Slave to be a Slave unto the Devil whom the People of God have in part subdued and overcome and over whom they shall shortly at once perfectly triumph And now having thus by several Arguments prest this great Duty of working out of our own Salvation I should now proceed to some other Things that are necessary to be spoken unto from this Doctrin But because this is a Duty of so vast Importance and of so universal Concernment unto all and the Slothfulness and Backwardness of many so great and if persisted in will be so ruinous and destructive I shall further urge the practice of this Duty upon the Consciences of Sinners by these following Considerations 1. Working for Salvation is delightful Work First This working for Salvation is the most delightful Work and Imployment that a Christian can be engaged in What is it that makes the whole World so busy in the Service of Sin and Satan but only Pleasure which they either find or imagine The Devil baits all his Temptations with this enticing Witchcraft which the World calls Pleasure and this is that makes them so successful But hath the Devil ingrossed all Pleasure unto his Service Can the Ways of God promise no Delight Are they only ruff and rugged Ways David certainly thought otherwise when speaking of the Commandments of God Psalm 19.10 he tell us They were sweeter than the Hony and the Hony-comb He could squeeze Hony out of them it is an Expression that sets forth the exceeding Pleasantness and Delight that is to be found in the ways of Obedience And truly the whole Book of Psalms is abundantly copious in setting forth that Delight that is to be found in the ways of God Ask therefore the Children of God who are the only sufficient Judges in this Matter and they will tell you with one Consent that they know no Delight on Earth comparable to that Delight that is to be found in Obedience Indeed if you are only taken with a soft luxurious washy Pleasure this is not to be found in the ways of Holiness but if a severe Delight can affect you a Delight that shall not effeminate but innoble you if you desire a masculine rational vigorous Pleasure and Delight you need not seek any further for it than in the ways of Obedience Now there are two Things that make this working for Salvation to be so pleasant Two Things make working for Salvation pleasant the suitableness of this Work to the Agent or Worker and the visible Success and Progress of the Work it self And both these make the working out of Salvation exceeding pleasant and delightful to the People of God First 1. Suitableness of the Work to the Agent It is a Work suited to their Natures and that makes it pleasant As Jesus Christ had in a phisical Sense so every true Christian hath in a moral Sense two Natures in one Person There is the divine Nature or the Nature of God and there is the humane corrupt Nature the Nature of sinful Man and each of these have Inclinations suited unto them there is the carnal part and that is too apt to be seduced and drawn away with the Pleasures of Sin that are Objects proportioned to the carnal part But then there is also a divine and if I may so call it a supernatural Nature imprinted by Regeneration that only doth relish heavenly and spiritual Things So that it is not more natural to a godly Man by reason of the Propensions of the old Nature to sin against God than it is natural to him by reason of the Propensions of the new Nature to obey and serve God Now when Nature acts suitably to its own sway and pondus this must needs cause two Things First Facility and Easiness Secondly Delight and Complacency Streams flow from the Fountain with ease because they take but their natural Course So the Works of Obedience flow easily from that Fountain Principle of Grace that is broken up in the Hearts of the Children of God because they flow naturally from them and therefore because Nature makes things easie that easiness will make them pleasant and delightful It is true indeed when they work there is an opposition and reluctancy from their other contrary Nature for as they act suitably to the one so they act quite contrary to the other Nature But doth not the gracious and new Nature as strongly wrestle against and oppose the Workings and Eruptions of the old Nature as the old doth the Workings of the new Yes it doth and therefore you that are truly Regenerate never sin because of the easiness of it because of its suitableness because else you must offer violence to your Nature if you resist a Temptation Do you not offer violence to your Nature if you close with that Temptation You are not all of one piece if I may so speak if you are Regenerate And what must the corrupt part only be indulged and gratified and must the renewed part be always opposed Why should not Grace since it is as much nay more your self than Sin is why should not that have the same scope and liberty to act freely as Sin doth Truly these