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
from some powerful Principle so that every one may subscribe to the speech of the Apostle that when we would do good evil is present with them No reason of this can be rendred but the natural temper of our Souls and an affecting a distance from God under any consideration For though our guilt first made the breach yet this aversion to a converse with him steps up without any actual reflections upon our guilt which may render God terrible to us as an offended Judge Are we not often also in our attendance upon him more pleased with the modes of Worship which gratifie our fancy than to have our Souls inwardly delighted with the Object of Worship himself This is a part of our natural Atheism To cast such duties off by total neglect or in part by affecting a coldness in them is to cast off the Fear of the Lord. * Job 15.4 Not to call upon God and not to know him are one and the same thing Jer. 10.25 Either we think there is no such Being in the world or that he is so slight a one that he deserves not the respect he calls for or so impotent and poor that he cannot supply what our necessities require 3. No desire of a thorough return to him The first man fled from him after his defection though he had no refuge to fly to but the grace of his Creator Cain went from his presence would be a Fugitive from God rather than a Suppliant to him when by Faith in and application of the promised Redeemer he might have escaped the wrath to come for his Brothers blood and mitigated the sorrows he was justly sentenced to bear in the World Nothing will separate prodigal Man from commoning with Swine and make him return to his Father but an empty Trough Have we but husks to feed on we shall never think of a Fathers presence It were well if our sores and indigence would drive us to him but when our strength is devoured we will not return to the Lord our God nor seek him for all this * Hos 7.10 Not his drawn Sword as a God of Judgment nor his mighty Power as a Lord nor his open Arms as the Lord their God could move them to turn their eyes and their hearts towards him The more he invites us to partake of his grace the further we run from him to provoke his wrath The louder God called them by his Prophets the closer they stuck to their Baal * Hos 11.2 We turn our backs when he stretches out his hand stop our ears when he lifts up his voice We fly from him when he courts us and shelter our selves in any bush from his merciful hand that would lay hold upon us nor will we set our faces towards him till our way be hedged up with thorns and not a gap left to creep out any by-way * Hos 2.6.7 Whosoever is brought to a return puts the Holy-Ghost to the pain of striving he is not easily brought to a spiritual subjection to God nor perswaded to a Surrender at a Summons but sweetly over power'd by storm and victoriously drawn into the Arms of God God stands ready but the heart stands off Grace is full of intreaties and the Soul full of excuses Divine love offers and Carnal self-love rejects Nothing so pleases us as when we are furthest from him as if any thing were more amiable any thing more desirable than himself 4. No desire of any close imitation of him When our Saviour was to come as a Refiners fire to purifie the Sons of Levi the cry is who shall abide the day of his coming Mal. 3.2 3. Since we are alienated from the Life of God we desire no more naturally to live the Life of God than a Toad or any other Animal desires to live the Life of a Man No heart that knows God but hath a holy ambition to imitate him No Soul that refuseth him for a Copy but is ignorant of his Excellency Of this temper is all Mankind naturally Man in Corruption is as loth to be like God in Holiness as Adam after his Creation was desirous to be like God in Knowledge his Posterity are like their Father who soon turned his back upon his original Copy What can be worse than this Can the denial of his Being be a greater injury than this contempt of him as if he had not goodness to deserve our remembrance nor amiableness fit for our converse as if he were not a Lord fit for our subjection nor had a Holiness that deserved our imitation For the use of this It serves 1. For Information 1. It gives us occasion to admire the wonderful Patience and Mercy of God How many Millions of practical Atheists breath every day in his Air and live upon his Bounty who deserve to be Inhabitants in Hell rather than Possessors of the Earth An infinite Holiness is offended an infinite Justice is provoked yet an infinite Patience forbears the Punishment and an infinite Goodness relieves our wants The more we had merited his Justice and forfeited his Favour the more is his affection inhanc'd which makes his hand so liberal to us At the first invasion of his rights he mitigates the terror of the threatning which was set to defend his Law with the grace of a Promise to relieve and recover his rebellious Creature * Gen. 3.15 Who would have looked for any thing but tearing Thunders sweeping Judgments to rase up the foundations of the apostate world But oh how great are his Bowels to his aspiring Competitors Have we not experimented his Contrivances for our good though we have refused him for our happiness Has he not opened his Arms when we spurned with our Feet held out his alluring mercy when we have brandisht against him a rebellious sword Has he not intreated us while we have invaded him as if he were unwilling to lose us who are ambitious to destroy our selves Has he yet denyed us the care of his Providence while we have denyed him the rights of his Honour and would appropriate them to our selves Has the Sun forborn shining upon us though we have shot our Arrows against him Have not our Beings been supported by his Goodness while we have endeavoured to climb up to his Throne and his mercies continued to charm us while we have used them as weapons to injure him Our own necessities might excite us to own him as our happiness but he adds his invitations to the voice of our wants Has he not promised a Kingdom to those that would strip him of his Crown and proclaimed Pardon upon Repentance to those that would take away his Glory And hath so twisted together his own end which is his Honour and mans true end which is his Salvation that a man cannot truly mind himself and his own Salvation but he must mind Gods glory and cannot be intent upon Gods honour but by the same act he promotes himself
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
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
yet we had been as unable Spiritually to raise our selves from Sin to Grace as to raise our selves naturally from Nothing to Being In this state we were when his Goodness triumphed over us when he put a hook into our nostrils to turn us in order to our Salvation and drew us out of the Pit which we had digged when he might left us to sink under the rigors of his Justice we had merited Now this Goodness in Conversion is greater than that in Creation as in Creation there was nothing to oppose him so there was nothing to disoblige him Creation was terminated to the good of a mutable Nature and Conversion tends to a supernatural Good God pronounced all Creatures good at first and Man among the rest but did not pronounce any of them or Man himself his Portion his Inheritance his Segullah his House his Diadem He speaks slightly of all those things which he made the noblest Heavens as well as the lowest Earth in comparison of a true Convert * Isa 66.1 2. All those things hath mine hand made and all those things have been but to this Man will I look to him that is of a contrite Spirit 'T is more goodness to give the espousing Grace of the Covenant than the compleating Glory of Heaven As it is more for a Prince to marry a Beggar than only to bring her to live deliciously in his Courts all other benefits are of a meaner strain if compar'd with this there is little less of Goodness in imparting the Holiness of his Nature than imputing the Righteousness of his Son 6. The Divine Goodness doth appear in answering Prayers He delights to be familiarly acquainted with his People and to hear them call upon him He indulgeth them a free access to him and delights in every address of an upright Man * Prov. 15.8 The wonderful efficacy of Prayet depends not upon the nature of our Petitions or the temper of our Soul but the Goodness of God to whom we address Christ establisheth it upon this bottom when he exhorts to ask in his name he tells them the Spring of all their Grants is the Fathers love * Joh. 16.26 27. I say not I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loves you And since it is of it self incredible that a Majesty exalted above the Cherubims should stoop so low as to give a miserable and rebellious Creature admittance to him and afford him a gracious hearing and a quick supply Christ ushers in the Promise of answering Prayer with a Note of great Assurance * Luk. 11.9 10. I say unto you ask and it shall be given you I that know the Mind of my Father and his good disposition assure you your Prayer shall not be in vain Perhaps you will not be so ready of your selves to imagine so great a Liberality but take it upon my word 't is true and so you will find it And his Bounty travels as it were in Birth to give the greatest Blessings upon our asking rather than the smallest * Verse 13. Your Heavenly Father shall give his Holy Spâ—rit to them that ask him Which in Mat. 7.11 is called good things Of all the good and rich things Divine Goodness hath in its Treasury he delights to give the best upon asking because God doth act so as to manifest the greatness of his Bounty and Magnificence to Men and therefore is delighted when Men by their Petitioning him own such a liberal disposition in him and put him upon the manifesting it He would rather you should ask the greatest things Heaven can afford than the trifles of this World Because his Bounty is not discovered in meaner Gifts he loves to have an opportunity to manifest his affection above the liberality and tenderness of Worldly Fathers He doth more wait to give in a way of Grace than we to beg * Isai 30.18 And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you He stands expecting your Suits and employs his Wisdom in pitching upon the fittest seasons when the manifestation of his Goodness may be most gracious in it self and the Mercy you want most welcome to you as it follows for the Lord is a God of Judgment He chooseth the time wherein his doles may be most acceptable to his Suppliants * Isai 49.8 In an acceptable time have I heard thee He often opens his hand while we are opening our Lips and his Blessings meet our Petitions at the first setting out upon their Journey to Heaven * Isai 65.24 While they are yet speaking I will hear How often do we hear a secret Voice within us while we are Praying saying Your Prayer is granted As well as hear a Voice behind us while we are Erring saying This is the way walk in it And his liberality exceeds often our desires as well as our deserts and gives out more than we had the wisdom or confidence to ask The Apostle intimates it in that Doxology * Eph 3.20 Vnto him who is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think This Power would not have been so strong an Argument of comfort if it were never put in practice He is more liberal than his Creatures are craving Abraham petition'd for the life of Ishmael and God promiseth him the birth of Isaac * Gen. 17.18 19. Isaac asks for a Child and God gives him two Gen. 25.21 22. Jacob desires Food to eat and Raiment to put on God confines not his Bounty within the narrow limits of his Petition but instead of a Staff wherewith he passed Jordan makes him repass it with two Bands * Gen. 28.20 David askt life of God and he gave him Life and a Crown to boot †Psal 21.2 3 4 5. The Israelites would have been contented with a free life in Egypt they only cried to have their Chains struck off God gave them that and adopts them to be his peculiar People and raises them into a famous State 'T is a wonder that God should condescend so much that he should hear Prayers so weak so cold so wandring and gather up our sincere Petitions from the dung of our distractions and diffidence David vents his astonishment at it * Psal 31.21 22. Blessed be God for he hath shewed me marvellous kindness I said in my haste I am cut off from before thy Eyes nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication How do we wonder at the goodness of a petty Man in granting our desires how much more should we at the Humility and Goodness of the most Soveraign Majesty of Heaven and Earth 6. The Goodness of God is seen in bearing with the infirmities of his People and accepting imperfect Obedience Though Asa had many blots in his Scutcheon yet they are over-lookt and this Note set upon Record by Divine Goodness That his heart was perfect towards the Lord all his days * 1 Kings 15.14 But
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
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
But the Apostle the best Interpreter rectifies this in extending it by name to Jews as well as Gentiles Rom. 3.9 We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin And v. 10.11 12. Cites part of his Psalm and other passages of Scripture for the further evidence of it concluding by Jews and Gentiles every person in the world naturally in this State of Corruption The Psalmist first declares the Corruption of the faculties of the Soul the fool hath said in his heart Secondly the streams issuing from thence they are corrupt c. the first in Athestical principles the other in unworthy practices and lays all the Evil Tyranny Lust and Persecutions by men as if the World were only for their sake upon the neglects of God and the Atheism cherished in their hearts The fool a term in Scripture signifying a wicked man used also by the Heathen Philosophers to signifie a vicious person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as coming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the extinction of life in Men Animals and Plants so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken * Isa 40.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the flower fadeth Isa 28.1 a plant that hath lost all that juyce that made it lovely and useful So a fool is one that hath lost his Wisdom and right notion of God and Divine things which were communicated to man by creation one dead in sin yet one not so much void of rational faculties as of Grace in those faculties not one that wants reason but abuses his reason In Scripture the word signifies foolish ‖ Mais 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put together Deut. 32.6 Oh foolish people and unwise * Said in his heart that is he thinks or he doubts or he wishes The thoughts of the heart are in the nature of words to God though not to men T is used in the like case of the Atheistical person Psal 10.11.13 He hath said in his heart God hath forgotten he hath said in his heart thou wilt not require it He doth not form a Syllogism as Calvin speaks that there is no God he dares not openly publish it though he dares secretly think it He can not rase out the thoughts of a Deity though he endeavors to blot those Characters of God in his Soul He hath some doubts whither there be a God or no He wishes there were not any and sometimes hopes there is none at all He could not so ascertain him self by convincing arguments to produce to the World but he tampered with his own heart to bring it to that perswasion and smothered in himself those notices of a Deity which is so plain against the light of nature that such a man may well be called a fool for it There is no God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non potestas Domini Chaldae T is not Jehovah which name signifies the Essence of God as the Prime and Supream being But Eloahia which name signifies the Providence of God * Muis. God as a Rector and Judge Not that he denyes the Existence of a Supream being that Created the World but his regarding the Creatures his Government of the world and consequently his reward of the Righteous or Punishments of the Wicked * Cocceius There is a threefold denyal of God 1. Quoad exisientiam this is absolute Atheism 2. Quoad Providentiam or his inspection into or care of the things of the World bounding him in the Heavens 3. Quoad naturam in regard of one or other of the perfections due to his nature Not owning him as the Egyptians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the denyal of the Providence of God most understand this * Eugubin in cloc not excluding the absolute Atheist as Diagoras is reported to be nor the Sceptical Atheist as Protagoras who doubted whither there were a God Those that deny the Providence of God do in effect deny the being of God for they strip him of that Wisdom Goodness Tenderness Mercy Justice Righteousness which are the Glory of the Deity And that principle of a greedy desire to be uncontroul'd in their Lusts which induceth men to a denyal of Providence that thereby they might stifle those seeds of fear which infect and embitter their sinful pleasures may as well lead them to deny that there is any such being as a God That at one blow their fears may be dasht all in peices and dissolved by the removal of the Foundation As men who desire liberty to commit works of darkness would not have the lights in the House dimm'd but extinguished What men say against Providence because they would have no check in their Lusts they may say in their hearts against the existence of God upon the same account little difference between the dissenting from the one and disowning the other They are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good He speaks of the Atheist in the singular the fool of the corruption issuing in the life in the plural Intimating that though some few may choak in their hearts the sentiments of God and his Providence and positively deny them yet there is something of a secret Atheism in all which is the fountain of the evil practices in their lives not an utter disowning of the Being of a God but a denyal or doubting of some of the rights of his nature * Atheism absolute is not in all mens judgements but practical is in all mens actions The Apostle in the Romans applying the later part of it to all mankind but not the former As the word translated corrupt signifies When men deny the God of purity they must needs be polluted in Soul and Body and grow brutish in their actions When the sense of Religion is shaken off all kind of wickedness is eagerly rusht into whereby they become as loathsome to God as putrified carcases are to men * Atheism absolute is not in all mens judgements but practical is in all mens actions The Apostle in the Romans applying the later part of it to all mankind but not the former As the word translated corrupt signifies Not one or two evil actions is the product of such a principle but the whole scene of a mans life is corrupted and becomes execrable No man is exempted from some spice of Atheism by the depravation of his nature which the Psalmist intimates there is none that doth good Though there are indelible convictions of the being of a God that they cannot absolutely deny it yet there are some Atheistical bublings in the hearts of men which Evidence themselves in their actions As the Apostle Tit. 1.16 They profess that they know God but in works they deny him Evil works are a dust stirred up by an Atheistical breath He that habituates himself in some sordid lust can scarcly be said seriously and firmly to believe that there
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
is no relation one man can stand in to another wherein God doth not more highly appear to man If we abhor the unworthy carriage of a Child to a tender Father a Servant to an indulgent Master a Man to his obliging Friend why do men dayly act that towards God which they cannot speak of without abhorrency if acted by another against man I God a being less to be regarded than man and more worthy of contempt than a Creature * Reynolds It would be strange if a benefactor should live in the same Town in the same house with us and we never exchange a word with him yet this is our case who have the works of God in our eyes the goodness of God in our being the mercy of God in our daily food yet think so little of him converse so little with him serve every thing before him and prefer every thing above him Whence have we our mercies but from his hand Who besides him maintains our breath this moment Would he call for our Spirits this moment they must depart from us to attend his Command There is not a moment wherein our unworthy carriage is not aggravated because there is not a moment wherein he is not our guardian and gives us not tasts of a fresh bounty And it is no light aggravation of our Crime that we injure him without whose bounty in giving us our being we had not been capable of casting contempt upon him That he that hath the greatest stamp of his Image Man should deserve the Character of the worst of his Rebels That he who hath only reason by the gift of God to Judge of the equity of the Laws of God should swel against them as greivous and the Government of the Lawgiver as burdensome Can it lessen the crime to use the principle wherein we excel the beasts to the disadvantage of God who endowed us with that principle above the beasts 1. T is a debasing of God beyond what the Devil doth at present He is more excusable in his present state of acting than man is in his present refusing God for his Rule and End He strives against a God that exerciseth upon him a vindictive Justice We debase a God that loads us with his dayly mercies The despairing Devils are excluded from any mercy or divine patience But we are not only under the long suffering of his patience but the large expressions of his bounty He would not be governed by him when he was only his bountiful Creator We refuse to be guided by him after he hath given us the blessing of Creation from his own hand and the more obliging blessings of Redemption by the hand and blood of his Son It cannot be imagined that the Devils and the damned should ever make God their end since he hath assured them he will not be their happiness and shut up all his perfections from their experimental notice but those of his power to preserve them and his Justice to punish them They have no grant from God of ever having a heart to comply with his Will or ever having the honour to be actively employed for his glory They have some plea for their present contempt of God not in regard of his nature for he is infinitely amiable excellent and lovely but in regard of his administration towards them But what plea can Man have for his Practical Atheism who lives by his power is sustained by his bounty and sollicited by his Spirit What an ungrateful thing is it to put off the nature of Man for that of Devils and dishonour God under mercy as the Devils do under his wrathful anger 2. T is an ungratefull contempt of God who cannot be injurious to us He cannot do us wrong because he cannot be unjust Gen. 18.25 Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right His nature doth as much abhorr unrighteousnes as love a Communicative goodness He never Commanded any thing but what was highly conducible to the happiness of man Infinite goodness can no more injure man than it can dishonour it self It lays out it self in additions of kindness and whiles we debase him he continues to benefit us And is it not an unparalleld ingratitude to turn our backs upon an object so lovely an object so loving in the midst of varieties of allurements from him God did Create intellectual Creatures Angels and Men that he might Communicate more of himself and his own goodness and holiness to man than Creatures of a lower rank were capable of What do we do by rejecting him as our Rule and End but cross as much as in us lies Gods end in our Creation and shut our Souls against the Communications of those perfections he was so willing to bestow We use him as if he intended us the greatest wrong when t is impossible for him to do any to any of his Creatures 3. Consider the misery which will attend such a temper if it continue predominant Those that thrust God away as their happiness and end can expect no other but to be thrust away by him as to any relief and Compassion A distance from God here can look for nothing but a remoteness from God hereafter When the Devil a Creature of vast Endowments would advance himself above God and instruct man to commit the same sin he is Cursed above all Creatures * Gen. 3.14 When we will not acknowledge him a God of all glory we shall be separated from him as a God of all comfort All they that are afar off shall perish Psa 73.27 This is the spring of all woe What the Prodigal suffered was because he would leave his Father and live of himself Whosoever is ambitious to be his own Heaven will it last find his Soul to become its own Hell As it loved all things for it self so it shall be grieved with all things for it self As it would be its own God against the right of God it shall then be its own tormenter by the Justice of God 2. Duty Watch against this Atheism and be dayly employed in the mortification of it In every action we should make the inquiry what is the rule I observe Is it Gods Will or my own Whether do my intentions tend to set up God or self As much as we destroy this we abate the power of sin These two things are the head of the Serpent in us which we must be bruising by the power of the Cross Sin is nothing else but a turning from God and centring in self and most in the inferior part of self If we bend our force against those two self-Will and self-Ends we shall intercept Atheism at the Spring head take away that which doth constitute and animate all sin The sparks must vanish if the fire be quencht which affords them fuel They are but two short things to ask in every undertaking Is God my Rule in regard of his Will Is God my End in regard of his glory All
