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PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY
PRESENTED BY
Professor Henry van Dyke
April 3, 1901
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THE
WHOLE WORKS
OF TH^
REV. JOHN HOWE, M.A
A MExMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
IX EIGHT VOLUMES.
VOL. VII.
CONTAINING
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD.
PART I. CONTINUED.
1. THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY,
IN FOUR LECTURES.
2. THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES, IN NINE
LECTURES.
PART II.
1. THE DECREES OF GOD, IN EIGHT
LECTURES.
2. THE WORK OF CREATION, IN
SEVEN LECTURES.
3. THE CREATION OF MAN, IN FIVE
LECTURES.
4. THE FALL OF MAN, &C. IN FOt R-
TEEN LECTURES.
a. THE JUSTICE OFeOD VINDICATP.U,
IN EIGHT LECTURES.
EDITED BY THE
REV. JOHN HUNT, OF CHICHESTER.
%ontion :
PUBLISHED BY '
F. WESTLEY, 10, STATIONERS' COURT AND AVE-MARIA LANEi
AND SOLD BY WAUGH AND INNES, EDINBURGH; AND
CHALMERS AND COLLINS, GLASGOW.
1822
£. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street.
THE FHINCIFjLES
OF
THE ORACLES OF GOD,
NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.
PART I.
CONTAINING
I. An introduction, proving the necessity of thkiii
BEING TAUGHT, IN TWO LECTURES, ON HeB. 5. 12.
II. The existence of God, manifest from the creation,
IN four lectures, on Romans I. 20.
III. The divine authority of the scriptures, in five
lectures, on 2. Tijviothy 3. IG.
IV. The unity of the Godhead, in two lectures, on
James 2. 19.
V. The trinity of persons in the divine essence, in four
lectures, on John 5.7*
VI. The attributes and perfections of the divine be-
ing, in nine lectures, on Matthew 5. 48.
VOL. VH,
LECTURE XIII.
%
1 John 5. 7.
For there are three that bear record in heaverii the Father,
the Wordy and the Holy Ghost : and
these three are one.
T INTEND no long discourse upon this subject, nor longer
than may consist with the design of going over the several
heads of religion, in as plain a manner, and in as short a way
as I can. It would very ill agree with such a design, to insist
upon, and discourse upon all the several texts of Scripture ar-
guments and objections this way and that, wiiich are wont to
be ventilated upon this point. All that can be expected, ac-
cording to the course I have proposed to use, will be barely to
represent that which I take, and which (I hope) we generally
agree to be the truth in this matter, in as few and as plain
words as is possible. If one should take the large course, which
some (it may be) would expect, it would be to make one par-
ticular subject the business of a long life's time, and would be
to turn this place into a theatre of contentious disputations ra-
ther than serious instructions, tending only to gratify vain
minds, rather tlian to edify the sober mind.
1 shall not need to stay at all upon the particular controver-
sy about this text, the authenticity of it, wiiich, it is true, is
disjftited : but upon that account only, that some copies have
been found not to have it. But for such as are in doubt there-
upon concerning it^ I need do no more than recommend them
* Preached, March 27. IG9L
4 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
(amongst others) to what hath been most judiciously, and, in-
deed, very charitably written as to that matter by Dr. Ham-
mond, in his annotations on the New Testament, where he
hath, with equal judgment and charity, represented how it is
very easily supposable that in the transcribing of some copy or
another, two verses coming here together, this seventh and
eighth that do begin and end, both of them, somewhat alike,
the eye of the transcriber might fall upon the latter, and so
write without looking back to the former. A very obvious
supposition, and a great deal more probable (as it is a great
deal more charitable) than to suppose that either side, in the
time of the Arian controversy, did design a corruption of the
Scripture text ; I say, it is a great deal more rational, (as it is
more charitable) because indeed it had been a very foolish
thing, merely out of favour to one side, to have corrupted the
Scripture in that one particular place, leaving otiier scriptures
to stand as they were that speak so fully the same thing, as that
28 Math. 18. IJ). and that John 10. 30. *« 1 and my Father
are one." It is not likely there should be a designed corrup-
^ tion, where the loss of reputation would be so very great, and
the gain and advantage so very little; but v.'e have reason
enough to be satisfied that the most ancient copies have it as
we liere find.
And for tlie way of managing the discourse upon this sub-
ject, 1 shall not offer at that which some have done, the de-
monstrating a Trinity in the Godhead in a rational way, a« that
which some have supposed sufficiently evident by rational light;
and which some have made it their business to evince, (both
Poiret and others before him,) and with no contemptible en-
deavour. But whether such do demonstrate their point yea or
iio, it is to me a very strong demonstration of the strange im-
becility of the human mind, that some should think it ration-
ally demonstrable, that, that cannot but be, which others take
to be rationally demonstrable cannot be. This, 1 say, it is a
great demonstration to me of; and I do believe that they who
do read the other writings of Poiret and others, who think the
Trinity rationally demonstrable, and read the writings of Soci-
nus and others, his followers, who think the contrary, will ap-
prehend in other matters, Poiret to be as rational a man as ever
Socinus was, or any that followed him. Compare the writings
of the one and the other, in other n)atters ; and then I say, It is
a strong demonstration, and that which doth require our very
serious thoughts, of the imbecility of the minds of men, and
how little the confident pretences to rational demonstrations,
by interested persons, engaged and dipped in a party this way
J.EC. xiii.) The Trinity in the Godhead, S^
and that, are to be relied upon, when some very highly rational
men shall undertake to demonstrate, that it is impossible this
should be ; when others as rational as they, shall undertake to
demonstrate it is impossible not to be. That is, that there
could have been no such thing as creation nor indeed any ac-
tion in the Deity, and consequently, no Deity at all if there
were not a Trinity in it. That is, if there were not an eternal
mind which, when there was nothing else, should like an intel-
lectual sun turn its beams inward upon itself, and so by conse-
quence, beget an eternal action, its own eternal image, and that
there must be an eternal love between that mind begetting,
and the mind begotten : and there you have the Trinity in the
Deity.
But this I insist not on ; only that it may appear that it is
not impossible : and I hope that all pretence that it is, will in
due time, and easily vanish. It is so plainly revealed in Scrip-
ture, that there is a Trinity in the Godhead, that we may very
well take it upon the word of him that reports it to us, and who
best (we may be sure) understands his own nature. Take it, I
say, amongst those things of God, which are only to be known
by the Spirit of God; as there are things of a man, that are
only known by the spirit of a man that is in him : (as the apos-
tle speaks, 1 Cor. 2. 14.) and if the mind and spirit of every
particular man, have its own particularities known only to it-
self, till the man is pleased to reveal and make them known,
sure it is very little strange that the divine Being should have
his peculiarities too, not otherwise knowable than as he is pleas-
ed to reveal them. And if he plainly reveal to us, that there
is a Trinity in the Unity of his nature, then surely, to sober
inquirers and learners, the business is done.
As to the latter part of the verse, 1 shall not need to insist
upon it, " these three are one," having, I hope, sufficiently
evinced to you the Unity of the Godhead from another text.
And I chose to do it from another text rather, that had that ex-
pression in it which this hath not. For this doth not expressly
say, these three are one God, hut it doth say, these three are
one. But having already proved to you that the Godhead is
but one, it leads us with so much the more clearness (having
asserted the doctrine of the unity of the Godhead to be true)
to apprehend, that it must be the truth of this place, and so
shall have occasion hut to repeat concerning that v/hich we
have already proved, but not to prove it any more. And there-
fore, the plain contents of this scripture you may take thus — ■
that there is a Trinity in the Deity, or — if you will, a little
more largely — that there are tlue^ which we cannot more ii\-
6 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
ly express or conceive of, than by the name of persons, in the
only one Godhead. And,
1. I shail evince the {rufh of this doctrine.
And now to let yuu see that this is reasonably given you, as
the sense and meaning of this place, I shall proceed by some
gradual steps : and,
1. To prepare my way, let you see that this is spoken here
in this place; it is tiie doctrine of this place. So that if it
can be made appear to be in itself true, we shall have all the
reason in the world to conclude, that it is fitly represented as
the doctrine held forth in this text. And for the truth of the
thing, we shall come to consider from other places afterwards.
And,
(1.) It seems very reasonable, inasmuch as we otherwif^e as-
certained that there is hut one God, that the one thing where-
in the three persons mentioned are said to be united, is the
Godhead. " Tliese three are one." One what? It is most
reasonable to understand the meaning is, that they are one God,
though this be not expressed in the text. For it is very plain,
from what hath been already said, that the Godhead can be but
one. And when it is said, there are three in heaven that are
all one, that one thing vvhich they are said to be, must needs
be God, or the Godhead wherein they are said to unite ; espe-
cially the Fatlu^r being said to be one of the three, concerning
whose Godhead there is no doubt.
(2.) It is very plain, (upon supposition that the three men-
tioned in the text do unite, or are united in the Godhead,) the
meaning must be, tliat tliey are one God and no more ; that is,
that the one Gud vvhich ihey are said to be, is but one, is one
God and no more, 'i'here can be no reason imagined why it
should be said they are one, if the intendment were not that
they were only one ; or that that thing which they are said to
be, is hut one. To say the Godhead is one, it must always
mean one exclusively, that is, that there is no other God but
that, that one. And so, that is the thing that these three do
unite, or aie united in : not one witness, it is not a being uni-
ted in their end : that cannot be meant here : for it is manifest
that the apostle doth vary the form of expression in the follow-
ing verse, where it is said, "These three agree in one ;" all to
one purpose, all to one design, all giving one and the same tes-
timony concerning Ciirist, concerning that Jesus who was
descended and come down into this world. But here it is said
in the text, they are one, are one thing, not one person, and
therefore, it doth signify that they do agree, or do unite and
meet in that wiiercin it is never intended to say or intimate
tfic. xiii.) The Trinity in the Godhead. 7
that they differ : that is, in essence they are united, but not
in personality. If it had been a person that was spoken of,
then it woukl have been proper enough, to have spoken of it
under the notion of things. But inasmuch as it is the essence,
and not the person, that is here intended, therefore it is said,
one thing : if we would read the words literally, it is, " these
three are one thing," that is the meaning of them and so they
should be rendered.
(3.) Hereupon it is very rational to conclude, that when
it is said, there are three that are united in this one thing, that
it must also be understood, they are three and no more, as
by one is meant only one, so by three is meant only three.
Whereupon,
(4.) It must with equal reason be concluded, that these
three which are three, and no more, must needs be some emi-
nent three, and of some very eminent order. And do but
pause here a little, and see if light do not spring into your minds
about this matter : when it is said there are three (it being by
parity of reason to be understood, three and no more) in liea-
ven, Pray what three in heaven can there be, that are three,
and no more, of one eminent order, but they must be three
divine persons ? Bethink yourselves of it a little : it cannot be
three angels, for then it cannot be said, there are three and no
more in heaven: and you have not heard of any higher crea-
tures than angels, any superior order of creatures above angels,
of which there are three and no more : and it cannot be three
Gods, because the Godhead is but one ; there is but one God
and no more. Then I beseech you, What is there left ? It is
not three angels, it is not three of any sort of creatures superior
to angels, of whom there are three and no more. And the Fa-
ther is here mentioned as one of them, of whose Godhead there
can be no doubt : and then pray consider. What can these
three be ? Not three creatures, not three Gods ; therefore,
they can be nothing but three persons, three substances in the
Godhead. Thus then you are gradually led on to see, tliat this
is the plain doctrine of the text, and if you can be convinced
that there is in it, Veritas m, the truth of the things there
will be no doubt at all but that it is Veritas loci, the truth of
this place.
2. And that is it I now come to, that ia, to evince to you
veritatem rci, the truth of the thing, that there is a Trinity
in the Godhead, that there are three that are all of them this
one God. And, 1 shall (with all possible brevity) labour to
prove it to you positively, from other scriptures and scripture-
considerations, and then — shew vou the unreasonableness of
8 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF «0D. (pART I,
what is pretended against it, how irrational the pretence is
against such a thing. That is, that there should be three who
in some one respect are truly to be said and called three, and
in some otlier respect are as truly to be called, or said to be
but one. But,
(1.) I come to the positive proof. And because, concerning
the personality and deity of the Father there is no question ;
there is none that will contend with us about that matter, there-
fore our business will relate to the other two. And concerning
them, that is, the Word (as he is here called) and the Holy
Ghost, I shall endeavour to evince to you these two things —
that they are persons, and — that they are divine persons.
[I.] That they are persons. And here (as I have told you)
we have not a fitter notion under which to conceive of them,
nor a fitter word in our tonpfue by which to express or speak of
them. Not that we can think, that person being afterwards to
be clothed with the notion of divine, can be the same thing
with God as with us ; because it is impossible any thing can
have one common notion to him and to us. That would be
altogether inconsistent with the perfection, the universal per-
fection of the divine Being, to suppose that any notion could
be common to him and the creature. For then, he should not
comprehend all entity in himself, if there were a notion com-
mon to him and to us ; for that must import something supe-
rior to both, and that were comprehensive of both, and so it
would make God but a part of being. Therefore, the word
person as any other word whatsoever, that is wont to be applied
to, and spoken of God and of us, must be spoken of us but an-
alogically, not univocally, not as if it signified the same thing
when it is spoken of him, and when it is spoken of us. And
therefore, we are not to judge of a divine person by a humaa
person, or by a created person. The diflference is infinite, and
the distance is infinite betweeil God and any creature. So any
thing that is spoken of him must infinitely differ from whatso-
ever may be spoken of us under the same name. Therefore,
when we speak of a person, among creatures, as signifying an
intelligent supposifitm, being, neither*7//;/?oWj?7^7?inorintelligent
can be the same with him and with us. His intellect and ours
differ infinitely : and it is so little known how individuations
are made among creatures, that it is infinitely more impossible
how they are made with God. But that being premised, that
these two, the Word and the Holy Ghost are so spoken of in
Scripture, as that we iiave no other way of conceiving other-
wise than that they must be spoken of as personsj this I shall
endeavour to evince.
LEc. XIII.) The Trinity in the Godhead, 9
First. As concerning the Word, I only premise that which is
in itself evident, that by the Word here, and the Son of God
elsewiiere, must be meant the same thin;^. As is plain in the
first of St. John's Gospel : " Jn the beginning vwis the Word:"
that which is called the Word there, is called the Son of God
presently after, in the same chapter : " The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and
truth." The Word and the Son are all one. 'J'hen, what is
there and elsewhere called the Word sometimes, and sometimes
Son, or the Son of God, that must needs mean what we can
conceive of no otherwise than under the notion of a person.
That is, we Mnd the action, from time to time, ascribed to lliis
Word, or this Son, of an intelligent agent, of one that did act
understandingly and with design. And we can have no better
signification of a person, no clearer notion of one tlian that is.
He is constantly spoken of as an intelligent agent ; and con-
cerning that, there can be no difficulty, nor indeed is there any
controversy between us and our antagonists, concerning his per-
sonality; only they will have him to be but a human person,
Avhich we shall in its own place consider by and by. And,
Secondly. Concerning the Holy Ghost, that he also is a per-
son, or such a one as we can conceive of under no other notion
than that of a person; that is, as acting intelligently and viith
design : even so is he most apparently spoken of, from time
to tiine, in Scripture. Hereupon it is said, He bears witness
in heaven ; as he did in heaven, and I'rom tb.ence, testify con-
cerning Christ, that he was the Son of God, to be heard and
obeyed and submitted to as such ; and as a dove, descended in
visible glory upon him from the heavens. This speaks the act
of an intelligent, designing cause on his part, as to what he did
in testifying, and so he is very frequently spoken of, as coming
for such and such a purpose. *' When he is come he shall
convince the world." John \G. 7» 8. And (which is most
observable) in several parts of these chapters, of the 14. 15. and
16'th of that gospel, even there, where he had been spoken of
under the name of the Spirit before, when one would expect, in
correspondence to that name spirit, it would have been said, it,
it, being neutral, a word of the neuter gender, it is said he ;
when he is come, not when it is come, he shall convince the
world of sin : yea, and even the very laws of grammar and syn-
tax are waved, as if it were on purpose to hold out this one thing
to us, that the Holy Ghost was a person, an intelligent Being,
working and acting with design : for when we have the word
spirit, pyesently fee doth follow upon it : and at a very great
VOL. Yll. C
iO TUB PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
distance, in one place, (several verses being interposed) from
any other antecedent but spirit. Indeed, in the 14. and 15th
chapters, there was the comforter as well as the spirit, to which
he, might have reference : but still, spirit was the nearer ante-
cedent. But you will find, in the Kith chapter, the 13. and 14th
verses, tluit there is no antecedent for many verses together, be-
sides spirit, and afterwards immediately subjoined Ae, and not
it, on purpose to signify (and we cannot imagine what it
should be to signify besides) the personality of the Holy
Ghost. And it is a very unreasonable supposal, that in the
form of baptism which we have, Matth. 28. IJ). " Go ye,
teach all nations, boptiziiig tliem. in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" tiiat the two first
should be persons, (as tiiey are confessed on all hands to be)
and that there should be put in the same order with them a
qitality, as our antagonists would teach us to conceive concern-
ing the Holy Ghost, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and what ? of a quality, in the third place.
That is, tliat when the design manifestly was there to state
the Object of all practical religion, of the wiu>le of our Chris-
tianity, into the believing whereof we are to be baptized, there .
should he a transient quality put into conjunction with those
two great persons, the Father and the Son. Surely, it needs
but to stay and to pause here a little, to have light irresistibly
strike into the mind of any one that will do so, that will con-
sider how unreasonable it is to imnginc, wiien the design is ma-
nifestly to represent and state the entire object of whole Chris-
tianity, that is, the Father, the Sen and the Holy Ghost, that
tlie two first of these are persons, and the third but a quality.
Therefore, that being very plain,
[2.] The second tiling that needs to be evinced is, that they
are divine persons, and much is done towards tiiat already. It
appearing they are persons, they cannot be created persons,
ihey cannot be angels, of which it can be said tiiere are three
and no more. But we h.ear of no intervening order of crea-
tures, above angels and below God. And then what should they '
be, since they are persons, (a« is plain) but divine persons, that
do subsist in th.e Godhead ? And to evince this a little more
distinctly, but very briefly.
First. Concerning the VVord, or tlie Son, (which you see are
both of them names of the same person) how expressly is he
often said to be God? In that mentioned first of John, nothing
can he spoken more openly nor in jilainer words. " In the
beginning was the VVord, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God." And Psahn 'J5. G. " Thy throne O God is
iCEC. XIII.) Tfie Trmih/ inthe Godhead. 1 1
for ever and ever," which the author to the Hebrc'vs (chap. 1 .
8.) allegeth to he phiirily said to the Son ; " And to the Son
he said, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." So Romans,
9. 5. " Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who
is over all, God blessed for ever." And that, I John 5. 20.
" And we know that the Son of God is conjc, and hath given
us an understanding, that we may Inow hin) thnt is true ; and
we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This
is the true Cod and eternal life :" most filly spoken of the
Son who was to be the spring of life to us, according to
what had been said a little above in the sanie chapter, " This
is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and tliis life
is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life j and he that
hath not the Son hath not life."
It is, 1 know, alleged with a great deal of triumph by some
of the adversaries, that he is excluded in anotlier place from
being the true God, and that that sliould not be said of iiim,
when we are told, (John. IJ. S.) <■' This is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, sn^l Jesu:. Christ,
whom thou hast sent." If the Father only be irue God, then
the Son is not. But the inconsequence of this will easily ap-
pear to them that shall but consider, how the word onlif is
placed. ^ It is placed so as to assert the predicate, and not'the
subject in the latter proposition. It is not said. Thou only
art the true God, and so, that doth not exclude tJie Son at all.
The Father is the only true God, and the Son is the only true
God, and the Holy Ghost is the only true God. But it cannot
be said that either the Fatiier only is the true God, or the Son
only is the true God, or the Holy Ghost only is the true God :
but they are each of them that God which is the only true one,
and of which there is but one and no more. Do bu.t observe
that the word onli/ afreets not the subject spoken of, but the
thing affirmed, or spoken of that subject. The case is but like
this, as if I should use these words, "This is the only London."
It may be true for ought we know, that there is no other Lon-
don, but this which is famously called so by tliat name, but if
one should say, ^'This only is London," that is, this place where
we are, and there the onii/ should limit the subject, that were
false; for there are thousands of places in London as well as
this, there are a great many assemblies in London, a great
many places of worship and societies besides this : but we may
say, "This is the only London," so the difference is plain to any
that will consider it.
I might insist much more largely, (but it is not needful to
say every thing that might be said iii a plain case,) concerning
the Son, to prove ids divine personality by most manifest attri-
12 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART I.
butcs of Deity, given him over and over in Scripture, as " The
First and the Last :" creating power, as '^ Him by whom the
world was made, and by whom he made the world," which is
over and over said of him. Col. 1. 15. Heb. 1. 8. John
1. beginning. And universal knowledge, Omni:?ciency, heart
knowledge ; " Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I
love thee." But then,
Secondly. Concerning the divine person of the Holy Ghost,
that he also is God ; that doth sure, carry convictive light with
it to any that do consider, that when the form of baptism is
given (as was said) with design to state the whole object of our
religion, "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost" are
mentioned together ; and there can be no object of religion
but God, none but a divine person : and we find the Holy
Ghost frequently mentioned, upon the same account, as one of
those eminent three. How many places are there (it were end-
less to name them) where these three are brought in together,
as it were purposely to signify that they were ejusdem urdhtiiSy
of the Sdine order ; and that we are to conceive of each of them
imder the same notion, that is, tliat of Deity, of the Godhead
in God. Look but to that 1 Pet. 1. 2. Horn. 1. 4, 5. 2Thes.
2. 18, 14 : and a great many places besides, where these three
arc brought in still together. As if it were purposely to signi-
fy their being of one order, and as having, in distinct respects,
a concern in our great affairs ; those that relate to our salvation
and blessedness. Besides, tb.at it must be a great prevarica-
tion, to understand that place otherwise than as expressing the
Holy Ghost to be God: Acts 5. 3, 4. "Why hath Satan fil-
led thine heart to lie unto tlic Holy Ghost ? — thou hast not
lied unto man, but unto God." And certainly if lie were not
God, it were the most dasigerous thing in all the world, to have
him represented to us as if he were : and so tempt men to pay
the homage of divine worship to a creature. It is never to bo
imagined, that there would have been such a sisare laid before
us, to lead us into so dangerous a mistake as that : things
would have been spoken more cautiously, if he had not been
God, than, when it was just said before, " Wliy dost thou lie
against the Holy Ghost ?" so immediately to say, "Thou didst
not lie to man but unto God." It is wx to be thought, (the
thing being so full of danger) to phice the notion or homage of
tiie Deity upon any thing to which it doth not belong, that
there should have been such incautiousness used, or so little
caution, as directly to lead and train persons into so perilous a
mistake. But besides all this, to put tin? matter out of all
doubt ; whereas, they that will have the Holy Ghost not to be
XEC. xni.) The Trinity in the Godhead. IS
God, being urged, " What is he then ?" do say, " He is the
mighty power of God, a certain mighty vis emissa^ a divine
power that issues from God for the working such and s:>.ch ef-
fects." As for this conceit, pray do but consider the matter
thus, Is the Holy Ghost indeed not God, but the power of
God ? Why tiiis power which it is said to be, is either a created
power, or an uncreated one. If it be an uncreated power, He
is God, for every thing that is uncreated is God : if he be then
a created power, the created power of God, or the power of
God, but created, then it seems God did, without power, cre-
ate this power, and was witliout power till he had created it : so
that he did the act of creation (which is an act of omnipotency)
when he was impotent. It supposes, first, an impotent God,
and then supposeth him, when he was impotent, to create his
own power ; that is, when he was without all power, he did
that act which requires an infiniteness of power, to wit, to cre-
ate. I know nothing that carries clearer evidence with it,
than this doth, that the Holy Ghost cannot be that created
power which these persons pretend to ; or cannot be divine
power distinct from God, from the very essence of God. Every
thing of God is God, and cannot be otherwise. If he were
the power of God and not God, he must have been created
power, by God ; that is to say, God did create omnipotent pow-
er, being before impotent ; for this it plainly comes to.
Thus far, I think, it is with some competent clearness evident,
that these three, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
(concerning the first, as you have heard, there is no question)
are persons ; they are that which we cannot conceive of other-
wise than under the notion of persons : and they are divine
persons, so that there are three divine persons that do subsist
in the Godhead, that is but one. So you have this, as the doc-
trinal truth of this place, and as the real truth in itself, posi-
tively evidenced to you.
What is to be said by way of objection against It, we shall
next come to. Only upon the whole matter, it seems to trie,
that there needs a great deal more of humility and reverence
and seriousness and fear of the Lord, over-awing the spirits of
men, to apprehend this to be the plain doctrine of Scripture,
than of further argument in the case. And that vvill more ap-
pear by considering how irrational the pretence is, that this \f
a thing rationally impossiljle, that there should be such three,
that are but one God, Nothing indeed, would be plainer tlian
that the same cannot be three and one, in one and the same
respect : but, that they may be three in one respect, and but
one in another respect, we may make appear to be no impossi-
14 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART I.
ble thing, and that there is nothing of harshness in it, nay,
whereof we have parallel instances, (as far as there can be a
parity between God and creatures) that occur to us every day.
iSo that one would wonder how men can stumble in so plain a
way, and when there is nothing indeed in view that should oc-
casion it, besides their having indulged themselves, 1 fear, too
much liberty to prevaricate in their own minds, and reasonings
before, and then they think it reasonable to justify error by er-
ring always, by never retracting, or by endeavouring to make
men believe, that things suggested to them as true, are impossi-
ble to be true.
LECTURE XIV.*
3. But now to come to the tliird part of the proposed work,
to vindicate the truth of this doctrine laid down, in the propo-
sition, as to what is objected, and alleged against it, which
summarily and generally is but this one tiling, into which all
results; That it is contrary to the common reason of men, and
such as doth in itself imply a contradiction, that three should
be but one. And thereupon it is determined by the leader of
them, Socinus himself, that if any thing do appear to be never
so plainly contained in Scripture, if yet also it do appear to
imply a contradiction, or to be contrary to natural reason, any,
whatsoever violence, ought rather to be put upon the Scriptures
than to admit it. And this goes therefore, with the men of that
way, for a principle, that whatsoever seems to be repugnant to
their reason, or to imply a contradiction, ought to be rejected,
tiiough never so plainly expressed in Scripture, or contained
therein.
Now first, I shall say here somewhat to this principle in the
general, by which these men do steer themselves in this, and
all matters of religion besides. And then secondly, I shall
say somewhat in the particular application of it in this case,
and shew how very untruly it is alleged here, that this is a
doctrine repugnant to the common reason of man, and which
doth carry a contradiction in Itself.
(1 .) As to the principle in general, I shall in short say these
thing:s to it:
[1.] That if we can be certain, that any thing is repugnant
to the reason of man, as it is such and doth in itself imply a
*rreacl-'id April the lOtli, l6gO.
LEC. xiT.) Tlie Trinity in the Godhead. 15
contradiction, it ought to be rejected even in duty to God, and
as a piece of homage to him. We do owe that homage to our
Maker, as the God of truth, to reject every thing that we are
sure is contrary to the common reason of man, which he hath
put into him, which is truly and purely reason, and which be-
longs to the Spirit, unto which by the inspiration of theahnigh-
ty God, that understanding is given, which distinguishes him
from tlie fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field. Wo do
owe it as a homage to the Author of our nature, to reject
whatsoever is manifestly contrary to that reason, and which is
in itself a contradiction. First, because he is most confessed-
ly the priinum 7)erum, the first truth. And as all the beams of
the sun, in whatsoever way they do shine to us, whether di-
rectly, or by never so various refraction, we are sure are all
from the sun ; so whatsoever rational dictate, that we are most
certain, or can be sure is such, which we find arrive to us, we
cannot but be sure that it is from the Father of lights, from
whom can issue nothing but light ; nothing opposite to light
or truth : and secondly, That it is impossible vve can in duty,
or as a homage to God, believe a contradiction, any thing
that carries a contradiction in itself, because the higb.est and
primary reason upon which I am to admit any tking for truth,
is as it is a production of the first truth, as hath been told you.
But I am certain, the same thing cannot be true and false ; and
therefore, as a deference to God, 1 cannot have greater reason
to believe it, than I have to disbelieve it. If it carry a contra-
diction in it, and is pretended to be from God, I cannot beheve
it for any reabon, but for the same reason, I am bound to dis-
believe it. There is not more weight in one end of the scale
than there is in the other : and so it cannot be believed in that
case, as a piece of duty unto God : and thereupon, vve are as
ready to reject every thing, we are sure is contradictory and
repugnant to a manifest dictate of reason, as they can b«.
But,
[2."] If any thing be plainly contained and expressed in the
word of God, that seems repugnant to our reason, we are then
certain that the seemingness and semblance is false, because
we cannot be surer of any thing than that God is true, and that
he can never be deceived himself, nor deceive us : that lioth
verity and veracity are most essential to him ; and that it is
repugnant to his nature, either to be ignorant of any thing, or
to lie unto us in any thing. And therefore,
[3.J When there is this competition between any plain
words of Scripture and a seeming dictate of reason, we are to
censure the latter by the former^ and not the former by the lat-
16 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (pART. I,
ter: we are to measure the rational dictate, by the divine word,
and not the divine word by the seeming rational dictate. And
especially,
[4.] When that thing is spoken often in Scripture, in the
divine word, and in varied forms of speech, which have all the
same manifest sense and meaning, and are not, without the
most notorious violence, capable of another. And (which will
be the ground of this last mentioned assertion) when,
[5.] That word being professedly and declaredly given us as
a rate to measure our sentiments as well as our practices by.
If therefore, we should oppose that which seems to us a ration-
al dictate, to the plain expressions of that word, we make that
which is to be ruled, the rule ; we do in that case regulate our
rule, and do not admit that the rule should regulate us. We
judge the law, (a? the apostle James's expression is, in a case
that hath reference to practice, and the case is the same in re-
ference to sentiments, and our judgments of things,) which is
certainly very great insolency : that when God, in compassion
to the darkness and blindness of our minds, gives us such a
rule, a liglit shining in a dark place unto which we are told, we
should do well to take heed, we should reject this rule, and ,
say, we can do better without it, reject this light, and say, we
can see l)etter without it. As if one should, out of mere good
will, offer himself as a guide to a bewildered traveller that
knows nothing of his way, and this traveller should at all turns
he controverting with his guide, and say, I know the way and
how to steer my course better ti^an you ; which would be as
well the highest insolency as ingratitude, supposing that guide
to be very highly superior and very kindly condescending to do
that office in such a case. And again,
[6.] There is yet the more ground for this, when there is
among men, and even among wise, and learned, and rational
men, a very great division about what is a rational dictate
in this case, and what is not. This makes the determination
which I have given, to be so much the more reasonable,
and n)akes the pretence on the other hand so much the more
absurd, that that should be given for a dictate of common rea-
son wherein most rational men do disagree, at least, therein, as
rational men as these pretenders, are of a quite contrary mind :
and that cannot be so clear a dictate of common reason, where-
in even the most rational men do disagree, and sure then, in that
case, one would be glad to be determined by a divine word.
And 1 add,
[7.] That the reason of man, in this our present state, even
in things of much inferior concernment, is very dubious and
uncertain, in matters wherein religion is not concerned, and so
LEG. XIV.) The Trinity in the Godhead. 1 7
wherein the minds of men are not apt to be perverted by 111 In-
clination, as in the matters of religion they are. For though
it be very true, that it is natural for men to be of some religion,
yet it is as true and as evident, that tbere is an aversion and an-
tipathy in tiie minds and spirits of men against true religion,
against sincere, living religion. And if the reason of man be a
very dubious, uncertain thing, even wben there is nothing to
bias one this way or that, as it is in thousands of instances that
might be given most apparently ; mucli more cause iiave we in
matters of religion, and of this nature, not to over attribute un-
to it. In philosophical matters, wherein men's minds cannot,
through prejudice be swayed this way or that, and wherein it is
no one's interest that tins side be true rather than that side, yet
there are the greatest difficulties imaginable in determining
what is reason and what not, what is true and what not, as all
the controversies in philosophy do shew : and some, wherein it
is the hardest matter imaginable, even to the greatest wits that
have ever been in the world, to free themselves from the ap-
pearance of contradiction, which side soever they had in the
controversy. As it is most notorious, to any that know any
thing in philosophy, about the couipo.sitnm continuum, whe-
ther the cojitinuum, that is, a body doth consist of parts always
divisable, or of indivisable parts ; so tiiat bring it to the minut-
est thing imaginable, even if it be to the breadth of a hair, Vvhe-
ther it be still perpetually divisible or indivisi]>le. It is plain,
take one side or the other in that question, and hitherto all the
wits in the world have not found how, freely and clearly, to
disentangle themselves from contradiction in saying, this is al-
ways divisible ; or it is sometimes impossible to be divided any
further, and the apprehension of that doth (I must acknow-
ledge) greatly lower my reverence to that which goes under
the notion of a rational dictate, when in such a ease as that of
any, the minutest thing you can imagine, even the breadth of
a hair, no man shall be able to assert either it is always divisi-
ble or sometime indivisible, without entangling himself in such
appearances of contradiction as from which, the greatest wits
that have ever been, have not been able to shew us the way of
being extricated. And when there is such a division, even among
the masters of reason, the highest pretenders to it ; this is a
rational dictate, saith the one side, the quite contrary is a ra-
tional dictate, saith the other side, even in this very business of
the Trinity itself: whilst some with loud clamour cry out
against it as impossible to be, others on the other hand, take up-
on them to demonstrate it to be utterly impossible that it should
not be ; that there could be no creation, no Creator if there
were not a Trinity.
VOL. VII. D
IS THE TRINCIPLES OJf tHii ORACLBS Of" GOD. (PART I,
These tilings being said in reference to that principle in the
general, 1 now come,
(2.) To the application of it to this objection ; that is, that
thi^ is a doctrine, (say some) to common and rational principles,
contradictious in itself, that three should be one.
That we may speak to this with the more clearness, we shall
— consider what it is, from Scripture, we assert concerning this
matter, and then — shew how unreasonably this is pretend-
ed to be repugnant to reason, or to imply any thing of a contra-
diction.
[1.] What it is we do from Scripture assert in this matter,
and what we do not. For we must distinguish here, between
plain Scripture doctrine and the bold determinations of some
schoolmen. We do not think we are obliged to justify every
determination of a confident and presuming schoolman, as if it
were divine writ. But what from Scripture we do affirm is.
That there are three in the Godhead, that these three are
some way distinguished from one another, otherwise they could
not be three, there were no pretence to call them three. We
find they have distinct names j that is plain — the Father, the
Word or Son, and the Spirit or the Holy Ghost, over and over.
But there must be somewhat of distinction among themselves,
otherwise there were no pretence to call them three, if they
were no way distinguishable.
Again, we do affirm they are so far distinguished from one
another as, that can be said concerning one which cannot be
said concerning the other. As when we say, " The Word was
made flesh," (which you know the Scripture speaks,) the
meaning is, not that the Father was made flesh, or th.e Spirit
was made flesh, but that the Son was made flesh. When it is
said, (as it often is,) that the Spirit or the Holy Ghost is sent
by the Father, or the Son, the meaning is, not that the Father
sends himself, or that the Son sends himself. Therefore, they
are so far distinct from one another as, that is said of the one
which cannot be said of the other. But then, how much great-
er the distinction is, we j)retend not to say, because the Scrip-
ture doth not say it. Only this we do say, We can think of no
notion by which they are so fitly distinguishable as that of per-
sonality, as that of their being distinct persons ; that we do
find plainly said concerning one of them, the Father, (who is
so called in that Heb. 1. 3.) that the Son is the express image
of his person. So we render the word In/postasis fitly and apt-
ly enough. And they being so frequently mentioned together,
as we find they are, it doth naturally suggest to us, that there
should be a suppositality. And concerning the personality of
LEC. XIV.) Tlie Trinity in the Godhead, 19
the Son too, there Is no question ; but as concerning the Holy
Ghost, he being so fre([i!eutly sj)oken of under the notion He,
and, (as was noted to you) the gender varied on purpose, con-
trary to strict grammar, vvc ougiit also, to conceive of him, un-
der the notion of a person : though at the same time (we have
told you) it is impossible that the notion of a person should be
the same with God and amongst men, and that for the reason
which hath been mentioned to you. Only, we have nothing
by which more fitly to conceive it, than by this notion. Then,
so much as this, being what we do affirm and assert to be the
doctrine of the Scriptures, and to be Scripture in this case,
then, I say,
[2.] This is very unreasonable and pretenceless, to affirm
that this is contradictious in itself, or any way opposite or con-
trary to the plain dictates of reason. For where should the
contradiction lie ? It is only pretended to lie in this, that the
same thing cannot be three and one. And it is easily admitted,
that the same thing cannot be three and one, in the same res-
pect wherein they are but one. But nothing hinders, but thai
the same may be, in dilterent respects, that is, in tliose respects
wherein they are three, they are not only one ; in that respect
wherein they are but one, they cannot be three. But, that in
divers respects, the same thing may be three and one, or that
there may be a trinity, a triad, in one and the same thing,
the instances are so many, so plain and so notorious in other
Inferior things, that it is absurd and unreasonable to pre-
tend this to be contradictious, or contrary to the dictate of na-
ture. Let us go to the most obvious thing that can be thought
of. If 1 should go no further but only to give you an instance
of this book which I have here in my hand, it hath its breadth,
its length and its thickness, as you all easily see and apprehend,
but its breadth is not its length, nor is its length its thick-
ness, neither of these are one another, yet all the same book :
that is, this thing which is so long, so broad and so thick is this
book. If we speak of a man, he is a very vegetative creature,
and he is a sensitive creature, and he is a rational and intellj.-
gent creature, and yet, it is most plain, vegetation is not sen-
sation, nor sensation Intellection. The sun, it hath belonging
to it, light and heat and motion : that luminous l^ody is the sun,
that califective b(^dy is the sun, and that moving body is the
sun. Tiiese three are all but one sun : and yet there are three
in it as is evident. The world is full of instances of the like
nature. We can hardly think of any sort of things wherein
this may not be exemplified. And whereas, the greatest quar-
rel is about personality, there is nothing more plain than that
20 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OV GOD. (PART. I.
one and the same man may sustain three persons, the person of
a lather, the person of a son, and the person of a magistrate, and
the h"kc. Many persons may be sustained by one and the same
man ; the notion of person, in the strict and common sense,
lieing only taken for the circumstances of their state and con-
dition who are spoken of, and not as denoting this or that par-
ticular essence ; and so to be a man, and this or that person
is not all one : and so to be God, and this or that person in the
Godhead is not all one. The same man may endure, and may
sustentare, may put on, and may bear, several persons : and
so it is no repugnancy to reason at all that the same God do
so too. And thereibre, this pretence of the irrationality or con-
tradictiousness of this doctrine, doth itself want a pretence ;
there can be really no ground for it. And so much hath been
so far said, by some of the late zealous contenders in this case
the other way, that they are brought to say and publish, that tru-
ly he must be a madman that will say there cannot be three
persons in the same God. That we find published not long ago :
so far dotli that pretence vanish, that this doctrine must be reject-
ed as being irrational and contradictory. And if we would take
the notion of person and personality, in the most strict and
scholastic sense, it would be with very great arrogance that
they must pretend this doctrine (taken even in that sense)
to be contrary to a common, rational dictate, when as it is so
very well known first, that the very notion of individuation or
personality, suppositality, or more generally personality, in re-
ference fro rational beings, is one of the most disputed things
in the world. And how absurd is it to say, that this or that is
opposite to a common rational dictate, about which, (as was
said before,) the most learned men, and the highest pretenders
to reason have constantly disagreed. There nmst first, before
this can be said, some one common notion of personality and
individuation be fixed, which all men must assent to, as soon as
ever they hear it, that must command assent to it in every
man's mind. But about these things there is the-greatest dis-
agreement, and hath constantly been, ever since the name of a
schoolman or metaphysician hath been known in the world.
And tiien, secondly, besides that, there is so great a disagree-
ment among schoolmen and metaphysicians, about the notions
of suppositality, personality and individuality, that they who
will conclude this to be against a rational dictate, must be
able to evince, that the notion of personality must be the same
with us and with God, which It will be impossible for them
ever to evince, and the contrary whereof (as hath been said) is
demonstrable. That is, were it ever so certain that there can-
tKC. XIV.) The Triniiy in the Godhead* 21
not be three iinlte persons partaking tlie same finite nature, it
will be hence no consequence, that there cannot be three infi-
nite persons partaking the same infinite nature, or commu-
nicating in the same infinite nature : no reason, for a parallel
cannot be drawn so much as with a plausible pretence, between
what is finite and what is infinite, in tiiis case.
But to shut up all that I intend, as to the polemical part of
this discourse, I shall only leave these fevv things, which will
plainly represent to us that this doctrine may be conceived, and
hath not that difficulty in it which commonly hath been tiiought^
As,
First. It is out of all question that God is but one, can be
but one. And,
Secondly. That whatsoever is necessarily, is God. Whatso-
ever is in being, from a necessity in nature, is God ; than which
no principle can be plainer. And,
Thirdly. That whatsoever is by dependance on the divine
will, is creature ; whatsoever is not of necessity, but l)y mere de-
pendance on the divine will, that is all creature. "Thou hast
created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were cre-
ated."
Fourthly. If therefore, we do suppose the Son and the Holy
Ghost to be from the Father, by a necessity of nature, an eter-
nal necessity of nature, and not by dependance upon his will,
they will not be creatures, because nothing is creature but
what depends upon the will and pleasure of the Creator. And
if they be not creatures, wliat are they then ? Then they must
be God, and yet both of them from the Father too : for all that
do assert the Trinity, do acknowledge the Father to beyb?^5^n'•
nitatis^ the fountain of the Trhnty : and if from this fountain,
the Son be one way, and the Holy Ghost be another way, both
from the Father ; that is, the Son from the Father immediate-
ly, and the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, and this,
not by choice, but by an eternal necessity of nature, here is this
doctrine as easily conceivable as any tliat I know of whatso-
ever, that lies not within the compass of our manifest demon-
stration. And my business is not now to demonstrate to you
that thus it is, but that it is very easily conceivable that thus it
may be. That is, that the Son and the Holy Ghost may be
from the Father, and that we are sure they are from him by an
eternal necessity of nature, and not by choice. It is not by
his pleasure they are and were, but by eternal necessity of na-
ture they are from him as he is originally from himself. That
is, they are always and eternally in that nature which is self-
originate. And here is no contradiction, nor the least appear-
ance or shadow of it in all this.,
J2 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD, (PART I,
Ami thus far now, hath our labour been taken up as to this
subject, about the trutli of it : that is, to prove and to vindi-
cate it. Our next business, which only remains, will be about
the importance of it, the great usefulness of it, and the mighty
weight and stress that lie upon it. At present 1 leave tiiis
with you, that 1 know nothing more needful to clear our ap-
prehensio!i«, and make our minds very calm and serene, in re-
ference to this doctrine of the Trinity than first, high, ador-
ing thougiits of God, and secondly, mean thoughts of ourselves.
If we can but think highly enough of God, and meanly enough
of ourselves, and how unmeet and incompetent such moles and
Worms of the earth as we are, must needs be to make an esti-
mate of his nature, and how things are with him, otherwise
tlian he is pleased graciously and freely to declare to us con-
cerning himself, there will be nothing then in all this doctrine
tliat we shall stun)ble at, nothing that we shall receive with
difliculty, and nothing but what we may receive with great use
and advuntaee to ourselves.
LECTURE XV.*
Therefore, now for the hnjwrtance and use of this doc-
trine, much may be conceived of that, if it be considered how
the stamp and impression of a Trinity doth run through the
world. A noted writer, of our time, hath said very much to
that purpose, of which I shall say but little. Take the whole
universe of created beings and you have every where a Trinity
instamped. It is observable enough in that great triad, the
several things conceivable under each member, of nature, mo-
rality and religion. But it is with religion that we are con-
cerned, and wherein the practice of it doth principally appear,
and is m.ost considerable. Our religion you do know, objective-
ly considered, is made up of doctrines to be believed, and of
duties to be done, and of benefits to be sought, and these are
comprised in those three noted summaries, the creed, the
decalogue, and the Lord's prayer. In these three, there is
some impression and resemblance of the Trinity in the di-
vine nature. That is, of that power and of that wisdom and
knowledge, and of that benignity and love, which are the three
great most noted principles wc have to conceive of, and that
we cannot but distinctively conceive of, wc cannot otherwise
* Prea chcd A pr il 1 / . 1 69 1 .
J.EC. XX.) The Tnmfy in the Godhead, 23
conceive of, than as distinct in the simple union of the God-
head ; and wliich may probably enougii correspond to, and be
the very notion of, Father, Son, and Spirit.
Why now, if we consider doctrinals in the first place, the
doctrines that do make up the first and mo?.t noble part of the
scheme of religion, you know how they all depend upon, and
are reduced to, the notions that are given us of the Father, Son
and Holy Ghost ; upon these three heads hangs the frame of
Christian doctrine. That is, of the Father considered as God
Creator ; and of the Son considered as God Redeemer ; and of
the Holy Ghost considered as God Sanctifier. VVliich three
great works of God, though it be true that they do each of them
owe themselves to the concurrence of each of the persons ac-
cording to that known maxim, opera TrinHatis ad extra sunt
indivisa:* which is undoubtedly a true and clear one : yet eacliof
these is appropriated to each of the persons severally, not exclu-
sively, but eminently. And that we may understand that aright,
when it is said, tlie Father creates, it is to be understood eminent-
ly, not exclusively, of the Son and the Holy Ghost: and so as
to the rest. When we profess to believe in God as the Creator
of heaven and earth, that is, in God the Father, as he is the first
Fountain of all being, uncreated and created too ; why though
that be plainly said, yet it is as plainly said, that without the
Word was nothing made ; and that by him, that is, the Word,
even he — who is said to be " the brightness of his Father's
glory and the express image of his person," the worlds were
made : and that they were made by the Spirit of his mouth ;
and that the Spirit did move upon the waters, that is, upon the
fluctuating chaos, v.'hich we must suppose to have been first
made, before things were made out of it : and that it was first
made is the most demonstrable thing, in all the world ; other-
wise, it were, itself, a necessary and self original being, and so
God ; the notion of God would not be all-comprehending, or
there would be something prceter JJcum, beaides God, origi-
nally and naturally, and of itself. So again, as to the work of
redemption, that was designed by the Father, but wrought by
the Son, and applied by the Ht)ly Ghost. These are plain
things and abundantly evident in Scriptur^e as, if 1 should turn
from text to text, you would see. But I must suppose you to
understand it already. You cannot then but see the mighty
importance of this doctrine of the I'rinity in our religion. We
shall have occasion to press that further by and by. But now
hereupon, I shall, for putting a period to the discourse on
* The Holy Trinity^ in external operations, is not divided.
24 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART. I.
this subject, subjoin several instructions in reference hereto.
As,
1. That we should all learn to adore the wonderful divine
condescension, that he should so far unveil himself, and make
known so much of the things of his own nature and being", to
such despicable beings as we. We can never wonder enough
at this. Indeed, I iiave many times considered, it is a very
instructive thing, that so many of the pagans should discover so
very reverential thoughts of God, upon this account, and under
this notion, as they apprehend his Being to be inscrutable, un-
searchable, as that inscription on one of their temples doth
import, " I am he that was, and he that is, and he that shall
be, and no one hath ever unfolded my veil." Such reverential
apprehensions, had they (however they came by them,) of the
inscrutableness and occultness of the Divine Being, that there
were such arcana, such secrets veiled from all eyes, that could
never possibly be looked into. Now that God should take such
poor creatures as any of us are, and let us see so far into the
veil, that, whereof we could have had no certain ajjprehensions,
if he had not told us, how wonderful is it ! Though some have ,
made it very much their business, (after fhey had got the hint
from Scripture concerning the Trinity,) to shew how rational it
was ; not only to shew how consistent it was with reason,
(which is a very justifiable undertaking and a great piece of right
done to our religion,) some carry the matter higher, (as I told
you,) and undertake to demonstrate it to be necessary, and that
we cannot conceive of the nature of God, and of that great work
of his, the creation of the world, in reference to one another
otherwise. But this is to strain beyond what the exigency of
the case doth require. It may however, (by that improvement I
have already made of it too,) serve somewhat to rebuke the proud
confidence of that sort of men, who represent this doctrine as
contrary to a common, rational dictate, the common sense and
reason of mankind. That is most insolently pretended when, as
(unless they will assume to themselves that there can be no
such thing as a rational distate, that is not stamped at their
mint) I say, unless they would assume that to themselves, it
must appear very incongruous to pretend that such a thing is
impossil)le to be, when others at the same time, (who may for
ought I know lay as good a claim to that of being the men, and
that wisdom shall die with them as they can,) should say with
so much confidence, it is impossible not to be; and that there
could be no such thing as a Creator and a creation, if it were
not so.
But waving this disquisition, since it is most certainly not
LEC. XV.) The Trinity in the Godhead. 25
impossible in itself, it is very adorable that God should come,
and so graciously discover to us tliatso it is ; when we see how
useful it is, and how expedite a frame of religion it lays open
before us : that he should discourse to such children, such
weaklings as we, at that rate concerning his own nature ; '* I
will tell you how things are with me : now in the Godhead these
are co-existent from all eternity. Father, Son and Spirit: and
this I would not have hid from you ; I would have you to be pos-
sessed with right notions and apprehensions of my nature thus
far, that thus it is with me, and in me." You would wonder that
a great and wise prince should take upon him to discourse his
arcana with a peasant, a mean, ignorant peasant. But we do
not enough wonder at this condescension of God, upon this
ground, that we do not enough set ourselves to consider the dis-
tance between God and creatures, and what mere nothings we
are to him, and that when we have the most exalted thoughts
that our minds are capable of, concerning any created being
whatsoever, and then descending to the meanest sort of crea-
tures we can think of, the distance is not only greater, but it
is still infinitely greater between the great God and us. What
then have we left to do, but to fall down and wonder, fall down
and adore, and cry out, " Whence is it to us that thou should-
est let us know so much of thyself?" that whereas, the
things of God are never to be known distinctly, otherwise than
as the Spirit of God doth reveal them, that Spirit of God should
be the Author to us, of such a revelation as this, which we
have contained in the Bible, concerning this great and most
important mystery.
2. Let us learn this too, not to think it a small matter, now
that we are informed that there is in the Godhead, Father, Son
and Spirit; that all three should so far concern themselves as
we find they do, and be so constantly concerned as tliey are
about our affairs. If all the potentates on earth should concern
themselves about the life of one single fly, it were not so strange
a thing, it were not so great a stoop. We should consider with
ourselves over and over. What am I ? what am I, and what is
my life, that the eternal Father, and the eternal Son, and the
eternal Spirit, should all concern themselves from eternity about
me ? And again,
3. It should further instruct us into this, to fasten the appre-
hension deep in our souls, of the great concernment of the
doctrine, that it may lie with weight upon us, as a seal that
doth not make impression unless it be pressed on; that we
should endeavour and intend more to press on this doctrine,
this truth upon our owa souls, that it may make the proper,
VOL, VII, K
26 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
due impression, that we may be delivered up into the mould
and form of it : as the expression is, Rom. 6. 17. And to
that purpose, let us bethink ourselves, how miserably (where
this doctrine is not entertained) the scheme of Christianity,
and the Christian religion are scattered and torn by the want,
or by the denial of it. This apprehension should urge us
so as that the doctrine should lie with greater weight and
pressure upon our spirits, because where it is not received,
away go the great limbs of Christian religion. The Deity of
the Son of God, that is abandoned and cashiered : well, and
what then becomes of our religion? Do you not think your-
selves concerned in this matter ? What ! Are you willing to
venture your souls otherwise than in the hands of a Divine Sa-
viour, when you know yourselves to be sinners, to be guilty
creatures ? Do you think it will answer the exigency of your
case, to have an atonement made for you of no greater value
than if one mere man were made a sacrifice for another? And if
that would do, suppose one man were as good as another; why
inasmuch as all are sinners, when he goes to satisfy another's
sin, who shall satisfy for his sin ? Or how shall he satisfy for
his oivn ? And suppose an innocent man should be made on
purpose (as it is supposed in this present case) to be a sa-
crifice; that is still but man for man. It is true, he hath no
sin of his own to satisfy for, but suppose he could satisfy for
the sin of another man, there must then, be as many innocent
men created as there are guilty men, at that rate. But would
not you be loath to hazard your souls upon such conceits as
these ? and to quit your hold of a mighty God for your Savi-
our ? of this assurance, that he who is to be your Saviour is
known by the name of " the mighty God, the everlasting Fa-
tlier, and the Prince of Peace?" Would you be content to aban-
don this, that he is to be your Saviour who is God blessed for
ever; who before the worlds were made was with God; and in
time was made flesh, and dwelt among us ; that word that was
with God, and that was God, and by which all things were
made, without which nothing was made, that was made, was
made flesh ? An amazing thing it is to me, how men that pre-
tend to believe the divine authority of the Bible, can disentan-
gle themselves from such a place as this, " Tlie Word was
made flesh." They that will have Jesus Christ never to have
been, no such person ever to have been, before he was born of
the Virgin Mary, I would then know of them, " What was
that, tliat was made flesh ?" It was the word that was made
flesh ; there was somewhat before this flesh was made, or it
was nothing, that was made flesh. And every one that under-
LEC. XV.) The Trinitij in the Godhead. 2/
stands the ordinary use of this expression (flesh) knows it doth
not signify the person of a man, but the whole of a man, not
the body only : for when it is said, ^' in his siglit tliere shall
no flesh be justified," what is the meaning of that ? That tlie
bodies of men shall not be justified ? Surely not. But thus,
from not believing this doctrine, proceeds the denial of that
great and noble propitiation, once for all made for the sins of
men, under the proper notion of a propitiation or an expi-
atory sacrifice to atone for sin, and take away guilt. Again
hereupon.
The eternal priesthood of the Son of God is evacuated and
reduced to a nullity : and all upon this, that an alterity cannot
be conceived in the Godhead. Not that there is therein, Aliud
et aliudfOne diverge from another^ but that there is there ^jer-
so7i(B altera et altera^ o7ie peison distinct from another. But
because this is not apprehended, nor will be apprehended,
therefore, say they. There can be no such thing as a propiti-
atory sacrifice, such as we, such as the Scripture, such as the
gospel doth most expressly speak of, that is, of him who was God
offered up unto God. For, say they. There is but one person
in the Godhead ; and a satisfier and a satisfied, must be two per-
sons, there must be in such a case an alterity of persons per-
sona altei'a et altera, and so they truly reason. He that doth
satisfy and he that is satisfied must be two persons : this Is most
certain, but they, not admitting the alterity of persons, therefore
exclude the whole doctrine. And then.
That mighty power that is to go forth from the Divine Spirit,
for the breakingof the bands of iron, and the rescuing of captive
souls out of the devil's power ; to turn men from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, all that is reduced
to nothing too. And so there is no other Christianity left in
the world but a certain sort of self-sprung religion : no jjower
but that which I can be the author of to myself, what I have of
mine own : or else if they will have more, they do speak alto-
gether unintelligibly and contrary to the plain sense of things:
that is, they will not have the Holy Ghost to be a distinct per-
son in the Godhead, but (as they call it) the povver of God,
meaning a quality. But I take what hath been said against
that, to be truly as plain demonstration as can be used in any
case whatsoever. The Holy Ghost is called the divine povver.
Comply with them so far, then say I, This divine power is ei-
ther created power or uncreated. If this divine power be cre-
ated, then they must suppose God, while he was without pow-
er to create power ; that is, that God being first impotent, cre-
ated power and became omnipotent. But if they will say, It
28 TKE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
is an uncreated power, then they say what we say: then it is
God : the Holy Ghost is God. But he is God so as he is capa-
ble of being sent, and sent of the Father, and so that he must
be a distinct person in the Godhead. But the stress of all that
mighty affair which is to be wrought in the souls of men, when
they are sanctified; of children of the devil, and friends of
hell, to be made children of God, and meet to be partakers of
an inheritance with them that are sanctified, with the saints in
light: all that mighty work that is to be done by an Almighty
Spirit, must he proportionally diminished as the cause is dimi-
nished, as the agent is diminished and reduced, by their doc-
trine, to a mere creature. Therefore, I say, labour to appre-
hend deeply, the mighty importance of this doctrine, and to
fix the apprehensions of it, and to have it wrought in your souls,
that so such a truth may no more be capable of being torn away
from thence than one faculty of your souls can be torn from
another. And,
4. Labour to savour and relish such truth, this truth, this
dnctrine, labour to get the savour and relish of it rnto your souls ;
that is, to receive this truth in the love of it. It is a matter of
dangerous importance, when truth of this kind which concerns
the vitals of religion, is received merely as an airy notion, and is
not digested, doth not enter and sink deep into our hearts,
and that which must entertain and admit there : even into the
very centre of our souls must be the love of it. "They received
not the truth in the love of it, that they might be saved.'*
2 Thess. 2. 10. And what became of that matter? When they
did so lightly adhere to divine truth as one doth to a thing that
he doth not love, or that is not united to his soul by love, they
easily suffered their souls to be cheated of it : and then, for
their not loving this truth, (it being a thing most highly crimi-
nal not to love divine truth, not to love so great and sacred a
thing)God gave them up to strong delusions, to believe lies, that
they all might be damned who received not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. Such truth they could take no
pleasure in, but they could take pleasure in unrighteousness.
** Let them go," saith God, " the way that the inclinations of
their own wicked hearts carries them to." There is that kin-
dred, that alliance between the soul and truth, that there is a
violence done to both if they be severed, and if the soul do not
inwardly love truth, as that which is most nearly allied to it.
They that are after the Spirit do savour the things of the Spirit,
as they that are after the flesh do savour the things of the flesh.
And this is tlie way to become most stable christians, when
souls and truth come to be united and knit together in love,meet-
LEC. XV.) The Trinity in the Godhead, 29
ing in one and the same common centre, and even in this as the
centre ; as you may see in that place whicli I will recommend to
your present perusal, and future serious thoughts. Colos. 2. 2.
Saith the apostle, " I would, that ye knew what great conflict
I have had for you, (as he introduceth it to them by what he
saith in the foregoing verse) that your hearts might be com-
forted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the
full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the
mystery of God." And what is com]n-ehended in this mystery
of God ? that is, of the Father and of Christ; it is generally
expressed first, "the mystery of God," and then particularly,
** of the Father and of Christ." The former andf is not copu-
lative but exigetical : "To the acknowledgment of the mystery
of God, and," that is, even, or to wit, of the Father and of
Christ. That is, the mystery of God doth comprehend these
two. The Holy Ghost is not always mentioned, being express-
ly enough so in many other texts. But here is the very sum
of our religion in this mystery, " the mystery of God," to wit,
** of the Father and of Christ ;" two particular expressions in-
cluding the general one, from both which, (as other scriptures
sufficiently instruct us,) the Holy Ghost issues forth, as the
great and mighty Agent to accomplish all the great things,
which by Christian religion are to be effected in the world.
And this was the apostle's deep concern on the behalf of these
christians. "You cannot imagine," saith he, " what conflict
I have about these things ; that you might be strong chris-
tians :" and how ? " That you may be knit together in love,
unto the riches of the full assurance of understanding," all lov-
ing together, all agreeing together to love the same truths, the
same doctrines, and thereby to have it incorporated, inwrought
into you, that you may be able to say, " I can as soon suffer
limb to be torn from limb, as suffer such truth as this to be torn
away from my soul :" that that is to be bought and never to be
sold, never to be parted with on any terms, " What ! part with
that? or be indifferent towards that ? or let my mind hover or be
in suspense ? why it is my very life, my life lies here: shall I in
the midst of a tempestuous sea, being safely brought to a firm
and stable rock, quit my rock and go to floating again amidst the
raging waves ?" So will any man reckon in this matter, that
hath any care or concern for his soul. Again,
5. You may hence learn, how we are to eye God in our
transacting the great business of covenanting with him ; that
is, as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost;
which that initial seal of the covenant doth plainly enough dic-
tate, when we are required to be baptized in the name of the
so THB PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF CfOD. (pART I.
Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. When I enter
into covenant with God to take him for my God, if I am first
solemnly to do it yet; or if I am with solemnity, from time to
time, to renew my covenant, we must consider how we are to
do it ; we must not think of taking God abstractly or taking
one person alone. But we must take God the Father, and God
the Son, and God the Holy Ghost for our God. Do not think
your baptism signifies nothing, when it is directed to be admi-
nistered in that order, in the name of the Father, the Son and
the Spirit. So you are to consider with yourselves, *' I am to
be a devoted one, 1 am a devoted one, and must continue so, to
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost." A
wonderful thing that we should be a congregation of such per-
sons dwelling on earth, who have these names named upon us,
that such a claim should be laid from heaven to us, 1 claim
every one of you for mine, for mine, saith the Father, you were
baptized in my name ; and so the rest. Why should we not
walk up and down this world with this sense on our minds,
with this thought often renewed, often impressed upon us ?
LECTURE XVI.^*
6. It lets us see how we are to understand the relation that
results from such a covenant between God and us, whereby we
become related to God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Ghost, and they become related to us : you have heard
under what distinct notions, principally, but not exclusively,
each of the persons is related to us. The Father as Creator, not
excluding the Son and Spirit : the Son as Redeemer, not exclud-
ing the Father and Spirit, the Spirit as Sanctifier, not excluding
the Father and Son. We have shewn you concerning each of
these, that creative power (according as the Scripture teacheth
us to conceive) is from the Father, as the Fountain, through the
Son as the way of its conveyance, (in respect whereof some speak
of a natural mediatorship belonging unto the Son of God before
the ordinate one) and by the agency of the Holy Ghost, who
is represented as the immediate Agent in all the operations of
God towards the creature, whether in the sphere of nature or of
grace. And we are to look upon the Son as under the notion
of the Redeemer, but so as to understand that this redemption
* Freaclied April 34, 1^91.
LEC.xvi.) The Trinity in the Godhead. Si
was designed by the Father, and is applied by the Holy Ghost:
and upon the Holy Ghost as the Sanctifier, and yet still to un-
derstand that this his sanctifying work was pre-determined by the
Father, procured by the Son, and effected by himself. VVhen
therefore, we are to consider God as related to us as our God,
("this God is our God, he will be our guide even unto death")
we must take in and bring together each of these notions, and
conceptions concerning him; we must take in the conceptions
of each of the persons, " God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Ghost is my God/' Somewhat agreeable to
what the ancient philosopher saith, concerning relatives, Re-
lata sunt quorum totum esse est ad aJiud ; that is, relatives
are such things, the whole of ivhich appertains to another.
Why so ? All that is conceivable in the Divine Being is,
in this case, all to us. The fulness of God is to be considered
with relation to us so far as is needful, so far as we are capable :
he doth not reserve himself from us in any thing of it. How
admirable a thing is this ! How great and high thoughts ought
we to have concerning the privilege state of our case 1 Indeed,
there is nothing that we have to consider of this God, or to look
after the knowledge of, to answer the curiosity of a vain mind ;
but every thing or any thing that may answer the necessity of a
perishing soul, of a soul that must otherwise be miserable and
lost. Whatsoever is requisite to our real felicity and blessed-
ness, we may look to all that is in God as determined by a spe-
cial relation unto us. " As I am such (saith God) 1 am such
entirely yours, all for you, wholly yours.'' Therefore, did the
everlasting covenant that comprehend, and conveys all this,
yield such solace to the soul of dying David, 2 Sam. 23. 5.
*'Thou hast made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all
things and sure, for this is all my salvation and all my desire."
* I care for nothing beyond this.' The great thing that the co-
venant doth convey, is God : and by it, it is, that God the Fa-
ther, Son and Spirit do become related to us as ours, if once
we do take hold of the covenant, if once we put in our claim,
and do but lay the ground by that act of our own interest: our
claimable interest doth depend upon that ; that very act of
taking, accepting, "laying hold" as the expression is in that 56
Isaiah, for the encouragement of poor strangers that might pos-
sibly apprehend they were quite cut off from God. "No, let the
sons of the strangers that take hold of my covenant encourage
themselves; that makes me theirs: lam theirs, iftlieydobut
lay hold ; it is but take and have," as afterwards, in tiiis chapter
where the text is, it is said concerning the Son especblly, "He
32 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOB. (PART I.
that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son
hath not life." And he hath him who hath once taken him.
Again,
7. This serves specially to instruct us concerning our appli-
cation to God in prayer. That is, that we must still compre-
hend in our thoughts, Father, Son, and Spirit together ; the Fa-
ther, Word, and Holy Ghost, as it is expressed in the text. I
know and have particularly understood from some, that they
have been full of dubious, perplexing thoughts, how to steer
aright in their applications to God, making their solemn ad-
dresses so as to run into neither of those things which they
have pretended to have been, both of them, their fear and con-
fusion : on the one hand, by not ascribing distinctly to each of
the persons what they should ; or blasphemy on the other hand,
by ascribing what was not due ; what was not to be ascribed.
But our way is very plain, if we do but consider what the Scrip-
tures say concerning these three substances in the Godhead,
and what copies it sets us of applying ourselves hereupon. That
is, to the eternal Father, through the eternal Son, by the eter-
nal Spirit; so we ought to apply ourselves, and here is nothing
to lead us into confusion or indistinction of thoughts in so do-
ing. It is plain we have the Father always represented as the
original Foundation of all light, all life, all being, all excellen-
cy, all perfection, whether created or uncreated. He is then a
most adequate terminative Object of our worship in such appli-
cation and supplication. We go properly to the Fountain of all
good. Whither should we go else? But he is (especially to those
that have been in delinquency and transgression) inaccesible: we
need a mediator; there could no mediator answer the exigency
of our case, that was not God as well as man : we need a Divine
Mediator, a God Mediator, we cannot expect that God should
do any thing for us but for the sake of God, or for his sake wh«
was God : so we are always taught to apply ourselves, to direct
our addresses : and so we are to expect the answers of them :
that is, that prayer must ascend through Christ, and that bless-
ings are to descend through him. " Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places," through him. Eph. 1. 3. And
we are to suppose that whatsoever is done for us, in answer to
our prayers, when they are accepted, it must be by the agency
of the Holy Ghost. The state of our case is such, as to re-
quire an infinite almighty Agent to work in us, and to work
for us, the things that are necessary to our present support, and
to our final blessedness. And we are hereupon, taught by our
Lord himself, in respect to the final and terminative Object of
1.EC. XVI.) The Trinity in the Godhead. 3S
such worship, (that of prayer for instance) to pray unto the
Father; " Our Father which art in heaven" — so we are taught
to pray. " I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ." Ephes. 3. 14. Yea, and so our Lord Jesus Christ did
pray himself : "I will pray the Father and he shall give you ano-
ther Comforter." John 14. 16. "Father forgive thenj ; for they
know not what they do." Luke 23. 24. And to him he ren-
ders solemn acknowledgment by way of thanksgiving. "\
thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth." Matth. 11.
25. And when he did so, (as we find his was a very praying
life, in the days of his rlesh, here in this world,) it is very vain-
ly and foolishly alleged that then he must, according to oar
doctrine and notion, be supposed to pray to himself: it is a ve-
ry vain and idle pretence. And so I find indeed, that the ar-
guments of that sort of adversary, that is, they tliat do impugn
the divinity of the Son of God, tend to prove, generall}'^,
nothing but that which vpe never deny, that is, that Christ was
man. This is the thing that by many arguments they set them-
selves most industriously to prove, which none of us deny, that
Christ was man. Who doth doubt it ? But they would thence
conclude that because he is man, therefore he could not be God ;
which is their absurd and foolish consequence, when we know
it was so plainly, so very plainly said, that the Word which, in
that text, is said to be with God, is also said to be God : and
the same Word is said to be made flesh, to be incarnate, to have
assumed and taken on flesh : that is, not as if it did, in becom-
ing flesh, cease to be what it was before, but did only add an
assumed nature to a divine ; and therefore, there being two na-
tures now meeting together in that one person, it was no way
unintelligible, but that he should do that in the one nature
which was impossible he should do in or by the other. That
is, as man he did grow, and as a man he did die, and as man
he did pray, when as God he could do none of these. But he
that was God did do these things, though not as he was God.
He that was God, did lay down his life, as in that 3rd. chapter
of this epistle, verse 16. " Hereby perceive we the love of
God, that he" (that same he that was God) " laid down his life
for us." And so he that was God, shed his blood for us. Acts
20. 28. « Feed the flock of God (his church) which he hath
purchased with his own blood ;" his own, who was God ; though
as God, we know he could neither bleed nor have blood. But
whereas, the Son of God, as he was the Son of God and God,
did pray, and praying, apply himself to the Father, so are we to
do, to pray, and in praying, apply ourselves to the Father as we
are led by that great example. But then, we being nothing but
VOL, VII, T
34 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART f.
creatures, we have the whole Deity in view as the Object of our
worship and addresses. But not the Deity, abstractly consi-
dered, but the Deity as subsisting in these three persons. The
Deity abstractly considered, in the case of our Lord himself,
was neither the Object, nor theSubject of prayer ; God, as God,
did neither pray nor was prayed unto by him ; did not pray, for
it was the man, the man Christ that prayed ; nor abstractly,
nor merely as God, was he the Object of prayer : but as the
Godhead did subsist in the person of the Father, so did the
man Christ apply himself to him, and so could in no sort be
said to pray to himself, in praying to him. But now, I say, we
who are nothing but creatures, we have the entire Godhead,
not abstractly, but as subsisting in three persons, to apply our-
selves unto, and those persons conceived of, according to the
order they are represented to stand towards one another, and to
be related one to another. As we told you already, when we
pray to the Father, as the final and terminative Object of our
prayers, we are at the same time, to conceive the Son as through
whom' the prayer is to be transmitted, together with the answer,
the good we are to expect and pray for : and the Holy Ghost,
as by whose power to pray, and by whose power the answer of
prayer is to be effected too. And so it is God that our prayers
must respect, God to whom, God through whom, and God by
whom. Pray to God, through God and from God, and so our
prayer hath every way to do with God. Our prayer, as it is to
be through the mediation of Christ, so both it and its answer are
to be wrought by the Holy Ghost : we are in that great and sa-
cred work of praying, to deliver up ourselves to the conduct of
the Holy Ghost, and so we are to do in the whole of our course.
*' As many as are the sons of God they are led," oracled (as that
word signifies, Rom. S, 14) "by the Spirit of God." Which
Spirit is a Spirit of adoption, (as it afterwards follows,) the Spirit
that belongs to the state of worship, as they are sons, that teach-
es them to cry " Abba Father." And because they are sons, he
hath sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, as it is said in
that parallel place, Gal. 4. 6. And we are required to pray al-
way in the Spirit. Ephes. 6, 18. And in the Holy Ghost : 20th
verse of the epistle to Jude. " Praying in the Holy Ghost, keep
yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."
Put all this together, and then every prayer of ours, ought
to respect each person in the Godhead. That is, it ought to
be to God, through God, and from God : even as the answer, it
is to be in the same order, originally God's answer, through
Christ, and by the Holy Ghost. And so we run into no con-
LEC, XVI.) The Trinity in the Godhead. 35
fusion, when we suffer ourselves to be governed by Scripture
light. And we can be in no danger of incurring the guilt of
blasphemy : for we do not ascribe to any of these persons more
than the Scripture doth plainly teach us to ascribe. And as
our Saviour saith concerning himself, so may we concerning
each of these persons : when the Scripture saich so and so, and
doth attribute such and such things to them, will any one say,
that he blasphemes that saith, that the eternal Father is God,
or the eternal Son is God, or the eternal Spirit is God? Scrip-
ture most expressly saying these things as words can speak
them. And again,
8. This should further teach us how to steer our whole course
in this world: our business here on earth, ought to be (in the
main of it) religion: we ought to make religion our business.
The business of religion, while we are in this imperfect state,
is only a motion Godward. The religion of the way, is coming
to God. So that any one who is sincerely religious and Godly,
will be able to make answer to this question, What is the main
business of your life ? This true answer he can make, " My
main business is to make towards God, I am aiming at God,
tending towards God, as one that hath been removed and set at
a distance from him, and so am to be brought back to him." It
was this, Christ died for, the just for the unjust, to bring us to
God. Now this being the state of our case, we are distant from
him, in nearness to whom consists our duty and felicity.
When we are to take and direct our course Godward, we must
have a final term for our motion : " Whither are you going ?"
**Why my course is tending and directed Godward." This
motion must have for its ultimate term, God the Father. This
is the sense and language of an inquiring soul, when once it
comes to understand what the Scripture doth so plainly reveal ;
that there are in the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Their sense, 1 say, is what we find expressed, John 14. 8.
" Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us :" " do but shew us the
Father, and we have enough : our great inquiry is after the Fa-
ther, the Fountain and Original of all things, in whom is our
life and our only hope." " Well," saith our Saviour (meet-
ing that genius and sense of such an inquirer) " I know where
you would be, and who you are seeking : and have you so long
known me, and are ignorant of the Father? Come, I will be
your Conductor, I will be your Guide, no man cometh to the
Father but by me." And therefore, as there must be a final
term of this motion, so there must be a way leading thereto.
" Why, 1 am the way, the truth and the life, (John 14. 0'.) no
man cometh unto the Father, but by me." What is consider^
36 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD, (PART. I,
able in all motion, is especially considerable in this. In every
motion there must be a final term, and there must be a way to
move in. The Father, he is tlie final term — the Son, he tells
us, he is the way. But then there must be a third thing, there
must be an acting, moving principle besides, and that must be
the Holy Ghost, and can be no other. It is by that one Spirit
that all who shall approach to God must have access to him,
even to him the Father, considered under the notion of the
Father. Jews and Gentiles have been wont (as that was the
noted distinction) to divide the world. Now we find both spo-
ken of in the same context, Ephes. 2. His business was to
make them nigh who were afar off. The Gentiles were afar
off, the Jews were comparatively nigh : now Christ was to
make them nigh too, and both of them were to have access by
one and the same Spirit to the Father: from the 13th to the
1 8th verse. Whoever have a mind to return, to come back to
God, (from whom, in the common apostacy, all have made a
defection and cut themselves off,) here is the course and me-
thod of their proceedure, they must propound to themselves God
the Father, (the Fountain of all life and blessedness) to whom
they must come, to whom they must he bending and directing
their course, and to whom they must guide their course in the
way he hath prescribed, and that is, by his own Sen : "No man
Cometh to the Father (saith our Saviour) but by me." And they
must be acted on in this way towards that final term and end, by
the power of the Holy Ghost. There can be no motion with-
out the concurrence of such a third, unto which there is a corres-
pondency here. That is, no man can move, but he moves some-
whither towards some term, nor can he move, but it must be in
some way. Nor again, can he move but it must be from some
motive principle, that carries him through this way to that end.
And so you may easily represent to yourselves the business of
your lives here in this world. My business is from day to day,
to tend towards the eternal Father by the eternal Son and under
the conduct and influence of the eternal Spirit. These are ob-
vious and useful instructions, in reference to the doctrine
that hath been opened to you from the text, tliat do more di-
rectly concern and relate to the subject we have thus far been
upon.
But there is somewhat else, in reference to the present pur-
pose, upon this subject, which is collateral, and will be of
use to us, however, to take notice of too. Our great design
upon this text, was to observe to you, that there are such a three
in the Godhead ; three and no more, as we have observed and
insisted, of one certain order. Father, Son, and Spirit, that do
LEC. XVI.) The Trinity in the Godhead, 37
subsist in the Godhead, which is but one. But the apostle
doth here not only take notice what they are, that are thus in
heaven, but what also they do, how they are employed, amidst
the glory of the heavenly state. And he tells us they " bear re-
cord in heaven : the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one." You see who the witnesses are, in the
words of the text, and may see, a little lower, what is the mat-
ter of their testimony, (as I was hinting to you l)ut now) that
is, in sum, the truth of the Christian religion, or the whole con-
stitution of the Mediator. This is the record, (as it is presently
subjoined) that God hath given us eternal life, and that this
life is in his Son. He hath an infinite fulness of life to con-
vey, to communicate, and to diffuse tlirough a desolate world, a
world lost in death and darkness. And how is it to be convey-
ed ? in what way is it to be communicated ? Why it is all trea-
sured up in his Son, he hath constituted and appointed a Medi-
ator, that in him it might be deposited, and that by him and
through him, it might be transmitted and made to diffuse itself,
and flow amongst lost and perishing souls. This was the matter
of this testimony. Why let us take so much of instruction
from hence.
That since those Three glorious Three that are in heaven, are
bearing record to the truth of our religion, of Christianity, that
is, that God hath a design to communicate life to lost and pe-
rishing souls, and hath treasured up that life in order to this
communication in his Son : since this is their record, their
testimony, I pray let us take care that we duly receive it. Be
afraid of slighting that testimony, the matter whereof, is of so
great importance to ourselves, and the Authors whereof, are the
three glorious Persons in the Godiiead, so venerable and so
great Ones. When they are said to bear record in heaven, or
to testify in heaven, the meaning is, not that their testimony is
performed in heaven terminative, but originaliter, that is, these
witnesses do testify from heaven, concerning this matter which
Is of so great importance to the sons of men on earth. And
pray see that we receive their testimony, as after it follovvs j
If the testimony of a man (who is of any credit) ought not to,
be slighted ; the testimony of God is greater. We have the
testimony of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost, concerning this ( ne thing, that there is a design of saving
.sinners, and giving life to them tlirough his Son, and that this
life is only in this way to be communicated and conveyed to
perishing and undone souls : what an awe should this lay upon
our souls that are perishing 1 And it is to us, that this salva-
tion is offered. They are dead themselves, as the apostle's ex-?
88 THE JPttlNCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART. I.
pression Is, " You are dead, but your life is liid with Christ in
God." This being the state of our case, tremble at the thought
of slighting such a record, such a testimony, that proceeds from
these three great Witnesses that do bear record in heaven.
That is, the Father testifies concerning his Son, "This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased :" The Son, that eter-
nal Word, testifying concerning the man to whom he united
himself, replenishing that man with a divine glory, so as that
glory descending from heaven, and accompanying him in his
descent from heaven, shone visibly in him as the glory of the
only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. For
he, at the same time when, after his descent, he had united
himself with iiesh is said to be the Son of Man, who came
down from, and vvho is in, heaven. John 3.13. He was there-
fore, testifying from heaven, and was actually in heaven, when
also he was actually united with this man on earth. And the
Holy Ghost, he testifying from heaven, by descending on this
same man, in visible glory like a dove and lighting upon him.
Thus, here was God the Father, testifying from heaven, and the
eternal Word testifying, and the ever blessed Spirit testifying,
from heaven, and their testimony meeting all in one point,
namely, that Christ the Mediator is he by whom life is to be
conveyed from the God of all grace unto undone, perishing,
lost souls.
And consider in reference to this further, that as this is a
testimony to us, it is our concernment, and is incumbent on us
so to comport ourselves as that it may finally prove a testimony
for us, and not a testimony against us. This testimony is di-
rectly to us, that is, that this is God's appointed way for saving
lost souls and bringing of them to life and blessedness, and
consequently, according as the design of this testimony is
comported with or not, it will be either for us or against us.
For us, if it can be recorded at last concerning us, such and
such have had the gospel preached unto them, Christ hath been
offered, God hath been offering himself in Christ ; and they
have obeyed the gospel, they have complied with the call, they
have received the Son of God. Oh ! how great a thing would
it be to have a record in heaven for that ? How did Job solace
himself in this, " My record is in heaven." When you can
appeal to the records in heaven touching transactions between
God and you, and you can say, *' Lord, thou didst make an
offer to me of thy Son, thou didst require me to receive him as
my Lord and Saviour ; I have done so, I appeal to thee whe-
ther it be not recorded above, let the records of heaven be
searched, see, whether I be not recorded a believer, one that
LEC. XVI.) The Trinity in the Godhead, $^
hath resigned up my soul to God in Christ by the power of the
eternal Spirit, to be entirely and absolutely his for ever. O I
how blessed a thing will it be to have such a record in heaven
concerning you and for you ? He that knows all things knows
that such a one hath received Christ in truth, such a one
hath truly believed, such a one loves the Lord Jesus in since-
rity."
And how fearful, by consequence, will it be to have it re-
corded in heaven against you " So long, so many days, so ma-
ny years hath such a one lived under the gospel, — so often
hath a Christ been tendered to him, and been refused by him,
and there he stands in the records of heaven, a refuser of the
grace of God, refuser of his Christ, despiser of the great salva-
tion, that hath been published and proclaimed and " begun to
be spoken by the Lord himself, and was confirmed by them that
heard him, God bearing them witness by divers miracles and
gifts of the Holy Ghost."
And besides, that we are thus to take notice of what is do-
ing above ; how these Three employ themselves, their bearing
record in heaven, consider too (and therewith I shall shut up
all) where it is that this work is doing, that these Three are
bearing this record in heaven. Let us consider a little, and
take this instruction from it, that it very "^11 becomes us to aliens
ate ourselves from heaven and disregard the affairs and con-
cerns of heaven. For we find that our affairs and concern-
ments who dwell on earth are minded in heaven. In heaven
there is a concern about such poor, wretched creatures as we
upon earth. It is very unworthy dealing if we live here upon
earth, groveling in the dust of it, and very seldom think any
thought of heaven. When, in heaven, by that glorious Triad
above, we see our concernments while we are upon earth are
not forgotten, are not disregarded. These great and glorious
Ones In heaven, are taken up about our affairs. Sure it should
provoke us to look upwards much and often, adoringly. It
should suggest from time to time this thought to us, that the
intercourse between heaven and earth is nor cut off. Still (as
abject creatures as we are in this our low estate) these glorious
persons above are concerned about us. Certainly, it should be
often considered by us, that we have mighty attractives to draw
our minds and thoughts upwards, God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Ghost still bearing a record from hea-
ven to us about things that are of the greatest and highest con-
cernmeats for us to mind.
And it should, in fine, provoke us to have aspirings upwards,
towards the blessedness and perfection of the heavenly state.
In heaven, these three bear record, the Father, the Word, and
40 THE PRINCIFLES OF THE ORACLES Of GOD. (fART I.
the Holy Spirit. Who can think of this/and not say, " O that
I were there ! O that I were there ! Then will this glorious
ni}stery of the Trinity lie open to my view." It is in that seat
of the divine glory that these Three are performing this kind
office towards the poor children of men, even amidst the light
and glory of the heavenly state. The time will come that we
may hope to ascend, and be caught up into this region of light,
and in that light to see ligiu, so that as whatsoever is dark
and obscure and unknown, and unrevealed, concerning this
glorious Three and One, will be done away. When once
we ascend and get up thither into the regions of light and
bliss, where the glory of the Eternal Being doth display itself,
we shall then know as we are known : we cannot know now
but in part, and see but in part, but we shall then know per-
fectly and fully, and as we are known ; so far as the capacity
of created nature can admit. O! how pleasant should our aspir-
ing upward to these Three be, where they do thus testify and
bear record. How often should we be directing our thoughts
and spirits, and the longing of our souls towards these regions
of light and bliss, saying within ourselves, " When shall a
period be put to the time of my converse with bats and moles
in this base earth ? when shall I hear the divine voice from the
throne of glory that shall say to me, Ascend and come up
hither, and see the things whereof thou hast hitherto but heard
by the hearing of the ear ?"
*
Matt. V. 48.
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father ivhich
is in heaven is perfect.
I^JEXT to the doctrine of the Trinity, comes (according io
proper theological order) that of the Divine Attributes or
Perfections, most fitly to be considered. After the discourse of
the Trinity which we have showed you subsists in the God-
head, we have chosen this text, both as it serves to confirm,
and as it serves to regulate, that foregoing doctrine.
First, As It serves to confirm it. For when we are so plain-
ly told that " there are three that bear record in heaven ;" and
that the great Object of our religion, and whereto we are most
solemnly to be devoted, is represented to us as tliree, the Fa-
ther, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; supposing such a triad as
you see in the Godhead, you can suppose it under no other no-
tion than that of a very great and high perfection belonging
thereunto. And that, therefore, it must greatly intrench upon
the perfection of the Godhead, and unspeakably diminish it, if
there should be any attempt or offer made to diminish and de-
tract from that sacred number. It could not but be a horrid
maim to the very Object of our religion : and against any such
disposition thereunto, or to do any thing, or to admit of any
thought into our minds that may have that tendency, it would
fortify us greatly, to have the belief well fixed in our mmds of
the perfection of the Godhead. And,
* Preached May the 8th, I691.
42 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART I.
Secondly, It serves to regulate that doctrine of the Trinity
too: that is, to direct us to understand it so as may consist with
the Other perfections of the Godhead ; where we are sure it is
impossible there can be any war, or that there should not be
the highest and most perfect agreement. We must so con-
ceive of the Trinity in the Godhead, and the perfections that
■we are here and elsewhere taught to ascribe unto it, as that
these may manifestly accord with one another. And for that
purpose, we must conceive of the divine perfections as the
Scripture doth direct us, according as God himself speaks of
them ', allowing his word to be our measure, in making our es-
timate and judgment concerning them. They that take ano-
ther course, and pretend to discover to us the incomprehensible
nature of God, by methods and measures of theirs' secluding
this, and opposing it in any kind, truly we have a great deal
more reason to be astonished at their confidence than we liave
to admire their knowledge ; as if they could make a better dis-
covery and a clearer representation of God to us than he him-
self. But if we do understand the divine perfections according
to those plain and express measures which he hath given us
in his word, or whicli he enables us to collect, as we are rea-
sonable creatures, from what he hath said in his word concern-
ing himself and them, it would then withhold us from any such
exorbitant conceptions concerning the Trinity of persons in the
Godhead, as shall not be easily reconcileable with the doctrine
of his perfections, according as he hath represented and stated
it himself.
And upon that account, shall we apply ourselves to consider
so much concerning the perfections of the Godhead, as this
scripture will give us a general ground for. Indeed to speak of
the several perfections and attributes that do belong to the Di-
vine Nature, distinctly and at large, would be the work of a life's
time; and very little agree with what I have designed, the ex-
pounding and opening to you the principles of religion, in as
short a time as 1 can. Therefore, I have pitched upon this
text, designing to sura up ail under it, which I think requisite
to say concerning the excellencies and perfections of the Divine
lacing, which we conmionly speak of under the name, his at-
tributes. You may take the ground of discourse thus,
That all the excellencies which are requisite to make up the
mc-.st absolute perfection, belong as attributes to the nature of
(iod ; or as so many attributes to be ascribed to God. This,
some may possibly apprehend will be but to do what hath been
done already, and to do it over again. That is, when in prov-
ing to you the existence of the Deity, m'c shewed that we are
LEC. XVII.) The perfection of the Divine Nature. -lo
to conceive of him untler the notion of a Being absolutely per-
fect. It is true, it was impossible to demonstrate ills existence
without forelaying that notion of God. And that is suitable to
what the laws of method do require, in treating of any subject
whatsoever. That is, if there be occasion to put the question
an sit, whether sucli a thing be or not and to prove the exist-
ence of it, first, and before we come to that inquiry, to in-
quire quid sit, and vvhat it is. To open the nature of such a
thing, there must be first some general notion assigned and laid
down of that whose existence we would prove, and about whicii
the first inquiry was made an sit, whether it be yea or nay.
Otherwise, in attempting to prove that, we may as well prove
any thing else, if we do not give such a notion of It as will dis-
tinguish it from another thing.
13ut now after we have done so, it comes properly of course
then, to proceed to a more narrow inspection Into the nature of
such a thing. And so the order of tractation did require it
should be in this present case. That is, v/hen we were to in-
quire concerning the existence of the Deity, first to put you in
mind, what you and all must be supposed to apprehend con-
cerning the thing we inquired about, that is, a Being of abso-
lute perfection in the general : and we can have no other no-
tion of God but as a Being absolutely perfect. 1'hat being
done, and it having been evinced to you that there is sucli a
Fountain-Being from whence whatsoever perfections we do be-
hold, and come under our notice among the creatures, must
have descended and been derived, inasmuch as v.batsoever we
behold, and take notice of, that comes under any notion of per-
fection with us at all, is not nothing, and therefore could not
come from nothing, and therefore must be first in a fountain from
whence it came. When by this means, I say, we have plain-
ly evinced, that there is one Being which hath all perfection
originally in itself; and thereupon sliewn that Being to be a fii
Object for religion, and to be worshipped by us, and to whom
duties and exercises of religion ought to be performed, and that
this can be done acceptably no way but agreeable to his own
will; thereupon we were put upon an inquiry, how that will ot
his might be understood and known : and having found that it
was discovered (with that design and to that purpose that he
might be duly and acceptably worshipped) in that word that
bears his name, thence we come regularly and of course, to
speak of things particularly and more expressly concerning liirn
(whereof we have had some general notions before) which are
contained in this Book, and which this word will help us to a
more distinct knowledge of. And therefore now, in speaking to
44 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
the proposition laid down, we are to consider the subject of it :
''your heavenly Father," and then we are to consider the
tiling afTirmed concerning this subject: He *' is perfect."
I. For the former, the subject of this affirmation, we must
consider in what sense (as there will be occasion to take notice
of by and by) he can be spoken of under the name of a subject.
Scholars know how to distinguish between a subject of predi-
cation, and a subject of inhaesion. He can be no subject of
inhsesion, as you will see presently. But a subject concerning
which, this or that may be affirmed or spoken, that is the only
thing- which we can truly and properly mean when we speak of
God under that name or term. But whereas he is here mention-
ed as our " Father which is in heaven," (as our Saviour directs
he should be prayed unto, in that comprehensive system of pe-
titions that he himself was pleased to give his disciples, "Our
Father which art in heaven,") we must distinguish between
Christ's calling him Father himself and his teaching us to call
him so, or his speaking of him as our Father. When Christ
himself calls him " Our Father," he calls him so as he was :
and so he doth speak himself, when he speaks of liis having come
from, his having descended from the Father. He could mean
by the term " Father," nothing else but the first person in the
Trinity. But when he spealcs of him as our Father and directs
us so to speak of him, or to speak to him, we do not need so to
limit that term "Father," in reference to us, for we may fitly
enough consider the whole God in the paternal relation to our-
selves. Concerning the Father there is no doubt, for so our
Saviour hath taught us to conceive and speak, "I go to my Fa-
ther and your Father, My Cod and your God," John 20. 17-
And even the Son is spoken of as our "everlasting Father."
Isaiah 9. G. And all the children of God are said to be born
of his Spirit, and to be begotten thereby. John 3. 1. And sup-
pose we should look upon Father, here, strictly as a personal
name or title, yet so we must consider the Divine Nature as
subsisting font aliter, or as in a fountain in that person : and
it is that person as having that nature eminently and originally
and firstly in him ; even that same nature that is common to
each of the persons. And so it is not the person as the person,
but as having the Divine Nature in it, which is the subject here
spoken of. "Your Father which is in heaven is perfect." The
Godhead or the nature of God subsisting as in the Fountain, in
the Father : and that same nature which is also common with
him to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. But then,
II. For that which is affirmed or spoken of this subject, He
*' is perfect." How are we at a loss when we come to speak of
LEc. XVH.) The jJei'fection of the Divine Nature. 45
this divine perfection ! "I have seen an end" (saith the Psalm-
ist) *' of all perfection, but thy commandments are, or thy com-
mandment is exceedingly i)road." Even so much of divine
perfection as is expressed that one way (in the divine word)
is of so exceeding vast a latitude as to represent itself as the
matter of the highest wonder to a very enlarged and compre-
hensive mind, that had exceeded the bounds of all other per-
fection and already gone beyond them all. J liave seen an end
of all perfection, but how vast a perfection beyond all that do I
perceive in thy divine word, wherein there are yet but some
sunbeams, some glimmerings of the perfection of the Divine Na-
ture ! Indeed when we go about to speak of such a subject as
this, or to think of it, we may even fear to meet with such a re-
buke as that. Job 38. 2. " Who is this that darkens counsel
by words without knowledge?" Can we think, by searching
to find out God ? Can we find out the Almighty unto perfection?
Job 11. 7« Somewhat, the case requires should be said, of
what we can say and conceive but little of. Something, the exi-
gency of our case doth require ; that we labour, all of us, to be
informed concerning one with whom we have so much to do,
and in whose hands all our great concerns do lie.
For the word that is used here, ^'perfect,'' and the words in
the learned languages that we are referred to by these penmen,
they do (as all words must do) fall most inconceivably short of
the thing. Words cannot but be poor, and labour under a penu-
ry when they are expressive of any thing of God, Alas ! They
can go but a little way in it.
The words that we have here to do with more immediately, do
carry in them a kind of diminishing and lessening intimation of
coming to a state, or having come to a state that is higher and
more excellent, from a state that was meaner and lower; in
which the subject spoken of is (as it were) supposed to have
been before, according to the general and indefinite use of such
words. As the Greek word teAe-oj that is here used, refers to a
word that signifies an aid, and so carries an intimation with it,
as one had but then attained an end which he was aiming at,
and tending towards before, which implies such a diminution
as can by no means be admitted concerning Gud. As when
any one doth then suppose himself to have arrived at an eternal
sort of perfection, when he hath compassed an end that he was
about. " I work this day, and to-morrow, and the third day I
shall be perfect ;" finish a work I was engaged in, which is but
an external sort of perfection. The word (for want of being
more expressive) is borrowed and employed here, in a case of
very transcendent height above that. And so for the Latin word
40 THE JPRINCIPLES OT THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART I.
perfectio, or perfectns, it carries an Intimation with it as if
the thing spoken of were, now at length, thoroughly made
that which before it was not. Such expressions do (through
the natural poverty of speech and language) lessen and dimi-
nish greatly the thing that should bo represented and set forth
by them.
But to consider the thing itself, (as we may be capable to
open to you somewhat of the divine perfeetionsj there are two
things to he done in reference Jiereto. We shall note to you,
some things more generally that do concern the divine perfec-
tions indefinitely considered : and then shall (though briefly)
come to consider some of the particular perfections themselves,
wliich we are more specially concerned to take notice of, that
are comprehended under those generals,
1. There are some things more generally to be laid down
concerning the divine perfections, or excellencies, or attri-
butes ; you may call them which of these you will, fitly enough.
And,
( 1 ,) There is this to be considered concerning them, that
there are of tliese divine excellencies or perfections, which we
are taught to attribute to God, some that are altogether incom-
municable ones. There are some that are incommunicable;
that is, that have not so much as a name common to him, and
to us, by wliich they are to be signified and spoken of. As there
is his Self-subsistence, his All-sufiiciency, his Eternity and his
Immensity. I'hese are attributes, or perfections of the Divine
Nature that are not so much as common in name to him and to
us; so appropriate to him, that there is nothing known by the
same name that can be said of \is. And there are some of his
attributes and perfections that are communicable, that is, which
under one and the same name, may be spoken of him and of us,
of him and of the creature. As his wisdom ; there is also
such a thing among men: and his power; they have some
power: and his goodness ; they iiave some goodness : and so
his justice, his holiness, and his truth : these are divine per-
fections that are spoken of under one and the same name, con-
cerning liim and concerning some of his creatures. That is
one thing that you have in general to note; as concerning the
incommunicable attributes of God, they have not so much as
the same name with him and with us: for there is nothing in
us, to which such names do agree : All-sufiiciency, immensity,
eternity, omnipotency, self-existence and the like. But the
other (as was said) are signified by words applicable to some-
what in us, as to be wise, to be good, to be just, to be powerful
and the like. And,
lEG. XVII.) The perfection of the Divine Nature, 4j
(2.) In the next place, you must note, that for those divintf
attributes and perfections Vv'hicli are communicable, i^ is only
the name that is common to that thing in him, and that thing
in us, which is expressed thereby. It is true that there is the
same name but not the same nature. There is a likeness, a si-
militude, but not an identity, or a sameness. Take heed of ap-
prehending, or imagining any such thing between the divine
wisdom, or the divine power, or the divine goodness, that are
uncreated, and that which is created ; and so of his holiness,
his justice and the like. We are not to think there is a same-
ness of nature, though there be the same names used in such
perfections as these, as they are found to be in God, and as they
are found to be in us, or in the creature : for it is impossible that
the nature which is infinite, and the natures which are finite can
be the same. An infinite nature and a finite nature must needs
differ infinitely, and therefore can by no means be the same
nature. Wherefore, all that is said in this case, in reference to
us, when God is pleased to derive and communicate from him-
self unto those whom he regenerates, that which is called the
Divine Nature; It is only said of it, — that it is his image, and
his likeness, that is conveyed or communicated: it is only some-
what like God or the image of God that is impressed upon, and
wrought into the soul. We must take heed of thinking that
it is the same nature, as they have thought and blasphemously
spoken, who have talked of being godded in God ; as if the
very nature of God was under such a name as this, transmitted
into the creature. And again,
(3.) We must understand these perfections, or excellencies
of the Divine Nature to be his very nature itself, and not to be
any accidental thing superadded thereunto. We must not con-
ceive that such divine perfections as v/isdom and power and
goodness and the like, are additions to the nature of God : but
tliey are his very nature itself. There can be no such thing as
an accidental supervention to the Divine Nature ; but every
thing that is in God must be conceived to be God, He i^ es-
sential wisdom and goodness and truth, and is not these things
by accident, as men may be, so as to have those things separa-
ble from their nature; no, nor can his nature, indeed, be sd
much as conceived without them. We are not to look upon,
them as accidents, either as separable or inseparable from his
nature, but as being essentially included in it. And this h
most evident, upon the account we have showed you ; and the
thing speaks itself in demonstrating to you the existence of the
Godhead, that that Being whose existence we were to demon-
43 THE PiUNf.tPLES OB" THE ORACLES OF GOB. (PART I,
stratc, is self existent, existing always by and from itself with-
out depending, without being beholden to any thing from
whence it was. Now what is so self-existent is existent neces-
sarily; that is, it owes its own existence to that peculiar excel-
lency of its own nature, to which It is repugnant, and impossi-
ble not to exist. Now, wliatsoever doth exist necessarily, so
that its non-existence should be altogether impossible (which is
the peculiar manner of the Divine existence) that must needs
be unalterable. What is necessary, must be eternally or invaria-
bly necessary, and without any mutation : and nothing can Vje
superadded to another but must infer a mutation : any addition
would make an alteration. Therefore, none of these perfec •
tions are additions to God; for then they would make a change;
but that which is necessarily what it is, never admits of any
change, neither by addition nor subtraction any ways.
(4.) You must take this general note farther, that it is hence
consequential, that the excellencies and perfections of the Di-
vine Nature are in him, in perfect simplicity. That is, if none
of them do differ from the Divine Nature, then it is impossible
they should differ from one another ; they cannot really differ
one from another in themselves. It is true, indeed, that by
our imperfect way of conceiving things, through the narrow-
ness and incomprehensiveness of our minds, which cannot take
in all things at once, we are fain to admit distinct notions which
are wont to be called inadequate notions, concerning the Deity,,
We can conceive of such and such excellencies but by parts,
but by little and little. It is but a small portion we can take
up of him in the whole, and but very little after all. And
therefore, all we are fain (looking upon the glorious and ever
blessed Deity) to conceive, is an unknown wisdom in him, and
an unknown goodness, and an unknown holiness and the like.
Not as if these things did more really differ in him than one
and the same face, (as one aptly expresseth it) doth really dif-
fer in itself because a great many glasses are placed against it,
that do themselves differ from one another, and are variously
figured and cut, do seem to represent divers faces. There is,
I say, no more of real difference in these perfections from one
another, as they are in God, than there would be in that case
of so many real things that are reflected by so many glasses,
where the difference of the reflected image doth proceed from
the glasses, and not from the original which is one and the
same to them all. And that we may preserve the notion en-
tire of the Divine Simplicity, it is easy to be demonstrated
to them that shall consider — that if there be not a most per-
fect simplicity in the Divine Nature, so as that the several ex-
LEc. XVII.) The Perfection of the Divine Nature, A S
cellencies belonging thereto be really in him, one and the same
thing, then these excellencies could not meet there but by com-
position ; they would make a composition in the Divine Na-
ture if they were there with real difference. But such a compo-
sition in the Divine Nature is aliogether impossible, upon
these two accounts. First, If there were such a composi-
tion there must be supposed a causation : if the Divine Na-
ture were compounded, it would be inferred it were caused ;
and so God were not the first Cause of tlie first being : and.
Secondly, (though one would think that nothing should need
to be added after that, it being plain, nothing can be prior to
God,) If there were a composition there would also be a limi-
tation, and so these perfections of the Divine Being would not
be infinite, and consequently they must be perfections altoge-
ther disagreeable, no way agreeing to the Divine Nature. It
cannot but be that he must be infinitely wise, infinitely good,
infinitely powerful, and the like. But he should not be so, if
these things did really differ in him from one another; for
whatsoever doth realiy differ from one another, doth limit that
other from which it differs. If there be an infiniteness in
goodness, or an infiniteness In power, or an infiniteness in
knowledge, we cannot suppose many infinites ; there cannot
be more infinites than one ; and therefore it is but one and
the same thing that is all these. Whatsoever you do design to
the one, you must detract from the other. And if you should
suppose two infinites, you do thereby suppose neither to be
infinite, but both to be finite. That therefore, you must fixedly
retain, as a general rule, that the several excellencies and per-
fections of the Divine Nature, are in him, in most perfect sim-
plicity, and so do not differ in him, as one thing differs from
another. Only the Divine Nature and Being itself, as it hath all
excellency and perfection in it doth, when it comes to cast an
aspect upon us and upon our minds, appear as various, though
in itself it is most simply one. And again,
(5.) You must further note this, that the negative attributes
of the Divine Being do always imply somewhat positive.
There are some things ascribed to God Jn negative terms,
which must be understood to have a positive sense and mean-
ing, under those terms. As when it is said of God, he is im-
mortal, which is a negative term, it implies the most infinite
and undccaying fulness of life. And so when it is said of God,
that he is invisible, though that be a negative term, such a being
as cannot be seen, the meaning is, that his being is of that high
and glorious excellency as not to be liable and subject to so
jnean a thing as the sight of our eye ; it is too fine, too bright
VOL, vir, a
50 THE PttlNClPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 1.
and glorious for so mean and low a faculty to reach unto.
And,
(G.) You must note this, that any particular excellency that
men attribute or ascribe to God, it must always be understood
to be ascribed to him in the highest pitch of perfection, and
not with that diminution wherewith we behold the shadow of
sucli things to be accompanied in the creature. And there-
fore, we must take heed of debasing the excellencies of the Di-
vine Nature, by confining, concerning them, to that which
only gives some faint representation of them among us. We
speak of several things that are real excellencies among the
creatures; as quickness of sense, to be able presently to feel
wiiatsoever is noxious and hurtful: this sense of pain, is in the
creature a perfection; but we are not to conceive any such
thing in God : but we are to conceive that which is transcen-
dent in him, that comprehends in itself the power of giving
such and such perfections to the creature; so as that those
things are eminently, constantly, only in him which, speaking
of this and that particular perfection, is in a distinct, formal
notion in the creature. We must not say, that this or that we
behold in the creature is in him, but some transcendent excel-
lency that doth virtually and eminently comprehend it; as
when the Psalmist tells us, " He that planted the eye, doth he
not see ? and he that formed the ear doth not he hear ? and
he that teacheth man knowledge doth not he know }" we
are not to think that there is such seeing, or such hearing with
God, or any kind of sensation as is with us : but there is that
transcendent excellency in him, that doth eminently contain all
these in a far more glorious manner than we can conceive.
These things, it is lit we should note generally, concerning the
divine attributes, or perfections, as a ground for somewhat more
distinctly, though very briefly, concerning these attributes, or
perfections of God, particularly considered.
But before we pass from this discourse, of what is of more
general import concerning them, give me leave to suggest
somewhat to you that may be of present use, and that may in-
fliietice practice, and tend to better the hearts and spirits of us,
who are now called to hear about such a subject ; " Your Fa-
ther which is in heaven is perfect." So our Lord, who was a
Teacher come forth from (iod, on one of his great errands, doth
direct us to conceive concerning him. I pray let our thoughts
stay here a little, and meditate, and pause awhile; both on this
Subject here s])oken of, and that which is aflirnied concerning
this Subject.
[I.] The Subject spoken of, "Your Father which is in hea-
ven/' Tills NA.Mii, *' Your Father," should carry a very attr«c_
LEC. XVII.) The Perfection of the Divine Nature. 5 I
tive sound with it to every ear, and to every lieart among us.
It is very unfit that we should, any of us, sleep and slumber un-
der the mention of this name, this title given to God, " your Fa-
ther." Let us bethink ourselves : Can we call God Father? It is
a thing to be thought on — with mucii caution, and then, if that
hath produced any effect, and reached any good issue with
us, it ought to be thought on — with high consolation.
First. With great caution. "Your Father which is in heaven
is perfect :" when we find that some are addressed by our bles-
sed Lord, with the supposed capacity of bespeaking God as
their Father, would it not strike cold to any man's heart, that
should have cause to think, " Am not I excluded ? Am not J.
one of them that may not dare to take such a name into my
mouth and apply it to him, to call him my Father ? Doth
not my own heart smite me, that I assume so much to myself
as to say, God is my Father?" There were those that briskly
and boldly pretended to it in our Lord's time. " We are not
born of fornication, we have all one Father, even God," say
some of these petulent hearers. John 8. 41. It ought to be
seriously considered, "What Godlike thinghave I in me to be-
speak me his child, or that may give me the confidence to call
him my Father? What childlike dispositions do I find in me
towards him ? Is there that trust that becomes a child, that
love, that dutifulness, that study to please him ?" Let us con-
sider whether we can call him Father, and our hearts not smite
us, and tell us inwardly, this is a title that belongs not to thee to
give. But if we can find it doth, it is a thing to be considered
as with great caution.
Secondly. With high consolation afterwards. Can I indeed
say, that he is my Father ? What then can 1 have to complain
of? what have I to fear? what have I to desire ? what have I
to crave beyond what this contains, and carries in it ? And pray
take heed of diminishing so great a thing to yourselves. Have
you, upon a strict inquiry, reason to look upon yourselves as
oneof that regenerate seed which is peculiar and appropriate to
God? carries his signature, his stamp, his image ? It is then
a very unworthy thing to your Father, to let yo'ur spirits sink.
It should greaten your minds, it should make you to say within
yourselves, " Then am I to live far above the world, it is base,
for the children of such a Father to live mean, and lie low, and
to grovel in the dust; and to let his own heart despond and
sink within him, upon the less grateful aspect and appearances
of things from this world. For alas ! what is this world to me, ' ■
if God be ray Father ?" And, "Your Father, which is in hea-
ven is perfect." You must consider how this our Father is in
heaven ; not as confined there, not as if heaven did confine hi?ii,
52 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE OUACLES OF GOD. (pART I.
whom the "heaven of heavens cannot contain." And we should
thereupon consider, that truly if heaven do not confine him,
this earth ought not to confine nie. If he be my Father, there
should be no exclusive limits between him and me. If he be
my Father, so in heaven as that though he hath his throne, the
theatre of his glory, his court, and his retinue there above, yet
he doth also diffuse a vital and esi^ential presence throughout
the creation, so as that this earth itself is not excluded, " Whi-
ther shall I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend up into heaven
thou art there ; If 1 traverse the seas, wherever I come, there
thou art." Psalm 139. '] , I say, if heaven doth not contain
him, but that he reacheth this earth too, I should thereupon
think this earth should not so confine me, but 1 will reach him,
and apply myself to him, and converse and lead my life with
him. And since heaven is represented as the seat of his most
glorious residence, we should always think ourselves to have
concerns lying there above. I am not to be limited then to
this base low earth, if I have a Father in heaven. It is intoler-
able hereupon, that we should live here upon earth, if we had
renounced and quitted all claim to heaven, never looking up
thither. What! Do we forget that our Father is there? There
he dwells in glory, there he beholds the dwellers upon earth,
and looks into the very inmost motions of our thoughts, and
workings of our spirits, frOm day to day, and from moment to
moment ; if he see a mind carried after vanity all the day
long, will he not say, "What ! Is such a one, one of the off-
spring of heaven, but hath no business there, who never minds
any thing but this base earth ?" Shall he have cause to observe
this concerning us, and thus to judge and censure us from day
to day? " These are the children of the earth, sons of the earth,
they have nothing to do in heaven, they never look up thither."
Sucii words standing here in the Bible, " Your Father which
is in heaven is perfect ;" methinks they should make strange
impressions upon our spirits when we come to look on them
and seriously consider them.
[2.] And then what is affirmed concerning this Subject, (though
I must not spend time upon that now,) he is perfect, every way
perfect. We may yet, by the way, see what ground of reproof
there is here for us, that we so little adore, and so little imitate
this perfection. That God is not greater in our eyes when we
are beholding him, and considering, that whatsoever our minds
can conceive of excellency, we find it in him in the highest per-
fection, and yet we adore him not, we take no notice of that glo-
rious One, how sad is the case when even this itself is a continual
increase of guilt upon us, that we know so much of God, that
a poor creature should have cause to say, " I should iiave been
LEc, XVIII.) The Divine Attributes — All-siifficie7icy. 53
tar more innocent if I had known less, and been less capable of
knowing God. I might have been an innocent creature, in com-
parison, if 1 had not known so much." To know him to be so
perfectly holy and not to imitate him, to know him to be so
good and not to trust him, to love him, to depend upon liim
and to seek union with him; to know him to be so perfect,
and content myself with my own imperfection, when according
to this rule of our Lord we should be '" perfect as our Father
which is iii heaven is perfect,"
LECTURE XVIII-*
2. But I come now to give, in the second place, some more
distinct account of some, at least, of the more eminent of the
attributes of God. And I shall begin with that which must be
understood as comprehensive of all the rest, and that is, of the
DIVINE ALL-SUFFIC8KNCY. This is the summary perfection of
God ; his All-suthciency. And as the verse where the text
lies, saith '^ Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect,"
so elsewhere, is the Divine All-sufficiency represented to us as
the ground and pattern of that perfection which is required in
us. Gen, 17. I. "1 am God All-sufficient: walk before
me and be thou perfect." The word there used is, in some
translations, rendered All-mighty, in others. All-sufficient, JS?-*
Shaddai. They indeed seem to me, to give the more congru-
ous account of the etymology of that word that do read it All-
sufficient, deriving it not from AS/ifft/rfrt that signifies to destroy,
to lay waste, which yet, is comprehended no doubt (that is the
power of doing so) in the notion of Almightiness, but rather
deriving it from a word that signifies sufficiency with the pro-
nominal particle he : He that is sufficient, God that is suffi-
cient, El-Shaddai or that is self-sufficient. And he is so self-
sufficient either understanding it to be a sufficiency arising
from himself or a sufficiency serving for himself. Either way
he is self-sufficient; by a sufficiency that speaks him to be
All to himself, a sufficiency arising and springing up within
himself, or a sufficiency to himself, as having enough in himself
to enjoy without being beholden, without depending upon any
thing without himself. And such All-sufficiency spoken of
God must needs mean, He that is of himself, sufficient for him-
self, must needs be sufficient for all the creation besides,
* Preached May 15, 169I.
54 THE PIIIXCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART I.
If of himself tliL'ie be a sufficiency in him for all his own pef-
fectionsj there must be a sufficiency for all that communication
that the creature can any way stand in need of. This is that
attribute, that comprehensive one, that we shall in the first
place say somewhat to.
And i shall say the more of this, because it is so vastly com-
prehensive as hath been said, and as the matter is plain in itself
that it is. It is the same thinj^ that is meant by that fulness
that we find again and again, in Scripture, attributed to God,
th-di 'csXn^cofA.x Tov Qsov, "That you maybe filled with all the
fulness of God." Ephes. 3. 19. Not that there needs any
great fulness to fill us. A very little thing will do it; and it sig-
nifies nothing to the vastness of the plenitude of the ocean,
that a nut shell or a minute vessel may be filled ; but it is the
greatness of the expression that 1 here note, "the fulness of
God ;" how vast, how immense, how profound an abyss must
that be ! In Eplies. 1. 23. we read of the "fulness (jf iiim that
filleth all in all ;" that filling fulness: it is another fulness that
ts meant there in that form of expression where, most conde-
scendingly, the church of Christ in this world is spoken of as his
fulness. But whose fulness is it? The "fulness of him that
filieth all in all." Even he, notwithstanding his vast and
boundless self-fulness doth yet vouchsafe to be tilled in respect
of that union that he is pleased to take a people out of this
world into, with his own blessed Self. We read (Col. 2. 9.)
of " all the fulness of the Godhead" dwelling in flesh, as it
were, embodied in flesh, which we must understand still is the
same fulness when it is deposited, when it is, as it were, so dis-
posed for communication. It is not another fulness from the
original Divine Fulness, but the same under a new relation
wherewith it now comes to he clothed. As when also, in that
Col. J. 19. it is said, "It pleased the Father that in him
should all fulness dwell," fulness and all fulness, that it should
dwell in him. It did dwell indeed in him originally and natu-
rally in the person of the Son, but now it dwells in the Media-
tor, that being so lodged and settled, (as it were) it now lies
ready for communication to indigent creatures, necessitous crea-
tures, empty creatures ; such as we are, empty of every thing
that is good, and of the desert of every thing that is so; and
only designed and fitted by natural designation as so many
** vessels of wrath" to be filled with wrath. Now all the ful-
ness of God comes to be posited and clotlied with that relation,
to put on that aspect, with reference to us, that according to
#ur need, measure and capacity it is all for us. "It pleased
LEO. XVIII.) The Divine Attributes — All'Suffioicnaj, hh
the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell," with such a
design that he might fill the sacrifice first, that was oficrcd up,
as you find the context speaks, — (Col. 1. 19,21.) "that he
might make peace by the blood of his cross and reconcile all
things to himself:" and then, that he might fill the souls
which that sacrifice had been accepted for, in the virtue of it,
opening its own way to flow in to us. And another expression
you have of this same perfection, (the All-sufficiency and ple-
nitude of the Godhead) to wit, that of his being ''All in all."
A most Godlike phrase, wherein God doth in his own word
speak so of himself, speaks like himself, at the rate of a God,
with divine greatness and majestic sense. It is used with re-
ference to the divine operations, 1 Cor. 12. 5. "There are di-
versities of operations, but it is the same God which work-
eth all in all." But it is also spoken of the Divine Being with
reference to his existence ; He is All in all ; or as in the men-
tioned place, (Ephes. 1. 23) " filleth all in all." In the final
state when all the great designs of God are compassed and
brought about, then is he more entirely, fully and imme-
diately to be All in all. He will be more conspicuously so
then : he is now so indeed, as it hath not escaped the notice of
heathens themselves, who tell us, that whatsoever we see is Ju-
piter, and whatsoever we are moved by, is Jupiter : that one
universal mind doth work through all the universe and mingles
itself with the vast body of the creation. So is Christ, in whom
is all the fulness of God, (as was told before) he is said to be
*'A11 in all." Here is an All in an all, a comprehending all and
comprehended all; that is, an uncreated All, and a created :
the latter, contained in the former, the former, containing the
latter, in-wrapping it, infolding it, diftusing itself any where
throughout it, and in all, and over all, and through all. And
indeed, that created all, is a little, most contemptible little all,
in comparison of the all- comprehending, uncreated fulness, that
involves the other in as great a disproportion as you may sup-
pose an atom, a little mote or particle of dust comprehended in
the whole earth, or a minute drop in the vast ocean, that swal-
lows it up and runs through it and through it ; so is the all of this
creation (as great as it may appear to our little narrow minds and
thoughts) swallovt'ed up in the uncreated All, so as that in com-
parison of that, it is nothing. All nations come under this no-
tion, but '' as the drop of a bucket, and the small dust of the
balance, and lighter than nothing," as confessing it impossi-
ble to speak diminishingly enough of the littleness of the crea-
ture, in comparison of the Divine All, "less than nothing," In-
56 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
deed, simple nothing cannot vie with all fulness, with the im-
mense plenitude of substantial beings. But that, that seems to
be newly stept forth out of nothing, that, it may be, will pre-
tend to vie, and therefore that is so much the more despicable,
even more despicable than mere nothing: mere nothing hath no
competition with it to that vast plenitude and fulness of Being,
]5ut there may seem somewhat of competition in that which is
just stept forth out of nothing: and therefore, that is despised as
less than nothing ; for mere nothing is not so despicable as that
which is just risen out of nothing when it is brought into any
kind of compare with the infinite, immense All.
But to speak yet a little more particularly and distinctly con-
cerning this most perfect All-sufficiency and fulness of God,
(as it can be possible to us to speak and hear of so great a thing)
I shall speak somewhat to the nature of it, what sort of fulness
or plenitude this All-sufficient, perfect fulness is. And then —
speak somewhat of the purposes which it answers and is most
apt to answer.
1. Somewhat of the nature of it. And for that, our best
way of opening and unfolding it will be to consider these two
things, namely, what it contains, and — after what peculiar it .
doth contain what it must be understood to carry in it : that is,
the contents and the properties of this fulness : v/hat it con-
tains and with what peculiar and distinguishing characters it
doth contain it.
(1.) For the contents of this most absolute and perfect ful-
ness of God, All sufficient fulness; it contains all that we can
think, and indeed all that we cannot think. It contains all
being, and all life, all motive and active power, all knowledge
and all wisdom, and all goodness; every thing that is excel-
lent, valuable and desirable in all the kinds, and in all the de-
grees of perfection conceivable, in reference thereunto. I shall
not speak more distinctly now, in reference to that head, be-
cause under other heads that we are afterwards to speak a little
(though but a little) particularly to, there will be more occa-
sion to discourse of these severally. But we come,
(2.) To consider of the characters of this fulness, the proper-
ties of it, whereunto it must be understood to contain what it
doth contain. And so,
[1.] It is a self-original fulness, a fulness that arlseth from
itself. It is the highest fountain itself, and not fed from any
higher, vvhich is the signification of that title, or that name by
which God was pleased to make himself known to Moses, ** I
Am," and a little more largely " 1 Am that I Am." A name
so expressive of this plenitude and fulness of being and all-per-
LiiC. XVIII.) T/ie Divine Attributes— 'All-siiffidency, 57
fection of God ; so aptly and naturally expressive thereof, tJjat
it hath obtained naturally, easily in the pagan world, as that
inscription testifies in the temple, which I formerly named,
" I am that which I was, and that which is, and that which
shall be, and let any man at his peril disclose my veil." And
we are told by some of the ancients in the Christian church,
that the notions which Plato doth so abound with, he learnt in
Egypt, and came by them, it is most probable, and as they
think, as having been communicated from some of the Israel-
ites to some of the Egyptian priests witli whom he afterwards
conversed, that is, with those of them to whom those traditions
came some centuries of years afterwards. And that this ful-
ness is self-original, or self- originate, they must always ap-
prehend, who do apprehend that any such thing as Deity could
only be of itself, from itself. A Being of that sort and kind, as
unto which not to be, was always repugnant ; and so that it
owes whatsoever it is, or whatsoever it hath in itself, to that pe-
culiar excellency of its own nature, which was always neces-
sary to it, to be what it Is; can receive nothing aliunde, from
without, andean lose nothing, or suffer no detraction of what
it is, or hath already belonging to it. This is " 1 Am,^' the
stable and permanent Being that Is by itself what it is. That
then, is the character under which we are to conceive of this
divine fulness, of this perfect All-sufficiency ; that it Is self-
originate: he being the perpetual, everlasting Spring and Foun-
tain of it to himself. " With thee Is the fountain of life."
Psal. 36. 9. There, being is in Its first Fountain, and life is in
its first Fountain. To that, all things else that be and live,
and that have any thing of motive and active power, they par-
ticipate all from hence ; " In him we live and move and have
our beir>g," as the apostle cxpresseth it. Acts 17. 28. For
which he there quotes a pagan poet ; and likewise for that in
the adjoining words, " we are all his offspring."
[2.] We are to conceive concerning this Divine Ful-
ness, that it Is Immense as well as self-originate. He is infi-
nite, unbounded : and that It must needs be for the same rea-
son, because it is self-originate : for causation speaks limitation,
whatsoever causeth another, limits it : and that which is un-
caused must be unlimited, omnia limitatis est causata ; that
which doth impart and communicate to another doth measure
and bound its own communication : and from whence any
thing hath that which it doth derive from another, thence it
hath the bounds and limits of that which is derived. The W-
mits of the derivation proceed from the original. Therefore
it is plain whatever is uncaused must be unliaiitcd, and so this
VOL. VII. I
$S THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 1.
fulness of God being self-originate vvithoul any superior cause,
must needs be immense and infinite without bounds and limits.
There is nothing to bound and limit, but he existing neces-
sarily, when all things else do exist contingently, and by de-
pcndance upon his will and pleasure, it could not be but that
he must engross all being, all life, and all perfection in himself,
because there was nothing else existing besides or before that
which did exist necessarily, that is himself, by which what was
in him could not be any way limited. Therefore, so we are
to conceive of the Divine Fulness — that it is immense. It
is then a perfection here spoken of God, which is not par-
ticular of this or that special ,kind, but which is most projierly
absolute and universal, to wit, of all kinds taken together, with
all the several degrees that can come within tlie compass of
each several kind. So metaphysicians are wont to distinguish
of perfection, into tliat which is simple or absolute, and that
which sui generis, of its own particular kind, that which hath
all that belongs to that kind in it, may be said to be perfect in
its own kind. That which hath the essence and properties of
gold may be said to be perfect gold, and especially if it be pure
from dross and doth exclude every thing that is alien from it, if
it be pure. That is the notion of pure : purum est quod est
plenum sui, that is pure that is full of itself, and hath no ad-
mixture of any thing alien from it. So may a thing be said to
be perfect in its own particular kind, when it is full of itself
and when it is free from admixture of any thing else. But the
Divine Nature (as is evident) is infinite and immense ; is not
perfect of this or that particular kind, but of all kinds whatso-
ever; that is, of all that is excellent and valuable ; yea, every
thing of all being, being included and comprehended in it.
Not formally, f6r that would make God and the creature all
one, but eminontly and transcendently, that is, it being in the
divine power to determine whether any thing besides should be
extant, or not extant. And so he is the Root of being to
every thing that is, and the Spring of life to every thing that
lives, and the Fountain of all excellency to every thing that
can ])artake of it. And therefore, his perfections or fulness is
not of this or that particular kind ; if it were so, it were a li-
mited fulness, a bounded fulness : but it is a fulness that com-
prehends all kinds together eminently, and transcendently in
itself. As the rout of the tree doth comprehend all the branch-
es, that is, virtually, it comprehends that virtue in it, and trans-
mits that which extends to all the branches, and as the very
seed did virtually contain the whole tree once in itself; soaU
LEC. xviii.) The Dwine Attributes — All siiffidenci/. 59
the creation was contained in God, before it, by his appoint-
ment and command, stood forth into actual being. And,
[3.] It is hereupon an immutable Fulness. This divine
fulness admits of no alteration, either by augmentation or di-
mi.-ution. It can neither be made more nor less than it is : ei-
ther, would make a change, and no change can have place in
that Being which is necessary. The Divine Being and all that
plenitude and fulness that belongs to it, being self-original, it
must be necessary ; it could spring from no other, therefore, it
must be of itself what it is : and no other imaginable reason
ean be assigned why such a Being doth exist, but only that pe-
culiar excellency of its own nature, to which it was repugnant
not to exist. Hereupon therefore, this is the only necessary
Being, and that which is necessarily what it is, can never be
other than what it is, can never vary, and therefore th:it " Fa-
ther of lights (as the blessed Cod Is mentioned under that
name, James 1. 17-) is without variableness or shadow of
turning.'^ Without so much as the umbrage of a change,
there is not the shadow of varmtion with him. But before the
creation was he was the same, and through all the successions
of time when that creation is in being, he is still the same : and
if the creation should drop back again into nothing he were
the same. Unto that which is necessarily what it was first, no-
thing can supervene, because it hath its whole being necessari-
ly, so that there can be no addition to it : and then there can
be no detraction from it, no diminution, because it liath what it
hath necessarily : it is essential to be what it is. And there-
fore,
[4.] This plenitude of God, must be everlasting, this
All-sufficiency, this perfection, must be eternal. For if tliere
can be no variation in any, the least degree, much less is it
conceivable there should be a cessation of the whole Being.
A variation in any, the least degree, is altogether impossible to
that which is necessarily what it is : and thereupon the eternal
permanency of it in the same state must needs be consequent.
Hence those amazing expressions about the Divine Being,
" from everlasting to everlasting thou art God." Psalm 90.
2. Set yourselves to contemplate God ; you must needs yield
yourselves to be lost and swallowed up in your minds upon the
contemplations of that which is " from everlasting to everlast-
ing." And so that most emphatical expression, of his inha-
biting eternity; " Thus saith the high and lofty One that in-
habiteth eternity, I dwell in the high and holy place." Isaiah
57. 15. But before that, he was his owi\ place, and inrleed ali
tlie creation is rather vested in Itim^ than he in anv thing. Be
GO THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART f,
fore time was, or any creature was, he had nothing to inhabit
hut iiis own eternity, that is, his own eternal Self: for eternity
and tlie eternal One are the same thing.
Thus you liave some account of the nature of the all-suffi-
cient, perfect fulness of God, both from the contents and proper-
ties or perfections thereof; what it contains, to wit, all being, all
life, all motive power, all wisdom, all knowledge, and whatso-
ever excellency besides you can conceive, or all that is conceiv-
able, and indeed, all that is unconceivable by any created mind.
AnC. then, under what characters, as it is a self-originate ful-
ness, an immense fulness, an unalterable fulness, incapable of
any augmentation or diminution, and as it is an everlasting
fulness.
2. The next thing is to shew you what purposes this per-
fect. All-sufficient fulness of God may answer. And indeed, it
answers all that is any way desirable should be answered, or
that it were to be wished should be answered. For,
(I.) It answers tlie corresponding purpose of its own felici-
ty, to be an everlasting felicity to himself, where there is the
only correspondency, that it is any way possible it should other-
wise be ; should any way be found between the fruitive faculty
and the object. Here is an immense and boundless object for
an immense fruitive faculty: nothing could satisfy God but
God : there is a capacity not otherwise to be filled up. It was
to be answered by nothing but himself, and therefore we must
not suppose that there are any additions any way to that felicity
from any thing without himself. He only enjoys himself and
takes pleasure in his own designs. When he hath designs up-
on such poor creatures as we, he only pleaseth himself in him-
self, in his bountifulncss, the benignity and the kindness of his
own design. Wlien he did, (he must be supposed to have done)
even in the days and ages of eternity always retain with himself
a design, '' 1 will raise up such and such creatures ;" such in
particular as any of us ; "I will in their proper time and sea-
son raise them up out of nothi'ig, on purpose to take them into
a communion and participation with me in my own felicity,
my own blessedness." What is it he was pleased with ? was it
that he loved us or delighted in us ? He was self- pleased with
the kindness and benignity of Jiisown design: not that any
thing in us could draw his eye, his love, or his delight, but his
kindness and goodness therein was its own reason. He shew-
eth mercy because he will shew mercy. It was not that one
was better than another, but from that goodness of his that is
invariable, and can never be better than himself, the compla-
cency that it was always apt to take in its own dcbignments.