Things are Riddles to wicked Men and they are unfit Judges in this Case they wonder what we mean when we speak of Easiness and Delight in ways of Obedience which they never found to be otherwise than the most burthensome Thing in the World And truly it is no wonder for they have no Principle suited to these Things they are made up only of the old Nature that is as contrary and repugnant to them as Darkness is to Light But if once God renew and sanctifie them then they will confess as we do that the Works of God have more easiness in them than the generality of the World do imagine and therefore St. Paul tells That he delighted in the Law of God after the inward Man Rom. 7.22 But why after the inward Man But because though his corrupt part was contrary thereunto yet his renewed part which he calls his inward Man was suited to the Duties of the Law of God and carried him out as naturally to Obedience as the Spark flies upward And hence it is that the Children of God delight in the ways of Obedience because they suit with their new Nature that is implanted in them Secondly 2. Progress in working for Salvation makes it pleasant Another Thing that makes working for Salvation so delightful is That visible Success that the Children of God gain and that visible progress that they make in this Work Nothing doth usually cause greater Delight in Work than to see some riddance in it and that we are like at length to bring it to some issue So truly this is that which mightily delights the Children of God to see that their Work goes forward that their Graces thrive that their Corruptions pine and consume away that they are much nearer Salvation
where in Scripture as I remember have express mention made of any Prayer directed to the Holy Ghost yet whosoever allows him to be God cannot deny him this Worship of Prayer if we must believe in him we may then certainly call upon him as the Apostle argues Rom. 10.14 yea Rom. 10.14 we have an Instance of the Seraphims giving Praise unto him which is one part of Prayer Isa 6.3 Isa 6.3 They cried to one another holy holy is the Lord God of Hosts This God is the same who in Verses 10 11. bids the Prophet say to the People Hear ye indeed but understand not make the Heart of this People fat make their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they hear with their Ears and see with their Eyes This is that God whom the Seraphims adored and this is that God that spake to the Prophet and the Apostle quoting this very place out of Isaiah Acts 28.25 tells us Acts 28.25 that it was the Holy Ghost spake so that by comparing these two Places together you see plainly that the Holy Ghost is God and that he is to be adored by us with the same Worship that we worship the Father and the Son for the Holy Ghost is the Lord God of Hosts which St. Paul refers to the Holy Ghost well spake the Holy Ghost concerning them Thus if we consider God personally each Person in the Trinity may well be the Object of our Prayers Secondly Consider God essentially and so we are also to direct our Prayers to him God essentially is to be prayed unto Now to consider God essentially is to have the Eye of our Faith fixed upon his Attributes not upon his Person to consider him when we pray to him not as Father Son or Holy Ghost but only as an infinitely glorious wise powerful gracious God and the like to look upon him as a most pure Essence whose Presence is every where whose Presence and Goodness is over all Things to conceive him to be an infinite Being altogether unconceivable this is to consider God essentially Now this Notion of God is equally common to all the Three Persons and therefore this is the most fit and congruous way when we come to God in Prayer to represent before us his Attributes we need not select out any one Person in the Holy Trinity Father Son or Holy Ghost to direct our Prayers unto unless it be in some Cases wherein their particular Offices are more immediately concerned but when we pray to him who is Almighty who is All-wise infinitely Holy infinitely Just and Merciful we pray at once to the whole Trinity both to the Father Son and Holy Ghost So when we pray according to that holy Form that Christ hath taught us Our Father which art in Heaven Father there denotes not only God the Father the first Person in the Trinity but it is a relative Attribute belonging equally to all the Persons in the Trinity God is the Father of all Men by Creation and Providence and he is especially the Father of the Faithful by Regeneration and Adoption Why now as these Actions of Creation Regeneration and Adoption are common to the whole Trinity so also is the Title of Father common to the whole Trinity God the first Person is indeed eminently called the Father but that is not in respect of us but in respect of Christ his only begotten Son from all Eternity in respect of us the whole Trinity is our Father which art in Heaven and when we pray so we pray both to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost to all the Three Persons yea and it may seem very probable that when Christ prayed Matth. 