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
up and the Devil stands ready to tempt us to self-confidence You know how it was with Paul * 2 Cor. 12. from v. 1. to v. 7. His buffetings were occasions to render him more spiritual than his raptures because more humble God suffers those wandrings starts and distractions to prevent our spiritual pride which is as a Worm at the root of spiritual worship and mind us of the dusty frame of our Spirits how easily they are blown away As he sends sickness to put us in mind of the shortness of our breath and the easiness to lose it God would make us ashamed of our selves in his presence that we may own that what is good in any duty is meerly from his Grace and Spirit and not from our selves That with Paul we may cry out by Grace we are what we are and by Grace we do what we do We may be hereby made sensible that God can alway find something in our exactest worship as a ground of denying us the successful fruit of it If we cannot stand upon our duties for Salvation what can we bottom upon in our selves If therefore they are occasions to make us out of love with any righteousness of our own to make us break our hearts for them because we cannot keep them out If we mourn for them as our sins and count them our great afflictions we have attained that brokeness which is a choice ingredient in a spiritual Sacrifice Though we have been disturbed by them yet we are not robbed of the success we may behold an answer of our worship in our humiliation in spite of all of them 2. For the baseness of our Nature These unsteady motions help us to discern that heap of vermin that breeds in our nature Would any man think he had such an averseness to his Creator and Benefactor such an unsutableness to him such an estrangedness from him were it not for his inspection into his distracted frames God suffers this to hang over us as a Rod of Correction to discover and fetch out the folly of our hearts Could we imagin our natures so highly contrary to that God who is so infinitely amiable so desirable an Object or that there should be so much folly and madness in the heart as to draw back from God in those services which God hath appointed as pipes through which to communicate his grace to convey himself his love and goodness to the Creature If therefore we have a deep sense of and strong reflections upon our base nature and bewail that mass of aversness which lies there and that fulness of irreverence towards the God of our mercies the Object of our worship 't is a blessed improvement of our wandrings and diversions Certainly if any Israelite had brought a lame and rotten Lamb to be sacrificed to God and afterward had bewailed it and laid open his heart to God in a sensible and humble confession of it That Repentance had been a better Sacrifice and more acceptable in the sight of God than if he had brought a sound and a living Offering 2. When they are occasions to make us prize duties of worship When we argue as rationally we may that they are of singular use since our corrupt hearts and a malicious Devil doth chiefly endeavour to hinder us from them And that we find we have not those gadding thoughts when we are upon worldly business or upon any sinful design which may dishonour God and wound our Souls This is a sign Sin and Satan dislike worship for he is too subtle a Spirit to oppose that which would further his Kingdom As it is an argument the Scripture is the Word of God because the wickedness of the world doth so much oppose it so it is a ground to believe the profitableness and excellency of worship because Satan and our own unruly hearts do so much interrupt us in it If therefore we make this use of our cross steps in worship to have a greater value for such duties more affections to them and desires to be frequent in them Our hearts are growing spiritual under the weights that would depress them to carnality 3. When we take a rise from hence to have heavenly admirations of the graciousness of God That he should pity and pardon so many slight addresses to him and give any gracious returns to us Though men have foolish rangings every day and in every duty yet free grace is so tender as not to punish them Gen. 8.21 And the Lord smelt a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not curse the Ground for mans sake for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth 'T is observable that this was just after a Sacrifice which Noah offered to God v. 20. But probably not without infirmities common to human nature which may be grounded upon the reason God gives that though he had destroyed the Earth before because of the evil of mans imaginations Gen. 6.5 He still found evil imaginations He doth not say in the heart of Cham or others of Noah's Family but in mans heart including Noah also who had both the Judgments of God upon the former world and the mercy of God in his own preservation before his eyes yet God sawevil imaginations rooted in the nature of Man and though it were so yet he would be merciful If therefore we can after finding our hearts so vagrant in worship have real frames of thankfulness that God hath spared us and be hightned in our admirations at Gods giving us any fruit of such a distracted worship we take advantage from them to be raised into an Evangelical frame which consists in the humble acknowledgments of the grace of God When David takes a review of those tumultuous passions which had rufled his mind and possessed him with unbelieving notions of God in the persons of his Prophets * Psal 116.11 how high doth his Soul mount in astonishment and thankfulness to God for his mercy * verse 12. Notwithstanding his distrust God did graciously perform his promise and answer his desire Then it is what shall I render to the Lord His heart was more affected for it because it had been so passionate in former distrusts 'T is indeed a ground of wondring at the patience of the Spirit of God that he should guide our hearts when they are so apt to start out as it is the patience of a Master to guide the hand of his Scholar while he mixes his writing with many blots 'T is not one or two infirmities the Spirit helps us in and helps over but many * Rom. 8.26 'T is a sign of a spiritual heart when he can take a rise to bless God for the renewing and blowing up his affections in the midst of so many incursions from Satan to the contrary and the readiness of the heart too much to comply with them 4. When we take occasion from thence to prize the mediation of Christ The
which this Book chiefly respects The meditation of his converting Grace manifested to Paul ravisht the Apostles heart but not without the triumphant consideration of his Immortality and Eternity which are the principal parts of the Doxology * 1 Tim. 1.15.16 17. Now unto the King Eternal immortal invisible only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever It could be no great transport to the Spirit to consider him glorious without considering him immortal The unconfinedness of his perfections in regard of time presents the Soul with matter of the greatest complacency The happiness of our Souls depends upon his other Attributes but the perpetuity of it upon his Eternity Is it a comfort to view his immense Wisdom his overflowing Goodness his tender Mercy his unerring Truth What comfort were there in any of those if it were a Wisdom that could be bafled a Goodness that could be dampt a Mercy that can expire and a Truth that can perish with the Subject of it Without Eternity what were all his other Perfections but as glorious yet withering Flowers a great but a decaying Beauty By a frequent meditation of Gods Eternity we should become more sensible of our own vanity and the worlds triflingness How nothing should our selves How nothing would all other things appear in our eyes How coldly should we desire them How feebly should we place any trust in them Should we not think our selves worthy of contempt to dote upon a perishing glory to expect support from an Arm of Flesh when there is an eternal Beauty to ravish us an eternal Arm to protect us Asaph when he considered God a Portion for ever thought nothing of the Glories of the Earth or the Beauties of the created Heavens worth his appetite or complacency but God * Psal 73.25 26 Besides an elevated frame of heart at the consideration of Gods Eternity would batter down the strong holds and engines of any temptation A slight temptation will not know where to find and catch hold of a Soul high and hid in a meditation of it and if it doth there will not be wanting from hence preservatives to resist and conquer it What transitory pleasures will not the thoughts of Gods Eternity stifle When this work busieth a Soul 't is too great to suffer it to descend to listen to a sleeveless errand from Hell or the World The wanton allurements of the Flesh will be put off with indignation The profers of the world will be ridiculous when they are cast into the Ballance with the Eternity of God which sticking in our thoughts we shall not be so easy a Prey for the Fowlers Ginn Let us therefore often meditate upon this but not in a bare speculation without engaging our affections and making every notion of the Divine Eternity end a in sutable impression upon our hearts This would be much like the Disciples gazing upon the Heavens at the ascension of their Master while they forgat the practice of his Orders * Acts 1.11 We may else find something of the nature of God and lose our selves not only in Eternity but to Eternity 2. And hence the second part of the Exhortation is to something which concerns us with a respect to God 1. If God be eternal How worthy is he of our choicest affections and strongest desires of communion with him Is not every thing to be valued according to the greatness of its Being How then should we love him who is not only lovely in his nature but eternally lovely having from everlasting all those perfections centred in himself which appear in time If every thing be lovely by how much the more it partakes of the nature of God who is the chief Good how much more infinitely lovely is God who is superior to all other goods and eternally so Not a God of a few minutes months years or millions of years not of the dreggs of time or the top of time but of Eternity above time unconceivably immense beyond time The loving him infinitely perpetually is an act of homage due to him for his eternal excellency We may give him the one since our Souls are immortal though we cannot the other because they are finite Since he encloseth in himself all the excellencies of Heaven and Earth for ever he should have an affection not only of time in this woâ—â—â— but of eternity in the future and if we did not owe him a love for what we are by him we owe him a love for what he is in himself and more for what he is than for what he is to us He is more worthy of our affections because he is the eternal God than because he is our Creator because he is more excellent in his nature than in his transient actions The beams of his goodness to us are to direct our thoughts and affections to him but his own eternal excellency ought to be the ground and foundation of our affections to him And truly since nothing but God is eternal nothing but God is worth the loving and we do but a just right to our love to pitch it upon that which can always possess us and be possessed by us upon an Object that cannot deceive our affection and put it out of countenance by a dissolution And if our happiness consists in being like to God we should imitate him in loving him as he loves himself and as long as he loves himself God cannot do more to himself than love himself he can make no addition to his Essence nor diminution from it What should we do less to an eternal Being than to bestow affections upon him like his own to himself since we can find nothing so durable as himself for which we should love it 2. He only is worthy of our best Service The Ancient of days is to be served before all that are younger than himself Our best obedience is due to him as a God of unconfined excellency Every thing that is excellent deserves a veneration sutable to its excellency As God is infinite he hath right to a boundless service as he is eternal he hath right to a perpetual service As Service is a debt of Justice upon the account of the excellency of his nature so a perpetual service is as much a debt of justice upon the account of his Eternity If God be infinite and eternal he merits an honour and comportment from his Creatures suted to the unlimited perfection of his Nature and the duration of his Being How worthy is the Psalmists resolution I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise to my God while I have any being * Psal 104.33 'T is the use he makes of the endless duration of the Glory of God and will extend to all other service as well as praise To serve other things or to serve our selves is too vast a service upon that which is nothing In devoting our selves to God we serve him that is that
the thronging multitudes Our groans are as audible and intelligible to him as our words and he knows what is the mind of his own Spirit though exprest in no plainer language than sobs and heavings * Rom. 8.27 Thus David cheers up himself under the neglects of his Friends Psal 38.9 Lord my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee Not a groan of a panting Spirit shall be lost till God hath lost his knowledge Not a Petition forgotten while God hath a Record nor a Tear dried while God hath a Bottle to reserve it in * Psal 56.8 Our secret works are also known and observed by him not only our outward labour but our inward love in it Heb. 6.10 If with Isaac we go privately into the Field to meditate or secretly cast our Bread upon the Waters he keeps his Eye upon us to Reward us and returns the Fruit into our own Bosoms * Mat. 6.4.6 Yea though it be but a Cup of cold Water from an inward Spring of love given to a Disciple He sees your works and your labour and faith and patience in working them * Rev. 2.2 all the marks of your industry and strength of your intentions and Will be as exact at last in order to a due Praise as to open Sins in order to a just Recompence * 1 Cor. 4.5 6. The Consideration of this excellent Attribute affords Comfort in the Afflictions of good Men. He knows their Pressures as well as hears their Cries * Exod. 3.7 His Knowledge comes not by information from us but his Compassionate listening to our Cries springs from his own Inspection into our Sorrows He is affected with them before we make any discovery of them He is not ignorant of the best Season when they may be usefully inflicted and when they may be profitably removed The Tribulation and Poverty of his Church is not unknown to him Rev. 2.8 9. I know thy Works and Tribulation c. He knows their Works and what Tribulation they meet with for him He sees their extremities when they are toiling against the Wind and Tide of the World * Mark 6.48 Yea the natural exigencies of the multitude are not neglected by him he discerns to take care of them Our Saviour considered the three days fasting of his Followers and miraculously provides a Dish for them in the Wilderness No good Man is ever out of Gods Mind and therefore never out of his Compassionate Care His Eye pierceth into their Dungeons and pities their Miseries Joseph may forget his Brethren and the Disciples not know Christ when he walks upon the Midnight Waves and Turbulent Sea * Barlow's Man 's Refuge p. 29 30. but a Lyons Den cannot obscure a Daniel from his Sight nor the depths of the Whales Belly bury Jonah from the Divine Understanding He discerns Peter in his Chains and Stephen under the Stones of Martyrdom He knows Lazarus under his tatter'd Rags and Abel wallowing in his Blood His Eye and Knowledge goes along with his People when they are transplanted into Foreign Countreys and sold for Slaves into the Islands of the Grecians for he will raise them out of the place Joel 3.6 7. He would defeat the hopes of the Persecutors and applaud the Patience of his People He knows his People in the Tabernacle of Life and in the Valley of the Shadow of Death Psal 23. He knows all penal Evils because he commissions and directs them He knows the Instruments because they are his Sword * Psal 17.13 and he knows his gracious Sufferer because he hath his Mark He discerns Job in his Anguish and the Devil in his Malice By the direction of this Attribute he orders Calamities and rescues from them Thou hast seen it for thou beholdest mischief and spight * Psal 10.14 That is the Comfort of the Psalmist and the Comfort of every Believer and the Ground of committing themselves to God under all the injustice of Men. 7. 'T is a Cofmort in all our Infirmities As he knows our Sins to charge them so he knows the weakness of our Nature to pity us As his infinite Understanding may scare us because he knows our Transgressions so it may relieve us because he knows our natural mutability in our first Creation He knows our frame he remembers that we are dust * Psal 103.14 'T is the reason of the precedent Verses why he removes our Transgression from us why he is so backward in Punishing so patient in waiting so forward in pitying Why He doth not only remember our Sins but remember our frame or forming what brittle though clear Glasses we were by Creation how easie to be crackt He remembers our impotent and weak Condition by Corruption what a sink we have of vain imaginations that remain in us after Regeneration he doth not only consider that we were made according to his Image and therefore able to stand but that we were made of Dust and weak Matter and had a sensitive Soul like that of Beasts as well as an intellectual Nature like that of Angels and therefore liable to follow the dictates of it without exact care and watchfulness If he remembred only the first there would be no issue but Indignation but the Consideration of the latter moves his Compassion How miserable should we be for want of this Perfection in the Divine Nature whereby God remembers and reflects upon his past act in our first frame and the mindfulness of our Condition excites the motion of his Bowels to us Had he lost the knowledge how he first framed us did he not still remember the mutability of our Nature as we were form'd and stampt in his Mint How much more wretched would our Condition be than it is If his remembrance of our Original be one ground of his Pity the sense of his Omniscience should be a ground of our Comfort in the stirring of our infirmities He remembers we were but Dust when he made us and yet remembers we are but Dust while he preserves and forbears us 8. 'T is some Comfort in the fears of some lurking Corruption in our Hearts We know by this whither to address our selves for the search and discovery of it Perhaps some Blessings we want are retarded some Calamities we understand not the particular cause of are inflicted some Petitions we have put up hang too long for an Answer and the Chariot Wheels of Divine Goodness move slow and are long in coming Let us beg the Aid of this Attribute to open to us the Remoras to discover what base Affection there is that retards the Mercies we want or attracts the Affliction we feel or bars the Door against the return of our supplications What our dim sight cannot discover the clear Eye of God can make visible to us Job 10.2 Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me As in want of Pardon we particularly plead his Mercy and in our desires for the
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
would be as bad as Hell Since the Heart of Man is a Hell of Corruption by that the Souls of all Men would be excited to the acting the worst Villanies since every thought of the heart of Man is only evil and that continually Gen. 6.5 if the Wisdom of God did not stop these Floud-gates of Evil in the Hearts of Men it would overflow the World and frustrate all the Gracious Designs he carries on among the Sons of Men. Were it not for this Wisdom every House would be filled with Violence as well as every Nature is with Sin What harm would not strong and furious Beasts do did nâ—t the Skill of Man tame and bridle them How often hath Divine Wisdom restrain'd the Viciousness of Human Nature and let it run not to that point they â—â—â—â—â—'d but to the end he purposed Labans Fury and Esaus Enmity against 〈…〉 â—ere pâ—â—t in within bounds for Jacobs safety and their Hearts over-ruled 〈…〉 intended destruction of the good Man to a perfect Amity * Gen. 31.29 Gen. 32. II. Gods Wisdom is seen in the bringing glory to himself out of Sin 1. Out of Sin it self God erects the Trophies of Honour upon that which is a Natural means to hinder and deface it His glorious Attributes are drawn out to our view upon the occasion of Sin which otherwise had lain hid in his own Being Sin is altogether black and abominable but by the Admirable Wisdom of God he hath drawn out of the dreadful darkness of Sin the saving Beams of his Mercy and displayed his Grace in the Incarnation and Passion of his Son for the Atonement of Sin Thus he permitted Adams Fall and wisely order'd it for a fuller discovery of his own Nature and a higher elevation of Mans good that as Sin reigned to death so might Grace reign through Righteousness to Eternal life by Jesus Christ Rom. 5.21 The unbounded Goodness of God could not have appeared without it His Goodness in rewarding Innocent Obedience would have been manifested but not his Mercy in pardoning Rebellious Crimes An Innocent Creature is the Object of the Rewards of Grace as the standing Angels are under the Beams of Grace but not under the Beams of Mercy because they were never Sinful and consequently never Miserable Without Sin the Creature had not been Miserable Had Man remained Innocent he had not been the Subject of Punishment and without the Creatures Misery Gods Mercy in sending his Son to save his Enemies could not have appeared The abundance of Sin is a Passive occasion for God to manifest the Abundance of his Grace The Power of God in the changing the Heart of a Rebellious Creature had not appeared had not Sin infected our Nature We had not clearly known the Vindictive Justice of God had no Crime been committed for that is the proper Object of Divine Wrath. The Goodness of God could never have permitted Justice to exercise it self upon an Innocent Creature that was not guilty either Personally or by Imputation Psal 11.7 The righteous Lord loveth Righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Wisdom is illustrious hereby God suffered Man to fall into a Mortal Disease to shew the virtue of his own Restoratives to cure Sin which in it self is Incurable by the Art of any Creature And otherwise this Perfection whereby God draws Good out of Evil had been utterly useless and would have been destitute of an Object wherein to discover it self Again Wisdom in ordering a Rebellious head-strong World to its own ends is greater than the ordering an Innocent World exactly observant of his Precepts and complying with the End of the Creation Now without the entrance of Sin this Wisdom had wanted a Stage to act upon Thus God raised the Honour of his Wisdom while Man ruin'd the Integrity of his Nature and made use of the Creatures breach of his Divine Law to establish the Honour of it in a more signal and stable manner by the Active and Passive Obedience of the Son of his Bosom Nothing serves God so much as an occasion of glorifying himself as the entrance of Sin into the World by this occasion God communicates to us the knowledge of those Perfections of his Nature which had else been folded up from us in an Eternal Night his Justice had lain in the dark as having nothing to punish his Mercy had been obscure as having none to pardon a great part of his Wisdom had been silent as having no such Object to order 2. His Wisdom appears In making use of sinful Instruments He uses the Malice and Enmity of the Devil to bring about his own Purposes and makes the sworn Enemy of his Honour contribute to the Illustrating of it against his will This great Crafts-Master he took in his own Net and defeated the Devil by the Devils Malice by turning the Contrivances he had hatch'd and accomplish'd against Man against himself He used him as a Tempter to grapple with our Saviour in the Wilderness whereby to make him fit to succour us and as the God of this World to inspire the wicked Jews to Crucifie him whereby to render him actually the Redeemer of the World and so made him an Ignorant Instrument of that Divine Glory he design'd to ruine * Moulins Serm. Decad. 10. p. 221 232. 'T is more Skill to make a curious piece of Workmanship with Ill condition'd Tools than with Instruments naturally sitted for the work 'T is no such great wonder for a Limner to draw an exact piece with a fit Pencil and sutable Colours as to begin and perfect a beautiful work with a Straw and Water things improper for such a design This Wisdom of God is more admirable and astonishing than if a Man were able to rear a vast Palace by Fire whose nature is to consume Combustible matter not to erect a Building To make things serviceable contrary to their own Nature is a Wisdom peculiar to the Creator of Nature Gods making use of Devils for the glory of his Name and the good of his People is a more amazing piece of Wisdom than his Goodness in employing the Blessed Angels in his work To promise that the World which includes the God of the World and Death and Things present let them be as Evil as they will should be ours that is for our good and for his glory is an act of Goodness but to make them serviceable to the Honour of Christ and the good of his People is a Wisdom that may well raise our highest Admirations †1 Cor. 3.22 They are for Believers as they are for the glory of Christ and as Christ is for the glory of God To Chain up Satan wholly and frustrate his Wiles would be an Argument of Divine Goodness but to suffer him to run his risque and then improve all his Contrivances for his own glorious and gracâ—ous Ends and Purposes manifests besides his Power and Goodness his Wisdom also He uses the Sins of Evil