LEC. XVI II.) The Divine Al tributes — All- sufficiency. 61
From hence it is, that he hath any such thing as delectation in
a creature, only as he hath freely placed a design and made it
terminate upon such a one, and so is pleased in tluit kindness
and goodness which he haih in himself, and not in any dclec-
tableness that was previously in the object. For as to that,
there was no more in one than another, and if it were for that
reason as such, then it must have followed that all would have
a like participation in the felicity of the Divine Being. But
this is the eminent, great purpose that the divine All-sufficient
fulness serves for, even for his own eternal and invariable feli-
city. Whence he hath so frequently the title and name of
*' the ever-blessed God;" his own blessedness being his very
essence, or essential to himself; so that he was never to be
known under another name, or conceived of under another no-
tion, than as the blessed One, the Fountain of all blessedness ;
" The glorious gospel of the blessed God," saith the apostle,
1 Tim. i. II. And " the blessed and only Potentate." i Tim.
6. 15. And " the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is blessed for evermore." 2 Cor. 11. 31. And so of
Christ as he is God, he is said to be "over all, God bles-
sed for ever." Rom. f). 5. "Blessed for ever," that is, only
in himself as the only correspondent and adequate object of his
own fruition. And,
(2.) His most perfect Divine Fulness, appears to have
been sufficient for the creation of this world : and (which is but
doing the same thing continually) preserving it ever since it
was created, even until now; not only bringing it Into being,
a rude mass of being ; but settling and conserving of order in
it, and that variety and distinction of creatures, which we be-
hold and which indeed we must suppose to be the only effect of
the All-sufficient perfection of a God. The very being of such
a world speaks his power ; but the order that is in it and the
variety of creatures wherewith it is replenished, and the con-
tinued preservation of those distinct kinds and species through
so many successive ages ; so that what this or that plant is, or
at least was, so many thousand years ago, it continues to be the
same, a thing of the same kind ; in the same rank or class of
being still as it was. All this is by the All-sufficient, perfect
fulness of a Deity that could answer such a purpose as this, to
make such a mass of created beings exist and arise out of no-
thing ; and that so much of order and distinction of kinds
should obtain and be preserved even in this natural world,
through so many successive ages unto this day. It was this
that the perfect All-sufficiency of God did, and doth continually
serve for* And,
62 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
(3.) For the government of the Intelligent world ; so that
wheresoever he hath intelligent creatures he can, by bare
touches upon the mind, steer them and act them tliis way and
that at his own pleasure : make great numbers of people at
once to agree in one and the same design, all of them ; as God
did toucii their minds in making Saul, king. And that is one
instance that shews what is done throughout all the world, and
all other ages, where all minds lie under the agency and influ-
ence of one supreme, universal Mind. And otherwise, how
were it possible tiiat all should conspire and agree to serve the
same purpose and do the same thing. And again,
(4.) This perfect. All-sufficient Fulness serves for the de-
feating of the designs of his enemies ; so that he can with the
greatest facility and ease, consume adversaries with a fire not
blown, and make them "perish like their own dung :" and blow
upon them with the breath of his nostrils and make every
thing of opposition vanish when he will. And thereupon, as
being perfectly Master of his own designs and having every
thing in his own power with the times and seasons and ways of
doing them, he lets enemies run on, foreseeing still at a dis-
tance their day that is coming. He knows their day is coming,
and in the mean time sits in heaven and laughs at them, *' the
Most High hath them in derision :" them who say " Come, let
ws break their bands asunder and let us cast away their cords
from us :" as it is in the 2nd Psalm.
(5.) It answers the purpose of sustaining and preserving his
own, the people that he hath collected and chosen out of this
world to be peculiar to himself, the whole community of them
and every particular soul belonging to that community so as to
lose none of them. He bears them up and carries them
through all the temptations and conflicts and trials and exer-
cises that they meet with here, in a sojourning state and in a
warfaring state, so as that they are kept by his mighty power
through faith unto salvation. And then,
(G.) And lastly, this perfect and All-sufficient Fulness serves
for their final satisfaction and blessedness, when they shall be
brought into that region, into his "presence, where there is ful-
ness of joy, and to his right hand where there are pleasures for
evermore." Psalm 16. 11. And that which is felicity enough
for himself^ will surely be enough for them too.
LRC. XIX.) His Tncornmunicahh Attributes. <.'^
LECTURE XIX.*
But now in the next place I shall speak further to you of
some of the most eminent and noted of those attrihutos and
perfections of God which are comprehended in this general
one, and concerning the order of speaking to them, I shall not
be much solicitous. Some distinguish them into negative and
positive. But that distinction I reckon less material ; because
that those tiiey call negative ones are so only verbally, there be-
ing somewhat most really positive, that is comprehended un-
der such negative terms, as infinite and immortal and im-
mense and the like. They are usually distinguished into com-
municable and incommunicable, as hath been occasionally told
you already ; the former whereof, being those attributes of God
of which there is some image and resemblance under the same
name among the creatures.
The Incommunicable Attrjbutes are those whereof
there is no direct resemblance among the creatures, nor the
very name thereof justly or properly to be given to any among
them or to any thing that is to be found among thein. And
for this distinction of the divine attributes, they speak very
properly and congruous to the nature of the thing, who tell
us, that in the description of God, the former smt of these
attributes (the communicable ones) do serve to express his
nature more generally, or serve to supply the room ofa^e-
nerus in a definition. And that the incommunicable attributes
serve to supply the place of a diference in a definition restrain-
ing (as It is the business of a difference to do) that general na-
ture, that is presupposed.
And others again distinguish these several ways, that !<?,
some do call every thing a divine attribute, which may be any
way affirmed concerning God. When some others of them do
only mean by a divine attribute, that which is affirmed con-
cerning him, (as the logicians are wont to speak) " Loquiter
quid," not '' in quo;" as when it is said, " God is a Spirit,"
that they do not reckon a divine attribute which is onlv to an-
swer the question. What he is? But those things only are to be
called attributes, or divine perfections, that do speak more dis-
tinguishably concerning his nature, to shew what a one he is,
or what a peculiar sort or kind of being he is. And so for
one class of divine attributes some reckon his natural proper-
ties which do some way specify his nature.
* Preached June 12, \Gq\,
61 THE PUINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART I.
And then for the second kind, the faculties which, (accord-
ing to our way of conceiving things) we must attribute to him.
And then for a third sort, the exercises that do reside in those
several faculties, and for a fourth, those that do imitate the af-
fections that are in us belonging to the rational nature, as it is
to be found with us, such as love, anger, desire, delight or the
like.
I do not think fit indeed that wc should tie ourselves to any
such distribution. What I mentioned before, of communica-
ble attributes and incommunicable, carries its own evident rea-
son with it, and its own light to every one that observes things.
There are some divine excellencies whereof there is an image
and resemblance in the creatures fitly mentioned, under the
same name in him and in them, though they do not signify the
same thing in them as they do in him, but only the image or
resemblance of such a thing. And then there are those that
are incommunicable, and which neither in name nor in like-
ness can agree to the creature. This is a very plain distinction,
obvious to any one that considers.
For his incommunicable attributes they are such as these,
and I shall but only mention them. As,
1. His Simplicity, absolute uncompoundedness, all excel-
lencies and perfections meeting, and being united in him, in
the absolute unity of his own Nature without division, without
composition and without mixture.
2. His IMMUTABILITY, by whlcli he is alvva3'S invariably,
eternally what he is. " I Am what 1 Am," without "shadow
of turning," (as the apostle James's emphatical expression is)
there being not so much as the shew of a change.
3. His SELF-EXISTENCE, or (wlilch is all one) his necessa-
ry existence, or the necessity of his existence. That perfection
of the Divine Nature, by which he is so, as that it is simply
impossible for bim not to be, or ever not to have been, his es-
sence involving existence in it, so as it is not with any thing
besides ; for as to any created being, it may be, or it may not
be ; it may exist or not exist. But it Is peculiar to the Divine
Being to exist necessarily, so as that it cannot but exist : that
is the same thing with self-existence, not existing from ano-
ther, but existing only from himself. And,
4. His iNFiNiTENKSs, whlch Comprehends divers things in
it ; for tlie infiniiy of the Divine Being, it is either extrinsical
orinlrinsical : extrinsical as it imparts some kind of relation
to somewhat nd extra, or without, and so the extrinsical infi-
niteness of God is two fold : that which respects time and that
which respects space. That which respects time is eternity.
LEC. XIX.) His Incommtmicable Attributes. 65
and that infinitely exceeds all the measures of time. Consider
God's duration in reference to time, and his duration is eter-
nal, which is founded in his self-existence, or his necessary
existence, was told you before. His being, is of that peculiar
kind or hath that peculiar excellency belonging to it that could
never not be ; and therefore must exist from eternity, and
must be to eternity. This is his extrinsical infiniteness in re-
ference to time. And there is his infiniteness in reference to
space, which is extrinsical too. It is somewhat supposed with-
out, or besides himself; though but supposed or but imagined.
All that space which the Divine Being doth occupy and pos-
sess : and this is his immensity. In reference to time, his
infiniteness speaks eternity, in reference to space his infi-
niteness speaks immensity, that which some understand to
be his omnipresence. And indeed, it is mostly so, but not
wholly, for omnipresence even as presence is a relative term,
and refers to somewhat with which it may be said to be pre-
sent, and so the divine presence can reicr to nothing besides
himself, without the compass of the created universe, for there
is nothing without that, that he can be present to. But his
Immensity hath an infinitely further reference, that is, to all
the boundless, imaginable space (only imaginable) through
which tiie Divine Being diffuseth itself. For not only is it truly
said concerning him. He fills heaven and earth, " Do not I fill
heaven and earth ? saith the Lord." Jer. 23, 24. Butalso, "the
heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him,"
as it is said in that seraphical prayer of Solomon at the dedica-
tion of the temple " Will God indeed dwell with men on tlie
earth, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain?" And so
his infiniteness in reference to space, it doth, with.out any li-
mits, go beyond and transcend this vast created universe, be
that as vast as it can be supposed to be : and it must be sup-
posed to be very vast indeed, by all that do set themselves to
consider what is by human indication or inquiry to be found
most considerable, and who allow themselves the liberty ever
to think of that vast extent of created being, in comparison
whereof not only our earth is but a point, but even that vortex
that covers this part of the world to which the earth belongs, is
but a mere pointy that which contains our sun, and the other
planets; all that is but a mere point in comparison of the rest
of the universe. Consider that, and the vast extent thereof,
and you must yet consider, all this is but a mere point in com-
parison of the vast amplitude of the Divine Being, concerning-
which we are to conceive there is not any point of conceival>le
space any where, but there the Divine Being is, and still infi-
nitely beyond it. And indeed, it is fit we should give great
VOL. YII, K
66 THE PRINCrPLES OF THE ORALLES OV GOD. (PART T.
scope to our thouglits, that we may as far as possible conceive
in this respect worthily and greatly concerning that God whom
we serve and whose name we bear, and to whom we profess to
be devoted ones.
But then there is his intrinsical infiniteness besides, that is, his
infiniteness considered not with reference to any thing without
him, but in reference to what he is in himself. And so it sig-
nifies the unfathomable profundity and depth of his essence,
including all being itself, in all the kinds, in all the degrees,
and in all the perfections thereof; so as that there is no being
of any kind, or of any sort, which his being doth not some way
or other comprehend, virtually at least : his, being the radical
Being from which all other beings spring.
Concerning these Incommunicable Attributes, or perfections
of the Divine Being, I shall say no more to you than only to give
you this summary and short account that I have given, because
in our demonstrating the existence a God it was impossible
not to speak to these things: that was a thing not to be done
without mentioning such things as these, even somewhat too in
a way of demonstration, that demonstrating of them we might
give some account of the Being whose existence we are to de-
monstrate. But now there are sundry other divine attributes
that I shall speak a little more distinctly to, and which lie under
that other head of
Cojnmunicable Attributes, and which therefore are more fa-
miliar, and ought to be so to ourselves, as having some image,
some resemblance of them, under the same names, in us ; all,
either have, or ought to have -, some indeed have and cannot
but have a resemblance in every intelligent creature, yea (and
further than so) in every animate creature. And for those that
fall under a moral consideration, they are such as ougnt to be
in us, though they be not. These perfections of God are dis-
tinguished into natural, intellectual, and moral j or of his na-
t«re, mind, and will.
First. I shall consider liis natural perfections : and,
1. I shall begin with that perfection of the Divine Nature
whereof there is in us some kind (and ought to be in other
kinds) a resemblance or image under the same name. And
that is, the Divink life, the life of God. I do not mean
it now in that sense wherein it is a thing either derived to
us, or prescribed to us. As in the one or the other, or both
of these senses, that expression must be used and understood,
(Eph.'l. 18.) " heing alienated from the life of God through
the ignorance that is in them, and because of the blindness
of their hearts," speaking of the Gentile world, and those
LBC. Pix.) His natural Perfections. — Life. 67
Ephesians themselves, while as yet they were in a state of gen-
lilism. I do not, I say, speak of that life now which God re-
quires us to live, and which he makes his own children to
live. But I speak of that life which he lives himself; and
in respect whereof he is so frequently in Scripture called *' the
Living God," that excellency of his Being, which he many
times attests, to add weight and solemnity and emphasis
unto his protestations to men, to assure them that this is
so, or not so, or that this or that he dotii, or doth not, or will
do, or will not do. " As 1 live, saith the Lord, I have no plea-
sure in the death of the wicked." And so, upon sundry like
occasions, that form of protestation is used by him: "As I live
I will do so or so, or it is so and so ;" which intimates this, to
be a most glorious excellency of the Divine Being, and that
which he lays a mighty stress upon himself, and would have
us to do so too. It is that which should highly raise our
thoughts and apprehensions of the Divine Being, to consider
him as the living God: and therefore the properties of that life
by which he lives, (after the general conception of life itself,)
would be worth our v/hile a little to stay upon. ^Ve can have
no other general conception of life, but that it is a self-active
principle. It speaks a sort of self-aciiveness in the subject
wherein it is : and so, being spoken of God, it attributes tiiat
to him in the highest perfection that can be thought, and in-
deed doth suppose it to be in him, in a perfection infinitely
beyond what we can conceive : that is, that he is l)y the excel-
lency of his own Being, a perpetual fountain of life to himself.
It is that which is included in the notion of a spirit, though it
is not expressive of all that is signified by that notion. It is
but an inadequate conception of what is carried in the notion of
a spirit. A spirit, it is, as such, (though that be not all) a self-
active being, a being of self-actuating vigour, that can move
itself within itself. And that is the most full and distinct con-
ception that we have of life. But taking that for the general
conception, there are peculiar excellencies of the Divine Life,
that distinguish it from life any where else. As,
(1.) His is absolutely self-originate. No other life is so;
but his is absolutely self-originate. All other life is derived,
participated, even such creatures to which life is essential, yet
their life is but participated ; for admit, life is essential, (as it
is to all created spirits as such) yet inasmuch as their being
is participated and derived, so is tjieir life too; and their being,
being a spiritual being, (though a created being) life is so es-
sential to it, for if it ceaseth to live it ceaseth to be, and so its
life and being are not separable things. It is not so with that
life which our bodies do partake of: even in ourselveSj our
68 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLS OF GOD. (PART I.
bodies and our souls have two very distinct sorts of life, our
bodies have but a borrowed life, a united life which they bor-
row from the soul that is within them, and unto which they arc
united. That soul may retire and part, and then the body dies,
and yet it is the same body that it was before : so that if it cease
to live, it doth not tliereby cease to be. These bodies of ours
may cease to live, though not cease to be, because their life is
a borrovved life from another : they have it from the soul. But
the soul, that hath life in itself, essential to it ; so that it can-
not cease to live, but it must cease to be. But though it be so,
yet its essence and life are but derived from that great Original
Life, and from that great Original Being whose life we now
speak of. He is the well-spring of life, (psalm 36. 9.) '^ With
thee is the fountain of life." It is equally impossible, as was
said before, for him either to cease to live, or cease to be; where-
as to us this impossibility is only supposed, it is only a supposi-
tive impossil)ility. If we should cease to live, we should cease
to be too, in reference to these souls of ours. But it is positive
as to God, that he can neither cease to live nor cease to be.
His is therefore an absolute self-original Life. He hath life in
himself, or l>y himself, as that expression is, John 5. 26. " As
the Father, (who we are told is our Father) which is in hea-
ven is perfect," perfect in this respect, bath life in himself, a
perpetual spring of life within himself, so hath the Son life
in himself, as he is God, and as he is God-man ; life to com-
municate and derive from himself to quicken whom he will, as
it is in that context. And then,
(2.) This life of God, as it is a self-original, so it is a self-
communicative life; it is a self-commnnicating life. Not in the
same kind, but it doth contain in itself eminently that life
which it makes others to live, which it imparts unto creatures.
Indeed they cannot live that same life, ior life being essential
unto him in whom it originally is, to communicate his life were
to communicate his essence, and so we make the creature,
God which is impossible. But he contains eminently in him-
self that life by which, formally, he makes the creature live.
And so in that respect, the Divine Life, is self-communicative,
causual, efficient, making those to live to whom he doth im-
part it. With him is the well-spring of life. Now these two
things are carried in the notion of a fountain : 1st. That there
be a perpetual spring in it, and 2nd. that there be a communi-
cation and eflux, a deriving of streams from that spring. These
two things are carried in the very notion of a fountain. And so
as he is the well-spring of life it imports,
LEc. XIX.) His natural Perfections. — Life. GO
[1.] That life that is in him to be self-original, he is the
perpetual Spring of it, in himself and to himself. And then,
[2.] Self-communicative, continually deriving streams issu-
ing and flowing out to the creatures, so as to quicken whom he
v.'ill, as it is said, " the Son doth, in that," John 5. 20. And
[3.] This life of God is an indeficient life; a life that cannot
decay, a life that cannot fail, a life that cannot languish, life
always in the highest perfection, every thing in God being
God, and therefore no more capable of diminution or decay,
than the being of God is, which, as you have heard, is a neces-
sary being, and therefore can never be otherwise than as he is,
never more perfect, nor ever less perfect. And,
[4.] It is universal life. The life which belongs to the Di-
vine Being, is universal ; that is, it carries all kind of life emi-
nently in it, not formally but eminently. You know that there
is a great variety of the kinds of life among the creatures ; but
all comes from one Fountain, and thereforethat life which doth
belong to the blessed God himself, it must be a universal sort of
life, a universality of life, all kinds of life are summed up there,
not formally but eminently, there being no kind of life that is
lived by any creature, from the most excellent to the most
mean and abject, but the power of giving it, the power of im-
parting it, being in himself who is the Original of life: he hath
it witi)in his own power to make that creature live this or that
sort of life suitable to the capacity of its own natm-e, and it is
observable to this purpose, that in that passage. Psalm 42. 8.
where the psalmist saith, "my prayer shall be to the God of
my life;" in the Hebrew it is plural, to the God of my lives.
And you know, a man (and more may be said in this kind
concerning a holy man, a saint) lives several sorts of lives, as
he lives a vegetative life, first the life of a plant, and then
the sensitive life; the life of an animal, and then the rational
life ; the life of a man, and then, if he be a saint, as you know
the Psalmist was, a holy life. Now all these lives are compre-
hended together in this one Fountain. " My prayer shall be
to the God of my lives." It is he that makes me live all these
several ways that I do live. As I live the life of a plant, I have
it from him : as 1 live the life of an animal, I partake that life
from him: as 1 live the life of a man, a rational creature, I still
partake that life from him ; and as 1 live the life of a saint, a
holy man, I partake that life from him too, which carries the
nearest resemblance with it of his own life.
And thus we are to conceive of our Father which is in hea-
ven, to be perfect in respect of this high and glorious excellen-
cy of life; self-original life, self-conimuuicative life^ indeii*
fO THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
cient life and universal life, that contains all sorts and kinds of
life eminently in itself.
And now to make some Use of this subject of the Iff e of
Gody how highly should this raise our thoughts concerning that
God whose name we bear, concerning our Father that is in
heaven. It must highly serve to recommend him to us,
1. As the Object of our worship. What a glorious object
of worship have we ! How may our souls solace themselves
every time we go to worship in the contemplation of this, " I
am going to worship the living God i" So he is pleased to dis-
tinguisli himself from the false gods, by this same epithet of
the living One. Therefore, we have living and true, put toge-
ther distinctly concerning him. 1 Thes. 1. 9. "To serve
the living and true God." And it is with reference to the
consideration of him as the glorious Object of our worship, that
the apostle speaks of him, in Acts 14. 15. when those ignorant
barbarians, among whom he was, would have done worship
wnto him and Darnabas, he runs in among them and saith
*' Sirs, why do you these things ? We also are men of like pas-
sions with yourselves, and preach to you that you should turn
from these vanities to the living God, who made heaven and
earth and all things therein. " Our business is to bespeak you
to be worshippers of the living God alone." Tlius doth the
word magnify him above the inanimate, senseless deities of the
pagan world, who were wont to v.'orship stocks and stones and
the works of their own hands; and bow down and pray to a
god that could not save. And how sliould we magnify to our-
selves the Object of our worship, under this notion, and admire
and bless God that he hath revealed himself to us, so as we are
not left altogether ignorant wlioni we are to worship, that we
do not vv'orship altogether we know not what. We know the
Object of our worship carries iirit the reason of its own being
worshipped, which renders it a rational worship. He is the
living and so the true God Ivhom we worship.
2. How highly sliould it recommend him to us as the Ob-
ject of our trust. "Therefore we labour and suffer reproach,
because we trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all
men, especially of them that believe. 1 Tim. 4. 10. and
chap. 6. 17 "Charge them which be rich in this world that
they trust not in uncertain riches but in the living God, who
giveth us richly all things to enjoy." How heart satisfying au
Object of trust have we in this respect, considering God as the
living God, the Fountain of an indeficient, never failing self-
©riginal and universal life, in all the excellencies and perfec-
tions of life.
i,EC. xix.^ The lifii of God 7 i
3. What an Object of fear have we even in tins conception
of God, or from this divine attribute. " It is a fearful thini^ to
fall into the hands of the living God." Heb. 10. 31. A man
may be angry with mc, and he dies and then his anger dies
with him ; but it is a fearful thing to fall into his hands v.ho
never dies, the hands of the everlasting God. Who would not
value his favour as that wherein stands life ? It should mighti-
ly raise our apprehensions concerning God to conceive of him
so. And,
4. It highly recommends him to us as the Object of our
imitation. For this is one of the divine excellencies or per-
fections, wdiereof there is a mimesis, a resemblance under the
same name in us. We do all of us live (as was said) several
sorts of lives wherein we do resemble God. But we should
most of all resemble him in a holy life, such of us vvl\o are
raised from death to life, or shall be so. And herein it is the
duty of every believer to resemble him. This is matter of pre-
cept, a thing capable of being put into a command. It is no
matter of duty to us to imitate him in the other kinds of life,
but in this kind of life it is matter of duty to imitate him in it,
that is, in the perfection of that life which is therefore called
the life of God, because it is prescribed us by God, enjoined us
by God and it is that wherein we are to imitate God. And
therefore, it is called, even as it is in us, *' the life of God."
Ephes. 4. IS. Others not yet reconciled to God, not brought
home, but remain in their natural, unconverted state, they are
" alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is
in them because of the blindness of their hearts." We are to
consider God, the living God, as the Object of our imitation :
and therefore, should reflect with just severity upon ourselves ;
*^Do we pretend a relation with the living God, and say he is
our God ? O 1 then what mean our dead prayers, our dead
duties, our dead hearts ! that we let them be dead, and do
not strive and wrestle and contend with them, to get them
up to this raised perfection of life wherein we are to resemble
God, and to express a visible conformity to him !" It is a severe
rebuke which is put upon the Sardian church. "Thou hast a
name to live and art dead." It is plain, he doth not speak of
a total death, or as if there was nothing of spiritual life among
them, for in the next words he saith, " be watchful and
strengthen the things that remain which are ready to die."
There were great degrees of deadness, but strengthen (saith he)
the remains of life, "the things that remain that are ready to
die," and see how it is enforced, " for I have not seen thy
works perfect before God." Your Jieavenly Father is in this
72 THE PRINCIPLES OT THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART I,
respect perfect, as he is the living God, as life is in him in the
highest pitch of [)erfection and excellency : " but I have not
found your works perfect before me, as your heavenly Father
is perfect;" therefore, "strengthen the things that remain that
are ready to die;" that your life may shine in lustre and glory
more suitably and conformably unto the divine lifcj unto the
life of God himself. But now,
LECTURE XX.*
2. In the next place I shall go on to speak somewhat
concerning the powkr of god which is another natural per-
fection in him, and is next of kin to the life of God. Once
have I heard this, twice iiath it been spoken, that power be-
longeth unto God, as in that 62 Psalm 1, verse. It is in him as
in its native seat and subject. It belongs unto him. Nothing
is more appropriate, more peculiar to God than power : and it
so belongs to him as it can to no other. If we speak of
strength, lo, he is strong : (as the expression is in Job) implying
all created power is not to be spoken of in comparison with him.
All other power is not to be named power, not worthy to bear
that name. " Your heavenly Father is perfect" in this, as well
as other respects: power is with him in perfection; the perfec-
tion of power belongs to him.
And here, concerning the power of God, I shall give you some
instances and some properties of it.
(1.) Some instances of it. As,
[1.] That it hath been the sole, productive cause of this
great creation. Consider all this vast creation as resolved back
again into nothing : and then consider it all springing up out
of nothing (as it were) at once. How vast a power is this !
Whatsoever in all the whole universe of created things you see
or hear of, or can think of; all this is raised up out of nothing
by the divine power. To bring any thing cit of nothing, how
vast a power would it rcquirl?" how far surpassing any human,
any created power ! If you could but suppose all the powers in
all the world, if the whole creation were to be combined and
united together only for this one single purpose, to make one
single atom, the least that can be thouglit to be raised out of
nothing, you would easily apprehend it would never be. If all
the world were assembled to contrive and unite their power to
make a grain of dust out of nothing, they must all confess it
* Preached June 26, IO91.
XEc. XX.) Mis Natural Perfections — Poiver. 73
infinitely above them. Then to have so vast a creation as this
made to arise out of nothing, at once from nothing come to
being-, how should it overwhelm us to think of it; all that we
now behold in being, and so far beyond, so inconceivably be-
yond what we can behold it to be. This earth of ours, as' spa-
cious as it is, is but a mere point, compared with our own vor-
tex ; but a part, but a little corner of the creation, and that
but a mere point in comparison with the rest of the universe;
and all this spoken out of nothing into being by the great Cre-
ator: the word of Divine Power but saying, '" Let it be," and
it was. Lift up your eyes on high, as the prophet's direction
is, Isaiah 49.18. and think who hath created all this : when
you behold the sun, and moon, and stars, the vast expanse of
the heavens, and all the ornature thereof. And again,
[2.1 There is the continual sustentation of this world, once
created and made, which is the same momently expense of
power; for all created being, if not continually sustained must,
by its own natural mutability, every moment be dropping into
nothing. So that here is the same power put forth as if a new
world were created every moment. And then,
[3.] That all the motion that is any where to be found,
throughout the whole universe continually proceeds so from it,
that the divine power is the continual spring of it. A wonder-
ful thing to think of! We are apt to have our thoughts soon
excited and awakened concerning the divine power when we
see some wonderful instance of it fall out, besides the ordinary
course. When we behold the effects of some violent wind and
impetuous tempest; if we see trees torn up by the roots,
houses shattered down, all to pieces, mountains torn asunder,
the bowels of the earth ript open, we straightway think these to
be great instances of a mighty power. But the power is in-
comparably greater that works continually and every moment
\n all the motion that is any where through the universe, in the
most still, and silent, and steady and composed way. The
power that continually, but silently turns about the mighty orbs
of heaven, and the great luminaries that are in it, and, as'some
think, tliis very earth itself, in that still, unobserved way that
we can take no notice of, which if it be, is incomparably less
than that the so inconceivably greater body of the sun should be
moved in so inconceivably greater a space, so much larger in
circuit, so vastly large, with that celerity that must answer
what we expect and see every day. What must that power be
that goes forth in this ? Such motion of the heavenly bodies
that we find move the sun, and moon, and other planets, be-
sides all the innumerable stars, multitudes whereof are so un-
YOL. VII, j^
71 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES Or GOD. (PAUTI.
speakably greater than the body of the sun, and that so vastly
greater than this earth of ours: and all these continually turned
about by a motive power : which because it is steady and con-
stant we are therefore so stupid as not to take notice of it, or
adore what is doing by it every rHoment, without failure, with-
out stop, even for one moment. We are to blame that we do
not more use our thoughts this way, to aggrandize to ourselves
the greatness of him that made all things, and us little inconsi-
derable parts of them all. And again,
[4.] That this power doth work constantly and steadily with
nature in a natural way, and extraordinarily, whensoever he will
to whom it belongs, against nature. Here is what doth de-
monstrate it to be the exceeding greatness of his power, it is
vastly great, as it co-operates with nature, as it works with na-
ture. And how vastly great doth it appear as it counterworks
fiature in several respects, and at his pleasure whose power it
is. It was great power that could make such a thing as fire
to burn, to seize and prey upon other matter, and devour and
consume it. But how much greater power doth it require to
make fire not to burn, to bind up the natural tendency of it, as
in the instance of the three children. It was a great power to
make that great element of water to flow along every where as he
hath assigned its receptacles and channels ; and greater again
when he pleaseth to make it not to flow, to congeal, as it were,
and to stand up the mighty waves on a heap. And again,
[5.] If we look a little into another sort of species, what a
weighty instance of this power was it to support the manhood of
Christ under those sufferings of his, which he, as to satisfaction
for the sins of men, and in which capacity only he was capable
of suffering ; to wit, as he was man, for he could not suffer as he
was God. That that man should be able to bear the weight
and load of all that guilt, which he undertook to expiate by his
blood, which blood was necessary to expiate it, and to lay a
foundation for the preaching of the gospel, which saith, *' who-
soever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting
life :" that he did not sink under that weight and load of guilt,
and under the power of divine wrath, when ail our iniquities
did meet on him : that he, one single man should be sustain-
ed and borne up, when so vast a load and weight of guilt lay
upon him : here was the power of the Godhead sustaining
that one man. It was because he was Immanuel, ** God with
us," God in our nature. That that nature did not fail, did not
sink under that mighty load : that that man should stand as the
fellow of God, when the sword waa drawn to strike that man
his fellow : that he should stand against him and not be de-
iEC. XX.) His Natural Perfections. — Power, 75
tioyed, and not be overcome, is a great power. And again
hereupon,
[6.] What an instance of the divine power was ti»c resur-
rection of that man? Sniiiten he was, and smitten down unto
death, into the grave. And yet out from thence he springs up
anew, by a divine power, " and was declared to be the Son of
God, with power by the Spirit of holiness, by which he was
raised from the dead." It was an exceeding greatness of power,
as you read, Ephcs. 1. 19. which he v/rought in him, or ex-
erted, or put forth in him, when he raised him from the dead.
And again,
[7.] What an instance is it of the power of God, when he
changes the lieart of a sinner, when he renevveth and reducetii
a lapsed, fallen, apostate, degenerate creature ; that is, espe-
cially when he changeth his will, the primary, main seat of that
mighty change. " Thy people shall be a willing people in the
day of thy power." Here is the perfection of divine power
to be seen in this: for most plain it is, as I said before about
creation, that if all the power of all this world were combined
together for this one effect, to alter the will of one single man,
it could never be done ; you know how to crush, how to tear
him into a thousand pieces, but no man knows which way to
change the will of a man, not in any instance whatsoever, un-
less God change it himself. In instances of common concern-
ment, nobody hath power over another man's will ; all the
power of all this earth is not able to change my will if 1 have
set it this way or that. But his people shall be a willing peo-
ple in the day of his power : your heavenly Father is perfect,
perfect in power in that he knows without doing violence to
his creature, without offering any thing that shall be unsuita-
ble or repugnant to its nature, to change its will. He knows
how to govern his creatures according to their natures : though
he knows how to rule and govern them, yea, to over-rule them
contrary to their nature when he will, yet he chooses to govern
his rational, intelligent creatures according to their nature,
and so agreeably changes the hearts of men, according to that
natural way wherein the human faculties are wont to work ; a
thing that all the pov/ers of the whole world could never do be-
sides. And again,
[8.] What an instance is it of his power to uphold the life
of a regenerate soul, during its course through this world ! A
great instance this is, that their heavenly Father is perfect in
power. For most certain it is, as soon as any one production
of this kind appears, if there be a child born, a son of God born
from above, all the powers of hell and darkness are presently at
76 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 1.
work, if it might be, to destroy this new, this divine production.
But it is enabled to overcome. "He that is born of God
fceepeth himself, that the evil one toucheth him not :" and
*' he that is born of God overcometh the world." This is by a
divine power annexing itself to, and working in, and with, this
new creature. The apostle speaking of one weak in the faith,
(Rom. H. 1.) weary in the faith, as the original signifies,
£hews tliat such a one might be received, but not to doubtful
disputations : for God (saith he) is able to make him stand.
This poor weakling, one that is weak in the faith, receive him
(saith he) for God (as despicable a thing as he appears) is able
to make him stand. Every new-born child is weak, and we
must conceive so concerning every regenerate soul : he is at first
Vv^eak, and they are always too weak, (God knows) as long as
they remain here in this world. They have distempers, weak-
ening distempers always about them. But concerning such a
weakling, that it should be said, " God is able to make him
stand," makes it to be an instance of a divine, enabling power
that ever he should be made to stand. And it is the like case
where such are tipoken of under the notion of bruised reeds, to
make a bruised reed stand against all the shocks of hell, when
all the infernal powers are engaged to overthrow it : God shews
that he is able to make it stand. And thus it is with such a
poor creature all the time of his abode upon earth, hell is en-
gaged in a continual conflict against his precious life, and pur-
posely and with a design to destroy that. But God is able to
make it stand, it lives as a spark amidst the raging ocean, and
is never extinct but always lives. What an instance of the di-
vine power is this ! And again,
[9.] Restraining the wrath of man combined with the pow-
er of hell against his church in this world. He hath built this
churcii upon a Rock, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against
it. The design hath been always driven, and the attempt con-
tinually renewed from age to age. One age hath been in-
dustriously at it to root religion out of the world, to extinguish
the divine seed, but they could make nothing of it : another
age rises up after them, *^Come (say they) let us handle the
matter far more wisely and take better methods and carry it
more secretly, that we may do our business more securely, and
see what we can do to extinguish and root out religion :" and
so the age after that, and then the next after that, and so from
age to age until this age, and yet the thing is not done : yet
this church remains, and is still in being, and is yet propagat-
ing itself. This is owing to the perfection of divine power.
Their Father which is in heaven is perfect, perfect in this pow-
LEG. XX.) His Natural Perfections. — -Poiver. 77^
er of his, by which lie conquers all the powers which are en-
gag'ed against his poor church in this world, he triumphs over
the feeble and impotent attemjns of men and devils. " He
that sits in the heavens laughs, tlie Most High has them in de-
rision." Tlie wrath of man shall praise him and the remain-
der thereof will he restrain. Psalm J6. 10. The wrath of
man he turns to his praise ; he makes niatter of praise and
triumph to himself that the wrath of man goes forth ; pleasing
himself with this, " How shall these wretched creatures see
themselves foiled and baffled within a little while 1" He raiseth
trophies and triumphs to the greatness of his power, from all
the wrath of man that goes forth. And that which shall not
belong to his praise, all that he will restrain. FJe can let It go
forth as he pleaseth, and restrain the remainder thereof as he
pleaseth. What he lets go forth, creates to himself a name
upon its going forth, and he suppresseth the rest. And though
I might thus multiply instances, I shall add but this one more :
and that is,
[10.] The power he shews in forbearing and sparing a sin-
ful world, and (upon his own prescribed terms) here and there,
as he pleaseth, pardoning and forgiving particular sinners.
This is a power which in some respects surmounts all the rest,
oran instance of power that surpasseth all other instances. la
other instances, his power shews itself in mastering of a crea-
ture, or outdoing all created power, but herein he useth a cer-
tain sort of power over himself, restraining his own great wrath,
omnipotent wrath, that it break not forth to consume a world,
and turn it into flames, as it righteously miglit have done many
ages ago. " Let the power of my Lord be great according as
thou hast said. The Lord is gracious and merciful, and of
great forbearance, forgiving iniquities, transgression and sin."
Let the power of my Lord be great. O ! how great is his pow-
er over this world 1 But how much greater is his power over
himself, when he withholds his anger, and lets not his fury go
forth to consume and make an end of sinners, as he easily could
in a moment. But,
(2.) I shall in the next place, after these instances, give you
some properties of this divine power. It is,
[1.] Original, as must be said of all divine attributes. All
other power is derived, secondary, borrowed, participated from
another; but the divine power, God is beholden to none for;
it is self-sprung, self-original. *'This have 1 heard," saith the
Psalmist, "once and again, that power belongeth unto God."
It is in him, as in its native subject. His is the first power, the
very beginning of power. It is in him as in the root and foun-
7S THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
tain: and so he is of himself, the mighty One. " If we speak
of strength, he is strong." Job 9. 19. As if it had been said.
All other strength is not worth the speaking of. If we speak of
strength, meaning a strength fit to be spoken of, or mentioned
under that name, that is divine strength. The divine is self-
originate, it is in him as in its first original. And again,
[2.] It is irresistible, or invincible, not to be resisted if he
pleaseth, and not to be overcome however. He will work and
none shall let it. His work shall go on, of whatsoever kind it
be ; if he have designed it once, resolved it once, it shall be
done through all, whatsoever opposition. Saith that man of
God Moses, that great man, (Deut. 32. 3. designing there to
give an account of God) " Because I will publish the name of
the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God : He is the rock,
his work is perfect." It is spoken concerning him and his
work as a stated, settled chiuacter, that whatsoever work he
resolves upon, he will make thorough work of it ; and so his
work shall bear the heavenly image upon it. Your heavenly
Father is perfect, and his work is perfect, carried on irresistibly,
whatsoever it is, upon which he sets his great heart, against all
opposition. And again,
[3.] He is a self-moderating power ; a power that can mo-
derate itself. Indeed, the power of all intelligent beings is
more or less so. It belongs only to brute agents to act, aid m/-
timum. Intelligent ones can govern their own power. But
such is the divine power in perfection, a self-governing power
that doth not go forth ad ultimum. He can temper it as he
pleaseth, and there is a most observable indication of the
peculiar excellency of his power in this respect continually,
though men observe it not, though men take no notice of it,
that it is self-moderating, as was said before, there could be no
such thing as motion any where throughout this great creation
of God ; but through a motive power from him, even his own
motive power, he being the first mover ; no hand turns, no
creature moves but by a participation of a power from him, the
great Fountain of all power. But now supposing without the
creation, apart from the creation, so vast a power (as the divine
appears to be) to go forth without moderation, without restraint,
if once there were such a consistent thing and this world, by
any means formed and connected together, I say by any means
formed and connected together, that divine power, not self- mo-
derated power, must needs shatter this consistent world all in
pieces in a moment. If that power were not self-moderated, so
that things are guided and moved in a steady, orderly course, it
must be so. How easily doth a great wmd throw down ^
LEC. XX.) Uis Natural Perfections. — Fower, 79
house ! Then so vast a power going forth from the Creator of
this world, supposing it compacted, congested, brought to a
consistent thing aheady, must needs shatter it all in pieces if
that power were not self-moderated that goes forth upon it.
And again, *
[4.] An infinite power; that is a further property of it.
How often is the great God, our God, our heavenly Father ce-
lebrated as the Almighty. " I know that thou canst do all
things," saith humbled, convinced Job, when God puzzled
him with so often repeated, " Canst thou ? Canst thou do
this ? and canst thou do that thou seest done ? and where wast
thou when I did so and so ? when I laid the foundations of the
earth? where wast thou when the morning stars sang together?
who ever thought of thee in that age?" When God had thus
argued with him and brought him down to the dust, (chap.
42.) he saiih, "I know thou canst do all things and that no
thought can be withheld from thee." That is, *' Whatsoever
thou thinkest to do, nothing can withhold thy thought from
proceeding to execution, from coming into fact, if thou wilt do
it. Thou hast an unbounded power without limits." But
this must be duly understood. It is to be noted here.
First. Concerning the infiniteness of the divine power, its
omnipotency, its almightiness, that it can never exemplify it-
self by an infinite effect. As it doth not follow, because di-
vine power is infinite therefore the world created by that pow-
er is, or could be infinite : or, that it was possible for God to
make an infinite one ; you would think that strange perhaps.
Cannot an infinite power produce an infinite effect ? Can it
produce an effect contrary to itself? No, but yet the other is
impossible : and the reason is so plain, that I think when you
consider it, every one will understand it. That is, if you should
suppose the infinite power of God to have made an infinite ef-
fect, this infinite effect can be made no better, no greater than it
is; for nothing can be added to what is infinite; and if so, then
that infinite power could do nothing more. So that it is a con-
tradiction for an infinite cause to produce an infinite effect, for
an infinite cause, would be exhausted by producing an infinite
effect : but an infinite cause can never be exhausted, therefore
an infinite effect can never be produced by it. That is, it can
never be said concerning an infinite cause, that it can do no
more. But if it should have produced an infinite effect it
could do no more, iov nothing can be added to what is infinite.
And,
Secondly. This is to be farther noted, that this infinite
power, omnipotence, almightiness, it caunot d^o iujpossible
$0 THE PRINCIPLES OP THB ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I,
things, neither things naturally impossible, nor things morally
impossible.
i. Not things naturally impossible. It can give being to
nothing that carries self-repugnance in it, thai should imply a
contradiction if such a thing should be. Whatsoever implies a
contradiction is no object of omnipotency. As for instance, to
make that not to be ; that is, while it is, to make a thing to be
and not to be at the same time ; or to make a thing that hath
been, not to have been. Tliis implies a contradiction, this is
naturally impossible and so, by consequence, is not an object
of almightiness. And,
ii. Any thing that carries in it a moral impossibility is no
object of divine power. To do an unjust thing, to lie, is im-
possible with God, impossible to his nature ; and therefore, when
we speak of the infiniteness of divine power, the perfection, the
absolute perfection of it, we are to consider this as it is con-
joined with other divine perfections, and so we are not to mea-
sure our notion, or conception of the divine power, by what it,
abstractly considered, can do, but as it is the power of a Be-
ing in all other respects absolutely perfect. It is one thing
therefore to inquire and determine what almighty power, con-
sidered apart by itself, can do, and another thing to consider
what almighty power in conjunction with all other divine per-
fections can do, as it is in conjunction with holiness, justice,
mercy, and wisdom. And it can never work but as it is in con-
junction with these, as it is joined with all these together.
Though God be almighty, omnipotent, he cannot do any unjust
thing, an inept thing, a foolish thing. This were impotency,
not omnipotency. It would speak him impotent, not omnipo-
tent : it were an imperfection of power, not a perfection of it.
We must consider him as perfect in power, and it would be an
imperfection of power to suppose him enabled to do any thing
that were unfit to be done. And then,
[5.] In the last place, his is eternal power. His eternal
power and Godhead go together, " Trust in the Lord for ever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." A perpetual,
never failing spring, he is in this, as he is in all the attributes and
excellencies of his being; " I Am that I Am. What I Am,
I am without variableness, or without shadow of turning."
That continual expense of power that hath been ever since the
creation, first arose out of nothing, hath not made that power
suffer any diminution, nor can it suffer any. He is still the
same, without variableness, without mutation, without so
much as the shadow of a turn, of a decay, of any failure.
Let us make some Use of this.
tEC. XX.) His ICatural Perfections. — Power. 81
1. Labour deeply to apprehend this perfection of tlie Divlna
Being : fix the apprehension of it : let all our hearts say with-
in us, " Lord we subscribe, we agree, we yield to the light
and evidence of divine trutli concerning th.y divine power." It
is a lamentable case that the clearest notion of divine truth
should be with us, as if we held the quite contrary, so as that
with reference to effects, and impressions upon our spirits, it
were all one to us, to believe that God were omnipotent, and
had all power, infinite power, and to believe he had no power.
It is a reproach to us, that our notions of truth, when they are
never so plain, are so insiirnificant, so void of effect, and of
their proper correspondent impression upon us.
2. Take heed of admitting disputations against tlie divine
power. Let the foundation be once firmly laid with you, that
power belongs to him in its highest perfection ; and then ad-
mit no disputations against it. We are too prone to do so, to
inisimpute things, to impute things wrong that we take notice
of, and that come under our observation, and make that a cause
which is not a cause ; we think that things do go in this world
many times very irregularly, and so as we wish they might not,
or they did not do, and secret atheism unobservedly slides in
and insinuates itself. "If there be a perfect One, perfect in
power as he is in all his other attributes, why are tilings thus ?
why do they go thus? why is not what is amiss redressed, and
presently redressed ?" But, as was said before, we are not to
judge of what the divine power c«w do, but to consider it in
conjunction with other attributes : consider it in conjunction
with perfect wisdom, as we shall have occasion afterwards to
apeak, consider it in conjunction with perfect liberty and with
absolute sovereignty. If we did consider things thus," Wo are
not to imagine that the divine power is to he exerted according
to our will, but according to his will," dispute would cease, the
matter would drop : we should presently say, "I yield the cause,
he knows better how to use his own power than 1 can direct
him." *Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, and who,
being his counsellor, hath instructed him ?' And,
3. That it may be so, let us labour to get our spirits into an
adoring frame and disposition towards him under this notion, as
our heavenly Father who is perfect in power, as the perfection
of power is in him. Let him be ahvays great and admirable in
our eyes under that notion, and so considered. And further,
4. Let us glory in him upon that account : let our hearts
exult in the thoughts that our heavenly Father is perfect in this
respect. Walk accordingly in his name, glory in it, make your
boast of him all the day long. This hath been the temper and
TOL. VII. yi
82 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD, (PART I.
genius that hath governed among a people related to him
heretofore. "Our God Is In heaven and he hath done whatso-
ever pleased him." When all people are wont to walk each one
in the name of his god, why should not we walk in the name
of the Lord our God? Their gods that are no gods, they please
themselves with and take a kind of pride in owning them. O
how warrantable a matter of gloriation have we, to go with hearts
lifted up in the name of our God ! Our God is in the heavens,
and doth whatsoever pleaseth him : and can with the greatest
facility carry every cause that he is engaged in. He cannot fail,
finally to own and right all that are brought to him, and adhere
to him, whatsoever their present excuses for awhile may be,
.Learn hence again,
5. To value an interest in him, and covet it, and labour to
make it sure and clear. Who can but think it the most desi-
rable thing in all the world, to have him who is so infinitely
perfect in this, as in all other respects, for their God r How se-
cure would it make a man's heart, how quiet and rationally
quiet to think, that power, all power, is in the hands of my Fa-
ther ! My Father can do whatsoever he will, he hath all power
in his hand. And then,
6. When you have made it your business to secure an inter-
est in him upon this account, and under this notion, then trust
in him under the same notion. Exercise a daily, vital trust
upon him. *' Trust in the Lord for ever, for with the Lord Je-
hovah is everlasting strength." Isaiah 26. 4. See how things
correspond there, "Trust in the Lord:" "Why," might the soul
say, "I have need of a God, and a strong one to trust in." In the
Lord Jehovah is strength j trust in him. " But I have need of
strength forever, being made to live for ever." In him is everlast-
ing strength ; so that you have as much reason to trust in him to
day as you had yesterday, and will have to-morrow as you had to
day : for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength, strength
that -will never fail, and it is trust that must keep you from fall-
ing. " He gives power to the faint and to them that have no
might he increascth strength;" and "they that wait on the
Lord shall renew their strength." Isaiah 40. 29. 31. And,
7- Lastly, Dread to have him for an enemy. O! consider the
fearful case of such as are engaged in a contest with him ! Con-
sider their folly, their madness, their misery ; and labour to
keep at the remotest distance from their state : fly from that
sort of men as a dreadful spectacle; you fly from among them
by ceasing to be of them. That is, by seeking reconciliation
with God, and an interest in him, and striking a covenant with
him, then you arc delivered from being of them j but think in
LEC. XXI.) His Intellectual Perfsctions. — Ktiotv/edge. 8S
the meanwhile with pity and compassion, what mad creatures
they are, that are engaged in a contest against omnipotency,
*' Woe to him that strives witli his Maker! Let the potsherds
strive with tiie potsherds of the earth." But what ! shall a pot-
sherd of the earth strive with all the powers of heaven ? How
unequal a match, how mad a choice is this ! And from thence
take your measure of what is like to become of all tlic contes-
tations in this world against God, and against his interest. We
are not to prescribe to him concerning the times and seasons
and methods : but do you see a sort, a generation of men set
against God and godliness ? It is easy to judge the event ; you
may easily foresee the effects in the power of their productive
cause.
And thus I have gone through those attributes which we cull
his natural perfections.
LECTURE XXI *
Secondly, I shall now come to speak of those perfections of
God that are to be considered under the head of bitellectual
ones, and there we have these two to consider and speak of, as
more eminent perfections, the knowledge of god, and his
WISDOM. These are great perfections of the Divine Mind,
wherein we must understand our heavenly Father to be perfect,
as the text stiles him. I shall speak to these both together, they
being congenerous, and of one sort and kind, though they are
to be conceived of by us, with some distinction. And,
1. For HIS KXOWLEDGE : our heavenly Father is perfect in
this respect ; or his knowledge is most perfect knowledge. It
appears to be so, both in respect of the peculiar nature of it,
and in respect of its extent, with reference to the objects about
which it is conversant.
(1.) In respect to the peculiarity of its nature : it is know-
ledge of such a kind as is appropriate to God only : that is, upon^
this account principally, that it is entirely intuitive not discur-
sive. It is not such a sort of knowledge as that by which we
proceed, as we do from the knowledge of plainer and more ob-
vious things to the knowledge of those that are darker and more
obscure. But his knowledge of all he knows Is simultaneous,
that is, he knows all things at once, all at one view. We come
to know some things by the knowledge of others which we
foreknew, and so are fain to lead on our minds from step to
* Preached October the 9th; l(Jgi.
S4 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART i;
Step, and from point to point. The case is not so with him.
All things are at once naked and manifest to his view, so as that,
thou^,^h he doth see the connexion of things and knows them to
be connected; yet he doth not know them or any of them because
they are so connected ; that is, because he knows such things,
therefore knows such other things as are connected therewith, as
it is with us, while we proceed by rotation from the knowledge
of some things to the knowledge of more. His is in this res-
pect most perfect knowledge. And,
(2.) It is so in respect of its extent, in reference to the objects
known. And we must,
[1.] Suppose the extent of this knowledge so vast as to
reach simply unto all things : that is, not only all things that
do exist, but all things that are even possible to do so. In
this respect, with reference to the objects of divine knowledge,
it is aptly wont to be distinguished into that which they call
Simplkis intelligeyitia et imrcs visiords. It is no matter for
opening to you those terms ; but the thing intended to be sig-
nified by the one and the other is briefly this — that God doth
not only know all those things that shall certainly be, but all
those things that are possible to be. And so in that respect
the object of his knowledge is equal to his power. There is
nothing possible but what he can do, but what he can effect.
Every thing is possible to him because he can make it to be.
And so vast as that mnhitus^ circle of his omnipotence, so vast
also is the object of his knowledge or omniscience ; that is, he
knows whatsoever he can do he knows the utmost extent of
his own power though he never intends to do actually all he can.
But then,
[2.] The perfection of this knowledge, in reference to the
object of it, is most especially conspicuous in two things, name-
Jy> — that he knows all futurities and — that he knows all the
most secret thoughts and purposes of men, or generally of his
intelligent creatures.
First. That he knows all contingent futurities. It is needful
you should understand me right here, not only bare futurities,
that is, things that shall certainly come to pass. There are
many men can certainly foretell many future things : that is,
natural futurities and such as do depend upon certain and set-
tled causes ; as when it is morning, the night will come, when
the sun is risen, that it will set, when the sea has ebbed, that
it will flow, and the likej but contingent futurities mean
quite another thing, that is, such futurities as do depend upon
free causes, such as do depend upon the will and pleasure
of such creatures as have a certain sort of liberty belonging
to their nature. And thence comes that miracle of pro-
LEC. XXI.) His Intellectual Perfections. — Knowledge. 85
phesylng; that God should be able to tell so distinctly and
with such certainty, for many ages yet to come, that such
and such tilings, men will do. Nor are we to think so de-
basingly of this knowledge of God as to suppose it depends
only upon this his purpose to make a man do whatsoever he
knows he will do ; which indeed were to debase it into the very
dirt, and to make him accessary to all the impurities and wick-
edness in the creation, by men or devils. And it is to narrow
it as much as to debase it r that is, to suppose that he could
hot know that men would do so and so unless he would make
them do the very things that he forbids them, in the very cir-
cumstances wherein he forbids them. And this indeed were to
subvert the whole entire notion of divine forbearance and per-
niissive providence. As when we are told (Rom. 3. 25) ^'I'hat
God set forth his Son to be a propitiation through faith in his
blood, for the remission of sins that are pa*^t, through the forbear-
ance of God." To suppose that sin should be past, through
the forbearance of God, that is, that he forbearing men, they
sin, were a subverting the notion of forbearance, if he made
them do (by a positive effective influence) all that they do in a
way of sin, though the thing be never so apparently evil in itself
most intrinsically evil, as the very act of hating himself. To
suppose that he should only so know this or that, that he should
be ignorant who should hate him and who should not, among the
children of men, unless he should make them hate him, and
determine to make them do so that he might know what they
would do ; this were not only to debase, but infinitely to nar-
row this knowledge of God. To suppose that he cannot know but
upon such and such terms, or in the same way wherein tlie
devil hath some certain foreknowledge of what he intends to
his uttermost to make men do, must infinitely debase and nar-
row his knowledge. He is not an idle or unconcerned super-
visor of the affairs of this world, and doth not only foreknow
whatsoever one will do, but he knows too how to limit their ac-
tions and how to restrain and how to convert and turn to good,
what they do with the most evil and mischievous intentions and
designs, but upon this it is that he doth demonstrate his God-
head, that he is able to declare future things long before they
come to pass, and did so ; that he hath given such predictions
of what should be, long before it was. In many places of the
prophet Isaiah he doth, as it were, magnify his own Deity in
opposition to the paganish gods, by this, that he hath declared
the end from the beginning, even what shall be in all after-
times. As in the 41 . 44. and 48. chapters of that prophecy we
have many passages of that import. And in that 41 chapter,
verse 22, 23a he doth, (as it were) provoke and challenge the
SG THE PIIINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART I.
heathen deities to demonstrate their Godhead this way. " Pro-
duce your cause," (saith he) " let them declare things to come,
that we may know that they are gods :" as if he had said, "Let
them never talk of being gods, or that there is any such thing
as deity belonging to such despicable idols unless they caa
foretell things to come. And this is the true import of that
great scripture : Rev. 19. 10. " The testimony of J. sus is
the spirit of prophecy :" that is, that which should demonstrate
the truth of the Christian religion or prove against all con-
tradiction that Jesus was the Christ, was the spirit of pro-
phecy so long before, that he should come at such a time and
in such circumstances into the world as eventually he did,
^And,
Secondly. This perfection of divine knowledge is most eminent-
ly conspicuous in this too, his knowledge of the hearts of men;
that he knows the most secret thoughts and purposes of men's
hearts, and looks into them with an eye that injects fiery beams.
He hath an eye as a flame of fire, that searcheth hearts and
tries veins ; so as that when there is (as it were) a challenge givea
to all this world ; " Who can know tlie heart of man?" It "is de-
ceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know
it ?" (Jer. 17. 9.) here comes one, that answers the challenge,
" I the Lord search the heart and try the reins." And this is
one of the great things that both demonstrates and magniHes
his Godhead. Amos 4. 13. " He that formed the mountains
and created the wind, and that declares to man what is his
thought, the Lord, the God of hosts is his name."
I shall not further insist on this, but pass on to the other
intellectual perfection, in respect v,'hereof we also ought to
conceive our heavenly Father is perfect; that is,
2. His wisdom. He is pei-fect in being perfectly wise, all-
wise as well as all-knowing. I told you we were to speak of
these perfections of the Divine Nature, and conceive of them,
according to what analogy they have to such things as go under
the same names with us, and so wisdom and knowledge are two
distinct things. Many know much who are not wise : but so we
are to conceive of the perfections of our heavenly Father, that
he is not only most perfectly knowing, but most perfectly wise
also. Wisdom, you know, is commonly distinguished into spe-
culative and practical: sapience and prudence. Indeed, the
former doth not greatly differ from knowledge but somewhat it
doth. It is not needful for me to stay to explain to you the
distinct notions of intelligence, sapience and science. The
first whereof, is the knowledge of principles, the last of con"
elusions, and the jniddle comprehends both together.
I.EC. XYi.) " His Intellectual Perfections.— fVisdom. S/
But besides what hath been said concerning the knowledare
of God, it will be of more concernment to us to consider his
wisdom, as it corresponds to that which with men is called
prudence, as the expression is Prov. 8. 1 2. for both are most
conjunct with him. " I wisdom dwell with prudence." And
so this wisdom lies in always proposing to himself the best and
most valuable end : and choosing the aptest and most suitable
measures and means for computing it. According as any one
doth more perfectly both these, he ought to be accounted more
perfectly wise. Now his end is known to every one that knows
any thing of God, he cannot but be his own end. As he is the
Author so he must be the End of all things for himself. He
hath made all things for himself, by the clearest and most in-
disputable right. There could never have been any thing but
by him, and it is not to be supposed that he should make a
creature to be his own end. It would not consist witli the
wisdom of a God, that he should do so : it were indeed to make
a creature to be a God to itself, or that he should upon such
terms make a creature to ungod himself. And whereas, the
just display of his own glory Is the means to his end, his doing
that, is most conspicuous in such things as these, to wit, in the
creation of tlie world, in his providential government of his
creatures, in the mighty work of redemption, wherein he
hath abounded in all wisdom and prudence j and in the conduct
of his redeemed through all the difficulties of time to their eter-
nal state.
These are the means; or his actual displaying or diffusing of
the beams of liis glory in all these ways, is that by which he
doth effect his own glory, make it to shine as that he is there-
upon the most worthy and becoming Object unto all eternity, of
all the adoration and praise of his intelligent creatures; the
most worthy and deserving Object, whatsoever is done, or not
done by any of them. My limits will not allow me to insist, at
least not largely, on these things,
(1.) The creation of the world. What a display of wisdom
was there in that ! If we ta:ke but the two great and compre-
hensive parts of it, heaven and earth, "He hath established the
earth by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his un-
derstanding," or discretion. Jer. 10. 12. And if you should
look into the one or the other of these more comprehensive parts,
it would not be conviction only, but transport and admiration
that we ought to be put into every hour, or as often as we make
any such reflection. But I must not go into particulars, as I
might. And then,
(2.) For the providence by which he governs this created
88 THE PRINCIPLRS OF THE ORACLSS OV GOD. (PART I,
world, and all the variety of creatures in it, so as that all things
in their own particular places and stations do most directly sub-
serve the purposes for which they were visibly made, they are
sustained that they may do so: they are guided and governed
and ordered in all their natural tendencies and motions that
they may do so. And,
(3.) For that wonderful work of redemption, the apostle
gives us this note about it, that he hath therein abounded in all
wisdom and prudence. Ephes. 1. 7» S« Herein did the perfec-
tion of wisdom and prudence shine forth, to reconcile the
mighty, amazing difficulties, and seeming contrarieties, real
contrarieties indeed, if he had not someway intervened to order
the course of things, such as the conflict between justice and
mercy ; that the one must be satisfied in such a way as the
other might be gratified; which could never have had its pleas-
ing, grateful exercise without being reconciled to the former.
And that this should be brought about by such an expedient,
that there should be no complaint on the one hand nor on the
other, herein hath the wisdom of a crucified Redeemer, that
is, whereof the crucified Redeemer or Saviour was the effected
Object, triumphed over all the imaginations of men, and all the
contrivances, even of devils and hell itself ; for they undoubt-
edly were so secure upon no account as this, that they saw our
Lord die. Satan filled the heart of Judas to bring it about that
he might die; animated the whole design : this was the devil's
contrivance, " If he that is turning the world upside down, doing
such wonders every where, all men running after him be but
dead, if we can bring him to his end, we shall certainly make
an end of his religion, we shall certainly make an end of his de-
sign." But even by that death of his, by which the devil con-
trived the last defeat, the complete destruction of the whole
design of his coming into the world, even by that very means
it is brought about so as to fill hell with horror, and heaven and
earth with wonder. And then,
(4.) The conduct of the redeemed through this world, not-
withstanding all the obstacles, discouragements, and difficulties
that lie in their way, what a display, a glorious display of the
divine wisdom is there in this ! I shall not speak to particulars
distinctly, but only give some general account. As,
[1.] That it hath never yet made any wrong step; that
amidst all these wonderful varieties of actings and dispensations
wherein it hath been engaged ever since there was a creation,
there should never be any one wrong step made, nothing amiss
done, nothing ever done out of time, or otherwise than it
should. And,
LEC. XXII.) His Intellectual Perfections. — TFisdom. 89
[2.] That it is never at a stand, never puzzled, hath always
its way open to it, every thing forelald : '^ Known to God are all
his works from the beginning," as that sage speech is of the
apostle James, at the famous council of Jerusalem. Acts 15.
He can never meet with a difficulty that can put him to a stand;
for his way is always plain and open before him. And,
[3.] That he never loses his design, never misseth any end
that he proposes to himself: The counsel of the Lord always
stands, and the thoughts of his heart take place through all ge-
nerations. Fsalm33. 11. And,
[4.] That he doth so frequently disappoint and bring to no-
thing the designs of the wisest and most contriving men, turns
their wile? upon their own heads, " takes the wise in their own
craftiness," drives their way headlong, precipitates their coun-
sels into confusion and abortion : as the expressions are in that
5th Job 12, 13. and in the 33d psalm, 9, 10. And many more we
have in Scripture, of the like import. And then,
[5.] Tiiat he frequently surpriseth the most apprehensive
and sagacious among men ; doth things that it was never
thou2:ht he would do ; wondrous things, terrible things that we
looked not for. Isaiah 64. 3. Sometimes they are fearful sur-
prises that he brings upon men, and sometimes grateful
ones. Indeed, the same dispensation may be at the same
time most terrible and most grateful, most terrible to one sort
and most grateful to another, as they must be understood to be
that are mentioned in Isaiah 64. 3. *' Terrible things that we
looked not for, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.'*
That is, the most mountainous oppositions, the loftiest and most
aspiring spirits brought down and made to stoop : and all their
pride laid in the dust; so it Iiath often been beyond all expec-
tation, he still shewing his ways to be as much above our ways,
and his thoughts above our thoughts, as the heaven is high
above the earth, and as the east is far removed fnjm the west.
So it hath been when he hath gone beyond any fear or foresight
of his enemies, and above all the hopes and desires and prayers of
his people, done beyond what they could ask or think. What
wonderful conspicuous beamings forth of the divine wisdom,
have there been in such ways as these I
] shall not discourse to you further doctrinally, concerning
these things. Something I would say by way of Use, before I
pass from them. Thus our heavenly Father is perfect. Why
these are very clear notices of God, which we soon hear; we
have heard them now within the compass of a little time; and
we as soon assent to them as we hear them. But pray let us
Jook into ourselves and consider. What impressions have they hi-
yoi., Yii, N
00 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PAttT I,
therto made upon our hearts ? Have our hearts been all this
while lea])ing and springing within us, and saying, " This God
is our Cod ; our heavenly Father is thus perfect ?" Hath that
been the lively ^ense of our souls within us all this while ? And
consider, these notices of God are not new tons. Did we ne--
ver hear before that the living and true God is all-knowing and
all-wise? When were we without these apprehensions ? Such a
conception of Gqd as this we have had ever since we had the
use of our understanding, and heard or knew any thing of God
at all. But pray consider, What suitable, permanent and abiding
impression have we borne about the world with us hitherto ?
and wliat is he so far manifested and made known to us for ? Is
it not that our spirits might be formed by the discovery, and
our minds thereby governed agreeably thereunto? How comes
it to pass that such things as tiiese should have had all this
while no more influence to beget a correspondent heart and
spirit in us towards God? Is it that these things are of little
weiglit, that they sink no more into our hearts and souls ? Or is
it a matter of small concernment to us, what a one he is whom
wc take for our God, or profess to have so taken ? Is that a
matter of small concernment to us? Do we know tvhat the
name of God imports ? To be a God to us, is to be our
"•' All in all," to be such a one to us every way, in point of
good to be enjoyed, in point of power and authority to be obey-
ed and submitted to. Can it be a little matter in our eyes,
what a one our God is, he that we hare to do with continually
as our God ? And by how much the more easily we assent to
such things concerning him when we hear them, it argues that
they are so much the plainer, and therefore tliat the guilt must
be unspeakably the greater and unspeakably the heavier, if our
hearts and spirits be not in some measure proportlonably fram.ed
and steered and conducted according to the import and tenden-
cy of so plain things. These arc not dark things that need much
explication to us, nor doubtful things that need proof or de-
monstration. We are satisfied already, that he could not be
(jod, who is not infinitely knowing, and infinitely wise, and
])erfect!y both. So that we have nothing at all to do but to
comport in the frame and temper of our spirits, and in the
course of our walking with these most evident things. And
by how mncli tlie greater they are, and the more sacred they
are, (and things that we profess to believe and apprehend con-
cerning God must be such, for a greater one could not be con-
cerned than he,) the greater profaneness must it be to abuse such
notices as these are, or not to use them^ not to improve them
to their proper purpose and end. We know such things con-
JLSC. XXI.) His Intellectual Perfections. — Wisdom, I) I
cerning God: and have we nothing to do with tlie things of
God, but to trifle with them or to let t.hcm lie by as neglected,
useless things, vvlien they are to run through our lives and to
have a continual iuHuence upon us tlirough our whole course
from day to day ? Are these things riglit In our minds and un-
derstandings, and our hearts in the mean time only as a rasa
tabula, a vierebla)ikf There are such notices in our minds, but
look into our heartb and see what corresponds there. Alas ! ther^
is nothing, a mere vacuity : what a sad case is this ! and yet the
discovery of these things breathes no other design l)ut only to form
our hearts and spirits and that our lives may be proportionably
governed. It is a dreadful thing to have the knowledge of God
lie dead in our souls, as if that uere to go for nothing. Here I
might shew you what impressions this discovery of the divine
perfections should make upon our hearts, and might thence pro-
ceed to shew you in many instances that it doth not make that
impression which it should. But I must not take that course.
I will briefly hint a little at the former, the latter you will re-
collect yourselves: rectum est irulex sui et ohliqui : If it doth
appear once what we should be and do, correspondently to the
apprehension of the divine perfection in these respects, it will
be easy to us to animadvert on ourselves and see wherein we are
not what we should be, and do not what we should do corres-
pondently hereunto. It is plain,
1. That such a discovery of (.lod, in these perfections of his,
should conduce greatly to the forming and composing of our
spirits to adoration, to make adoration of him to be very much
the bysiness of our lives. Flow grateful should it be to us to
think we have such an Object for worship and adoration, the all-
knowing and the all-wise God 1 How vastly ditferent in this
respect is our case from theirs that worship stocks and stones
for deities, senseless and inanimate things ! Tiiat worship woods
and trees and rivers and fountains and beasts and creeping
things and the like. What hath God done for us that he hath
made himself known to us in these great perfections, as the
Object of our worship ! that when we pray we know we pray to
an intelligent Being that knows all things, and an all-wise God
that judgeth what is best and most suitable to be done in refer-
ence to what we supplicate him iU^oul, and Vv'hen and how to
do all that he judgeth fit to be done. There ought not only
to be an adoring frame in solemn worsljip hereupon, but an
adoring frame we should carry about with us through this world,
often looking up to him, and considering that we have always
an eye to meet our eye, and are to apply mind to mind, (what a
satisfaction is thai !) understanding to understanding, our im-
92 THE PRINCIPLlfcS Of THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
perfect understanding to liis perfect one. With what adoring
souls should we go through this world every day upon this ac-
count ! But do we do so ? Consider how far short we come in
so plain a case as this is. And again,
2. Should it not make us stand much in awe ? The matter is
plain: great knowledge and wisdom in a man, great prudence
creates great reverence, especially if it be in conjunction with
things that we know are in the highest conjunction here, if in
conjunction with authority, power and dignity. But even apart
they do much in this kind ; when a man hath the repute of a wise
man, of a knowing person, it would strike us with so much awe
as not to trifle, not to play the fool in the presence of such a
one. Is there any thing proportionable with us in our frame
and deportment towards the all-knowing God ? Our heaven-
ly Father is perfectly knowing, perfectly wise ; in what awe
should we stand of him continually upon these accounts ! And
again,
3. It should fill us with shame to think what he knows by
us. He is all eye as one said truly of him. With what
confusion should it fill us to think he should know so much
by us every day ? Every vain thought, every light motion of
ouv mind, all our fooleries, all our triflings, all our impuri-
ties that lodge and lurk in our hearts are known to him.
This thought made a great impression upon a heathen; (Se-
neca, as he cestifieth himself,) omnia sic ago, tangiiatn in
conspecfie, I do every thing as in sight, as having an eye that
doth rimari, <pry into my breast. O 1 what a shame is it that
we should need a heathen instructor in such a matter as this !
and how confounded should we be before the Lord to think
what he knows by us continually, that we should be ashamed
that men should know such things concerning us, as we are not
ashamed he should know. The ingenuity of grace is wanting,
it works not, shews not itself. It hath wrought like itself here-
tofore, "I blush, 1 am ashamed to lift up mine eyes to heaven,"
saith good Ezra, and that, when he speaks not so much neither
concerning iiis own sins as the sins of the people.
4. How should it make us study to be sincere. Nothing in
us so answers perfect wisdom and knowledge in God, as since-
rity. Every thought of my heart thou hast known long be-
fore; and it follows in the same Psalm, 139. *' Search me O
Lord and try me, and shew me if there be any evil way" (any
painful way as the hebrew admits to be read) " in me, and lead
me in the way everlasting." Again,
5. It should possess us with great complacency, (those that
can reflect upon their own sincerity,) that they are continually
in view to God. It should be a complacential thought, to think
LEC. XXI.) His IntellecUial Perfections. — Wisdom. 93
that he who is so perfectly knowing, and so perfectly wise,
knows their sincerity, and knows too, all their infirmities.
That he knows their sincerity, *' Thou knowcst all things, thou
knowestthat I love tliee." John 21. I7. And that he knows
their intirniities, and will consider them with indulgence and
compassion. " He knows our frame and remembers that we are
but dust." Psalm 103. 14. And,
6. It ought to possess us with trust, habitual trust that
should run through our lives. Is not such a one fit to be trust-
ed ? doth it not highly recommend him to us as the Object of
our trust, that we know him to be perfectly knowing and per-
fectly wise ? You can easily apprehend, an ignorant fool is not
to be trusted. One that is ignorant and a fool is no fit object
of trust. Is not he therefore that is perfectly knowing and per-
fectly wise, a fit Object ? How cheerfully therefore should you
trust him with all your concernments, how cheerfully should
you intrust him with the concerns of this world, and your part
and share therein ? considering in v/hat hand your afikirs and
all affairs do lie, even in his who will make, " all things work
together for good." So he hath engaged to do, and he is most
knowing and most wise that hath so engaged. Impiudent per-
sons promise rashly what is not in their power, but he that is
perfectly knowing and wise can never do so. Though 1 might
mention divers other things I will shut up all with this,
7. It should make us study conformity to him in these res-
pects. Have we this discovery of the perfections of our hea-
venly Father, that he is perfectly knowing and perfectly wise ?
It should make us endeavour after conformity to him in know-
ledge and wisdom : for these are some of his communicable
excellencies ; that is, his imitable ones. We should think with
ourselves, '* Is it for me to pretend to him as a child, to call
him Father, to say, my Father which is in heaven is perfectly
knowing and perfectly wise, when I am nothing else but an
ignorant fool ?" Wisdom expects to be justified of her children.
Are we the children of wisdom, are we the children of him that
is perfectly wise and perfectly knowing ? Certainly it concerns
us to be like our Father in these respects : this is a great part
of his image, even of his image to be renewed in us. " Put on
(saith the apostle) the new man which is renewed in know-
ledge after the image of him that created him." Col. 3. 10.
Is it for the glory of the all- wise and all-knowing God to have
a company of fools for his children, ignorant crtatures tliat
know nothing, and labour not to know much of the things that
most concerns them to know, in reference to him, and what
lies between hiii) and them ? We should, upon these accounts,
94 THE PRINCIPLKS OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
labour to value and covet, most of all, mental excellencies'
such as these. But such is not the common guise of this
world. And it is an amazing thing, to think so many intelli-
gent creatures' minds and spirits (though lodged in flesh) should
be so lost as to a!) apprehension of true excellency, or of what
is truly valuable, as to value a little glitter, a little exterior
pomp and splendour before these mental excellencies of know-
ledge and wisdom, that are most peculiar to God, and wherein
we, if v/e are possessed of them shall most resemble liim.
What fools are the men of this world ! They esteem men ac-
cording as they have most of worldly pelf, as they have collected
together most of thick clay, but they never think of vah'iiig
themselves or any one else by the mental excellencies of know-
ledge and wisdom in which they resemble God. What base
erroneous thoughts must these be supposed to have of God !
Wijat do such make of God? As the apostle sptaks to these
Athenians, but speaks as knowing and understanding them and
himself to be of a mind as to this, he argues with them from a
principle and ex concessh " What! do you think the Godhead
is like silver and gold or corruptible things?" As if he had said,
*' 1 cannot but know as well as if I were within you that you
are of my mind perfectly in this matter, tliat is, that the God-
liead is not like to silver or gold or corruptible things, but he is a
kSpirit, and you, as you are spiritual beings, or as you have such
in you, are his offspring." Certainly it is to be governed by
the judgment of a fool in my choice, in my desires, in my esti-
mation of things, to think that earthly things are the most va-
luable things, that carnal things (as the apostle calls them) are
the most honourable things. No, without doubt those are the
most honourable and most valuable things that are most God-
like, and by which I shall most resemble God. How was he
taken with Solomon for his judgment and choice when he bids
him ask what he would have ! He was not such a fool as to go
and ask riches, honour, long life, or the necks of his enemies,
but begs for wisdom and understanding. This was most God-
like : and you see how God was pleased with his choice, how
iiigh an approbation lie gives of it in that 1 Kings 3. 10, 11.
And we should labour to govern our own judgment in these
matters accordingly.
And pray consider this with yourselves, and labour to feci the
weight of it in your own spirits, if we do not covet and desire
that God should create us according to his image and likeness,
we shall certainly be apt to create to ourselves a god after our
own image and likeness. That is, if we do not make it our
business to have ourselves made like unto him, we shall be in-
LEG. XXII.) His Moral Perfections, — General remarks. 95
dustrious to make him like to ourselves. As it is in the Psalm-
ist, " Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as
thyself." A thing that will lead and plunge us into the de*
plorable estate of all sin and misery unavoidably.
LECTURE XXII.*
Thirdly, It remains now that we go on to the third head of
the communicable perfections of God, to wil, those of the di-
vine will, or which we may otherwise call iiis moral perfec-
tions, and the most principal of tliem which I shall (but brief-
ly too) speak of, are these four, to wit, his holiness, his justice,
his faithfulness and his goodness. And before I speak to them
severally, 1 shall give you some general considerations con-
cerning them, and which will also partly respect some of
those that have been spoken to already under the former heads.
As,
1. That when we distinguish the divine perfections into na-
tural, intellectual and moral, the meaning is not as if those that
were intellectual and moral were not also natural. But the
first member in this distinction is larger and more comprehen-
sive than the rest. All that are intellectual and m©ral are also
natural perfections in the divine nature, but all that are natural
are not intellectual and moral. And,
2. We are to consider this concerning them, that the divine
perfections which are spoken of under the notion of attributes,
they do suppose their subject to be such, as to which they can
and they must agree: we speak now only of a subject of denomi-
nation not of a subject of inhsesion in a proper sense. But
they do all suppose their subject, that is of predication, to be a
spiritual Being, or they do suppose God to be a Spirit, and
might, all of them, be brought as proofs and demonstrations (if
it were needful) that he is so. He could not be intelligent if
he were not a spirit, nor righteous, nor holy, nor just, nor true,
for all these do suppose such a subject of predication as to which
such attributes or attributed perfections can and must agree.
And therefore (as hath been intimated formerly) when we speak
of the attributes and perfections of God, this doth not come
among them, but is presupposed and necessarily presupposed.
Those that are properly called attributes are spoken of in quale
quid, not in quid as schoolmen do fitly enougii say, though
•* Preached October the loth. IG^I.
96 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
I do not need to trouble you with the explication of those
terms.
3. You are to note this concerning them, that as they do
suppose their suitable subject, so several of them do suppose
others of them. As wisdom doth suppose knowledge, and holi-
ness doth suppose wisdom ; and justice, holiness, and faithful-
ness, justice, and so on. And again,
4. We are to consider (hat our conception of God and his
nature and the properties belonging thereunto, cannot possibly
take up things otherwise than by parts : and so all our concep-
tions of him must be inadequate, and when we have taken up
as much as is possible it is but a small portion that we have
' taken up, or can admit into our minds. And therefore, we are
to conceive concerning all these perfections of God that though
it be unavoidable to us to apprehend diversly, yet we must ap-
prehend them as all falling into one most simple nature and
being : whence it is not to be thought strange that we find a
coincidence in very great part indiversive of these perfections,
that do (as it were) fall and run into one another. As there
will be more occasion to take notice in those particulars that
are mentioned. And,
5. You are to consider further that our notices of God must
needs be in a great measure by reflection on ourselves. He
hath been pleased to let us know that he created man at first
after his own image. That is, after his natural image with the
addition of his moral or holy image. And that he doth again
regenerate and renew men after his own image, that is, his holy
image, supposing the natural one, that being still supposed re-
maining, as the subject both of the corruption and of the resti-
tution. This being so, we have the advantage of discerning
much concerning the excellencies and perfections of the Divine
Nature by reflecting upon ourselves. What we see by that re-
jection, we see as in a glass darkly, and indeed, when we are
the glass we are a very dark one. But some resemblance, some
image there is to be found, even with all there is the natural
image of God, and with the regenemte there is the holy image
renewed, though very imperfectly renewed, whereupon when
we are to conceive of holiness, faithfulness, justice and good-
ness in God, our conception is much to be helped by these no-
tions that we cannot but have of such things among men, these
being, (as you have heard) of his communicable attributes that
have the same name in him and in men, and the image and
likeness of the same things. And,
6. Though there be somewhat of the divine image or likeness
in men, yet this similitude is not to be considered without very
LEC. xxji.) Hi'i 3Ioral Perfectio7is — Holiness. 97
great dissimilitude. It is true Indeed, omne simile est dissimile,
every like is also unlike, but there must be most of all when we
are to compare things in God and in us. Though there be
some similitude, tlie dissimilitude must be vastly great which
we are to take along with us in speaking of each of those men-
tioned perfections of the divine will, and so we come to the
particulars. And,
1. As to the HOLINESS OF GOD. That very term as it is ap-
plied to God, is of various significancy. And indeed, it is so as
the term comes thence transferred unto creatures. Some-
times it signiiies august, venerable, great, majestic. And the
reason of the use of that phrase to such a purpose, that is, holy
to signify august and venerable, is obvious : for as things that
were holy were not to be violated, were not to be touched (as it
were) by impure hands, not to be arrogated, not to be meddled
with by any but those to whom they were appropriate, (in wdiich
respect, majesty hath been wont to be accounted a sacred thing
that was not to be meddled with by any other, and the person
a sacred person that was clothed therewith, not by any means
in the world to be violated,) so v.ith no very remote translation,
holy or holiness being spoken of God doth signify the auful-
ness, the venerableness, of the Divine Nature. But yet, this is
somewhat alien from holiness as it is a moral perfection : or as
it is a perfection of the divine will, i^nd therefore, as such we
must consider It under its own proper and peculiar notion. It
sometimes also, signifies firm, sure, unalterable. The sure
mercies of David, (Isaiah 55.) the Septuagint renders it sa-
cred, holy. But if we speak of holiness in the proper sense, as
it is a perfection of the divine will, so it must needs, in the ge-
neral notion, signify the rectitude of that will in all things, and
so it must have two parts, a negative, and a positive part.
(I.) A negative; and so the divine holiness stands in purity,
in being most perfectly free from any taint or defilement, from
any thing of moral turpitude, in any kind or any degree. And
that purity, the negative rectitude of the divine will which is
carried In his holiness, comprehends two things, first, an en-
mity from all irrectitude, any taint, any turpitude : and second-
ly, an abhorrence and detestation thereof. Not only that
the nature and will of God hath nothing impure, or that is not
right adhering to it ; but doth also detest and abhor to liave.
It signifies the aversion of the divine will, its perpetual, inflex-
ible aversion from every thing that is evil, unworthy of it, unbe-
coming to it. And so whereas, lioliness is spoken of in Scrip-
ture under the notion of light, that light Is said to he without
darkness, in the first place, (1 JohQ 1. 5.) "God is light, an4
VOL. VJI. •
98 THE PaiN'CIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
with him is no darkness at all." This is made the matter of
solemn messaii:e to the sons of men : " And this is the mes-
sage that we have from him and which we declare to you :"
God hath sent this message to the world, this account of him-
self, that he is light and without any darkness at all, without
the least mixture of any thing that is impure, or foul or unwor-
thy of him. But then, as it is said in that place, speaking of
the divine holiness under the notion of light, that it is without
darkness : so it is, secondly, elsewhere, represented under the
same notion as expulsive of it, declining it, hating it, as having
with it a most inflexible and eternal aversion from every thing
that is signified under the notion of darkness, unholiness heing
there signified by it. '^What communion hath light with
darkness ?" It is drawn down to signify that there can be no
communion between God and unliolincss, the temple of God
and idols. 2 Cor. G. IG. And,
(2.) This holiijess hath also its positive part which must
comprehend two, the like things that have been mentioned con-
cerning the negative part. That is, first the actual, perpetual
rectitude of all his volitions, and all the works and actions that
are consequent hereupon; and, secondly, an eternal propension
tiiereunto, a love thereof, by which it is altogether impossible to
tliat will, that it should ever vary from itself in this, as it can-
not in any otlier respect. That the determinations of that will
arc right in themselves, is out of question; and that, his word
(and he best understands his own nature) testifies over and
over. And then his propension, his eternal, unalterable pro-
pension of will to that which is right and good, that we find
spoken of as a thing we must conceive too, as belonging to his
holiness also ; *' The righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his
countenance doth behold the upright." Psalm 1 1 . 7^ And so
you iiave his hatred of all iniquity, and his love of universal rec-
titude, both mentioned together in one and the same breath,
as it were; "Because thou lovest righteousness and hatest
iniquity," (it is spoken of Christ it is true, but spoken of him
as God, (Psalm 45. J.) having said immediately before, "Thy
throne O God, is for ever and ever") therefore God, even thy
God hath anointed thee." He is the image of God, the bright-
ness of his glory, the express image of his person. But here it
may be said, when we place (as we cannot but do) the notion of
Iioliness generally in rectitude, every thing of rectitude must
have some measure or another, or some rule to which it is to be
referred, and which it is to be judged by. What is then the
measure and will of divine rectitude wlicrcin holiness stands ?
LEc. XXII.) i^Iis Moral Perfections, — Holiness. 99
This is the thing tliat luith been very variously discussed, and
with a great deal more perplexity than there was cause for.
These things you may take about it, that are all plain in ihem-
selves, and will be as much as will need to be, or can, in sum
and substance, be said to it. As,
First. That the divine rectitude cannot be measured by any
law, tliat refers to iiim properly so taken. A law properly ta-
ken, is tlie signification of the will of a superior concerning an
inferior. But it is out of question, God can have no superior,
and so nothing can in a proper sense be a law to liim. And a
measure, it is prior to the thing measin'ed, must be before it, but
there can be nothing prior to God. Yet,
Secondly. In the borrowed sense, very plain it is that God
is a law to himself; and it is the only conception concerning
this matter, that it can admit of : nor is that to be thought at
all strange, when those parcels and fragments of right notion
that are left in the ruined nature of man, do yet leave him a
law to himself, where he hath no otiier law, no written law ex-
tant before him : much more, when the notions of rectitude are
most perfect, they may supply the place of a rule or measure
by which the divine rectitude is to be measured. But,
Thirdly. His mere will, abstractly considered, cannot be this
measure, as if the divine will might have made that which
is right to be wrong, or that which is wrong to be right : this
is altogether unconceivable and impossible, that that will, ab-
stractly considered, should be to him the measure of right or
wrong, or of good and evil. That is, as if one could suppose
that an act of the will might alter the obligation that is upon
an intelligent creature to love the best good ; or could make
it lawful or a duty to hate the highest and most perfect pulchri-
tude and beauty. This cannot be : as we are told, it is impos-
sible for God to lie. He cannot lie, as it is impossible to him
to be unholy, as it is to be untrue. And therefore, that there
are eternal reasons of moral good and evil is a most indubitable
thing ; that that which is right could not in its own nature, in
the greatest instances but be so; and tliat thereupon, that the
distinction must be admitted necessarily, of things that are
good because God wills them, and of tilings that he wills be-
cause they are good. And so natural laws and positive, they
come to have their distinction and diverse consideration. And
then in the last place,
Fourthly. That it is equally absurd to suppose, that the ideas
of right and wrong, or of moral good and evil, as they are a
measure to God should have place any where but in him ; that
is, in his will; not abstractly considered, but in his will as it is
100 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF Gap. (PART i;
everlastingly conformed to a wise mind. There cannot but be
an everlasting conformity between the rectitude of the divine
will and the divine word. And whatsoever he doth, he doth all
things not because he will, but according to the counsel of his
will. Ephes. 1. 11. And indeed, the contrary apprehension,
were to resolve all the divine perfections into nothing but so-
vereignty. It is the divine will that is the measure of good and
evil, yet not abstractly considered, but as it doth agree with most
perfect wisdom, and that unalterably thereupon, it is as impossi-
ble* to him ever to will that which is not wise, as it is impossi-
ble to Iiiin ever to speak that which is not true. And so far,
having given some account of the divine holiness, wherein it
lies, you may collect in great part from what hath been said,
this double property of it, not to mention more :
i. That his holiness is primary, all other holiness is but de-
rivative, imparted. This is the fountain-holiness, the primary
holiness. And,
ii. His holiness is essential. It agrees to him, not primarily
only, but essentially too, as being altogether inseparable from
his nature. Holiness in any creature was always to it an ex-
tra-essential thing. We have had instances of it even in the
higher orders of God's creatures. Man was created holy, but
fell. Among the angels that were universally holy, many fell.
So the holiness of the best of creatures is a thing in itself sepa-
rable from its essence. But the divine holiness is most per-
fectly inseparable. I shall say no more upon this, (the course
that I am upon did oblige me to great brevity in speaking to
this head,) but only by way of Use.
1. To recommend it to you, that we may live in the adora-
tion of God, considered under this notion : " Who is like thee
among the gods, glorious in holiness ?" Exod. 15-11. " There
is none holy as the Lord," as Hannah speaks in that admirable
song of hers, 1 Sam. 2. 2. How should we rejoice in the
thoughts of this, that we have such an Object of worship, so
perfectly, unexceptionably holy. And,
2. We ought to study the imitation of him herein, as the
adoration of him upon this account, understanding the text as
saying that to you, " Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is
perfect" in holiness: " Be ye holy, fori am holy," 1 Pet. 1.
15, IG, referred (for so it is written, as the apostle speaks) to
that Levlt. 11. 44. and in divers other places.
3. Consider with what great gratitude the condescending
goodness ought to be owned, that he should have a design to
make such as we, like himself in this respect: we ought to ac-
knowledge great kindness even in such a commandment, " Be
LEc, XXII.) His Moral Pcrfectio?is, — Justice. 101
ye holy for I am holy. I would fain have you like myself."
It speaks great love and good will to us, that lie would have us
imitate him. And,
4. It should make us willingly submit to any methods that
he thinks fit to use, to bring us to that conformity to him in
this respect; that we be gradually perfected herein, as he is
most perfect. The state of our case requires that his methods
should be sometimes rough and severe for tiiis purpose. We
have a great deal of dross about us. The fathers of our flesh,
indeed, they correct (saith the apostle, Heb. 12. 9) "after
their own pleasure ; but he for our profit, that we might be
partakers of his holiness." A great word and work, (and which
we ought to consider accordingly) that we might be partakers
of his holiness ! that is, that he might transform us into his
image and likeness. What difficulties, w liat furnaces, what
fires, what deaths would we not go through for this, that we
might be made partakers of his holiness, to be in this respect,
as he is, perfect.
2. The next that I have mentioned of these four perfections
of the divine will, is his justice. And justice is wont to be
distinguished into universal and particular. But then,
(1.) As universal righteousness or justice doth comprehend
particular justice in it, so it superadds somewhat distinguishing,
as you shall see by and by. Therefore,
(2.) For particular justice, that is twofold. It is either com-
mutative or distributive ; for commutative justice, with God it
can have no place, because he iiath no equal : or there are
none of the same order with him, that can make exchanges
with him or that can transfer rights to him for any rights trans-
ferred from him : he can be debtor to none of his creatures,
*' Who hath given him any tiling, and it shall be recompensed
to him again?" as Rom. 11. 35. it is a challenge to all the
world. But it is that part of particular justice, which is
wont to be called distributive justice that properly agrees
to him, that is, rectoral justice, magistratieal justice, the jus-
tice of a governor, ruler, of a superior towards an inferior.
And that useth to be divided into these two parts, prsemiative
and puniative : praemiative, that confers rewards, and puniative,
that dispenseth punishments. For the former of these, wliat-
soever rewards God dispenseth must be all of grace, not at all
of debt. He cannot be antecedently a debtor to his creatures,
otherwise than by promise, and so his justice runs into his faith-
fulness, as you will see by and by. And supposing him to
have bound himself by promise, then it is a piece of justice
with him to make good his promise, and thereupon, the notion
ef righteousness doth obtain and take place, €vea in conferring
102 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART t.
benefits. " God is not unrighteous to forget your work and la-
bour of love," Heb. G. 10. And "it is a righteous thing
with God," not only to " recompense tribulation" to the trou-
biers of his people, but also, those that are troubled rest witli
him. 2 Thess. 1. 6, 7* And " if we confes": our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins." There is a piece of
justice in it. It is, upon one account, the h.ighest act of mercy
imaginable, considering with what liberty and freedom the
course and method were settled, wherein sins come to be par-
doned : and it is an act of justice also, inasmuch as it is the ob-
servation of a method to which he had tied himself, and from
which afterwards therefore, he cannot depart; cannot vary.
And then for punitive justice, this is most distitignibhing of
the justice of God, from his holiness abstrriclly considered.
By his holiness he hates sin, and by justice he punisheti) it.
The one makes him hate it, the other obligeth him io p.m-
madvertupon it in away of punishment, or inclines him to ''--so.
And this lie doth as a debtor to himself. Justice among crea-
tures is conversant about the rights of other men ; but in God
it must be conversant about his own rights; because he is him-
self the Fountain of all rights. And there could be no such
thing as right tliroughout the whole universe, if it had not its
first fountain in God himself : and therefore, his justice must
be the faithful guardian of the rights of his sovereignty ai d go-
vernment. And thereupon, this justice doth not only allow
him but oblige him to award to every transgression a just re-
compense of reward, as the Scripture speaks.
But of this, I shall say no more, save only, this word or two
by way of Use, that is,
1. Let us have our souls so possessed with this apprehension
of the divine justice as to dread it, and stand in great awe of it,
knowing that vve have to do with a God that will not be mock-
ed, or trifled with by any ; and who never confers favours up-
on any, so as to forget his just right ; nor doth so exercise his
mercy towards any as to depress and lose his sovereignty;
of which sovereignty of his, as hath been said, his justice must
always be a faithful guardian, and therefore, those that are
nearest to him must know that if they transgress, his justice
must have an exercise about them, even as punitive. There is
such a thing as economical, punitive, family justice, by which,
even where God is pleased to be related as a Father, he ani-
madverts upon, and chastises and punishes the faults and fol-
lies of his own children, even those that are of his own house-
hold. Though you must distinguish of punishments, between
those that are corrective and those that are vindictive. Vindic-
LEC. XXII.) His Moral Perfections. — Faithfulness. 103
tive punishments sliall not have place there upon those that arc,
and have, a stated being in the family, that are of it and in it.
But corrective punishment shall have place even there. And
then,
2. Not only dread divine ju<;tiee, but labour to en^rage it to
be on your side. What a great blessing is that, to have even
justice itself plead for us, and the state of our case brought to
that pass that it may. If we confess our sins, that is, with a
truly evangelical frame of spirit, he is faithful and just to for-
give us our sins : and the blood of Jesus Christ ins Son, clean-
seth us from all sin. But I pass on,
3. To say somewhat of his faithfulness. And that also
doth in great part run into justice, as justice doth in some part
run into holiness. But so far as to superadd somewhat peculiar
and distinguishing. The faitlifulness of God is his veracity or
his truth as it relates to his word, the conformity that is between
his word and his mind. And whereas, his word, as liis faith-
fulness that refers to it is twofold, assertory and promissory ; so
accordingly, must his fiiithfulness be understood. It stands either
in declaring to us truly how things are, or how they shall be. It
relates to his assert on/ word ; that is, that he doth make a true
representation to us of all things that are to be received by us
as doctrines. Whereas, he is in no possibility of being deceiv^ed.
himself h.erein, so neither can he deceive us ; God cannot lie.
It is impossible to God to lie. So much, the light of a pagan
could discern of God, even Balaam ; " God is not a man that
he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent." All
the declarations that he hath made to us by way of assertion of
things that we are to conceive are so and so, we are to look
upon his truth and faithfulness as engaged herein. That is,
ho doth make a representation to us of things just as they are,
and no otherwise, in what he saith to us of himself, in what he
saith to us of Christ, in what he saith to us of his Spirit, and in
what he saith to us of the way and course of duty wherein we
are to walk, and the like. And whereas, our Lord Jesus Christ
is the Revealer, the first Revealer of God and bis mind to men,
he is thereupon, called the faithful witness, as representing and
testifying things just to be as they are, and no otherwise. It
comes in among his glorious titles, *' Jesus Christ, the first
begotten from the dead, the Prince of the kings of the earth,
the faithful witness :" that falls in among the rest. Rev. 1. 5.
God's name is in him, that is, the same nature is in him where-
of the divine name is expressive. And therefore, in the whole
gusj)el revelation v.-e must conceive the highest faithfulness to
be engaged. That which sums it up, "Jesus Christ came
104 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES or GOD. (PART I
into the world to save sinners," the apostle calls it "a faithful
saying, and worthy of all acceptation," (1 Tim. 1., 15) most
worthy to be received and believed. And then,
The word of God, to which this faithfulness hath refer-
ence is not only assertory hwi promissory ; not only declaratory
how things are, but how also they shall be. It is true, we may
take in his threatenings too, unto which his faithfulness hath
reference as well as his promises. But chiefly and principally,
his faithfulness hath reference to his covenant. " He is the
faithful God. that keepeth covenant and mercy for ever."
Deut. 7- ^- And " he will not alter the covenant that is gone
out of his mouth, nor suffer his faithfulness to fail." Psalm
8.9. 33. 34.
And therefore, concerniag this also, take so much of present
Use. Is God perfect in this respect, most perfectly true and
faithful, true to his word, his mind always agreeing most accu-
rately with it ? Then,
1. Trust this faithfulness of his. The object of trust is
faithfulness most properly, the most immediate object. That
which answers to faithfulness is faith. If he be faithful, he is
to be believed, trusted in, and relied upon. In that passage of
the apostle's prayer that he might be delivered from wicked and
unreasonable men, for all men have not faith ; the most proba-
ble meaning of that, is, that have not faithfulness, (faith being
there taken objectively,) that are not fit to be trusted; wicked
and unreasonable men, upon whom we can place no trust, that
are not fit to be believed. But we are never to admit a thought
so diminishing or debasing concerning him whom we have ta-
ken to be our God, as if he were not fit to be trusted, as if his
faithfulness could fail any whit. Our heavenly Father is per-
fect in this respect; therefore trust him perfectly, without va-
cillation, without wavering or suspenseful hearts. He cannot
deny himself, he abides most faithful and therefore most se-
curely to be relied upon by those that are, through his grace,
enabled to give up themselves to him. He desires no more :
give up youraelves to him, and you are safe on his part : rely
upon him, for he is faithful ; he will keep what you commit to
him. And,
2. Imitate his faithfulness as well as trust it. Do you la-
bour to be perfect herein ? I pray let us all labour to be per-
fect in this as our heavenly Father is perfect, to wit, in faithful-
ness, both towards him and towards men.
(1.) Towards him, O ! how can we think it tolerable to
break with him who is never apt to break with us ! His faith-
fidaess can never fail, why should ours so often fail ? Whea
3LEC. XXIII.) His 3Ioral Perfections. — Goodne.^s. 105
we promise, when we engage, when we vow to live in his ]ove>
in his fear, in his communion : what shame sliould it cover our
faces with, to be unfaithful towards him, who is constantly
faithful towards us. And,
(2.) Towards men ; imitate him there too: this would be the
glory of our religion. It is the Intolerable reproach of it, that
there is so much falsehood among men, and even among them
that profess the Christian name, among them who pretend to
God as their God : saying he is their God who is the faitiiful
God, most perfectly faithful. This makes a most deplorable
state of things. "Help Lord" (saith the Psalmist) " for the
faithful man falleth." Psalm 12. 1. It makes the state of things
so very dismal that all who understand themselves, think they
have reason to cry to heaven, " Help, help, in such a sad case as
this." Help, Lord, the godly man fails, there is no faithfulness
left in the world. We are undone in this case if God do not help,
if we have not help from heaven. But what an ornament is it
to the Christian name and profession, when the very words of
such and such as do profess it, are reckoned stable as a pillar
of brass. " 1 would no more distrust such a man's word, than
I would fear the falling of the heavens over me, or the sinking
of the earth under me :" this would be the glory of our religion.
O ! then let us labour to be perfect in this respect as our hea-
Tcnly Father is perfect.
LECTURE XXIIL*
Having discoursed from this text, of many of the divine per-
fections, under the distinct heads of the perfections of the Di-
vine Nature, of the Divine Mind, and of the Divine Will : and
as for those of this last rank, having discoursed to you of several
others, it remains to say something yet,
4. Of the DIVINE GOODNESS ; where, by goodness I do not
mean the goodness of being merely, or the goodness of this or
that thing in its own particular kind ; nor moral goodness in
the utmost extent and latitude of it, for that would comprehend
the several other perfections of the divine will, that have been
spoken to already ; but one branch thereof only, which com-
monly goes under the name of benignity; a benign inclination
of will, which we are to consider, both with respect of what it
excludes, and in respect of what it Includes.
(1.) In respect of what it excludes ; it excludes what is oppo-
* Preached November 20, I691.
YOJ,. \IJ. P
106 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLTiS OF GOD. (PAUT I.
site to It, whether it be contrarily opposite, or contradictory.
I'iuit which is contrarily opposite is an aptness to do hurt, a
mischievous disposition to have a mind or will prone to the do-
ing of mischief ; which it most certainly excludes: and then,
tliat which is contradictorily opposite is, not to be willing to do
good, an unaptness to do good.
(2.) And so, accordingly, it doth include a general propensity
to benefaction, to acts of beneficence, and so we are to consider
the goodness of God anologically to what we can find of any
like specimen among men; for indeed, much of our way of
knouiog God is by reflection, there being somewhat of God
yet left and remaining in man, fragments, broken relics of that
image first instamped upon the soul of man in his creation.
And by them it is, that we form the general notion, even of
those perfections which we do ascribe to God. We see the
several features of that image, by reflection, as in a glass, on
which we bestow such and such names. Though in the
mean time we must know, (as hath been told you upon other-
occasions over and over,) that whatsoever there is that goes
under the same name with God and with us, (as all his com-
municable attributes do,) yet the things must be infinitely di-
verse, as his being and ours cannot but be. It Is but some
shadow, some faint resemblance, of the divine perfections that
are discernible in us. But upon those things we bestow these
names, still apprehending, that under the same name somewhat
infinitely more perfect hath its place and being in God.
And now, as to this perfection, (the divine benignity,) I pur-
posely reserved that to the last place, because it is most in the
eye and design of this text, as is very manifest if you look
])ack but to the two more immediate paragraphs, which do more
directly refer hither, the former of them more expressly signi-
fying that vacancy that should be in us, (in conformity to the
divine pattern and example,) of all inclination to do evil, and
the latter, positively expressing and holding forth the inclination
that should be in us, after the same example, to do good. Of the
former of th.ese paragraphs you may look downwards from ver.
.3S, and see how the design of that, runs against a mischievous
temper and disposition of spirit, an aptness to do evil, yea,
though provoked; that there must be no disposition to retali-
ate, to rcquile evil with evil, wrong with wrong, injury with in-
jury : but rather than do so, suffer oneself to be injured more,
as the several expressions in that paragraph do signify, whicli
it is not needful here to con.'.ider.
And then for the latter paragraph, concerning the disposition
to do good, the discourse of that, runs from ver. 43 to this con-
LEC. XXIII.) His 3Ioral Perfections. — Goodness. 107
elusion and close of the chapter ; all under the name of love ;
so extensive and large in reference to its ohjcct, as not to ex-
clude enemies themselves ; those that do with tiie most hitter
hate pursue and persecute us. "You have heard it hath been
said, Tiiou shalt love thy neighl)our and hate thine enemy j"
such undue limits iiave been wont to be put and assigned to
your love ; that you acquit yourselves well enougli if you do
love them that love you, and if you do good turns to them that
do such to you, if you carry it courteously and affably in your
salutations to such as will salute you. But this is a mean and
narrow spult, unworthy of a christian, and unworthy of the name
and design of Christianity, that being intended to restore man
to man, to restore man to himself, to make man what he was,
and what he should be. There are no such limitations as those
to be made to our love ; it must reach enemies, enemies them-
selves. " 1 say unto you, love your enemies, iiless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
that despitefully use and persecute you:" and all this, tliat you
may be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect ; (for so
he doth,) "that you may be the children of your Father which
is in heaven ; for he makcth his sun to rise upon the evi] and
upon the good, and sends his rain upon the just and upon the
unjust ;" animadverting upon it as a mean thing, and an ar-
gument of a base and narrow spirit, to have our love and kind-
ness confined to those wonted limits, wherein men, otherwise
taught by their own corrupt inclinations, are wont to confine
theirs. This is, therefore, the main and more principal design
of this text, as it refers to the context, to commend to us the -
divine benignity, to represent that, and to set it l)efore us as a
pattern to which we arc to be conformed. Be in this respect
perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.
And indeed, it is the fittest to consider tiiis divine perfection
in the last place; for It is (as it were) the perfecting perfection;
it crowns and consummates all the rest. All the excellencies
of the Divine Being, they are to be considered not abstractly,
each by itself, but as they refer to one another, and as all toge-
ther they do make one admirable temperament ; as with rever-
ence we may speak. Indeed, of those that are abstractly consid-
ered, that are wont to go under the notion with us of very great
exercise, should be all separated from tliis, they lose themselves,
lose their very name ; wisdom, apart) from goodness, it were
only an ability to contrive, power, apart from goodness were
only an ability to execute ill purposes and designs. But divine
wisdom, that is in conjunction with most perfect goodness : and
divine power, that is in. conjunction with the most perfect
jioodness : and so this is. (as .1 may say,) the perfecting perfec-
lOS THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTI,
tion, consummating of all the rest. How admirable a thing is
' '^^ that wisdom that is continually prompted by goodness ! and
that powerj that is continually set on work by goodness, in all
the eftbrts and exertions of it I
And now, in speakiug to this, the divine benignity and good-
ness, I shall briefly point out unto you the various diversifica-
tions of it, and then lay before you some of the more observable
exemplifications of it. I shall shew you how it is diversified,
and wherein it is exemplified.
[1.] How it is diversified. It admits, in sundry respects,
(which I shall mention to you,) of sundry considerations and
Tioiions that may be put upon it, which yet do ail run into
this one thing, goodness. First, as it imports a propension un-
to any thing of suitableness, according as the estimate of divine
wisdom and liberty doth determine it, and so it goes under the
name of love. Love, is nothing else but a propension towards
this or that object. The objects towards which divine good-
ness is propense, they are estimated by his wisdom and liberty,
or sovereignty in conjunction, in respect of their capacities to
receive these his propensions, or to be the passive subjects
thereof : secondly, as it refers to offenders, guilty creatures,
so this goodness is his clemency : thirdly, as it refers to re-
peated offences, so it is patience : fourthly, as it refers to long
continued and often repeated provocations, so it is long suffer-
ing, forbearance: fifthly, as it refers to a miserable object, so it
is pity and compassion : sixthly, as it refers to an amiable ob-
ject, so it is complacency and delight : seventhly, as it refers
to an indigent object, and speaks large benefactions towards it,
so it is bounty : and lastly, as it refers to the principle of liber-
ty and spontaneity from whence it proceeds, so it is called
grace, iv^okix, the very expression that is used to signify the
goodness of the will, when, without any kind of inducement,
good is done for goodness' sake. *' Thou art good and doest
good." When there is nothing to oblige, notliing to requite,
nothing to remunerate, nothing to invite, this is the gracious-
iicss of goodness. These are sundry diversifications, (as they
may fitly enough be called) and one and the same excellency,
divine goodness and benignity, raised according as such and
such respects (as have been mentioned) do clothe it. But
then,
[2,] We come to give you exemplifications of it, in instances
and evidences that do recommend and shew it forth unto us.
And,
First. The most obvious and most comprehensive one is,
this very creation itself which we behold, and whereof we our-
i.EC. xxiii.) His Moral Perfections.— Goodness. lOJ?
selves are a little, inconsiderable part. What else can be sup-
posed to have been the inducement to an infinite, self-sufficient,
all-sufficient Being to make such a creation as this stand forth
out of nothing, but an immense goodness, a benignity not to
be prescribed unto, and was only its own reason to itself, of
what it would design and do? The creation could add nothing
to him ; for it being produced out of nothing, it could liave no-
thing in it, but w'nat was of him and from him ; and so there
is nothing of being in it ; nothing of excellency and perfection
in it, but what was originally and eminently in himself before ;
for nothing could give that which it had not : and all that is in
this world, is given out from God himself, and therefore, it is
resolvable into nothing else but mere goodness that we are, or
that any thing else besides is. As in Rev. 4. 11. " For thy
pleasure all things are and were created." For thy pleasure; it
was a pleasure to him to have that immense and boundless good-
ness of his, issue and flow forth in such a creation : and among
the rest of creatures, in giving being to such as might be capa-
ble of knowing who made them, and of contemplating the glo-
rious excellencies of their Maker, and of partaking a felicity in
him, as well as a being from him. Indeed, that there should be so
vast a creation, (though all that is notiiing compared with him,
vast as it is,) that is owing to his povvcr; that there should so or-
nate and amiable and orderly a frame of things be created, that
is owing to his wisdom. But that there should be any creation
at all, that is owing to nothing else but his mere goodness.
He would have creatures that should be capable of knowing
and enjoying the excellencies and perfections that make up his
being to himself, according to their measure and capacities ;
and he would have other creatures of inferior ranks and orders
to minister unto them. A.nd though this be an obvious thing,
and we hear of it often, it is often in our minds, yet I am
afraid it is not often enough in our hearts. It doth not sink
and pierce deep into our souls, to think what we, by mere na-
ture, are, by mere untainted uncorrupt nature; all that we are
by divine benignity, that it did eternally depend upon his mere
pleasure whether I should be something or nothing. And
what a rebuke would this carry in it to a vain mind, if it might
be seriously and often thought of ! "Was I created to indulge
and pursue vanity, to indulge a vain mind, and pursue vain
things?'-' how great an awe would it hold our spirits under ! It
would teach us to fear the Lord and his goodness, to think, " I
only am, and have a place in this world, because he thought it
good, and he saw it good to have it so." But,
Secondly, The universal sustentation that he affords to all
i 10 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I,
created beings, generally considered : this is all nothing but
mere goodness ; for as he had no need of a creation at first, he
liath still no need of it, and lie that hath raised it up into be-
ing out of nothing one moment, might have suffered all to slip
and lapse into nothing the next mom.ent again, v/ithout injury
to what he had made, or without loss to himself. His tender
inerey is over all Ills works. He lets all this great variety of
creatures that replenish this world, continually draw from him.
The eyes of all things look towards him. Nature hath (as it
wore) set an eye in every thing that is made, only to look
up with craving looks to the great Author of all things,
and all are sustained suitably as their indigent states require,
wlien all arc still useless to him, and advantage him nothing.
But,
Thirdly. His continual sparing offending creatures ; how
constant a testimony and evidence is this of the immense good-
ness of God ! That when he hath those that oftend him con-
tinually, in h.is power and at his mercy, and he may right him-
self for what hath been done, in a moment, or prevent doing
any thing more to his displeasure, and to his dishonour, yet he
spares : how adm.irable goodness is this ! It is not oscitancy
and neglect, as if he took no notice of what men did. On pur-
pose to obviate such an expression, Moses useth that emphati-
cal expression, (interceding for offending Israel,) "Let the
power of my God be great, according as thou hast spoken, say-
ing, The Lord is long-suffering and slow to anger." Let the
power of my God be great. It is not from oscitancy but pow-
er, that guiby creatures are spared, that an offending world is
not turned into flames and ashes long ago ; that a vindictive fire
hath not been preying on it, and vindicating the wrong done to
the offended Maker and Lord of all. It is not oscitancy but
power, that is, power over himself, the greatest of all powers.
Creating power is less, the sustentative power, by which the
world is borne up, is less. By the exertion of his power to-
wards his creatures he can easily conquer them ; but by this
exercise of his power he doth, (as it were,) conquer himself ;
withholding b.imself from those more sudden eruptions of dis-
pleasure and wrath which would argue that these were a pre-
dominant thing with him. But he will let the world know
it is not so. There is the power of goodness that doth predo-
minate and is governing. It is admirable in itself, and ought
to be so in our estimate, that this world which hath for so
many thousand years been inhabited and possessed by rebels
against the crown and throne and dignity of the Eternal King,
LEC. xxin.) His Moral perfections. — Goodness. Ill
is yet spared, and they let propagate their kind, and transmit
their nature, though they do, witli it, transmit the poison and
mah'gnity of an inveterate hate and enmity against the Author
of their being. How admirable is the divine goodness, tliat
shews itself in this patience and long-suffering towards a guilty
world ! We are taught so to account ; " Despisesr thou the
riches of his forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that
the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? Rom. 2. 4.
And again,
Fourtiily. We are to consider as a further instance and evi-
dence of this immense goodness of God, that he is pleased to
take such care of the children of men, in their several succes-
sive ages and generations, as we find he continually doth ;
not only sparing them but providing for them ; which is a plain
and most constantly positive instance and exemplification of
this goodness whereof we speak. Two ways he doth more es-
pecially take care of the offending creatures that do possess and
inhabit this earth of ours ; partly by laws, and partly by provi-
dence^
i. By laws. How much of the goodness of God is seen by
those very laws which he hath taken care shall have place in
this world, and by which any thing of common order is pre-
served? How admirable is it that he should so concern himself
for the tranquillity and peace and welfare of those that are in a
confederacy and combination against him, and have been so
from one generation to another ! How wonderful is it ! It is
owing, partly, to the impressions he hath made and left upon
the minds and nature of man, that there are any such laws as
go under the name of the laws of nature, which have this ten-
dency and design, to keep the world in a peaceful and quiet
state ; and do so, as far as they obtain and prevail. And in-
deed, there is none that do any thing to the disturbance and
disquiet of the world, but they abandon the law of their nature
in what they do, and offer violence to themselves. But any
such law of nature we must understand to have proceeded from
the iVuthor of nature, and we must understand it to have been
preserved and kept alive among men, by him that doth pre-
serve the nature of man, and doth take care that there should
be successions of such creatures in tin's world. Consider how
tender he is of the life of man, that he hath provided, that there
should be such a law, even in man's nature, against murder, of
which the municipal laws of several countries are all transcripts,
and all owing to the general Legislator. Whatsoever laws of
this or that country do agree with the natural law, they are all
1 12 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 1,
from the supreme Legislator, and are but discoveries of the care
and concern that the common Ruler of this world hath to pre-
serve such a creature as man on earth, from violence and wrong.
And so likewise, the laws that do obtain anywhere for the pre-
servation of property and for the preservation of chastity, and for
the preservation of fame and reputation among men, and the like;
that men may not be injured in such respects: they are all so
many instances and exemplifications of the great and general be-
nignity of the common Lord and Author of all tbings, towards his
poor creatures in this world, though he beheld his nature poi-
soned with enmity and malignity against himself, and though
that creature takes no notice of him in all this. And then,
ii. The case is seen, not only in the provision he hath made
by laws, but whicb he continually makes by providence, for the
sustentation of these, his offending creatures. So you see the
text refers us to these very instances, " Love your enemies, do
good to them that hate you, pray for them that despitefully use
you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven :" that you may represent and
shew forth the Divine Nature in yourselves, that you may shew
yourselves born of God, with such a nature as God hath ; give
some proofs and discoveries of the Divine Nature in you, be-
cause he doth thus ; loves his enemies, doth good to them that
hate him, feeds them with breath, with bread, with all the ne-
cessary supports of life, in a continual course from day to day.
And again,
Fifthly. It doth further evidence and exemplify divine good-
ness, and how perfect he is therein, that there is any derivation
hereof to be found any where among men, that there is any
such thing among men as goodness towards one another, in
any degree of it. Wheresoever there is to be found more or
less of that which we call good nature, if there be any thing of
humanity, of an aptness to do good to others^ or an unaptness
to do them hurt, or to take pleasure in their infelicities or mi-
series, these are so many specimens of goodness that are de-
rived, and their very derivation speaks a fountain from whence
they come. There can be no borrowed or participated good-
ness but must suppose, and imply, a first goodness whence it
proceeds. If there be any, the least goodness in any creature,
this refers us to God, prompts us to look towards him with
adoring eyes. This is a little rivulet from an immense ocean,
a beam, a ray from that Sun of love and goodness, from that
Nature that is all goodness and all love itself, in the very es-
sence of it. This we ought to consider, if we meet with any
kindness in this world, if we see any efforts, any discoveries of
LEC. XXI II.) His Bloral Perfections. — Goodness. 1 1 S
pity, of compassion and mercifulness in one towards another,
this is all goodness from the First Goodness. All this, shew^
there is one Immense Goodness, whence all such little parcels of
goodness do proceed and come. Es'en in tliis apostate and
fallen world we see some sucli appearances of the divine image,
(as vvas said) yet left. We see man hath love in his natnre,
something of goodness in his nature, a proneness to do acts of
goodness and beneficence to some or other, as they come in his
way: this should presently make us fall adoring the Supreme
Goodness in all this. But then.
Sixthly. The design of recovering apostate, fallen man, is
beyond all things, a most admirable discovery of divine good-
ness ; that ever he should have formed such a design. Here
is such a creature, such an order of creatures, such a sort of
creatures, fallen, sunk, lost, become miserable, and miserable
by their own delinquency, by their own apostasy, that is, by
their own choice: they have chiOsen the way that leads down to
the chambers of death and eternal ruin. Now, that in this case
he should form a design with himself, " I will yet settle a
course wherein such creatures as these may be recovered and
saved, even from a self-procured ruin." If there were not, 1 say,
a goodness whereof no other account could be given, but that it
is divine, but that it is of Uself, as the Deity is, as the Godhead
is ; who would ever have imagined but that such creatures hav-
ing offended, and by tlieir offensive nature and course, put
themselves into a way of perishing, must have been let perish.
Nothing more vvas needful than to let them perish. Why
should they not be let perish, when they chose it, when they
loved it, and affected the way to it ? " They that hate me love
death." They that hated wisdom, the Supreme Wisdom, they
loved death. And why might they not be left to their own
choice, to take the things they love ? No, this was Godlike, this
speaks the goodness of a God, that he will prevent the perish-
ing of self-destroying creatures. *' Their destruction is of
themselves, but they shall find that in me is their help;" as by
the prophet he speaks his own mind and heart. Partly, the de«
sign itself, of saving and recovering such creatures, and partly,
the strange and most surprising methods for bringing about
such a design, may not only beget conviction, but the highest
admiration also, of the goodness of God. W'e should not only
acknowledge it, but fall a wondering, and even lose ourselves in
wonder. How unaccountable a goodness was this, that rather
than such creatures as vvc, should finally and remedilessly pe-
rish, God should put on man, become mai^ ; that man, a maii
VOL. VII <a
114 THE PRINCIPLES Of THE ORACLtS OF GOD. (PAKT I.
of sorrows; tliat man of sorrows, at last a s;icrifice on a cross, to
bring about a recunciliatiofi between an offended Majesty and
offending creatures ? What manner of love was this ! what a
transporting discovery of divine goodness ! " God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be-
lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3. 16. But then, if we add in the next place, to all this,
Seventhly. The various means that he useth to draw and ga-
tlier in soiils, to comply with the terms upon which pardon and
reconciliation, and eternal salvation are offered to us. There
are his ensigns displayed, there is a gospel published, there is
an office set on foot, which is to last through all ages to the end
of time, on purpose to draw and gather in souls; and all these
to he looked upon still under the notion of enemies, they whose
hearts were full of enmity and hate against him. For whom
indeed he hath been doing good, in common kinds, long before :
but they never thanked him for all the actings of his patience
and sparing mercy. But such things are continually done to-
wards the unthankful and the evil ; yea, these he is so intent upon
saving from a deseived ruin, and bringing them to partake, even
in a blessedness with himself, to unite them vAth his Son, make
them one with him, to possess them with his Spirit; and to one of
the greatest wonders of the divine goodness that can be thought
of. When he hath given his Son to be a sacrifice for poor sin-
ners, then to give his Spirit to enter into them, and to inhabit and
possess them, and dwell in them ; tlmt holy, pure Spirit, that
Spirit of all goodness and purity, that Spirit of holiness, as he
is called, that he should make his entrance into unholy souls,
souls that are so many cells of impurity and filthlness, of every
thing that is hateful and noisome and loatlisome, how admirable
a discovery is this of the divine goodness !
LECTURE XXIV.*
And having thus demonstrated the divine goodness, my de-
sign is to v'mdicatc it. And that is, indeed, of so great impor-
tance, that 1 cannot think it fit to leave off from this subject
without placing some endeavour that way. It is of the greatest
conse<juence to us, in all the world, to have our souls habitu-
ally possessed with a believing, admiring sense of the goodness
of God. We should therefore watch with greater jealousy over
* Preaclied December the 11th, 1691.
LEC. XXIV.) His Moral Perfectiojis. — Goodness. 115
our souls, in no one point more than this, lest any thought
should arise, or lest any injection should fix and have place in
our souls, that should any way tend to infer with us a diminution
of the goodness ot God, that the glory of it should be sullied
in our eyes, or that it siiould be obscured or darkened in any
kind ; for how much may a thought do of prejudice to that
genuine, holy, spiritual affection that should be working back
again in ourselves towards a good God ? Hovv may that aflec-
tion be stifled by a thought, if it be not duly and seasonably
obviated !
And indeed, there are but these two great objections that
can, with any plausibleness, offer themselves against the good-
ness of God ; partly, the eternal miseries that do befal the
greater j)art of mankind ; and partly, the temporal calamities
that do befal the better parr. These two ways, men may ob-
ject to themselves against the divine goodness, wherein God is
here represented as so perfect, that the most should miserably
perish, and the best should undergo many hard and grievous
things, even in this world. Both these, we shall take into con-
sideration, that so, this most necessary part of the idea of the
divine perfections may obtain, without any kind of obstruction
or objection lying against it in our minds or hearts,* so as we
may yield ourselves to be entirely swallowed up of the divine
goodness.
The former of these Is more frequent. And to shew how lit-
tle pretence there can be from thence, how little colour of ob-
jection against the divine goodness^ I shall lay before you these
many considerations ;
1. That no such goodness can be as a perfection in God,
that shall exclude or diminish any of his other perfections.
No such goodness can belong to the nature of God, as any per-
fection due to it, that shall be exclusive or diminishing of any
other perfection. You should not praise a nian, but reproach
him, if you should give this of him as his character, tliat he Is
so very goodnatured, as never to make any difference between
civilities and affronts.
2^ Punitive justice is most certainly a perfection belonging
to the nature of God, both as he is a Being universally perfect,
and as he is the Ruler of the world, to be exercised in such
cases, wherein there is occasion it should have place. This is
plain in itself, punitive justice to be exercised where it ought
to have place, it is a perfection belonging to the nature of
God as he is a Being of universal perfection, and the ]\nlcr
of the world : as indeed, the Original Being, the First of beings
must include all perfection eminently in itself. For there is
116 THE PRINCIPLES O'V THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I,
no perfection that Is not somewhat, and there is no something
that can come from nothing, and therefore, the First Being
must have all perfection in it. And if this be a perfection, (as
every man's judgment will teli him it is,) that is, punitive jus-
tive, to be exercised upon proper occasions, it cannot but have
place in the Divine Nature, as he is a Being of universal
perfection, and as it necessarily belongs to him, supi^os-
ing a world, to be the Governor of it. It could be from no
other but him ; and therefore, can be under no government but
his.
3. There can be no place for the exercise of punitive jus-
tice, but in reference to creatures governable by a law. Puni-
tive justice can never have place, but towards such creatures
as do admit of being governed by a law. Punishment is, pro-
perly, nothing else but due animadversion upon an otFender
against the law to which he is obliged, and which he is put un-
der. This also is plain in itself, and only leads to what 1 add
further,
4. That no creature can be capable of government by a law,
but such a one as is endowed with the natural faculties of an
understanding and a will. There is no place for a legal go-
vernment, and so nor, consequently, for the exercise of puni-
tive justice, but toward a creature that is endowed with the na-
tural faculties of an understanding and will, supposing that
such a creature be guilty of violating the "laws by which he ought
to be governed.
5. It can be no reflection upon the nature of God to have
made such a creature as man. For that which is the very first
instance of divine goodness, it would be very strange that that
should be a reflection upon it, cloud it, or obscure it. It evi-
denccth it most highly, that when it was in the choice of God,
and a thing merely depending upon his pleasure, to make such
a sort and order of creatures stand up out of nothing into be-
ing. This is, I say, the first evidence of his goodness, and
speaks nothing to the disparagement of it: " for thy pleasure
all things are and were created.''' And that which ought, from
the very reason of the tiling, to be matter of highest and most
grateful acknowledgment and adoration, must thereupon, neces-
sarily, be an instance of goodness in him to whom such grateful
acknowledgments are due, and by whom they are claimed. And
it is a saying that carries its own light and reason In it, of that
ancient, that ^' If I were capable (saith he) of making an intel-
ligent creature stand up out of nothing, with a present power
of using and understanding, the first thing I should expect
from him should be, that he fall down and worship me, and
tEC. XXIV.) Jlis Moral Perfectio7ift. — Goodness. 117
tnake acknowledgment to me, for having been the author of
Ijeing, and of such a )jeing to him." And then, for the kind of
this being which divine goodness hath allotted to it, it makes
it a iiigh instance of his goodness itself. So far is it from be-
ing a diminution to it, that is, that he hath given us sucli a sort
of being that is merely imitative and resembling of his own,
wherein could there have been a greater signification of kind-
ness and goodness, than to form a creature after his own image,
with a spiritual, intelligent nature like his own ? And,
6. The things that render any creatine capable of felicity,
do also render it capable of government by a kivv : that is, rea-
son and will, an intellective and elective faculty ; these make a
people capable of government by a law, and make them capa-
ble of felicity too. As hath been told you, if man had not had
a nature endowed with an understanding and a will, he could
have been no capable subject of being governed by a law: but
then, if he had lieen destitute of such faculties as these, he
could not have been capable of felicity neither. If he had not
understanding to apprehend wherein it lies, and a will to unite
with it, choose it, and take solace in it, he would be incapa-
ble of being a happy creature. And what I Can it be any ar-
gument against the divine goodness that he hath made man
with such a nature as renders him capable of felicity ? If he
were not capable of government, he could not be capable of fe-
licity ; the same things making him capable of the one, and of
the other.
7. It must have been a very great blemish upon the divine
governnient, if creatures capable of government by law, should
generally offend against the n»ost righteous and equal ones, (as
his laws cannot but be,) and there should be no course taken
for the punishing of such transgressors. This must be a mani-
fest blemish upon a government. Suppose we, in any govern-
ment whatsoever that there should be any such edict and pro-
clamation published, that let the subjects under such a govern-
ment do what they ple.ise, no man shall be animadverted upon,
all shall do what is good in their own ces, and no one be ever
called to any account ; would this be a commendation of a go-
vernment ^ Such a thing is altogether insupposable in the ad-
ministration of the best and most excellent government that
ever was, or ever can be. Consider it in the whole course of
it, not the temporal administration abstractly, from the future
state of tilings, but the course and the end of it altogether; and
it must finally appear the best and most perfect and excellent
government that ever was, or ever can be. Eut how insuppos-
able is It, (I say) that the best and most perfect government,
118 "* THE PRlNCri'LES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART U
should ever be liable to such a blemish as this, that let men
he never so wicked, it shall fare as well with them as if they
were never so dutiful and obedient. The thing speaks itself,
and Scripture speaks ir, but it speaks not as a notion which it
suggests anew, but only tliat which it takes up and observes, as
a thing common to men before. " Shall not the Judge of all
the world do right }" And see, what immediately precedes,
*' Wilt tliou destroy the righteous with the wicked? That be
far from thee ; Shall not the Judge of all the world do right ?"
Gen. 18. 2.^, 25. Supposing this as a great fundamentaJ, a
principle that did always shine with its own lights and that did
evidence itself, that it must belong to the Judge of al! the earth
to do right : and so put a difference between the righteous and
the wicked, that they are not to fare all alike. And again,
8. The rery nature of the lavv^ that was original and natu-
ral to man, h itself a high evidence and instance of divine
goodness. The law of nature, that law (I say) which was ori-.
giual and natural to man, and so inwrought into liimself at
first, that he was even constituted as a law to himself, because
that that was enjoined in it summarily, did carry his own rea-
son in it, had in itself, recommending evidence to that con*
science wherevvith he was created, that God did rule upon
those terms that he was to rule himself upon ; and so must
judge him upon such terms, as upon which he must judge
himself. For do but consider, how this law is afterwards sum-
med up, all in one word, love. This was the fulfilling of the
law, the loving of God above all : the most equal thing in all
the world, that the highest and best love should be placed up-
on the highest and best good. This was that which his law
required, that we should love the Lord our God, with all our
heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might. Our Sa-
viour gives this, as the summary and principal part of the law
that was natural and original to man : and then, the second
part is like the former, loving our neighbour as ourselves.
How greatly evidential was this divine goodness, that when he
had made a creature capable of government by a law, he should
give him such a law as this, and impress it upon his mind, so
as it might be said, God was not more to govern him by it,
than he was to govern himself: and so finally was to judge him
by it, as he must needs judge himself ! " He hath shewn thee,
O man, what is good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee,
hut to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God ?"" Micah 6. 8. Walk in that dutiful subjection to
God, which must be the necessary and easy product of su-
preme and sovereiga love to him : and theoj carry it justly and
IBC. XXIV.) His Moral Perfections, — Goodness. 1 19
mercifully towards men. And, certaitilv, tliat must needs he
an instance ;ind evidence of the j^rcatest goodness in God, that
should be t'ne cause of the greatest good in man. Now, do
but suppose the world conformed to this law of God, in these
two mast noble and constituent parts of it; that is, that all the
inhabitants of this world did live in the continual love of God,
adoring him most gratefully as the great Author of their being,
and In a universal and mutual love to one another, each man
seeking another's felicity as his own, and having no more de-
sign of hurt or mischief against another than he hath against
his own life, his own heart ; what a happy world v^ ;re this 1
And that wlwch tends to happiness, must be from goodness :
nothing is plainer. Now, when so admirable a law as this,
every part agreeing with the whole, no branch but what is na-
turally included in this summary, this compendium ; I say,
when such a law as this was given to men, it is most natural
to add, that the satne goodness that did enjoin upon man such
a law, must also adjoin a penalty to it, a threatening or due
punishment for the violation of it; otherwise, the divine go-
vernment had been ludicrous, if there should have been such a
law which is without annexing any penalty. And the better the
law, and more unexceptionable, the more clearly rigisteous and
equal is a very severe penalty to be annexed to it : and the an-
nexing it thereunto, is not only what divine goodness must al-
low, and doth allow, but what it did require. This was a
thing not only consistent with divine goodness, but the effect
of it, that there should be such intermination added unto such
a law. For, if the adding of that sanction to the law, was the
aptest means to procure the continual obedience of it, and the
law itself had a tendency to the good of the connnunity for
whom it was made, then the very addition of the sanction or
threatening to the precept of the law, must not only consist
with the goodness of it, but proceed from it. Any prince that
doth really study tlie welfare of tlie governed comnmnity, must
be understood to adjoin due and })ruper penalties to good laws,
for the good of the people to be governed by them : that the
awe of the adjoined threatening may procure obedience, and
that obedience, felicity to them that are so governed ; so as
that such a law beiwg once made, goodness did not only admit
of it, but did require that there should be a penalty annexed to
it, to enforce obedience. And again,
9, It was never to be expected, that when God m«de sucli a
creature, he should create him in that which was to be his final
state. It could never be looked for from the divine goodness,
that making such a creature as man, he should settle hira in
120 THE PUINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF G©B, (PART t,
a final, good and happy estate the first day he made him. It
can be no way inconsistent with the goodness of God, that hav-
ing made such a creature as man, he should order him a state
of trial, of probation, through which he was to pass into that
state which was to be final, and perpetually felicitating. For a
final state is a state of retribution, a state of reward. The
Scripture so speaks of it, frequently, as you cannot but know.
