to do a dishonest action in the sight of a grave and holy man one of great reputation for Wisdom and Integrity how much more should we lift up our selves in the ways of God who is Infinite and Immense is every where and infinitely superior to man and more to be regarded We could not seriously think of his Presence but there would pass some entercourse between us we should be putting up some Petition upon the sense of our Indigence or sending up our Praises to him upon the sense of his Bounty The actual thoughts of the Presence of God is the Life and Spirit of all Religion we could not have sluggish Spirits and a careless Watch if we consider'd that his Eye is upon us all the day 3. It will quell Distractions in Worship The actual thoughts of this would establish our thoughts and pull them back when they begin to rove The mind could not boldly give God the slip if it had lively thoughts of it the consideration of this would blow off all the Froth that lies on the top of our Spirits An eye taken up with the presence of one object is not at leisure to be fill'd with another He that looks intently upon the Sun shall have nothing for a while but the Sun in his Eye Oppose to every intruding Thought the Idea of the Divine Omnipresence and put it to silence by the awe of his Majesty When the Master is present Scholars mind their Books keep their Places and run not over the Forms to play with one another The Masters Eye keeps an idle Servant to his Work that otherwise would be gazing at every Straw and prating to every Passenger How soon would the remembrance of this dash all extravagant fancies out of Countenance just as the News of the approach of a Prince would make the Courtiers bustle up themselves huddle up their vain sports and prepare themselves for a Reverent Behaviour in his sight We should not dare to give God a piece of our heart when we apprehended him present with the whole we should not dare to mock one that we knew were more inwards with us than we are with our selves and that beheld every motion of our mind as well as action of our body 2. Let us endeavour for the more special and influential Presence of God Let the Essential Presence of God be the ground of our Awe and his gracious influential Presence the Object of our Desire The Heathen thought themselves secure if they had their little petty Houshold-Gods with them in their Journeys such seem to be the Images Rachel stole from her Father Gen. 31.19 to company her Travel with their Blessings she might not at that time have cast off all respect to those Idols in the acknowledgment of which she had been Educated from her Infancy and they seem to be kept by her till God called Jacob to Bethel after the Rape of Dinah Gen. 35.4 when Jacob called for the strange Gods and hid them under the Oak The â—â—â—â—cious Presence of God we should look after in our actions as Travellers that 〈◊〉 a Charge of Money or Jewels desire to keep themselves in Company that may protect them from High-way men that would rifle them Since we have the concerns of the Eternal Happiness of our Souls upon our hands we should endeavour to have Gods Merciful and Powerful Presence with us in all our ways Psal 14 In all thy ways acknowledg him and he shall direct thy Paths acknowledg him before any action by imploring acknowledg him after by rendring him the Glory acknowledg his Presence before Worship in Worship after Worship 'T is this Presence makes a kind of Heaven upon Earth causeth affliction to put off the nature of misery How much will the Presence of the Sun out-shine the Stars of lesser Comforts and fully answer the want of them The Ark of God going before us can only make all things successful It was this led the Israelites over Jordan and setled them in Canaan Without this we signify nothing tho' we live without this we cannot be distinguisht for ever from Devils his Essential Presence they have and if we have no more we shall be no better 'T is the enlivening fructifying presence of the Sun that revives the languishing Earth and this only can repair our ruin'd Soul Let it be therefore our desire That as he fills Heaven and Earth by his Essence he may fill our Understandings and Wills by his Grace that we may have another kind of Presence with us than Animals have in their brutish state or Devils in their Chains His Essential Presence maintains our Beings but his gracious Presence confers and continues a Happiness A DISCOURSE UPON Gods Knowledg Psal 147.5 Great is our Lord and of great Power his Vnderstanding is Infinite 'T IS uncertain who was the Author of this Psalm and when it was Penn'd some think after the return from the Babylonish Captivity 'T is a Psalm of Praise and is made up of matter of Praise from the beginning to the end Gods benefits to the Church his Providence over his Creatures the Essential excellency of his Nature The Psalmist doubles his Exhortation to Praise God v. 1. Praise ye the Lord sing Praise to our God to praise him from his Dominion as Lord from his Grace and Mercy as our God from the Excellency of the Duty it self 't is good 't is comely some read it comely some lovely or desirable from the various derivation of the Word Nothing doth so much delight a gracious Soul as an opportunity of Celebrating the Perfections and Goodness of the Creator The highest Duties a Creature can render to the Creator are pleasant and delight-lightful in themselves 't is comely Praise is a Duty that affects the whole Soul The Praise of God is a decent thing the Excellency of Gods nature deserves it and the Benefits of Gods grace requires it 'T is comely when done as it ought to be with the Heart as well as with the Voice a Sinner Sings ill tho' his Voice be good the Soul in it is to be elevated above Earthly things The first matter of Praise is Gods erecting and preserving his Church v. 2. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem he gathers together the out-casts of Israel The Walls of demolish'd Jerusalem are now re-edified God hath brought back the Captivity of Jacob and reduced his People from their Babylonish Exile and those that were disperst into strange Regions he hath restor'd to their Habitations Or it may be Prophetick of the calling of the Gentiles and the gathering the out-casts of the Spiritual Israel that were before as without God in the World and strangers to the Covenant of Promise Let God be praised but especially for Building up his Church and gathering the Gentiles before counted as out-casts * Isaâ— 11.12 he gathers them in this World to the Faith and hereafter to Glory Obs 1. From the two first Verses observe 1.