26.39 Matth. 26.39 Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not my Will but thy Will be done I say it 's probable this Prayer was not directed to God the Father personally but to the whole Trinity for we must consider that Christ prays here only as he was Man and that appears by his distinguishing of his Will from and submitting it to God's Will Why now not only God the Father but the whole Trinity was the Father of Christ as Man yea Christ himself according to his divine Nature was the Father of his humane Nature and therefore praying as Man to his Father that that Cup might pass from him he prayed to all the Three Persons both to God the Father and to God the Son and to God the Holy Ghost And thus much for the Object to whom we must direct our Prayers and that is to God only whether considered personally or essentially Thirdly Observe also the Matter of our Prayers We must pray for Things that are according to the will of God 1 John 5.4 It must be a representation of our Desires to God for such Things as are according to his Will So we have it 1 John 5.4 If we ask any thing according to his Will he heareth us God's Will in bestowing a desired Mercy upon us is best known by the Promises that he hath made to us which Promises are of two Kinds some refer to temporal Blessings and others refer to Grace and Glory Why now here First Grace and Glory are promised absolutely We may pray for Grace and Glory absolutely it is that we are commanded all of us to seek after and therefore here can lie no mistake upon us while we beg these for there is no doubt while we pray for Grace and Glory but we do it according to the Will of God Here we may be earnest and importunate that God would sanctifie and save our Souls and while we ask this and make this the matter of our Requests we are under an impossibility of asking amiss yea and the more violent we are and the more resolute to take no Denial at the Hands of God the more pleasing is this holy Force since it shews a perfect conformity and concurrence in our Wills unto his Will who hath told us It is his Will 1 Thes 4.3 even our Sanctification 1 Thes 4.3 This was one part of that violence that our Saviour saith the Kingdom of Heaven suffered in the Days of John the Baptist It is an Invasion that is acceptable unto God when we storm Heaven by Prayers and Supplications with strong Cries and Tears when we plant against it unutterable Sighs and Groans this is such a Battery that those eternal Ramparts cannot hold out long against it We may pray absolutely for Grace and Glory Secondly 2. We must pray for the Degrees of Grace and for the Comforts of the Spirit conditionally Though we may pray thus absolutely and with a holy peremptoriness for Grace and Glory saying to God as Jacob to the Angel that wrestled with him I will not let thee go until thou hast blessed me with spiritual Blessings in heavenly Things in Jesus Christ Yet Secondly For the Degrees of Grace and for the Comforts of
from accusing and condemning of you So much for this Time and Text. A DISCOURSE UPON Perseverance IN PRAYER WITH Exhortations thereunto ON 1 THESSAL v. 17. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. 1696. A DISCOURSE UPON Perseverance IN PRAYER 1 THESS v. 17. Pray without ceasing THIS Text is one of those many Commands that the Apostle lays down in this Chapter being now almost at the end and close of his Epistle and not willing to omit the mentioning of Duties so necessary for their Practice he pours them out in short but weighty Exhortations the Connexion betwixt most of them is dark if there be any I shall not therefore vex the Words by tacking them either to the precedent or subsequent Verses by any forced Coherence but take them as they are in themselves in one entire Proposition and so they contain in them a Duty and that is Prayer and the manner also of performing of it and that is without ceasing and both of these do administer to us this plain Doctrin Doctrin That it is a Christians Duty to pray incessantly This is a plain and necessary Point and I intend to handle it in as plain and familiar a Method And there are two Things that I shall enquire into First What it is to Pray And then Secondly What it is to Pray without ceasing 1. What it is to Pray 1. I shall begin with the First What it is to Pray I Answer To Pray is by the Assistance and Help of the Holy Ghost in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ with Faith and Fervency to make an humble representation of our Desires unto God for those Things that are according to his Will with submission to his Pleasure and with reference to his Honour This is that holy Duty of Prayer in which of all that belong to Religion the Soul usually