Now I beseech you, what was it to be the reward of? It must
be the reward of a foregoing obedience. And therefore, it could
never have been expected from the divine goodness, that when
God tirst made man, he should have made it impossible for
him ever to have ofteiided: or when he made any intelligent
creature that he should have made it so. Those two great or-
ders of intelligent creatures, angels and men, it is plain enough
God made neither of them incapable of offending. And it was
not reasonable to expect that he should. But as to ourselves,
(for we are more obliged to mind our own concernments,)
this is the account we have given us, (Eccles. 7* 29.) '' God
made man upright ; but he hath sought out many inventions."
God made him upright, put hirn into a good state, if he would
liave liked it, but he must needs fall to his own inventions, to
mend it, and try if he could not make to himself a better state
than God had made for him. It was never to he expected
from the divine goodness, that he should, by almighty, extra-
ordinary power, have prevented this. For the creature tliat
was designed to be rewarded with eternal felicity, for a present
temporal obedience, he must be left to the trial of his ingenui-
ty and dutifulness towards his bountiful Creator. Otherwise,
there would have been no place, no room for reward. And if
there had been no place for punishment, in case of disobedi-
ence, there could have been no place of reward, in case of obe-
dience find duty. Tiierefore, I add hereupon,
10. That inasmuch as it was necessary there should be such
a lav^', and the threatening annexed to it, or punishment pro-
portionable to any offence committed against it, the execution,
according to the tenour of the threatening, became accordingly
and consequently necessary, supposing once the violation of
such a law. I speak of that law which was natural and origi-
nal to man ; for that little instance of obedience wherein God
did put man at first upon, there coqld not have been transgres-
sion in that, without it had been a violating of the most natu-
ral law, in the most noble and essential part of it. Now, if a
threatening were necessary to be annexed to a law, the execu-
tion of it, in case of a violation of that law, was consequently
necessary j yea, and if the threatening did immediately pro-
LEG. XXIV.) His Moral Perfections. — Goodness. 121
ceeH from divine goodness, the execution of the threatening
mi.'^t immediately proceed from it; but not without the inter-
vention of the divine veracity. The goodness of God did lead
him to arid a due and proportionable threatening to his law:
and thi-> law being violated and broken, so as that the threat-
ened punishment became due, it must be executed. That
uhiih was ordained from the divine goodness, it conies to be
the immediate effects of divine justice, which is not contrary
to goodness : it is only in our conception diverse, but far from
being contrary. If there had not been such a constitution, the
divine goodness had not shone forth with that lustre and evi-
dence that now it doth. And there being such a constitution,
his trutli and legal justice oblige him, in some way or other, to
l<eep to it, either in kind or equivalency : he must do himself
and his own law that right, as to preserve the honour, reputa-
tion and dignity of it, and of his own government concerned
therein. Therefore, the execution of such a law, by inflicting
the incurred penalty one way or other was necessarily and un-
avoiiahly consequent : so necessary, that one attribute could
not in this case have bad its sole exercise without injury to
some other, which our first consideration was directed against.
* But then I yet further add,
11. That whatsoever penalty comes to be inflicted upon un-
reconci'aI:le sinners, in the final and eternal estate, it must be
acknowledged that much of divine goodness was exercised and
demonstrated towards them before. Suppose an offending
creature whose heart was implacable towards God, and so vio-
lently addicted to sensual lusts, that he had the authority of his
Maker in continual contempt; and his whole life was a defi-
ance to the authority of his justice and government, and the
goodness and kindness of the offers he hath made to him ; sup-
pose (I say) such a creature incurs never so severe a penalty,
he cannot but acknowledge that much of the divine goodness
had its exercise and demonstration towards him before. For
otherwise, what room or place were there for that expostulation
of the apostle, even with them whom he supposeth finally to fall
under wrath in the day of God's wrath, and revelation of hii?
righteous judgment ; " Despisest thou the riches of his good-
ness, and long-suffering, and forbearance ? not knowing that
the goodness of God should lead thee to repentance?" Des-
pisest thou his goodness ! This same despising had no object,
if there had been no exercise of goodness towards such a one
before : and it would suppose this expostulation to be a great
impertinency. Despise goodness; it were to despise nothings
if there had been no goodness, and go thete could have been
VOL, VII. R
122 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARt 1,
no such tiling as despising: the thing the apostle chargeth up-
on such a one ; for there can be no act where there is no ob-
ject. There could be no goodness to be despised, if there had
not been the exercise of goodness towards such a one in a for-
mer state. Therefore, I add,
12. That the general and special goodness of God are things
no way inconsistent with one another. These two things do
very fairly accord, God's general goodness towards all, and his
special goodness towards some. And it argues a very great debi-
lity of mind, and shortness of discourse, when any do set these
against one another, as if special goodness must destroy the
notion of general goodness, or as if general goodness must de*
stroy the notion of special. The matter would be more easily
apprehensible, if we would bring it to a case relating to a hu-
man government, and suppose the best that is supposable in
this world. Would you suppose that the clemency, kindness
and goodness of the best prince that ever was (or of whom you
can form any idea in your own minds) must oblige him to deal
alike with all his subjects, that is, that all persons that are of
equal parts, of equal understandings, must be equally prefer-
red, equally dignified? Would the goodness of any prince oblige
him to this, that if he find a necessity to have some persons of
good parts and understanding to be of a privy council to him,
that he must have all to be of that privy council that are of as
good parts as they ? And shall such a prince not be thought to
be good, or his government not to be equal, unless it were so ?
The best idea that we can form of any government is, that
things be equally carried towards all, and yet special favour be
towards objects that are not altogether incompetent, at the
choice of the ruler. This is the best idea we can form. Bring
then the matter to the divine government ; we must distin-
guish between matters of right and matters of favour. For
matters of right, we are to expect from it, that God do right
to all men universally without exception ; but for matters of
mere favour, in reference whereunto he is not so much as a
debtor by promise ; (and he can be a debtor to none by nature)
he can owe nothing to his creature. It is possible for a
subject in a hum^an government to oblige his ruler, but no
creature can oblige God. A subject in a human government
may really deserve favour and kindness at the hands of his ru-
lers, for he can benefit them, it is in his power to profit them,
they can really be the better for him ; but God can be the
hf'tter for none of us; therefore, he canbeadebtor to none but
by j)romise ; we are therefore only to expect from the divine
goodness, that where he hath promised, there he will be as
LEC. XXIV.) His Moral Perfections. — Goodness, 123
good as his word ; but for unpromiscd fiivoiir, to which the
creature can have no title, that there he do dispense arbitrarily
as seemeth good to him. And therefore, upon this ground iiis
general goodness towards all, and special goodness towards
some, are no inconsistencies one with another. And if he do
generally shew that goodness in the course of his dispensations,
to all his creatures, and especially to all the childicn of men,
that every one that considers must acknowledge, then it is no
detraction from the goodness tliat he doth sh^w to all, that he
doth somewhat more of mere special favour for others, yea,
though it be never so much, or though it be never so greatly
more. There is no cause or pretence why any man's eye should
be evil because his is good. For free and unpromised favours,
(and all are unmerited, but such as are not only unmerited but
unpromised too,) that he dispense out these arbitrarily, is cer-
tainly no repugnancy to the highest and most perfect goodness.
I further add,
]3. That instances of the general goodness of God towards
men are most numerous and undeniable. For besides, that he
hath given them being, (when it was in his choice and plea-
sure whether he would or no,) here he entertains tliem in a
world, to the making whereof, none of them did ever contri-
bute any thing; he watches over them by an indulgent provi-
dence, supplies them with breath every moment ; keeps off, for
an appointed time, destructive evils, aflbrds them out of that
common bounty of his, the good things that are necessary for
the continuance and comfort of life. How rich is this earth
in its productions for offending creatures ! I cannot but think
of it, many times, with wonder, that considering that this infe-
rior part of God's creation so soon after it was made, fell under
his just displeasure and righteous curse, there yet should be
so great variety of productions, every where in this earth, for
the entertainment of rebels, or those that for the most part
never give thanks for what they enjoy, never look up, although
they have a capacity and disposition in their nature (originally)
so to do, to adore, to pay reverence to the first and eternal
Being. That which some think to be more the difference of a
man from a brute than reason is, a natural religion, which some
take a great deal of pains with themselves to erase and tear by the
roots out of their own souls. Let us consider that which the text
refers to, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that despitefully use you, and persecute you, that
you may be the children of your Father, who doth good to tlic
evil and the good, makes his sun to shine and his rain to fail on
cne and the other j" do sQj that you may represent your Father;
124 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
herein lies his perfection. This whole earth that men fill with
their wickedness, he fills with his goodness, "The whole earth
is full of the goodness of the Lord," Psalm 33. 5. *' The
Lord is good to all ; and his tender mercies are over all his
works." Psalm 145. 9. " He hath not left himself without
witness, in that he doeth good, and gires fruitful seasons, and
fills men's hearts with food and gladness." Acts 14. 17. And
I further add,
14. That even those instances of divine goodness that are of
an inferior kind, have a tendency and aptitude in them to make
way for the exercise of his goodness to them, in a higher and
Mobler kind. The goodness which God exerciseth towards
men in the concernments of this natural life of theirs, they
have a tendency and aptitude to affect their minds, and to he-
get good impressions there, and to make them consider and
bethink themselves, '^Whence is all this? and how comes it to
pass that such provision should be made for one, and for crea-
tures generally, of that order to which I belong?" This is the
tendency, even of external mercies. Whereupon, it is spoken
of with such resentment, "They say unto God, Depart from
us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways — yet he filkd :hefr
houses with good things : but the coun^-el of the wicked be far
from me," Job 21. 14, 15. And the same, you have re-
sumed afterwards, in the next chapter, implying that the ten-
dency of things did run quite otherwise ; that is, to allure and
draw the minds and hearts of men towards God ; and make
them consider and bethink themselves, and say, Why should we
not covet to know our great Benefactor, and him from whom
all our good comes ? But they say unto him "Depart from us,
we desire not the knowledge of thy ways :" — "though he filled
their houses with good things ;" and therefore, is there such a
resentment afterwards expressed: "but the counsel of the
^vicked be far from me ;" representing them as a monstrous
sort of creatures, a sort of prodigies in the world, that there
should be such a disaffection in rebellious and obdurate hearts
against the Author of all goodness and kindness and mercy,
that is in so continued a course exercised towards them. The
counsel of the wicked be far from me ; as if any serious and
considering man must, and ought to be startled and affrighted
at beholding such a spectacle as this, a reasonable, intelligent
soul shunning and fleeing away from him who is daily loading it
with his benefits, and seeking, by kindness and goodness, to
insinuate himself into it, and so make room and place for him-
self, in the love and kindness of such a one. But that these
dispensations have this tendency in theiPj the Scripture is fuH
I.EC. XXIV.) His Moral "Perfections. — Goodness. 125
of it ; " Knowest thou not that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance ?" hath a leadingncss thereto, in that men-
tioned Rom. 2. 4. " And count, (saith the apostle Peter in his
2 Epis. ch. 3. 15.) that the lonsj-suffering of the Lord is salva-
tion :" (he would not have us make a false count, I hope :)
reckon that he is aiming at the saving of your souls, while he
is doing good to you in external respects. If he feed you with
bread, if he feed you with breath day by day, and moment by
moment, what is it for ? Is it only to support such a despica-
ble thing as this frail body of yours is, which must shortly be-
come a carcass ? Is that the utmost of his design ? No, he is
leading thee to repentance, and would have thee account that
both his bounty and his patience towards thee have salvation
in design. Count the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation,
that is, it is the design of the thing; it is that which the thing
itself doth naturally aitu at, and lead unto. And hereupon, we
are told, in that, Acts 14. 16', I/, IH. that God aimed at the
turning men from the vanities tluit their hearts did doat on as
the objects of their worship, to the living God j he did aim at
this in giving them fruitful seasons, as you may see, if you take
notice of the connexion Ijetween the 15 and 17 verses of that
chapter. So, Acts 17, he gives thera being, breath and all
things, that they might seek after him who is not far from
every one of us ; in whom we live and move and iiave our being.
And then,
15. Lastly; The terms upon which he offers peace and par-
don and eternal life to offending creatures are the highest
proofs and evidences imaginable, of the wonderful goodness of
God, notwithstanding that so great multitudes do, finally, re-
fuse them and perish. And to this purpose, it should be con-
sidered, that the apostle speaks of this as matter of transport
more than doubt, and that it did need more to be admired than
evinced. *' God so loved the world that he gave his only be-
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish
but have everlasting life." John 3. 16. The silence that is
there used is more speaking than any speech could be. He so
loved the world, at so stupendous a rate. It is a very speaking
silence that he doth not tell us how great that love is ; he
leaves us to understand it to be altogether inexpressible, that
he should give his only Son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish — and whereas, men have an impotency to
the exercise of that faith that is requisite to their attaining sal-
vation, what is that impotency ? It stands only in an affected
blindness and obduracy of will ; that which they call moral
impotency. Now moral impotency doth not excuse, but ag-
126 THB PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I,
^ravate the faultiness. No man takes moral impotency to be
an excuse, but a high aggravation. As if a man is guilty of
murder, and he bring this to excuse him, — " 1 could not hut
kill that man because 1 hated him, I did so violently hate him
that I could not but do this unto him." Xhat moral impoten-
cy (his extreme hatred) aggravates the crime, that that made it
to be done, made it so highly faulty, and so much the more
heinous, that it is done. He is not less guilty, but the more,
by how much the more his hatred was predominant and preva-
lent in the case. Why, so this disaffection to God and to Christ
and to holiness, (which is impotency) is an impotency seated in
the will, and the ignorance hath its root, it ariseth and proceeds
from th.ence, that is, that men are " alienated from the life
cf God, through the ignorance that is in them, and because of
the blindness of their hearts." A blindness which they love,
a blindness which they choose, as it is, Ephes. 4. 18. Where-
upon, all their misery is self-created. The miseries wherein
men are involved in this world, which make it another hell to
them, (a hell on this side hell,) and the miseries of the final
and eternal state, they are all self-created: that is, they do
arise from a fixed, inveterate malignity against the Author of
their being, and that very nature itself, whereof their own, at
first, was an imitation. An amazing thing, but it were impos-
sible, if men did love God, to be miserable. Loving him is
enjoying him, and enjoying him is felicity, if any thing be, or
can be. The image of men's future miseries, you have in their
present state. What is it that makes the world such a hell as
it is, but men's hatred of God and of one another? For (as was
5aid) if there were no contention at all, among men on earth,
but who should love God best, and one another best, and who
should do most for him, and for one another, what a heavenly
life should we live here, a heaven on this side heaven : but the
Iiellon this side hell, is only this, that men's hearts are filled
with enmity against God, and one another : and from this ma-
lignity proceeds their infidelity, that they do not unite to God
in Christ when they are called to it ; which is no excuse, but an
aggravation. But, in the mean time, that is the most wonder-
ful goodness that can bethought, that such overtures should be
made to men, God having given his only begotten Son, that
whosoever bclieveth in him should not nerish, but have evei"
lastijig life.
tEC, xxT.) His Moral Peffections^'-Goodness, 12?
LECTURE XXV.*
And this may suffice to be said, in answer to that first ob-
jection asjainst the divine goodness, the eternal miseries of the
most. And, indeed, the sum of all that can be said upon that
account, doth amount to this, as if it vvere a tiling inconsistent
with the goodness of God, that he hath made such a creature
as man, given him so excellent a being, made him after his
own image, that is, endowed him with a reason and a will, in
his very creation : and, that having made him such, he did not
unalterably fix him in a good and happy state the first day, but
that he tiiought fit to pass him through a state of probation into
his final state; and upon this lapse and degeneracy, he did not
do for every one in order to their recovery as he hath done for
some. In answer whereto, you have these considerations laid
before you.
But we pass on to the other objection ; the temporal afflic-
tions of good men. Some may be prone to impeach the di-
vine goodness upon this account, and object against what hath
been said on that subject. But here, such as find themselves
disposed so to object, should reflect upon themselves and con-
sider, what they themselves are. Are they good men that dio
thus object ? Or are they such as are afraid to be so on tliis
account, and are thereupon so very officious as to object this
on the behalf of others, while they themselves are loth there-
upon to become good, apprehending they shall not serve a
good master, and are therefore willing to wave and decline
his service ? If they be men of this latter stamp and charac-
ter, that do so object, it seems that their sense must be this,
that they will never be good themselves, unless God will hire
them to it by temporal rewards and emoluments, by indulging
them to live a life of ease and pleasure and opulency in the
world. And for them whose sense this is, I have but these
things briefiy to say to them :
1. That true goodness can never be so mercenary. They ure
never like to become good upon these terms; if God should
give them their ov^^n terms.
2. 1 would have them consider what other choice they caa
have. If they will not serve God, and devote themselves to
him, and admit to be such as he requires, (that is, truly good,)
but upon these terms, what else will they do ? What other mas-
ter, or service, or way have they to make choice of ? Can they, by
* Preached December the ISth, I69I.
128 THE PMNCIFLES OF TUK ORACLES OF COD. (PAHT I.
their not being willingly subject to the governing power of God,
exempt themselves from an unwilling subjection to his vin-
dictive power ? Whither will they betake themselves ? will
they leave God's dominions ? will they go beyond the bounds
of his territories ? whither will they fly ? Neither earth, nor
heaven, nor hell, can keep them out of his reach ; as the
Psalmist, at large, speaks it in that 13i) psalm, and the prophet
Jeremiah In the 23 chap, of his prophecy. "Am I a God at
hand, and not a God afar off ? Do not I fill heaven and earth ?
saith the Lord." Is it to be a disputed thing between him and
you, whether you shall serve him and comply with his good and
acceptable will ? And,
3. If God should give such men their terms, whereas they
appear to be in the temper of their spirits bad enough already,
they have a great deal of reason to think that would make them
a great deal worse. It needs abundance of previous and pre-
venting grace not to be the worse for a good condition, here in
this world, as all experience shews. And,
4. Lastly, I would appeal to such, whether God is not, in.
such respects, abundantly good to them already. Hath he
not given you breath and being and all things that you enjoy ?
How great are the favours that you partake of, in common with
the rest of men ! To instance in what the context mentions :
*' He makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends his rain on the just and on the unjust." What a case
were you in, if God should put out the sun, and if he should
turn the fruitful land in which you dwell, into universal bar-
renness, by continual withholding his rain? If he should turn
your present health into continual sickly languishings, and your
ease '♦^tp lormenting pains, and your plenty into pinching
wants, ai . i)traits? And more than all this, if he should turn
his invitations to you to pray and supplicate for higher, and
those that may tend to eternal mercies, into prohibitions ; and
say to you, " Never pray, never supplicate, never look up, I
will receive no addresses from you ?" If his invitations to you
to surrender yourselves, and become his, and take him for
yours, should be turned into protestations against it, "1 will
never be your God, and you shall never be my people?'* Think
while this is not the case, if God be not abundantly good to
you already, so that upon your own account you have very lit-
tle reason to contest the matter with him.
But, if good men do object this, as possibly against their
more habitual frame, under the power of some temptation they
may be apt to do, as we find it was with the 1 Scilmist in the 73
psalm : and the like offence and scandal, good icen are lepie-
JLEC. xxT.) Jlis Moral 'perfections. — Goodness. 129
sented as, sometimes, apt to take at their own afflicted condi-
tion, compared with the prosperous state of worse men, against
which, nmch of that 37th psalm is directed, and that 21st of
Job; and the beginning of the I'ith. chap, of Jeremiah's pro-
phecy : let such but go into the sanctuary, as the Psalmist did,
(in that 73d. psalm) retire themselves, consider the thing in
the secret divine presence, and commune with God about the
matter, and not with their own souls, nor consult with flesh
and blood, and let them but consider such things as these,
briefly,
(1.) Whether this matter of fact be ordinarily and generally
true, that the case of good men is worse than that of wicked
men in external respects. It is a matter that oieserves to be
considered and inquired wisely about ; and certainly, upon in-
quiry, it will rather be found otherwise : that is, except in the
paroxysm of persecution against instituted religion 5 (for it is
very rare that men should be per'^ecuted for natural but,) " if
any man will live godly in Christ Jesus," he must expect to
*' suffer persecution." I say, except in some such paroxysm of
persecution upon such an account, for Christianity itself, as to
those that live among pagans, or for this or that institution of
them that live among christians, that case being excepted
which is not constant; ordinarily, it appears evident that the
Letter men are, the better their state and condition are in this
world. Their religion obligeth them to that temperance, so-
briety and diligence in their callings, prudent and discreet ma-
nagement of their affairs, that in ordinary cases it is most plain
and manifest, that there are much fewer who are ruined by
their religion, than that are ruined by their wickedness, by their
riot, and by their debauchery ; more persons, more, estates,
and more families are ruined that way, if there be but a survey
taken of the state of things in this world : and the apostle of-
fers this very consideration, (in that 1 Cor. 10. 13. even to the
very suffering christians of that time) " There hath no temp-
tation," (that is tentative atllictionj " befallen you but what is
common to men," but what is human. It is true, the account
is not common, but the matter of the aflfliction or the afflictions'
materially considered, are common to men. Are good men
tinown into jails, and sometimes put to death for their religion ?
Truly, so are bad men for their wickedness, as frequently, and,
if we should make a general computation, much more frequent-
ly. They suff'er the same things very commonly, upon a less
comfortable account. And,
(2.) Where this is really the very case, that the condition of
good and holy men is, in this world, much worse than that of
the worst men, as many times it is so; they are to consider the
VOL. VII. S
130 TlfE PRINGIFLKS OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PAIIT I,
vastly difterent value of spiritual and temporal good things, and
this is the great business of a christian, to labour to have that
spiritual sense in exercise, by which to be able to discern be-
tween j^'ood and evil, and to prefer the things that are more ex-
cellent: as those two scriptures compared together speak ; Heb.
5. 14. and Phil. 3. 8. They ought to have their naked, unvi-
tlated senses by which to discern between good and evil, and
to abound in that judgment and sense, in all sense, by which
they may distinguish the things that differ, and prefer (as that
expression admits to be read) the things that are more excel-
lent. And then, how much greater is the value of a sound and
well tempered mind and spirit, above that of all earthly and
worldly accommodations and enjoyments imaginable, which
are but the gratifications of our flesh and external sense, at best.
And,
(3.) Such are to consider what is the experience of christians
of all times, concerning the aptitude and useful subserviency
of external afflictions to inward and spiritual advantage : they
say, when they are in their calmer, and more considering frames
that it is good for them, that they were afflicted, and, that God
hath done it in very faithfulness to them. And,
(4.) Lastly. It is God ^s own declared end, in the temporal
afflictions, he lets befal his, and therefore, would have them
count it all joy, when they fall into divers temptations, that is,
tentative afflictions. James 1. 2. Counr it all joy, because it
made greatly for their perfection. The trial of your faith work-
eth patience, therefore, count it all joy; implying, there is more
of real good in that one single excellency of patience, than can
be of evil in all the external afflictions, absolutely resigned and
submitted to the divine pleasure. Here is so much of an in-
choate heaven, such a heaven as our present state admits of^
this one thing hath, as Is not only enough to make us patient,
but joyful under the various temptations and trials of this kind,
that we are apt to fall into, or lie under. And hereupon,
where this sense hath been impressed upon the hearts of good
men, they liave thought the sufferings of the present time,
were not woithy to be compared with the end of them, which
was to be wrought out thereby, as in that, Rom. 8. 18. "1 reck-
on that the sufferings of the present time, are not worthy to be
compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." This
is my arithmetic, so I account, or this is my logic, so 1 reason :
the word may be rendered either way, this is the rational esti-
mate I make of this case, having turned it round, and viewed
it on every side, and balanced things with things, that the suf-
ferings of the present time, this now of time, this very point
LEc . xxv) . His Moral Perfections. — Goodness. 131
of time, are not worthy to be compared (alas, it is not to be
named the same day,) to the glory that Is to he revealed. It
is as nothing in the account, as if we should weigh a feather
against a mountain. This is my rational estimate and judg-
ment in this case. And, that God doth design the afflictions
of this present state, as a preparation for the future, and eter-
nal state, we have most expressly laid down in that, 2 Cor. 4.
17- " The light afflictions wliich are but for a moment, work
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glo';y." It
ia a rnetathesis which is not usual in Scripture ; do work for
us, that is, indeed, do work us for it. And it is to be under-
stood, principally, of subjective glory, not objective; for that
can never be more or less to any : it is essentially the same in
itself with divine glory, but subjective glory, not objective.
It is essentially the same in itself with divine glory ; but sub-
jective glory to be impressed, that is, more or less, according
to the capacity and disposition of the subject. And we ^low
more capable, and are larger vessels, receptive of greater glory,
as our temper is : and our temper is better, and made more
receptive of larger and more glorious communications, even
by the sufferings of this present time. By the light afflictions
which are but for a moment, we are so much the inore apt for
the eternal weight of glory, which is to ensue ; wliich we are
not barely to be told, but to bear, answerable to the notion of
weight. We are not only to be mere. spectators of the glory
there spoken of, but the subjects of it. And then, if this be
all that God doth design by the afflictions that he lets befal
good men here in this world, to refine them, to make them
more partakers of his own holiness, and consequently of fuller
glory, greater and higher measures of glory, is this any ground
of taking up diminishing thoughts concerning his goodness?
Yea, 1 might add,
It is that which his very relation doth oblige him to, even as
he is our Father: your heavenly Father Is perfect. For what
a Father is he to us ? Or in what sense is he Father to his own ?
He is the Father of their spirits; so his word speaks contradis-
tinguishly of him, to the fathers of our flesh. Of the flesh we
have other fathers. Heb. 12. 9. He li not the Father of our
flesh 3 he is the Creator of it : but of our spirits he is the Fa-
ther. He is the Father of them, both upon a natural and su-
pernatural account, as they have his natural image, being in-
telligent and spiritual beings like his own : and, as his rege-
nerate children, have his holy image renewed in them. Now
the very relation doth oblige him (if he be a Father to us, that
is, to our spirits,) more principally to mind the advantage of
cur spirits. That very relation doth not only admit, but re-
132 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART i
quire that he should let us suffer in our flesh, if it may he for
the advantage of our spirits: and that this outward man should
be beaten and shattered day by day, even unto perishing,
if, while this is a doing and suffering, the inward man may be
renewed day by day. He must take the principal care about
that to which he is a Father. Affection must follow the rela-
tion ; the relation is to our spirits, and the affection must be,
principally, to our spirits.
But I shall insist no further on that part. It remains only
to make somewliat of Use of what hath been said, especially
touching this divine perfection of the goodness of God. And,
1. Be hereupon encouraged to cherish this apprehension
Concerning God, take heed that nothing ever shake your fixed
belief and apprehension of this. And whatsoever reasonings do
arise in your minds at any time, forelay this always, let it be
always a thing foreiaid in you. Yet God is good to Israel, as
the Psalmist begins that 73 psalm. Nothing can be of greater
importance, either to the liveliness and vigour, or even to the
very substance and being of religion, than a fixed, stable ap-
prehension of the divine goodness : that religion is nothing,
the soul whereof is not love. If love be not the very soul of
your religion, your religion is a carcass, an empty nothing.
But that love may be the soul of it, there must be a constant
apprehension of the loveliness of the object. Labour then to
have your souls possessed always with a deep and fixed appre-
hension of the divine goodness. Contemplate it in every thing
that you behold, in every thing that you enjoy, yea, even in the
lessening and qualifying of those evils that you suffer. Go up
and down this world with hearts full of this thought; " the whole
earth is full of his goodness." Collect all the instances you can
of the goodness of God, and keep by that means, such an appre-
hension alive and in vigour concerning him. What a mighty
spring would this be, of cheerful and joyful and pleasant religion.
Let no thought arise, but let it meet with a seasonable check,
if it tend to any diminution of divine goodness. And,
2. Preserve a worshipping, adoring frame of spirit Godward
upon this very account, having your hearts full of this appre-
hension and sense ; labour always to be in a posture of adora-
tion, apt and ready always to look up, carrying that as a motto
engraven on your hearts, *'I am less than the least of all thy
mercies." And again,
3. Endeavour as much as in you is, accordingly to look
upon that immediate promanation of the divine goodness,
his law; that which issues, which proceeds so directly from
the goodness of God. Esteem it to be what really it is, the
product and image of the divine goodness. Look upon him
iEC. XXV.) His Moral Perfections — Goodness. 13.^
as absolutely, universally perfect, and consider the reason-
ableness of what is said concerning this law, in correspon-
dency thereunto. "The law of the Lord is perfect." Psalm
19. 7. And considering this one single perfection of the Di-
vine Being, his goodness, make a proportionable judgment
concerning his law, in reference to that ; that is, that it is an
expression of his good and acceptable will : and labour, more
and more, to prove that by a vital sense, by an experimental
relish in your own spirits. O ! how good is it to be what he
would have me to be 1 what that most perfect rule of his doth
require and o!)iige me to be. And,
4. Accordingly judge concerning the course of his provi-
dential dispensations. His law precribes to us the way in
which we are to walk ; his providences make the way in which
he walks ; labour to apprehend goodness therein too. All his
ways are mercy and truti). That is, you are to judge accord-
ing to the series of his providences complexly taken, and as to-
gether they do make up one entire frame. And so, indeed,
we are to make up our judgment concerning his law. Not by
this or that particular precept, for it would be a very hard im-
po!>ition upon the mind of a man, to judge and pronounce con-
cerning the goodness of that command to pluck out the right
eye, or cut otf the right hand, or the right foot, abstractly ta-
ken, without reference to the conjunct precepts, and without
reference to the end, to which, altogether, they refer. And
so, If you look upon providence, you are not to pronounce con-
cerning this or that, separately and apart, considered by itself.
As you would not make a judgment of the goodness of a piece
of arras by looking on it folded up, where you can only discern
a piece of a leg, or a piece of an arm, it may be, or the limb of
SI tree, but look upon it unfolded, and there see the entire frame
of it all at once. So consider the providences of God, in re-
ference one to another, and in reference to their end in which
all things shall finally issue, and into which they shall result,
and you must say as the Psalmist doth, *' All the ways of the
Lord are mercy and truth." And as Moses, in that triumphant
song of his, in the 32 Deut. where he tells us, in the beginning,
his design was to publish the name of the Lord, that is, to
represent the glory of his attributes ; " Because (saith he) I
will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness to
our God : He is the rock, his work is perfect." Take all to-
gether, you will see it will be perfect work at length, entire,
all of a piece; and that nothing could have been spared out of
that series and chain of providence that compose and make up
the whole course. And then,
134 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART I,
5. Endeavour that your knowledge of God may be practical,
vital, unitive and transforming, as touching this very thing,
the divine goodness. O ! how much to be lamented is it, that
we should have such a notion of God in our minds to no pur-
pose ? the notion of so great a thing, a Being absolutely per-
fect and infinite, even in this perfection, goodness itself, im-
mense goodness lying in our minds, idle, dead, useless and in
vain ; so that our hearts are in reference hereunto but a mere
rasa tabula. There is a notion in our minds, but nothing
correspondent impressed upon our hearts, such an appiehen-
sion of God as tliis, if it were vital, lively and operative, would
transform us, make us aim continually to be such as he is,
wJHch I sh.jill further press by and by. It would powerfully
attract and draw us into union with him. What ! shall 1 live
at a distance from the Fountain of all goodness, immense good-
ness, goodness itself, love itself! God is love. He that be-
lieves the love of God, is hereupon drawn to dwell in God as
be is love, considered under that notion, and so to have God
to dwell in him; as the apostle expresseth it, i jolm 4. 16.
What mighty influence would this have upon our whole course,
if we did go with lively, operative, apprehensions up and down
the world of the divine goodness ! How should we disburden
our souls of care ! With what cheerfulness should we serve
him ! How little doubt should we have concerning the issue of
things ! of that glorious reward which a course of obedience,
service, and fidelity to him, a little will be followed with at
last. But that our knowledge of God, as to so great a thing
as this, should be like no knowledge, as if we knew nothing,
or as if we thought the quite contrary concerning him ; me-
thinks, this we should look upon as an insufferable thing, as a
thing not to be endured, and so take up resolutions, dependant
upon his grace, never to be at rest till our hearts were like
this apprehension of God, that he is perfect in goodness. And
hereupon further,
6. Make sure of your relation to him as your God, as your
Father; and consider and contemplate his goodness with that
very design, that you may be indeed stirred up to aim at com-
ing, without more ado, into that relation. We do not much
concern ourselves so seriously to inquire touching the charac-
ter of a person with whom we are never to have to do, with
whom we have no concern nor ever expect to have any. If we
hear of any such as an excellent person, we hear such a thing
of him with more indifferency of mind, " 1 do not know him,
and I am like never to know him ; and be as good and as excel-
lent as he will, 1 an:\ never like to be the better for him." But
LEr. XXV.) His Moral Perfections, — Goodness. 135
when I receive an account of one, as a most excellent person,
who designs to adopt me at the same time for his son, and over-
tures are made to me for that purpose, [ think myself highly con-
cerned to inquire into the character of a person to whom I am
to be related. And so should we consider the characters that
we meet with of God; for we must cither have him as our Fa-
ther, or we must be children of a worse father", or of the worst
of fathers. Therefore, this should be hearkened unto, your
heavenly Father is perfect, perfectly good, perfect in goodness,
upon this account, that overtures are made to me in order to
my becoming one of his children : I am to come into his fami-
ly ; this is the thing that is proposed to me. And should not
1 labour to know what a one he is, and to contemplate the
representation that is 'made to me of him, upon this account ?
And,
7. Consider with highest admiration and gratitude, the
greatness, the privilege, that you are, or maybe so related. As
the case is stated, if this be not, there is nothing wanting but
your own willing and joyous acceptance of the overture, falling
in with it, resigning and giving up yourselves most absolutely
and entirely to him ; and taking his Christ for yours; with him
goes the sonship, that is, with the acceptance of his own eternal
Son. John 1. 12. "To as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to as many as
believed in his name." And then, consider the greatness of
the privilege, that you are, or may be thus related to the Most
High God as a Father, to the best, most perfect, and most ex-
cellent of beings. You may have him for your Father, and per-
haps you have him so already. How great a privilege is th.is !
To have him for your Father is to have all. He that over-
cometh, shall inherit all things, and 1 will be his God, and he
shall be my son. Rev. 21. 7- " And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ." God is to be
your portion and inheritance, that if we suffer together with him
(which is but a trifle, not to be compared with the glory that is
to be revealed) we may be also glorified together. Rom. 8, 17,
18. Metl}inks, this should run in our minds every day ; we are
either rel;'.ted to this blessed One, as our Father, or we may be;
we are invited and called by the gospel, (and it is the great de-
sign of this gospel) into this blessed state. Methlnks, it should
run in our minds all tlie day long, that that glorious and most
excellent One, should look clown from heayen upon such an
abject worm as 1, and say to w.e, " Call me Fatlier, take me
for thy Father." A heart that were full of the sense of this,
would soon grow too big for all this world. What a trifle
13C THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART I.
would this world be to that soul which were full of that sense ;
" God is become my Father, 1 have a Father in heaven, that
doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth, and there is no
withstanding him." He can do what he will, and he will do
nothing but what is kind and good to them that willingly con-
sent to come into this comfortable relation to him. You see
how distingulshingly such a case is spoken of in the next chap-
ter. Mat. G. in the latter end. Do not you so and so, like the
gentiles. Do not torture yourselves with cares and thoughts,
** what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink, and what you shall
put on," and what shall become of your affairs and concerns
in the world, and the like : the gentiles do so: after these things
do the gentiles seek; but your heavenly Father knows what you
need ; you have a Father in heaven that knows all your con-
cernments, and that minds all of them, with all wisdom, and
all the tenderness and kindness imaginable, I would not have
you be as if you had no Father, to put yourselves into the same
condition with pagans and outcasts, and those that are without
God in the world. And then,
8. Lastly ; Imitate God in his imitable perfections, and es-
pecially in this his goodness. 1 say, imitate him with all the
goodness that is possible, in all his perfections : "Be ye perfect,
for your heavenly Father is perfect." So I would shut up,
bringing the exhortation in the text, and inferring reason to-
gether. And pray drive it to this one particular thing, to
which the context draws and claims it, that is, unto love: and
even unto such love as shall reach enemies themselves. You
very well know, that God could have shewn no love at all to
any in all this world, but he must shew it to an enemy : all
were in enmity and rebellion against him. *' The carnal mind
is enmity against God." And this world was only possessed
with such inhabitants, all sunk in carnality and earthliness,
and deep oblivion of God, and full of anger and displeasure,
upon being put in mind that there is One that claims a right
over them, and that would have all their thoughts and their
love: this they cannot endure; this carnalized race of crea-
tures cannot bear this. *' For the carnal mind is enmity against
God." And he could never have been kind to men but he
must be kind to enemies. For all were become his enemies,
affected liberty, and could not endure the thought that there
should be a power and a Lord to prescribe to them. ] pray,
let us labour to imitate this great perfection of the divine good-
ness, even in this very application of it to enemies. This is the
beauty and the glory of the Christian religion, the thing where-
in, it excels the precepts of the most retiiied paganiini, and of
LEC. XXV.) His Mural Perfections. — Goodness. 137
that which was higher, (as it was grown,) Judaism itself, " You
have heard that it was said of old time, " Thou shalt love thy
neighbour and hate thy enemy:" (as it is in the context) "But
I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you,
pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you ; that
you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."
I never expect the Christian religion to flourish much in this
world, till this appear and be exercised as the common tem-
per of christians. They are to be such a sort of men, as that
all the world may be the better for. If you express never so
much of unkindness towards them, if you use them hardly, they
will bless you, they will pray for you, they will do you all the
good they can, all the good and kind offices in their power.
When this spirit comes to be revived among men, it will make
the Christian religion (as I may say) grassari, mightily to pre-
vail and grow upon the world. The world must fall before
such a sort of men as this. But that it will never do while, in
this respect, christians are just like other men, as wrathful, as
vindictive, as full of rage, and as full of revenge as any body
else. Christian religion must grow upon the world, by things
tliat will strike the sense, that incur the most sensible observa-
tion of men. Every one can tell and sees it when one is kind
to them, and when they have good returned for evil. But there
are two things most directly opposite to this temper, which
christians are wont too frequently to overlook, never to animad-
vert upon : the one is,
(1.) When they let their hearts tumultuate with too great
fervour and anger against men, upon account of their profane-
ness and irreligiousness ; and they think themselves warranted
so to do : such a one is a wicked man, an open, visible enemy
against God and Christ, a rebel against heaven. And so they
allow themselves to let wrath have its vent and liberty towards
such men, and upon such occasions. It was a great deal of
zeal for Christ, that the disciples discovered, when they would
have had fire to fall down from heaven to vindicate his cause
upon those Samaritans that would not receive him into their
town. But, saith Christ, "Ye know not wliat spirit ye are of."
This is quite another thing from that spirit which I intend to
introduce into the world, and which must breathe in, and ani-
mate, the religion that I am setting on foot among men. The
other is,
(2.) Their confining their kindness and respects to men of
such and such a character, to this or that party. It is a temper
more grossly remote, more vastly different from what is enjoin-
ed upon us here ; and the thing that our Saviour animadverts
VOL. VII. X . T
138 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 1.)
upon in this context, as that wherein we do not only not ex-
ceed the pharisces as such, but even publicans themseh'es.
ver. 20. We are told, that except our righteousness exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, we shall in no case
enter into the kingdom of God : not even into the initial
kingdom. As if he had said,' " Ye' are not fit for the Christian
state, you do not come within the confines of Christianity, real
Christianity, if your righteousness do not exceed the righteous-
ness of the scribes and pharisees. But when men do confine
their respects and the kindness of their hearts to a party, this
is not only to outdo the pharisees, but even publicans and sin-
ners, for they do so ; if you love and salute them that love and
salute you, if you are kind to them that are kind to you, what do
you more than others ? do not even the publicans and sinners
the same? But " be ye perfect ;" — (that is the contexture of
this discourse) " even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect."
And so I have done with what I designed upon this subject,
of the divine perfections or attributes ; the next we come in
course to, will be that of the divine decrees and purposes of
God : and more especially concerning men, and with reference
to them.
THE FJRINCIFJLES
OF
THE ORACLES OF GOD,
NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.
PART II.
CONTAINING
I. The Decrees, or Counsels of God, in eight lmc-
TURBS, ON EpHES. 1.11.
II. God's Work of Creation, in seven lectures, on
Hbb. U. 3.
III. God's Creation of Man, in five lectures, on
Genesis I. 27.
IV. The Fall of the First Man, and the Fallen State
OF Man, with ihe Death and Misery conse-
quent ON each of them, in fourteen lectures
ON Romans 5. 12.
V. The Justice and Righteousness of God vindicat-
ed, as to all men's coming into the world
with depraved natures, in eight lectures,
ON Psalm 51. 4. 5.
VI. The General and Special Grace of God, in or-
der TO THE recovery OF APOSTATE SOULS, IN
three lectures, ON LUKB 2, 14.
LECTURE I.*
Epbes.l. 11.
Jn tvhom also ive have ohtained an inheritance, being jiv^des-.
tinated according to the jjnrpose of him ivho
worketh all things after the coun-
sel of his own will.
TTAVING discoursed to you, what I thought requisite, con-
earning the attributes and perfections of the Divine Being,
we now come, according to the order of discourse, to speak to
you of the Divine Decrees. I choose to call them by that
name, because, by divines, they are usually so called ; though
according to the more ordinary use of that word in Scripture,
It more frequently signifies public laws or edicts, whether hu-
man or divine, than private and secret purposes. And so in
common speech too, and other writings, nothing is more usual
than to call the constitutions of states and princes, decreta.
But however, the word being so explained, to signify a secret
purpose, antecedent to any manifestation, it may then fitly
enough be so used ; and in that sense, it is generally understood
ty divines, treating on the head of religion.
And upon this subject, my design is not to speak to every
thing that is disputed in the schools about it; but only what
may be requisite, and sufficient unto the common faith and
practice of christians. Nor shall I need to lay down any other
doctriae, than the very words of the text, that — ^God " workr
* Preached December 25, 169I.
142 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART H,
eth all things, according to the counsel of his own will," —
wherein ydv, do see, there are several particulars to be consider-
ed. There is,
1. The final term of all God's works, that wherein they do
directly teriiiinate, ^1/ thmgs.
2. Tiiere is his working itself, tending towards that term, he
tuorkcfh all things.
?>. There is his purpose and volition of all that he worketh,
called his rvill. And
4. There is the supreme measure of all those volitions or acts
of his will, and so of his subsequent actions, and that of iiis
counsel. He worketh all things according to the counsel of his
own will.
I shall speak briefly to each of these, but most largely to that
which is our most proper subject, with reference to the purpose
for which we have chosen to insist upon these words, that is,
the will of God; not merely the faculty, but the acts of his will.
B'lt we shall briefly go over the several particulars already men-
tioned.
1. For the things wherein the acts willed by him, do finally
terrninate, which we are told are all things, and that univer-
sality may be understood two ways, either relatively, in refer-
ence to tliose works that do terminate in these things ; as if he
said, all things that he works, he works according to the counsel
of his will. Or else, also, it may be understood absolutely and
simply, there being simply nothing at all, unto which his agen-
cy, one way or other, extends not : though not to every thing
ia the same way ; as there will be occasion to shew hereafter.
2. For his working that terminates in these things, that is,
in all things; it is emphatically expressed in the text: the word
is HcgyoyjiTof, in -acting, or in- working all things. It shews the
peculiar kind of the divine agency, such as nothing can exclude,
and nothing can disappoint. And then,
3. There is his will itself, which must be looked upon as the
immediate source of all these operations of his. And that we
shall consider, not only as it is the measure of all his actings,
but as it is self- measured by that counsel, that lies in his eter-
nal and all-comprehending mind, which is the fourth particular
in order, that we have briefly to consider. And touching that,
4. Wc must know, that it cannot be understood in the same
sense with God, and with men, as indeed nothing can that
comes under the same name with him and with us; for nothing
can be absolutely common between God and the creature ; or
have precisely the same common notion : there cannot but be
infinite difference, always,between whatsoever is finite,|and that
LEC. I.) His Decrees. i43
which Is infinite. Counsel with men imports imperfection ; it
signifies that we have not suddenly a perspection of the reason,
and aptitudes of things, what it is fit for us to resolve, and not
to resolve ! and do, or not to do. And thereupon, we delibe-
rate, and arrive more slowly and hy degrees from a more indis-
tinct perception of the reason of things, to a clearer and more
distinct perception of them^ With God, it cannot be so, be-
fore whose all-seeing eye, all things lie in their aptitudes and
correspondencies at one view; so as he doth not see things be-
cause they are connected with one another, so as to proceed
from the knowledge of things that are more clear, to the know-
ledge of things that are more ob?cu"re; all things being equally
clear and equally present, to his eye and to his view. But by
way of analogy, that which is effected by counsel among men in
the way of consultation, debate of things with themselves, con-
tinued discourse, reasonings and arguings of matters in their
own minds to and fro, that, which with men hereupon is called
judgment, counsel, hath the same name given it with him also.
Not tiiat it signifies the same, but that most perfect judgment
of things, which is indeed the highest and most exquisite wis-
dom, which he hath eternally and all at once, when we do ar-
rive to the like by steps. And so according to that perfect per-
ception, that he hath of the reason of things, and their apti-
tudes and correspondencies to one another, and to his crea-
tures, and to him, so accordingly he wills, and accordingly he
doth.
And this counsel of his, it may be taken two ways, either
1st. As it is internal, lying only in his own mind : or else 2nd.
As it hath an after manifestation, as many of these things which
lay from eternity, and through many successions of ages of
time, secret in his own mind have, and do come to be revealed
and made manifest more or less, and in such degrees as to him
hath seemed fit. In that latter sense, counsel is taken frequent-
ly in Scripture, even when it is spoken of God, as these phrases
do plainly signify, " If they had stood in rny counsel. They
despised all my counsel, and set at nought my reproofs. I have
declared to you the whole counsel of God." Jer. 23. 22. Pro.
1 . 30. Acts 20. 27.
But here, it must be understood to signify coimsel as it is se-
cret, as lying in his own eternal mind, and as it is, thereupon,
the measure of all the purposes of his will, and of all he subse-
quently doth, and hath done, in the creation and continual go-
rernment of this world. In that latter sense, counsel is, evena-
mong men, correspondently in that acceptation of it with God,
put for certain, established laws, and constitutions, and evea as
144 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OP GOD. (pART If,
decrees are. Thus, with the Romans, many constitutions of
tlieirs are known to go under the name of senatus consulta,
that is, things cniisulted of, and agreed upon, by the govern-
ing power among them. But this is not the sense that it is to
be taken in here, for notwithstanding much of the counsel of
God be manifested, we are to consider it now as antecedent to
any such manifestations : and thereupon, to return to that which
is our more principal subject, his ivill, according to such coun-
sel, " He works all tilings after the counsel of his own will ;"
according to that counsel which doth (as it were) guide and
measure all the determinations and purposes of his just and
holy will. We are not to understand, that the divine will here
signifies the faculty of will, abstractly and precisely, but as com-
prehending the acts, the volitions, the determinations and pur-
poses of the divine will, that which is commonly meant by the
word decrees. And so, concerning the will of God and the pur-
poses thereof, 1 shall first give you some distinctions, and then,
secondly, lay down what 1 conceive necessary to be said con-
cerning this subject in certain propositions.
JF'irst. There are sundry distinctio?is oi the divine will, which
it may be fit to take some notice of: and some of them will
be of great use to us.
1. There are, who distinguish the will of God into antece-
dent and consequent. But 1 know no ground for that dis-
tinction, there being no first or last with him, or former or lat-
ter, as we shall have occasion further to shew.
2. Again, some distinguish it into absolute and conditional;
but certainly, it is over bold to feign any such distinction as
that, of the divine will, properly so called ; it is indeed agreed
on all hands that there are conditions of the tilings willed, but
there can be none of the will itself concerning those things;
the faculty and act of the will not being distinguishable in God,
as they are in us; for he is a pure act: and to suppose there can
be a condition of the will itself in God, is to suppose a conditi-
onal Deity and so, consequently, a contingent one, and so,
consequently, none at all.
3. Again, some do more truly distinguish the divine will
Into that which is bene plucite, and that which is signi. And
for the former member of that distinction, it is most unex-
ceptionable and scriptural : good pleasure, and the^ good
pleasure of his will, we read of again and again in this very
context, as well as many times besides in Scripture. But for
the other member of the description, it is too obscure for com-
mon use ; and will require more explication than is proper for
this place.
4. It is ag^in distinguishable into his objective and active
tEc.i.) His Decrees-^dlstinguished. 146
will, or his will objectively taken and actively tiiken, so tlie
thing willed is often called the will ol" God : as when we pray,
** Thy will be done," that is, the thing that thou hast willed.
And so that oftiie apostle, in the Acts, '^ The will of the Lord
be done," and that of our Saviour, "he that doth the will of my
Faiher," and tlie like. This is the will of God taken objective-
ly, or for the thing willed. But then, it is taken also actively,
as it signifies his volition itself, the purpose and determination
©f his will ; and so it must be taken here.
5. It is again distinguishable into secret and revealed; a
yery useful and necessary distinction. His will, as it lies con-
cealed within himself, and the same will, in many things made
at length known and extant to the world, subjected to the com-
mon notice of men ; that is, in such things as it concerns them
to know and be acquainted with.
6.' Others distinguish it into decretive and legislative, which
is a very proper distinction too, if we take decretive in the
fore- explained sense; otherwise, it falls in with the legislative,
and is the same thing.
7. Others distinguish it into the will of purpose and the will
•f precept, which is a true distinction too. Only, that latter
member is not extensive enough ; for there are many things
which, in the compass of God's revealed vvill, are necessary for
us to know; and even within the compass of his legislative vvill,
besides bare precept; but not in all respects. His will con-
cerns what he will do himself, and it also concerns what he
will have us to do. But it is his will concerning his own ac-
tions, concerning his own works, of which the text speaks :
** He worketh all things," that is, his own works, " after the
counsel of his own will." And as it doth concern his own
Works, it may concern them diversely : that is, either such
works of his as he designs to do immediately, and apart fron) us,
or sucli works of his as have a reference to works of ours,
wherein he is to vvork with us, or wherein he is to work, (as in
some instances) after us ; that is, in those great instances of
rewardirjg and punishing. These works of his come after ours,
though the will of them is eternal before. Again,
8. His will is to be distinguished into effective and permis-
sive ; his will to effect whatsoever he thinks ht for him to ef-
fect ; and his will ' permit whatsoever he thinks fit to permit, or
rot to hinder, whi. A'hat he so wills, cr determines sotopermit,
he intends also to regulate, and not to behold as an idle uncon-
cerned spectator, but to dispose all ihosQ per mi 'JS a unto wise an J
great ends of his own.
These useful distinctions (as there are divers of theiji) \>t\ug
given, 1 shall now proceed,
VOL. VII. ^
14G THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLKS OF GOD. (PART If,
Secondly. To lay down, in divers propositions y what is re-
quisite for us to understand and believe, concerning this mat-
ter, of God's purpose, by his counsel, in reference to the things
•which he works among his creatures, and some of these propo-
sitions will be more general, and fundamental unto some others,
which shall be (God willing) more particular. But for the
more general projwsil ions you may take such as these :
1. That all the purposes of the divine will are co-eternal.
There can be no such thing as a new will in God ; for there is
nothing in God, that is not God ; and nothing of God can be-
gin denovo: for that were to suppose a new Deity. And here-
upon, there can l)e no place for dispute about the priority or
posteriority of this or that purpose of God; they must be all si-
multaneous, all at once, in one and the same eternal view, ac-
cording to that clear and distinct and all -comprehending pros-
pect that he hath of all things, eternally before his eyes. And
though it be true, indeed, that we are constrained to conceive
of things ; (because we cannot conceive them all at once as he
dotii,) by first and second, former and latter, and to consider of
anatpral priority and posteriority, where there is no such thing
in real existence; 1 say, though we are constrained so to do,'
(which is a thing owing to the imperfection of our minds,)yet, we
must take heed of building upon our own foundation, schemes
and models of the divine decrees, as a great many have perplexed
themselves in doing : and wherein we can determine nothing,
but with the greatest uncertainty imaginable, nor, indeed, with-
out too great presumption, bringing down the Deity to our hu-
man measures and njodels, and forms of conception. Again,
2. We must take this proposition concerning the will and
purposes of God, that tiiey do always connect together means and
ends: t'lat is, supposing he hath willed and determined such an
end, we must, accordingly, suppose he hath determined with
liimself the way or means, by whicii he will bring that end a-
bout ; supposing it to be a thing to be done immediately: as
those things are to he done, and in the same way wherein they
are to be brought about, in the same way we must understand
he hath determined to bring them about. As when he did in-
tend to preserve David at Keilah, he did also determine he
should not stay there, knowing that if he did, the inhabitants
v.'ould have given him up to Saul, as you may read it was deter-
mim^d, upon David's inquhy, 1 Sam. 23. So when he de-
termined to save the life of Paul, and all his companions, and
tellow passengers in the ship, where they were in so much jeo-
pardy and danger, he did also determine that the mariners
sl^ould not g-o away, for the apostle saith expressly, " If these
LEC. I.) His Decrees — General Propositions. M7
go away we cannot be saved," after he had expressly, from
God, told tliem, that not a hair of any of their heads should all
to the ground. And therefore, we are not to suppose that he
doth determine an end to be brought about by nieans, but he
doth also determine and ascertain the means by which it shall
be brought about : so that if he intend any of us to live to such
a term of time, he never intends that, and intends at the same
time to let us, several years before, starve ourselves, poison or
stab ourselves. But determining the end, he also determiner,
those means by which he intends to bring about that end : Ir.'
intends to bring it about in sttch a way : that is, in a mediate
way.
3. The purposes of God, and his foreknowledge are in some
sort commensurate: taking foreknowledge in the proper sense,
foreknowledge doth refer to futurity, as knowledge more ab-
stractly taken, doth to all beings actual and possible; all possi-
bilities come within the compass of divine knowledge : but of
his foreknowledge, only futurities, or what shall be. And as
to these, his pm'pose and foreknowledge are some way com-
mensurate, that is, v.'hatsoever lie foreknows sluill be, he either
purposeth to eflx^ct, or he purposeth not to hinder it. And
again,
4. Whatsoever God dotli actually bring to pass, that we may
conelude he did purpose to bring to pass. Whatsoever he doth,
he did purpose to do; for he doth nothing against his vi'ill, or
without his will: and he can have no new will, as was told you
before, and as it is plain in itself. 'J'herefore, whatsoever he
actually doth, he did always eternally purpose to do. ^
5. Whatsoever he actually permits, he did never purpose to
liinder. There must be a correspondency between his purpose
as to perinissa, things that are permitted by him, and the
things permitted, as there is with reference KQeffecla; between
his purpose, and the thing that he effects. Again further.
6. Whatsoever God might, righteously and consistently with
all the other attributes and perfections of his being, cliect and
do, or permit and sufler, that he might righteously resolve and
purpose to do, and resolve and purpose to permit and not to
hinder. Whatsoever it is that is consistent with his wisdom,
holiness and goodness, actually to do, it is equally consistent
with his wisdom, and with his righteousness, and with his
goodness, to purpose to do, even from eternity. And whatso-
ever was consistent with his wisdom, and righteousness, and
goodness to permit it and not to hinder, it is equally consistent
with his wisdom, righteousness and goodness, to purpose not
148 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 11.
to hinder it ; and so, to have a permissive decree concerning
it, if he saw meet and fit to do it. And,
7. Whatsoever, in respect to God's actions and purposes,
would imply any thing of imperfection, we must sever and re-
move from him ; whatsoever would imply perfection, we must
assert and ascribe to him. Hereupon, if it would be a plain,
manifest imperfection to act incogitantly, unadvisedly, or to
do unintended things, as it were casually and at random, with-
out a foregoing intention or purpose; if that, I say, would be
an imperfection, we ought most carefully to sever it from God,
and never think it possible for him to act so ; that is, incogi-
tantly, unadvisedly, without any foregoing intention or purpose;
and if it be a perfection, to act according to wisdom and coun-
sel, and judgment, and steady purpose, we must by ail means
assert it concerning God, and ascribe it to him in reference to
all his purposes and actions.
These are general propositions that do lay some foundation
for more particular ones, which are to follow. And herein,
though it is very true, that God hath his purposes and decrees
concerning all things : " He worketh all things according to
the counsel of his ov/n will,'' yet, we shall more especially con-
sider his purposes concerning men. You know, that must be
our business : and therein too, though he hath purposes and de-
crees concerning all the actions of men, whether personally
considered, or considered as members of a community, lesser or
larger, civil or ecclesiastical, concerning churches, concerning
states and kingdoms, their successions, their rises, their conti-
nuance, their periods ; though he have, 1 say, purposes con-
cerning all these, and all wltliin the compass of the text, " He
worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," yet, I
shall chiefly keep my discourse to those purposes that con-
cern our spiritual and eternal state. And so shall lay down
briefly the other and particular propositions. As,
1. That God did, undoubtedly, purpose to make such a
world as this, for we find he hath made itj and he doth nothing
that he did not purpose to do.
2. He did purpose to make such a creature as man, and
place him here ; for we also find, so he hath done.
3. He did purpose to create man in an innocent state, and
proportionably good and happy unto the innocency and purity
in which he did create him. For his word tells us, that he did
create him so. He " made man upright." And it gives us
an account of the circumstances of his condition when he made
him, though briefly, yet as far as was necessary. And,
XEC. I.) His Decrees — Particular Propositions. 149
4. He did not purpose to confirm him at first in that good
state wherein he made him, so as to make it impossible for
him to fail; for we find he did fall, and is in a lapsed state:
therefore, it was purposed that his fall should not he prevent-
ed, that it should not be hindered: though none doubt, but that
he that made man, could have made him as well impeccable,
without any possibliity of sinning, as he did make him sinless
at present, without any thing of depravedne«;s by sin.
5. It is evident, God did not purpose to leave fallen man to
perish universally in his apostate, fallen state: for we hear of,
and know, the methods and appointed means for the recovery
and salvation of fallen creatures, of fallen men, which are of-
fered to our view in the word of God.
G. He did decree or purpose to send his own Son to be a
Redeemer and Sa\iour unto lost and perishing creatures, to be
born, to live in this world, to die in pursuance of that recon-
ciling design, and to overcome death ; and in his resurrection
and conquest over death, to erect a kingdom into which he
Would collect, as the voluntary sul)iects of it, all those tiiat
should resign and yield themselves to him, put themselves un-
der his governing power, and sui)mit themselves to his sav-
ing mercy, at once. And the substance of this we have given
us as the matter of a divine decree, in that psalm 2. 7- " I will
declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my
Son, this day have I begotten thee." Very true it is, that
that is not directly meant of the nativity of our Lord : we
find the apostle expounds it otherwise, (Acts 13. 33.) " We
declare to you glad tidings, how that the promise which was
made to our fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their
children, in that lie hatii raised up Jesus again ; as it is also
written in the 2d psalm," (the most express quotation in the
New Testament out of the Old) " Thou art my Son, this day
have I begotten thee: and as concerning that he raised iiim from
the dead noiv no more to return to corruption, he said on
this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David." It was in
pursuance of a divine, eternal purpose and decree, that this
was said, *' Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee :"
that is, when he raised him from the dead, when he begot hira
again out of the grave, and by that glorious regeneration, he
did then put upon him that high and excellent title (that was
fundamental to the other glorious one that did ensue thereup-
on) "The first-begotten from the dead: tlie Prince of the
kings of the earth." Rev. 1.5. But yet, though that be not
the thing directly there spoken of, as the matter of the divine
decree, God's first bringing him into this world, yet, that bein.^
150 THE PRINCIPLBS OP TlTB ORACLES OF GOD. (PART If.
the mattei of a divine decree, (to wit) his dying, and his con-
quering death, and being begotten (as it were) a second time,
or I may say a tisird time out of the grave, out of the womb, as
his goitigs forth from eternity in respect of his Deity, and as he
was, as man, at first brought out of the womb of the virgin,
yet, even that earh'er parturition must be supposed here, to
have been the matter of a divine purpose aiid decree too.
And so other scriptures do speak of the whole complex of this
jTiatter, as falling under a divine purpose. "Ihat he verily
was foreordained," (as Acts 2. 23. — 1 Pet. 1. 20. and onwards)
foreordained to every thing he did, and foreordained to every
thing he suffered, in pursuance of that great saving design and
errand upon which it was determined he should come into this
world. x'\nd this is that which the context here doth more
specially lead us to insist upon. For wJien the apostie speaks of
God doing all things according to tlie counsel of his own will,
he tells us more distinctly what that counsel of his will did
concern, and that is in the foregoing verse ; "That, in tiie dis-
pensation of the fuUiess of time, he n)ighi gather together in
one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which
are in eartii, even in him." This was the great thing that lay,
as the substratum in tlie divine counsel, to collect and gather
all things in Christ, to constitute him as supreme and universal
Head to this creation. And whereas, all things were shatter-
ed and broken in the apostasy, there was now to be a recapi-
tulation, and gathering all tiiings under one head again, as you
see in the close of the c'napter. " And hath put ail things un-
der his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the
church, which is his body, the fulness of liim that filleth all in
all." And this, that was primarily here designed in tliis con-
text, is that which God hath done according to the counsel of
his win. *' He doth all things after the counsel of his owti
will ;" but this peculiarly, the sending of his Son into this
world and the establishing of him as the Prince of those reduced
from the state of apostasy. As the great destroyer of souls was
the prince of the apostasy, the head of the a postate world, up-
on which account he is called "the God of this world." (2 Cor,
4.4.) and " the spirit that worketh in the children of disobe-
dience,'' so was our blessed Lord to be the head of that com-
munity that sliould be collected and gatlicred out of this world.
And this was the great mystery of his will, which he purposed
in himself, as the foregoing context is, ""In the dispensation
of the fulness of time" (by the Christian economy, that is the
word there used for dispensation) to collect and gather, all
under this one glorious head, to recover a people, and raise up a
iEC.i.) JHis Decrees — Particular Propositions. 151
glorious structure, a church, out of a ruining and perislvinj^
world, by the !Son and eternal God, who was made, in pursu-
ance of this design, the universal Head, also Head over all
things, but with special reference to his ciiureh. And so was
this the matter of divine pleasure; to do this thing in the ful-
ness of time, according as we find in Gal. 4. 4. "In the fulness
of time, God sent his Son, born of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem tliem that are under the law : that we might
receive the adoption of sons." And as this is the most un-
doubted matter of divine purpose and decree, so it ought to
be the matter of the highest joy and rejoicing; greater than
can be expressed by an annual solemnity ; such as should run
through our lives, and be tlie matter of every day s rejoicing
with us, according to what the first report of this glorious work
was, when the womb of divine counsel did teem, and bring
forth this glorious birth ; when he brought forth the first be-
gotten, into tlie world, he saith, " Let all the angels of God
worship him :" and they did publish the joyful proclamation of
it from heaven, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace good will towards men :" the greatest indication of divine
good will, and the most significant that ever was known, or
ever could be thought, that is, that when men had severed
themselves from God, cut themselves off from him ; ^nd the
world was sunk into a universal oblivion of him, destitute of all
inclination towards liim, and all interest in him, unapt to make
any inquiries after him, or to say " Where is our God, our
Maker ?" that they should be so surprisingly told of Emmanu-
el, God with us : that God should so strangely descend, put
on man, be manifested in the flesh, there was the greatest mys-
tery of Godliness, that ought to fill heaven and earth with joy
and with wonder. For when something like this was appre •
hended^-but upon mistake, in what transports were thfse pa-
gans ! "The gods are come down to us in the likeness of
men." Acts 14. 11. And presently they oiier at sacrificing.
What matter of joy and wonder then, tiiat the glorious, eternal
Son of God, should make that descent, that kind descent, into
this world of ours ! Because we were partakers of fiesh and
blood, he himself likewise, takes part with us of the same :
(Heb. 2. 14.) and because we dwelt in fleshly tabernacles, he
himself resolved to erect a tabernacle, like one of ours : " The
word was made flesh, and dwelt among us :" (John 1. 14.) did
tabernacle among us is the expression : this being, as It were,
his very sense in this vouchsafement and undertaking : " There
is a company of poor creatures that dwell in flesh, or buried i;i
it, rather than do dvvell in it, and their flesh is more their giave
152 THE PaiNCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART H
than their mansion ; well ! because they are partakers of flesh
and blood, and have tabernacles made of flesh, " I will go and
set my tabernacle by theirs, they dwell in fleshly tents, and I
will go and dwell in such a tent among them." The Son of
God was made flesh, did dwell and tabernacle among us in such
flesh as we inhabit, excepting the impurity and sinfulness of
it, O I what matter of glory and exultation is this ! How full
of triumph should it fill the souls of men, that such a hope
should arise to them, even as a resurrection from the dead!
Now we see that God's kindness towards the children of men, is
not shut up in everlasting oblivion ; it is not suspended from
any further exercise for ever; what a glorious instance of it is
here !
But as this is matter of highest joy, it ought to be matter of
purest joy too. And there is not a little caution requisite in
this case. The numerous appearance here this day signifies to
me, that there is a great propension to keep on foot an annual
solemnity upon this account: and as this is expressive of a
disposition to rejoice, or to somewhat of rejoicing, I pray take
these cautions in reference to it, — that it be not ignorant re-
joicing, that it be not carnal rejoicing, and above all, that it
be not wicked rejoicing, more grossly and more sensually wick-
ed.
(1.) Let it not be ignorant rejoicing. Rejoice we may,
and must, in such a thing, that according to divine purpose
and decree, Christ came into the world, and the Son of God
became man, that he might become a sacrifice, and that there-
upon he might become a glorious King. To rejoice in this ab-
stractly, that Christ was once born into this world, without
understanding or ever desiring to imderstand what he was thus
born for; what was the end of this manifestation and appear-
ance of him in human flesh ; this doth unbecome men, and
much more doth it unbecome christians, it being to rejoice
for they know not what. For what is it to us, if we abstract
from the ends of the incarnation of the Son of God ? if we
subject not to the proper ends of it ? What is it to us that
Christ lived here on earth, somewhat above sixteen hundred
years a^o, and to rejoice in that he did so, without consi-
dering and understanding what it was for, upon what account
it was, and with vvhat design ? This, 1 say, is but the joy of a
fool : to rejoice in that, the true reason whereof, our own gross
and voluntary ignorance hides from us ; to rejoice when we
hear tl;at he came as a Saviour, without consir'ering what he was
to save us from, (though we are told at the same time,) uhen
we hear of his being called Emmanuel, God with us, of his
LEC. I.) His Decrees — Particular Propositions. 153
being called Jesus (Matt. 1. latter end) because be should save
his people from their sins ; to rejoice in Christ, even as an in-
carnate Saviour, without any thoughts of this, that 1 am to be
saved by him, from that which made the distance, and con-
tinues the distance between God and me : I am to be saved by
him from the impurities of my own heart and nature ; 1 am to
be saved by him from the vile carnality that hath depressed and
sunk my soul so as never to mind God, never to desire after
him, never to delight in him, to have inclinations to pray to
him: I say, to rejoice ignorantly in these respects, is to rejoice
presumptuously, for we laiow not what, and over confidently,
against the direction and instruction given to us in that second
psalm. Because God hath declared the decree concerning him,
*' Thou art my Son," and hath set him as liis King upon his holy
hill of Zion; and hath resolved to subdue the nations under
him, and give him the heathen for his inheritance, and the ut-
termost parts of the earth for his possession, therefore to serve
this mighty King with fear, and rejoice before him with trem-
bling, that is the instruction that is given us. There is a pure
and holy Deity hath become incarnate, the Son of God became,
here, a God amongst us, with that resolution, not to bear
with the wickedness of the world, and let men run on in their
old and wonted course; but to revive God's memorial and the
awe and fear of him in the hearts of men ; and not to let men
live prayerless lives, as they did, and without God in the world
as they did ; here was his great design. But now to rejoice in
Christ's having been born into the world, without ever con-
sidering the design of it : this is not only mean and brutish, but
insolent and presumptuous, to rejoice in the thoughts of so
sacred and great a thing as this, without having hearts touch-
ed and impressed with the apprehension of the pure and holy
end of it. And,
(2.) Take heed of rejoicing carnally, with such a kind of
joy as shall be exclusive of, or that shall exclude, that spi-
ritual sense we ought to have of so high and mighty an under-
taking and intendment as this. How vain and how grossly in-
congruous and absurd is it to say, that because the Son of God
came into this wo^ld upon such a design as you liave heard,
''Therefore, let us eat and drink and be merry, therefore, let us
pamper and adorn this flesh ;" forgetting that it is inhabited
(even this mortal flesh) by an immortal spirit, and forgetting
that even this flesh of ours is claimed and challenged to be a
temple for the Holy Ghost, and therein made conformed to
the flesh of Christ, which is itself such a Temple, and the mo-
del according to which, all Christian [temples, that Is, a tem-
ple in a temple, in every christian, ought to be formed. *' Know
VOL, VII, X
154 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART H.
ye not," saith the apostle, "that your bodies are the temples
of the Holy Ghost?" (1 Cor. 6. 19.) and they are to be
indulged and cared for accordingly. Christ speaks it of his
own body, " Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in
three days !" As he was, even in his human nature, and in his
body, a Temple of the living God, so is every christian to be ;
and therefore, are these bodies of ours to be cared for in sub-
serviency to this design. This body of mine, it is to be the liv-
ing, animated temple of the Divine, Living Spirit. And what !
is it then to be indulged, to be pampered, to be adorned with
a fine dress, and is this all that 1 am to design concerning it?
I am to design in it conformity to the great Original Temple,
the Son of God. But to rejoice with such a sort of festivi-
ty as is only grateful to carnal and fleshly inclination, without
any thought of being recovered and brought back to God by
this Christ, of having my soul refined, and body and soul made
meet to glorify the great God whose they both are: to joy
without any thought of this, (I say) looks more like a pagan
than a christian ; and is much more suitable to the paganish
than the Christian state. It ought to be considered, Chrisjt
took our flesh to make us partakers of his Spirit; he took our
nature to make us partakers of his divine nature, escaping the
corruptions that are in this world through lust : and to please
ourselves in the thoughts of Christ having been born, without
any thouglit of this, is such a carnality as a^Vonts the very
pretence that we make of rejoicing in the thoughts of it, that
the Son of God did descend and come down to associate him-
self, and dwell among the sons of men in this world, and to suf-
fer for them, and so to prepare them to dwell with God in the
other world.
(3.) But lastly. Take heed of such a kind of rejoicing as is
more grossly and sensually wicked, even in itself and in its own
nature : that is, to make the season when we, uncertainly, ap-
prehend Christ to have been born into this world, the season
of letting loose to all manner of looseness and debauchery, in
direct contradiction to, and defiance of, the design of his com-
ing : that is, when we know the Son of God was manifest to
take away sin, and to destroy the works of the devil; as the ex-
pressions are, (1 John 3. 5. 8.) that we should make it our bu-
siness to indulge and fulfil those very lusts which he came to
destroy and dissolve and make cease out of the world; what
an affront is this to him whose memorial we pretend to cele-
brate ! Tliat is to make that which we imagine to be the day of
his birth, to be the day of his most ignominious death, by cru-
cifying afresh to ourselves the Son of God, and putting him to
LEC. I.) His Decrees -^Particular Propositio?is. 155
open shame, as if we would proclaim to the world, that the
design of the Son of God's descent into it, was to give men
the liberty of being safely wicked, that they might throw oft
all restraint, and without any fear or dread of what should fol-
low, abandon themselves to all manner of wickedness, to fulfil
the impure lusts of a corrupt, depraved nature, till sin, being
finished, should end in eternal death : and so make tiie Chris-
tian religion an inconsistency with itself, and (o represent the
matter, as if Christ came into the world, not to make men chris-
tians, but to exempt them from being so ; and not to destroy
sin out of the world, but to exclude and shut out Christianity.
As if he came into the world that there might never be any
such thing as Christianity in it, that he might bring it about,
that men might, with safety and impunity, live in the highest
rebellion against the very laws of that Christ by whom they
pretend to expect salvation.
But this is one great thing which we see lies under divine
purpose and decree, according to the counsel of his will, the
sending of his Son into the world to be a Redeemer and Saviour
of sinners, by living among them, dying for them, conquering
death, ascending to heaven, and erecting that kingdoui by
which he is to govern the redeemed community unto everlast-
ing life. And by how much the more apparently this was
matter of divine purpose according to eternal counsel, so much
the higher and more dreadful wickedness must it needs be, to
indulge in ourselves such a disposition of spirit, or so to shape
our course that both shall lie counter to the divine counsels in
all this. That is, when Christ did not come into the world by
accident, but by design and by purpose, according to the wisest
counsel, and eternal and most stable counsel, we should set
ourselves, as much as in us is, to overturn the whole frame of
that divine and eternal counsel of heaven; that is, that it shall
never take place with me, "I will never be subject to him, I
will never know him, never come into union wiih him, never
resign up myself unto him; 1 will be mine own still, and live
still at the utmost distance from GJod and detiance of him."
By how much the more apparent this was the product of the di-
vine will according to counsel, so more fearful and horrid
must be the wickedness that stands in direct opposition there-
to.
156 THE I'RINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART IT,
LECTURE II.*
But now to go on with other particular propositions about
tlie decrees of God.
7. That those terms of life and death for sinners, which God
liath actually settled and published in his gospel, those we may
he sure he did intend and purpose should be the termsof life and
death unto us. Whatsoever, i^as you have heard in the gene-
ral propositions,) God actually doth, we may be sure he in-
tended and purposed to do. What he doth, he doth willingly
when he doth it. No force can be put upon him; he never
doth any thing against his will, and what he once willed he
doth always will, for there can be with him no new will.
Therefore, whereas, he hath enacted and published such things
as these to the world, as the terms of life and death to sinners;
that whosoever believes shall be saved, but whosoever believetli
not shall be damned : that he gave his only begotten Son with
that design, that they who believe in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life; that tiiey that believed not, are con-
demned already : they that believe, have everlasting life ;
they that believe not, shall not see life ; but the wrath of God
abideth on them : that sinners are to repent, that their sins
may be blotted out ; that they tiiat repent shall not all alike
perish: (Luke 13. 3.) that the things that eye hath not seen,
that the ear hath not heard, and which have not entered the
heart of man to conceive, are all prepared for them that love
God: (1 Cor. 2. 9.) but, they that love him not, that
love not the Lord Jesus, arc so many anathema, accursed,
till he come : (1 Cor. 16. 22.) that Christ shall be the Author
of eternal salvation to all them that obey him : (Heb. 5. 9.)
but, that he shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance on
them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of his Son ;
(2 Thess. 1. 8.) these, 1 say, being the declared terms of life
and death to sinners, enacted and actually published to the
world as such, these you may be sure God did intend and pur-
pose should be such. His purpose was eternal, and a decree,
as that word was explained. This is out of all question, that
such terms of life or death to sinners, as have been mentioned,
are the matter of divine, eternal decree ; he did always intend
they should be so. Whence it is obvious to collect, that he
can have no contrary decree, no contrary purpose. That is,
wheresoever his pleasure is published and made known, so as
to be capable to be understood about these matters, God will
♦ Preached January the 8th^ I692.
LEC. II.) His Decrees — Partmtlar Propositions. 1 57
never deal with men upon other terms. There can be no re-
pugnant purpose to any such purpose as this ; that is to say,
that he will save any whether they believe or no, or though
they finally persist in obstinate infidelity and impenitency and
rebellion against him to the last. It is never to be supposed,
that he will do such a thing without decreeing it, so that be
should have ever decreed it against such a decree as this.
And so^ on the other hand, that he v;\\\ ever finally condemn, or
hath ever decreed or purposed finally to condemn any that shall
believe, that shall repent, that shall love him above all, and fi-
nally subject themselves to his government, v/hensoever they
are brought to do so in Christ : therefoie, it is vain and un-
scriptural, without foundation any way, for men to emboldeii
themselves on the one hand, " Let me be never so wicked, or
never so careless, I may be saved at last for all that ; 1 do net
know but God hath decreed to save me." Or, that any sliould
torment themselves on the other hand with alBIctirig thoughts,
*' Let me do what 1 will, if I never so earnestly set myself, and
seek help from heaven, that I may believe, that I may repent,
that I may have my heart changed, renewed, and brought to
love God, and subject myself to him in Christ, yet, there may
be a decree against me and 1 may perish for all this." There
is no reason, no foundation on the one hand or on tlie others
for any such imagined decree of God, against these plain de-
clared decrees of his : they are (as to what is compendious
and comprehensive of all) final believers who lie under the
decree or purpose of salvation ; and final infidels who lie un-
der the decree or purpose of condemnation.
So much, in general, is most certainly decreed, that they
who believe shall be saved, and they that believe not, shall pe-
rish. But I further add,
8. God hath not purposed this in the general, that he %vHl save
such as are wrought up to a compliance with his declared known
terms of salvation ; but whensoever he doth actually enable any
\o believe and repent, we may conclude that he did eternally
intend so to do. And whosoever he doth actually conserve in
a safe state, that is, enables them continually to believe, (it is
enough to instance in this one thing, with which the rest are
so essentially connected, that they are all implied, if this one be
actually to be found, and even in the very mention of this one,)
if he actually enable any to believe to the saving of their souls
unto their final salvation, he did always from eternity, intend so
to enable them. And so, he hath not only decreed, or intended
certain indefinite and undeterminate species to life and salva-
tion, but particular persons as is most evident many ways.
I5S THE FRINCIFLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART II.
(1.) Scripture is most express in it : if you look to the fore-
going verses, clivers of them in this same chapter, you v.-ill find
it. In what a transport, towards the heginnin^, do you fintl the
apostle hlessing God. '^Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed tis with all spiritual bles-
sings, in heavenly places, (or things) in Christ. According as
.he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and unblamable before him in love:
having predestinated us, to the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ unto himself; according to the good pleasure of his will,
to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made
M5 accepted in the beloved." And in this same 11th. verse,
where the text lies, " in whom also tve have obtained an inhe-
ritance, being predestinated, according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
And nothing, again, can be plainer than that known and fa-
mous text, Horn. 8. 30. '^ Moreover whom he did predestinate,
them he also called : and whom he called, them he also justified:
and whom lie justified, them he also glorified." This is a chain
that can never be broken; and equally expresseth that in the
2 Thes. 2. 13. where the apostle gives solemn thanks, even for
them, that God had chosen them unto salvation, through sanc-
tification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. And in that,
]. Peter 1.2. " Elect according to the foreknowledge of God,
through sanctification of the Spirit, and sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus." These (as it is observable, and was told you before,
in those more general propositions,) do manifestly connect
means and end together. But they do ascertain both, con-
cerning some, and not leave the matter indefinite and undeter-
mined, as if he did in the dark, make and form purposes with
himself, without discerning, at the same time, who should
comply with his pleasure, as to such terms of life, and who
should not. And besides so express scriptures, the matter is,
(2.) Evident in itself, that whomsoever he doth actually
enable to comply with such terms of life and salvation, he did
purpose and decree to enable. For when he doth so, when he
gives a man faith, when he gives him repentance, which are
most expressly said to be the gift of God : to you it is given
to believe and suffer ; (Phil. 1. 29.) and Christ is exalted to be
a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of
sins. Acts 5. 31 . I say, when he doth actually give these gifts,
doth he give them with his will, or against his will ? Is it to
be supposed, that he should give them, and not will to give
them? What could so impose upon him that he should give
what he was not willing to give ? But, if once he was willing.
LEc. II.) His Decrees — Particular Propositions. 159
and If then he was willing to give such a gift, he was always
willing; for there cannot be with hint a new will, and there-
fore, he was from eternity willing. And again,
(3.) That matter might be further argued, from what Scrip-
ture speaketh most expressly too, that as to that great and
most comprehensive instance of faith in the Son of God ; who-
soever do receive Christ and believe in his name, when God
enables them so to do, he regenerates them ; " To as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to as many as believed on his name." John ]. 12.
And then, it is immediately subjoined in the 13th. ver. " Who
were boin not of flesh nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but
of God." But if he bo regenerate any, he doth it most wil-
lingly : ^^ Of his own will begat he us, by the word of truth."
James 1. 18. Agreeable to the expression in the text, " He
doth all things according to the counsel of his own will." He
did with counsel, will to regenerate whomsoever he regene-
rates. .\nd,
(4.) It is altogether unimaginable, that God should do a
thing so far exceeding all expectation, and even all wonder, as
the sending of his own Son ; he that was the brightness of his
own glory, and the express image of his person, the Heir of all
things, by whom he made the worlds; to be incarnate, to put
on man, and to die upon a tree, so ignominiously, a spectacle
to angels and men, and to leave it an undetermined thing whe-
ther any should be the better for Ix^ yea, or no : or rather to
leave it certain that none ever should be the better for it. For
most certain it is, that as to those great terms, of life and sal-
vation, none can ever be the better, if he do not, by his over-
powering grace, influence minds and hearts, and work them
up to a compliance with those terms, and work and effect
them in them. The case is vastly different in respect to spiri-
tual good, and in reference to the opposite evil ; where, as
to wickc'd actions, and a continued course of them, or any
particular act in such and such circumstances, men will al-
ways determine themselves ; they are apt and prone enough to
do so. If they can, in such and such circumstances, they will
do wickedly : but in reference to any spiritual action that is
good and holy, and of a saving tendency, there is not so much
of an indifferency, but a most fixed aversion, which nothing
but the power of divine grace can conquer and overcome. No-
thing but the almighty power of grace can make an enemy-
heart become friendly tov/ards God, and towards his Christ,
can vanquish th.e malignity of an obstinate infidelity, can mol-
lify an obdurate, hard heart, and make it dissolve and melt as
in repentance it must. This is, therefore, altogether an un-
160 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD, (PART If,
imaginable thing, that God should do what did so far exceed
all expectation, and even all wondei", as to send his own eternal
Son, to die upon a cross, and leave it uncertain, whether any
should ever be the better for it : or rather certain that none
ever should. And it is again,
(5.) Very unreasonable to think that the great God should
have among men no objects of special favour; and it wore fool-
ish to suppose that it should be a reflection upon him to have
it so. As it vvas formerly told you, it belongs only to a good
governor, and even to the best that can be supposed, to deal
equally with all; and kindly and favourably where he pleaseth.
We are to distinguish matters of right, and matters of peculiar
favour. Matters of right will be dispensed and administered
with an equal hand, matters of special favour according to good
pleasure, as it is expressed again and again^ in the context. And
plain it is, that there can be no natural right, which any crea-
ture can claim at the hand of God. Whatsoever becomes
matter of right, from him to them, must only be by grace, by
promise. He cannot be a debtor to his creature, till he makes
himself ao; and the promises by which he makes himself so,
they '^ are all yea and amen in Christ;" (2. Cor. 1. 20^
only upon his account, only for his sake. Whatsoever there is
that comes within the compass of a promise, for the encou-
ragement of sinners to return and come to God, it will all be
made good to a tittle upon his account that is worthy, all pro-
mises being " yea and amen" in him. But whatsoever is a-
bove promise, more than promise, is all from mere iu^oy.iac, the
good pleasure of his goodness. It can be resolved into nothing
else, turn we the matter in our thoughts never so long. He
will make good all that was promised to every one to a tittle;
all unpromised, peculiar favour, that is dispensed according to
the good pleasure of his goodness ; even as his promises them-
selves at first were. And,
(6 ) Lastly : It is very evident that as to communications of
grace and favour, God doth dispense very differently; and there-
fore, must be understood to intend so to do, and to have always
intended it. As in (he parable of the talents, (though paraboli-
cal scriptures do not give ground of argument as to every thing
in them, yet they do as to their main scope,) he gives to one ten
talents, to another five, to another one, as he pleaseth; he
dispenseth as he pleaseth, wherein he hath not particularly
obliged himself. But further,
9. If yet he do actually, in a way of common grace, super-
add more, wheresoever he hath given any thing of it, upon the
due improvement of that, then we may conclude he hath al-
LEc. II.) Ilis Decrees — Particular Propositions. 161
ways intended so to do ; this was his pleasure, and his eternal
purpose. If that be actually his rule, " to him that hath shall
be given ;" (you know how hath is to be taken here, that hath
so as to improve what he hath,) he shall still have more : if
this be actually the rule and measure of his proceedings, it was
alnays his purpose it should be so. And so it must be under-
stood to have been his purpose, even in them that do finally
perish, yet still to give them more of gracious communications
in the way of common grace, upon the improvement of what
they had ; and they perish as not improving what was vouch-
safed and afforded them, according to the tenour of that rule.
They do not finally perish, as never having received any
thing from the hands of God, in a way of grace, that had a
tendency and leadingness in it to their better state, but they
finally perish as neglecting and resisting such overtures as have
been made to them. What the case was with the old world,
before the flood, we must still suppose to be the common case
among men. " My Spirit shall not always strive with man."
Gen. 6. 3. It had been striving, and it is generally striving
more or less ; and especially where God doth aflbrd the more
peculiar manifestations of himself, as he did to that people
whom he severed from the rest of the world, to be more ap-
propriate to him. We have many passages that speak of the
presence, and of the operations of the Divine Spirit, among that
people. The Spirit of the Lord caused them to rest: He gave
his Spirit to instruct them. Isaiah 63. 14. They rebelled and
vexed his Holy Spirit: therefore, he turned to be their enemy,
and fought against them : ver. 10. and that of dying Stephen,
*^ Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and life, ye do
always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so do ye."
Acts 7- 51. Now, there cannot be a resistance where there is
no striving, and there can be no striving where there is not a
counter-striving. When the Spirit, in its more common ope-
rations, is resisted, it retires in displeasure, often and most
righteously, and gives to men, yields to them that victory that
shall be in the end fatal to them, undoing to them ; many
such victories undo them at last, and they perish by them. If
he be actually working in men to will and to do of his own
good pleasure, when he is ever so at work in any, he injects
thoughts into their hearts, smites their minds with convictions,
and their hearts many times with terrors ; or if there be any
more placid affections raised in them in any degree towards
himself, or towaVds any divine thing, and the matter go no
further than a loseable taste, that may vanish and pass av/ay,
it is plain he so far went of good pleasure ; and if he did that
VOL. VII; X
162 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF (VOD. (PART IT.
which he did of good pleasure, then it was before his good
pleasure, and always his good pleasure, and eternally hia good
pleasure, to proceed so far with such and such : so as in this
case there can be no pretence to say, if he go no higher, that
wrong is done to them with whom he nent no higher. It
must be justly said, " Friend 1 do thee no wrong," even to the
most careless neglector, and the most contemptuous abuser of
the grace of God, " Friend I do thee no wrong." If he do
proceed higher, and to less vincible workings with some, there
is no cause any man's eye should be evil, because his eye is
good. He is Lord of his own grace, he may do what he will
with his own. What he hath to dispense, and dispose of, is
his, and they to whom he is to dispose so and so are his, and
there is no pretence of wrong to any, that more is not done for
them; for whom more was done than they could lay any origi-
nal claim to ; for it was all of mercy that there was any offer
or overture made at all, or that the case was so stated before,
as that it might have been possible, if it had not been through
their own wicked neglect, that they that perish might have ad-
vanced in the way of salvation, according to his method, still
further and further, so as not to make their own final salvation
n thing impossible upon any other terms, than their own wilful
neglect and final refusal. But I again further add,
10. That such as live quite v/ithout the sound of the gospel,
and to whom every thing of supernatural revelation hath never
been vouchsafed or any thing of it, how God hath determined
to deal with them, and the infants of such, he hath not yet
declared further his pleasure to us expressly, than it was need-
ful for us to know and understand. And therefore, it would
be either vain or overbold curiosity to determine pobitively in
their case, and it is very unreasonable and foolish, oversolici-
tously to inquire about it. It is enough for us to understand
and knov/ upon what terms God will deal with us, according
to those circumstances wherein he hath placed and set us ; he
hath placed us under the dispensation of his gospel, wherein
all things arc made plain and evident to. us, that concern us in
reference to our present and eternal state, and will deal with us
according to those known and published terms, which stand in
so clear a light, before our eyes ; and with all others according
to those measures they have had. It is enough for us to un-
derstand and know what we may, as our case is stated, expect
from God, and what God doth expect from us. And, it would
be very unreasonable, and uncharitable, for us to trouble our-
selves with furtlior inquiries, and it would be very bold to ven-
ture on rash determinations, in those more obscure things, and
LEC. II.) His Decrees — Particular Propositions, 1 C3
wherein we are so little concerned. These are to pass among
the arcana, that secret things belong to God, when revealed
things belong to us, and our children after us, as they shall
come to be revealed to them. Deut. 29. 29. A passage placed,
as it were, on purpose to caution, and warn too busy and
bold inquirers, and that, even in matters of unspeakably less
concernment than the eternal salvation of souls. As suppose,
that the people, for that is the case there supposed and refer-
red to, who had been so peculiar to God, taken nigh to him,
above, and from, all other people and nations under heaven,
should apostatise and revolt from him, and draw down vindic-
tive judgments, and destructive ones upon themselves, and in-
quiry be made how it comes to pass, that such a people, so near
to God, should be so treated and dealt withal, their land laid
waste and made a wilderness, and nothing to be found but
marks of divine vengeance, where such a people, so favoured
by heaven did dwell, what is the meaning of all this? Why,
they forsook the Lord their God ! But that might have been
prevented: Why did he not hold them to him? "Secret
things belong unto God, but revealed things to us and our
children." So is that sad and dismal state concluded and shut
up at last, with that seal upon it ! That, therefore, I would
leave with you, as all I think needful to say, with reference to
their case who lie without the compass of superadded divine
revelation. Again, I further add,
11. That whereas faith and its concomitants are ever to be
found in that^ which appears to be at length the subject of
God's purpose of saving souls ; and final infidelity, with its
concomitants, are the characters of the subjects of the contra-
ry purpose, a purpose to condemn with everlasting destruc-
tion; these must very differently be understood to be so. Faith,
for instance, and so of the rest of its concomitants, are never
looked upon by God as any causes, or condiuuns, or induce-
ments, any way, of his purpose to save any. These are by iiis
grace to be found in the subjects, in those that he will save; '
but they are no inducements to pass any such determination
concerning them. It is honourable to liim to save such: and,
even in the nature of the thing, they only are capable of final
salvation and blessedness, in whom such characters are to be
found : for they can never be happy in union with the eternal
truth and goodness, who are habitually averse in their temper,
and opposite to the one and the other. If happiness result
from such a union, then they, in whom there is a prevailing
final aversion to eternal truth and goodness, are uncapable of
any such felicity, as is to result from a union with these.
164 THE PRINC[PLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
But it Is no motive or inducement to God, to intend to save
such a one, because he will be a believer, or he will be a peni-
tent person. That he is a believer, that he is a penitent per-
son, that he is a lover of him, and that he is obedient to his
Son, these are the effects of his grace, and of his good plea-
sure, and so he is moved in this case by nothing without him-
self. But the case must be understood to be otherwise, as to
those that he intends finally to punish, and to punish with ever-
lasting destruction. That is, he doth resolve to deal with them
suitably to the state of things between him and them, and with
himself. If any inquire, why there should be a difference,
^vhy he should be moved to purpose so and so, in reference to
them that perish, (which purpose we are not to consider ab-
stractly as it lies in God alone, for so it is not a distinct thing
from his own essence of which there can be no cause ; but we
are to consider it with a reference to the effects and to the ob-
jects, and of that relation there is really a cause, and so there
is a just cause for the condemnation of them that perish, evea
from the creature ; but there can be no cause from the crea-
ture, of them that are saved) I say, if you will have the reasons
assigned of the difference^ they are obvious and plain, especi-
ally these two.
(1.) That there is no natural connection between the im-
perfect faith and holiness of the saints, and their eternal feli-
city; no natural connection, I say, at all between them.
But there is a most natural connection between the infidelity,
enmity against God, and reigning wickedness, and eternal ruin
and everlasting misery. No man can say that these two are
naturally connected, an imperfect faith in God, through Christ,
and imperfect holiness, and final felicity and blessedness.
These are not so naturally connected that the one must arrive
to the other. But there is a most plain, natural connection
between infidelity and disbelief of divine truth, enmity against
divine goodness, repudiation and refusal of the offers and ten-
ders thereof, and eternal misery : so as that the one of them
cannot but be the other. Wickedness must be misery, sin
persisted in to the last must be destruction, it cannot be other-
wise ; sin when it is finished can be nothing but death. " To
be carnally minded is death :" it is indeed said, *' to be spi-
ritually minded is life and peace :" but that is by an interven-
ing divine constitution. And though there be a constitution
in the other case too, yet there is a most natural connection
between total prevailing wickedness, reigning iniquity, and mi-
sery J to which the supervening constitution is added to an in-
LEG. II.) His Decrees — Particular Propositions 165
dication of the righteous judgment of God, that he doth but
let the ^ling be with such as it is. They love death; and he
only lets them have what they love, and what they choose : he
doth only not interpose in their case to break the connection.
And,
(2.) There is this manifest difference too ; that as there is
a natural connection between wickedness and misery, whereas
there is none between imperfect faith and holiness and eternal
felicity, otherwise than what God haih graciously made ; so
there is in tinal, reigning, persevering wickedness, the highest
desert of eternal misery : whereas, there is in imperfect faith
and holiness no desert of eternal life and blessedness. And
none that consider, will think this strange, that when a man
can never deserve (much less by what is merely gratuitously
wrought in him) life and blessedness ; yet, by continuing, per-
severing wickedness he may deserve to perish. That imper-
fect good that is wrought in him and whicli lie owes not to
himself, can never deserve life and blessedness for him. But
total wickedness, yea, or any wickedness can deserve death,
can deserve for a man's being left to be finally miserable and
his falling under divine vindicta, vengeance : this is a divine
nemesis, what is fit and righteous, what is fit the rigiiteous
Judge of all the earth should do; even animadvert upon wick-
edness, and testify his own just abhorrence and detestation of
it, so that there is a vast ditference between these two : that
though faith and holiness be in those that shall be saved ; and
so are ever to be found in the subject of God's purpose to save,
as characteristical of the subject, but are not inducements, or
causes or motives thereof unto God : yet, wheresoever God
hath purposed to condemn, their wickedness is a just motive of
that purpose, so terminated, so related to the creature, that is,
to suffer, and to the suffering that he is to undergo. There is
something justly causative in this ; and there is nothing more
strange in all this, than what God hath himself, in his word, so
plainly told us, that men's destruction is of themselves, but
their help in order to salvation should be found in him alone.
Hos. 13. 9. It is no unsuitable or strange thing, that God
should be eyed as the Author of all life, and all grace, and all
blessedness, and of life and of felicity for ever. And, that sin-
ners should be looked upon as tlie fountains of all evil and all
darkness and all impurity and all misery to themselves only.
God must determine men only to that good by which they are
to be led on gradually to a blessed, safe, and happy state. But
to that evil that tends to ruin and final destruction, men have it
in themselves to determine themselves. More is yet to be ad-=
ded to illustrate this.
166 THE PRINCfPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART II.
LECTURE III.*
But before I proceed further, I think fit to premonish thus
much, and declare to you, that I would not, as to these mat-
ters be understood to deny every thing that I do not assert
about them, nor to assert whatsoever I do not deny : for my
design is only to propose to you what is plain, and what is
useable and may be improved unto the common purposes of
Christianiiy. There are a great many things besides, that ma-
isy have concerned themselves to dispute to and fro, which I
think it not at all needful or useful to be brought into sucli dis-
course. I
But now, that the matter last insisted on, may yet be clear-
er and more plain. If we speak of this natural bodily life, you
can very easily understand that that is in any man's power, it
is within the compass of human power that ordinarily men
havcj for a man to give himself a mortal wound, but, having
done so, it is not within the con)pass of human power to heal
him again ; and that, in reference to the natural connection
between tlie one of those forementioned things and the other,
and in reference to the moral and legal connection that is as-
serted between them ; we may a^ain illustrate it by a resem-
blance of it to the concernments of this natural bodily life. It
js in the power of any one that dares venture to be so far cri-
minal, to deserve death at the hands of the prince and the law,
whereas, it may be no way in his power, when he hath done
so^ to deserve the prince's pardon and to have his forfeited life
given him again. These are things, in themselves plain to any
Tinderstnnding. And now, whereas the text hath plainly told
us, that God works all things after the counsel of his own will,
this doth manifestly imply, that the determinations must be
correspondent to the aptitudes of things, and most especially to
the apt agreement which they shall hold with the universal
perfection of his own nature. Now it is no blemish to the
perfection of the Divine Nature, when things are so and so
connected in themselves, naturally and morally, to let things
in many instances stand just as in themselves they are. This
is no reliection on the divine perfection ; that is, where there
is a real connection between wickedness and misery, both na-
tural and mora! or legal, it is no reflection upon the perfection
of the Divine Nature, in many instances to let that connection
* JVeachcd January the I5ih, lO'Oi.
LEC. III.) His Decrees — Particular Propositions, \€^^
be as it is. And whereas, there is no connection between im-
perfect faith and holiness, and perfect felicity and blessedness,
(there is, in reality, no connection between these) it is no
blemish to the divine perfection (if there be really, and If there
be in nature, and as yet any other way between these two, no
connection) to make one by grace, in what instances he pleas-
eth ,• that being done (as the gospel tells us) upon the Re-
deemer's account, who it was predetermined should so order
the course of his management, even to dying itself, and in dy-
ing, that no divine perfection should reluctate or reclaim against
such a connection as this ; a connection to be made by grace
when before it was not, when really it was not, between that
imperfect faith and holiness that some should be enabled to
in this world and their future felicity and blessedness in the
other world. All comes to tliis sum, that is, that we can both
effect and deserve our own death and misery ; but we can nei-
ther effect nor deserve life and blessedness: that must be owing
to divine favour and grace. And the case (as h.ath been often
said) is vastly different in dispensing of punishments and free
favours. It being no reflection upon tlie best government that
can be supposed either to inflict deserved punishments, or to
dispense undeserved favours. Neither of these can reflect on
the best and most perfect government that can be thought. I
now go on and add further,
12. That the assertion of a decree of reprobation, antecedent
to a decree of condemnation for infidelity and wickedness per-
sisted in to the last, is that which may seem agreeable to the
imperfect mind of man; but we cannot be so sure that it will
be any way agreeable unto the most perfect mind of God, in
which there can be no such thing as first and second, and un-
to which all things lie open at once, even unto one entire and
eternal view. We are very plainly told in Scripture, of some
men's being ordained of old unto condemnation : in that 4th
verse of the epistle of Jade, and in the same place we have
the characters given us of them that are so: " ungodly men,
turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, denying the only
Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." We are sure of
such a decree as doth doom such, continuing such unto the
last, unto condemnation and eternal perdition: but that there
should be any decree concerning such, prior tathis, that must
suppose priority and posteriority in Kternum. But Eternum
non patititr novum, there can he no such thing as novity,
newness, in eternity. And therefore, being sure there is such
a decree as this, and that this decree is eternal, v.'e may be
equally sure there can be no decree pre-existent to it j because
i6'8 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF G0J3. (pART 11..
every thing in God is co-eternal to him, and so this decree nnust
be co-eternal unto God himself; and there can be nothing be-
fore God. And though it be very true, indeed, that many have
taken much pains and given great exercise to their thoughts
to assign and fix some certain order of former and latter, to
the divine decrees, yet that doth only proceed from the im-
perfection of their minds ; but we are sure it is impossible
there can be any such thing as priority and posteriority in the
Divine Mind ; all things lyi r.g open to him at one eternal and
entire view at once : so that whensoever he beholds and looks
upon the subjects of final misery, he sees their character at the
same time, and it cannot be otherwise. And again, 1 add,
13. That will or decree, or purpose of God by which he doth
determine the salvation of any, it is, in the proper time and
season, effective of whatsoever is pre-requisite thereunto: that
is, if he have decreed he will save such and such, that same
will of his is, in the proper season, effective of that faith, of
tiiat repentance, of that holiness and of that perseverance
v/hich is requisite to their final salvation. But, on the other
hand, God's will to punish any with future misery is not effec-
tive of what concurs to that, neither as naturally causing or
deserving it. That is sin that doth botli, as you have heard j
it doth both naturally cause It and deserve it too. And, if you
ask here, *' What is the reason of the difference ; or is tliere
not a parity of reason in both cases, that if his will doth effect
what is necessary to the salvation of the one, his will should
also effect what is necessary or doth any ways previously concur
to the destruction of the other ? The reason of the difference is
most manifest upon these two accounts.
(I.) That sin is properly, as such, no effect but a defect,
and therefore, it doth not need an effective cause but a de-
fective only. But we will impute nothing of defectiveness
to God : that can be found no where but in the creature.
And,
(2.) That we can (sure any one may) apprehend it a great
deal more congruous and suitable, to the nature and honour of
God to make men believing and holy than to make them un-
believing and wicked. We can easily apprehend how well it
agrees to the nature of God, and how subservient it is to the
glory of God, to make men believing and holy ; but no man
can eVer apprehend it agreeable to his nature, or subservient to
his honour, to make men disbelieving and wicked. And there-
fore, as we make the difference, I cannot but apprehend you
see reason enough why we should. And then further, lake
this.
LEG. IH.) His Decrees — Particular Propositions. 1G9
14. That for these distinct states of blessedness and misery,
unto which the will of God doth determine some, and leave
others, tliey are the only states of men hereafter, and there is
not a middle state between these two, though there be great
intermediate degrees between the highest pitch of felicity and
the lowest of misery. There are, I say, very great intermedi-
ate degrees, but not a middle state. This proposition hath two
parts : — that there is no middle state, and yet — that there
are great intermediate degrees, both of blessedness and mi-
sery.
(1.) As to the former part, that there is no intermediate or
middle state between these two : it cannot, without very great
absurdity, be so much as conceived there should be ; besides
that it is against the most express tenour of Scripture. I need
not go about to quote texts to you. Look to the judgment of
the great day. Matt. 25. Men are judged but to two distinct
states ; all go one of these two ways. And it is unconceivable
in itself that there should be a distinct intermediate state : for
it would be to suppose that there can be such a thing as an in-
telligent, reasonable creature, having the use of his faculties,
(which death, we have a great deal more reason to appre-
hend, doth promote rather than hinder,) and neither happy nor
miserable. This is an unconceivable thing, equally uncon-
ceivable as it would be, that there should be such a creature
under a law, under government, (as reasonable creatures even
as such, either positive or natural at least,) that should be nei-
ther good nor bad, that should neither be obedient nor disobe-
dient, holy nor wicked, and this you know to be an impossible
thing. And that is enough as to the former part of the propo-
sition. But then,
(2.) As to the latter part, that there are great intermediate
degrees both of happiness and misery, that is plain from most
express scriptures. It is less needful to insist upon the degrees
of blessedness in the other state, about which the Scripture is
plain enough. There will be such a difference as there appears
to be of one star differing from another star in glory. 1 Cor.
15. 41. But chiefly as to the differing degrees of misery ; no-
thing is plainer from such passages in Scripture : — "They that
know their master's will, and do it not, shall be beaten with
many stripes; they that do it not, not knowing it, with fewer."
JLuke 12.47, 48. "It will be more tolerable for Sodom and
Gomorrah, for Tyre and Sidon, in the day of judgment, than
for Capernaum and Bethsaida, where so much gospel light
shone; and wiiere so glorious works were done, to evidence
and demonstrate the truth of the gospel." Matt. 11. 22.
VOL. VI r. z
170 THE PRINCIl'LES OF THE ORACLES OP GOC. (pART II.
And there Is a sort among them that do perish, which do pe-
rish more dreadfully. Such and such, It is said, shall have their
portion with hypocrites, (Matt 2^. 51.) which must be supposed
the most fiery, in the worst and hottest hell. God will not lay
upon men more than is right, that any should enter Into judg-
ment with him, as the expression in Job is. And therefore, we
must suppose the case to be vastly different between them that
live under the gospel and them that do not. " They that sin
without law, shall perish without law;" (Rom. 2. 12.) but with
a gentler kind of perdition. But they that sin under the law,
that is, under the divine Revelation, for that is the meaning of
the law there, supernatural, divine Revelation, they shall be
judged by it : not by that light which they have not, or those
means of light which they never had, but by those which they
have. But v/hereasj there will be very great degrees of differ-
ence in the states of the miserable hereafter, how great that dif-
ference will be, that we know not. It is enough that we know
it will be very great ; and therefore, among them that are mise-
rable, none will be punished unsuitably to the demerit of their
own sins. And this ought to have its weight with us, In order
to the repressing of undue and hard thoughts concerning the
divine proceedings with men in the final judgment : and
so, concerning his purposes and determinations before, and
from, eternity.
But I think it iiot necessary to say more to you by way of
position ; yet, there are sundry things that I shall add by way
of caution. As,
1. That we should take heed of being too positive about any
of these things, beyond the measure of divine Revelation, or
too curious in inquiring, or too contentious In disputing about
such matters. Let us labour to lay a restraint upon our spirits
as to these things. The matter requires it, and the divine word
requires it.
2. Never depart from, nor doubt of, what God hath express-
ly revealed : in reference to what he hath expressly reveal-
ed, let us neither deviate nor doubt ; but take heed lest we do.
And,
3. Take heed that we do not oppose the secret and revealed
will of God to one another, or allow ourselves so much as to
imagine an opposition, or contrariety between them. And that
ground being once firmly laid and stuck to, as it is Impossible
tliat there can be a v/ill against a will In God, or that he can
be divided from himself, or against himself, or that he should
reveal any thing to us as his vvill, that Is not his will, (it being
a thing inconsisteut with his nature, and impossible to him to
!,Ec. III.) His Decrees — Cautions, 17I
lie,) that being, 1 say, firmly laid, (as nothing can be firmer or
surer than that,) then measure all your conceptions of the se-
cret will olGofl, by his revealed will, about which you may be
sure. But never measure your eonceplions of his revealed will
by his secret will ; tliat is, by what you may imagine concern-
ing that. For you can but imagine, while it is secret, and so far
as it is unrevealed.
4. Take heed of exalting any one divine perfection to the
depressing of another, which men are too prone to do in tlieir
more fervent disputes about these matters. Great heat aiui
zeal appear to vindicate such a particular divine perfection
without attending, that at the same time they intrench upon
some other. It were very easy to give instances. Some or
the one hand are so much for the magnifying of the good-
ness of God, his love and his justice, (as they think,) that they
quite overlook his sovereignty, make nothing of that, but guide
their thoughts by such measures, as If they thought, that God
was obliged by his goodness, or even by his justice, to do so
with his own creatures, whom he hath so freely produee(] and
brought forth into being out of nothing, as they may do with
their fellow creatures. As if God were bound to observe- the
same measures as they do, and had no more power and do-
minion over the works of his own hands, than tliey have over
one another, who cannot give one another so much as a mo-
ment's breath. And on the other hand, some are so over apt
to exalt and magnify the divine sovereignty, that they quite
forget to consider him as a wise and righteous and holy and
good God; in all these, the best and most perfect of beings.
This is quite forgot, and scarce any other notion doth actually
obtain ; though otherwise these are not denied, are only not
denied ; but in the mean time they are overlooked ; and so
hardly any other notion is brought in view, or upon the stage
concerning God, than as of an almighty will, quite against the
manifest scope and current of the Scripture every where, which
makes all excellencies to be in him, and magnifies his wisdom,
and his righteousness, and his love and goodness, at so high a
rate, as you know. But to suppose the Divine Nature to con-
sist but in an omnipotent will, not guided by wisdom and
counsel, as the text speaks, " He doth all things according to
the counsel of his own will :" is the strangest and most unshap-
en notion of God ; and. In the tendency of It, most destructive
to religion that can be conceived. It tends, indeed, to enge-
nerate in the minds of men, a certain dread and horror : but is
that the affection that Is to Influence religion, and to animate
our worship ? There can be no vvorsliip that doth not proceed
172 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
from a dutiful reverential love : and agreeable hereunto, must
be still our notions of God. Heathens themselves that speak
at so high a rate (some of them) of the divine excellencies, and
particularly of his goodness, exalting that far above his power,
and above his knowledge, and above his wisdom ; yet they, at the
same time, say of him, *' He is an impartial law ;" and they
comprehend in that, both goodness and righteousness, accord-
ing to the strict measures whereof he manageth the whole
course of his dispensations towards his creatures, and cannot
but do so. He is a law that equally inclines every way, an im-
partial law he is to himself in all his dispensations. And in-
deed, such love and goodness in a ruler, as should include in it
an insenslbleness of injuries and indignities, and affronts, it
were stupidity ; it were inconsistent with the proper governing
qualifications which are requisite in any ruler whatsoever.
And again,
5. Take this further by way of caution: Let us take very
great heed that we do not, in reference to these things, so
magnify human perfection as to depress divine ; for that, in
this affair, too many are apt to do ; that is, to ascribe so much
to the reason and will of man, as to detract most injuriously
from the counsel of the will of God. Some think they know-
not how to solve the difficulties in these affairs, without ascrib-
ing greatly and highly to the reason and will of man. And all
ought to be ascribed thereunto that is due ; that is, so much as
doth render a man a governable creature, capable of being
bound by a law, and of being dealt with in the way of monl
government. So much must be ascribed and ought to be so.
It would be otherwise, as fit and congruous to have given bi-ws,
and assigned rewards and punishments to beasts and trees, as
men, if we do not preserve the apprehension of man's capticity
to be the subject of government, by reason and will, wherewith
God hath endowed his nature. But to think that the reason
and will of man are, of themselves, enough to enable him to
all that is requisite to his future felicity, is to make a god of
him, instead of a man, and to put him into his Maker's throne,
to give him a self-sufficiency, as if he had enough in himself to
do all things. And this, indeed, is so to magnify the reason
and will of man, as upon the matter to nullify the counsel of
the divine will in reference unto him ; by which we find the
methods are described and set, in which he is to expect con-
tinual aids and assistances, as being of himself, without them,
able to do nothing. And,
6. Take heed, hereupon, of being tempted to take up with a
spiritless religion, that shall be only a human product, the ef-
LEG. HI.) I^is Decrees— Cautions. 173
feet only of a man's own power. Take heed of taking up such
a repentance, and such a faith, and such an obedience as the
power of man is sufficient for: that will certainly lurch men
at last. That repentance, and that faith, and tl\at holiness,
(if any other were to liave the names,) vvliicli is not produced
by the Divine Spirit, but is short of that, must needs leave men
short of heaven and eternal glory ; unless you would suppose
it possible to a man to be his own Saviour out of such a gulf of
sin and misery as men are sunk into.
7, Take heed of admitting any distrustful thoughts, that
God will not be always ready to afford his communicated, su-
peradded light and influence to those tliat see and acknowledge
their own impotency and nothingness. Such as see tliemseives
lost, and unable to help themselves, and that, from a sense of
indigency and want, cry for his Spirit (even as for bread) to
enlighten them and empower them, and enable them to do his
will, to comply with his call, and come up to his terms of life
and blessedness : take heed of ever admitting a distrustful
thought concerning his readiness to impart and communicate
to such. He will give his Spirit to them that ask him ; when
he is considerately asked and sought to: not formally, not
slightly, not in words of course ; but as feeling our own blind-
ness and darkness and deadness and impotency : or where there
is not, as yet, the light of a saint, there is that of a man, and that
is to be improved and made use of, in order to our higher light,
and if there be that self- reflection to which God \u\\\\ given to
every man a natural ability, much more may be known than
usually is. It belongs to s.he nature of man to turn his eyes
inwards. The mind of a man (like the sun can only project
its beams and cast them about this way and that, and every
way,) the mind of a man, I say, as an intellectual sun, can turn
its beams inward upon itself and take cognizance of what is
done within him ; and what dispositions and indispositions are
within. Men can reflect and consider this with themselves :
" Have not I an aversion towards God ? have not worldly con-
cernments and affairs, by the natural inclination of my own
mind, a greater room and place there than heaven and the
things of heaven ? are not other thoughts more grateful ? and
have they not a more pleasant relish with me than the thoughts
of God ?" Men, I say, are capable of using such reflections as
these. And thereupon, of considering, "This can never be
well with me : if there remain with me an habitual aversion to
God, who must be my best and eternal good, I cannot but be
eternally miserable : if I cannot think of him, and converse with
him with inclination and pleasure, 1 am lost. If my blessed-
17-4 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OP GOD. <'pART II.
ness lie above, in anbther world, and my mind is carried con-
tintialiy dowMward towards this world, 1 must liavc a heart at-
tempered to heaven, or 1 can never come there. V^^ell then
let Mie try if I can change the habit of my own mind, make the
attempt, make the trial." The more you attempt and try, the
more you will find that of yourselves you cannot; you can do
nothing of yourselves, you do but lift at a heavy log, you at-
tempt to move a mountain upwards, when you would lift at
your own terrene hearts. Then, is this consideration obvious,
** I must have help from heaveri, or I shall never come there."
Therefore, fall a seeking, fall a supplicating, as one that appre-
l)cnds himself in danger to perish and be lost, if he have not
another heart, a believing heart, a holy heart, a heavetily heart.
God will in this case give his Spirit ; and of that, you are not
to despair by any means. Take heed therefore, of setting the
imagination of a secret will of God not to give his Spirit, against
Ills plain and most expressly revealed will, that he will give his
Spirit to them that ask it, that is, that do considerately ask it,
as apprehending the state of their case; not ask it slightly and
in mockery, so as that the manner of their asking to have the
Divine Spirit given should imply a contempt of the gift at the
same time.
LECTURE IV.*
And I will add, further, to this caution, that we take very
great hfeed that we do not remit either our diligence, or our
hope, in reference to the affairs of our salvation, upon the sup-
position of an) divine counsel or purpose lying against us ; and
to enforce this, (than which nothing is more necessary to be
enforced,) 1 might reason two ways, partly ad hominemj partly,
ad rem*
(1,) Ad hominem. That is, from the common apprehen-
sion and practice of men in reference to other cases. It is ve-
ry plain that all the other concernments of men, are as much
determined by divine counsel and decree, as the affairs and
concerns of their souls and future estate. But it is as plain
that men are not wont to suspend their actions, in common
cases, upon mere supposition of such purposes and counsels of
God, that may, for ought they know, lie against them in such
cases. It would make very strange work in the world if they
should j if men should suspend their actions in reference to
* Preached Januai-y 12, 1602.
LEG. IV.) His Decrees — Cautions. 175
common affairs of human life merely upon the supposition that
a decree may be against them. What a condition would It re-
duce things to among men on earth ! The whole world would
be at a stand, or would be sitting still, and would sit still in
very uneasy postures too. The husbandman must never plough
nor sow, foi he might say, "I do not know but there is a decree
against me, that all will come to nothing, I shall have nocrop, I
shall lose all my labour and expence." The merchant should
never send or go to sea; no man should ever make a meal, be-
cause he doth not know but that it may be determined that it
shall poison and not nourish him, choke him and not refresh
him. Men should not walk the streets, for they do not knoiv
but tiiat there may be some decree or other that u tile shall fell
■■ and sirikt them dead, or they may meet with a stab In their
walk : nor should they sit still In the house neither, fur they
do not know but that there may be such a decree that the
house may fall and bury them in the ruins. Plain it is, men
do not in comnion cases suspend their actions upon such
suppositions; hut then it argues very great insincerity, and a
very ill temper of mind, that men should only pick oiit their
weia:hticst and most important concerns, and do nothing in re-
ference to them, merely upon such an imagination that there
may be some purpose, or something in the divine counsel lying
against them. It argues, I say, a very ill mind ; that there is
some peculiar disaffection to God, and to the way of holiness
and to religion as such, that men should only lay themselves
under restraint In reference to those great concernments of
religion, when they liave as much cause, and the same pre-
tence in reference to all things as they have in reference to this.
And again,
(2.) We may argue y^d rem, or from the true, real state of
the case Itself; that is, that there is no supposable divine pur-
pose but what is guided by counsel, and that no one hath at!y
reason to fear that the divine counsel can be any way prejudicial
to h'lrh, even to an honest affair or undertaking, that belongs
to the human life Itself. For they are always to be considered
as the counsels of an absolutely, Infinitely perfect Being-, whose
nature is uncapable of any thing of malignity towards his crea-
tures ; (for It is the most perfect benignity and goodness itself,
**God is love ;") and therefore, that any supposable counsel of
the divine will, in reference to our common affairs themselves^
are a great deal more encouraging than they can be discou-
raging; yea, unspeakably more, In reference to these aflair^-j
supposing we will but take up due thoughts of God aljout tln^in,
and have correspoudenit, due dispositions of heart and spirit to-
176 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART If.
wards him : for we are pre-assured by his own express word,
that all things shall work together for good to those that love
God ; which love, will be the evidence of a man's being called
according to his purpose, as these things lie connected in that
Rom. 8. 28. There is no son or servant of common under-
standing and ingenuity, but it will be a very great encourage-
ment and satisfaction to him to act in all things under the con-
duct and direction of a parent or master, that he knows to be
a man of counsel,, as well as of the greatest goodness ; it will
certainly be most satisfying and encouraging to any such one.
And how unspeakably more will it be to any, to think, that
whatsoever aft'airs that lie within the compass of human life, I
have to manage, I am to manage and order them all under the
conduct and direction of the wise counsel of a good, and. gra-
cious, and holy God; whence [ may be sure he will never hin-
der me in any such enterprize and undertaking of mine, unless
it appear to his infinite wisdom, that it will be to my hurt, that
it will turn to my prejudice. If it shall be for the best for me,
it shall succeed, if it shall not succeed, it would be to my dis-
advantage if it should. The tendency of all this is to compose
men's spirits to the greatest quietude and tranquillity imagina-
ble, in reference even to the common affairs of human life. This
word is firmer and more stable than the foundations of heaven
and earth, that all things shall work together for good to them
that love God : nothing can come amiss to a lover of God, to
one, who by the Divine Spirit working in him, is contempered
in the habitual frame of his spirit to the divine pleasure. And
the disposition of all things cannot but work together for good
to such a one.
But, whereas, it may be said, ^' What if I do not love God ?
what if I find not that disposition in my heart and soul to him,
what shall 1 do then ?" Why,
[1.] I would appeal to such a one, How perverse a notion
must you needs have of God, if you think him to be such a one
that he should equally take care, that all things should work
together for good to men, whether they love him or love him
not? that he should as much gratify them that hate him, as
them that love him ! You must suppose, in this case, some-
what in its own nature impossible : for it is simply impossible
that any thing can succeed well with a man that loves not
God. He must be the son of peace, or good cannot come to
him : it can take no place in him. But what I have further to
say is this, wliich in the second place 1 designed to say in ar-
guing this matter ad rem. That is,
[2.] That supposing a man be not a lover of God, an ha-.
lEC. IV.) His Decrees — Cautions. 177
bitual lover of him, so as he can discern this to be the predo-
minant governing principle in him; yet he hath greater en-
couragement in reference to the affairs of his soul, (supposing
them to lie in this state,) than he can have in reference to his
external estate here in this world. For do we ever find any such
promises in the word of God, that whosoever labours to be
rich shall be rich ? or that he that takes care of his health shall
be always healthy ; as we have, that he that labours to he saved
shall have help from heaven in order thereunto ? " Work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God worketh
in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure," Phil. 2. 1 2,
13. He is working: (so the word signifies :) what he doth
herein, he doth according to good pleasure, and he is still do-
ing and working in you. Therefore, there can be no purpose
or counsel in the divine will, lying against this plain word of
his. So that none can have any pretence to be less laborious,
less diligent in reference to the affairs of their souls, than they
have in reference to their common affairs. Yea, there is a
great deal of reason why they siiould be much more, and that
they should conjoin hope with their diligence in reference there-
unto ; which I mention in this conjunction, because we find
them so conjoined in Scripture; and they are conjoined in the
nature of the thing. We find them conjoined, Heb. 6. 11.
''That ye shew the same diligence unto the full assurance
of hope unto the end : that ye be not slothful, but followers of
them who through faith and patience have inherited the pro-
mises." And in the nature of the thing, there can be no dili-
gence where there is no hope ; where there is much of hope,
there will be much of diligence. Tliere is no reason that ei-
ther should languisli : there is the greatest reason why both'
should be lively and vigorous, and make each other so, even
upon the supposition of what lies in the mind and purpose of
God, in reference to the affairs of souls. And then, I further
add by way of caution,
8. That we do not overlook the advantages that may be made
of agreements among them that do controvert this same thing.
That is, the purposes and counsels of God touching the salva-
tion of men, or touching the punishment of them who shall be
found the tit subjects of his punitive justice in another state.
Let us not overlook the advantage that may be made of what is
in this matter agreed on all hands ; that is, it is on all hands
agreed, that no good man shall ever perish. This is a thing
wherein all do consent and agree. And trul}^, what there is of
difference, it is so very notional and little, in comparison of this,
that here we have what should quiet our minds, yea, and it is fur-
YOL. VII. 2 A
17S TH£ PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
ther agreed, that for them that are wicked, they have always stili
means for making them better, more than ever they improve or
make use of; and that God doth afford no such means to any
unwillingly; therefore, always according to his will, and the
counsel of his will ; and consequently, that this must be found
the case at last, that none do finally perish but such as have re-
fused and rejected the overtures, or misimproved, or not im-
proved the means that they had in order to their being saved.
Though they had not all at once what was necessary to the sav-
ing of them, they had always reason to apprehend, that if they
had used what they had, they should have had still more. And
such agreements as these are by no means to be overlooked.
We should labour to make the greatest advantage of them that
the matter admits of. Yea, and it is further agreed, that this
world is very wicked ; and it cannot but be agreed, that God
could make it generally better if he would, and therefore, it
ouglit to be as generally agreed, tiiat he hath something in his
wise counsel whence it doth appear to him less fit to exert
his almightiness to this purpose. Or, if any should expect he
should do so, or wonder he doth not so, they have as much
reason to wonder why he did not, by almightiness, shut sin out
of the world at first, and why he did not, by his almighty pow-
er, (as he might,) prevent the apostasy or fall, either of the an-
gels that fell, or of the universality of men that fell all at once,
and are all in a fallen state ever since.
I shall not further insist as to matter of useful caution which
in these several particulars hath been given you. But I shall
add to these, some alleviating considerations, that may help to
make things sit more easily on our minds, relating to this great
and important subject. As,
1 . Consider this, that all the purposes or determinations of
the divine will, they are the products of counsel. That the
text assures us^ that whatsoever he doth, he doth according to
the counsel of his own will, whereupon, as to the secret pur-
poses and determinations of the divine will which therefore we
know not, because they are secret, we have all the reason ima-
ginable to think, that they must be most unexceptionable from
that we do know, that they are all purposes guided by most
unerring counsel, and which, whilst we know not in particular
what they are, we have nothing to do but reverentially to adore,
as t!ie apostle doth in Rom. 11. 33. **0 ! the depth both of
the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out." That part remains,
to adore, with a dutiful adoration, what we do not distinctly and
particularly understand, and, indeed, cannot understand. There
rEC. IV.) His Decrees — Alleviating Considerations. 1 75^
is no government but hath its arcana; and it would be very inc])t
andfoolisli for us to imagine, tliat there should be no secrets be-
longing to the divine government. But admit that there be,
inasmuch as they do belong to the divine government, the go-
vernment of God; that name is a name that comprehends all per-
fection, and excludes all imperfection ; contains nothing in it
but what is most excellent and perfect in all respects ; and there-
fore, of this, in the general, we may rest most assured, that there
can be nothing exceptionable in those purposes of his will vvhiv.h
we do not particularly know. And,
2. Let us but consider, that for liis known and public coun-
sels, they carry their own reeommendableness in them to every
mind, understanding and conscience of man, that shall consi-
der. Do but bethink yourselves, what is given us as tlie sum-
mary of the whole counsel of God which is published and de-
clared to apostate, fallen man. The apostle tells the Ephe-
sians, (Acts 20, 21.) that he had made it his business to tes-
tify to them, " repentance towards God and faitli in our Lord
Jesus Christ." And in having done so, he tells them (ver.
27.) that he had made known to them the wliole counsel of
God. Now, I beseech you, what could have been more suit-
able to the state of apostate, fallen creatures than to say, it is
the counsel of God, they should repent, that they should turn
to him. And since it was impossible they should return and
be accepted, but upon the account of a Mediator and Redeem-
er who was to bring them to God, and reconcile them to him,
what could be more suitable, than that this should be stood upon,
wheresoever he is revealed and made known, that men should
believe in him; that is, absolutely resign and subject them-
selves to his saving mercy, and to his governiiig power ? Here
is the whole counsel of God, here it is summed up. And what
hath any man to say to this ? why, being an apostate creature,
he should not turn and repent ? and why, not being able to
satisfy divine justice by himself, but having one revealed to
him that hath fully done it, (so as to leave that none of his
part) why he should not entrust his soul with him, and cast it
upon him, and subject it to his conduct and government, by
known and prescribed and most unexceptionable rules ? And
whereas, men cannot turn of themselves, (it is true,) they have
not at present sufficient power in their own hand, it is all one,
whether they have it, or may have it, if they do apply them-
selves. This is a part of the counsel of God too, that he is al-
ways ready to assist a returning soul : " Turn ye at my reproof,
I will pour out my Spirit upon you." Prov. 1. 21. This is
part of his counsel : for they that do not so, are, in the next
180 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTII.
verse, said to have set at nought his counsel : " But they have
set at nought my counsel and despised all my reproof." How
unexceptionable are the counsels that are made known, and that
are published and declared to us ! And,
3. Consider, that if this be the declared, published counsel
of God, which you have heard, that he would have apostate
creatures return, and is intent upon it that they should do so,
*' Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die O house of Israel ?" (Ezek.