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
Friend to our lusts and then dig deep into the Scripture to find Crutches to support it and authorize our practices When men will thank God for what they have got by unlawful means Fathering the fruit of their cheating craft and the simplicity of their Chapmen upon God Crediting their Cousenage by his Name as men do brass mony with a thin plate of silver and the stamp and image of the Prince The Jews urge the Law of God for the crucifying his Son John 19.7 We have a Law and by that Law he is to dye And would make him a Party in their private Revenge * Sanaerson's S. Part. 2. P. 158. Thus often when we have faultered in some actions we wipe our mouths as if we sought God more than our own interest prostituting the sacred Name and Honour of God either to hatch or defend some unworthy lust against his Word Is not all this a high degree of Atheism 1. 'T is a vilifying God an abuse of the highest good Other sins subject the Creature and outward things to them but acting in Religious services for self subjects not only the highest concernments of mens Souls but the Creator himself to the Creature Nay to make God contribute to that which is the pleasure of the Devil A greater slight than to cast the gifts of a Prince to a Herd of nasty Swine It were more excusable to serve our selves of God upon the higher accounts such that materially conduce to his glory but it is an intolerable wrong to make Him and his Ordinances Caterers for our own bellies as they did * Hos â—8 13 Vid. Cocc in locum They sacrificed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the Offerer might eat not out of any reference to God but love to their Gluttony not to please him but feast themselves The Belly was truly made the God when God was served only in order to the Belly As though the blessed God had his Being and his Ordinances were enjoyned to pleasure their foolish and wanton Appetites As though the Work of God were only to patronize unrighteous ends and be as bad as themselves and become a Pander to their corrupt affections 2. Because it is a vilifying of God It is an undeifying or dethroning God 'T is an acting as if we were the Lords and God our Vassal A setting up those secular ends in the place of God who ought to be our ultimate end in every action to whom a glory is as due as his mercy to us is utterly unmerited by us He that thinks to cheat and put the Fool upon God by his pretences doth not heartily believe there is such a Being He could not have the Notion of a God without that of Omniscience and Justice an eye to see the cheat and an Arm to punish it The Notion of the one would direct him in the manner of his Services and the Sense of the other would scare him from the cherishing his unworthy ends He that serves God with a sole respect to himself is prepared for any Idolatry his Religion shall warp with the times and his interest he shall deny the true God for an Idol when his worldly interest shall advise him to it and pay the same Reverence to the basest Image which he pretends now to pay to God As the Israelites were as real for Idolatry under their basest Princes as they were Pretenders to the true Religion under those that were Pious Before I come to the use of this give me leave to evince this practical Atheism by two other Considerations 1. Vnworthy Imaginations of God The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God That is he is not such a God as you report him to be This is meant by their being corrupt in the 2. v. corrupt being taken for playing the Idolaters Exod. 32.7 We cannot comprehend God if we could we should cease to be finite and because we cannot comprehend him we erect strange Images of him in our fancies and affections And since guilt came upon us because we cannot root out the Notions of God we would debase the Majesty and Nature of God that we may have some ease in our Consciences and lye down with some comfort in the sparks of our own kindling This is universal in men by Nature God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 Not in any of his thoughts according to the excellency of his Nature and greatness of his Majesty As the Heathen did not glorify God as God so neither do they conceive of God as God They are all infected with some one or other ill opinion of him thinking him not so holy powerful just good as he is and as the natural force of a human understanding might arrive to VVe joyn a new Notion of God in our vain fancies and represent him not as he is but as we would have him to be fit for our own use and suted to our own pleasure VVe set that active power of imagination on work and there comes out a God a Calf whom we own for a Notion of God Adam cast him into so narrow a mould as to think that himself who had newly sprouted up by his Almighty power was fit to be his Corrival in knowledge and had vain hopes to grasp as much as infiniteness If he in his first declining begun to have such a conceit t is no doubt but we have as bad under a mass of Corruption VVhen holy Agur speaks of God he crys out that he had not the understanding of a Man nor the knowledge of the holy * Pro. 30.2.3 He did not think rationally of God as Man might by his strength at his first Creation There are as many Carved Images of God as there are minds of Men and as monstrous shapes as those Corruptions into which they would transform him Hence sprang 1. Idolatry Vain Imaginations first set afloat and kept up this in the world * Rom. 1 2â—.23 Vain Imaginations of the God whose glory they changed into the Image of corruptible Man They had set up vain Images of him in their fancy before they set up Idolatrous representations of him in their Temples The likening him to those Idols of Wood and Stone and various metals were the fruit of an Idea Erected in their own minds This is a mighty debasing the Divine nature and rendring him no better than that base and stupid matter they make the visible object of their adoration equalling him with those base Creatures they think worthy to be the representations of him Yet how far did this Crime spread it self in all Corners of the world not only among the more barbarous and Ignorant but the more polisht and Civilized Nations Judea only where God had placed the Ark of his presence being free from it in some intervals of time only after some sweeping Judgment And tho they vomited up their Idols undersome sharp scourge they licked them up again after the Heavens were
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
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
one as well as the other denies his spiritual nature This is worse for had it been lawful to represent God to the eye it could not have been done but by a bodily figure suted to the sense but since it is necessary to worship him it cannot be by a corporeal attendance without the operation of the Spirit A spiritual frame is more pleasing to God than the highest exterior adornments than the greatest gifts and the highest Prophetical illuminations The glory of the second Temple exceeded the glory of the first * Hag. 2.8 9. As God accounts the spiritual glory of Ordinances most beneficial for us so our spiritual attendance upon Ordinances is most pleasing to him He that offers the greatest services without it offers but flesh Hos 8.13 They sacrifice Flesh for the Sacrifices of my Offerings but the Lord accepts them not Spiritual frames are the Soul of Religious services all other carriages without them are contemptible to this Spirit We can never lay claim to that promise of God none shall seek my face in vain We affect a vain seeking of him when we want a due temper of Spirit for him And vain Spirits shall have vain returns 'T is more contrary to the nature of Gods Holiness to have communion with such than it is contrary to the nature of Light to have communion with Darkness To make use of this Vse 1. First it serves for information 1. If spiritual worship be required by God How sad is it for them that are so far from giving God a spiritual worship that they render him no worship at all I speak not of the neglect of publick but of private when men present not a devotion to God from one years end to the other The speech of our Saviour that we must worship God in Spirit and Truth implies that a worship is due to him from every one That is the common impression upon the Consciences of all men in the world if they have not by some constant course in gross sins hardned their Souls and stifled those natural sentiments There was never a Nation in the world without some kind of Religion and no Religion was ever without some modes to testifie a devotion The Heathens had their Sacrifices and Purifications and the Jews by Gods order had their rites whereby they were to express their Allegiance to God Consider 1. Worship is a duty incumbent upon all men 'T is a homage Mankind ows to God under the relation wherein he stands obliged to him 'T is a prime and immutable justice to own our Allegiance to him 'T is as unchangeable a truth that God is to be worshipped as that God is He is to be worshipped as God as Creator and therefore by all since he is the Creator of all the Lord of all and all are his Creatures and all are his Subjects Worship is founded upon Creation Psal 100.2 3. 