enjoys the most near and sweet Communion with God When we are oppressed with Guilt or overwhelmed with Fears and Griefs what sweeter Retreat than to betake our selves to our God and to our Father into whose Bosom we may unload all our Burdens It is the greatest solace of an afflicted Mind to lie prostrate before the Lord and melt it self down in holy Tears and in holy Affections at his Feet Hence it is said of Hannah 1 Sam. 1.18 That after she had poured out her Soul before God her Countenance was no more sad And therefore this is not so much our Duty as our Privilege it is the Happiness of the glorious Angels in Heaven and of the Spirits of just Men made perfect that they are always near unto God in their Attendance upon him that they are Waiters about his Throne And Prayer gives to us the very same high Privilege and brings us into the Presence and before the Throne of the same God only with this difference they draw near to a Throne of Glory and we draw near to a Throne of Grace Let us now take a more particular View of this excellent Duty of Prayer according to the Description given of it 1. The efficient cause of Prayer is the Spirit First The efficient cause of Prayer is the Holy Ghost then we Pray when we breath out those Requests unto God that the Holy Ghost hath breathed unto us and therefore it is said Rom. 8.26 The Spirit helpeth our Infirmities Rom. 8.26 for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with Sighs and Groans that cannot be uttered All Prayers that are not dictated by the Holy Ghost is but howling in God's esteem And though wicked Men in their Distresses may be very passionate and very vehement in their Requests yet they have no Promise that their Prayers shall prevail with God Sometimes indeed God doth hear them and out of his common Bounty and Goodness grants to them those temporal good Things that they crave he that hears the young Ravens when they cry he that hears the lowing of the Oxen sometimes also hears wicked Men under their Afflictions when they roar to him as wild Bulls in a Net as the Prophet expresseth it but yet such Prayers of wicked Men tho' they are answered yet they are never accepted God accepts no Petitions but such as are presented to him through the Intercession of Christ now Christ makes Intercession for none in Heaven but only for such in whose Hearts the Spirit makes Intercession here upon Earth their Prayers alone ascend up to God as sweet Incense being perfumed with that much Incense that Christ offers up with the Prayers of all the Saints God always hears and answers them either in the very Thing that they pray for or else in what oftentimes is far better when they ask that which will be to their own Hurt then he answers them graciously by denying them In James 16. the Apostle tells us there Jam. 5.16 That the effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous Man availeth much This indeed may seem a needless Tautology to say an effectual Prayer availeth for it is but one and the same thing to avail and to be effectual but if we consult the Original we shall find the Words may be translated The in-wrought Prayer and possibly we may with more Congruity render it thus The Prayer of a righteous Man wrought in him that is to say by the Spirit of God such a Prayer availeth much Secondly As the efficient cause of our Prayers is the Holy Ghost 2. God is the Object of Prayer essentially and personally consider'd so the only Object of our Prayers is God for it is a representation of our Wants and Desires unto him Now God may be consider'd either essentially or personally and under both respects we may direct our Prayers unto him 1. All the Persons in the Trinity are to be prayed unto First If we consider the Persons of the glorious Trinity so they are all adorable with this Act of divine Worship None will deny but that we may direct our Prayers unto God the Father and that God the Son may be distinctly prayed unto we have an uncontroulable Instance in that of S. Stephen Acts 7.59 Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit yea Acts 7.59 and this Adoration is due not only to the Divine Nature of Christ which was from all Eternity the same in Being in Majesty and Glory with the Father but it is also due unto Christ as Mediator as God-Man and so his humane Nature is also joined in the participation of this high Honour through its union to the Divine Nature The very Angels in Heaven are commanded to adore him as God-Man as Mediator Heb. 1.6 Heb. 1.6 When he bringeth in his first begotten into the World that is when he brought him into the World as Man he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him Indeed we no