IS.) and is always assisting to their return, — " turn ye at my
reproof, apply yourselves, set about it, I will pour out my Spi-
rit upon you, I will make known my words unto you :" I say,
if this be his declared, published counsel, we are sure there
can be no repugnant, contrary secret counsel. There can be
no contrariety between his declared and his secret counsel. It
were monstrous idolatry, that we should form in our own
minds, instead of a Deity, an apprehension that he is made
up of repugnancies and inconsistencies with himself. And
again,
4. Let us but consider, how things would lie under God's
present view, supposing that we did not recur and run back
into a foregoing eternity, supposing things to lie as they are in
their present state, under the present and immediate view of
God, only, without conceiving an eternal counsel and an eternal
purpose concerning any such thing : and consider with your-
selves how matters should lie then ; that is, but thus, that
whereas, God hath such an order of creatures, intelligent crea-
tures, inhabiting this world, who have all apostatized, fallen, and
gone off from him, and by the natural tendency of their course,
are universally running themselves into misery, and sinking
lower and lower, ready to be ingulfed of endless and eternal
misery : he beholds these from the throne of his glory above ;
he sends forth plain, general significations of the pity and com-
passion he hath towards his creatures; directs his invitations
j,o all the ends of the earth to look to him that they may be
saved : if the express revelation do not reach all, it is they
themselves, through their own wickedness, that do obstruct and
hinder the diffusion of it, otherwise the gospel had spread and
Hown like lightning from one quarter and end of the world to
another, many an age ago, and still from age to age ; but yet,
plain significations that God is not irreconcileable to his fallen
creatures, are more or less afforded every where ; he doth not
leave himself without witness in that he doth men good : he
is kind to them ; doth not treat them as an implacable God ;
makes his sun to shine, and his rain to fall upon the evil and the
good, as in that context we so lately discoursed of to you. He
LEC. IV.) His Decrees — Alleimtmg Considerations. 181
ss secretly striving with them, as his Spirit strove witli the old
world before the flood. *' My Spirit (saith (lod) shall not always
strive with man;" implying, that it had been striving, even
with that wicked world before. And after the same rate he is
dealing with men still. They despise the riches of his patience
and goodness and long-suffering, many of them: suppose they
do so more generally, he yet, by a merciful and more powerful
hand takes hold of some, and saith (as it were) "Though you
are inclined and disposed all to perish alike, I will have a re-
lict from among you out of the hand and power of the destroy-
er:" and he hath finally a numerous remnant ; more than any
tongue can number, as we find the matter represented how it
will be in the close and period of things; we do not know how
vastly numerous they may yet be, or have been in former ages
and successions of time. But they that perish, perish by their
own wilful refusal of offered mercy, whether more expressly, or
whether by more tacit, yet intelligible inclinations. Let but
things be considered now as lying before God, obvious to one
present view, Who hath any thing to say against God's method
of procedure in this case ? Who hath not cause to adore liis
grace and goodness and clemency in all this, though so great
numbers finally perish ? and then, how easy is the step further,
if things to one present view do lie so very unexccptionably,
what is there more of exception, supposing this view to have
been eternal ? If things be very fair thus, under one present
view, will they lie worse, if it were a day earlier, or a month or a
year earlier, or an age or from eternity ? What is itself right and
well, is eternally so, and was eternally so, and can never have
been otherwise. And therefore, it is very vain and foolish for
men to amuse their minds, and affright themselves with the
thoughts of future and eternal counsels^ that may have lain this
way or that : if things look well to a present view, how can they
look worse to an eternal one. And again, consider,
5. That things should lie thus open to the eternal view of
God, all at once, in all their dependencies and connections
and references to one another, certainly, it is owing only to
his perfections, that they should do so, and that they do so.
Is it not a greater perfection to foresee and to foreknow all
things, and to have forelaid all one's designs, than to foreknow
nothing before hand? and to do nothing without foregoing, pre-
vious design ? How unreasonable is it for us to think the worse
of God for that he is more perfect ! It is very unreasonable to
suppose that he should not foreknow what will become of you
and me in our eternal state; that he should not foreknow what
the condition of that creature he hath made shall be to eterni-
1S2 THE TRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART II.
ly. And wiiatsoever he doth actually make it to be, in point
of felicity, by his own grace, or whatsoever he lets it be, in
paint of iniseiv, by its own demerit, and the depraved inclina-
tion of its own nature, it is certainly liis perfection to know the
one and the other ; and to do whatsoever he doth, willingly and
with design, not unwillingly, or as if he could be imposed up-
on, or forced in any thing. Do but seriously consider how
unreasonable it is to think the worse, or have the blacker
thoughts of God, for that which is nothing else but liis perfec-
tion. It would certainly be an imperfection to be nescient, and
not to know what will become of things, and what will become
of men : and so, to act incogitantly and without previous de-
sign, were a great imperfection. Is he then less fit to govern
us, and to dispose of us and his creatures, for his being more
perfect ? And again,
G. Consider how things will lie in the judgment of the great
day. We know the rule of his final procedure in that day,
which is called " the day of the revelation of the righteous judg-
ment of God," that he will give " eternal life to tiiem that by
patient continuance in well-doing seek for honour and glory and
innnortality : and indignation and wrath, tribulation and an-
guish to those that obey not the truth, but obey unrighteous-
ness. " Rom. 2. 5, G. To none but perverse and persevering
evil doers, none but such as refused to obey the truth and were
contentious against it, and did obey unrighteousness, did give
tliemselves up to tlie judgment of an unrighteous spirit and
principle, ruling and working in them, to none else but these,
*' indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish." If things
will be very unexceptionable in the judgment of the great day,
(as who can have any thing to say against this rule or this me-
thod of procedure) he will then, in the judgment of the great
day, both do as he purposed before ; and his purpose will no way
be found to have dilFered from the measure of his final proce-
dure. And again consider,
7. That there cannot but a conviction go with the final issue
of things, in the very souls and consciences of them that perish.
They do foreknow the righteous judgment of God, that they
that do such and such things are worthy of death ; are worthy
of misery. Pagans themselves do so, for to them the apostle
speaks and refers in that 1 Romans, in the close of the chap-
ter. And what convictions will be upon the consciences of
men in the final issue of things, is sufficientiy intimated in
that, their principal sting is plainly enough and sufficiently in-
timated to be from their own consciences. There is the worm
that never dies. And it were impossible this hold could be
LEC. IV.) His Decrees — Allevieiting Considerations. 183
taken on tlie consciences of men, if it did not appear to them
that they were finally guilty of their own ruin. All such ima-
ginatiiins must vanish and fly away of course, that it was im-
possible things should ever he otherwise \\'\\\\ them than they
are 5 that they were doomed unavoidably into that state into
which they are come. Whatsoever might be a fence to keep
off the stroke from their consciences, you must ])e sure will all .
vanish and be gone, and therefore, can have no place. And then
lastly,
8. Consider the high and everlasting approbation that all -
God's methods will have with the most clarified, refined minds
of angels and saints, in all that vast general assembly made up
of " the innumerable company of angels and the spirits of just
men made perfect ;" all agreeing in admiring and applauding
the most unexceptionable righteousness of all God's dispensa-
tions; whereof the counsel of his will were the measure : "Just
and true are thy ways, marvellous are thy works Lord God Al-
mighty." And here will be no dark mind, no clouded under-
standing, no erroneous thought, no vitiating prejudice. If
therefore, we are sure all things will to eternity lie well and
right to the most perfect minds and understandings, then they
are righteous in themselves : and being in themselves right,
they ouixht to be so estimated and judged of by us. Certainly,
these tl^.ings cannot be mistaken, cannot be misunderstood and
misapprehended by those pure and glorious creatures in the
other state ; tiiose bright and unclouded minds that will see
nothing but loveliness and beauty, and what is most highly
praiseworthy and admirable in the eternal view that they shall
have of tliera. Therefore, to shut up all for the present, let
me but leave these two words of direction.
(1.) Labour to cherish the love of God in your souls. That
will commend to you all his counsels and all his n^.ethods. Love,
will never think amiss. And,
(2.) Form your apprehensions concerning him, agreeably,
that so you may have nothing in your minds to damp your
love ; nothing may disafrect you unto him. The understand-
ing and the will (such is the constitution of the human na-
ture) do interchangeably work up6n one another : the more we
love God, the better we shall think of him, and the belter we
think of him, the better we shall love him. These things cir-
culate between one another. And nothing can be of higher
and greater consequence : for if we do otherwise we shall cramp
religion in ourselves; and so far as we propagate the ill senti-
ment, we shall hinder tlie propagating and diffusing of reli-
gion among others. And do but take this deeply to iioart.
JS4 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD, (pART II.
(perhaps I may have more reason to speak to it hereafter,) that
in the latter days wherein, it is said, religion must flourish in
the world, (Hosea 3. 5.) men are to "fear the Lord and his
goodness." Most certain it is, in those days, (if there are such
days yet to come better than we have seen,) thus it must be,
there must be a universal diffusion of good thoughts concern-
ing God. This is that knowledge of God that must replenish
the world, and fill the earth, and transform the minds of men,
and overcome their fierce, savage humours and dispositions,
their disaffection towards God, and their barbarities towards
one another; make them "beat their swords into ploughshares
and their spears into pruning hooks." The revealed and ac-
knowledged will of God, and goodness of God prevailing against
the evil of the mind and hearts of men. " They shall fear the
Lord and his goodness in the latter days." Their thoughts
and apprehensions of God will be so persuasive to their own
hearts, and they M'ill look upon him according to that kind
and amiable and lovely representation of himself that shall
captivate all minds and hearts ; and make men hate nothing
but themselves, and that they have not sooner and more loved
God.
LECTURE v.*
Thus we have fully spoken to these words as they concern
the spiritual and eternal state of men, which is the apostle's
principal scope as you may see, in the foregoing part of the
chapter, and of the same verse ; "having predestinated us to
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will." verse 5. And here, "ac-
cording to the purpose of him that worketh all things accord-
ing to the counsel of his own will," But you see, that from
that special consideration of the counsel or purpose of his own
wiil, or the good pleasure thereof, the apostle makes a very easy,
natural transition unto this more general proposition which
comprehends all that could be said, including the former in
it, and much more. And therefore, having spoken to the
more limited object already, of the counsel of the divine will,
1 shall proceed to speak somewhat of the counsel of God's will
concerning the other affairs of men, besides those of their souls
er of their eternal state.
And though it be very true that God's agency about all
* Preached Jauuaiy 29, 1692,
LEC. v) His Counsel ^Extent of its Ohjett, 185
these outward concernments of men, do belong to another
head of theology, that is, his providence; yet, the counsel of his
will, according whereunto that agency is directed about these
affairs, as well as those others that we have already spoken to,
comes properly under our consideration here. And therefore,
to that I shall speak somewhat briefly ; to wit, the counsel of
the divine will respecting the present concernments of men in
the world, so far as it may be needful and useful to us ; that so
we may detract nothing from God, that doth truly and right-
fully belong to him, and that we may not lose the advantage of
the pleasant sentiments and relishes which we may have our-
selves, and in our own spirits from the right stating of this mat-
ter, which we shall, therefore, endeavour as much as in us is.
And shall in speaking of it do these four things — speak of the
extent of the object about which the counsel of the divine will
is said to be conversant— ^f the counsel of the divine will it-
self, its nature and significancy in reference to that object or
sort of objects that we are now to consider — give you briefly
the reasons why we are to ascribe such a thing to God as coun-
sel and purpose touching these afl^airs of ours, and — labour to
shew you, that no ill consequence can reasonably and justly, be
drawn from hance.
1. The extent of the object : sure we are not otherwise to
circumscribe it than the letter of the text; who workkth all
THINGS. For that special sort of object, the souls of men, and
their spiritual and eternal state, we have spoken to already,
which falls within the compass and comprehension, you plain-
ly enough see, in the general expression in the text. And
having spoken to that, even all other concernments besides we
must understand to be within the compass of the object too :
and therefore, that the coimsel of the divine will is conversant
about them ; that is, whatsoever he hath any agency about,
about that also, the counsel of his will hath place, for " he
worketh aZZ things according to the counsel of his will." He
doth nothing unwillingly, he wills nothing unadvisedly : there-
fore, whereas all things lie under his agency, all things lie un-
der the counsel of his will.
More especially, whatsoever he iiath made any law about; in
reference to whatsoever he hath given us rules and precepts,
these are called counsels often, and often in Scripture ; they
are the counsels and mandates of his will. These all lie under
the counsel of his will.
There is no state or condition that men can be in, in this
world, but there are regulations and preceptsgiven in reference
thereto. Whatsoever is matter af threatening or of promise,
VOL, VII, 2 b
186 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF COD. (PARTU
the sanctions annexed to his precepts, (as there are many things
of threatening and promise that are of temporal concertiments,)
these still must be considered as being within the same com-
pass. Whatsoever may be matter of affliction or of comfort,
whatsoever may have in it any thing of blessing, or any thing of
cursing, (as there are temporal blessings and temporal curses
besides the eternal ones,) all these, we must understand to be
consulted of, in the sense we formerly opened unto you, ex-
cluding all the imperfections, and including all the perfec-
tion that can be any way conceived or signified by it.
Moreover, all the private concernments of men, personal and
domestic; the concernments of the world, of kingdoms and
nations, political concernments : the concernments of the
church of God in the world, which may be considered under the
measure of time ; they are all to be considered within the ob-
ject of divine purpose and counsel.
The more private, personal or domestic concernments of
men ; they belong to this object, and cannot be excluded. The
time of every one's coming into this world, and the time of his
going out of it : the " time to be born, and the time to die;"
they lie under the determination of the divine counsel, direc-
tive of his will : even touching them, there is a time for every
purpose under the sun. These, among the rest, "a time to
be born and a time to die." Eccles. 3. 2. Skipping over (as
it were) the intervening time, as if that were little worth the
notice : yet only not noting it there, but in the mean time not
excluding it neither, as is evincible enough from many other
texts. But it is to be observed, (if you compare that with ano-
tiier passage in the same book : chap. 8. G.) as to every purpose,
there belongs a season, so to every season there belongs judg-
ment ; to every purpose there is time and judgment. That
must, undoubtedly, primarily, mean divine judgment, which is
the perfection oF counsel ; timt which with men is the result of
counsel, and which therefore, must signify somewhat analogous
with God: there is the judgment of wisdom and counsel, that
is determinative of every season, every time, for whatsoever
purpose, or occurrence that falls out to any of the sons of
men. And the time between these two times, the time of
their being born, and the time when they are to die ; that lies
under the same determination. His days and months and
years arc all set and appointed ; as it is fully expressed in Job
14. G.
And so the conditions of men, while they are here in tWs
world, whether they shall be high or low ; whether they
shall be rich or poor -, every one hath his dimension, liis al-
LEC. V.) His Counsel — Extent of its Object . 187
lowance ordered for him; and no doubt therefore, pre-ordahicd.
Whatsoever portion any man hath of tlie things of this life,
whether it be more, or whether it be less, it is all given. Even
what the ravens have, the fowls of the air and the beasts of the
field, it is all given: and much more what every man hath,
is by the divine allowance and vouchsafement. To every liv-
ing thing he gives wiiat is convenient and suitable for the siip-
Dort of that life which lie had given it before. But what be
J. , . ,
' gives, he gives willingly, not against his will. And wliat lie
did once will, (as you formerly heard,) he could not but ever
will, and tliere can be no new one with him.
And how particular persons do branch into fc\milies3 this all
lies under the particular direction even of divine counsel and
purpose. And so, what allotments such and such families sliall
have; and those as they multiply and do increase, "even unto
nations and kingdoms," as you see, Acts I/. 26. As God
hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the
face of the earth; so he hath determined the times of all, and
appointed the very bounds of their habitations ; assigned to
every one his place where he shall be. ]t hath been the mat-
ter of the counsel of the divine will, even concerning us, that
our lot should fall in such and such a part of the world : that
we should dwell so much of our time in such a place; that our
lot should be cast in England, or for so long a time in Lon-
don; and in what circumstances and with what advantages one
way or other. All these things, as they have been ordered
Ly the great Lord of all, so they are not ordered by him in-
cogitantly, but according to the eternal counsel and purpose
that are understood to have passed concerning us. The very
meanest things that can any way belong to us, or belong to
this world, being expressly mentioned to come under the
divine, cognizance and care; it is plain euch concernments
as these cannot be excluded. As when we are told, all the
hairs of our heads are numbered ; and that a sparrow cannot
fall to the ground without our heavenly Father. And that is
our Saviour's reasoning from hence, " Are not ye of more va-
lue than they, than many sparrows?" Now, if these things be
the matter of the very care and agency of providence, they
must have been the matter of an eternal purpose and counsel,
for the reason again and again repeated before, that nothing
can be new with God ; no new thought, no nev/ counsel or
purpose.
And to consider, to what particularities the divine eye and
purpose do reach; what we find recorded and comes under
our notice by way of history^ that therefore, must suppose there
188 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 11.
hath been an eternal view, even of the same things, and a pur-
pose concerning them. As for instance, that vi'l)ich appears to
be the most barren part of the Bible, that large account that
we have of genealogy in Scripture ; How should Moses possibly
come to know through the successions of so many hundreds of
years, even two thousand years before him, what children such
and such men had, all those that are reckoned up, and how
many years they lived ? And it v^'as thought fit that should be
put down : and how such families were ranked, and what na-
tions sprang from them ; all these must needs have been mat-
ter of divine Revelation, and therefore, were matter of divine
knowledge, and therefore, were eternally so : all things being
in the same order, under the divine eye, wherein they actually
come to pass in the world.
So all the removes of men to and fro, here upon earth.
*' Thou tellest my wanderings," saith David ; there is not a
step taken this way or that, but all is under the divine direc-
tion and provision and purpose, that so and so it shall be.
And if you enlarge your thoughts further, to the concern-
ments of formed nations and kingdoms, collective bodies, they
must be understood also, to be within the compass of this ob-
ject. The ttlterations in kingdoms; the seasons and intervals
of rests and disturbances ; of peace and of war, of plenty and
of scarcity ; of a prosperous and of an adverse posture of affairs,
in respect of any, whatsoever, favourable providences or judg-
ments that come upon these ; these all lie under the counsel of
the divine will. The revolutions of governments, when they
are past, when they pass from form to form ; God hath been
pleased to give some more extraordinary proof and demonstra-
tion of his regency in these kingdoms, on purpose that it may
he known (as Nebuchadnezzar, that great prince was forced to
confess) that God rules over the kingdoms of men, and gives
them to whom he pleaseth. Dan. 4. 32. The Most High rules
in the kingdom of men. It is not said kingdoms, importing
this whole world to be one kingdom to him, one great monarchy,
all lying under his imperial power. And all this must be un-
derstood to be according to counsel, and according to purposes
that were with him eternally. For (as hath been said before'i
his being is so; i7 eternum non patitur novum; no netv thing
can fall out in eternity.
And so, for the state of his church in general, or of particu-
lar churches upon eartii ; all their concernments, as they are
such, they fall under the counsel of the divine will which or-
ders all their circumstances in reference to them ; sometimes
making their condition more prosperous and favourable, and
LEc. ▼.) His Counsel — Its Nature. 189
sometiineSj more adverse, for trial and needful exercise of their
graces, in these kinds wherein it is requisite such graces should
have their exercises, which he hath adapted to such special pur-
poses. So large (and for our tlioughts, let them go as large,
and far as they will or can) is the object about which the coun-
sel of the divine will is conversant. But,
2. Something is to be said concerning the nature of such
counsel and will, as it respects such an object; or this more
special sort of object which I most intend in the present dis-
course. Why,
(I.) This is always to be held concerning the counsel of the
divine will, that it is most perfectly wise: all things being in
view to him at once, open to one eternal view in all their con-
nections, references and dependancies; he having a thorough
and everlasting perspection, even of all at once, of tlic things
themselves and of tlieir connection with one another, even as
they are connected, net because they are so, so as to pass from
one connected thing to another, as v^^e in our more imperfect
way of knowing things are constrained to do. And,
(2.) The counsel of his will must therefore, hereupon, be im-
mutable : being most perfectly wise, there can be no imagin-
able reason of any change. He never needs alter his mea-
sures : " Known to him are all his works from the beginning
of the world," was that grave saying of the apostle James, in
that synod at Jerusalem. Acts 15. 18. Whatsoever he hath
to do, or doth do, th.it he designed to do ; for he acts nothing
casually : and what he did design to do, he did consult about,
so far as consulting can have place with him : we explained
the sense of it before, that is, that he hath perfect perspection
of all that is requisite and fit to be done, and so did purpose ac-
cording thereto, and then doth according to that purpose. And
therefore, to consider, besides the nature of such a divine pur-
pose and counsel, its reference and significancy to human af-
fairs. I say,
(3.) This same counsel of the divine will, it is a measure to
himself of all his own agency, what he will do, and what he
will not do; how far he will exert his inducuce, and wherein
he will suspend it : how he will direct it this way and that, and
how he will limit it. And,
(4.) By consequence, it must needs be a measure of all
events; because nothing can eventually fallout, but accord-
ing to his will, either effecting or pern)ittlng; and there being
no determination of his will which is not still under the direc-
tion of divine counsel. And all this, we must understand to
be constantly transacting with him, with the greatest clearness,
190 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
and with the greatest facility im8gina])le. You do observe
ainon,!:^ men, vastly different tempers and complexions of mind;
some seem to be almost constantly calm and sedate, composed
and serene, there appears nothing torpid or unequal in their
frame or habit. Now, if we can conceive among human minds
what is more perfect, and what is less, sure it should not be
ditficult to us to take our assent, and conceive concerning the
Divine Mind, that it must be most absolutely perfect, never
liable to any cloud, to any discomposure, all things lying in a
inost perfect clearness, and having their eternal formation or
form there, with the greatest imaginable facility : and infinitely
more than we can imagine. So as there is no cause for any
thought concerning Kplenus negotil Dens, as the epicurean
objecteth, concerning such a Deity as should be engaged and
taken up about making, and about governing such a world -as
this, tliat this must give too much business to such a Being, ■:■:
we are not to conceive of otherwise than as perfectly happy, u.
not consisting (as they foolishly imagine) with the felicity and
happiness of such a Being. But when we can conceive in some
men, with how very great composure of mind they go through
a great variety of business, their minds being always clear and
serene, can we not consider conceining God, that his under-
standing is infinite, as reason and Scripture do most plainly
speak; and so that nothing could ever be excluded it, or lie with-
out it ? as the various images of things are represented in a
clear glass, detected there, without giving any toil or labour
to the glass, or inferring upon it any change. And so the
schools have been wont to speak of God's eternal knowledge
of things, that he beholds them all as in an everlasting and
eternal speculum, there being that perpetual and eternal clear-
ness in the Divine Mind, that things lie there without any dis-
composure to him, without any disorder, in the same state and
frame, wherein they do actually fall out; so as when they do
actually fall out, whatsoever disturbance there is of one thing
with another, and among the things themselves variously In-
terfering, yet all these things are beheld without disturbance
to him : as the various motions and agitations of many persons
in a room, all represented in a clear glass, make no disturbance
or discomposure in it at all, whatsoever there is in the things
represented. Therefore, 1 pass,
3. To the reasons why we are to ascribe to God such a con-
cern about human affairs, so as to employ the counsel of his
will, even from eternity about them. I will shortly name to you
these two plain andobvious things, as the reasons thereof, besides
wliat Scripture doth, in many more places than those that I
LEC. V.) His Counsel-T-Reasons for if. 191
have named, expressly assert about It : 1st. The most absoluje
perfection of his nature cannot but infer it : and 2d. the su-
premacy, the universality and accurateness of his govern-
ment.
(1.) The perfection of his nature, that cannot but infer it.
He being every way perfect, absolutely perfect, (which he must
be, if he be God, we have no other notion of a Deity but of a
being absolutely and universallyperfect,) he must be omniscient,
and must know all things ; and if so, he must always have known
them ; for if ever he did not know them, there will be some
addition to his knowledge when he comes to do so. But that
knowledge to whicli there can be an addition is imperfect ;
and therefore, the divine knowledge could never admit of any
addition, but all things, (as was said before) must have lain
open everlastingly with him to one eternal view. And,
(2.) -The supremacy, universality, and exactness of his go-
vernment, doth necessarily infer it. Inasmuch as he is Lord
over all, and is Most High, there can be none above him that
should be director of such affairs. And inasmuch as he is
universal Governor, if any affairs He not under iiis government,
they can lie under none. It is not a supposable thing, that
one part of the creation sliould be governed, and another un-
governed ; part under a ruler and the other part under no rule
at all. And then, the exiK2tness, of his government, not con-
sidered absolutely, but respectively, that is, with respect to the
state of the governed cTeatures, the governed communities that
lie under the management and dominion of his kingdom. We
are to consider this world as in a state of apostasy ; and we
are not to expect that he should deal with this world, as if men
were in a perfect state, for tlieir frame and temper are far from
perfect. He deals with them as suitable to the state of apostates,
as those that have been, and are, in rebellion against him gene-
rally. And admirable it is that the methods of his government
should be so mild and propitious; and that so much of common
order should be preserved among them thereby, as we find there
is, this being considered. But to such government, eternal pro-
vision and purpose are always necessary, and could not but
be necessary. There must be eternal foresight of all that was
to be done, and eternal purpose and counsel thereupon. VVe
thence come,
4. To consider, that there can be nothing of ill consequence,
justly and reasonably, drawn from hence. What is most sup->
posable in this case, and of tiiis kind, that is, which may pre-
sent itself to a first view under the notion of an ill, or incon-
192 THE PRIMCIPLES OF THE ORACLKS OF GOD. (PART II,
venient consequence, which chiefly lies under one of these two
heads, 1st. That this hypothesis will preclude the use of hu-
man prudence ; and 2d. that it will shut out prayer. These
are two things that carry a first and more obvious appearance
of an ill consequence, upon the supposition of what, we have
been hitherto asserting. But I. shall labour to evince, that
neither of these consequences can, with any reasonable colour,
be thought to ensue. As,
(I.) That here, there should be no place nor use for human
prudence. Thus some may too hastily think and pronounce. If
there be a divine counsel and purpose about every thing that a
man can do, or about every thing that shall occur to him, that
he may either enjoy or suffer, to what purpose is it for men to
consult and determine, or contrive this way or that ? as not
knowing but that they may, iji the very thing they design and
go about, run counter to the counsels of the divine will ; and
so all will be in vain, and to no purpose. We shall give you
some consideraiions toshevv the in-consequence, that it follows
not, that there is no pretence that the use of human prudence
should herel)y be excluded. As,
[1.] That all things are determined by God to fallout in
the way wherein they do fall out. T told you at first, when I
entered upon this subject, we are not to conceive any such
thing concerning him, as that he doth decree and determine
things abstractly, without reference to the media by which
they are to be brought about. We are ? o impute no such thing
to God, with reference to the eternal states of men, as we spake
then; that whatsoever a man doth he shall be damned, be he
never so good, never so strict, never so pious ; or that whatso-
ever such a man doth, he shall be saved, let him be never so
vvicked, never so irreligious or profane ; never so strongly per-
sist and persevere in such a course. We are to impute no such
thing, no sucji counsel to the wise and holy God. Neither his
word, nor the reason of the thing leads us to any such thought
concerning him. And so, in reference to these lower affairs,
we are never to think any such thing concerning him, as if he
laid down purposes and decrees concerning this or that end,
without connecting in his own eternal mind and view, the
whole scheme of all the ways and methods and means by which
such ends are to be compassed and brought about. And there-
fore,
[2.] Those things which, according to the counsel of his
will, are to be brought about by the intervention and exercise of
kuman prudence ; these things are actually so brought about :
LEC. V.) His Counsel — does not exclude human prudence. 195
whatsoever is effected, whatsoever is done by the exercise of
tlie prudence of a man, it lay in the divine mind and counsel,
as a thing not only to be brought about, but to be brought
about so, and in that way, by that very means, by the delibera-
tion, and by the prudent contrivances of such and such of his
creatures, that should serve his purpose in such a way. And
therefore,
[3.] In this case, and in reference to all such events, tlie
very objection is an argument. The objection, the possible use,
or advantageous use, of human prudence is a proof and demon-
stration of it : for, according to divine counsel and purpose,
such a thing as doth actually occur and come to pass by human
prudence, was determined so to come to pass, by the interven-
tion of human prudence. And again,
[4.] It is the much more common course, in the way of God's
dispensation towards his creatures, to let things go on according
to t!ie posture and aptitude of the second causes by which they
are effected and brought about ; it is much the more com.mon
and usual course. He who is the supreme llnler and Lord of
all, is not to be supposed but he may at pleasure lay on a re-
strictive or regulating hand, as he sees meet to alter the natural
course and tendency of things. But ordinarily he doth not so,
but things do run on according to the aptitude and disposition
and posture of the second causes, by the ministry whereof they
are efliected and brought about. And even as to voluntary and
rational agents, whereas, the men of this world, (who are such
agents,) are generally wicked, God generally, and for the most
part, doth not hinder the ill purposes that they have formed
and contrived and set themselves to execute. That, the Psalm-
ist supposeth to be the common case when, in that psal. 37.
7. he gives so weighty counsel in reference to that case, not
fretting, nor letting our hearts tumultuate and arise and swell
within us, because of evil men that bring their wicked devices
to pass, implying this to be the more ordinary case, that wick-
ed inen do bring their wicked devices to pass, God doth not
lay that restraint, for great and holy ends and reasons, which
will appear in their lustre and glory one day; but lets things
rur^ on in their own course according as the inclinations and
aptitudes of other second causes do lead. And this being ob-
servably so, it is the most unreasonable thing in the world, to
suppose that in rarer instances wherein the purposes of men
are disappointed and frustrated by some signal band from God,
therefore the natural operations that do belong to men shoidd
be concluded to be generally or universally useless, or to be
VOL. VII. 2 c
l94 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PAR IX,
precluded : or that the principles were useless which were suit-
ed to such operations or ends as those. But,
[5.] We are further to consider, that if God doth more ex-
traordinarily interpose, so as to disappoint the evil purposes of
men, contrived by their subtilty and craft, (v;hich they are apt
enough themselves to misname prudence,) he doth it in no
such way as offers violence to the rational nature. He doth it
by letting men befool themselves, or by letting them befool
one another, or sometimes by letting the devil befool them.
He sometimes lets one man befool another : as when that
counsel of Hushai, proved to be the means by which God turn-
ed (as David prayed he would,) Ahitophel's counsel into fool-
ishness. Sometimes, he lets the devil befool men, acting ac-
cording to his own inclinations which he restrains not. He
lets him loose as he did to deceive Ahab, being a lying spirit in
the mouth of his prophets, unto Ahab's destruction. He would
not, himself, infuse a lie into the mind of Ahab, (which was a
thing his nature was most abhorrent from, being the God of
truth,) neither would he let a good angel go and tell a lie to
him, as unbeseeming and, indeed, impossible to one that had
the divine image in perfection in his nature. But there being
a proneness in the wicked spirit (as the matter is parabolically
and dramatically represented) to go and deceive Aliab, in his
prophets, to his destruction, he lets him go. But there is no
violence offered to the rational nature of man in all this. He
acts by judgment, (such as it is) that is, by a mistaken judg-
ment J not by none, or against judgment, against a practical
judgment, which indeed to the nature of man were impossible.
And those that are under such deceptions as these, when they
do indeed play the fool : as Ahitophel's counsel was turned
into foolishness and they all became fools that followed it, yet
they thought themselves wise in so doing : and so, those that
were reckoned or did reckon themselves wise, were taken in
their own craftiness, and their counsels driven headlong, as in
Job 5. 13. the expression is. And what they do in such kinds,
tinder such deception, they do freely and with complacency,
pleasing themselves in their own way ; so as there is no vio-
lence offered to the nature of man, considering him as a
rational, and as a voluntary agent in what he doth, even
then, when his purposes are inverted and disappointed. But
then,
[6.] If men do take up such purposes as it seems meet to
the great and holy God to frustrate and disappoint, (which by
extraordinary interposition, as hath been said, he doth very
rarely : he is sparing in instances of that kind,) yet, that, men
LUC. V.) His Counsel — does 7iot exclude human prudence. 195
arc to blame themselves for ; either, that they did propose to
thciDselves unlawful designs ; or, that they did pursue and pro-
secute lawful ones unlawfully; whence it hath seemed meet to
that wisdom which governs the world, either to cross and
defeat their designs, or to check and rebuke them, that they
may reflect on and understand their own folly in so mishap-
ing in their own course, as they are often wont to do when
they take up wicked purposes, and form wicked designs which
prove abortive. And how should it be otherwise, if they take
counsel against the Lord and his anointed one, his Christ?
Do you think it strange that that should be in vain? " Wherefore
doth the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing ?**
Why is it a vain thing that tliey imagine and devis-e ? it is coun-
sel against the Lord and his Messiah. And if there be an in-
verture of the counsel and purposes o«"men which do lie cross to
the divine counsel and purpose, and that they clash with one
another, what wonder is that ? Nay, whose will is it fit should
rule and oversway in such a case ? Is God to quit the sovereign-
ty and yield up his throne and sceptre, and say unto vain crea-
tures, *' Be it according to your mind, and according to your
will," when they will nothing but mischief, wrong to him,
and ruin to all that are better than themselves ? And some-
times, they pursue the most lawful things unlawfully : and then
it is meet that God should someway or other give a check to
them. As in such an instance as the apostle James mention-
eth, (chap. 4. 13.) of such as say, in the power of their own self-
conceit and self-will and self-confidence, " We will go to such
and such a city, and will tarry there a year, and we will buy and
sell and get gain :" and forget all this while that they live under
the divine dominion and government; that they ought to say,
*' If the Lord will, we will do so and so." It is very fit, that in
such cases, God should put them in mind they have a Lord over
them, and that he should give a check to such insolencies.
And if they meet with rebukes because they will not carry
themselves like those that live under the dominion and govern-
ment of a Ruler who is superior to them, they will not walk in
that light which before hath been made to shine in their minds
and consciences, and God takes a severe method with them, to
make them know themselves arad him ; there is nothing unfit
done in the case. He doth but what he owes to himself to do,
that he may do himself right, that he may not lose the honour
and acknowledgment that are due to him, as he is Lord of all.
But now, upon such a supposition as this, it is no more reason-
able to say, that the understanding, or reason, or wisdom, or
prudence which any man bath, is given him in vain, than it
196 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
would be to say, that because such and such a man is a very
prudent, wise man, it is altogether in vain that he should have
a prudent servant. And yet, there is no man so wise, but if
he have occasion for a servant, he will have an understanding
man to be his servant, and not a fool ; a prudent one, and not
one that is rash and foolish, and would do things precipitately
and to disadvantage. But how unreasonable would it be to
say, that because such a wise master will not let even this wise
servant do his business his own way, but will check and con-
trol him and exercise the authority of a master over him, there-
fore, such a man hath a prudent servant in vain ? Who would
be so foolish as to say, the prudence of such a servant is to no
purpose unless he may be master, and carry every thing his
own way, according to his own mind and fancy? Or suppose a
man had a watch that ordinarily goes well as he would have it,
but sometimes he finds it to err, and then he rectifies it with
his finger; v/ould the owner of this watch, taking upon him to
rectify it with his finger, say, " To what purpose are all the
contrivances of this watch, and to what purpose are the several
wheels and movements in it, if a man shall move it with his
finger?" There is as little reason to pretend, that prudence and
wisdom are given to any man in vain, because God will over-
rule him and shew himself to be supreme in sundry such in-
stances as may occur. I say, there is as little reason to say and
allege this, as there would be to say, that all the articles in a
watch are in vain, because it may need sometimes to be rectified
and corrected by a wise finger.
LECTURE VI.*
I shall only add to all that hath been said on this head, that
the counsels of the divine will do very well admit of the use of
human prudence, in subordination thereto, and it hath its great
significancy in such subordination, but in opposition thereunto,
it can signify nothing. And nobody is to think this strange, in
subordination to the counsels of the divine will. Human pru-
dence signifies much, all that it is covetable that it should sig-
nify. Many times God designs to bring about such and such
events by the ministry of human prudence, and then the coun-
sel of the divine will is so far from excluding it, that it doth
necessarily include it, and take it in ; cannot but do so. But
most plain it is, that human prudence can signify nothing
Preached April 19, 1692.
LEC.vi.) His Counsel — does not exchtde jirayer. 197
in opposition to the divine will. And would you have it ?
would any one wisli it should? That human prudence should
take place against the divine will, is that a thint!; to be wish-
ed ? Or are we to be fond cf human prudence in opposition to
the divine counsel, as if we thought the world would be better
governed by men than by God ? That, sure, is never to be re-
gietted, that there is no wisdom, no counsel, no understanding
against the Lord. Sure, that should trouble none of u>, but
please all. And to think, hereupon, tliat human prudence
nvjst needs be a useless thing, because God doth not put all
into ihe hands of men, and leave them to do in tlie world,
whatsoever they please as so many ungoverned creatures, (as
was formerly hinted,) it might as vA'ell be said, To what pur-
pose is it for a man to have a prudent servant, unless the ser-
vant's will and pleasure may take place in every thing against
his master's.
„ (2,) Bi!t I come in the second place to that other supposed
ill bonsequence, to wit that the assertion of such a counsel of
the divine will, mu^t ex;'lude the great duty of prayer. And I
think it is very material and of great importance to discourse to
you sonii'what largely upon this head ; because, I know how
cumnionly it li- s in the minds of many men, as an objection
against thai great dutv; or else, they make use of the ol)jec-
iiop of that great duty, as an objection against the divine coun-
s' ;nd purpose, and the hand which they are to have in all
.* iciu attairs. Now, that this seeming difliculty may be clear-
I will give you sundry considerations. As,
, I.] I'iiat the primary or more principal notion that we are
to have of prr.yer, ?s to conceive of it as an act of worship, that
is, as an homage due and claimed to be paid to the great sove-
reign Lord of all. That is the principal and prime notion that
we are to have of prayer; that is, that it is such an act of duty
as wherein we are to own and acknowledge God : it is due to
him, as he is God, to be supplicated, sought to: that there be
a dependance upon him, professed and avowed by his reason-
able creatures. Now this being the first and primary notion of
prayer, an acknowledging of God, and avowing our dependance
upon him, and of his superiority over us, as that adjunct ex-
pression of it, bowing the knee before him, doth import, I
would fain know whether he be the less adorable, for that he is
infinitely wise ? And if he be infinitely wise, then his wisdom
and counsel must extend to all things. But doth his infinite
wisdom render him a less adorab'e Olsject ? Doth he less de-
serve to be worshipped, or have his due homage paid him by
kis creatures, for that he is infinitely wise ? The counsel of his
lf)8 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
own vvIU extending to all things doth import so much ; he is
wise without limit, so as that the exercise of his wisdom can-
not he excluded or shut out in any case. If it could be ex-
cluded ill any case, it were not infinite: but because it is infi-
nite, is it thereforcj a less excellency for being infinite ? And
so, Doth he less deserve to be adored and honoured, and to have
lioma(»;e paid unto him as such ? And,
[2.] Wiiercas, when we do pray, we do also express inclina-
tions and desires of our own, that we would have this or that
brought about, when we foreknow the event to be determined
by the divine will : prayer is so far from being excluded by
that, that we pray with so much the more vigour and cheerful-
ness and alacrity ; and our hearts and souls are so much the
more enlarged and engaged and drawn forth in prayer, even
\vhen we know the things we pray about are determined by the
counsel of the divine will. As in that memorable case of
Daniel's foreknowing by books, by Jeremiah's prophecies, that
the approaching period and end of the seventy years, determin-
ed for tlie continued captivity of his people ; when he under-
stood this book, and discerned the approach of the time, he
sets himself with so much the more vigour to pray : (as you see
Daniel 9. 1, 2.) finding out that the matter was near, and to-
wards a period, he doth not therefore think prayer excluded,
but sets himself to pray with so much the more earnestness and
vigour hereupon. As, indeed, if any do consider the nature of
man's constitution, and the frame of the human soul, it is evi-
dent that desire and hope do influence one another. It is a
mighty damp to all rational desire to have no hope. And if
the thing be looked upon as desirable in itself; so much the
more of hope, so much more of desire : and by how much
the more hope doth rise towards confidence, desires grow so
much the more fervent. As simple despair of any thing which
we have an inclination to desire, damps desire; when we see
that the thing is altogether to be despaired of, reason itself dic-
tates to us to withdraw our minds, and turn them another way.
Daniel understood the time drew on, when this sad calamitous
state of his people was to find its period and be determined;
then he sets himself with mighty vigour and fervour of spirit to
prayer. And,
[3.] When we do not foreknow the event, as not having any
discovery made to us what the counsels of the divine will con-
cerning it are, yet, even then, the business of prayer is to refer
ourselves, with reference to any such concernments, to the di-
vine disposal. A thing most suitable to him and to us ; to him
as he is the wise and sovereign Lord of all j and to us, as we
LEC. VI.) His Counsel — does not exclude prai/er. 1D9
are depending creatures, subject to his government, and are
disposed of, in reference to all our concernments, or whatso-
ever we have any concern about, as he sees good. And tiierc-
fore,
[1.] In reference to such things, wherein we arc ignorant of
the event and what God will do, the proper design of prayer is,
to endeavour to obtain at his hands a disposition of spirit com-
plying with his pleasure, so as there may be no contest between
him and us ; that whenever the event falls out, if it do prove
agreeable to our inclinations, we may rejoice in it with so
-much the more raised and sincere gratitude : if it do not, that
we may submit to him, without engaging in a contest with one
who giveth no account of any of his matters ; and with whom,
none can contend and prosper. They must always have the
worst of it, they must be worsted in it if they engage in a con-
test with him. Therefore, the business we must design in such
prayer, or in prayer about such things, (the issue whereof we
do not foreknow,) is not to bring the divine will to ours, hut to
bring our will to his. As the matter is aptly enough illustrat-
ed by some, suppose one comes down a rapid stream in a boat,
and hath the opportunity to throw an anchor or hook on the
shore, there he pulls, as though he would draw the shore to
the boat, and yet, all that he can be rationally supposed to in-
tend, is to draw the boat to the shore. So are v.e to design in
prayer, thj^t plucking ourselves unto God, the drawing of our
souls to a compliance with him, that our wills may be brought
to unite with his ; not that we can imagine to change his will
by any thing we can say, more than in the narrative of our
prayer we do suppose to ourselves the informing him of any
thing whereof we suppose him before ignorant. " He is of
one mind, and who can turn him r" Job 23. 13. And there-
fore,
[5.] The availableness of prayer, considered in reference to
the counsels of the divine will, is to be estimated by the tenour
of our prayers : according as our prayer is modelled, so it will
be available or unavailable. This is the confidence we ought
to have in piayer, "that if we ask any thing according to his
will lie heareth us." 1 John 5. 14. And therefore, further,
[6 ] We must make it our great business, in all our ad-
dresses to liim in prayer, and especially in reference to temporal
concernments, (about which we have no express signiScatioii
of his will, as we have about spiritual and eternal ones) to have
our prayers so formed as that they may agree with the court of
heavei;, (as I may speak,) whither they are to be addressed.
As if any man on earth, is to petition a human judicature; he
200' THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART II,
must endeavour to know the stile and phrase of the court, and
that his petition may be right in point of form ; and especially
so are we concerned to do in this case, when we are to address
the great God. There must be a becomingness of God ob-
served, that we address to him, as God is to be addressed to,
and one that is absolutely supreme, and perfectly wise and
good, who (according to that observable saying which I remem-
ber in the great Jew Philo, who gives us this notion of him-
self) hath given us that discovery, that we have always a ground
of so fixed and formed ah apprehension of him as one that can
do all things, and will do that which is best. Such a concep-
tion of God, if our prayers do but carry with them a conformi-
ty to that conception, that is, that we have this fixed confi-
dence concerning iiim, that he can do Vvdiat he will, and that
he will always do what is best, we can never think that such
prayers can ever be unavailable. But this doth so highly
agree with this apprehension that he doth all tliat he doth do,
according to the counsel of his own will, that it not only is not
prejudiced thereby, but we are greatly confirmed in It, that if
he doth all thingi' according to the counsel of his own will, he
will never do any thing that is wrong, he will never do any
thing that we ought to have so much as a wish, that it be
otherwise than as he will do it : for as he can do whatsoever
he will, so he will always do whatsoever is best. And,
[7-] Therefore, we ought to form our addresses and peti-
tions to God, according as his word hath given us direction.
As there are rules, some way or other, to be known in any
prince's court, or in any court of judicature, how they are to be
addressed to : some way or other, it is to be understood. And
we may understand by his plain word, how he Is to be address-
ed to. As to all those things that are of principal concern-
ment and necessity to us, we find directions in his word to
pray for such things, with promises they shall be granted upon
serious and sincere prayer. We know his will so far about our
principal concernments, as that they who repent shall be for-
given, tb.ey who ask his Spirit shall have it, to them that im-
prove what they have, he will give more, that if we set ourselves
to Vv'ork out our own salvation with fear and trembling, he will
work In us to will and to do of his own good pleasure. About
these, our greatest concernments, we are at a certainty. He
hath told us in his most plain and express word, whin ho will
always do in such cases. But we are always left unci: tuin
about such things as are less considerable, and about tilings too,
tliat are of a mutable goodness, that is, that are >.. mciinuv
good and sometimes evil. The things of the mind are in
LEc. VI.) His Counsel — Does not exclude Prayer. 201
riably good, always good ; what is the goodness of the mind is
always so. That the mind be knowing, intelligent ; tliat it be
holy, pure, subject unto God ; these are things always good,
invariably good. But it cannot be said so concerning the hona
corporis^ tite good things of the body , or the honafortuncc, the
goad thiugs offortwie^ that they are always good, for tiu'ir good-
ness is to be measured according to their suitableness and con-
formity or subserviency to some greater good. For we are to
consider that as we have bodies so we have minds too ; and that
which would be good for my body, if hurtful to my mind, it
loseth the nature of goodness 5 and therefore, is that goodness
mutable, according as circumstances will render such and such
things more and more subservient to a higher good, to a nobler
kind of good that we are more to be concerned about. And
therefore, for those things which are of a mutable goodness they
cannot be the matter of an absolute promise, that shall be con-
cluding and determinative concerning them universally, and at
all times; because at some times that which would be a good, it
may at another time degenerate into evil, by the variation of cir-
cumstances. But an evil cannot be the matter of a promise ; it
would be the matter of a threatening at such a time when it
ceaseth to be good. If itshould stand in the promise under the
notion of a good, but by this and that circumstance loseth its
aptitude and suitableness to the end wlierein this goodness lies,
then doth that good turn into an evil, and so cannot be the
matter of a promise. You cannot say, you promise any one
that which is evil, or which would be a hurt to him ; therefore,
the promises of God, in reference to things of this nature, are
always suitable to the nature of the things. We have as ex-
press promises concerning temporal good things as the nature of
the things will bear, or our circumstances admit, and therefore,
God hath done more suitably to himself and us, in reference
to such things, in telling us "all tilings shall work together
for good to them that love God and that are the called accord-
ing to his purpose." Rom. 8. 28. Indeed, a person that is a
sincere lover of God, cannot but be the better by whatsoever
event occurs to him in external respects; for that love is an
active principle in him, that co-operates to the making good of
the promise. It thinks no evil, it makes a man construe well,
all the divine dispensations, it forms his spirit to a compliance
with the divine pleasure, and so, good will come out of it to
such a one, to a so qualified subject, whatsoever the event be.
And therefore, all the business of prayer that it may be signili-
cant and available, is to have it formed and modelled accord-
ing' to the tenour of the divine will as God hath expressed that
VOL. VII. 2 B
202 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE OUACLES OF COD. (pART II.
will to us in his word, and to pray for tilings agreeably to the
discovery we have thereof: that is, with a peremptory confi-
dence, in reference to those things that are expressly promised;
and with submission, in reference to all other things : satisfy-
ing ourselves, with this, that he who is the most perfectly ab-
solute, supreme God, nothing of evil can proceed from him,
but as an ill affected subject turns things into evil to itself.
And so the gospel becomes " the savour of death unto death,"
to an ill disposed mind; not from what it hath in itself, or as
it proceeds from God, but only from the disaffected state and
condition of the subject. And then again,
(8.) We are to consider this, that the interests of men in
this world, in reference to their temporal concernments, do so
generally interfere and cross with one another and oppose one
another, that it is impossible all prayers should be granted.
For there are many times prayers against prayers. One man
or this sort of men prays for this event, and another sort, for
the quite contrary event. Therefore, it is most absolutely ne-
cessary that the divine counsel should moderate, and have it^
agency, not only in bringing about events, but even in forming
the spirits of men. When interests do so clash, ancl desires and
prayers so contradict one another, (as they many times do,)
with what confusion would it fill the world, if every irregular
desire should be granted ? And indeed, if the wills of men were
to regulate the will of God, and their prayers were to prescribe,
it would make fearful work in the world : if we had such a
"U'md offatunm immen, a silly deihj^ to be the object of our
addresses and pnryers, that were to use no counsel, no wisdom
in judging vvhat is fit to be done, and what is not, but every
human desire should engage the divine power, and employ the
divine hand, with what ruin and desolation would men's prayers
fill the world I i\nd so this world would be made a desolate wil-
derness, at that rate, if the prayers of men, without the interposi-
tion of the counsel of the divine will, were to prescribe finally
what were to be done for them. And therefore, again,
(9.) It ought to be considered, that wherever there is any
such thing as right prayer, there is a divine Agent to be em-
ployed, in reference to the whole business of prayer. As we
have an Advocate and Intercessor without us at the right hand
of God above, so, all tliat do belong to God have an Advo-
cate and Intercessor within them. All the children of God,
because they are such, because they are sons, God sends the
Spirit of his Son into their hearts to teach them to cry, Abba
Father; as Gal. 4. 6*. compared with Rom. 8. 15. And it is
therefore, called the Spirit of adoption, because it belongs to
iLEC. VI.) His Counsel — Does not exclude Prayer. 20/,
the adopted ones, to those that are taken into that state and
condition of sons ; because they arc sons, the Spirit is given.
It is an intolerable injury, and absurdity, that among us uho
are called christians, with whom it is an article of our creed,
that we believe in the Hoiy Ghost, we should so little consider
•what hand and part, he is to have in this matter. It is an idle
vanity to think, that he is to dictate words to us, and that there
ought not to be prayer, but what the Spirit ought to indite the
very words of. No, that is not the business of his olfice ; but
to possess the soul vvitli such a living, internal sense to which
words will correspond ; that soul that is filled with such a sense,
"will not want suitable words, (at least between God and it-
self) in which to utter that sense to l)im. And so is the
work of the Holy Ghost, in this matter, expressed in that Rom.
5. 27. That when we know not what to pray for of ourselves,
that Spirit makes intercession in us according to the will of
God; (so we read it and do interpose in the translation more
than is in the text,) it makes intercession according to God, (so
it is in the original,) not barely according to his will, but in
subserviency to his interest ; and to his great one, which (it is
true) his will must always respect too, as we cannot doubt.
And therefore, if he is to be applied unto, and relied upon,
that great Agent of God : and we are to refer it to him (as it
were) to mind our petitions, that they may be right in form,
this is the great business of that Spirit; he is thus far (as it
were) the Master of requests, and we are to resign ourselves to
him, to put our spirits under his formation, under tlie do-
minion of the Divine Spirit. " 1 do not know whether my
mind may agree with the divine mind yea or no, but O ! do
thou make it agree, and conform it thereunto." And lastly,
(10.) We have, upon the whole, this to consider, that all
prayers once so rectified and put into the right form and tcnour,
they do ever obtain their principal ansv.er. According to the
great platform and model of prayer that is given us, we pray
with principal reference to the divine honour, if we jiray aright,
that the name of God may be hallowed; we pray that the go-
verning power of his kingdom may obtain and take place all
the world over : we pray that his will may be done on earth,
as it is done in heaven. We have particular inclinations
and desires of our own ; these we are never to express but with
this reserve, " Lord, if these desires of mine, agree with thy
will; if they agree not with that, 1 renounce them, i disclaim
them." So every good man is then answered, if he be de-
nied : if he be denied in one respect, he is answered and his
joetition granted in higher and more principal respects ; for the
204 THE PRI]^?CIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
principal thing he aims at is, that God may be glorified, *^ Hal-
lowed be thy name ;" and that in order and subserviency
thereunto the governing power of his kingdom may take place,
and that his will may be done. These are the great and prin-
cipal petitions : and all things else are to be petitioned for but
as they subserve these.
And therefore, now tojsum up all. Prayer, it may be from
two sorts of persons, either from a devoted or from an apostate
creature. Prayer, proceeding from a devoted soul can never
fail of its principal answer : for every such prayer is influenced
by supreme love to God ; his interests comprehend all our
true interests : so that all doth but come to this, whether I love
God more than myself, then that love will always dictate such
prayers as can never miss of their answer. That is, if I pray
as a devoted creature, and to be a devoted creature is to pray,
is to love God more than myself. But, if I pray as an apostate
creature, that is, as one that is gone off from God and keeps off
from God and hath a separate interest from God, and will not
come to him ar)d return to him again ; then my prayers always
run after this tenour, " Lord I pray that my will may be done,
tliat my interest may take place and be served, whatsoever be-
comes of all, or any concernments besides." But what ! would
we have the counsels of the divine will to give place to such
insolent requests as these ? that were, in effect, to pray, " Lord
do thou descend and come down from thy throne, and resign
it to me, and let me set up for myself; 1 would be a god to
myself, and I desire to make no other use of divine power,
(finding my own impotency in many things,) but only to serve
my own purposes and ends."
Therefore, there is all imaginable encouragement to sincere
prayer, from this doctrine, that God doth all things according
to the counsel of his own will. And this, surely, we are great-
ly concerned to consider in such a juncture of time as we are
now cast upon : nothing can be more opportune. We have a
dubious prospect before us ; we know not how things may Is-
sue. Now to pray with hearts possessed with the sense that
God doth all things after the counsel of his own will, is the
best preparation for prayer, in reference to the present concern-
ments of this season, that can be thought. That is, it is such
a disposition of spirit that will, in this duty of prayer, be
both most honourable to God, and most comfortable to our-
selves.
Most honourable to God; nothing could reflect on him more
than to pray with a contrary notion concerning him ; that is, that
he doth not do things after the connsel of his own will, but as
LEC. VII.) His Counsel — Lessons of Instruction. 205
poor foolisli creatures here in this world, shall prescribe and
dictate to him : they make him do any thing, draw him to this
or that by the importunity of their requests and desires. You
cannot give a notion of God more injurious to him, or more
repugnant to his very nature. For ti'.en we must sui)pose him
a Being of mere power, absolute, almighty power, wliich any
fool may command when he pleaseth. Whata strange sort of
Deity do we worship ! particularly if we pray with such a no-
tion ef God as this. But nothing can be more comfortable to
ourselves, than to supplicate him, according to this true notion
of him, tliat he doth all things after the counsel of his own
will. With what quiet minds may we pray ; and acquiesce in
all the issues of things ! Things lie in the best hands they can
lie. We have this to satisfy our hearts in: and though we
pray as men, we are ^o expect he should answer as God. We
can pray but with the wisdjm and foresight of poor fallible
creatures : but then we are to expect iiim to answer according
to the wisdom of an all-comprehending Deity. And as this is
most highly honourable to him ; so it will be most highly
satisfying and comfortable to ourselves, and upon the best
terms from which a reasonable mind can receive any satisfac-
tion.
LECTURE VII.*
It only remains to make some Use of all that hath hitherto
been spoken. And so comprehensive a truth, as this, you will
apprehend to be (jf very large and copious usefulness. 1 shall
contract as much as the matter admits. It serves,
I. To shew us, how we are to form our notion of God. And
if any have a mistaken one, how they may rectify and reform
it. It lets us see we are to conceive of God to be a Being of
infinite wisdom, for according to our notion of counsel, it is the
immediate product of wisdom. Only, when we apply it to
God we must do it so as to sever all that it imports of im-
perfection, and to include all that it imports of highest perfec-
tion. We find it needful with us, to consult and advise with
our friends sometimes ; however, with ourselves, and our more
deliberate thoughts ; but no such thing can be said of God,
with whom all things lie open, in one infinite, eternal and all-
comprehending view at once. That is not the meaning of
counsel with him, as it is with us, as though being uncertain
and doubtful, we did need to be counselled aud advised : but
* Preached May 2/, 1692.
206 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOB. (pART 11.
that of perfection, which we mean by counsel and most perfect
judgment of things, that we are to ascribe to him : and so, as
that is tlie result of wisdom, it is with him in the highest per-
fection without consideration, so, that we can have no notion of
■wisdojn, that doth not imply counsel ; nor of divine counsel,
that doth not imply tlie most perfect, most exact, and most ac-
curate wisdom. We see he doth all things according to the
counsel of his will, so as never to err in any thing ; never
to make one wrong step. For how often is he celebrated by
expressions, that do import so much, God who is wise. What
glorious ascriptions are there to him as such. " To God only
wise, be honour and glory." Rom. \6. 27. And so that of
1 Tim. 1 . I /. You have the same kind of doxology even in the
same terms. And so in the epistle of Jude, the concluding
words of that epistle : " To God only v.'ise, be honour, and
glory, and dominion, for ever and ever." This appropriate
icvm, anil/, only wise, speaks that there is no wisdom, that is
not from him, nor in him, that he is primary u'isdom, the origi-
nal seat of wisdom. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it
of God, who giveth to all liberally. He can do so, he hath it
in all its fulness, in its most absolute plenitude in himself.
James 1, 5. And therefore, is he said to be the Father of
lights, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, every
congenerous gift ; we must understand it agreeable to so exube-
rant a Fountain : and hereby, we are to rectify our thoughts of
God, if we have taken up wrong ones; for wc must conceive
of the several attributes of tlie Divine Being, agreeably to this,
as they are complicated with this most perfect wisdom, as that
is most especially conjunct therewith. If any should think of
God's power, as only an act of boisterous omnipotency, work-
ing at random, not guided by wisdom and counsel : if they
should conceive of his will, as if it were a stiff, inflexible re-
solvedness of doing things without judgment or wisdom, if
they should conceive of his wrath, as an all-consuming flame,
burning up all before it, without distinction, without discrimi-
nation: if any should think of his love as a fond inclination to
this or that person, or thing, without being directed by wisdom
or counsel : all this is infinitely to wrong God ; it is indeed to
create to ourselves a God like ourselves. But this is infinitely
injurious to represent him by ourselves, as a being of mere
power, and of mere will, without considering, that he is a Being
pf infinite wisdom, and so doth all things according to the
counsel of his o\vn will. And again,
2. We are further to learn, how we are to conceive of God's
works J for every thing works as it is : and as he is a Being of
LEC. vii.) His Counsel — Lessons of Instruction. 207
wisdom, we are to reckon, that there mvist be characters
of wisdom and counsel upon all that he doth. Ti\cre is emi-
nently so, upon the works ofhis creation, lie hath established
the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his
discretion. Jer. 10. 12, Wisdom is the parentuf order, where-
soever there is any thing of order, that surely must be attribut-
ed to wisdom as the directive cause of it ; it must be found, if
not in second causes, yet in the First. The stable ordinan-
ces of day and night, the certain returns of summer and win-
ter, the regular motions of sun, moon, and stars, and the like :
in all these we are to behold the wisdom of God, who hath
settled things by so accurate counsel, according whereunto he
doth all that he doth. And so we are to conceive concerning the
works ofhis providence too, that there are counsel and wisdom,
which conduct them all, which regulate human affairs where-
in men have themselves but a subordinate agency, under the su-
preme and sovereign Ruler of all. We are to reckon nothing
fails out casually, nothing undetermined, either to be wrought
or effected by him, or at least to be permitted, for greater and
more preponderating reasons, against the restraints that might
have been laid upon tiie second causes, by which they are
wrought. And again,
3. We are further to learn hence, the extenstveness and uni-
versality of God's powerful and governing influence. He
worketh all things, he hath an agency about all that is done.
It is true, the words are capable of being thus understood,
He worketh whatsoever he worketh according to the counsel
ofhis own will. But there cannot a hand be lift up, nor a
foot stir, not a power or faculty of any creature be exerted, but
lie hath a working agency one way or other in reference there-
to : not so much as a sparrow falls to the ground, bnt it is
within the compass of that agency ofhis, which doth all things
after the counsel of his own will. Not so much as a hair drops
from any head without him: all things, as they refer to him,
are done with number, v/eight and measure : and so, wisdom
and counsel, have a universal exercise, in reference to all things
that are done under the sun, even the meaner concernments of
men in this world. If you go to the business of agriculture or
husbandry in the general ; the several methods of husbandmen
in ploughing, sowing, threshing and the like, are all said to be
from the Lord, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent ia
working. Isaiah 28. 29. And therefore, we are hereupon to
acknowledge, and own with adoration, the universal extensive-
ness ofhis governing influence ; as was formerly noted In tlie
opening of the words, in working all things: that is the ex-
20S THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PAHT II,
pression, an energy that is most intrinsic, intimate, inward to
every inferior agent, still exerting and putting forth itself, in
whatsoever is wrought or done under the sun. And he is even
more intimate to us, (as paganish light itself, doth more anci-
ently observe) than we are to ourselves. That phrase is fetched
from more refined paganism, into the schools of christians, that
he is more inward to us, than we are to ourselves, so as that
there is a divine energy working and stirring in every created
agent whatsoever. And,
4. We may next learn hence, the reasonableness and con-
gruity of all his public constitutions and laws, which he hath
made for the government of his reasonable creatures. Legis-
lation is a great act of sovereignty, indeed the prime and most
principal. If God do all things according to the counsel of
his own will, it is according to the counsel of his will that
he hath made laws for those who are capable of government
by law, as only the reasonable cyeature is. Laws are frequently
spoken of under the name of counsels. Your human laws are
commonly called cnnstilta, as among the Romans, those that
went under the name of senatus consulta j such things as
were advised upon, and, as it were, weighed in balances. Are
they fit, or are they not? Will this be a useful constitution, yea
or no? And so is the frame of divine laws spoken of, under
the name of the counsel of God. The pharisees and lawyers
rejected the counsel of God against themselves. Luke 7* 30.
It is spoken in opposition to Christ and his teachings. Those
that were doctors of the la\y among the Jews, they rejected
the counsel of God against themselves. Indeed, the whole re-
velation of God's mind, about the salvation of men, it bears
that name, which included the perceptive as a very noble part
of it. I have not shunned, saith the apostle, to declare unto
you the whole counsel of God. Acts 20. 27. In all this, there-
fore, we ought to acknowledge and adore a divine wisdom, and
especially in that, which is the standing constitution, for the
governing of men, in reference to their salvation and final
blessedness, since the apostasy, and you find God most highly
celebrated and magnified, upon that account, in that Rom. 16.
latter end : the apostle there speaking of the gospel constitu-
tion, under the name of a mystery, concludes all thus, " Now
to him that is of power to establish you, according to my gos-
pel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ," (ver. 25.) according
to tlie revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since
the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the Scrip-
tures of the prophets, accorcing to the commandment of the
everlasting God, made known to all nations, for the obedience of
LEC. VII.) His Coimsel — Lessons of Instruction. 20.*)
faith, " To God only wise, be glory, througli Jesus Christ, for
ever." His wisdom is conspicuous in this established constitu-
tion of his,which is to last through, all the ages of time, and which
is the constitution of that kingdom, vvhicli is never to be shaken.
That is called the kingdom not to be taken down : Heb. 12,
latter end. The compages whereof are so firm and strong, as to
suit a designed perpetuity. Whereupon, they that live under
the gospel, are warned concerning their deportment under it.
Now that we have received a "kingdom, that cannot be shaken,
let us hai^e grace to serve God acceptably, with reverence and
godly fr-ar." He will not now be dallied with by men, whom
he hath put under the dispensations of the gospel ; as that epis-
tle to the Hebrews begins. There were some temporary con-
stitutions wherein God did deal with men, and speak to them
in various and variable methods. But now, he hath spoken to
us by his Son : and this is such a state of things as shall last as
long as the world lasts, and those that do not comport with this
method, or law of grace, in order to being saved, shall never be
saved ! Therefore, let us seek grace to serve him acceptably.
The last eiForts of divine wisdom are seen in this constitution.
5. It thereupon, therefore, further lets us see, the impu-
dence of sinners, who confront their own imaginations, and
their own lusts, tcf the wisdom and counsel of the divine consti-
tutions; for that is indeed the case, and the very state of the
controversy between God and a guilty creature that hath been
in an apostasy from him, and doth yet refuse to return. This
is the very sum of the controversy between God and them,
Who is wiser, who is best capal)le of prescribing and giving
laws? for wisdom is the most conspicuous thing, (as was said)
in legislation. Authority is supposed, it is true, but if there
be never so unquestionable authority, if there be not wisdom to
use it, it would be strange work that one destitute of wisdom
would make of governing authority ; strange laws, sirange
edicts there would be, where there was uncontroulable power
without wisdom. But (as was told you) when laws are to
be made, here is the great exercise of governing wisdom, such
as doth befit the state of a ruler, to consider how the ex-
igency of the case may be answered, what laws will be more
suitable for such and such, or for a people in such circum-
stances. Now, when the counsels of heaven are opened, (as
jt were) into a result, in such a constitution; here is the law
of that kingdom that is erected and set up for them that are to
be saved. And here comes an insolent creature and contends
against the Lawgiver, and disputes the matter with him that
^ave him breath ; what impudency is here! That law of grace..
VOL. VII. 2 E
210 THE PRINCIPLES OP THK ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
it saith, wheresoever it is promulgated, to them tliat come under
this government of grace, or will be the disciples of grace, grace
doth teach them that live under it, " to deny ungodliness and
worldly lusts, and to live soberly, godly and righteously in the
world." But here, is an impure, obstinate sinner, to v/hom
notices are given of the good and acceptable will of God to this
purpose, that the gospel that is preached to him, the law of
the Redeemer's kingdom, it saith at the very first, Repent, now
that kingdom is come among you, repent, turn. The divine
wisdom saith to the sinner, " Turn, turn or die, turn or thou
art lost." But he saith, It is wiser to go on, to persist in my
own course; it is a wiser thing to live a stranger from God still,
and as without God in the world. Divine wisdom saith to men,
*' God hath a mind and design to save you, deny you all un-
godliness and worldly lusts, and subject yourselves to God,"
*' No, it is wiser (saith the sinner,) to live an ungodly life still,
it is a wiser thing to lay the reins on my own lusts, and do
whatsoever is good in mine own eyes, it is wiser to please my
own flesh than the God that made me; it is wiser to indulge
sensual inclination and follow the imagination of my own heart.'*
For men, I say, to confront their own imaginations and lusts
to the divine counsel, it speaks the height of impudency in
sinners, that they do not turn, that they will not be brought
back to God. And,
6". It further lets us see howr sad and forlorn tlie case of un-
reconciled and impenitent sinners is. God hath done all things
according to the counsel of his own will, therefore, the consti-
tution that he hath made and settled, is uncapable of change.
There is an immutability stamped upon the divine counsel, and
what is likely, then, to become of such men as run counter to
all the wisdom and counsel, that is conspicuous in the divine
constitutions ? Because of their perfection they cannot be
changed, and because of the sinner's wickedness, he will not,
God cannot change, and men will not. What is then like to
become of things between him and them ? But,
7. We may furtiicr learn hence, how hopeful and comfort-
able their state is, whose minds and hearts are brought to a
liking of the methods of God, for the saving of sinners, to a
compliance and agreement with them. O! happy man I The
imerrin'4, and therefore unalterable counsels of heaven, have
determined well concerning thee, and concerning thy state.
You see in this same chapter where the textiles, that the gospel
constitution carries, (as it v.-ere) this inscription upon it, *' To
the praise of the glory of his grace." Look upon the whole
frame of divine constitutions, that refer to the saving of sin-
jLKC. vji.) His Counsel, f— Lessons of Instruction. 211
ners, and you may see (as it were) in y:o]den letters written upon
this noble fabric, " To the praise of t!ie glory of his graie."
Thus the gospel constitutions stand, (as it were) dedicated, " To
the praise and glory of divine grace, wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved." And observe then, what follovvs in
the next verse, " In whom we have redemption, tlnough his
blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to '.he riches of
his grace, wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom
and prudence." This is the mystery of God ; he hath made
known to us the mystery of his will ; it is a most mysterious
thing that ever he should have such a will towards me. But
he doth all things according to the counsel of his own will;
and thereupon, there is an immutability and unchangcable-
ness upon the determination of it, as you see in that Heb. G.
17. VVherein, God willing more abundantly to shew unto
the heirs of promise, the immutability o^ his counsel ; He
iiath confirmed it by his oath, added to his word, that by two
immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie,
the heirs of promise might receive that strong, that steady,
that unshaken consolation. It is to be attributed to want and
deficiency of wisdorri and foresight, that the constitutions and
determinations of men, need so often to be altered. Such
and such an inconvenience was not foreseen ; such a law was
made, and it may be, a little trial and experience, shew it to be
very inconvenient, and so, it is fain to be reversed, repealed, or
needs some explanatory additions, or the like ; it is reckoned a
piece of meanness, and disparagement, to be put to alter
edicts ; and because the Medes and Persiaiis were a proud and
haughty cation, therefore, vveretlseir laws and statutes irreversi-
ble, never to be changed ; so that they did assume to tliem-
selves infallibility, and beyond what could agree to the con-
dition and capacity of creatures, of men, in an imperfect state.
But the divine counsel being all upon foresight, all tlie deter-
minations thereof, being made and settled upon one compre-
hensive view, here is no place for the supposition of a change.
And therefore, is this most highly consolatory to all that feel
their hearts comply with the gospel terms, with the evangeli-
cal constitutions : " 1 find my heart is wrought to a closure with
that, and I am never to fear a change." It is the effect of his
counsel, his immutable counsel which he hath shewn, that
such as we might have strong consolation who fall in vvith, and
comply with his terms.
8. It further serves to let us see the vanity of their confi-
dence, who have any separate interest, and drive any opposite
design from, and to, this of the great God himself. His coun-
212 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART II.
sels must stand, and the thoughts of his heart to all genera-
tions ; whereas, the counsels of the froward are turned head-
long: as the expression is, Job, 5. 13. How unequal is the
contest, when there comes to be a competition between the
design of a mortal man, though never so insolent, and that of
the immortal God ? Some of themselves have thought it inso-
lent for creatures so to assume. Rabshakeh thought it were
an imaginary thing, and very wrongly charged upon Hezekiah,
yet seems to look upon it as a great piece of pride, "Thou say-
est, I have counsel and strength for war," thinking it to be
an unbecoming thing: yet, though he only speaks of the
counsel and might of Hezekiah as opposed to his ov/n, or that
of his master Sennacherib ; but he never thought how insoltnt
it was to oppose that, his counsel to that of heaven. *'I have
counsel and strength for war," but how soon are all those coun-
sels and strength blown upon, blasted and brought to nothing
when God hath any work of his to do, whereunto, that coun'
sel and might are opposed. And to conclude, I add,
9. That since God doth all things according to the counsel
of his own will, the times and seasons for doing any great
work that he intends, arc always chosen by him, with most ac-
curate wisdom. They are most fitly chosen; therefore, where-
as, we are apt to blame the divine methods because he doth
not take our time and our way, how unreasonable is it, since it
is plain, that all the things he hath to do are affixed to particu-
lar seasons, which lie under divine determinations? " IJnto
every thing there is a season and a time, to every purpose un-
der the sun. Eccles. 3. 1. And if you will look a little iur-
ther in that book, you will see there, that as there is a time for
every purpose, every event, so there is also judgment for every
time, there is judgment, which is the eifect of counsel, or that
whereunto counsel results. For every thing there is a time
and judgment. And so thereupon, there comes to be a critical
nick of time into which such and such things must fall, and
into no other. And therefore, it is said, that " the misery of
man is great upon the earth." Eccles. 8. 6. Because there
is time and judgment to every purpose, therefore, that is, be-
cause time and judgment are not considered, are not under-
stood by men, therefore, their misery is great. And so they
are taken, many times, in an evil time, vvitheut foresight; they
do not know the time; not because they are ignorant of the
time, but because they are unready, unprepared, for what is to
be done and suffered in such or such a juncture of time. And
so you see their case is represented still, upon that account, mi-
serable. But the wise, tliey do consider time and judgment :
Liic. vii.) Ills Counstl. — Lessons of Instntction. 213
Happy men ! therefore, liappy nien ! ns those two verses fall in
together: Eccles. 8.5, 6. This ought to be eoiisidercd, and
it awakes a n)an a happy man that considers it. Therefore, Iiow
quiet and calm may all men's minds be ; and the minds of the
wise will be that do equally consider things. We find things
were determined most punctually, relating to the !J,reat con-
cernments of that people, God had in tiic world heretofore,
when they were yet an unconforraed people. Four hundred
and thirty years must pass, just so Uiany from the time of his
capitulating with their head, Abraham, striking a covenant with
him. And so much time there must be, because the sins of the
Amorites weie not yet full, and Canaan could not be ready for
the reception of them, and there did four hundred and thirty
years pass upon this account. When they were in captivity
in Babylon, seventy years was determined for that. When tiie
woman is in the wilderness, there is a set time; forty and two
months, or twelve hundred and sixty days. And we are not
to think that the determinations of divine wisdom and counsel
are less certain because they are less known to us, and we only
see by the event what was determined. Twenty years have
elapsed since the haughty French tyrant hath been the terror
and scourge of Europe, and especially of reformed Christen-
dom ; for it is so long, (in the year 167"2) that he first attempt-
ed on our neighbours and brethren of Holland. Many might
have been apt to think, why hath not God animadverted on him
sooner, put upon him an earlier rebuke ? Why was it not the
last year ? Why was not his fleet scattered, and his army broken
then, as they have been, in several parts, this year? Or why was
it not the year before that? Why, it is a foolish thing for us to
contend nnd dispute with the counsel of heaven^ and we are
to refer it to the determination of divine counsel, to choose the
fittest time to begin to animadvert on so insolent an enemy, and
the aptest means how first to let him know that he is a mortal,
and that they in whom lie trusts, have a mortality upon them ;
that they are liable to defeatments, to disappointments ; that
their strength is not brass or iron, or sucli as cannot be broken
when he will. He can make so weak and mutable a thing as
the wind to serve his purpose against so haughty a one. We
are to consider that these things fall out according to the coun-
sel of the divine will: he is not to give us a reason why no
such thing was, so many years ago, why he did not raise up
such and such, who might have abated his pride, and brought
a blast upon him long bei'ore now.
Hitherto, we have by way of use, from the doctrine of this
text, let you see so many inferences, and recommended so
'214 THE PRINCII'LES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (pART II.
many truths from it, which, accorcKne: to the aptitude that it
hat!) in it, may help to rectify and regulate our thoughts^ ap-
prehensions, and notions in many things.
LECTURE VIII*.
The further use which remains, is to direct our practicp.^
for in many respects, it liath in it a great aptitude, and suit-
ahleness too. In order to this, it is requisite,
1. Tliat we take up the several sorts of the considerations
which may be had of the counsels of the divine will. And
then,
2. That we reflect upon our own distemper, ard the faulti-
ness of' our spirits and practice, in reference hereunto. And
aceommodately, then, to consider both of the counsels of the
divine will, and of our own miscarriages, and so recommend
to you sundry heads of instruction, in reference to our future
practice. We are,
. 1. Vaiiously to consider the counsels of the divine will.
They may be either considered indefinitely; or else, they may
be considered with some distinction, according to the various
references they may bear towards us, and our concernments
and aftairs, whether they may be eternal or temporal; and
these, whether they be private or public.
And again, whether they be known to us, or unknown ; so
variously may the counsels of the divine will be considered.
And then, for his precepts, which are the result too, of the
counsel of his will. They expressly declare what it is the
counsel of his will we should do, though therein also, we are
to expect his co-operation; he working and in-working also
therein, according to the counsel of his will. And many times,
the counsels of his will are known to us only by the event. We
never know what God would do in this or that instance, till the
event shews us. And so in such and such things, because the
event hath not shewn the counsels of the divine will in many
things, they are yet altogether unknown to us.
2. Now, according to these various considerations of the
counsels of the divine will, we shall find ourselves, many ways,
to be faulty in reference thereunto.
As in reference to the counsels of God indefinitely consi-
dered, that either we (Hirselves do not firmly enough believe
the great doctrine of this text, that he really doth all things
* Preached June o, I692.
«LEC. Till.) His Counsel. — Directions for Practice, 215
according to the counsel of his own will; or that we deeply
enough consider it not, and carry not an habitual sense in our
souls correspondent thereunto : that we have not high and
great thoughts as we ought hereupon : that we are so prone to
dispute matters with him : that there is no more of dutiful
compliance with the counsels of his will, even then, when
they are known : that many are so apt to cherish in themselves
a perpetual dread about their eternal concernments, which lie
most certainly under the disposition of his ov.n eternal will:
that they are so distrustful of so wise and mighty an Agent,
that doth al! things according to the counsel of his own will;
tliat there is no more of quietude, tranquillity and rest of spirit
in him, so considered, as one that doth what he pleaseth, and
always according to wise counsel.
Now, according to these various considerations^ which we
ought to have, both of God and ourselves, of his counsels, and
of our own miscarriages and distempers, are these instructions
to be, which [ am now to recommend to you. And,
(1 .) I pray, Let us charge this upon ourselves, more thorough-
ly to establish the belief of this truth in our own souls, tliat God,
in very deed, doth work all things after the counsel of his own
will. Let not ouv minds waver and hover, in reference here-
unto, as if this were a doubtful matter, as if possibly, it might
be otherwise, as if either he were ignorant or oscitant, and
unconcerned about the affairs of his creature, as if any thing
might possibly fall out without his advertency. For we should
consider with ourselves, being once at a certainty about the ex-
istence of God, about which if we be not at a certainty, we
can be certain of nothing; if (I say) we be at a certainty con-
cerning this, and we may be as sure of it as that we are, and
that this ViOrld is, and that there is any such thing as wisdom
and power and goodness, any where to be observed and taken
notice of in the world; we and this world, and whatsoever
there is of excellency and perfection in it, must all have some
original; they are not nothing, and therefore could not come
out of nothing. If we be (I say again) at a certainty about
this, that is, in short, that there is a God, we may be at equal
certainty about this, that he worketh all things after the coun-
sel of his own will. For I beseech you, reflect and consider
Jiow well would It agree with your own minds, and with the
natural notions and conceptions that are placed and fixed
there, to conceive of an ignorant God, or of an impotent God, or
of an oscitant, neglectful God. Do but consider, how well any
such conception or apprehension can agree with the natural no-
tices you have in your minds already; and may take notice of, if
216 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTII.
you reflect. And thereupon, let disputes be at an end with you,
and fix and establisli the belief of it in your own souls, that in
very deed he worketh all things according to the counsel of
his own will. And,
(2.) That hereupon (this being once thoroughly believed) it
may be more deeply considered : and that we would labour to
carry an habitual sense of it about us, from day to day, through
this world. For to any one that considers, these things are very
distinguishable ; dead notions, and living sense, even in refer-
ence to the same truth. I have such a truth in my mind, but
how have 1 it ? If I have it as a dead notion, then it is all one
to me as if 1 had it not. Let it not, therefore, satisfy us to
have so mighty; important a truth as this lie in our rainds as a
dead notion; but let us labour to have it there as living sense,
that we may resort to upon all occasions, and draw forth into
present use as the matter shall, from time to time, require. And,
(3.) Labour to live adoring lives towards the glorious God, so
considered, as one that worketh all things after the counsel of
his own will. How should we, hereupon, be composed of ado-
ration towards the blessed God, so as that wherever any actual
present instance occurs and appears to us, wherein that agency
of his shews itself, we be always in a disposition to bow our
heads and worship ! Here is a manifest eftbrt of Deity, as the
power and wisdom of God, tliat doth all things after the coun-
. sel of his own will. We should especially labour to maintain
an adoring frame and disposition of spirit, with reference to
these two great excellencies of the Divine Being which appear
and shine forth in view, in this truth held forth to us in this
text: "who worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will:" that is, almighty power and infinite wisdom. Two
things, than which nothing can be supposed to make an object
more adorable, to make any thing a titter oljject of adorajion,
Almightiness — he worketh all things. Is not he almighty that
can do all things ? and infinite wisdom — for he doth all things
aft^r the counsel of his own will. So, that wheresoever there
is an exertion of his power, there is an exertion of his wisdom
too, guiding that efficacious exertion of his will, that he doth
not act in any thing by a boisterous and extravagant exertion of
power, without judgment or without wisdom or without counsel,
that all things that are done, are done by him : one way or
other he hath an agency in every thing; and that nothing is
done by him but by the direction of that wisdom that can mis-
take in nothing: all things consulted, and done after the coun-
sels of his own will. A man of great migiit and of great e"le=
brated wisdom too, how venerable a person is he in the account
LBC. VI ri.) His Counsel — Directions for Practice. 21 7
of all? But to have these two things in conjunction, fo wit,
almighty power, witii infinite, unlimited wisdom, sets a very
adorable Object before our eyes. And It is a reproach to us, if
we, thereupon, do not carry an adoring frame of spirit, every
day, about this world with us.
(4.) Another instruction, hereupon, will be, that we never con-
tend against him. What ! Against him that worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will ? Is he a lit Object for our
contention ? Will we undertake to dispute matters witii him ?
Think with yourselves, both how foolish and how wicked that
must be He that can do all things, whatsoever he will, it
must be a very foolish thing to contend with him. What
shall we get by it ? He that contends with God, can he hope
to be a giiiner ? He that strives with his Maker, woe to him :
all that we can gain by it is but to infer a woe upon ourselves.
Isaiah 45. 9. Therefore, it is a very foolish thing to enter into
a contest which we are to despair beforehand of ever getting
any thing by. And then. How wicked a thing is it ! For cer-
tainly, the sovereignty must belong to him who worketh all
things, and thai after the counsel of his own will. It must,
upon all accounts, belong to him. He will certainly carry the
matter, and have the sovereignty. He worketh all things : al-
mighty and resistless power is lodged in him ; and he ought
to have the sovereignty. For to whom should it so fitly apper-
tain, as to him that doth all things according to counsel, ne\ er
any thing rashly, nothing unfit in itself, nothing unseasonable,
"whensoever it is done ? Therefore, (as the expression is there)
he that contends with God, let him answer it; let him try if
he can ; for to be sure he never can, he never will be able to
answer it, to enter into a contest with God, who is One that so
wisely, and according to so stable, and so steady counsel and
judgment doth all things. Again,
(5.) Labour dutifully to comport with him as he is such a One
that *' worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,"
and according to such considerations, (as hath been hinted to
you,) as we may severally have of these counsels of the will of
God. There are counsels of his will that are made known and
signified by his express precepts. As was told you, the last
time, legislation, making of laws, is one of the prime acts of
wisdom, wherein above all things that excellency is to be con-
spicuous and shevv forth itself. Now we shall dutifully com-
port with the counsels of his will, made known by his precepts
and laws, when we do obey them. That when once we find
that charge laid upon us to do so and so, by express divine pre-
cept, we immediately labour to get our spirits formed to an
TOI.. VII. * 2 F
218 THE PaiNCIPLES OF THE ORACLES Or COD. (^PART II.
obedient compliance, saying within ourselves, **Iha\'e no-
thing to do, in reference to such and sucli a thing, but to
obey." *' Mortify such a lust," saith the command, "Lord I
yield and will endeavour to obey." ** Love me with all the
heart and soul and mind and strength :" *' Lord, I will to my ut-
termost." It is a law founded in counsel; there could never have
been a wiser law, nor a more merciful one, from a good God,
towards an indigentj depending creature, than that I should
place my love, ray desire, my delight on himself. If, consider-
ing me as a wandering creature, I find his word saith to me, "Re-
pent ;" a wise counsel is spoken to me according to the coun-
sel of his will. I will persist in sin no longer; I will turn that I
may live. If he have made known his counsels concerning such
and such things that he will do, that he will put an end to this
world, that the wickedness of the wicked shall come to an end ;
that his Son shall appear in the end of time, and shall be the
finalJudge ; it is then dutiful to comply with such counsels of
the divine will, to be always in an expecting posture: tosay, *'0
let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, according
as thou hast determined ; we approve of the counsel of the di-
vine will, and vvill patiently wait till it come. And as for
that appearance and coming of our Lord, wc will wait and long
for it ; looking for it as the reviving, heart gladdening hope of
our souls." Whereinsoever the divine will is made known to us,
or which way soever the counsels of it are known, let them be
dutifully comported with. Such things as are only known to
us by the event, let us dutifully own and acknowledge them.
1 know it was the divine will, according to counsel, that such
and such things should he either effected by himself, or per-
mitted to be effected by those in whom he saw such a dispo-
sition, or from whom he did not withhold power to effect it.
Again,
(6.) Take heed of slavish dread, in reference to your own
eternal concernments. Most certain it is, that there are coun-
sels of the divine will conversant about the eternal concernments
of every one of us ; but take we heed of slavish dread in refer-
ence hereto. There is no cause for it. It is an ungospel-
like spirit to live in a slavish dread, even about our eternal con-
cernments, under a gospel of grace which deals with us prin-
cipally about them, and whose special, particular, and great de-
sign is to advise and direct us, even touching them.
Jjut it may be here said. How is it possible for one in an un-
certainty, not to be in a dread about his everlasting concern-
ments, about those concernments of his, which however they
lie, will never alter, will always be the same? One that finds
i.EC. VIII.) His Counsel — pirectio7is for, Practice, 219
himself to have been, hitherto, under the power of some reign-
ing lust or other, have not I reason to be in a continual drccd,
what shall become of me for ever ?
That was a thing we find represented as not suitable to the
state of a very Cain. Suppose thy state to be as bad, sup-
pose thyself a very Cain for wickedness, you see how G(td be-
speaks him, when there was some present token that he was
not so acceptable as Abel was, Cain might perceive it, here-
upon his countenance falls, and God reasons the matter with
him, " Why is thy countenance fallen ? If thou dost well,
shhlt thou not be accepted ? If thou persist still to do evil,
it is true, sin, that is, vengeance, the consequent of sin, lies
at the door. But if thou dost well, shalt not thou be accept-
ed^ So he bespeaks even a Cain; so you must understand him
Xc bespeak you. In the worst that you can suppose of your case,
this is the counsel of the divine will, even concerning thee,
lltreupen, then, God ought to be the Object of thy reverence;
not the Object of thy dread. Thououghtest to reverence him,
not to dread him, as one that doth all things after the counsel of
his own will. But you will say again, '' Where lies tiie dift'er-
ence ?"
The difference is great, and most manifest, between reverence
and dread. Reverence carries love in it : dread carries hatred.
And am I now to dispute tlie matter with you, whether any
man ought to hate God ? Ought you to hate him, tliink you ?
Ought he to be the Object of your hate? No, place all your
reverence upon him, which certainly carries love in it. For
reveret)ce liath goodness for its object; the most excellent good
is the object of my reverence. By how much the more there
is of goodness in any one^ by so much the more is he the object
of my reverence. But it is evil, destructive, pernicious evil,
that is the object of my hate, and consequently of my dread.
But you are no more to think that God can be tlie Object of a
man's dread, than you can think that a fit notion, or a self-con-
sistent notion, an evil God. Can there be any such thing as in\
evil God ? There can be no such thing as the aU'ection of dread
(involving essentially hatred in it) duly placed upon God, unless
you would supj)Ose an evil God, which is a contradiction even
in the very notion. Therefore, turn all your hate (let the case
be the worst that can be supposed) upon yourself, and all your
love upon God. Think of iiim with reverence that carries love
in it. And tiiink of yourselves with that dread (as you are
yet wicked creatures) which carries I'.atc in it. And this is
a true gospel frame, to hate one's self, loatiie one's self, fall out
with one's self, judge one's self, condemn one's self; but all the
220 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTll.
while to reverence God : let him be ever amiable in your
eyes.
Aye, but you will say, "How can this be but matter of dread
to me, when I find myself a wicked creature, and whom, there-
fore, the wrath of God must pursue ? for his wrath is revealed
from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men ; and I find myself such a one, a wicked creature, an un-
godly, an unrighteous creature."
Do but consider here, the objection carries its own answer in
it. *' The wrath of God is revealed from heaven." Against
what ? Against ungodliness, against unrighteousness : and you
are such a one. But what, is it necessary always to continue
such ? The wrath of God can never be directed against any
creature but as he is wicked. But then his word saith, " Let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have
mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly par-
don." Isaiah 55. 7'
But you may perhaps say, " 1 am a wicked creature, and
this is the thing I dread, that I shall be always so, 1 cannot
alter the state of my own case, 1 cannot mend myself 3 this is.
that therefore, which makes me stand in dread."
Why, to that I shall shortly say, either you desire to be
other than you are, or you do not ; either you desire, of a
wicked creature, to be made holy, godly and righteous, or you
do not desire this. If you do desire it, and you say, this is the
object of your dread, that you shall never be other than a
wicked creature, because you cannot mend yourself; why
dread, (as I told you,) carries hatred in the nature of it, and
hatred of wickedness. If you dread this continuance in wick-
edness, you hate it. But I would fain know, if it be possible
to desire and hate the same thing. Do you desire and choose to
be always wicked, and yet hate and dread to be so r These are
inconsistent : what you say now, overthrows itself. It is im-
possible for you to desire to be always what you are, if you
really dread, that is, hate that state of wickedness wherein you
are. If that be the matter of your dread, (as it ought to be)
then you do hate to be what you are, and you desire to be
what you are not. Then pursue this apprehension further, a
little, " I am a wicked creature, and I desire to be otherwise
than I am, I dread myself, 1 hate myself as I am such : then
1 do desire to be such as God would have me to be, that is, a
holy creature, and one conformed to his holy nature and will ;"
and if this be the posture of your soul in reference to yourself,
and your own state Godward, you very well know what he hath
LEe. Till.) His Cminsel — Directions for Practice. 221
declared of his readiness to accept such. When \vc confess our
sins, with self-loathing, self-indignation, self-judginir, " He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins : and the Ijiood of Jesus
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." And when we judge
ourselves, we shall not be judged. He never condemns that
man that condemns himself, not notionally, but inwartUy, with
a concomitant liatrtd and loathing, v.-hich is somewliat else
than the notion of the state and frame wherein you find your-
self. But now, if you suj^pose that God will have no mercy
upon such a one, that is to make a supposition to yourself of
somewhat in the notion of God that is repugnant to the known
notions of him : that is, as he is the God of all grace; as he is
love itself, and as he hath told us this to be his name, " The
Lord, the Lord God, gracious ard merciful, forgiving iniquity,
transgrt'ssion and sin." Hut if you have such notions of him,
\\v.\\ he win abandon and throw away a self-loathing and self-
judging creature, and one that desires nothing in all this world
so much as to please him, this is to create to yourself a formi-
dable idol, instead of the true and living God ; there is no such
Goii as you imagine to yourselves. As an idol is nothing in the
w.irld, so is this nothing but your own idol, which is a nullity,
i'here is no siich God ; but you create to yourselves such a for-
miiable idol, and tiien hate him. You call that God, which
is but of your own making, your own creature. But take God
as he is in himself, and as he hath revealed and reported him-
self to be, the God of all grace, whose name this is, (and his
name doth express his nature.) the name that he hath made
himself known by, " The Lord, the Lord God, gracious :"
take this true notion of God, and set it before your eyes, and
consider, " though I be an object of hate, sure 1 have now be-
fore mine eyes an Object of the highest love." Is not this an
Object of love, a fit Object, the most deserving Object, the
most amiable Object that can be thought ? Conceive of him so ;
and let that be your apprehensions of him, till you find his
love gradually work itself into your souls, and transforming
and changing you. And if you come once to this perceiving
and believing this love, you have a love begotten and wrought
in you, then God and yoix are happily met. Love and love,
cannot but unite and dwell together, and will everlastingly co-
habit and dwell together. But if you say, you are a wicked
creature, and you desire to be always what you are ; if wick-
edness and you are inseparable, as they can only be by the
union of your will with wickedness, then are misery and you
united too, and can only be so by your adherence in heart and
will to wickedness j and so you will be your own hell, and an
■222 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PATIT II.
everlasting fountain of misery to yourself; but God and his
throne will be jruiitless for ever, for he never hates a creature
as a crtature ; his wrath can never reach you, but as you are
one that continues in a nil) to be wicked.
But if you can truly say, " I would be otherwise, only I fear,
God will not help me." Why! l)ath he not said, he will give
his Spirit to ti^.em that ask him ? You are to take heed of form-
ing a notion of God against his word; for he can have no v.ill
against his word : it is impossible he should. There can be no
counsel of the divine will that contradicts his plain woid.
Therefore, take heed of imagining any such thing to yuur-
splves.
And so, upon the whole matter, there is place for tlsat
counsel, as what we are to resolve to live and die by, that is,
never to entertain a slavish dread concerning our own eteri'ial
concernments. But consider how the distinguishing characters
are given in Scripture, betv/een them that are saved, and them
that finally perish. And if you find the present characters upon
you that mink you out for hell and damnation, only say, " I
am such and such now, but it is not necessary that I should
always i;e what 1 am." Sin is not you, and you are not sin ;
they are separable, these are partable things: and only implore
that grace and help of the Divine Spirit that is offered, suitable
to the estate of lost and apostate creatures. And never enter-
tain any despairing thought but that that Spirit shall be given
when it is seriously asked and sought after, and desired by you;
the state of no man's case can exclude such considerations as
these, for while there is any thing of sense about a man's eternal
concernments, though it be from common grace, it is from the
Spirit of grace, for all grace is from that Spirit, and that com-
mon grace may be gradually leading on to special grace, if it
be duly complied with.
So that there is still no cause for a slavish dread : that soul is
not quite abandoned and given up by God, in which remains
any concern about Its future state, antl about its case Godward,
You are not, indeed, to ascribe it to your own nature, if you are
so solicitous about tiie divine favour, if you are not so swallow-
ed up in this world, and immersed in sensuality, as to have all
thoughts excluded about your soul- affairs, and your everlasting
concernments. You are not to arrogate this to yourself; for
we are not sufficient;of ourselves to think a good thought: and
there is a good tendency in those thoughts ; and therefore, all
this ought to be ascribed to the Divine Spirit that is now, some
way or other, at v»'ork with you ; and those workings of his, have
a leadingnets and tendency in them to move to furth^ and
LEC. viii.) His Counsel — Directiomjor Practice. 223
hiirher workings, which accordingly you are to expect with
hope, and so to lay aside a slavish dread accompanied with
despair, with utter despair that ever things shall be better with
you.
(7.) And then, as to all your other concernments, intrust them
freely and cheerfully to this God. He tliat wovketh aW things
after the counsel of his own will ; how complete an Object of
trust is he ! Whose heart would misgive him, who trusteth liim
that worketh all tilings after the counsel of his own will ? Can
the counsel of his own will, can the counsel of that wilJ which
is guided by unerring wisdom, ever hurt any body ? Will any
body be the worse- for lying under the determination of that
will, which is guided by unerring counsel ? Never fear t*) trurt
him, in all things, who bears this character; a cheerful trust,
a delightful trust, is most suitable to this representation of God.
Never fret, never tumultuate, never admit of any distrustful
thought ; but at the same time, (as the direction is, Psalm 37,
heisrinning.) " Trust in the Lord and do good," and place your
delight in the Lord, and not fret at any thing we see fall out in
the world, never fret but trust, never fret but do good, never
fret, but deligiit thyself in the Lord. And therefore,
(8.) Lastly; The direction that is most suitable to this appre-
hension of'God, is to preserve a continual quietude and tran-
quillity in our own spirits. The proper effect of such trust is
quietness : "His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord." And,
^^ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is staid
on thee: because he trusteth in thee." Isaiah 26\ 3. There is no
room, nor place for rational disquiet hereupon, in reference to
any thing he hath done, or in reference to any thing we may
apprehend he will do. Let there be such a constant calmness
and tranquillity of spirit maintained, in opposition to vejcatioa,
about past events; and to solicitude about future events: for
these two things, we arc apt to disquiet ourselves : aiwut past;
events, vvith vexation ; and future events, with solicitude : and
so we live uncomfortable lives. But there will be no place left,
either for the one or the other, if we will but carry this appre-
hension about us, that God worketh all things after the counsei
of his own will. What cause then, can there be for solicitude?
God will not change his nature, he will be still the same. He
Nvill as much govern the world by counsel in all future timeSj.
and all the particular concernments of his creatures, and especi-
ally our own concernments, in respect of which we are apt to be
solicitous. He will do as much as ever he did. For this is his
essential character, and therefore, can never cease to be so, &-z*
lie doth all things after tiie counsels of his own will.
224 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
But you may say, " He may permit wicked men to do so and
so, injuriously."
If he do so, he wisely permits it, and according to the coun-
sel of his own will. And who would be afraid of the counsel
of such a will ? If he permit ill tilings to be done and fail out
in the world, it is either for the exercise of their graces who
belong to him in the world, and who are the called according
to his purpose ; it is that their faith, and their love to him, and
their patience, and their subjection, and their heavenly mind-
edness, and the raisedness of their spirits above the world, may
be more tried, and may further appear : or, it may be, for the
correction and chastisement of his own offending people. And
then, there is no place for fretting and inquietude of spirit, but
calmly to accept the punishment of sin, lying down under it
with a calm and submissive patience. Or, it may be in refer-
ence to the future, more illustrious display of his own glory,
that he lets wicked men prosper and triumph for a time, and
flourish like the green grass, when it is that they may be de-
stroyed for ever. And never doubt but that he doth all things
after the counsel of his own will, he will make all things finally
to result into such an end as shall be suitable to so glorious an
Agent, worthy of himself, so that angels and saints shall con-
fess to all eternity, that all his ways and works were marvellous,
just, righteous and great ; and worthy of himself, taken alto-
gether. It cannot but be so, that the issue of things must be
such as is most agreeable to him **who workethall things after
the counsel of his own wilU"
LEC. IX.) His IForU of Creation.
LECTURE IX.
Heb. II, 3.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by
the word of God, so that things ivhich are seen, were
not inade of things ivhich do appear. ^
TN tliat order of discourse, (wherein we have made some pro-
gress,) of treating of the several more principal heads of that
religion which we all profess, we have spoken at large (as the
last subject we insisted upon in this course) of the counsels
of the divine will, or (which is all one) his purposes and de-
crees, according to which he is said to work all things, in that^
Ephes. 1. 11.
And now, the next thing that comes in order to he spoken of,
is that great work of cukation, which is part, and the first
part, the beginning of the execution of his external counsels or
purposes of his will. This is the first of his external acts that ter-
minate upon somewhat without himself. His decrees, though
they have their term within him, and so come into the account,
not of his transient, but of his eminent acts, and yet do differ,
too, from all these internal acts of the divine Hypostasis towards
one another; for they have their very objects in the Divine
Being. But the decrees of God, though they have their term
within the Divine Being, that is, they do, while they are but de-
crees, effect nothing extra Z>eum, ivithout God, yet they have
their object without him ; that is, they refer, some way or other,
to the creature. Now, in contradistinction to those internal acts
of God that have reference to the creature, we consider his exter-
* Preached Jan. l"^, lQg3.
VOL, vu. 2 e
226 THE PRINCIPLES OK THE OUAC LES 01' GOD. (PART II,
nal acts, wheredf this of creation is the first, and Is leading and
fundamental to all other subsequent and external acts of his, to-
wards, or upon, the creature, as now existing, till some act or
other hath preceded, by which it might exii;t.
This is, therefore, such an act as makes Its object, and doth
not suppose it ; as all following acts of God towards the crea-
ture do suppose the object, and not make It ; suppose It pre-
exlstcnt, and then are concerned and conversant about It, as
already existent ; to wit, to sustain it, to regulate it, improve
it, perfect It ; or any ways alter it as he sees good.
And whereas, this Is the first step that God takes in executing
tlie counsels of his will; that Is, that being ascribed to him,
to do all things according to the counsel of his will, he doth this
^great work of creation, according to that counsel of his will.
This will put an end to the great dispute about the original of
all things ; whether this world, and all that It contains came, of
itself, or by fate, or by cliance ; or whether it were all entirely
owing to some wise and designing intelligent Agent. If, I say,
the authority of divine Revelation may decide the matter, and
so far obtain in the minds of men, there is an end of that dis-
pute; that is, that since whatsoever Is done by that great and
almighty Agent, was done according to the counsels of his own
will ; tlien this world came not into being of itself, or by any
fatality or casualty ; but by wise counsel designing the thing,
and the time, and whatsoever circumstances might refer there-
unto.
And, Indeed, those that have not a divine Revelation to guide
t]\elr apprehension in this matter, and have but allowed therri-
selves (as many have) a liberty of thought, have discerned those
characters of divine wisdom and design, in the whole frame
and contrivance of things in this great creation, as not only to
acknowledge, but to adore the wise Creator that hath given be-
ing to all. Every thing of order, being the product of wisdom j
wisdom and order have most certain relation to one another, as
the productive princijile, and the object produced. If there be
-«uch a thing as order produced, v^^isdom and counsel must have
been the productive principle.
We, formerly, in the beginning of this series of discourse, had
occasion to spefiji of the creation, from Romans 1. 20. The
invisible things of God, even his eternal power and Godhead,
are clearly seen in the things that he hath made. It was upon
another account that we discoursed of the creation then ; not
making that the termlnative subject of our discourse; but con-
.sidercd it only as evidential of the Deity; we are now to con-
sider it as effected l)y that almighty, divine power: we now
LEC. IX.) His JFork of Creatloiu 227
consider It as a matter of ialth. " By faith wc understand tliat
the worlds were framed by the word of God." And it was of ab-
solute necessity that there should be that rational consideration
of tiie creation, first, in order to the evincing of an object of
faith, before we came to speak any thing of faith, or what was
to be matter of faith ; for no one can believe any thing, by the
proper assent of faith, till he understands who he is to lielicvc,
and why. And it is the formal object of faith that we were to
evince to you, in order to our shewing the ground why we were
tt. believe any material object that conies within t'nc compass of
divine Revelation.
Therefore, having first evinced to you tiie existence and being
of God ; and then, evidenced to you, that that Revelation which
we have in the Book of Scripture is from (lod; and thence
having more distinctly considered the nature and jierfections of
God, as they are held forth in that Revelation, together with
the distinct Hypostasis which tliat llevelation assures us are in
the Deity; we now come to consider the creation too, as a
matter of faith also.
And it ought not to seem strange to us, that when we have
heard the creation spoken of, as tending to evince to us the
being of God, we should come now to discourse of it as a mat-
ter of faith ; for most plain it is, that the same conclusion may
he assented toon different grounds, and the one doth strength-
en the other, and not detract from it. It is no prejudice at
all to our receiving the doctrine of ihe creation, as a matter of
faith, that it is also demonstrable In a rational way, any more
than It doth.detract from, or lessen the credit of, a hun:an testi-
mony that many do concur and say the same thing j wiiich de-
tracts nothing from the validity of that person's testiuiony, but
instead of that, adds thereto.
And we are to reckon it a great discovery of tlic divine favour
and indulgence to us, when one and the same thing may be
the matter, both of a fiducial assent upon a divine testimony,
and of rational demonstration also. God condescends to us,
and is so much the more favourable, that he Is pleased to make
the same thing evident more ways tlmn one, according as the oc-
currence of several media for the evidencing of any thing, doth
beget a stronger and firmer impression of the thing itself, upon
our minds. This is referred unto, allusively, to set forth the
great assurance wherewith the gospel Revelation was given,
1 John 1. 1, 3. " That which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands
have handled of the word of life — that which we have seen
and heard declare we unto you.''
228 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART IF,
It is very true, indeed, that the creation, generally consi-
dered, and more abstractly, is very demonstrable by reason; not
only to be rendered probable, or a likely thing, but certain and
more demonstrable. That is, as I said, when we have in view
so many sorts of things that we are sure were not always ; and
therefore, could not be of themselves ; (for whatsoever is of it-
self must be always, must be from eternity ;) then we are
sure every such thing must have had some maker or other.
And so, nothing can he more demonstrable, than that there
hath been, and must be, a creation, even unto reason, and by
reason.
But though reason may clearly apprehend and evince, in
general, that there hath been a creation, it can never evince
the way and manner, the method and order, wherein things
have been created. All this must be owing to divine Revela-
tion, and to faith thereupon, if we understand, (as here it is
said,) " through faith, the worlds were framed, by the word
of God." By reason, we may know that the world or worlds
were some time or other made : but we can only know by faith
that they were made in six days, and that such and such was
the order of making them, as the divine history doth report the
matter to us. And therefore, doth this text inform us, not
, only of this as an apprehensible thing, that the worlds were
made, but it lets us see how we are to apprehend it. We are
not only to understand this, but we are to understand it by
faith, that the worlds were framed by the word of God.
We have, in the text, two distinct propositions, which are of
two divers kinds; the first is dogmatical, or more expressly
assertory, and the second is explicatory of the former.
The former, I say, is mere dogmatical. " By faith we un-
derstand that the worlds were framed by the word of God."
It is a thing to be understood by faith, that the worlds were
framed by the word of God, And this, I shall make the
main subject of my discourse which I intend upon this scrip-
ture.
The -latter is explicatory of the former, so that things which
are seen, were not made of things that do appear, or were
made, (which is the truer reading of the text,) of things which
do not appear, or were made of not appearing things, not pre-
existing things, that had stood forth into being before.
First. And for the first of these : you see it contains two
parts — what it is we are to understand ; and — how we are to
understand it. — The thing to he understood, that the worlds
were framed by the word of God, and — how we are to under-
stand it, by faith : or through faith. Jt is faith that lets in the
LEC. IX.) Bis Work of Creation. 229
notion the more distinctly into our minds. We have this no-
tion by faith, as tlieword in the greek signifies, the forming of
a notion, begetting it in our minds. We hiive the notion begot
in our minds by faith, that the worlds were so framed by the
word of God.
1. We have first, and more principally, to consider the for-
mer of those, the thing to be understood. We shall consider
the manner afterwards. And for the thing to be understood,
that the worlds were framed by the word of God, we have here
three lieads of discourse more distinctly to be considered and
spoken to — the object of this act, the worlds — the Agent whose
this act or work is, that is, God, exerting his power by his word,
and — the act of creation itself, what kind of act that is. It is here
rendered, " framed." We shall speak to the emphasis of that
expression hereafter, in its proper place, when we come to give
you an account of the nature of the act, creating, which though
that word doth not primarily and directly signify, yet suppos-
eth, as we shall in a proper time come to shew you.
(1.) We are to consider the object of creation, as it is here
expressed by this comprehensive term, the worlds, "The worlds
were framed by the word of God." The word, here, so ren-
dered, doth signify sometimes eteinity, especially being pluraily
used. But sometimes also it signifies time, and sometimes an
age, and in the plural, ages. But it doth also signii'y, in the
narrower sense, time : not only time, in itself, abstractly and na-
kedly considered, but the things that lie within time : not the
fiiensura but the mensiirafa, not only that duration, which is
the measure of such and such things, but the things themselves
that are measured thereby. And that is the sense wherein it
must be taken here. Therefore, it is not the naked thing, time,
that is spoken of here, (though the word, sometimes, hath that
signification as the object of this creative act,) but all things
that come under temporary mensuration, all that are measured
by time, which is fitly enough expressed in our translation by
this term, " the worlds."
And whereas, it is not said, world, but worlds, that shews, that
the continens is more than one : and if the propriety of tlie
greek be considered, it also signifies them to be more than
two ; for the word is not a dual but a plural, and so it is more
than one, and more than two worlds that are signified by this
expression. And indeed, the matter is less indefinite ; and it
being impossible to us to know how many are the several cir-
cles of things that are above us, that are all made things, things
altogether without our knowledge or comprehension, (as we
have had occasion to tell you on another account, of our Lord's
230 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
being ascended, and gone up f;ir Jibovc all heavens,) we are
left in a just uncertainty, (vvhicii belongs to us, and is proper to
our state,) how many those lieavens are, or those orbs of things
wjjich are replenished with creatures, (parts of the universe,)
that altogether make the entire object of this creation, and this
great creative act.
And t;iking tluit phrase. " the worlds," to signify whatsoever
lie? under the measure of time, so we are not barely to consider
such orbs, but we are to take in ail the contenta^ as well as the
continens, all the things contained, as well as the things con-
taining. And so, it is the whole universe of created beings that
comes under our present consideration : which, therefore, in
speaking to us of the object of the creation, or what it is that is
created, it is not to be imagined that we should speak of it iq
the singular, nor of all the particular kinds; but only under
some general heads, into which the universe of created things
may be distributed.
[I. J The first, and most general and obvious distribution of the
created universe, is into the more substantial things, and the
modifications thereof; what is in itself a substantial thing, and
what doth only some way or other modify such a being. And
it is the former of these, that is the proper object ; creation
more strictly and properly taken. Creation is, in the strictest
sense, snppusitoriiim of 67(!/)/)o677a, of things that do subsist not
of themselves, in reference to any efficient cause: for so no
created thing doth exist, by itself, in opposition to what doth
inhere, so as to be a subject of things that do reside in it.
And so, the modification of things are not properly created in
the strictest sense of creation ; but are educed and brought forth
out of those substantial beings that were themselves created, or
made out of nothing ; and so they, that is, substantial things,
are the most pioper objects of creation, that have a proper sub-
sistence of their own, though with dependance on tiie efficient
Cause that gave them being. And after this distribution,
comes,
[2.] The distribution of such created things, that is, substan-
tial beings, in which all the diversifying modi do reside and
have their place, And we are to consider what may be the
more general distribution of substantial things, that are them-
selves created. And we can consider none more general, than
thisone, to wit, of all those created substances, into these two
heads, matter and mind. If the inquiry be, What doth this
universe of created beings contain ? Or what are the great
spheres of being that lie within the compass of the created uni-
verse ? Why, speaking of substantial things themselves, that
LEC.ix.) His TFork of Creation, 231
are the subjects of clivers distinct modi or modifications, they
can be but these two, all will fall under these two heads, to wit,
matter and mind. And this is that distribution of created
things which the Scripture gives us a ground express enough
for: Col. 1. 16. "By him were all things made that are in
heaven or that are in earth, visible and invisible." We may well
enough suppose all matter to be, some way or other, visible,
though, there be indeed a finer sort of matter than is visible to
us. But then, there is the other head of things, in that Col.
1. 16'. things that are simply invisible, altogether invisible, as
it is altogether impossible that any sense, any external sense,
can perceive a mind, or a thought, which is the immediate pro-
duct of that mind. So, that every distribution of created things
into \nsible and invisible, I take it, sufficiently corresponds with
this that I now mention, that is, matter and mind.
And otherwise, we have the creation distinguished as to the
object of it, or creation, ])assively taken, into heaven and earth,
as we find in that history of the beginning of tiic creation.
Gen. 1. 1. "In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth." Some, indeed, that go to the cabalistical way, wdl
have by heavens, all intellectual beings that are created, to be
comprehended and meant : and by earth, all matter whatso-
ever. We shall not dispute the propriety of that conjecture,
or what probably it hath, or hath not ; but take what is more
obvious to ourselves in common understanding. And if wc
take that as a distribution of created things, heaven and cart!!,
as was intimated before, we must comprehend together both
the continens and the contenta. And so, by heaven, must be un-
derstood and meant, not only all the several superior orbs, but all
their inhabitants that do reside and dwell in them, and wherewith
they are replenished, and unto which, our very minds and spi-
rits, (though now they are clothed with terrestrial vehicles and
dwell in flesh,) do originally appertain and behuig, as being
nearer of kin, and more allied to the world of spirits than they
are allied to this world of flesh and earth, this terrestrial world.
For, if we take the mind and spirit in us, to be the nobler and
more excellent part of ourselves, taking our denomination from
that which is more noble and excellent, we have greater affi-
nity, according to our primitiv'e and original state, with hea-
ven, than we have with earth, which affinity is not to be judged
by the place of residence, but by the nature of the thing.
Mind and spirit are more akin to heavenly inhabitants, than they
are to any thing that is made merely of earth.
And so, taking the things contained, witii all the heavenly
orbs, you have great diversifications, in that mentioned place,
232 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART IS.
Col. 1.16. And there indeed, tlic Spirit of God runs out more
than it doth in the distribution of things that fall under that other
head, that is, the visible things of this earth. For we are told,
under the head of invisible things, (and which also in very great
part, indeed, are the things which do belong to the heavens,) of
thrones and dominions, and principalities and powers; which
are very reasonably thought to mean so many several orders of
celestial creatures that do inhabit the other world or worlds, for
how many of them there are, we do not know, nor can know; as
we formerly told you.
And then, if we speak of the things contained in this lower
orb, signified here by earth, they do more generally fall under
a common notice, and are more obvious to every one's appre-
hension. Tills world, you know, is replenished with very nu-
merous sorts of creatures that live one way or other, or with
one or another sort of lives; either, that do live an intellectual
life, or live from an intelligent soul, as we do all live ; or else,
that live a merely sensitive life, as all the brute creatures do, of
that next order below, or else, things that do live a merely ve-
getative life; as all the several sorts of plants that have some
kind of life, though it be of a meaner and lower kind.
And then, there are all your inanimate things that have no
proper life at all; that is, have no self-moving or self-acting
principle within them, or peculiar to them, from whence they
do act or order themselves, or are capable of being moved, as
from any internal vis in this kind or that.
Of such extent is this created universe : it takes in all these
several sorts of things. And to descend to the enumeration of
more particular kinds would be an endless work, and not pro-
per for us. But, in the mean time, we have very great am-
plitude in the object of our present thought and consideration,
when we are to look upon the universe of created beings, that
is, of created substances, look upon all those that come under
the notion of matter, and that, as such, is inanimate : matter,
as matter, has no self-moving principle in it. Look upon all
those things that live some kind of life or another; whether
they be things of this earth of ours, or whether they be things
of the superior or refined orbs and parts of the universe : these
come in all the orders of angelical creatures of which we have
only, that general and more indistinct account which that Co-
lossians 1. and some other passages of Scripture give us.
What their diversifications are, we know not; but some or
other they are, and such as do import superiority and inferio-
rity among themselves. And then, go to that other head, of
things destitute of life, and that more properly come under the
LEC. IX,) His worJc of Creation, 233
notion of matter beforementioned: and so, descending down-
wards from the more noble and excellent creatures, to the
meaner and lesser ones, what a vast scale of created being is
this ! descending from the highest to the lowest, or ascending
from the lowest to the highest, and all within the compass of
the created universe, and all this signified by that one expres-
sion in the text ** the worlds."
Indeed, all this being summed up into this one expression,
of the universe or the world, taken singularly and in the largest
sense of which it doth admit, we have, even within the compass
of created beings, that which far exceeds any of our thoughts.
And it hath been a question, much agitated, amongst philoso-
phical men, whether the created universe have any created li-
mits at all, yea or no. It hath been agitated by some with a
very ill design: and some have made it their business, in mov-
ing the controversy, to hide their design. And with a strange
mixture of fraud and folly, in discussing that question, Wheth.er
the created universe were infinite or no? they have gone
about to disguise the matter, and told us, they would not, in-
deed, say it was infinite, but it was indefinite ; to wit, the
extent of the created universe : and by the extent of it, the
meaning could not be the mere local extent, but the real; not
barely what space it took it up, but what of essence and real
being it did comprehend and contain; and that, some of them
have told us, was not infinite, but indefinite only.
But there hath been a very great mixture (as I say) of fraud
and of folly : of fraud, that they have disguised their meaning,
and laboured to hide it : and of folly, that in their very attempt
of hiding it, they have unawares discovered a very ill meaning.
And it could not but be so ; for when the terms are distinguish-
ed of infinite and indefinite, I would fain know what they mean
by the latter. If, by indefinite, they mean that which hath
in itself no certain limits, then they plainly say, it is infinite,
the created universe is infinite, because it hath no certain
limits. But if they mean by it only, that it hath no known li-
mits to us, that every one readily acknowledgeth : we can never
know the limits of it; and so that is but to say it is finite, if
they mean only so. And indeed, it is a very dubitable thing,
whether any finite understanding can measure the created uni-
verse, or is capable of comprehending tiie extent of it. Very
willing 1 am to aggrandize that as much as I can, in consis-
tency, still, with owning it to be but a created thing; because
still, the mcie we magnify that, the more we magnify the Crea-
tor. But to pretend it to be an indefinite tiling in that sense,
VOL, vii» 2h
234 THE PRINCIPLES OF TUB ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
that Is, that it hath no certain limits in itself, that is to make
it an infinite thing.
And if it here be inquired, What is tlie inconvenience of
that, to make it to be so, or how can we prove it not to be so ?
Why truly, to the former of the questions, there would be this
to say, that to say it were infinite, or could be infinite, were to
say that it were not a creation : for most certain it is, whatsoever
is infinite is God. Infinity is the proper predicate or attribute
of Deity. And so, the inconvenience would be^ the taking
away all the foundations of religion ; for it would be the con-
founding of God and the creature, the taking away the differ-
ence between them. And it would be equally impossible, that
there should be any room or place for religion, if you take away
the subject of it, as much as if you take away the Object of
it. If the creature were infinite, there could be no subject
of religion: and there can be no place for religion, if there
be no subject of it, any more than if there were no Object
of it.
And as to the question, How can it be proved that the cre-
ated universe is not infinite, and cannot be infinite ? It is very
clearly to be proved by what hath been said, in very great part :
that is, whatsoever is infinite is God. Therefore, to say that
the created universe is infinite, is to say, that it is not created.
But besides, it may be easily evinced, that not only this uni-
verse of created beings is not infinite, but that it is impossible
that it ever should be, or could be. And as the plain reason of
the thing doth lie against that imagination ; so, the most perni-
cious and destructive tendency of that philosophy that would
impose upon us the imagination of an infinite universe, is most
studiously to be disclaimed and abhorred, as taking away all
place and room for religion. For it would confound created
being and uncreated, and deify the creature, and so, leave no
subject of worship, as the more avowed atheism leaves no Ob-
ject of it.
I shall not say more to you about the object of this said act.
W^e are further to consider the great Agent, the Creator : and
the nature of the act of creation. But let us make some stand
and pause here, and consider what improvement is to be made
cf what hath been thus far discoursed to you. It is of very
vast extent, what we are to consider under the notion of the
created universe. But when all this is done, it is still but a
creation ; make it as great a thing as you will, magnify it as
much as possible, consistently with its being a creation, and
when all this is done, then say within yourselves, " All this is
but as a drop, a drop of a bucket, a dust in a balance, a mere
TEC. IX.) His work of Creation, 236
nothing, yea, lighter than nothing and vanity, compared with
that Being which is of itself ; that Being which owes itself to
none ; that. Being to which it was impossible not to be ; for ail
this vast creation doth but depend on will and pleasure ; " For
thy pleasure they are and vvere created." It was determinable,
merely upon good pleasure, whether there should be any crea-
tion, or no creation: so that one nutiis, one nod (as I may
speak) of the Divine Mind, either makes this vast thing, the
whole ci'eated universe, to be something or nothing. *' If [
please, it shall be something, if I please, it shall be no-
thing."
It should lead us into adoration of the great self- subsisting
Being, that owes it to none that he is, is beholden to none,
but is by the excellency of his own eternal nature, to which
it was repugnant not to be, and which comprehends all pleni-
tude and fulness of being in itself, even an infinitude of be-
ing.
Consider this then, and when it hath prompted and led you
into admiration and adoration, looking up to the great Creator,
it should prompt and lead us into the greatest detestation of the
insolency of creatures, even such creatures as (if they would
use their minds) are capable of apprehending this, and yet take
upon them as if they were Absolute. They started up out of
being but the other day, and at the fiat, and by the pleasure, of
the great Creator ; and now, they look upon themselves in tliis
world as if it were all theirs, and as if they might i\o in it what
they pleased. He that is the Creator cf heaven and eartli is
also, we know, in Scripture, stiled the Possessor of heaven and
earth. And for a company of upstart creatures sj)rung up into
being but the other day, to take upon them, as if tbey were
possessors (as much as is possible for them to grasp) of tbis
creation, and to do in it what they will ; what a detestable in-
solency is this ! It is but a dependant, l)orrowcd right tliat any
one hath in whatsoever he calls his own. And yet, men are
apt to hug themselves in conceit of propriety, saying, " This is
my own land, these are my own goods, this is my own house :
and it is so by the best title a man can have." Now suppose a
stranger enter your door and come into your house and take no
notice of any thing as yours, but useth all things as he pleas-
eth, and saith he will do what he lists in this house of yours;
or (without saying so) doth what lie lists, takes and us^s what
he will, and as he will, would you not take yourself to be highly
injured, and would you not right yourself, if it lay in your pow-
er, upon so injurious an intruder as this ? Why, at this rate is
the great God treated and dealt with, by his apostate, revolted
236 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
creatures, inhabiting this lower world, though it be even the
meaner and baser parts of his creation ? Creatures sprung up
into being here by indulgence of divine favour, take upon them
as if they were their own lords and owners, and as if every
thing they lay their hands on were their own, without ever
taking notice of God ; He that gave them breath and being
and all things, that they might seek after him, and consider,
** Whence come 1 ? and all things that I use and enjoy, whence
are they ?" No such thing enters into their minds, from day to
day, but a life's time is run out in these bodies, wherein they
should love, and serve, and adore, their great Creator, without
taking notice of him.
But a more copious use of this yet remains, when we shall
have opened other things that yet are to be doctrinally opened
unto you.
LECTURE X.*
(2.) We are now, in the second place, to consider the Agent
in this great and mighty work, and that is, (as the text express-
etli it,) God himself, that great, all-comprehending Name.
There will be occasion to take notice of the way of his agency,
(by his word,) by and by. The Creator of all things, of hea-
ven and earth, can be no other than he who comprehends and
contains all things, virtually, in his own power. But whereas,
we have heretofore shewn to you at large, that there is in the
Deity a tlireefold subsistence, the Father, the Son and the Holy
Ghost, they are each of them to be comprehended under the
notion of Creator here. It is a plain and self-evident truth,
commonly given us as a maxim. Opera Trinitatis, ad extra,
sunt Indivisa, vel co7n?mmicabla ; that the works of the three
persons in the Godhead towards the creature are undivided, and
communicable to each of the persons : so as that we must un-
derstand them to be conjunct, in every such act as they do exert
without themselves or towards any thing that is not God. Their
distinguishing actions are towards one another; but the actings
that they exert towards any thing without them, these are com-
mon to them all. So that the Father creates, the Son creates,
and the Holy Ghost creates. This action which, as we have
told you, makes its object, and doth not suppose it, as other
acts, ad extra, do, it is the common act of each of these. And
so you find that the creation is usually ascribed to God, under that
name of God (that name, being essentially taken) which compre-
* Preached January 24, 16i)3i
LEc. X.) His ivork of Creation. 237
liends all the three persons. And so we must understand th.at,
in the beginning of Genesis, where God is said to have created
tiie heavens and the earth. And that observation is not to be
slighted, that Elohini, a plural noun is conjoined with a verb
of the singular number; Barah Elohim. As if it were said,
Gods created the heaven and the earth ; that is, it is an expres-
sion-to note that there is a plurality in the Deity ; that is, of
persons, each of which is God. But it being conjoined with
a verb in the singular number, it shews that these three were
but one ; did agree in Deity, as well as in this creative act.
And this is thai which that learned man Zanchy, in his treatise,
*' De tribus Elohim," doth prove profitably and at large. But
more particularly, when the name of God is taken,
[1.] Personally, as divers times also it is, then it signifies,
eminently, God the Father: and that very term doth suffi-
ciently express him to be the Original of all things, of all
beings, both created and uncreated. He is usually, and titly
enough, said to be Fons Deitatis et fons Trinitatis. The
Deity is first in the Father, and all created beings first and ori-
ginally from him, as the matter is plainly expressed in the 1
Cor, 8. 6. To us there is but one God the Father, of whom are
all things. Him we are taught to adore as the great Original,
from whom all being hath its rise. And yet,
[2.] We have the creation, very frequently, ascribed to the
Son, speaking him conjunct with the Father in this great crea-
tive act. And even in that last mentioned place, (I Cor. 8.)
where it is said, "To us there is but one God the Father, of
whom are all things and we in him," it is added, " and one
Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by him."
And so, in that Col. 1. 15, 16'. his agency in the creation is
most expressly asserted. He who is there said to be " the
image of the invisible God, and the first-born," (as we read it,
but it may as properly be read, according to grammar, with
only the alteration of an accent, the first-begotten of every
creature,) ^' by him were all things created that are in heaven,
and that are in earth, visible and invisible ; whether they be
thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were
created by him and for him." There is his concurrence and
conjunction with the Father, both as the efficient and final
Cause of all things. So that Heb. I. 2. "God hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed
the heir of all things, by whom also lie made the worlds." He
that is " the brightness of his Father's glory and the express
image of his person," by him the worlds were made. And so
we have it, most expressly, in the beginning of John's gospel:
233 THE PRTNCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
'* In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
(a known name and title of Christ, God's eternal Son and.
con^ubstantial Word) that Word was in the beginning with God,
and that Word was God. The same was in the beginning with
God. All things were made by him, and without him was not
any thing made that was made." He is spoken of under a title
of like impm't, frequently, in other scriptures, and most express-
ly in Proverbs 8. That is, by the name of the wisdom of God,
and, under thiit name, is asserted to be with him, even through-
out the whole work of this creation. Not with him in an idle
concomitancy ; which no man can understand, either accord-
ing to the reason of the thing, or the plain import of the other
scriptures that have been named, and many more that are to
be named. He was with him, wlien the Lord laid the founda-
tions 01 the earth, when he stretched out the heavens, when
he did all that was done in the work of creation. And then,
[3.] The creation is ascribed to the Eternal Spirit, to the
Holy Ghost, as you find expressly in that Gen. 1. when we
had been told, " In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth, and that the earth was without form and void ; the
Spirit of God is said to have moved upon the face of the wa-
ters :" that is, upon the fluid matter of the yet unformed chaos,
that profound abyss ; that Tohu and Bohu, as it is expressed j
upon that fluid and yet unformed matter that was fluctuating,
even as waters do : upon that, the Spirit of God did move to col-
lect and form things out of it, according to divine pleasure.
Thus, it is plain, each person in the Godhead hath his hand
and part in this great work of creation. What hand and part
each hathj some are very curious in describing. But so far as
the Scriptures expressly do lead us, so far we may allow our con-
ceptions to be formed concerning their distinct agency. And
k is plain,
First : That the name Father doth signify him to be the Ori-
ginal of all things, the first Fountain Being, the Fountain of
all being, created and uncreated. The Divine Being itself is
first and originally in Him, as the name Father signifies : and
that comprehends the fulness of all being in itself, all excel-
lency, all perfection whether conceivable by us, or unconceiv-
able. So from him, the creation must have taken its rise as
the Head of all things. And then.
Secondly : The Scripture speaks of the Son under the name
of the eternal consubstantial word of God, or his essential wis-
dom, which must needs be understood to contain in itself the
first idea of all things. All being originally contained and
comprehended in God the Father as such, he is now said to be
LEC. X.) His work of Creation, 239
the image of the invisible God, and in him do all the glories
of the Deity shine, as in their first image. All things being
to be created and produced into actual being according to that
image which lay in the Divine Mind, which he is. As there is
no one goes about to make any thing, but hatii the image and
idea in his own mind, first, of what he intends to make. He
that intends to make a book, or to make a house, or a garment,
hath the idea in his own mind, first, of what he intends to make,
and according to that idea all things are made. All things that
were to be created, the eternal wisdom of the Father compre-
hending them all in himself, he is the rule or norma, according
to which, the creation is at last produced into actual being.
And then.
Thirdly : The agency of the Holy Ghost may be conceived
according to that light the Scripture gives concerning the dis-
tinguishing characters of that person. From the actuous love,
between the Father and the Son, for an eternal production of
the divine image by the Father in the Son, there cannot but be
an everlasting spiration ol:" love between the Father and this,
his consubstantial Image : an actuous love, and that image,
containing in itself the ideas of all the thitjgs that v/ere to be
produced. This mighty power of actuous love, it goes forth to
produce all things, according to this image, with the highest
delectation and complacency, according to which, God pro-
nounced concerning all things which he had made — that it was
very good, and so a derivative object of divine love; all things
being produced according to that excellency of his own image
that was the Original Root of all things. And hereupon, do-
other scriptures speak of the agency of the Holy Ghost in this
matter; that is, that by his Spirit he garnished the heavens ;
one part of the creation there spoken of. " Thou sendest forth
thy Spirit and they are created." Psalm 104. 30. And so you
see, that Father, Son, and Spirit have their parts and agencies
in this great work of creation. But then,
(3.) We have here to consider the act Itself. You have
seen the object, the worlds ; and you have seen tlie Agent,
God himself, Father, Son, and Spirit. We are now next, ac-
cording to the order proposed, to consider the act that is ex-
pressed here in the text by a word, which is, fitly enough, ren-
dered, *' framed ;" but we must note unto you, that, that word
doth express one sort of act, and supposeth another. It ex-
presseth one sort of act, that is, the framing of things ; fram-
ing (as it is fitly enough translated here) when there was some-
what now brought into being, out of which, they should be so
and so diversly framed, especially as to the material part ol"
240 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
the world. That is the act here expressed. But then, it sup-
poseth a former act, a foregoing act, and that is, the making all
out of nothing, out of vvhicli any thing was after framed. We
shall speak of the act the word expresseth, first ; and then shall
speak of the act that word supposeth.
[1 .] The word in the text is very fitly expressive of the former
act, that the worlds are said to l)e framed. It comes of a word
that signifies perfect and entire, and it seems to come from that
we commonly denote by art; or, as some would have, the rela-
tion of this word to urtus which signifies our limbs, the limbs
of any creature that is endued with life. And so they would
borrow the illustration of this word from chirurgick art, that
doth aptly place the bones which have been dislocated, and puts
them into joint again. So the worlds were framed (as it were)
by the most curious and exquisite chirurgick art : or else, that
which is precedent to tiiat, the locking and joining things into
one another throughout the whole creation.