'T is due to God for himself and his own essential excellency and therefore due from all 'T is due upon the account of mans nature The human rational nature is the same in all Whatsoever is due to God upon the account of mans nature and the natural obligations he hath laid upon man is due from all men because they all enjoy the benefits which are proper to their nature Man in no state was exempted nor can be exempted from it In Paradise he had his Sabbath and Sacraments Man therefore dissolves the obligation of a reasonable nature by neglecting the worship of God Religion is in the first place to be minded As soon as Noah came out of the Ark he contrived not a Habitation for himself but an Altar for the Lord to acknowledge him the Author of his preservation from the Deluge * Gen. 8.20 And wheresoever Abraham came his first business was to erect an Altar and pay his arrears of gratitude to God before he ran upon the score for new mercies * Gen. 12.7 Gen. 13.4.18 He left a testimony of worship where ever he came 2. Wholly therefore to neglect it is a high degree of Atheism He that calls not upon God saith in his heart there is no God and seems to have the sentiments of natural Conscience as to God stifled in him * Psal 14.1 4 It must arise from a conceit that there is no God or that we are equal to him adoration not being due from persons of an equal state or that God is unable or unwilling to take notice of the adoring acts of his Creatures What is any of these but an undeifying the supream Majesty When we lay aside all thoughts of paying any homage to him we are in a fair way opinionatively to deny him as much as we practically disown him Where there is no knowledge of God that is no acknowledgment of God a gap is opened to all licentiousness * Hos 4.1 2. And that by degrees brawns the Conscience and raseth out the sense of God Those forsake God that forget his holy Mountain * Isa 65.11 They do not practically own him as the Creator of their Souls or bodies 'T is the sin of Cain who turning his back upon worship is said to go out from the presence of the Lord * Gen. 4.16 Not to worship him with our Spirits is against his Law of Creation Not to worship him at all is against his act of Creation Not to worship him in truth is Hypocrisie Not to worship him at all is Atheism whereby we render our selves worse than the worms in the Earth or a toad in a Ditch 3. To perform a worship to a false God or to the true God in a false manner seems to be less a sin than to live in perpetual neglects of it Though it be directed to a false Object instead of God yet it is under the notion of a God and so is an acknowledgement of such a Being as God in the world whereas the total neglect of any worship is a practical denying of the existence of any supream Majesty Whosoever constantly omits a publick and private worship transgresses against an universally received dictate For all Nations have agreed in the common notion of worshipping God though they have disagreed in the several modes and rites whereby they would testifie that adoration By a worship of God though superstitious a veneration and reverence of such a being is maintained in the world whereas by a total neglect of worship he is vertually disowned and discarded if not from his existence yet from his Providence and Government of the world All the mercies we breath in are denied to flow from him A foolish worship owns Religion though it bespatters it As if a stranger coming into a Country mistakes a Subject for the Prince and pays that reverence to the Subject which is due to the Prince though he mistakes the object yet he owns an Authority or if he pays any respect to the true Prince of that Country after the mode of
was so as that he never began Is to come so as that he never shall end By whom all things are what they are who hath both eternal knowledge to remember our service and eternal goodness to reward It. A DISCOURSE UPON THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. Psalm 102.26 27. They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old as a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy years shall have no end THIS Psalm contains a Complaint of a People pressed with a great Calamity some think of the Jewish Church in Babylon others think the Psalmist doth here personate Mankind lying under a state of corruption because he wishes for the coming of the Messiah to accomplish that Redemption promised by God and needed by them Indeed the title of the Psalm is a Prayer of the Afflicted when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the Lord Whether afflicted with the sense of corruption or with the sense of oppression And the Redemption by the Messiah which the ancient Church looked upon as the fountain of their Deliverance from a sinful or a servile Bondage is in this Psalm spoken of A set time appointed for the discovery of his mercy to Sion v. 13. An appearance in glory to build up Sion v. 16. The loosing of the Prisoner by Redemption and them that are appointed to Death v. 20. The calling of the Gentiles v. 22. And the latter part of the Psalm wherein are the verse I have read are applied to Christ Heb. 1. Whatsoever the design of the Psalm might be many things are intermingled that concern the Kingdom of the Messiah and Redemption by Christ Some make three parts of the Psalm 1. A Petition plainly delivered v. 1.2 Hear my Prayer oh Lord and let my cry come unto thee c. 2. The Petition strongly and argumentatively enforced and pleaded v. 3. from the misery of the Petitioner in himself and his reproach from his Enemies 3. An acting of Faith in the expectation of an Answer in the general Redemption promised v. 12 13. But thou oh Lord shalt endure for ever thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion The Heathen shall fear thy Name The first part is the Petition pleaded the second part is the Petition answered in an assurance that there should in time be a full deliverance * Pareus The design of the Pen-man is to confirm the Church in the truth of the Divine Promises that though the foundations of the World should be ript up and the Heavens clatter together and the whole Fabrick of them be unpinn'd and fall to pieces the firmest parts of it dissolved yet the Church should continue in its stability because it stands not upon the changeableness of Creatures but is built upon the immutable Rock of the truth God which is as little subject to change as his Essence They shall perish thou shalt change them As he had before ascribed to God the foundation of Heaven and Earth * verse 25. so he ascribes to God here the destruction of them Both the beginning and end of the World are here ascertained There is nothing indeed from the present appearance of things that can demonstrate the cessation of the world The Heaven and Earth stand firm the motions of the heavenly Bodies are the same their beautie is not decayed Individuals corrupt but the Species and Kinds remain The Successions of the Year observe their due order but the Sin of Man renders the change of the present appearance of the world necessary to accomplish the design of God for the glory of his Elect. The Heavens do not naturally perish as some fancied an old age of the world wherein it must necessarily decay as the Bodies of Animals do or that the parts of the Heavens are broken off by their rubbing one against another in their motion and falling to the Earth are the Seeds of those things that grow among us * Plin. Hist lib. 2. cap. 3. The Earth and Heavens He names here the most stable parts of the world and the most beautiful parts of the Creation those that are freest from corruptibility and change to illustrate thereby the Immutability of God that though the Heavens and Earth have a Prerogative of fixedness above other parts of the world and the Creatures that reside below the Heavens remain the same as they were created and the Center of the Earth retains its fixedness and are as beautiful and fresh in their age as they were in their youth many years ago notwithstanding the change of the Elements Fire and Water being often turned into Air so that there may remain but little of that Air which was first created by reason of the continual transmutation yet this firmness of the Earth and Heavens is not to be regarded in comparison of the unmoveableness and fixedness of the Being of God As their beauty comes short of the glory of his Being so doth their firmness come short of his stability Some by Heavens and Earth understand the Creatures which reside in the Earth and those which are in the Air which is called Heaven often in Scripture but the ruin and fall of these being seen every day had been no fit illustration of the unchangeableness of God They shall perish they shall be changed 1. They may perish say some they have it not from themselves that they do not perish but from thee who didst endue them with an incorruptible nature They shall perish if thou speakest the word Thou canst with as much ease destroy them as thou didst create them But the Psalmist speaks not of their possibility but the certainty of their perishing 2. They shall perish in their qualities and motion not in their substance say others They shall cease from that motion which is designed properly for the generation and corruption of things in the Earth but in regard of their substance and beauty they shall remain As when the strings or Wheels of a Clock or Watch are taken off the material parts remain though the motion of it and the use for discovering the time of the day ceaseth * Coccei in loc To perish doth not signify alway a falling into nothing an annihilation by which both the matter and the form are destroyed but a ceasing of the present apearance of them a ceasing to be what they now are as a man is said to perish when he dies whereas the better part of man doth not cease to be The figure of the Body moulders away and the matter of it returns to Dust but the Soul being immortal ceaseth not to act when the Body by reason of the absence of the Soul is uncapable of acting So the Heavens shall perish the appearance they now have shall vanish and a more glorious and incorruptible frame be erected by the power and goodness of God The dissolution of Heaven and Earth is meant by the
