued above any other Attribute He proclaims the value of it above the Person of his Son since the Divine Nature of the Redeemer is disguised obscur'd and vail'd in order to the restoring the Honour of it And Christ seems to value it above his own Person since he submitted himself to the Reproaches of Men to clear this Perfection of the Divine Nature and make it Illustrious in the eyes of the World You heard before at the beginning of the handling this Argument It was the Beauty of the Deity the Lustre of his Nature the Link of all his Attributes his very Life he values it equal with Himself since he swears by it as well as by his Life And none of his Attributes would have a due Decorum without it 'T is the glory of Power Mercy Justice Wisdom that they are all Holy So that though God had an Infinite tenderness and compassion to the Fallen Creature yet it should not extend it self in his relief to the prejudice of the Rights of his Purity He would have this triumph in the Tenderness of his Mercy as well as the Severities of his Justice His Mercy had not appeared in its true colours nor attain'd a regular End without Vengeance on Sin It would have been a Compassion that would in sparing the Sinner have encourag'd the Sin and affronted Holiness in the Issues of it Had he dispersed his Compassions about the World without the regard to his Hatred of Sin his Mercy had been too cheap and his Holiness had been contemn'd His Mercy would not have Triumph'd in his own Nature whilst his Holiness had suffered He had exercised a Mercy with the impairing his own Glory But now in this way of Redemption the Rights of both are secured both have their due lustre The Odiousness of Sin is equally discovered with the greatest of his Compassions an Infinite Abhorrence of Sin and an Infinite Love to the World march hand in hand together Never was so much of the Irreconcileableness of Sin to him set forth as in the moment he was opening his Bowels in the Reconciliation of the Sinner Sin is made the chiefest Mark of his Displeasure while the Poor Creature is made the highest Object of Divine Pity There could have been no motion of Mercy with the least Injury to Purity and Holiness In this way Mercy and Truth Mercy to the Misery of the Creature and Truth to the Purity of the Law have met together the Righteousness of God and the Peace of the Sinner have kissed each other Psal 85.10 II. The Holiness of God in his Hatred of Sin appears in our Justification and the Conditions he requires of all that would enjoy the benefit of Redemption His Wisdom hath so temper'd all the Conditions of it that the Honour of his Holiness is as much preserved as the Sweetness of his Mercy is experimented by us All the Conditions are Records of his exact Purity as well as of his condescending Grace Our Justification is not by the Imperfect works of Creatures but by an exact and Infinite Righteousness as great as that of the Deity which had been Offended It being the Righteousness of a Divine Person upon which account it is call'd the Righteousness of God not only in regard of Gods appointing it and Gods accepting it but as it is a Righteousness of that Person that was God and is God Faith is the Condition God requires to Justification but not a dead but an active Faith such a Faith as purifies the heart †James 2.22 Acts 15.9 He calls for Repentance which is a Moral retracting our Offences and an approbation of contemn'd Righteousness and a violated Law an endeavour to regain what is lost and to pluck out the heart of that Sin we have committed He requires Mortification which is called Crucifying whereby a Man would strike as full and deadly a blow at his Lusts as was struck at Christ upon the Cross and make them as certainly die as the Redeemer did Our own Righteousness must be condemned by us as impure and imperfect We must disown every thing that is our own as to Righteousness in reverence to the Holiness of God and the valuation of the Righteousness of Christ He hath resolved not to bestow the Inheritance of Glory without the Root of Grace None are partakers of the Divine Blessedness that are not partakers of the Divine Nature There must be a renewing of his Image before there be a vision of his face * He◠12.14 He will not have Men brought only into a Relative state of Happiness by Justification without a Real state of Grace by Sanctification And so resolved he is in it that there is no admittance into Heaven of a starting but a persevering Holiness Rom. 2.7 a patient continuance in well doing Patient under the sharpness of Affliction and continuing under the Pleasures of Prosperity Hence it is that the Gospel the restoring Doctrine hath not only the motives of Rewards to allure us to Good and the danger of Punishments to scare us from Evil as the Law had but they are set forth in a higher strain in a way of stronger engagement the Rewards are Heavenly and the Punishments Eternal And more powerful Motives besides from the choicer Expressions of Gods Love in the Death of his Son The whole Design of it is to re-instate us in a resemblance to this Divine Perfection whereby he shews what an Affection he hath to this Excellency of his Nature and what a detestation he hath of Evil which is contrary to it 3. It appears in the actual Regeneration of the Redeemed Souls and a carrying it on to a full perfection As Election is the effect of Gods Soveraignty our Pardon the fruit of his Mercy our Knowledge a stream from his Wisdom our Strength an impression of his Power so our Purity is a beam from his Holiness The whole work of Sanctification and the preservation of it our Saviour begs for his Disciples of his Father under this Title John 17.11 17. Holy Father keep them through thy own name and sanctifie them through thy Truth as the proper Source whence Holiness was to flow to the Creature As the Sun is the proper Fountain whence Light is derived both to the Stars above and Bodies here below Whence He is not only called Holy but the Holy One of Israel Isai 43.15 I am the Lord your Holy One the Creator of Israel Displaying his Holiness in them by a new Creation of them as his Israel As the rectitude of the Creature at the first Creation was the effect of his Holiness so the Purity of the Creature by a New Creation is a draught of the same Perfection He is called the Holy One of Israel more in Isaiah that Evangelical Prophet in erecting Zion and forming a People for himself than in the whole Scripture
the ground of our love to God Not because he is gracious to us but holy in himself As God honours it in loving himself for it we should honour it by pitching our Affections upon him chiefly for it What renders God amiable to himself should render him lovely to all his Creatures Isa 42.21 The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sakâ— If the hatred of evil be the immediate result of a love to God then the peculiar object or term of our love to God must be that Perfection which stands in direct opposition to the hatred of evil Psal 97.10 Ye that love the Lord hate evil When we honour his holiness in every stamp and impression of it his Law not principally because of its usefulness to us its accommodateness to the order of the World but for its innate Purity and his People not for our interest in them so much as for bearing upon them this glittering mark of the Deity we honour then the Purity of the Law-giver and the Excellency of the Sanctifier 2. We honour it when we regard chiefly the illustrious appearance of this in his Judgments in the World In a case of Temporal Judgment Moses celebrates it in the Text In a case of Spiritual Judgments the Angels applaud it in Isaiah All his Severe proceedings are nothing but the strong breathings of this Attribute Purity is the flash of his revenging sword If he did not hate evil his Vengeance would not reach the Committers of it He is a Refiners fire in the day of his Anger * Mal. 3 â— By his separating Judgments he takes away the wicked of the earth like Dross Psal 119.119 How is his holiness honoured when we take notice of his sweeping out the rubbish of the World How he sutes punishment to sin and discovers his hatred of the matter and circumstances of the Evil in the matter and circumstances of the Judgment This Perfection is legible in every stroke of his Sword we honour it when we read the syllables of it and not by standing amaz'd only at the greatness and severity of the Blow when we read how holy he is in his most terrible Dispensations For as in them God magnifies the greatness of his Power so he sanctifies himself that is declares the Purity of his Nature as a Revenger of all Impiety Ezek. 38.22 23. And I will plead against him with Pestilence and with Blood and I will rain upon him and upon his bands and upon the people that are with him an overflowing Rain and great Hail-stones Fire and Brimstone Thus will I magnifie my self and sanctifie my self 3. We honour this Attribute when we take notice of it in every accomplishment of his Promise and every grant of a Mercy His Truth is but a branch of his Righteousness a slip from this Root He is glorious in Holiness in the account of Moses because he led forth his People whom he had redeemed Exod. 15.13 His People by a Covenant with their Fathers being the God of Moses the God of Israel and the God of their Fathers Verse 2. My God and my Fathers God I will exalt thee For what for his faithfulness to his Promise The holiness of God which Mary Luke 1.49 magnifies is summ'd up in this the help he afforded his Servant Israel in the remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our Fathers to Abraham and his Seed for ever Verse 54 55. The certainty of his Coâ—enant Mercy depends upon an unchangeableness of his holiness What are * Isa 55.3 sure mercies are holy mercies in the Septuagint and in Acts 13.34 which makes that Tr nslation Canonical His nearness to answer us when we call upon him for sucâ— Mercies is a fruit of the holiness of his Name and Nature Psal 145.17 The Lord is holy in all his works the Lord is nigh to all them that call upon him Hannah after a return of Prayer sets a particular mark upon this in her Song 1 Sam. 2.2 There is none holy as the Lord separated from all Dross firm to his Covenant and righteous in it to his Suppliants that confide in him and plead his Word When we observe the workings of this in every return of Prayer we honour it 't is a sign the Mercy is really a return of Prayer and not a Mercy of course bearing upon it only the Characters of a common Providence This was the Perfection David would bless for the Catalogue of Mercies in Psal 103.1 c Bless his holy Name Certainly one reason why sincere Prayer is so delightful to him is because it puts him upon the exercise of this his beloved Perfection which he so much delights to honour Since God acts in all those as the Governour of the World we honour him not unless we take notice of that Righteousness which sits him for a Governour and is the inward Spring of all his Motions Gen. 18.25 Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right It was his design in his pity to Israel as well as the Calamities he intended against the Heathens to be sanctified in them that is declared holy in his Merciful as well as his Judicial procedure †Ez. 36.21 â—3 Hereby God credits his Righteousness which seemed to be forgotten by the one and contemned by the other ‖ Sanct. in loc he removes by this all suspicion of any unfaithfulness in him 4. We honour this Attribute when we trust his Covenant and Promise against outward Appearances Thus our Saviour in the Prophecy of him * Psal 22 2 3.4 when God seemed to bar up the Gates of his Palace against the entry of any more Petitions This Attribute proves the support of the Redeemers Soul But thou art holy Oh thou that inhabitest the Praises of Israel As it refers to what goes before it has been twice explain'd as it refers to what follows it is a ground of trust Thou inhabitest the Praises of Israel Thou hast had the Praises of Israel for many Ages for thy holiness How Our Fathers trusted in thee and thou didst deliver them They honoured thy holiness by their trust and thou didst honour their Faith by a deliverance thou alwaies hadst a Purity that would not shame nor confound them I will trust in thee as thou art holy and expect the breaking out of this Attribute for my good as well as my Predecessors Our Fathers trusted in thee c. 5. We honour this Attribute when we shew a greater Affection to the marks of his holiness in times of the greatest Contempt of it As the Psalmist Psal 119.126 127. They have made void thy Law therefore I love thy Commandments above Gold While they spurn at the Purity of thy Law I will value it above the Gold they possess I 'le esteem it as Gold because others count it as Dross By their scorn of it my love to it shall be the warmer and my hatred of iniquity shall be the sharper The disdain of others
because he doth not act for his own profit but for his Creatures welfare and the manifestation of his own Goodness He sends out his Beams without receiving any addition to himself or substantial advantage from his Creatures 'T is from this Perfection that he loves whatsoever is good and that is whatsoever he hath made For every Creature of God is good * 1 Tim. 4.4 Every Creature hath some Communications from him which cannot be without some Affection to them Every Creature hath a Footstep of Divine Goodness upon it God therefore loves that goodness in the Creature else he would not love himself †Cajetan in secund ' secundae Qu. 34. Ar. 3. God hates no Creature no not the Devils and Damn'd as Creatures he is not an Enemy to them as they are the Works of his Hands He is properly an Enemy that doth simply and absolutely wish Evil to another but God doth not absolutely wish Evil to the Damned that Justice that he inflicts upon them the deserved Punishment of their Sin is part of his Goodness as shall afterward be shewn This is the most pleasant Perfection of the Divine Nature His Creating Power amazes us His Conducting Wisdom astonisheth us His Goodness as furnishing us with all Conveniencies delights us and renders both his amazing Power and astonishing Wisdom delightful to us As the Sun by effecting things is an Emblem of Gods Power by discovering things to us is an Emblem of his Wisdom but by refreshing and comforting us is an Emblem of his Goodness And without this refreshing Vertue it communicates to us we should take no pleasure in the Creatures it produceth nor in the Beauties it discovers As God is Great and Powerful he is the Object of our Understanding but as Good and Bountiful he is the Object of our Love and Desire 6. The Goodness of God comprehends all his Attributes All the Acts of God are nothing else but the Effluxes of his Goodness distinguisht by several names according to the Objects it is exercised about As the Sea though it be one Mass of Water yet we distinguish it by several names according to the Shores it washeth and beats upon as the Brittish and German Ocean though all be one Sea When Moses long'd to see his Glory God tells him he would give him a prospect of his Goodness †Exod. 33.19 I will make all my goodness to pass before thee His Goodness is his Glory and Godhead as much as is delightfully visible to his Creatures and whereby he doth benefit Man I will cause my Goodness or Comeliness as Calvin renders it to pass before thee what is this but the Train of all his lovely Perfections springing from his Goodness * Exod. 34.6 The whole Catalogue of Mercy Grace long-suffering abundance of truth summed up in this one word All are Streams from this Fountain he could be none of this were he not first Good When it confers Happiness without Merit 't is Grace when it bestows Happiness against Merit 't is Mercy when he bears with provoking Rebels ' its long-suffering when he performs his Promise 't is Truth when it meets with a person to whom it is not oblig'd 't is Grace when he meets with a person in the World to which he hath obliged himself by Promise 't is Truth * Herle upon Wisdom cap. 5. p. 41. 