And in this respect, the framing of the worlds was more im-
mediately the work of the divine wisdom, which may be meant
by the expression here, that they were created by the word of
God, which I told you we should take notice of in its proper
place. Whicli may be meant not of the word spoken out, but
of the internal word, agreeable to what we are wont to call
verbiim mentis : as there is no one that speaks, (if he speak
sense,) but he hath in his own mind first, that which he after-
wards expresseth and speaks out. But herein was the wisdom
of the Creator principally conspicuous ; in that beautiful order
and frame of things that appeared every where throughout this
great universe ; that there is that order that we behold daily
among the heavenly bodies, in reference to one another and in
reference to us ; that which, in the 8th psalm, you find the
Psalmist in so high and holy an adoration of: " When I con-
sider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the
stars, which thou hast ordained." It is a great argument of a
holy heart, to be much in contemplating the divine wisdom that
hath settled every thing of that order which is any where to be
found in the Avhole creation.
If you look into this lower world, and consider that, as io
what falls under our notice, there is every where that corres-
pondency of actives to passives, of faculties to objects, as every
one that will use thoughts may easily discern, the wisdom
of the Creator is greatly to be adored in it. For think we
with ourselves, how great a piece of vanity this creation had
been, if it had not been so ; if there had been objects upon
vvliich there had beea ao faculties to exercise : or, if there were-
5LEC. X.) His Work of Creation. 241
faculties to be exercised that had no objects ; as if there were
visible things, and no eye to see them; if there were audible
things, and no ear to hear them. And so, back again, if there
were eyes, and nothing to be seen ; and a faculty of hearing, and
no such thing as sound. But herein is the admirable con-
trivance of the divine wisdom in this creation manifest, that
there is such a correspondency throughout, of objects to facul-
ties, of active powers and principles to passives.
And then, in that order that is settled amongst things, there-
in we have the great display of the divine wisdom, there being
(as hath been often said) that relation between Avisdom and
order, as between cause and effect. Wheresoever there is any
of stated, settled order, we may be sure there was wisdom to
contrive and design it. Stated and settled order cannot be a
casualty. When we see the contrivance and order that are in
such a thing as a watch or a clock, and the like, we are pre^
sently sure that such a thing was not made by chance. And
to think that such a mighty agency, a mighty power of motion,
as was once exerted in this creation, should produce things in
that orderly frame wherein we behold them, without design,
without wisdom, is as absurd an imagination, as if we should
imagine a thousand men, by violent strokes with axes and ham-
mers, upon brass or iron, or the like, without any design, should
produce so many watches, clocks, or any such like engines ;
meaning no such thing.
Therefore, nothing is more to be wondered at, nor a greater
argument of the degeneracy of man, or how low his mind is
sunk, than that there should be any who should go into the ac-
count of the more thinking sort of men, that yet should make
it their business to exclude the power of final causes out of the
world: as if there were no such thing as a final cause, or an end
designed, that had any influence at all upon this great creation,
W'hereas, if we consider the several orders and sorts of being,
how useful the meanest creature, even the inanimate part of the
creation is, to very great and necessary purposes and ends ; and
when we consider, among those things that have life, how aptly
they serve for their own purposes, and how aptly every thing in
them serves their own purpose, that is, to beget and maintain
that life, we cannot but see the absurdity of that conceit. To
look upon the lowest sort of living creatures, the mere vegeta-
ble creatures ; Why arc they made with roots ? but to takehold
of the earth from whence by them their nutriment is drawn;
Uiat those little fibres, without which a leaf could not be nou-
rished, should be dispersed every wjiere throughout the whwie,
with so fine a texture as they are ? Very well dotU Cicero, a hea-
VOL. vn, 2 I
242 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF CrOD. (PART U
then, speak of nature under the name of the divine art, the art
of God. And whereas, " Boni artificis est celare artem ;"
// is the part of a good artist to conceal his art, truly, if the
divine art were not, in great part, concealed, one would think all
the actions of intelligent creatures, shoidd be swallowed up in
wonder, to behold the divine agency running througli all things,
and so variously exerting itself for the production of things as
we find them ; and contriving the several kinds of things in
the same rank and station in the creation, into which at first
they were set.
If we should look to that admirable, rare contrivance, that
appears in the forming of our own bodies, upon which you find
the Psalmist in that transport, " Marvellous are thy works,
fearfully I am made," that is, wonderfully ; " and that my soul
knoweth right well." Psalm 139. 14. ' That is, " This is a
beaten subject to me, a thing that my thoughts are much used
to, it is a thing about which n)y mind is accustomed, I know it
right M'ell :" as we know the path that we have often trod.
And not only is the divine wisdom conspicuous in this fram-
ing of things, but his goodness too. How adorable is the good-
ness of God, even in that frame and disposure of things that we
find in the creation ; that things are so framed and adapted, as
to answer and correspond to one another. Here is a great ap-
pearance of the divine goodness, that whereas he hath put into
such sorts and orders of his creatures, a desiring faculty, there
is still somewhat in that creation to answer that faculty of de-
sire. Every thing is, by natural instinct, taught to desire that
which is good for it; that is, that which is convenient and suit-
able to it. So we havd the Psalmist (psalm 145. 15.) admir-
ing God upon this account, that the eyes of all things were up
unto him, and that he gave them their meat in due season: a
continual argument and testimony of the divine goodness. He
hath not left himself, in this, without witness ; the whole earth
is full of his goodness, even that which the inhabitants of it re-
plenish and fill with their wickedness and malignity against
him. He doth good to all, even to the evil and the good. He
hears the ravens when they cry, and tliey seek their meat from
God: psalm 104. which psalm is full of expressions to this
purpose. This is the munificence of the great Creator, that
when he did design to replenish such and such parts of the cre-
ated universe, with such and such inhabitants, creature:, able to
receive and entertain some correspondent and suitable good, he
liath also stored the world with that good which shall answer
every appetite throughout all this creation of God : so that
Hone can be miserable, amongst even those that are rendered.
i.EC..:x.) His Work of Creation. 253
by their own natures, capable of governinent by a law, but such
as make themselves so by aversion and disaffection to their
proper and suitable good. They only have il not, because they
refuse it, because they are disaffected thereunto.
But then, we should come, in the next place, to speak ot
the second act which this expression in the text doth suppose.
That which the word in the text is most expres:^ive (;[', is only
that sort of act by which things are adapted and suited to one
another : but this supposeth a former act, by wliich those things,
out of which things are thus framed, were themselves at first
produced and brought forth out of nothing ; which is creation
in the strictest and most proper sense ; though, indeed, there is
not a word that doth exclusively signify that act in any of the
learned languages. But the nature of tlie thing, dotli plainly
evidence that there must be such an act. That is, look upon
all uncreated being, the being of God himself, and then that
which is created and made being, must have been made out of
nothing; which they that will not apprehend, run into various
and most manifest absurdities ; one sort, thinking there must be
such a thing as eternal, necessary matter; another sort, thinking
that things must be made out of God as so many parts of the
Deity. But 1 shall, on the next occasion, labour to evince to
you the absurdity of any such imaginations as these.
And in the mean time, pray let us make so much of present
reflection upon this great work of God's creation ; that is, that
he who hath made such a world as this, cannot but have both
right and ability to rule it, and all things in it, to the best and
most valuable purposes. And truly, 1 fear we do not, on this
account, enough study the creation, and the attributes of the
Divine Being that are exerted and put forth in that creation.
There is his wisdom and his goodness to be seen in that first
sort of act already spoken to.
And his power is most visible, and especially to be seen in
the latter sort of act, as we shall shew when we come to speak
to it. But to any that would give themselves liberty of their
own thoughts, one would think, they should not part, for all
the world, with the consolation, that this one thing sliould af-
ford us : that is, that all this vast frame of things should be pro-
duced by divine wisdom, goodness, and power, into tliat exqui-
site order, in which we now behold them : and that, hereupon,
he that could tell how to make such a world as this, replenished
with such variety of inhabitants, knows how to govern, and dis-
pose every thing he hath made. And, as there liath been that
display of those glorious excellencies, in tiie Divine Nature, in
the frame and contexture of this whole creation, we ought,
kereupon, always to expect, that lie will, with the same wis-
244 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II
dom, power, and goodness, regulate, govern, and dispose of
what he hath so made. All these things will appear, and shew
themselves in the most proper seasons, without our distracting
and self-tormenting cares. Let us be desirous, principally and
finally, of nothing but that he who made such a world as this,
for himself, and for his own glory, may, in his own way and
time, have that glory out of it which he seeks and designs for
himself. Yea, let us be content, that he should have it in such
a way as may possibly be conjunct with our suffering many in-
conveniencies ; things that may be grievous to us, to our flesh
and blood, and external sense. Should not he have his glory out
of his own creation, his own way ? This world was not made
for us, but it was made for him, by whom it was made.
LECTURE XL*
[2.] But then, as 1 have told you, in the second place, we
are novv to consider, that as the expression, here in the text,
doth more directly signify that one act, of putting things into
order, which is the native import of the word ; so there is ano-
ther act necessarily supposed; and that is, the bringing of
things out of nothing, which are the proper, the truly proper
matter of production, or whatsoever is extra Deiirn, whatso-
ever is a diverse thing from the being of the Deity itself. This
word, " frame," doth not signify direetly this act, but it doth
necessarily suppose it. Order, doth suppose a subject, the
things in bping that are brought into that order. And as the
two great attributes before mentioned, divine wisdom and goo.i-
iiess, do shine forth in that former act, the putting of things
into order; so his power doth most eminently appear in this
latter act, the bringing of the things which he so puts into or-
der,, out of nothing.
As we do not pretend to assert this act, from the import of
this word that is used in the text, abstractly considered, so nei-
ther do we pretend to assert, from the native, proper force and
signiticancy of any one word at all, that we must think appro-
priate to this purpose, as only to signify this act and nothing
else. We do readily grant, the hebrew and the greek words
thus rendered, are frequently used with more latitude than
barely to signify the bringing of things out of nothing. And so,
this act is not to be concluded from the force and import of
such words, abstractly considered by themselves. Words thaj
* Preaehed July ], 10C)3.
iEC. XI.) Jffi^^ TVork of Creation. 215
are of a more indefinite signification, that may signify more
things than one, they are always determined to i^omc one parti-
cular sense or other, by the circumstances of tiie })lace where
they are used. There is not any one word at all, that is to be
confined and limited to one certain sense by its own native
import : or, at least, there are very few words that are capable
of that confinement and restriction by constant and unvaried
use. But what they mean in this or that saying, is to be judged
by the circumstances of the discourses wiierein they lie.
What of the creation is de fide, a matter of faith merely, we
have hinted to you already, and shall further have occasion to
shew you, when we come to speak of that second head, how we are
to come to this understanding. But, in the mean time, it is
very evident, when it is said, that we are to understand this by
faith, that the worlds were so and so framed, we are not to un-
derstand it exclusively, as if the meaning of the text were to shut
out every thing of argument, or ratiocination in the matter.
One and the same thing may be assented to, from divers differ-
ent premises, as was hinted to you before. It is enough for our
purpose, and even to make this which I am now speaking of, a
matter of faith, to wit, the producing of created things out of
nothing, if it shall evidently appear, that in some texts of Scrip-
ture, this must be ultimately intended and meant ; and that no
other thing can be, so as to exclude the necessary pre-supposi-
tion of this : and there are, undoubtedly, some texts that must be
so understood, that there hath been somewhat produced out of
nothing, out of which other things at length were made to
arise.
As to that first text of Scripture, "In tlie beginning God
created the heaven and the earth." Created, must necessarily
have this sense, at least, by an unavoidable necessity; for this
making heaven and earth, being said to be in the beginning,
when things took their beginning, had their first rise, it must
suppose that heaven and earth were not only brought into order,
but that of which they were made, was made of itself to exist,
not having existed before. Otherwise, how was that the begin-
ning of things? How was that the head of things ? as the hebrew
word Resch, from whence the word Bershith, in the beginning,
' signifies. Otherwise, this word must assert a contradiction,
that things were begun, and not begun, at that time when God
created heaven and earth.
And so, if you go forward to that first of John's gospel, ver.
2, 3. " In the beginning was the Word, and the VV^ord was with
God, and the Word was God. All things were created by him,
(tliat is, God) and without him was nothing made that v/as
246 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART IT.
made :" every thing that was not God, was then made : all
things. And, therefore, to suppose that all these made things
were made our of pre-existeni matter, is to suppose, that that
pre -existent matter was not a tliin^;, for all things were said to
he made by him. All things beside himself were then made;
therefore, ui;itter itself was then made, out of whieli other
things were made; unless it shall be said that matter is nothing,
and, if so, we have what we seek, that is, that there are some
things made out of nothing; but if it were a thing, and were not
the Divi£)e Being, as it is in^possible to be, it was a self-made
thing, and then made out of nothing.
And to this purpose must the explicatory proposition in the
text be necessarily adapted, so that the things that are seen,
were not made of things that did appear. The phoenomena,
(that Is the word there) things not then appearing, when tiie
worlds weie thus framed by the word of God; that is, things
not before existing, for there is nothing at all that can be sup-
posed to exist, but doth appear to some faculty or other,
either divine or created. But they were things simply not ap-
j^earing at all, and, therefore, not existing at all, out of which
these worlds were made.
And lexieograpiuMS do take notice of that among tlie other
senses of the word <pxiv9ixevuv, that it signifies to exist. And,
therefore, the worlds are said to be framed out of that which
once did not exist, till it was made to exist by tiie divine cre-
ative jx)wer. And therefore, they foolishly think who would
put a difficulty upon God in this case, such as was put upon
the Israelites in Egypt, to make brick witliout straw : as if om-
nipotency could be posed, or meet with any obstruction to its
designed acts, for want of matter to work u})on. It was all one
to him, (who calls things that are not, and makes them be as if
they were, as the expression Rom. 4. 1 7.) whether there were
the pre-existent matter to work upon or no : and the non pre-
existence can never nonplus omnipotency.
And therewith should we obviate the vain and idle question,
when we hear of the worlds being framed by the word of God :
"Aye, but of what, were they made? made they were, but
what did he make them of?" They must have, originally, been
made out of what before was not, seeing it was his pleasure
that they should be ; for, for his pleasuse all things are and
were created. Rev. 5. 9. And so, (as was said before,') if you
take matter within the compass of being, it must itself be a
made thing.
Now, concerning this act, the bringing of all things out of
nothing, take this tv/ofold assertion, which we shall evince
lEC. XI.) Hia Work of Creation. 217
to you, and according vvhereunto we are to conceive of it —
that it is possible to no created agent : and— that it is possible
to God.
First : To all created agents, it was impossible to bring some-
thing out of notliing. It is impossible to all the power of nature,
unto the power of whatsoever creature, or unto all the crea-
tures uniting their power. 1 shall not trouble you with the
reasonings of the schools to this purpose, by which they plainly
enough demonstrate creation (that is, bringing something out
of nothing) to be impossible to any creature. It is, indeed, a
much disputed thing among them, whether God cannot impart
his power, whether it cannot be communicated to a creature, so
as thj;t he may not make use of a creature in creation ; but it is
little material how that goes.
But that a creature cannot, by all Its own strength, be able
to bring any thing out of nothing, nor all created power put
togetlier, needs no other conviction, but an appeal even to
common understanding. Nor can you conceive it any way
possible for 5'ou. And if you say, " No, I cannot do it alone ;
but if I take in the advice, or superadded helps of such and such
things, possibly we may together." Why, suppose all the power
and force of all men in the world, and of all created agents be-
sides, were to be united in one act, you cannot so much as
conceive that they could produce so much as one single atom
into being out of nothing. As it is equally impossiljle to all
created power to annihilate, as to create, to reduce something
back again into nothing, as to produce something out of no-
thing. So also is it equally possible for the divine, uncreated
power to bring all things out of nothing. And, then, there-
fore,
Secondly : We are to conceive concerning this act, as it is
impossible to any created agent, so it is possible to Gad, and to
the divine agency. For it is plain, it implies nothing of con-
tradiction in the thing itself; that that which did. not exist,
should exist, as it is evident that many things do exist which
did not exist. Therefore, there is no contradiction in that,
what did not exist, should exist, as it is evident that many
things do exist. And, therefore, to suppose it impossible to
God to make that exist, which did not exist, is itself to assert a
contradiction. For the notion of God doth carry infiniteness in it:
you cannot form a notion of God, but it must include iniinite-
ness. But to say that he is infinite, infinite in being, in his
perfections, in his power too, and yet, that he cannot do that
which implies no contradiction to be done, is to deny God to
be God. It is to say, God is but a finite being, or of fiijite
248 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (?ART IS.
})ower; to say, that which you call God is not God, which is a
contradiction, when you say that he cannot do that which im-
plies no contradiction that it should he done : that is, that that
which did not exist, should exist.
But admit this, perhaps you will ohject, that it is possible to
divine agency to make something out of nothing, that doth not,
however, prove, that God hath now done so. There are many
things possible to be done, which are not actually done. And
it is no argument, from the affirmation of the power to assert
the act.
To this, I only say, It is not alleged to that purpose ; we do
not assert the possibility of creating something out of nothing,
to prove that something hath been created out of nothing; but
only l)y way of answer to them, that would thereby prove, that
something was never created out of nothing, because it is an
enunciatio affirmation, that which is impossible to be done is
never actually done, though it doth not follow, that because
the thing is possible to be done, therefore it is actually done.
And, therefore, this is alleged only in answer to them, that do say
it is simply impossible. But we prove it not to be impossible,
for many things exist that did not always do so.
But we otherwise prove, that it hath actually been so, that
is, that he hath made something out of nothing ; that is, that
we have proved it from those plain texts, that cannot but be
understood in that sense. And we shall now prove it, from
the gross and manifold absurdities, that they are unavoidably
cast upon, who disallow something to be made out of nothing.
That is, such absurdities as these ; first, they must suppose this
world to have been eternally, of itself, as it is ; or, secondly, they
must affirm there hath been necessarily self-subsisting matter
from eternity ; or, thirdly, they must assert, that God hath made
all things out of himself, that whatsoever is made, is part of
himself. But these are all of them the most manifest and gross
absurdities that can be thought.
i. That this world should have been eternally as it is, without
beginning. They that will pretend to say so, must first throw
away all divine revelation about this matter, which manifestly
asserts it never to have been eternal, but hath begun to be.
But besides that, they do assert, here, repugnancies in the very
nature of the thing, for they must assert the world to be as
new now, as it was several thousands of years ago; tliat it was
as old, the first year, as now it is ; that is, the first year in our
account. Besides what is wont to be alleged by them who are
for that second horrid opinion, that matter was necessarily self-
subsisting from eternity; they think themselves concerned to
JLEC. XI.) His Work of Creation. 249
prove the world's being from eternity, as it, is ; and they do so
from that consideration, that then it is most unconceivably
strange, that wc should have no records of things, (as one oi
those Epicureans speaks) elder or of a more ancient date than
the times of the I'rojan war, and the like. But,
ii. That which is more plausibly, and more usually, taken up
in these latter times, (tliough it was an ancient by-gone a!)sur-
dity too,) is, that there must be such a thing as eternal matter,
out of which many things were brought into this frame, in
which now they are . and some that will not pretend to atheism
do think, that only that matter did pre-exist, and things could
not have been produced into that order and state wherein they
do now appear, but by a divine agency; that is, by a di-
vine power and wisdom running througli all things, and mo-
delling them into that form in wisich we do find they do now
appear, and are now cast; but nothing is more obvious to them
that do consider, than the gross absurdity of that opinion, that
there must be such a thing as eternal, self-subsisting matter,
out of which God made the worlds. For,
(i.) That would ascribe to the matter, the most fundament?il
attributes of the Divine Being ; that is, self-subsisting or neces-
sary existence. Nothing can be imagined more grossly ab-
surd, than, that the highest and most radical, and most funda-
mental attribute of the Deity should be ascribed to dull and
senseless matter, that is, to exist of itself, and lliat it sljould be
possible to him, if he would, to reduce it to nothing : and that
this prerogative should belong to every particle of matter, and
that all matter being reduced Into minute particles, even ia
our conception, then each minute particle must be in itself, an
independent thing, existing of itself without dependance on any
thing else. Which, if It be acknowledged, then shall you liave
as many deities as there are minute particles of matter through-
out the universe.
(il.) This will further confute that gross conceit, tliat tiiere
must be any self-subsisting matter from eternity. And if there
were such, it were altogether impossible that this world should
be made out of it. And so it is asserted, not only impiously, but
vainly : impiously, as it doth intrench upon a peculiar and
most fundamental attribute of the Divine Being, to wit, self-
subsistence : and vainly, because it were impossible this world
should be made of such matter. If there were any such? for wh^tt-
soever is necessarily self-subsisting is unchangeable ; that w])icli
is necessarily what it is, can never l)e other than It is. And it Is
altogether impossible that a world could be made of it, without
its undergoing various changes. If it be necessarily such, of,
VOL. vii. 2 k
i250 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE 0RACLK5 OF GOD. (PART II.
and from, itself which now it is ; that whicli is necessarily what
it is, is eternally what it is. And therefore, can never be liable to
any ciuinge, not so much as that intrinsic change of motion.
For suppose any minute particle of matter to be of itself necessa-
rily, it must be somewhere ; and if it be necessarily any where,
it can by no succeeding change be any wliere else : and so must
be simply unmoveable. And then, this world could never be
made of it, that is, of unmoving matter: and it must be un-
nioving matter, and uncapable of motion, if it be of itself what
it is. For if it be of itself, it must be necessarily somewhere ;
and if it be somewhere necessarily, it must be somewhere eter-
nally, and can never change its place. And again,
(iii.) That opinion of eternal, necessary, self-subsisting mat-
ter, the absurdity of it is enough to be evinced from hence, that
is, that the ground upon which it is asserted, equally serves for
the asserting of a manifest falsehood ; that is, that nothing
else is made out of nothing. We may as well suppose matter
to be made out of nothing, as any thing else to be made owt of
nothing; but something else must be acknowledged to be
made out of nothing. We told you, at first, speaking of the
object of creation, that the universal distinction that created
things are capable of, is into two heads, of mind and matter.
Now, they must acknowledge minds to be made of nothing,
that they are not eternally self-subsisting. And if a mind can
he made out of nothing, wliy may not matter as well as mind ?
and it is plain, that (speaking of the mind of a creature) that
must be made out of nothing : for it could never be made out
of matter, matter being uncapable of thought ; and thought is
the most essential thing we can conceive of in the notion of a
mind» This can never, upon any terms, agree to matter ; that
is a material thing: as such it is impossible that that should
be capable of thought, or of the power of thinking.
There is no part of matter to wliich that can agree, for yoii
can conceive nothing of matter, or of the several particles of
matter, but either its size, that is, being bigger or lesser, or its
figure, that is, being so shaped ; or its situation, that is, being
in this place or that, in reference to other parts or particles of
matter: or its motion to one part or another. Now, none of
these can make the power of thought to he any way at all com-
patible to matter : for it must be grossly absurd to imagine, that
if matter be of such a size, such a bigness, now it is true, being
of such a size, it cannot think ; but if it were a little bigger, or
a little less, it could think. And then, again, if you speak of
the figure of it, if it be round, it cannot think; but if it were
square, or triangular, it would ; how absurd is such a conception.
LHC. XI.) His IFork of Creation, 251
or imagination as this ! So likewise, to think that motion should
endow it with a power of thought is most absurd ; that, l)c^' g
here, it could not think, but carry it there, and tlien it can think.
Or to think that situation could give it that capacity. And you
cannot think or conceive any thing of matter but one of these.
Now if any of these cannot contribute to make it have a power
of thought, to make a mind of it, I say, since there u'cre minds
that were not of themselves from all eternity, and could not be
made out of matter, then those minds were made out of nothing.
And if minds were made out of nothing, why not matter as well
as minds ? And that is a third consideration to evince the ab-
surdity of that imagination of self-subsisting matter, from eter-
nity, out of which the world must be supposed to be made.
And,
(iv.) It will be further proved from hence, not only to be ab-
surd, but blasphemous ; that is, that it would make God to be a
finite being. That was intimated another way before, but it
will also appear this way that is now offered to your consider-
ation. That is the only reason that is pretended, why there
must be self-subsisting matter, because God cannot make some-
thing out of nothing; and so that he had not power in himself
of creating matter: and then he cannot be understood to have
in himself infinite power, or to be himself, virtually, the all-
comprehending Being. But most certain it is, tiiat the name
God, doth comprehend all ; as even the significancy of that
title Pan, given to the god among the pagans did import, that
he was virtually all things ; that is, that there is virtually, no-
thing which is not comprehended in the most perfect excel-
lency of his being. And therefore, if matter be something, if
it be a real something, then it must be comprehended within
the virtual power of the divine power : otherwise, that is not
all-comprehending, and that it should not be so, is repugnant to
the very notion of God, a Being of infinite perfection in him-
self. If he be such, then he comprehends this perfection in
himself, the power of making matter, as it is a greater perfec-
tion, sure, to be able to do this, than to be, as to this, impotent.
And then,
iii. A third absurdity which is conjunct with no less blas-
phemy too, which they are cast upon who deny the creation, at
first, to have been out of nothing ; and that is the conceit of
many of the stoics of old, and which hath been taken up by
some more lately is, that God made things out of himself.
Not meaning, nor referring as the efficient, as the agent, (as
we all do) but to himself as the sidyjecfitm ex quo, the subject
»ut of ivhichihings were made. So that all the creation, and
■252 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 11.
the greatest sorts of creatures, they are several parts of God, so
and so diversified. But to this, noiiiing more needs to be said
than,
(i.) That the Divine Being is simple, impartable, uncapa-
hle of division into parts: it is inconsistent with the perfection
of God, that it should be otherwise : and,
(ii.) The Divine Being is the most perfectly spiritual Being,
the most purely and perfectly spiritual; and therefore material
things were never made out of it. For it is altogether as im-
possible to turn a spirit into matter, as it is to turn matter into
spirit.
Something I would say by way of Use, before I go ofPfiom
this head, and proceed to the other, the manner, here, as as-
certained hov*' we come by this notion of the creation ; that is,
faith. Pray make this reflection, upon what hath been already
said : If this creation could originally come out of nothing,
then let no doubt, 1 beseech you, trouble your minds about a
new creation. Did God, at first, make heaven and earth, or
make the worlds out of nothing ? Sure he can as easily make a
new world out of that ill state of things in which we now be-
hold them, as he did tlie whole world, as now it is, out of
nothing, if you will say. There are no appearances looking
that way : if there shall be a.new heaven, and a new earth, how
can we admit that thought, when there are no appearances
tending thereunto? Why, this world was first made out of
things that did not appear. There were no appearances as to
the creation of this world before it was made : what if there be
no appearance, nay if there be contrary appearances, if things
look quite another way, and with a quite contrary face and
aspect ? What is all that to Him who, at first, made heaven and
earth with a word ? It would greatly facilitate our faith, if we
did this, if we did but consider these two things: first of all,
the greatness, and secondly, the facility of this work of God.
The greatness of it, so vast a thing and so great a thing as this
■world is; and the facility of his doing: he spake and it was
done ; as the Psalmist expresses it ; Dictum fuctian, As soon
as it could be spoken. Let such a thing be ! and it was, "Let
there be light, and there was light ;" Let there be heaven and
earth, and they were. So to make a new heaven, and a new
earth, when the season tliereof comes, is equally easy, as all
things are equally easy to Him that can do all things.
LEC. xii.) His Work of Creation, 253
LECTURE XII.*^
Before we proceed to iho next head, it remains only to con-
sider somewhat that is wont to he objected, liy such as too
much indulge a litij^ious temper and disposition of spirit,
against the one and the other of tliese acts ; the putting things
into this order wherein we find them, and the bringing of things
into being that were nothing before.
1. There are tiiat do object against that act, wliich is here
expressed in our English, by the name of framing of worlds,
the putting things in them into the order which we now behold.
That is, It is objected, that if this order which we see i-.i the
universe, were tlie effect of divine wisdom and design, it would
be certainly much more accurate than we find it ; things would
be done with more exactness, there would not be so many de-
fects as we see in the universe. It seems not to l)e congruous
(such do imagine) to the wisdom of God, that he should under-
take the settling of an order in this creation, and that it should,
in such respects as have been mentioned, and many other, be
liable to so much exception. And to this, there are several
things to be said. As,
(l.j That it is very true, indeed, the order of things would be
more exact, and accurate than it is, if it had been God's design
to iiiake every creature, and the whole frame of things as per-
fect as he could have made it. But we have no reason t© ima-
gine that that was any thing of his design. He did not make
it to ansvver our purpose, but his own, all being to run into an
eternal state of things at last, and this temporary state to be of
short continuance. And therefore, let such as do think, there
should have been greater exactness and accuracy in this frame
of things, (if this will not satisfy them) sit down and wonder,
that when it was intended, one time or another, such creatures
as they, should be raised up into being in the world, that God
did not put things into better order for their entertainment,
that he did not make every thing more exactly to ansvver their
fancies, appetites, and humours. But,
(2.) It is enough to the purpose here asserted, that the worlds
were framed by the Word of God, by the Eternal Logos, that
did predetermine the order of things, and by a powerfully ex-
erted word, in the time and season, when things were to exist
and come forth into being. I say, it sufficiently answers what
Preached July 8, 1693.
Cf54 THE PRINCIPLES OP THK ORACLES OP GOD. (PART lU
is lierc asserted, if it doth appear that all things were done with
design, and so as that tliey could not he done by any wisdom
or power less than divine. This is enough for our purpose,
that there are characters of design upon the whole frame of
things : but that such a design as this could never have been
laid, nor could ever have been effected by any created wisdom
or power whatsoever, for the wisdom we see in the contexture
of the things which we behold, is no where, in the creature,
acconipanied with power capable of doing such things. Not
to speak of things in particular, if you do but consider these
two properties of things that are framed and made, either first,
the magnitude of some, or the parvitude of others ; (only to
instance in those two,) as it is manifest there was a design, so
it is equally manifest that no created agent could have done any
thing like either of these. Either,
[1.] As to magnitude : the magnitude of the universe, what
created agent could have made so vast a fabric as heaven and
earth, as " the worlds ?" wluch is the expression in the text.
All created agency must confess itself outdone. Nothing is
left us upon that account to consider, when we ask the ques-
tion. How came there to be such worlds ? It is resolvable by
nothing else, but that the worlds were framed by the word of
God. And then,
[2.] On the other hand, if you do but consider the parvitude
of things, the many multitudes of things that have life : no cre-
ated agent can contrive or do any such thing. Multitudes of
little creatures, in the kinds of them, too little to be seen by
our naked eye, but that by instruments may be seen to have
their respective motive powers. And those that are capable of
dissection, that there should be as many parts observable, for
the several functions of life, in some of the minutest insects as
are to be found in an elephant. It is plain, that a wise design
there was in the framing of things as they are made, and that
it is altogether impossible it should be donc^ by any other but
a Divine Agent : whether you consider the magnitude or the
parvitude of things that are made. And again,
(3.) There is this further to be considered as to this objection,
that in looking upon, and taking notice of, the works of God,
we are not to consider them abstractly and severally, but we
are to consider them as parts of one entire whole, and in their
rcf<;'rcnce to that. As a heathen philophcr, among the Greeks,
tells us, "If we should make ajudgnicnt of the whole work of
creation by tliis or that less comely part of it, it were the same
thing as if one would give an account what sort of creature
man is, and take for instance and example, such a one asTher-
JLEC. XII.) His JrorJi of Creation* 255
sites, or one of the most deformed of all men, and so givr an
account of the structure of the human body by such a one, tliat
there would be as little cause of cavil, as he would have witii a
picture drawer, who siiould find great fault with him that he put
not bright colours every where, that there are, any where, dark
shadows to be found." This, and much more to this purpose,
is discoursed by a heathen, for the vindication of God as to this
thing, that there should be any thing of defect, or not the
most absolute perfection to be found in every creature that we
can look upon. And again,
(4.) It is further to be considered to this purpose, That we
are to consider the time and texture of things in this universe,
not barely as now it is, but as at first it was, and to consider
what this inferior part of the creation, which was made for the
use and service of man, was in its original state, when he was
in his original state : that man for whom all this lower world
appears to have been made, is become a degenerate creature,
an apostate creature. And that, as lie is gone very far from
his original, things are very far gone from their original, in
which they were made for him. The fram.e of this world is
not like what it was. What changes there were in it for tlje
sin of man, before the flood, we know not. But that must have
inferred a universal change in all this earth. And we find, as
to the point of longevity, things have altered apace and did
gradually alter in that respect. So as in a short compass of
time, in comparison, lives of seven or eight hundred years, or
more, were come to sixty or eighty years, a very great, and
hardly a tolerable age, all labour and sorrow. That sickness
and mortality are come into this world, it is true : but wlio
brought them in ? They were sinners that introduced iheni.
It is sin that hath so slurred the creation of God, as to that
noble creature, and as to the subservient creature, proportion-
ally. And,
(5.) It is further to be considered too, that God hath, since the
first creation of things, settled an ordinary course of nature \i\ the
world, which ordinarily he doth not invert or alter, but for some
very great purposes. As when, now and tlien, a miracle is to
be wrought ; otherwise, usually, he doth not interpose to
change the course of nature, but lets things run on according to
the tendency and current of second causes.
(6.) In the last place, as to this objection, this is further to be
considered, that this is more an argument, that the order we
find in things should proceed from God, that there is not such
an accuracy in every punctilio to be beheld, than if it were so ;
tlmt is, it is more suitable to the diviae greatness. There is
256 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART 11,
this, among men, to be observed, that according as they are
of greater minds and spirits, they do less concern themselves
about light and trivial matters. And they reckon a kind of
rational neglect to be greater, to have more in it of majesty, more
that doth beseem a great man and a great mind. They are
little minds that do minutely concern themselves about trifles
and small matters.
2. But again, there lies matter of objection, with some,
against the other of these acts. The former, his putting things
into order, the latter, his putting things into being. And with
this, the objection that lies with divers, and bath done, in latter
and former ages, is the authority of that maxim. Ex tiihilo, ni-
hil fit, that nothing can come out of nothing, and therefore,
there can have been no such thing as a mere creation ; which
(as I told you) the act supposed, the act of framing of things :
the order of things doth suppose the being of them. But this,
say they, could never be, that that which was nothing should
become something ; for common reason doth allege, that out
of nothing, nothing can be made, nothing will be nothing still,
everlastingly.
But to them, I have only two tilings to miswer — that herein
they do mistake the maxim that they rely upon, and — that they
contradict themselves.
(1.) That they mistake the maxim, upon the authority whereof
they pretend to rely, that nothing can come out of nothing:
for it can only imply these two things — that it is impossible for
any thing to come out of nothing by itself, and — that it is im-
possible that any thing should come out of nothing by a cre-
ated agent. In both these senses, the maxim is most certainly
true.
[1.] That it is impossible, that any thing should come out of
nothing of itself : that is evident to every understanding that
reflects and considers. If we should but, in our own supposi-
tion, imagine, that there were nothing now at all in being of
one kind or another, it is certain that to all eternity there
would never be any thing in being: as we have had occasion
to argue to you heretofore. We find that somevvhat now is,
and therefore, we are sure that something hath always been :
for if there were any time wlien there was nothing, to all eter-
nity there would be nothing. Because it is impossible that
something should ever itself arise out of nothing. In that
sense, the m.axim is most indubitable; that it is impossible that
something should arise out of nothing. And,
[2.J It is equally indubitable in this sense too, that a created
agency, or all created agency put together, if it were all to be
L»c. XII.) His JVorh of Creation. 257
exerted into one act, could never raise something out of no-
thiniT. But to bring the authority of this maxim againsft the
omnipotent agency of the supreme and sovereign Cause, is tiio
most absurd collection that can be tliought. As if vvc could
measure the Divine Agency by that of the creatures. It might
every whit as well be said, that because a child nevvly born,
cannot build a house or a city, that therefore, it can never be
done, no agency could ever do it : and the difference is infi-
nitely greater between God's agency and any creature's, than
between that of tbe meanest and weakest creature, and that of
the mightiest that can be supposed. Tiiis is to circumscribe
omnipotency, and to deny omnlpotency to be omnipotent,
^vhich is a contradiction. Wliat greater contradiction can
there be, than to deny a thing of itself, to say there is any thing
that is not what it is ? But it is no contradiction, that that which
was not, should be made to be, that that which did not exist,
should exist, and so to bring something out of nothing; for that
is within the compass of the object of almighty power. And
then, I answer,
(2.) As ihcy that do so object, do most manifestly contradict
the truth, so it is equally evident that th.ey contradict them-
selves, in giving the account they do give of the original of
things, such as it is. There are two sorts of then).
[1.] There are some; first, that will have all substance to he
one, (such as Spinosa and his followers) and so to be uncre-
ated, and that there is nothing created but the modifications of
things. But as to them, I inquire whether these modiHcations
were in that substance before, yea or no? If they were before,
then they were not produced, .'^.nd so nothing is produced.
But if they were not in that substance before, (which, they
imagine) and yet be something, (as they cannot pretend them to
be nothing) then this something is throughout of nothiing: and
they cannot but be compelled to own so much. And we find
it actually to be, for we find things are modified so and so.
And then,
[2.] There is a second sort, who do not make all substance
to be self-existent and eternal, but only matter, as the pas-
sive subject, which the eternal, unmade Mind doth work
upon.
But even they also, must be constrained to contradict them-
selves. And it will appear most evident, that they do so, the
matter being pursued: for a mind is not made of matter;
there is no kind of cognation between a particle of matter and
a thoutrht, and so between the whole of matter and of mind.
A mind can never be made of mattej, or out of matter. But
VOL. vri, 2 I.
258 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
there are minds that are made; our own, theirs, if there were
any that were not always ; and then, they must be made out of
nothing, for out of matter they cannot he made. And so, as
to that objection, the objectors are manifestly found, botli to
contradict the truth, and to contradict themselves j and we need
concern ourselves no further with them.f
LECTURE XIII.*
Secondly. The second general head we now come to is,
how or by what principle we are to understand all this. And
for that, the text tells us, it is by *' faith" that we are to un-
derstand it. How come we to know that this vast universe,
these worlds, (which how many they are we cannot tell,) did
all spring up into being by the word of God ? how come we
to be informed, or how are we informed of all this ? Why it is
by faith. Here, it is requisite to shew how this is to be taken,
that we are by faith to understand the worlds to have been cre-
ated by the word of God. Why,
It is not to be taken exclusively, as if it were to be under-
stood no way, but by faith. It is plain, and hath been made
plain, that it may be understood by reason too. And there is
no prejudice at all in it, that the same conclusion should be
capable of being proved by more arguments than one; and by
more sorts of arguments than by one sort. Nothing is more
ordinary, than to bring many arguments of one sort, of those we
call artificial arguments, to prove the same conclusion : many
such arguments may be useful to serve one and the same pur-
pose : and it is no more inconvenient, and incongruous, that there
should be arguments of more sorts than one, to prove the same
thing, than that there should be many arguments used of one
sort. Therefore, this is not to be understood exclusively, that
we are to have the notice of the worlds being made by the
word of God no way at all but by faith ; or that we are to un-
derstand this by faith only : that the text doth not say, and we
are not to take it so. But,
We are to take it thus, that is, that we are to understand
this by faith more advantageously ; not exclusively, but with
t Several things, by way of use, were at this time inferred : hut
the enlargement thereof, being on the entire use made on this act of
God ; what was now said, is^to he found in the Lecture preached
December 26, 1690. vide vol. 6, ])age 428,
* Preached NovemI)er 25, I693.
LEC. XIII.) His TFork of Creation. 259
much more advantage than by any other way alone. My mean-
ing is, that having plain, rational evidence of the creation, (as
indeed we have such as is irrefragable, and as no mind which
considers, can withstand) then, it is a great superadded advantage,
to understand the same thing by divine Revelation too. It adds
a great deal, to have the matter so stated, that I may also un-
derstand this by faith, that the worlds were made by the word
of God.
And, T shall now shew wherein this great superadded ad-
vantage lies; and wherein, if we compare the two ways of un-
derstanding this by reason, and of understanding it by faitli,
this latter way hath the advantage, even of the other. For,
first, we understand more of it by faith, than we can by rea-
son ; and, secondly, what we understand by faith, we understand
better.
1. We understand more of it by faith, than by mere rational
indagation or search, we could understand. We have a more
circumstantial account of very important, considerable circum-
stances of this creation, as faith represents the matter to us,
out of God's own Revelation, than by rational disquisition we
could have had. We understand within what limits of time;
and we understand in what order this work of creation was per-
formed, by faith. Reason could never have informed us of either
of these,
(1.) We understand within what limits of time this work
was done, that is, that all was absolved within the space of six
days : no reason could ever have informed us of that. But it
signifies much towards the liveliness of any representation, that
the matter be represented in its circumstances. Reason, in
the gross, could only have informed us generally, tliat all these
things which do appear, are not of themselves, and were, some
time or other, raised up out of nothing, by an almighty, creative
power; but it could never have informed us within what li-
mits of time such a mighty work as this was done. But our
faith in the divine Revelation informs us of that too. And
then,
(2.) It informs us of the order in which things were pro-
duced, which no reason could ever have informed us of, or
found out ; that is, that on the first day, there being nothing at
all but a disorderly chaos, (which must have been supposed first
raised out of its primitive nothing) that God causeth a glorious
light to spring out of that horrid darkness, that had every
where spread itself over this chaos, this vast confused heap.
He did but say the word^ *' Let there be light, and it was so."
260 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 11.
And then, it Informs us, that on the second day, God or-
dereth a firniarnent, dividing the waters, or the fluid matter
that was superior, made up of finer particles, from that which
was inferior and more gross : the one, being designed for a
nobler kind of use, and the other, for meaner services and pur-
poses.
And then, we are informed, again, that on the third day,
God made, in tiiis inferior world of ours, dry land and sea to
appear, severally divided, and separate one from another, and
distinct. And, that, as to the dry land, God doth implant in it
the seminal princijjles of all sorts of vegetation, to make it ca«>
pable of serving its after uses and purposes.
And tlien, on the fourth day, all these glorious lights are
made to appear, and shine forth in the firmament, that are
ever since observable and conspicuous in the world.
And then, on the fifth day, he replenisheth this earth with
all tliose sorts of sensible animals that we find it inhabited with,
and by which they are so much the more to be fitted for the
habitation and use of man.
And then, on the sixth day, he makes man, and brings him
forth into this orderly and so well prepared world ; all things
being fitted and accommodated to his use and purpose, as was
most suitable and congruous; and gives him dominion over
all; as the matter is so copiously, and with admiration of God,
represented to us in that 8th psalm.
And then, that having thus, in six days, absolved and finished
all this great and glorious woik, he now sanctifies, and hallows,
and blesses, the seventh day. The Lord himself, (as it were)
resting with complacency in the view of his own vvovk, finding
it to be good, and answering to the complete, eternal idea
which lay in his own all-comprehending Mind. He beholds,
with complacency, all that he had done, and so takes up that
satisfying rest that was suitable to a God, in the contemplation
of his own work. He did it with delight and pleasure ; and
now beholds it with delight and pleasure done. And so, takes
man (the creature, here in this lower world, which he had made
capable thereof) into communion and participation with him,
in this blessed rest of his : upon which is founded the law of
the sabbath.
Now, all these things that could not otherwise have been
known to us, but by divine Revelation, and our faith therein,
God, telling us that things were so and so, and we believing
him, and relying on the truth of his word therein, He did gra-
ciously provide that those things should be made manifest ;
that they should be made known to the children of men, in
tEC. xiis.) His Work of Creation. 261
succeeding times, by casting all Into sacred records. Though,
that, indeed, were not done till a considerable time after this
begitining of all things; yet, till it was done, the knowledge of
tlie«;e things was more easily transmitted or conveyed; three or
four men, having; seen ail from the htgini'ingof the world, and
so were ca|>aliie of telling one another, until the time when
these things were capable of being transmitted into sacred re-
cords -, the^e records themselves giving an account of those
particulars that were transmitted, from hand to hand, by three
or four of those that lived, successively, nearest to the begin-
ning of time, who seeing and knowing, might tell one ano-
ther.
And we have these notices, all of us, from God, that thus
these worlds began. And, indeed, if such a notification of
these things, did but now first arrive to us; if there were but
one such n)anuscript in being, that should give this account of
the first rise and production of all things, and it were suffi-
ciently attested and proved to be divine, of how great value
and account would it be! Your great antiquaries, that have
been so highly pleased in searching into the ancientest origi-
nal of things, what would not one of them have given for such
a monument of antiquity as this, informing us distinctly, from
point to point, how all things came into being, and in that
order wherein they now lie to our notice and view ? The price
thereof, would be above that of rubies, and all that could be
desired, would not be compared therewith.
That is one thing, whereby this understanding, by faith, the
creation of the world, hath its advantage over any other way of
coming to the knowledge or notice of it : that is, that we
know more of it, by faith, than we could do any othei; way.
And,
2. What we do know, we know better. It is a belter way
of knowledge, or we may know better this way, to speak of the
one and the other, comparatively, in several respects. As,
(I.) It is an easier way of knowledge, than that of rational
search and disquisition. There must, in order to that, to know
things so, be usually a laborious inquiry into the reference of
one thing to another. There must be an adaption of a frame
and series of consequences and deductions ; some whereof
may be more obscure, but leads us gradually into clearer light,
step by step. This is a more painful way of understanding
things : it requires a very great exercise of mind to know
many things by the deduction of a long series of consequences,
one following upon another ; and which the minds of men,
generally, are less apt for_, in this low and lapsed state of maii.
262 THE PRSNCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTII,
But how easy a thing is it, to have such a matter told us, by
One who, we are sure, will not deceive us, and cannot deceive
us? and then, to believe it, and take his vvord that so it is?
This brings us to a satisfaction about this matter presently, and
with the greatest facility, it is true, indeed, that as to this
particular point of the creation, the matter is most plainly de-
monstrable, and very soon, to any capable and apprehensive
mind : but if men were left to themselves, though they may
be capable of discerning things represented to them in their
dependencies, one upon another, they would not so easily find
it out of themselves ; and, therefore, as this is far the more easy
way of knowing, so,
(2.) It is a way, too, by which the thinif^ may be more com-
monly known: so far as the divine Revelation doth obtain and
extend, it may be more commonly known. Very true, as I
told you, it may be demonstrable, most plainly, to an intelli-
gent, apprehensive, unprejudiced person, that this world was
raised up out of nothing, by divine power. But as there are
few that have ever made it their business, so far to cultivate
their minds, as to be capable of demonstrating this to them-
selves ; so there are few, that have opportunity of consulting
with those, who will take the pains, (having acquired so much
knowledge themselves) as to make such a demonstration to
them ; so as that, with the most, it goes but as a matter of
opinion. But few, if they were put to it, are able to prove
that this world had its rise thus, at first. But now, if it be to
be believed, as a matter of divine Revelation, so far as that di-
vine Revelation doth obtairi, every one may presently be in-
formed; and so this knowledge would become as much more
common, as it is n)uch more easy : — every one can read, or.
hear this read, to wit, the account that Scripture gives con-
q^rn'wg the original of things : and so this knowledge, by this
means, shall not be confined to a few, as it would be confined
to a few, if none could come to the knowledge but those whose
minds are sufficiently cultivated, so as to be capable of demon-
strating this to themselves, or of apprehending well the de-
monstration made of it by others. And again,
(3.) It is a much clearer and more satisfying way, as well as
it is more easy and more common. When the understanding
of this matter is grounded this way, it is more satisfying to the
mind ; it makes things much more clear. They are but dark,
and confused, and indistinct notices that we could have had in
a rational way, of the beginning of things. But to be told this,
from point to point, how all things were produced at first, and
brought forth into that being, and order, wherein we behold
LEC. XIII.) ffis TVork of Creation, 263
them; what a satisfaction Is it to an inquiring mind, to have
such notices of these things !
How" much hath the matter l)een otlierwise, witli those that
liave been destitute of divine Revelation, in tiii;? matter, and
vvho could not discern the state of this affair by faith. How
conjectural iiave their apprehensions been ; and how wild and
exorbitant their conjectures, even concerning their own begin-
ing. Man is nearest to himself: and if one would inquire con-
cerning the beginning of things, one would inquire tnst of all,
and chiefly, How did we begin ? How came it first to be, that
there should be such a creature as man here in this world ?
Those that have not had the help of divine Revelation, so as to
be capable of understanding the matter by faith, as their ap-
prehensions have been conjectural, so their conjectures have
been the most strangely disorderly, inordinate, that could be
thought ; some imagining, that men were thrust out, at first, in
little bags out of this earth, having been formed there : others
have apprehended, that they were begotten in the bellies of
fishes ; (these were the conjectures of the great philosophers in
the former ages of the world,) and by those fishes exposed and
thrown out upon the earth. But to have an account given us,
by the word of God,- so plainly, how satisfying it is to the mind
of an inquiring man ! All dubious hallucinations about this
matter, come now to be decisively and plainly represented, so
as here is no more place left for dubious, and uncertain con-
jecture in the case. But this was the determination of heaven;
and according to the determination of heaven, the thing was
done. " Let us now make man :" and so God made man:
*' In liis own image male and female created he them." Here
is an expedite, clear, and satisfying account how we had our
beginning. And then,
(4.) This way of understanding, by faith, the beginning of
things, the creation of all things, is much more impressive;
which is the greatest, and most important thing of all the rest.
It is more easy ; it is more common ; (where divine Revelation
obtains,) it is more satisfying ; and, lastly, more impressive ;
more apt to make deep, and suitable, and useful impressions
upon our mind and heart. By faith, we understand, that is, to
make the thing enter into our souls. That notice of such a
thing, of so great importance to us, which is by faith, trans-
forms the subject ; moulds it into a suitable fran)e towards the
Creator, towards itself, and towards its fellow-creatures, espe-
cially, thoae of the same order and kind. Here will be corres-
ponding impressions made by faith: whereas, mere rational
knowledge of the same things, makes very little, or that, that
is, at best, but faint and languid.
264 THB PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTII.
And the matter is very plain, that till faitli comes, it is but
an empty, notional knowledge, which people have of God's
Creator-ship ; and of their own creature-ship : of God, as their
Creator, and of t lie m selves as his creatures. It is but a slight,
superficial knowledge that any have of these things, till faith
comes : that carries a transforming power with it, so as to work
the truth revealed, and believed, into the verj inwards of our
souls. And it is more imj)ressive, the knowledge and under-
standing even of this matter, which comes by faith, upon several
accounts.
[1.] Because the ground of this my faith, is distinctly and
immediately divine. I believe such a thing, as God reveals it,
because it is reported to me upon the authority of God, which
carries a mighty awe with it, upon the soul, and so mikes the
thing revealed and believed, the more impressive. I attend to
God in the matter, the authority of God. If I believe such a
thing, with a divine faith, it strikes my soul, and carries the
matter to my heart. And again,
[2.] The notice that I have by faith, of these things, is very
agreeable to an apprehensive mind; and so it enters in the
more. Look to the matter really, as it is revealed, and the
substance of the divine Revelation, concerning this matter, is
congruous, and suitable to the mind and spirit of a man. There
lie no unanswerable exceptions against it. The knowledge that
comes by rational inquiry, and search, admits of objections :
when the matter is to be wrought out by mere ratiocination,
there will be reasons fro and con ; arguments on the one hand,
and arguments on the other hand : and many things that may
seem reasonable to one, will not seem reasonable to another.
But, as to what we are here required to believe about this mat-
ter, or what is matter of faith in this case, there is nothing in it
but what is very congenerous to an apprehensive and unpreju-
diced mind, that is willing to know the truth of things. It may
be, there is what should never have been found out, or known,
if it had not been told : but to a considering mind, the thing
appears to be just as it is told it is. I should not have thought
of it before; but now 1 am told of it, it is very agreeable it
should be so. And things do impress the more, accordingly as
they are more suitable to them, they are the more easily re-
ceived, there is less of obstruction lies against them. And,
[3.] The notice we have of such things by faith, is the more
impres-iivp, for that this very faith itself is a divine principle,
immcdl;itely divine, implanted, inwrought into the heart by
the Divine Spirit. We find faith reckoned among the fruits of
the Spirit. Gal. 5. 22. And we read of such a thing as the
LEc.xiii,) His fVork of Creation, 2()5
spirit of faith. 2 Cor. 4. 13. The Divine Spirit, when it
comes to new-create, to raise the nevv creation, amongst all
the necessary principles of the divine life that are now to be
implanted in this new creature of God, there is faitii, that
great receptive principle, by which it is to take in all light and
gracious influences from him. The very principle itself, is
from God; and therefore, the discoveries that are made by it,
must needs be so much the more deeply impressive upon rhe
soul, because, that faith by which the impression is made, is
immediately a divine thing. And, then,
[4.] If you look to the act of faith, or its more immediate
and connatural eflcct, it must be more impressive : faith, being
described by its most appropriate act, or by its immediate
efl'ect, is called, " the substance of things hoped for, and
the evidence of things not seen:" expressions that represent
faith to us as looking forward and backward, as what goes so
immediately before the text in this same chapter. Hope, that
always refers to somewhat future, is that by which we have the
prospect of futurities ; faith is the sulistance of those hoped fur
things, those futurities ; that is one expression of the work of
faith, to substantiate future things that we do but hope for.
And, then, there is another work of It, or its work is otiierwise
expressed : it is, " the evidence of things not seen :" and that
is larger and more extensive, and represents faith to us as a
principle that can look backward as well as forward. We do
not see how this world was raised out of nothing : no matter
for that, we can believe it; faith will be to us the evidence of
that we never saw, or have not seen : faith will (as it were)
place us upon the verge of this world : and let us see, as if
we had stood by, when God did, in this orderly way, raise up
this creation, part by part, out of a disorderly chaos, and heap
of confusion, wherein all things lay. If we have that obedien-
tial subjection to the divine authority, revealing things, (which
subjection, faith doth involve and carry in it,) this faith serves
us instead of eyes ; doth the same thing (being the evidence
to us of things not seen, or of what we never saw) as if we had,
been by as spectators, when God was doing this great and
mighty and noble work; one thing raising up after another
into view before our eyes. Faith shews all this with evidence,
and, therefore, is much the more impressive : so that, after
the hearing of such a discourse as this, if it be entertained by
faith, we should go away with hearts deeply impressed, having
God in all the glorious excellencies of a Creator in view before
our eyes; and our own spirits formed as dutiful, loyal, dependant,
subject creatures, all full of adoration and praise j >o as continu-*
VOL. \IT. 2 ii
266 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART H.
ally to behold him, and his fulness, filling all in all, which way
soever we look or cast our eye : and that is the general use in-
deed which is to be made of all tl)is.
LECTURE XIV.*
And now, it is the particular Use of the whole which we are
next to come to. And you see tlie heads of discourse, hitherto,
have been two; and so we shall have two things to improve by
way of use, that is, first, that we are to understand the worlds to
have been made by the word of God : and, secondly, tliat we
are to have this understanding by faith. Each of these do
claim their distinct improvement. And,
1. For the former. This is a matter to be understood, that
these worlds were made, created; that this great universe which
comprehends all the vvorlds, (we do not know how many the
text meai^is ; but we noted to you, that it is not the dual num-
ber that is used here, but the plural,) is, most undoubtedly, a
made thing. That the vvorlds were made, this we do understand.
And we learn from thence,
(1.) That the world was not eternal, that it had a beginning.
This hath, on the by, been hinted before, and we have for-
merly proved this to you in itself; and, I think, sufficiently.
We now consider it as an inference, that, because it hath been
created, therefore, it was not eternal ; therefore, it some time
began. Indeed, this inference hath been doubted, and dis-
puted by philosophers, whether it were good and strong, yea or
no, that, because the world hath been created, therefore, it
cannot have been eternal, but must have begun. Some have
imagined, that it might be dependently eternal, notwithstand-
ing its being a created thing. Some such as grant it to be a
creature, have yet imagined also, that it might be, in a way of
dependance, eternal. But in truth, the question would only
need to be distinguished, and then it would be soon and easily
answered : for that supposed dependance upon a cause, must
he understood to be, either upon a necessary cause, necessarily
acting and producing such an effect, or upon an arbitrary
cause. If we should suppose this world to have been from
God, as the necessary Producer of it, that would make this
world itself to be a necessary being, and would be simply in-
consistent vi'ith its being a creature. All necessary being must
be divine, must be God ; whatsoever is necessarily, can be no
* Preached December 9, I693,
tEC.xiv.) JJis JFork of Creation. 267
other than God. But if it be meant of dcpcndance on God as
an arbitrary cause, considering an act of the divine will to in-
tervene ; that is, that it was his perfect choice whether the
world should be, or not be, so it is impossibie It can have been
eternal, depcndantly eternal, if the matter were determinable
by divine pleasme. Shall this be, or not be? that supposeth it
some time not to have been. It supposeth a trunsitus from
not being to being; but that it is impossible it should be eter-
nal; for there can be no change in eternity. That of which
eternity is spoken, must have been always what it is, and as it
is. Therefore, nothing can be more manifest, than that this
world began : its being, depended upon the divine word, upon
his pleasure : for that is the notion that the Scripture gives of
the creation : "for thy pleasure all things are and were created."
Rev. 4. 1 1 .
And that should be a measure to us, hov»' we are to conceive
of this universe of things. Ide it, or they, (the things contained
in it) as great as we can imagine ; let-our thoughts be enlarged
and raised as much as is Ht, or they are capable of, upon
such a subject, — the greatness and vastness of this universe :
yet presently think, once this was all nothing, raised up out
of nothing, sprang from nothing. It is a mighty disgrace
upon created being, once to have been nothing. This is a
disgrace upon created being, which it is fit it should bear; all
shrinking into nothing before him who is the All. Magjiify it
to yourselves as much as you will or can, yet presently ti)ink it
back into nothing: great it is indeed; but once it was nothing,
mere nothing. It began to be, and therefore, there was a vast,
immense duration wherein it was not, wherein there was no
such thing.
And, moreover, the worlds, in that frame wherein we behold
tliem, cannot have been eternal : for it would be the most ab-
surd contradiction, and nonsense, imaginable, to say, that in
this changeable state, wherein things are, they could be from
eternity. It is a manifest contradiction to the understanding
of any body, that would use his tlioughts, that there should be
eternal clianges. And pray consider it. It may seem a little
dark and obscure to you at first hearing, but stay a little upon
it in your thoughts, and there is not any here of so mean capa-
city, but if they would use their thoughts a little, they may
easily apprehend it impossible that there can be such a thing
as an eternal change. Now there is in this world a continual
succession, and a succession of changes. As to tilings th^t
have life, to instance, there we see a continual succession of
living and dyin^ amongst all things tliat have life, and come
2C8 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
under our view from day to day. But it is altogether impos-
sible that tiiere can have been such changes from eternity ; for
there can be no death ; but there must have been life before :
nothing can be said to die, that did not live. But to suppose
any such change from eternity, an eternal change from life to
dcatii, it is a contradiction in itself; one must be first in its
place ; life must be first ; and if life were eternal, it could never
die ; what lies under the measure of eternity must be always
as it is. liternum non ])atitiir novum, there can be nothing
new in eternity. And, again,
(2.) As it is manifest, that this universe, these worlds, were
not eternal, but began to be; so it is also manifest, that it did
not begin to be by any kind of chance or fate. Some, who
have admitted this world not to have been always what it is, in
that order we behold it, yet thought, that it came, by a sort of
casualty into this state we now see it. That matter having
always been of itself, (as they absurdly imagine) they have
thought that the eternal motion of this matter, the various roll-
ings to and fro, of it, have at last produced this strange and
orderly frame of things which we behold. But nothing is
more plain, than as this werld is a late thing, in comparison;
for there was a vast, immense duration wherein it was not ;
and in comparison of which it is but lately come into being:
so that, when it did come into being, it was brought forth, into
tjiat being, by a designing cause.
The word, in the text, is emphatically enough expressive of
that ; it was brought into that exact and accurate order, wherein
we see things lie, designedly, as the greek word here used, im-
plies ; as the several parts and limbs of a body are joined to-
gether, SO as to consummate and make up one orderly frame.
Order is the effect of design ; wisdom is the parent of order. To
behold, that orderly frame of things wliich is observable to every
eye in this universe of created beings, doth sufficiently shew,
that it was not chance, but most profound wisdom, that hath
brought things into this state wherein they are.
That is most plain ; that is, if the v^'orlds were made, they
are not eternal, but did begin ; so that they did not begin
without design. The wisdom of him that did design this or-
derly frame of things, ought to be discerned, ackiiowledged,
and adored ; and a continual disposition of heart to adore it,
ought to be habitual to us, and often going forth into actual
exercise. It hath been the constant frame of holy ones of old,
and we should take heed of letting it be an alien thing to us.
<*Lift up thine eyes on high, and consider; Who hath made all
these things," that we behold, in so niuch lustre, and beauty.
LEC. XIV.) His TFork of Creation, 269'
and glory, over our heads? who hath made them, and pro-
duced all the hosts of heaven, and called them by name?
" VVhen I consider the heavens, the work of thy hands," (saith
the psalmist) when I do, (it implies he did it often, that it was
his wont,) then, I say, " What is man that thou art mindful of
him ? ' Look to such places as I relate to, tJiat Isaiah 40, 26
and psalm 8. throughout, and many more. It should be
more our business to contemplate and admire the unsearchable
wisdom of God, in the creation of this world. The great ex-
ercise and argument it is of a holy heart, that wherein it
doth exercise itself, and by which it discovers itself to be such.
Again,
(3.) We may learn hence, the meanness and poverty of
all creature-being, even upon the account of Its being such ;
created and made. The worlds were made. As that doth argufc
them all, once, not to have been, so it argues them still to be
next to nothing, continually depending. What was not of
itself, cannot continue to be by itself : that which was drawn
forth out of nothing, by an almighty power, still needs the
continual exercise of the same power, to keep it from a relaps-
ing, and sliding back into nothing again ; which otherwise it
must soon do. Sin being come into the creation, there needed
a mediator, for this purpose, that all might not be thrown back
into nothing again : *' By him all things consist." Col. 1. J7«
It is he that upholds and bears up the pillars of a tottering
world ; even where it was not obnoxious to justice, to a divine
nemesis ; yet, as being created, the mere liability, its depend-
ableness, (which is proper to all created beings as such,) must
have rendered it continually liable to relapse into nothing, if
not continually upheld.
You see hence, therefore, by the way, what an ungodly
creature hath to trust in; what he hath, for the final object of
his trust, to wit, that which is every moment ready to mutare^
to drop into nothing, to go out of being, that is only sustained
momentarily by him that made it. This is all that a wretched
soul, that is off from God, hath to rely upon, to trust in; no-
thing but creature ; nothing but that which itself is next to
nothing : all such a one's dependance is'upon that which doth
itself, too, depend. He that hath not a God to trust, to rely
• upon, what doth he depend upon ? Let him but name it to
you; be it what it will, God it is not. Alas! mistaken man !
thou dependest upon that which depends, itself: and how mi-
serable a case art thou in ? Indeed, the vanity of creature de-
pendance, is obvious to every man's thoughts, that will but
allow himself to think. But the wickedness of it, is but a little
270 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
thought of : few think of that. Any man may apprehend how
vain a thing it is to place confidence in a creature that is next
to nothing : hut it enters into the minds of but few to consider
how wicked a thing it is. You must know, that to be the final
Object, is the divine peculiarity of the Deity; and one of the
lilghest, and most appropriate : a glory that he will not im-
part. As to i)e prayed to, to be invocated, that is but secondary
to this of his being trusted in: we trust first, and then invocate.
This is a giory that he will not give to another. It is a
homage due to Deify, which belongs to God alone, to be, I say,
the final Object of trust ; he, into whom n)y trust doth ulti-
mately resolve, I know there may be a subordination ; you
may trust in a friend, in a relation : but for the final, supreme
Object of trust, it is the highest, supreme worship of the Deity,
to be placed only upon him.
And therefore, it doth not only infer misery by disappoint-
ment, when a man trusts in a creature; but it infers a curse by
revenge. It is not only an infelicity, that doth befal a man in
such a case, when he doth expect that which is not to be had,
from that whicli affords it not; but it is a wickedness, that is
followed with a divine curse, with a just vindicta, for a wrong
and injury done to him ; that is, that I place upon a creature,
that which is peculiar and belongs to him alone ; and so, I do
not only punish myself as a foolish, mistaken creature; but
God punisheth me as a sinful, guilty creature, upon this ac-
count : " Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh
flesh his arm." Jer. 17. 5. But, alas! how many do place
their trust in ignobler creatures than man is, in things beneath
man ? So much the meaner and baser is the temper of their
spirits herein, to place a reliance upon that which is meaner
than themselves. To neglect and forsake, to avert and turn
off from God: and then sink beneath themselves, creep to an
inferluv creature, this calls for the blast of heaven upon such a
one that hath " forsaken God, the Fountain of living waters, to
dig to himself broken cisterns, that can hold no water." For
which the prophet (Jer. 2. 12, 13.) doth call heaven and earth
to behold, with astonishment, as witnesses of such folly and
wickedness as this ; especially as being found in a people pre-
tehding to God. " My people, they that call themselves my
people, have committed these two evils, to forsake me the Foun-
tain of living waters, and dig unto themselves broken cisterns
that can hold no water." When a man lets his heart unite,
by trust, in that which hath nothing in it, forsaking the All for
that which is of itself nothing; and which in itself cannot be a
moment, what folly and wickedness is this 1
LEC. XIV.) His TFork of Creation. 271
This is the snare that carnal, worldly-minded men run them-
selves into, and do not consider it as a deadly one; it is a snare
of death : " Charge them that are rich in this world, that they
trust not in uncertain riches, (the lubrious things, the uncertain
things of riches, as the words admit to be read, (I Tim. 6*. 17-)
l)ut in the living God, who gives us all things richly to enjoy."
That trust which is not reposed on the living God, it is not
only tiie greatest folly, but the highest iniquity : folly lies in it,
that they place Deity upon a nullity, a mere nullity. That
%vhich thou makest the final object of thy trust, is thy god ;
and, then, likewise, that trust is idolatry. God will be jea-
lous in this case, when his rival is set up in his place; when a
creature is made liis rival ; and the little minute things in this
creation are made to fill up his room, and to be to thee instead
of God.
Naturally, every one affects to be happy, and when this is the
natural tendency of a man's spirit, that it is now quiet, m
some measure quiet, either in the possession of what he hath
got, or in the probable hope of getting more ; and of having
within one's compass, that which one doth desire and covet,
and reckon most suitable : here is my felicity, and 1 am so far
quiet, because, [ think here I have enough. As he is brought
in, in the parable of the wicked fool, saying, " Soul take thy
rest, thou hast goods laid up for many years." That which he
had in his barns, that was his god ; and now lie tliought his soul
should rest, as thinking to have enough no where but there.
Alas! thou fool, thy soul will be gone from thee this niglit,
and then vvhat will become of thee, and all these? Whr.t folly
it is to set a man's heart upon such thing? : as the heart is set
by trusting upon any thing. Trust fixeth it, as in its own
place, as is spoken concerning trust in God; " His heart is
fixed, trusting in the Lord." Trust, is that which fixetli a
man's heart. But thou dost fix thy heart like a fool, who fix-
eth it upon any thing unfixed itself: for then what becomes of
thee and thy trust, when that is gone? So do they v/ho trust
in uncertain riches ; for " riches make theniselves wings and
fly away, as an eagle to heaven." — A strangely emphatical ex-
pression ! It may be the soul would say to itself, '' Shall my
wealth, and my riches be gone ? why, I intend they shall have
"no wings." Alas! they make themselves wings : they will not
be beholden to you for wings; they will be gone of them-
selves, though you would never so fain they would stay. And
there is an expression that is likewise strangely emphatical, arid
which is very proper to our present purpose, of setting the
heart upon that which is not. All created being is so poor a
2721 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES O^ GOD, (PART If,
dependant being, that it is next to nothing, and is rather fit to
be called a mere nullity, a mere nothing; and that so despi-
cable a thing should be put into the place of God! should
ssupply the room of Deity: OI what an indignity is this to the
JMajesty of heaven ; and how severely to be reproved I Be-
cause tliere is nothing else stable besides God ; when the soul is
once off from him, it offers to fix, but cannot be fixed ; because
its object is not fixed. Therefore, heathen light hath seen this,
and a most significant expression was it of a heathen. " That
a soul off from God, is like a cylinder upon a plain, that moves
necessarily and perpetually, cannot be fixed, but continually
rolls and moves this way and that; and cannot be otherwise,
for it hath nothing to fix upon." And, again.
This lets us see the absolute independency of the Divine
Being; for what is there without himself for him to depend
upon ? These worlds are all that can be thought of extra
Deunij without God ; and they were all made by him. Can
he depend upon that which he himself made? The worlds
were created by the word of God ; therefore, his being must
be absolutely independent. And herein we should give our
thoughts scope, it is pity we do not do it oftener, and more
designedly, to consider the difference between that which is of
itself, and which is not of Itself. We might even lose our-
selves and be swallowed up In the contemplation, to think of a
Being, tliat, by its own peculiar excellency, could never not be,
to which it was impossible not to be ; which was not behold-
en to any thing ; for all things were beholden to it.
How is the great God magnified before our eyes, upon this
account, in that 40 chap, of Isaiah, in several verses of it toge-
ther, from the twelfth verse and onwards. '' Who hath mea-
sured the waters in the hollow of his hands, and meted out the
heavens with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth
in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the
hills in a balance." Who is he that hath done all this ? The
*' who Is he ?" there, is not an expression of doubt ; but of ad-
miration and wonder. O ! what a One is he ! How glorious a
One that hath done so ! " Who hatli directed the Spirit of the
Lord, or being his counsellor, hath taught him ? With whom
took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him, in
the path of judgment?" Who had he to commune with, besides
what v.as himself, in going about this mighty work of creation?
Who prompted him, who suggested it to him ? " Come now
make a world, give being to a creation." No ! all was propria
tnotu. Who instructed this Spirit of God, as to this great af-
fair of the creation, or any thing else that he doth ? " Who doth
LEC. XIV.) His work of Creation. 2/3
all things after the counsel of his own will ! Behold the nations
are as the drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small dust
of the balance ; behold he taketh up the isles as a very 'little
thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts
thereof sufficient for a burnt-otfering» All nations before him
are as nothing, and they are accounted to him less than notiiing
and vanity. To whom then will you liken God ? or what like-
ness will ye compare unto him ?"
So should we, upon this account, greaten to ourselves the
Divine Being, and heighten and raise our own thoughts and ap-
prehensions concerning him : that when all things else, of
this vast universe of beings, are so absolutely and purely depen-
dant every moment upon him, he, in the mean time, depends
upon nothing. All that he is, he is in, of, and by, and for,
himself. He can have no dependance upon the creature,
either for the support of his being, or for any other addition to
liis felicity : but is his own AH. And how convictively doth
the apostle reason with those philosophers at Athens, to this
purpose, Acts I7. 24. 25. " God dwelleth not in temples made
with hands, nor is he worshipped with men's hands as though
he needed any thing, inasmuch as he hath given to all, life and
breath and all things." And what can you add to this ? What
support can he have from you ? wliat improvement of his feli-
city any way from you, or from anything else, since all things
are his own creatures ? And further,
(5.) You may learn, hence, the divine all-sufficiency ; and
how vast an amplitude of being tliere is in him, when all this
great creation sprang from him j and yet, nothing could be
detracted from him by it neither. How vast an amplitude of
being must that be, when all this great creation is gone out from
him, sprung from him, and yet his being not diminished, no-
thing the less ! O ! consider this, and think how great and de-
sirable a thing it is, to have him for a portion ; the All ; he that
comprehends in himself the all of the creature, and who for-
mally possesseth his own All still : tliatis, is simply All. What
can he want that hath him for his portion, who is All ? AH
his own creation, it was virtually in him before, and is still
virtually in him, depending still upon that power of his, for
its sustentation, that gave it being at first. i\nd there is his
own infinite All too. O ! happy that soul that can say, " The
Lord is my portion." How rich, how full, how satisfying a
portion ! And,
(6.) We may, further learn lience, the absoluteness oi
God's dominion over all his creatures. Will you not allow
him to do whatsoever he will in heaven and earth, who caade
VOL. V!I. 2 N
274 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART tl,
both by his own word ? Shall he not do what he will with his
own ? We are apt, most unreasonably and peevishly, to regret it
when there is a disposal of creatures ; or any little minute part
of this creation of God, this way or that, any otherwise than
we would. But how absurd it is to rej)inc at God's disposition
of his own ! He gives more of this world to sucii a one, and
less of it to me. What then? What he gives to me, and
what he gives to the other, was it not all made by himself?
And may he not dispose, as he pleaseth, with what he had
made ?
How doth he plead the matter with Job, to exalt his own
dominion upon the ground of his creation ? Job thouglit it hard
that he who was so rich a man, so healthy a man, should be
bereaved of all so suddenly, and of his health, and comforts of
his life besides : "Why," says God to him, "Where wast thou
when I laid the foundations of the earth ? declare if thou hast
understanding. Did I consult thee when I made this and that,
and the other creature ? And may I not dispose of the crea-
tures I have made, my own way, and as I will ?" And,
(7.) We may further learn, that if these worlds thus began,
that is, were thus framed by the word of Godj if they had
such a beginning, even at his pleasure, then at his pleasure,
too, we must reckon they will have an end. That which began
to be at some time or other, i: began to be what it is. Such
and sucli things began to be at the pleasure of the great Creator :
and at the pleasure of the great Creator they must cease to
be what they are. And we ought not to think it strange,
that there should be such an end determined for this world,
as the Scripture informs us there is : that is, a time will
come, at length, when, the purposes of the great Creator having
been sufhciently served upon it, these visible heavens, which
we behold, "shall be rolled up as a scroll ; pass away with
a great noise ; and the elements melt with fervent heat j
and the earth, and all things therein, be consumed and burnt
np," as 2 Peter 3. 10. and we are not to think it strange. And
it is only upon this ground, that it hath been thought strange,
that this sliould be the end of this world, because the be-
ginning of it was not understood, as we may see, looking
in the same chapter, at the 3d and 4th verses : " Knowing this
first, that there shall come in the last days, scoli'ers, walking
after their own lusts ; and saying. Where is the promise of his
coming?" "It is talked of that he will come, and then an
end will be put to time, and all the successions of time. But
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation to this day. And therefore, we cannot imagine that
LEc. XV.) His work of Creation. 27 y
there should be any such end." But (saith the apostle) "this
they willingly are ignorant of, that hy the word of the Lord
the heavens were of old ;" and because they arc willingly igno-
rant of this, therefore, they are wilfully ignorant of that end
which is determined concerning ihis world. 1 hey will not
believe it, because they believe not its framing at first : "that
by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the cartii
standing in tiie water, and out of the water." Because they
do not believe the beginning of things, therefore, they will
not believe that which ii told them expressly, too, concerning
the end of them.
There are a great many things more, that we might learn
lience, but they will more immediately belong to the consi-
deration of our own creatorship, tlian of the world: they da
not so immediately result from the consideration of God's
having made the u-orld, as ihe consideration, more particu-
larly, of his having made us ; and therefore, I shall not insist
on them till I come more particularly to speak to the crea^n
of man from another text. ' /'^
LECTURE XV.*
2. I shall, therefore, now proceed to make application of
that second general head of discourse ; that the more principal
and advantageous way of our coming to understand the creation,
is by faith. And it is a very manifold use that may be made of
this. As,
(1.) We may learn from it, tlie excellency of faith; how
soul-enabling a thing it is. It hath a certain power, with very
great light, to help a man's understanding, and to clear his
intellectuals. By faith we understand. It hath, in great
part, its seat in the understanding : there it is originally,
though it is not finally there; thence it descends, too, into the
heart. But it hath a great work in the minds of men. Faith
doth supply minds with notions ; so it is if we would read the
words literally to you. It doth furnish us with notions, which
we should otherwise never have. It is true, if it be faith in-
deed, it will not let them always remain mere notions ; it will
inspirit them ; it will make them vital, and powerful, and
operative. But notions they must be first, and faith makes
them so. By faith we have notions of things, that otherwise
we never should have had. But this, I say, speaks faith to be
* PreEcbed December 16, 1603.
276 THE PniNCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
a soul-enabltng thing. It nobilitates the mind and spirit of a
man ; acQjuaints it with things from God, (for that is the bu-
siness of faith,) unto which it would otherwise be a stranger.
This should raise and heighten our apprehensions of faith, that
despised thing; tliat little understood thing. That by which
we are to understand ; men do not understand.
Whatsoever it is that divine Revelation doth, in order to the
informing us of needful and useful things, that faith doth.
And take we the compass of divine Revelation, and consider all
the great and glorious things that are contained and brought
to light in it, and by it, and thence you are to collect the ex-
cellencies of faith. Because, without that, the divine Revela-
tion signifies nothing to us ; no more than light doth to a blind
man. The divine Revelation and faith, must both concur to
the sarne effect, to wit, our understanding of things ; as light
and the eye do both concur to the same effect, our seeing of a
thing. We cannot see by light u-ithout an eye ; nor will an
cyie enable us to see without light, but both together. The di-
^^ne Revelation, that is light to us ; faith is the thing by which
vve discern things in that light. And so, if we do apprehend
an excellency in the divine Revelation, which brings so many
great and important things into view before us, we are propor-
tionally to apprehend the excellency of faith too ; without
which all that divine Revelation could signify nothing to us.
And,
(2.) We may further learn, hence, how wondierfully kind
and gracious God's condescension is to us, that he should make
such a discovery, and offer it to our faith, of things, in reference
to which vve should be at so great a loss, and understand so very
little of: as for instance, this creation of God : whatwedoowe
to the bounty of heaven for this, that it should condescend, so
distinctly, to tell us how things came at first to begin. Faith,
in that discovery which God makes to us of this matter, sup-
plies the room and place of sight ; and so it is the same thing
in effect, as if he had let us see him making tiie world; for
faith is the evidence, to us, of things we have not seen. We
were not present, we were not by, when this mighty glorious
work was done. " Where wast thou when I laid the founda-
tions of the earth ?" Where wast thou ? saith God to Job : chap.
.38. 4. But now, God having vouchsafed to us, such a Revela-
tion and discovery of this mighty work of his ; if he also gives
us faith by which we believe this discovery, it is as if he had
set us by Jiim while all this was doing ; so, we have (as it
were) the Idea, the representation, the landscape of the rising
creation ; as if God should before that time have created one
LEC. XV.) His ivork of Creation. 2/7
of us, and have taken us, and set us up, spectators of liis whole
work.
Whereas, yet, there was nothing but horrid darkness spread
every where, then for God to have taken one of ns, made us
stand up out of nothing, and said to such a one — " Come, cast
about thine eye, there is nothing l.ut vacuity, emptiness and
darkness every where ; come see mc make light out of this dark-
ness." He that calls things where they vvcve not, and makes
them be, or as if they were, saying, *' Light, where art thou ?
come out of that dark, profound al)yss ;" and immediately it
springs forth, what an amazing light were that ! Why, faitii
in God's discovery gives you this light : by faith we come to
be so intelligible, to have so much understanding about us, as
to know how this world did rise outof nothing, eternal nothing,
into that state in which now it is. And what vouchsafement
is this to such as we, to do, in effect, the same thing, as if he
had set us by him at making of Use world. *' Come see me
collect a mass of grosser matter; see me (as it were) spin out
of it that fine texture of the vast and spacious firmament, those
heavens that do encircle this little habitable world in which we
dwell; see me adorn it with sun, moon and stars; see arising
on this earth, plants, and trees, and woods, and springs, and
rivers : all lately nothing, and now begin to be : see me replen-
ishing this world with living creatures, in their several varieties
and kinds." O! what condescension is this, that God should
vouchsafe to tell us all this over again, and give us the repre-
sentation so distinctly, of what, in so many successive days, he
did and wrought in this kind. But, again,
(3.) We may further learn, hence, how inexcusable it is,
that they v,ho pretend to faith in this matter, sliould use it so
little. If we falsely pretend, it is a most unjust usurpation of
a name, to call ourselves believers ; and that, of such things,
when we are not. But if we pretend truly and justly to the
faith of these things, then we are most inexcusable to use that
faith no more hereabouts ; to live so long, in such a world as
this, and so seldom to consider how it began. A strange and
inexcusable stupidity. That this world should be replenished
with intelligent creatures, reasonable creatures ; and that it
should come into the minds of so few, and into any minds so
seldom to consider, How did all things begin ? Sure we are
there, where multitudes of things are existing, that must have
had a beginning, that are not self-existent, or unto which ex-
istence is not essential, so, as that they could not but be and
exist. It is amazing to think that intelligent creatures should
not more frequently consider with theaiselves, how things first
273 THS PaiN'CIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (pART II.
began to be, beholding such a world as this, which they are
sure was not always, but had a beginning ; and not consider
})ow it began. That men can behold such varieties of crea-
tures, and use such varieties, and enjoy such varieties, and never
consider whence they are, whciice came they, how came there
to be such things iu the world, and how came there to be such
a world ? It is most inexcusable and strange stupidity, and
dotishness of mind, in any reasonable creature : but most of all
in them that do pretend to believe and know by faith, that the
worlds were created by the v^'ord of God. And,
(4.) We may, again, learn hence, that what is commonly
called faitli, about this matter, is really and indeed not faiih :
that is, the apprehension of such a thing as this, is without ef-
fect, and that impresseth nothing upon the soul. It hath been
very justly and fitly told you, that we have the notions of things
by faith, many things which we should otherwise have no no-
tion of. But though faith first begets such notions, yet it will
not let them continue mere notiuns long, if it be faith : that
is a mighty, lively, operative principle, powerfully working in
the soul, to form that suitably to the thing believed. But while
there is so little of suitable inspression upon the souls of men,
in reference to this thing, what they call faith about it, is not '
' faith, but must be something else.
For the most part, it is not any thing else but a negative
faith, which jrien are wont to call faith in this and many other
such cases. It is, I say, but a mere negative faith upon which
they place that great name : that is, a not believing the con-
trary, not having formed explicit belief of the contrary, that
they call faith. They have not yet (it may be) laid down in
their minds any formed conclusions to this purpose, that the
worlds were not made by the word of God ; and their not dis-
believing it, they call believing it: whereas, faith is a most
positive thing, a thing of great reality, and a thing of great effi-
cacy and power, wherever it is. And, therefore, for such as
never yet found their souls impressed by their apprehensions of
the world's creation, 1 would admonish them no more to call
that apprehension of theirs by the name of faith, but call it
something else, — call it by its true name, — call it a floating
uncontradicted opinion ; and that is the best they can make of
it, while it is an apprehension that hath no power ; and while
it doth not represent God in his excellent glory, as the great
Creator and Lord of all, so as to form the soul to adoration
and subjection to him thereupon. Never say till then, that
you do believe, or that you have faith concerning the creation
of the worlds. Alas! how many that liuve it often in their
LEC. XV.} His ivorh of Creation. 279
mouths — "I believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and
earth" — yet do but usurp the words, " I believe," and their
heart, and their practice, contradict their tongue, and tell them
they believe it not. Believe it ! yea, as much as a known ro-
mance, while they live in affront of the Creator, and take upon
them as if they were lords of the creation 3 and as if they had
made the worlds ; and not He.
These things we may, by way of just inference, collect from
hence; that it is a thing to be understood by faith, that the
worlds were made by the word of God. But we shall thence
proceed to some further U&e ; that is, to counsel and exhort
those that have faith in this matter, to use it more ; to have
their faith more in exercise upon this great and noble subject,
the creation of the worlds by the word of God. And it is to
many great purposes, that faith upon this important subject
may be employed and used. As,
1. To engage us in the more frequent and serious meditations
on the beginnings of things. To engage us, 1 say, in the more
frequent, more serious, more affectionate, and more fruitful
meditation of this matter. If we believe it indeed, let us think
of it often. Our faith is an apprehension that it is true : and
if it be once owned to be true, it cannot but he deemed to be
a very important truth ; a very considerable truth ; a truth that
requires, and challenges, great attention of mind, and appli-
cation of heart and soul to it. Think and judge it an unrea-
sonable thing, to live from day to day, in this world, and never
consider whence it came, and how it began. And let your faith
be set on work in frequent and most affectionate meditations of
the beginning of the worlds.
2. Let your faith, hereupon, form your souls into adora-
tion of the great Creator. Go up and down this world v,ith
adoring souls : let every thing you behold, from time to time,
put you in mind of him, and make you bow your head, and
worship. Admire that fulness of his, that fills all in all; and
those variable displays of his wisdom, and power, and goodness,
which are conspicuous every where, more or less, in all sorts
of creatures. We are but nominal believers and christians, if
there be not many, if there be not much of this about us ;
and if we are not aiming and endeavouring that there may be
more and more.
3. Let our faith instruct us unto the grateful and reverential
use of the creatures of God, as remembering they are made
things ; and that we have the use of them by divine vouchsafe-
ment and allowance. There ought to be a mixture, a tempe-
rature of reverence and gratitude in the habitual frames of our
2S0 THE PRINCIPLES OK THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
spirits hereupon : and if we have a real and true faith in us
ahout this matter, it will make it to be so ; it will impress our
spirits; it will fill us (as it ought to do) with a wondering gra-
titude, that such creatures as we, should be so accommodated
by such a world as this, so suitably ordered for us. If we use
faith in this matter, it will make us sit down and wonder; look
upon it as it is, an admiral)!e thing, that the great God should
have raised up such a creation, such a world, as this is, out of
nothing, by the word of his power. That it being designed, " I,
in time, coming to have a place and being in it, should want
nothing while lam there ; such and such creatures, made out
of nothing to supply me, to furnish me. What is it that I eat ?
What is it that 1 drink ? What is it that I wear ? Are they not
all the creatures of God ? \Vhat is it that refresiies me? What
is it that delights me ? Are they not God's creatures ?" How
full of reverential gratitude should our hearts continually be, on
this account ! To think such and such parts of the creation
were made on purpose that 1 might not be in distress, that I
might not feel necessity ; and to think how this world gene-
rally accommodates its inhabitants : and to wonder witli all,
that their apostasy was foreseen ! O ! how should it replenish
oursouLs with wondering gratitude, to think that there should
be such a provision made with design, and upon foresight, for
the entertainment of rebels and apostates ! This whole world
replenished and filled with the divine goodness, all sorts of
creatures made for the unthankful and the evil. A design laid
through so many successions of ages, " My goodness shall dif-
fuse itself, and flow in such and such a part of my creation, (as
ihis world is l)ut a little, a very little part of it,) for the supply
and support of those that will never give me thanks, (though
they have natures capable of doing so,) even for the unthankful
and for the evil."
4. Our faith, upon this subject, should instruct and enable
us to contend with dilTiculties in reference to whatsoever God
hath encouraged us to expect, or told us he means to do.
What can pose that faith which believes the creation of the
world ? He that could make such worlds as these are, out of
nothing, by his word ; what cannot he do ? what is there to be
expected greater than this, that should be the matter of any
present solicitude, thoughtfulness, concern and care ? If very
perplexing thoughts of heart do arise about the ill state of
things in this world, he that made heaven and earth, and all
the worlds by his word, cannot he make new heavens and a new
earth when he will, and when the time and season of it comes ?
How frequently may weobs erve it to be, in Scripture, for thr
EEC. XV.) His JVork of Creation. 2S1
people of Godj toaniniate and raise tlieir own hearts unto tiie
helicf and expectation of great things from God, upon this
ground, that he hath made heaven and earth, tliat he is tlie
Creator of all things. " Our God hath made the heavens."
When those vain creatures that di^^like the divine g.;vernment,
and oppose themselves to it, taking counsel against the Lord,
and against his Anointed, when, I say, they have nothing to
trust to, in the designs of tiiis kind, they are forming and driving
continually ; nothing but stocks and stones, the work of men's
hands ; " Our God hath made the heavens ;" (so you have it
expressed, Psalm 115. o, ^1.) made the vi^ovlds ; given being to
all these worlds: and what cannot he do, when his time and.
season for it are come ? And things will come to their full Issue
in the fittest time. Our God it is who hath power enough to
do the things we expect, and wisdom enough to order the limes
and seasons for them. Again,
5. Our faith ought to have exercise with us, upon this sub-
ject, in order to the keeping of our minds quiet and composed,
amidst the various expressions and instances that v/e behold of
the divine dominion and sovereignty, doing what he will in
the disposal of afliiirs in this world. It may be, some we find
him exalting, and It pleaseth us ; we find him depressing, and
it displeaseth us; we have a little share and portion in tliis
world, and we regret it : others have a great and large portion
of it, and that we envy. But we should consider whose this
%vorld is, who made it. May not he dispose of what he hath
made, as he pleaseth? This (as we noted to you before) is a
just inference from the very thing itself, abstractly considered,
that is, to form our spirits agreeably, and to make us content,
and well pleased, that God does dispose of what he hath made,
as seemeth good to him.
6. We should further learn, hence, to behold, with great
complacency, what appearances there are of divine glory in this
world, which he hath made by his word. And to behold, with
just regret, the dishonours that he meets with in it; or that
these appearances of his are so little taken notice of; and that
such glory shines unregarded as to the most. These are but
dutiful dispositions and atfection'= towards the Creator and
Maker of these worlds : and faith should furnish our souls with
such dutiful affections ; otherwise it is a fruitless faith, a life-
less faith, if it doth not do this. Do 1 believe that God made
these worlds, by his word ? how can it then but please me to
beii old his glory shining in such and such aspects and appear-
ances of God ? and how can it but fill my soul with such duti-
ful wishes ? " O 1 may thy glory, more and more, be exalted
VOL. VFI, 2 O
282 THE PRISCiPLBS OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 11.
above the heavens, and shine through all the earth." And
how can it but fill our souls with resentments, that there should
be such glory shining, and not regarded ? Tlie great Zvlaker
and Lord of tiiis world, excluded out of his own creation, as if
the All in all did signify nothing ! men taking upon them,
every where, as if they were absolute, as if they had been self-
created, and using the creatures of God at their own pleasure,
and In affront to him that made them. If faith would do the
part in our souls which belongs to it, it could not but fill them
with regretj and with a dutiful concern, that the great Lord
and Maker of this world, should be so little acknowledged, and
taken notice of in it. Again,
7. The faith of the creation of the worlds, should engage
our hearts in an earnest desire and endeavour to have a sure
and clear interest in Him who created and made all. What
doth this world signify to me, to behold it, to be in it, to be of
it, a part of it, but to have nothing to do with him that made
it ? The faith of this, would make a soul restless till it can say,
*' The Lord of heaven and earth is my Lord." Were these
worlds created by the word of God ? then he shall be my God.
He that could make such worlds as these, by his word, is it not
a covetable thing to have an interest in him? Is it not desir-
able ? Can I satisfy myself till I have it ? especially, when I find
it is matter of hope, a thing not to be despaired of ; when there
are such notifications of his pleasure, (that he is inviting and
teaching men to take him, and choose him) published and pro-
claimed in his gospel to the world, declaring now the terras by
which he offers himself to be our God, and invites us to take
and accept him for ours ? The serious belief of this thing, that
these worlds were made by the word of God, would certainly
put us upon a most industrious inquiry, " How shall I do to
know him, and to be acquainted with him, and to be interested
in him, by whose word these worlds were made? And, I can-
not satisfy myself not to knov,' him that made them, and not to
have him for mine, since I find there is a possibility of the
thing ; that it is a thing not to be despaired of, and it is no un-
just, or presumptuous aspiring, for me to seek an interest in
him." My faitli of the thing ought to make my soul restless in
this case.
And if one consider, cast one's eye round about, and behold
this world in the extent of it, (as far as our dim and short-
sighted eyes can go.) and behold the great variety of creatures
in it, methinks the thought should presently arise, "Amongst all
these things, there is nothing suitable to me, to my spirit ; no-
tiiing in vi'hich I can be satisfied, and in which I could take
LEC. XV.) His Work of Creation. 2S3
rest, unless I could tind out him that made tliese worlds by
the power of his own word :" till then, methiiilcs one should
always look very wisely about one, and behold the amplitude
of this world ; and then, presently to think, likewise, "Sure it is
a sad, melancholy thing-, to be in tliis world, as without God
in the world, what an empty cipher is it, if God be out of my
sight, if I cannot lind out the Maker of all, so as to know him,
and have him as mine." And then,
8. If one can do so, how should our faith fill our souls with
high gloriations in that God? I have him, tliat made the
worlds, for my God. '* All people will walk every one in the
name of their God." And we should say, And we will walk in
the name of our God: and see, where there is such anotlierGod
to be found that hath made these worlds, (how many soever
they be, and how great soever they be,) and all by his word : I
have him for my God. And again,
9. It should, by a little further recollection, make us appre-
hend too, the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon whom
tise business lay of redeeming and saving lost creatures in this
world ; and must lie of making a new world ; of repairing a
ruined and languishing creation. For you had to consider, that
he had his part, he concurred, he was Creator even of this
world. Look to the 1 chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews :
He is styled " the brightness of the Father's glory, the express
image of his person ;" he th.at upholds all things by the word
of his power — the heir of all things, and by whom he made the
worlds. "By him he made all things, visible and invisible,"
Col. I. 16. and John ]. 1, 3. "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,
By him were all things made : and without him was not any
thing made that was made." And I will not undertake to ex-
clude that from the signification and meaning of tiie text, " By
faith we understand that the worlds were framed l)y the word
of God," the essential Word, the divine Logos, 'i'hough, I
would not lay a stress upon a thing thatisnot ])lainly andn)ani-
festly intended : yet, to take it in, is very suitable to the current
of other texts of Scripture. The eternal Word had its hand
and part in the creation ; and it was by it, that these worlds
were made. And thereupon, by a right of creation as natural,
as well as by the acquired right of a Redeemer of a lost world,
by the effusion of his blood, and the sacrifice of liimself, he
comes to have a governing power over all thi? world : l)eing as-
cended and gone u[) far above all heavens, he hath all puv.'cr
given into his hands, both In heaven and in earth.
I would only improve the consideration hereof, to this pur-
284 THE FRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART If,
pose, to greatcn your thoughts concerning your Redeemer,
We are fain in very important cases, from time to time, to be
beiiolden to our senses, even in the most important cases that
can be thought. Our sense tells us something of tite great-
ness and amplitude of the v^orld ; though it cannot tell us much,
yet it tells us something : and by that, make your estimate (for
we need such helps) how great a Jledeemer we have ; him that
made these worlds. They were made by the word of God : he
was the eternal Word ; and as such, we are sure, having the
eternal idea in him, according to which the worlds were to be
made ; by him, at length, they came to stand forth into being.
Think this with yourself, "This is my Redeemer; he that had so
mighty a hand in the formation of all these worlds; and in
>vhose hand the government of them now lies. It is with him
I am to trust my soul. It is to him that 1 am to subject and
devote my soul. Have I not reason to do so? Have 1 not en-
couragement enough to trust him, that made this soul, and all
these worlds, and to obey him who hath so great and universal
a power over these worlds ?"
10. Our faith in this matter should, more and more, re-
lease our spirits from mean and vile confinement to this one
world only ; for by faith we understand that there were more :
therefore, our faith should release our spirits from a base con-
iineinent to one world, when it tells us of more. It tells us,
there were worlds created by the word of God : therefore, it
speaks an abject mind, a mean and base spirit, and so much
the more if we have faith, (as ue pretend to have,) to be con-
fined in our thoughts, in our desires, in our designs, in our ex-
pectations and hopes, to this one world. Tell a believer, " Your
all lies in this one world;" " No, (he will say,) my faith hath got
ken of more, notice of more." By faith 1 understand that there
were worlds, framed by the word of God ; therefore, it is a base
thing to be tied to the present : " Demas hath forsaken us, hav-
ing loved this present world." A believing soul would look
Dpon that with disdain, (there is such a generosity in faith) and
would say, " I scorn so base a confinement as that, to be limited
to one world, when 1 know there were worlds created by the
word of God." Though we are not told how many there were,
yet we are sure they are more than one ; and we have a very
distinct account of one more, in which our principal concerns
do lie, and are signified to be. And blessed be God for that,
that we know so much, that there is one more, with which we
have more to do than we have with this world, or can have,
«ven where our principal interest lies, and where our Lord and
•«r Head is. 1 ho\7 should we bless God for tliis ! that
L^vC. XV.') J^is TFork of Creation. 285'
since there are more worlds, he hatli told us so, and hath let us
know it. To be limited, in our spirits, to this one world, this
present world, is to run counter to the desit!;n of" our Lord's
dying; " He gave himself for our sins, to deliver us from this
present evil world." He pave himself for our sins: what
doth that signify, in conjunction with the latter words? but
that they are our sins that chain us in our present dungeon.
And by how much the more we can be released from these
chains of our sins, so much the more shall we get out of this
confinement, and get above this present evil world. O ! if we
have many things that we dislike in this world, let us bless
God that we know of more worlds. And in the last place,
11. We may further learn, that our faith concerning thq
creation and being of this world, should very much facilitate
our faith concerning the end of it. If we can believe, that
these worlds were made by the word of God, we may easily
believe what he iiath tnld us concerning the unmaking of tiiem.
And particularly, the unmaking of this, the dissolution of it
as to its present frame. We may argue from the one to the
other, that since the one hath been, the other is not harder
to be : if one be a thing to be believed, the other is as believ-
able as that, wlien we are told it will be so.
It is very true, indeed, that believing is not formally arguing;
but as faith doth rest upon the strongest argument in all the
world, so it may supply matter of further arguing, though it he
not in itself formal arguing, it rests upon the strongest argu-
ment that ever was ; that is, that because there is a Being in-
finitely perfect, therefore, he cannot but be ti-ue, therefore, it
is impossible for him to lie; therefore, it is inconsis^tent with
his nature to impose upon his creatures : heaven and earth
cannot have a surer foundation than tliis v.hich my fiiith hath
upon this matter, and upon this ground. And then, restinj^
upon the strongest argument imaginable, it can easily supply
matter of further argument ; that is, if my faith hath once
believed this, that these worlds were made by the word of God,
because God hath told us so, if also, he hath told us he will
put an end to the present world, and how he will put an end to
it, as he hath told us how it began ; if I can believe the one,
1 can believe the other, too, with the same faith : and so am to
live in the suitable expectation of such a time, when these vi-
sible heavens "shall be rolled up as a scroll, and pass away
with a great noise, and the elements melt with fervent heat,
and the earth and all that is therein, be consumed and burnt
vp."
And, ifi believe this, then how entertaining must the be-
286 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
lief be ! How pleasant the belief of the other world (as was
said before) that is to come afterwards, that pure, and peace-
ful, and orderly, and blissful world ! that lasting, permanent,
and everlasting world ! that when this world and all the lusts
thereof are past away and gone, shall abide for ever, and all
they that do the will of God : as that expression is 1 John 2.
17- ** The world jDasseth away and all the lusts thereof."
Love it not, nor the things of it. If you love it, the love of the
Father is not in j^ou : and it is passing away. God is not so
unkind to yon as to place your love upon vanishing tilings, upon
shadows. This world, I tell you, and all the lusts thereof, are
vanishing, passing away ; will shortly be gone ; the shev/ will
be over : hut he that doth the will of God abideth for ever in
that blissful world, which it is his will and pleasure shall abide
for ever.
v^pvrnsgoKiBmfeaff^^aagggmt
LEC. xvF.) The Creation of man, 287
LECTURE XVI.*
Gen. 1. 27.
So God oreated man in his own image ; in the image
of God created he him.
"E have discoursed to you, more generally^ concerning the
creation. We now come, (as we are more especially
concerned,) to consider the creation of man. It is true, that
there is a nobler order of creatures, that were before him in dig-
nity and excellency (at least) in the creation. But because
that, of their creation we have not so particular an account ;
and because our concernment lies less there, I shall immedi-
ately fall upon the consideration of what this text puts under
our notice, to wit, our own creation, the creation of that crea-
ture, called man.
The connexed particle here, that refers these words to what
goes before. " So God created man," invites us to call hack
our eye a little. It is said in the 26 verse, "J\nd God said.
Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness, and let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl
of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and ovef
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." And then,
the text tells us, " So God created man in his own image."
This connexion shews us, that (as you have heard at large,)
God woiketh all things after the counsel of his own will. So
* Preached December 23; 1693.
238 THE PniNCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART If,
he did particularly this great work according to forelaid counsels.
'^ Let us do so; let us make man, and make hin) such a one,
even like God." And so accordingly he did. This may be un-
derstood as an allusion to human methods; that is, that men,
intending this or that work, they do use somewhat of self-excita*
tion; in order thereunto, they do accingere se, they do apply
themselves to the action which they intend, and, as it were, re-
collect their strength, that is now to be exerted and put forth.
So is God introduced speaking — " Come now let us go to work
afresh, and make that creature man, even the rtsemblanee of
tourselvcs."
And it may also be understood to carry with it, an intima-
tion of that great mysterious doctrine of the Trinity. "Let us
make man ;" that conjunction of the pronoun of the plural
number, with a verb singular, (as we have formerly noted to
you,) being probably enougli to give some intimation of the
glorious subsistencies of the Deity : and who (as you have for-
merly had noted to you) are to be considered jointly under the
notion of Cieator.
And it speaks the perfect spontaniety of this work, or (if that
may import any thing higher) the perfect intellective liberty
wherewith it was done. " Let us make man ;" there being no
foreign inducement before the creation, there could be nothing
extra Z>e?a«, nothing without God himself, hwX propria motUy
from the inward propension of his own mind, and that vast and
boundless abyss of goodness, the fulness whereof was in him,
now flowing forth, by free choice and consent, into a creation;
and into the creation of such a creature as this. " Let us now
make man ; it is our mere pleasure to do so :" according to
that in Rev. 4. 1 1. " For his pleasure all things are and were
created." He only pleased himself and took a delight in such
an effusion of his own glorious power and goodness, breaking
forth into such a creation.
In the words themselves, we have two things distinctly to
be considered, — the work itself, of God's making man — "God
made man ;" and — the norma or the pattern according to
which he made him — '" he made him after his own image,'*
made him the designed representation of himself: we shall
consider these severally.
L Consider the work itself, or the making of man — " God
made man." And therein, we are yet more distinctly to con-
sider — the product — man; and — the productive act — God
made him.
1. For the former of these, the creature now made, and signi-
Hed by that name of *' Man," that we are to consider and con-
<.EC. XVI.) The Creation of Man. 289
template awhile ; that is, that we are to turn our eyes inward,
and contemplate ourselves, and consider what sort of creatures
we are. We hear it often, that man is a microcosm, this whole
world in little, an epitome of the universe; the two i^reat
classes of beint^ meeting in him ; viz. mind and matter, the in-
visible world, and the visible, touching one anotiier, and having
(as it were) a nexus with one another in his nature. He hath
a mind belonging to the invisible world ; and a matter belong-
ing to the visible, in his composition and frame. And so is set
a middle creature between the angels and brutes, having the
intelligent nature with the one, and the sensitive and inferior
nature wath the other.
We need to be put in mind of what is so obvious to us ; for
of all things in the world that we are so prone to overlook and
forget, we are most of all apt to forget ourselves : though it
were a precept of so high and great importance, and so obvious
to a reasonable mind, that it did proceed from the mouth of a
Pagan : Nosce teipsum, first know thyself^ yet it was rec-
koned too great and important a thing, to be primarily attri-
buted to such a one. And therefore, it was said of it, e caelo
descendit ; surely it came down from heaven : no mortal could
assume to himself the honour to be the author of so great a say-
ing as this. But though it be a matter of so great an import-
ance, and the obligation thereunto, men perpetual lie, and do
lie under; and though it be so obvious to a reasonable mind,
yet, generally, look upon all the world, and you may say,
*' Men are the least part or study to themselves, they least of
all consider themselves, to know their own natures, and what
sort of creatures they are."
But that we may a little more distinctly consider this subject,
plain it is, that man is a twofold creature ; he hath a double
nature in him ; he is a man and a man : or there belongs to
his constitution and frame, an inner and an outward man :
as the apostle elegantly enough distinguishes them, in 2 Cor.
4. 16. "An outward man," that is a perishable and perishing
thing; and " an inward man," which, while tliat outward man
is perishing, is yet capable of being " renewed day by day," as
he there speaks.
Indeed, while we turn our eyes uj)on ourselves, we are least
of all apt to consider what is most considerable in our own
frame. A people related to God of old, and even the strictest
sort, or sect of them, (the pharisees themselves) our Saviour
justly upbraids them with this stupidity, this piece of inconsi-
deration : he speaks to them as a company of besotted fools:
*' Ye fools, hath not he that made the outward, made the inward
VOL. VII, 2 P
2&0 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
too," in that Luke 11. 40. "He that made that which is
without, did not he make that which is within also ?" But both
of these parts of man, or each of this twofold man, we are dis-
tinctly and severally to consider, for both have that in them
wliich claim and challenge the deepest intention of our thougiits.
There is the outward man which the Scripture speaks of, but
under the notion of a tabernacle, the outward case or frame of
man, (as 1 may so speak,) a thing whereof he is capable of be-
ing divested, and which may be laid aside. *' I must shortly
put oft" this tabernacle," saith the apostle 2 Peter 1. 14.
He speaks of a going forth, an exodus, as out of his house, out
of his dwelling — "the earthly house of this tabernacle." So
it is called 2 Cor. 5. 1. "For we know that if the earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God,
a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens :" there-
fore, called a tabernacle, because it is designed but for a tem-
porary and very short abode and residence that we are to have
in it; in comparison whereof, the future residence of holy and
l^ood souls, is spoken of imder the name of a " mansion," in
John 14. and in Luke 16. " everlasting habitations ;" these are
but very temporary ones. But though they are so, yet their
present frame and structure doth challenge a very serious, and
reverend, and adoring contemplation ; whether we look upon
the grosser, or more bulky part of this structure orfrairac; or
whether we consider that which is more latent, less obvious
unto common notice. If we consider the grosser part of this
structure, or tabernacle, either in the whole of it, or by parts,
how admirable a thing is the composition of a man, even of the
outward man, tliis exterior part of man ! Such, as claims to
have such things said of it, as we find, Job 10. 10, 1 1. "Hast
thou not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced
me with bones and sinews. Thou hast granted me life and
favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit." All being
prefaced with tiiis, "Thy hands have made me, and fashioned
me together round about, yet thou dost destroy me ;" he then
seeming, as if he were all of a sudden about to ruin, and throw
back into dust again, his own excellent and so curious work:
and of how great excellency is it, according to the account that
these words give us, and according to that too which we have
Psalm 13i>. 1.3, 14. " Thou hast possessed my reins; and co-
vered me In my mother's womb. I will praise thee ; for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made : marvellous are thy works ; and
that my soul knowcth right well. My substance was not hid
fromthec;, when I v.'as made in secret, and curiously wrought iir
LEC. XVI.) The Creation of 3Ian. 2^1
the lowest parts of the eartii. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being imperfect, when all lay yet in a rough creation ; an*l
in thy book were all my members written, (or in the idea of the
Divine Mind) whicii in continuance were fashioned, when as
yet there was none of them." J'hey were all fixedly formed ia
the mind of God, while as yet there was nothing brought fortli
into actual being, so that, this was the etfcctof the wisdom of a
God, this exterior frame of man, so contrived with so exquisite
order, every thing belonging to it, in so apt subserviency to the
several uses and purposes for which it was originally designed.
Here is that which a pagan calls ars Dei, a divine art, tlieart
of God himself, in this structure or frame, a fabric composed
and made up all of nnracles ; if we consider the elegancy and
curiosity of the whole, and if we consider how the several })arts
were equally made to serve, both for use and comeliness : so that
of all the wonders in the world, I know no greater wonder than
tliis, that man himself, a creature so capable of consideration
and thought, should ever liave thought it possible, any of them,
that there should be such a production as this without design ;
as if it were a casual, an unintended thing, that there should be
so many severals in this composition and frame of man, but
never intended for the uses and purposes for which they so ma-
nifestly and peculiarly serve. How stupid a creature is man be-
come, that he is willing to admit even the greatest absurdity,
rather than to admit God into his thoughts.
If we look into this frame; (though I can but touch upon
things, and it is hard to know where to touch upon so great a
multitude of things both observable and admirable at once,) if
we should consider the aptness of the several parts that are in
common use for the several offices and functions which they
perform ; if we consider what is external ; if we consider what
is internal ; if we consider what is ornamental in our frame;
how full of the highest and clearest judications of the greatest
wisdom that can be conceived 1 There are, belonging to this
frame of ours, the organs of the several senses, which do give
so many advantages to such a creature as man is : every sense,
or sort of sense, it hath its ccnsorium inlaid in this frame;
the things that are necessary unto feeling, and necessary unto
touch, and necessary unto smell, and necessary unto hearing,
and necessary unto sight. All these organs d.o belong to the
outward man ; though the sentient be somewhat diverse and
distinct, from this outward and external frame : for it is not the
eye itself that sees, but the soul in the eye ; nor. the ear itself
that hears, but the same soul in the ear ; and so as to all the
rest of the senses too ; which we all know, if that soul were
292 THE PRlxNClPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
dislodged, and retired, and gone, could no more see, or hear,
or touch or taste, than a stone : but the aptness of these se-
veral organs for their several uses and purpose*, such a cu-
rious contrivance as that of the eye for the sight, and that of
the tar for the hearing, it would require volumes to unfold and
open these to you.
And then, if we consider that which is more latent, even in
tlie outward man itself, not obvious to the notice of any of our
senses, and that is the more spirituous part, in this frame of
man, or the several sorts of spirits. I do not now speak of his
purposes, and without which it were impossible that any of
these operations could be performed, vvhich do belong to the
nature of man in this present state. There are the elementary
spirits that are to be found in it, and that are common to it,
with the inanimate part of the world. As there is no sort of
body conceivable, in vvhich we may not also conceive some-
what or other of that which they call elementary spirit. And
then, there is a higher sort of spirit, which serves for vegeta-
tion ; and a higher than that, which serves for sensation •, and
all these, no doubt, some way or other distinguished, though
we are not capable of assigning their differences, otherwise than
from their effects ; but all meeting in the frame of a living
man: one sort of these spirits finer than another; another,
again, finer than that; but undistinguishable by us by any
other way, than only by such indications as the things effected
do speak and hold forth to us. All these things we use con-
tinually ; and we could do nothing vvithout them ; nor be what
we are without them, in this present state. But seldom or
rarely doth it occur to any thought, what they are, or that there
are such things belonging to us, when vvithout them there
could be no motion : they are not things that are self-moving,
(as no matter can,) yet they are things by which that which
hath the power of motion in itself, doth perform such and
such kinds of motions as are necessary in this frame of ours.
If we should consider the several things which are thus
used : as all the muscles in the body of a man, reckoned to
be about four hundred and thirty, without which, and without
the spirits that do move them, the man were a mere trunk, a
dead trunk ; so many several sorts of muscles to turn that one
member of ours, the eye,this way and that way, and the several
agitations of spirits that must be the continual spring of all these
motions. How quickly do we turn our eye this way, that way,
upward, downward, and never consider what turns it about us,
without which no such motion could be performed.
It" we think of all this, what cause have we to break out often
LEG. XVI.) The Creation of Man. 293
into those same raptures, that we find the Psalmist, herein, ia
ihut last-mentioned j)lace : "How fearfully and wonderfully
am ! made : Tliy works are marvellous, ar.d that my soul
knoweth richt well." And it is a migh<y emphasis that these
words carry in them: "and that my soul knowetli rii^ht well :"
that is, it signifies this to have heen with him a wonted study,
that his mind used to be fixed on the contemplation of it — "my
soul knows it right well;" these are with me beaten tracks,
they are not uncouth or unusual thouglils; these are things
that I think of, over and over again, from day to day." Indeed,
when ar.y one comes to consider the works of God, and parti-
cularly, this work of composing this fabric of our outward man,
they are wondrous; and we must consider them so. If we do
bi glance but one single thought upon this work of God, we
cannot but say, " they are wondrous." But how few of us can
say, " and this my soul knowcth right well :" that it is a thing
to which my thoughts are used;, and which is my continual
work ; I do, from day to day, employ them and keep them in
exercise upon such a thing and subject as this.
Bu^ time, and my own design of speaking as succinctly as is
poss'ble unto the several heads which 1 am to discourse of, al-
low Hie not furthe- to insist on this same outward man.
We are to look yet further: and when we have taken some
view of the habitation, to consider the inhabitant, that thing in
man called mind and spirit; spirit in a higher and nobler sense
than we used tlmt application before. According to the exte-
rior part of man, that you have heard of, he is called Adam, a
composition of earth, of red earth, as that word signifies, or out
of the dust of the ground; tliat earth pulverized, reduced to
the finest particles, according as moic or less, so they were
ca[jable of being wrouirht into that curious contexture which
their great Maker did design : hereupon man is said to be thus
made. He hatli the denomination there, first from his outward,
more visible and observable part ; this is the creature w hicli
appeared first to come under notice and view, upon this stage
of this lower world. There was nothing perceivable of him,
but this exterior frame that was called man : he hath that de-
nomination Quoad ajyparentiam, in respect to what he did
appear, and was obvious to common notice, or that might be
in such creatures obvious to the notice of one another, the first
notice. It could only, in that respect, be said, that God made
man of the clay or dust of the ground; that is, what of man was
capable of being made out of matter, was made out of such, or
out of that matter.
But you have afterwards, a further account of this creature.
291 TKR 1»RINCIPLES OF THK ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
in the 2nd chap, of Genesis and at tlie "Jth verse; that " God
did breatlie into him the breath of life, and he became a living
soul." The outward man carried the name of man before; but
ijovv we are given to understand there was a nobler thing be-
longing to this frame and comjiosition of man, which admits
that he should be called "a living soul," from that breath of life,
which it is said God breathed into him, that breath of life. It is
as significant an expression as we could have in words, or that
words could furnish us with, of vital spirit, a living spirit, that
is the principal thing in man. And so, now, he hath the de-
nomination, Quond rem as he had it Quoad appareiiliam be-
fore. Before, he was denominated according to his appear-
ance : so man was said to be made of the dust of the ground :
now he hath his denomination according to what he is in re-
ality ; a living soul being breathed into him, as vital breath, from
God himself, most immediately.
And here we are to stay our thoughts a little, and consider
what this is. It is to be ki\own, (as all essences are,) but by
certain properties that do speak tliemselves in such and such
peculiar effects, and so tell us what the cause must be from
whence such eftccts do proceed. It is plain, that this same
soul of man must be a substantial being; otherwise, it were ne-
ver capable of such actiuns and effects as we manifestly find do
belong to us, and are wrought by us. Now if we do consider
them severally,
I. That which is fundamental of all other, is, that it mani-
festly appears to be a vital thing; the spirit of man is distin-
guished by vitality, by being essentially vital. It is very true,
in<leed, that these bodies of ours, as long as the soul inhabits
them, live too, have life in them : but I pray consider, what is
so very "obvious, the difference of tliat life, from what we must
understand and conceive to be the life of our spirits. We know
the body of man so lives, as that it doth not constantly live, it
dotli not always live; and so life doth not belong to it essentially;
life is separable from it. The body of man, it can be killed ; it
is capable of losing its life, and so its life is but a derived and
a borrowed thing from somewhat else. Spirit hath life radi-
cally in itself. For we must conceive the spirit of a man, this
breath of life (as the learned languages, hebrew, greek, and
latin, have no word for spirit but that which signifies breath,)
I say this spirit, or breath of life, is, in itself, vital, so as that
unto it, to be, and to live, is all one. The body may be, and
not live ; (as I told you) life is separable from it; but the spi-
rit, the soul, while it is, it always lives, its being and its life are
not capable of being parted from one another, as it is in the
j-Ec. XVI.) The Creation of 3Iaiu 295
life of the body. And so it is from that life, that the life
which is in the outward man is derived, and transmitted in
all the several parts of that body that do partake of life. And
then,
2. Next to life, (which is fundamental and indeed of ]art,^cr
extent, and not so distinguishing,) there is intellect ; theie is a
power of understanding that belongs to the spirit of a man, by
which his spirit is a thing capable of thought, or doth consist
in a thinking power, a continual source or spring of thoughts ;
80 that if we never so continually attend ourselves, we cannot
find ourselves not thinking : there is a perpetual forge of
thoughts, from whence they fly and spring up, as sparks from
this or tliat fiery substance, and never cease to do so. And
within that compass of intellect, lies not only power of forming
thoughts, but of connecting thoughts ; of aliirming one thing
tliat we think, of another thing that we think; and the power
of deducing thoughts from other thoughts, of inferring some
thoughts from former thoughts ; that is, that because I think
so and so, therefore, I consequently think so and so too ; some
thoughts having a dependance upon other foregoing thouglits :
and a power of ranging thoughts, of methodizing tiioughts, of
putting thoughts into a frame and order, according to that re-
lation which they mutually bear to one another.
And this, shews this same thing called spirit or mind in man
to be, not only a substance, but a substance quite of another
kind from this outward n)an of ours, that is made up of matter,
though there be things belonging to this frame, never so fine,
and did require never so high purity of matter ; yet plain it is,
that the spirit, that is in man, must be somewhat of a quite dif-
ferent nature ; inasmuch as there is nothing of matter, whether
gross or never so fine, that is capable of a thinking power : for
you can no more discern a tendency of a power ol" thinking in
a flame of fire, than you do in a piece of clay ; a fianie of fiie is
nothing more rational, nothing more capable of understanding,
than a log or a stone ; and therefore, whatsoever hath the power
of thought belonging to it, must be a being of quite another na-
ture and kind, from any thing of matter, be it never so fine, ne-
ver bO pure ; there being no property at all belonging to matter,
that Ijath any possibility of contributing to such a thing as
thought — neither figure, nor the size, nor the motion, nor the
connexion of parts one to another. It is altogether an unima-
ginable thing, that a piece of matter, be it never so small,
should be more capable of thought for being of such a figure,
or less capable of thought for being of such a one : that if it be
square it canuot think; if it be round, then, it ca.'inoi. thip.k.;.
296 TEIE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
if it be of a less particle, then, it can think ; if it be a greater,
then it cannot think : if such ;ind such particles be separated
one from another, then they cannot think; if they be put to-
gether they can. No reasonable understanding can imagine
any contribution in these things unto the act of thinking. And
the motion of so many parts can contribute as little and no more
than so. A heap of sand lying still, can be capable of no
thought ; and if it be agitated, never so much, it will be as
little capal)]e : therefore, nothing is plainer than, that this pro-
perty of the mind or spirit of man ; that is, intellect or the
power of thought, or thinking, doth speak tliis spirit, or mind
of man, to be quite a diverse thing from all the matter that be-
longs to t'lie outward man ; even from every thing of the out-
ward man ; that the inward and the outward man must be quite
diverse ordiifercnt things. And then,
3. There is the power of will or choice, belonging to this
inward man, the mind and spirit within us, by which we are
capable of determining concerning our own actions ; of choos-
ing or refusing, of resolving to do so and so; of resolving not
to do so ; or resolving to do the contrary : a strange power, and
of vast extent, that doth distinguish and belong to the spirit of
man, and through which this soul and spirit of man come to
have that double capacity, to wit, of duty and felicity. I were
capable of neither of these, if it were not for that elective
power, and consequently upon the intellective, by which 1 am
capable of choosing my own actions, and the objects upon
which they are to be employed. I speak now of tlie original
capacity belonging to the spirit and mind of man, not consi-
dering, at present, the impairment or diminution thereof, by
the apostasy : of which there may be occasion to speak in
the proper place, and season, when it may come in our way.
But it is the same faculty or property of the mind or spirit of
man, to wit, the power of election and choice, that makes him
the subject both of duty and felicity. He were never capable
of duty, if it were not for this ; nor capable of felicity, otherwise
than by this; as he is a creature obliged by the law of duty,
and capal)le of being rewarded and remunerated by felicity.
This is the thing inferred by the power and faculty in man,
the power of volition, depending upon that understanding or
cogitative power, which you have heard of before; though
some take that term of cogitation to extend so far as to take
this in too. But we are not considering of words now. And
then,
4. There is the executive power, by which we reduce into
act, these purposes and intendments of ours; a oiraisL;'.; sort of
JLEc XVI.) The Creation of Man. 297
power; that is, being directly under the dominion and govern-
ment of that former power, the power of choosing ; that is, be-
cause we will do so and so ; and so choose we to go to such
a place; or we stay and move not: we move this and that
member, or we restrain that motion. If we will, we can move
our whole frame with very great facility ; or else if we will not,
it is very difficult to move it. That 1 can by the notice, by
the command of my will, make my whole bodily frame so easily
move to this or that place, which without that empire or com-
manding act of my will, it would give so much difficulty and
trouble to others to do. And 1 move it myself niiUo conatiiy
nullo negotio, upon the matter, I make nothing of it, I do it
with ease. This is a power that we continually use; but we
rery seldom reflect upon it, that we have such an ability belong-
ing to our natures, and even to the very nature of our spirits,
the soul within, by which to move to and fro, these members of
our body, as from time to time we do. And,
5. There is belonging, as very peculiar, (and some think
it is most of all peculiar,) to the mind and spirit of man, the
capacity of religion, of which the brute creature Is altogether
uncapable: some think this more diffitirencing of man than rea-
son itself. It is a very dubitable and disputable matter, v.he-
ther there be not that very thing in many creatures, that are
reckoned brutes only, that we call reason. But concerning this,
religion, the matter is out of all question and doubt, tliat it
belongs, most peculiarly, to the mind and spirit of man ; that
is, the capacity of acknowledging a Divine Being, the Author
of our being, and of reverencing and adoring that Being ac-
cordingly ; that power by which I do suspicere mimen, by
which I consider a Being above me, the Author of my being,
and of all beings, and of any disposition in me to pay a reve-
rence and adoration to that sovereign and supreme Being there-
upon. And,
6. Lastly, there Is belonging to this spirit of man, (as pecu-
liar and distinguishing too,) the power of governing the infe-
rior faculties ; the power of governing sensitive appetites and
passions; and even, in very great part, the acts of the ext trior
senses : I say, in very great part — there will be some involun-
tary actions ; but how far the natural power of man did jierein
originally extend, we are not in this state of our apostasy capa-
ble of knowing now. But undoubtedly, <vhen man was himself
in his innocent and instituted state, and where the Inferior na-
ture was held in direct subordination to the supeiior, as there
were then no undue thoughts, so neither were there any un-
due motions of an inferior nature itself, but what were certainly
VOL. VII. 2 Q
298 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PARTII,
commandable and kept within due limits. And this empire
did belong to the mind and spirit of man, to govern and con-
duct all the inferior appetitions and affections, and all the ex-
ternal actions, so as they should move or not move, be done or
not be done, as to that governing wisdom seated on the throne,
in the mind of man, did seem meet.
Of this tiiere will be more occasion to speak when we come
to the latter particular in the text ; to wit, <' that in the image
of God made he man :" when we come to treat of the norma
and pattern of this great divine work. But upon what hath
been said, thus far, concerning the product, the thing pro-
duced, man : surely our thoughts cannot but reproach us that
they arc so seldom employed upon so important a subject, and
that lies so very near us : for what can be so near us as our-
selves ? Tliat we can have our eyes round about us, like the
eyes of the fool in the end of the earth, and so seldom find time
and room for any such thing as self-contemplation,
LECTURE XVII.*
Whereas, in the former discourse, we told you, that it is im-
possible that the spirit of a man, this inward man, can have
been made of matter, so neither can it be made of spirit, for
spirit is not a partible thing. If any should suppose it to be
made of created spirit, it is as good to suppose it made imme-
diately out of nothing, as any former created spirit ; for the
necessity will recur of referring this production, at length, to
that special kind; to wit, of making a thing out of nothing.
But for its being made of the uncreated spirit, God himself,
that would be to make the Divine Essence a divisible thing, a
partible thing, as if there were parts capable of being severed
from parts belonging to the same essence of God. And there-
fore, tliougli among some of your heathens, (your stoics parti-
cularly) there have been those high hyperbolical expressions of
men's being parts and members of the GoAhe^di^ Des partes
sumufi et membra, as Seneca's expression is : and that cele-
brated stoic speaks softly enough indeed of the soul's being
divines particuia aurce, the soul should be a particle of divine
breath; these are expressions allowable enough as high rheto-
rical strains, but not as expressions of rigid truth, by any means.
If, therefore, the spirit of man were neither- made of matter,
nor of spirit, it must have been made out of nothing. And so
* rreacbed January 0, l6g4.
LECXvii.) The Oreation of Man, L'OU
in reference to this part of the product, the effect, the thing
produced, man, that must needs be by most immediate cre-
ation in the strictest and most proper sense.
As for the question, "Whether that these souls were made
at once, or whether made successively just then, when put
into a state of union with these bodies ?" is a thing altogether
unfit for us to concern ourselves about; it being, indeed, such
a thing as divine Revelation hath given no determination toj
and such a thing as no Imman investigation can ever be able to
make a determination of, one way or other; we must be con-
tent to be ignorant where God hath drawn a veil over things,
and not brought them into any kind of light that we can dis-
cern them by.
And then, for the completing of this production or produc-
tive act, we are to consider, (as comprehended in it) the union
that is brought about between these two parts, the outward
man and the inward man, without which there could not be
one product considerable in the case : for when we speak of
God's making man, (as this text doth,) the meaning cannot be
barely, that he made a body for him out of the eaith, and that
he made a soul for him out of nothing; the production of
these two pans will not amount to the making of a man, unless
these two parts be united and brought together, so that of both
to compass and make one thing : a man is not created till
then, not made till then. And most plain it is, that this union.
it was made, at first, by God himself immediately, without the
co-operation of any second cause. But it is in the after pro-
ductions, brought about in a settled way and course of nature,
in which, yet, we cannot say that man's being produced, doth
consist in the making of his body, or the making of his soul ;
but in the union of the one with the other. There is not a
man produced till then ; till these two parts, being produced,
are brought together. But they are not brought together in
union in the same way as they v^ere at first : for at first it was
by God's own immediate pperat'on ; but he hath now settled
the course of nature wherein all following productions are
brought about. But yet, still it is his work; otherwise, man
which was God's creature at first, would cease to be God's
creature, if he were not still the Maker. Now concerning this
union we have this to say :
1. That it doth not confound the parts united, one with
another ; for the body is a body still, and not a spirit : and
the spirit is a spirit still, and not a body. These parts do re-
main distinct in the union : there is no confusion of them in
the case, nor identification ; as if the nature of the one were
300 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
lost and swallowed up, in the nature of the other. But the
body continues to have all the properties of a body ; and the
spirit continues to have all the properties of a spirit; the pro-
perties of the one are not communicated to the other. It is
not the body that thinks, nor the spirit that grows ; or the
like, but these particular distinguishing actions proceed, that
are proper to the one and the other, they remain unto each.
But,
2. We have further to say, concerning this union, that,
though under it the parts remain distinct, and are not con-
founded one with another, yet they are most intimately united;
though it does not identify them, nor confound them, yet is this
union a most close union, a most inward union, so as not to be
ordinarily separable by any means that shall not discompose
the recipient herein, that it shall be no longer naturally capa-
ble of being ; so the soul cannot but stay there : and when it
ceaseth to be capable of being the apt recipient of the soul,
the soul can no longer stay; it is, therefore, a roost intimate
union ; and a most marvellous one ; and one of the greatest
mysteries in all the creation of God; considering the vast dif-
ference that there is between these two natures, a piece of clay,
and a mind ; that these two should be so united together,
that so long as the one remains naturally susceptible of the
other, they can by no means be parted, they cannot be separa-
ted, while the crasis of the body remains entire. It is one of
the greatest miracles in all the great creation of God ; that is,
that when this mind of mine, this spirit, is loose from all matter
besides, 1 can move myself from this place, or that, as 1 will ;
I cannot yet, by any means, from this body of mine: to this
piece of matter I am tied and fixed : and though this soul of
mine be an elective and voluntary agent, and I do things elec-
tively, and at choice, I cannot at my own choice take myself
out of this body of mine, to separate it from my soul ; but whi-
ther ever I have a mind to go, it follows me, and goes with me,
and cleaves with me; 1 canncV shake it off while the crasis
lasts." This is a thing whereon the wisdom of the Creator hath
infinitely outwitted us, and gone beyond us. We know not
what hath tied this knot, this knot of man, made of these two
parts, that are so little of kin, as dust and spirit are to one ano-
ther, yet so to adhere to one another, as that they cannot be
severed by any art, or any power, as long as the crasis, or whole
constitution lasts, so as this mind or spirit can go out and come
in at pleasure. Let it be considered, for it is one of the deep-
est mysteries of divine wisdom in all the creation of God. A
gijeat wonder it is in itself; and really, it is not a less wonder
XEc. XVII.) The Creation of Man, SGI
that it should be so little considered, that man, that hath such
a thing as this belonging to his nature, a union of two such, so
disagreeable parts, should so seldom reflect upon it, so seldom
allow himself to contemplate and look into the mystery of his
own composition.