Glory belonging to all the Attributes of God 'T is not a single perfection of the Divine Nature nor is it limited to particular Objects thus and thus disposed Mercy and Justice have their distinct objects and distinct acts Mercy is conversant about a Penitent Justice conversant about an obstinate Sinner In our notion and conception of the Divine Perfections his Perfections are different The Wisdom of God is not his Power nor his Power his Holiness but Immutability is the Center wherein they all unite There is not one Perfection but may be said to be and truly is immutable none of them will appear so glorious without this Beam this Sun of Immutability which renders them highly excellent without the least shadow of imperfection How cloudy would his Blessedness be if it were changeable How dim his Wisdom if it might be obscur'd How feeble his Power if it were capable to be sickly and languish How would Mercy lose much of its lustre if it could change into wrath and Justice much of its dread if it could be turned into Mercy while the object of Justice remains unfit for Mercy and one that hath need of Mercy continues only fit for the Divine Fury But unchangeableness is a Thread that runs through the whole Web 'T is the enamel of all the rest none of them without it could look with a triumphant aspect His Power is unchangeable * Isa 26.4 In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength his Mercy and his Holiness endure for ever He never could nor ever can look upon iniquity * Hab. 1.13 He is a Rock in the righteousness of his ways the truth of his word the holiness of his proceedings and the rectitude of his nature All are exprest Deut. 32.4 He is a Rock his work is perfect for all his ways are Judgment A God of Truth and without Iniquity just and right is he All that we consider in God is unchangeable for his Essence and his Properties are the same and therefore what is necessarily belonging to the Essence of God belongs also to every perfection of the nature of God none of them can receive any addition or diminution From the unchangeableness of his nature the Apostle James 1.17 infers the unchangeableness of his Holiness and himself in Mal. 3.6 the unchangeableness of his Counsel 3. Vnchangeableness doth necessarily pertain to the Nature of God 'T is of the same necessity with the rectitude of his Nature He can no more be changeable in his Essence than he can be unrighteous in his Actions God is a necessary Being He is necessarily what he is and therefore is unchangeably what he is Mutability belongs to contingency If any perfection of his nature could be separated from him he would cease to be God What did not possess the whole Nature of God could not have the Essence of God 'T is reciprocated with the Nature of God Whatsoever is immutable by Nature is God whatsoever is God is immutable by Nature Some Creatures are immutable by his Grace and Power * Archbolâ— Serm. God is holy happy wise good by his Essence Angels and Men are made holy wise happy strong and good by Qualities and Graces The Holiness Happiness and Wisdom of Saints and Angels as they had a beginning so they are capable of increase and diminution and of an end also for their standing is not from themselves or from the nature of created strength holiness or wisdom which in themselves are apt to fail and finally to decay but from the stability and confirmation they have by the Gift and Grace of God The Heaven and Earth shall be changed and after that renewal and reparation they shall not be changed Our Bodies after the Resurrection shall not be changed but for ever be made conformable to the glorious Body of Christ * Phil. 3.21 but this is by the powerful Grace of God So that indeed those things may be said afterwards rather to be unchanged than unchangeable because they are not so by nature but by soveraign dispensation As Creatures have not necessary Beings so they have not necessary Immutability Necessity of being and therefore Immutability of being belongs by nature only to God otherwise if there were any change in God he would be sometimes what he was not and would cease to be what he was which is against the nature and indeed against the natural notion of a Deity Let us see then 1. In what regards God is immutable 2. Prove that God is immutable 3. That this is proper to God and incommunicable to any Creature 4. Some propositions to clear the unchangeableness of God from any thing that seems contrary to it 5. The Use First in what respects God is unchangeable 1. God is unchangeable in his Essence He is unalterably fixed in his Being that not a Particle of it can be lost from it not a Mite added to it If a Man continue in being as long as Methuselah Nine hundred and Sixty nine years yet there is not a day nay an hour wherein there is not some alteration in his substance though no substantial part is wanting yet there is an addition to him by his Food a diminution of something by his Labour He is always making some acquisition or suffering some loss But in God there can be no alteration by the accession of any thing to make his substance greater or better or by diminution to make it less or worse He who hath no being from another cannot but be always what he is God is the first Being an independent Being He was not produced of himself or of any other but by nature always hath been and therefore cannot by himself or by any other bechanged from what he is in his own nature That which is not may as well assume to it self a Being as he who hath and is all Being have the least change from what he is Again because he is a Spirit he is not subject to those mutations which are found incorporeal and bodily Natures Because he is an absolutely simple Spirit not having the least particle of composition he is not capable of those changes which may be in created Spirits 1. If his Essence were mutable God would not truly be It could not be truly said by himself I am that I am * Exod. 3.14 if he were such a Thing or Being at this time and a different Being at another time Whatsoever is changed properly is not because it doth not remain to be what it was That which is changed was something is something and will be something a Being remains to that thing which is changed yet though it may be said such a thing is yet it may be also said such a thing is not because it is not what it was in its first being 't is not now what it was 't is now what it was not 't is another thing than it was it was another thing than it is it will be another thing than
manifestation of himself If by his dwelling in heaven be meant his whole essence why is it not also to be meant by his dwelling in the Ark It was not sure part of his essence that was in heaven and part of his essence that was on earth his essence would then be divided and can it be imagined that he should be in Heaven and the Ark at the same time and not in the spaces between Could his essence be split into fragments and a gap made in it that two distant spaces should be fill'd by him and all between be empty of him So that Gods being said to dwell in Heaven and in the Temple is so far from impairing the truth of this doctrine that it more confirms and evidences it 2. Nor do the Expressions of God's coming to us or departing from us impair this Doctrine of his Omnipresence God is said to hide his face from his People * Psal 10.1 to be far from the Wicked and the Gentiles are said to be afar off viz. from God †Prov. 15.29 and upon the manifestation of Christ made near †Eph 2.17 These must not be understood of any distance or nearness of his Essence for that is equally near to all persons and things but of some other special way and manifestation of his Presence Thus God is said to be in Believers by Love as they are in him * 1 Joh. 4.15 He that abides in love abides in God and God in him He that loves is in the thing beloved and when two love one another they are in one another God is in a Righteous man by a special grace and far from the Wicked in regard of such special Works and God is said to be in a place by a special manifestation as when he was in the Bush * Exod. 3. or manifesting his Glory upon Mount Sinai †Exod. 24.16 The Glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai God is said to hide his face when he withdraws his comforting Presence disturbs the repose of our hearts flasheth Terror into our Consciences when he puts men under the smart of the Cross as tho' he had ordered his Mercy utterly to depart from them or when he doth withdraw his special assisting Providence from us in our affairs so he departed from Saul when he withdrew his direction and Protection from him in the concerns of his Government * 1 Sam. 16.14 The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul i. e. the Spirit of Government God may be far from us in one respect and near to us in another far from us in regard of Comfort yet near to us in regard of Support when his Essential Presence continues the same this is a necessary consequent upon the infiniteness of God the other is an act of the Will of God so he was said to forsake Christ in regard of his obscuring his Glory from his Humane Nature and inflicting his Wrath tho' he was near to him in regard of his Grace and preserved him from contracting any spot in his Sufferings We do not say the Sun is departed out of the Heavens when it is be-misted it remains in the same part of the Heavens passes on its course tho' its Beams do not reach us by reason of the Bar between us and it The Soul is in every part of the Body in regard of its Substance and constantly in it tho' it doth not act so spritely and vigorously at one time as at another in one and the same Member and discover it self so sensibly in its Operations so all the various effects of God towards the Sons of men are but divers Operations of one and the same Essence He is far from us or near to us as he is a Judg or a Benefactor when he comes to Punish it notes not the approach of his Essence but the stroak of his Justice when he comes to Benefit 't is not by a new access of his Essence but an efflux of his Grace he departs from us when he leaves us to the Frowns of his Justice he comes to us when he encircles us in the Arms of his Mercy but he was equally present with us in both dispensations in regard of his Essence And likewise God is said to come down * Gen. 11.5 And the Lord came down to see the City when he doth some signal and wonderful Works which attract the minds of men to the acknowledgment of a Supream Power and Providence in the World who judg'd God absent and careless before 3. Nor is the Essential Presence of God with all Creatures any disparagement to him Since it was no disparagement to Create the Heaven and the Earth 't is no disparagement to him to him to fill them if he were Essentially present with them when he created them 't is no dishonour to him to be Essentiall present with them to support them if it were his Glory to Create them by his Essence when they were nothing Can it be his disgrace to be present by his Essence since they are something and something good and very good in his Eye * Gen. 1.31 God saw every thing and behold it was very good or mighty good all