there been some reason of any disgust it could not have ballanced that kindness which had so much reason to oblige him However he had received no courtesie from the fallen Angel to oblige him to turn into his Camp Was it not enough that one of thy Creatures would have stript thee of the glory of Heaven but this also must deprive thee of thy glory upon Earth which was due from him to thee as his Creator Can he charge the difficulty of the Command No It was rather below than above his strength He might rather complain that it was no higher whereby his Obedience and Gratitude might have a larger scope and a more spacious Field to move in than a Precept so light so easie as to abstain from one Fruit in the Garden What excuse can he have that would prefer the liquorishness of his Sense before the dictates of his Reason and the Obligations of his Creation The Law thou didst set him was righteous and reasonable and shall Righteousness and Reason be rejected by the Supream and Infallible Reason because the rebellious Creature hath trampled upon it What must God abrogate his holy Law because the Creature hath slighted it What Reflection will this be upon the Wisdom that enacted it And upon the Equity of the Command and Sanction of it Either Man must suffer or the Holy Law be expunged and for ever out of date And is it not better Man should Eternally smart under his Crime than any dishonourable Reflections of Unrighteousness be cast upon the Law and of folly and want foresight upon the Lawgiver Not to punish would be to approve the Devils Lye and justifie the Creatures Revolt It would be a Condemnation of thy own Law as unrighteous and a Sentencing thy own Wisdom as imprudent Better Man should for ever bear the Punishment of his Offence than God bear the dishonour of his Attributes Better Man should be miserable than God should be unrighteous unwise false and tamely bear the denial of his Soveraignty But what advantage would it be to gratifie Mercy by Pardoning the Malefactor Besides the irreparable dishonour to the Law the falsifying thy veracity in not executing the denounced threatning he would receive incouragement by such a grace to spurn more at thy Soveraignty and oppose thy Holiness by running on in a course of sin with hopes of Impunity If the Creature be restored it can not be expected that he that hath fared so well after the breach of it should be very careful of a future observance His easy readmission would abet him in the repetition of his Offence and thou shalt soon find him cast off all Moral dependance on thee Shall he be restored without any Condition or Covenant He is a Creature not to be governed without a Law and a Law is not be enacted without a Penalty What future regard will he have to thy Precept or what fear will he have of thy Threatning if his Crime be so lightly past over Is it the stability of thy Word What reason will he have to give credit to that which he hath found already disregarded by thy self Thy Truth in future Threatnings will be of no force with him who hath experienced thy laying it aside in the former 'T is necessary therefore that the rebellious creature should be punished for the preservation of the honour of the Law and the honour of the Lawgiver with all those perfections that are united in the composure of it 2. Secondly Mercy doth not want a Plea 'T is true indeed the sin of man wants not its aggravations He hath slighted thy Goodness and accepted thy Enemy as his Counsellor but it was not a pure act of his own as the Devils revolt was He had a Tempter and the Devil had none He had I acknowledge an Understanding to know thy Will and a Power to obey it yet he was mutable and had a capacity to fall It was no difficult task that was set him nor a hard yoke that was laid upon him yet he had a brutish part as well as a rational and sense as well as Soul whereas the fallen Angel was a pure Intellectual Spirit Did God create the World to suffer an eternal dishonour in letting himself be out-witted by Satan and his work wrested out of his hands Shall the work of eternal Counsel presently sink into irreparable destruction and the honour of an Almighty and wise Work be lost in the ruine of the Creature This would seem contrary to the nature of thy Goodness to make Man only to render him miserable To design him in his Creation for the Service of the Devil and not for the Service of his Creator What else could be the issue if the chief work of thy Hand defaced presently after the erecting should for ever remain in this marred condition What can be expected upon the continuance of his misery but a perpetual hatred and enmity of thy Creature against thee Did God in Creation design his being hated or his being loved by his Creature Shall God make a holy Law and have no obedience to that Law from that Creature whom it was made to govern Shall the curious workmanship of God and the excellent Engravings of the Law of Nature in his heart be so soon defaced and remain in that blotted condition for ever This fall thou couldst not but in the treasures of thy Infinite Knowledge foresee Why hadst thou Goodness then to Create him in an Integrity if thou wouldst not have Mercy to pity him in Misery Shall thy Enemy for ever trample upon the honour of thy Work and triumph over the glory of God and applaud himself in the success of his subtilty Shall thy Creature only passively glorifie thee as an Avenger and not actively as a Compassionater Am not I a perfection of thy Nature as well as Justice Shall Justice ingross all and I never come into view 'T is resolved already that the fallen Angels shall be no Subjects for me to exercise my self upon and I have now less reason than before to plead for them They fell with a full consent of will without any motion from another and not content with their own Apostacy they envy thee and thy glory upon Earth as well as in Heaven and have drawn into their party the best part of the Creation below Shall Satan plunge the whole Creation in the same irreparable ruine with himself If the Creature be restored will he contract a boldness in sin by impurity Hast thou not a Grace to render him ingenuous in Obedience as well as a Compassion to recover him from Misery What will hinder but that such a Grace which hath established the standing Angels may establish this recovered Creature If I am utterly excluded from exercising my self on men as I have been from Devils a whole Species is lost nay I can never expect to appear upon the Stage If thou wilt quite ruine him by Justice and create another World and another
Man if he stand thy Bounty will be eminent yet there is no room for Mercy to act unless by the Commission of sin he exposeth himself to Misery and if sin enter into another World I have little hopes to be heard then if I am rejected now Worlds will be perpetually created by Goodness Wisdom and Power Sin entring into these Worlds will be perpetually punished by Justice and Mercy which is a Perfection of thy Nature will for ever be commanded silence and lye wrapt up in an eternal Darkness Take occasion now therefore to expose me to the knowledge of thy Creature since without Misery Mercy can never set foot into the World Mercy pleads if man be ruined the Creation is in vain Justice pleads if man be not sentenced the Law is in vain Truth backs Justice and Grace abets Mercy What shall be done in this seeming Contradiction Mercy is not manifested if man be not pardoned Justice will complain if man be not punished 3. An expedient is found out by the wisdom of God to answer these Demands and adjust the Differences between them The wisdom of God answers I will satisfie your Pleas. The Pleas of Justice shall be satisfied in punishing and the Pleas of Mercy shall be received in pardoning Justice shall not complain for want of Punishment nor Mercy for want of Compassion I will have an infinite Sacrifice to content Justice and the Vertue and Fruit of that Sacrifice shall delight Mercy Here shall Justice have punishment to accept and Mercy shall have Pardon to bestow The Rights of both are preserved and the Demands of both amicably accorded in punishment and pardon by transferring the punishment of our Crimes upon a Surety exacting a Recompence from his Blood by Justice and conferring life and salvation upon us by Mercy without the expence of one drop of our own Thus is Justice satisfied in its Severities and Mercy in its Indulgences The riches of Grace are twisted with the terrors of Wrath. The bowels of Mercy are wound about the flaming Sword of Justice and the Sword of Justice protects and secures the bowels of Mercy Thus is God righteous without being cruel and merciful without being unjust his Righteousness inviolable and the World recoverable Thus is a resplendent Mercy brought forth in the midst of all the Curses Confusions and Wrath threatned to the Offender This is the admirable temperament found out by the wisdom of God His Justice is honoured in the Sufferings of Man's Surety and his Mercy is honoured in the application of the Propitiation to the Offender Rom. 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Had we in our Persons been Sacrifices to Justice Mercy had for ever been unknown had we been solely fostered by Mercy Justice had for ever been secluded had we being guilty been absolved Mercy might have rejoyced and Justice might have complained had we been solely punished Justice would have triumphed and Mercy grieved But by this medium of Redemption neither hath ground of Complaint Justice hath nothing to charge when the Punishment is inflicted Mercy hath whereof to boast when the Surety is accepted The Debt of the Sinner is transferred upon the Surety that the Merit of the Surety may be conferred upon the Sinner so that God now deals with our sins in a way of consuming Justice and with our Persons in a way of relieving Mercy 'T is highly better and more glorious than if the Claim of one had been granted with the exclusion of the Demand of the other It had then been either an unrighteous Mercy or a merciless Justice 'T is now a righteous Mercy and a merciful Justice 2. The Wisdom of God appears in the Subject or Person wherein these were accorded The second Person in the blessed Trinity There was a congruity in the Sons undertaking and effecting it rather than any other Person according to the order of the Persons and the several functions of the Persons as represented in Scripture The Father after Creation is the Law-giver and presents man with the Image of his own Holiness and the way to his Creatures happiness But after the Fall man was too impotent to perform the Law and too polluted to enjoy a Felicity Redemption was then necessary not that it was necessary for God to redeem man but it was necessary for man's happiness that he should be recovered To this the second Person is appointed that by Communion with him man might derive a happiness and be brought again to God But since man was blind in his Vnderstanding and an Enemy in his will to God there must be the exerting of a Vertue to enlighten his mind and bend his Will to understand and accept of this Redemption And this work is assigned to the third Person the Holy Ghost 1. It was not congruous that the Father should assume Human Nature and suffer in it for the Redemption of man He was first in order he was the Law-giver and therefore to be the Judge As Lawgiver it was not convenient he should stand in the stead of the Law-breaker and as Judge it was as little convenient he should be reputed a Malefactor That he who had made a Law against sin denounced a Penalty upon the commission of sin and whose part it was actually to punish the sinner should become sin for the wilful Transgressor of his Law He being the Rector how could he be an Advocate and Intercessor to himself How could he be the Judge and the Sacrifice A Judge and yet a Mediator to himself If he had been the Sacrifice there must be some Person to examine the validity of it and pronounce the Sentence of acceptance Was it agreeable that the Son should sit upon a Throne of Judgment and the Father stand at the Bar and be responsible to the Son That the Son should be in the place of a Governour and the Father in the place of the Criminal That the Father should be bruised * Isa 53.10 by the Son as the Son was by the Father †Zach. 13 70. that the Son should awaken a Sword against the Father as the Father did against the Son that the Father should be sent by the Son as the Son was by the Father * Gal. 4.4 The order of the Persons in the blessed Trinity had been inverted and disturbed Had the Father been sent he had not been first in order the Sender is before the Person sent As the Father begets and the Son is begotten Joh. 1.14 so the Father sends and the Son is sent He whose order is to send cannot properly send himself 2. Nor was it congruous that the Spirit should he sent upon this Affair If the Holy Ghost had been sent to redeem us and the Son to apply
How wonderful is this Wisdom of God! That the seed of the woman born of a mean Virgin brought forth in a stable spending his days in affliction misery and poverty without any pomp and splendor passing some time in a Carpenters shop with Carpenters tools and afterwards exposed to a horrible and disgraceful death Mark 6 6. should by this way pull down the gates of Hell subvert the kingdom of the Devil and be the hammer to break in pieces that power which he had so long exercised over the World Thus became he the Author of our life by being bound for a while in the chains of death and arrived to a principality over the most malicious powers by being a prisoner for us and the anvâ—l of their rage and fury 7. The Wisdom of God appears In giving us this way the surest ground of comfort and the strongest incentive to obedience The Rebel is reconciled and the rebellion shamed God is propitiated and the sinner sanctified by the same blood What can more contribute to our comfort confidence than Gods richest gift to us What can more enflame our love to him than our recovery from death by the oblation of his Son to misery and death for us It doth as much engage our duty as secure our happiness It presents God glorious and gracious and therefore every way fit to be trusted in regard of the interest of his own glory in it and in regard of the effusions of his grace by it It renders the Creature obliged in the highest manner and so awakens his industry to the strictest and noblest obedience Nothing so effectual as a crucified Christ to wean us from sin and stifle all motions of despair a means in regard of the Justice signaliz'd in it to make man to hate the sin which had ruined him and a means in regard of the love exprest to make him delight in that Law he had violated 2. Cor. 5.14 15. The love of Christ and therefore the love of God exprest in it constrains us no longer to live to our selves 1. It is a ground of the highest comfort and confidence in God Since he hath given such an evidence of his impartial truth to his threatning for the honour of his Justice we need not question but he will be as punctual to his promise for the honour of his mercy T is a ground of confidence in God since he hath redeemed us in such a way as glorifies the steadiness of his veracity as well as the severity of his Justice We may well trust him for the performance of his promise since we have experience of the execution of his threatning his mâ—rciful truth will as much engage him to accomplish the one as his just truth did to inflict the other The goodness which shone forth in weaker rays in the Creation breaks out with stronger beams in redemption And the mercy which before the appearance of Christ was manifested in some small Rivulets diffuseth itself like a boundless Ocean That God that was our Creator is our Redeemer the Repayrer of our Breaches and the Restorer of our Paths to dwell in And the plenteous Redemption from all Iniquity manifested in the Incarnation and Passion of the Son of God is much more a ground of hope in the Lord than it was in the past Ages when it could not be said the Lord hath but the Lord shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities Psal 130.8 It is a full Warrant to cast our selves into his Arms. 2. At incentive to obedience 1. The Commands of the Gospel require the obedience of the Creature There is not one Precept in the Gospel which interferes with any rule in the Law but strengthens it and represents it in its true exactness The heat to scorch us is allaied but the light to direct us is not extinguisht Not the least allowance to any sin is granted not the least affection to any sin is indulg'd The Law is temper'd by the Gospel but not null'd and cast out of doors by it It enacts that none but those that are sanctified shall be glorified that there must be Grace here if we expect Glory hereafter that we must not presume to expect an admittance to the Vision of Gods face unless our Souls be clothed with a robe of Holiness Heb. 12.14 It requires an obedience to the whole Law in our intention and purpose and an endeavour to observe it in our actions It promotes the honour of God and ordains a universal Charity among men it reveals the whole Counsel of God and furnisheth men with the holiest Laws 2. It presents to us the exactest pattern for our Obedience The redeeming Person is not only a Propitiation for the sin but a pattern to the sinner 1 Pet. 2.21 The Conscience of man after the fall of Adam approved of the reason of the Law but by the corruption of Nature man had no strength to perform the Law The possibility of keeping the Law by Human Nature is evidenced by the Appearance and life of the Redeemer and an assurance given that it shall be advanc'd to such a state as to be able to observe it We aspire to it in this life and have hopes to attain it in a future And while we are here the Actor of our Redemption is the copy for our Imitation The Pattern to imitate is greater than the Law to be ruled by What a lustre did his Vertues cast about the World How attractive are his Graces With what high Examples for all Duties has he furnish'd 〈◊〉 out of the copy of his Life 3. It presents us with the strongest motives to Obedience Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness What Chains bind faster and closer than love Here is love to our nature in his Incarnation love to us though Enemies in his Death and Passion Encouragements to Obedience by the proffers of Pardon for former Rebellions By the disobedience of man God introduceth his redeeming Grace and ingageth his Creature to more Ingenious and excellent returns than his Innocent state could oblige him to In his Created state he had goodness to move him he hath the same goodness now to oblige him as a Creature and a greater love and mercy to oblige him as a repaired Creature and the terror of Justice is taken off which might invenom his Heart as a Criminal In his revolted state he had misery to discourage him in his redeemed state he hath love to attract him Without such a way black despaire had seized upon the Creature exposed to a remediless misery And God would have had no returns of love from the best of his earthly Works But if any sparks of Ingenuity be left they will be excited by the efficacy of this Argument The willingness of God to receive returning sinners is manifested in the highest degree and the willingness of a sinner to return to him in duty hath the strongest engagements He hath done as much to
the heart of a wise Man discerns both time and judgment Eccles 8.5 There is as much Judgment in sending them as Judgment in removing them How comfortable is it to think that our Distresses as well as our Deliverances are the fruits of Infinite Wisdom Nothing is done by him too soon or too slow but in the true point of Time with all its due circumstances most conveniently for his glory and our good How Wise is God to bring the glory of our Salvation out of the depths of a seeming Ruine and make the Evils of Affliction subservient to the good of the Afflicted 2. In Temptations his Wisdom is no less employed in permitting them than in bringing them to a good issue His Wisdom in leading our Saviour to be Tempted of the Devil was to fit him for our succour and his Wisdom in suffering us to be Tempted is to fit us for his own Service and our Salvation He makes a Thorn in the flesh to be an occasion of a refreshing Grace to the Spirit and brings forth cordial Grapes from those pricking Brambles and magnifies his Grace by his Wisdom from the deepest subtilties of Hell Let Satans Intentions be what they will he can be for him at every turn to out-wit him in his Stratagems to baffle him in his Enterprizes to make him instrumental for our good where he designs nothing but our hurt The Lord hath his methods of Deliverance from him 2 Pet. 2.9 The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of Temptation 3. In Denials or delays of Answers of Prayer He is gracious to Hear but he is wise to Answer in an acceptable time and succour us in a day proper for our salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 We have partial Affections to our selves Ignorance is natural to us Rom. 8.26 We ask we know not what because we ask out of Ignorance God grants what he knows what is fit for him to do and fit for us to receive and the exact season wherein it is fittest for him to bestow a Mercy As God would have us bring forth our Fruit in season so he will send forth his Mercies in season He is wise to sute his Remedy to our Condition to Time it so as that we shall have an evident prospect of his Wisdom in it that more of Divine Skill and less of Human may appear in the Issue He is ready at our Call but he will not Answer till he see the Season fit to reach out his hand He is wise to prove our Faith to humble us under the sense of our own Unworthiness to whet our Affections to set a better estimate on the Blessings prayed for and that he may double the Blessing as we do our Devotion But when his Wisdom sees us fit to receive his Goodness he grants what we stand in need of He is Wise to chuse the fittest Time and Faithful to give the best Covenant Mercy 4. In all Evils threatned to the Church by her Enemies He hath Knowledge to fore-see them and Wisdom to disappoint them Job 5.13 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong The Church hath the Wisdom of God to enter the Lists with the Policy of Hell He defeated the Serpent in the first Net he laid and brought a glorious Salvation out of Hells Rubbish and is yet as Skilful to disappoint the After-game of the Serpentine-brood The Policy of Hell and the Subtilty of the World are no better than Folly with God 1 Cor. 3.19 All Creatures are Fools as Creatures in comparison with the Creator The Angels he chargeth with Folly much more us Sinners Depraved Understandings are not fit Mates for a pure and unblemish'd Mind Pharaoh with his wisdom finds a Grave in the Sea and Achitophels Plots are finished in his own murder He breaks the Enemies by his Power and orders them by his Skill to be a feast to his People Psal 74.14 Thou brakest the Head of the Leviathan and gavest him to be meat to the people in the Wilderness The Spoils of the Egyptians Carkasses cast upon the shore served the Israelites Necessities or were as Meat to them as being a Deliverance the Church might feed upon in all Ages in a Wilderness Condition to maintain their Faith the vital Principle of the Soul There is a Wisdom superiour to the subtilties of Men which laughs at their Follies and hath them in derision Psal 2.4 There is no wisdom or counsel against the Lord Prov. 21.30 You never question the wisdom of an Artist to use his File when he takes it into his hand Wicked Instruments are Gods Axes and Files let him alone he hath Skill enough to manage them God hath too much Affection to destroy his People and Wisdom enough to beautifie them by the worst Tools he uses He can make all things conspire in a perfect harmony for his own Ends and his Peoples good when they see no way to escape a Danger feared or attain a Blessing wanted Vse IV. I. For Exhortation 1. Meditate on the Wisdom of God in Creation and Government How little do we think of God when we behold his Works Our Sense dwells upon the surface of Plants and Animals beholds the variety of their Colours and the progress in their Motion Our Reason studies the qualities of them our Spirits seldom take a slight to the Divine Wisdom which framed them Our Senses engross our Minds from God that we scarce have a Thought free to bestow upon the Maker of them but only on the by The constancy of seeing things that are common stifles our Admiration of God due upon the sight of them How seldom do we raise our Souls as far as Heaven in our views of the Order of the World the Revolutions of the Seasons the Natures of the Creatures that are common among us and the mutual Assistances they give to each other Since God hath manifested himself in them to neglect the Consideration of them is to neglect the Manifestation of God and the way whereby he hath transmitted something of his Perfections to our Understanding It renders Men inexcusably guilty of not glorifying of God Rom. 1.19 20. We can never neglect the meditation of the Creatures without a blemish cast upon the Creators Wisdom As every River can conduct us to the Sea so every Creature points us to an Ocean of Infinite Wisdom Not the minutest of them but rich tracts of this may be observed in them and a due sense of God result from them They are exposed to our view that something of God may be lodged in our Minds that as our Bodies extract their quintessence for our Nourishment so our Minds may extract a quintessence for the Makers Praise Though God is principally to be Praised in and for Christ yet as Grace doth not raze out the Law of Nature so the operations of Grace put not the dictates of Nature to silence nor suspend the Homage due to God upon our