But now, to go on to the Use of this former part — God made
man : here are but a few words. But it is a vast improvement
that they are capable of, if we would give our thoughts scope ;
and if it might please the Divine Spirit to concur and fall in
with his own word. Here lies before us the foundation, laid
bare and open to view, of the whole law of nature: that which
we call the law of nature herein, it hath its foundation even in
this — God made man. It results but from the nature of God,
and the nature of man compared together, or with one another;
the nature of the Creator and the nature of the creature, this
creature, such a creature. Inferior creatures are not govern-
able by a law; it is an intelligent, voluntary subject that alone is
capable of being so governed. And inasmuch as God is the
most perfect intellectual Being, and our Creator, and we are
intellectual beings too, and his creatures, hence results upon us
the obligation of that law which is called "the law of na-
ture ;" and may justly be so called, or which otherwise may be
called "the law of our creation.'* Take that in the general.
But to be here a little more particular, there are these several
things to be learned even from hence — that God made man.
As,
1. Is God indeed our Maker ? Then certainly there ought to
be in us a most thirsty, longing desire to know him, as far as our
minds are capable of knowing him. For w^hat ! Can I be content
to be ignorant who it is that made me ? Indeed, there cannot
be a higher and more notorious violation of the law of our na-
ture, or creation, to be willingly ignorant of that God that made
me, and gave me being. But how dismal a thing is it, that
•we should so generally need to be taught how to answer the
very first question that we are wont to ask our children : " Who
made you ?" I hope you are wont to do it ; Ciod knows how it
is ; but I hope it is your wont and use to ask your children,
"Who made you ?" But pray let us consider. Do we not need
to be taught ourselves, what we pretend to teach our children,
" who made us?" When you would teach your children so much,
do you mean that they should repeat the words and no more ? Is
it not your meaning, that you would have them understand
who made them ? Is it not your meaning that they should ha^'e
some notion in their minds of him that made them ? If we had
so, and a true, right, correspondent notion, O ! how mightily
302 THE rRlN:CIPLteS OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART II.
impressive would that very thought be upon our souls ; how
would it strike tlsrough (til our powers, for ourselves to answer
that question, " Who made us ?" He that is infinitely beyond
all tiiought, beyond all conception, declare his name, or his
Son's name, if thou canst tell : as it is said unto Ithiel and
Ucal, Prov. 30. 4. Into what an amazement should it put us
to consider, what answer we shoulu put to this question, " Who
made us ?" Into how profound thinking should it cast our
n\inds ? Into how deep thoughts ? Out of how vast and im-
mense a fulness and plenitude of life, and being, and power,
we did spring ? That vast plenitude, that abyss of being,
that answers the question, '' Who made me ?" He made me,
that is the infinite fuhiess of all being, and of all life, and of
all excellency, and of all perfection : and shall not I covet to
know him ? At the same time that I acknowledge him incom-
prehensible, I must look upofi the knowledge of him as most
desirable, the most desirable of all knowledge.
And therefore, it speaks a most horrid degeneracy (as there
will i)e occasion more directly to take notice of hereafter) of
this thinking part of man, his mind and spirit, that it can think
of so many thousands of things, and covet to know them, affect
to know them, but not afi'ect to know the Author of its own
being, of its own life, and of all those great powers and facul-
ties that he hath furnished the reasonable, intelligent nature
with; ''They liked not to retain God in their knowledge."
Rom. 1. 23. They did not approve of it : that is the import
of the word : a strange thing that this matter being proposed to
God's own creature, and a creature capable of thought and un-
derstanding. Hast thou a mind to know God, to understand
him that gave thee being ? No, I do not approve of it. They
approved not to retain God in their knowledge; there was a
secret dislike and disaffection; "an alienation from the life of
God," as it is expressed, Ephes. 4. 18. " and this they are
willingly ignorant of," (saith the apostle Peter 2 epis. 3. 5.)
" that the world was made at first by the word of God, the
earth standing out of the waters and in the waters. Of this
they were willingly ignorant." This matter, it lay hid from'
them, being very willing that it should : that is the import of
the expression the Spirit of God makes use of there. It lies
hid from them, being willing of it. What lies hid? That this
world had a creation ; of this they arc willing to be ignorant;
and so, consequently; that they had a creation. They desire
not the knowledge of it ; they say to God, "Depart from us,
we desire not the knowledge of thee." Job 21 . 14. Here is di-
vine light and glory shining every where through this world; but
i.Lc. XVII.) The Creation of Jf/m. 303
we choose rather to dwell in the dark as to this thinc^. ** 'i'he
light shineth in darkness, but the darkness coniprehcndet!\
it not;" receives it not, would exclude and shut out that
light : a voluntary darkness; as if that darkness should enter-
tain thoughts and communings with itself; as if there should
be an agreement among the several clouds of that darkness ;
** Come, lot us collect and gather together thick about such
and such m.inds, to fence them against the beams of such
light ;" this mind is self-collecting, and gathering these clouds,
drawing them in, inwrapping itself in them ; " O ! let us not
know God, though he made us ; God made me and yet I will
not know him." O ! unnatural thing ; most monstrously un-
natural.
Even so it is with men in their distresses, when nature itself
would dictate to them, " O cry to him to give thee help who
hath given thee being." Do but observe that, Job 35. 10.
*' They cry by reason of oppression of the mighty ; but none
saith. Where is God my Maker." An amazing tiling that men
in their distress will many times cry to rocks and stones but
not say, "Where is God my Maker?" Cry to rocks and moun-
tains, (as they will at last) but lift up no cry to heaven, *' Lord
I would fain know thee, manifest thyself to me in this my dis-
tress." No, men will perish under their burdens rather than
do it : such is the disaffected temper of men's minds towards
God. Indeed, for ease and relief they will cry, but not for
God, or say, "I want to know God;" that is none of their
sense. "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God, when
shall I come and appear before God ?" Nothing more remote
from the minds and hearts of men than this sense. And yet,
it is not understood, what they are incurring of guilt and mi-
sery, by this neglect of getting their minds furnislied and en-
riched with the knowledge of him that made them, it is not con-
sidered what lies upon it. *' It is eternal life to know thee the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." And if
these two be necessary (as we find in that John 17-3.) If both
these, I say, be necessary, how fearful a case is it, if we cannot
get men over the first, or to the first, which is more natural.
But the knowledge of the true God, that lies within the com-
pass of the sphere of nature, that belongs to natural religion.
And a compliance v.ith the divine pleasure in this, to wit, set.'k-
ing to know him, belongs to the law of nature, by the first and
primary obligation of ihat lav/ upon us. At what a distance
are their souls then, from blessedness and eternal life, that when
it Is " eternal life to know the only true God and Jesus Cln-ist,
whom he hath sent," we cannot get man to the ^rst. N<i,
304 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTII,
they are content to be all their days ignorant of God ; yea,
though he be a Father to them.
O ! strange prodigy of unnaturalness ! So you would account
it, if that were the temper of any child, that he did disaffect to
converse with, or take any knowledge of, his own father. But
this is the peculiar relation between God and men. He is a
Father to them, a Father upon a natural account ; as he hath
been the immediate Creator of their spirits. And therefore,
when Cluist's line is run up to the highest, you find it run up to
Adam — " Who was the Son of Adam :" and then by Adam it
is run up to God — " Who was the Son of God," Luke 3. 38.
and upon that account it is that we are said to be *'his off-
spring," in that Acts 17. 28. An expression that the apostle
borrows from a celebrated poet of their own, a certain astrono-
mical poet, who was highly in vogue with that people, or with
the philosophers of that place ; that university at that time.
One of your own poets tells us '' we are his offspring." Man
is the creatine of God : but with very great peculiarity. He
hath many creatures besides. All the inferior universe are his
creatures too : but among all, man only is the son ; that is,
there is none below him to whom that title is ever given of
being his son. " And shall we not be subject to the Father of
spirits and live ?"
Besides this supernatural ground of this relation of Father
and Son between God and the spirits of men : 1 say, besides
the supernatural ground of it in regeneration, it hath its natu-
ral ground. And you will see more of it when we come to
consider the Second Part — Man's being created after God's
image : for if we speak of human productions, a man makes
many things himself, yet what things he makes they are of a
different nature from himself; but whatsoever he begets is of
the same nature, of a like nature with his own. Human na-
ture can make many things, make houses, make garments, but
they have nothing of a similitude or agreement of nature with
the maker. But it is this peculiar sort of production that gives
foundation to the relation of father and son, even that which
makes the product to be of the same nature and kind, or of an
agreeable nature to the productive cause. If man be the son
of God, then he must be an intelligent being, as He is. And
this is the state of things between God and men; and yet
they do not know it, and choose not to know it, are vvillingly
ignorant of it. The matter is upon account plain, that their
ignorance of God is voluntary ; for that it is evident, it is not
necessary; that is, they do not live ignorant of God because he
cannot be known: for his glory shines every .where. There is
tEC. XVII.) The Creation of Man. SOS
not the meanest creature but proclaims Deity to every one who
will attend : there is not the most despical)le pile of grass, or
grain of sand, or any such thing, that will not make an argu-
ment to us of Deity, tiiat cannot fail but be most cogent and
unansweral)le. For take but one single pile of giass, one single
grain of sand, and here is a real something ; that is plain. But is
it a thing that came into being of itself? Is this pile of grass, or
grain of sand, a self-subsisting thing? No, by no means; no
reasonable thought can imagine that, that it can be a self sub-
sisting thing : for then it would have more perfection in it than
all the world hatii besides, that did not make itself, or come
into being of itself : then it owes itself to a maker, and so we
are unavoidably led to God. If you but so much asset yourself
to contemplate a grain of sand, or a pile of grass, follow the
train of your own thoughts but a little way and yon are led to
God, whether you vvill or no: this is either something or no-
thing; I find it to be a real something: weli, but what is it ? a
thing that subsisted of itself? No, by no means; far then it
would have all the perfections, all the excellencies of the uni-
verse in it ; and infinitely more; this grain of sand, and pile
of grass, would have more excellency in it than all, the world:
for it is plain, that this world did not make itself ; why then
we must refer it to the Maker ; and so you are led to God, whe-
ther you will or no, by so mean a thing.
Therefore, I say, men's ignorance of God is not necessary ;
because they cannot know him : it must, therefore, be volun-
tary, because they are willingly ignorant of him. And the
more plainly so, because, whereas they have a sufficient demon-
stration of the being of a God, even in the meanest creature,
they have a more abundant demonstration in themselves, and
from themselves. If a grain of sand, or pile of grass, will provQ
a creature and a Deity to me, how much more must i myself
who know I did not make myself. I know I cainC; into being
so many years ago : so that this work of giving an answer to
this question " Who made you? ' doth not lie remote : i do not
need to fly up into heaven, or go down into the depth of the
earth, or to cross the seas, for an ansv/er to it; but only look
into myself The word is nigh me, in my mind, ;md in my
mouth; ifl will allow that to speak my mind: I liave in me
these powers, these faculties, that nature, that most expressly
represent God to me. M find myself a creature that can use
thoughts ; I find I have a power in me of laying designs of
forming projects, of foreseeing tliings, of comparing thought
with thought, of inferring and deducing one thought from aiio-
VOL, VII. 2 R
306 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OK GOD. (PART ll«
ther. How manifestly doth all this lead me to God, the per-
fectly intellectual Being !
Therefore, it is the most amazing thing, that our thoughts
can reflect upon, that there should be such an indisposition and
averseness in us to know him that made us. God made man ;
but man will not know God, though he be not a Creator, at
large, only to him, but a Father ; and man, in respect of his soul
and spirit, his very offspring, he being the Father of spirits :
upon the account whereof, pagans themselves have been wont
to speak of God, as the paternal Mind, Father of all minds,
and of all spirits, as some of them by the light that shone, even
to them, could not avoid to see and say.
There is but one thing that leads to many more parts of the
law of nature, and our condition which results in all the seve-
ral parts of it, from the collation and putting together these
two things — God and man : man being considered as the thing
made, and God as his Maker ; God made man. Sure, I say,
in the first place, nothing can be more reasonable, and suitable
to this state of the case, than that man should have a mighty
thirst to know God, to know him that made him. One would
think it should be an uneasy state of the spirit of man, to be
in any such ignorance of God as should proceed from neglect :
to be ignorant of God by neglect, by not caring to know him,
by not concerning one's self to have that knowledge, that
should be the uneasiest thing in all the world to the spirit, to
be capable to have that said to him, " So many years thou
hast lived in the world, lived in the flesh, a tabernacle that thy
Creator and Maker hath framed for thee, and put thee into it,
and all this while thou hast not cared to know him, nor con-
cerned thyself to get any acquaintance with him." It very
much becomes^and concerns us to covet to know him. It is a
very unnatural thing to be content to be ignorant of him that
made us; but not to be willing to know him, that is much worse.
But now,
LECTURE XVIII.*
2. We may hence collect, that our constant, grateful adora-
tion of God, is a most reasonable duty incumbent upon all of
us. Nothing is more deeply fundamenftil in the law of our cre-
ation, than the law of vvorship. " Let us come and bow down,
and kneel before the Lord our Maker." It is a joyful homage
* Preached January 13, 1694-,
LEC. xvin.) The Creation of Man. S07
that is claimed unto him on this account, the most complacen-
tial adoration. " Let us come before him with thanksgiving: it
is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves." Indeed, n. th-
ing can be more reasonable hereupon, than those two great parts
of natural worship, to wit, supplication and ihanksgiving.
Supplication ; Should not a people seek unto their God ? Did
he make us ? did he give us being ? from whom else are we to
expect all the good we need? He that bath given us being;
all the accessories of being are to be looked for only from him.
And thanksgiving ; these two parts of natural worship, are
complicated in one another; in the institution of them, as they
are in the reason of them, and root of them. "Let your re-
quests and supplications be always made to him, witii thanks-
giving," as in divers texts of Scripture, wliich I might refer
you to, and even upon that account, that he hath given us our
very being itself, which is the fundamental unto ail other good
that we are any way capable of, that he hath given us being of
such a kind. So God made man.
We should consider what is involved in the nature of man,
and so bethink ourselves what we have to bless God for : that is,
the primitive nature wiiich God gave man at first, or where-
with he made him, every thing that he made was good, and so
was that more excellently good. It is storied concerning Plato,
a heathen, that dying, he gave God solemn thanks for three
things : " That he made him a man, and not a brute; that he
had made him a Grecian and not a barbarian, (there being much
more light among them in his time, than with the rest of the
world, to wit, the light of philosophy and cultivated reason ;)
and the third was, because he had ordered it so that he should
live in Socrates' days, who was reckoned so great a luminary in
that part of the world among them, while yet they were over-
spread with paganism." O ! how awfully should we adore
God that he hath given us a being ; that he hath given us ra-
tional, intelligent natures, capable of knowing and enjoying so
great things ! that he hath assigned us our station in such a
part of the world, and where we have opportunity to know
a greater One than Socrates was ! that he hath ordered our
creation in such circumstances as he hath done, in such a time
and such a part of the world ! Nothing is a more equal law
that can be upon us, than that we should have an habitual,
adoring gratitude, possessing our souls upon such accounts.
And, upon the whole, Adoration ! how correspondent a thing
is it to creation ; adoration on our part, unto creation en his
part? How convictive a saying was that celebrated one of
Austen? <*lfl(saith he) were capable of making a reason-
SOS THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
able creature to stand forth out of nothing, endowed with the
power of reason and understanding, the first thing sure that I
should expect from 1dm would he, that he should fall down
and worship me." In what an unnatural state, then, is this
world upon this account, tjiat being inhabited by so many
reasonable creatures, it is inhabited by so few worshippers !
Again,
3. Another practical deduction from hence, is, that we ought
to live in a continual dependance on him that made us. 80
God made man. Hath he made us, and will not we depend
upon him ? trust in him ? This is most essential homage due to
our Maker, to place upon him, and exercise toward him, a con-
tinual, vital trust. This is a glory which he will not impart,
but concerning which he is jealous. And, indeed, as to purely
internal worship, this is the first, and most radical of it, trust in
God : and so very natural to an intelligent creature, that I re-
member Philo Indseus hath this expression conceridng it :
"That he is not fit to be called a man, that hath not in him
hope towards God." He seems to mean it of what is most na-
tural to man, that he is not to be reckoned a man, that doth
not trust in God, and doth not place a hope in him.
Natural dependance is reckoned, consequentively, essential
to a creature; and it is so. A creature is naturally a depend-
ing thing; an explicit dependance, that doth as properly belong
to an intelligent creature, as natura-l dependance doth to all
other creatures. A creature, as such, taken at large, is a mere
dependant upon him that made it. This whole creation is no-
thing else but a thing dependant upon God, upon divine power
and upon divine pleasure ; according to which it was determin-
able, whether it should be, or not be; and according tu which,
it is continually determinable, whether it should continue to be
another moment, yea or no. And so suitable as natural depend-
ance is to a creature, as a creature, so suitable is intellectual de-
pendance to a reasonable creature, as such : that is, that it should
consider its dependant state, and often recount with itself, How
came I to be what I am from moment to moment, when I can-
not promise myself a moment's breath or being ? This is so
appropriate a glory to the Deity, that when trust is supremely
placed any where else, there is a curse pronounced upon it;
*' Cursed be the man that trusteth in man ;" Jer 17.5. for
this is to rob God of his peculiarity ; to place a homage on
the creature, that is most appropriate and peculiar to the Cre-
ator.
But it may be said, In our state of apostasy from God, wliat
room or place is there left for trust in him ?
I.UC. XVIII.) The Creation of Man. 309'
To that I answer, very certain it Is, men are in an apostasy
from God. But are they, therefore, always to continue so? es-
pecially when he is so intent upon a design for their recovery
and reducement; and he insists still upon the right that he
Jiath in his own creature. Because his creature is revolted and
apostatized, and run away from him, hath he, therefore, lost
his right in it ? Jf there be an obligation upon an apostate crea*
ture to return, (and if it were a wicked thing to apostatize at
first, it must needs be an increase of the wickedness, to conti-
nue in that state of apostasy and not to return,) then, wherein
stood our revolt, therein must stand our return. The revolt of
a creature from God in his ai)ostasy, lay in departing from hirai
through " an evil heart of uni>elief;" that it could not trust in
him, did not trust in him ; trusted the tempter and destroyer of
souls, aijainst him. and in opposition to him. And to come out
of a state of apostasy must he by tru«t, if the going in'o the state
of aposia«v was by distrust. But this must be in God's own
prescribed anfl appointed way and method. When once it hath
pleased him to signify the way in which he is pleased to admit
of sinners' return unto him, wherein he hath made the consti-
tuti'in of a Redeemer known, there must be a re'urn in and
tbnujgh him, and trust in God through him : " Ye believe in
G' :), believe also in me." John 14. I. Where this way of
re turning to God. so as to make him the supreme Object of our
t'ust, is not known, there the state of a sinner is less capable of
remedy. But where it is known, it admits of so nnich the
greater and deeper guilt, if yet there be no thoughts of return-
ing, and returning in this very act, by placing again our sur
preme and vital trust upon him who was the first great and
commanding OI>jcct of it ; that did most rightfully command
it, and challenge it, for himself; Shall I have a creature that
shall not trust in me? not make me its all in all ? therefore,
to have our interest in God restored by Jesus Christ, that must
be our great business, who live under the gospel of Christ.
And then, we are to trust in God under that very notion of
the Author of our being, knowing, that because we are apostate
creatures, therefore, that he will never, for our sakes, but he
will, for Christ's sake, do the part of a kind, benign Creator to
us. Our interest in him as Creator being now renewed ; not
lost and swallowed up, but renewed and restored : and there-
fore, is the charge laid upon christians (I Peter 4 1.9.) to
** commit themselves to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful
Creator." His interest in us, as our Creator, was never lost;
our interest in him, as such, was; but being now restored, upon
this restitution, wc are continually to trust m him, and commit
310 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
ourselves unto liim under the same notion of Creator, still. To
comnut ourselves unto him as a faithful Creator, that is, he did
put himself, at first, under obligation (implicitly at least) to his
reasonabJe creatures : " Obey and thou shalt live," shalt be
happy, he freely putting himself under this obligation. But
the creature, upon his revolt, forfeited all his interest in him,
and all right to that promised felicity, which, as an obedient
creature, be might have expected : by Christ this right is re-
stored ; and so God is to be considered now, by such as through
Christ have returned to him, not merely according to the be-
nignity of a Creator, but according to his fidelity also: "com-
mit yourselves to him as a faitiiful Creator," he having resumed
the obligation upon himself to treat such kindly: and he doth
it, not merely from unobUged goodness, but obliged, which the
-notion of faithfulness doth imply. He will be to you a faithful
Creator, if you commit yourselves to him accordingly as such.
And again,
4. Another piece of practice that we may induccj and should
learn, hence, is a constant and most profound humility.
What ! am I a creature ? So God made man : there had never
been any such a thing as man if God had not freely made him.
O! then how deep an impression of humility should this fix upon
our souls 1 What am 1 ? A creature depending upon will and.
pleasure ; it was lately in the power of another, whether I
should be, or not be. A proud creature is a monster in the
creation of God ; the most horrid monster in the creation.
What have I to be proud of, who am of myself nothing, and
should never have been any thing, but by vouchsafement, by
the good- will of another ? It is to that only that I owe it, that
I am any thing.
If one creature have more, or do think he hath more, of real
excellency than another, that, with the whole of his being is all
but a made thing. Thy whole being, whatsoever excellencies
belong to it, either as common to that sort of creature-s to
which thou art annumerated, or more special and peculiar to
itself; if it be any thing, (if it be not merely a concealed thing,)
it is a made thing, as thou art : thou wast made, and it was made,
and it was made to be thine ; but all depending upon will and
pleasure, therefore is pride a most monstrous thing in the cre-
ation of God. The continual sense of all creatures, of any in-
tellectual sense, should be this, " We are all nothing but what
it pleased our Creator we should be. We have nothing but
by his pleasure; our being is a borrowed being: and the ad-
ditions, and all the ornaments that have occurred to it, are
all made things, all borrowed things." Should any one be
LEC. XVIII.) The Creation of Man, 3l'.l
proud of that which he hath borrowed? To wear ornamemts
tliat every one knows were borrowed, and to be proud of thei n,
what a madness is that ? Our very being is a borrowed thin.g,
and all that belongs to it.
When God would humble a creature down into nothiiag,
thereby to make it the capable receptacle of a Deity, a col la-
biting Deity, that with such a one he might dwell, how doth
he magnify himself the higher; " Heaven is my throne, and
earth is my footstool. Isa. 66. 1. All these things have I madi*,
they are all the works of my own hands. Now, if I can find lA
creature sensible of this, to such a one will 1 look, that is of a
poor and contrite spirit, that humbles himself into the dust be-
fore so mighty and glorious a Creator ; with such a one will I
dwell ; he shall be my temple the habitation of a Deity ;" for the
Deity will suffer no diminution in uniting with such a one ; be-
cause that will still be looked upon as the All in all, while
he still looks upon himself as nothing. And,
5. We further learn, hence, the great equity of the law of s( ;]f-
denial ; it is a most deeply natural law ; and when it is m ade
fundamental in Christianity, that is but the revival and re in-
forcement of a natural law: " Except a man deny himself he
cannot be Christ's disciple." Why so, why cannot he be
Christ's disciple ? Pray consider what was Christ's busin ess,
when he was to collect to himself disciples. His business, as a
Redeemer, was to recover apostates back again to God ; and
their discipleship to him, was only to put themselves undei r his
conduct; that under the direction thereof, and through his
mediation, they might return to God and be accepted. The
very design for which a mediator was appointed, shews the ne-
cessity of his insisting upon this law as fundamental to the w hole
frame of Christianity. As if he had said, " My business as a
Redeemer, as Mediator, is to recover and bring back apo; ;tate
souls to their God again. "Wherein were they apostates:' la
that they did set up themselves apart from God, andi'n o| )po-
sition unto God. None can come to me and own me for t heir
Head, and for their Lord, and Intercessor, and Mediator ^ ivith
God, but it must be under this notion ; that is, that they took
upon me as the only One by whom they are to be restored, and
brought back into their primitive state, reduced to God, the
great Author, and consequently the end of all things. ^ \nd
therefore, did Christ, in dying, " redeem us to God by his blo( id."
Rev. 5. 9.
We are not to think, that we were, ourselves, tlie princ ipal
end of Christ's redemption ; tliat would be an injurious and ab-
surd imagination ; to think that the creature was Christ'^ c hief
312 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II*
end, it were a horrid conception. God must be the chief end
of all things ; therefore, the design of Christ's dying was to re-
deem us to God ; to restore back such and such creatures to
God, that the end for which they were made, might be served
upon them. Our interest in him is a secondary tiling ; but
bis interest and right in us was the primary thing. Therefore,
it was impossible to be otherwise, but that Christ's designing-
the redemption and reduction of sinners to God back again,
luust lay this law as fundamental, at the bottom of all that reli-
ffion he was to set up in the world; that is, self denial. " You
jhave lived in a separate state apart from God. If you are weary
of that life, and will come off from yourselves, then you are for
•nie ; then you come under my conduct; I will make your
peace ; 1 will buy it out for you, (and he hath bought it out,)
and procure your acceptance with God, upon your return."
But this can never be, if you have a mind to live separate still,
to stand upon your own bottom, and make self your first and
last:. Noj God must be your first and last ; and he really is
the first and the last. And therefore, " unless any one be wil-
ling' to deny himself, he cannot be my disciple," saith Christ ;
he cannot be a christian under any other notion than as one
that: is now willing that God in all his authority, and greatness,
and excellency, and glory, shall entirely fill up that room which,
before, self had usurped. And therefore,
6', We further learn, hence, how reasonable and necessary a
thing It is to man, as he is a creature, a created thing, to seek
an iiQteresl in, and union with, God, as his highest and best,
good; for of himself he is nothing. That he is any thing (as
liath. been said) did depend upon divine pleasure. Such a one,
if he! do recollect and use thoughts, must needs state his case
thus : " Not only am 1 uncapable of doing any thing towards
my own felicity, but I cannot preserve myself in being one
monoent. What good have I then, but what I must expect from
him that made me ? I have been severed from God, cut off from
God., the great Author of my life and being; I have not, in this
my Separate state, my good in my own hand ; I have not
enoiagh in me to make me a happy creature ; a creature I am;
but I still need to be a happy creature. And when my very
being is not my own, what shall I be able to command for my-
self, or procure for myself, or raise up to myself, within me,
that shall be able to be a felicity or satisfaction to me ?" He
that is nothing of himself, it is the most reasonable and neces-
sary thing to such a t)ne to seek a union with him who is All,
I am in myself nothing; there ought, therefore, to be in me a
projpension towards him who is my Alii My soul ought to in-
LEC. XVIII.) 77ie Creation of Man. 313
cline towards liini, to adhere to him, as its supreme and hest
good ; " Whom have 1 in heaven but thee ? who can I desire on
earth in comparison of thee ?" And,
7. A life of the most al)solute devotedness to God, is the
only righteous way of living ; no man lives a righteous life that
doth not live a devoted life. And what are we to deny our-
selves for, as neither being able to prt)cure a felicitating good
to ourselves, nor as being allowed to design a supj)ly for our-
selves by any interest of our own ? And why are we to deny
ourselves in these respects, but that what we take olFfrom our-
selves, may be immediately placed upon God who is our All ?
As we are to seek a union w^ith God for our real, present sup-
port, and for our final satisfaction, so are we to devote and addict
ourselves to him in order to this service. When we adhere to
him, (according to what was expressed in the foregoing head,)
that refers to our support and satisfaction; when we devote
ourselves to him, that refers to liis service; that we may
serve and glorify him: for that we are to devote ourselves to
him.
And that hath its reason in this too, that we are h"s creatures,
he hath made us : and what did he make us for ? Did he ever
make a creature to be its own end ? He hath made all things
for himself : "Of him, and to him, and through him, are all
things, that he alone might have the glory. Therefore, is our
own created being, (as it is such) our very being itself, a perpe-
tual, standing testimony against us as long as it lasts : if we
live not devoted lives; if he who hath been the Author of our
being, be not the end of it, this very being of mine is a testi-
mony against me ; for what sort of l)eing is it ? Not a self-
sprung being, but a created being : So God made man. I am
a made being; therefore, is my being a testimony against me,
(the kind and nature of it being considered.) i am a con-
tinual testimony against myself, as 1 stand a created thing, de-
pending upon will and pleasure, if I live not a devoted life, so
as my own heart can bear me record, in the sigh.t of God, that
1 do live to God. Being to ask myself the question, (and it is
a shame to us if we do not often ask ourselves the question,)
'' What do I live for ?" what is my business here in this world ?
If I cannot answer it with a sincere conscience, " Lord, thou
that knowest all things, thou knowest that I principally design
to live to thee, and that I reckon my life, and my being, a vain
and a lost thing, otherwise than as it is sacred unto thee : I
continually testify against myself; I should think it living in
vain, to please myself, and to serve an interest of mine own,
when I have not a moment to command, but depend upon. the
VOL. VII. 2 ?
314 THE I'llINCIPLKS OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
pleasure of another for every moment's sustentat'ion in the be-
in,{:;that I have." Who can answer it to himself, to live that
sacrilegious and ungodly life ? that is, not to live devoted to him
by whom we live ?
8. We may again learn, hence, what reason there is why we
should love God more than ourselves : you cannot but know,
this is a thing most strictly charged upon us, and wherein we
are upon no terms to be dispensed with ; namely, that we are
to love him above all. We owe unspeakably more to him than
we can do to ourselves. We do not owe to ourselves that we
are any thing. *' He made us, and not we ourselves." If
there be any thing of real goodness in the being that we have,
there is infinitely more in the Author of that being : and if
goodness, as such, be the object of love, the greatest goodness
must be the object of the greatest love, and the highest goodness,
of the highest love. And therefore, do not think that vve are
hardly imposed upon, when the law of our creation doth require
and claim this from us, that we love God more than ourselves.
And tlierefore, when our Lord Jesus Christ takes upon him the
great business of our redemption, and reconciliation unto God,
(which it was impossible for him ever to have effected, if he ,
had not been God as well as man, upon the account of the
Deity that was united in the same person with his humanity,)
he claims so much for himself from us, that is, he doth tell us,
that, if any man do love father, or mother, or wife, or child,
or his own life, more than him, he cannot be his disciple. We
are to consider that there is Deity in his person, the fulness of
the Godhead ; and so that he is, as such, the supreme Object
of our love, to wit, the Deity which is in him, common to the
Father and Spirit, must be the supreme Object of our love. It
is as if he should have said, "I come, in kindness, to redeem
and save you as lost creatures : you are not to think in doing,
so, I have laid aside my Deity ; for then 1 could not have been
a Redeemer and a Saviour to you : and therefore, having that
Godhead united with my humanity, in my own person, 1 re-
quire this of you, that is, that you love me more than your
very being: and you cannot be my disciples upon any other
terms." He was Creator, in conjunction with the Father, and
the Spirit ; for " by him were all things made, visible and invi-
sible; and without him, nothing was made that was made."
And therefore, we are not to think it a hard or an unreason-
able imposition upon us, that we are to love God, and to love
Christ, more than ourselves ; more than this natural life or
being of ours, so as that all must be a sacrifice to his plea-
sure, if he once say the word, or signify his will to that_ pur-
pose.
LEC. XVIII.) The Creatioji of Man, 315
And that is the way, having lost ourselves, to find ourselves
asrain, by loving him above ourselves. " If any man love his
iffe," (that is, supremely,) "he shall lose it; bat if he will
lose his life for my sake, he shall find it." We find life, and
all, in God through Christ, when we are lovers so as to make
him the supreme Object of our love, as in that, John 12.25.
No man can really be a loser by so aijandoning himself, as to
place that love which he unjustly placed upon himself before,
(that is, his supreme love,) now upon God, and upon Christ.
No man can be a loser, but he finds himself again in this case.
He had lost himself before ; but now he is restored to himself
and to his God both at once. Then,
9. We may further learn, hence, how reasonable a thing it
is, that man should be under government : Is he a creature ?
then he ought to be a governed thing. The most reasonable
thing in all the world it is, tiiat he that hath given us being,
should give us law. Hath he been the Author of being to us?
and shall he not rule his own creature ? Shall that be allowed
to have a will against his will ? To have been raised up out of
the dust, but the other day, out of nothing, and now to dispute
whose will shall be superior, mine or his that made me, what an
insolency is it! We may again learn,
10. How foolish a thing is self-designing, when men lay
their designs apart from God; forming their projects, as the
apostle James speaks, chap. 4. 15, 16. " I will go to such a
city, and buy and sell and get gain. And I will reside there for
such a time." This all proceeds from our forgetting that we
are creatures, made things. God hath made us ; so that our
breath is in his hands. How great an absurdity is it, as well
as an injury, that I should talk of forming projects, and laying
designs, when I am but a made thing, and there is an arbitrary
hand underneath me, which sustains me ; but that may let me
drop and sink, in the next moment, if it be withdrawn. We
oughtto say, " If God will, we will do so and so." If your being
depend upon his will, certainly your actions and affairs depend
upon his will too. But for men to design so and so, without
consulting God, or referring themselves to God, is to take upon
them as if they were not creatures. And,
11. We may hence learn, further, (as that which is funda-
mental to all the rest,) how indispensable an obligation there
lies upon us to preserve a continual, awful remembrance of
God upon our minds and hearts, from time to time, all the day
long. " Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth." 1
pray, let us but use our own understanding in considering this.
When it is said, " Remember thy Creator in the days of thy
316 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
youth." (Eccles. 12. 1.) Is the meaning of it, that we are
only when we are young to remember him, and forget him all
our days afterwards ? No, the meaning is, that those days of
our youth are not to be exempted, we are not at liberty to for-
get him even then, but that he claims an early and first interest
in our time and tlioughts, and in the truth and vigour of our
spirits, and that we are to begin then, when we are young, as
we are to continue all our days afterwards. And how is he to
be remembered ? Why under the very notion of Creator : that
suggests to us the very reason why we are to remember him ;
because he is our Creator, and our breath is continually in his
hands. What ! do we think a man can subsist without God,
any better when he is grown up, or when he is grown old, than
he could when he was young ? No, the reason upon which the
obligation rests, is still the same upon us all our days ; that,
therefore, it is a most monstrous thing, to consider how men
come to dispense with themselves in this fundamental duty,
that virtually comprehends all the rest. All is lost and gone,
if we do not so much as remember God. How can we dis-
pense with ourselves to rise up in the morning, without a serious
thought of God, and run after our common affairs all the day -
long, and still forget him ? And lie down at night (it may be)
without any serious remembrance of him ? and yet lie down
with the apprehension that we are innocent in all this; we have
passed over this day well if we have succeeded in our business,
if there hath been no disaster that hath befallen us, all hath
been well; though there hath been no serious thought of God;
no minding of God at all ; that is to live in a downright re-
bellion against God, through a whole day ; and also from day
to day, through a whole life's time hitherto : for it must be
entire and universal rebellion, inasmuch as all duty towards
him depends upon remembering him : we can do nothing be-
sides if we do not do that Therefore^ is that given us as the
character and diagnostic of wicked men, of men that are de-
signed for hell, and allotted to hell for their final and eternal
inheritance and residence. ''The wicked shall be turned into
hell, and all the people that forget God." Psalm 9. 17. And
they, accordingly, are characterised as such, who more peculiarly
belong to God, and as those whom he owns for his own, and
counts his jewels ; " In the day that I make up my jewels, saith
God, they shall be mine :" Who ? why " They that feared the
Lord, and thought upon his name.", Mai. 3. 16, 17. " And
the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance
of thee." This is the profession of his holy ones. Isa. 26. 8.
And, again we may add,
LEC. XVIII.) The Creation of Man. 317
12. Since God made man, you sec how easy It Is for liini to
prevent all the evil designs of ill men, if he see good : for they
are all his creatures : and hatli he made a creature that he cannot
govern ? If then we see wicked men, at any time, bring their
wicked devices to pass, it is not because God cannot rule them;
but because he hath deeper designs that they understand not,
and we understand not. And therefore, their insolcncy, and
good men's despondency, upon that account, are equally unrea-
sonable. They triumph ; and good men are dejected ; their
hearts sink, and they hang down their heads; andwliy? be-
cause wicked men prevail, and prosper in their way, many
times, ages together ; and, it may be, in many parts of the world.
But,
(I.) Their confidence, on tlie one hand, is so unreasonable as
to be even ridiculous. '-He that sitteth inthe heavens, laughs,
the Most High hath them in derision." 'A company of hubbies
of being, that I can let drop into nothing in a moment, if I
please : and yet they please themselves in the hopes and ima-
ginations of succeeding in such and such designs as they have
laid.' " He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh" at them.
He knows how soon he can let such bubbles drop into nothing;
and he sees that their day is coming. And,
(2.) Good men's despondency is, upon this accountj equally
unreasonable. " Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard,
that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends
of the earth, fainteth not, neither is v.-eary ? There is no
searching of his understanding." Isai. 40. 28. Thou dost not
know the counsels of God, what that all- comprehending mind
and understanding of his doth design, in letting creatures
awhile run such a course. But we are to be assured, he hath
his own creatures in his own hand and power, both men and
devils, and can govern them as he pleaseth. He hath a hook
in their nostrils, that they themselves are unapprehensible of.
He knows their coming in, and their going out, (as he said of
that proud Assyrian,) and even all the rage which they have
against him. But, I say, he hath a hook in their nostrils, and
can turn them as he [ileaseth, and when he v/ill : v,e shall have
done a great thing towards the whole business of our religion if
we can but get this truth impressed upon, and deeply wrought
into our souls; So God made man; if we will but learn to
look upon ourselves as made things, and look upon all men as
made things, continually in the hands; and at the command of
their great Creator.
318 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD, (PART II,
LECTURE XIX.
Ceil. 1. 27.
So God created 3Ian in his own Image.
'E have treated of the first thing, to wit, this creation itself.
So God made, or created mail. And now,
II. \¥e come to speak of the norma or pattern of this work
of his; or the estate wherein man was created; in his own im-
age ; which is mentioned with a reduplication; "in the image
of God created he hirn ;" and this we shall speak to briefly, by
way of explication and application.
I . In the explication, our great business must be, to inquire,
and shew, wherein stood this image of God, wherein man was
created. Theirs was a strange and absurd dream, (that of the
anthropomophites,) that is, they who did ascribe to God a cor-
poreal shape, and supposed man to be made like to God in that
respect. We know, indeed, that in tract of time, our Lord
Jesus Christ did assume a human body ; but that gives no pre-
tence at all to this imagination : for therein he was made like
unto lis, man being the pre-existcnt pattern, and not we like to
him, man being made long before. And to ascribe to Deity
Itself a corporeal shape, must needs speak very mean and base
thoughts of God, founded in gross ignorance, and rising up mto
a mental blasphemy ; and indeed, very vile thoughts even of
* Preached January 20, lO'y-l.
LEC. XIX.) 3fan created in the Divine Image. 319
ourselves, as if we were but to imitate God In somewhat cor-
poreal.
Some of the more refined pagans have diselaimcd, and de-
claimed against such gross thoughts of God, warning us to
take heed of ascribing any thing corporeal to him ; as one, in-
quiring how we are to conceive of God, according to the doc-
trine of Plato, (1 mean Maximus Tyrius,) he tells us, " we
must be very shy, and it ought to be most remote from us, to
ascribe any thing at all corporeal to him, neither shape, nor
colour, nor magnitude, nor any kind of figure whatsoever: but
somewhat of that high excellency as neither to be seen with
eyes, nor felt with hands, nor expressed by any words." In
some such things we are to understand the excellency of the
Divine Nature and Being to consist. And accordingly, the apos-
tle, discoursing to those Atlienian philosophers, (Acts 17.) sup-
poseth them very capable of understanding so much as this ;
he quotes one of their own poets for it, that " we are God's off-
spring." *' And forasmuch," saith he, " as we are the offspring
of God, we cannot conceive the Godhead to be like any corpo-
real thing of never so great excellency ;" as silver or gold, of
which some corporeal shape or resemblance may be made, or
stands never so curiously graven by the art or device of man ;
we must understand our resemblance to him, as we are his off-
spring, to lie in some higher, more noble, and more excellent
thing, of which there can be no figure; as, who can tell how to
give the figure or image of a thought, or the mind or thinking
power ? This image therefore, must principally lie in some
mental thing, and is to be only mentally understood : that is,
it must have its seat and subject in the sou! and spirit of man
itself : and so we must know this image of God ia man, wherein
he was made, to be twofold; natural and moral.
(I.) Natural, standing in such things as wherein the very
nature and essence of man's soul and spirit doth consist and
lie. As,
[1.] In spirituality: the soul of man is a spirit, as God himself
is a spirit. He, the paternal Spirit, (as a heathen very aptly
speaks of,) the fatherly Mind ; and agreeably to that, we are
his offspring, he being the -Father of spirits.
[2^.] And in life ; essential life. VVe have bodies that live a
borrowed life. Our spirits are, themselves, living things in their
own nature and essence ; so that life is inseparable from them,,
as it is not inseparable from our bodies ; for our bodies can die;
but our souls cannot. If it be, it lives : being and life are the
self-same thing. As the blessed God is so frequently spoken
of in Scripture, "the living God," the original well-spring of
320 THE FRINCIPLfiS OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART If,
life; so making a creature like himself, and in his own image,
he makes him to be such as to v.hum life should be essential,
though it be dependant upon him, (as all being must be,) yet
life being made so much of the essence of man's soul that it
can never be severed from it ; therein its life is like the divine
life; that is, it is an immortal life. It is true, "he only hath
immortality;" that is, he only hath an orignal, independent im-
mortality. But the souls of men, and all created spirits, have
a dependant immortality, together with their dependant being,
and not separable from it. And,
[.3.] in the power of understanding; therein doth the soul of
man bear the image of God naturally, as it is an intelligent
thing, a thing that hath a power to understand and know the
impress of God is upon' tiie spirit of man in this. "He that
teacheth men knowledge, shall not he know ?" Psalm 94. 10.
And he tliat declareth unto man his thoughts, (as having given
him the thinking and the knowing power,) are we not to sup-
pose, he sliould know his own work ? And,
[4.] In liberty, or the power of willing this or that; of acting
©r suspending its own acts, and of acting this way or that, ac-
cordingly as it shall chuse; a dominion it hath over its own ,
act, a self-determining power, or self- dominion ; but subor-
dinate to the divine dominion ; for he never made a creature
that he was not to govern. These are things that I now men-
tion, but which being included in tlie nature and essence of man,
when I gave you an account of this creature man, which God is
said to liave made.
I shall only add two things more generally concerning this
natural image of God in man.
First. That it is permanent and lasts always, as long as man
lasts, as it cannot but do, it being essential to him, or his very
nature : for his very nature did resemble the divine, " the image
and glory of God," as he is called 1 Cor. 11. 7« It must,
therefore, be permanent, and can never be severed from man ;
this is an image that could not be lost. Man could not lose
this image ; his soul must be a spirit still; a living thing still;
and an understanding thing still; a spontaneous, free thing still,
subject only to the divine government. And therefore, con-
sidering man, even in his estate of apostasy, we find this image
of God, still remaining, as the perpetual reason of that law of
preserving the life of man in this body, as in the 9. Gen» 6.
"Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be
shed ; for in the image of God made lie man." If the reason
of the law were lost, the law were lost, and would cease: but
plain it is, the law was made with reference to man, already
LEC. XIX.) Man Created in the Divine Image. 321
fallen: fallen man, apostate man, still bears, In tliat respect, the
image of God ; therefore, he will not have his life to be touched.
He is a Godlike creature, and he that strikes at the life of man,
strikes at the image of God ! A very awful thought, to consider
that man, even as iie is man, while he was in innocency, or in
apostasy, is still the image of God, and therefore, must be in-
violable, not to be touched beyond his rules, who reserves to
himself still, the dominion over lives, as being tlie God of our
lives, so as to kill or to make alive, either immediately, or me-
diately, by his own authority in men, but not otherwise. And,
Secondly. There is this to be said in general, too, concerning
the natural image of God in man; a.'? it is permanent, so it is fun-
damental unto the ether image, and the contraries thereunto;
that is, if man had not the natural image of God upon him, he
were never capable of having a moral image, could never be a
holy creature, nor unlioly, if he were not naturally such a crea-
ture. And he could never be happy or miserable, if he were not
such a creature : that is, if he had not a soul that were a spiiit,
and that were a living thing, and that were intelligent, and that
were capable of acting voluntarily and by clioice. And there-
fore, this image must still be presupposed unto the other.
(2.) Which other we now go on to speak of, that is, the mo-
ral image of God in man, founded on the former. And so man
doth bear, and did originally bear, the image of God, in the
moral sense, in these two resjjects — first, in purity — secondly,
in felicity. He did at first resemble God as a. holy, and as a
happy Being. In reference to both these, the natural image of
God was fundamental to tiie moral ; this was the very founda-
tion in him of ■all duty, and of all felicity; and of the contra-
ries thereunto, that is, of sins and of misery; as contraries
must always have the same subject in which they take place,
successively, or in a remiss degree.
[l.j This image of God in man, which we call moral, super-
added to his natural image, stood in this, to wit, in the sanctity
-and holiness of this creature in his original state; the rectitude
of his natural powers and faculties with reference to his rule
and end. But this is to be understood with caution. We are
to take heed of asserting either too much, or too little, concern-
ing the holiness of man's original state. We must take heed
of asserting tpo much concerning it, to wit, so naich as would
not consist with the possibility of his falling; or too little, to
wit, what would not consist with the possibiiity of his standing.
But, in general, this sanctity or holiness v^herewlth man was
made, and wherein he did originally resemble (iod, it stood in
these two things ;
VOL, VII. 3 T
322 THE PRINCIPLES OF THK ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
First. In innocency; that is, that he was made perfectly inno-
cent, and it was impossible that it should not be so : for it could
not consist with the holiness, and the other perfections of the
Divine Being, to make him a sinner. He could not come
out of the hand of God at first, an impure and unholy thing.
Wherein stood the image of God, but in that he was originally
holy, as God is holy ? to wit, in some similitude to the holiness
of God : he was created in this, as part of the image of him that
created him, as that Col. 3. 10. and Ephes, 4. 24. do plainly
imply : for the image of God restored and renewed must be
the image that was lost. It could not be a specifically different
thing : therefore, when the soul is renewed after this image, it
is plain, that he was created in it ; that is, was created an in-
nocent and sinless creature : not barely in the negative sense ;
for so is a stone or a brute innocent. I say, not in that sense
only ; but as being free from all taint and inipurity, when he
was a capable subject of being both pure and impure ; which
a stone or other unintelligent creature was not. And then.
Secondly. This holiness, wherein man was created, as it did
include innocency, freedom from any taint of sin ; so it did in-
clude a possibility of continuing so; that is, that there was no de-
praved inclination in his nature, as it was made or created by
God, to determine him unto sin ; unto any sinful thought, or to
any sinful act. It is true, he was not made impeccable, or with
an impossibility of sinning, yet he was made with a possibility of
not sinning; that is, with an intrinsical possibility thereof : for
we must distinguish here, between possibility and futurity. It
is true, that his fall was future; but his standing, for all that,
was possible ; we mean only by it, a simple possibility, not
compounded with any consideration of God's foreknowledge.
It is true, God did foreknow what would become of man ; but
that did not infer a necessity upon his nature ; that could have no
influence to make him fall; that is, that God foresaw, that being
left to himself he would fall ; but he saw at the same time, that
though he vvould fall, yet that he had done that for him by
which it was possible for him to have stood, if he had followed
the law of his own nature. And therefore, though we call this
image moral, in contradistinction to natural, yet we are not to
think that it v;as in no sense natural ; for it was con-natural.
It was not natural, as that signifies essential ; for then it could
not have been lost : but as it signi^es somewhat agreeable to
the nature of man ; and nothing could be more agreeable to
his nature, than to have continued still an obedient creature to
God, and consequently happy in iiim : so that it was not at all
to be ascribed to man's nature tiiat he fell ; for that were to
LEC. XIX.) 3fan Created in the Divine Image, 323
resolve the cause of his fall into the Author of his nature ; and
so, to cast all upon God at length ; whereas, man's destruction
is only of himself, he is the fountain of wliatsoever is evil, and
God the only fountain of all good.
But then, we are to consider the holiness wherewith man was
created, more particularly. And so, it stood in the confirma-
tion, or the conforming of the faculties of his soul unto the
rule and order wherein God did at first set them; tliat is, as
for the mind and understanding, it did agree with the Divine
Mind ; and for his will, it did agree with the Divine Will ; and
so, the faculties of the human soul, those two great leading fa-
culties, the mind and tlie will, did each of them bear the stamp
and impress of God upon them. And therefore, whereas, we
find God spoken of under that twofold notion in Scripture, and
by one and the same penman of the holy Scripture, the evan-
gelist John, in his 1st epistle, that " God is light," and that
" God is love;" the one in the 1st chap, verse 5, and the other
in the 4th chap, the Stli and 16th verses. Such a creature was
man in his mind, and in his will, conformed to the Divine Mind
and Will.
i. " God is light," saith the apostle, "and with him is no
darkness at all ; and he that walks in darkness, and saith, he
hath fellowship with God, lies :" there can be no fellowship be-
tween light and darkness. We are not to understand liglit,
there, to mean merely speculative knowledge : but we are to
understand it as signifying practical principles, lodged in the
mind, and which <ire most con-natural to holiness in the will
and heart. They are the ideas contained in the one, which are
exemplified in the other. So, " God is light," essential light
itself; and so was the spirit of man, "the inspiration of the
Almighty having given it understanding ;" that is, that it
was,
(i.) A knowing thing; not only had a pov/er to know, but did
actually know all that concerned him to know, or that it was
his duty to know. And as such, this part of the divine image
is referred to morality ; for there are some things which it is
our duty to know; and to be ignorant of them is a sin. But
we are not to suppose man to be destitute of any knowledge,
that he ought to have had, in the state of his primitive innocency ;
though it must be far from us to think that he had universal
knowledge, that he knew all things : for that would still be
proper to God as an incommunicable attribute of the Divine
Nature. And therefore, his knowledge must have been a grow-
ing thing in that state wiierein he was made. But he did know
all that did belong to him to know, for the state wherein he was.
324 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD, (PARTIF,
And so are we to conceive of that knowledge, as the moral ad-
ditament to the faculty or power of knowing, which is natural.
And then,
ii. Besides his actual knowledge, we must understand, in his
mind, a docility, or an aptitude to learn, or know more ; and still
more, according as the Creator should vouchsafe to reveal more
to him, or as he should give him opi)ortunity (as he had given
him a natural ahility) to reason himself from the knowledge of
some things into the knowledge of more.
(ii.) For his will, that must have been the seat too, of the
holiness wlierein the image of God stood, and wherein he did
resemble God; and there is the seat of God's law impressed :
for we must know, that man was made at first with the law of
God written in his heart. Besides the positive precept which
lie transgressed, there was the whole frame of that whole law
in him, which was to be the permanent rule of his practice and
obedience : for tlie apostle, speaking of man in his fallen state,
(Rom. 2. 15.) tells us, " that even pagans theniselves," (where
there are the greatest ruins of the human nature to be seen,)
*' even they have the law written on their hearts." And if it be
so with fallen man, what an entire impression must tliere have
been of the divine law upon the mind of man yet in his integ-
rity. A law written in his heart, of which some pagans speak,
calling it the noii scripta, sed nata Lex, not a law v,ritten,
(that is, in any external scripture,) but an engraven law, an in-
nate law, that was impressed on man on his creation^ or that he
was made with.
And so, as this law which, is in itself, of universal and ever-
lasting obligation, is all summed up in love, which is the ful-
filling of the law; why, therein we must understand this crea-
ture to have at first resembled God ; that is, as God is said to
be " light," so lie was in respect of his mind : and as God is
said to be "love," so he was in respect of his wil! or heart :
a creature made up of love, which sums up all duty ; for " love
is the fulfilling of the law." And therefore, when men are re-
newed and brought back to God, and liis image restored in
them, they are created after God in this respect, so as to be ca-
pable of dwelling in love, as in a proper element and region
con- natural to them. This was the great principle that did
conform men to both parts of the law ; that part which was to
respect God himself; and that part which was to respect men
towards one another : for these were the two great natural and
moral precepts ; "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might; and
thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." O ! what an excel-
LEc. XIX.) Man Created in the Divine Image. 325
lent state was this ! wlien the impression of tins law, wliereof
this was the summary, was entire and ])ert'ect; not the least
inclination to violate it in any part, or in any point, either to-
wards God, or towards a fellow creature.
And we may yet further, and more distinctly, consider this
rectitude of the faculties of man's soul to stand in this — first,
that the superior faculties of his mind and will, were more di-
rectly and exactly conformed to the divine mind and will — and
secondly, tisat the inferior faculties were .subject to the supe-
rior ; this being the law of man's nature at first ; that is, that
though he had inferior faculties, as well as superior, suitable to
his compc>unded nature, (being made up of an inward man, and
of an outward man. or of an intellectual, and of a sensitive na-
ture,) yet, these inferior faculties belonging to the sensitive na-
ture, they were made so as to be c))edient and subject to the su-
perior ; that is, to an enlightened mind, and to a holy will : so
as to have no appetitions that were irregular or disorderly, of an
inferior kind, or belonging to the sphere ofser.se, but what rea-
son, governing the will, could prescribe to: no violent pas-
sions or appetitions In one kind or other, so as to love or desire,
or fear, or hope, or joy, or sorrow, or be angry inordinately, hut
acf<;ir)ing as a right mind sliould dictate, and as a right mind
sh(»ui(i command. And then,
[J ] As this moral image, superadded to the natural, and
founded thereon, stood in holiness, (which we have thus far
explained,) so it stood in happiness too, in sanctity and felicity ;
that is, as God is the blessed God for ever, so did this creature
imitate him in his blessedness ; bear the image of that upon
him too. VVe must understand that he had a present inelioate
blessedness; a present blessedness begun in a satisfaction to all
bis faculties, in having what was proportionable and accommo-
date to all the powers of his nature.
First. As to his superior faculties : herein stood tlie blessedness
of this creature, that he had a mind capable of knouing God,
and a will caj)able of enjoying him ; and which did know God,
and which did actually enjoy him : and it could not but be so;
for liere was no culpable darkness or cloud upon this mind;
there was no corrupt or depraved inclination in this will: and
God was pleased to exhibit himself, and manifest himself, to
make himself known, and to offer himself to be his portion and
God, according to the tenour of that covenant, that law of works,
and that law of his creation, under which he was made. There-
fore, there was nothing to hinder his present happiness : there
was no aversion from God, no disinclination to iiim ; but, a
steady propension towards him. There was no ijuilt upon him.
<'•■•>
26 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
to malce him afraid of approaching God ; as it was with him
soon after iic fell, when he ran and hid himself. Vain crea-
ture ! thinking there would be some darkness wherein he could
hide himself from the Divine Majesty. But while he n nained
yet in his integrity, as there was no faulty darkness in hi mind,
so there was no depraved inclination in his will : but kuuwing
God to be the best and iiighest Good, most absolutely perfect,
all-comprehending and every Vv'ay suitable to him, his will could
not but be a prepense towards hii5i accordingly, so as then it
must have been his sense in perfection, (though not unalter-
ably,) which comes to be the sense again,of the renewed soul :
" Whom have I in heaven but thee, and whom can I desire on
earth besides thee ? When he had the beauties of a new-made
creation all in view, a heaven that was then new, and an earth
that was then new; yet, "Whom have I in heaven but thee,'
and what is thereupon earth that 1 desire besides thee }"
As to h.is inferior faculties, there was what was most grateful
to them too. Man was created in a paradise, full of plea-
santness, and of j)leasant good things, vvhich it was then law-'
ful for him to enjoy without restraint, except that one forbid-
den tree. And he not only had the perception of all, all grate7
ful, sensible good, but an interest in, and a power over, all.
And you see, that God estates him in a dominion, sets him over '
all the works of his hands, in this inferior, lower world, and
doth so, immediately upon his having created him. " God
blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and
replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every
thing that moveth upon the earth."
What a glorious prince was man then 1 and into how great
a principality did God put him as soon as he made him ! What-
foever was njost suitable, and most delectable, for his enjoy-
ment, in that kind of inferior and sensible good, was all put
into his power; so as what innocent, well-tempered nature
would choose, as most grateful to it, that he might choose, one
thing excepted ; which very exception, (as all exceptions do
/irmare regulas^) was hut a confirmation of his dominion over
ail the rest; and did but more fully speak his right and title to
enjoy what he would beside. All this as to his inchoate happi-
ness. But,
Secondly. Besides this, we must understand him to have had
3 title to continuing and increasing and, at length, perfect feli-
city. We are not to suppose him made in that state, which, if
it had stood, should have been eternal, without change or aU
teration. But most rational it was^ that God having newly ere-
LEC. XIX.) Man Created in the Divine Image. Z2^
ated an intelligent creature, should create him in a state of
probation, upon which was to follow a state of retribution ; as
it is nii>st natural, that duty go before felicity : that there must
be obedience before recompence. His full and final recom-
pence was yet to come.
And the reason of the thing plainly speaks it. We cannot
suppose, that God made man in a better condition than he made
the angels : (a superior sort of creatures :) but it is plain, that
he created them in a state of probation; otherwise it had been
impossible that some of them should have fallen, and left their
first station, forsaken it, and thereupon, to be " bound in chains
of darkness, and reserved to the judgment of the great day."
And it is plain, further, upon this account too ; as to this earth,
supposing man to have stood, (though God foresaw that he
would not ; that he would fall,) yet we must suppose his con-
stitution to be such, as agree with the supposition of. his stand-
ing too. It had been altogether impossible that, in the suc-
cession of many ages, this world would have contained all the
men, if they had been innocent ; and so, consequently, all im-
mortal. But we must necessarily suppose, tiiough not death,
(for that was only introduced by sin,) yet some such kind of
translation unto higher and more glorious regions; as from
perfect arbitrary, good pleasure, Enoch and Elijah found at the
hand of God.
And so, besides the actual felicity he had, there was a title
to future felicity, supposing he had stood. For v/hen the di-
vine constitution runs in this tenour, " Cursed is he tliat con-
tinueth not in all things tiiat are written in the book of t!--e law to
do them," do but consider what the reverse of that must be:
"Blessed is he that continueth in all things written in the book
of the law to do them." If not continuing in all things writ-
ten in God's law, to do them, must infer a curse, then to have
continued must infer a blessing : and as that curse did put Iiim
into a worse estate, that blessing must have put liim into a bet-
ter estate; otherwise, it had not been a state of retribution suit-
able to a foregoing state of probation.
Thus far, you have now the explication of this state, wherein
God is said at first to have made man ; that is, made him in
his own image, the image that was natural and essential to man;
and that image that was moral and superadded. And can we
look upon this as a useless doctrine ? Of wliat importance is
it to us to look back, and consider the original of this creature I
what it was ; and what it is ! What man was in that perfect
rectitude, of which we have had some account ; and what he is
in that forlorn and abject state into which he is now sunk and
328 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PAKT U.
fallen. It is this tliat must make redeeming mercy, and our
recovery by a mediator grateful. It was a noble expression of
a heathen ; Nemo imprcbe conatur vnde descenderat ascen-
der e : (speaking to this very case, the depraved condition of
man as he now generally is, and what his state before was, of
which they had hallucinations, though not distinct conceptions;)
no man blameahly endeavours tg ascend from whence he did
descend. Cap((x est noster animus dei, atqiie eo fertiir, nisi
vitia deprimant : ive have minds capable of God; and towards
him they wonid be carried if vice did not depress and sink them.
But nobody doth unwarrantably aim to ascend thither, whence
he did descend ; if he did descend, sink from so excellent a
state, there niu^t be some aim upwards, some aspiring to get
up to that state again, or to somewhat agreeable thereto, by
which the niitural appetite in man to blessedness and felicity
should be excited and stirred and put into action, and kept in
action, even by the very law of his own nature.
LECTURE XX.*
The more distinct Use and application o? this subject, and
such as may most aptly and properly be made, we shall now
proceed to. And it will afford us a very various, and a very
copious use, if we seriously apply our minds to consider it.
God created man in his own Image. Why there are,
]. Sundry inferences of truth that we may collect and de-
duce. As, that man was, at first, a creature of great excellency,
(whatsoever he is now become,) a noble and a glorious creature ;
the image of God being intire could not, sure, but be a very
glorious thing. As it is blurred and defaced in a great measure,
yet in respect of that remainder, or that mere ground of it,
man is now said to be " the image and glory of God." 1 Cor.
11. 7* The image and glory of God, he is still, notwith-
standing he hath diminished and disguised himself, as an in-
telligent being, a living thing: he hath a soul that is essen-
tially life, or to which life is essential ; that cannot cease to
live; that hath a self-determining power belonging to its na-
ture ; that acts not under the laws of a fatal necessity, but ac-
cording to reason and liberty, in the common affairs and actions
of life.
Take man as he was at first, when those powers that belonged
Preached February 10, 1(594,
I.EC. XX.) 3fan Created in the Divine Image. 329
to his nature were unvitiated and pure, what a _<;:lorious crea-
ture was this creature ! Dei-formed, made after tlie lii<eness of
God. The world replenished with such creatures, what a de-
lectahle habitation had it been ! to have so many Godlike crea-
tures inhabiting this world, of ours, all representing God to one
another, so many visible representations of divine knowledge,
and divine light, and divine love and divine purity ! O ! what
an excellent creature was man in his original state !
(2.) We may further be informed, hence, of the more pecu-
liar excellency of our souls: for we must consider them as the
primary seat of the divine image : " So God made man after
his own image." Wherein stood tliat ? Where lay tiiis image,
or where was it seated ? Vyhat ! in our bodily frame and struc-.
ture ? (as the anthropomorphites did formerly dream.) Was it
a piece of clay that was made so like God in us ? And there-
fore, if man be to be looked upon as an excellent sort of crea-
ture, we must understand wherein his true value lies, and
whereupon men are to value themselves.
A great many are apt to value themselves because they have
laden themselves with a great deal of thick clay; because tliey
have a sort of propriety in much of this earth. Some highly
value themselves upon an airy title : " I am such and such a
dignified thing, among those with whom 1 dwell." Some are
more vain to value themselves upon gay apparel, or because
they have so and so trimmed and adorned those carcasses : but
it is in respect of our mind and spirit, that we are the offspring
of God, and bear the image of God : and if ever we have any
thing truly valuable, or excellent about us, there it must lie ; a
mind and spirit must be the seat and subject of it. Again,
(3.) We may learn, hence, that there is much of God to be
understood by ourselves ; for we were made after God's own
image; and we may discern much of another tiling by that
which is really like it. Indeed, to direct the intention of our
minds immediately towards God, is that which we are not so
well capable of in this present state. The intuition of his glory,
our weak minds cannot admit of: "No man can see my face
and live," saith God to Moses. But we can see our own faces;
that is, the face of our own souls : we can take a view of them,
and consider what naturally, and in themselves, they are : that
is, according to what there remains of true primhive nature in
us ; and so may discern and understand much of God, as his
glory is reflected on ourselves.
Though we know not how to face the sun when it shines in
its strength and glory, yet we can sustain it to behold its image
VOL. VII. 2 u
330 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTII,
in the water, and look upon it there. So we cannot bear it, to
behold the immediate radiations of divine glory directly shining
forth, but reflected ; and as it hath produced its image in our-
selves, so we may be capable of beholding it. And by wliat we
see in ourselves, when we understand that we are made after
God's image, that there is a thing called mind in ourselves,
then God must be a mind ; tiiere is a spirit in man, and we are
his offspring : then he, sure, must be a spirit too; but an infi-
nite, purer, and more perfect Spirit. If we find such a thing as
love in our own natures, we may be sure that it is infinitely
higher, and greater, and larger, and more perfect, every way, in
God. But again,
(4.) We may further learn hence, that upon the account of
our being made after God's image, we have much the less rea-
son to hesitate at the receiving of that most mysterious doctrine
of the Trinity in the Godhead : for if we seriously consider, we
may discern the image and impress thereof in ourselves : and
we find that we are made after God's image. There is none
that dotli so seriously contemplate himself, his own soul, but
he may and must discern and acknowledge a trinity there j
those primary principles which, considered in their conjunc-
tion, do carry a most manifest and express representation oiPGod
in this respect ; to wit, active power, intellect, and love, those
three great primalities in God, his word (who best knows his
own nature) doth, upon all occasions, repeatedly express and
inculcate to us. And the very like hereof we find in ourselves,
considering these things in ourselves; not severed but con-
junct : that is, a power to act, and to act according to under-
standing ; and so act towards things that we love ; and towards
which there is a propension from a suitableness in ourselves to
the things that we act towards.
Any one that will make himself his own study, must discern
and acknowledge such things in himself as do make a real tri-
nity; one and the same soul having active power belonging to
it, understanding belonging to it, and love belonging to it,
which, though all meet and unite in one and the same soul,
are yet diverse and distinct from one another ; for my power is
not my understanding, and my understanding is not love; but
all these do meet together in one and the same soul. So that
considering man made after the image of God, the doctrine of
the Trinity claims to be received witli so much tlie more faci-
lity and agreeableness ; we finding, so manifestly, the impress
thereof uj)on our oivn souls. And so we may upon many
tilings in the created universe besides; yea, and we may find
LEC XX.) Man Createdin the Divine Image. 331
running through all things ; but most manifestly and discern-
ably in ourselves, concerning whom it is most eminently said,
that "we were made after God's image." Again,
(5.) We may further learn, hence, that since man was made
after the image of God, (so excellent and noble a creature as
this image impressed upon him, must speak him and make him,)
then sure, God did, in making this creature, design him for
higher and greater things than can be compassed within this
temporary state. He never did design, in making such a crea-
ture as man, to confine him to time and to this lower world.
For as he is a creature made after the image of God, he is made
with capacities of far higher and greater things than this world
can contain, or than time can measure.
If we look upon the present inhal)itants of this world, so
many minds and spirits inhabiting flesh, and cast about our eyes
this way and that way, how thick is this same material world ?
how thick is it set with m.inds, with spirits, as so many dia-
monds sparkling in mud ? Any one would say, "This is not
their proper place : here are so many diamonds scattered here
and there in dirt ; surely they are not always to be there ! Spi-
ritual and immortal minds inhabiting flesh, and only casting
their present rays upon low and sensible things; surely it will
not always be thus." Did God make such creatures, did he
make man, after his own likeness, for so mean and so low ends
and purposes, as they are every where intent upon in this their
present state ? Did he make man after his own image, only to
support and animate a little portion of breathing clay? Did he
make him only to take this flesh to keep it awhile from turning
into a putrid, stinking carcass. Was this all that a spiritual,
immortal mind was made for ?
Men should understand, by reflecting upon their original
state, what the capacity of their nature was ; and that they
must be made for some other state, and for higher and greater
things, than they commonly apply themselves to mind while
they are here. You have so many minds dwelling in flesh ; and
many, but for a very little while. But suppose it, as long as men
do more ordinarily live upon earth, why to have a mind, a spirit,
created and put into flesh to inhabit that, suppose twenty, or
thirty, or forty, or fifty, or sixty years, or to the utmost pitch
that tlie lives of men do commonly reach to ; and then that
creature disappears and is gone. That flesh which that mind
inhabiteth, turns to dust ; the soul is fled and gone ; here is no
more appearance of this creature, this particular creature, upon
this particular stage : what are we to conclude upon this then?
332 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
But tlvit sure these have their parts to act in another state,
upon an eternal stage, that shall never be taken down. Here
are so many Godlike creatures brought into this world, and
put in flesh, only to abide here such a certain number of y^ears,
and there is an end of them. This can never be thought, that
, God did make so many creatures after his own image, for so
mean and ungodlike ends and purposes. And again,
(b'.'i We may further learn, hence, that an abode in the flesh,
is not inconsistent with a very excellent state of life; for God did
at first make man after his own image, of whose creation, as to,
the outward man, (of wliich I spake to you distinctly,) we are
told, he was only made (as his name Adam doth import) out of
the earth ; but God breathed into him the breath of life, that
intellectual vital life : he placed that spirit in him, by the in-
spiration whereof he came to be an understanding creature ;
and therein to resemble him that made him. Though this
mind and spirit was to dwell in fiesh, yet a very excellent state
of life might be transacted here in this state : for admit that a
mind and spirit be united with such flesh as we now inhabit
and dwell in, yet here it hath the image of God entire and un-
depraved in it : not only a capacity of understanding, and of
willing, and of acting, this way and that, but of doing all these
aright, witii a due rectitude adhering to each faculty; not re-
motely, not inseparably, as the sad events have shewn; but
really and truly, so as that they might have remained in the
state wherein they were made. O ! then, how excellent a life
might have been lived here, on these terms, in this world.
Though our likeness to God did not consist in this fleshly
part of ours, or had not that for its seat and subject, yet it might
very well consist with our having such a fleshly part about us,
when there was pure and incorrupt integrity in all the powers
and faculties of the soul of man : to have his soul replenished
with the knowledge of God ; possessed with a holy and ador-
ing disposition, in a continual aptitude to. look to, and a con-
tinual inclination to delight in, God, and in his converse; to-
gether with a universal love to one another, under that notion of
being made after the image of God, as they should behold God's
resemblance in one another. And O ! what a happy world
were this, and how pleasantly, and with what delight, might
time have been transacted here : a very pleasant, hai)py, ex-
cellent state of life might consist with dwelling in flesh.
Such, in whom the image of God, to wit, his moral image,
hath been (though less perfectly) restored, yet how pleasantly
have they lived here in this world, amidst all the abounding
LEC. XX.) Man Created in the Divine Image. 333.
wickedness of it : such a man as Noah ; such a one as Enoch,
who walked with God so many hundred years in tliis world.
This is not to live an unhappy life, to walk witii God every day,
to live in his fear, and live in his communion. Is tliis to live
unhappily ?
Men are apt to transfer all the causes of tlieir complaint to
other things, and set them at a remote distance from them-
selves. Some, when they do evil, or evil befal them, accuse
their stars or external circumstances. But we have nothing to
accuse but our own ill inclinations. If v.'c live evil lives, bad
and sinful lives, or miserable lives, in tins world, it is our own
fault : for n)ere dwelling in flesh imposeth no necessity upon
us, of being either sinful or miserable creatures. And that we
might be convinced of this, we have the exemplification of
such a life in our blessed Lord living in flesh (after all flesh had
corrupted their ways) without taint. Therefore, being in flesh,
as such, doth necessitate none, either to live wicked or miserable
lives in tliis world : the mind and spirit of man being stamped
with the image of God.
(7.) if man were at first made after God's own ijnage, he must
now, sure, be a very degenerate creature ;' the degeneracy (if
man must needs be exceeding great : how ungodlike a creature
is he become ! How unlike to God do men generally live and
act, here in this world. This ought to be considered with deep
and bitter regret. It is true that the natural likeness still re-
mains, as it cannot but do, because it is natural, because it is
the very nature of man himself. As his mind and spirit (being
the immediate seal of the divine image) is a living thing, an
understanding thing, a voluntary, active thing, this way and
that, the natural image cannot but remain as long as man is
man. But the degeneracy is with reference to the moral, su-
peradded image ; for that was at first superadded ; and is still
due J a thing concerning which we must say, it is a Debitum
esse; and which, in reference to the natural image, is as the
more curious lines of a picture are to the first rude draught.
It is true, that first rude draught, consisting of maimed strokes
doth shew the true symmetry and proportion of tlie parts, in
such a picture, to one another; but while every thing is yet want-
ing that tends to make up the comeliness and beauty, it is a very
ungrateful spectacle that a man hath before his eyes in looking
upon such a thing.
The natural powers that do belong to the soul of a man,
shew his original capacity, what he was capable of; then all
these capacities arc to be filled up, as the rude draught of a
63% TUB PaiNCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART II.
picture should be, with what would add beauty, and the appear-
ance of comeliness and vigour to it, as far as the pencil can
express that. Here is a capacity in the very nature of man, of
knowing nsnch ; but look upon tliat understanding power di-
vested and destitute of all true knowledge. Here is a will ca-
paiile of choosing, and of enjoying with highest complacency,
the best and most delectable good ; l)ut totally divested of any
such propension and inclination. And, here is a soul that is a
spiritually active being ; but it is active now any way but to-
wards God, by whom it was made. Why in these very ruins
of human nature, you may discern what originally it was.
Take the walls of sonfe noble palace, yet standing : wc will
suppose all rooms to remain distinct from one another as they
were, but it is totally unfurnished. It was inhabited, it may be,
by some excellent person; but he is gone and hath left it:
there was an honourable family that lived in splendor there ;
but they are removed, and now there is nothing to be beiield
hut bare walls : there be the rooms, the several apartments, as
they were ; but inhabited by nothing but owls and vultures :
a habitation of dragons and serpents. And such is the soul of
man, destitute of the divine, moral image, and of that holy rec-
titude which was the furniture and ornament of each several
faculty and power.
We may here see what man was in his original state ; and
lience see and collect how great his present degeneracy is. O !
iiow art thou fallen ! what art thou fallen to, thou Lucifer,
son of the morning 1 A Godlike creature, one made after
<Tod's image, a little lower than the angels, that did so per-
fectly resemble hinj ; and now sunk into so low a degree of
darkness, and impurity, and misery, and deatli : of which also
we v,ere not capable, if the natural image did not remain, if he
liad not an understanding still, and a will still, and an active
power still. And then,
(8.) You may further learn, hence, what the work of regene-
ration is to perform in the souls of men ; and of how absolute
necessity such a work is to be effected and brought about there.
So God made man after his own image. That plainly tells us
what regeneration hath to do ; that is, to restore that image
wherein it was defective and lost. That must be the business
of regeneration, considering together what the original state of
man was, made after God's image : and considering wiiat his
present state is, his degenerate state, it is easy to collect what
ins regenerate state must be; a renovation, a state of renova-
tion after the same image that man was impressed with at first.
LEC. XX.) Man Created in the Divine Image. 335
consisting of knowledge, (not only in a capacity to know, but ia
knowledge, )and in righteousness and true holiness. Not only
in having the faculties that are capable of these, but in having
these things themselves impressed into these faculties : this, re-
generation must do : or the restoring us to ourselves, or repair-
ing the image of God that was lost ; that must be th-e business
of regeneration. As man was made after the image of God at
first, in his first creation ; in his second creation, vilien he is
made a new creature, he must be created again after God.
The new man must be put on, " which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness." And this image is renewed
in knowledge, as those two texts speak, Ephes. 4. 24. and Col.
3. 10. compared. Thus, is this part of the doctrine of the text
improvable to the learning of several truths that do depend upon
it, and tliat lie in connexion with it. Again,
2. It may be improved too, and very largely, in representing,
and reprehending, several sinful evils that this wretched world
abounds with ; by which it appears how much men, by sin, have
fallen short of the glory of God ; such characters of his glory
having been impressed at first upon them. Vi'^hy, to consider
such things as these that too evidently, and too commonly ap-
pear in the temper of men's minds, and in the course of their
practice, here in this world : For instance,
To consider how low designs men do generally drive. What !
Is this Godlike ? Is this becoming a Godlike sort of crea-
tures, such as man was at first, when they wear out their days
here in this world, and make it their business to serve divers
lusts and pleasures? What a base kind of servitude is this?
Is this the creature made after God's image ? jMen to spend
their days in the pursuit of shadows and trifles? Is there
any resemblance of God in this ? Is this like a creature that
had in his own original and primitive state, a representatioii
of divine in it, which was to conduct his whole course ?
And again, consider not only what men do pursue, that their
minds and hearts are set upon ; but (which carries more of
horror in it) what they decline, and what their minds and
hearts are set against. Men made after the image of God,
and yet transacting their course in continual ungodliness.
What ! Thou made after the image of God, and yet an un-
godly creature, and yet live an ungodly life in this world, when
thou hast a soul about thee that can know God, that hath a ca-
pacity of knowing God, and of choosing him, and of loving
him, and of delighting in him ! That there siiould be in such
a creature, stamped at first with the divine image and likeness.
336 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 1I»
a disaffection to God ; not only no inclination, but disinclina-
tion. What ! disinclination to thine own true Pattern ? dis-
affection to thine own Original ? Thou wast made like God j
why dost thou shun him ? Why dost thou fly from him ?
Thou carriest the natural characters of his image upon thee
wliithersoever thou goest. And what ! art thou running away
from God with his image on thee, in the remainders of it ?
The remainders of it thou hast upon thy soul: a mind that can
understand, a spirit that can and must live ; and thou art run-
ning away from God with his own image upon thee. What a
monstrous thing is that ! And again,
3. It might, in the third place, instruct vs in several duties
that are also very congruous and con-naturai to this part of the
doctrine of this text. As,
(1.) More frequently to look back to our original estate.
Such a trulii as this made known, published to us, standing upon
record in the sacred volumes, doth continually and repeatedly
call upon us to look back, to consider and bethink ourselves
what we were in our original state, made after God's own image,
a God-like sort of creatures.
(2.) It will be our duty, hence, to be now ashamed of our-
selves in our present degenerate state. It is no shame to a
mean creature that was always so, to be now so ; no shame to
a worm that it is a worm ; to a toad that it is a toad. But that
man should become an impure, and a poisonous worm, part of
the serpent's seed, this is a most shameful thing, and ought to
be considered with the most confounding shame. We should
even be startled at ourselves to think what, from such a confor-
mity to God, we are now come to. And,
(3.) It should put us upon inquiring and listening after any
means or ways of recovery. It would become a thinking
creature, (as man naturally is,} apprehending as even the pa-
gans, (the more refined of them generally have,) that men are
not now what they were at first. And it would put such upon
considering, "Is there no way of recovery ?" And it hath put
even pagans themselves (destitute of all revealed light) upon
many considerations of that kind, insomuch as that we find se-
veral of them to have written treatises concerning the purga-
tive and ornative virtues. It shews us to have a great deal more
of stupidity among us, than was among pagans themselves, if
we have no thoughts about restitution, about being restored,
about being recovered out of so low a state as we find ourselves
lapsed into, compared with that which we know was original
to us. It should make our minds full of tiioughts from day to
LEC. XX.) 3Ian Created in the Divine Image* 337
day. "Is there no way to become again what once we were ?"
to have minds, and wills, and inclinations, and affections, so
rectified as we find, and must apprehend to have been, in our
first state ? Is there no way to get into that conformity to
God, and acquaintance with him, as to be able to lead my life
with God, which was the thing most agreeable to my first
state ? And one that would use the understanding of a man,
when lie hears of a better state, that was original to him, would
certainly be upon his inquiries — *' Is there no way of recover-
ing, no way of getting back into such an estate again ?" And
again,
(4.) It should render the gospel very dear to us, that doth so
expressly reveal to us such a way, wherein the image of God is
recoverable: and tliereupon, converse with him, and a con-
tinual intercourse wiih him, are become possible to us. At
present, where there is no likeness, there can be no converse,
no disposition, no agreeableness or suitableness. How dear
then sliould that gospel be, that is not only God's revelation,
but his way and method to bring this about. To this end he
hath revealed his Christ to us, his first Image, his primary
Image. He that is said to be "the Image of the invisible
God, the first-born before all the creation ;" in whom his glory
shines as "the glory of the only begotten of the Father;"
the arthetypal Image, according to which, the Image is to be
renewed again in us. That gospel that reveals this to us, and
which is designed to be God's instrument for the making of
the impression afresh on our souls, how precious should it be
to us ! For his glory shines through it, as through a glass ;
that, " beholding this glory of the Lord, we may be changed
into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of
the Lord :" since this, I say, is the design of that very gospel
under which we live, O ! how dear should that gospel be to
us ! By this, the image of God may be restored, which hath,
in so great a measure, been defaced and lost out of our souls.
And it again shews it to be our duty,
(5.) To aspire to the highest pitch of that perfection, in con-
formity to God, that these souls of ours are any way capable
of; especially, that we should be continually ajpising unto the
perfection of that state from whence we are fallen. Take
the forementioned instruction of a pagan to that purpose.
Whereas some might be apt to imagine, and their thoughts,
might suggest to tliem, " It is a presumptuous thing for me
to think of being made like God, to be holy as God is holy,
and to be blessed as God is blessed," and the like ; we should
consider what we are, that as that heathen said ; " It is no fault,
YOL, VII. 2 X
3S8 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART It.
no blameable tiling in any one to endeavour to ascend to that
state or pitch, from which he did descend; we have a mind ca-
pable of God ; and it would be carried towards him if vice did
not depress and sink it. It is therefore matter of duty, from the
consideration that we are to aim and aspire after such a state.
I do not aim to be what I was, and what 1 ought to be, in duty
towards him that made me, as well as eonsulting any interest
of my own, in the first place : for I am first his, before I can
consider myself as my own : and therefore, in duty towards
him, the Author of my being, I ought to be aspiring and aim-
ing at this, to have his image renewed in me, and to be restored
in this respect, t© what I was.
LEC. xxt.) The Fall qfthejirst Man, 339
LECTURE XXT.*
Rom. 6. 12.
Wherefore^ as hy one man sin entered into the world, and
death hy sin ; and so deathpassed upon all men,
for that all have sinned.
■'^OU know we have, of late, been treating at large of the cre-
ation, and particularly and more especially, of the creation
of man, and his original state, as he was created after God's
image ; not only his natural^ but his moral image, so as to
resemble him, both in holiness and blessedness. We come
now, from these words, to consider the lapsed, degenerate state
of man, now grown most unlike to God in both these respects;
to wit, of purity, and of felicity ; sunk into a state of sin,
and into a state of misery ; become a most deplorable, forlorn
creature.
An amazing change 1 And indeed, it might amaze us, that
it doth amaze us no more ; that we can consider so astonishing
a thing as this, with so little concern ; when it is not a thing re-
mote from us, but incurs our observation and sense, unavoidably,
every day; whether we look about us, or whether we look into
ourselves. And it doth so much the more need that such a
subject should be insisted upon, the lapse of man, and the lapsed
state into which he is come, and in which he is.
It is true, indeed, that usually, immediately upon consider-
ing that subject of the creation, providence useth and is wont
to be treated in the next place. And that is a method rational
* Preached February \7, l694>j,
340 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 11.
enough in some respects. But it being my design to speak of
the heads of religion as practically as God shall enable me ;
and the providence of God, (when we shall come to consider
that) being for this purpose, is chiefly to be considered as it
doth respect man : and the course of his providence towards
man, having been for almost six thousand years backward, con-
versant about fallen man, lapsed man, whereas it was conver-
sant about innocent man but a very little while ; it seems to
me more reasonable, with reference to the design in hand, to
consider God's providence (especially when we are to consider
it in reference to man) rather, first, as conversant about fallen
man. And so, first, to consider his fall, and that state into which
he was fallen, rather than to bring in the whole head of a dis-
course about providence, with reference to the very little inch
of time wherein he stood in innocency.
And further, too, because the lapsed world of mankind is,
as such, thereupon, manifestly put into the hands, and under
the government of the Redeemer, who died, and revived, and
rose again, that he might be Lord of the living and dead : yea,
and not only the lapsed world of mankind, but even the whole
creation, as a surplusage of remunerative dignity and glory, for
that free and voluntary susception and undertaking of his,
it will be, thereupon, most suitable to my design, to bring in
the consideration of providence, under the mediatory kingdom
of our Lord, and as it belongs to that vicegerency of his which
lie holds now, not only over this lapsed world, but over the
whole creation, as by whom all things consist and are held to-
gether. And so, the discourse of the fall, in reference to this
design of mine, very fitly intervening, I have chosen to pitch
it on this place, from this text of Scripture now read.
In which we may take notice, that tiiere is that which is
called a protasis, the former part of a sentence, without an
apodosis, or latter part in form, answering thereunto. Through
that rich abundance of divine sense wherewith the apostle's
mind and understanding did abound, and was replenished, it
was not so well capable of being comprehended and limited by
rules of art, or within artificial limits. But yet we may take
notice too, that in the following verses there is that opodosis,
the latter part of the intended sentence in substance, most fully
and most copiously represented ; the design of the whole para-
graph being, in short, this only, to shew that as Adam, the first
man, was to be a root and fountain of sin and death unto all
his seed ; so the second Adam would be, of righteousness and
life to all his seed, there being a resemblance in the former of
the latter, according to what is elsewhere said, that " the first
LEC. xxiO The Fall of the first Man. Z4 1
Adam was a figure of him that was to come," of the secoii'i
that was to follow : though, there is not, it is true, an absolute
and exact parallel or parity, as is never to be expected, in such
cases, throughout.
My business will only be with what we call the ju'ofosis, the
former of these parts, and that abstractly and by itself consi-
dered, without present reference to what follows in the suc-
ceeding verses. And so we are to shew you, that whereas,
accordirgto the tenour of the last discourse, iV^an was created
after God's image, not only his natural, but his \noral image,
made like him in respect of sanctity and felicity; he is now
fallen into a state wherein he is most unlike God in these two
things; to wit, into a state of sin, and into a state of misery.
Both these, the text expressly represents and lays before us :
**By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin."
Here was the state of the one, the first apostate ; he sins
first, and thereby becomes miscra])le. He did represent and
resemble God in holiness, purity and sanctity; now he is be-
come a sinner. He did represent and resemble God in feli-
city and blessedness, in periection and fulness of life ; (not
absolute perfection, it is true, not consummate perfection, but
a perfection suitable to his present state ;) and now he is be-
come a creature lost in death : death immediately pursued the
sin into which he lapsed and fell.
And thus it was, not only with the first sinner personally con-
sidered, but with all that were virtually comprehended in him ;
the whole offspring, the whole progeny : and the same two
things have ensued upon them all ; that is, sin, by that one
being introduced, hath spread itself over all : and death, that
way introduced, hath also diffused itself, and equally spread
over all: all lost in death, inasmuch as all iiave sinned.
Very plain it is, that general notices of these things have ob-
tained in the pagan world : and some of the more instructed
and refined pagans have spoken strangely about this; magni-
fying the original and primitive state of man at first ; as that
it was a state wherein they did partake of a divine portion ; and
wherein they lived in that converse with God ; and there wns
among them that righteousness, and that mutual love towards
one another, as made this world a pleasant region, and most
delectable habitation. We have large discourses in Plato to
this purpose; and divers do speak as largely concerning the
degenerate state of man ; — that he is not the creature that lie at
first was. And they speak it with a great and most affectionate
lamentation, that there should be such a change,
But yet, they having nothing in reference to these matters to
342 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART II.
guide them, hut either dark or duhious conjectures, or false
traditions, thi^'j' could not hut remain very ignorant of much :
that i>, how iou^- that innocent state did continue; and, want-
isii^ {livine revelation to guide them herein, some have (h:avvn
forth that state to a vast tract of time, speaking of it under the
terui of the "golden age:" and though it be generally ac-
knowledged among them that tliere is a degeneracy in man,
yet, how lie came to fall, and wherein his fall at first stood, and
liow the dismal effects came to ensue so generally upon man-
kind ; in reference to these things, they speak (as it could not
but he) as men quite in the dark.
But here we have a most express and punctual account, and
as comprehensive as we can have, in one text of Scripture, in
these words of this text; tliat is, both of the fall of the first
man ; and then of the fallen state of all men : and both these
in the mentioned respects, sin and death, transgression and the
consequent doom.
And here are, in reference hereto, these three general heads
that require to be distinctly spoken to — the fall of the first traiis-
gressor, this one that first sinned; and — the sinful and mi-
serable state of all the whole race of men hereupon ; and — the
consecution of the latter of these upon the former, that by one'
that sinned there should be such a diffusion of sin, and conse-
quently of death upon the whole race of men : how from the
one man's sin whereby it first entered into the world, and hy
which death entered with it, there should be such a transfusion
with it of sin and death too, through the world. These are the
three general heads of discourse to be insisted upon. We begin
with the first,
I. The fall of the first man. And in reference thereto, we
biive these four things more distinctly to be spoken to — wherein
liis sin stood by whicii he fell — how it came to pass that he (an
innocent creature, made upright, as in that Eccl. 7- i^9) should
thus transgress — what the death was that was threatened and
did ensue hereupon ; and the dueness of this death upon his
having once so sinned.
I . We are to consider his sin in Itself, wherein that stood :
and it is plain,
(I.) That it stood in the breach of a positive precept, which
had said to him, that he must by all means abstain from the
fruit of such a tree ; as you see Gen. 2. 16, 17. "Of all the
trees of the garden," wherein God had placed and set him,
he might fieely eat; but of that one, the tree of knowledge
of good and evil, he must by no means eat : in the day wherein
he did eat of it he must die, fall under death, become mortal.
LEC. XXI The Fall of the first Man. 3 13
There are here, some that would fain imagine another way of
understanding this whole history of man's fall, whom I shall
meet with upon a more particular occasion hy and by. But
this is the first step by which man departed from God ; to wit,
his making bold in an interdict, in reference whereto, he had
a positive expression of the divine pleasure in that signification
which God gave him by his mind relating to that matter. He
having both a liberty given him, and a limitation : a liberty —
*' thou mayest freely eat of all the trees of the garden ;" and a
limitation — "of this one thou mayest not eat :" and that in-
terdict enforced by that tremendous sanction, " Eat and die ;
if thou eatest, it will be mortal to thee :" it was a breach of this
positive law. Take that, (as vve shall have occasion to note to
you more distinctly anon,) I say, take that act of eating in con-
junction with all the concurrents whatsoever it did lead to, or
whatsoever was concomitant of that transgressive act. Herein,
I say, it first stood, the breach of a positive law. But,
(2,) It did not stand In that alone, but in the violation of the
whole law of nature too. This positive law,, would never have
been understood or known, if it had not been, some v/ay or
other, expressly signified. But we must understand a law of
nature, besides, to have been given to Adam : to wit, by impres-
sion upon his heart; for the remains of such a law are still to
be found in the nature of man, as the apostle in that 2. Rorj.
takes notice : " Men do shew the work of the law written in
their hearts, their consciences either accusing or excusing," or
accusing and excusing, alternatim, by turns ; sometimes ac-
cusing, and sometimes excusing, as they did comport or ntJt
comport, with the dictates of their own conscience, wiiich
is appointed to be the conservatory of the precepts of that
law.
And of this, there are divers celebrated passages among
heathens themselves, who have called it not a written but a
*' born law," the 7ion scripta, sed nata lex ; so Cicero, and di-
vers others, speak much to the same purpose. This same law of
nature was transgressed in the transgression of this positive law,
this particular interdictive precept, or negative command. For
that particular precept had its foundation in the universal na-
tural law; that is, this one comprehensive law must contain in
it all the laws that could be supposed ; that whatsoever our
great Creator should signify to be his mind and pleasure, that,
his intelligent, reasonable creature should^be obliged to comply
with him in. This sums up the whole law of nature, and so
cannot but virtually comprehend all positive laws too ; when
once, by any such law, there is a signification given of the di-
34t THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
vine pleasure, and mind, and will, of him that made me: I ought
to obey, when I know his mind; I ought to be ruled and go-
verned by that expression thereof, which he is pleased to afford.
This law of nature, (comprehensive of all laws) was broken in
this transgression ; and sundry great breaches of it, which strike
deep into the very foundation, must be contained in this trans-
gression. As for instance,
Here was contempt of the highest and most indisputable au-
thority. God said, " Do not this thing:" the creature saith,
"Aye but I will do it." God saith, " If thou doest it thou
dicst :" he saith, " J will do it though I die for it." Here
was no fearfulness of his displeasure, and of his punitive justice,
the very sword whereof was drawn, and did glitter before his
eyes, in the comminution and threatening wherewith God
fenced his law. Here was disbelief of the first eternal truth.
Here was believing of a creature against the Creator. Whether
that were an innocent creature, or a fallen creature, though he
could not tell, yet he could tell it was a creature that spake to
him and tempted him : and yet, this creature is believed against
God ; and here was an interpretative, constructive saying, "God
is a liar; this creature speaks more truly than he." Here,
was vain curiosity, an affectation of knowing more than God
yet thought fit for his estate. Here was impatiency of wailing
for God's furtiier most seasonable and opportune discovery.
Here was discontent with that excellent state in which God had
set him. Here was pride and ambition ; he must be some
greater thing than God had made him ; " Ye shall be as gods.'*
This is contained in it. So that we are not to think that the
bare act of eating the forbidden fruit did constitute all the sin
of man. But there are all these horrid things complicated and
meeting together in it, which m.ade it a sin most exceedingly
sinful; especially for him that was hitherto in a right mind;
upon whom clear light shone ; no cloud upon his uiiderstand-
ing; no perverseness hitherto in his will; a povver to master
the appetite, and keep under the otherwise mutinous Inclina-
tions of sensitive nature. Take all together, and we find, here
was not only a transgression of the positive precept, but here
was also a most manifest breach of the natural law, in the
greatest and deepest foundations thereof. Now, herein stood this
sin, which was the first thing to be spoken to about that first
more general head. But,
2. We are to consider, next, how this should come to pass,
that a creature perfectly intelligent, and perfectly htjly, yet in
his Integrity should come to be guilty of so horrid a violation
of the divine law as this. It is an astonishing thing, to think
LEC. XXI.) The Fall of the first Man, 345
of, or speak to ; but an account is to be given of it so far as
God hath been pleased to give it us. And so, to the inquiry,
*^ How came this sin into the world by this one man?" we
must answer, " It came so as the divine history dotii inform us."
The law given him, you have in the 2 chapter of Gen. 16, I7.
verses : the violation of it, in the 3 chapter, at large, as dis-
tinctly as the divine wisdom did think needful for us. And so
you find several things to concur, and must be understood so to
have done to the bringing of this matter about, or that there
should be such a thing as sin thus entering into the world.
As,
(1 .) We are to consider herein the divine permission. Most
certain it is, that God did permit, or otherwise it could not have
been. And it is easy and obvious to us all to apprehend, that
if he had pleased, he could easily have hindered it. The event
shews that he did permit ; for it did evince, it did come to
pass, and he could easily have prevented so dismal an issue, if
he had thought fit. But concerning that permission ; it is
true we are to refer it to the divine permission, in very great
part, to whom it did belong to prescribe, but not to be pre-
scribed unto ; that he might do v;hat he pleased with his own ;
give more or less of a gracious influence as he saw fit. But we
are not to ascribe it to his sovereignty alone, or to the abso-
luteness of his power, but to that power of his, guided by the
supreme wisdom, that discerns all the reasons of things.
We have, you know, discoursed largely upon that text,
** Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
All things that he doth and permits ; all things that he suffers
and lets his people do : all do fall under the determination of
the wisest, and deepest, and most righteous counsels : nothing
is done rashly j nothing incogitantly done, or permitted to be
done. That, therefore, is to be considered in the first place,
how it came to pass, that there should be such a transgression
of the divine law, both positive and natural together — God per-
mitted it. And,
(2.) This is further to be considered, that the apostate an-
gels (who made a defection from God) were manifestly apos-
tatized, and had made that defection before. They were gone
off from God, had made a schism in heaven, and forsook their
first station. And,
(3.) Nothing was, hereupon, more obvious, than that they
should affect to draw this new made creature (man) into a com-
bination and confederacy with them, against the rightful, sove-
reign Lord of all. And,
(4.) It is plain, that as they were inclined to it, (and easy it
VOL. VII, 2 Y
34S THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART If,
was to suppose that they would be inclined to it,)so we find that
they did actually attempt it. It is likely, one of their number
and, most probably, their prince, the arch-devil ; it was he that
made this attempt. The matter is put into his liands to make
trial, whether he can draw off this new-made creature from his
loyalty, and involve him in the same guilt and misery with him-
self and his companions; and bring him under the displeasure
and curse of his and their Maker, as they were.
It is very plain, that it was the devil that tempted in, and by,
the serpent. The Scripture doth expressly call him " the old-
serpent, the devil, and satan," as you see. Rev. 12. 9. That
puts the matter out of all doubt. And that he might not fright
Adam, (who possibly might hitherto be ignorant of a superior
order of creatures,) by appearing to him (as it were) in some
angelic form : and Adam very well knowing, that there were not
any other men besides himself : therefore, the devil slides into
the body of the serpent to tempt. 1 know no reason we have
to suppose or imagine that the devil did form of condensed air,
another body like that of the serpent, (though that might be no
impossible thing to do, as there are frequent instances in fol-
lowing times and ages,)but there being such a creature already
formed, it is a great deal more probable, that he should insinuate
and slide into the body of that: and how often hath he pos-
sessed human bodies, even when they have been alive, and
sometimes when they have been dead ! Histories give us
many instances of it : and it is, therefore, not at all strange that
he should possess the body of the serpent for such a purpose as
this, and some way or other speak in, or by it. He hath spoken
in the bodies of men, many times, (the stories themselves that
we have of that sort importing plainly so much,") not making
use of their organs of speech, but speaking more deeply in them
than their organs of speech did lie. And so it is not strange,
that though such a creature was not naturally furnished with
the power of speech, yet that he might speak in it, and by it.
And now here it is true, there are those who are so over wise
above, and beyond, what is written, that they think it a mean
thing to understand the history of the creation ; and then, of
the fall of man, according to the true literal meaning and im-
port of the words whei-ein it is given. And as they are too
wise (I hope) to be our instructors in such a case, so I hope we
shall not be foolish enough to be instructed and taught by
them. The apostle himself, if it were mean and low to under-
stand that history in the literal sense, was content to be of that
low form, when he told us " the serpent beguiled Eve," and
*' he was afraid lest they should be beguiled, as the serpent by
lEC. XXI.) TheFallof the first Man. S-17
his subtilty beguiled Eve," 2 Cor. 11.3. Pray let us content
ourselves to be of that lower form with the apostle; that is,
modestly understand this history just as it lies.
For the history of the creation, some are sick of it, because
they cannot tell how to reconcile the literal account thereof, in
the beginning of Genesis, with the philosophy of their Descartes :
as if his reputation were a thing more studiously to be preserved
than that of Moses ; though, yet, more might be said than hath
been, to reconcile with rational principles, even the whole his-
tory of the creation : and it might be discerned even by them-
selves, if there were not more ill will, and an affectation to slur
Scripture in the case, than tiie love of reason. Most plain it is,
that it is a very ill compliment which they put upon Moses,
when they, would have him to have written the story of the
creation, and of the fall of man, in that form wherein we find
it, only to amuse the people over whom he was set : some ac-
count or other must be given ; and such a one as this, would
serve their turn, and help to awe them, and render them more
governable.
This is the account that some presume to give of this part
of the divine Revelation : and therein, they express a great deal
less reverence for, and esteem of, Moses, than some heathens
have done : Diodorus Siculus, In particular, who magnifies him
as one of the wisest men that the world hath had. But cer-
tainly, as these persons do take off all that can be imagined, from
the integrity of any honest historian, so they did it without any
respect to the reputation of his wisdom too. For if it were to
be supposed that the fidelity of an historiographer were to be
dispensed and laid aside : and if Moses could have obtained of
himself to have done that, surely he might easily have contrived
a more plausible romance than this that is supposed to be
feigned by him : so as that no man can imagine what should
induce him to give such a narrative, but only the known re-
vealed truth of the things themselves. If one would have de^-
viated from that, it might have been witli a great deal more
speciousness than this hath been.
And it is, likewise, a very ill comphment that such, too, put
upon the people of the Jews; yea, and upon all mankind, to
suppose that they would be capable of being so imposed upon,
if there be not evidence in the things themselves related to them
and reported.
But it is the greatest slur of all the rest, which they put
upon divine Revelation, that when that appears and is so mani-
festly allowed to have been written for the instructing of men,
it should yet be supposed to be written for the cheating of
3 iS THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART H,
them. It is, therefore, plain and out of question, that the
devil did tempt this new made creature man, in the serpent,
into which he insinuated himself to this purpose, unto this
transgression. And that is the fourth thing we are to consider
ahout the manner of this sin coming to pass.
(5.) And that the devil applied himself to Eve apart (as it is
apparent) from her husband, when there was not an opportu-
nity of consulting with him, she being, though (it may be) not
of less clear, yet of less strong intellectuals; and in that res-
pect the weaker vessel ; her, he attempts : for Adam was not
deceived, but Eve ; tlial is, not first, but she first ; and so was
made use of as an instrument to deceive him, as the apostle
tells us: 1 Tim. 2. 14.
And because time doth allow me to go no further now, let
me only close what hath been now said, with a caution to that
sex: and especially those that are in the conjugal relation.
Let them consider what God hath appointed that relation for.
He gave Eve to Adam as a help meet. We see what a help
she proved ; a help to destroy him ; a lielp to undo him, and
his whole race and progeny ; perverting the very end for which
God appointed that relation. O ! let such consider and look
to it, that are apt to tempt their husbands into sin, because of
their relation ; because of the affection that they bear to them ;
because of the constant opportunity they have to insinuate into
them, when their pride, and their vanity, and their vindictive-
ness, very often, must be all employed and set on work to draw
their relative into sinful combinations with them against God,
when he appointed them to be helps in the relation and capa-
city wherein they are set. They should be helps to duty;
helps Godward; helps heavenward; joint helps, walking in the
way tu life. Jt lies in my way to note this ; and let it be se-
riously considered and noted, according to the import and con-?
cernment of it.
LECTURE XXII.*
But we are to consider in the next place, and that as the
main thing more immediately to be considered in this case,
(6.)The primitive state of human nature, in respect of the
morality which was founded there, and wherein, or wherewith,
man was at first created. You may remember, that speaking
Preached February 24, l6g4.
LBC. xxii.) The Fall of the Jir St Man. 849
of that former great head, the state of man by creation, from
that text which tells us of " God's having made iiim after his
own image," and in speaking of the moral image of God upon
man in his creation, comprehending botli sanctity and felicity,
that there we told you we were neither to lay the matter too low,
nor too high : not so low as to make it thence apprehensible,
that the sin of man was intrinsically necessary, however it might
be extrinsically, with reference to divine foresight ; that it
should be thought intrinsically necessary would be of horrid
consequence to admit; .for that would be to make the Autlior
of his being the Author of his sin. Therefore, great care was
to be taken, not to lay the matter so low as to exclude the in-
trinsic possibility of man's standing : nor again, was it to be laid
so high as to exclude the possibility of his falling; which the
sad event doth shew.
The matter, therefore, of his fall, is principally to be re-
solved into the estate wherein, upon the account of his morals,
he vras created; that is, that he was made innocent, but not
impeccable ; he was made a sinless creature, but not with an
impossibility of sinning : and in particular, his mind, it was
made apprehensive, very capable of true and right notions of
things, but not incapable of wrong : it was made without error,
but not indeceptible, under no present deception as it was
made, and yet, not under an impossibility of being deceived and
imposed upon by false representations and colours. And so as
to his will, it was created without any determination to good;
it was made in that state of liberty as to be in a certain sort of
equipoise, according as things should be truly or falsely repre-
sented, by the leading faculty, to the mind and understanding.
And so hereupon, according to this original state of human na-
ture, there was a possibility remaining of what, no doubt, did
ensue. As,
[I.] Faulty omission in several respects. As,
First. Of prayer, in the instant and article of temptation. It
had been a creaturely part in that instant, presently to have
looked up ; *' Lord I am thy creature, the work of thine hands,
leave me not to err in such a critical season as this." And
again.
Secondly. Of dependance. The creature, as such, was by the
law of his creation obliged to depend ; that is, a reasonable crea-
ture capable of being governed by a law, was obliged to an intel-
ligent, voluntary dependance, as all creatures, as creatures, have
d natural dependance : and it cannot be otherwise with any of
them. There should, by such a dependance, have been a deri-
350 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
vation and drawing in a sustaining, strengthening influence,
de 7107H), as the exigency of such a case did require.
Thirdly. And of consideration. There was, no doubt, an omis-
sion of that ; that he did not use the understanding power and
faculty that God had endued his nature with, to ponder, and
weigh, and balance things in that juncture of time. He being
essentially, as to his mind and spirit, a thinking creature, should
have used thoughts with more equity; that is, have balanced
things on the one hand and the otlier. And this, it is plain, was
not done. And there was no doubt,
Fourthly. An omission of the exercise ofthe great principle of
love, which could not but be most connatural to such a creature :
love to God, love to himself, love to his posterity. This prin-
ciple was not excited and drawn forth into act and exercise, as
it ought, in such an exigency, to liave been. And this, as ea-
sily made way for,
[2.] Faulty commissions even in the inward man, mental and
cordial ones in the mind, and in the heart. As,
First. The allowing himself to aim at greater measures of
knowledge, tiian God had yet thought fit for him : whereas, he
should have been content with a stat€ in which God had set him
in this respect, and have waited for his further manifestations to .
him, of what it was fit and convenient for him to know. It is
plain, the temptation was specious unto the cognitive power of
man : " Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil ;" a very
plausible temptation to a creature made capable of knowing
much, and therefore, could not but have a desire (suitable to
such a capacity) of knowing more than he yet did. He might
easily apprehend that this his state, in this respect, was not so
perfect, though it was not sinfully imperfect. He was guilty
of no culpable and blameable ignorance before; blit not en-
dued with so much knowledge, but that he could easily ap-
prehend it might grow. But it was to have grown in a regular
way ; partly by his own improvement of his reasoning power ;
and partly by a patient expectation of God's further manifes-
tations and discoveries to him. But he complies with the
temptation that thus is given to his cognitive faculty, catching
at a sudden power of knowing, beyond what belonged to his
compass, and was withiiv his reach, by ordinary and allowable
methods and means. And then there was no doubt,
Secondly. A sinful cherishing of sensitive appetite, which it
belongs to a reasonable creature to have governed, and kept with-
in limits. He was of a compound nature; intellectual, and sen-
sible ; and the sensitive nature is permitted to aspire and set up
for the government, and it is yielded. A great violation of the
LEC. XXII.) The Fall of the first Man^ 35 1
law of his nature, and that order that God had settled, at first,
of superiority and inferiority between his natural powers. The
object, no doubt, was very tempting-, fair to the eye, and it is
likely might carry a fragrancy and odorifcrousness witli it to the
smell ; and, in conjunction with the other methods of tempta-
tion, this might signify much. But, in the mean time, the
cherishing and indulging sensitive appetite against the law of
the mind and rational nature, could not but be a very faulty
commission in this respect.
And so, altogether comes to discover the difference between
paradise and heaven, tlie paradisiacal state and the heavenly
state. There was at first, in paradise, sinlessness ; thus far,
there was a posse nnn peccare, a possibility of not sinning :
but in the heavenly state anon 'posse peccare, an impossibiliti^
of sin7iing. This difference was soon to be understood; that
is, it is now to be collected from what did soon and early ap-
pear in view. Man was not made in a state of comprehensor,
in that which was to be his ultimate and consummate state;
but in a state of probation, made a probationer, in order to
some further state, which upon his approving himself he was to
be introduced into. And such a defectibility, a possibility of
understanding things wrong, and choosing wrong, it was most
suitable to the primitive state of man. According to all that
we can apprehend of the wisdom of God, there must be a state
of probation, before a state of retribution ; before punishment
or reward, there must be an obediential state, wherein a man
shall, as he acquits himself, be capable of, or liable to, the one
or to the other. Nothing could be more congruous unto the
perfection of that Supreme Being who was the Author of our
being, than, that this should be the state of things betweea
him and man, at the first.
And now, before we pass from this head, there are sun-
dry instructive corollaries or inferences, that we may take up
fro 11 it.
. One we have mentioned already, (as it the last time came
i-Ti our way), tliat is, of what concernment it is to the female
sex to take heed of comporting duly with, or lest they should
violate or pervert the intent of, their being made what they
are : and that they, coming into the conjugal estate, should be
helpers to them with whom they are conjoined in that state.
*'Let us make for man a help meet for him:" we see how
the design of that very institution was perverted and lost at
first. A help ! such a help as helped to destroy him, aiul
ruin the world with him. It was not he that was deceived ;
(as the apostle to Timothy notes j) that is, not first deceived,
352 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART !!♦
but she, a woman that God had given him. And it is not
without apparent need, but most agreeable to the ducture of
Scripture in this case, that such a remark as this should be
made; and thai they whom it concerns, should receive instruc-
tion by it : for history is full of many dreadful instances, what
tragedies, feminine subtilties, and pride, and lust, and envy,
and vindictiveness, hath brought about in this wretched world.
But,
2. We may further learn from the whole, that it is of equal
concern to that sex to which God hath given the priority, that
they keep up to the law of their state ; which is to be leaders and
guiders in the state of marriage when they come thereinto ; and
that they dwell with the other relative, according to knowledge ;
(as the apostle Peter's expression is, 1 Pet. 3. 70 that they com-
port with the obligation that the original institution hath laid
upon them as to this. For we are not to think that Adam could,
therefore, be excused because Eve solicited him, having of-
fended first : no more than afterwards, Ahab was excused for
being a wicked man above all others, (upon the matter there
was none like him for wickedness,) because that Jezebel his
wife stirred him up, as it is, 1 Kings 21. 25. He was not,
therefore, a more innocent person ; no, he was wicked, even be-
yond parallel, though Jezebel his wife stirred him up : for
Adam ought to have done the business of his station. He that
is first in such a relation and that hath the higher dignity, ought
to comport with the obligation of the law of his state, and to
exercise that more confirmed judgment which is supposed did
belong to him. That he did not so, this made him guilty be-
fore the Supreme Judge. " Because thou hast hearkened to the
f oice of thy wife :" (Gen. 3. 170 therefore, the malediction of
the doom comes upon him, which hath been so generally trans-
mitted as we know. Again,
3. We learn, hence, that the grace of God, not as it is emi-
nent in himself, but as it is transient, doth issue forth, and is
communicated and imparted here and there, doth admit of de-
grees : there may be more, or there may be less, given forth,
according to the mere pleasure of the Free-giver. A contemp-
lation that tends highly and justly to exalt and magnify the
grace of God, and the God of all grace, in the absoluteness of
that liberty which maketh it what it is, that is, "grace." It
could not be grace if it were not most free. And being so, then
he might dispense more, or he might dispense less, as to him
seemeth good. We are not to think there was nothing of grace,
nothing of dignatlon, nothing of vouchsafement, in God's first
ttcatment of Adam : that he would make him such a creature.
LEC. XXII.) The Fall of the first Man. 353
that he would give liiin such endowments as he did, it was all
of good pleasure. But so alisolute liberty, as doth belong to
grace, niigiit issue forth in higher or in lower degrees, as sliould
seem meet to the Free-giver: he might give so much of his
own influence, as by which it was intrinsically possible (as was
said before) not to have sinned ; while he was under no ob-
ligation to give forth so much as to make it impo.ssible to sin.
Again,
4 We mav further learn, hence, that by the same steps and
degrees by wbich man did at first depart from God, God did
depart from man ; forsook not, but being forsaken : so that the
measure which he gave long after, was at first observtid strictly j
(as it still is every where in the world ;) God is with you while
you are with him : so it ever was, so it ever will" be, between
him and his intelligent creatures. As the creature goes off
from him, he righteously recedes and goes from the creature.
Not, that on the part of favour he puts himself under any nega-
tive tie, that is not to be thought or imagined, but he is pleased
to put himself vmder a positive one ; that is, he hath put him-
self under no obligation to do more than according to this rule.
For that he most frequently doth : and (in the state of apostasy)
without it, who could be saved ? None could, if God did not
draw nigh to men ; or took up a thought so to do. That rule
is no negative tie upon God : h.ut he hath been pleased to put
himself under a positive tie; that is, such as are in tiie state of
grace now, God will l)e with them while they are with \\\m.
As to Adam, who was in a state of grace of another kind at first,
God would most certainly be with him as long as he was witli
God. And so it is still, with any that are in a state of grace,
any that God takes to be his peculiar people : " I will be with
you while you are with me;" he will never do less than that.
He may, many times, do more, incomparably more, unspeakably
more : he may prevent, and be beforehand ; or he may follow
men in their wanderings, even as he did Adam hiinself when
he was vvandered and gone off. But he would never go off
from Adam first; he only did go off and depart from him by
such steps as by which Adam did depart from God : and not
being tied to the contrary, he might do so, and for wise and holy
ends did. But again,
5. We may further learn, hence, that such a liberty of will
as stands in a mere indifferency to good or evil, is no perfeciion
unalterahly and immutably belonging to the nature of man : no-
thing can he more apparent, such a liberty as that, is most unfit
to be magnified and made such an idol of as it hath, by many
VOL. VII. 2 z
354 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 11,
within the Christian world. For it is plain, and nothing can be
plainer, that it did not belong as a perfection, immutably, to the
nature of man. It was very suitable to that less perfect state in
which man was created and made. But it is not to be found
agreeing to it immutably, and without variation, at any time
since, or ever will again. It just served for that state wherein
he was at first made, such a liberty as stood with an indifferen-
cy to good and evil, (whether that good or evil should lie in do-
ing or not doing,or whether it should lie in doing this or doing
that,) it never belonged to manj but only in that first juncture,
as being very suitable to the state in which man, as a proba-
tioner, was made and set at first. But it is not found to be
u'ith man ever since, or is ever like to be again : for in the un-
regenerate state, there is a liberty only unto evil, so as " all the
imaginations of men's hearts are only evil, and that continual-
ly." There is no liberty as to any spiritual good, saving good.
And again, even the regenerate state, though there be a liberty
to good through grace, yet it is very imperfect. And then, look
to the consummate state of saints in glory, and there is only li-
berty to good ; no liberty of sinning : nay, no liberty to good
or evil, (consider the matter morally,) not at all. So that so
magnified an idol of liberty of will, as if it were an inseparable-
perfection of the nature of man, was never kaovvn to agree to
it, but in its first state : and no more was ever found belonging
to it since, nor ever will be.
It may l)e said, it is only the moral good and evil, which h
superadded to the nature of man, that alters the case with him;
and that doth not change his nature; but that his nature will
still be the same. And it is very true, his nature is the same
that at first it was; otherwise, he could not be the same crea-
ture that did offend, and comes to be punished ; or that shall,
by grace, be made to comply with the terms of God*s gracious
covenant ; and that shall afterwards come to l)e, through grace,
rewarded. He would not be the same creature, if there were
a change, quite, of his nature, and the essentials of his being;
man would not be man, he would be anotlier thing. But then,
as moral good superadded hereunto, the one or the other of
them may be without making his nature another thing. It can-
not, therefore, be said, that this liberty of will is altogether in-
separable from his nature. And if, in tlie heavenly state, (which
is most plain and evident,) confirmation in good, doth nothing
s|)oil a man's liberty, then, the efficacy of his grace in his pre-
sent state, doth not spoil a man's liberty neither : nay, it doth
much less; for if it should be supposed to do so, then, a man
lEC. xxii.) The Fall of the First Mail, 355
would be less a man for being a glorified man ; it would be a
diminution to the dignity of man, and he would be the worse
for going to heaven ; because there, his liberty ceaseth, a liberty
to good or evil. What an unimaginable thing is that, that it
should be a depression, a diminution, to a man, to gloriiy him !
that that should be a maim of his nature ! But if the glory of
heaven do not diminish a man, or be a maim to him, because it
takes away the possibility of sinning in the heavenly state ;
then, tbe efficacy of grace, in the present state, is no diminu-
tion, nor blemish, nor maim to the nature of man now neither.
Again,
6". We may further learn, hence, what cause we have to ap-
prehend and dread the destructive designs of the devil. For
what ! do we apprehend that he is less an enemy to God, or
less an enemy to man, now, than he was at first? Do you
think the devil is grown kinder, more good natured, less intent
upon the destruction of souls, and less malicious against hea-
ven ? It is a niost intolerable, most inexcusalde thing, that
we who pretend to believe the Revelation of God about these
things, and do hereby know the devil to have been a " mur-
derer from the beginning," and may collect, that he is still
going about, that he may destroy and devour as a roaring lion ;
I say, the Lord have mercy upon us, that notwithstanding we
pretend to know and believe all this, we should live so secure
as we do, without any thought of any such thing. And,
7. It may give us to understand the madness of self-confi-
dence, that we should be so little afraid of sin; that we should
be so little afraid of temptation ; that we should be so apt to
trust our own strength : and when that perfect state wherein
Adam was made in paradise, was not enough to secure him,
that we should live such independent lives, so seldom look up,
that we have not the sense of that petition more deeply wrought
into our souls, " that we may not be led into temptation."
Divers other things there are that might be hinted, but 1 shall
only add this, for the present,
8. We may further learn, that there is no need that there
should be any new invented account of the first apostasv of
man, so as therein to depart from the plainness and simplicity
of the letter of that history, which God hath given us of it;
there is no need of any such thing. The matter, as Scripture
represents it, and as we have (though less perfectly) repre-
sented it from Scripture, as it lies, is raticuial and congruous
enough ; and such as we need not be ashamed to own and
avow to the world. There are those that are so over-officious
S56 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART II.
in these matters, as to trouble the world with their fine notions
and accounts thereof, altogether alien from the letter of the
history, that so they may (as is pretended) make things look a
little more plausibly than the letter of history doth represent
them; when indeed, if the matter be searched into, the design
seems to he, not to make them look plausible, but ridiculous :
and their business is not to expound Scripture, but to expose it,
and the whole of our religion. But I shall gay no more to
them now neitlier.
LECTURE XXIII.
GO far we have gone in our course of treating, in some order,
of the several heads of religion, as to enter upon this doc-
trine of the apostasy, which we proposed to consider and speak
to from this text, Sin entered htto the ivorld, and death hy
siriy and therein to treat of these three genera] heads.
I. Of the fall of the first man.
II. Of the fallen state of man. And,
III. Of the consecution of the latter of these upon the for-
mer.
And for the First of these generals, the Fall of the First Man,
we proposed, therein, to consider and speak to tliese four more
special heads : J . the sin by which he fell ; 2. the way liow he
fell into, and by this sin; 3. the death that did ensue ; and,
4. the dueness of that death upon this sin : and we have spoken
to the two first of these.
3. We come now to the third, the death that did ensue as to
this first man. And here the inquiry may be, whether tiiat the
death contained in the commination or threatening, be princi-
pally meant, or the death that is in other terms expressed in
the consequent sentence ? The first of these, you read Gen. 2.
17. and the latter you read, Gen. 3. from the I7. to the 19.
Preached March 10, 1694.
LEC. xxiii.) The death consequent upon the Fall. 357
ver. I say, whether the death expressed in the comniina-
tion — "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou slialt surely
die :" or that which is in other words cxjiressed (not by the word
death) in the sentence, " dust thou art and unto dust thou
shalt return," he the same, yea or no ; it is plain, ihat there
is a real ditference betwixt the commination (formally consi-
dered) that contains the one, and the sentence that expresses
the other.
By the former, the commination or threatening, is established
(as far as the comminatory sanction could go) tb.at l^w, or cove-
nant of works, which was to concern all mankind. By the
latter, to wit, the sentence, there was a particular application
of this law, now transgressed, unto this particular case of trans-
gressing Adam ; as that is the proper business of a sentence,
to apply the law according to which it must be understood to
pass to tiie particular case of offenders, when they come to be
judged by that law.
But it is here more distinctly to be considered, whetiier that
the sentence do not carry with it some moderation as to the
evil or penalty'contained in the 'ihreatening of commination:
in reference wliereto, these particulars are worthy your consi-
deration.
(I.) That tlie terms, wherein the one and the other are to be
delivered, are not the same ; for the terms of the commination,
by which the law or covenant of works, that was to concern all
mankind is established, as by a solemn sanction, goes in these
express terms : *' In case thou eatest, thou shalt (as we read it)
surely die;" thou shalt die the death, or, dying, thou shalt die.
But the sentence hath not the word "death" in itj but it
speaks of sundry miseries that should attend tiiis liie, and that
should end, at length, in the dissolution of the compound, and
especially, of the earthly part : "Dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return." Having worn out a sad life amidst many
sorrows here on earth, thou shalt go to the dust at last, as thou
art dust. And,
(2.) It is to be considered, that these different terms are not
apt, fully, to express the same thing: for whereas, it is said in
the commination, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
die the death," these are expressions very fitly accommodated
to signify death in the utmost extent, in all the latitude of it,
"thou shalt die the death :" all the fulness of death seems to
be comprised therein without limitation. But in the sentence,
when the great day comes to pass judgment upon the delin-
quents, (the law being now violated and broken,) you have not,
in his application to either of the human offenders, any so terri-
ble expressions as this, only they are doomed to manifest sor-
353 THE PRINCIPLES OF THK ORACLES OF GOD. (PART It.
rows and miseries: and it is told to Adam, (in whom the
w,oman must be comprehended as being taken out of the man)
tiiat "dust they are, and unto dust they shall return ;" there-
fore, there seems to be much less in the sentence than in the
commination. And,
(3.) it is to be considered, that between these two, the gospel
did intervene ; that is, between the commination and the sen-
tence : the commination was given with the law to man yet in-
nocent : when he was now fallen and had transgressed, then
Cometh the sentence ; but it so comes as that the gospel steps
in betweeti, being tacitly insinuated in reference to them, in
what was directly said to the serpent ; that which was a curse
to him, was a blessing to them : " I will put enmity between
seed and seed, between thy seed and the v.'oman's seed ; and
that seed shall break thy head, though thou shalt bruise his
heel." And this, the grace of God might, for ought we know,
apply and bring home to the case of Adam, as it was applied to
all the more special seed of the woman, ihat should come to
be united with him who was most eminently the woman's seed.
And therefore, it migbt very well be, that though all the fulness
and horrors of death, taken in its utmost latitude and compre-'
Iiension, were included in tbe commination, there might, in
pronouncing the sentence upon Adam, be as great a mitigation,
as the variation of the terms doth import.
But our inquiry here, must be concerning the death con-
tained in the commination, where we have the term of" death,"
double death, or dying the death, most expressly made use of.
And it is by that, that the dying of this death is to be mea-
sured ; to wit, by the commination, as it did concern Adam,
and it must concern Adam's posterity. And admit, that there
was a real mitigation upon the intervening of the gospel, and
the exercise of the grace of God, applying it in Adam's case,
yet we are still to consider the death that was contained in the
commination, as due to Adam ; due, to wit, in a former instance,
before there could be a mitigation in a latter, in a following
instance : for supposing tliere were then so quick and speedy a
remission in so great part, yet, the penalty remitted must be
due, before it could be remitted. It must be a debt, before it
could be a remitted debt. And so concerning the death that
was due, which offending Adam and his posterity became sub-
ject and liable to; I say, concerning that, it is, we have to in-
quire, as this dueness is measured by the commination ; though
indeed, wc are not yet, according to the series and order of dis-
course, to consider this death in the extensiveness of it to
Adam's posterity ; for that comes in, under the nest general
LEc. XXIII.) The death consequent Upon the Fall. ,159
iiead, the fallen state of man ; whereas, we have only now to
consider the fall of the first man, and what did concern tiio
case of Adam himself. And so, our inquiry, is, What death it
was that was threatened to him, upon the supposition that he
should transgress ? And of this matter, I shall give you an ac-
count in several particulars.
[1 .] Most plain it is, that corporeal death was included in the
meaning of the commination ; for that he did actually incur.
You read, in the short history that we have of him, tiiat death,
at lengtii, finished his course. He lived so long, and he died.
And it could not be, that he should incur that which was not
due. And if it were due, it must be so upon tlie commina-
tion ; as the duenessofany such punishment, upon any delin-
quent, is first measured by the law; the sentence is to proceed
according to law; that is, so far as not to go beyond it : it is
possible there may be mitigations, but the extent of the law
cannot be exceeded. That is therefore plain, that corporeal
death was included. And,
[2.] it is very evident too, that much more was Included than
corporeal death : for Adam did actually suffer more (as is ma-
nifest) than mere corporeal death ; as the labours, and hard-
ships, and sorrows of life, and whatsoever else besides, about
which we shall further inquire anon. And,
[3.] That more beyond corporeal death could not mean anni-
hilation, or an extinction of his being. For,
First. We do not find that either he, or any one else, was ever
annihilated, or that any creature ever was. No such thing ap-
pears that either he, or any man, or any thing, was actually re-
duced to nothing. Nor again,
Secondly. Could death be a proper expression of annih.ilatlon :
for annihilation is not adequately opposite to life. There is no
adequate opposition between life and annihilation : if tiiere
were, then life and non-annihilation, or continuing such a thing
in being, must be equivalent terms, if the other be adequately
opposite terms. But it is plain, they are not so ; because it Is
manifest, there are many things in being, and which are some-
what, and yet do not live. Therefore, to suppose that anni-
hilation should be the thing meant by death, here, as is threat-
ened to Adam, and so to offending man in him, is a dream
without a pretence or ground, neither to be found, or any sha-
dows of it, in Scripture; nor at all agreeing to the reason of
the thing.
To reduce a thing to nothing, is no apt kind of punishment.
There is no other thing, indeed, but a reasonable creature, that
is capable of punishment, properly so called. But the reduc-
360 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 11,
tion of any thing to nothlnsj, is to put it absolutely out of any ca-
pacity of apprehending itself under divine displeasure ; or, that
it is self- fallen, under the animadversion of justice : and there-
fore, is a most unsuitable thing to be designed for the punish-
ment of a reasonable creature, if it were to be called a creature.
But the very notion is most unsuitable to it. And therefore,
[4.] There is no doubt, but spiritual death is included. '* Thou
shalt surely die," thou shalt die the death : here must be in-
cluded spiritual death; the death of the soul; not naturally
understood, but morally : for naturally, the sou! is immortal,
and can never die. But death, in reference to the soul, being
taken morally, that is, as inclusive both of sin and misery, so
the soul was liable to death, and became no doubt the subject
of it, in this very case, antecedently to the restitution, and re-
covery, and the actual supervention of the divine grace. And
when we say that death, in this sense, that is, the moral sense,
doth include both sin and misery, it must do so, even by the
same reason, by which life, in the moral sense, doth include both
sanctity and felicity. And it is manifest, it doth include both.
But then, we must further know, that sin being included in
this death, it must be in a twofold notion, which we must un-,
derstand in our minds concerning sin ; that is, sin is to be
considered, either as it is an evil against God ; or it is to be
considered, also, as an evil to ourselves. As an evil against
God, so it could be a wrong to him, though it cannot be a hurt.
And in that sense, or according to that notion, we are not to
lake sin here, for so we considered it under the former head.
Very true it is, we must add,
[5.] That there is a necessary complication of sin and misery
with one another, as there is of sanctity and felicity with one
another : they are complicated, and cannot but be so, even in
their own natures. But thougli they cannot be severed, they
may be considered distinctly. Severed thoy cannot be, neither
©f these two pairs — neither sin and misery, nor holiness and
blessedness. Neither of the pairs can be disjoined or severed ;
the love of God, that comprehends in it all our duty, and all
our felicity, virtually, as being the great active principle, and
the great fruitive ; that principle, from whence 1 am to do ail
the good I do ; and that principle by which I am to enjoy all the
good that I enjoy, or am capable of enjoying. Both of these
two things, summed up together in one virtual principle of love,
can never be disjoined or severed, any more than a thing can
be torn and severed from itself. And so the case is, as to the
opposite pair; sin and misery, they can never be disjoined or
severed, for they are virtually comprehended in one and the
LBC. xxiii.) The death consequent upon the Fall. 3fil
same principle ; to wit, enmity to God ; upon the account
whereof, while it prevails, it is impossible either to obey God
or enjoy him. These two, therefore, cannot but be insepara-
ble. But while they are inseparable, yet they are distinct
too. As to this latter pair, wherein we are now concerned,
to wit, sin and misery; "To be carnally minded is death."