42. when it Commiserates a Distressed Person 't is Pity when it supplies an Indigent Person 't is Bounty when it succours an Innocent Person 't is Righteousness and when it pardons a Penitent Person 't is Mercy all summ'd up in this one name of Goodness And the Psalmist expresseth the same Sentiment in the same words †Ps 145.7 8. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great mercy the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works He is first Good and then Compassionate Righteousness is often in Scripture taken not for Justice but Charitableness This Attribute saith one †Ingelo Bentivolio Vran Book 4. p. 260 261. is so full of God that it doth defie all the rest and verifie the Adorableness of him His Wisdom might contrive against us His Power bear too hard upon us one might be too hard for an Ignorant and the other too mighty for an Impotent Creature His holiness would scare an impure and guilty Creature but his goodness conducts them all for us and makes them all amiable to us Whatever Comeliness they have in the Eye of a Creature whatever Comfort they afford to the Heart of a Creature we are oblig'd for all to his goodness This puts all the rest upon a delightful Exercise this makes his Wisdom design for us and this makes his Power to act for us This Vails his Holiness from affrighting us and this Spirits his Mercy to relieve us †Daille Melang part 2. p. 704 705. All his acts towards Man are but the Workmanship of this What moved him at first to Create the World out of nothing and erect so noble a Creature as Man endow'd with such excellent gifts was it not his goodness What made him separate his Son to be a Sacrifice for us after we had endeavoured to raze out the first marks of his favour Was it not a strong bubling of goodness What moves him to reduce a Fallen Creature to the due sense of his Duty and at last bring him to an Eternal Felicity is it not only his goodness This is the Captain Attribute that leads the rest to act This attends them and Spirits them in all his ways of acting This is the Complement and Perfection of all his Works had it not been for this which set all the rest on work nothing of his Wonders had been seen in Creation nothing of his Compassions had been seen in Redemption The Second thing is some Propositions to explain the Nature of this Goodness 1. He is good by his own Essence God is not only good in his Essence but good by his Essence The Essence of every created thing is good so the unerring God pronounced every thing which he had made * Gen. 1.31 The Essence of the worst Creatures yea of the impure and Savage Devils is good but they are not good per essentiam for then they could not be bad Malicious and Oppressive God is good as he is God and therefore good by himself and from himself not by participation from another He made every thing good but none made him good Since his goodness was not received from another he is good by his own Nature He could not receive it from the things he Created they are later than he Since they received all from him they could bestow nothing on him and no God preceded him in whose Inheritance and Treasures of Goodness he could be a Successor He is absolutely
p. 1326. 'T is Gods Excellency and Goodness which like a Beam pierceth all things He decks Spirits with Reason endues Matter with Form furnisheth every thing with useful Qualities As one Beam of the Sun illustrates Fire Water Earth so one Beam of God enlightens and endows Minds Souls and Universal Nature Nothing in the World had its goodness from it self any more than it had its being from it self The Cause must be riches than the Effect But that which I intend is the Defence of this Goodness 1. The goodness of God is not impair'd by suffering Sin to enter into the World and Man to fall thereby 'T is rather a Testimony of Gods Goodness that he gave Man an ability to be Happy than any Charge against his Goodness that he setled Man in a capacity to be Evil. God was first a Benefactor to Man before Man could be a Rebel against God May it not be enquired whether it had not been against the Wisdom of God to have made a Rational Creature with Liberty and not suffer him to act according to the Nature he was endowed with and to follow his own choice for some time Had it been Wisdom to frame a Free Creature and totally to restrain that Creature from following its Liberty Had it been Goodness as it were to force the Creature to be happy against its will Gods Goodness furnisht Adam with a power to stand was it contrary to his Goodness to leave Adam to a free use of that Power To make a Creature and not let that Creature act according to the freedom of his Nature might have been thought to have been a blot upon his VVisdom and a constraint upon the Creature not to make use of that freedom of his Nature which the Divine Goodness had bestowed upon him To what purpose did God make a Law to govern his Rational Creature and yet resolve that Creature should not have his choice whether he would obey it or no Had he been really constrained to observe it his Observation of it could no more have been call'd Obedience than the acts of Bruits that have a kind of Natural constraint upon them by the instinct of their Nature can be called Obedience In vain had God endow'd a Creature with so great and noble a Principle as Liberty Had it been Goodness in God after he had made a Reasonable Creature to govern him in the same manner as he did Bruits by a necessary Instinct It was the Goodness of God to the Nature of Men and Angels to leave them in such a condition to be able to give him a voluntary Obedience a nobler Offering than the whole Creation could present him with And shall this Goodness be undervalued and accounted mean because Man made an ill use of it and turn'd it into wantonness As the unbelief of Man doth not diminish the Redeeming Grace of God †Rom. 3.3 so neither doth the fall of Man lessen the Creating Goodness of God Besides why should the permission of Sin be thought more a blemish to his Goodness than the providing a way of Redemption for the destroying the works of Sin and the Devil be judged the Glory of it whereby he discover'd a goodness of Grace that surpast the bounds of Nature If this were a thing that might seem to obscure or deface the Goodness of God in the permission of the fall of Angels and Adam it was in order to bring forth a greater Goodness in a more illustrious pomp to the view of the World * Rom. 11.32 God hath concluded them all in Vnbelief that he might have Mercy upon all But if nothing could be alledged for the defence of his Goodness in this it were most comely for an ignorant Creature not to Impeach his Goodness but adore him in his proceedings in the same language the Apostle doth vers 33. Oh the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out 2. Nor is his Goodness prejudic'd by not making all things the equal Subjects of it 1. 'T is true all things are not Subjects of an equal Goodness The Goodness of God is not so illustriously manifested in one thing as another In the Creaâ—â—on he hath dropt Goodness upon some in giving them Beings and Sense and powr'd it upon others in endowing them with Understanding and Reason The Sun is full of Light but it hath a want of Sense Brutes excel in in the vigor of Sense but they are destitute of the Light of Reason Man hath a Mind and Reason conferr'd on him but he hath neither the acuteness of Mind nor the quickness of Motion equal with an Angel In Providence also he doth give abundance and opens his hand to some to others he is more sparing He gives greater gifts of knowledge to some while he lets others remain in ignorance He strikes down some and raiseth others He afflicts some with a continual Pain while he blesseth others with an uninterrupted Health He hath chosen one Nation wherein to set up his Gospel Sun and leaves another benighted in their own Ignorance Known was God in Judaea they were a peculiar People alone of all the Nations of the Earth * Deut. 14.2 He was not equally good to the Angels He held forth his hand to support some in their happy Habitation while he suffered others to sink in irreparable Ruine and he is not so diffusive here of his Goodness to his own as he will be in Heaven Here their Sun is sometimes Clouded but there all Clouds and Shades will be blown away and melted into nothing Instead of Drops here there will be above Rivers of Life Is any Creature destitute of the open Marks of his Goodness though all are not enricht with those signal Characters which he vouchsafes to others He that is unerring pronounced every thing good distinctly in its Production and the whole good in its Universal Perfection †Gen. 1.4 10 12 18 21 25 31. Though he made not all things equally good yet he made nothing evil And though one Creature in regard of its Nature may be better than another yet an Inferior Creature in regard of its usefulness in the order of the Creation may be better than a Superior The Earth hath a goodness in bringing forth Fruits and the Waters in the Sea a goodness in multiplying Food That any of us have a Being is goodness that we have not so healthful a Being as others is unequal but not unjust goodness He is good to all though not in the same degree The whole Earth is full of his Mercy * Psal 119.64 A good Man is good to his Cattle to his Servants he makes a Provision for all but he bestows not those Flouds of Bounty upon them that he doth upon his Children As there are various Gifts but one Spirit ‖ 1 Cor. 12.4 so there are various Distributions but from one Goodness The
when he describes him in his Wrath and Fury and is Furious Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord of hot Anger God will vindicate his own Glory and have his right on his Enemies in a way of punishment if they will not give it him in a way of Obedience * Ribera in loc 'T is three times repeated to shew the certainty of the judgment And the name of Lord added to every one to intimate the Power wherewith the Judgment should be executed 'T is not a Fatherly correction of Children in a way of Mercy but an offended soveraigns destruction of his Enemies in a way of vengeance There is an anger of God with his own people which hath more of Mercy than Wrath in this his Rod is guided by his bowels There is a fury of God against his Enemies where there is sole Wrath without any tincture of Mercy when his Sword is all edge without any Balsom-drops upon it Such a fury as David deprecates Psal 6.1 Oh Lord rebuke me not in thy Anger nor chasten me in thy sore displeasure with a fury untempered with Grace and insupportable Wrath. He reserves Wrath for his Enemies He lays it up in his Treasury to be brought out and expended in a due season Wrath is supplied by our Translators and is not in the Hebrew He reserves what that which is too sharp to be exprest too great to be conceiv'd A vengeance it is And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He reserves it He that hath an infinite Wrath he reserves it that hath a strength and power to execute it VERSE 3. The Lord is slow to Anger Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of broad Nostrils The Anger of God is exprest by this word which signifies Nostrils As Job 9.13 If God will not withdraw his Anger Heb. his nostril And the Anger whereby the wicked are consum'd is called the breath of Nostrils Job 4.9 and when he is angry smoak and fire are said to go out of his Nostrils 2 Sam. 2.9 and in the 74th Psalm 1. Why doth thy anger smoak Heb. Why do thy Nostrils smoak So the rage of a Horse when he is provokt in battle is call'd the Glory of his Nostrils Job 39.20 He breaths quick fumes and neighs with fury And slowness to anger is here exprest by the phrase of long or wide Nostrils Because in a vehement anger the blood boyling about the heart exhales mens Spirits which fume up and break out in dilated Nostrils But where the passages are straiter the spirits have not so quick a vent and therefore raise more motions within Or because the wider the Nostrils are the more cool Air is drawn in to temper the heat of the heart where the angry spirits are gather'd And so the passion is allay'd and sooner calm'd God speaks of himself in Scripture often after the rate of Men Jeremy prays Jer. 15.15 That God would not take him away in his long-suffering Heb. in the length of his Nostrils i. e. Be not slow and backward in thy anger against my Persecutors as to give them time and opportunity to destroy me The Nostrils as well as other members of a humane Body are ascribed to God He is slow to anger he hath anger in his nature but is not always in the execution of it And great in Power This may referre to his Patience as the cause of it or as a barr to the abuse of it 1. He is slow to anger and great in power i. e. his power moderates his Anger he is not so impotent as to be at the command of his passions as men are He can restrain his anger under just provocations to exercise it His power over himself is the cause of his slowness to wrath As Numb 14.17 Let the power of my Lord be great saith Moses when he pleads for the Israelites pardon Men that are great in the World are quick in passions and are not so ready to forgive an injury or bear with an offender as one of a meaner rank 'T is a want of a power over a mans self that makes him do unbecoming things upon a provocation A Prince that can bridle his passion is a King over himself as well as over his Subjects God is slow to Anger because great in Power He hath no less power over himself than over his Creatures He can sustain great injuries without an immediate and quick revenge He hath a power of Patience as well as a power of Justice 2. Or thus he is slow to Anger and great in Power He is slow to Anger but not for want of Power to revenge himself his Power is as great to punish as his Patience to spare It seems thus that slowness to Anger is brought in as an objection against the revenge proclaimed What do you tell us of vengeance vengeance nothing but such repetitions of vengeance As though we were ignorant that God is slow to Anger 'T is true saith the Prophet I acknowledge it as much as you that God is slow to Anger but withall great in Power His Anger certainly succeeds his abus'd Patience he will not always bridle in his Wrath but one time or other let it march out in fury against his Adversaries The Assyrians who had captiv'd the Ten Tribes and been victorious a little against the Jews might think that the God of Israel had been conquered by their Gods as well as the People professing him had been subdued by their arms That God had lost all his power and the Jews might argue from Gods Patience to his Enemies against the credit of the Prophets denouncing revenge The Prophet answers to the terror of the one and the comfort of the other That this indulgence to his Enemies and not accounting with them for their Crimes proceeded from the greatness of his Patience and not from any debility in his power As it refers to the Assyrian it may be rendered thus You Ninivites upon your Repentance after Jonahs thundring of Judgments are Witnesses of the slowness of God to Anger and had your punishments deferr'd But falling to your old sins you shall find a real punishment and that he hath as much Power to execute his ancient threatnings as he had then compassion to recall them His Patience to you then was not for want of power to ruine you but was the effect of his goodness towards you As it refers to the Jews it may be thus paraphrased do not despise this threatning against your Enemies because of the greatness of their might the seeming stability of their Empire and the terror they posseâ—s all the Nations with round about them It may be long before it comes but assure your selves the threatning I denounce shall certainly be executed though he hath Patience to endure them a hundred thirty five years for so long it was before Nineveh was destroy'd after this threatning as * p. 359. col 1â— Ribera in loc computes from the years of the reign of the Kings of Judah