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
that is none can The Text is a lofty declaration of the Divine Power with a particular note of Attention Loe. 1. In the expressions of it in the works of Creation and Providence Loe these are his ways Ways and Works excelling any created strength referring to the little summary of them he had made before 2. In the Insufficiency of these ways to measure his Power but how little a portion is heard of him 3. In the Incomprehensibleness of it The thunder of his Power who can understand Doct. Infinite and Incomprehensible Power pertains to the Nature of God and is exprest in part in his Works or Though there be a mighty expression of Divine Power in his Works yet an Incomprehensible Power pertains to his Nature The thunder of his Power who can understand His Power glitters in all his Works as well as his Wisdom Psal 62.11 Twice have I heard this that Power belongs unto God In the Law and in the Prophets say some But why Power twice and not Mercy which he speaks of in the following Verse He had heard of Power twice from the voice of Creation and from the voice of Government Mercy was heard in Government after Man's Fall not in Creation Innocent man was an object of Gods goodness not of his Mercy till he made himself miserable Power was exprest in both or Twice have I heard that Power belongs to God that is it is a certain and undoubted Truth that Power is essential to the Divine Nature 'T is true Mercy is essential Justice is essential but Power more apparently essential because no acts of Mercy or Justice or Wisdom can be exercised by him without Power The repetition of a thing confirms the certainty of it Some observe that God is called Almighty Seventy times in Scripture * Lessius de perfect Divin lib. 5. cap. 1. Though his Power be evident in all his Works yet he hath a Power beyond the expression of it in his Works which as it is the glory of his Nature so it is the comfort of a Believer To which purpose the Apostle expresseth it by an excellent Periphrasis for the honour of the Divine Nature Eph. 3.20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think unto him be glory in the Churches We have reason to acknowledge him Almighty who hath a Power of acting above our power of understanding Who could have imagin'd such a powerful operation in the propagation of the Gospel and the Conversion of the Gentiles which the Apostle seems to hint at in that place His Power is exprest by Horns in his hands Hab. 3.4 because all the Works of his hands are wrought with Almighty strength Power is also used as a Name of God Mark 14.62 The Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power that is at the right hand of God God and Power are so inseparable that they are reciprocated As his Essence is Immense not to be confin'd in Place as it is Eternal not to be measur'd by Time so it is Almighty not to be limited in regard of Action 1. 'T is Ingeniously illustrated by some by a Vnit †Fotherby Atheomastic p. 306 307. all Numbers depend upon it it makes Numbers by Addition Multiplies them unexpressibly when one Unit is removed from a Number how vastly doth it diminish it It gives perfection to all other Numbers it receives perfection from none If you add a Unit before 100 how doth it multiply it to 1100 If you set a Unit before twenty Millions it presently makes the Number swell up to an hundred and twenty Millions and so powerful is a Unit by adding it to Numbers that it will infinitely inlarge them to such a vastness that shall transcend the capacity of the best Arithmetician to count them By such a Meditation as this you may have some prospect of the Power of that God who is only Unity the Beginning of all things as a Unit is the beginning of all Numbers and can perform as many things really as a Unit can numerically that is can do as much in the making of Creatutes as a Unit can do in the multiplying of Numbers The Omnipotence of God was scarce denied by any Heathen that did not deny the Being of a God and that was Pliny and that upon weak Arguments 2. Indeed we cannot have a conception of God if we conceive him not most Powerful as well as most Wise He is not a God that cannot do what he will and perform all his pleasure If we imagine him restrain'd in his Power we imagine him limited in his Essence As he hath an infinite Knowledge to know what is possible he cannot be without an infinite Power to do what is possible As he hath a Will to resolve what he sees good so he cannot want a Power to effect what he sees good to decree As the Essence of a Creature cannot be conceiv'd without that activity that belongs to his nature as when you conceive Fire you cannot conceive it without a power of burning and warming and when you conceive Water you cannot conceive it without a power of moistning and cleansing So you cannot conceive an Infinite Essence without an Infinite Power of activity And therefore a Heathen could say If you know God you know he can do all things and therefore saith Austin Give me not only a Christian but a Jew not only a Jew but a Heathen that will deny God to be Almighty A Jew a Heathen may deny Christ to be Omnipotent but no Heathen will deny God to be Omnipotent and no Devil will deny either to be so God cannot be conceiv'd without some Power for then he must be conceiv'd without Action Whos 's then are those products and effects of Power which are visible to us in the World to whom do they belong who is the Father of them God cannot be conceiv'd without a Power suitable to his Nature and Essence if we imagine him to be of an Infinite Essence we must imagine him to be of an Infinite Power and Strength In particular I shall shew 1. The Nature of God's Power 2. Reasons to prove that God must needs be Powerful 3. How his Power appears in Creation in Government in Redemption 4. The Vse I. What this Power is or the Nature of it 1. Power sometimes signifies Authority And a Man is said to be Mighty and Powerful in regard of his Dominion and the right he hath to Command multitudes of other persons to take his part but Power taken for Strength and Power taken for Authority are distinct things and may be separated from one another Power may be without Authority as in successful Invasions that have no just foundation Authority may be without Power as in a Just Prince expell'd by an unjust Rebellion the Authority resides in him though he be over-power'd and is destitute of Strength to support and exercise that Authority The Power
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
yet doth not make it so Justice supposeth an object Criminal but doth not constitute it so Mercy supposeth him Miserable to relieve him Justice supposeth him Criminal to punish him but Power supposeth not a thing in real existence but as possible or rather it is from Power that any thing hath a possibility if there be no repugnancy in the nature of the thing Again Power extends further than either Mercy or Justice Mercy hath particular Objects which Justice shall not at last be willing to punish and Justice hath particular Objects which Mercy at last shall not be willing to refresh but Power doth and alway will extend to the Objects of both Mercy and Justice A Creature as a Creature is neither the object of Mercy nor Justice nor of Rewarding Goodness A Creature as Innocent is the Object of Rewarding Goodness a Creature as Miserable is the Object of Compassionate Mercy a Creature as Criminal is the Object of Revenging Justice but all of them the Objects of Power in conjunction with those Attributes of Goodness Mercy and Justice to which they belong All the Objects that Mercy and Justice and Truth and Wisdom exercise themselves about have a possibility and an actual Being from thâ—s perfection of Divine Power 'T is Power first frames a Creature in a capacity of Nature for Mercy or Justice though it doth not give an immediate qualification for the exercise of either Power makes Man a Rational Creature and so confers upon him a Nature mutable which may be Miserable by its own fault and punishable by Gods Justice or pityable by Gods Compassion and relievable by Gods Mercy but it doth not make him Sinful whereby he becomes miserable and punishable Again Power runs through all the degrees of the states of a Creature As a thing is possible or may be made 't is the Object of Absolute Power as it is factibile or ordered to be made 't is the Object of Ordinate Power As a thing is actually made and brought into Being it is the Object of Preserving Power So that Power doth stretch out its Arms to all the Works of God in all their Circumstances and at all Times When Mercy ceaseth to relieve a Creature when Justice ceaseth to punish a Creature Power ceaseth not to preserve a Creature The Blessed in Heaven that are out of the reach of punishing Justice are for ever maintained by Power in that Blessed Condition the Damned in Hell that are cast out of the Bosom of Intreating Mercy are for ever sustain'd in those remediless Torments by the Arm of Power 6. This Power is Originally and Essentially in the Nature of God and not distinct from his Essence 'T is Originally and Essentially in God The strength and power of Great Kings is originally in their People and managed and ordered by the Authority of the Prince for the Common good Though a Prince hath Authority in his Person to Command yet he hath not sufficient Strength in his Person without the Assistance of Others to make his Commands to be obeyed He hath not a single Strength in his own Person to conquer Countries and Kingdoms and increase the Number of his Subjects He must make use of the Arms of his own Subjects to over-run other places and yoke them under his Dominion But the Power of all things that ever were are or shall be is Originally and Essentially in God 'T is not deriv'd from any thing without him as the Power of the greatest Potentates in the World is Therefore Psal 62.11 it is said Power belongs unto God that is solely and to none else He hath a Power to make his Subjects and as many as he pleases to create Worlds to enjoyn Precepts to execute Penalties without calling in the strength of his Creatures to his Aid The Strength that the Subjects of a Mortal Prince have is not deriv'd to them from the Prince though the Exercise of it for this or that end is ordered and directed by the Authority of the Prince But what Strength soever any thing hath to act as a Means it hath from the Power of God as Creator as well as whatsoever Authority it hath to act is from God as a Rector and Governour of the World God hath a Strength to act without Means and no Means can act any thing without his Power and Strength communicated to them As the Clouds in the 8th Verse before the Text are called Gods Clouds his Clouds So all the Strength of Creatures may be called and truly is Gods Strength and Power in them a drop of Power shot down from Heaven originally only in God Creatures have but a little Mite of Power somewhat communicated to them somewhat kept and reserved from them of what they are capable to possess They have limited Natures and therefore a limited Sphere of Activity Clothes can warm us but not feed us Bread can nourish us but not cloath us One Plant hath a Medicinal quality against one Disease another against another but God is the possessor of Universal Power the Common Exchequer of this Mighty Treasure He acts by Creatures as not needing their power but deriving power to them What he acts by them he could act himself without them And what they act as from themselves is derived to them from Him through Invisible Chanels And hence it will follow that because Power is Essentially in God more Operations of God are possible than are exerted And as Power is Essentially in God so it is not distinct from his Essence It belongs to God in regard of the unconceivable Excellency and Activity of his Essence †Ratione summae actualitatis essentiae Suarez vol. 1. p. 150 151. And Omnipotence is nothing but the Divine Essence efficacious ad extra 'T is his Essence as operative and the immediate principle of Operation As the power of Enlightning in the Sun and the power of Heating in the Fire are not things distinct from the Nature of them but the Nature of the Sun bringing forth Light and the Nature of the Fire bringing forth Heat The power of Acting is the same with the Substance of God though the Action from that Power be terminated in the Creature If the Power of God were distinct from his Essence he were then compounded of Substance and Power and would not be the most Simple Being As when the Understanding is inform'd in several parts of Knowledge it is skill'd in the Government of Cities and Countries it knows this or that Art It Learns Mathematicks Philosophy this or that Science The Understanding hath a power to do this but this power whereby it Learns those Excellent things and brings forth Excellent Births is not a thing distinct from the Understanding it self we may rather call it the Understanding powerful than the Power of the Understanding and so we may rather say God powerful than say the Power of God because his Power is not distinct from his Essence From both these it will
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
all mixture of Evil so Sacred with them was the Conception of God as a Holy God 2. The Absurdest Hereticks have own'd it * Petav. Theol. Dogmat. Tom. 1. lib. 6. cap. 5. p. 415. The Manichees and Marchionites that thought Evil came by Necessity yet would salve Gods being the Author of it by asserting two distinct Eternal Principles One the Original of Evil as God was the Fountain of good So rooted was the Notion of this Divine Purity that none would ever slander Goodness it self with that which was so disparaging to it 3. The Nature of God cannot rationally be conceived without it Though the Power of God be the first Rational conclusion drawn from the sight of his Works Wisdom the next from the order and connexion of his Works Purity must result from the beauty of his Works That God cannot be deform'd by Evil who hath made every thing so Beautiful in its time The Notion of a God cannot be entertain'd without separating from him whatsoever is impure and bespotting both in his Essence and Actions Though we conceive him Infinite in Majesty Infinite in Essence Eternal in Duration Mighty in Power and Wise and Immutable in his Counsels Merciful in his proceedings with Men and whatsoever other Perfections may dignifie so Soveraign a Being yet if we conceive him destitute of this excellent Perfection and imagine him possessed with the least contagion of Evil we make him but an Infinite Monster and fully all those Perfections we ascrib'd to him before we rather own him a Devil than a God 'T is a contradiction to be God and to be Darkness or to have one Mote of Darkness mixed with his Light 'T is a less Injury to him to deny his Being than to deny the Purity of it the one makes him no God the other a deform'd unlovely and a detestable God Plutarch said not amiss That he should count himself less injured by that Man that should deny that there was such a Man as Plutarch than by him that should affirm that there was such a one indeed but he was a debauch'd Fellow a loose and vicious Person 'T is a less wrong to God to discard any acknowledgments of his Being and to count him Nothing than to believe him to exist but imagine a base and unholy Deity He that saith God is not Holy speaks much worse than he that saith There is no God at all Let these two Things be considered I. If any this Attribute hath an excellency above his other Perfections There are some Attributes of God we prefer because of our Interest in them and the relation they bear to us As we esteem his Goodness before his Power and his Mercy whereby he relieves us before his Justice whereby he punisheth us As there are some we more delight in because of the goodness we receive by them so there are some that God delights to honour because of their Excellency 1. None is sounded out so loftily with such solemnity and so frequently by Angels that stand before his Throne as this Where do you find any other Attribute trebled in the Praises of it as this Isai 6.3 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his Glory and Rev. 4.8 The four Beasts rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty c. His Power or Soveraignty as Lord of Hosts is but once mentioned but with a ternal repetition of his Holiness Do you hear in any Angelical Song any other Perfection of the Divine Nature thrice repeated Where do we read of the crying out Eternal Eternal Eternal or Faithful Faithful Faithful Lord God of Hosts Whatsoever other Attribute is left out this God would have to fill the Mouths of Angels and Blessed Spirits for ever in Heaven 2. He singles it out to swear by Psal 89.35 Once have I sworn by my Holiness that I will not lye unto David And Amos 4.2 The Lord will swear by his Holiness He twice swears by his Holiness once by his Power Isai 62.8 once by all when he swears by his Name Jer. 44.26 He lays here his Holiness to pledge for the assurance of his Promise as the Attribute most dear to him most valued by him as though no other could give an assurance parallel to it in this concern of an Everlasting Redemption which is there spoken of He that swears swears by a greater than himself God having no greater than himself swears by himself And swearing here by his Holiness seems to equal that single one to all his other Attributes as if he were more concern'd in the Honour of it than of all the rest 'T is as if he should have said since I have not a more excellent Perfection to swear by than that of my Holiness I lay this to pawn for your Security and bind my self by that which I will never part with were it possible for me to be stript of all the rest 'T is a tacit Imprecation of himself If I lye unto David let me never be counted holy or thought righteous enough to be trusted by Angels or Men. This Attribute he makes most of 3. 'T is his glory and beauty Holiness is the Honour of the Creature sanctification and honour are linkt together 1 Thess 4.4 much more is it the honour of God 't is the Image of God in the Creature * Ephes 4.24 When we take the Picture of a Man we draw the most beautiful part the Face which is a Member of the greatest excellency When God would be drawn to the Life as much as can be in the Spirit of his Creatures He is drawn in this Attribute as being the most beautiful Perfection of God and most valuable with him Power is his Hand and Arm Omniscience his Eye Mercy his Bowels Eternity his Duration his Holiness is his Beauty 2 Chron. 20 21. should praise the Beauty of Holiness In the 27 th Psalm and the 4 th Verse David desires to behold the Beauty of the Lord and enquire in his Holy Temple that is the Holiness of God manifested in his hatred of Sin in the daily Sacrifices Holiness was the Beauty of the Temple Isai 46.11 Holy and Beautiful House are joyned together much more the Beauty of God that dwelt in the Sanctuary This renders him lovely to all his Innocent Creatures though formidable to the Guilty ones * Plutarch Eugubin de Perenni Phil. lib. 6. cap. 6. A Heathen Philosopher could call it the Beauty of the Divine Essence and say That God was not so happy by an Eternity of Life as by an Excellency of Vertue And the Angels Song intimate it to be his glory Isaiah 6.3 The whole Earth is full of thy Glory that is of his Holiness in his Laws and in his Judgments against Sin that being the Attribute applauded by them before 4. 'T is his very life So it is called Ephes 4.18 Alienated from the Life of God that is from the Holiness of
Encourage or Excite or Incline to sin How can he excite to that which when it is done he will be sure to condemn How can he be a Righteous Judge to sentence a sinner to Misery for a Crime acted by a secret Inspiration from himself Iniquity would deserve no reproof from him if he were any way positively the Author of it Were God the Author of it in us what is the reason our own Consciences accuse us for it and convince us of it that being God's Deputy would not accuse us of it if the Soveraign Power by which it acts did incline us to it How can he be thought to excite to that which he hath enacted such severe Laws to restrain or encline Man to that which he hath so dreadfully punished in his Son and which it is impossible but the excellency of his Nature must encline him eternally to hate We may sooner imagine that a pure Flame shall engender Cold and Darkness be the Off-spring of a Sun-beam as imagine such a thing as this What shall we say is there unrighteousness with God God forbid The Apostle execrates such a thought Rom. 9.14 6. God cannot act any Evil in or by himself If he cannot approve of sin in others nor excite any to iniquity which is less he cannot commit Evil himself which is greater What he cannot positively will in another can never be willed in himself he cannot do evil through Ignorance because of his Infinite Knowledge nor through Weakness because of his Infinite Power nor through Malice because of his Infinite Rectitude He cannot will any unjust thing because having an infinitely perfect Understanding he cannot judge that to be true which is false or that to be good which is evil his Will is regulated by his Wisdom If he could will any unjust and irrational thing his Will would be repugnant to his Understanding there would be a disagreement in God Will against Mind and Will against Wisdom He being the highest Reason the first Truth cannot do an unreasonable false defective Action 'T is not a defect in God that he cannot do Evil but a fulness and excellency of Power As it is not a weakness in the Light but the perfection of it that it is unable to produce Darkness God is the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness James 1.17 Nothing pleases him nothing is acted by him but what is beseeming the Infinite excellency of his own Nature The voluntary necessity whereby God cannot be unjust renders him a God blessed for ever He would hate himself as the chief Good if in any of his Actions he should disagree with his Goodness He cannot do any unworthy thing not because he wants an Infinite Power but because he is possessed of an Infinite Wisdom and adorn'd with an Infinite Purity and being infinitely pure cannot have the least mixture of impurity As if you can suppose Fire infinitely hot you cannot suppose it to have the least mixture of Coldness The better any thing is the more unable it is to do evil God being the only Goodness can as little be changed in his Goodness as in his Essence The Second thing 2. The next enquiry is The Proof that God is holy or the manifestation of it Purity is as requisite to the blessedness of God as to the Being of God As he could not be God without being blessed so he could not be blessed without being holy He is called by the title of blessed as well as by that of holy Mark 14.61 Art thou the Christ the Son of the Blessed Unrighteousness is a misery and turbulency in any Spirit wherein it is For it is a privation of an excellency which ought to be in every intellectual Being and what can follow upon the privation of an excellency but unquietness and grief the moth of Happiness An unrighteous man as an unrighteous man can never be blessed though he were in a local Heaven Had God the least Spot upon his Purity it would render him as miserable in the midst of his Infinite Sufficiency as Iniquity renders a man in the confluence of his earthly Enjoyments The Holiness and Felicity of God are inseparable in him The Apostle intimates that the Heathen made an attempt to sully his Blessedness when they would liken him to corruptible mutable impure man Rom. 1.23 25. They changed the Glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to Corruptible Man And after he entitles God a God blessed for ever The Gospel is therefore called The glorious Gospel of the blessed God 1 Tim. 1.11 In regard of the holiness of the Gospel Precepts and in regard of the Declaration of the holiness of God in all the Streams and Branches wherein his Purity in which his Blessedness consists is as illustrious as any other Perfection of the Divine Being God hath highly manifested this Attribute in the state of Nature in the Legal Administration in the dispensation of the Gospel His Wisdom Goodness and Power are declared in Creation his Soveraign Authority in his Law his Grace and Mercy in the Gospel and his Righteousness in all Sutable to this threefold state may be that ternal Repetition of his Holiness in the Prophecy Isai 6.3 holy as Creator and Benefactor holy as Law-giver and Judge holy as Restorer and Redeemer 1. His holiness appears as he is Creator in framing man in a perfect Vprightness Angels as made by God could not be evil for God beheld his own Works with pleasure and could not have pronounced them all good had some been created pure and others impure Two Moral Contrarieties could not be good The Angels had a first estate wherein they were happy * Jude 6. and had they not left their own habitation and state they could not have been miserable But because the Scripture speaks only of the Creation of man we will consider that the Humane Nature was well strung and tun'd by God according to the Note of his own Holiness Eccl. 7.29 God hath made man upright He had declared his Power in other Creatures but would declare in his Rational Creature what he most valued in himself and therefore created him upright with a Wisdom which is the rectitude of the Mind with a Purity which is the rectitude of the Will and Affections He had declared a purity in other Creatures as much as they were capable of viz. in the exact tuning them to answer one another And that God who so well tun'd and compos'd other Creatures would not make Man a Jarring Instrument and place a crackt Creature to be Lord of the rest of his earthly Fabrick God being holy could not set his Seal upon any Rational Creature but the Impression would be like himself pure and holy also He could not be created with an Error in his Understanding that had been inconsistent with the Goodness of God to his Rational Creature if so the erronious motion of the Will which was to follow the dictates of the