And as it is misery, and so a hurt and ruin to us, so it is to
be considered here as it comes under the njotion of the threat-
ened death, and so doth make a part of the threatened pe-
nalty; that is, sin carrying a self-punitive malignancy in it.
God having been once offended, he leaves the sinner (till
grace doth work the reparation) under that self-punishment.
*^ Thine own wickedness shall correct thee." And so, in
this sense it is, that spiritual death must be comprehended
in that death contained in the commination : " In the day
thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death." It must com-
prehend spiritual death : and that spiritual death doth also
comprehend in it several things, of which I shall give you a very
brief account. As,
First. The retraction of God's Spirit. That it contains, as the
first and most fundamental thing, in this threatened spiritual
death, the retraction of God's Spirit. When Adam had abused,
or not duly used, the power which his Creator gave him, of
obeying and complying with the divine pleasure, the Spirit re-
tired; and now, we must consider the difference (as hath been in-
timated before) between the spiritual influence which was vouch-
safed to Adam, while he yet remained innocent, and that which
is afforded to the regenerate, in their present state, to preserve
that state; that is, as to Adam in innocence, that influence
was enabling, but not determining. It was such as by which
(as hath been told you) he had a possibility of not falling, but
not an impossibility of falling; he had a possibility of stand-
ing, not an impossibility not to stand ; that he had not, that in-
fluence of the Spirit which he had, being suitable to his state of
probation wherein he was made, that is now justly withheld,
the Spirit retires, leaves him to himself.
This we do not say gratis dictum; for do but consider that
plain text : (Gal. 3. 13.) " Christ hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us : for cursed is every
one that hangeth on a tree : that the blessing of Abraham might
come upon us Gentiles, the promise of the Spirit, (or the pro-
mised Spirit) through faith." If the remission of the curse do
carry with it the conferring of the grace of the Spirit, then the
curse, while it did continue, could not but include, carry in
it, the privation and suspension of the Spirit. This was part of
VOL. VII. 3 A
362 riiii paiNciPLfis or the oracles of god; (part ii,
the curse upon apostate Adam, the loss of God's Spirit. For
that which the grace of Christ and redemption by him, re-
moving, inferred the communication of the Spirit, that must
include the suspension and withholding of the Spirit. And,
Secondly. Hereupon, it could not but ensue, (which is a fur-
ther thing contained in this spiritual death,) that the holy image
of God must be erased, vanished; and, antecedently to the resli-
tution, it could not but be so. And,
Thirdly. There must be included in this spiritual death, an
aversion from God, the turning ofi'of the apostate soul from God :
that whereas it minded him before, with a complacential ado-
ration, now it is quite alienated : here is no inclination in him
towards God. The thing speaks itself; and it was apparent in
Adam's case. As soon as he becomes guilty, he hides himself,
vainly attempts to hide himself from the doom. That which
was before the most grateful thmg of all things, to have God
nigh him, is now quite otherwise; he cannot endure that God
should approach him. If it were possible to keep himself
from God, (but that he vainly attempts,) his sense would be,
"Let me have no more to do with God." And,
Fourthly. There must be further contained in it, hereupon, a
cessation of that intercourse and communion that was between
God and hira. For tlie Spirit of God was retired on his part,
and man was become averse and disaffected to God on his own
part. The image of God, that rendered him propense towards
God, and meet for his communion, being vanished and gone,
nothing can ensue more necessarily and certainly than a ces-
sation of communion : God refuseth to converse with hira, and
be refuseth to converse with God. And,
Fifthly. There could not also but be included as consequent
hereupon, regrets of conscience: not penitential but torment-
ing; not penitential as yet, or not penitential first; but first tor-
menting, before they could be penitential, while grace was not
yet applied. How soon it might be we know not. It is very
likely it might be very soon, by the account that short history
gives us. But in the mean time, there could be only torment-
ing regrets of conscience : *' Very lately I was an innocent crea-
ture ; now I am a fallen creature : 1 then stood right in the ac-
ceptance and favour of God ; now there is war between him and
me." Penitential regrets, indeed, could not be a part of the
penalty ; they are a part and degree of the sinner's restoration
and recovery ; but the preceding tormenting regrets, they are
included in the death. It is a deadly thing to be stung with
the sense of one's having offended him whom we can never
propitiate to ourselves again. And hereupon, also,
Sixthly, Very black and gloomy thoughts must ensue ; amaz-
LEG. xxiii.) The death consequent upon the. Fall. 363
ing thoughts ! He that was in the eye of the innocent, unoffend-
ing soul, his highest delight, now he is all iinvrapt in a cloud;
or the mind is inwrapt in a cloud that it cannot behold him ;
such a cloud as it can by no means penetrate. God could be
conceived of under no other notion than that of an enemy and
avenger. And,
Seventhly. There must he, hereupon, most astonishing fears;
for it is obvious that a reasonable, intelligent, mind would consi-
der, " He who did so lately fetch me and all this creation out of
nothing, is almighty, and it is impossible for me to fence against
his power. That power that could create a world so easily, what
can I do to protect myself against it, when it is set on work by
just displeasure ?" And then,
Eighthly. It must include despair : for the first covenant
gave no hope of forgiveness, and therefore, gave no room or place
for repentance till grace came, till an inspired gospel came to be
actually applied and brought home in this case. And there-
fore, there must be the epitome and sum of hell, in the state of
this ease ; God offended and never to be reconciled, and against
whose displeasure, armed with power, I can have no defence, no
protection. All this more, all this surplusage, must be con-
tained in this death ; that is, spiritual death, the present death
of the soul in the moral sense, in all this latitude and extensive-*
ness of it. And then, further,
[6.] There is in this surplusage, too, these many external
miseries of life that we find to be contained, also, in the very sen-
tence : for though the sentence may contain less than the com-
mination, yet it could not contain more. Therefore, all these
being found in the sentence, must be in the commination too:
all the external miseries of life that a delinquent creature could
be liable to. And then, in the last place,
[7.] This death must carry in it, too, death eternal, as the
sum of the penalty, or the consummation thereof, as tl)e evil
threatened and contained in that. And though many would
speak very distinguishingly of this matter, and labour to do so
when they can, yet let but plain Scripture be considered in the
case, and you will see how it speaks. Do but follow this very
context unto the shutting up of this chapter, and you will sec
what kind of reign it is that sin hath in the world. It now began
its reign, even in this first apostasy, or in the apostasy of the first
man. Sin, we are told, it reigns unto death, verse 21. "As
sin hath reigned unto death, so grace might reign through
righteousness unto life." What life? "Unto eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord." You see how tliese two stand
in their antithesis, in their opposition to one another. Here is
364 I THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
death set in opposition to eternal life. What death is that that
stands in opposition to eternal lite ? Surely, it must be eternal
death. So in the conclusion of the next chapter: " The wa-
ges of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life, through
Jesus Christ our Lord." "The wages of sin is death." It is
not said of this or that sin, some greater sin ; but, •' The wages
of sin," as sin, "is death." And what death, the opposition
shews us: it is put in opposition to eternal life; therefore, it
must be eternal death that is the wages of sin, of sin as sin :
and therefore, if Adam's transgression was sin, such a death
must be the wages of it.
And that is the M?Vc? particular, belonging to this first gene-
ral head, that we were to treat of, to wit, to shew what the death
was that did ensue, and was designed to ensue, by force of the
divine law; or the commination added thereto, upon this first
sin of the first man. Now,
4. The fourth of these heads is the dueness of this death
upon this sin ; and upon that I shall not insist, it being enough
to toucli it, things being obvious of themselves. The heinous-
ness of the sin, and the too naturalness of the punishment
taken together, will evince the dueness of this event upon this
sin.
(1.) Consider the heinousness ofthesin. We have opened
that unto you in many particulars formerly, to which I shall
only add the consideration of these four circumstances. As
that,
[I.] The first man should so soon transgress. But just now
made; (upon the matter it being generally thought to be but
a little time: most think tlie same day;) just now made by
God, a reasonable, immortal creature, and so soon made by
himself, a sinner, transgressor, and a rebel.
[2.] Consider that he sinned with open eyes, having, before,
no cloud upon his mind, but all things in clear light before
him.
[3.] And while his nature was antecedently untainted, no vi-
cious inclination in him. And,
[4.] That there was nothing which could be matter of com-
plaint in his state, his condition so entirely good, and yet did
not please him. Think, I say, of the heinousness of the sin, in
these and other respects, and then the incurred death cannot
be thought unproportionable, or undue, though you take it in
the extent that hath been mentioned. But,
(2.) Considier, too, the con- naturalness of the punishment to
the sin, this death to his transgression. He turns from God to
the creature: God turns away (in just displeasure, upon bein^
LEC. xxin.) Tfie dueness of death upon the Fall, 865
offended,) from him. Hence, all these things ensue and fol-
low of themselves. And there was no preventing it by any or-
dinary methods, unless God would annihilate him, unless he
would throw his creature back again into nothiiig. But that
became not the wisdom and greatness of God to do. It had
been too much trifling to raise his creature into being, and put
him under such an equitable, and so righteous a law, and, he
oifending, presently to nullify his own work. That had not
been becoming God, not suitable to the divine wisdom and
greatness.
And therefore, now to give some brief notes of Use upon the
two last mentioned heads.
1. You may learn, hence, that the act of eating tlie for-
bidden fruit, is not to be considered too abstractly, as the first
sin of man ; that is the thing wherein the most do foolishly
impose upon themselves, and so speak and think diminish-
ingly of this whole matter. What ! was it so great a matter ?
was it so great a thing to eat the fruit of a tree that was for-
bidden ? This, abstractly considered, was not the first sin. Not
abstractly considered; take it comprehensively, and take it in
all that was belonging to it, and it was the first sin. But the
act of eating alone, considered by itself, was not the first ; there
were a great many mental evils (as we have shewn in opening
the sin) which did precede the act of eating, and that altoge-
ther, make it a most horrid wickedness ; distrust of the truth of
God's word, and trusting a creature that he might easily ap-
prehend to be an apostate, fallen creature, by opposing the
word of God ; trusting him against him that made him, and
gave him breath. He trusted against God, one, he knew not
whom : but he might suppose it one that was not in his origi-
nal integrity, that was fallen and gone off from God ; other-
wise he could never have counselled against God. There was
great ingratitude for goodness, shewn and exhibited ; for mercy
received : mercy, indeed, as yet it could not properly be called,
he not being as yet a miserable creature, or in a miserable
state. There was opposing his will to the Supreme Will.
There was exalting the sensitive nature against the rational,
against the law of the mind ; and so confounding the cider of
things, in that part of God's creation ; to wit, himself breaking
the order and dependance of the faculties in reference to one
another, with many more.
2. And you may further learn, hence, how nearly sin and
misery, sin and death, do border upon one another. They are
things very near to each other. These two spheres of life
and death ; that Hghtsojne, 2^^^'*^"^ sphere, all. full of vitality.
366 TUJi PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PARTlt
pleasure and bliss ; and that sphere of darkness and death, that
comprehended every thing of horror in it, you see how nearly
they do touch, and how nearly they did touch ; so that we
niigh.t suppose, but even a moment between the one and the
other. This moment, an innocent creature, standing- in de-
light, and favour, and acceptance ; and the next moment, an
accomplice of hell, associated with apostate spirits against God.
How nearly do the spheres of light, and life, and bliss ; and
of death, and horror, and hell, touch ! How near did they
touch one another ! How immediate was the transitus^ the
passage from the one to the other 1 And,
3. You see, not only the nearness in point of time ; but the
natural connexion that is between sin and misery ; that the one
doth in so great a measure involve the other, as 1 have shewn
they do. iSin carries death in it ; " To be carnally minded is
deatli." And we may further see,
4. What occasion we should take, hence, to admire the grace
of the gospel, that it should so soon intervene ; and when it so
doth, here is place for repentance by the constitution of a new
covenant, the evangelical one, which the covenant and law of
works could not give upon any terms : for it could represent,
God no otherwise than as an unappeasable enemy. " Cursed
is everyone that conlinueth not in all things that are written
in the book of the law to do them."
LEC, xxiv.) The Fall of Man considered generally. ^67
LECTURE XXIV.*
Rom. 5. 12,
And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
I^ROM the former part of this scripture, we have insisted
upon the fall of the first man ; " By one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin;" his fall, by sin, into death.
And so you have seen the entrance of both these, sin and death,
into the world, in the fall of that one man. Now we come in
the next place;
11. To speak, from the latter words, of the fallen state of man,
generally considered. And you see the ground of that, too, lies
as fully in the latter words of the text, that "death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned." I read the words according
to our translation, though some would have them to be other-
wise read, and the letter of the text doth admit of another read'
ing: instead of "for that," they read "in whom," all have
sinned. But of that there will be more occasion to speak
hereafter.
In the mean while we are to consider the fallen state of men in
general, according as these expressions do represent and hold
forth to us. And they do represent his state to be a state of
sin and death ; these two complicated with one another.
" Death hath passed upon all, for that all have sinned." And.
* Preached March ] 7, 1 6p4,
S68 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORAfiLES OF GOD. (PART II.
according to that reading of the words, and the nature of the
thing, that wliich is here last mentioned, requires to be consi-
dered first, though these are complicated with one another;
sin and death run into one another, are most inseparably con-
junct; yet, they are all some way distinct. And so far as they
do admit of being distinguished, we shall consider and speak to
them distinctly. And so,
1. Of the sinful state of men in general. Now, inspeaking^
to this, as the letter of the text leads us, we shall — consider
the nature, and — the universality, chiefly, of this sin that is
thus spread through the world. We are,
( 1 .) To consider the nature of it. The general nature of sin
is plainly expressed 1 John 3. 4. " Sin is the transgression of
the law." And therefore, that we may shew you more dis-
tinctly the nature of that sin which hath so generally diffused
itself among men, (as we shall afterwards shew,) it will be
needful to inquire. What it is that we must take for the mea-
sure of such sin ? inasmuch as the following words here do
plainly tell us, in the latter part of the ]3th verse, that " sin is
not imputed where there is no law :" wherever any sin is,
some law must be supposed to be. And what is that law,
against which it can be understood that men might so gene-
rally sin ?
You have heard, by what law the first sin of man was to be
measured : that was partly a positive law, a particular precept,
a law made by a spiritual revelation to him : but much more
principally a natural law, which was violated in the violation
of that positive one, inasmuch as that positive law had its im-
mediate root and foundation in the natural one : nothing being
more apparently natural, than that the reasonable creature
ought to comply with the will of his Maker being once known.
But though it were very apparent vvhat law that first sin did
transgress, yet it is not so apparent what law, it is that the com-
mon sin of mankind doth now transgress. And so that needs to
be inquired into.
In the general, it may be said, that the law that doth obtain
in the world now, and from age to age, dotli consist of two parts,
as the law at first did which was given to Adam, even in his in-
nocency; to wit, that it is partly natural, and partly by super-
added Revelation. So it was at first, so it is still; but with
great and remarkable difference. That whereas, at first, tlie
natural laiv was full, perfect, intire, most comprehensive, and
large, even in tiie discernible impressions of it; and the super-
added law by special Revelation narrow, lying in a very little
compass (one particular interdict only with its penalty esta-
lEC. XX iv) The Fall of Man considered generallj/i 369
blishingit) that we read or are informed of. But now the case
is \ery diverse and oj)posite : that is, the natural is diminished,
not in the ohh'^ation of it, l)ut in the impression, the discern-*
ible or discerned impression, that frame in tlie heart or mind'
of man broken into fragments, many parts very obscure and il-
legible, and divers, with many of the inhabitants of this earth,
(as it were,) lost through inadvertency, and their not reflecting
upon themselves so as to discern and find out the sculpture of
what remains engraven upon their hearts. And the revealed
law, (wliere that obtains,) that is so much the more large, and
comprehensive, and full, and perfect, so as to discover every
false way ; and every true and right way : one and the same
rule being the same measure, recti et obllgui, of that which is
light and that which is wrongtoo.
And the exigency of the case did require that it should be so:
that is, by how much the more that the natural law was erased,
broken into fraa'ments and parcels, and many of them (as to
their discernibleness) lost with many; so much the more re-
quisite was it, that the superadded law (which was to be by
revelation) should be entire and complete, that there should
be another impression of that original law, that should collect
and gatiier up all that was lost of it, and rendered it obscure,
from the prevailing corruption of the world. And so thus, in
short, did these two cases stand in opposition to one another.
At first, the natural law was most entire and full and large and
comprehensive : and the revealed law narrow, and lying witliin
a very little compass. But now the natural law, to wit, in the
discernibleness of its impression, is greatly diminished ; and
the law that is by revelation so much the more large, compre-
hensive, entire, and full.
At first, that revealed law after the apostasy, must, for seve-
ral successive ages, be easily transmitted (l)y reason of the
grea^ longevity that remained before and after the flood) from
hand to hand by a certain tradition. But afterwards, God
p;ovided that it should be collected and gathered up into Sa-
cred Records, though not all written at once, but successively,
according as supreme wisdom had determined concerning the
different states in the future church, in point of light. And so,
what we have of it now, lies entirely and fully in the sacred
volumes, of which we have discoursed to you largely hereto-
fore ; but that doth actually obtain but in a small part of the
world in comparison : but a very small part. That it doth obr
tain no further, is owing to the wickedness of the world itself,
which obstructs the diffusion of it. God, in his holy wisdom
not obtruding, not by extraordinary means and methods making
VOL. VII, 3 B '
370 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
way for It, as it were easy for him to do, if it were so agreeable
to the counsel of his own wisdom, the results wherereof we now
see, in fact; and the reasons whereof may be better understood
in the appointed season. But we are not to think this wicked
world innocent in its having no more of revealed light than it
hath ; that light shines in darkness, but the darkness doth not
comprehend it, strives against it, otherwise there must have
been a diffusion, even of most evangelical knowledge many an
age ago. Men fence against it and keep it off, and will not let
it spread ; and God doth not exert the greatness of his power
as yet (for ends and purposes best known to himself) for the
gaining of a victory over that contumacious darkness.
Yet, in the meantime, where there are no notices of that le-
vealcd law, or that law by Revelation, we are not to think that
the world is without law : do but observe to this purpose what
follows the text: "Until the law (verse 13.) sin was in the
world ;" until the law. Until what law ? It is certain, here,
*' law" must be taken in a restrained and limited sense, other-
wise the expressions in the following part of that verse would
contradict those in the former : " Sin is not imputed where
there is no law :" then there could have been no such thing,
as sin, from Adam to Moses, if there had been no law at all
in all that interval. When therefore, it is said, " Until the
law sin was in the world ;" that is, until the written law, or
until the law that was given on mount Sinai, it is not the
law simply, but respectively only, that is there meant ; not
in an absolute and general, but in a particular and limited
sense.
It is true, there was a time (that time that is there men-
tioned, from Adam to Moses) when there was no such law as
came afterwards to be in the time of Moses. Not that there
was then no law at all ; for then there could be no sin; but it
is expressly told us, that "sin was in the world" for all that
time ; and therefore, there was some law ; there was a law by
which men might be reckoned sinners : for there was such a
law according to which they were punished, as the following
words shew; " Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to
Moses ;" there was such a law as made men still liable to death;
and therefore, such a law against which men might still sin,
even in the long interval from Adam to Moses. "Death
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sin-
ned after the similitude of Adam's transgression."
1 pray consider that expression, *' that had not sinned after
the siaiiiitnde of Adam's transgression." How was that ?
That is, that did not sin against a particular and express law.
LEC. xxiv.) The Fall of Man considered gencndlif . SJ"!
with Its annexed sanction, as Adam did. Some would under-
stand that of infants; and, it is true. It must include them.
But I see no cause at all for such a restriction ; but most ma-
nifestly the contrary : for infants were not the only ones that
did die; death reigned over all, in that interval from Adam to
Moses; and so, the sin must be as general as the death. But
herein was the great dissimilitude, that, whereas Adam did sin
against a framed, express precept, with its annexed penalty in
the commination, the generality of men from Adam to Moses,
did not so sin ; but they sinned against such a law as they had ;
that is, the relics and fragments of the law of nature, iirs-t
impressed upon the heart of man, or put into bis very na-
ture.
This is agreeable to what we have In this same epistle, chap,
2. 12. "As many as have sinned without the law," (tliat is,
without a written law,) "shall perish without law;" to wit,
without that written law. Some law or other they were still
under ; they must be supposed to sin against some law ; other-
wise they could perish by none. But a written law they had
rot. " As they that are under the law, (as it there follows,)
they are to be judged by the law," And afterwards. In the 14.
and 15. verses of the same chaplc-r : " When the Gentiles who
have not the law, do by nature the things contained In the law,
they are a law unto themselves, which shew the vi'orks of the
law written in their hearts, their consciences also bearing wit-
ness, and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else ex-
cusing one another" So we read it, and I think very defec-
tively, "accusing and excusing:" it Is in the greek, "by tusns;"
not "one another;" but, "sometimes accusing, and some-
times excusing." Not as if their thoughts did accuse one
another, or excuse one another; but the expression may
admit to be read, I say, " sometimes accusing, and some-
times excusing," according to the discernible evidence of the
case.
And so you may now easily collect, how, in tlils general sin-
ful state of the apostate world, men do every where transgress
against a law. Those that have a written law, or might more
easily have it, they sin against that ; to wit, the Revelation
that God hath given of his own mind concerning their duty,
and in order to their felicity. They that have it, or might more
easily have it, I say, sin against it. They that have It not, or
from whom it lies more remote, they yet, sin against the dic-
tates of the law which they have in themselves, or which they
are to themselves. They that have no other law, being a lav/
to themselves, they having some measures, though broken and
372 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART II.
imperfect ones, of right and wrong in their own minds and na-
tural consciences.
And now, the measure heing stated by which this general
sinfulness of the world is to be estimated, the natural law and,
generally, that law that is by Revelation in the word of God, so
far as it doth obtain, or might more easily obtain ; it will be
our further business, in the next place, to open to you the sin-
fulness of men in reference to this law, of which you have this
account. And it is, in the general, the sinfulness of their in-
clination, or of their nature, that we are obliged, by the design
of our present subject, to consider and speak to : " For that all
have sinned."
Here is not, it is true, actual sin : that the expression doth
literally signify. But that must be understood as supposing a
sinful nature, which is more principally to be considered : or
it is to be considered in the first place; that which is the
peccatum pecccms, as It is significantly enough called by some.
That evil heart, that nature, not as it is nature, but as it is de-
praved, it is now transmitted every where from age to age, and
from generation to generation, among men : the fountain from
whence all tiiose streams of wickedness flow that have deluged'
the world, and made a raging ocean, " the waves whereof con-
tinually cast forth mire and dirt," as the prophet expresseth it.
Isa. 57« -0. That nature of man, which as it is degenerate
and corrupt, is become a seminary, a seed-plot of all kinds of
wickedness.
This is {ox peccahimoriginale originatum ; as we formerly
discoursed to you of thepecrafum originale origmans, as some
do choose to express those things. It is, in the general, a sin-
ful inclination which lies opposite to the law of God, natural
or revealed : for'we are not to suppose that the love of God
doth only provide against sinful acts, or sinful omissions, no,
this is the very peculiar excellency of the Divine Government,
in contradistinction to any other; that it determines first, what
men ought to be, and then, consequently and dependantlyj^
what they ought to do. Human laws and governments do not
respect the former of these, otherwise than consequentially.
They only take notice of actions, and those, external ones too*
But internal inclinations they make little provision about, and
do not otherwise take notice of (as indeed the nature of the
thing doth not admit they should) but by consequence, as a
man's habit and internal inclination may be collected and ga-
thered from the series and course of his actions. But it is quite
contrary as to the Divine Government, and the laws that be-
long thereunto; that is, that God having an immediate inspee-
LHc. XXIV.) The Fall of Man considered generaUi/. 373
tion into the minds of men, and his government, laying Its first
obligation there; its laws do first provide what men shouM
be ; and then consequentially, what they should do. They
should be so and so; be holy, be righteous ; and then, all is
to correspond hereunto.
Therefore, we must understand that an evil inclination, or a
depraved or corrupted nature, is that which doth iirst violate
the law of God, lies first against it : and so, that it is net infe-
licity only, to be ill inclined, but it is sin — sin in tlie highest and
most eminent sense tiiereof. It is the habitual fran^e and bent
of the soul, that the law of God doth in the first place direct :
and then, it doth direct that men sh.ould act correspondently
theretmto, So that now that empoisoned nature of nian, the
malignity of the heart and soul, o)' inner man, is that which
makes the first and principal breach upon tlie law of God,
which is in its own nature holy, ju.'^t, and good : whatsoever
there is of this law left, it is all holy, just and good, even as it
doth obtain to be called " the law of nature." What is truly
such, is holy, just, and good, still, as much as ever it was, and
as expressive of the mind of God.
Now concerning that corrupt inclination in the minds and
souls of men, that doth first violate the law, it is to be under-
stood agreeably to the law itself- The law itself, is partly pre-
ceptive, and partly prohibitive. It consists of these two parts.
And these two things are accordingly to be considered in the
corrupted state of human nature : to wit, first, that there is a
disinclination to all that Is truly good ; and, secondly, that there
is a propensity, a perverse inclination, to all that is sinful and
wicked.
[I .] The first of these, that is, which is signified by the want
of original righteousness, that rectitude which did first belong
to the nature of man, the absence, and not the mere absence;
but the wart and privation of that, is the first thing we have to
consider in the corruption of man's nature; that now it wants
the inclination that there ought to be in it according to its pri-
mitive state, and the first obligation of the divine law upon
man. This is the loss of God's image; not by his taking it
away, which we must carefully abstain from thinking, even so
much as one thought to that purpose ; that is, that God took
away his image from man, to wit, his image in respect whereof,
man was to resemble him in point of holiness ; that would be
to devolve the sinfulness of man's nature upon God himself.
But God did righteously, upon the first apostasy, withhold his
Spirit, whereupon his image, being a created thing, and not ca-
pable of self-subsistence, must vanish : and so, as that in effect
374 THE PRINCIPLES OF THK ORACLES OK GOD. (PART II,
to erase the holy image of God out of his soul. He (man) hath
expunG:ed and blotted it out ; provoked the Spirit of God to re-
tire ; cherished and indulged corrupt inclinations against it,
and in opposition to it. And, God finally still retiring, that
image lalieth and vanlsheth : not being withdrawn by him,
(speaking of the effect,) but ])eing expelled ; not withdrawn,
but dravvn away; not by violence (as it were) obliterated out of
the soul, 'i'hat which was, indeed, God's workmanship at first,
is defaced by our wicked workmanship : the work of our hands
hath so far destroyed the work of his.
There is, therefore, in the corrupt nature of man, a disincli-
nation to all that which it ought to be inclined to ; that is, both
to objects and acts, that it ought to be inclined to. We are
principally to consider the objects ; the acts will of course most
obviously ensue. The objects wherewith man was to have to
do, were God himself, liis fellow creatures, (those especially
of his own order,) and himself.
There was, upon God's having made man, the direct relation
first between Creator and creature; and then, hereupon, (there
being divers such of the same order,) there follows, of course,
a collateral relation between one such creature and another.-
In the first respect, man being a reasonable creature by his na-
ture, a creature and a reasonable one, he comes under obliga-
tion to God most directly: and then, collaterally, (from God
still,) he comes to be under obligation to his fellow- creatures of
his own order : and inasmuch as he is capable of bearing a re-
lation to himself, so he comes to owe duty to himself also.
To God in the first place. There is an aversion from God,
to be considered in this fallen state of man, not of one single
faculty of the soul alone, but even of the whole soul, and of all
the faculties of it. But according to the natural order wherein
they lie towards one another, the whole soul is gone off from
God ; mind, and will, and affections, and executive powers, al-
together turned off from God. So is the account given of the
fallen state of man in that 14. and 53. Psalm, from which texts
and from others, you have so many quotations taken in the 3d.
chapter of his epistle to the Romans, all summed in this, that
*' All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." This,
then, is the great thing that, in the first place, is held forth in
this text; to wit, that the state of man is a state ef apostasy
and recess from God; he hath withdrawn himself, and stands
now in his whole soul in a quite averse posture from God;
towards whom he was originally and naturally most pro-
pense.
But then, whereas God, the Object of this aversion, is to be
LEc. XXIV.) The Fall of 3Iun co7isidcred generaUif* 37»
considered two ways ; as our Supreme and Sovereign Lord, and
as our Supreme and Sovereign Good, the soul of man is averse
to him under both these notions ; refuseth to take him as his
Supreme Lord ; or. for his Supreme Good ; that is, it will nei-
ther obey him, nor be happy in him. And whereas, under this
twofold notion, we are to consider God the Object of this aver-
sion, it is under the former of these notions that we are to con-
sider it now, while we are speaking of the sinful state of man,
or the sin of man. It will be under the latter of these notions
that vve are to consider it, when we speak of the death that hath
passed over all men, as that whereunto it doth more peculiarly
ana properly belong.
But consider God as the Supreme Lord, and the sinfulness
of man's nature, in this respect, lies in this, that he is, under
this notion, averse to, and turned off, from him, and declines
obedience to him. And the whole is, under this notion, averse ;
that is, the mit^d is averse, not only doth not know him, but de-
clines knowing him, labours under, not a mere nescience of
God, but an atFected and chosen ignorance, desires not to know
him. So is the representation made to us of the opposite state
and condition of man in those mentioned psalms, the 53, most
fully, 2, 3 verses; that is, " That God looking down from hea-
ven upon the children of men to see who would inquire, who
would seek after God, he finds them all gone back ;" (the
Hebrew word signifies a perverse retrocision, waywardiy gone
back ;) no, here is no inclination to inquire after God ; accord-
ing to that. Job 21. 14. "They say unto God, Depart from us,
we desire not the knowledge of thy ways," of thy concerns,
and of thy methods. Those ways of Intercourse that thou
wouldst have to be between thee and us ; these ways of thine
we do not desire to know; we do not desire there should be
any intermeddling, any intercourse between thee and us. And
according to that Rom. 1. 28. " They liked not to retain God in
their knowledge." They did not only, or barely, not know
him, but disliked to know, refused to know him. "Through
deceit they refused to know me," saith the Lord, Jer. 9. 6.
The same corrupt nature remaining, even under a professed re-
lation to him, with the generality of that wicked people.
And so, in this respect, the state of man is a state of dark-
ness : to wit, of affected darkness. " There is no darkness or
shadow of death where the workers of iniquity can hide them-
selves." It speaks the inclination of men's minds that they
would fain hide themselves in some darkness or shadow of
death if they could ; but they can find none, none that hides
them from hira, though they can easily so inwrap themselves
37G THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART U,
in darkness, as not to behold him. Their darkness is a fence
against themselves ; but not against him. They make it so
thick that they cannot penetrate it ; but he most easily can.
They would fain have such a darkness as that he might not see
them ; but there is none, they cannot find any : " There is no
darkness or shadow of death where the workers of iniquity can
hide themselves." But, in the mean time, that speaks the in-
clinations of their minds : " O ! that we could be hid from God,
and that there might be nothing at all to do between him and
us." " Ye were darkness," (here is the common state of the
unconverted, unregenerate world,) Ephes. 5. 8. *'Ye were
darkness," not merely in the dark, but darkness itself. " The
light that is in them is darkness," as our Saviour speaks, Mat.
6. 23. " If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is
that darkness." This, I say, speaks an aversion' of mind from
God ; they care not to know him ; they desire not to know
him.
And hereupon, it becomes so unaccustomed a thing to think
of him. Thence is the character of a wicked, unregeneratc
man, " A forgetter of God." It is his usual paraphrase in
Scripture; " A wicked man," and that lies, as such, under,
doom, is under such a character as this, one that is "A for-
getter of God :" "The wicked shall be turned into liell, and
all the nations that forget God" Psalm 9. And in oppositiow
hereunto, a regenerate man, a holy man, a renewed man, is
characterized by one that remembers God, that thinks of God :
** A book of remembrance was written for them that feared the
Lord, and thought upon his name." Whereas, it is said of the
wicked man ; *' God is not in all his thoughts." Compare
these two places together, Psalm 10. 4. Mai. 3. 16. A good
man is such a one as thinks much of the name of God, hath
God's name impressed on his mind : so as every actual thought
of God, it is only reading the letters that do (as it were) com-
pose that name, and that are impressed on his own mindj to
wit, his actual thinking of God. Now a book of remembrance
was written for them that feared the Lord, and thought of his
name. As if it had been said; " Well, is there so much kind-
ness towards me yet to be found in this revolted world, that
they will remember me ? I will have a book of remembrance
for them ; there shall be remembrance for remembrance. Do
they think of me ? I will think of them too r have they kind
thoughts of me ? 1 will have much kinder thoughts of them:
I will book it up. Every kind thought that is taken up con-
cerning me, in this general apostasy and revoltedness of the
world from me, 1 will set it down, 1 will have a book of re-
LEC. XXIV.) The Fall of Man considered generally. 377
membrance for every one that has any thoughts of me, in this
forlorn state of tilings."
And then, as this aversion hatli place in the minds of men,
it hath so, more formally, in their wills : they will not have this
Lord to be their God ; he shall not reign over them ; tiiey re-
fuse his empire; throw off the reins: "Let us ca^.t away liis
cords, and bfcak his bands off from us." So, in the apostate
world, do the princes and people combine together against the
divine government : and those that lead others consent to be led
themselves in this case. '* Let us break tlieir bands asunder,
and cast away their cords from us :" (Psalm 2.) those of God,
and of his Anointed, the Redeemer, the Messiah, as that word
signifies.
And then, likewise, there is a consequent averse or transverse
posture in the affections of the soul, whereof, indeed, the will is
the seat and subject ; desires, fears, hopes, delights, anger, sor-
row, all transversed in a quite contrary course and being, to
what they should be : and so it is proportionably towards men,
so far as men are concerned with men; and so it Is towards
ourselves. We should have discoursed of these distinctly, but
cannot now.
It is, in the mean time, strange, (and let us consider that
with ourselves,) that this being so apparently the common case,
it should be so little considered; that men take such compla-
cency in themselves ; that it comes so seldom into the thoughts
of any to think, " I either am, or Isave been, an apostate crea-
ture, quite turned ofi" from God." It is to be admired, that
men's own thoughts are not painful to them upon this account.
Certain it is, that I, and the rest of the world, have been all in
an apostasy from God. This hath been my state; it is my
present state. I am either an apostate creature, or a returned
creature : either still apostate, or renewed towards him, altered
in my habitual frame and inclinati-on. How is it with me ?
am I one of the reduces t one that the miglity hand and
power of the Redeemer (he that died, "the just for the unjust
to bring us to God") hath reduced and fetched back to God.
Or is this the case of none of us ? That whereas we were all
off from God, in an averse posture to him, are we not striving
against the design of the merciful Redeemer, who is still striv-
ing to bring us back, and who strove herein unto blood, resist-
ing against tiie wicked inclinations of degenerate, apostate men ?
" He resisted to blood striving against sin." That is the thing
plainly implied in that of the apostle to the Hebrews, chap. 1 2.
4. " Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin ;"
vvhereasj he had been, immediately before, bespeaking them
VOL. VII, 3 G
37 S THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART If.
to "^run with patience the race that 'vas set before them, look-
ing unto Jesus the author and finisher of the faith : who, for
the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the
shame." But why did he endure that cross and shame which
we find him to have despised ? The following words shew, he
had been striving against sin. But that is none of your case :
it was his. He suffered tliat cross, and fell under all that op-
probium, ignominy and shame, in this striving against sin even
unto blood; that sin by which men are held off from God, con-
tinued in a state of apostasy from him.
Now let us bethink ourselves what the Son of God hath been
strivingunto blood against ; to wit, "sin;" which hath turned
us off from God, and kept us off from God : and are we striving
against him, will not be reduced, will not be brought back?
Strangers to God we have been, and so we will be still : go
from day to day, from morning to night, and will liave no con-
cern with God; we will not pray to him ; we will not think of
his name; we will entertain no converse with him.
But the further Use is referred to be spoken to, after a fur-
ther explication of the sinful state of mankind.
LECTURE XXV.*
It hath been shewed, that the ill inclination of men towards
God, affects the whole soul. The mind knows him not, thinks
not of him, is habitually forgetful of him : and, more formally,
this aversion is in the will : that doth not choose the Lord for his
God ; wills him not, even where a people do profess his name.
If yet the work of renovation have not taken place, his own
Israel will have none of him ; " Israel," saith God, " would
have none of me." Corrupt nature is the same, even in such a
people, whatsoever the external profession and garb, and ap-
pearance, and shew, may be. A corrupt heart is still the same
thing, indisposed, disaffected to God ; *' alienated from the
life of God." And conscience is stupified, doth not do its of-
fice, or, sometimes, is outrageous and over-does it, the affec-
tions and passions are all as so many furies ; original rectitude
being gone, and the soul destitute of that holy image which ori-
ginally it bore.
But there is, also, an evil inclination towards fellow-crea-
tures of their own order. That love is wanting which is " the
* Preached March 24, 1694
LEc. XXV.) The Fall of Man considered genei'allj/, 3/9
fulfilling of the law;" and that sums up all that rectitude of
heart and soul towards fellow-creatures of our own order. AH
is summed up in this ; "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy-
self;" and therefore, is love the fulfilling of the law.
And then, also, towards ourselves. Our love to our neigh-
bour, is to be measured by that to ourselves : as that groat fun-
damental precept which our Saviour calls the "second," next
to that ; " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all tiiy might ; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself;" in opposition whereunto, stands that aversion to
God, in the first part. And as to the second great command-
ment, it is a measured thing; and the measure is love to cur-
selves.
But now, in this state of apostasy, men want even that, they do
not love themselves : to wit, if they did know themselves ; and
that they do not affect, to gain a true knowledge of themselves;
and therefore, do not love themselves ; their more noble self,
their more excellent self. The soul, which is the man, that they
do not love ; they care not for it ; care not how they prostitute
it ; how they enslave, how they hazard it from day to day. Yea,
and,
[2.] In all these respects, there is not only an aversion, an ill
inclination, to that which is good, a want of original righteous-
ness, or of the holy image of God as such; but there is, like-
wise, propensions to all manner of evil ; there are violent pro-
pensions towards forbidden objects. God being forsaken and
left, and the soul of man being conscious to itself that it is not
enough for itself, it must adjoin itself to somewhat else, when
it is off from God : and so, by the same steps by which it re-
cedes from him, it turns to the creature, to this vain and impure
world, which is God's rival and competitor for the minds and
hearts of men.
But here, it is to be considered, that when the soul is off from
God, and therefore, must seek for somewhat else to supply his
room, it finds itself under a necessity to make a false and asci-
titious deity, a divided thing, as if it were under a secret con-
sciousness that no one thing could fill up the room of God.
And therefore, the new deity is divided between these two; to
wit, between this v/orld and a man's own self: that is, his
meaner or baser self ; his ignoble self. And all of you know
(if you recollect a little) what God is to be to us, namely, our
Sovereign Lord, our Sovereign Good : him we are to serve; and
him we are to enjoy.
The soul being off from him, and being now to fill up his ,
room as it can, it doth (as it can) attempt to fill it up by these
SSO THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
two things — self and the world : self supplies the room of God,
a[s he is to be served by us ; and the world supplies the room
of God, as God is to be enjoyed by us. And here are the pro-
pensions, now, of the apostate soul, continuing so, and yet un-
renewed towards self, as the only one to be served, obeyed, and
pleased, instead of serving, obeying, and pleasing God. And
this is one of the greatest idols that is set up in the apostate
worUl, even — a man's self.
But then, rememtaer it is his baser, meaner, and more igno-
ble self; when it is become the vilest thing that it was possi-
ble a reasonable, immortal soul could become; when it is be-
sotted, carnalized, brutified; when it is, in short, become a
brute, when it would be a god. While it was itself, it must
abhor any such thought, with the highest measures and greatest
pitch of indignation. But now it is brutified into the vilest and
most degenerate thing, become even as the beasts that perish ;
now it must be a god. *' I will have none to serve but this
self."
But then, finding (as tlwt is obvious to every one) that it
hath not its own good in its own hand, (as, alas! what have I
in me to make me happier; and though that is more to be con-,
sidered under the other head of death, yet there is sin in it too,
as it underwent a direct interdict,) it finds it must forage, it must
go abroad ; it finds it hath not enough in itself to satisfy it.
And therefore, now in this kind, and under this notion, the
world is the other idol that is to supply the room of God.
" Love not the world nor the things of tiie world; for if any
man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
That shews, however, in the unrenewed state, the propensions
of the soul are, by love, carried towards this vain and vvretchfed
world. All the good that it designs for itself, it seeks from
it. And so, tliese are the two idols that are set up in this
apostate world against the living and true God : self, as the
God that is to be served, and the world as the God that is to be
enjoyed.
But then, we must observe, by the way, that as there is to-
wards these two substituted objects a violent propension; so it
is forbidden, only under that notion wherein it is excessive.' It
is no unlawful thing for a man to love himself, and even bis
meaner self: but to love himself v/ith that love wherewith he
should love God, that is sinful. It is no unlawful thing to love
inferior creatures, things of this world, which God made all
very good ; but to love them with that love whprewith we
should love God, as our supreme and highest Good, herein
stands the sinfulness of this propension. These are to be in
LEc. XXV.) The Fall of 3fan considered generally, 381
the room of God; not to serve ourselves under God, but above
him and against him : not to enjoy and please ourselves, in this .
world, in subserviency and obedience to God, but in direct op-
position.
And so, there is, upon this account, not only no inclination
towards God, (which was considered under the former head,)
but there is direct enmity. Not only, in this case, doth the soul
not love him with all the heart, mind, and might; but it hates
him. And this is the character of the apostate world. Look
to that Rom. 1. 28. ''They liked not to retain God in their
knowledge." And a little lower, they are called " God-haters."
The word signifies, they hate him with a stygian hatred, they
hate him as one would hate hell ; that is the signification of
the word " God-haters," which sums up the malignity of
this corrupted nature of man, that is made out in so many
particulars in all that latter part of that 1 chapter to the Ro-
mans.
So likewise, in reference to their fellow-creatures, when this
love is wanting, which they should bear to them, and which is
jthe radical principle that comprehends in it all duty of that
kind, (that is, doth virtually comprehend it all,) the want of
that due disposition is supplied by a contrary principle , that
is, by one contrary thereunto, which is that of " being hateful
and hating one another," mentioned Romans 1,30. 31. and
Titus 2. 3. And it is, too, upon this account, that "self" is
one of the two substituted idols, as you have heard. And be-
cause the interest of this " self" interferes, and there are now
as many deities to be served, as there are men ; hereupon it is,
that jealousy works into hatred. And it partly proceeds, too,
from the narrowness and minuteness of this world, which is the
other idol that men set up in the room and stead of God. This
world is too little for men ; (it cannot but be so ;) too little
for immortal souls. It is a thing in its own nature unsuitable
to them ; but yet, men being deceived, think to have their all
out of it : and so they are all pulling and tearing one from ano-
ther, every one for himself, to make his own portion out of this
world as great and considerable as he can, still imagining he
shall repair his loss of God, out of this world. And all being
under the power of this delusion, they do not consider, that
"there is a lie in their right hand;" that they are seeking
that in this world which it can never afford them.
But hereupon, instead of that love which should be "the
fulfilling of the law" of the second table, spoken of Rom. 13,
there is that enmity, that mutual hatred of one another, that hath
for so many ages made this world an aveldama, a field of blood j
332 TUK PRINCIl'LKS OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART II.
and compreliends and sums up all those lusts, from whence
come wars and fightings among men : among men, I say, who
lay under the obligation of so equal a law, and so kind a law of
love, which so directly tended to the welfare of mankind; and
so would have made this world a heaven upon earth, every one
loving one another as himself, and seeking another's good as
his own : whereas, all make it now their business to tear this
world out of one another's hands as much as they can, and to
pluck it in pieces, and so to worry and destroy one another
for it.
And in reference to men themselves too. In the room of a
right disposition towards themselves, there are substituted,
wicked propensions : they do affect themselves wickedly, sin-
fully, illegally, against the direction of the divine rule : and
this is the root of all the insincerity that is to be found, any
where in the world , that is, that the superior powers do not
govern the inferior, do rebel and disobey. The mind and
judgment that should govern the will, and its determinations,
and purposes, tiiis way and that, neglect their office ; so that in
the mind, now, is blindness ; not generally a not seeing, but re-
fusing to see, a willing blindness: that which the Scriptures-
express by " blindness of heart." There is error, self-decep-
tion, about the most important and most practical matters; the
calling of good, evil, and evil, good. There is somnolency and
drowsy slumber upon the minds of men ; a supine negligence,
that they cannot consider nor care how things go within them,
or what is uppermost.
Then again, there is, in the inferior soul, the imaginations,
the appetites, the affections or passions, a continual mutiny and
disorder, a rebellion agairtst what doth remain of the law in the
mind; so that Vv'hat remains is very imperfect, much obscured,
shattered and broken : yet, there is a continual mutiny and in-
surrection against these reliques of that law. And this, in-
deed, constitutes a man, within himself, the continual seat of a
war; he is in a state of war vvith himself: for he hath some
light in his mind; but there are these mutinous and rebellious
appetitlons and passions working in continual opposition there-
unto ; so that he cannot rase out those notions, he hath in
his mind : " This I should do, and that I should do so;" nor
will his inferior faculties be induced to any kind of com-
pliance therewith. It is not such a war as in the regenerate,
to vvit, in one and the same faculty, and especially in the heart
and will, where there is an imperfect inclination to that which
is good, but yet victorious. But the war lies here, between
that which should be the governing faculty, the mind, the prac-
tical judgment, the conscience, and the mutinous disoositions
LEc. XXV.) The Fall of Man^ its imiversality, SSS'
of a rebellious heart, that are entire, and in their full strength,
in the unregenerate; whereas, in the regenerate, they are
subdued and brought under j not quite expelled, hut yet con-
quered.
Thus, we liave the true state of the case, liow it is with" men
with respect to the sinfulness of tlieir nature, which lies spread
through all the several powers and faculties of the soul, and
shews itself with reference to the several objects wherewith
men can he any way concerned. But we are to consider,
(2.) The universality of this revolt ; that is, that all men'
are in it, they are all gone back; all men, and tho all of
every man. All men are in it. And it is, therefore, on the
whole matter, not strange that this corruption of the nature
of man should be represented with such rhetorick as we find
in divers passages of Scripture : as in the 14 and 53 psalms,
and Romans 3, where you have divers passages quoted out of
the Old Testament, especially out of the book of Psalms, of
that same import, to signify, how general a consent there is
in this matter of man's rebellion ; that as men have agreed
herein with infernal spirits, so they do generally agree with
one another; " Come let us cast oft" his cords, and throw away
his bands from off^ us." All, from the highest to the lowest,
agreeing in such a design as this.
If you would take a brief view of the state of the case, that
3 of the Romans will give it you very shortly and succinctly,
and yet with all, very copiously and fully. The apostle tells us,
that he had proved, (as indeed he had done in the 1 and 2
chapters of that epistle) that " Jews and Gentiles were under
sin.'' Those two distributing terms, Jew and Gentile, taking
up the whole of the world, and was then the known distribu-
tion of the world of mankind. And he had not only said it,
but proved it, that they were all under sin ; even the very Jews
themselves, as well as Gentiles, though a select people, a peo-
ple that had the oracles of God, the peculiar tokens of his pre-
sence and favour, (where grace was not victorious,) yet, as great
an enmity appears among them, against God, as in the pagan
world and nations of the earth.
And if you look into the I Romans, and the latter end, you
see, that men having expelled and driven God out of their
minds and thoughts, as not liking to retain him in their know-
ledge, what becomes of them hereupon ? Why, God gives them
up, leaves them to themselves : they become now to be under
the dominion and power of exorbitant and unruly afteciions and
passions, " God gave them up to vile affections ; and as they
liked not to retain God in iheir knowledge, he gave them over
584 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
to a reprobate mind :" and hereupon, they are filled with all
unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, mali-
ciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whis-
perers, backbiters : and, (that which is central of all the rest,
which was noted before,) balers of God : despiteful, proud,
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, with-
out understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection,
implacable, unmerciful.
Here is a representation of the apostate world, of that wick-
edness which all proceeds from the corrupt fountain which
every man hatli in himself. And then, in the 3 chapter, he goes
pn to add, from the Psalmist : " There is none righteous, no not
one ; there is none that understandeth, none that seeketh after
God, they are all gone out of the way, they are altogether be-
come unprofitable : there is none that doeth good, no not one."
"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, both as
it was to be their end, and as it was to be their transforming
pattern. Thus it is, as to all men.
And so, the all of every man : which divers expressions in
that 3 Romans do most emphatically represent and hold forth
to us. "Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their mouth,s
they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips :
their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift
to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the
way of peace have they not known." Even the several parts
of the outward man are made use of, as so many engines and
"machines for wickedness. And for the inward man, the source
and fountain of it, we are elsewhere told, that " all the imagi-
nations of the thouglits of the heart are only evil ; and con-
tinually" so; Gen. 6. 5. So early had that universal conta-
gion spread itself among all men, and through the all of every
man.
And hcgce it is, that they are so frequently spoken of, (even
notwithstanding a profession of God's own name, if they re-
main in the unrenewed state,) as ^'a generation of vipers, and
as a seed of evil doers ;" yea, (as was said before,) as the seed
of the devil, that old serpent. " Ye are of your father the devil,
and the works of your father ye will do." And hence it is, that
all wickedness do proceed, which we have any where seen per-
petrated and done, upon the stage of this world. So that when
the renewing work comes to take place, there is need that it
should pervade, should pass througli, the whole man. " The
God of peace, sanctify you throughout in your whole spirit, soul
and body." You see, every part of man needs a sanctifying
influence 3 and therefore, all is corrupt and impure.
LEC. XXV.) The Fall of Man — its universality i 385
Before we go on, lot us make somewhat of present useful re-
flection to ourselves. And consider, Is it not, hereupon, won-
derful that there should be among men so general a self-com-
placency ? How strange is it, tiiat this being the state of the
case with men in this world, there should be among tiiem, I
say, so general a self-complacency ? that they all should seem
to be so well pleased with themselves? look with a kind eye
upon themselves ? that it doth not come into men's minds to
think, antecedently to their recovery, to their regeneration, "I
am a fallen creature, an apostate creature, one separate and
cut oft from God, by mine own revolt ; one fallen in with the
devil against God ; that am in league with him to do his will,
and to disobey him who gave me breath ; who is the Father of
my spirit, and the Author of my whole being."
Are not these true thoughts that a man might think of him-
self, being yet unregenerate, unrenewed ? And is it not strange,
when they are things that lie so much in view, they yet should
so seldom come into men's minds? Can we think it possible,
if they did come oftener, that they should be so well pleased
with themselves ? Yet this, they are generally prone to be.
It is the character of the wicked man ; that is, one that con-
tinues yet in a state of apostasy, that " he flatters himself in his
own eyes, (Psalm 36. 2.) until his iniquity be found to be hate-
ful." He still looks upon himself with a self-flattering eye.
If there be any thing which, abstractly considered, may be
looked upon as amiable, this is singly looked upon : but it is
seldom, in the mean time, thought, but generally forgot, what
is a man's state.
O ! how few are there that cry out, <*What is the state of my
case ? If I have strength, if 1 have wit, if I have any thing of
comeliness, I can presently strut, and think, What a fine crea-
ture am I ? But, in the mean time, that i am a rebel against
heaven ; I am an accomplice with the devil against God ; I am
an apostate from my Rightful, Sovereign Lord." This would
surely turn all man's self-complacency into horror and conster-
nation, that a man would be afraid of himself, and wish he
could run away from himself; and wonder how the eauh
comes to bear such a creature. O ! this monster of an apos-
tate soul that is off from God, and without a disposition or in-
clination to return to him, carries so much of horror and prodigy
with it, that it is strange all arc not filled with fright and amaze-
ment, till they find some manifest proof of a regenerating, trans-
forming grace upon their spirits : it is strange that, till then,
they are not a continual terror to themselves.
VOL, VII. 3 D
386 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
LECTURE XXVI.'
But that winch dotli yet give us a fuller and more dreadful
account of this state of the case, is, besides the consideration
we are to have, what man is in himself, and in his faculties and
powers, precisely considered, which do make up the sinfulness
of his state, and which might be mentioned under this head, is,
(3.) The aggravations of man's sinfulness.
[1.] We are to bethink ourselves, therefore, with wliom there
is a coincidency, and into what society and combination he
falls, in this his corrupt state : and so, take the state of the case
briefly and summarily thus ; that he is, [n all this, an accom-
plice with those apostate, disloyal, infernal spirits, that had re-
volted, and were fallen from God before : an amazing consider-
ation ! In all this, he is in confederation and combination with
devils, with the powers of hell and darkness, against his Right-
ful and Sovereign Lord. And so doth the Scripture most ex-,
pressly speak in divers places : so far as that the devil comes
thereupon, to be stiled, " T!ie god of this world," who *'hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not." 2 Cor. 4. 4.
And O I that we could consider this, according to what it
doth import and cany in it of horror and detestableness. It is
a thing that we do not yet believe, that a world inhabited by
reasonable creatures, God's own offspring, arc universally fallen
into a confederacy and combination with another god, with an
enemy-god, an adversary- god, against the living and true
God. Men have changed their God. And what a fearful
choice have they made ! fallen into a league with those wicked
creatures that were weary of his government before, and that
were, thereupon, thrown down into an abyss of darkness, and
bound up in the chains thereof, unto the judgment of the great
day. But doth the Scripture say this in vain ? or hath it not
a meaning, when it calls the devil, "The god of this world ?"
O I with what amazement should it strike our hearts, to think
that so it is ; that the whole order of creatures is gone off from
God, and fallen into a confederacy with the devil and his an-
gels, against their Rightful, Sovereign Lord.
It is not a tiling spoken (as it were) once on the bye ; but the
Scripture doth industriously represent this as the settled state
Preached April 7, l6c)^.
LEC. XXVI.) Aggravations of 3Ian's sinful slate. 3S7
of the case with men. Look to the Ephcs. 2. ]. " You hath
he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins : — wherein
we all had our conversation in times past, fulfilling the desres
of the flesh and of the mind." And under whose regimen is
this ? Why, "according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of tl>e power of the air, the spirit that noiv work-
eth in the children of disobedience." They live subject to
the government of that prince : and that is a long-continued
noiv, referring to the w^hole time and state of the apostasy.
It speaks the fixed state of this case, that as long as men do re-
main dead in trespasses and sins, as it is in the 1 verse oi that
chapter; and all the while that that death lies upon the world,
which, as we are told in the text, "hath passed upon all;"
all that time, during that long-continued ^iou-, all their ac-
tions, all their motions, all their designs, are " according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in ihe
children of disobedience." they are led captive by him at his
will ; 2 Tim. 2. 26. He hath his will of them. " The lusts of
your father ye will do." John 8. 44. That "will" is not a
sign of the tense, but a distinct word, " you will ;" you will to
do the lusts of your father; you have a proneness, a propension
of will, or it is grateful to your will, to do the lusts of your father :
the devil is become even a father and a god to this apostate
world : they are the serpent's seed : he hath (as it were) impreg-
nated them with all the principles of malignity and disloyalty,
against their Rightful, Sovereign Lord.
Methinks, this should make us afraid of ourselves, and even
of one another, till there be some appearance of a change in
the state of our case. We look upon it as a very terrible thing,
to have the body of a man possessc d with the devil : but how
much more dreadful is it, to have his soul under that posses-
sion; acted upon by satan in all his designs througli the whole
of his course, led captive by the devil at his will ! Waiting if Cod
will give repentance : that is represented as the great business
of the gospel ministry, and of a gospel minister, as in 2 Tim. 2.
24, 25. to wait with patience, and endeavour with gentleness,
that they may be brought to repentance, and enabled to recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are led captive by
him at his will. See what his part then is, as a god over this
world ; he makes them do what he will, he hath his will upon
them. " My will is, that you forget God ; and they do : that
you live in a continual contempt of Gnd ; and so they do :
that you mind nothing but the affairs of this world, and how
, to please and gratify your flesh and sense, mind nothing but
what shall, or shall not, profit your external part, or ensnare
388 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART II,
and hurt you, and undo you ; and they do just as he would have
them do, throughout the whole of their course. So that, in this
state of the apostasy, they are in a continual confederation as
accomplices with devils, those apostate spirits, that were gone
off from God before.
[2 ] It is a further aggravating consideration of this sinful-
ness, that the understandings of men do all this while remain
with them : they have their understandings yet about them.
Man is still an intelligent creature. ^' There is a spirit in man,
and the inspiration of the Almighty hath given him understand-
-'"S*" (Job 32. 8.) to distinguish him from a brute. It is very
true, indeed, if sin had totally unmanned men, it had brought
them into an utter incapacity of sinning any more. If the lead-
ing faculty were destroyed quite, he were then no more capa-
ble of sin than a log. But this makes the matter beyond all
imagination wonderful, that a man should have his under-
standing remaining, and become such a monster as this ; and
yet apprehend nothing of it ; an understanding that he can
use about other matters; he can discourse, reason, project, lay
designs, form methods in reference to all things that are of an
inferior concernment. We find that in that great transforma-
tion of that haughty prince Nebuchadnezzar, (whom God
turned to graze among the wild beasts of the field,) a trans-
formation, not of his body, (as we have no reason to think that
It was,) but of his mind ; and we are told, that at the end of so
much time, his understanding returned to him. But in this
common case, men's understandings do remain with them all
the while they are under this monstrous transformation : that
is, while a reasonable, immorUii spirit disaffects his Maker, the
Father of spirits; joins itself with clods, the base things of this
earth; yea, joins itself to devils, apostate, impure spirits, and
falls into confederacy with them against God : and yet men are
not aware of their case.
And this makes that transformation which sin hath wrought
in the very nature of man, in the soul of man, his reasonable
sou!, so horrid a thing. If he had been transformed into any
other bodily shape, (though never so monstrous,) it had been
incomparably a less monstrous translation than this : to make a
reasonable, understanding creature, engage in a contest against
him that gave him breath, the Author and Parent of his life
3nd being, notiiing could be a more monstrous thing. If all
these metamorphoses which poets feign, had generally taken
place and effect, every where among men ; if they had been
transformed into trunks of trees and the like, (as hath been
feigned concerning divers,) it had been a less strange, a less
LEc. XXVI.) Aggravations of Man*s sinful state. 389
fearful transformation than this; a reasonable, intelliirent,
immortal spirit turned against his IMaker ; and intent upon raz-
ing out every thing of his holy image out of itself.
Now this understanding still remaining, the persisting in a
way and course of sin, is a running counter to that light and
knowledge which every man hath, in a degree, remaining in
him, thougii it Is but a dubious kind of tvvllight ; light that
doth rather admit to be called "darkness." *' If the light
that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness ?" that is,
it is ineffectual to answer the proper purposes of a directive,
practical light : yet what doth remain thereof, doth serve most
highly to aggravate the wickedness of them in whom it is.
This is that which is more than intimated, when men are re-
quired to shew themselves men ; as it is in Isaiah 46, 8. You
have the proper principles of humanity yet about you, and the
great distinguishing principle of reason, that exalts you above
inferior creatures : you have it in yon, hut you do not use it ;
you are men, but you do not shew it: " Shew yourselves men ye
transgressors." And again, psalm 53. 4. '' Have all the work-
ers of iniquity no knowledge ?" It is implied that they have
it, but they will not use it: the interrogation is a more forcible
affirmation ; men have knowledge in them, yet transgress : and
so keep up a contest and a war against God, and against them-
selves. And again,
f3.] It is a further most aggravating consideration, that as,
in general, they have understanding about them, and still re-
maining with them, they have also some natural notions of God,
all the while they are thus at war with him, and in this defiance
against him. Still they have the natural impress of God upon
their minds that they cannot raze out ; so that they do not
fight against him altogether In the dark; "Light shines in the
jnidst of that darkness v.'hich comprehends it not." That light;
by which God reveals himself, not only round about them, but
in them ; there is that which might be known of God in
every man, as in that Rom. 1. 19. That which might be
known of God is manifest in them, for God hath revealed
it to them.
And there is, hereupon, such a thing as natural religion : for
while they have a notion of God in their minds, it is not as of a
Being irrelative to them, but it is as an Object of worship ; an
Object of trust, so as that commonly men, in their last necessi-
ties, untaught and uninstructed, do pray to him. As I remem-
ber that ancient, (Minutius Fcelix,) in opposition to pagan-
ism, asserting the oneness of the Deity, and that God whom
the christians serve, speaks thus : « You yourselves (saith he)
390 THE PRINCIPLES OF THK ORACLES OP GOD. (PART II.
when any thing ails you and are in distress, do not you use to
lift up your eyes and hands to heaven ? vulgi isti naturalis est
senna, this is as a natural kind of prayer, which your own na-
ture doth even constrain you to, whether you will or no ; there
is a natural susceptihlimess of religion. Men are instructed by
nature itself, to dread a superior Being, and to place some kind
of dependance upon it, and toh.ave some kind of expectation
from it, of help and relief in their necessities and distresses,
and yet remain, all this while, in an apostasy, in^war and re-
bellion.
This makes this monster of an apostate creature to be so
much the more monstrous, beyond comparison ; even beyond
all that can be thought. The case being thus with them, that
such sentiments of God as ihey have about them, they cannot
erase, and yet, cannot obey ; they can never get them out of
tliem, nor comj)ly with them : this is their case. So monstrous
a thing as an unregenerate creature that remains yet in the
apostate state. They carry about a notion of God with tht^m
in their minds wherever they go : and so have not only reason
left them, but somewhat of religion ; which some take to be a
more distinguislnng property in man tiian reason itself, it being
less disputable whether it do peculiarly belong to man; to in-
ferior creatures it manifestly doth not: and in great measure it
is evident that it doth belong to all men. For those that have
been the most diligent inquirers into the state of the world, in
former ages, among the pagans themselves, have taken notice
that it was even an impossible thing to hear of a man any where
that had not somewhat of religion, or some sense of a Deity in
him. As, I remember, Plutarch saith : "It is not impossible
to find cities without walls, without government, without coin :"
but to find a city without religion, he thought to be altogether
impossible. " And it were (saith he) as easy a thing to build a
city without a foundation, without ground to set it on, as to
form a society of men without religion." This was the appre-
hension of such knowing men as he and others, even among
heathens themselves, in former times.
And this is the general matter of God's controversy with the
worid, when we are told in that Romans 1.18. that "the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against the ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteous-
Tiess." What that truth is, we are to collect from what follows
in the 19 ver. before mentioned : for that which may be known
of God is manifest in them ; for God hath revealed it to them.
He hath so inwrought his name, his own idea, into the spirits
of men, that there it remains as an indelible impress, not quite
LEC. XXVI.) Aggravations of Man^s sinful state. 391
to be razed out. And therefore, they vvjio have been more
avowed atheists, have been so, more in endeavour than in fact;
endeavouring- to extinguish those notions of God out of their
minds, whieli yet they could never rid themselves of. *' The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God," He halh said it
in liis heart ; not with his mouth, not in his mind, but in his
heart; which implies it rather a wish than an assertion. And
so, the hebrew text doth lead us to understand : for there is
not the copula to make it an assertion : The fool hath said in
liis heart, " no God ;" not that there is none, that is not in the
text, but — "no God;" let there be none: or, O ! that there
vvere none : I wish there were none. It is rather a wish than
an assertion with these fools. And these fools, they are the ge-
nerality of the apostate u'orld.
But that men should carry that notion in their minds about
them, up and down the world ; have (as it wpre) Gcd >o much
in view, (if they will but look into themselves and commune
with their own minds,) and yet should be continually warring
and fighting against him, when they could not but at the same
time conceive him to be God, but conceive him too, to be the
very Author of their life and being; "He in whom (as the
apostle quotes a heathen poet saying) they live and move and
have their being;" and another saying, "Whose ofl'spring
they are :" his very offspring; and yet in a continual, general
rebellion against him ; this aggravates the matter beyond all
measure. And again,
[4.] They have in them also, the practical principles of right
and wrong, in reference to one another. In this state of apos-
tasy from God, they have, I say, practical j;rinciples ; that is,
principles that ought to govern practice, telling them what is
right, and what is wrong, in reference to one another,
as well as in reference to God: and yet, there is nothing
else but aversion, hating of one another, and designing against
one another, and every one labouring to tear the world in pieces,
that they may grasp into their own hands, what yet lies in other
men's. They do so far know what is right and wrong in refer-
ence to one another, that they can no sooner hear of the
general measures of right and wrong among then), but
their minds do inwardly consent to the reasonableness of
such a constitution. As that great maxim of our Saviour ;
** Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye so to
them," as being that which sums up the law and the prophets.
A saying so taken, even among heathens themselves, that it is
known, that the emperor Alexander Scverus, caused it to be
inscribed on the gates of his palace, as if it were the most suit-
392 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
able, agreeable thing to the minds of men, and to the necessi-
ties of human society, that could be thought. And,
[5.] Yet further, they have all this while a most connatu-
ral desire of their own felicity. This is a further aggravation,
that every man naturally desires to be happy, when yet, he is con-
tinually engaged in a way andcourseofsin, against his Sovereign,
Rightful Lord, which so directly tends to involve him in all mi-
sery : and so, is doing perpetual violence to himself, and even
to the law of his own nature; for there cannot be a more radi-
cal principle in any man, or even in the nature of man, gene-
rally considered, than to desire to be happy. " Who will shew
us any good ?" is the common vogue, according to that of the
Psalmist in the 4, psalm. All the world is full of craving de-
sires after felicity, after a happy state, and yet running on in a
continued course directly counter hereunto ; fighting every
where against the desire of their own hearts.
[6/ It is a further aggravating consideration too, that, in all
this time, they have some apprehension with them generally of
a future state in another world, the soul of man having a se-
cret consciousness of its own immortality inwrought into it.
So that (as you have heard) mere irreligion hath been a thing
Very rarely to be known in the world, and never but as men
have pretended and endeavoured to erase and root out the prin-
ciples of religion out of their own souls ; but without total ef-
fect. So there hath been no sort of religion in the world that
hath not proceeded upon the supposition of a future immor-
tality. Not only christians and jews, but mahometans and the
grosser pagans, have all agreed in this one sentiment, that
** there is a life to come," and a state after this. And yet, they
are continually taking the way that takes hold of hell, and
leads down to the chambers of death ; though that senti-
ment is not more natural, more common, that there is another
state, another world, a life to come, than the sentiment is, of
the connexion between goodness and blessedness, and between
wickedness and misery. They have generally apprehended so,
as the apostle, in the close of the first chapter of this epistle
(referring to the gentile world) saith : " They did know the
righteous judgment of God, and that they who did those things
were worthy of death, and yet, not only did the same, but took
pleasure in them." They did apprehend a connexion between
wickedness and death, between sin and misery, and yet run the
course which corrupt inclination carried them unto, without
resistance. And again,
[7.] There is in them all this while, a self-reflecting power,
by which they are capable of taking knowledge of themselves,
XKC. xxvf.) Aggravations of 3fan's sinful state, S9S
of looking in upon their own minds. " The spirit of a man h
the caridle of the Lord, searcliing into the innernu)st parts of
the belly ;" t<iat is, searciiinginto his most inward ;^t-#/f^ra/?V/,
into all tlie secret recesses of itself, even to the very centre.
It is such a kind of light as can invert its heams, and turn
thesn invvard uj)on itself; being therein a nobler sort of eye,
than this external bodily one is. For this exterior bodily eye of
ours that sees all other things, cannot see itself ; but the mind,
the intellectual eye, cannot only see other things, but can see
itself too, is capable of contemplating itself. That conscience
that is in man, that natural conscience, it is not only the con-
servatory of natural principles, the seat of them, that shew
what men are to do, and what they are not to do, (as was
told you before, under the former head,) but it is also a self-
reflecting principle, that which is called properly and more
stricflv, avntl-na-iSj by which a person is conscious to himself
vhat he is, and what he doth j what his dispositions are, and
what the series and tendency of his actions are.
And yet, this principle is rarely used; rarely, in reflecting
upon actions, and in reflecting upon their states; scarcely ever
in reflecting upon their actions, very rarely ; so that, among a
people professing the name of God, he may long hearken, and
hear none saying. What have I done? " I hearkened and heard:
ro man spake aright; no man said. What have I done?"
Jer. 8, 6. Though they have that self-reflective prificiple in
them, by vvhich they are capable of taking cognizance of their
own actions, they never do it, never allow themselves to say.
What have I done ? in a long continued tract of time. But
fcvery following day passeth as former days have done ; and
seldom, from morning till night, is there a self-reflecting
thought.
Indeed, where natural light hath been improved, even among
some heathens, they tell us it should be otherwise : Vir bonus
et sapiens ; a good, a wise man, will not go to bed at night,
will not compose himself to rest, before he hath revolved with
liimself the actions of the day. So we are taught by a iiea-
then instructor. But, though there have been some such in-
stances, they are very rare, of those that allow themselves to
reflect upon their actions ; but much more rare, of those that
reflect upon their state, that l)ethink themselves, or say, " Tn
what state am I ? How do things stand between God and me,
whose creature I am, and under whose government I live ?'*
And yet, again,
[8.] It doth more highly aggravate all this wickedness, to con-
sider, how inflexible men are, and averse to compliance with
any means and methods for their reduction, whether they thut
VOL. VII, 3 E
31)4 THE PRINCIPLES OF THB ORACLES Of GOD. (PARTII.
are without the gospel, or they that live under it. For those
that are without it, that have no gvospel, no verbal gospel,
among them, such an aversion to all the methods of recovery-
doth very sufficiently appear : for, otherwise, if that were not
the common temper of the world, even where the gospel is
not yet come, it would soon be among them, and nothing
could have hindered it from spreading over all the world many
ages ago, but an indisposition and opposition in the minds
and spirits of men to the progress and diffusion of it. For
there hath been no nation where the gospel was, but they that
were hitherto destitute of the gospel, some or other of them,
must have lain next to that nation where the gospel was, so
that it was impossible for them not to have lieard the sound
thereof: and, if there were not an indisposition in them, even
in the minds of men, and a contrariety and disaffection, they
would, at least, have been inquisitive ; they would have ex-
amined — " Js such a declaration from God, or is it not ?'*
which, if they had, it carries with it such undeniable charac-
ters of divinity, that inquiring minds could not long have
been ignorant ; but prejudice and disaffection have kept off"
the inquiry; which, if it had taken effect in one country, it
would soon have reached another, and so another, till the
world had been leavened with the gospel long ago. There-
fore, such aversion and disaff^^ction to the gospel appears even
where there hath no gospel yet come.
Besides that, even there, though there be no verbal gospel,
there is somewhat of a real one, that God shews himself pla-
cable, or no implacable, no inflexible, no irreconcilable enemy-
He doth not carry it with men generally as one seeking their .
destruction, leaves not himself without witness, in that he
doth good, and gives them rain from heaven, and fruitful
seasons, filling their hearts vi/ith food and gladness, as in Acts
14 and IJ. So the apostle speaks of God, in reference to his
dispensations towards the pagan world ; and he saith it unto
pagans : " He makes his sun to shine on the just and
on the unjust :" and requires of us, upon that very
ground, to love our enemies, because he shews so very much
pliilanthropy, and good will towards men. " Love your ene-
mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and perse-
cute you, that you may be the children of your Father, which
is in heaven 3" (Matt. 5. 44, 45.) that you may appear such,
that you may represe.it herein a Godlike nature ; for God doth
so, making his goodness difl'use and spread itself through the
world : so that, ** the whole earth is full of his goodness ;"
EEC. XXVI.) Aggravations of Man's s'oiful state. 395
though it be so full of men's wickedness. And, Romans 2.
4. *• Despisest thou llie riches of his goodness, and forbear-
ance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of
God leadeth thee to repentance ?" As we have copiously
shewn from that text, that there is a manifest, discernible
Jeadingncss and ducture in the continued exercise of God's
goodness, and particularly of his patience and forbearance,
unto repentance.
But where the gospel is, there, this disaffection and preju-
dice doth most apparently and conspicuously shew itself. Not
only were the pagans of old accused to he " God -haters,"
(Rom. 1. 30,) where he speaks of the Gentile world, but the
very Jews too, where God's light did sliine, and wiiere his
grace and saving design did appear, and were most expressly
testified 3 even of them our Saviour saith, " Ye h.ave both seen
and hated nie and my Father," John 5. 24. And hence came
these complaints, even where the gospel is : "1 have labour-
ed in vain, and spent my strength for nought and in vain."
Isaiah 49. 4. And, " Who hath believed our report, and to
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?" Isaiah 53. 1. quoted
by the apostle, Romans 10. IG. " Have they all obeyed the
gospel ?" — No ; far from that ; for Isaiah saith, " Who hath
believed our report ?" And in the close of that chapter, " All
the day long have 1 spread forth my hands to a gainsaying and
rebellious people."
The experienced unsuccessfulness of the gospel, which we
generally so much see cause to complain of and bemoan, speaks
this continually. What representations have we of God, in
Christ, intent upon a reconciling design ! But hew few are
Won I How few hearts touched ! So that men are gone off
from- God, and there they affect to abide ; they have chosen
distance from God, and seem resolved to continue it, say we to
them what we will or can. We speak to them in the name of
the Lord, but they will not hear : and for the sake of their
own souls, but they regard it not. And, which is still,
[9.] More aggravating, that is, it is a further addition to
the load of aggravations, and adds unspeakably to it ; men are
all this while certain they must die ; they are in no doubt con-
cerning that; they know the things they are fallen in with, in
opposition to God, can be enjoyed by them but a little while ;
they see not only that the fashion of this world passeth away,
but they find themselves passing away ; changes are upon them.
It is a thing concerning which they can be in no doubt ; tlicy
have no instance of any one that escaped death. And yet
here is generally no consideration what shall become of them
hereafter. They find they are not happy here, they arc still
396 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
crying and seeking to be happy, but obtain it not : and yet
they have no concern to be happy hereafter ; though they
know they must be gone, and their places on earth will, in a
little while, know them no more. They have continual in-
stances before their eyes, of other wicked ones like themselves
driven away in their wickedness, torn up by the roots, plucked
from their dwelling place and gone : they know it must shortly
be so with them too ; and yet have chosen a state of distance
from God ; they never look after him, till (it may be) their
last vain dying breath Is uttered in some such unreasonable de-
sire as this : " Lord have mercy upon me :" when they can
live and sin no longer, then they cry to God for mercy.
These are all most fearful aggravations of this common
wickedness that prevails in every one ; and serves farther to re-
present to us the sinfulness of man in his fallen state. I
should next come to speak of the death that hereupon passeth
over all men, as we have spoken of death as it befel that one,
as it stood in the commination, and as it stood in the sentence.
It requiring a further, and, somevvhat, a distinct considera-
tion, with reference to the universality of man, whose case
doth (though not substantially, yet in very great and important,
circumstances) differ from him who was the first transgressor.
But before I come to that, some use of this representation
which hath been made of the sinfulness of man's state, should
intervene.
LECTURE XXVIL*
And there are many things which it is obvious to us to take
notice of, for our instruction and use, from hence. As,
1. VVemaysee, hereupon, how altered a creature man is; how
little he is himself ; or what that one man, by whom sin and
death entered, at first was. You have lately heard in what es-
tate God did at first create man : " So God made man after his
owrv image," a Godlike creature. Such a thing was man at
first; thence called the son of Qod. " Who was the son of
Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God."
Luke 3. 38. A glorious pedigree run up backward, in its
assent, as high as heaven ; " wlio was the son of God." And
it is not supposable that God should raise up a son immedi-
ately from himself, unlike himself. Therefore, it was very
* Preached April 21, 1 694.
LEG. XXVII.) Man*s sinful state — Inferences. S97
suitable unto the state of things, that it should be so express-
ly told us, " God made man in his own image," which you
have heard was to be understood not only of iiis natural image,
as man hath a spirit in him th.at was naturally, essentially
vital, intelligent, free, and immortal ; but it was also, and
more principally, to be understood of the moral image, com-
prehending both sanctity and felicity, and, according to which,
man was made a liappy, and a holy creature, pure and bles-
sed.
How unlike himself is he now become ! Let none of us
think that this concerns not us. Are we not also of the pos-
terity of Adam, degenerate creatures, fallen from the original
excellency of our own nature, and especially in respect of that
conformity and inclination which were in our nature towards
God, our great and common Parent ? If any of you liad a son
that was newly gone forth from you, and you met him by and
by, and he doth not know you ; You tell him, " I am your
father ;" he replies, " No, it is no such thing, you are no
father of mine ;" would it not cut your heart ? Who would
not look upon it as a deplorable case ? This is the common
case ; men are sunk into such deep ignorance and oblivioniof
God, the Author of their being, that now they retain no know-
ledge, no remembrance of him, no conformity to him, no in-
clination toward their ancient Original.
It is an amazing thing that it should be so ! It is much
more amazing that it should be so little considered, that this
earth should be peopled with such inhabitants, every one hav-
, ing in him (that is, all that are of human race,) an intelh'gent,
immortal spirit, a mind capable of thought, capable of just
thought, capable of duty, and capable of blessedness. But
so miserably sunk into carnality and earthliness, that tiiis body
in which it should but dwell, therein it rots, therein it pu-
trifies. And that which (as hath been said) was designed to be
its mansion, is become its dormitory, and its grave. A living
soul carnalized I A most horrid creature ! And, as it is said,
Adam was at first a living soul : (" so God breathed into him
the breath of life, (that pure, divine, and heavenly breath ;)
and he became a living soul,") so, then to have asked the ques-
tion, " What is man ?" must have been to receive the answer,
*'He is a living soul : he is all soul, and that soul all life." But
now is this living soul buried in flesh, a lost thing to all the true,
and great, and noble ends and purposes of that life v/hich
was at first given it.
It is true, indeed, tliat this is a thing much less than what
is said of the s<;cond Adanij In that 1 Cor. 15. 45. " The firil
SB9 THE PaiNCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
man Adam was made a living soul ; the second man Adam was
a quickening spirit." This latter is a great deal more. A
living soul signified him to live himself: but a quickening spi-
rit signifies a power to make others live. That, the first Adam
could not do : the more excellent kind of life which he had,
(for there was a complication of lives in the first creation of
this man,) he could not lose; but he could not give. He
could not lose it from liimseif; but he could never have
given it by any power or immediate efficiency of his own to
another. Here, the second Adam, the constitution of the
second Adam, was far above that of the first, in that he
could quicken others; a quickening spirit, not only quicken-
ed passively, but quickened actively, such a spirit as could
give spirit, and diffuse life.
But take this matter as it was — " The first man Adam was a
living soul," with all that life In him In all the kinds thereof,
which was the highest and most noble that could belong to a rea-
sonable, intelligent soul : such a one he was; and now we have
this living soul entombed. It is naturally a llvingsoul, and na-
turally Immortal still; but as unapt to serve and answer the
proper purposes of that life which was at first given it, as if It
were quite dead, dead towards God. It was principally alive
towards him : that holy life which did belong to Adam's soul at
first, could have none but God as its highest and noblest term :
upon him it was terminated. Therefore, vvhere there is a resti-
tution and recovery, this is the immediate effect, persons do
" become dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ."
Rom. 6. 11 . And licre is now a living soul alive to sin, but
dead towards God ; dead towards the prime and most glorious
Object ; and dead to all the noble operations, for which It was
originally and first made a living soul. And this is the state of
man : like the living God in this respect he was ; but now, to-
wards him he is become a dead thing, putrid, and noisome, and
offensive, even as a carcass. He is dead in that respect, wherein
a soul may be said to be dead, which cannot be in a natural
sense, as you have heard, and as is plain in itself; but only in a
moral sense. In that sense wherein it can be said to be dead,
in that sense. It must be the most fearful alteration which hath
passed upon it, that could he passed upon a creature : that Is,
it was alive towards God ; and is become dead towards him,
cut off from him by a self-separation. Therein lies the sinful-
ness of tills death that we are considering, and which belongs
to the present subject we have In hand to consider. That God
hath hereupon retired from him; that is the punitive no-
tion of this death. But the sinful notion of it lies in its sever^
LEC. XXVII.) Mail's sinful state — Inferencss, 399
ing, retiring, and withdrawing itself from God ; plucking
itself away from him, as it hath done in the aposiasy; and as
ic every where doth as long as the state of apostasy is conti-
nued in.
Now it is become a most unlike creature to God, and most
unlike unto its original self, that could be thought. It was a
knowing, intelligent creature j and especially knowing God.
This image of God, that was at first impressed upon it, stood
in knowledge ; now it is become ignorant of God, " alienated
from the life of God through the ignorance that is in it, and
the blindness of the heart." Ephes. 4. 18. It was like him in
knowledge ; but now it is become most stupidly ignorant of
what it is most concerned in. Is this Godlike ? It was a
lioly, pure creature ; but now delighting to wallow in the im-
purest sensualities. Is this like God ? It was a most orderly,
regular creature ; but now all confusion ; its powers engaged in
war against one another; the vvhole frame of man disorganized,
the whole dependance of will and affections upon, what should
lead them, an intelligent mind and judgment; but these shatter-
ed all to pieces. The whole frame is discomposed. Is this like
the God of order ? O ! how unlike to God is man now be-
come ! And therein unlike himself, and unlike what he at
first was. But,
2. We may further learn, hence, that this world cannot,
hereupon, but lie under divine displeasure. And it is most
just and righteous that it should do so. This, the law
gives sufficient intimation of, wheresoever it comes : *' That
every moutii may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God." Romans 3, 19. Impleadable at law, that
is the import of the word there used, to signify God's having a
just and legal controversy with all this world. He hath in
point of law, that to be said against it, which can never be
answered ; which admits of no apology, no defence. But
again,
3. We may yet further learn, hence, that the sinfulness
which hath spread itself among men in this world, cannot
but be in a true sense natural, such as hath poisoned the very
nature of man with an enmity and malignity against God : ior
you see it is universal. Nothing can be supposed to be com-
mon, but what must be understood to have some common
cause, a cause that is common. But the text tells us, that
*' all have sinned." And whereas, (as was noted to you for-
merly,) it is said in the 3 chapter of this epistle, ver. 9, " We
have before proved both Jews and Gentiles to be all under sin ;"
(which Jews and Geruiles did divide the world;) and " There I«
400 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART II.
none righteous, no not one," as the same apostle quotes from
psahn the 14th and 53. This plainly speaks this contagion to
have Infected the nature of man, and to run with his propa-
gated nature every where, from age to age, and from genera-
tion to generation.
It appears to be so, for that when, upon the general de-
fection and revolt of this world from God, he was pleased yet,
(in order to his asserting and preserving some interest therein,)
to select to himself one people, one people to be peculiar to
him ; all the endearing favours of providence, all the peculiar
inanifestations of light from heaven, all the intercourse that,
in a more external way, God vouchsafed to hold with this people,
(unless he did here and there powerfully transform their hearts,)
still left them evidently as full of malignity, and of the enmity
of wickedness against God, as if they had been the merest
strangers to him in all the world. And, therefore, is he some*-
times represented as calling heaven and earth as astonished
witnesses against them : '' Hear O heavens, and give ear O
earth, I have nourished and brought up children, and they
have rebelled against me." Isaiah 1.2. " My people would
not hearken to ray voice, Israel would liave none of me.''
Psalm 81, 11. " He came to his own, but they received
him not;" John 1, 11. What can this signify, but a deep
depravedncss of nature ? Sin hath inwrought itself even into
the very nature of man.
We have th.e same instances multiplied in the days of the
gospel. God hath shewn more peculiar favours, vouchsafed dis-
tinguishing privileges of the highest external kind, unto
sundry nations into which the light of the gospel hath spread
it>f If. Eut where is there greater wickedness in all the world,
than in the Christian world ? where greater, than in reformed
Christendom, as it is called ? Where is there more avowed
atheism ? where is there higher insolency against heaven ?
more direct and open rebellion, tearing all the constitutions
and laws, which they themselves pretend to own for divine
and christian ? A deep depravedncss this must argue .
You may see in the continual springing up of one genera-
tion after another, that even from infancy, sin still springs up
with reason, and the improvements of the natural faculties.
So that as soon as any do begin to act rationally, they begin
to act wickedly. Heathens have observed it, and speak of it
with regret, and take notice how a child neglected, grows
monstrously vicious: common experience tells us this. Edu-
cation, indeed, (which therefore ought to be practised with a
^reat deal more care and diligence than it is,) doth somewhat
tEC. XXVII.) Mayi^s sinful state — Inferences. 401
repress, but it doth not change and alter nature. You see that
the corruption of it proceeds, even with the nature itself, from
the immediate fountain. " Behold I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me ;" so the penitent
Psalmist confesseth concerning himself," Psalm 51. 5. And
it is generally spoken concerning the wicked, (as all the v\'orld
doth naturally appear to be,) that " they are est/anged from
the womb, and go astray as soon as they are born." Psalm
58. 3.
This was a notion that did ohtain so much among the Jews,
that you see with what severity some of the worst of them fall
upon the blind man: (John 9. 34.) "Thou wast altogether
born in sin, and dost thou teach us ?" implying, that he who
would take upon him, in an extraordinary way, (not being called,)
to be a teacher and instructor to others, must be some very ex-
traordinary person, must be born a sinless man. A testimony
that they give against themselves unawares: for they had such
a Teacher among them, but regarded him not j a Teacher that
came forth from God, and that was not born in sin. "Thou
art altogether born in sin, no better than any other man, and
dost thou take upon thee to teach us ?" And again,
4. We may further learn, hence, how little reason men have
to think it strange, that the state of things in the world is not
so constantly favourable, or so benign to them, as they could
wish, or are apt to expect; that they meet with many things
so ungrateful; that men find themselves subject to pain, sick-
nesses, crosses, in the course of providence ; that they meet
with disappointments so often; that so many are reduced to
straits, and wants, and distresses; pinching poverty and the like ;
that there is so much of confusion and disorder and violence in
the world, the inhabitants of it ready to tear one another and
the world in pieces. Why, all have sinned. This gives an easy,
ready account. O ! how little is it considered when people are
so full of complaints of their own particular ails and evils.
*' Nobody's case is like mine. How am I injured and wronged
by some or other that are stronger and mightier than I ? My
right is withheld from me," and the like. Alas ! poor creature,
dost thou so little consider how thou hast wronged God, and
withheld from him his right in thyself, in thy life and soul, and
all thy powers ? Saith another, " I have a child sprung up in
my family, I have a son that is undutiful and rebellious, a per-
petual vexation to me." How little is it considered that thou
hast carried it with much more undutifulness towards God, who
was the original Author and Parent of thy very life and being.
You think, when you are sick, you suffer a very great hardship :
VOL. VII. .1 F
402 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 15,
you do not consider what it is to have been a sinner, to have
torn the constitutions and laws of heaven, and violated the go-
vernment of the Supreme and Rightful Lord of all. "Why doth
a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sin?"
Lam. 3. 39. " Let us search and try our ways ;" let us once
hut take a clear view of our own ways, and that will stop the
complaint. Consider what a vile creature I have been ; so many
years of my time gone, and I have never minded God ; never
paid him a duty ; never thought of him with any reverence;
never designed him any service ; never resolved on living to him,
but to myself. And yet, now, a little affliction that grates upon
the flesh, makes us cry out " O ! how hardly are we dealt with.'*
Again,
5. Have all sinned ? Then instead of complaining, wonder at
the divine patience, that things are no worse with the inhabi-
tants of this world than they are ; that men are allowed a being
in it ; that this world is not turned into flames over the offender's
ears ; that they are not continually pursued with divine terrors;
that he is not, with more dreadful severity, exacting his right
from his own creatures whom he made, (as their own under-
standings can tell them,) not for themselves, but for himself: and
nobody minds him, when they so generally behave themselves
with such insolency in this world, as if they had been the crea-
tors of it, as if they had made the heavens and the earth; sun,
moon, and stars, and all things, the help and influence whereof
they any way enjoy.
How admirable, I say, is the divine patience, that bears with
offending creatures, lets them propagate and transmit their like
from age to age, and from generation to generation, through
that vast tract of time as hath hitherto past, since the apostasy ?
With what wonderment should we consider this power of divine
patience ! Who that hath it in his hands to right himself for such
indignities and wrongs, would refrain ? When we think how
quickly, how easily he can do himself right ; can frown or wink
such a world as this into distraction in a moment; that as it
sprung up by his fiat, " Let it be," how easily could he frown it
into nothing ! Yet he lets men live, lets them live neglecting
him, when they have natures capable of adoration. But again
we have,
6. Much more reason to admire tlie divine bounty towards
such creatures : not only that he spares and lets them live, but
that he maintains them, and keeps them in life and being, each
one for his measured time, and so, provided that there should
he a transmission of life from age to age, in so continued a
course. How admirable should the divine bounty and munifi^
LEC. XXVII.) Man's sinful state — Inferences. 403
cence be in our eyes, upon this account ! He dotii good to the
unthankful and evil; to those that never thank him for it. If
you did but feed a brute creature, it would be brought by de-
grees, and in time, to take some kind of notice of you, with gra-
titude. *'Theox knows his owner, and tiie ass his master's
crib, but Israel doth not know, my people will not consider."
Men will not know their Owner, though the ox knows his. It
is your Owner that cares for you ; as who provides for the ox
and the a?s, Init the owner ? So God, as the Owner of you and
of all the inhabitants of this world, all the children of men, (for
I speak cf these inhabitants,) he doth his part towards you and
tliem. lie provides for them, he maintains them, and affords
them all that is suitable and needful for their support; but they
will not take that notice of their Owner, which an ox or an ass
takes of his. How wonderful a thing is this on God's part 1
how horrid a thing on man's !
1 have thought of it many tinips, and it would be a thing not
unworthy of your thoughts and serious contemplations, that we
should, in so continued a course, find the earth so productive as
it is of all things, not only necessary for the support of the life
of man, but so grateful too; such pleasant, delicious fruits in
their season : and for whom is all this entertainment? For a
world of rebels, offending creatures ; those that never look up ;
we enjoy all, as if it were our own, and never consider, we
have a Lord over us, the free Donor of all. Again,
7- Since there are so many sinners in this world, (all have
sinned,) it is very strange there are so few self-accusers; when
the same light, and the same rational powers, by which men are
capable of sinning, they are alsocapableof understanding them-
selves to be sinners. There is, indeed, a natural conscience in
men, and it hath its exercise sometimes, and a very impartial
exercise, in reference to some cases, but hovv little is there of
conscience towards God ! "Herein," saith the apostle, "do I
exercise myself to have always a conscience \oid of offence to-
wards God, and towards man." So it is, where once regenerating
grace comes to restore an entire divine Image in the soul again,
to do an entire work, to produce a general rectitude in the soul,
there wiU be conscience towards God, as well as towards men.
Towards men: there is among men some conscience, though too
often violated when interest sways : many do not care whom
they injure, to advantage themselves; but yet, wiiile they do
wrong, they cannot be altogether without reflection that they do
wrong: and upon such accounts, chiefly, they have consciences
*' accusing, or excusing by turns." Rom. 2. 15. But towards
God, generally, no conscience at all ; they live in the world iis
404 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD, (PART II,
without him, and their hearts never smite them ; spend days,
and months, and years in vanity; throvi^ away their lifetime,
so as they are useful for nothing, they were made for; and never
say — " God have mercy upon us ;" never think a serious, reflect-
ing thought. So it is with the most ; they live at that rate, till
in a moment they go down into the grave, and never consider
what they have thrown away ; a lifetime in the world, without
ever minding the proper business of life. But,
8. We may also learn, hence, to take notice, w^ith wonder,
tliat there is so much self-complacency in the world, as one of
the most incongruous things, the most monstrous incongruity
in all the world, that men should generally be so well pleased
with themselves. If things, in external respects especially,
be well with tliem ; if they Hnd themselves to be in health; if
th^y have any thing of natural strength and vigour about them ;
especially if they can take notice, they have wit above the com-
mon rate : if they have wealth ; if they have reputation and
esteem among men ; if they have any thing of human dignity
or grandeur ; O ! how well pleased are they with themselves,
what self-admirers are men generally upon such accounts, with-
out even considering, (and what a dash would one such thought ,
be to all this,) *' I am a fallen creature, an apostate creature,
a sinner, one with whom heaven hath a controversy, a re-
bel still, if not yet reconciled." Strange! that men should be
pleased with themselves, and their little external circum-
stances, and forget this, "lam a lapsed creature, and under
the displeasure of heaven." But again,
9. We may take notice, hence, of the reason, whence it Is,
that there is so much displeasure and wrath against any, in this
world, wIkj look towards God and heaven. All have sinned,
all are generally in a state of sin. It is by wonderful and pe-
culiar grace if there be so much as an inclining thought God-
ward, a thought of returning, if any frame their doings (as
the prophet's expression is) " to turn to the Lord," this pre-
sently comes under observation : if men's doings be framed
that way, if a man-'s way and course be shaped, so as to look
Godward and heavenward again, then all that behold it, (and
with whom there is not the same disposition of mind and spi-
rit,) they are under a judgment, under a doom. Noah con-
demned the world. And as the righteous soul of Lot was vex-
ed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, among whom he
Jived ; so, no doubt, he also vexed them only by their observa-
tion of his better ways. And yet, further,
10. We have great reason, hereupon, to admire a divine
hand and power ia it, that there hath been any thing ©f
LEC. xxvii.) MarCs sinful stale — Inferences. 405
religion preserved and kept alive in the world, through the
several successions of time, unto this dny. A world where
all have sinned, all have heen in apostasy and revolt from
God, and war against heaven; it is from a mighty divine hand
that there is any such thing as serious religion. Natural reli-
gion there is, and an ineffectual thing it is, every where, al-
most. But for serious religion, vital religion, such as shall
speak itself to be such by a self-demonstrative evidence, th.at
such religion hath been kept alive in such a world as this, from
age to age, is one of the greatest miracles that hath been
wrought in the world since there was one ! And further,
1 1 . This serves to let us see how mighty a work regeneration
is, or which the regenerating grace and Sj)irit, the Spirit of re-
pentance, have to effect and work upon the soul, it cannot
be a slight, superficial change tliat is to be made, where ihe
depravation is so universal, and so total. The corruption of
human nature, it hath not reached so little a way as the sur-
face of the man only; it hath gone deep into the penetralia, into
the inmost centre, into the very spirit of tlie mind : even that
needs a renovation too. " Be not conformed to this world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Rom.
12. 2. And the like expression in Ephes. 4. 22, 23. " Put off
the old man that is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be ye
renewed in the spirit of your minds." O ! do not think slightly
of regeneration and repentance ! think that they must have a
mighty work to do ; and that it must be a very deep change
wiiich is to be efifected thereby, whicli must reacli through
a man, into the very inwards of his soul, and go as deep as
corrupt nature hath done. And, in the last place,
12. How solicitous, hereupon, should we be, whether any
such change hath been wrought in us, yea or no ? Tiius stat-
ing our case to ourselves : " Once, for certain, I was in apostasy
from God, an accomplice of hell, with infernal powers, against
the Sovereign, Rightful Lord of heaven and earth. Do 1 feel
myself under a recovering influence ? Am I upon a return ?
Is there any thing done, or doing in me, towards a renovation
and effectual change ?" If I be not changed, I am the same
apostate creature still ; that is the state wherein I persist, it
carries this import with it ; as if I should put it into these plain
express words : " I have apostatised from God, and I will stand
by it." This is the sense of many a soul, and that which
words would truly express, if they were used to that effect.
But many have the sense in their hearts, and yet do not consi-
der that such horrid words as these would only serve to ex-
press that sense of theirs. ** I am an apostate creature, and I
406 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
will Stand b)' it :" this is your sense while you do not turn, all
the while yon have no aim at turning, no design of turning.
" I have rebelled from God, I have rebelled against him, and
this is that which I will abide by ; I will live and die by it."
O 1 what a horrid thing is an impenitent soul! especially
under a gospel that makes so many overtures to men, of reduc-
iug apostates, and of reconciling afresh to God,
LECTURE XXVIII.*
2. Now It remains to speak of what is consequent upon
this sinful state, to wit, death passing upon all ; that which
ensues upon this universal diffusion, and is, in great part, (as
you will hear by and by,) complicated therewith. Now in
speaking to this death that is said " to have passed through all,
or overall," it must be in substance the same with that death
which we have spoken to in (he former part of the verse, that
which befel that one first man. I shall, therefore, speak,
first, of what is common under this notion of death ; and
then, secondly, come to consider the gradual differences af-
terwards.
(I.) For what this death signifies here in common, the lar-
ger discourse whereof I referred to this place. Why,
[1.] We must consider in it, that bodily death which (in
common experience) all do undergo according to divine ap-
pointment. " It is appointed to all men once to die." There
is a statute law in the case, that hath not been repealed, and
that admits of no repeal ; this lies upon the world : in the vir-
tue of that law it is, that death hath reigned. As the strength
of sin, so the power of death, even of this death, is in
the law ; that is, in the sentence of it, or in the commi-
nation annexed by way of sanction thereunto. If there were
no law first, no man should die. And most plain it is, that
this same bodily death, unto which all are subjected, it must
be within the meaning of this death. " Death hath passed
over all." For,
First. We find it to be, most expressly, in the sentence itself
that was laid upon Adam, and as a comment upon the com-
mination, that was at first given. The commination was be-
fore his fall : " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die," die the death ', the sentence was after his fall : and this
* Preached April 38, 1794.
LEC. xxviii ) Universal death, the effect of the fall. 4Q^
death is fully enough signified by the sentence — •* Dust thou
art, and unto dust thou shalt return." It cannot but be meant,
as being so expressly mentioned, both in the commination and
in the sentence. And,
Secondly. The actual execution shews it to be meant, to l)e
meant as one part of the penalty unto wliich transgressors are
adjudged under the name of death. For though it be very
true, that, abstractly considered, it may be looked upon only
as a misery, or as a physical evil, yet considering, that God
hath vouchsafed to govern his reasonable creatures by a law,
and according to the tenor of a covenant, he would never lay
any thing of afflictive evil upon them, which was not legally
due. He will herein not go above the legal constitvition, by
laying any more than was due by law, though he might go as
much below it as he would.
A righteous ruler will never exceed the law in punishing,
though he may exceed it, without any injury, in shewing fa-
vour. And the difference in these two cases, is manifest, be-
cause that these promises of favour, make those, to whom such
promises are made, creditors, and make the promiser a debtor.
But in the inflicting of punishments, the person to be punished
is the debtor, and he that is injured and wronged, being the sove-
reign ruler, is the cxea\iox poence, which also the common phrase
signifies, and shews it to be agreeable to the reason of man-
kind, to look upon the ruler as the creditor /;a??ja', and the of-
fender as the debtor poenos ; to wit, tiiat plirase of Dare
pcencE. It is the person that is to be punished, who gives sa-
tisfaction to law and justice, and so, thereupon, is said to
owe it ; and it is the government that is the creditor he owes
it to.
There would be, then, no such thing as this bodily death
in the world, if the violation of the law of God had not made
it a debt to divine justice, and to the divine government, as
the proper wages of sin. God will not lay upon man more
than is right, (more than is just and due according to law,) that
he should enter into judgment with God. Job 34. 23. Where-
wpon, the execution, (of which all the world hath experience
from age to age; for we see the world hath been continually
and actually under death, and we still daily behold death round
about us,) this actual execution, I say, shews that this must be
part of the designed penalty signified here by " death."
And unto this head we may very well refer all those corpo-
real evils and miseries that men in this world are liable to, and
lie under, which are so many tendencies unto death, or
w'nieb we may look upon as death begun ; so much of a man':s
408 TUB PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART II.
time as is past over with him, so much death hath eaten up :
as the heathen moralist expresseth it : Quicquid nostra cestatis
retro est mors hahet ; death hath devoured all that of our age
which is already past ; so that men may be said to have be-
gun to die as soon as they begin to live, which makes it seera
coni^ruous enough, or less strange, thatEcclesiastes the preach-
er, speaking of the events or purposes for which there is a
season^ unto every one a time, he speaks of a time to be born,
and a time to die, without any mention of the intervening
time of life ; and fitly enough, or it is not strange, because,
indeed, men do begin to die as soon as they begin to live.
Death is wrought with the very primordia of our sensitive
nature; so that well might that prince say, upon the loss of his
son ; Novi me gejudsse mortalem ; I begot him and mortality
in him, both together. 1 begot him a mortal thing. Death is
working in us, (as the apostle's phrase is,) all our days, all our
time, between our birth and the grave, still working in us.
And so the longer any man lives in this world, he is but so
much tbic longer a dying. Death did for a great while work
more gradually and slowly, where a man's life extended to
some hundreds of years. It hath since come to work a quicke^:
dispatch with men ; but still they are dying, tending towards
tlie grave, even from their first entrance into the world ; and
this is part of what is signified by death here. But yet it is, in
comparison, but a small part, though it be a real one, a true
part. Therefore,
[2.] Spiritual death is, without doubt, more principally in-
tended, as it is in itself a far more principal evil ; that is, all
those miseries which do now in tliis present state infest the
spirits of men. And this needs a little more to be insisted on.
Herein, therefore, 1 intend (as God shall enable) these two
things : first, to shew you that such spiritual evils as these, are
very fitly comprehended as part of the penalty under the name
of death ; and then, secondly, I shall shew you, what this
death doth comprehend in it ; namely, spiritual death.
First. That the spiritual evils to which the souls of men are
generally subject, are very fitly comprehended under the name
of death here. Tliat death that is said to " have passed over
all," is a real and great part, even the more principal part of
the penalty under v/hich they lie: and this doth need some
explication, the rather for tjiis, that this spiritual death is in
itself a sinful evil, and, therefore, that it should be a punitive
one, may seem strange to some. I shall explain the whole
matter to you, therefore, in some distinct heads and particu-
lars. As,
lEC. XXVIII.) Spiritual death, the effect of the Fall. 409
i. We are to consider, that tliongh sin be principally an
injurious evil against God, yet it is also by consequence, and
collaterally, a mischievous evil to the sinner. And thereupon
are we said to be " dead in trespasses and sins." Ephes. 2, 1.
Death is certainly a horrid and afflicting evil to him that
must suffer it. But such a death as this, to wit, to be dead
in sin, it is primarily an injurious evil against God. For we
are to consider what sin is. It is' a trangression of the law;
therefore, considered in strict propriety, it must be chiefly
and principally against the Law-Maker, a transgression against
him that made the law; to wit, as a wrong to him. But yet, for
all that, it is a hurt to ourselves. It lies both against the Ob-
ject and the subject. Against the Object : " Against thee,
thee only have I sinned," have I offended. It works upward
even against heaven: but that, it cannot reach to do any real
hurt there; but a wrong is done against heaven. " I have
sinned against heaven and in thy sight." But then it works
downward so as to hurt and do mischief; that is, as it works in
its subject, corrodes, and envenoms, and poisons that, and so
cariies a self- punishing malignity in it. "Thine own wick-
edness shall correct thee." Again,
ii. Consider, for the clearing of this matter, that that life
unto which this death is opposite (as it is in us, or as it is
in an intelligent subject) is, both a principle of action, and
perception. 1 pray mark this, for it is obvious in the meaning
pf it to every one's understanding and experience. By that
life that we generally live, we are enabled to act w'hat we do
act, and we are enabled to enjoy what we do enjoy. It is both
a motive and active ; and it is both a perceptive and a fruitive
principle. Now consider this life, as it is an active principle,
so It makes us the subjects of duty, of all duty which we owe
to him who made us, and gave us breath and being : but as it
is also a perceptive and iruitive principle, so it makes us ca-
pable of enjoying what is good for ourselves. And, again,
iii. This being plain in itself, we are to consider, that botii
our duty, which we owe to God, and out felicity, which we
enjoy in ourselves, they are substantially and radually the same
thing, and do only differ In distinguishing respects ; they meet
in one and the same root, and which Is the principal thing in
the moral life, (that life we are now speaking of ; and it is
death in the moral sense, and not in the natural sense, that we
are now speaking of too ; for^ in the natural sense, the soul
cannot die,) I say, that moral life doth carry, as the principal
thing in it, both our duty and our felicity, in the same com-
mon root ; to wit, love to God ; that is, both radically and
VOL, VII. y G
410 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORAeLES OF GOD. (PART It,
virtually, all our duty, and all our felicity too. And it is the
tnain thing to be considered in moral and spiritual life.
The love of God, I say^ compreliends both these in it. It
comprehends duty ; " If ye love me, keep my command-
ments." We can never do that which he will interpret ohe-
dietice, but from a principle of love. It is no obedience to
him, if it do not proceed from love. And, again, the same
love, dur love to God, is that l)y which we enjoy him, as well
as that by which we obey him. We can enjoy what we love ;
but what we love not, we can never enjoy. And so that life to
whicli this death stands opposed, carries in it that one princi-
ple of love, which sums up our duty and our felicity both toge-
ther, and is radically both of them ; upon which account they
are in substance the same thing.
But they differ only in the different respects that love hath,
as it respects God, the Ruler of all this world, (and so whom
we ought to obey and be subject to as our Ruler,) so this love is
the principle of duty : but then, as it respects ourselves, so it
is the principle of enjoyment ; that is, it eyes God, pitches and
terminates upon him, but with a reference to ojirselves. And^
iv. These acts, proceeding from thi? principle of love, which
liave a more direct tendency unro God, do yet involve and
carry in them a gainful ncss and gratefulness to ourselves, so as
that our felicity and duty will still be complicated in those con-
sequential acts. As, for instance, where our felicity is most
complete in the heavenly state, the eternal adoration of God,
which is the immediate and perpetual product of the highest
and most perfect love to him, it cannot but infer perpetual
pleasure to them that do so adore. And though that act be
carried directly towards God, yet it infers a delight, a pleasure,
(as it cannot but do,) to perfectly right minds, to them who arc
everlastingly so employed and taken up. And I can appre-
hend nothing higher than that, in the pleasure of the heavenly
state ; to wit, the felt congruity of everlasting worship, the soul
apprehending and feeling within itself, and relishing, with de-
light, its own act in adoring and worshipping God for ever, and
finding how congruous a thing it is, how comely a thing. And
so that which is a right to God, is also a satisfaction and de-
light to the soul itself, that renders it, and is continually
paying that homage.
And agair), too, in this our present state, wherein felicity
can be hut begun ; and if you look to the very beginning of
that, the first turn of the soul towards God by repentance
which enters it into a holy and happy state. It is called
*' repentance towards God," it directly terminates upon him 5
LEc, XXVIII.) Spiritual death, the effect of the Fall. 41 i
but when once it comes to be true, genuine, evangelical, vital,
even that itself cannot but cany a sweetness and pleasure in
it to the penitent soul. For it is not a forced thing, but an
act that flows freely from a vital, connatural principle, the soul
pleaseth itself, in abasing itself, in humbling itself, before
him ; in pouring out itsetf in free confessions aiul acknowledg-
ments to him. And then, consider further,
V. That for sucli acts as do more directly respect ourselves,
they do involve and carry still in them, homage and duty to
God too, though they do more directly respect ourselves : as
trust and joy in God, they have a manifest reference to our
own safety, and a direct reference thereunto. By trust in him,
it is, that we secure ourselves, and, by which, we become
safe from wrath and ruin. Joy, or delight in God, it is that
])y which we entertain, and receive into our own souls, posi-
tive good, by which we are to be happy and satisfied. As by
the other, (trust,) we decline and avoid the evil by which we
were otherwise, to have been miserable, these have a direct
reference to ourselves ; but, they have a consequential refe-
rence, too, unto God, or, a conjunct reference, as carrying
in them, a homage to him, v.'hile, at the same time, they
carry in them, an advantage to us.
For we cannot render to God higher homage than that trust.
It is vital trust, by which the soul unites with him, comes into
union, enters into a state of union with him. By that trust,
we give hira the highest glory creatures are capable of giv-
ing him ; we, thereupon, acknowledge him to be the First
Truth. We give him the glory of that great attribute of his
faithfulness ; we acknowledge him to be a God that cannot lie,
with whose nature it is inconsistent not to be true ; we honour
him, and advantage ourselves, at once, in that very act. And
so, delight and joy in him, there the case is the same : it is
we that are satisfied by our delight in God ; but it is God that
is glorified : for thereby we acknowledge him to be an all-suf-
ficient Good, an all-comprehending Good, when our souls do
centre and rest in him as such; which is the true notion of
delight; Quies appetitus in ajipetihile, the rest of the desiring
faculties in tlie object desired : it is the rest of our love: that
by which our love doth move towards its object, till it attain
and possess it. And then,
vi. It is hereupon, most plain, that the death which is op-
posite to this life, (that 1 have so far opened to you,) while it is
an injury to God, it is also a hurt to ourselves : for the same
reason that life doth involve these two things in it, even in all
the several acts of it ; by the same reason, it must needs be
412 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART It.
SO, OH the opposite hand; to wit, that death must comprehend
in it, opposite things ; and that the same evils that are sinful
against God, cannot but be hurtful, and pernicious, and mis-
chievous to ourselves. And,
vii. Those evils, that are so said to be signified by this name,
are very fitly signified by it, very aptly : for, though such a
death of the soul be not death in the absolute sense ; for, if
it were death in the absolute sense, then would the soul be
said naturally to die, which would not consist with the doc-
trine of its immortality; but, it is death, in a respective sense
only; — yet it is, however, properly, death, inasmuch as that
respective sense must needs mean the principal respect, that
such a thing is capable, or can any way admit of; to wit, a
respect to the end. A respect to the end is always the most
principal respect of any thing whatsoever, though it be clothed
with various respects besides its own simple nature : its respect
that it bears towards its proper adequate end, is always to be
reckoned its principal respect. Now, look upon man, princi-
pally as to his soul or spirit, (which is the subject of our pre-
sent discourse, and the subject of this death, which we are
now speaking of, spiritual deatii,) and it is to be considered this
is a created being. He that made it, made it for soaiev.hat.'
What is the end of such a being as the spirit of man ? What
was it made for ? It is a mind, an intellective thing, an in-
telligent being, unto which belongs the power of thought,
and that of vast compass, extending to multitudes, even to all
sorts of objects, and to the very highest of all objects ; for,
God hath made us capable, even of thinking of himself, of
having an idea of him, a notion of him, which all have, more
or less, in their minds ; now it is to be considered, I say.
What hath God made such a creature as this for ? This mind,
or spirit of man ? Why, principally to converse with himself.
For he hath made all things for himself; and the spirit of
man, more immediately for himself, as, he is said, to. have
fashioned the spirit of man within him. That must be, with de-
sign, that it should be employed immediately upon him, as the
principal and most noble End for which it was made: but, to
this End, it is become useless, the spirit of fallen man, apos-
tate man, unconverted man, yet remaining in the state of
apostasy, not regenerate, not renewed in the spirit of his
mind, (the great seat and subject of that regenerating work,)
it is altogether unapt for the end that it was made for, nothing
can be plainer.
Therefore, though it be not simply dead, yet, it is dead quoad
hoc, it is dead to this purpose, it is dead in this respect , and
LEC. xxviii.) Spiritual deaths the effect of the Fall, 413
that is the principal respect that such a thing is capable of :
for the principal respect is, the respect it bears to its end, its
great and ulrimate end, the end that it was made for. Any
man that will understand hiin.self to be God's creature, es-
pecially that he hath a mind and spirit in him, tiiat God
hath, himself, fashioned immediately, he must needs presently
apprehend this mind, this spirit, was made for some more
principal purpose, than only to mind the things of this earth,
than only to serve a brutal flesh for a few days, that must, at
last, rot in the dust : no man, that communes with himself,
and considers his own nature, that hath such a thing as a mind,
and spirit about him, but must presently apprehend, " Sure this
mind and spirit of mine, whicli is impressed with the natural
image of God, and, which, immediately proceeds from him,
(who is, therefore, called the Father of spirits,) must be n»ade
principaliy »o converse with him, to employ itself principally
upon him, by acts of love, and trust, and adoration, and sub-
jection, and the like."
But, most plain it is, that the spirits of men are become
altogether inhabife, unapt, to serve this end, for which they
are made, and, so, are truly said to be dead in this respect ;
that is, dead to the principal use and end for which such a be-
ing is said to be made. And, therefore, when once the great
regenerating turn, and change, comes to be made upon the
souls of men, this is the effect of it, — they are "dead to sin,
but alive to God, through Jesus Christ," as Rom. 6. 11. inti-
mating, that before, they were only alive to sin, but dead to-
wards God and Christ. And what ! Do we think that God
ever made an intelligent and immortal mind and spirit, only to
live to sin ? they are only alive to sin before ; but, when this
change comes to be made, then, they are alive to God : be-
fore, quite dead to God ; and, so they are dead, in reference
to tlieir principal end, and the proper design of their creation,
that they were made for.
And so, it is a death in equivalence, it is an equivalent death;
it is the same thing in reference to the end they were made for,
as if they were not. As if we speak of a human maker of
any thing : if an artist have made such a thing as a clock or
watch, he considers the end of it, that which it is to serve
for ; it is to measure time, to let me know the hour of the
day, as it passeth. Why, suppose such an instrument as this
made, and elaborated by a curious hand : What hath this in
it ? it hath in it motion, and the regularity of that motion.
Motion alone would not make it serve this end., if that motion
had not a regularity belonging to it. There is, in that instru-
414 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
ment, (a watch,) such a thing as a balance, wheels that regulate
that motion; so as that it shall not move at random : if it move
at random, the design is lost, the use of it frustrated, though it
should retain motion, and there were still a motive power in it:
if its motion were nothing else hut an uncertain hurry, you
could never know how the time passeth by it. And, therefore,
it were all one, though the thing remain, and though the mo-
tion remain ; it were, I say all one in reference to its end, as
if there were no such thing, or as if it had no motion at all;
Take the needle of a compass — it has a mobility, it is put
in such a posture as it may be easily moveable; but then, with
all, it hath a verticity, that is, an aptness to turn and stand
ilirecfly towards the north. If it retained never so much its mo-
bility, and loseth its verticity, it serves not its end, it is un-
useful so, and useless, as the needle of a compass; and It were
all one as if it were not.
Suppose these instruments, that are mechanical, were
someway vital; suppose a watch were a vital thing, and its
motion vital ; as it is but mechanical, when it hath lost all
kind of the regularity of the motion, the motion itself re-
maining, it were all one as if it were dead; if it had been a,
living thing, it would no more serve its purpose now, than as
if it were dead.
And so it is with reference to the spirits of men : if they do
not serve the principal design for which they were made, then
it is all one as if they were dead. God may say of them, " I
have no more service from them than if they were dead, no
more of love, no more of adoration, no more of dutiful ob-
servance are paid me by them, than as If there were no such
things." It is to be considered, therefore, that that which
makes the name of death, in tliis case, proper, is, that that
life that doth remain to the spirits of men, that is, by which
they live naturally, it no more serves the end and purpose for
which such a mind and spirit were created and made, than if
such a thing were quite extinct, and there were no such thing.
And, thereupon,
viii. Though this, in itself, be a sinful thing, as an offence
to God, it is never a whit the less a punishing thing to them
that do offend, a punishment upon them, that is, they are left
to punish themselves, because that they do injure God by that
violation which they have made even of their own frame and
natures : and, so the same thing may very well be a sin, and a
punishment too. And it is most reasonably so : for, do but
consider the parity of the case, to what is obvious to our no-
tice in human governments. If a man be a self-murderer, ^
LEC. XXVIII.) Spiritical death, the effect of the Fait. 415
felo de se ; this is the very case, as a man cannot be dead in
trespasses and sins, (sin being his own act,) but he must be a
self-destroyer. In human governments, he that doth destroy
himself, it is very true, he suffers this evil first, immediately,
directly; he is the person that is killed, and hath lost his life;
but here is, in the mean time, a wrong done to the prince, a
xvrong done to the community ; the prince hath lost a subject,
the community hath lost a member ; and this is the case with
every self-destroying sinner, in reference to God. And, he
is liable thus to be impleaded : " Thou hast destroyed my crea-
ture." This interest of God, In all. Is superior to any interest we
have in ourselves : and this the sinner is to be accountable for.
" Why hast thou undone my creature ? Why hast thou made
my creature a miserable creature, that was capable of being
a happy one ?" Yea, the whole heavenly community have a
just plea against any such one that perisheth, and so is eter-
nally cut oft' from them by his own iniquity. " Duly, and
by original right, you ought to have been a partaker with
us ; you ought to have been of our chorus, in worshipping,
adoring; in loving and enjoying God eternally. But, you
have cut yourselves ofi^ from God, and us." Therefore, it is
no strange thing tliat this same death which carries in it the
greatest hurt and mischief that we are capable of suffering in
ourselves, should yet be also complicated with sin, as it is
an offence against God, and an offence against (he rest of his
creatures, — especially those of the sinner's own order in the
creation. So fitly is all that doth concern us, the whole of
man, summed up in the fearing of God, and keeping of his
commandments, as in that 12 of Eccleslastes. This is the
whole of man ; the fear of God is nothing else but reverential
love, carries love In it ; that Is the principle from whence we
keep the commandments of God ; tliese commandments are
all summed up in love to God, and love to ourselves, and to
our neighbours as ourselves. Where sin, therefore, comes to
obtain, and take place, and be in power, there must be, at
the same time, an injury done to God, an Injury done to our-
selves, and an Injury done to the whole community to which t.vc
belong; so as that death, even spiritual death, is nothing the
less capable of being intended here as a penalty and punish-^
ment, for that It is also complicated with sin : for, in the very
nature of the thing, it cannot but be so, even in the very na-
ture of the things themselves.
More Is yet to be said In reference to what we further pro-
mised to shew, that this is a real part of the penalty here meant,
by the name of death, spiritual death, as it is the huit and evil
416 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART 11,
that does mischief to ourselves, to our own souls, to shew that it
must lie in the compass of that penalty, which, under the name
of death is here said to pass over all. And then, for the extent
and comprehension of that, the several things that this spiritual
death doth involve in it, that we are to speak of afterwards. But,
in the mean time, from what hath been hinted of these two
things — corporeal death, and spiritual death, it should enter-
tain our thoughts with, and a little fix them upon the prospect
we have before our eyes. Now, by way of Use,
1. It is a doleful state that this world lies under, as it lies un-
der that which is fitly to be called death ; men, in a continual
succession^ lately sprung up here in this world, swept away pre-
sently from it, sooner or later, but soon all; one generation com-
ing, and another going, but the earth abides. For persons that
are capable of using thoughts, to behold themselves in this
plight, and to look round about them, and to behold this to be
the common case; "Here we are, lately sprung up into being
in this world, and we know we are to stay but a little while :
Dust we are, and unto dust we shall return." A most me-
lancholy theme for a man's thoughts, if he have not some-
what beyond all this, to support his spirit, and to afford light,
and lustre, and sweetness, and pleasure, to it ; " life and im-
mortality brought to light in the gospel" of Christ.
Alas ! it is strange, amazing stupidity that is upon the spi-
rits of men, that this common case is so commonly slighted
and made so little of. If death did mnke quicker dispatches,
(though we are certain of it, it can make no surer, for it reaches
to every one sooner or later, but if it did make quicker dis-
patches,) it would set towns and countries presently upon a la-
ment, upon bemoaning themselves, and put them into a panic,
dread and fear. If the plague were (as sometimes it hath been
in this city, sweeping away thousands in a week) in what a
consternation would the minds of men generally be ? You
cannot have forgot, (many of you,) how it was. But let
this matter be rationally considered, and whether it be so
many thousands, or so many hundreds, it is the same ; per-
sons are still mortal, and must as certainly die ; it is, there-
fore, an irrational stupidity to be so little apprehensive of
this.
When the plague came upon the people of Israel, (in that
of Numbers, 36.) see what an outcry is raised among them !
" Behold we die, we ail die. How are we consumed with
dying!" Wliat a fright were they in! And yet, this case
is no way different at all from the common case of all mortals,
more than only this — dying a little sooner, or dying more
LEC. xxviii.) Spiritual deat/i, the ejects of the Fall. 417
together, more numerously. It is strange there should be a
dying world always in view, and we siiould find death work-
ing in us, and yet we live so unmindful of it from day to day,
and are so little apprehensive, that, in this respect, death hath
passed, and is passing, over all. We do not speak to one
another at such a time as this; we do not hear; we do not look
upon one another's faces as so many mortal creatures ; sure
there is not an apprehension suitable to the stale of such a
case, in this respect, that we are all subject to corporeal death.
And then,
2. For the other part of our prospect, sure we should stay a
little upon it, in our deepest reflections ; that is, thus, in sum,
that the soul of an unregenerate man is a most miserable crea-
ture ; dead, dead to the principal purposes for which such life
was given, any such creature made. It were as good ne-
ver to have lived ; better, (upon many accounts better,) to
have been an untimely birth, and never have seen the sun, than
not to live to God ; than to have a total indisposition in my
soul towards him, to think of him, to love him, to delight in
him, to make him my life and my all. This is strange, that it
should be the common case, and so little understood, and so
little considered, so little taken to heart. O! the restless
thoughts that would continually possess such a breast, if the
matter were but understood, till the regenerating work come
to obtain, and take place : " lam one that lives to as little pur-
pose, as if I had never lived 5 as if no such creature had ever
been."
As if we should consider the matter in reference to an infe-
rior thing, belonging to our nature, to wit, the power of
speech. Suppose a man should retain the power of speech,
but hath quite lost his reason, which should govern his speech,
so that he can speak still, but to no purpose ; the use of speech
were lost ; for tlie design of speech was to convey the sense of
one man's mind to another ; but, when the reason is gone,
which should form that sense in the man's mind, speech serves
for nothing. It is just so with the souls of men, in reference
to the -principal end and purpose for which God hath made such
a creature. They can think, they have a power of thought be-
longing to thetn,but to no purpose: thought is internal speech,
the speech of the mind within itself; there they can speak;
that is, they can form thoughts, connect thoughts, but all to
no purpose : for religion, that which should govern the mo-
tion of the mind, that, is wanting, there is no such thing;
this makes the soul of man a most miserable thing : it can
move, it ha'h a principle of motion in it, which is essential
VOL. VI f, ?j n
41S THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD, (PART II.
to it ; but it hath no principle of rest, no inclination towards
God, the true rest of the soul. Do but illustrate that to your-
selves, by the case of a bodily motion. Suppose your bodies
had the power of bodily motion in them, without the power of
rest : O ! what a miserable thing were man, in respect of his
bodily frame and constitution ! to be in an everlasting hurry :
he can move, and he must move, perpetually; but he cannot
sistere se, cannot stop his motion, he can never take any rest.
It is just so with the unregenerate soul. God is the true rest
of the soul. It is in perpetual motion, in continual desires,
in everlasting cravings; but hath nothing by which it can sa-
tisfy itself. It never comes into its mind, " Return unto thy
rest, O my soul." Such a creature, one would think, made
for torment, that can everlastingly move, must be perpetu-
ally in motion, but can never rest, can never take up any
rest in any thing that is agreeable and suitable to it, that can
satisfy it.
LECTURE XXIX.*
It remains now, in the next place, to shew,
Secondly: What those several evils and miseries are : and,
so, what the spiritual death that is now upon the world, and
hath passed over all, doth comprehend, and contain in it. It
comprehends,
i. The loss of God. A mighty thing ! the very thought
whereof might set all our souls a trembling ; and that, whether
we consider it as our present case, or, as having been our case.
The loss of God two ways : first, as men have lost all their
interest in him; and, secondly, as they have lost all inclinations
towards him. A loss, that stands at once in God's aversion
from them, and tiieir aversion from God. A mutual aversion
between God and them. But, because that, in every thing that
belongs to our misery, we arc first, as in every thing that be-
longs to our felicity, God is first, it is more proper to con-
sider,
(i.) Our aversion from God, or, men's having lost God,
through their own disinclination towards him : this is repre-
sented as the common case of the unconverted, or yet apos-
tate world of men, yet remaining in the state of apostasy,
that they are atheists in the world. Ephes. 2. 12. " Without
Preached May 1 9, I694.
LEC. XXIX.) Spiritual death y what it comprehends. 410
God in the world ;" so we truly enough render it. " Aliena-
ted from the life of God:" Ephes. 4. 18. Alienated from the
divine life, from a life of commerce with (lod ; they are stran-
gt^rs to God, as men of another country : that is the signifi-
cancy of the expression ; so they carry it to God, (as it is else-
where expressed,) like foreigners. He is none of our coun-
try ; we are not of that country of which he is ; we have
nothing to do with him. At that rate men live, and bear
themselves, generally, towards God.
And this aversion of the souls of men from God, is total,
of the whole soul; the mind, the judgment, the will, the af-
fections, they are all wholly off from God. So that, when he
looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see who
will inquire, who will seek after God ; lo ! they are all gone
back ; (all in a revolt, all flying away from him, to the utmost
distance that they can ;) there is none that doeth good, (not this
good, it must be specially meant,) no, not one : as in the H,
and 53 psalms, which are both to the same purpose; as di-
vers passages quoted from them, in the 3 of Romans. They
are without God, and very well pleased with themselves
that tiiey are so. They know him not, and they all affect not
to know him. They are ''alienated from the life of God,
through the ignorance that is in them, and the blindness of
their hearts." That blindness of heart is a voluntary blind-
ness ; they are blind towards God, because they will not be-
hold him, nor take notice of his majesty, though his hand be
lifted up, though the appearance of him be never so bright
and glorious. They forget him, he is not in all their thoughts.
It is the usual character of a wicked, unconverted man, that
he forgets God : "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and
all the people that forget God ;" the one expression being
exigetical, or expository of the other. Psalm 9. 16. They
refuse him, they are unwilling of him. If persons do re-
main in an unconverted state, though related to him as Israel
was, (for yet, of them, it is said, " Israel would none of me."
Psalm 81. 11. *' My people would not hearken to my voice,
Israel would none of me.") they will not God. We will not have
him to be our God. It is a disaffecting of him ; the affections
that should be placed on him are quite off: in the room of
pious affections, there is nothing else but enmity : *' The car-
nal mind is enmity against God."
And, touching this aversion from God, it was formerly in-
timated, that, as love doth comprehend togetlier, (as the ra-
dical virtual principle,) all our duty, and all our felicity ; so
doth this aversion from God, (which stands in oj)position there-
420 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
to,) all sin, and all misery. That this aversion is the radical
principle of all sin; we spake to that formerly ; and so we, must
understand it now, as it is the radical principle of misery,
God being to be considered by us, under a two fold notion — as
lie is to be obeyed, and as he is to be enjoyed ; as the
Sovereign Authority, and as he is the Sovereign Good. It is
the aversion from God, as he is the Sovereign Good, that we
are now to consider, having, under the former head, of the
sinfulness of man, spoken of it as an aversion to him under
the notion of the Supreme Ruler, and, as the Highest Autho-
rity. But, yet, we have also told you, that there is a com-
plication of these things with one another : for men do really
sin against God in their declining the enjoyment of him, in
tlieir declining him as their best and highest Good; the con-
stitution of the divine laws being such, that there are obliga-
tions upon us to be happy. So that, a man cannot but be mi-
serable, as he cannot be happy without obeying him, even in his
very enjoying of the best and highest Good, because God hatii
made this our duty, to place our supreme delight in him.
And so, God hath a just ground upon which to implead the
ungodly, wicked world ; for that, thereby, they make them-
selves miserable : " Why have you thus used my creatures, the
souls that I have made ? Why .have you cut and torn them
off from me> they which are the works of my hands ? Why
have you used and dealt M'ith them so ?" As was told you, he
that is felo de se, is criminal by human constitution ; for though
he thereby doth afflict himself, destroy himself, yet he doth
also injure the prince, and injure the community to which he
belongs: for he destroys a subject and member of the com-
monwealth. And those who, by the law of their creation,
should have joined with the rest of the creatures of their
own order, in the eternal adoration and praises of God, have
by sin, as much as in them lay, defrauded him, and maim-
ed the community unto which they did originally and naturally
appertain. But then, this misery, as it stands in the loss of
God, includes, too,
(ii.) His just and righteous aversion from them. ^'God
is not a God that takes pleasure in wickedness, neither can
evil dwell with him." There can be no fellowship between
light and darkness, between righteousness and unrighteous-
ness. He did owe it to himself, to retire from an apostate,
rebellious world: it v-as but to do himself right, to express
a just detestation of the wickedness of a lapsed, degenerate
world; to hide himself, to withhold his light and grace, which
were shut up from men by the bar of an everlasting curse, till
LEC. XXIX.) Spiritual death, what it comjirch ends, 421
such time as that sliould be counter-wrought, in reference to
any; Christ having been made a curse for us, upon that ac-
count, that the blessing might come upon us, even us, Gentiles,
as it did before upon the Jews, those of them that did belong
to the election of grace; thereupon it is called " the blessing
of Abraham;" that that might become a more dililisive thing,
to reach the Gentiles too; to wit, receiving the Spirit, the pro-
mised Spirit, through faith. Gal. 3. 13, 14. Therefore, where
this curse is not removed, it still lies as a bar against all gra-
cious communications of light and influence from God to
men. And so he is righteously averse from tl'iem, as they
were most unrighteously averse to him : and thus they have lost
God.