sports much less the powers of the Soul whereby t is evident we prefer the latter before any service to God Since there is a fulness of Animal Spirits why might they not be excited in holy duties as well as in other operations but that there is a reluctancy in the Soul to exercise its Supremacy in this case and perform any thing becoming a Creature in subjection to God as a Ruler 2. T is evident also in the distractions we have in his service How loth are we to serve God fixedly one hour nay a part of an hour notwithstanding all the thoughts of his Majesty and the Eternity of glory set before our eye What man is there since the fall of Adam that served God one hour without many wandrings and unsutable thoughts unfit for that service How ready are our hearts to start out and unite themselves with any worldly objects that please us 3. Weariness in it evidenceth it To be weary of our dulness signifies a desire to be weary of service signifies a discontent to be ruled by God How tired are we in the performance of Spiritual duties when in the vain triflings of time we have a perpetual motion How will many willingly revel whole nights when their hearts will flag at the Threshold of a Religious service Like Dagon * 1 Sam. 5.4 lose both our heads to think and hands to act when the Ark of God is present Some in the Prophet wished the new Moon and the Sabbath over that they might sell their Corn and be busied again in their worldly affairs * Amos 8.5 A slight and weariness of the Sabbath was a slight of the Lord of the Sabbath and of that freedom from the Yoke and rule of sin which was signified by it The design of the Sacrifices in the new Moon was to signifie a rest from the tyranny of sin and a consecration to the Spiritual service of God Servants that are quickly weary of their work are weary of the Authority of their Master that enjoyns it If our hearts had a value for God it would be with us as with the needle to the Load-stone there would be upon his beck a speedy motion to him and a fixed union with him When the Judgments and affections of the Saints shall be fully refined in glory they shall be willing to behold the face of God and be under his Government to Eternity without any weariness As the holy Angels have owned God as their Soveraign neer these six thousand years without being weary of running on his Errands But alas while the flesh clogs us there will be some Reliques of unwillingness to hear his Injunctions and weariness in performing them tho men may excuse those things by extrinsick causes yet Gods unerring Judgment calls it a weariness of himself Isa 43.22 Thou hast not called upon me oh Jacob but thou hast been weary of me ch Israel Of this he taxeth his own people when he tells them he would have the beasts of the Field The Dragons and the Owls the Gentiles that the Jews counted no better than such to honour him and acknowledge him their rule in a way of duty ver 20.21 6. This contempt is seen in a deserting the rule of God when our expectations are not answered upon our service When services are performed from carnal principles they are soon cast off when carnal ends meet not with desired satisfaction But when we own our selves Gods Servants and God our Master our eyes will wait upon him till he have mercy on us * Psal 123.2 T is one part of the duty we owe to God as our Master in Heaven to continue in Prayer Col. 4.1 2. And by the same reason in all other service and to watch in the same with thanksgiving To watch for occasions of praise to watch with chearfulness for further manifestations of his Will strength to perform it success in the performance that we may from all draw matter of praise As we are in a posture of obedience to his precepts so we should be in a posture of waiting for the blessing of it But naturally we reject the duty we owe to God if he do not speed the blessing we expect from him How many do secretly mutter the same as they in Job 21.15 What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit shall we have if we Pray to him They serve not God out of Conscience to his Commands but for some carnal profit and if God make them to wait for it they will not stay his leasure but cease solliciting him any longer Two things are exprest that God was not worthy of any Homage from them What is the Almighty that we should serve him and that the service of him would not bring them in a good Revenue or an advantage of that kind they expected Interest drives many men on to some kind of service and when they do not find an advance of that they will acknowledge God no more but like some beggers if you give them not upon their asking and calling you good Master from blessing they will turn to cursing How often do men do that secretly practically if not plainly which Jobs Wife advised him to Curse God and cast off that disguise of integrity they had assumed Job 2.9 Dost thou still retain thy integrity Curse God What a stir and puling and crying is here Cast off all thoughts of Religious service and be at Daggers drawing with that God who for all thy service of him has made thee so wretched a spectacle to men and a banquet for worms The like temper is deciphered in the Jews Mal. 3.14 T is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances that we have walked mournfully before the Lord What profit is it that we have regarded his Statutes and carryed our selves in a way of subjection to God as our Soveraign when we inherit nothing but sorrow and the Idolatrous Neighbors swim in all kind of pleasures as if it were the most miserable thing to acknowledge God If men have not the benefits they expect they think God unrighteous in himself and injurious to them in not conferring the favour they imagine they have merited And if they have not that recompence they will deny God that subjection they owe to him as Creatures Grace moves to God upon a sense of duty corrupt nature upon a sense of Interest Sincerity is encouraged by gracious returns but is not melted away by Gods delay or refusal Corrupt nature would have God at its back and steers a course of duty by hope of some carnal profit not by a sense of the Soveraignty of God 7. This contempt is seen in breaking promises with God * Reyn. One while the Conscience of a man makes vows of new obedience and perhaps binds himself with many an Oath but they prove like Jonahs Gourd withering the next day after their birth This was Pharaohs
and his own happiness So loth is God to give any just occasion of dissatisfaction to his Creature as well as dishonour himself All those wonders of his mercy are inhanc'd by the hainousness of our Atheism a multitude of gracious thoughts from him above the multitude of contempts from us * Psal 106. â— What Rebells in actual Arms against their Prince aiming at his Life ever found that favour from him to have all their necessaries richly afforded them without which they would starve and without which they would be unable to manage their attempts as we have received from God Had not God had riches of goodness forbearance and long suffering and infinite riches too the despight the world hath done him in refusing him as their Rule Happiness and End would have emptied him long agoe * Rom. 2.4 2. It brings in a Justification of the exercise of his Justice If it gives us occasion loudly to praise his Patience it also stops our mouths from accusing any acts of his Vengeance What can be too sharp a recompence for the despising and disgracing so great a Being The highest contempt merits the greatest anger and when we will not own him for our happiness 't is equal we should feel the misery of separation from him If he that is guilty of Treason deserves to lose his Life what punishment can be thought great enough for him that is so disingenious as to prefer himself before a God so infinitely good and so foolish as to invade the rights of one infinitely powerful 'T is no injustice for a Creature to be for ever left to himself to see what advantage he can make of that self he was so busily imployed to set up in the place of his Creator The Soul of Man deserves an infinite punishment for despising an infinite good And it is not unequitable that that self which Man makes his Rule and Happiness above God should become his Torment and Misery by the Righteousness of that God whom he despised 3. Hence ariseth a necessity of a new state and frame of Soul to alter an Atheistical Nature We forget God Think of him with reluctancy Have no respect to God in our course and acts This cannot be our original state God being infinitely good never let man come out of his hands with this actual unwillingness to acknowledge and serve him He never intended to dethrone himself for the work of his hands or that the Creature should have any other end than that of his Creator As the Apostle saith in the Case of the Galatians Error Gal. 5.8 This perswasion came not of him that called you so this frame comes not from him that created you How much therefore do we need a restoring Principle in us Instead of ordering our selves according to the Will of God we are desirous to fulfil the Wills of the Flesh * Ephes 2.3 There is a necessity of some other principle in us to make us fulfil the Will of God since we were created for God not for the Flesh We can no more be voluntarily serviceable to God while our serpentine nature and Devillish habits remain in us than we can suppose the Devil can be willing to glorifie God while the nature he contracted by his fall abides powerfully in him Our Nature and Will must be changed that our actions may regard God as our End that we may delightfully meditate on him and draw the motives of our obedience from him Since this Atheism is seated in Nature the change must be in our Nature Since our first aspirings to the rights of God were the fruits of the Serpents breath which tainted our Nature there must be a removal of this taint whereby our Natures may be on the side of God against Satan as they were before on the side of Satan against God There must be a supernatural Principle before we can live a supernatural Life i. e. live to God since we are naturally alienated from the Life of God The aversion of our Natures from God is as strong as our inclination to evil we are disgusted with one and pressed with the other we have no will no heart to come to God in any service This Nature must be broken in pieces and new moulded before we can make God our Rule and our End While mens deeds are evil they cannot comply with God * Joh. 3.19 20. much less while their natures are evil Till this be done all the service a man performs riseth from some evil imagination of the heart which is evil only evil and that continually * Gen. 6.5 from wrong Notions of God wrong Notions of Duty or corrupt Motives All the pretences of Devotion to God are but the Adoration of some golden Image Prayers to God for the ends of self are like those of the Devil to our Saviour when he askt leave to go into the Herd of Swine The Object was right Christ the end was the destruction of the Swine and the satisfaction of their malice to the Owners There is a necessity then that depraved ends should be removed that that which was Gods end in our framing may be our end in our acting viz. his glory which cannot be without a change of Nature We can never honour him supreamly whom we do not supreamly love Till this be we cannot glorifie God as God though we do things by his Command and Order no more than when God imployed the Devil in afflicting Job * Job 1. His performance cannot be said to be good because his end was not the same with Gods he acted out of Malice what God commanded out of Soveraignity and for gracious designs Had God imployed an Holy Angel in his design upon Job the Action had been good in the Affliction because his Nature was holy and therefore his ends holy but bad in the Devil because his ends were base and unworthy 4. We may gather from hence the difficulty of Conversion and Mortification to follow thereupon What is the reason men receive no more impression from the Voice of God and the Light of his Truth than a dead man in the Grave doth from the roaring Thunder or a blind Mole from the Light of the Sun 'T is because our Atheism is as great as the deadness of the one or the blindness of the other The Principle in the heart is strong to shut the door both of the thoughts and affections against God If a Friend oblige us we shall act for him as for our selves We are won by intreaties soft words overcome us but our hearts are as deaf as the hardest Rock at the call of God Neither the joys of Heaven proposed by him can allure us nor the flasht terrors of Hell affright us to him as if we conceived God unable to bestow the one or execute the other The true reason is God and self contest for the Deity The Law of Sin is God must be at the foot-stool the Law of God is Sin
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
to the Holiness of God as a frothy unmelted heart and a wanton fancy in a time of worship God is so holy that if we could offer the worship of Angels and the quintessence of our Souls in his service it would be beneath his infinite purity How unworthy then are they of him when they are presented not only without the sense of our uncleaness but sullied with the fumes and exhalations of our corrupt affections which are as so many Plague spots upon our duties contrary to the unspotted purity of the Divine Nature Is not this an unworthy conceit of God and injurious to his infinite Holiness 9. 'T is against the Love and Kindness of God 'T is a condescension in God to admit a piece of Earth to offer up a duty to him when he hath miriads of Angels to attend him in his Court and celebrate his Praise To admit Man to be an Attendant on him and a Partner with Angels is a high favour 'T is not a single mercy but a heap of mercies to be admitted into the presence of God Psal 5.7 I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies When the blessed God is so kind as to give us access to his Majesty do we not undervalue his kindness when we deal uncivilly with him and deny him the choicest part of our selves 'T is a contempt of his Soveraignty as our Spirits are due to him by nature a contempt of his Goodness as our Spirits are due to him by gratitude How abusive a carriage is it to make use of his mercy to encourage our impudence that should excite our fear and reverence How unworthy would it be for an indigent Debtor to bring to his indulgent Creditor an empty Purse instead of Payment When God holds out his Golden Scepter to encourage our approaches to him stands ready to give us the pardon of sin and full felicity the best things he hath Is it a fit requital of his kindness to give him a formal outside only a shadow of Religion to have the heart overswayed with other thoughts and affections as if all his profers were so contemptible as to deserve only a slight at our hands 'T is a contempt of the love and kindness of God 10. 