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
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
torments the Person that acts it 't is black and abominable and hath not a mite of Goodness in the Nature of it If it ends in any good 't is only from that Infinite Transcendency of skill that can bring Good out of Evil as well as Light out of Darkness Therefore God did not permit it as Sin but as it was an occasion for the manifestation of his own Glory Though the Goodness of God would have appear'd in the Preservation of the World as well as it did in the Creation of it yet his Mercy could not have appear'd without the Entrance of Sin because the Object of Mercy is a Miserable Creature but Man could not be Miserable as long as he remained Innocent The Reign of Sin opened a door for the Reign and Triumph of Grace Rom. 5.21 As sin hath reigned unto death so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life Without it the Bowels of Mercy had never sounded and the ravishing Musick of Divine Grace could never have been heard by the Creature Mercy which renders God so amiable could never else have beam'd out to the World Angels and Men upon this occasion beheld the stirrings of Divine Grace and the Tenderness of Divine Nature and the glory of the Divine Persons in their several Functions about the Redemption of Man which had else been a Spring shut up and a Fountain sealed the Song of Glory to God and Good will to Men in a way of Redemption had never been Sung by them It appears in his dealings with Adam that he permitted his Fall not only to shew his Justice in punishing but principally his Mercy in rescuing since he proclaims to him first the Promise of a Redeemer to bruise the Serpents head before he setled the Punishment he should smart under in the World †Gen. 3.15 16 17. And what fairer prospect could the Creature have of the Holiness of God and his Hatred of Sin than in the edge of that Sword of Justice which punished it in the Sinner but glitter'd more in the Punishment of a Surety so near Allied to him Had not Man been Criminal he could not have been Punishable nor any been punishable for him And the Pulse of Divine Holiness could not have beaten so quick and been so visible without an exercise of his Vindicative Justice He left Mans mutable Nature to fall under Vnrighteousness that thereby he might commend the Righteousness of his own Nature * Rom. 3.7 Adams Sin in its Nature tended to the ruine of the World and God takes an occasion from it for the glory of his Grace in the Redemption of the World He brings forth thereby a new Scene of Wonders from Heaven and a surprizing Knowledge on Earth As the Sun breaks out more strongly after a Night of Darkness and Tempest As God in Creation framed a Chaos by his Power to manifest his Wisdom in bringing Order out of Disorder Light out of Darkness Beauty out of Confusion and Deformity when he was able by a Word to have made all Creatures stand up in their Beauty without the precedency of a Chaos So God permitted a Moral Chaos to manifest a greater Wisdom in the repairing a broken Image and restoring a deplorable Creature and bringing out those Perfections of his Nature which had else been wrapt up in a perpetual silence in his own bosom †But of the Wisdom of God in the permitting Sin in order to Redeâ—ption I have handled in the Attribute of Wisdom It was therefore very congruous to the Holiness of God to permit that which he could make subservient for his own glory and particularly for the manifestation of this Attribute of Holiness which seems to be in opposition to such a permission 5. Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by his concurrence with the Creature in the material part of a sinful Act. Some to free God from having any hand in Sin deny his concurrence to the Actions of the Creature because if he concurs to a sinful Action he concurs to the Sin also Not understanding how there can be a distinction between the Act and the Sinfulness or Viciousness of it and how God can concur to a Natural Action without being stain'd by that Moral Evil which cleaves to it For the understanding of this observe 1. There is a concurrence of God to all the acts of the Creature Acts 17.28 In him we live and move and have our being We depend upon God in our Acting as well as in our Being There is as much an efficacy of God in our Motion as in our Production as none have life without his Power in producing it so none have any operation without his Providence concurring with it In him or by him that is by his Virtue preserving and governing our Motions as well as by his Power bringing us into Being Hence Man is compared to an Ax Isai 10.15 an Instrument that hath no action without the cooperation of a Superiour Agent handling it And the Actions of the Second Causes are ascrib'd to God the Grass that is the product of the Sun Rain and Earth he is said to make to grow upon the Mountains Psal 147.8 and the Skin and Flesh which is by Natural generation he is said to cloath us with Job 10.5 in regard of his co-working with Second Causes according to their Natures As nothing can exist so nothing can operate without him let his Concurrence be removed and the Being and Action of the Creature cease Remove the Sun from the Horizon or a Candle from a Room and the Light which flowed from either of them ceaseth Without Gods preserving and concurring Power the course of Nature would sink and the Creation be in vain ‖ Suarez Metaph part 1. p. 552. All Created things depend upon God as Agents as well as Beings and are subordinate to him in a way of Action as well as in a way of Existing If God suspend his Influence from their Action they would cease to act as the Fire did from burning the Three Children as well as if God suspend his Influence from their Being they would cease to be God supports the Nature whereby Actions are wrought the Mind where Actions are consulted and the Will where Actions are determin'd and the Motive power whereby Actions are produced The Mind could not contrive nor the Hand act a Wickedness if God did not support the Power of the one in designing and the Strength of the other in executing a wicked Intention Every faculty in its Being and every faculty in its Motion hath a dependance upon the Influence of God To make the Creature Independent upon God in any thing which speaks Perfection as Action considered as Action is is to make the Creature a Soveraign Being Indeed we cannot imagine the Concurrence of God to the good Actions of Men since the Fall without granting a Concurrence of God to evil Actions because there is no Action so purely
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
it Good It had been inconsistent with the Supream Goodness of his Nature to have Created only Murderous Ravenous Injurious Creatures To have Created a Bedlam rather than a World A meer heap of Confusion would have been as inconsistent with his Divine Goodness as with his Divine Wisdom Again when his Goodness had moved him to make a Creature his Goodness would necessarily move him to be beneficial to his Creature not that this necessity results from any Merit in the Creature which he had framed but from the Excellency and Diffusiveness of his own Nature and his own Glory the end for which he form'd it which would have been obscure yea nothing without some degrees of his Bounty What occasion of acknowledgments and praise could the Creature have for its Being if God had given him only a miserable Being while it was innocent in action The Goodness of God would not suffer him to make a Creature without providing conveniencies for it so long as he thought good to maintain its Being and furnishing it with that which was necessary to answer that End for which he Created it And his own Nature would not suffer him to be unkind to his Rational Creature while it was Innocent It had been injustice to inflict Evil upon the Creature that had not offended and had no relation to an offending Creature The Nature of God could not have brought forth such an act †Cocceii sum Theolog. p. 91. And therefore some say that God after he had Created Man could not presently annihilate him and take away his Life and Being As a Soveraign he might do it as Almighty he was able to do it as well as Create him but in regard of his Goodness he could not Morally do it For had he annihilated Man as soon as ever he had made him he had not made Man for himself and for his own Glory to be loved worshipped sought and acknowledged by him He would not then have been the end of Man He had Created him in vain and the VVorld in vain which he assures us he did not * Isa 45.18 19. And certainly if the Gifts of God be without Repentance Man could not have been annihilated after his Creation without Repentance in God without any Cause had not Sin entred into the World If God did not say to Man after Sin had made its entrance into the World seek ye me in vain he could not because of his Goodness have said so to Man in his Innocence As God is necessarily Mind so he is necessarily Will as he is necessarily Knowing so he is necessarily Loving He could not be Blessed if he did not know Himself and his own Perfection Nor Good if he did not delight in Himself and his own Perfections And this Goodness whereby he delights in Himself is the source of his delight in his Creatures wherein he sees the footsteps of Himself If he loves Himself he cannot but love the Resemblance of Himself and the Image of his own Goodness He loves himself because he is the highest Goodness and Excellency and loves every thing as it resembles Himself because it is an efflux of his own Goodness And as he doth necessarily love Himself and his own Excellency so he doth necessarily love any thing that resembles that Excellency which is the Primary Object of his Esteem But 5. Though he be necessarily Good yet he is also freely Good The necessity of the Goodness of his Nature hinders not the liberty of his Actions The matter of his acting is not at all necessary but the manner of his acting in a good and bountiful way is necessary as well as free * Gilbert de Dei Dominio p. 6. He Created the World and Man freely because he might choose whether he would Create it but he Created them good necessarily because he was first necessarily good in his Nature before he was freely a Creator When he Created Man he freely gave him a positive Law but necessarily a Wise and Righteous Law because he was necessarily Wise and Righteous before he was freely a Lawgiver When he makes a Promise he freely lets the Word go out of his Lips but when he hath made it he is necessarily a faithful Performer because he was necessarily True and Righteous in his Nature before he was freely a Promiser God is necessarily good in his Nature but free in his Communications of it To make him necessarily to communicate his Goodness in the first Creation of the Creature would render him but impotent good without liberty and without will If the Communications of it be not free the Eternity of the VVorld must necessarily be concluded which some Anciently asserted from the Naturalness of Gods Goodness making the VVorld flow from God as Light from the Sun God indeed is necessarily good Affectivé in regard of his Nature but freely good Effectivé in regard of the Effluxes of it to this or that particular Subject he pitcheth on He is not so necessarily communicative of his Goodness as the Sun of his light or a Tree of its cooling shade that chooseth not its Objects but enlightens all indifferently without any variation or distinction This were to make God of no more Understanding than the Sun to shine not where it pleaseth but where it must He is an understanding Agent and hath a Soveraign Right to choose his own Subjects It would not be a Supream Goodness if it were not a voluntary Goodness 'T is agreeable to the Nature of the highest Good to be absolutely free to dispence his Goodness in what methods and measures he pleaseth according to the free determinations of his own VVill guided by the VVisdom of his Mind and regulated by the Holiness of his Nature He is not to give an account of any of his matters †Job 33.13 He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion * Rom. 9.15 And he will be good to whom he will be good When he doth act he cannot but act well so it 's necessary yet he may act this good or that good to this or that degree so it is free As it is the Perfection of his Nature 't is necessary as it is the communication of his Bounty 't is voluntary The Eye cannot but see if it be open yet it may glance upon this or that colour fix upon this or that object as it is conducted by the VVill. God necessarily loves Himself because he is good yet not by constraint but freedom because his affection to Himself is from a knowledge of Himself He necessarily loves his own Image because 't is his Image yet freely because not blindly but from motions of understanding and will VVhat necessity could there be upon him to resolve to communicate his Goodness It could not be to make Himself better by it for he had a Goodness uncapable of any addition He confers a goodness on his
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
than Men have reason to complain for the exercise of Justice in the vindication of it If God established all things in Order with Infinite Wisdom and Goodness and God silently behold for ever this Order broken would he not either charge himself with a want of Power or a want of Will to preserve the Marks of his own Goodness Would it be a kindness to himself to be careless of the breaches of his own Orders His Throne would shake yea sink from under him if Justice whereby he Sentenceth and Judgment whereby he Executes his Sentence were not the supports of it †Ps 89.14 Justice and Judgment are the habitation of thy Throne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Stability or Foundation of thy Throne So Psal 92.2 Man would forget his Relation to God God would be unknown to be Soveraign of the World were he careless of the breaches of his own Order * Psal 9.16 The Lord is known by the Judgments which he Executes Is it not a part of his Goodness to preserve the indispensible Order between himself and his Creatures His own Soveraignty which is good and the subjection of the Creature to him as Soveraign which is also good The one would not be maintained in its due place nor the other restrained in due limits without Punishment Would it be a goodness in him to see Goodness it self trampled upon constantly without some time or other appearing for the relief of it Is it not a Goodness to secure his own Honour to prevent further Evil Is it not a Goodness to discourage Men by Judgments sometimes from a contempt and ill use of his Bounty as well as sometimes patiently to bear with them and wait upon them for a Reformation Must God be bad to himself to be kind to his Enemies And shall it be accounted an unkindness and a Mark of Evil in him not to suffer himself to be always outrag'd and defy'd The World is wrong'd by Sin as well as God is injur'd by it How could God be good to himself if he righted not his own Honour Or be a good Governour of the World if he did not sometimes witness against the Injuries it receives sometimes from the works of his hands Would he be good to himself as a God to be careless of his own Honour Or good as the Rector of the World and be regardless of the Worlds Confusion That God should give an Eternal good to that Creature that declines its Duty and despiseth his Soveraignty is not agreeable to the goodness of his Wisdom or that of his Righteousness 'T is a part of Gods Goodness to love himself Would he love his Soveraignty if he saw it dayly slighted without sometimes discovering how much he values the Honour of it Would he have any esteem for his own Goodness if he beheld it trampled upon without any will to vindicate it Doth Mercy deserve the name of Cruelty because it pleads against a Creature that hath so often abused it and hath refused to have any pity exercised towards it in a Righteous and Regular way Is Soveraignty destitute of Goodness because it preserves its Honour against one that would not have it Reign over him Would he not seem by such a regardlesness to renounce his own Essence undervalue and undermine his own Goodness if he had not an implacable aversion to whatsoever is contrary to it If Men turn Grace into Wantonness is it not more reasonable he should turn his Grace into Justice All his Attributes which are parts of his Goodness engage him to punish Sin without it his Authority would be vilified his Purity stain'd his Power derided his Truth disgraced his Justice scorn'd his Wisdom slighted He would be thought to have dissembled in his Laws and be judged according to the Rules of Reason to be void of true Goodness 4. Punishment is not the primary Intention of God 'T is his Goodness that he hath no mind to Punish and therefore he hath put a bar to Evil by his Prohibitions and Threatnings that he might prevent Sin and consequently any occasions of severity against his Creature * Zarnovecius de satisfact Part. 1. cap. 1. p. 3 4. The principal Intention of God in his Law was to encourage Goodness that he might reward it And when by the commission of Evil God is provoked to Punish and takes the Sword into his hand he doth not act against the Nature of his Goodness but against the first intention of his Goodness in his Precepts which was to Reward As a good Judge principally intendeds in the Exercise of his Office to protect good Men from Violence and maintain the honour of the Laws yet consequently to punish bad men without which the Protection of the good would not be secured nor the Honour of the Law be supported And a good Judge in the Exercise of his Office doth principally intend the incouragement of the good and wisheth there were no wickedness that might occasion Punishment and when he doth Sentence a Malefactor in order to the Execution of him he doth not act against the goodness of his Nature but pursuant to the Duty of his Place but wisheth he had no occasion for such severity Thus God seems to speak of himself †Isaiah 28.21 He calls the act of his Wrath his Strange Work his Strange Act A work not against his Nature as the Governor of the World but against his first Intention as Creator which was to manifest his Goodness Therefore he moves with a slow pace in those Acts brings out his Judgments with relentings of heart and seems to cast out his Thunderbolts with a trembling hand He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men * Lam. 3.33 And therefore he delights not in the death of a Sinner †Ezek. 33.11 Not in Death as Death in Punishment as Punishment but as it reduceth the suffering Creature to the Order of his Precept or reduceth him into order under his Power or reforms others who are Spectators of the Punishment upon a Criminal of their own Nature God only hates the Sin not the Sinner He desires only the destruction of the one * Suarez Vol. 1. de Deo lib. 3. cap. 7. p. 146. not the misery of the other The Nature of a Man doth not displease him because it is a work of his own Goodness but the Nature of the Sinner displeaseth him because it is a work of the Sinners own extravagance Divine Goodness pitcheth not its hatred primarily upon the Sinner but upon the Sin But since he cannot punish the Sin without punishing the Subject to which it cleaves the Sinner falls under his lash Who ever regards a good Judge as an Enemy to the Malefactor but as an Enemy to his Crime when he doth Sentence and Execute him 5. Judgments in the World have a goodness in them therefore they are no Impeachments of the Goodness of God 1. A Goodness in their preparations He
but because it is good and by a Communicated Goodness fitted for such a Production If God had been the Creating Principle of things only as he was a Living Being or as he was an Understanding Being then all things should have partaken of Life and Understanding because all things were to bear some Characters of the Deity upon them If by Understanding solely God were the Creator of all things all things should have born the Mark of the Deity upon them and should have been more or less Understanding but he Created things as he was Good and by Goodness he renders all things more or less like himself Hence every thing is accounted more noble not in regard of its Being but in regard of the beneficialness of its Nature The Being of things was not the End of God in Creating but the Goodness of their Being God did not rest from his Works because they were his Works i. e. because they had a Being but because they had a Good Being * Gen. 1. because they were naturally useful to the Universe Nothing was more pleasing to him than to behold those Shadows and Copies of his own Goodness in his Works 2. Creation was the first act of Goodness without himself †Petav. Theclog Dogmat. Tom. 1. p. 401. When he was alone from Eternity he contented himself with himself abounding in his own Blessedness delighting in that abundance He was incomprehensively rich in the possession of an unstain'd Felicity * Lessius de Perfect div p. 100. This Creation was the first Efflux of his Goodness without himself For the work of Creation cannot be called a work of Mercy Mercy supposeth a Creature miserable but that which hath no Being is subject to no Misery For to be Miserable supposeth a Nature in Being and deprived of that Good which belongs to the pleasure and felicity of Nature but since there was no Being there could be no Misery The Creation therefore was not an act of Mercy but an act of sole Goodness And therefore it was the Speech of an Heathen That when God first set upon the Creation of the World he transform'd himself into Love and Goodness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †Pherecyâ—es This led forth and animated his Power the first moment it drew the Universe out of the Womb of Nothing And 3. There is not one Creature but hath a Character of his Goodness The whole World is a Map to Represent and a Herald to proclaim this Perfection 'T is as difficult not to see something of it in every Creature with the Eye of our Minds as it is not to see the Beams of the Shining Sun with those of our Bodies * Psal 145.9 He is good to all He is therefore good in all Not a drop of the Creation but is a drop of his Goodness These are the Colours worn upon the Heads of every Creature As in every Spark the light of the Fire is manifested so doth every grain of the Creation wear the visible Badges of this Perfection In all the Lights the Father of Lights hath made the riches of Goodness apparent No Creature is silent in it 't is legible to all Nations in every work of his hands That as it is said of Christ †Psal 40.7 In the Volume of thy Book it is written of me In the Volume of the Book of the Scripture 't is written of me and my Goodness in Redemption So it may be said of God In the Volume of the Book of the Creature 't is written of me and my Goodness in Creation Every Creature is a Page in this Book whose Line is gone through all the Earth and their Words to the end of the World * Psal 19.4 Though indeed the less Goodness in some is obscur'd by the more resplendent Goodness he hath imparted unto others What an admirable piece of Goodness is it to communicate Life to a Fly How should we stand gazing upon it till we turn our Eye inwards and view our own Frame which is much more ravishing But let us see the Goodness of God in the Creation of Man 1. In the Being and Nature of Man God hath with a liberal hand conferr'd upon every Creature the best Being it was capable of in that Station and Order and conducing to that end and use in the World he intended it for But when you have run over all the measures of Goodness God hath poured forth upon other Creatures you will find a greater fulness of it in the Nature of Man whom he hath placed in a more Sublime Condition and endued with choicer Prerogatives than other Creatures He was made but little lower than the Angels and much more loftily crown'd with glory and honour than other Creatures †Psal 8 5. Had it not been for Divine Goodness this Excellent Creature had lain wrapt up in the Abyss of nothing Or if he had call'd it out of nothing there might have been less of Skill and less of Goodness display'd in the forming of it and a lesser kind of Being imparted to it than what he hath conferr'd 1. How much of Goodness is visible in his Body God drew out some part of the Dust of the Ground and Copy'd out this Perfection as well as that of his Power on that mean Matter by erecting it into the form of Man quickning that Earth by the Inspiration of a living Soul * Gen. 2.7 Of this Matter he composed an Excellent Body in regard of the Majesty of the Face Erectness of its Stature and Grace of every Part How neatly hath he wrought this Tabernacle of Clay this Earthly House as the Apostle calls it †2 Cor. 5.1 A curious wrought piece of Needle-work a Comely Artifice * Ps 139.15 an Embroyder'd Case for an Harmonious Lute What variety of Members with a due proportion without confusion beautiful to sight excellent for use powerful for strength It hath Eyes to conduct its Motion to serve in Matter for the Food and and delight of the Understanding Ears to let in the pleasure of Sounds to convey Intelligence of the Affairs of the World and the Counsels of Heaven to a more noble Mind It hath a Tongue to Express and sound forth what the learn'd Inhabitant in it thinks and Hands to act what the inward Counsellor directs and Feet to support the Fabrick 'T is temper'd with a kindly Heat and an Oyly Moisture for Motion and endued with conveyances for Air to qualifie the fury of the Heat and Nourishment to supply the decays of Moisture 'T is a Cabinet fitted by Divine Goodness for the enclosing a rich Jewel a Palace made of Dust to lodge in it the Viceroy of the World An Instrument dispos'd for the operations of the Nobler Soul which he intended to unite to that Refined Matter What is there in the situation of every part in the proportion of every Member in the usefulness of every Limb and String to the Offices