B P HOPKINS's Fourth and Last VOLUME OF Discourses and Sermons The Fourth and Last VOLUME OF DISCOURSES OR SERMONS ON Several Scriptures By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed by H. Clark for J. Robinson A. and J. Churchill J. Taylor and J. Wyat 1696. THE PREFACE GIVING An Account of these Discourses and of the Excellent Author thereof Christian Reader AN old Friend and Acquaintance of the very Reverend Author of the following Sermons and Discourses in honour of his Name and Memory though he accepteth no Man's Person neither can give flattering Titles saith upon the occasion of their being Printed and Published as followeth viz. That there have been Three Volumes of Sermons and Discourses sent forth into the Publick before these have appeared and not any one of them unprefaced to but in none of these Prefaces hath he met with any thing to convey down the just Character of this our great Man and his Manner and Ministry to Posterity He will make an Experiment therefore if any thing may be said he saith not aded for hitherto nothing hath been said to render the account of this Amiable Person and his Vseful Labours amongst us to after Ages besides the Testimony of his Gifts and Graces in his Books so familiar amongst us for by these though he be dead he yet speaketh his Works praise him in the Gates and his Remembrance shall be blessed Many will bear Witness the Name of our Author was not unknown but celebrated in this our great City in its Suburbs in our Lines of Communication and within our Bills of Mortality when he for several Years lived and laboured with great acceptance and success in these places Ask in the Town and Parish of Hackney how much Good was done by Mr. Hopkins's Lectures especially amongst the richer sort of Inhabitants and the younger sort at the Schools there and especially those that were descended from good Families If you believe me not ask from Jerusalem to Illyricum from Oxon to London from London to Exon if you please from one London to another even unto London-derry in Ireland where was his Top-preferment and I have been assured his last Works were more than the first So that we have found him that faithful and wise Servant his Lord had made Ruler over his Houshold to give them their Meat in due season Indeed by his exalted Name I ever took him to be none of our smaller Prophets nor of the Patres minorum Gentium In his first education and at his first appearance in the Grammar-School he soon signalized himself none of his Age and Stature being well able to keep pace with him at his coming unto the Vniversity it was by times taken notice of his Stock of Grammar and all good Learning especially in the learned Languages and his Studies and Manners were such that he rendred himself in the College both much a Scholar and much a Gentleman and was chosen out from amongst others to Instruction and Government therein and particularly the Instruction and Government of some of several Young Gentlemen and some descended from some of our Noble and most Honourable Families in our Kingdom and Nation In the Churches of Christ unto the Service whereof he was never slack when invited and called his very First-fruits were promising and his First-fruits being holy the Lump was also holy The Crouds in Hackney-Church in St. Mary Woolnoth Lombard-street at Exon at Dublin at Raphoe at London-derry and last at St. Mary Aldermanbury in our own City declare him a Master-workman the Preacher that was wise and that sought out acceptable words And his Words were as profitable as they were acceptable By the Subjects of the Four Volumes of Sermons you will be able to do more than make a Conjecture you will take some Measures of his Parts and the disposition of his Mind of his Studies and Ministerial Endeavours with the blessed Seals which were put thereunto I will only further as to my part here in his Honour commend to your perusal in special this Fourth Volume of his Sermons and Discourses The Contents will give you the Account of what Materials they consist and to what Vses and Improvements they were directed and applied But I further take liberty to say Here are in these Discourses now handled by him both the Commoda and the Accommoda things profitable in themselves and seasonable to our present Times and Debates Verba super Rotas some of the Author 's Golden Apples in Pictures of Silver They never knew our Author that knew him not to be as acute and solid in his Polemick Discourses as he was accurate and fervent in his Practical and Ordinary Sermons And let but the Christian Reader take the first Discourse in this Book on Phil. 2.12 13. and read but with due Caution and Observation and he will soon think there will not need more be said to stay and quiet the Minds of Men on the controverted Points of Liberty or the Power of Nature and the Interests of the Grace of God in our Salvation He hath also happily herein taken up the Question and proved Repentance and Faith are neither prejudicial to the free Grace of God and the Father nor in any-wise derogatory unto the Merits of Jesus his Son As also fully proved we are far from being justified