'T is against the Sufficiency and Fullness of God When we give God our Bodies and the Creature our Spirits it intimates a conceit that there is more content to be had in the Creature than in God blessed for ever that the waters in the Cistern are sweeter than those in the Fountain Is not this a practical giving God the Lye and denying those promises wherein he hath declared the satisfaction he can give to the Spirit as he is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh If we did imagin the excellency and loveliness of God were worthy to be the ultimate Object of our affections the heart would attend more closely upon him and be terminated in him did we believe God to be all sufficient full of grace and goodness a tender Father not willing to forsake his own willing as well as able to supply their wants the heart would not so lamely attend upon him and would not upon every impertinency be diverted from him There is much of a wrong notion of God and a predominancy of the world above him in the heart when we can more savourly relish the thoughts of low inferior things than heavenly and let our Spirits upon every trifling occasion be fugitives from him 'T is a testimony that we make not God our chiefest good If apprehensions of his excellency did possess our Souls they would be fastned on him glued to him we should not listen to that rabble of foolish thoughts that steal our hearts so often from him Were our breathings after God as strong as the pantings of the Hart after the water Brooks we should be like that Creature not diverted in our Course by every Puddle Were God the predominant satisfactory Object in our eye he would carry our whole Soul along with him When our Spirits readily retreat from God in worship upon every giddy motion 't is a kind of repentance that ever we did come near him and implies that there is a fuller satisfaction and more attractive excellency in that which doth so easily divert us than in that God to whose worship we did pretend to address our selves 'T is as if when we were petitioning a Prince we should immediately turn about and make request to one of his Guard as though so mean a person were more able to give us the boon we want than the Soveraign is 2. Consideration by way of motive To have our Spirits off from God in worship is a bad sign It was not so in Innocence The heart of Adam could cleave to God the Law of God was engraven upon him he could apply himself to the fulfilling of it without any twinkling there was no folly and vanity in his mind no independency in his thoughts no duty was his burden for there was in him a proneness to and delight in all the duties of worship 'T is the Fall hath distempered us and the more unwieldiness there is in our Spirits the more carnal our affections are in worship the more evidence there is of the strength of that revolted state 1. It argues much corruption in the heart As by the eructations of the Stomach we may judge of the windiness and foulness of it so by the inordinate motions of our minds and hearts we may judge of the weakness of its complexion A strength of sin is evidenced by the eruptions and ebullitions of it in worship when they are more sudden numerous and vigorous than the motions of grace When the heart is apt like tinder to catch fire from Satan 't is a sign of much combustible matter sutable to his temptation Were not corruption strong the Soul could not turn so easily from God when it is in his presence and hath an advantagious opportunity to create a fear and aw of God in it Such base fruit could not sprout up so suddenly were there not much sap and juice in the root of sin What communion with a living root can be evidenced without exercises of an inward life That Spirit which is a Well of living waters in a gracious heart will be especially springing up when it is before God 2. It shews much affection to earthly things and little to heavenly There must needs be an inordinate affection to earthly things when upon every slight sollicitation we can part with God and turn the back upon a service glorious for him and advantagious for our selves to wedd our hearts to some idle fancy that signifies nothing How can we be said to entertain God in our affections when we give him not the precedency in our understandings but let every trifle justle the sense of God out of our minds Were our hearts fully determined to spiritual things such vanities could not seat themselves in our
performance of his Promise we argue with him from his faithfulness so in the fear of any insincerity or hidden Corruption we should implore his Omnscience For as God is a God in Covenant our God our God in the whole of his Nature so the Perfections of his Nature are employed in their several Stations as assistances of his Creatures This was David's Practice and Comfort after that large Meditation on the Omniscience and Omnipresence of God he turns his thoughts of it into Petitions for the employment of it in the concerns of his Soul and begs a Mercy suitable to the glory of this Perfection Psal 139.23 Search me Oh God and trie my heart trie me and know my thoughts Dive to the bottom Verse 24. And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way Everlasting His desire is not barely that God should know him for it would be senseless to beg of God that he should have Mercy or faithfulness or power or knowledge in his Nature but he desires the exercise of this Attribute in the discovery of himself to himself in order to his sight of any wicked way and Humiliation for it and Reformation of it in order to his Conduct to Everlasting Life As we may appeal to this Perfection to Judge us when the sincerity of our Actions is Censured by others so we may implore it to search us when our sincerity is question'd by our selves That our Minds may be enlightned by a Beam from his Knowledge and the little Thieves may be pull'd out of their Dens in our Hearts by the hand of his Power In particular it is our Comfort that we can and our necessity that we must Address particularly to this when we engage solemnly in a work of self-examination that we may have a clearer Eye to direct us than our own that we may not mistake Brass for Gold or counterfeit Graces for true that nothing that is filthy and fit to be cast out may escape our Sight and preserve its Station And we need not question the laying at the Door of this neglect viz. not calling in this Attribute to our Aid whose proper Office it is as I may so say to search and enquire all the mistakes ill success and fruitlessness of our endeavours in self-examination because we would engage in it in the pitiful strength of our own dimness and not in the light of Gods Countenance and the assistance of his Eye which can discern what we cannot see and discover that to us which we cannot manifest to our selves 'T is a Comfort to a learner of an Art to have a skilful Eye to overlook his work and inform him of the defects Beg the help of the Eye of God in all your searches and self-examinations 9. The Consideration of this Attribute is Comfortable in our assurances of and reflections upon the pardon of Sin or seeking of it As God punishes Men for Sin according to his knowledge of them which is greater than the knowledge their own Consciences have of them so he pardons according to his knowledge He pardons not only according to our knowledge but according to his own He is greater than any Mans Heart to condemn for that which a Man is at present ignorant of and greater than our Hearts to pardon that which is not at present visible to us He knows that which the most watchful Conscience cannot take a survey of If God had not an infinite Understanding of us how could we have a perfect and full pardon from him It would not stand with his Honour to pardon he knew not what He knows what Crimes we have to be pardon'd when we know not all of them our selves that stand in need of a gracious Remission His Omniscence beholds every Sin to charge it upon our Saviour If he knows our Sins that are black he knows every mite of Christs Righteousness which is pure and the utmost extent of his Merits as well as the demerit of our iniquities As he knows the filth of our Sin he also knows the covering of our Saviour He knows the value of the Redeemers Sufferings and exactly understands every Plea in the intercession of our Advocate Though God knows our Sins oculo indice yet he doth not see them oculo judice with a Judicial Eye His Omniscience stirs not up his Justice to Revenge but his Mercy to Pity His infinite Understanding of what Christ hath done directs him to disarm his Justice and sound an Alarm to his Bowels As he understands better than we what we have committed so he understands better than we what our Saviour hath merited and his Eye directs his Hand in the blotting out Guilt and applying the Remedy 3. The third Use shall be to Sinners to humble them and put them upon serious Consideration This Attribute speaks terrible things to a Profligate Sinner Basil thinks that the ripping open the Sins of the Damned to their faces by this Perfection of God is more terrible than their other Torments in Hell God knows the Persons of Wicked Men not one is exempted from his Eye he sees all the actions of Men as well as he knows their Persons Job 11.11 He knows vain Men he sees wickedness also Job 34.21 His Eye is upon all their goings He hears the most private Whispers Psal 139.4 the scope manner circumstance of speaking he knows it altogether He understands all our thoughts the first bubblings of that bitter Spring Psal 139.2 The quickest glances of the Fancy the closest musings of the Mind and the abortive wouldings or wishes of the Will the language of the Heart as well as the language of the Tongue Not a foolish thought or an idle word not a wanton glance or a dishonest action Not a negligent service or a distracting fancy but is more visible to him than the filth of a Dunghill can be to any Man by the help of a Sun Beam How much better would it be for desperate Sinners to have their Crimes known to all the Angels in Heaven and Men upon Earth and Devils in Hell than that they should be known to their Soveraign whose Laws they have violated and to their Judge whose Righteousness obligeth him to revenge the injury 1. Consider What a poor Refuge is secrecy to a Sinner Not the Mysts of a foggy Day nor the obscurity of the darkest Night not the closest Curtains nor the deepest Dungeon can hide any Sin from the Eye of God Adam is known in his Thickets and Jonah in his Cabin Achan's Wedge of Gold is discern'd by him though buried in the Earth and hooded with a Tent. Shall Sarah be unseen by him when she mockingly laughs behind the Door Shall Gehazy tell a Lye and comfort himself with an imagination of his Masters ignorance as long as God knows it Whatsoever works Men do are not hid from God whither done in the darkness or Day-light in the Mid-night darkness or the Noon-day Sun He is all Eye
we see all his acts we cannot see all the draughts of his skill in them An unskilful hearer of a musical lesson may receive the melody with his Ear and understand not the rarities of the composition as it was wrought by the Musitians mind Under the old Testament there was more of Divine Power and less of his Wisdom apparent in his acts As his Laws so his acts were more fitted to their Sense Under the new Testament there is more of Wisdom and less of power As his Laws so his acts are more fitted to a spiritual mind Wisdom is less discernable than power Our Wisdom therefore in this case as it doth in other things consists in silence and expectation of the end and event of a work We owe that honour to God that we do to men wiser than our selves to imagin he hath reason to do what he doth though our shallowness cannot comprehend it We must suffer God to be wiser than our selves and acknowledg that there is something soveraign in his waies not to be measured by the feeble reed of our weak understandings And therefore we should acquiesce in his proceedings take heed we be not found slanderers of God but be adorers instead of Censurers and lift up our hands in admiration of him and his waies instead of citing him to answer it at our Bar. Many things in the first appearance may seem to be rash and unjust which in the Issue appear comely and regular If it had been plainly spoke before that the Son of God should dye that a most holy person should be crucified it would have seemed cruel to expose a Son to misery unjust to inflict punishment upon one that was no Criminal to joyn together exact Goodness and Physical evil that the Soveraign should dye for the Malefactor and the Observer of the Law for the Violators of it But when the whole design is unravelled what an admirable connexion is there of Justice and Mercy Love and Wisdom which before would have appeared absurd to the muddied reason of man We see the Gardiner pulling up some delightful Flowers by the roots digging up the Earth overwhelming it with Dung an ignorant person would imagine him wild out of his wits and charge him with spoiling his Garden But when the Spring is arrived the spectator will acknowledge his skill in his former Operations The truth is the whole design and methods of God are not to be judged by us in this World the full declaration of the whole contexture is reserved for the other World to make up a part of good mens happiness in the amazing views of divine Wisdom as well as the other perfections of his nature We can no more perfectly understand his Wisdom than we can his Mercy and Iustice till we see the last lines of all drawn and the full expressions of them We should therefore be sober and modest in the consideration of Gods ways his Judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out The riches of his Wisdom are past our counting his depths not to be fathomed yet they are depths of righteousness and equity Though the full manifestation of that equity the grounds and methods of his proceedings are unknown to us As we are too short fully to know God so we are too ignorant fully to comprehend the acts of God Since he is a God of Judgment we should wait till we see the issue of his works Esa 30.18 And in the mean time with the Apostle in the Text give him the glory of all in the same expressions To the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen A DISCOURSE UPON THE Power of God Job 26.14 Loe these are parts of his wayes but how little a portion is heard of him but the thunder of his power who can understand BILDAD had in the foregoing Chapter entertain'd Job with a Discourse of the dominion and power of God and the purity of his righteousness whence he argues an impossibility of the justification of Man in his Presence who is no better than a Worm Job in this Chapter acknowledges the greatness of Gods power and descants more largely upon it than Bildad had done but doth Preface it with a kind of Ironical speech as if he had not acted a friendly part or spake little to the purpose or the matter in hand The subject of Job's Discourse was the worldly happiness of the Wicked and the Calamities of the Godly And Bildad reads him a Lecture of the extent of Gods Dominion the number of his Armies and the unspotted rectitude of his Nature in comparison of which the purest Creatures are foul and crooked Job therefore from verse 1. to verse 4. taxeth him in a kind of scoffing manner that he had not touched the Point but rambled from the Subject in hand and had not applyed a Salve proper to his Sore Verse 2. How hast thou helped him that is without power how savest thou the arm of him that hath no strength c. your discourse is so impertinent that it will neither strengthen a weak person nor instruct a simple one * Munster But since Bildad would take up the Argument of Gods Power and discourse so short of it Job would shew that he wanted not his Instructions in that kind and that he had more distinct Conceptions of it than his Antagonist had uttered And therefore from verse 5. to the end of the Chapter he doth magnificently treat of the Power of God in several Branches And verse 5. he begins with the lowest Dead things are formed from under the waters and the inhabitants thereof You read me a Lecture of the Power of God in the heavenly Host Indeed it is visible there yet of a larger extent and Monuments of it are found in the lower parts What do you think of those dead things under the Earth and Waters of the Corn that dies and by the moysâ—â—ng influences of the Clouds springs up again with a numerous progeny and increase for the nourishment of man What do you think of those varieties of Metals and Minerals conceived in the bowels of the Earth those Pearls and Riches in the depths of the Waters midwifed by this Power of God Add to these those more prodigious Creatures in the Sea the Inhabitants of the Waters with their vastness and variety which are all the Births of Gods Power both in their first Creation by his mighty Voice and their propagation by his cherishing Providence Stop not here but consider also that his Power extends to Hell either the Graves the Repositories of all the crumbled dust that hath yet been in the World for so Hell is sometimes taken in Scripture Verse 6. Hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering The several lodgings of deceased men are known to him No skreen can obscure them from his sight nor their dissolution be any bar to his Power when the time is come to compact those mouldred Bodies to entertain