and delight in them If they be nauseous to him the indisposition of his mind is a dead Fly in those Boxes of precious Ointment Now Faith being a sincere willingness to accept of Christ and to come to God by him and Repentance being a detestation of that which made Mans separation from God 't is impossible he could be yoluntarily happy without it Man cannot attain and enjoy a true happiness without an operation of his understanding about the Object proposed and the means appointed to enjoy it There must be a knowledge of what is offer'd and of the way of it and such a knowledge as may determine the will to affect that end and embrace those means which the will can never do till the understanding be fully perswaded of the truth of the Offerer and the goodness of the Proposal it self and the conveniency of the means for the attaining of it 'T is necessary in the nature of the thing that what is reveal'd should be believ'd to be a Divine Revelation God must be judged true in the Promising Justification and Sanctification the means of happiness and if any Man desires to be Partaker of those Promises he must desire to be Sanctified and how can he desire that which is the Matter of those Promises if he wallow in his own lusts and desire to do so a thing repugnant to the Promise it self Would you have God force Man to be happy against his will Is it not very reasonable he should demand the consent of his reasonable Creature to that Blessedness he offers him The new Covenant is a Marriage Covenant * Hos 2.16 19 20. which implies a consent on our parts as well as a consent on Gods part That is no Marriage that hath not the consent of both Parties Now Faith is our actual Consent and Repentance and sincere Obedience are the Testimonies of the truth and reality of this Consent 6. Divine Goodness is eminent in his Methods of treating with Men to embrace this Covenant They are Methods of gentleness and sweetness 'T is a wooing Go dness and a bewailing Goodness His Expressions are with strong motions of affection He carrieth not on the Gospel by force of Arms He doth not solely menace Men into it as Worldly Conquerors have done He doth not as Mahomet plunder Mens Estates and wound their Bodies to imprint a Religion on their Souls He doth not erect Gibbets and kindle Faggots to scare Men to an entring into Covenant with him What Multitudes might he have raised by his power as well as others What Legions of Angels might he have Rendezvouz'd from Heaven to have beaten Men into a profession of the Gospel Nor doth he only interpose his Soveraign Authority in the Precept of Faith but useth Rational Expostulations to move Men voluntarily to comply with his Proposals †Isaiah 1.18 Come now saith the Lord let us reason together He seems to call Heaven and Earth to be judge whether he had been wanting in any reasonable ways of Goodness to overcome the perversity of the Creature * Isaiah 1.2 Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth I have nourished and brought up Children What various encouragements doth he use agreeable to the Nature of Men endeavouring to perswade them with all tenderness not to despise their own Mercies and be Enemies to their own Happiness He would allure us by his Beauty and win us by his Mercy He uses the Arms of his own Excellency and our necessity to prevail upon us and this after the highest provocations When Adam had trampl'd upon his Creating Goodness it was not crusht and when Man had cast it from him it took the higher rebound When the Rebels provocation was fresh in his mind he sought him out with a promise in his hand though Adam fled from him out of enmity as well as fear * Gen. 3. And when the Jews had outrag'd his Son whom he loved from Eternity and made the Lord of Heaven and Earth bow down his head like a Slave on the Cross yet in that place where the most horrible wickedness had been committed must the Gospel be preached The Law must go forth out of that Sion and the Apostles must not stir from thence till they had received the promise of the Spirit and publisht the Word of Grace in that ungrateful City whose Inhabitants yet swelled with indignation against the Lord of Life and the Doctrine he had preached among them †Luke 24.47 He would overlook their indignities out of tenderness to their Souls and expose the Apostles to the peril of their Lives rather than expose his Enemies to the fury of the Devil 1. How affectionately doth he invite Men What multitudes of alluring Promises and pressing Exhortations are there every where sprinkled in the Scripture and in such a passionate manner as if God were solely concern'd in our good without a glance on his own glory How tenderly doth he woe flinty hearts and express more pity to them than they do to themselves With what affection do his Bowels rise up to his Lips in his Speech in the Prophet * Acts 1.4.5 Hearken to me O my People and give ear unto me O my Nation my People my Nation Melting Expressions of a tender God solliciting a rebellious People to make their retreat to him He never emptied his hand of his Bounty nor devested his Lips of those charitable Expressions He sent Noah to move the Wicked of the old World to an embracing of his Goodness and frequent Prophets to the provoking Jews and as the World continued and grew up to a taller stature in Sin he stoops more in the manner of his Expressions Never was the World at a higher pitch of Idolatry than at the first publishing the Gospel yet when we should have expected him to be a punishing he is a beseeching God The Apostle fears not to use the Expression for the glory of Divine Goodness †Isaiah 51.4 We are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us * 2 Cor. 5.20 The beseeching voice of God is in the voice of the Ministry as the voice of the Prince is in that of the Herald 'T is as if Divine Goodness did kneel down to a Sinner with wringed Hands and blubber'd Cheeks intreating him not to force him to re-assume a Tribunal of Justice in the nature of a Judge since he would treat with Man upon a Throne of Grace in the nature of a Father yea he seems to put himself into the posture of the Criminal that the offending Creature might not feel the punishment due to a Rebel 'T is not the condescension but the interest of a Traytor to creep upon his knees in Sackcloth to his Soveraign to beg his life But it is a Miraculous Goodness in the Soveraign to creep in the lowest posture to the Rebel to importune him not only for an amity to him but a love to his own life and
when it was something by the sole vertue of his Power and good Will to it without any motive from any thing else than Himself because there was nothing else but Himself But since he sees his own stamp in things without Himself in the Creature which is a kind of motive or moving Object to Divine Goodness to preserve it when there was nothing without Himself that could be any motive to Him to Create it As when God hath created a Creature and it falls into misery that misery of the Creature though it doth not necessitate his mercy yet meeting with such an affection as mercy in his Nature is a moving Object to excite it As the repentance of Nineveh drew forth the exercise of his pity and preserving goodness Certainly since God is Good he is Bountiful and if Bountiful he is Provident He would seem to envy and malign his Creatures if he did not provide for them while he intends to use them But infinite Goodness cannot be affected with envy For all envy implies a want of that good in our selves which we regard with so evil an eye in another But God being infinitely blessed hath not the want of any good that can be a rise to such an uncomely disposition The Jews thought that Divine Goodness extended only to them in an immediate and particular Care and left all other Nations and things to the guidance of Angels But the Psalmist Psal 107. a Psalm calculated for the celebration of this Perfection in the continued course of his Providence throughout all Ages of the World ascribes to Divine Goodness immediately all the advantages men meet with He helps them in their actions presides over their motions inspects their several conditiâ—ns labours day and night in a perpetual care of them The whole life of the World is linkt together by Divine Goodness Every thing is ordered by him in the place where he hath set it without which the World would be stript of that Excellency it hath by Creation 1. First This Goodness is evident in the Care he hath of all Creatures There is a peculiar goodness to his People but this takes not away his general goodness to the World Though a Master of a Family hath a choicer affection to those that have an Affinity to him in Nature and stand in a nearer Relation as his Wife Children Servants yet he hath a regard to his Cattle and other Creatures he nourisheth in his House All things are not only before his eyes but in his Bosom He is the Nurse of all Creatures supplying their wants and sustaining them from that nothing they tend to * Psal 104.24 The Earth is full of his Riches not a creek or cranny but partakes of it Abundant Goodness daily hovers over it as well as hatcht it * Gulielmus Parasien p. 184. The whole World swims in the rich Bounty of the Creator as the Fish do in the largeness of the Sea and Birds in the spatiousness of the Air. The Goodness of God is the River that Waters the whole Earth As a lifeless Picture casts its eye upon every one in the Room so doth a living God upon every thing in the World And as the Sun illuminates all things which are capable of partaking of its light and diffuseth its Beams to all things which are capable of receiving them So doth God spread his Wings over the whole Creation and neglects nothing wherein he sees a mark of his first creating Goodness His Godness is seen 1. In preserving all things * Psal 36.6 Oh Lord thou preservest Man and Beast Not only Man but Beasts and Beasts as well as Men. Man as the most excellent Creature and Beasts as being serviceable to Man and Instruments of his Worldly Happiness He continues the Species of all things concurs with them in their distinct Offices and quickens the Womb of Nature He visits Man every day and makes him feel the effects of his Providence in giving him fruitful seasons and filling his heart with food and gladness * Acts 14.17 as witnesses of his Liberality and Kindness to Man The Earth is visited and watered by the River of God He settles the furrows of the Earth and makes it soft with showers that the Corn may be nourished in its Womb and spring up to Maturity He crowns the year with his Goodness and his paths drop fatness The little Hills rejoice on every side The Pastures are clothed with Flocks and the Vallies are covered over with Corn as the Psalmist elegantly * Psal 65.9 10. Psal 107.35.36 He waters the ground by his Showers and preserves the little Seed from the Rapine of Animals He draws not out the evil Arrows of Famine as the expression is * Ezek. 5.16 Every day shines with new Beams of his Divine Goodness The vastness of this City and the multitudes of living Souls in it is an astonishing Argument What streams of nourishing necessaries are daily convey'd to it Every Mouth hath Bread to sustain it and among all the number of Poor in the Bowels and Skirts of it how rare is it to hear of any starv'd to death for want of it Every day he spreads a Table for us and that with varieties and fills our Cups * Psal 23.5 He shortens not his hand nor withdraws his Bounty The Increase of one year by his Blessing restores what was spent by the former He is the strength of our life * Psal 27.1 continuing the vigour of our Limbs and the health of our Bodies secures us from terrors by night and the Arrows of Diseases that fly by day * Psal 91.5 Sets a hedge about our Estates * Job 1.10 and defends them against the attempts of violence Preserves our Houses from flames that might consume them and our persons from the dangers that lie in wait for them Watcheth over us in our goings out and our comings in * Psal 221.8 and way-lays a Thousand dangers we know not of And employs the most glorious Creatures in Heaven in the service of mean Men upon Earth * Psal 91 1â— Not by a faint Order but a pressing Charge over them to keep them in all his ways Those that are his immediate Servants before his Throne he sends to Minister to them that were once his Rebels By an Angel he conducted the affairs of Abraham * Gen. 24.7 And by an Angel secur'd the life of Ishmael †Gen. 21.17 Glorious Angels for mean Man Holy Angels for impure Man Powerful Angels for weak Man How in the midst of great dangers doth his sudden light dissipate our great darkness and create a deliverance out of nothing How often is he found a present help in time of trouble When all other assistance seems to stand at a distance He flies to us beyond our expectations and raises us upon the sudden from the pit of our dejectedness as well as that of our danger exceeding our wishes
and gathers strength by the blowing of the Wind. While the Gardener commands his Servant to shake the Tree he intends to fasten its Roots and settle it firmer in its place And is this an ill will to the Plant 5. His Goodness is seen in Temptations in preventing Sin which we were likely to fall into Pauls Thorn in the Flesh was to prevent the pride of his Spirit and let out the windiness of his heart * 2 Cor. 12.7 lest it should be exalted above measure The Goodness of God makes the Devil a Polisher while he intends to be a Destroyer The Devil never works but sutably to some Corruption lurking in us Divine Goodness makes his fiery Darts a means to discover and so to prevent the treachery of that perfidious inmate in our own hearts Humility is a greater benefit than a putrifying pride If God brings us into a Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil 't is to bring down our loftiness to starve our Carnal Confidence and expell our rusting security * Deut. 8.2 We many times fly under a Temptation to God from whom we sat too loose before Is it not Goodness to use those means that may drive us into his own Arms 'T is not a want of goodness to Soap the Garment in order to take away the Spots We have reason to bless God for the Assaults from Hell as well as pure Mercies from Heaven and it is a Sin to overlook the one as well as the other since Divine Goodness shines in both 6. The Goodness of God is seen in Temptations in fitting us more for his Service Those whom God intends to make choice Instruments in his Service are first season'd with strong Temptations as Timber reserved for the strong Beams of a Building is first expos'd to Sun and Wind to make it more compact for its proper use By this Men are brought to answer the end of their Creation the Service of God which is their proper Goodness Peter was after his foil by a Temptation more Courageous in his Masters Cause than before and the more fitted to strengthen his Brethren Thus the Goodness of God appears in all parts of his Government I shall now come to the VSE First Of Instruction 1. If God be so Good how unworthy is the contempt or abuse of his Goodness 1. The contempt and abuse of Divine Goodness is frequent and common it began in the first Ages of the World and commenced a few moments after the Creation it hath not to this day diminisht its affronts Adam began the Dance and his Posterity have follow'd him The injury was directed against this when he entertain'd the Seducers Notion of Gods being an envious Deity in not indulging such a Knowledge as he might have afforded him * Gen. 3.5 God doth know that you shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil. The charge of Envy is utterly inconsistent with pure Goodness What was the language of this Notion so easily entertain'd by Adam but that the Tempter was better than God and the Nature of God as base and sordid as the Nature of a Devil Satan Paints God with his own Colours Represents him as Envious and Malicious as himself Adam admires and believes the Picture to be true and hangs it up as a beloved one in the Closet of his heart The Devil still drives on the same Game fills Mens hearts with the same Sentiments and by the same means he Murder'd our first Parents he redoubles the Stabs to his Posterity Every violation of the Divine Law is a contempt of Gods Goodness as well as his Soveraignty because his Laws are the Products both of the one and the other Goodness animates them while Soveraignty enjoys them God hath Commanded nothing but what doth conduce to our happiness All disobedience implies that his Law is a snare to entrap us and make us miserable and not an act of Kindness to render us happy which is a disparagement to this Perfection as if he had Commanded what would promote our Misery and prohibited what would conduce to our Blessedness To go far from him and walk after vanity is to charge him with our Iniquity and Unrighteousness Baseness and Cruelty in his Commands God implies it by his Speech * Jer. 2.5 What iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone far from me and walked after vanity As if like a Tyrant he had consulted Cruelty in the composure of them and design'd to Feast himself with the Blood and Misery of his Creatures Every Sin is in its own Nature a denial of God to be the chiefest Good and Happiness and implies that it is no great matter to lose him 't is a forsaking him as the Fountain of Life and a preferring a crackt and empty Cistern as the chief Happiness before him * Jer. 2.13 Though Sin is not so Evil as God is Good yet it is the greatest Evil and stands in opposition to God as the greatest Good Sin disorders the Frame of the World it endeavour'd to frustrate all the Communications of Divine Goodness in Creation and to stop up the way of any further Streams of it to his Creatures 2. The abuse and contempt of the Divine Goodness is base and disingenuous 'T is the highest Wickedness because God is the highest Goodness pure Goodness that cannot have any thing in him worthy of our contempt Let Men injure God under what Notion they will they injure his Goodness because all his Attributes are summ'd up in this one and all as it were Deified by it For whatsoever Power or Wisdom he might have if he were destitute of this he were not God The contempt of his Goodness implies him to be the greatest Evil and worst of Beings Badness not Goodness is the proper Object of Contempt As Respect is a propension of Mind to something that is Good so Contempt is an alienation of the Mind from something as Evil either simply or supposedly Evil in its Nature or base or unworthy in its action towards that Person that contemns it As Men desire nothing but what they apprehend to be Good so they slight nothing but what they apprehend to be Evil Since nothing therefore is more Contemned by us than God nothing more spurn'd at by us than God it will follow that we regard him as the most loathsom and despicable Being which is the greatest Baseness And our Contempt of him is worse than that of the Devils they injure him under the inevitable strokes of his Justice and we slight him when we are surrounded with the Expressions of his Bounty They abuse him under Vials of Wrath and we under a plenteous Liberality They malice him because he inflicts on them what is hurtful and we despise him because he Commands what is profitable holy and honourable in its own Nature though not in our Esteem They are not under those high Obligations as we they abuse his Creating and we his Redeeming Goodness
Gift an unparallell'd Gift springing from unconceivable Treasures of Goodness * John 3.16 What is our turning our backs upon this Gift but a low opinion of it As though the richest Jewel of Heaven were not so valuable as a Swinish pleasure on Earth and deserv'd to be treated at no other rate than if meer Offals had been presented to us The plain language of it is that there were no gracious intentions for our welfare in this present and that he is not as good in the Mission of his Son as he would induce us to imagine Impenitence is also an abuse of this Goodness either by presumption as if God would entertain Rebels that bid defiance against him with the same respect that he doth his prostrate and weeping Suppliants That he will have the same regard to the Swine as to the Children and lodge them in the same Habitation Or it speaks a suspicion of God as a deceitful Master one of a pretended not a real Goodness That makes promises to mock Men and invitations to delude them That he is an implacable Tyrant rather than a good Father A rigid not a kind Being delightful only to mark our Faults and overlook our Services 4. The Goodness of God is contemned by a distrust of his Providence As all trust in him supposeth him Good so all distrust of him supposeth him Evil either without Goodness to exert his Power or without Power to display his Goodness Job seems to have a Spice of this in his complaint * Job 30.20 I crie unto thee and thou dost not hear me I stand up and thou regardest me not 'T is a fume of the Serpents Venom first breath'd into Man to suspect him of Cruelty Severity Regardlesness even under the daily Evidences of his good Disposition And it is ordinary not to believe him when he speaks nor Credit him when he acts To question the goodness of his Precepts and misinterpret the kindness of his Providence As if they were design'd for the supports of a Tyranny and the deceit of the Miserable Thus the Israelites thought their miraculous deliverance from Egypt and the placing them in security in the Wilderness was intended only to pound them up for a slaughter * Numb 14.3 Thus they defil'd the lustre of Divine Goodness which they had so highly Experimented and placed not that confidence in him which was due to so frequent a Benefactor and thereby Crucify'd the rich Kindness of God as Genebrard translates the word limited * Psal 78.41 'T is also a jealousie of Divine Goodness when we seek to deliver our selves from our straights by unlawful ways as though God had not kindness enough to deliver us without committing Evil. What did God make a World and all Creatures in it to think of them no more not to concern himself in their Affairs If he be Good he is diffusive and delights to Communicate himself and what Subjects should there be for it but those that seek him and implore his assistance 'T is an indignity to Divine Bounty to have such mean thoughts of it that it should be of a Nature contrary to that of his Works which the better they are the more diffusive they are Doth a Man distrust that the Sun will not shine any more or the Earth not bring forth its Fruit Doth he distrust the goodness of an approved Medicine for the expelling his Distemper If we distrust those things should we not render our selves ridiculous and sottish And if we distrust the Creator of those things do we not make our selves contemners of his Goodness If his Careing for us be a principal Argument to move us to cast our Care upon him as it is 1 Pet. 5.7 Casting your Care upon him for he Cares for you then if we cast not our Care upon him 't is a denial of his Gracious Care of us as if he regarded not what becomes of us 5. We do contemn or abuse his Goodness by omissions of Duty These sometimes spring from injurious conceits of God which end in desperate Resolutions It was the Crime of a good Prophet in his passion * 2 Kings 6.33 This Evil is of the Lord Why should I wait on the Lord any longer God designs nothing but mischief to us and we will seek him no longer And the complaint of those in Malachy Mal. 3.14 is of the same nature Ye have said 't is vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances We have all this while serv'd a hard Master not a Benefactor and have not been answered with advantages proportionable to our services We have met with a hand too niggardly to dispense that Reward which is due to the largeness of our Offerings When Men will not lift up their Eyes to Heaven and sollicite nothing but the contrivance of their own brain and the industry of their own heads they disown Divine Goodness and approve themselves as their own Gods and the Spring of their own Prosperity Those that run not to God in their necessity to crave his support deny either the Arm of his Power or the disposition of his Will to sustain and deliver them They must have very mean sentiments or none at all of this Perfection or think him either too empty to fill them or too churlish to relieve them That he is of a narrow and contracted Temper and that they may sooner expect to be made better and happier by any thing else than by him And as we contemn his Goodness by a total omission of those Duties which respect our own advantage and supply as Prayer so we contemn him as the chiefest Good by an omission of the due manner of any act of Worship which is design'd purely for the acknowledgment of him As every omission of the material part of a Duty is a denial of his Soveraignty as Commanding it So every omission of the manner of it not performing it with a due esteem and valuation of him a surrender of all the Powers of our Souls to him is a denial of him as the most amiable Object But certainly to omit those Addresses to God which his Precept enjoyns and his Excellency deserves speaks this language that they can be well enough and do well enough without God and stand in no need of his Goodness to maintain them The neglect or refusal in a Malefactor to supplicate for his Pardon is a wrong to and contempt of the Princes goodness Either implying that he hath not a goodness in his Nature worthy of an Address or that he scorns to be oblig'd to him for any Exercise of it 6. The Goodness of God is contemned or abus'd in relying upon our Services to procure Gods good Will to us * Amyral Moral Tom. 4. p. 291. As when we stand in need either of some particular Mercy or special Assistance When Pressures are heavy and we have little hopes of ease in an ordinary way When the