as soon as elected or redeemed In the Second Part he hath happily added and proved that a temperament of the fear of a Just and Sin-revenging God is consistent with and necessary to be joined unto our highest Attainments in the joyful Sense of the Love and Favour of God and the fullest Assurances of Heaven and Salvation we have in this Life and hath herein cut the Sinews of the Antinomian Errour on the contrary part and without any Noise or Clamour In the Third Part you will find and be much pleased with and I hope equally benefited by his very Pious and Plain Treatise of the Nature and Offices of Conscience the rather because the Corruptions and Defilements of it being so distinctly opened and what it is and of what Importance to get and to keep a clear Conscience with many necessary Directions and Helps in order thereunto very proper to the Times wherein so many have made Shipwrack of Faith and of a Good Conscience The next Discourse is of Instancy and Constancy in Holy Prayer not only as a Negotium cum Deo but Heaven in ordinary and perfect Hearts-ease whil'st we are here upon Earth And the last is an elaborate though short Exercitation and Treatise of the Divine Omnipresence a Meditation prepared to render all the foregoing Parts of the Book more beneficial to us no Argument being in its own Nature more awakening and awful to an intelligent and diligent Reader The rest you are beholden to Providence and the Pen of a ready Writer for but what is written was unquestionably spoken and with a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a very Reverend
attain in Glory where our whole Work to all Eternity shall be to love and please God or else that Perfection that consists in its Sincerity in this Life If we take it for that perfection of Love that shall for ever burn in our Hearts when we our selves shall be made perfect so it is certain it will cast out all tormenting Fears for certainly if in Heaven Hope it self shall be abolished much more shall Fear be abolished for there every Saint shall have much more than a full assurance even a full fruition of Glory and they shall know themselves to be for ever confirmed in that blessed state which shall prevent all doubts and fears If we understand it of that perfection of Love that we may attain to in this Life so also the strong and vigorous actings of Love to God casteth out all tormenting Fears It is not possible that that Soul that actually loves God with a vigorous and most ardent Affection should at the same time be rack'd with distracting fears of Hell and Damnation for it is the sense of God's Love unto the Soul that draws from it reciprocal Love again unto God We love him says the Apostle because he first loved us That is as strong as our apprehensions are of God's Love to us so strong will our Love be in its returns to God again Water riseth naturally as high as its Spring wherefore the assurance of God's Love being the Spring from whence our Love flows such as is our Love such will be our assurance also If then our Love be strong in its actings it must needs cast out Fear because it flows from that assurance with which tormenting Fear is utterly inconsistent But then there is another kind of Fear that is not tormenting and that is an awful frame of Heart struck with reverential apprehensions of God's infinite Majesty and our own vileness and unworthiness and this perfect Love doth not cast out but perfects this awful sedate calm fear of God The Angels and the glorified Saints in Heaven whose Love is so perfect that it can neither admit of an increase or abatement yet they stand in aw and fear of the terrible Majesty of the great God the same infinit Excelencies of the divine Nature that attract their Love doth also excite their Fear See how the Prophet makes this an Argument to fear God Jer. 10.7 Who would not fear thee O King of Saints For said he in all the Earth there is none like unto thee One would rather think Gods unparallel Excellencies and Perfections should be a Motive to Love who would not love thee O King of Saints since there is none in all the Earth like thee Yea but filial Fear and filial Love are of so near a kind and cognation that they may well be enforced by one and the same Argument Who would not fear thee for in all the Earth there is none like thee This is the Excellency of divine Love it is an attractive of Love and it is an excitement unto Fear Well then though we have no chilling Fear of a hot and scorching Hell yet let us have an awful reverential Fear of the glorious God whose Excellencies are such as cannot be matched nor scarcely imitable by any in Heaven or in Earth Thirdly 3. A holy Fear of God is not contrary to the Spirit of Adoption The Fear of God is not contrary to that free Spirit of Adoption which we receive in our first Conversion It may perhaps seem to some that the Apostle opposeth them in Rom. 8.15 You