Instruments He needs no Matter to work upon because he can make something from nothing all Matter owes it self to his Creative Power He needs no time to work in for he can make Time when he pleases to begin to work He needs no Copy to work by Himself is his own Pattern and Copy in his Works All created Agents want Matter to work upon Instruments to work with Copies to work by Time to bring either the births of their Minds or the works of their hands to perfection But the Power of God needs none of these things but is of a vast and Incomprehensible nature beyond all these As nothing can be done without the compass of it so it self is without the compass of every Created Understanding 4. This Power is of a distinct conception from the Wisdom and Will of God They are not really distinct but according to our Conceptions We cannot discourse of Divine things without observing some proportion of them with humane ascribing unto God the Perfections sifted from the Imperfections of our Nature In Us there are three Orders of Understanding Will Power and accordingly three Acts Counsel Resolution Execution which though they are distinct in Us are not really distinct in God In our Conceptions the Apprehension of a thing belongs to the Understanding of God Determination to the Will of God Direction to the Wisdom of Gâ—d Execution to the Power of God The Knowledge of God regards a thing as possible and as it may be done the Wisdom of God regards a thing as fit and convenient to be done the Will of God resolves that it shall be done the Power of God is the application of his Will to effect what it hath resolved Wisdom is a fixing the Being of things the measures and perfections of their several Beings Power is a conferring those Perfections and Beings upon them His Power is his ability to act and his Wisdom is the Director of his action His Will orders his Wisdom guides and his Power effects His Will as the spring and his Power as the worker are exprest Psal 115.3 He hath done whatsoever he pleased He commanded and they were created Psal 140.5 and all three exprest Eph. 1.11 Who works all things according to the counsel of his own will So that the Power of God is a Perfection as it were subordinate to his Understanding and Will to execute the results of his Wisdom and the orders of his Will to his VVisdom as directing because he works skilfully to his Will as moving and applying because he works voluntarily and freely The exercise of his Power depends upon his Will His Will is the supream cause of every thing that stands up in Time and all things receive a Being as he wills them His Power is but Will perpetually working and diffusing it self in the season his Will hath fixed from Eternity 't is his Eternal Will in perpetual and successive springs and streams in the Creatures 't is nothing else but the constant efficacy of his Omnipotent Will This must be understood of his Ordinate Power But his Absolute Power is larger than his Resolving Will for though the Scripture tells us He hath done whatsoever he will yet it tells us not that he hath done whatsoever he could He can do things that he will never do Again His Power is distinguisht from his Will in regard of the Exercise of it which is after the act of his Will His Will was conversant about Objects when his Power was not exercis'd about them Creatures were the objects of his VVill from Eternity but they were not from Eternity the effects of his Power His Purpose to Create was from Eternity but the execution of his Purpose was in Time Now this execution of his VVill we call his Ordinate Power His VVisdom and his VVill are supposed antecedent to his Power as the Counsel and Resolve as the Cause precedes the performance of the Purpose as the effect * Gamacheus Some distinguish his Power from his Understanding and VVill in regard that his Understanding and VVill are larger than his Absolute Power for God understands Sins and wills to permit them but he cannot himself do any Evil or Unjust action nor have a power of doing it But this is not to distinguish that Divine Power but Impotence for to be unable to do Evil is the perfection of Power and to be able to do things Unjust and Evil is a weakness imperfection and inability Man indeed wills many things that he is not able to perform and understands many things that he is not able to effect he understands much of the Creatures something of Sun Moon and Stars he can conceive many Suns many Moons yet is not able to create the least Atom But there is nothing that belongs to Power but God understands and is able to effect To sum this up The VVill of God is the Root of all the VVisdom of God is the Copy of all and the Power of God is the Framer of all 5. The Power of God gives activity to all the other perfections of his Nature and is of a larger extent and efficacy in regard of its Objects than some perfections of his Nature I put them both together 1. It contributes Life and Activity to all the other perfections of his Nature How vain would be his Eternal Counsels if Power did not step in to execute them His Mercy would be a feeble pity if he were destitute of Power to relieve and his Justice a slighted Scarecrow without Power to punish his Promises an empty sound without Power to accomplish them As Holiness is the Beauty so Power is the Life of all his Attributes in their exercise and as Holiness so Power is an Adjunct belonging to All a Term that may be given to All. God hath a powerful Wisdom to attain his Ends without interruption He hath a powerful Mercy to remove our Misery a powerful Justice to lay all Misery upon Offenders He hath a powerful Truth to perform his Promises an Infinite Power to bestow Rewards and inflict Penalties 'T is to this purpose Power is first put in the two things which the Psalmist had heard Psal 62.11 12. Twice have I heard or two things have I heard first Power then Mercy and Justice included in that expression Thou rendrest to every man according to his work In every perfection of God he heard of Power This is the Arm the Hand of the Deity which all his other Attributes lay hold on when they would appear in their Glory this hands them to the World by this they act in this they triumph Power framed every stage for their appearance in Creation Providence Redemption 2. 'T is of a larger extent in regard of its Objects than some other Attributes Power doth not alway suppose an Object but constitutes an Object It supposeth an Obiect in the act of Preservation but it makes an Object in the act of Creation but Mercy supposeth an object Miserable
in Scripture the strongest Affirmations or Negations 'T is here a strong affirmation of the Incomparableness of God and a strong denial of the worthiness of all Creatures to be partners with him in the degrees of his Excellency 'T is a preference of God before all Creatures in Holiness to which the purity of Creatures is but a shadow in desert of Reverence and Veneration he being Fearful in praises The Angels cover their Faces when they adore him in his particular Perfections Amongst the gods Among the Idols of the Nations say some Others say * River 'T is not to be found that the Heathen Idols are ever dignified with the Title of Strong or Mighty as the word translated Gods doth import and therefore understand it of the Angels or other Potentates of the World or rather inclusively of all that are noted for and can lay claim to the Title of Strength and Might upon the Earth or in Heaven God is so great and Majestick that no Creature can share with him in his Praise Fearful in praises Various are the Interpretations of this passage To be reverenc'd in praises his Praise ought to be celebrated with a Religious Fear Fear is the product of his Mercy as well as his Justice He hath forgiveness that he may be feared Psal 130.4 Or Fearful in praises whom none can praise without Amazement at the considerations of his works †Calvin None can truly praise him without being affected with Astonishment at his Greatness Or Fearful in praises | Munster whom no Mortal can sufficiently praise since he is above all Praise Whatsoever a Human Tongue can speak or an Angelical Understanding think of the Excellency of his Nature and the Greatness of his Works falls short of the vastness of the Divine Perfection A Creatures Praises of God are as much below the transcendent Eminency of God as the meaness of a Creatures Being is below the Eternal Fulness of the Creator Or rather Fearful or Terrible in praises that is in the Matter of thy Praise And the Learned Rivet concurs with me in this sense The Works of God celebrated in this Song were Terrible It was the Miraculous overthrow of the Strength and Flower of a Mighty Nation His Judgments were severe as well as his Mercy was seasonable The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Glorious and Illustrious as well as Terrible and Fearful No Man can hear the Praise of thy Name for those great Judicial Acts without some Astonishment at thy Justice the stream and thy Holiness the Spring of those Mighty Works This seems to be the sense of the following words Doing wonders Fearful in the Matter of thy Praise they being Wonders which thou hast done among us and for us Doing wonders Congealing the Waters by a Wind to make them stand like Walls for the rescue of the Israelites and melting them by a Wind for the overthrow of the Egyptians are Prodigies that challenge the greatest Adorations of that Mercy which delivered the one and that Justice which punished the other and of the Arm of that Power whereby he effected both his Gracious and his Righteous Purposes Doctr. Whence observe That the Judgments of God upon his Enemies as well as his Mercies to his People are matter of Praise The Perfections of God appear in both Justice and Mercy are so linkt together in his acts of Providence that the one cannot be forgotten whiles the other is acknowledged He is never so Terrible as in the Assemblies of his Saints and the Deliverance of them Psal 89.7 As the Creation was erected by him for his Glory so all the Acts of his Government are design'd for the same end And his Creatures deny him his due if they acknowledge not his Excellency in whatsoever dreadful as well as pleasing Garbs it appears in the World His Terror as well as his Righteousness appears when he is a God of Salvation Psal 65.5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us oh God of our Salvation But the Expression I pitch upon in the Text to handle is Glorious in Holiness He is Magnified or Honourable in Holiness so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated Isai 42.21 He will magnifie the Law and make it honourable Thy Holiness hath shone forth admirably in this last Exploit against the Enemies and Oppressors of thy People The Holiness of God is his Glory as his Grace is his Riches Holiness is his Crown and his Mercy is his Treasure This is the Blessedness and Nobleness of his Nature it renders him Glorious in himself and Glorious to his Creatures that understand any thing of this lovely Perfection Doctr. Holiness is a glorious Perfection belonging to the Nature of God Hence he is in Scripture styled often the Holy one the Holy one of Jacob the Holy one of Israel and oftner entituled Holy than Almighty and set forth by this part of his Dignity more than by any other This is more affix'd as an Epithete to his Name than any other You never find it exprest his Mighty Name or his Wise Name but his Great Name and most of all his Holy Name This is his greatest Title of Honour in this doth the Majesty and Venerableness of his Name appear When the Sinfulness of Senacherib is aggravated the Holy Ghost takes the rise from this Attribute 2 Kings 19.22 Thou hast lift up thine eyes on high even against the Holy one of Israel not against the Wise Mighty c. but against the Holy one of Israel as that wherein the Majesty of God was most illustrious 'T is upon this account he is called Light as Impurity is called Darkness both in this sense are opposed to one another He is a pure and unmixt Light free from all blemish in his Essence Nature and Operations 1. Heathens have own'd it Proclus calls him the Vndefiled Governour of the World * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Poetical Transformations of their False gods and the Extravagancies committed by them was in the account of the wisest of them an unholy thing to report and hear †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ammon in Plut. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Delphos p. 393. ‖ Gassend Tom. 1. Phys §. 1. lib. 4. cap. 2. p. 289. And some vindicate Epicurus from the Atheism wherewith he was commonly charged that he did not deny the Being of God but those Adulterous and contentious Deities the People worshipped which were Practises unworthy and unbecoming the Nature of God Hence they asserted that Vertue was an Imitation of God and a Vertuous Man bore a resemblance to God If Vertue were a Copy from God a greater Holiness must be owned in the Original And when some of them were at a loss how to free God from being the Author of Sin in the World they ascribe the birth of Sin to Matter and run into an absurd Opinion fancying it to be uncreated that thereby they might exempt God from
knowledge of his own Nature and of the evil nature of Sin and the contrariety of it to his own Excellency and the order of his works 2. Therefore intensely Nothing do men act for more than their glory As he doth infinitely and therefore perfectly know himself so he infinitely and therefore perfectly knows what is contrary to himself and as according to the manner and measure of his knowledge of himself is his love to himself as infinite as his knowledge and therefore unexpressible and unconceivable by us So from the perfection of his knowledge of the evil of Sin which is infinitely above what any Creature can have doth arise a displeasure against it sutable to that knowledge In Creatures the degrees of affection to or aversion from a thing are suted to the strength of their apprehensions of the good or evil in them God knows not only the workers of wickedness but the wickedness of their works ‖ Job 11.11 for he knows vain men he sees wickedness also The vehemency of this hatred is exprest variously in Scripture he loaths it so that he is impatient of beholding it the very sight of it affects him with detestation Hab. 1.13 he hates the first spark of it in the imagination Zach. 8.17 with what variety of expressions doth he repeat his indignation at their polluted Services Amos 5.21 22. I hate I detest I despise I will not smell I will not accept I will not regard take away from me the noise of thy Songs I will not hear So Isai 1.14 My Soul hates they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them 'T is the abominable thing that he hates Jer. 44.4 he is vexed and fretted at it Isai 63.10 Ezek. 16.43 He abhors it so that his hatred redounds upon the Person that commits it Psal 5.5 He hates all workers of Iniquity Sin is the only primary Object of his Displeasure He is not displeas'd with the Nature of man as man for that was derived from him but with the Nature of man as sinful which is from the sinner himself When a man hath but one Object for the exercise of all his Anger 't is stronger than when diverted to many Objects A mighty Torrent when diverted into many Streams is weaker than when it comes in a full Body upon once place only The Infinite anger and hatred of God which is as infinite as his love and mercy has no other Object against which he directs the mighty force of it but only Unrighteousness He hates no Person for all the penal Evils upon him though they were more by ten thousand times than Job was struck with but only for his sin Again Sin being only evil and an unmixt evil there is nothing in it that can abate the detestation of God or ballance his hatred of it there is not the least grain of goodness in it to encline him to the least affection to any part of it This hatred cannot but be intense for as the more any Creature is sanctified the more is he advanc'd in the abhorrence of that which is contrary to Holiness therefore God being the Highest most Absolute and Infinite Holiness doth infinitely and therefore intensly hate unholiness being infinitely righteous doth infinitely abhor unrighteousness being infinitely true doth infinitely abhor falsity as it is the greatest and most deformed