ordered to declare his Goodness Wisdom Power and to make him adorable to man and therefore took complacency in tehm There is a Harmony in all things a Combination in them for those glorious Ends for which God Created them and is it a disgrace for God to be present with his own Harmonious composition Is it not a Musicians Glory to touch with his fingers the Trebble the least and tenderest string as well as the strongest and greatest Base Hath not every thing some Stamp of Gods own Being upon it since he eminently contains in himself the Perfections of all his Works whatsoever hath Being hath a Foot-step of God upon it who is all Being every thing in the Earth is his Foot-Stool having a mark of his Foot upon it all declare the Being of God because they had their Being from God and will God account it any disparagement to him to be present with that which confirms his Being and the glorious Perfections of his nature to his intelligent Creatures the meanest things are not without their Vertues which may boast Gods being the Creator of them and rank them in the midst of his Works of Wisdom as well as Power Doth God debase himself to be present by his Essence with the things he hath made more than he doth to know them by his Essence Is not the least thing known by him How not by a faculty or act distinct from his Essence but by his Essence it self How is any thing disgraceful to the Essential Presence of God that is not disgraceful to his Knowledge by his Essence Besides would God make any thing that should be an invincible reason to him to part with his own infiniteness by a contraction of his own Essence into a less compass than
All People are under Gods Care but he has a particular regard to his Church This is the Signet on his hand as a Bracelet upon his arm this is his Garden which he delights to dress if he prunes it it is to purge it if he Digs about his Vine and wounds the Branches 't is to make it more Beautiful with new Clusters and restore it to a fruitful Vigour 2. All great deliverances are to be ascrib'd to God as the principal Author whosoever are the Instruments The Lord doth build up Jerusalem he gathers together the outâ—â—â—s of Israel This great deliverance from Babylon is not to be ascrib'd to Cyrus or Darius or the rest of our favourers 't is the Lord that doth it we had his Promise for it we have now his Performance Let us not ascribe that which is the effect of his Truth only to the good Will of men 't is Gods act not by Might nor by Power nor by Weapons of War or strength of Horses but by the Spirit of the Lord. He sent Prophets to comfort us while we were exiles and now he hath stretched out his own Arm to work our deliverance according to his Word blind man looks so much upon Instruments that he hardly takes notice of God either in Afflictions or Mercies and this is the cause that robs God of so much Prayer and Praise in the World Verse 3. He heals the broken in heart and binds up their Wounds He hath now restored those who had no hope but in his Word he hath dealt with them as a tender and skilful Chirurgeon he hath applyed his curing Plaisters and dropped in his Soveraign Balsams he hath now furnisht our fainting hearts with refreshing Cordials and comforted our Wounds with strengthning Ligatures How gracious is God that restores Liberty to the Captives and Righteousness to the Penitent mans misery is the fittest opportunity for God to make his Mercy illustrious in it self and most welcome to the Patient He proceeds verse 4. Wonder not that God calls together the out-casts and singles them out from every corner for a return why can he not do this as well as tell the number of the Stars and call them all by their Names Ver. 4. There are none of his People so despicable in the eye of man but they are known and regarded by God tho' they are clouded in the World yet they are the Stars of the World and shall God number the inanimate Stars in the Heavens and make no account of his living Stars on the Earth no wherever they are dispersed he will not forget them however they are afflicted he will not despise them the Stars are so numerous that they are innumerable by man some are visible and known by men others lie more hid and undiscovered in a confused Light as those in the Milky-way man cannot see one of them distinctly God knows all his People As he can do what is above the power of man to perform so he understands what is above the skill of man to discover shall man measure God by his scantiness Proud man must not equal himself to God nor cut God as short as his own Line He tells the number of the Stars and calls them all by their Names He hath them all in his List as Generals the Names of their Soldiers in their Muster-Roll for they are his Host which he Marshals in the Heavens as Isa 40.26 where you have the like Expression he knows them more distinctly than man can know any thing and so distinctly as to call them all by their Names He knows their Names that is their natural offices influences the different degrees of heat and light their order and motion and all of them the least glimmering Star as well as the most glaring Planet this man cannot do Tell the Stars if thou be able to number them Gen. 15.5 saith God to Abraham whom Josephus represents as a great Astronomer yea they cannot be numbred Jer. 33.22 and the uncertainty of the Opinions of men evidenceth their ignorance of their number some reckoning 1022 others 1025 others 1098 others 7000 besides those that by reason of their mixture of Light with one another cannot be distinctly discern'd and others perhaps so high as not to be reach'd by the eye of man To impose Names on things and Names according to their Natures is both an Argument of Power and Dominion and of Wisdom and Understanding from the imposition of Names upon the Creatures by Adam the Knowledg of Adam is generally concluded and it was also a fruit of that Dominion God allowed him over the Creatures Now he that Numbers and Names the Stars that seem to lie confus'd among one another as well as those that appear to us in an unclouded Night may well be suppos'd accurately to know his People tho' lurking in secret Caverns and know those that are fit to be Instruments of their deliverance the one is as easy to him as the other and the Number of the one as distinctly known by him as the Multitude of the other For great is our Lord and of great Power his Vnderstanding is Infinite Ver. 5. He wants not Knowledg to know the objects nor Power to effect his Will concerning them Of great Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Much Power plenteous in Power so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred Psal 5.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a multitude of Power as well as a multitude of Mercy a Power that exceeds all Created Power and Understanding His Vnderstanding is Infinite You may not imagine how he can call all the Stars by Name the multitude of the visible being so great and the multitude of the invisible being greater but you must know that as God is Almighty so he is Omniscient and as there is no end of his Power so no account can exactly be given of his Understanding His Vnderstanding is Infinite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No number or account of it and so the same Words are rendred Joel 1.6 a Nation strong and without number No end of his Understanding Syriack no measure no bounds †His Essence is Infinite and so is his Power and Understanding and so vast is his Knowledg that we can no more comprehend it than we can measure spaces that are without limits or tell the minutes or hours of Eternity Who then can fathom that whereof there is no number but which exceeds all so that there is no searching of it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he knows Universals he knows Particulars We must not take understanding here as noting a faculty but the use of the understanding in the knowledg of things and the Judgment in the consideration of them and so it is often used In the Verse there is a description of God 1. In his Essence great is our Lord. 2. In his Power of great Power 3. In his Knowledg his Vnderstanding is Infinite his Understanding is his Eye
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
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
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
the Lord and his goodness or the Lord for his goodness Fear is often in the Old Testament taken for Faith or Trust This Divine Goodness the Object of Faith is that goodness discover'd in David their King the Messiah our Jesus God in this Dispensation recommends his goodness and love and reveals it more clearly than other Attributes that the Soul might have more prevailing and sweeter attractives to confide in him 3. A confidence in him gives him the glory of his goodness Most Nations that had nothing but the light of Nature thought it a great part of the Honour that was due to God to implore his Goodness and cast their Cares upon it To do good is the most honourable thing in the World and to acknowledge a goodness in a way of confidence is as high an honour as we can give to it and a great part of gratitude for what it hath already exprest Therefore we find often that an acknowledgment of one Benefit received was attended with a trust in him for what they should in the future need * Psal 56.13 Thou hast delivered my Soul from Death wilt thou not deliver my Feet from falling So 2 Cor. 1.10 And they who have been most eminent for their trust in him have had the greatest Elogies and Commendations from him As a diffidence doth disparage this Perfection thinking it meaner and shallower than it is so Confidence highly honours it We never please him more than when we trust in him * Psal 147.11 The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him in them that hope in his Mercy He takes it for an Honour to have this Attribute exalted by such a Carriage of his Creature He is no less offended when we think his heart straitned as if he were a Parcimonious God than when we think his Arm shortned as if he were an impotent and feeble God Let us therefore make this use of his Goodness to hearten our Faith When we are scar'd by the terrours of his Justice when