we cannot love so obliging a God as much as he deserves to be loved by us It would make us humble before Men. Who would be proud of a meer Gift which he knows he hath not Merited How ridiculous would that Servant be that should be proud of a rich Livery which is a Badge of his Service not a Token of his Merit but of his Masters Magnificence and Bounty which though he wear this day he may be stript of to morrow and be turn'd out of his Masters Family 3. A sense of the Divine Goodness would make us faithful to him The Goodness of God obligeth us to serve him not to offend him The freeness of his Goodness should make us more ready to contribute to the advancement of his Glory When we consider the Benefits of a Friend proceed out of kindness to us and not out of self ends and vain applause it works more upon us and makes us more careful of the honour of such a Person 'T is a pure Bounty God hath manifested in Creation and Providence which could not be for himself who being Blessed for ever wanted nothing from us It was not to draw a profit from us but to impart an advantage to us Our goodness extends not to him * Psal 16.2 The service of the Benefactor is but a Rational return for Benefits whence Nehemiah aggravates the Sins of the Jews * Neh. 9.35 †They have not served thee in thy great goodness that thou gavest them i. e. which thou didst freely bestow upon them How should we dare to spend upon our Lusts that which we possess if we consider'd by whose liberality we came by it How should we dare to be unfaithful in the Goods he hath made us Trustees of A deep sense of Divine Goodness will enoble the Creature and make it act for the most glorious and noble end It would strike Satans Temptation dead at a blow It would pull off the false Mask and Vizor from what he presents to us to draw us from the service of our Benefactor We could not with a sense of this think him kinder to us than God hath and will be which is the great motive of Men to joyn hands with him and turn their backs upon God 4. A sense of the Divine Goodness would make us patient under our Miseries A deep sense of this would make us give God the honour of his Goodness in whatsoever he doth though the reason of his actions be not apparent to us nor the event and issue of his proceedings foreseen by us 'T is a stated case that goodness can never intend ill but designs good in all its acts to them that love God * Rom. 8.28 Nay he always designs the best when he bestows any thins upon his People he sees it best they should have it and when he removes any thing from them he sees it best they should lose it When we have lost a thing we loved and refuse to be comforted a sense of this Perfection which acts God in all would keep us from misjudging our sufferings and measuring the intention of the hand that sent them by the sharpness of what we feel What Patient fully perswaded of the affection of the Physician would not value him though that which is given to purge out the Humours racks his Bowels When we lose what we love perhaps it was some outward lustre tickled our apprehensions and we did not see the Viper we would have harm'd our selves by but God seeing it snatcht it from us and we mutter as if he had been Cruel and depriv'd us of the good we imagin'd when he was kind to us and freed us from the hurt we should certainly have felt We should regard that which in goodness he takes from us at no other rate than some guilded Poyson and lurking Venom The sufferings of Men though upon high provocations are often follow'd with rich Mercies and many times are intended as preparations for greater goodness When God utters that Rhetorick of his Bowels * Hos 11.8 How shall I give thee up Oh Ephraim I will not execute the fierceness of my anger he intended them Mercy in their Captivity and would prepare them by it to walk after the Lord. And it is likely the Posterity of those Ten Tribes were the first that ran to God upon the publishing the Gospel in the places where they lived He doth not take away himself when he takes away outward Comforts While he snatcheth away the Rattles we play with he hath a Breast in himself for us to suck The consideration of his Goodness would dispose us to a compos'd frame of Spirit If we are sick 't is Goodness it is a Disease and not a Hell 'T is Goodness that it is a Cloud and not a total Darkness What if he transfers from us what we have He takes no more than what his Goodness first imparted to us And never takes so much from his People as his Goodness leaves them If he strips them of their lives he leaves them their Souls with those faculties he furnisht them with at first and removes them from those Houses of Clay to a richer Mansion The time of our Sufferings here were it the whole Course of our Life bears not the proportion of a moment to that endless Eternity wherein he hath design'd to manifest his Goodness to us The Consideration of Divine Goodness would teach us to draw a Calm even from Storms and distil Balsom from Rods If the Reproofs of the Righteous be an excellent Oyl * Psal 145.5 we should not think the Corrections of a good God to have a less Vertue 5. A sense of the Divine Goodness would mount us above the World It would damp our appetites after meaner things we should look upon the World not as a God but a Gift from God and never think the Present better than the Donor We should never lie soaking in muddy Puddles were we always fill'd with a sense of the richness and clearness of this Fountain wherein we might bath our selves Little petty Particles of good would give us no content when we were sensible of such an unbounded Ocean Infinite Goodness rightly apprehended would dull our desires after other things and sharpen them with a keener edge after that which is best of all How earnestly do we long for the presence of a Friend of whose good will towards us we have full experience 6. It would check any Motions of Envy It would make us joy in the prosperity of good Men and hinder us from envying the outward felicity of the Wicked We should not dare with an evil Eye to censure his good Hand * Matth. 20.15 but approve of what he thinks fit to do both in the matter of his Liberality and the Subjects he chooseth for it Though if the disposal were in our hands we should not imitate him as not thinking them Subjects fit for Bounty Yet since it is in his hands
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
of sparing exercis'd to the Devils in deferring their compleat punishment and hitherto keeping off the day wherein their final sentence is to be pronounced yet the Scripture never mentions this by the name of slowness to anger or long suffering It can no more be call'd Patience than a Princes keeping a Malefactor in chains and not pronouncing a condemning sentence or not executing a sentence already pronounced can be call'd a Patience with him when it is not out of kindness to the Offender but for some reasons of State God's sparing the Devils from their total punishment which they have not yet but are reserved in chains under darkness for it Jude 6. is not in order to Repentance or attended with any invitations from God or hopes in them and therefore cannot come under the same title as Gods sparing man Where there is no proposal of mercy there is no exercise of Patience The fall'n Angels had no mercy reserv'd for them nor any Sacrifice prepar'd for them God spared not the Angels 2 Pet. 2.4 but delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment i. e. he had no Patience for them For Patience is properly a temporary sparing a person with a waiting for his relenting and a change of his injurious demeanour The object of goodness is more extensive than that of Patience Nor do they both consider the object under the same relation Goodness respects things in a capacity or in a state of Creation and brings them forth into Creation and nurseth and supports them as Creatures Patience considers them already Created and fall'n short of the duty of creatures It considers them as sinners or in relation to sinners Had not sin entred Patience had never been exercised but goodness had been exercised had the creature stood firm in its Created State without any transgression Nay Creation could not have been without goodness because it was goodness to Create But Patience had never been known without an object which could not have been without an injury Where there is no wrong no suffering nor like to be any Patience hath no prospect of any operation So then goodness respects persons as creatures Patience as transgressors Mercy eyes men as miserable and obnoxious to punishment Patience considers men as sinful and provoking to punishment 2. Since 't is a part of goodness and mercy 't is not an insensible patience What is the fruit of pure goodness cannot be from a weakness of resentment he is slow to anger The Prophet doth not say he is uncapable of anger or cannot discern what is a real object of anger It implyes that he doth consider every provocation but he is not hasty to discharge his arrows upon the Offenders He sees all while he bears with them his omniscience excludes any ignorance He cannot but see every wrong every aggravation in that wrong every step and motion from the begiâ—â—ing to the compleating it For he knows all our thoughts he sees the sin and 〈◊〉 sinner at the same time the sin with an eye of abhorrency and the sinner with an eye of pity His eye is upon their iniquities and his hatred edged against them while he stands with arms open waiting a penitent return When he publisheth his patience in his keeping silence he publisheth also his resolution to set sin in order before their Eyes Psal 50.21 I will reprove thee and set them in order before thy Eyes Think me not such a peice of phlegm and so dull as not to resent your insolencies you shall see in my final charge when I come to Judge that not a wry look escap't my knowledge that I had an eye to behold and a heart to loath every one of your Transgressions The Church was ready to think that Gods slowness to deliver her and his bearing with her oppressors was not from any Patience in his nature but a drowsie carelessness a senseless Lethargy Psal 44.23 Awake why sleepest thou Oh Lord We must conclude him an inapprehensive God before we can conclude him an insensible God As his delaying his promise is not slackness to his people 2 Pet. 3.9 So his deferring of punishment is not from a stupidity under the affronts offered him 3. Since 't is a part of his Mercy and Goodness 't is not a constrained or faint-hearted Patience 'T is not a slowness to Anger arising from a despondency of his own pâ—â—er to revenge He hath as much power to punish as he hath to forbear punishment He that created a World in six days and that by a word wants not a strength to crush all mankind in one minute and with as much ease as a Word imports can give satisfaction to his Justice in the blood of the offender Patience in man is many times interpreted and truly too a cowardise a feebleness of Spirit and a want of strength But i◠〈…〉 not from the shortness of the divine arm that he cannot reach us nor from th◠〈…〉 of his hand that he cannot strike us 'T is not because he cannot lev◠〈…〉 dust 〈◊〉 us in peices like a Potters Vessel or consume us as a Moth◠〈…〉 â—tiest to fall before him and lay the strongest at his fe◠〈…〉 crime He that did not want a powerful Word to 〈…〉 want a powerful Word to dissolve the whole frame of 〈…〉 it out of being 'T is not therefore out of a distrust of his own power that he hath supported a sinful World for so many ages and patiently born the Blasphemies of some the neglects of others and the ingratitude of all without inflicting that severe Justice which righteously he might have done he wants no thunder to crush the whole generation of men nor waters to drown them nor Earth to swallow them up How easie is it for him to single out this or that particular person to be the object of his Wrath and not of his Patience What he hath done to one he may to another any signal judgment he hath sent upon one is an evidence that he wants not power to inflict it upon all Could he not make the motes in the Air to choke us at every breath Rain thunderbolts instead of drops of water fill the Clouds with a consuming Lightning take off the reverence and fear of man which he hath imprinted upon the Creature Spirit our domestick Beasts to be our Executioners unloose the Tiles from the house top to brain us or make the fall of a house to crush us 'T is but taking out the pins and giving a blast and the work is done And doth he want a power to do any of those things 'T is not then a faint-hearted or feeble Patience that he exerciseth towards Man 4. Since 't is not for want of power over the Creature 't is from a fulness of power over himself This is in the Text The Lord is slow to Anger and great in Power 't is a part of his Dominion over himself whereby he can moderate and rule his
abused and the World to go contrary to its natural end But since he did not level the World with its first nothing but healed the World so favourably it was evident that his patience pointed the World to a further design of Mercy and Goodness in him To imagine that God had no other design in his long-suffering but that of vengeance had been a notion unsuitable to the Goodness and Wisdom of God He would never have pretended himself to be a Friend if he had harboured nothing but enmity in his heart against them It had been far from his Goodness to give them a cause to suspect such a design in him as his patience certainly did had he not intended it Had he preserv'd men only for punishment 't is more like he would have treated men as Princes do those they reserve for the Axe or Halter give them only things necessary to uphold their lives till the day of Execution and not have bestowed upon them so many good things to make their lives delightful to them nor have furnisht them with so many excellent means to please their senses and recreate their minds it had been a mocking of them to treat them at the rate if nothing but punishment had been intended towards them If the end of it to lead men to Repentance were easily intelligble by them as the Apostle intimates Rom. 2.4 Which is to be linkt with the former chapter a discourse of the Gentiles Not knowing saith he that the riches of his forbearance and goodness leads thee to repentance it also gives them some ground to hope for pardon For what other argument can more induce to Repentance than expectation of Mercy upon a relenting and acknowledging the crime Without a design of pardoning Grace his patience would have been in a great measure exercis'd in vain For by meer patience God is not reconcil'd to a sinner no more than a Prince to a Rebel by bearing with him Nor can a sinner conclude himself in the favour of God no more than a Rebel can conclude himself in the favour of his Prince only this he may conclude that there is some hopes he may have the grant of a pardon since he hath time to sue it out And so much did the patience of God naturally signifie that he was of a reconcilable temper and was willing men should sue out their pardon upon Repentance otherwise he might have magnified his Justice and condemned men by the Law of Works 2. He therefore exercised so much patience to wait for mens Repentance All the notices and warnings that God gives men of either publick or personal calamities is a continual invitation to Repentance This was the common interpretation the Heathens made of extraordinary Presages and Prodigies which shew'd as well the delays as the approaches of Judgments What other notion but this that those warnings of Judgments witness a slowness to Anger and a willingness to turn his arrows another way should move them to multiply sacrifices go weeping to their Temples sound out prayers to their Gods and shew all those other Testimonies of a Repentance which their blind understandings hit upon If a * Amyraldus moral Tom. 2. p. 186. Prince should sometimes in a light and gentle manner punish a criminal and then relax it and shew him much kindness and afterwards inflict upon him another kind of punishment as light as the former and less than was due to his crime what could the Malefactor suspect by such a way of proceeding but that the Prince by those gently repeated chastisements had a mind to move him to a regret for his crime And what other thoughts could men naturally have of Gods conduct that he should warn them of great judgments send light afflictions which are Testimonies rather of a Patience than of a severe wrath but that it was intended to move them to a relenting and a breaking off their sins by working Righteousness Though Divine patience doth not in the event induce men to Repentance yet the natural tendency of such a treatment is to mollifie mens Hearts to overcome their obsstinacy and no man hath any reason to judge otherwise of such a proceeding The long suffering of God is Salvation saith Peter 2 Pet. 3.15 i. e. hath a tendency to Salvation in its being a sollicitation of men to the means of it For the Apostle cites Paul for the confirmation of it Even as our beloved Brother Paul hath written unto you which must refer to Rom. 2.4 It leads to Repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it conducts which is more than barely to invite it doth as it were take us by the hand and point us to the way wherein we should go and for this end it was exercised not only towards the Jews but towards the Gentiles not only towards those that are within the pale of the Church and under the dews of the Gospel but to those that are in darkness and in the shadow of death For this discourse of the Apostle was but an inference from what he had treated of in the first chapter concerning the Idolatry and ingratitude of the Gentiles since the Gentiles were to be punished for the abuse of it as well as the Jews as he intimates ver 9. 't is plain that his patience which is exercised towards the Idolatrous Gentiles was to allure them to Repentance as well as others and it was a sufficient motive in it self to perswade them to a change of their vile and gross acts to such as were morally good And there was enough in Gods dealing with them and in that light they had to engaged them to a better course than what they usually walked in And though men do abuse Gods long-suffering to encourage their impenitence and persisting in their crimes yet that they cannot reasonably imagine that to be the end of God is evident their own gripes of Conscience would acquaint them that it is otherwise They know that Conscience is a principle that God hath given them as well as Understanding and Will and other Faculties That God doth not approve of that which the voice of their own Consciences and of the Consciences of all men under natural light are utterly against And if there were really in this forbearance of God an approbation of mens crimes Conscience could not frequently and universally in all men check them for them What Authority could Conscience have to do it But this it doth in all men As the Apostle Rom. 1.22 They know the judgment of God that those that do such things which he had mentioned before are worthy of death In this thing the Consciences of all men cannot err They could not therefore conclude from hence Gods approbation of their iniquities but his desire that their Hearts should be touched with a Repentance for them The Sin of Ephraim is hid Hosea 13.12.13 i. e. God doth not presently take notice of it to order punishment he lays it in a secret place from
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
Eternity a property of God and Christ Pag. 181 191 192 What it is Pag. 182 In what respects God is eternal Pag. 183 ad 186 That he is so proved 186 ad 190 God's incommunicable property Pag. 16 17 190 191 Dreadful to sinners Pag. 193 194 Comfortable to the Righteous Pag. 194 ad 197 The thoughts of it should abate our Pride Pag. 197 198 199 Take off our love and confidence from the World Pag. 199 200 We should provide for an happy Interest in it Pag. 200 201 Often meditate on it Pag. 201 Renders him worthy of our choicest Affections Pag. 201 202 And our best Service Pag. 202 Exaltation of Christ the Holiness of God appears in it Pag. 514 515 His Goodness to us as well as to Christ Pag. 624 And his Soveraignty Pag. 751 Examination of our selves before and after worship and wherein our duty Pag. 162 163 164 178 Experience of God's Goodness a Preservative against Atheism Pag. 45 46 Extremity then God usually delivers his Church Pag. 487 488 F. FAith the same thing may be the object of it and of Reason too Pag. 4 Must be exercised in Spiritual worship Pag. 146 147 The Wisdom Holiness Goodness of God in prescribing it as a Condition of the Covenant of Grace v. Covenant Must look back as far as the foundation promise Pag. 341 †Only the obedience flowing from it acceptable to God Pag. 336 Distinct but inseparable from Obedience Pag. 336 337 Foresight of it not the ground of Election Pag. 729 730 Fall of man God no way the Author of it Pag. 505 506 519 How great it is Pag. 546 547 Doth not impeach God's Goodness Pag. 594 595 'T is evident Pag. 670 671 Brought a Curse on the Creatures v. Creatures Falls of God's Children turned to their good Pag. 361 ad 369 Fear not the cause of the Belief of a God Pag. 14 Men that are under a slavish fear of him wish there were no God Pag. 53 54 Of Man a contempt of God's Power Pag. 481 482 Should be of God and not of the pride or force of man Pag. 491 492 God's Soveraignty should cause it Pag. 779 Features different in every man and how necessary it should be so Pag. 31 32 348 Fervency v. Activity Flesh the Legal Services so called Pag. 135 Fools wicked men are so Pag. 1 400 Folly sin is so v. Sin Forgetfulness of God men naturally are prone to it Pag. 97 Of his Mercies a great sin v. Mercies How attributed to God Pag. 283 Foreknowledge in God of sin no blemish to his Holiness Pag. 520 521 Vide Knowledge of God Future things men desirous to know them Pag. 323 Known by God v. Knowledge of God G. GAbriel on what Messages he was sent Pag. 468 Generation could not be from Eternity Pag. 16 17. Gifts God can bestow them on men Pag. 719 His Soveraignty seen in giving greater measures to one than another Pag. 738 Glory of all they do or have men are apt to ascribe to themselves Pag. 82 83 Of God little minded in many seemingly good actions Pag. 72 73 Men are more concern'd for their own reputation than God's glory Pag. 83 Should be aim'd at in Spiritual worship Pag. 153 God's permission of sin is in order to it Pag. 528 529 Sould be advanced by us Pag. 778 God his Existence known by the light of Nature Pag. 4 5 By the Creatures Pag. 5 14 ad 29 Miracles not wrought to prove it Pag. 5 Owned by the universal consent of all Nations Pag. 6 Never disputed of old Pag. 7 Denied by very few if any Pag. 8 Constantly owned in all changes of the world Pag. 9 Under anxieties of Conscience ib. The Devil not able to root out the belief of it Pag. 9 10 Natural and innate Pag. 10 Not introduced meerly by Tradition Pag. 11 Nor Policy Pag. 12 13 Nor Fear Pag. 14 Witnessed to by the very Nature of Man Pag. 29 ad 37 And by extraordinary Occurrencies Pag. 37 38 Impossible to demonstrate there is none Pag. 41. 42 Motives to endeavour to be setled in the belief of it Pag. 44 45 Directions Pag. 45 Men wish there were none and who they are Pag. 52 53 54 Two ways of describing him Negation and Affirmation Pag. 113 Is active and communicative Pag. 126 127 Propriety in him a great Blessedness Vide Covenant Infinitely happy Pag. 476 477 Good That which is materially so may be done and not formally Pag. 69 72 73 Good Actions cannot be perform'd before Conversion Pag. 100 The thoughts of Gods Presence a Spur to them Pag. 270 God only is so Pag. 578 579 Goodness pure and perfect the Royal Prerogative of God only Pag. 581 Own'd by all Nations Pag. 582 Inseparable from the Notion of God Pag. 582 583 What is meant by it Pag. 583 How distinguish'd from Mercy Pag. 584 Comprehends all his Attributes Pag. 585 Is so by his Essence Pag. 586 The Chief Pag. 587 'T is communicative Pag. 588 Necessary to him Pag. 589 Voluntary Pag. 590 Communicative with the greatest pleasure Pag. 591 The displaying of it the Motive and End of all his Works Pag. 592 Arguments to prove it a Property of God Pag. 593 594 Vindicated from the Objections made against it Pag. 594 ad 604 Appears in Creation Pag. 604 ad 615 In Redemption Pag. 615 ad 645 In his Government Pag. 645 ad 660 Frequently contemn'd and abus'd Pag. 660 661 The Abuse and Contempt of it base and disingenuous Pag. 661 662 Highly resented by God Pag. 662 How 't is contemn'd and abus'd Pag. 660 ad 670 Men justly punish'd for it Pag. 671 Fits him for the Government of the World and engages him actually to govern it Pag. 671 6 2 The ground of all Religion Pag. 673 674 Renders God amiable to himself Pag. 674 675 Should do so to us and why Pag. 675 ad 678 Renders him a fit object of Trust with Motives to it drawn hence Pag. 678 679 680 And worthy to be obey'd and honour'd Pag. 680 681 682 Comfortable to the Righteous and wherein Pag. 682 ad 685 Should engage us to endeavour after the enjoyment of him with Motives Pag. 685 686 Should be often meditated on and the Advantages of so doing Pag. 681 682 683 We should be thankful for it Pag. 690 And imitate it and wherein Pag. 691 692 Gospel Men greater Enemies to than to the Law Pag. 101 Its Excellency Pag. 103 334 Called Spirit Pag. 135 The only Means of establishment Pag. 333 Of an Eternal Resolution tho of a Temporary Revelation Pag. 334 Mysterious ibi◠The first Preachers of it Vide Apostles It s Antiquity Pag. 335 The Goodness of God in spreading it among the Gentiles ibid. Gives no encouragement to Licentiousness Pag. 336 The Wisdom of God in its Propagation Pag. 390 ad 395 And Power Pag. 461 ad 467 Vide Christian Religion Government of the World God could not manage it without Immutability Pag. 220 And Knowledge Pag. 314