evil As it is from the righteousness of his Nature that he hath a content and satisfaction in righteousness Psal 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth righteousness So it is from the same righteousness of his Nature that he detests whatsoever is morally evil As his Nature therefore is Infinite so must his abhorrence be 3. Therefore universally because necessarily and intensly He doth not hate it in one and indulge it in another but loaths it wherever he finds it not one worker of Iniquity is exempt from it Psal 5.5 Thou hatest all workers of iniquity For it is not sin as in this or that person or as great or little but sin as sin is the Object of his hatred And therefore let the person be never so great and have particular Characters of his Image upon him it secures him not from God's hatred of any evil action he shall commit He is a jealous God jealous of his Glory * Exod. 20.5 a Metaphor taken from jealous Husbands who will not indure the least Adultery in their Wives nor God the least defection of man from his Law Every act of sin is a spiritual Adultery denying God to be the chief Good and giving that Prerogative by that Act to some vile thing He loves it no more in his own People than he doth in his Enemies he frees them not from his Rod the testimony of his loathing their Crimes Whosoever sows Iniquity shall reap Affliction It might be thought that he affected their Dross if he did not refine them and loved their filth if he did not cleanse them because of his detestation of their sin he will not spare them from the Furnace though because of love to their persons in Christ he will exempt them from Tophet How did the Sword ever and anon drop down upon David's Family after his unworthy dealing in Vriah's Case and cut off ever and anon some of the Branches of it He doth sometimes punish it more severely in this Life in his own People than in others Upon Jonah's Disobedience a Storm pursues him and a Whale devours him while the Prophane World lived in their Lusts without controul Moses for one act of Unbelief is excluded from Canaan when greater Sinners attained that happiness 'T is not a light punishment but a vengeance he takes on their Inventions †Psal 99 8. to manifest that he hates sin as sin and not because the worst persons commit it Perhaps had a prophane Man touched the Ark the hand of God had not so suddenly reach'd him But when Vzzah a man zealous for him as may be supposed by his care for the support of the tottering Ark would step out of his place he strikes him down for his disobedient Action by the side of the Ark which he would indirectly as not being a Levite sustain †2 Sam. 6.7 Nor did our Saviour so sharply reprove the Pharisees and turn so short from them as he did from Peter when he gave a carnal advise and contrary to that wherein was to be the greatest manifestation of God's Holiness viz. the Death of Christ ‖ 〈…〉 He calls him Satan a name sharper than the title of the Devil's Children wherewith he marked the Pharisees and given besides him to none but Judas who made a profession of love to him and was outwardly rank'd in the number of his Disciples A Gardiner hates a Weed the more for being in the bed with the most pretious Flowers God's hatred is universally fixed against sin and he hates it as much in those whose Persons shall not fall under his eternal Anger as being secured in
Understanding could not have been imputed to him as his Crime because it would have been not a voluntary but a necessary effect of his Nature had there been an error in the first Wheel the error of the next could not have been imputed to the Nature of that but to the irregular motion of the first Wheel in the Engine The sin of Men and Angels proceeded not from any natural defect in their Understandings but from Inconsideration He that was the Author of Harmony in his other Creatures could not be the Author of Disorder in the chief of his Works Other Creatures were his Footsteps but man was his Image †Gen. 1.26 27. Let us make man in our image after our likeness Which though it seems to imply no more in that place than an Image of his Dominion over the Creatures yet the Apostle raises it a peg higher and gives us a larger Interpretation of it Col. 3.10 And have put on the New-man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him making it to consist in a resemblance to his Righteousness Image say some notes the form as Man was a Spirit in regard of his Soul Likeness notes the quality implanted in his Spiritual Nature The Image of God was drawn in him both as he was a Rational and as he was a holy Creature The Creatures manifested the being of a Superiour Power as their Cause but the Righteousness of the first Man evidenced not only a Soveraign Power as the Donor of his being but a holy Power as the Patern of his Work God appeared to be a holy God in the Righteousness of his Creature as well as an Understanding God in the Reason of his Creature while he formed him with all necessary knowledge in his Mind and all necessary uprightness in his Will The Law of Love to God with his whole soul his whole mind his whole heart and strength was originally writ upon his Nature All the parts of his Nature were framed in a Moral Conformity with God to answer this Law and imitate God in his Purity which consists in a love of himself and his own Goodness and Excellency Thus doth the clearness of the Stream point us to the purer Fountain and the brightness of the Beam evidence a greater splendor in the Sun which shot it out 2. His Holiness appears in his Laws as he is a Law-giver and a Judge Since Man was bound to be subject to God as a Creature and had a capacity to be ruled by the Law as an understanding and willing Creature God gave him a Law taken from the depths of his holy Nature and suted to the Original Faculties of Man The Rules which God hath fixed in the World are not the Resolves of bare Will but result particularly from the Goodness of his Nature They are nothing else but the Transcripts of his Infinite detestation of sin as he is the unblemisht Governour of the World This being the most adorable Property of his Nature he hath imprest it upon that Law which he would have inviolably observed as a perpetual Rule for our Actions that we may every moment think of this beautiful Perfection God can command nothing but what hath some similitude with the rectitude of his own Nature All his Laws every Paragraph of them therefore scent of this and glitter with it Deut. 4.8 What Nation hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous as all this Law I set before you this day and therefore they are compar'd to fine Gold that hath no speck or dross * Psal 19.10 This Purity is evident 1. In the Moral Law or Law of Nature 2. In the Ceremonial Law 3. In the Allurements annext to it for keeping it and the Affrightments to restrain from the breaking of it 4. In the Judgments inflicted for the Violation of it 1. In the Moral Law Which is therefore dignified with the title of holy twice in one Verse Rom. 7.12 Wherefore the Law is holy and the Commandment is holy just and good It being the express Image of God's Will as our Saviour was of his Person and bearing a resemblance to the Purity of his Nature The Tables of this Law were put into the Ark that as the Mercy Seat was to represent the Grace of God so the Law was to represent the Holiness of God †Psal 19.1 The Psalmist after he had spoken of the Glory of God in the Heavens wherein the Power of God is exposed to our view introduceth the Law wherein the Purity of God is evidenc'd to our Minds ‖ Vers 7 8. c. perfect pure clean righteous are the titles given to it 'T is clearer in Holiness than the Sun is in brightness and more mighty in it self to command the Conscience than the Sun is to run its Race As the Holiness of the Scripture demonstrates the Divinity of its Author so the Holiness of the Law doth the Purity of the Law-giver 1. The purity of this Law is seen in the Matter of it It prescribes all that becomes a Creature towards God and all that becomes one Creature towards another of his own rank and kind The Image of God is compleat in the Holiness of the first Table and the Righteousness of the second which is intimated by the Apostle Eph. 4.24 the one being the Rule of what we owe to God the other being the Rule of what we owe to man There is no good but it enjoyns and no evil but it disowns 'T is not sickly and lame in any part of it not a good action but it gives it its due praise and not an evil action but it sets a condemning mark upon The Commands of it are frequently in Scripture call'd Judgments because they rightly judge of good and evil and are a clear light to inform the Judgment of Man in the knowledge of both By this was the Understanding of David enlightned to know every false way and to hate it * Psal 119.104 There is no Case can happen but may meet with a determination from it It teaches men the noblest manner of living a life like God himself honourably for the Law-giver and joyfully for the subject It directs us to the highest End sets us at a distance from all base and sordid Practises it proposeth Light to the Understanding and Goodness to the Will It would Tune all the Strings set right all the Orders of Mankind It censures the least Mote countenanceth not any stain in the Life Not a wanton Glance can meet with any justification from it * Mat. 5.28 not a rash Anger but it frowns upon †Mat. 5.22 As the Law-giver wants nothing as an Addition to his Blessedness so his Law wants nothing as a Supplement to its perfection Deut. 4 2. What our Saviour seems to add is not an Addition to mend any defects but a restoration of it from the corrupt Glosses wherewith the Scribes and Pharisees had eclipst the brightness of
a lower measure much more will he love it in a higher degree because then his Image is more illustrious and beautiful and comes nearer to the lively lineaments of his own Infinite Purity Perfection in any thing is more lovely and amiable than Imperfection in any state and the nearer any thing arrives to Perfection the further are those things separated from it which might Cool an affection to it An increase in holiness is attended with a manifestation of his love Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keeps them he it is that loves me and he shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and I will manifest my self to him T is a testimony of love to God and God will not be behind hand with the Creature in kindness He loves a holy man for some resemblance to him in his Nature but when there is an abounding in Sanctified dispositions sutable to it there is an increase of savour The more we resemble the Original the more shall we enjoy the blessedness of that Original As any partake more of the Divine likeness they partake more of the Divine happiness 5. Exhortation Let us carry our selves holily in a spiritual manner in all our religious approaches to God Psal 93.5 Holiness becomes thy house O Lord for ever This Attribute should work in us a deep and reverential respect to God This is the reason rendred why we should worship at his foot-stool in the lowest posture of humility prostrate before him because he is holy †Psal 99.5 Shooes must be put off from our feet Exod. 3.5 that is Lusts from our Affections every thing that our souls are clogged and bemired with as the Shooe is with dirt He is not willing we should offer to him an impure soul mired hearts rotten carcasses putrified in vice rotten in iniquity Our Services are to be as free from prophaness as the sacrifices of the Law were to be free from sickliness or any blemish Whatsoever is contrary to his Purity is abhorred by him and unlovely in his sight and can meet with no other success at his hands but a disdainful turning away both of his eye and ear ‖ Isa 1.15 Since he is an Immense purity he will reject from his presence and from having any communion with him all that which is not conformable to him as light chases away the darkness of the night and will not mix with it If we stretch out our hands towards him we must put iniquity farr away from us * Job 11.13 14. the fruits of all Service will else drop off to nothing Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord When when the heart is purged by Christ sitting as a purifier of silver †Mal. 3.3 4. Not all the Incense of the Indies yield him so sweet a Savour as one spiritual act of worship from a heart estranged from the vileness of the World and ravisht with an affection to and a desire of imitating the Puririty of his Nature 6. Exhortation Let us address for holiness to God the fountain of it As he is the Author of bodily life in the Creature so he is the Author of his own life the life of God in the soul By his holiness he makes men holy as the Sun by his light enlightens the Air. He is not only the Holy One but our holy One ‖ Isa 43.15 The Lord that sanctifies us Levit. 20.8 As he hath mercy to pardon us so he hath holiness to purify us the excellency of being a Sun to comfort us and a Shield to protect us giving Grace and Glory * Psal 84.11 Grace whereby we may have Communion with him to our comfort and strength against our spiritual enemies for our defence Grace as our preparatory to glory and Grace growing up till it ripen in Glory He only can mould us into a Divine frame The great Original can only derive the excellency of his own Nature to us We are too low too lame to lift up our selves to it too much in love with our own Deformity to admit of this Beauty without a heavenly power inclining our desires for it our affections to it our willingness to be partakers of it He can as soon set the beauty of Holiness in a deformed heart as the beauty of Harmony in a confused mass when he made the World He can as soon cause the light of Purity to rise out of the darkness of Corruption as frame glorious spirits out of the insufficiency of nothing His beauty doth not decay he hath as much in himself now as he had in his eternity He is as ready to impart it as he was at the Creation only we must wait upon him for it and be content to have it by small measures and degrees There is no fear of our sanctification if we come to him as a God of holiness since he is a God of peace and the breach made by Adam is repaired by Christ Thes 1.5.23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly c. He restores the sanctifying spirit which was withdrawn by the Fall as he is a God pacified and his holiness righted by the Redeemer The beauty of it appears in its smiles upon a man in Christ and is as ready to impart it self to the reconcil'd Creature as before Iustice was to punish the rebellious one He loves to send forth the streams of this perfection into created Chanels more than any else He did not design the making the Creature so powerfull as he might because power is not such an excellency in its own Nature but as it is conducted and managed by some other excellency Power is indifferent and may be used well or ill according as the possessor of it is righteous or unrighteous God makes not the Creature so powerful as he might but he delights to make the Creature that waits upon him as holy as it can be beginning it in this world and ripening it in the other 'T is from him we must expect it and from him that we must begg it and draw Arguments from the holiness of his Nature to move him to work holiness in our Spirits We cannot have a stronger plea. Purity is the favourite of his own Nature and delights itself in the resemblances of it in the Creature Let us also go to God to preserve what he hath already wrought and imparted As we cannot attain it so we cannot maintain it without him God gave it Adam and he lost it When God gives it us we shall lose it without his influencing and preserving Grace The chanel will be without a Stream if the Fountain do not bubble it forth and the streams will vanish if the Fountain doth not constantly supply them Let us apply our selves to him for holiness as he is a God glorious in holiness By this we honour God and advantage our selves A DISCOURSE UPON THE Goodness of God Mark 10.18 And Jesus