we are dazled by the arts of his Wisdom and confounded by the splendour of his Majesty we may take refuge in the Sanctuary of his Goodness this will encourage us as well as astonish us Whereas the consideration of his other Attributes would only amaze us but can never refresh us but when they are consider'd marching under the Conduct and Banners of this When all the other Perfections of the Divine Nature are lookt upon in conjunction with this Excellency each of them send forth ravishing and benign influences upon the applying Creature 'T is more advantageous to depend upon Divine Bounty than our own Cares We may have better assurance upon this account in his Cares for us than in ours for our selves Our goodness for our selves is Finite and besides we are too ignorant His goodness is Infinite and attended with an infinite Wisdom we have reason to distrust our selves not God We have reason to be at rest under that kind influence we have so often experimented He hath so much goodness that he can have no deceit His goodness in making the Promise and his goodness in working the heart to a Reliance on it are grounds of trust in him * Psal 119.49 Remember thy word to thy Servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope If his Promise did not please him why did he make it If Reliance on the Promise doth not please him why did his Goodness work it It would be inconsistent with his Goodness to mock his Creature and it would be the highest Mockery to publish his Word and Create a temper in the heart of his supplicant suited to his Promise which he never intended to satisfie He can as little wrong his Creature as wrong himself and therefore can never disappoint that Faith which in his own methods casts it self into the arms of his Kindness and is his own Workmanship and calls him Author That Goodness that imparted it self so freely in Creation will not neglect those nobler Creatures that put their trust in him This renders God a fit Object for trust and confidence 8. The eighth Instruction This renders God worthy to be obeyed and honour'd There is an Excellency in God to allure as well as Soveraignty to enjoyn Obedience The infinite Excellency of his Nature is so great that if his Goodness had promised us nothing to encourage our Obedience we ought to prefer him before our selves devote our selves to serve him and make his glory our greatest content but much more when he hath given such admirable Expressions of his Liberality and stor'd us with hopes of richer and fuller Streams of it When David consider'd the Absolute Goodness of his Nature and the Relative Goodness of his Benefits he presently expresseth an ardent desire to be acquainted with the Divine Statutes that he might make ingenuous returns in a dutiful observance * Psal 119.68 Thou art good and thou dost good teach me thy Statutes As his Goodness is the Original so the acknowledgment of it is the end of all which cannot be without an observance of his Will His Goodness requires of us an ingenuous not a servile Obedience And this is Establisht upon two Foundations 1. Because the Bounty of God hath laid upon us the strongest Obligations The strength of an Obligation depends upon the greatness and numerousness of the Benefits received The more Excellent the favours are which are conferr'd upon any Person the more right hath the Benefactor to claim an observance from the Person better'd by him Much of the Rule and Empire which hath been in several Ages conferred by Communities upon Princes hath had its first spring from a sense of the advantages they have receiv'd by them either in protecting them from their Enemies or rescuing them from an ignoble Captivity in enlarging their Territories or increasing their Wealth Conquest hath been the Original of a constrain'd but Beneficence always the Original of a voluntary and free Subjection * Amyrald Discert p. 65. Obedience to Parents is founded upon their right because they are instrumental in bestowing upon us Being and Life and because this of life is so great a benefit the Law of Nature never dissolves this Obligation of Obeying and Honouring Parents 'T is as long liv'd as the Law of Nature and hath an universal practice by the strength of that Law in all parts of the World And those rightful Chains are not unlockt but by that which unties the knot between Soul and Body Much more hath God a Right to be obey'd and reverenced who is the principal Benefactor and mov'd all those second Causes to impart to us what conduc'd to our advantage The just Authority of God over us results from the superlativeness of his Blessings he hath pour'd down upon us which cannot be equall'd much less exceeded by any other As therefore upon this account he hath a claim to our choicest Affections so he hath also to most exact Obedience and
Holy Name And because himself and all men were insufficient to offer up a praise to God answerable to the greatness of his benefits he summons in the end of the Psalm the Angels and all Creatures to joyn in consort with him Observe 1. As man is too shallow a Creature to comprehend the excellency of God so he is too dull and scanty a Creature to offer up a due praise to God both in regard of the excellency of his nature and the multitude and greatness of his benefits 2. We are apt to forget divine benefits our Souls must therefore be often jogg'd and rous'd up All that is within me every power of my Rational and every Affection of my Sensitive part All his Faculties all his Thoughts Our Souls will hang back from God in every duty much more in this if we lay not a strict charge upon them We are so void of a pure and intire love to God that we have no mind to those duties Wants will spurr us on to Prayer but a pure love to God can only spirit us to Praise We are more ready to reach out a hand to receive his Mercies than to lift up our heart to recognize them after the receipt After the Psalmist had summoned his own Soul to this task he enumerates the Divine blessings received by him to awaken his soul by a sence of them to so noble a work He begins at the first and foundation Mercy to himself the pardon of his sin and justification of his Person the renewing of his sickly and languishing nature Verse 3. Who forgives all thy iniquities and heals all thy diseases His Redemption from death or Eternal destruction his expected glorification thereupon which he speaks of with that certainty as if it were present V. 4 Who redeems thy life from destruction who Crowns thee with loving kindness and tender Mercies He makes his progress to the mercy manifested to the Church in the protection of it against or delivery of it from oppressions Verse 6. The Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgment for all that are oppressed In the discovery of his Will and Law and the glory of his merciful Name to it Verse 7 8. He made known his ways unto Moses and his acts unto the Children of Israel The Lord is Merciful and Gracious slow to Anger and plenteous in Mercy Which latter words may refer also to the free and unmerited spring of the benefits he had reckoned up Viz. The Mercy of God which he mentions also verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities And then extols the perfection of Divine mercy in the pardoning of sin Ver. 11 12. The Paternal tenderness of God Verse 13. The eternity of his Mercy Verse 17. But restrains it to the proper object Verse 11.17 To them that fear him i. e. To them that beleive in him Fear being the word commonly used for Faith in the Old Testament under the legal dispensation wherein the spirit of bondage was more eminent than the spirit of Adoption and their fear more than their confidence Observe 1. All true blessings grow up from the pardon of sin ver 3. Who forgives all thine iniquities That is the first blessing the top and Crown of all other favours which draws all other blessings after it and sweetens all other blessings with it The principal intent of Christ was Expiation of sin Redemption from iniquity the purchase of other blessings was consequent upon it Pardon of sin is every blessing vertually and in the root and spring it flows from the favor of God and is such a gift as cannot be tainted with a Curse as outward things may 2. Where sin is pardoned the soul is renewed verse 3. Who heals all thy diseases Where guilt is remitted the deformity and sickness of the soul is cur'd Forgiveness is a teeming mercy it never goes single when we have an interest in Christ as bearing the chastisement of our peace we receive also a balsom from his blood to heal the wounds we feel in our nature Isaiah 53.5 The chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed As there is a guilt in sin which binds us over to punishment so there is a contagion in sin which fills us with pestilent diseases when the one is removed the other is cur'd We should not know how to love the one without the other The renewing the soul is necessary for a delightful relish of the other blessings of God A condemn'd Malefactor infected with a Leprosie or any other loathsome distemper if pardon'd could take little comfort in his freedom from the Gibbet without a Cure of his Plague 3. God is the sole and soveraign author of all spiritual blessings Who forgives all thy iniquities and heals all thy diseases He refers all to God nothing to himself in his own merit and strength All not the pardon of one sin merited by me not the cure of one disease can I owe to my own power and the strength of my free will and the operations of nature He and he alone is the Prince of pardon the Physitian that restores me the Redeemer that delivers me 't is a Sacriledge to divide the praise between God and our selves God only can knock off our fetters expell our distempers and restore a deformed Soul to its decayed beauty 4. Gracious Souls will bless God as much for Sanctification as for Justification The initials of Sanctification and there are no more in this Life are worthy of solemn acknowledgement 'T is a sign of growth in Grace when our Hymns are made up of acknowledgments of Gods sanctifying as well as pardoning Grace In blessing God for the one we rather shew a love to our selves in blessing God for the other we cast out a pure beam of love to God because by purifying Grace we are fitted to the service of our maker prepared to every good work which is delightful to him by the other we are eas'd in our selves Pardon fills us with inward peace but Sanctification fills us with an activity for God Nothing is so capable of setting the soul in a heavenly tune as the consideration of God as a pardoner and as a healer 5. Where sin is pardon'd the punishment is remitted Verse 3 4. Who forgives all thy iniquities and Redeems thy Life from destruction A Malefactors pardon puts an end to his chains frees him from the stench of the Dungeon and fear of the Gibbet Pardon is nothing else but the remitting of guilt and guilt is nothing else but an obligation to punishment as a penal debt for sin A Creditors tearing a Bond frees the Debtor from payment and rigor 6. Growth in Grace is always annext to true Sanctification Verse 3. So that thy youth is renew'd like the Eagles Interpreters trouble themselves much about the manner of the Eagles renewing its youth and regaining its vigor * Amyrald in loc He speaks