have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to Fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby you cry Abba Father To this I Answer That by the Spirit of Bondage here the Apostle means the legal Work of the holy Ghost in Conviction that is preparatory to Conversion which Work usually is accompanied with dreadful Terrors apprehending God not as a reconciled Father but as an incensed and severe Judge why now says the Apostle You have not received this Spirit of Bondage again thus to fear this is not that Fear that the consideration of God as your God and reconciled Father excited to you this is not that Fear that the Apostle exhorts Christians unto but an awful reverential Fear of God whereby we should stand in aw of his dread Majesty so as to be preserved from whatever may be an offence to his Purity and if in any Night of Desertion it should happen that the Hearts of true Believers should be overwhelmed with dismal Fears apprehending God as enraged and incensed against them standing in doubt of the goodness of their spiritual Condition if this seize upon them after they have had the Spirit of Adoption let them know this Fear is not from a Work of the Holy Ghost in them they have not received the Spirit of Bondage again so to fear it is not a Work of the Holy Ghost to excite in them doubts and fears of their spiritual Condition after they have once had assurance of the goodness thereof but it ariseth either from some Ignorance or from some Sin that they have committed that interposeth betwixt them and the clear sight of the discoveries of God's Love Now for the better understanding of this place because I judge it pertinent to my present purpose I shall open it to you somewhat largely in these following Particulars 1. The Work of Conversion is usually carried on by legal Fear and Terrors First The preparatory Work of Conversion is usually carried on in the Soul by legal Fears and Terrors I call that a legal Fear that is wrought in the Soul by the Dread-Threatnings and Denunciations of the Law The Law if we take it in its native Rigour without the merciful qualification of Gospel-grace thunder'd out nothing but Execrations Wrath and Vengeance against every Transgressor of it representing God armed also with his almighty Power to destroy them this is that Glass that shew'd them their old Sins in most ugly Shapes now they see them stare ghastly upon their Consciences that before allured them the Scene is quite changed and there are nothing but dreadful Apparitions of Death and Hell fleeting now before them Hell belsh'd in their very Faces God brandished his flaming Sword over them ready to reeve their Hearts asunder they that lately were secure and fearless now stand quaking under the fearful expectations of that fiery Wrath and Indignation that they neither have hope to escape nor yet have they Strength or Patience to endure This is that legal Fear that the Curse and Threatnings of the Law when set home in their full acrimony work in the Hearts of convinced Sinners Secondly 2. Slavish Fear engenders unto Bondage This legal Fear is slavish and engenders unto Bondage There is Bondage under the reigning Power of Sin and there is a Bondage under the terrifying Power of Sin The former makes a Man a Slave unto the Devil and the latter makes a Man a
but he is intimately present with all his Creatures at once And therein is his presence distinguished from the presence of Angels they indeed pass from one to another and be one in another they may possibly stretch and dilate themselves to a great compass but they cannot stretch themselves to an Vbiquitariness to be in all Beings at once If an Angel suddenly dart himself from one Point of the Heavens through the Center of the Earth to an opposite Point of the Heavens and by a motion of insinuation without impelling or driving the Air before him yet he is not in Heaven and Earth at once but when he is in one place he ceaseth to be in another but it is not so with God for he is every-where and in all things at once for ever therefore God tells us Do not I fill Heaven and Earth Jer. 23.24 He is so in them as that he doth not leave any one place void or empty of himself for were there any places where God were not then it could not be properly said to be filled with him Thirdly This Omnipresence of God is simply necessary not only for the preserving and upholding of his Creatures in their Beings and Operations but necessary to our very Beings for his own Essence is simple and he cannot withdraw from nor forsake any place or any thing with which his presence now is God cannot contract and lessen himself nor gather up his Essence into a narrow room and compass but as he is here in this very place which we now take up so he must and will be here to all Eternity Nor is this any imperfection as if God were not an Infinite Perfection and Excellence for this flows from the immutability