this let us see 1. What this Goodness is 2. Some Propositions concerning the nature of it 3. That God is Good 4. The manifestation of it in Creation Providence and Redemption 5. The Vse 1. What this Goodness is There is a Goodness of Being which is the natural perfection of a thing There is the Goodness of Will which is the Holiness and Righteousness of a Person There is the Goodness of the Hand which we call Liberality or Beneficence a doing good to others 1. We mean not by this The Goodness of his Essence or the Perfection of his Nature God is thus Good because his Nature is infinitely Perfect He hath all things requisite to the compleating of a most Perfect and Soveraign Being All Good meets in his Essence as all Water meets in the Ocean Under this Notion all the Attributes of God which are requisite to so illustrious a Being are comprehended All things that are have a goodness of being in them derived to them by the Power of God as they are Creatures so the Devil is good as he is a Creature of Gods making He hath a natural goodness but not a moral goodness when he fell from God he retained his natural goodness as a Creature because he did not cease to be he was not reduced to that nothing from whence he was drawn but he ceased to be morally good being stript of his Righteousness by his Apostasie as a Creature he was Gods Work as a Creature he remains still Gods Work and therefore as a Creature remains still good in regard of his created Being The more of Being any thing hath the more of this sort of natural goodness it hath and so the Devil hath more of this natural goodness than Men have because he hath more marks of the Excellency of God upon him in regard of the greatness of his knowledge and the extent of his power the largeness of his capacity and the acuteness of his understanding which are natural perfections belonging to the nature of an Angel though he hath lost his moral perfections God is Soveraignly and infinitely Good in this sort of Goodness He is unsearchably perfect * Job 11.7 nothing is wanting to his Essence that is necessary to the Perfection of it yet this is not that which the Scripture expresseth under the term of Goodness but a Perfection of Gods Nature as related to us and which he poureth forth upon all his Creatures as Goodness which flows from this Natural Perfection of the Deity 2. Nor is it the same with the Blessedness of God but something flowing from his Blessedness VVere he not first infinitely Blessed and Full in Himself he could not be infinitely Good and Diffusive to us had he not an infinite abundance in his own Nature he could not be overflowing to his Creatures Had not the Sun a fulness of Light in it self and the Sea a vastness of VVater the one could not enrich the VVorld with its Beams nor the other fill every Creek with its VVaters 3. Nor is it the same with the Holiness of God The Holiness of God is the rectitude of his Nature whereby he is Pure and without Spot in himself The Goodness of God is the efflux of his VVill whereby he is beneficial to his Creatures The Holiness of God is manifest in his rational Creatures but the Goodness of God extends to all the VVorks of his Hands His Holiness beams most in his Law his Goodness reacheth to every thing that had a Being from him * Psal 145.9 The Lord is Good to all And though he be said in the same Psalm v. 17. to be Holy in all his Works 't is to be understood of his Bounty Bountiful in all his VVorks The Hebrew word signifying both Holy and Liberal and the Margent of the Bible reads it Merciful or Bountiful 4. Nor is this Goodness of God the same with the Mercy of God Goodness extends to more Objects than Mercy Goodness stretcheth it self out to all the VVorks of his Hands Mercy extends only to a miserable Object for it is joined with a sentiment of Pity occasioned by the Calamity of another The Mercy of God is exercised about those that Merit Punishment the Goodness of God is exercised upon Objects that have not merited any thing contrary to the acts of his Bounty Creation is an act of Goodness not of Mercy Providence in governing some part of the VVorld is an act of Goodness not of Mercy * Lombard lib. 1. distinct 46. p. 286. The Heavens saith Austin need the Goodness of God to govern them but not the Mercy of God to relieve them The Earth is full of the Misery of Man and the Compassions of God but the Heavens need not the Mercy of God to pity them because they are not miserable though they need the Goodness and Power of God to sustain them because as Creatures they are impotent without him Gods Goodness extends to the Angels that kept their standing and to Man in Innocence who in that state stood not in need of Mercy Goodness and Mercy are distinct though Mercy be a Branch of Goodness There may be a manifestation of Goodness though none of Mercy Some think Christ had been Incarnate had not Man fallen Had it been so there had been a manifestation of Goodness to our Nature but not of Mercy because Sin had not made our Natures miserable The Devils are Monuments of Gods creating Goodness but not of his Pardoning Compassions The Grace of God respects the rational Creature Mercy the miserable Creature Goodness all his Creatures Brutes and the sensless Plants as well as reasonable Man 5. By Goodness is meant the Bounty of God This is the Notion of goodness in the World when we say a good Man we mean either a holy Man in his life or a charitable and liberal Man in the management of his Goods A righteous Man and a good Man are distinguished * Rom. 5.7 For scarcely for a righteous Man will one die yet for a good Man one would even dare to die For an innocent Man one as innocent of the Crime as Himself would scarce venture his Life but for a good Man a liberal tender-hearted Man that had been a common Good in the place where he lived or had done another as great a benefit as life it self amounts to a Man out of gratitude might dare to die The Goodness of God is his inclination to deal well and bountifully with his Creatures * Coccei sum p. 50. 'T is that whereby he wills there should be something besides Himself for his own Glory God is good in Himself and to Himself i. e. highly amiable to Himself and therefore some define it a Perfection of God whereby he loves himself and his own Excellency but as it stands in Relation to his Creatures 't is that Perfection of God whereby he delights in his Works and is beneficial to them God is the highest Goodness
whence he could draw them No but he denies that good to them which he is able if he pleased to confer upon them If God doth not give that good to a Creature which it wants by its own demerit can he be said to wish evil to it or only to deny that goodness which the Creature hath forfeited †Camere p. 30. and which is at Gods liberty to retain or disperse Though God cannot but love his own Image where he finds it yet when this Image is lost and the Devils Image voluntarily received he may choose whether he will manifest his goodness to such a one or no. Will you not account that Man liberal that distributes his Alms to a great company though he rejects some Much more will you account him good if he rejects none that implore him but dispenseth his doles to every one upon their Petition And is he not good because he will not bestow a Farthing upon those that Address not themselves to him God is so good that he denies not the best good to those that seek him He hath promised Life and Happiness to them that do so Is he less good because he will not distribute his goodness to those that despise him Though he be Good yet his VVisdom is the Rule of dispensing his Goodness 6. The severe Punishment of Offenders and the Afflictions he inflicts upon his Servants are no violations of his Goodness The Notion of Gods Vindictive Justice is as naturally inbred and implanted in the mind of Man as that of his Goodness and those two Sentiments never shockt one another The Heathen never thought him bad because he was just nor unrighteous because he was good God being Infinitely good cannot possibly intend or act any thing but what is good Thou art good and thou dost good i. e. whatsoever thou dost is good whatsoever it be pleasant or painful to the Creature * Ps 119.68 Punishments themselves are not a Moral Evil in the Person that inflicts though they are a Natural Evil in the Person that suffers them †Boetius In ordering Punishment to the VVicked Good is added to Evil In ordering Impunity to the VVicked Evil is added to Evil. To punish VVickedness is Right therefore Good To leave men uncontroul'd in their VVickedness is Unrighteous and therefore Bad. But again Shall his Justice in some few Judgments in the VVorld impeach his Goodness more than his wonderful Patience to Sinners is able to silence the Calumnies against him Is not his hand fuller of gracious Doles than of dreadful Thunderbolts Doth he not oftner seem forgetful of his Justice when he pours out upon the guilty the Streams of his Mercy than to be forgetful of his Goodness when he sprinkles in the VVorld some drops of his VVrath First Gods Judgments in the World do not infringe his Goodness For 1. The justice of God is a part of the goodness of his Nature God himself thought so when he told Moses he would make all his Goodness pass before him * Exod. 33.19 He leaves not out in that enumeration of the parts of it his resolution by no means to clear the Guilty but to visit the Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children †Exod. 34.7 'T is a property of goodness to hate evil and therefore a property of goodness to punish it 'T is no less Righteousness to give according to the deserts of a Person in a way of Punishment than to reward a Person that obeys his Precepts in a way of Recompence VVhatsoever is Righteous is Good Sin is evil and therefore whatsoever doth witness against it is good His Goodness therefore shines in his Justice for without being just he could not be good Sin is a Moral Disorder in the VVorld Every Sin is Injustice Injustice breaks Gods Order in the VVorld there is a necessity therefore of Justice to put the VVorld in order Punishment orders the Person committing the Injury who when he will not be in the order of Obedience must be in the order of suffering for Gods Honour The goodness of all things which God pronounced so consisted in their order and beneficial helpfulness to one another When this order is inverted the goodness of the Creature ceaseth If it be a bad thing to spoil this order Is it not a part of Divine Goodness to reduce them into order that they may be reduced in some measure to their goodness Do we ever account a Governor less in goodness because he is exact in Justice and punisheth that which makes a disorder in his Government And is it a diminution of the Divine Goodness to punish that which makes a Disorder in the VVorld As VVisdom without Goodness would be a Serpentine Craft and issue in destruction so Goodness without Justice would be impotent Indulgence and cast things into confusion When Abels Blood cryed out for Vengeance against Cain it spake a good thing Christs Blood speaking better things than the Blood of Abel implies that Abels Blood spake a good thing the comparative implies a positive * Heb. 12.24 If it were the goodness of that Innocent Blood to demand Justice it could not be a badness in the Sovereign of the World to execute it How can God sustain the part of a Good and Righteous Judge if he did not preserve Humane Society And how would it be preserved without manifesting himself by publick Judgments against publick Wrongs Is there not as great a necessity that Goodness should have Instruments of Judgment as that there should be Prisons Bridewels and Gibbets in a good Commonwealth Did not the Thunderbolts of God sometimes roar in the Ears of Men they would sin with a higher hand than they do fly more in the face of God make the World as much a Moral as it was at first a Natural Chaos The ingenuity of Men would be dampt if there were not something to work upon their fears to keep them in their due order Impunity of the Innocent Person is worse than any Punishment 'T is a Misery to want Medicines for the Cure of a sharp Disease and a Mark of goodness in a Prince to consult for the security of the Political Body by cutting off a Gangren'd and corrupting Member And what Prince would deserve the noble Title of Good if he did not restrain by punishment those Evils which impair the Publick Welfare Is it not necessary that the examples of Sin whereby others have been encourag'd to Wickedness should be made examples of Justice whereby the same Persons and others may be discourag'd from what before they were greedily inclin'd unto Is not a hatred of what is bad and unworthy as much a part of Divine Goodness as a love to what is Excellent and bears a Resemblance to himself Could he possibly be accounted Good that should bear the same degree of Affection to a prodigious Vice as to a sublime Virtue And should behave himself in the same manner of carriage
He never sent his Son to shed a drop of Blood for their Recovery they can expect nothing but the torment of their Persons and the destruction of their Works But we abuse that Goodness that would Rescue us since we are Miserable as well as that Righteousness which Created us Innocent How base is it to use him so ill that is not once or twice but a daily hourly Benefactor to us whose Rain drops upon the Earth for our Food and whose Sun shines upon the Earth for our pleasure as well as profit such a Benefactor as is the true Proprietor of what we have and thinks nothing too good for them that think every thing too much for his Service How unworthy is it to be guilty of such base Carriage towards him whose benefits we cannot want nor live without How disingenuous both to God and our selves to despise the riches of his Goodness that are design'd to lead us to Repentance * Rom. 2.4 and by that to Happiness And more hainous are the Sins of Renew'd Men upon this account because they are against his Goodness not only offer'd to them but tasted by them not only against the Notion of Goodness but the Experience of Goodness and the relisht sweetness of choicest Bounty 3. God takes this Contempt of his Goodness hainously He never upbraids Men with any thing in the Scripture but with the abuse of the good things he hath vouchsaft them and the unmindfulness of the Obligations arising from them This he bears with the greatest regret and indignation Thus he upbraids Eli with the preference of him to the Priesthood above other Families * 1 Sam. 2.28 And David with his Exaltation to the Crown of Israel †2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. when they abused those Honours to carelesness and licentiousness All Sins offend God but Sins against his Goodness do more disparage him and therefore his fury is the greater by how much the more liberally his benefits have been dispens'd It was for abuse of Divine Goodness as soon as it was tasted that some Angels were hurl'd from their Blessed Habitation and more happy Nature It was for this Adam lost his present Enjoyments and future Happiness for the abuse of Gods Goodness in Creation For the abuse of Gods Goodness the old World fell under the fury of the Flood and for the Contempt of the Divine Goodness in Redemption Jerusalem once the darling City of the infinite Monarch of the World was made an Aceldema a Field of Blood For this Cause it is that Candlesticks have been removed great Lights put out Nations overturn'd and Ignorance hath triumph'd in places bright before with the Beams of Heaven God would have little care of his own Goodness if he always prostituted the Fruits of it to our Contempt Why should we expect he should always continue that to us which he sees we will never use to his Service When the Israelites would Dedicate the Gifts of God to the service of Baal then he would return and take away his Corn and his Wine and make them know by the less that those things were his in Dominion which they abus'd as if they had been Soveraign Lords of them * Hos 2.8 9. Benefits are Entail'd up us no longer than we obey †Josh 24.20 If you forsake the Lord he will do you hurt after he hath done you good While we obey his Bounty shall shower upon us