best that saith the Psalmist speaks only according to the opinion of the vulgar and his design was not to write a Natural History Growth always accompanies Grace as well as it doth Nature in the Body not that it is without its qualms languishing fits as Children are not but still their distempers make them grow Grace is not an idle but an active principle 'T is not like the Psalmist means it of the strength of the Body or the prosperity and stability of his Government but the vigor of his Grace and Comfort since they are spiritual blessings here that are the matter of his song The healing the Disease conduceth to the sprouting up and flourishing of the Body 'T is the Nature of Grace to go from strength to strength 7. When sin is pardoned 't is perfectly pardon'd Verse 11 12. As far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our transgressions from us The East and West are the greatest distance in the World the terms can never meet together When sin is pardoned it is never charged again the guilt of it can no more return than East can become West or West become East 8. Obedience is necessary to an interest in the mercy of God Verse 17. The mercy of the Lord is to them that fear him to them that remember his Commandments to do them Commands are to be remembered in order to practice a vain speculation is not the intent of the publication of them After the Psalmist had enumerated the benefits of God he reflects upon the greatness of God and considers him on his Throne encompast with the Angels the Ministers of his Providence Verse 19. The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom Rules over all He brings in this of his Dominion just after he had largely treated of his mercy Either 1. To signifie That God is not only to be praised for his mercy but for his Majesty both for the heighth and extent of his Authority 2. To extoll the greatness of his mercy and 〈◊〉 What I have said now Oh my Soul of the mercy of God and his paternal pity is commended by his Majesty his Grandeur hinders not his Clemency Though his Throne be High his Bowels are Tender He looks down upon his meanest Servants from the height of his Glory Since his Majesty is Infinite his Mercy must be as great as his Majesty It must be a greater pity lodging in his Breast than what is in any Creature since it is not dampt by the greatness of his Soveraignty 3. To render his Mercy more Comfortable The Mercy I have spoken of Oh my Soul is not the Mercy of a Subject but of a Soveraign An Executioner may torture a criminal and strip him of his Life and a vulgar pity cannot releive him but the Clemency of the Prince can perfectly pardon him 'T is that God who hath none above him to controul him none below him to resist him that hath performed all the acts of Grace to thee If God by his supream Authority pardons us who can reverse it If all the Subjects of God in the World should pardon us and God withhold his grant what will it profit us Take comfort Oh my Soul since God from his Throne in the highest and that God who rules over every particular of the Creation hath granted and sealed thy pardon to thee What would his Grace signifie if he were not a Monarch extending his Royal Empire over every thing and swaying all by his Scepter 4ly To render the Psalmists confidence more firm in any pressures Verse 15 16. He had considered the misery of man in the shortness of his Life his place should know him no more he should never return to his Authority Employments Opportunities that death would take from him but howsoever the Mercy and Majesty of God were the ground of his confidence He draws himself from poring upon any Calamities which may assault him to heaven the place where God orders all things that are done on the Earth He is able to protect us from our dangers and to deliver us from our distresses whatsoever miseries thou mayst lie under Oh my Soul cast thy Eye up to Heaven and see a pitying God in a Majestick Authority A God who can perform what he hath promised to them that fear him since he hath a Throne above the Heavens and bears sway over all that envy thy happiness and would stain thy felicity A God whose Authority cannot be curtailed and dismembered by any When the Prophet sollicites the sounding of the Divine Bowels he urgeth him by his dwelling in Heaven the habitation of his Holiness Isaiah 63.15 His Kingdom ruleth over all There is none therefore hath any Authority to make him break his Covenant or violate his promise 5. As an incentive to Obedience The Lord is merciful saith he to them that Remember his Commandments to do them verse 17 18. And then brings in the Text as an encouragement to observe his ' Precepts he hath a Majesty that deserves it from us and an Authority to protect us in it if a King in a small spot of Earth is to be Obeyed by his Subjects how much more is God who is more Majestick than all the Angels in Heaven and Monarchs on Earth who hath a majesty to exact our Obedience and a Mercy to allure it We should not set upon the performance of any Duty without an Eye lifted up to God as a great King It would make us willing to serve him the more Noble the Person the more Honourable and Powerful the Prince the more glorious is his Service A view of God upon his Throne will makes us think his Service our Priviledge his Precepts our Ornaments and Obedience to him the greatest Honour and Nobility It will make us weighty and serious in our performances It would stake us down to any duty The reason we are so loose and unmannerly in the carriage of our Souls before God is because we consider him not as a great King Malachy 1.14 Our Father which art in Heaven in regard of his Majesty is the Preface to Prayer Let us now consider the words in themselves The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom rules over all The Lord hath prepared The word signifies Establisht as well as prepared and might so be rendered Due preparation is a natural way to the Establishment of a thing Hasty resolveâ—â—eak and moulder This notes 1. The infiniteness of his Authority He prepares it none else for him 'T is a Dominion that originally resides in his Nature not deriv'd from any by birth or commission he alone prepar'd it He is the sole cause of his own Kingdom his Authority therefore is unbounded as infinite as his Nature None can set Laws to him because none but himself prepared his Throne for him As he will not impair his own Happiness so he will not abridge himself of his own Authority
which the Devil was condemned But in what particular thing this pride was manifest is not so easily discernable the ancients generally conceived it to be an affecting the Throne of God grounding it on Isaiah 14.12 How art thou fallen O Lucifer Son of the morning for thou hast said in thy Heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God 'T is certain the Prophet speaks there of the King of Babylon and taxeth him for his pride and gives to him the title of Lucifer perhaps likning him in his Pride to the Devil and then it notes plainly the particular sin of the Devil attempting a share in the soveraignty of God and some strengthen their conjecture from the Name of the Arch-Angel who contended against Satan Jude 9. which is Michael which signifyes who as God or who like God The Name of the Angel giving the superiority to God intimating the contrary disposition in the Devil against whom he contended 'T is likely his sin was an affecting an equality with God in Empire or a freedom from the soveraign Authority of God Because he imprinted such a kind of perswasion on man at his first Temptation Ye shall be as Gods Gen. 3.5 and though it be restrained to the matter of knowledge yet that being a fitness for Government it may be extended to that also But it is plainly a perswading them that they might be in some sort equal with God and independent on him as their Superior What he had found so fatal to himself he imagined would have the same success in the ruine of man And since the Devil hath in all ages of the World usurpt a Worship to himself which is only due to God and would be served by man as if he were the God of the World Since all his endeavour was to be Worshipt as the supream God on Earth 't is not unreasonable to think that he invaded the Supremacy of God in Heaven and endeavour'd to be like the most high before his banishment as he hath attempted to be like the Most High since And since the Devil and Anti-Christ are reputed by John in the Revelation to be so near of kin and so like in disposition why might not that which is the sin of Anti-Christ the image of him be also the sin of Satan To exalt himself above all that is called God 2 Thes 2.4 and sit as God in his Temple affecting a partnership in his Throne and Worship Whither it was this or attempting an unaccountable Dominion over created things or because he was the Prime Angel and the most illustrious of that magnificent corporation he might think himself fit to Reign with God over all things else Or if his sin were envy as some think at the felicity of man in Paradise It was still a quarrelling with God's Dominion and right of disposing his own goods and favours He is therefore call'd Belial 2 Cor. 6.14 15. What concord hath Christ with Belial i. e. with the Devil one without yoke as the word Belial signifies 3. 