315 And Wisdom Pag. 344 345 The Wisdom of God appears in his government of Man as Rational Pag. 352 ad 357 As Sinful Pag. 357 ad 366 As Restored Pag. 367 368 369 The Power of God appears in Natural government Pag. 445 ad 451 Moral Pag. 451 452 453 Gracious and Judicial Pag. 453 ad 456 The Goodness of God in it Pag. 645 ad 660 God only fit for it Pag. 395 396 477 478 551 †671 672 Doth actually manage it Pag. 396 672 ad 675 Is contemned Pag. 759 ad 763 Vide Laws Governour God's Dominion as such Pag. 741 ad 748 Grace the Power of God in planting it Pag. 467 ad 470 Vide Conversion And preserving it 471 V. Perseverance God's withdrawing it no blemish to his Holiness Pag. 536 537 538 Shall be perfected in the Upright Pag. 552 God exercises a Soveraignty in bestowing and denying it Pag. 731 ad 734 Means of Grace vide Means Graces must be acted in Worship Pag. 145 ad 149 We should examine how we acted them after it Pag. 163 Growth in Grace annex'd to true Sanctification Pag. 699 Should be labour'd after Pag. 563 564 H. HAbits Spiritual to be acted in Spiritual Worship Pag. 145 146 The rooting up Evil ones shews the Power of God Pag. 469 470 Christ's sitting at Gods Right Hand doth not prove the Ubiquity of his Human Nature Pag. 251 252 Hardness how God and how Man is the cause of it Pag. 536 537 Harmony of the Creatures shew the Being and Wisdom of God Pag. 21 ad 27 Heart of Man how curiously contrived Pag. 30 We should examine our selves how our Hearts are prepared for Worship Pag. 162 How they are fixed in it and how they are after it Pag. 162 163 164 God orders all Mens to his own ends Pag. 452 453 Heaven the enjoyment of God there will be always fresh and glorious Pag. 195 Why called God's Throne Pag. 257 Heavenly Bodies subservient to the good of the World Pag. 22 23 Hosea when he Prophesied Pag. 801 Holiness a necessary ingredient in Spiritual Worship Pag. 152 153 A glorious Perfection of God Pag. 495 Own'd to be so both by Heathens and Hereticks ibid. God cannot be conceiv'd without it Pag. 495 496 It hath an excellency above all his other Perfections Pag. 496 Most loftily and frequently sounded forth by the Angels ib. He Swears by it ib. 'T is his glory and life Pag. 496 497 The glory of all the rest Pag. 497 498 What it is and how distinguish'd from Righteousness Pag. 498 His Essential and necessary Perfection Pag. 498 499 God only absolutely Holy Pag. 499 450 Causes him to abhor all Sin necessarily intensly universally and perpetually Pag. 501 502 503 Inclines him to love it in others Pag. 503 551 552 So Great that he cannot positively will and encourage Sin in others or do it himself Pag. 504 505 506 Appears in his Creation Pag. 507 508 In his Government Pag. 508 ad 513 In Redemption Pag. 513 514 515 In Justification Pag. 515 516 In Regeneration Pag. 516 Defended in all his Acts about Sin Pag. 517 ad 540 How much it is contemned in the World and wherein Pag. 540 ad 546 To hate and scoff at it in others how great a Sin Pag. 543 544 Necessarily obliges him to punish Sin Pag. 547 548 And exact satisfaction for it Pag. 549 550 Fits him for the government of the World Pag. 551 †Comfortable to Holy men Pag. 552 †Shall be perfected in the Upright Pag. 552 We should get and preserve right and strong Apprehensions of it and the advantage of so doing Pag. 552 ad 556 We should glorifie God for it and how Pag. 556 557 558 And labour after a conformity to it and wherein Pag. 558 559 563 Motives to do so Pag. 559 ad 562 And Directions Pag. 563 We should labour to grow in it Pag. 563 564 Exert it in our Approaches to God Pag. 564 Seek it at his hands Pag. 564 565 Holy Ghost his Deity proved Pag. 476 Humility a necessary ingredient in Spiritual Worship Pag. 151 152 We should examine our selves about it after Worship Pag. 164 A Consideration of God's Eternity would promote it Pag. 197 198 199 And of his Knowledge Pag. 339 †And of his Wisdom Pag. 409 And of his Power Pag. 491 And of his Holiness Pag. 553 554 And of his Goodness Pag. 668 And his Soveraignty Pag. 775 776 Hypocrites their false Pretences a virtual denial of God's Knowledge Pag. 328 It is Terrible to them Pag. 335 336 I. IDleness 't is an abuse of Gods Mercies to make them an occasion of it Pag. 668 Idolatry of the Heathens proves the belief of a God to be Universal Pag. 6 7 The first Object of it was the Heavenly Bodies Pag. 15 Springs from unworthy Imaginations of God Pag. 95 Not countenanc'd by Gods Omnipresence Pag. 260 Springs from a want of due Notion of God's Infinite Power Pag. 480 A contempt of God's Dominion Pag. 759 Jehovah signifies God's Eternity Pag. 189 And his Immutability Pag. 217 God called so but once in the Book of Job Pag. 440 Image of God in Man consists not in external form and figure Pag. 119 120 Unreasonable to make any of him Pag. 120 121 122 123 'T is Idolatry so to do Pag. 123 The defacing it an injury to God's Holiness Pag. 541 542 Man at first made after it Pag. 607 Imaginations Men naturally have unworthy ones of God Pag. 94 Vain ones the cause of Idolatry and Superstition and Presumtion Pag. 95 96 Worse than Idolatry or Atheism Pag. 96 97 An injury to God's Holiness Pag. 541 Imitation of God Man naturally hath no desire of it Pag. 99 We should strive to imitate his Immutability in that which is good Pag. 238 239 In Holiness wherein and why and how Pag. 558 ad 563 And in Goodness Pag. 691 692 Immortal God is so Pag. 127 Vide Eternity of God Immutability a Property of God Pag. 208 'T is a Perfection Pag. 208 209 A glory belonging to all his Attributes Pag. 209 Necessary to him Pag. 209 210 God is Immutable in his Essence Pag. 210 211 In Knowledge Pag. 211 ad 214 In his Will though the things willed by him are not Pag. 214 215 216 This doth not infringe his liberty Pag. 216 Immutable in regard of place Pag. 216 217 Proved by Arguments Pag. 217 ad 220 397 477 Incommunicable to any Creature Pag. 221 222 517 518 Objections against it answered Pag. 222 ad 229 Ascribed to Christ Pag. 229 230 A ground and encouragement to Worship him Pag. 230 231 How contrary to God in it Man is Pag. 231 232 233 Terrible to Sinners Pag. 233 2â—4 Comfortable to the Righteous and wherein Pag. 234 235 236 An Argument for Patience Pag. 237 Should make us prefer God before all Creatures Pag. 237 We should imitate this his Immutability in Goodness Motives to it Pag. 238 239 Impatience of Men is great when God crosses them
Pag. 76 A Contempt of Gods Wisdom Pag. 404 405 And of his Goodness Pag. 663 664 And of his Dominion Pag. 760 Impenitence an Abuse of Gods Goodness Pag. 664 665 It will clear the Equity o◠God's Justice Pag. 813 814 An Abuse of Patience Pag. 815 Imperfections in Holy Duties we should be sensible of Pag. 148 Should make us prize Christ's Mediation Pag. 168 Impossible some things are in their own nature Pag. 432 433 Some things so to the Nature and Being of God and his Perfections Pag. 433 434 Some things so because of Gods Ordination Pag. 435 Do not infringe the Almightiness of God's Power Pag. 432 ad 435 Incarnation of Christ the Power of God seen in it Pag. 456 ad 460 Incomprehensible God is so Pag. 263 Inconstancy natural to Man Pag. 231 234 In the knowledge of the Truth Pag. 231 232 In Will and Affections Pag. 232 In Practice Pag. 233 234 'T is the Root of much Evil ibid. Infirmities the Knowledge of God a comfort to his People under them Pag. 332 333 †The Goodness of God in bearing with them Pag. 656 657 His Patience a Comfort under them Pag. 821 Injuries Men highly concern'd for those that are done to themselves little for those that are done to God Pag. 83 Gods Patience under them should make us resent them Pag. 822 Injustice a Contempt of Gods Dominion Pag. 758 Innocent Person whether God may inflict eternal Torments upon him Pag. 712 716 717 Instruments Men are apt to pay a Service to them rather than God Pag. 86 Which is a Contempt of Divine Power Pag. 482 And of his Goodness Pag. 669 670 Deliverances not to be chiefly ascribed to them Pag. 272 273 God makes use of Sinful ones Pag. 358 359 None in Creation Pag. 443 444 The Power of God seen in effecting his Purposes by weak Ones Pag. 455 456 Inventions of Men. Vide Addition and Worship Job when he lived Pag. 439 Jonah how he came to be believed by the Ninivites Pag. 361 Joy a necessary Ingredient in Spiritual Worship Pag. 150 Should accompany all our Duties Pag. 784 Judging the Hearts of others a great Sin Pag. 324 Their Eternal state a greater Pag. 325 Judgment Day a necessity of it Pag. 318 319 398 Judgments Extraordinary prove the Being of God Pag. 37 38 Men are apt to put bold Interpretations on them Pag. 78 79 God is Just in them Pag. 100 Especially after the abuse of his Goodness and Patience Pag. 671 813 814 On God's Enemies matter of Praise Pag. 494. 495 Declare God's Holiness Pag. 511 512 513 Which should be observed in them Pag. 557 Not sent without warning Pag. 602 800 801 802 Mercy mix'd with them Pag. 602 603 604 God sends them on whom he pleases Pag. 746 747 Delay'd a long time where there is no Repentance Pag. 802 803 God unwilling to pour them out when he cannot delay them any longer Pag. 803 Pour'd out with regret Pag. 803 804 By degrees Pag. 804 Moderated Pag. 805 Vide Punishments Justice of God a motive to Worship Pag. 130 Its plea against Man Pag. 375 376 Reconciled with Mercy in Christ Pag. 377 Vindictive natural to God Pag. 547 548 549 Requires Satisfaction Pag. 550 Justification cannot be by the best and strongest works of Nature Pag. 102 320 544 545 550 The Holiness of God appears in that of the Gospel Pag. 515 The expectations of it by the outward observance of the Law cannot satisfie an Inquisitive Conscience Pag. 579 Men naturally look for it by Works Pag. 580 K. KIngdoms are disposed of by God Pag. 742 743 Knowledge in God hath no succession Pag. 185 186 192 307 308 Immutable Pag. 211 212 213 311 312 Arguments to prove it 263 Pag. 312 ad 316 The manner of it Incomprehensible Pag. 214 215 288 295 God is Infinite in it Pag. 274 Own'd by all Pag. 274 275 He hath a Knowledge of Vision and Intelligence speculative and practical Pag. 276 277 Of Apprehension and Approbation Pag. 277 278 Hath a knowledge of himself Pag. 278 279 280 Of all things possible Pag. 280 281 282 Of all things past and present Pag. 282 283 Of all Creatures their Actions and Thoughts Pag. 283 ad 287 Of all Sins and how Pag. 287 288 289 Of all future things he alone and how Pag. 289 ad 296 Of all future Contingences Pag. 296 ad 301 Doth not necessitate the Will of Man Pag. 301 ad 304 'T is by his Essence Pag. 305 306 Intuitive Pag. 306 307 308 Independent Pag. 308 309 Distinct Pag. 309 310 Infallible Pag. 310 311 Arguments to prove it Pag. 263 312 ad 315 No blemish to his Holiness ib. Infinite attributed to Christ Pag. 315 316 317 Infers his Providence Pag. 317 318 And a Day of Judgment Pag. 318 319 And the Resurrection Pag. 319 320 Destroys all hopes of Justification by any thing in our selves Pag. 320 Calls for our adoring Thoughts of him Pag. 320 321 And Humility Pag. 321 322 How injured in the World and wherein Pag. 322 ad 228 Comfortable to the Righteous and wherein Pag. 328 ad 334 †Terrible to Sinners Pag. 334 ad 337 †We should have a sense of it on our hearts and the advantages of it Pag. 337 338 339 †Knowledge of God's Will Men negligent in using the Means to attain it Pag. 55 Enemies to it and have no delight in it Pag. 56 Seek it for by-ends Pag. 57 58 Admit it with wavering Affections Pag. 58 Seek it to improve some Lust by it Pag. 58 59 A sense of Man's hath a greater Influence on us than that of God Pag. 86 87 325 326 Sins against it should be avoided Pag. 107 Distinct from Wisdom Pag. 338 339 Of all Creatures is deriv'd from God Pag. 313 Ours how imperfect Pag. 321 L. LAw of God how opposite Man naturally is to it Vide Man There is one in the Minds of Men which is the Rule of Good and Evil Pag. 33 34 A change of them doth not infer a change in God Pag. 228. 229 Vindicated both as to the Precept and Penalty in the death of Christ Pag. 383 Suted to our Natures Happiness and Conscience Pag. 352 353 354 610 611 We should submit to them Pag. 414 415 The Transgression of them punish'd by God Pag. 511 512 726 727 God's enjoyning one which he knew Man would not observe no blemish to his Holiness Pag. 519 520 To charge them with Rigidness how great a Sin Pag. 545 We should imitate the Holiness of them Pag. 559 The Goodness of God in that of Innocence Pag. 610 ad 615 Cannot but be good Pag. 681 682 He gives Laws to all Pag. 722 723 Positive ones Pag. 723 724 His only reach the Conscience Pag. 724 725 Dispensed with by him but cannot by Man Pag. 725 726 754 755 To make any contrary to God's how great a Sin Pag. 755 Or make Additions to them Pag. 756 757 Or obey those of Men before them Pag.
Gods Patience to us would promote it Pag. 822 Patience of God how admirable Pag. 99 100 263 806 807 808 His Wisdom the ground of it Pag. 396 Evidences his Power Pag. 460 789 'T is a Property of the Divine Nature Pag. 791 A part of Goodness and Mercy but differs from both Pag. 792 793 Not insensible constrained or faint-hearted Pag. 793 794 Flows from his fulness of Power over himself Pag. 794 795 Founded in the Death of Christ Pag. 795 796 His Veracity Holiness and Justice no bars to it Pag. 796 797 798 Exercis'd towards our First Parents Gentiles and Israelites Pag. 799 800 Wherein it is evidenc'd Pag. 800 ad 808 The reason of its exercise Pag. 808 ad 814 'T is abus'd and how Pag. 814 815 The abuse of it sinful and dangerous Pag. 816 817 818 Exercis'd towards Sinners and Saints Pag. 819 Comfortable to all Pag. 819 820 Especially to the Righteous ib. Should be meditated on and the advantage of so doing Pag. 821 822 We should admire and bless God for it with Motives so to do Pag. 823 824 825 Should not be presumed on Pag. 825 826 Should be imitated Pag. 826 827 Poems fewer Sacred ones good than of any other kind Pag. 86 Peace God only can speak it to troubled Souls Pag. 471 Permission of Sin what it is and that 't is no blemish to Gods Holiness Pag. 522 ad 529 Persecutions the Goodness of God seen in them Pag. 657 658 Vide Apostacy Perseverance of the Saints a Gospel Doctrine Pag. 333 Certain Pag. 235 486 487 551 Motives to labour after it Pag. 238 239 Depends on God's Power and Wisdom Pag. 333 471 Pleasures Sensual men strangely addicted to Pag. 86 We ought to take heed of them Pag. 107 Poor the Wisdom of God in making some so Pag. 356 357 Power infinite belongs to God Pag. 421 The meaning of the word Pag. 421 Absolute and ordinate Pag. 421 422 Distinct from Will and Wisdom Pag. 424 Gives life and activity to his other Perfections Pag. 425 Of a larger extent than some others ibid. Originally and essentially in the Nature of God and the same with his Essence Pag. 426 427 Incommunicable to the Creature ibid. Pag. 431 Infinite and Eternal Pag. 427 ad 432 Bounded by his Decree Pag. 432 Not infringed by the impossibility of doing some things Pag. 432 ad 435 Arguments to prove it is in God Pag. 435 ad 439 Appears in Creation Pag. 439 ad 445 In the Government of the world Pag. 445 ad 456 In Redemption Pag. 456 ad 461 In the publication and propagation of the Gospel Pag. 461 ad 467 In planting and preserving Grace and pardoning sin Pag. 467 ad 472 Ascribed to Christ Pag. 472 ad 476 And to the Holy Ghost Pag. 476 Infers his Blessedness Immutability and Providence Pag. 476 477 A ground of Worship Pag. 478 And for the belief of the Resurrection Pag. 479 Contemn'd and abused and wherein Pag. 480 ad 484 Terrible to the Wicked Pag. 484 Comfortable to the Righteous and wherein Pag. 485 ad 487 Should be meditated on Pag. 488 And trusted in and why Pag. 489 490 Should teach us humility and submission Pag. 491 And the fear of him and not of man Pag. 491 492 Praise consideration of God's Wisdom and Goodness would help us to give it to him Pag. 409 689 690 Men backward to it Pag. 697 Due to him Pag. 776 Prayer men impatient if God do not answer it Pag. 92 93 We should take the most melting opportunities for secret Prayer Pag. 178 Not unnecessary because of God's Immutability Knowledge Pag. 220 231 335 to Creatures a wrong to God's Omniscience Pag. 322 323 Omission of it a practical denial of God's Knowledge Pag. 328 'T is a comfort that the most secret ones are understood by God Pag. 331 God's Wisdom a comfort in delaying or denying an answer to them Pag. 406 For success on wicked Designs how sinful Pag. 543 God fit to be trusted in for an answer of them Pag. 551 The goodness of God in answering them Pag. 654 655 His Goodness a comfort in them Pag. 682 God's Dominion an Encouragement to and ground of it Pag. 770 771 779 Preparation we should examine our selves concerning it before worship Pag. 162 Consideration of God's Knowledge would promote it Pag. 338 †How great a sin to come into God's Presence without it Pag. 544 Presence of Men more regarded than God's Pag. 86 87 We should seek for God's special and influential Presence Pag. 270 271 Vide Omnipresence Preserve himself no Creature can Pag. 19 447 448 God only can the World Pag. 29 The Power of God seen in it Pag. 445 One foundation of God's Dominion Pag. 709 Presumption springs from vain imaginations of God Pag. 95 96 A contempt of God's Dominion Pag. 761 762 Pride how common Pag. 82 83 An exalting our selves above God Pag. 89 The thoughts of God's Eternity should abate it Pag. 197 198 199 An affront to God's Wisdom Pag. 405 Of our own Wisdom foolish Pag. 411 God's Mercies abused to it Pag. 668 A contempt of his Dominion Pag. 761 Principles better known by actions than words Pag. 49 Some kept up by God to facilitate the Reception of the Gospel Pag. 392 Propagation of Creatures the Power of God seen in it Pag. 448 449 Of Mankind one end of God's patience Pag. 811 812 Prophecies prove the Being of God Pag. 39 Promises Men break them with God Pag. 66 67 232 233 Of God shall be performed Pag. 196 486 821 We should believe them and leave God to his own season of accomplishing them Pag. 342 Distrust of them a contempt of God's Wisdom Pag. 405 The Holiness of God in the performance of them to be observ'd Pag. 557 Providenc of God proved Pag. 262 317 318 477 Vide Government of the World Especially to his Church and the meanest in it 272 273 Extends to all Creatures 646 ad 649 Distrust of it a contempt of God's Goodness 665 Punishments v. Judgments God always just in them Pag. 100 671 Of sinners Eternal Pag. 193 194 The wisdom of God seen in them Pag. 370 Necessarily follow sins Pag. 547 548 549 Do not impeach God's Goodness Pag. 598 ad 604 Not God's primary intention Pag. 601 Inflicting them a branch of God's Dominion Pag. 726 727 Necessarily follow upon it Pag. 767 Of the Wicked unavoidable and terrible Pag. 767 768 Purgatory held by the Jews Pag. 73 R. RAin an instance of God's Wisdom and Power Pag. 349 418 Reason should not be the measure of God's Revelations Pag. 413 414 Repentance how ascribed to God Pag. 224 225 2â—6 A reasonable Condition Pag. 389 The end of God's patience Pag. 810 811 The consideration of God's patience would make us frequent and serious in the practice of it Pag. 821 Reprobation consistent with God's Holiness and Justice Pag. 522 Reproof may be for evil ends Pag. 93 Reputation men more concerned for their own than Gods
Goodness of God seen in them Pag. 450 607 Spaces imaginary beyond the World God is present with Pag. 249 250 251 Spirit that God is so plainly asserted but once in Scripture Pag. 112 Various acceptations of the word Pag. 113 That God is so how to be understood ibid. God the only pure one Pag. 114 Arguments to prove God is one Pag. 115 ad 118. Objection against it answered Pag. 118 119 Spirit of God his assistance necessary to Spiritual Worship Pag. 142 Spirits of men raised up and ordered by God as be pleases Pag. 743 744 Subjection to our Superiors God remits of his own right for preserving it Pag. 651 652 Success men apt to ascribe to themselves Pag. 82 Not to be ascribed to our selves Pag. 669 670 Denied by God to some Pag. 740 Summer how necessary Pag. 350 Sun conveniently placed Pag. 22 148 Its motion useful Pag. 22 23 25 148 The Power of God seen in it Pag. 450 Lord's Supper the goodness of God in appointing it Pag. 639 Seals the Covenant of Grace Pag. 640 641 In it we have Union and Communion with Christ Pag. 641 642 The neglect of it reproved Pag. 642 Supererogation an Opinion that injures the Holiness of God Pag. 546 Superstition proceeds from vain imaginations of God Pag. 95 Swearing by any Creature an injury to God's Omniscience Pag. 323 324 T. TEmptations the Presence of God a comfort in them Pag. 266 The thoughts of it would be a Shield against them Pag. 269 The Wisdom and Power of God a comfort under them Pag. 406 486 The goodness manifested to his people under them Pag. 658 659 660 The thoughts of God's Soveraignty would arm and make us watchful against them Pag. 774 Thankfulness a necessary ingredient in Spiritual worship Pag. 148 Due to God Pag. 689 690 777 778 823 824 825 A sense of his Goodness would promote it Pag. 689 Theft an Invasion of God's Dominion Pag. 758 Thoughts should be often upon God Pag. 46 Seldom are on him Pag. 86 97 98 All known by God only Pag. 285 286 287 And by Christ Pag. 316 317 Cherishing evil ones a practical denial of God's Knowledge Pag. 327 Thoughts of God's Knowledge would make us watchful over them Pag. 338 †Threatnings the not fulfilling them sometimes argue no change in God Pag. 226 227 Are conditional ibid. The goodness of God in them Pag. 613 Go before Judgments v. Judgments Time cannot be infinite Pag. 16 Times of bestowing Mercy God orders as a Soveraign Pag. 741 Tongue how curious a Workmanship Pag. 31 Traditions old ones generally lost Pag. 11 Belief of a God not owing meerly to it ibid. Transubstantiation an absurd Doctrine Pag. 483 Trees how useful Pag. 23 350 Trust in themselves men do and not in God Pag. 83 84 We should not in the World Pag. 199 200 236 God the fit Object of it Pag. 329 386 397 489 551 552 †678 779 Means to promote it Pag. 339 †773 Should not in our own Wisdom Pag. 411 412 In our selves a contempt of God's Power and Dominion Pag. 482 759 God's Power the main ground of trusting him Pag. 489 490 And sometimes the only one Pag. 490 Should be placed in God against outward appearances Pag. 558 Goodness the first motive of it Pag. 678 More foundations of it and motives to it under the Gospel than under the Law Pag. 679 Gives God the glory of his goodness Pag. 679 680 God's Patience to the Wicked a ground for the Righteous to trust in his promise Pag. 821 Truths of God most contrary to self man most opposite to And to those that are most holy spiritual lead most to God and relate most to him Pag. 59 60 Men unconstant in the belief of them Pag. 231 232 Corrupters of them no better than Devils Pag. 541 †Evangelical shall prevail ibid. U. UBiquity of Christ's Human Nature confuted Pag. 252 Venial sins an opinion that reproaches God's Holiness Pag. 546 Vertue and Vice not Arbitrary things Pag. 51 Vnbelief the Reason of it Pag. 101 102 A contempt of Divine Power Pag. 483 And Goodness Pag. 664 665 Vnion of Soul and Body an effect of Almighty Power Pag. 33 Of two Natures in Christ made no change in his Divine Nature Pag. 224 Shews the Wisdom of God Pag. 339 ad 383 How necessary for us Pag. 381 382 383 Shews the Power of God Pag. 458 459 460 Explain'd Pag. 459 460 Vide Incarnation Vsurpations of Men an Invasion of God's Soveraignty Pag. 754 755 W. WAter an excellent Creature Pag. 588 Weakness a sensibleness of it a necessary ingredient in Spiritual Worship Pag. 148 Will of God cannot be defeated Pag. 52 Man averse to it vide Man The same with his Essence Pag. 214 Always accompanied with his Understanding ibid. Unchangeable Pag. 214 215 The unchangeableness of it doth not make things willed by him so Pag. 215 216 Free Pag. 216 How conversant about Sin Pag. 522 Will of Man not necessitated by God's Fore-knowledge Pag. 301 ad 304 Of Man subject to God Pag. 720 Winds how useful Pag. 349 Winter how useful Pag. 350 Wisdom an Attribute of God Pag. 337 What it is and wherein it consists Pag. 338 Distinct from Knowledge Pag. 338 Essential which is the same with his Essence and personal Pag. 339 In what sense God is only wise Pag. 339 ad 343 Proved to be in God Pag. 343 ad 346 Appears in Creation Pag. 346 ad 351 In government of Man as Rational Pag. 352 ad 357 As fallen and sinful Pag. 357 ad 367 As restored Pag. 367 ad 373 In Redemption Pag. 373 ad 388 In the Condition of the Covenant of Grace Pag. 388 ad 390 In the propagation of the Gospel Pag. 390 ad 395 Ascribed to Christ Pag. 395 Renders God fit to govern the World and enclines him actually to govern it Pag. 395 396 A ground of his Patience and Immutability in his Decrees Pag. 396 397 Makes him a fit Object of our Trust Pag. 397 Infers a Day of Judgment Pag. 398 Calls for a Veneration of him ibid. A ground of Prayer to him Pag. 399 Prodigiously contemn'd and wherein Pag. 399 ad 405 Comfortable to the Righteous Pag. 405 406 407 In Creation and Government should be meditated on and Motives to it Pag. 407 ad 410 In Redemption to be studied and admired Pag. 410 411 To be submitted to in his Revelations Precepts Providences Pag. 413 414 415 Not to be censured in any of his ways Pag. 415 Wisdom no Man should be proud of or trust in Pag. 411 412 Should be sought from God Pag. 412 413 World was not and could not be from Eternity Pag. 16 17 Could not make it self Pag. 17 18 19 No Creature could make it Pag. 20 Its Harmony Pag. 21 ad 27 Greedily pursued by Men Pag. 86 Inordinate desires after it a great hindrance to Spiritual Worship Pag. 177 Our Love and Confidence not to be placed in it Pag. 199 200 207 Shall not be