of his Nature and Essence for should God remove himself he were not altogether unchangeable but with him there is neither change nor shadow of turning Jam. 1. What the Heathens thought of this Immensity and Omnipresence of God it is somewhat obscure some of them confined him to Heaven and were so far from affirming him present in all things that they thought he took no care of any thing below as being too mean and too unworthy for God to regard This was the Opinion of the Epicureans Acts 17.18 Others thought indeed that the Care and Providence of God reached to these ordinary things but not his Essence and the ground of their Errour was because they thought it most befitting the Majesty of God to sit only in Heaven a glorious and a becoming place and not to make himself so cheap and so common as to be present with Men and the Vile Things of the World But this is a weak Reason as I shall shew anon Some others among the Heathens had righter Apprehensions of this Divine Attribute one of them being to give a Description what God was tells us most admirably God was a Sphere whose Center was every-where and whose Circumference was no where A raised apprehension of the Divine Nature in an Heathen And another being demanded what God was made answer That God is an Infinite Point than which nothing can be said more almost or truer to declare this Omnipresence of God It is reported of Heraclitus the Philosopher when his Friend came to visit him being in an old rotten Hovel Come in come in saith he for God is here God is in the meanest Cottage as well as in the stateliest Palace the poorest Beggar cohabits with God as well as the greatest Princes for God is every-where present and sees all things Position 2. God is not only present in the World but he is infinitely existent also without the World and beyond all things but himself He is in all that Vast Tract of Nothing which we can imagine and beyond the Highest Heavens What Reason can say for this I shall anon shew In the mean time see that one positive place of Scripture 1 Kings 8.27 Behold the Heavens and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him And if God be not contained in them certainly he then must be infinitely beyond and above them He surmounts the Heaven of Heavens that is the very highest and uppermost Heavens which St. Paul calls the Third Heaven 2 Cor. 12. That glorious Place in which God doth most specially manifest himself and will do to all Eternity The Scripture tells us that though the Heaven of the glorified Angels and Saints be the place in which God will especially manifest his presence yet it is not that place unto which God will or doth confine his presence Isai 66.1 2. Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool Where is the House that ye build unto me and where is the Place of my Rest For all those things hath mine Hand made As if God should have said Do not think to cloister me up within the Walls of the Temple no I am set upon the highest Heavens as upon my Throne and they are all under me and I am exalted far above them Many such glorious Expressions there are of God's Infiniteness and Immensity scattered up and down the Scripture which I shall not now spend time to recollect The Scripture you see owns it for a truth That God is Infinite in his Essence beyond the whole World which is one of those Divine Properties which poseth Reason to conceive how it is possible that since beyond the World there is nothing that God should exist there but though Reason cannot apprehend it yet from Reason as well as from Scripture it appears it must be so Position 3. As God exists every-where so all and whole God exists every-where So that all God is here and all God is there and all God is in every place and in every thing This is indeed a great and most unconceivable Mystery but yet it must needs be so because God is indivisible and simple and not compounded of Parts and therefore where-ever there is any of God's Essence there is all his Essence otherwise part of his Essence would be here and part there and part of it elsewhere which would be utterly repugnant to the simple and uncompounded Nature of God God's Attributes are his Essence Now there is no where where God is but there are all his Attributes and therefore where God is there is all his Essence He is a Spirit most Wise most Powerful most Just and the like here and there as well as in Heaven above yea and what is more to the astonishment of Reason than all this God is every-where Omnipresent and in every place And though it be common to all Spiritual Beings because they have no parts to have a totality in the whole and a totality in every part Indeed it is expressed in the Schools that Spirits are all in the whole and all in every part yet herein God hath a peculiar way of subsisting from other Spirits that not only his Essence alone is in every part of the World but also his Presence