and when we revolt his Justice shall consume us Present Mercies abus'd are no Bulwarks against impendent Judgments God hath Curses as well as Blessings and they shall light more heavy when his Blessings have been more weighty Justice is never so severe as when it comes to right Goodness and revenge its quarrel for the injuries received A convenient Enquiry may be here How Gods Goodness is contemn'd or abus'd 1. By a forgetfulness of his Benefits We enjoy the Mercies and forget the Donor we take what he gives and pay not the Tribute he deserves The Israelites forgot God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt * Psal 100 2â— We send Gods Mercies where we would have God send our Sins into the Land of forgetfulness and write his Benefits where himself will write the Names of the Wicked in the Dust which every Wind defaceth The remembrance soon wears out of our Minds and we are so far from remembring what we had before that we scarce think of that Hand that gives the very instant wherein his Benefits drop upon us Adam basely forgot his Benefactor presently after he had been made capable to remember him and reflect upon him the first remark we hear of him is of his forgetfulness not a syllable of his thankfulness We fâ—rget those Souls he hath lodg'd in us to acknowledge his favours to our Bodies we forget that Image wherewith he beautified us and that Christ he expos'd as a Criminal to Death for our Rescue which is such an act of Goodness as cannot be exprest by the Eloquence of the Tongue or conceiv'd by the acuteness of the Mind Those things which are so common that they cannot be invisible to our Eyes are unregarded by our Minds our Sense prompts our Understanding and our Understanding is deaf to the plain dictates of our Sense We forget his Goodness in the Sun while it warms us and his Showers while they enrich us in the Corn while it nourisheth us and the Wine while it refresheth us * Hos 2.8 She did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oyl She that might have read my Hand in every bit of Bread and every drop of Drink did not consider this 'T is an injustice to forget the benefits we receive from Man 't is a Crime of a higher Nature to forget those dispens'd to us by the hand of God who gives us those things that all the World cannot furnish us with without him The Inhabitants of Troas will condemn us who worshipped Mice in a grateful remembrace of the Victory they had made easie for them by gnawing their Enemies Bow-strings They were mindful of the Courtesie of Animals though unintended by those Creatures and we are regardless of the fore-meditated Bounty of God 'T is in Gods Judgment a brutishness beyond that of a stupid Ox or a duller Ass * Isai 1.3 The Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People do not consider The Ox knows his Owner that Pastures him and the Ass his Master that feeds him but Man is not so good as to be like to them but so bad as to be inferior to them He forgets him that sustains him and spurns at him instead of valuing him for the benefits conferr'd by him How horrible is it that God should loose more by his Bounty than he would do by his Patrimony If we had Blessings more sparingly we should remember him more gratefully If he had sent us a bit of
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
2. Readiness to exercise it upon due occasions He hath prepared his Throne he is not at a loss he needs not stay for a Commission or Instructions from any how to act He hath all things ready for the assistance of his People he hath Rewards and Punishments his Treasures and Axes the great marks of Authority lying by him the one for the good the other for the wicked His Mercy he keeps by him for Thousands Exod. 34.7 His Arrows he hath prepared by him for Rebels Psal 7.13 3. Wise management of it 'T is prepared preparations imply prudence the Government of God is not a rash and heady Authority A Prince upon his Throne a Judge upon the Bench manages things with the greatest discretion or should be supposed so to do 4. Successfulness and duration of it He hath prepared or Established 'T is fixed not tottering 't is an immoveable Dominion all the strugglings of Men and Devils cannot overturn it nor so much as shake it 'T is Established above the reach of obstinate Rebels he cannot be deposed from it he cannot be mated in it His Dominion as himself abides for ever And as his Counsel so his Authority shall stand and he will do all his pleasure Isaiah 46.10 His Throne in the Heavens This is an expression to signifie the Authority of God for as God hath no member properly though he be so represented to us so he hath properly no Throne It signifies his power of Reigning and Judging A Throne is proper to Royalty the Seat of Majesty in its excellency and the place where the deepest respect and homage of Subjects is paid and their Petitions presented That the Throne of God is in the Heavens that there he sits as a Soveraign is the opinion of all that acknowledge a God when they stand in need of his Authority to assist them their eyes are lifted up and their heads stretched out to Heaven so his Son Christ prayed he lifted up his Eyes to Heaven as the place where his Father sat in Majesty as the most adorable object John 17.1 Heaven hath the Title of his Throne as the Earth hath that of his Footstool Isaiah 66.1 And therefore Heaven is sometimes put for the Authority of God Dan. 4.26 After that thou shalt have known that the Heavens do rule i. e. That God who hath his Throne in the Heavens orders earthly Princes and Scepters as he pleases and rules over the Kingdoms of the World His Throne in the Heavens Notes 1. The Glory of his Dominion The Heavens are the most stately and comely peices of the Creation His Majesty is there most visible his glory most splendid Psal 19.1 The Heavens speak out with a full mouth his Glory 'T is therefore called the Habitation of his Holiness and of his Glory Isaiah 63.15 There is the greater glister and brightness of his Glory The whole Earth indeed is full of his Glory full of the beams of it the Heaven is full of the body of it as the rayes of the Sun reach the Earth but the full Glory of it is in the Firmament In Heaven his Dominion is more acknowledged by the Angels standing at his beck and by their readiness and swiftness obeying his Commands going and returning as a flash of lightning Ezek. 1.14 His Throne may well be said to be in the Heavens since his Dominion is not disputed there by the Angels that attend him as it is on Earth by the Rebels that arm themselves against him 2. The Supremacy of his Empire The Heavens are the loftiest part of the Creation and the only fit Palace for him 't is in the Heavens his Majesty and Dignity are so sublime that they are elevated above all Earthly Empires 3. Peculiarly of this Dominion He rules in the Heavens alone There is some shadow of Empire in the World Royalty is communicated to men as his Substitutes He hath disposed a vicarious Dominion to men in his footstool the Earth he gives them some share in his Authority and therefore the Title of his Name Psal 82.6 I have said ye are Gods but in Heaven he reigns alone without any Substitutes his Throne is there He gives out his orders to the Angels himself the marks of his Immediate soveraignty are there most visible He hath no Vicars General of that Empire His Authority is not delegated to any Creature he rules the blessed Spirits by himself but he rules Men that are on his Footstool by others of the same kind men of their own nature 4. The vastness of his Empire The Earth is but a spot to the Heavens What is England in a Mapp to the whole Earth but a spot you may cover with your Finger Much less must the whole Earth be to the extended Heavens 'T is but a little point or Atome to what is visible the Sun is vastly bigger than it and several Stars are supposed to be of a greater bulk than the Earth and how many and what Heavens are beyond the ignorance of man cannot understand If the Throne of God be there 't is a larger Circuit he rules in than can well be conceived You cannot conceive the many millions of little particles there are in the Earth and if all put together be but as one point to that place where the Throne of God is seated how vast must his Empire be He rules there over the Angels which excell in strength those Hosts of his which do his pleasure in comparison of whom all the Men in the World and the power of the greatest Potentates is no more than the strength of an Ant or Fly multitudes of them encircle his Throne and listen to his orders without roving and execute them without disputing And since his Throne is in the Heavens it will follow that all things under the Heaven are parts of his Dominion his Throne being in the highest place the inferior things of Earth cannot but be subject to him and it necessarily includes his influence on all things below because the Heavens are the cause of all the motion in the World the immediate thing the Earth doth naturally address to for Corn Wine and Oyl above which there is no superior but the Lord. Hosea 2.21 22. The Earth hears the Corn Wine and Oyl the Heavens hear the Earth and the Lord hears the Heavens 5. The easiness of managing this Government His Throne being placed on high he cannot but behold all things that are done below the height of a place gives advantage to a pure and clear Eye to behold things below it Had the Sun an Eye nothing could be done in the open Air out of its ken The Throne of God being in Heaven he easily looks from thence upon all the Children of Men. Psal 14.2 The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand He looks not down from Heaven as if he were in regard of his presence confined there but he looks down
bodies in the last sickness you had And what then had become oâ— you What could have been expected to succeed your impenitent state in this World but howlings in another But he repriev'd you upon your petitions or the sollicitations of your friends and have you not broke your word with him Have your hearts been stedfast hath he not yet waited expecting when you would put your vows and resolutions into Execution What need had he to cry out to any so loud and so long Oh you fools how long will you love foolishness Prov. 1.22 when he might have ceased his crying to you and have by your death prevented your many neglects of him Did he do all this that any of us might add new sins to our old or rather that we should bless him for his forbearance comply with the end of it in reforming our lives and having recourse to his mercy 3. Exhortation therefore presume not upon his patience The exercise of it is not Eternal you are at present under his Patience yet while you are unconverted you are also under his anger Psal 7.11 God is angry with the wicked every day You know not how soon his Anger may turn his Patience aside and step before it It may be his Sword is drawn out of his Scabbard his Arrowes may be settled in his Bow and perhaps there is but a little time before you may feel the edge of the one or the point of the other and then there will be no more time for Patience in God to us or petition from us to him If we repent here he will pardon us If we deferre Repentance and dye without it he will have no longer mercy to pardon nor Patience to bear What is there in our power but the present the future time we cannot command the past time we cannot recal squander not then the present away The time will come when time shall be no more and then long-suffering shall be no more Will you neglect the time wherein patience acts and vainly hope for a time beyond the resolves of patience Will you spend that in vain which Goodness hath allotted you for other purposes What an estimate will you make of a little forbearance to respite death when you are gasping under the stroke of its Arrows How much would you value some few days of those many years you now trifle away Can any think God will be alwayes at an expence with them in vain that he will have such riches trampled under their feet and so many editions of his patience be made wast Paper Do you know how few sands are yet to run in your glass Are you sure that he that waits to day will wait as well to morrow How can you tell but that God that is slow to anger to day may be swift to it the next Jerusalem had but a day of peace and the most carelâ—â—â— sinner hath no more When their day was don they were destroyed by 〈◊〉 Pestilence or Sword or led into a doleful Captivity Did God make our lives so uncertain and the duration of his forbearance unknown to us that we should live in a lazy neglect of his Glory and our own happiness If you should have more patience in regard of your lives do you know whither you shall have the effectual offers of Grace As your lives depend upon his will so your conversion depends solely upon his Grace There have been many examples of those miserable wretches that have been left to a reprobate sence after they have a long time abus'd Divine forbearance Thoug◠〈…〉 he binds up sin Hos 13.12 The sin of Ephraim is bâ—â—â—d up as bonds are bound up by a Creditor till a fit opportunity when God comes to put the bond in suit it will be too late to wish for that patience we have so scornfully despised Consider therefore the end of Patience The Patience of God considered in it self without that which it tends to affords very little Comfort 't is but a step to pardoning Mercy and it may be without it and often is Many have been repreived that were never forgiven Hell is full of those that had Patience as well as we but not one that accepted pardoning grace went within the gates of it Patience leaves men when their sins have ripen'd them for Hell but pardoning Grace never leaves men till it hath conducted them to Heaven His Patience speaks him placable but doth not assure us that he is actually appeas'd Men may hope that long-suffering tends to a pardon but cannot be assured of a pardon but by something else above meer long-suffering Rest not then upon bare Patience but consider the end of it 't is not that any should sin more freely but repent more meltingly 't is not to spirit rebellion but give a merciful stop to it Why should any be so ambitious of their ruine as to constrain God to ruine them against the inclinations of his sweet disposition 4. The fourth Exhortation is let us imitate Gods patience in our own to others He is unlike God that is hurryed with an unruly impetus to punish others for wronging him The consideration of Divine Patience should make us square our selves according to that pattern God hath exercised a long-suffering from the fall of Adam to this minute on innumerable subjects and shall we be transported with desire of revenge upon a single injury If God were not slow to wrath a sinful World had been long ago torn up from the foundation And if Revenge should be exercised by all men against their Enemies what man should have been alive since there is not a man without an Enemy If every man were like Saul breathing out threatnings the World would not only be an Aceldama but a Desert How distant are they from the nature of God who are in a flame upon every slight provocation from a sence of some feeble and imaginary honour that must bloody their Sword for a trifle and write their revenge in wounds and death When God hath his Glory every day bespattered yet he keeps his Sword in his sheath what a wo would it be to the World if he drew it upon every affront This is to be like Brutes Dogs or Tygers that snarle bite and devour upon every slight occasion But to be Patient is to be divine and to shew our selves acquainted with the disposition of God Be you therefore perfect as your heavenly father is perfect Matth. 5.48 i. e. Be you perfect and good for he had been exhorting them to bless them that curs'd them and to do good to them that hated them and that from the example God had set them in causing his Sun to rise upon the evil as well as the good Be you therefore perfect To Conclude as Patience is Gods perfection so it is the accomplishment of the Soul And as his slowness to anger argues the greatness of his power over himself so an unwillingness to revenge is a sign of