'T is more plain that this was the sin of Adam The first act of Adam was to exercise a Lordship over the lower Creatures in giving names to them a token of Dominion Gen. 2.19 The next was to affect a Lordship over God in rebelling against him After he had writ the first mark of his own delegated Dominion in the names he gave the Creatures and own'd their dependance on him as their Governour he would not acknowledge his own dependance on God As soon as the Lord of the World had put him into possession of the power he had allotted him he attempted to strip his Lord of that which he had reserv'd to himself He was not content to lay a yoke upon the other Creatures but desirous to shake off the Divine Yoke from himself and be subject to none but his own will Hence Adam's sin is more particularly call'd disobedience Rom. 5.19 For in the eating the apple there was no Moral evil in it self but a contradiction to the positive command and order of God whereby he did disown Gods right of commanding him or reserving any thing from him to his own use The Language all his Posterity speaks Let us break his bands and cast away his cords from us Psal 2.3 was learn'd from Adam in that act of his The next act we read of was that of Cain's murdering Abel which was an invading God's right in assuming an Authority to dispose of the Life of his Brother a Life which God had given him and reserved the period of it in his own hands And he persists in the same usurpation when God came to examine him and ask him where his Brother was how scornful was his answer Gen. 4.9 Am I my Brother's Keeper as much as if he had said what have you to do to examine me or what obligation is there upon me to render an account of him Or as one saith * Trap. in loc 'T is as much as if he had said go look him your self The Soveraignty of God did not remain undisturb'd as soon as ever it appear'd in Creation the Devils rebell'd against it in Heaven and man would have banisht it from the earth 4. The Soveraignty of God hath not been less invaded by the usurpations of men One single order of the Roman Episcopacy hath endeavour'd to usurp the prerogatives of God The Pope will prohibit what God hath allow'd The Marriage of Priests the receiving of the Cup as well as of the Bread in the Sacrament the eating of this or that sort of meat at special times meats which God hath sanctified and forbid them too upon pain of damnation 'T is an invasion of God's right to forbid the use of what God hath granted as though the earth and the fulness thereof were no longer the Lords but the Popes Much more to forbid what God hath commanded as if Christ over-reacht his own Authority when he enjoyn'd all to drink of the Sacramental Wine as well as eat of the Sacramental Bread No Lord but will think his right usurpt by that Steward who shall permit to others what his Lord forbids and forbid that which his Master allows and act the Lord instead of the Servant Add to this the pardons of many sins as if he had the sole key to the treasures of Divine Mercy the disposing of Crowns and Dominions at his pleasute as if God had devested himself of the Title of King of Kings and transferr'd it upon the See of Rome The allowing publick Stews dispensing with incestuous Marriages as if God had acted more the part of a Tyrant than of a Righteous Soveraign in forbidding them Depriving the Jews of the propriety in their Estates upon their Conversion to Christianity as if the pilfering mens goods were the way to teach them self-denyal the first Doctrine of Christian Religion and God shall have no honour from the Jew without a breach of his Law
any affliction from God 't is a contempt of his Soveraignty as to contemn the frown displeasure and check of a Prince is an affront to Majesty 'T is as if they did not care a straw what God did with them but dare him to do his worst There is a despising the chastning of the Almighty Job 5.17 To be unhumbled under his hand is as much or more affront to him than to be impatient under it Afflictions must be entertained as a check from Heaven as a frown from the great Monarch of the World Under the feeling of every stroke we are to acknowledge his Soveraignty and Bounty to despise it is to make light of his Authority over us As to despise his favours is to make light of his kindness to us A sense of God's Dominion would make us observe every check from him and not diminish his Authority by casting off a due sense of his correction 6. This Dominion of God would make us resign up our selves to God in every thing He that considers himself a thing made by God a vassal under his Authority would not expostulate with him and call him to an account why he hath dealt so or so with him It would stab the vitals of all pleas against him We should not then contest with him but humbly lay our cause at his feet and say with Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 'T is the Lord let him do what seems good We should not commence a suit against God when he doth not answer our Prayers presently and send the mercy we want upon the wings of the wind He is the Lord the Soveraign The consideration of this would put an end to our quarrels with God Should I expect that the Monarch of the World should wait upon me or I a poor worm wait upon him Must I take State upon me before the Throne of Heaven and expect the King of Kings should lay by his Scepter to gratifie my humour Surely Jonah thought God no more than his fellow or his vassal at that time when he told him to his face he did well to be angry as though God might not do what he pleased with so small a thing as a Gourd He speaks as if he would have sealed a lease of ejectment to exclude him from any propriety in any thing in the World 7. This Dominion of God would stop our vain curiosity When Peter was desirous to know the fate of John the Beloved Disciple Christ answereth no more than this Joh. 21.22 If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee follow thou me Consider your duty and lay aside your curiosity since it is my pleasure not to reveal it The sense of God's absolute Dominion would silence many vain disputes in the World What if God will not reveal this or that the manner and method of his resolves should humble the Creature under intruding enquiries V. USE of Exhortation 1. The Doctrine of the Dominion of God may teach us Humility We are never truly abas'd but by the consideration of the eminence and excellency of the Deity Job never thought himself so pitiful a thing so despicable a creature as after God's magnificent declamation upon the Theme of his own Soveraignty Job 42.5 6. When God's name is regarded as the most excellent and Soveraign name in all the earth then is the Soul in the fittest temper to lie low and cry out what is man that so great a Majesty should be mindful of him When Abraham considers God as the Supream Judge of all the earth he then ownes himself but dust and ashes Gen. 18.25 27. Indeed how can vile and dusty man vaunt before God when the Angels far more excellent creatures cannot stand before him but with a Vail on their faces How little a thing is man in regard of all the earth How mean a thing is the earth in regard of the vaster Heavens How poor a thing is the whole World in comparison of God How pitiful a thing is man if compar'd with so excellent a Majesty There is as great a distance between God and man as between being and not being and the more man considers the Divine Royalty the more dis-esteem he will have of himself it would make him stoop and disrobe himself and fall low before the Throne of the King of Kings throwing down before his Throne any Crown he gloryed in Rev. 4.10 1. In regard of Authority How unreasonable is pride in the presence of Majesty How foolish is it for a Country Justice of Peace to think himself as great as his Prince that Commission'd him How unreasonable is pride in the presence of the greatest Soveraignty What is humane greatness before Divine The Stars discover no light when the Sun appears but in a humble posture withdraw in their lesser Beams to give the sole Glory of enlightning the World to the Sun who is as it were the Soveraign of those Stars and imparts a light unto them The greatest Prince is infinitely less if compar'd with God than the meanest scullion in his kitchin can be before him As the Wisdom Goodness and Holiness of man is a meer mote compared to the Goodness and Holiness of God so is the Authority of man a meer trifle in regard of the soveraignty of God And who but a simple Child would be proud of a mote or trifle Let man be as great as he can and command others he is still a subject to one greater than himself Pride would then vanish like smoak at the serious consideration of this soveraignty One of the Kings of this Country did very handsomly shame the flattery of his Courtiers that cried him up as Lord of Sea and Land by ordering his chair to be set on the Sand of the Sea shoar when the Tide was coming in and commanding the waters not to touch his feet which when they did without any regard to his Authority he took occasion thereby to put his flatterers out of countenance and instruct himself in a lesson of humility See saith he how I rule all things when so mean a thing as the water will not obey me 'T is a ridiculous pride that the Turk and Persian discover in their swelling Titles What poor soveraigns are they that cannot command a Cloud give out an effectual order for a drop of Rain in a time of drought or cause the bottles of Heaven to turn their mouth another way in a time of too much moisture Yet their own Prerogatives are so much in their minds that they justle out all thoughts of the supream Prerogative of God and give thereby occasion to frequent Rebellions against him 2. In regard of Propriety And this doctrine is no less an abatement of pride in the highest as well as in the meanest it lowers pride in point of Propriety as well as in point of Authority * Raynard de Deo p. 766. Is any proud of his possessions how many Lords of those possessions have gone before
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
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