O 1 the lamentations that this world would be filled with
every where, if this case were but understood ! What girding
with sackcloth would there be all the world over ! God is
gone ! God is departed ! This would be the common cry in
town and country, in all parts and places — God is departed:
that is the amazing thing ! Heaven would resound witli shrieks
and cries from the miserable inhabitants of this earth. But, 1
say, that is the amazing thing, (as there will be occasion to
take notice hereafter,) that such a matter as this is so patiently
borne, so little resented; that men can so quietly wear away
their days here in this world, without God, and think them-
selves to stand in no need of him. They can rise in the morn-
ing without God ; and walk about all the day long without God ;
and lie down at night without God : and yet, id I is well.
ii. This spiritual misery contains in it, too, a wretched con-
version of soul to the creature. Where God is lost, they de-
sign to repair that loss. And O ! the miserable case of the
inhabitants of this world upon this account ; that they can
think or imagine, when they want God, that any thing can
fill up his room, and be to them instead of him ! that it
doth not come into their minds to consider, "How shall we re-
cover God again ?" But, '' How shall we repair our loss another
way?" imagining that some thing or other can be found, and may
serve them, and be to them, instead of God ! that is, that he, (in
comparison of whom the whole creation is but " as the drop
of a bucket, and the dust of the balance, ligliter than nothing,
and vanity itself,") that he can, (I say,) have his equivalent ;
that there may be somewhat found out of equivalent advantage
and use to them. This is the highest reproach to the Deity, as
it is the greatest misery to themselves, and both comprehended
in one thought; to wit, that there may be an equivalent to
ttiake up the loss of God ; that very thought, I say, carries in
422 THE PRINCIPLES OK THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
it the highest blasphemy agauist the Deity, to think that any
thing can lill up his room, and be as good as he is; as well as
the greatest misery unto wretched souls themselves, that they
shouid be under so fearful and pernicious a mistake.
But this h tiie common case when God is gone, and men are
gone off from liim, then they turn themselves to the creature :
*'Let us make the best of that we can." So Is the project laid
ail the world over. Not, Let us consider how we may regain
God ; how uc may get God back again to us ; but. How we
may supply his absence out of inferior things : and this is the
general pasture of mankind. Look on them, and, in refe-
rence to God, they are in an averse posture ; in reference to
the creature, in a propense posture.
And what sort of creatures ? That we may understand this to
go somewhat towards the consu)nmating of the state of misery
man is fallen into, do but consider, I say, what is the kind of
that good which they design for themselves, when God is no
longer eyed by them as the Good that they should enjoy, and
design for. And consider, too, in what circumstances they
may expect to have what enjoyments they can have of that
substituted good.
For the kind of it, we are to consider in the vast universe of
creatures, what it is tiiat the apostate world do seek to repair
this loss of God to themselves out of. It is not out of the
nobler parts of the creation ; th^y do not look as high as the
heavens, they are too remote : they are not the angelic beings,
that their tlioughts fly upon, with any design of repairing the
loss from among them. But the whole bent of their soul i»
directed towards this lower world, and sensible things, things
meaner than themselves, meaner than their own minds. They
t'iiink an intelligent, immortal mind must have its enjoyments,
even unto felicity, in things of so vastly inferior dignity to a
mind and spirit; that these nunds are to be fed upon earth,
upon ashes, upon the basest and most despicable things within
tiie creation of God ! What a misery is that ! Unto such
things it is that all this world is turned, being turned off from
God, sensible things, earthly things, things that can please
appetite, things common to them with the beasts that perish,
only they liavc ways and arts to refine them, but they are of
the same nature. As clay will be but clay still, be it figured
rsever so curiously. '^ They mind eartiily things;" this is the
character of the insincere, those that are afar off from God,
not tuiiicd to him ; they mind earthly things ; their whole
souls arc let out upon that which is, in itself, vain, and a lie;
that is, u Isich promiseth fair, but never makes good, and to
Yiea to them.
i.EC. XXIX.) Spiritual deathy ivhat it comprehends, 423
And consider, under what circumstances men apply them-
selves to enjoy the things by which they would repair to them-
selves the loss of God : especially consider these two most im-
portant circumstances : that is, that they are things that lie,
first, under an interdict; and, secondly, under a curse, in re-
ference to them, and, in reference to what they design, and
seek to themselves by them ; to wit, a felicity; or with respect
to the notion under which they do covet and would enjoy them ;
that is, as their best good, so they lie under an interdict and
under a curse.
(i.) Under an interdict: "Love not the world, nor the things
of the world ; if any man love the world, the love of the Fa-
ther is not in him." 1 John, 2. 5. What a misery is this, that
the poor souls, revolted and gone off from God, are now uni-
nersally seeking a felicity for themselves in things that, under
that notion, lie under an interdict, are forbidden to them, and
cannot but be forbidden, under that notion ; because, under
that notion, they are made rivals unto the Deity. In subor-
dination to God, men might comfortably have enjoyed the
things of this world; not in competition, nor in opposition: for
now this world is made his rival, and, therefore, is the love of
it idolatry, and is the setting up of another God, in opposition to
the true and living God ; and by taking this licence, men think
to repair themselves for their having lost God. And,
(ii.) They are things that lie, not only under an interdict,
but under a curse, a malediction, — apostate souls, gone from
God, they can have no enjoyment of this world, but under a
curse, nothing is blest to them; tliey can have no Wesscd enjoy-
ment of them, or any thing they enjoy ; — for sin turns all into
gall and wormwood, bitterness and death. How dismal is the
case with fallen man, upon this account! "Cursed in the
basket, and cursed in the store ; cursed in the city, and cursed
in the field; cursed in the coming in, and cursed in sise going
out;" as the matter is largely and most emphatically repre-
sented in the 28th of Deut. A people, though related to God,
when they go off from him, and so put themselves into the com-
mon state with the rest of the pagan world ; a curse lies upon
them, in every thing that they do, in every thing that they
enjoy, they perpetually live under a curse. It is with strange
rhetoric that this matter is represented in the 109 psalm : a
curse that they are girt with perpetually, and that is as a gar-
ment that they are clothed with, and that flows or insinuates
itself as oil into their bones, and as water into their bowels.
So, they are under a divine curse, in reference to every
thing that they enjoy.. And tbat is a second part of this njisery
424 THE PRINCIPLES OF THK ORACLBS 0¥ GOD. (PART 11^
which fallen man lies under, even in reference to his spirit; to
wit, that that is off from God, and is turned to a vain vvorldp
which is to him an interdicted and an accursed thing.
iii. This misery further includes in it, a continual unsatis-
factoriness with whatsoever they do or can enjoy. And, as the
essence of blessedness and felicity doth lie in satisfaction; so,
on the other hand, must misery consist in continual unsatisfied-
ness, which results from these two things together ; lirst, per-
petual craving desires, and secondly, the want of any suitable
and adequate object by which they may be satisfied.
(i.) In continual craving desires. And that is the common
case with all men in the fallen state. Why, they have put
themselves into an utter impossibility, whilst things are just with
them as they are, to be happy ; and yet they have a desire to
be happy all this while, nothing being more deeply natural,
than these two opposite things ; a dread of misery, and a de-
sire of felicity : and by how much the larger men's desires are,
so much the greater is their misery in this case. Desires en-
larged even as hell, and that could even swallow up a creation
and more ; for a creation was never to satisfy them. It was
rot a created, but an uncreated Good, that was the object de-
signed for the satisfaction of tiie souls of men : " Who will
shew us any good ?" There is the character of an unrenewed
mind and spirit, in that psalm, 4. 6. But it never comes into
their minds to think, what th^t Good is that could be adequate
to them. " Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance up-
on us :" they never think of that, but still cry out, " Who
will shew us any good?" Roving, uncertain desires, which,
with all, find that they can meet with nothing that is suitable
and adequate for the satisfaction of them : these desires must
turn to torment, when there is not an object for such desires to
feed upon; they prey upon their subject, turn invt-ard; and,
so men's desires are their tormentors, and make them misera-
ble, in that they continually desire and crave that which they
cannot reach. For,
(ii.) The other thing that concerns, and falls in, to make this
a miserable case, or to render it a real misery, is, the want of
a correspondent good for so vast and large an appetite; and
that, upon a double account : to wit, that what would satisfy
them they cannot desire ; and, that which they do desire, can-
not satisfy them. "" That which would satisfy, they cannot de-
sire: Gnd would satisfy them, he were an adequate, corres-,
pendent Good, to the most enlarged desire of the soul. Aye,
but hinj they care not for ; towards him they have no motion :
touards him there is nothing but aversion and disinclination
LEC. XXIX.) Spiritual death — what it comprehoids, 425
and disaffection, as you have heard before : so that, as the
carnal mind cannot please him, so it cannot be pleased with
him. And, that which they most of all desire, that cannot
please them, as you have likewise heard.
And so, in reference thereunto, they lie always in the same
restless posture. As, 1 remember, a heathen saith, concern-
ing a soul loose from God: (it is the saying of Hierocles:)
** That such a soul being loose from God, is like a cylinder
upon a plain, that can never lie still; it is always in perpetual
motion." The state of a soul that is off from God, is just
such, circled all within itself, capable of setting upon no ba-
sis. There is nothing that can give a firm posture, or a pos-
ture of rest to it ; for all things, beneath it, and beside it, are
unsuitable, inadequate; and, therefore, nothing can ensue but
perpetual unsatisfiedness. A miserable case ! To have so ca-
pacious a thing, as the soul of a man is, capable of so high and
great enjoyments, and to be under continual dissatisfaction,
because that which would satisfy, it cannot desire; and that
which it doth desire, cannot satisfy. And,
iv. This misery hath this further in it, a continual delusion,
which the souls of men lie under, in reference to the objects
of their enjoyment; a being continually imposed upon by the
false and delusive appearances of things, so as, hereupon, they
meet with disappointments, both in reference to what they at-
tain, and in reference to what they attain not. Herein stands
their perpetual delusion; that is, they are cheated into the ex-
pectation of meeting with that rest and satisfaction for them-
selves, which they can never find, and that, whether they do
attain the things they seek, or attain them not.
The case is generally with men, in this respect, as with some
v;eak, half-witted persons, who, looking about them here and
there, they see some rising ground, such or sucli a hill, or
mountain, and they think, if they were on the top of that
mountain, they should reach heaven, for heaven seems to touch
that ; vvhen, if they should be at the pains to travel to the top
'of that mountain, they should find themselves at the same dis-
tance tliey were before. So it is with the men of this world,
with reference to what they expect from it, of good and rest to
themselves: " O! I should be in a very heaven, if I were in
a condition so high." Some men's states and conditions carry
their appearance with them of very high loity mountains, that
do even over-top heaven, or touch heaven. " If 1 were but so
high as such a man, or such a rnan, I were a happy man." Alas !
they are deluded and disappointed, both these ways: first, that
the most can never reach that which they do expect and design,
VOL VII. 3 I
426 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
in point of wordly advantage ; and, secondly, that if they do, iliey
are much what they were, as far from felicity as before : — nay,
it may be, sunk by that very means, by which they thoiiLrht to
be raised, into deeper misery than before. This is a very dis-
mal, yet, it is the common case! Men spend their days, wear
away a wretched life- time, here, in this world, in ])ursuit of
such an outward good state, or condition ; and most of them al-
ways die short of what they designed, of what they projected
in any such kind. And, if any have compassed this, or that
great design, or project, for this vvoiid ; wliy, they are still,
when they have compassed it, nothing the nearer. In a like
case with that great prince, of whom we read, who, discours-
ing with one of his courtiers, about several great designs that
he had for this world, told him, He would move his arms,
against such a country, and such a country ; and take in such
a town, and such a city; "Then," saith the courtier, "what
will you do after that ?" " Why, then 1 will carry my arms
such and such a way." " And what then ?" " Why, then
1 will labour to accomplish such a thing, after that." "And
what then, after that?" *' Then I will sit still, and be quiet."
" Why, sir," saith he, " you may as well do so now." Men,
might as well now sit still, and be quiet,^ when God hath given
them some tolerable competency. And now, let me be think-
ing of, and caring for a soul, and providing for an eternal well-
being. But, men think not of this, but let their lives run to
waste, in a continual pursuit of shadows, and are in a conti-
nual delusion, with reference to what they attain, and what
they attain not. In reference to what they do not attain; for
that it would not satisfy; and, then, with reference to what
they do attain; for they thought they should be much better
for it, when, it may be, they are much the worse.
LECTURE XXX.*
Our business hath lately been, and still is, to represent the
common miseries of man, which are all comprehended under
th.e name of " death," very fitly, and very usually, not only in
sicred language, but in "otlier authors; several particulars have
been instanced in. And now, the next in order, which 1 de-
signed to be more largely insisted on, is,
v. This misery stands in slavery, in that base and ignoble
Preaclicd May 26, l6g4.
LEC. xxviii.) Spiritual death — what it comprehends. 427
servitude, wliich the generality of men, in the state of apos-
tasy, are subject to : a thing which will but slowly enter into the
minds of those who have not been instructed, and consider-
ed well the matter afresh ; that is, that the generality of
men, in their state of apostiisy from God, are become the
meanest, and basest sort of slaves; and, that is fitly enough
called — " death ;" (as 1 have told you, death must be taken
here, not formally, but, in a large and comprehensive sense,)
men of more ingenuous minds, rather choosing death tlian sla-
very : as it hath been with all those more nobie-spirited men,
who thought their lives laudably sacrificed for the liberty of
their country, to redeem it from slavery : atul, thereby, shew-
ed themselves, that they did scorn to live as slaves, with tlie
rest; they thought death a more eligible thing; and so, could
say as he did dying: (though nothing else was effected.) "I
have done this one noble thing; that I have chosen to die, ra-
ther than live as a slave." It is a misery much v.'orsc, than
tiiat which goes commonly among us, under the name of death,
to be a slave. -
But, if the matter be narrowly inspected, and looked into,
every one that understands himself, and what the nature of
man is, especially as to that jmrt of man, which, more deserv-
edly, bears that name, (the mind is the man,) he cannot,
upon reflection, but consider the state of slavery as the com-
mon state, — the life, and strength, and faculties, and po\^Ters
of a reasonable, intelligent mind and spirit, being generally
subject to things beneath, and below the dignity of their nature ;
this is to be very basely servile. But this is that which they will
very hardly think to be so, who do consider that they live ac-
cording to their own wills, which, indeed, is the vulgar notion
of liberty. He is a freeman : Liber est qui vivit vult — He
lives as he affects to live, as he chooseth to live. Why, sure it
cannot be that this man choosetii to be a slave.
But, there cannot be a more mistaken notion than this ; or,
that will more easily (if the matter be considered) prove
itself false. For by how much the more the will of a man is
inclined and led to choose tilings that are mean, and base, and
unworthy of a man, so much the worse slave he is; v.'hcn he is
cheated into a consent unto that which debaseth iuni, and
makes him mean; when he is fraudulently imposed U[>;)n, against
all rational dictates and sentiments. And, undoubtedly, it
was but that vulgar mistake, (not peculiar to the Jews, tjut
common to sinners, as such, unto the world of mankind, yet
in a state of apostasy," or not recovered out of it,) that our Lord
animadverts upon, in thai 8 John, in several verses, where he
428 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART If.
is dealing with that people, who were his immediate auditors
upon this very topic ; that is, lie promiseth them liberty : " If
the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed." But they
tell him, with disdain, " We were never in bondage to any man ;
we are Abraham's seed." He replies upon them, " Whosever
commits sin, is the servant of sin ;" and, being the servant of
sin, is the slave of the devil too; and so much more miserably,
and so much the worse he is so, by how much the more natu-
rally, and according to inclination, he is so : for, when that is
the case, when such appear to be the devil's own seed, his off-
spring, considering themselves not naturally, but morally, ac-
cording to their inclination, with reference to the practice of
duty, and with reference to consequent or connexed felicity ;
they are so far acted upon by that impure, apostate spirit, as
that they do appear to be his very progeny, begotten of him.
And, so is this whole world divided Into those two great fa-
milies — the children of God, and the children of the devil.
" Herein are the children of God, and the children of the de-
vil, manifest," as the same apostle, in his 3 ciiapter of his 1st
epistle, tells us. And so, our Saviour speaks correspondently
hereunto, to these, his present hearers, in the 41 verse of that,
S John : " Ye are of your father, the devil, r.nd the works of
your father ye will do." And, therefore, is that very suitable
to this purpose, (which 1 have taken notice of formerly,) what
Austin observed out of a heathen moralist : " That it is a far
more miserable thing to will that which is unjust, than not to
obtain that which one willeth." It is so in the very reason of
the thing. If men could make themselves masters of all that
they covet, daring their abode in this lower world; if they
could have every thing in their possession and power that they
cast a fond eye upon, or place an irrational wish upon, they
were a great deal more miserable, even in being left so to wish,
so to desire, so ineptly, so foolishly. And, therefore, that
kind of liberty, which stands only in gratifying inordinate and
enormous desires, it is no other kind of jiberty tlian that which
God threatens the Jews with; a liberty to perish ; a liberty for
the sword, and famine, and pestilence : '* I thus manumit you;
i give you that sort of freedom, to run on in those ways, which
shall infer upon you the most miserable end; that shall lead
you into tragedies and death, which way so ever you tread your
foot, or cast your eyes."
And, therefore, what a noted author among the pagans
saith, concerning one particular people, may be said concern-
ing mankind, while they remain in the state of apostasy, and,
antecedently to their recovery, that they are such as, Quos decuit
LEC. XXX.) Spii'itual death — ivhat it comprehends. 429
esse servos, a state of servitude is so suitable to them, that
it befits tlietn to be nothing else but slaves. And so much the
rather because it is that which they themselves choose. And do
not think Scripture speaks ineptly, or unsuitaljly to the case,
when it bids them tiiat are recovered out of the common misery,
that lay upon the world, to consider what they were before :
*' Ye were sometimes foolish, deceived, serving divers lusts and
pleasures;" Titus 3. 3. It is that which men, recovered to u
right mind, would look upon with the greatest disdain ima-
ginable ; to wit, that a reasonable, intelligent spirit should
only employ itself, its noble faculties and powers, from day
to day, in pursuing a design, how to serve and gratify a thing
no better, or no worthier of a high state and station in the cre-
ation of God, than a brute creature. Nay, not so worthy; be-
cause those creatures, are what they are by no degeneracy.
They were never better, never higher : but, if a man be in
the condition of a brute, he comes to he so by a lapse, by a
fall, by a depravation: he is sunk beneath himself, he hath lost
a good that he was capable of, and a perfection belonging to
his own nature, that was the glory thereof; and, this he hath
exchanged for the basest and vilest sort of slavery. The apos-
tle Peter, 2 Epis. 2. 19. tells us, " That while men pro-
mise themselves liberty, they themselves become servants
of corruption;" for, of whom a man is overcome, of the same
is he brought in bondage: and to be in bondage to corruption,
is the vilest kind of servitude that can be thought. We can
form no idea in our minds of so base a vassalage as this, — to be
servants to brutal and unreasonable appetitions and desires.
Man being by tlie constitution of his own nature a reai-onable
creature, to have that very reason of his depressed into a sub-
serviency to what is unreasonable, is, in itself, a real misery,
whatever tlie common estimate concerning It may be ; and
whatsoever that is now, undoubtedly it will, within a very little
while, cease to be what it is. They that glory in their fetters^
that please themselves in being such slaves, in being "led cap-*
tive by satan at his will," they will shortly, very soon, (though
not soon enough it may be,) change their minds. It is much to
be feared that many may not change soon enough ; but it will
he very soon however ; for how soon is the life of a man run
out ? and then the vain dream ends in the horror of an awak-
ened soul : then it sees what it feels, and what estate it h.ath,
by its own wilful choice, declined, and what it did addict itself
unto, against the common sentiments and dictates which were
not alien from them all that while ; but only were not attended
to. They were not at leisure to commune with themselves,
and to consider what their owt) tlioughts would suggest; an<i
4H0 TMK PfilNClPLEa OF TllK ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
tiK'ir misery is not the less for their liaving been under mistakes
co!iecr!i!t>L' tiiis whole business all this while, when that mis-
take win he so sr/>n f'.etected, ar>d they cannot ])e of that false
opinion always. ludeed, we mitrht admit, that happiness and
misery stood always in o[)inion, if that opinion would always
last : bin when we are sure it will not, but that men will quickly
alter their minds, as soon as their course is run out, then that
will be found to be real misery before, which becomes now to he
only misery apprehended. l!ut again,
vi. A furtlicr tiling, vviierein this misery lies, even that of
men's minds, is the continual infatuation under which man, in
his state of apos^tasy, is every wiierc : and it is this that betrays
him into that slavery vvliich we have been now discoursing of.
He is a slave, because h.e is a fool : he is fooled into the slavery
whicii lie so patiently undergoes. So you find these things con-
necred in that Titus 3, 3. " VYe were sometimes foolish, dis-
obediezit, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures." And
(as I have h.eretofore had occasion to note) that Greek word
which we render " foolish," as if it signified only the being Vv'ith-
out a right mind, it signifies more ; it signifies being put out of
a riglit Uiind. It is nc;t being without a mind, for so U a stcpk
and a stoiie, which' were never capable of any such thing; but
* that word signifies being disminded, or l'.aving lost one's mind
in the use of it : "1 have a mind, but I have been never the
better for it. i have not known how to employ it :" and this
comes in imn.iediate connexion with serving divers lusts and
pleasures ; men having been so mean, and so base servants and
slaves, !)ecause they were fools before ; foolish, deceived, easily
snfFeving themselves to he imposed upon; mocked, shamed into
foolisi) expectations of felicity, where there is no such thing :
so that in the very pursuit they still sink themselves lower and
lower in miseries and death.
And hence it is, that that language is so usual in Scripture,
of signifviiig a v,'icked man by the name of "a fool," as nothing
is more familiar in the whole book of Proverbs, and sundry
texts besides. Nor, indeed, is that sort of expression peculiar
to the Scripture. Nothing hath been more usual among some
of your more noted pagan moralists, than by the name of sa-
pk'uSy a wise man, to denote a virtuous man, a good man. A
good man is dignified with the name of a wise man; then the
opposite liereto Is obvious, that every evil man ; every vieious
man, is a fool : for it is not said of this or that person, more
signailv stispid or wieked, that he hath said in his heart, (as a
fool,) ''Tiicre is no God." But that, (as you see in the H.
and 53. Psalms, which are congenerous^ and have almost the
iijc. XXX.) Spiritual death — what it comprehends. 431
same passages in the former verses of the one and t!ie other,) by
that name is meant apostate rhan, in his state of apostasy.
And so it is the general charactt r of all men, yet remaininj^ in
that estate, and antecedently to their reduction and recovery
out of it : " The fool hath said in his heart," not that there is
no God, that is not the text, but — "no God," reckoniisg it to be
rather the matter of their wish, than their assertion : it is capa-
ble of being understood in the optative, not in the indicative
form ; not as if they did say, " There is no God ;" but " O ! that
there were none ;" the fool hath said in his heart, " Would there
were no God."
And who those fools are, you see in what follows: God looks
down from heaven on the children of men to see if there were
any that did good, any that did seek after God; but they are all
gone out of the way, all gone back, all in an universal revolt;
none doing tiiis good ; to wit, not inquiring, not seeking af-
ter God, but all agreeing in the same wish : " O 1 that there
were none: O! that there were no Ruler, no Lord over us ;
none to concern himself in any of our affairs ; none to animad-
vert on our way and course, and to call us to account." Where-
upon, nothing is more manifest than that according tothe import
of this scripture, the universality of apostate mankind lies under
this character of folly. And somewhat it doth suppose, and
somewhat it more formally includes. That which it supposeth
is ignorance, the want of riglit notions of things: those, men
have in their minds, are generally false : but somewhat it
more formally includes, and that is, the ineffieacy of those no-
tions which they have. And tliis is folly more formally, and
which stands in an immediate connexion with misery, or rather,
more naturally inclusive of it.
In reference to things of principal concernment to men, they
are not so generally ignorant as they are foolish ; ignorance
consisting in the not having of right notions, but folly consisting
in the inefficacy of those that are right, in opposition to govern-
ing wisdom ; that practical wisdom by which a man must steer
his course, and walk agreeably and consistently unto that light
and knowledge which he hath. And herein lies the common
prevailing folly ot this world ; that in things wherein men have
knowledge, they corrupt themselves, and their "foolisii heart
is darkened," as the expression is, Romans 1.21, upon account
whereof it is that God doth give them up, for their contending
against the light and knowledge which they have, unto those
brutish sensualites, as that they should do things that are not
convenient, things very disagreeable to the nature of man, to
the dignity of a human, reasonable creature.
432 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART If.
And so, also, the light whicli men have, is called " darkness''
by equivalence; that is, it signifies no more to the proper pur-
pose oif light, to steer and conduct a man's way and course, than
if it w^ie real darkness. And so, if you will allow our blessed
Lord to be a Judge and Master to us of such propriety of speech,
you must acknowledge that to be a very proper expression, that
the light that is in man's unconverted mind, is darkness. *' If
the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness ?"
Matt. 6. 23. That is, it answers no purpose of light, it serves
for no such purpose as light is designed for, to guide a man in
his way: they have such and such notions; but they do in their
constant course run counter to them : and this is not igno-
rance, but folly, that they prevaricate with their own light,
that they should know they ought to do so and so ; and so and
so they ought to choose ; but they do choose and do quite the
contrary.
And hence it is (which is the very achme of a man's misery;
that is, the misery of his mind and spirit) his misery in this res-
pect, that he Is, by this means, made a bundle of contradictions
and inconsistencies. And so hath nothing but confusion within
him ; or is in a continual war with himself: and there is no ac-
cord, no agreement, between his most rational sentiments and
resolutions, and his consequent way and course: for if a man
did sit down and deliberate but in the morning of any day,
*' How ought I to spend this day ? ought 1 to employ it in fol-
lowing the inclinations of the man, or of the brute?" Cer-
tainly, he would think it more worthy of him to act like the man
this day, than to employ the day, or his thinking, manly powers,
only in pursuing the inclination of the brute. But then, if in
fact he do run counter to any such sentiments as these, it is not
because he is ignorant, but because he plays the fool. He hath
not that wisdom that he ought, to govern his way, and to act
suitably unto the clearest and most rational apprehensions of
tilings. And so he is made up of nothing but inconsistencies
vvith himself, or incoherencies, which shew him to be a misera-
ble creature. For what ? Do we think, did God make him
such, (with such a mind that equals him with the angels of
God,) to be employed in serving such desires, and pursuing such
designs, as puts liim below a brute ?
vii. And a further thing in this state of misery, Is the igno-
miny that men are hereby drawing upon themselves. And
there is no man that considers, but will acknowledge that just
ignominy is a misery, ignominy truly and justly so accounted.
*'Sln (we are told) is the reproach of any people." And then
it must be as much the reproach of any person: as in that
IE c. XXX.) Spiritual death— what it comprehends. 438
Prov. 14. 24. every one accounts him amisevable man who is uni-
versally despised by every one, especially by the wisest and best
of men. And suppose all mankind were, without a recovery, in
that state of misery together, so that none must be found wi'ser
or better than another, that could not at all mend the matter,
with any of the individuals; as if it were not misery, because
amongst men, none thought this to be misery, or none thought
it to be truly ignominious. For we are to consider that we
have other spectators, besides men, that are more capable of
judging.
It signifies little to any man, what he thinks of himself, or
what others think of him, in comparison of what is thought of
him, by him who is wisdom itself, and whose judgment of things
never erreth. It is not what man thinks of himself, or com-
mends himself for, but what the Lord commends, that is ap-
proved. And our Lord Jesus Christ is peculiarly called by the
name of "wisdom;" it is his common style and character.
And we must suppose him greatly to concern himself about the
affairs of a world, whereof he is the immediate Creator. " All
things were made by him, and without him was nothing made
that was made." And therefore, that he hath a continual in-
spection (if he had not taken the Redeemer's part) upon this
world. He is said to be " the Image of the invisible God, and
the first begetter of all creatures," and that fitly enough (as
that title fitly enough admits to be read) for " by him were all
things made, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or
dominions, or principalities, or powers."
And then, we consider ourselves in this lower world under
the continual view and inspection of those nobler creatures, that
are intended by those names, they cannot but apprehend our
apostasy, and much more the continuance of it, to be very ig-
nominious and reproachful unto this whole order of creatures,
fallen from their rightful Lord, because accomplices with the
other apostate spirits of their own order, who were fallen be-
fore. How might it cut and wound a man's heart, to think
what the resentments of these wise, holy, and kind, and benign
creatures (the glorious angels of God) are, concerning our com-
mon state here in this world? we having had the same Author
and Parent of our being with them; he beiog "the Father of
spirits." An appellation equally agreeing to them, and to us,
and not more to them than to us. To think that a world of
such creatures, the progeny and offspring of the same Father,
(the Father of spirits,) should be fallen to such a low pitch of
misery and wretchedness, as they generally are ; why sure they
VOL. VII. 3 K
434 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
cannot but look upon our state and case to be most miserably
ignominious and reproachful.
And therefore, they that continue in the apostasy, and are
never recovered in this world, when they come to rise from the
dead, they are said to "rise to shame and everlasting con-
tempt;" Dan. 12.2. One that was an apostate from God,
and would never be recovered, he cannot but be had in ever-
lasting contempt. And unto an ingenuous mind, and one that
God hath recovered to his wits, in some measure, nothing hath
a sharper pungency upon the mind than shame. And then, to
be under everlasting shame, everlasting contempt, by those
wise and holy creatures that were so full of kindness and be-
nignity in their complexion towards men, and the spirits of
men, upon account of their near affinity, being in so great
a measure, of one kind and nature witli us, must be a great
misery.
They that are recovered are called " angels," fellow-associ-
ates with God. That they should be the devil's fellows, follow-
ers of those wicked angels that were all in rebellion against
their Rightful Sovereign Lord; and that, too, when they might
have made a better association ', overtures being made to them
for their recovery and return : overtures being made to them
of the most kind reception, though they were prodigals and re-
bels against their Father; this must leave them under ever-
lasting shame and contempt : and every one looks upon them
now (that is, every good angel doth) to be 'infamous, being
sunk to so low a state of shame and misery; and any wise and
good man would scorn to keep such a one company, think it a
reproach to him to reckon any such among his associates ; and
this will be the common case of apostate creatures, even eter-
nally, to wit, such as are not recovered, that is, that they are
abandoned to shame and everlasting contempt. And their own
reflection, hereupon, must needs be the most sharp and tor-
menting thing that can be thought, to think what they are, and
tvhat they might have been, if they had not declined and refused
to comply with so apt and suitable methods for their recovery.
But further,
viii. It is another ingredient in the misery of the state of man
in the apostate world, that they have such continual sharp re-
sentments in their minds of the external evils that befal them
here. They live in a world wherein they are continually liable
to those evils which do first affect their sense ; but not only of
external evils, they become internal and fill their minds and
spirits with torment. Herein lies much of their misery, they
comfort themselves in such and such present enjoyments that
JLEc. XXX.) Spiritual death — ivhat it comprehends, 435
are variable, mutable and uncertain, which they have this hour,
and are gone the next. They have this hour a delightful and
joyful dwelling, and it is of a sudden, turned into flames. They
had the other day a rich and j)lentiful estate ; it hath all of a
sudden taken wings, and is gone. Health turned into wasting
sickness ; ease into tormenting pain, all on a sudden. All
these are very considerable as they terminate in the external
sense ; but as they enter into the mind, so they become Inward
evils, their minds are continually liable to anguish and torment
by such events, and upon such accounts. And then,
ix. When it is so, they have no relief from God ; for they
have not before known the way of addressing to him. Good
men, in their external calamities, have tliis refuge always rea-
dy. David, when he had lost his all at Ziklag, yet, comforted
himself, in the Lord his God. His wives and family were all
led captive by the Amalekites ; his goods rifled ; his house and
city burnt ivlth fire 5 that place tiiat was left him for retire-
ment, all rendered uninhabitable, on a sudden, by consuming
flames: the people themselves, (the companions of his flight,)
spake of stoning him 5 thus was he in the most deplorable
case that could be : " But he encouraged himself, (it is said)
in the Lord his God." But men, in their apostasy from him,
have none of tliis comfort, none of this relief; they have ob-
structed and shut up the way of address to God against their
own souls ; they know not how to apply themselves to him.
Such a case as that you have represented, Hab. 3. 17- 18.
It was a very forlorn and distressed state, and a case, he sup-
poseth, that " the fig tree did not blossom ; that no fruit
was in the vine; the labour of the olive did fail; the field did
yield no fruit ; and the flocks were cut off from the stall ;"
nothing but perlshlngs : " yet," saith he, " I will rejoice in
the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation." A most de-
plorable case it is, when, amidst whatsoever distresses a man
hath, he hath no God to betake himself to, nor inclination to be-
take himself to God. Think of the distresses of Saul, (Sam. 28.
15.) as there he laments his own case : *' The Philistines make
war against me, and God is departed from me, and sjiveth me
no answer;" he could have no relief from God. It hath been
the privilege of souls, that are returned to God, and come back
to him, that, when they are cast down under affliction, they
could apprehend themselves not cast off: "They were in tri-
bulation, but not in distress, afflicted, but not forsaken ;" as
2 Cor. 4. 8. 9. But men, In an apostasy frojn God, have no
relief, they know not where, nor how to betake themselves :
"They cry out because of the oppression of the n^ighty : but none
436 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTII.
saith, Where is God my Maker?" Job 35. 10. No, instead of
that, they count him an enemy; and, there is really too much
ground for it, while they persist, and go on in their wicked-
ness.
And, these are heads that might further be insisted on, to-
gether with that general stupefaction, fitly called " death," or
signified by the name of death, that possesseth the souls of the
most in this present state; that, while in the midst of such
miseries, they are so ingulphed, they feel them not, apprehend
them not, or, at least, the worst, and most formidable part of
that by which they are the most miserable:" the anger of the
Lord preys upon them, as a consuming fire, and they know it
not; it hath burnt them, yet they lay it not to heart," as the
prophet expresseth it, Isaiah 42. 25. And that, indeed, is
a most calamitous case, and calls for deep lamentation ; the
inhabitants of this earth, generally, as in the suburbs of hell,
(as we have no other notion of this world, than as a portal and
introduction into the eternal state of blessedness, or misery,)
and, that men siiould be so near perishing, having wrath
to the uttermost coming upon them, and yet, so generally un-
concerned. This is a like case to that of a lethargic body,
that may be tossed and rolled hither and thither; you mayi
perhaps, cut it and wound it, but it feels not. As little sen-
sible are the minds or spirits of men of this state of their case,
of those miseries, by which they are now wretchedly misera-
ble, and are in danger of being finally and eternally so.
With what lamentations might we bewail the case of apos-
tate men, upon this account, would we but admit the thoughts
of the common case to enter and sink into our minds and
hearts. Men are so strangely habituated to misery, that it is
now become their element, and natural to them: they can see
themselves gradually sinking lower and lower into death, and,
might apprehend, that consummate death was at hand, but
they are not startled and amazed, no amazing thought has
place in the minds of men, to awaken them, and make them
bethink themselves, while it would be seasonable, and while
any thing might be done towards their escape from the wrath
which is to come: but, they remain generally, in that dead
sleep, which binds up all their powers, and are like so to do,
(if wonderful mercy prevent not,) till flames awaken them out
of their pleasant dream. And now, I add, further.
LEC. XXXI.) Spiritual death — ic/iat if contprehends. 4 37
LECTUllE XXXI.*
X. The consequent discomposure of the whole fnunc of
man, I mean of the inward man, as ihe apostle distinguishetli
of man, making him double, a man, and a n)an ; an outward
man, and an inward man; 2 Cor. 4. 16. Now for this in-
ward man, there is a universal discomposure of the whole
frame. They that will look upon what we insisted on be-
fore, but as a reputative evil ; to wit, ignominy, must reckon
this a most real one ; that is, that that noble piece of work-
manship, the inward man, is so marred, and spoiled, and dis-
composed throughout, and become a far more monstrous thing
than any dislocations, or transpositions of the parts of these
bodies of ours, can make them, though it would be easy to
suppose it possible that men might be, as to the outward man,
a most monstrous sort of creature, by the mere transposition of
parts, yet, let any, the most horrid metamorphosis of that
kind you can think of be supposed, and, it is nothing to that
discomposure of the frame of the inward man, that is to be
found and observed in every, yet apostate son of Adam, not con-
verted, not returned to God, out of that state of apostasy.
For, as to what we have insisted on already, (that infatua-
tion that is upon the minds of men every where,) consider,
what must hereupon be consequent; that conductive governing
light, that should lead men in the whole of their course, it is
extinct, it is darkness, as our Saviour speaks in Matt. 6'. ^^'3.
" If the light, that is in thee, be darkness, Iiow great is that
darkness." It is not said, concerning an unregenerate man,
that he hath darkness in him; but, that he himself is dark-
ness. Eph. 5. 8. '• Ye were sometimes darkness :" their go-
verning light was lost and gone, and then, what must become
of the man ? What is the state and frame of the inward man
liereupon ? Why you are to consider, (that light being sup-
posed,) what was to be under its direction and government, in
man, to wit, the inward man. There was his will, whicli was
to be guided by that directing principle, but it is gone. And,
there were all the passions of the soul, that were to l^ive been
moderated thereby, but, that being gone, the v>'ill is under no
such guidance, the passions under no such moderation. What
* Pn'aclicd June 9, iSg-l-.
438 THE PaiNCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD, (PARTH.
a horrid creature is man, hereupon, become, in the complexion
of his soul, and inward man ?
For his will, that is naturally wont to be called caeca potentiay
an unscelf'g faculty; why, admit that it were properly to be so
called, according to the natural constitution and frame in man,
it was yet to be guided by a faculty that could see, by a seeing
mind : but now, when an unseeing will is to be guided also
by an unseeing mind, the blind is to lead the blind, (to allude
to that of our Saviour,) what will become of this, but a be-
ing plunged into the ditch ? This is the common case with
man : that will of his, which is the commanding faculty in
the soul of man, comes to be itself under the conduct of no
reason, an unreasonable will: O! what a fearful case is this,
when, yet, it is most manifestly the common case.
For, do but ask, What is the object of that faculty, that
we call the vill, in man ? It is primarily his end, that is the
object of it: that is, good; for good and end are wont to be
taken for convertible terms ; the means are only good by the
goodness of the end. Now, when a man wills his end unrea-
sonably, without the ducture or guidance of any seeing, dis-
cerning principle; and, to think of a man acting accordingly,
shaping his course accordingly, and, to think of all men do-
ing so, what a monstrous deformity is this of that noble crea-
ture; though it be true, indeed, that many are found to act
rationally ; that is, indeed, wilily and subtilly enough in the
pursuit of such and such ends that they do design; but, yet,
it is plain, they do, universally, mistake their end itself, and
so the whole life of man can be nothing else but a continual
error: " They do always err in their hearts, not having known
my ways." What doth it signify, that a man can pursue such
and such ends, with courage and dexterity ; but these ends
themselves, either he may gain them, or he may gain them not ?
Many times he never gains them ; but, if he doth gain them,
they are v^orth nothing. Why, here is a life lost, thrown away
by the very complexion of the inward man ; this he is inclined
to do^ to take such a course, as by which his whole life is lost,
and thiown away.
A thing that that pagan moralist most aptly animadverts
upon, when he saith, " Men are very shy of destroying their
lives all at once, losing their lives altogether; but they make
no difficulty of losing them all by parts :" that is, this day of my
life I pursue an end, that is worth nothing; and 1 do so to-
morrow, and the next day, and so from year to year, as
long as my life lasts. Here is a life quite thrown away; and
a man is led to it by the inward complexion and temper of his
LEC. XXXI.) Spintual death — ivhat it comprehends, 439
soul, as he hath mis-made himself, misshaped himself; for he
was made upright, but he would be trying inventions, and
this it hath come to. This is plain and evident concerning all ,
the world of apostate, unrenewed men ; that whereas, their
will is the commanding, governing principle of their lives, it
doth command nulla ratione, it universally commands with-
out reason, and so must signify as much of misery to a man,
as if his eyes were out, and he among pits and precipices,
where he cannot do so much as set a foot, without danger of
perishing presently.
It is plain, the minds of men, as they lie under the direc-
tion of such a misguided will, they are conducted by no rational
principle at all, upon this ground, that it is the end which is
the principal object of every one's will. But they are univer-
sally out as to their end, running a quite counter-course to
what they should, through the whole course of their time ; so
that, in this respect, the apostate, unregenerate man, is natus
ad tniseriam, he is wholly framed unto misery ; and to nothing
else but to misery. It is true, men have generally some prac-
tical notions of truth, that is, notions of truth about practical
matters, that should be the principal things. They have gene-
rally some apprehensions of God, some apprehensions of a fu-
ture state, some apprehensions of the immortality of their
souls ; but these notions are too weak and debile, to do the of-
fice of principles. They do not do the office of principles, in
that nobody steers his course, (antecedently to regenerating
grace,) pursuant to any such principles. And if you would re-
duce the determination of men's wills to any principles at all,
they can agree to no other principles than such as these;
(though they should more generally disclaim and disavow them
yet they are apt to be governed by them, and no other;) that
is, that a man is made for himself; that he is his own end;
that he that hath made him, hath no right to rule him ; that
from him, from whom he hath received his being, he is not to
expect blessedness; but that he is to seek it in inferior things,
things inferior to himself; that time is far more considerable
and valuable than eternity, that mortal flesh is far more valua-
ble than the immortal spirit. The actual resolutions and de-
terminations of men's wills which do govern their course, and
according to which they lead their lives, do only square with
such principles as these ; though, when they are made explicit,
they would be ashamed of them, and say they own no such
principles ; yet they own them most expressly as they can, as
emphatically as they can. For a whole course of actions is a
far more speaking thing, than word« can be ; words do only ex-
440 THE PRINCIPLES OP THlS ORACMLES OF GOD. (PART II,
press a man's present sense, the present sense of mind : but
a series and course of actions do speak iiis constant and continued
sense.
And, O ! what a miserable creature is man, upon this ac-
count, when the habitual complexion of his soul leads him
through his whole course, all his days, all his lifetime, but lo
pursue shadows and lying vanities ; and at length to lie down
in sorrow, hopeless, endless, sorrow.
And as the will is the so misguided thing, so the principle is
wanting, too, that should moderate the passions. And what a
hell do they create in every man to himself, or make him to
himself. Every one, if he would but consider and reflect might
be so far a preacher to himself upon this theme, as to save me
or any man the labour of representing this case — " What a mi-
serable condition the soul of man must be in, being the seat of
so many passions, all left destitute of the conduct and govern-
ment of any rational principles that should conduct them
aright." Unreasonable desires, what a hell must they make !
desires either after that which cannot be had, or which is not
worth the having; either what is unattainable, or will do me
no good ; or I shall be never the better if 1 do attain them. To
have any soul the continual seat and subject of such desires^
and of no better, what a fearful case is this I
His delights, themselves, (though that may seem a paradox,)
they are most fatal to him, and contribute as much (nay it may
be more,) to his misery, as his desires ; because they detain him,
they put a stop to him ; they divert his course. Delight is the
guies appetitus in appetibiliy it is that by which the soul takes
up its end, and is at a stop : but in what ? in the enjoyment of
wind and vanity, that is unsatisfying, very unsatisfactory. It
is detained and diverted, it is withheld, by these, from pursu-
ing what would do it any good, or contribute to its true felicity :
" The woman that liveth in pleasure, is dead while she liveth."
Do you think it is not as true in the other sex ? whoever lives
Immersed in sensual delights and pleasures, they are dead while
they live. It is but a dying life that they live.
And their very hopes make them miserable : they are mise-
rable by their own hopes, continually reaching out after that
they can never compass ; or if they do, still they do but fill
themselves with the east wind. Hope is the spring of endea-
vours : for no man will endeavour for what he is hopeless of.
But they do but labour for the wind in all that they endeavour,
and possess and reap the east wind ; that is all that they can
reach to.
Their good things will often run cross to them; and then
LEC. XXXI.) Spiritual death — what it comprehends, 441
how doth that passion of anger corrode and tear them ! what a
rack is there in the soul upon this account, especially when it
works up as higli as malice against men : men that they do an
injury to, if it arise to envy, that most unreasonable passion;
that I would rather be miserable because another appears nearer
to happiness, in my apprehension, than I; he enjoyeth what is
better, or he is better than myself, therefore I will be miserable;
that is, I will be envious.
Add to this, the meditation and study of revenge, whether
for real or apprehended wrong done to me. It is the most cut-
ting, wounding revenge, that every man takes upon himself.
"Such a one I think hath hurt me^ done me harm, 1 will re-
venge it upon myself :" for it is the person himself that feels it
most of all ; (if he have any sense left in him ;) it makes him a
continual hell in himself. It makes him a devil to himself, as
he would be to another man. It may be he misseth that ; but
as to himself he doth not miss it.
And as to his griefs, unreasonable griefs, what a deluge of
misery are they ! when men lament and mourn about things
unreasonably, beyond proportion, (as every unrenewed man is
apt to do,; he doth deluge himself with those sorrows : and his
fears, by which he is continually prophesying dismal things to
himself, what a miserable creature do they make him !
And all now upon this one account, all the things of this
kind, do meet in this one juncture, in this one point; to wit,
that there is no right mind to lead a man : that principle that
was originally to have been conductive of his course, is gone,
and it can never be supplied but by the Spirit of wisdom and
holiness from above : while that is yet withheld and wanting to
him, what is it that doth govern in the man ? It is the spirit of
this world, as it is called : " we have not received the spirit of
the world, but the Spirit that is from God." Every unregene-
rate man, he is in his spirit under the government of the spirit
of this world, one common genius which adapts and attem-
pers men in their habitual frame into this world, unto this
lower sphere. " Greater is he that is in you than he that is in
the world." The contest lies between spirit and spirit; as to
what part God hath in this world, and as to what part the
devil hath in this world. If the spirit of this world doth govern
iri any one, and be the ruling principle in him, that unites
him with this world; and upon that, all his appetitions, and
all the various motions and passions of his soul, are determin-
ed, and confined to this present world, this sensible world ; he
is linked to that in spirit, he hath a spiritual, vital union only
with this world, and so feels all the pangs, all the paroxysms,
VOL. VJI. 3 L
442 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLKS OF GOD. (PART 1!.
that, in this lower region, he is subject to: he is always shaken
with thiiTshaking world, and tossed and hurried, hither and
thither, as that is.
What a miserable creature must apostate man be, upon
this account ! This world being become such a region of
death and of misery, the spirit of this world plungeth and
ingulfs him in all that misery, makes him a continual partaker-
in it, as that wherewith he only bath a vital union. That Spi-
rit that is of God, would unite him with tbe other world, and
attemper him to that which the power of tbat Spirit (when this
world is grievous and troublesome to him,) might ascend and
go up, and have his way above, (as tbe way of tlie wise is,) to
depart from hell beneath; but, the spirit of this world entan-
gles him, ensnares him, fixeth him in tbat gulf, tbat he can-
notascend; can be carried out of this world by no thought,
no vivid desire, no hopes upwards ; his all lies here.
And, that which is yet more tremendous in this case, is,
his continual unwillingness, and dread of leaving this world;
that fear, to wit, the fear of death. What a miserable creature
must that make him, to be under the continual expectation of
what he knows is inevitable, and he cannot escape; so tbat his
only remedy in this is not to think of it! His relief must be
to unteach himself, his own nature ; tbat is, wbereas he is na-
turally a thinking thing, he is to stifle such thoughts as are
propter and suitable to the state of his case. All his care must
be to make himself not think of that, than wbich no thought
can be more proper and suitable to him. For, when I do cer-
tainly know that I am, as to this present world, this present
state, a mortal creature, I should, therefore, bethink myself,
with all the seriousness and concern imaginable. What shall
come next ? I dwell in an earthly tabernacle, which 1 know
must come down, but I do not know, when 1 shall dislodge,
where to have another habitation. I cannot say, " 1 have a
building with God, a house not made with bands, eternal in
tbe heavens," — no ; the spirit that governs me is the spirit of
this world, and that confines me only to this world.
A man, in this case, is miserable among all his enjoyments,
when he thinks it goes never so well with him : " 1 have what
heart can wish for," as well as that fool in the gospel pro-
pounded to himself, to have it with him, " I will say to my
soul, Take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years;"
upon this account he is pronounced a fool: "Thou fool, this
night shall thy soul be taken from thee." And whereas, that 5^
spoken with peculiar reference to a rich man, yet you must
not confine it so ; for our Saviour saith in the next words, " So
LEC. XXXI.) Spiritual death — luhat it comprehends. 443
it is with every man that layeth up treasure for himself, (de-
signs treasures to himself on earth, as every man doth one way
or other,) and is not rich towards God." "This night shall thy
soul be required of thee." O ! dreadful word, to a man that
hath his all here ! O the torture that such a man must be sub-
jected to, (if he thinks, if he considers,) that hath his all
lying in this world, and yet, he knows he cannot stay here long :
" The wicked is driven away in his wickedness.''
This is so great a thing, that it is made one part of the de-
sign of the mediation of Christ, and his redemption, for wiiich
lie became a man, and for which he took upon him flesh and
blood, that he might be so: "that he might, by death, de-
stroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,
(undo him as to his design and purpose,) and deliver those
who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to
bondage." To be under this unreasonable fear, what a dreadful
thing is this 1 In this respect, it is to he called unreasonable,
because, when a man finds that the thing is necessary, and
unavoidable, that he is afraid of; all wisdom would direct him
to reconcile himself to necessity, and never to be at rest in his
own spirit, till he finds, that as he is to think of death with cer-
tainty, so he may think of it with complacency too : till, 1 say,
he may upon good terms so do. And again,
xi. We are to consider, as to what is contained in this mi-
sery of man, that as (which I formerly told you) they have in
all this, no relief from God, so God hath a real disjjleasure
towards this wretched creature in his present state: and, if in his
favour be life; in his disfavour is death : which way soever he
turns, or what way soever he thinks of comforting himself, he
is still under a nemesis : divine displeasure hangs over his
head. " God is angry with the wicked every day. The wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and un-
righteousness of men. On the wicked he will rain snares, fire
and brimstone, and a horrible tempest, this shall be the portion
of their cup." While they continue wicked, and as such, that
relates them to the divine wrath, constitutes them the proper
subjects of it, upon which it preys as fire doth upon suitable
fuel. And,
xii. They are not without some apprehensions hereof: mis-
givings they have in their own minds : there is a kind of gloo-
miness and a dark shadow, that is cast by guilt over the soul
and spirit of a man. He is not without some secret surmises,
as men cannot rid themselves of all notions of God. A p^^rson
that is habitually wicked, under the power of sin as a governing
principle in him, cannot but apprehend him as an oftended
444 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
God, though his apprehension? he not so distinct, so formed,
so explicit, yet such secret gnawings and corroding thoughts
there will be, conscience accusing as well as excusing by
turns; as it ought to be read: self-accusing thoughts do take
turns in the soul. The writings of heathens are full of expres-
sions, what the gnawings and tortures are of a guilty, misgiving
conscience, of a self-accusing conscience. But, in the last
place, which was mentioned the last time,
xiii. That which is the more common case, and is more fitly
signified by the name of death, is, the stupefaction that more
generally, and more ordinarily, takes place in the minds of
men; that they are without feeling. Wrath is upon them, and
they do not know it. Some more unformed thoughts they
have, but not explicit and distinct ones; such as might affect
their hearts, and enter into their yery souls: more generally
their disease is a lethargy, without sense, and without feeling.
And you know how «ad the case may be in that respect, with
the diseased body of a man. We do not reckon it ti)e better
when it can feel no pain, while the matter of the disease is
present, and all the morbific matter remains. If it do not
only endanger, but stupify, it is so much the more dangerous
in common apprehension : and that is the case of the soul of
an unrenewed, unregenerate man, that he can be tossed, and
hurried, and torn, even by himself, by his own passions within
him, this way, and that way, and yet, he doth not reflect and
think with himself, " I am a miserable creature ;" but mi-
sery is become his element: where things do not gravitarey
they do not lie with pressure, as nothing is pressed by being in
its element. And misery is become so connatural to men, in
this their present state, that misery is round about them, and
they feel it not : the anger of God is preying upon tliem, con-
suming their souls, but they lay it not to heart, as in Isaiah 42,
latter end, the expression is: divine anger is kindling upon this
world, but they know it not; and destroying and consuming it,
but they take it not to heart.
This is that death that is passed over all, as to the spiritual
import of the expression, or, as it denotes the spiritual evils
that do now infest the souls of men. But I would, before 1
had gone^off from this head, have said somewhat by way of Use
to this particular. And though I am prevented of saying
much, yet, plain it is.
That whereas man, in this state of apostasy, is now a mi-
serable creature, it may be gathered, from all that hath been
said upon this head, that he generally mistakes the cause of
his misery, and so, is as much likely to mistake the way and
LEC. XXXI.) Spiritual death — luhat it comprehends, 445
method of his cure. He little thinks, his misery is a self-
sprung thing, and, that he hath the fountain of it in himself.
This will not enter into the minds of men. " Tlie hackslider
in heart shall be tilled with his own ways;" Proverbs 14, 14.
That word, because it is rendered " backslider," may strike a
wrong notion into the minds of many, as if, thereby, were
meant an hypocritical pretender to religion, who hath apos-
tatized, and made a defection; but, the word carries no nota-
tion at all of any other apostasy, than the common apostasy.
And it is plain, that by *' the backslider in heart" tliere, is
meant the wicked man, in general, a sinner, in oppositiofi to
a righteous and good man, as, generally, the two parts of
several verses up and down in this book, do distribute men
into good and bad, by one appellation or another. And, that
is a proper expression, by which the bad is distinguished from
the good man, in that verse : the word signifies perverse,
froward; a fit character for a wicked man, an unconverted
man; such a one " shall be filled with his own ways," as the
good man is so satisfied from himself. The good man is not
the first fountain of happiness to himself, but a subordinate
one a good man is, and so is satisfied from himself. But the
wicked man is the prime and first fountain of all misery to
himself: and, therefore, when these wicked ones have any
sense at all of their own miseries, they do create to every man
a hell within himself.
But this is a thing least of all apprehended : men generally
say, " What is the matter with me ? what aileth me ? I can-
not be well, I cannot be quiet;" and, they would have this or
that thing rectified, in their external circumstances, and they
think that will do their business; but, alas! that will not do.
They talk of flying from their misery, but, that they cannot
do, unless they could fly from themselves. I remember the
moralist saith, '" Go whither thou wilt, that intolerable com-
panion, (thyself) will go with thee, wheresoever thou flyest,
and layest down thine head." Till thou art new-made, thou
art self-made, for misery. God must new-make thee, if ever
thou art happy. And, therefore, an amazing wonder it is,
that men should so much mind things that are foreign to them,
and never cast their eye upon themselves, or think how it is
within. They are greatly concerned how afl'aiis go in France,
in Flanders, in Germany; but never think how it goes within.
O ! what a miserable world will it be, (it may be often said by
such,) if tliat side prevail over the other side ! What a mise-
rable world will this be then ! But men do thus think altoge-
ther amiss, and besides the purpose: what good will it do to
446 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
me if so good men, and never so good a cause, prevail and
prosper in the woiid, when I have my own hell within myself?
J shall be a miserable creature stiil, till all be rectified within.
It is not a new world, but being a new man, that can ease me,
relieve me, and make me a happy creature.
It doth nut lie in the power of all the world to make me a happy
or miserable man. You may think, if such and such a party
of men prevail, we are all undone, we shall be very miserable.
But, 1 tell you, it will be in their power only to make you
miserable, in whose power it is to make you ill men. If it be
not in the power of any in all the world to make you ill men,
they can never make you jniserable men. If it were in the
power of men, to pluck you off from God, to disatfect you to
him, that you take no complacency in him, that you cannot
love him, nor pour out your soul to him, this would make you
miserable. Bvit, it is not in the power of all this world to
make any man miserable, that doth not make and keep him-
self wicked.
*' And so death passed over all men."
LECTURE XXXII.*
You know our business upon these latter words hath been,
more lately, to give an account of that death, which is said to
have passed over all. And, therein, we proposed to consider it,
(1.) In its nature, in which respect it is common to all.
And,
(2.) In its degrees, in respect whereof it admits of great
difference, according to the several circumstances of men's
states. We have been hitherto speaking to it upon the former
account, and labouring to shew you its ambitus and extent, of
how vast a comprehension it is, what a mighty sum of misery
it carries in it. That misery, we shewed, must involve,
[1.] Bodily death, with all the tendencies and appurtenan-
ces, (as! may say,) thereunto. And then, we have more largely
insisted,
[2.] In shewing that here must be included in it, death spi-
ritual, such as the souls of men are liable to, and susceptible
of; death, not in the natural, but in the moral sense. In the
former sense, souls cannot die, as is an agreed thing, among
♦Preached June 23, 1C94.
LEC. XXXII.) Spiritual death — includes CQndemnation. 44/
all: and, in the moral sense, because morality dotii compre-
hend both men's duty, and their felicity, we are not, (as was
told you,) here, to consider it in opposition to the former of
these: for so we spake to this death, as it falls under the head
of sin, in that other clause of the verse: but, as it stands in
opposition to felicity, and to the real blessedness of tlie souls of
men. Or, (as was told you,) that aversion from God, which
sums up all in point of evil ; as a right propension towards
him, or love to him, sums up all in point of good. That aver-
sion from God, it may be either from him as the Sovereit^n Au-
thority, and so it stands in opposition to our duty; or, as it is
an aversion from him as the Sovereign Good, and, so it stands
in opposition to our felicity. And so, we considered spiritual
death. And, it is called death, (as bath been noted to you) in
an equivalent sense, as that which serves not the end it v/as
designed for, and so is all one as if it were not. When the
souls of men will not serve the natural end to which such be-
ings were originally designed, it is all one as if they were not.
They are lost as to their proper end, both as they were to be
serviceable to God, and as tiiey were capable subjects of feli-
city for themselves ; for, that double end was to be designed
by them, though the one in subordination to the other.
Now, I go on in the next place,
[3.] To note further to you, that, under the name of
" death," we may also understand that condemnation, which
the whole apostate world lies under. This is a thing that, fitly
enough, is to be conceived under the notion of this death,
that is said to be " passed upon all." Whatsoever there is of
present death upon this world, it lies under a doom to more, to
that which I may say, is more deadly, and more drearlful.
And I need not insist, in opening to you so obvious and so
plain a thing to any one's understanding, how properly a
condemned njan may be said to be a dead man. A world un-
der a doom unto a future misery, (besides all that is actually
incumbent on it,) how properly, in that respect, death may
be said to have passed overall. One that is under condemna-
tion is dead in law ; he hath no longer a legal title to his life.
The law doth not further protect his life, is no longer a guar-
dian to it ; yea, and it doth not only withhold its protection,
but doth direct its sword against such a one's life, and cut
it off.
This is the common state of this world; it lies under a
doom : besides all the actual miseries that are upon it, it is
doomed to worse; *' death hath passed over all;" but that
death is in a continual tendency, (as being yet but begun,) to
448 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
a consummate stateof death. Death finished, is approaching;
and men are, by the righteous judgment of God, led on, hur-
ried on, towards the consummate state of misery or death, that
is most righteously determined upon them. And this, the
context can by no means allow us to overlook. It is inculcated
again and again, in the 1 G and 1 8 verses of this chapter : " that
judgment is come upon all men to condemnation." This whole
apostate world stands condemned by the righteous judgment of
God. And so, as justification is, in a relative and respective
sense, the life of the soulj so is condemnation the death of it.
That passage, in the same context — " the justification of life,"
it carries that manifest import: and condemnation doth as truly
carry death in it, as justification doth life.
Antecedently to that change which God makes in the state
of men, condemnation is a thing belonging to them, as when
such a change is made, in the state of any that are brought into
union with Christ : "There is no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus;" Romans 8. 1. But that tells us what the
common state and case of the rest is ; there is no condemnation
to them, they lie under a universal condemnation ; they are,
(as the apostle's most apt and emphatical expression is,) vnoomos,
we render it, become guilty ; the meaning is impleadable
before God, liable to be impleaded by law, \njus vocari, to
be called to account. And, as the course that men have
held, according to natural corrupt inclination, is unaccounta-
ble, so they are liable to be brought under judgment before
the Lord.
This condemnation is to be understood to be as its opposite
justification, either (as some fitly enough express the matter
under those terms,) constitutive, or sentential : either they
are, by the constitution of the law, condemned, and that is to
be condemned virtually, by that sentence which is written
in the law, by which they are to be judged ; or sententially,
which is that condemnation that is to be pronounced upon them "
at the last by the mouth of their Judge. Justification is taken
the same, two ways. A person may be said to be justified, ei-
ther when the law doth constitute him jusf, or else there is a
final justification, when he is pronounced or declared so, from
the judgment seat, by the mouth of the Supreme and Universal
Judge.
It is in the former sense that the world lies under condemna-
tion. As a person that hath violated and broken the law, by
the commission of some capital crime, though he be not for-
mally condemned, by the mouth of the judge, yet the law con-
demns him beforehand. And there must be the less difference
LEG. XXXI [.) Spiritual death— eternal death. 449
in tliis case, ?«/oro divino, then would he in foro humatw ;
because the judgment of God will always, at last, pass accord-
in,y; to the mind and intendment of the law, when many things
in.iy prevent its doing so in human judicatures : this is one
sense wherein death is further said to have passed over all. All
are under a general doom ; their lives are actually forfeited;
the forfeiture may be taken whenever God will. Men are at
mercy, respited from the utmost of death, and by patience,
(without promise,) as a condemned person may be executed
whenever the prince plcaseth ; there is no moment of time
given to him ; he can claim no addition to his life. Thus it
is with all men. "So death hath passed over all." And
lastly,
[4.] We are to consider within the compass and extent of
this death, that eternal death itself, unto which this doom, this
judgment, makes men liable and subject : and that hath actu-
ally passed upon as many as have died impenitent, and not re-
duced, not brought back to God, through the several thousands
of years that are revolved and gone over this world already.
And as to what remains of human generation, death may be
said to have passed in that respect, even over all of them too,
it being as sure that they will come into the deptn of that
death, as if they were plunged into it already, — supposing their
continuing not reconciled, not reduced, not recovered, out of
the common state of apostasy. Concerning that death, it doth
more properly belong to another topic or place in theology; and
therefore, 1 shall not discourse of it here ; only hint thus much
concerning it, that it cannot differ in kind, and in the main
substance, from that spiritual death, which we have spoken of
already. As spiritual life doth not differ substantially from eter-
nal life; so, nor doth this spiritual death differ in substance
from eternal death, any more than a child newly born, doth differ
in nature, or specifically from a grown man. Spiritual life
will grow up into eternal life. Spiritual death will grow up
into death eternal. It will, hereafter, consist and lie in separation
from God, and in subjection to his wrath; even as now it doth ;
the difference herein is only as to the degrees, and as to du-
ration and continuance. There is now a loss of God, as our
best and most satisfying Good : and so there will be to all eter-
nity. There is now a subjection to his displeasure, and various
manifold impressions therefrom; there will be higher and fuller
degrees hereafter. Both that which is called pcena damm^ the
punishment of loss, and that which is called pcena sensus,
the punishment of sense, will have unspeakable, unconceiva-
ble additions hereafter. But there is the same thing in reality
TOL. VII. ?> M
450 THE PRlNCirLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
now, with every ungodly man, every one that is not recon-
ciled to God. Though, by the way, 1 could never satisfy my-
self concerning the fulness of these terms, pcena damni, and
piBiia sensus^ the punishment of loss, and the punisnment of
sense; for, undoubtedly, the former, the punishment of loss,
is as sensible as the other, every whit; we do not know but
that it may be more so. Souls will be eternally stung with
their loss, as much as with any positive suffering : as a mail
may be as sensibly pained by hunger, as he may be by a dag-
ger, that strikes him to the heart. But that only by the by.
These are the great things, that this same dtaih in the text,
which is said to " have passed over all," must be understood
to comprehend and contain vvithin the extent of it. And so
far we have considered it, but In its kind, wherein it is com-
mon to all. But if,
(2.) We should also consider it in its degrees, so there will
be found to be great differences. It will not be in degree the
same to all, but differ and vary, according to the very various
circumstances of men's states, whether we consider the mat-
ter, with reference to the natural tendency of things, or whe-
ther we consider it, with reference to tlie righteous judgment of
God: both in nature and divine judgment, there must needs
be great differences between the miseries of some, and of
others. There is, in this present state, and there will be, no
doubt, in the future state too, where all the subjects of wrath
are called '* vessels of wrath;" but those vessels are not all of
the same capacity; some vessels will hold more than others do:
and their capacity and measure hereafter, will be much ac-
cording to what is here in this present state.
And, 1 shall only here hint, at some of the more obvious
things that must difference the state of men, in point of that
misery which hath deluged, and will deluge for ever, the apos-
tate world. It hath different degrees of depth, as the ocean
hath ; which, though in some places we may suppose it a hun-
dred fathom deep, and in other places not above two or three,
yet, it is deep enough to drown all. So is this deluge of mi-
sery upon fallen mankind; though as to some deeper, than it
is as to others, yet, it is deep enough to drown all in misery
and destruction. As the apostle's expression is, 1. Tim. 6. 9.
But to name to you some things that more obviously do appear
to difference the case of men's states, in point of misery, or
that death which here is said to have passed over all. As,
[I.] There must needs be some difference, from the better
or worse complexion of nature, that is to be found with some
and with others ; of which some 'heathens do fitly enough
LBC. XXXII.) Spiritual death — degrees of misery . 451
speak. There is such a thing as good nature in this world, ob-
vious enough to the observation of every one, as there is ill
nature, observable enough in others. These must make very
great differences in the state of men's case, if we consider the
matter according to the ducture and tendency of mere nature.
So that, whereas the natures of some do render them less pro-
pense to vice, it is also possible, that, as they are less vicious,
this will be one of the measures, that they will be hereafter less
miserable, but nniserable still ; and, notwithstanding not being
reconciled to God, being turned, renewed, changed, never made
partakers of the divine nature.
But, if you consider that case morally, then the better na-
tured any are, supposing that they do violence to that nature,
they spoil that nature, and make it much worse ; — then, I say,
the better nalured, the more miserable; for they are undoubt-
edly the more guilty. Many v/ell-tempered persons, of much
ingenuity, of good disposition, that are not inclined to do ill
tlungs to other men ; but they are continually propense to all
acts of injustice towards God : him they will not know ; from
him they are habitually alienated ; never look after reconcilia-
tion with him. It may be, when they were not naturally in-
clined, yet, they have taught themselves to be more grossly
and sensibly vicious; and so have that way, and in that re-
spect, spoiled a good nature, done, in that respect, continual
violence to themselves; learned to be wicked, even beyond
what they were inclined : here must be so much the deeper
condemnation.
A thing, I am afraid, very little considered by parents, m
reference to the children of their womb and loins ; branches
of themselves, whose tempers they make it their business to
cultivate as they grow up. But, many parents have not only
neglected this, but have made it their business to instil (as much
as in them lay,) vicious inclinations into them : or they have
so managed matters towards them, as to make them craspish,
peevish,°and froward, to embitter their tempers, and to lay
foundations betimes, both of present and everlasting misery,
in their very tempers, in their spoiled, or not improved tem-
pers. Many parents might more mercifully, with more kind-
ness, pluck out their children's eyes, and cut off their limbs,
than indulge the vicious humours which appear in them be-
times; and wherein is a foundation laid for their misery in this
world, as well as for future and eternal misery, when their
tempers are so spoiled, as to be cross, peevish, froward, dis-
contented, quarrelsome. Alas ! much of this might have been
qualified, and prevented, betimes. But, in the mean time,
452 tHE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART II,
that there Is such a thing as better and worse nature, which
may, in different respects, make pre?ent and future misery,
more or less, is out of all question. But,
[2.] That which is more considerable, is, that they must be
plunged deeper into this death, who live in sin to the last, un-
converted to God, and unreduced under the gospel, than they
that never enjoyed a gospel : this must make a vast difference
in the states of men. *' This is the condemnation, that lijrht
is come into the world, and men love darkness more than
light." John 3. 19. When the gospel itself becomes deadlj to
men, that is a most terrible sort of death: — to die hy a ;i»)spel-
plague, is a most terrible way of dying ! Death passed upon all,
but it triumphs more, and with greater terror, over that part of
the world where gospel light shines, but is u-ickedlv resisted,
opposed, sinned against, and the design of it counterwrought;
that is, as in that mentioned place, it is expressed, " Men
love darkness more than light:" the darknsss better pleaseth
them, is more grateful to them, as it gives them opportunity
of being wicked still. The light offends men ; they canno*.
endure (as it is in that context) to have their deeds brought to the
h'ght; resolved they are upon a course of wickedness. Where
there is an honest, sincere mind, he affects light, runs into the
light, that It may appear, that his works are wrought in God,
that the divine tincture and impress that is upon his works,
may show itself, and appear. There is that in them, which
is very agreeable and congruous to the light. But, when men
have a resolution of being wicked, then they are for a corner.
" There is no darkness, or shadow of death, where the workers
of iniquity may hide themselves :" that implies what they af-
fect; they would have a shadow of death wherein to hide them-
selves : that which they covet is, "Where shall we be hid?" It
is a night they seek, and a cloud; nocte peccatur. When there is
a course of dispensation kept on foot towards men all their time,
to keep them within the light, to hold them within the region
and verge of gospel light; this is that which they could wish
extinct : " O ! that this light were out." As they are brought
speaking in that Isaiah 30. 1. "Cause the holy One of Israel
to cease from before us. His bright and glorious appearances,
they are ungrateful and unwelcome to us. O ! who will take
away God, and that divine light, that shines so much to our
disturbance and annoyance; we wish it gone."
But more tolerable will it be to Sodom and Gomorrah, to
Tyre and Sidon, in the day of judgment, than to, Capernaum
and Bethsaida, (as our Saviour inculcates in the 1 1 Matt. 22
and onwards, when he upbraids those cities, where his won-
LEC. XXXII.) Spiritual death — degrees of misery/. 45S
derful works were done,) where there were so bright and glo-
rious appearances of divine power, attesting and bearing wit-
ness to that truth which he came to pul)lish to the world. O !
woe, woe, to them, among whom there have been such glo-
rious appearances of God, hut counter-striven and resisted.
Though there will be one common hell to all in time, yet, the
hell of Sodom and Gomorrali will be a more tolerable hell,
than theirs. And again,
The case must, in point of misery, be worse with them who,
living under the gospel, had a better parentage, were born of
godly parents, than with others with whom it was not so. And
that upon a double account : — Because, that such would cer-
tainly devote them to God; and, — as they would be more in-
tent upon educating them for God. Here, come in very great
differences in the case of such, from the more common case.
First. 1 say, tliey that were born oi' religious parents, those
parents would, by conscience of duty, be obliged and urged
to devote them to God ; to take care tliat those great and ve-
nerable names, the name of the Father, the name of the Son,
and the name of the Holy Ghost, should, according to divine
appointment, be early named upon them, to signify whose
they were, and to whom they did belong. But they afterwards,
when they are grown up, refuse to stand to that covenant, ac-
cording to the tenour whereof so early a dedication was made
of them. " We will not have our parents' God to be our
God." Thy friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not. A
horrid thing that were : but how horrid to forsake our God,
and our father's God. When man's case shall, in this respect,
be brought into judgment at the last day — Thou wast born of
such and such parents, that recognised God's right of thee be-
times; for it is only a recognition of God's right. It is not
the creation of any right to him, nothing can be given him,
that was not his before, but only a recognizing his right, and
this hath been done with solemnity. " But thou, wlien thou
wast grown up, wouldst not stand to the covenant of thy fa-
ther; thy father's God should not be thy God." How much
more dreadful must be the case of such,' than that of pagans,
in the grossest darkness ! And again.
Secondly. Such parents must be supposed to have educated
them for God, pursuantly to their having devoted them to him.
But, alas ! many in our days, have counted it a glory to have
broken loose out of the fetters of a pious education; to have
tlirown them off, torn their bonds, as Samson did hij: withes
and cords; and therein they think they have shewed them-
selves mighty men ; that this was a great piece of fortitude and
454 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD,^ (PART II.
couragr, to outface God and heaven ; and to bend themselves
to a course of wickedness, in opposition to whatsoever of good
principles were endeavoured to be implanted; that is, princi-
ples of trutli, which were laboured to be infused and inlaid
into their minds ; ;md of practical truth, such as might have a
tendency to form and govern their practice. Their godly pa-
rents did, no doubt, charge their own consciences with duty,-
in this kind, to teach their children the train of their ways be-
times, that "when they were old they might not depart from
them." But as for such as have formed their way, and broken
loose, undoiibtedly the child of a pagan, though it perish, yet
pcrishcth under less guilt than such. And,
[4.] There cannot but be great differences, too, accord-
ing as among those that live under tbe gospel ; some have lived
under a more powerful ministry tiian others: where the same
gij.-pel for substance is preached, it cannot but be acknowledg-
es!, that it is pveaclied by some more convictively, with more
jjuagetjcy, anu with greater aptitude to do good, than others:
many isre more closely urged, and dealt withal, from time to
time, in the ministry of the word, than others are. And, ac-
cording" as men's case may differ in this respect, so will this
deatii, that passeth on them, have more or less of deadliness
in it. And (as wag said) when the gospel is*' a savour of
death," so as that men die of a gospel plague, it is a fearful
way of dying. But the savour of the gospel, or the odour,
rather, (as that word should be read,) is stronger, as it is dif-
fused by some than by others. But if it prove deadly, by how
rnucii the stronger, by how much the more of efficacy, so
much the more, may it be said, doth the death that ensueth
partake of the horror of death. And again,
[5 ] There cannot but be great difference, too, according
as soaie do sin against greater convictions of conscience than
others. Having more of internal light let into their minds,
and which, therefore, they are put to have a closer contest and
grapple; the case cannot but be so much the worse, unto how
much the more of conviction men do oppose themselves in a
wicked course; convinced, but yet go on: convinced that they
should turn to God, but never turn; that they should break off
such wicked ways, but they persist in them ; that they should
engage in such and such ways of duty, but they decline them.
That conscience which doth not govern, it doth judge, it doth
doon», and doom so much the more heavily, by how much the
niore of resistance its tendency to govern meets with. And,
[o.] There must he deeper degrees of this misery and
death;, according as there have been strotigcr strivings of the
LEC. XXXII.) Spiritual death — degrees of misery, 455
Spirit of God; God still resisterl and striven again*^t. Where
his gospel is, there his Spirit will more or less, and in one kind
or other, beat work; but it works at liberty. God works in y«>u
*' to will and to do of his own good pleasure." And, I doubt
the emphasis of that scripture, is not noted as it sliould be,
and the correspondence of part to part in it. Phil. 2. 12, 18.
** Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it
is God that worketh, (or is working) in you, to will and to do
of his good pleasure." Work because he worketh. There is
the substance of the precept enforced by that which we are
to consider as substantial in the motive. Do you vvork, be-
cause he worketh. But then, there is a circumstance in tlie
precept, unto which a circumstance in the motive doth also
correspond; work you with fear and trembling: Why? be-
cause God works at will and pleasure, under no obligation,
but may desist, may give off, when he will. Now then, he
being at perfect liberty^ under no bonds or tie, he may strive
longer with some, than he doth with others : and, according
as he doth longer continue to strive, or as he dotli more ear-
nestly plead, (but yet in a way short of victorious, all-con-
quering grace, which bears all down before it,) so, tlie guilt
cannot but be the greater, that is incurred by continual resis-
tance ; and, they must needs sink themselves so much the
deeper into misery and death : they that have some taste of
the good word of God, and been made partakers of the Holy
Ghost, and the powers of the world to come, and, yet sin
themselves into such a state, as that their repentance becomes
finally impossible. Perhaps, it may admit of a gentler mean-
ing as to some; but that such an expression is used as admits
of a latitude, there appears so much the more of divine wis-
dom in it. But it is plain, that many never do repent. By
how much the more of vigorous efforts have been put forth
upon them, without effect, so much the more, undoubted!}',
must they finally incur of this misery, or sink the deeper Into
this death.
There is a sorer punishment, that is Incurred by sinning
against that gospel, wherein that Spirit breathes, than could be
by sinning against the law of Moses ; ^s in that Heb. 10. 28
and onward. " If he that despised Moses' law died without
mercy under two or three witnesses ; of how much sorer pu-
nishment, suppose ye shall he be thought worthy, who hath trod-
den under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of
the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unclean thing,
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace ?" There lies
the achme and height of the wickedness that appears in thiv
456 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART llr
case : that is, that Spirit is a Spirit of grace, that they have
been contending and striving against; that Spirit of all goodness,
and love, and kindness, and benignity : to have striven against
that Spirit, to the last breath, of how much sorer punishment
shall such be thought worthy? The sinning against one's own
conscience, it is doing a violence to one's self, and to what
God hath made superior and governing in us, did appoint it to
be so. But this is a more immediate and direct affront to hea-
ven, when resistance is made to the Spirit of God himself,
who insinuates, slides into the mind, repeats and inculcates
from time; and still in vain. It is a fearful thing when men
do engage in a continual war with their own consciences, — it
is unnatural ; and it is a great offence against God too. Hea-
thens have thought so; as particularly Marcus Antoninus: "that
warned men, if they vvould live well, they must live with
God, and keep up a conversation with God, and that (saith he)
we shall do, if we do not offer violence to, and tear that vica-
rious God that is in us, which God hath set over every man to
be the guide of his life." But when an afferent is off'ered to
God himself, the Supreme Good, (as I may say,) not to that
vicarious God, but to the very Divine Throne: this is a fearful
thing to do so. And so it is when men are continually fighting
against that Spirit, that breathes in the gospel. And,
[7.] I might add that, undoubtedly, men's guilt and misery
must be greater and deeper, according as they do arrive to
great pitches of sin. As such come more explicitly to hate
every thing of goodness, to deride and scorn it, according to
the gradations that are observable in the beginning of the first
psalm, they at length seat themselves in the scorner's chair;
they tiiat make it their business to ridicule religion or godli-
ness; or they that sink themselves into deeper degrees of sen-
suality, why, according as the wickedness in which they wal-
low is fouler and grosser, soil cannot be but their misery must
be the greater in which they involve themselves. And,
[8.] They must needs be in the worst case, in point of mi-
sery, that are more instrumental in spreading wickedness in
the world ; vvhose wickedness is more diff'uiive; who are mere
partakers of other men's sins. There can be no such thing as
supererogation, in point of merit, by good works ; but, no
doubt, there may be in point of demerit, by wicked works,
according as men do dravv in more accomplices, and do
more join in a conspiracy against God and heaven. So much
the more guilt, so much the more miserable must they be.
And again,
[9.] Such as are wicked in public stations, they must pro-
LBc. XXXIII.) Spiritual death — iiiferences. 457
portionably be more guilty and more miserable ; wicked ma-
gistrates and wicked ministers, according to the greater hurt
that they do, or tlie less good that they do, being intrusted
with such talents, or having such power, such opportunities
improvable for good, put into their hands.
And lastly, cceteris paribus — They that live longer in sin,
must sink deeper into death, supposing all things concur
equally, the longer the worse. The sinner of a hundred
years old, he is the more deeply and dreadfully accursed. As
in that Isaiah 6'5. 20. So we see there cannot but be diffe-
rent gradations, or graduate differences in that death, which,
in the kind and nature of it, is common to all.
This doth claim somewhat of general use, which, I cannot
insist on now: no subject can claim it more than this doth,
to which we can apply, or turn ourselves, as you may hear af-
terwards.
LECTURE XXXIll.*
U^e. We therefore come, in the last place, to improve
what hath been said of this death, by way of application.
1. And we may learn hence, inasmuch as death is said to
have passed over all, for that all have sinned ; that God is not
unobservant of the ways of men in this world, nor indifferent
how they demean themselves. Have all sinned? Death passed
over all. They that think God hath forsaken the earth, con-
cerns not himself in human affairs; Why do they think so ?
It is true, the judgment day, and the state of retribution are
not yet come. But, in the mean time, are there no tokens
and indications upon men, of divine displeasure? Is there
nothing to signify that he is not well pleased with a wicked
world? Indeed, because his judgments are not executed with
greater terror, therefore, many times, men's hearts are set in
them to do evil. And if things run long on with them, after
one manner, because they have no changes, they fear not God.
But, if they would use their understandings, which can go a
greater compass than sense; and, if they would look about,
and not consider merely and abstractly what they themselves
do now at present feel, but what appearances there may be per-
ceived of divine displeasure towards this world in general, they
may see by tokens express enough, that God is not well pleas-
ed with the state of things in this world, and with the cour?e,
* Preached Oct. G, 16.94.
VOL. VII, 3 N
458 THE PRINCIl'LES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
and carriage of men in it. They may see that his wrath " is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteous-
ness of men ; for how eonstautly is death every where follow-
ing sin, death passing upon all men, for that all have sinned.
When death is making, in a more sensible way, such spoils
and havoc in this world, tumbling men into the dust every
where, and none escapes — What ! have men reason yet to
tliink, that God is indifferent how they carry themselves; that
he takes no notice whether men obey him, or disobey him ?
But again,
2 Since this is the very state of the case, death past upon
all, or men are generally in a miserai)le state ; we may collect,
hence, that God's deportment towards men, is very becoming
of him, and most suitable to the state of their case. " Death
hath passed over all, for that all have sinned." Nothing could
be more worthy of God, than to let it be as it is with men, in
this respect ; that is, to let death pass over all ; that it should
spread its dark and horrid shadow over this world, as we find it
every where doth. Nothing could, I say, be more worthy of
God, or more suitable to the state and condition wherein sin
hath constituted the sons of men. And this will appear yet
more distinctly, v/hether we consider God's dispensation to-
wards men, in this respect, for the present ; or, whether you
consider, again, his determination concerning them for the fu-
ture.
(I.) If we consider his dispensation towards them, for the
present, nothing could be more becoming, more worthy of God,
or more suitable to such a creature as man, now in his lapsed
and apostate state. For, as to his present dispensation, you
may find a concurrence of two things : first, such a severity,
as wherein God doth most becomingly animadvert upon the
sinfulness of the world, and shew himself displeased; and se-
condly, such lenity, as by which he yet signifies himself pla-
cable and willing to be reconciled. Nothing could be more
suitable, more becoming God, considering the present state of
lapsed man, with respect to the tenour of his i)resent dispen-
sation towards him, than that there should be such a mixture
as this of God's conduct towards this world : that is, severity,
to shew that he is not well pleased ; lenity, to signify that he is
yet placable. What could be more becoming God? Both
these arc interwoven in the whole course of God's dealings
with men ; as hath been told you. There have been tokens
of severity, that men might understand and know that God
doth not like their ways and manners. Death is every where
playing its part, and rolling men into the grave before one
LEC. xxxiii.) Spiritual death — inferences. 43d
another's eyes. And men may every where perceive the effects
of a malediction upon themselves, and upon their concern-
ments and affairs in this world. l>ut yet, notwithstanding,
there are significations, too, of God's placablenes?, his willing-
ness to be reconciled, even where there is no gospel, hut
much more where there is : where there is no gospel, God
leaves not hims^elf without witness in that he doth goodj giving
men rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, and filling their
hearts with food and gladness. And even his patience, and
forhearance, and long-suffering, they have a leadingness, (as
we have had occasion at large to sjiew you) unto repentance.
And men will have a fearful account one day to make of it, that
have not been led thereunto, nor understood that design.
But where the gospel comes, there (you know) God shews
liimself as he is in Christ, "reconciling the world to himself,
that sin might not be imputed." 2 Cor. 5. 19. What can he
more suitable than this, to a Being of most alisolute perfection,
in whom the perfections of wisdom, and justice, and holiness,
are in conjunction with the perfections of kindness, goodness,
love, and favourable propensions towards his creatures : nor
could any be more suitable to men in this their present state,
(it being a state of probation,) a state of trial, of leading, and
precedaneous to another state.
And, according to all the measures of wisdom and equity,
this is always reckoned most suitable where there is guilt that
appears chargeable, and that it may be charged ; and that,
while as yet a public judgment is not given, and hath not had
its effect. If we do but consider, (and, indeed, we can but
judge as men, of things, and use the best understanding as
such, that we have,) we see h.ow men do c(;mmonly judge in
such and the like cases. That is, suppose one be vehemently
suspected of some flagitious crime among men, but the matter
is not yet brought to judgment ; such a person is neither to be
treated as an innocent person, nor as a convicted one. Yon
know that so the wisdom of human governments doth deter-
mine every where. And the case speaks itself, that these are
apt, and fit, and suitable methods ; they carry their own rea-
son in them. Such persons, before the solemn public judg-
ment, and the consequent execution upon that judgment, are
neither, I say, treated as innocent, nor as convicted ; but there
is a mixture in the treatment, which they generally find and
meet with: some kind of severity .they do undergo, even be-
fore their trial and judgment, which may be looked upon as
someway penal : and in some degree it is so. Nor is tliere any
thing of severity used towards such, but upon some proof, upon
460 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
some evidence, as such persons are convened and accused be-
fore a magistrate, convicted in sonie way, though they have
not a full conviction : they are brought before them, commit-
ted by them, held under restraint, that justice may not be
eluded ; but that they may be in safe custody. But yet, for all
that, there is no formal judgment passed upon them, nor exe-
cution consequent unto such judgment, till there have been a
very formal trial, and a full conviction.
Much at the same rate, is the state of the case here be-
tween God and men, though not for the same reasons, not in
all respects for the same ; not that the delinquents may be in
safe custody, and so finally not escape his justice; for he knows
well where to have them at any time, and any where. Nor is
any thing of lenity used towards them, upon the acount that
they are not convicted, nor fully convicted. For every man's
case lies perfectly open to the divine view; but there is severity
used towards them, partly for warning to others, and partly
for monition and excitation to themselves ; because God
intends a treaty, and deals with them in order to pardon
and forgiveness, which is not the usual design of human
governments. And for the same reason is lenity used to-
wards them ; not because they are not convicted: for their mat-
ter hath, to the divine eye, a thorough perspection, and the
whole state of their case at last is seen through and through.
But, as was said, that by such gentleness they may be more
treatable, and capable of being applied to, in order to their
conversion, and final salvation. But, upon the whole, nothing
could be more becoming of God, than that there should be
such a mixture as we find of severity and lenity, in this pre-
sent dispensation, antecedent to the future judgment that is
to pass upon them. And then,
(2.) Nothing could be more becoming of God, than the de-
termination that he settles concerning man for the future ; that
is, that this death, in all the fulness of it, shall finally be in-
flicted upon them that are finally impenitent; those tliat per-
severe in enmity and rebellion to the last, and never consort
with, never hearken to the terms and overtures of reconcilia-
tion ; for what else should be done in such a case as this ? Do
but consider the nature of man. He hath a mortal part about
him. It is not reasonable to think, that God should make that
mortal part immortal, only that men might continue sinning
against him, on earth, uninterruptedly and everlastingly. Was
that to be expected that it should be so ? And he hath an
immortal part, a mind and spirit that is immortal. What
should be done in such a case, with Such a creature as man ?
i.sc. xxxiii.) Spiritual death — inferences, 4S\
was he to annihilate that immoital part ? That was as little Xo
be expected, that God should have made such a creature with
such a nature, and then seem to repent that he had made him
such, and so that he should immortalize that which was mor-
tal; or, as I may say, mortalize that which was immortal.
But, I say, that he should do either the one or the other,
was for no reason in the world to have been expected from
God, the great Lord and Maker of all. He deals with the
creatures that he hath made, suitable to the natures that he
hath given them. It could not be any blemish to the divine
perfections, that he made man at the first with such a nature.
If his mortal part always hanged about him, it should have made
him capable of no higher felicity than this earth did afford : and
sure that had been a diminution of the divine goodness. If
he had not made him with an immortal mind and spirit, he had
not been capable of felicity, as he had not, it is true, been lia-
ble to endless misery. But then, he had not been capable of
future felicity. Therefore, consider the matter how you w'ill ;
look upon all men as having sinned, and consider death here-
upon to have passed over all, nothing could, in this case, be
more becoming of God, than his deportment towards men ;
whether you consider his present dispensations towards him,
or whether you consider his determinations for the future.
But then,
3. We have this further to collect, that men's deportment,
in this case, is most unsuitable, most unbecoming of them, and
most unanswerable to the state of their own case. Death
hath passed over all. Do men carry it suitable hereunto? We
might, in many instances, shew you how far they are from do-
ing so, from carrying it suitable to this state of their case; that
is, their being under a universal death,
(1 .) Very plain it is, that many never think any such thought,
— " I am under a doom." -It is true, they cannot escape think-
ing themselves mortal, and that sometime or other they must
die : but that this is a doom, a sentence upon them from an
offended Creator ; how many are there that pass away their
days, and never think such a thought? ''I am a sinful crea-
ture; and God hath been offended; and, therefore, I must
die: and, therefore, I am, in many other respects, miserable
in the mean time." How many that never think one such
thought, that never consider the state of their case as it re-
lates to God. The miseries that befal men here under the sun,
they seem to apprehend as if they sprung out of the dust, but
apprehend nothing of a neifiesiSf of a vi?idicta, of divine dis-
pleasure therein.
4G2 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART II.
Indeed, if there were a correspondency in the temper of
men's souls, unto the state of their case, in this respect, where-
in soever God testifies his resentment, they would have a re-
sentment. By all these efforts of present divine justice, upon
an apostate world, God is expressing' this his resentment : " I
am ill used by my own creatures;" that is the language of
every such j)rovidence. " The creatures that I have made,
carry it insolently, injuriously, undutifully to me." Provi-
dences are vocal and articulate, do not only carry a voice with
them many times, but a voice that is expressive of a meaning,
which is interpretal)le; the Lord's voice cries many times to
the city, and, in general, it speaks this sense every where;
tvhere his providences are afflictive, and reach men's bones,
and their Hesh, or touch them in any other sensible effect,
God is angry, these are the breakings forth of his just displea-
sure towards a wicked world, against sinful revolted creatures.
But with the most, tliere is nothing of this kind thought of:
and therefore, they are full of lamentations for the evils that
do befal ihem, accounting them infelicities; but never look
upon them as penalties; which, if they did, that would carry
a signification witii it of their own guiltiness ; that these things
befal me as a sinner, and as an offending creature. And,
(2.) Where there are any such thoughts, how rarely do they
stay in the minds of tnen, and how seldom do they dwell upon
the contemplation of any such thing? Whereas, if matters
were with men as they should be, in these respects, these
should be their thoughts lying down and rising up, and from
day to day, all the day long, as while men do yet remain in an
impenitent and unreconciled ?tate. God speaks his mind in
reference to such, that he " is angry with the wicked every
day ;" so then it should be thoughit of every day. And it
would make men's spirits most restless and uneasy within them.
O ! what an insupportable thing is it to be under the displea-
sure of him that made me! and that he should be angry with
nie every day : that his displeasure should be upon me, even
while 1 am eating, as was said concerning the people in the
wilderness : " his wrath came upon them while they were eat-
ing, while the meat was yet in tlieir mouths." Sure it would
make a man never eat with pleasure, when this should be un-
derstood to be the state of his case. And again,
(3.) 'Men do not meditate an escape. How little is there to
be seen of any such thing, in this world, as flying from the
wrath to come ? as Joh.n the Baptist's auditors are said to be
doing in a kind of fright — " Who hath warned you to flee from
the wrath to come ?" How little is it, that looks like this, in
LEC. xxxiii.) Spiritual ile at h — inferences. 4G\
this wretched world 1 There vvoukl be consultations, if men
were aware of this state of their case, and their spirits were
impressed any way suitable to it. There would be counsel
held: "We are under divine displeasure; what course shall
we take to avert it ? to appease that ane^er which we cannot
bear; which will consume and burn up all before it, if it con-
tinue unappcased ?" And again,
(-1.) For the most part, men arc taken up about alien things,
things most alien and remote from any thing of this kind, or
what the exigency of their case requires and calls for ; even
though they are v.-arned and told of it, and called upon from
time to time. This is no new or strange doctrine among us,
who live under the gospel ; that the state of man is a state of
sin and misery: to tell men,' you are by nature children of
wrath ; you are under guilt; you are sinners ; and " the wages
of sin is death;" this is not strange to the ears of men.
You cannot have lived years together under this gospel, but
you must have heard of these things often : and surely the ge-
nerality of them who were wont to hear the gospel, do hear
these things frequently inculcated. But what are the vvork-
ings of their minds and thoughts ? Do they bear any corres-
pondency to such things as these, so often urged upon them ?
**You are a guilty creature," saith the word of God untothetn :
"you are under death; What will you do in this case? wiiat
course will you take?" " VVhy, 1 will clothe myself as de-
cently as 1 can; I will go in a modish dress, I will try the re-
lishes of this, or that, or the other sort of wine." "Why,
you are an undone creature; you lie under death: what do you
wish in this case ?" "I wish 1 had as neat and as well-furnished
a house as my neighbour: I wish that such a commodity would
fall, that 1 might have the better time to buy; or that such a
commodity would rise, that 1 might have the better time to
sell." With things so altogether alien from this business, are
men taken up in a continual course. *' What is all this to the
state of your case? You are under death, man! do you un-
derstand that? You are under guilt; and by being under guilt,
lie under death. And,
(5.) They seek relief against the miseries of their present state,
by such tinngs as not only do not afford it, but make their
case worse, or they have that constant tendency to make them
worse. Death that hath passed upon all, hath passed upon
you:" theyare repeatedly told so. " Well, what do you think
of it?" They have the presumptuous appearances of death
continually in view : but the inward sense of their heart is
such as this : '* O, that I were a rich man ; that 1 had a
464 THE PRINCIPLES OF TUB ORACLES OF GOD. (PART IT,
great estate; that I had but opportunity enough to live a vo-
luptuous life !" or, " Such a one hath wronged me ; 1 wish I
knew how to be revenged of him !" Men think to relieve
tliemselves against what annoys them, and is a part of the
misery of their present state, by things that would not only
be no relief, but make their case far worse. For do you
think it would mend your case, or would you be happier men,
and safer from eternal death, and from divine justice, that
threatens you, or prcssetli you, if you were rich ? If you were
never so rich, could you thereby redeem your souls, and ex-
piate your guilt, and make satisfaction to the justice of an
offended God ? If you could live immersed and swallowed up
in pleasure and voluptuousness, would that better your case ?
Would it not make it far worse? If you had the revenges you
would seek; if you could gratify the enmity of your own heart,
(which is part of your misery, and a great part too,) by making
another man miserable also, would that mend your case ?
Nay, would it not increase the guilt? Would it not strengthen
your bonds, and lay you yet more open to divine displeasure?
Again, in the last place, though one might multiply instances
of this kind much further,
(6.) They are, for the most part, (so far as their external cir-
cumstances will admit of it,) jocund and merry, and very well
pleased with their state. How little suitable to this apprehen-
sion, " Death hath passed over all." We dwell in a world
deluged vv'ith misery, and through which, men are generally
making way, and sinking deeper and deeper into eternal misery,
and into that state wherein death is to be consummate, and in its
fulness. To have the opportunity (a? there are none but have
rery frequently) to hear discourses of men, in whom there yet
never appeared the least sign or token of repentance or recon-
ciliation with God, how jolly and frolicsome they can be, (if,
I say, their external circumstances can admit it,) would you
think these men considered themselves as under death, as
under a doom from the God against whom they have sin-
ned ?
Is it not vvondered at, if a condemned crew in chains, and
only expecting the hour of execution, should be entertaining
themselves with music and dancing, and pleasant stories ?
how amazing a thing is this ! would you not say of such
" laughter, it is madness ?" and of such " mirth, whatdoeth
it ?" as the wise man saith, Eccl. 2. 2. Why such deport-
ments as these, are they like men perishing, going down to
perdition? To be pleasant and merry, and not to be reconciled,
Hot yet to be at peace witb God, to have no security from
LEc. xxxiir.) Spiritual death — inferences;. 465
the wrath to come; to have deatli hanging over a man's head,
not as tlie way to glory, but as a doom and curse upon him ;
and to be jovial and frolicsome under all this, would amaze any
man that were serious, to consider that it can be so ! And,
4. We may further collect, hence, how little it is that
principles do signify, generally, with men. Though those
principles be never so common, and never so certain, and
evident, yet how little- do they signify ? That the state of man
is a sinful and miserable state, is a common principle ; it is a
principle that doth obtain, not only among christians, but
among pagans ; their writings and books are full of it. Most
pathetical complaints and lamentations, we frequently meet
witli, in their books, upon this account, speaking of the de-
generate state of man, and tiiat he is not the creature that at
first he was ; and speaking of his miserable state, and even in
a way of nemesis, and as tiie effect of liis displeasure, who
made him, and hath been offended by him. But among
christians, it is so common a principle, that every child that
hath learned any thing of his catechism, (as I hope you
generally do catechise your children,) if you but ask them.
What is the state of man by nature ? they will answer. It is a
state of sin and misery : — just the very meaning of the text:
*' Death hath passed over all, for that all have sinned."
But how strange is it now, that so common a principle
should signify so little ? and again, that so evident and so cer-
tain a principle should have so little signification and cHicacy
with it as a principle ? that, though the state of man is a misera-
ble state, and that he lies under death, is matter of fact, it
should have no more effect ? Indeed, as to the most tremend-
ous part of this death, that is out of sight with many ; but,
for the more sensible part, that lies open to every one's view.
It can be a doubt with no man, whether he shall die or no.
Death passeth over all. But how wonderful a thing is it, that
a principle, a common principle, a most evident principle, and
that carries the greatest certainty with it imaginable, (as to
what at least doth highly deserve our consideration,) should be
so ineffectual 1
And as to the other part, it is generally professed, and they
who make it their business, as much as they can, to disbelieve
that more dreadful part, that remaining and unseen part of
this miserable state, yet have not conquered the fear of it ;
if they have conquered the belief of it, yet, it is plain, they
have not conquered the apprehension of it; there is ?iformidu
oppusito, and cannot but be; for at least they know nothing to
the contrary ; they can never prove the contrary, that there is
VOL. VII. 8 o
46Ci THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
no hell, no judgment to come. And, in a matter of this na-
ture, men that would but act according to the common reason
of men, would think tliat the matter did need demonstration,
that there is no such thing, and not run a mad hazard and ad-
venture ; when there is nothing lost in the course, to which
the truth, in this case, (supposing it to be truth,) would lead :
and when, by following the contrary course, the misery and
mischief that must ensue, are both unsupportable ; and will
shortly be irretrievable.
LECTURE XXXIV.*
The remaining Use that I intend, will be only directive.
1. To such as yet abide in this death, that have passed over
all : and we have reason to apprehend that to be the case of
some : and, 2. To those that have, through the grace of God,
in good measure, escaped '^•t of it,
1. To the first sort, I have a few things to recommend by
way of direction. I cannot tell how to apply things to persons
particularly : that you must do yourselves, as you find it to be
with you. But if that be the case of any among you, that they
have reason to judge so, that they abide in this death that have
passed upon all, then I would have such,
(1.) To apprehend that this is the common case, and may
probably be their own, as to that which is most dismal and
horrid in this death, that hath hitherto passed over this world.
It is (as I told you the last time) one thing to entertain a truth,
as a mere notion in the mind, against which we have nothing
to say, and to give but a faint negative assent to it ; to wit, not
to dissent or disagree to it : and another thing to receive it as
a vital and practical principle, that influenceth a man's heart,
forms his spirit, and governs his course accordingly thereunto.
And so is this very little apprehended to be tbe common case,
that " death hath passed over all." But labour you feelingly
to apprehend it, as to what is most obvious every way; that is,
that we are all subject to bodily distempers and diseases, which,
are tendencies to, and will end in, death : why, about tbis,
we can none of us be in any doubt. We are sensibly told it,
even in our flesh and bones, from day to day. But the worst
part of this death is what our flesh cannot feel^ that is, a death
* Preached Oct. 13, Wgi,
LEC. xxxiv\) Spiritual death — directions. 46 J'
upon our spirits; that our minds and hcirts are dlsafTccted to
God, dead towards God, in direct opposition to what the case
is with the regenerate, and which they ought to be judged and
reckoned, as to themselves. " Reckon yourselves (saith the
apostle, Rom. G. II.) dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God." The death that stands in opposition to this life, is the
worst and most horrid part of the death that hatli passed over
this world.
Labour to apprehend this to be the common case; and then
consider, whether it be not your own. If the matter do look
with a dubious aspect, it ought to be considered with so much
the more attentiveness, and with so much the deeper thoughts.
And a slight hope that there is an alteration, should not satisfy:
and, indeed, you cannot reasonably think this to be a little
thing, or that it should not be greatly considerable. For is it
a small matter to have passed from death to life ? This death
passed over all ; and an escape out of it, is not so little a
thing, when you compare those two expressions, 1 John 3. 14.
** Abiding in death ;" and, having " passed from death to
life :" it must be a most close and pungent question — "Which
is my case ? Either I have passed from death to life; or I
continue still in death/" And, tlierefore, it ought to be consi-
dered over and over, *'Hovv stands my case towards God ? I have
a natural life in me, in which I am capable of natural actions :
but have 1 a holy life in me, by which 1 am capable of the ac-
tions that are suitable and proper to that ? by which I can
act and move towards God, not shnpliciter ox absolute ; but
quoad hoc : to that one end and principle it was made; for
there is a deadness, no propension towards»God, as regenera-
tion would make it alive towards God. *' How is it with me
in this respect?" That ought to be deeply considered. '"Is not
this, the horrid, dismal death tiiat hath passed upon all, still
upon me ?" And,
(2.) There is this further, tiiat will be suitable by way of di-
rection to that former case, to mind those things principally,
that are most pertinent to it ; and to be less concerned about
lesser things. And pray let such take in[this direction: Have
you reason to apprehend this to be your case ; (and a fearful
case it is ;) that that death, even the worst of it, that hath
passed over all, remains upon you ? Why, then think of tliose
things that are most pertinent to that case ; and consider less
the lesser things. As to whatsoever you have to complain of
besides, say with yourselves, " Aye, but all this is nothing to
this death that Is upon my soul ;" and it looks like distraction,
when men's minds are wholly engaged and taken up about
468 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
lesser things : but, about this greater and more important
thing, they have no consideration at all. As if one should
seem concerned that he hath a scratched finger; when he
hath a tnortal wound in his breast that he is unconcerned for:
or, that he should have lost a pin, when his house is on fire;
or, that a man's head should lie easy upon the block, when the
fatal stroke is just going to be given. For, do but consider
what this will come to at length: this deatti will be eternal
death. The disinclination and deadness of man's spirit to-
wards God, can have no other issue, finally, but "Depart from
me," if it continue. You arc departing from God; you will
be continually departing: why, Depart from me for ever. This
sort of death upon the souls of men, it is not a distinct thing
from the state of hell ; it is the same thing begun: there is no
farther ditlerence than between death inchoate, and death
consummate. And, indeed, every thing that a man doth, and
every thing that a man saith, is all idle impertinency, while
this great thing is neglected. " Seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness," is the advice of our Saviour. You are
seeking many other things; but have you observed the order, to
seek that in the first place? Otherwise you have mistaken the
order. What other things you may lawfully seek, you are then
to seek, when you have begun duly and regularly, with the
first. And, therefore, if another should tell you of such and
such things that are not so well in the state of your case ex-
ternally : such a man hath failed, that owes you money, or
the like, you may answer him ; " Alas ! do not tell me of
these things, I am dead towards God, what do you tell me of
this or that ? 1 am like to be lost forever, if grace do not
give a speedy help to the sad state of my case." And again,
(S.) Look upon this case of your's as being, though very
sad, yet not remediless, yet not incurable; look upon it as a
remediable case. « For it is, indeed, all one as to any thing of
real gain and advantage, not to apprehend your case to be sad,
and not to consider it as capable of a remedy. Upon the for-
mer supposition, there will be no care at all exercised about it;
and upon the latter supposition there will be no hope. But
there must be a setting of both these on foot ; you must have a
care about the state of your souls ; and you must have hope
about it too; or else nothing will be done in you, or by you,
that will be of any value. You should, therefore, consider
and bethink yourselves, that there is a way of escape out of so
great a death; that many have escaped you know; and they
can think of it with pleasure, and take delight in their knowing
of God, and conversing with him. Divers that have (it may
LEC. XXXIV.) Spiritual death — directions. 469
])e) spoken to you of such thin2:s of God, as you liave not
found in yourselves. But that wliich hath been, may be: that
which you see by frequent experience wrought in others, may
be wrought in you. God, tliat hath been so rich in mercy to
others, why may he not be God, rich in mercy to you also ?
Thus you should consider the matter as capable of a remedy.
There is a word of life sent forih ; and there is a Divine Spirit
breathing in this world; even upon iliis world that is lost in
death', and it hath reached many with mighty influences.
This is that which ougiit to be a mighty spring of hope to such
as will not abandon themselves to despair. Do not say con-
cerning yourselves, *' There is a death abiding upon my soul,
and therefore, it must be always so :" for tliat is to suppose
there is nodiflerencc between earth and hell; between the state
of men under the gospel, and the state of devils under an
eternal doom, in the full execution of It.
I pray consider, our business is not to instruct the inhabitants
of hell, but to speak to the living on this side the grave. We
are teaching men, and not devils. And none should put them-
selves into their state and case, as if they had nothing at all to
do, but merely to wait till the fulness of death should come
upon thenif and swallow them up. Our Lord saith, " Look
unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth." And when
such a voice as this hath come into this miserable earth, no
man ought but to look upon himself as concerned therein, as
well as others ; and not to say, " God doth not mean me ; he
intends no such kindness to me :" but rather, on the other
hand, to sav, «« If a vital savour hath been diftused with that
voice, with' that invitation of grace, in and by the word, and
its vital influences have reached many, it may also reach me."
There ought to be an expectation raised in us, that it may :
and many are ruined for not expecting it, not waiting at the
posts of wisdom's door. Prov. 8. 34, 35. "Blessed is the
man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at
the posts of my door. For whoso tindeth me, fii)deth life, and
shall obtain favour of the Lord." This, men ouglit to set before
their eyes, in all their attendances upon God, in his ordi-
nances ; so that they may be able to give this account, if any
should ask them, What are you going for ? "Why, I am going
to find life ; wisdom saith, They that find me, find life. Here
I go to seek life for my soul."
The very order of the divine precept in this thing, is, " Hear,
and your souls shall live ;" which shews with what design men
should hear and wait upon ordinances. " Ho! every one that
thirsteth, ccme ye to the waters ; come ye buy and eat, yea^
4/0 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. ( PART II.
come buy wine and milk without money and without priccj
hear and your souls shall live; and I will make an everlasting
covenant with you." " He hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, (were David's 0\vn dying words) ordered in all
tilings and sure; and altiiough my house be not so with God ;
as to domestical concernments things are not so well, yet he
haih made wilh me an everlasting covenant ; and this is all my
salvation, and all my desire." Now saith the prophet, in that
Isaiah 55. 6. " Do you but incline your ear, and hear with
expectation that your souls may live, and they shall live: and
this will tend to bring you into an everlastiug covenant, even
the sure mercies of David." And yet, again,
(4.) Let me further recommend this to you, to hasten your
designed escape, without delil)eraiing and pausing long upon the
matter. We are to look upon this world as deluged by death
and wrath, which have overspread it, as that sulphureous flood
did the valleys wherein Sodom and Gomorrah stood ; and when
Lot was to be saved out of that ruin, in mercy to him^ for this
the angel hastens him, and cries out to him, "Escape for thy
life." So should you consider the exigency of your case not
to be less; nay it is incoajparably greater. It is not a little
valley, but it is the world, that is deluged with this sulphure-
ous flood. Here is a complication of sin and death overflow-
ing the world; and which hath made the world a far worse re-
gion than that plain was. Now it is said to you ; God doth by
the voice of his word, and of his ministers, say to you, '^ You
are to make haste and escape for your life." How many did the
fiery (lood of Sodom overtake quite 1 Therefore, this case doth
not admit of any delay : for how soon this flood may overtake
you, you know not- It may, so as to overwhelm you quite :
and so as to make a hopeful case a desperate one. And,
therefore, consider from hence, in the next place,
(5.) Of how great importance it is for you to apply yourselves
to, and gain an interest in, the favour of God. Make from
hence an estimate of the divine favour, and of the necessity
and value of it ; for if this be your case — Death hath passed
over all ; if any man thinks of an escape, from thence it must
Come : " What can 1 do for my soul ? How can I fetch my
soui from that death that is within me ; that my soul is in-
gulphed in ?" Why, " in his favour is life." There is no
hope of life but in his favour. Look which way you will, and
there is death overwhelming of all ; and you are no more ca-
pable of getting out of this death of yourselves, than of touch-
ing the heavens with your hand, or seating yourselves among
the stars in the firmament : therefore, it must be an all-favoura-
LBC. xxxiv.) Spiritual death — directions. 4/1
ble, and all-powerful hand, and that too^ stretched out from
heaven, tiiat must save in so distressed a case as this.
Now how should this recommend to us the favour of God,
as that wherein our life dotli stand, when death iiatii thus pass-
ed over all. If you should speak to a neighbour, to a father,
to any one that hath the dearest attcftion to you, " O ! my
soul is in a state of death: how shall 1 get it out of it?"
They must all answer, as Jacob did to his wife, *' Am I in the
stead of God, to give thee children ? Can I inspire life into
thy dead soul ? No; I cannot do it for thee." This you
ought to inculcate to yourselves, over and over; that your
life stands in the divine favour. It is he that breathes into
you the breath of spiritual life, to make yours hecouie a
living soul. They are his kind looks that carry life in tiiem.
If he will breathe upon your soul, it shall live. As that hath
been his way, when souls have been wallowing in their
blood, to look upon them with a kind look, and say unto
them — " Live:" his look doth carry life in it. He looks
life into the soul that is dead. As in that 16 Ezekiel, in the
beginning, and towards the latter end of that chapter, you
will find how the matter ends: " J entered into a covenant
with thee, and thou becamest mine." He looked upon them
in their bloody and said unto them — " Live ;" and enclosed
them in the happy bonds of that covenant, that are vital
bonds ; their souls being bound up in the bundle of life.
And, therefore,
(6.) That I may shut up what I sliall say to this sort of persons
concerning that death which hath passed over all, it ought to
prepare them for the reception of the gospel, wherein are dis-
coveries of the divine favour, and the way wherein it reveals
itself for the saving and renewing of souls lost in death : what
a preparative for the gospel should this be I To have this in-
wrought into my soul, that death hath passed over all, so
amongst the rest, it hath passed over me, involved me also.
Then how pleasant a sound should the gospel he to lost souls !
"The Son of man came to seek and save that which was lost."
The forlorn and distressed estate of this world, hath been com-
passionately considered by the great Lord of heaven and earth ;
and God hath given him life, that he might give eternal life
to as many as he hath given him. And when men are once
prevailed upon, to give themselves to him, as the great Prince
and Lord of life, who only can deliver them out of death,
then, it is without question, that God hath given them unto
him, and it is with that desig^n, that he may give them etcr-
nal life. But then,
472 TBE PRINCIPLES OF THK ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
2. As to those who throu,t!:h grace, have in a good measure
made an escape out of that death that hath passed over all, it
is obvious to yourselves, to understand wherein that death
stands, which hath passed over all, and which you have made
your escape from. You know, that part of it concerns the
outward man ; there is no escaping that which is equivalent,
and more than equivalent. There is an escaping out of it ;
not that such shall not die, but they shall rise again : ** their
corruptible part, (as the apostle saith) shall put on incorrup-
tion : and their mortal part shall put on immortali-ty ; and their
vile bodies shall be changed and transformed into the likeness
of Christ's most glorious body." There must be a conformity
between the Head and the members, so that by him they
escape not from it, but out of it ; emerge, get out of that
state, that must sooner or later seize upon these mortal bo-
dies.
But then, for that spiritual death that is, in this present
state, naturally upon all men's souls, that you have been ac-
tually in, that you have escaped, that there must bean escape
from eternal death. Now let me ask you, Have you, through
grace, been enabled to escape, in good measure, out of the
worst of this death that, in the present state, men are liable
to ; to wit, death towards God ? Then, if the matter be so,
there are several things I would recommend to you, and so
put an end to this discourse.
(1.) Be much in grateful acknowledgment of God's wonder-
ful mercy ; make that much the great business of your lives,
for it is a great thing God hath done for you, in that he hath
delivered you from so great a death ! think what the state and
posture of your souls once was God-ward. " Why, let me have
heard never so much of the most glorious, the most excellent
of all Beings, in which all the excellencies of all beings did
meet together, infinite love, and light, and life and purity,
and lioliness ; yet, alas ! I had no inclination towards him ;
no desire after him ; no complacency in him ; my soul was as
a stone, or stick, or a log, without sense, without motion
God-ward. I have heard (it may be) of his name often; but it
never carried a pleasant sound to me. It was no pleasure to
me, to go and shut up myself in a closet, and pour out my
soul unto him. As for taking complacency in him as my best
Good, so as to account him my exceeding great Joy ; Alas ! I
kr.ew not what this meant. It was a soul that might have
been a stone, as well as a soul as to any inclination it had God-
ward. But, O ! blessed be God, that it is otherwise ! When
LEC. XXXIV.) Spiritual death'^directions, 473
I hear of that very Sacred Name, it transports my soul, to think
tiiatAUof bein^, and blessedness, and wisdom, and purity,
and light, and love, is mine. And if all the world should
frown on me, and he give me but one smile, it is as life to my
soul. Now, the very seasons of my converge with him, are as
my repasts. What pleasure do 1 take when the sabbath is
come; when the light of that holy day doth dawn upon me!
Formerly, I knew not what to design for God. Now my end is
the glory of God : if I can but speak a good word for his ho-
nour and interest, it falls in with the inclination of my spirit."
Why sure, if this be the case with you, it is the most inexcu-
sahle thing in all the vvorld, thatthere should be no more of gra-
titude for so great a change wrought in you. Consider that
God, in so altering the case, hath done that for you, which all
the world could not have done. Lay all the powers of men on
earth, and of all the angels in heaven together, they could
never have made your hearts to love God, or desire after him,
or delight in him. But he hath 'touched your hearts with a
vital touch, and made them love him, and live to him.
When tlie difference is so vast (as 1 was saying to you lately)
between abiding in death, and having passed from death to
life, (and, whereas, every one must be in one of these two
states; so that every one must say, either " 1 do abide in
death," or " I have passed from death to life,") if we, by
gracious vouchsafement, are passed from death to life, if this
be our case, and we are not much in thanksgiving ; O ! how
inexcusable is this ! And, christians, I would have you to con-
sider this, that this it is which starves religion, and is the rea-
son why, where it is, it languisheth ; for want of this exercise
of thanksgiving. And know, that where such praises are as-
cending to heaven, benedictions will be also descending from
heaven. Were there more of these acknowledgments, how
would blessings descend ! O ! we should be more in bless-
ing of God for heavenly things in Christ Jesus ; that we should
have that opportunity, from day to day, of beholding death
spreading abroad its dark shadows over all the intellectual
world, to wit, over the minds and spirits of men, and, I was
myself a sad instance thereof : but God hath delivered me
out of this miserable state ; O I not to be much in thanksgiv-
ing, is the most inexcusable temper that can be ! But again,
(2.) You ought, hereupon, more to pity the miserable world
tliat is yet in death, over which deatli hath passed, and in
which it abides. There is altogether a fault among us upon
this account ; we want bowels, we liave not compassions, as
we ought to have within us, towards perishing creature?.
vof. VII. .3 r
474 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OV GOD. (pART II.
** Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." It
is a great evidence of our having obtained mercy, our being
merciful in this kind. But to be destitute of compassion for
the sad case of dead souls, is a sad symptom. To say, I have
a husband, a wife, a child, that are under the power of death,
have nothing of the life of God, no favour of God, no fear
of God, in them; nothing that looks like the grace of God ;
why, not to compassionate them, sure, such a frame as this
hath in it no indication of divine life springing in us: we see
them, and converse with them, but seldom have a regretting
thought that toucheth our hearts : this is, sure, altogether a
fault, and knows no excuse, admits of none. It argues, at
least, a very great languor of the divine life in us, when we
have so little a sense of so horrid a death, as lies upon the ge-
nerality of the world. Those, in whom this divine life doth
take place, they are regenerated after God's own image : and
that nmst intimate to them to be like minded with him. God
hath shewed mercy unto us, and, therefore, mercy was his
nature, it is in the highest perfection in him. If I am trans-
formed after his image, I must imitate him in this. If I have
nothing of the divine offspring in me, how am I his child ?
And, if I have, why should it not operate in me in this kind,
in reference to those that were in the same case with me, be-
fore I obtained mercy. And again,
(3.) If you have, through the grace of God, in a good de-
gree, escaped out of that fearful state of death, which abides
generally upon the world, make little reckoning in comparison
of what you suffer in lower kinds, and in lesser respects, what-
soever you have to complain of upon other accounts. Let
not the sense of lesser evils enter deep into your souls. He
Hath saved you from the greater evils : he delivered you out of
that so great a death, which overwhelmed you and all the
world. It is then, very disingenuous to comphiin of lesser and
smaller things, when, from the greatest evils of all, he hath
saved us. As the apostle saith, 2 Tim. 1 . i>. *' Who hath
saved us and called us with a holy calling." Saved already in
a degree, and, by saving us in that degree, hath made eternal
salvation as sure as if we were in heaven already. And there-
fore, I say, reckon little of these lesser evils that may befal
you in this present state. And, in the last place,
(4.) It is very suitable to such, further to consider, that
the rest of the evils of the world ought not to be considered as
strange, when it is to be remembered, that a universal death
hath passed over all men. That such and such evils should befal
in this world, should not be thought strange, since this death
LEc. XXXIV.) Spiritual death — directions. 475
hath passed over all. We hear of a great mortality (it mSy be)
in such a country, and of a great many lives cut otf in a bat-
tle, in another country. There ought to l)e bowels of com-
passion upon that account ; otherwise we have put off" huma-
nity. But it is a great madness that we should make a
greater matter of these things, and, at the same time, make
nothing of that universal death that hath passed over all.
Where are our minds, that we do not weigh the difference of
things ?*
I have one thing more, before 1 pass to the doctrine of a Me-
diator, and God's method of saving souls. And I desire to
speak to it from another text. And that is, to vindicate the
justice of God as to this sad and calamitous state, that is uni-
versal upon mankind, by reason of the fall.
* In the commencement of this suhject^ a III. Head was proposed
— the consecution of death upon the tall — (vide page 342 and 356,)
which the Author has not discussed separately ; but the attentive
reader will perceive it is kept in view in the preceding and the fol-
lowing Lecture
I^DXTOR.
JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD,
VINDICATED,
As to all men's coming into the world with sinful depraved
natures from the ivomh.
LECTURE XXXV.*
Psalm 51. 4. 5.
Against theef thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil
in thy sight : that thou mightest be justified rchen thou
speakesty and he clear when thou judgest. Behold, I
• was shapen in iniquity ; and in sin did my mother
conceive me.
TIAVING discoursed to you at large from tliat Rom. 5. 12.
concerning the fall of the first man, and the entrance of sin
and death in(o the world, thereupon, I told you in the conclusion
of the last discourse on that subject, my further intention was
to say something for the clearing of the Divine Justice, in re-
ference hereunto : and it is a debt, a right that we owe to the
Supreme Ruler and Lord of all, not only to confess his righte-
ousness, but, as occasion serves and requires, to vindicate it
too. We cannot be just ourselves, if we do not, to our utmost,
in all things, justify him.
My design is not, from this scripture, to speak absolutely
of the corruption and depravedness of the human nature, which
I did before, from that mentioned scripture. But to speak of
it relativelyand comparatively, in reference to the righteousness
of God, or so far as that may appear any way concerned ia the
* Preached Oct. 20, 1^94.
LEC. XXXV.) j4ll men depraved — God vindicated. 477
matter. And indeed, it might be thought, there lay before,
a very unexceptionable state of the case between God and man,
in that scripture that I last, and so long insisted on ; which
makes death only to have followed sin into the world. And
what can be more natural than the connexion of sin and death,
or the consecution of the latter upon the former, that death
should only be said to have entered into the world, and to have
passed over all, inasmuch as all have sinned.
But men's curiosity doth not rest here, while they will not
pretend to deny the actual consecution of death upon sin ; they
make a great deal of difficulty to understand how sin should
follow upon innocency. And here the difficulty is not so great
neither, concerning the lapse of the first man, and the death
following upon that as to him ; as also the case hath no appear-
ance of difficulty concerning the angels that fell, when (as the
case was with the lirst man) every one oilended in his own
person, and so was in his own person to answer for the oftence.
But that that makes the difficulty is, that men should be ge-
nerally involved in sin and ruin, upon the lapse and fall of
one, (their common parent) when they could not help it that
they were his children, or that they were born of such pro-
genitors, that all should be undone by a fault which they could
not prevent, and unto which they had no accession.
This difficulty hath cast divers men upon distressing thoughts.
Some have thereupon denied the corruption and depravity of
human nature; and they might as well deny that there are men
upon earth. Some would have the souls of men (the only capa-
ble subjects of sin) to be propagated as the bodily part is, which
would hazard the doctrine of their immortality. Others have
had their other conjectures, which I shall not mention. ^
But, upon the whole, we ought not only to censure with in-
dulgence, but to commend and praise the spirit and practice of
such, in reference to this matter, as have, with sincere and
unbiassed minds, set their understandings on work, how best
to maintain high and honourable thoughts of God ; that have
been studious to find out, or apt to entertain any hypothesis
that might be more suitable unto that. This (I say) is not
only to be censured indulgently, but to be commended very
highly, provided that men do not, herein, run counter to express
Divine Revelation and unto uncontrolable experience. And
that they be not so over-officious as to affix characters upon
the blessed God, under the name of perfections belonging to
his nature, which do not truly or really so belong, and which
he never owned or claimed as such.
It is very plain, that this holy Fsalmist had seen through this
478 THE PftlNCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
difficulty, lie saw with bettei eyes than the most; more sincere,
less ni'ilevolent ; and had digested the matter in his thoughts,
otherwise he wouid never have laid down these two thi'ngs thus
together as we find, " That thou mayest be justified when thou
speakest, and be clear when thou jud;i,est. Behold, I was sha-
pen in iniquity, and in sin did iny mother conceive me." He,
at least, thought these things very agreeable with one another,
ifratiier, he did not bring in tLe latter as a proof and demon-
stration of the former, whicli the demonstrative particle pre-
fixed (Behold) would lead one to think.
But let us, first, view the words a little in themselves, and
we shall discern the schesis and reference to one another, a lit-
tle better thereby, afterwards. That which is here, in this
place, rendered actively, is in the 3 chapter to the Romans^
rendered passively, that thou mightest be justified in thy hen
sayings and overcome when thou judgest;" there it is, '' w^ed
thou art judged," as we read it, the septuagint being folio (as
(as frequently it is) by the apostle. But I cannot apprehend of
some do note) any need of a ditterent reading in the lette\
either text, as some critics take notice, the Hebrew affix be'^g
set as there it is, may indifferently be road, either actively or
passively. And so may the Greek word, as is most evident,-
and so we may render either place, either way ; and all will
come to one and the same sense; that God may appear just,
ih'dt his justice may be triumphant and victorious, whether it
be when he judgeth ; or when men judge and censure him,
and his proceedings.
And so the current of this discourse of the Psalmist will be
plain and clear : " I acknowledge mine iniquity, and my sin
is ever before me ; against thee only have I sinned : that thou
mayest be justified when thou speakest" — that is, referring to
the 3 verse, " 1 acknowledge," (as here I do,) then the ac-
knowledgment follows, " that thou mayest be justified." " I
make mv acknowledgments so and so, that thou mayest be
justified when thou speakest, or mayest overcome when thou
judgest, or when men presume or take upon them to censure
thv proceedings towards me ; though thou shouldest proceed
with all the severity that thou hast threatened by the prophet
sent unto me ; for not only have I done this particular evil
against thee, and in thy sight, but I have been an impure crea-
ture, even from my ovvn original: thou hast much against me,
not only for this single instance, but as 1 came a sinful polluted
creature into the world : I was shapen in iniquity, formed,
turned therein ; as soon as I grew warm in the womb, (as the
word signifies) so soon sin did insinuate into my very prw-
mordia, into the very principles of jny being,"
LEC. XXXV.) All men depraved — God vindicated. 479
And to the same purpose is this passage quoted by the apos-
tle, in that mentioned Romans 3. 4. for when lie liad been
charging sin, before, upon all the world, on the Gentiles, in the
1 chapter, and on the Jews, in the 2. he only puts a question
in the beginning of the 3 chapter, " Wliat advantage then hath
the Jew, if all be found equally under sin ?" And he only ad-
mits them to have an advantage in order to their recovery, but
none at all as to their degeneracy. In reference to their reco-
very they had a great advantage, inasmuch, as to them were
committed the Oracles of God, the discovery of his counsel
and way for the reconciling and saving lost sinners. But he
considers nothing, in reference to what he had asserted of
their part and share in tlie common depravation and apostasy ;
tliey were as bad as the best.
Then he immediately lays down what is quoted from the
Psalmist, and makes that iils scope and mark in ail the rest of
the chapter, that is, to justify God ; that he might be justified,
and overcome in all his pleadings and judgings : or when man
should implead or take tipon him to censure God, that still his
justice might be victorious and triumphant. This is the mark,
that he aims at manifestly, in all his following discourse ;
shewing at large, the universal depravation and corruption of
human nature every where ; having proved (as he saith at the
9th verse) concerning both Jews and Gentiles (which did then
divide the world) that they were all under sin.
Indeed, the immediate subjoining of this unto the mention
of the design in this psalm, seems to carry this aspect with it,
that the Psalmist intended to speak or introduce the mention of
this depravednessand corruption of human nature, (even as it
was in himself) as a proof and evidence of the divine justice, as
that which might tend to clear it so much the more. But at
least, it must be collected from his subjoining the mention of
the latter to the former, that he looked upon them as very con-
sistent, and very reconcileable things, as things that carried
no repugnancy in them to one another. And even this, will
serve my present purpose and design. So that all which I shall
observe from this context, and the connexion of these two,
herein, shall be this, —
That it is very consistent with the justice of God, pnd very
reconcileable to it, most reconcileable to it, that men, born of
human parentage, do universally come into tlils v.orld impure
and polluted creatures, even from the womb. —
The Psalmist did not so much as imagine (you may see) an
inconsistency between the corruption of nature in man, and
the justice of God, in that he so lavs ?hera doun by one ano-
4S0 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (I'ART II,
ther. Surely (thinks he) these cannot quarrel, no man can
reasonably think they will ; they are to be looked upon, and
ought to be looked upon, as sociable truths, that can agree
well together, even these two, that man from the womb is an
impure, sinful creature : and God is everlastingly and immu-
tably a holy and righteous God.
Now, in speaking to this, I shall reduce all that I intend,
unto a Four-fold Conclusion. And shall gather up all, under
these four ; As,
I. There can be no real opposition between truth and truth.
And so, that whatsoever we are convinced of is truth, another
truth that we are equally as certain of, cannot be opposite
thereunto. If there be any such appearance, it is but a false
appearance, it is only a seemingness of opposition and contra-
riety, but really there can be no such thing. And,
II. That we may be most certain, that many things are,
when, how they are, or come to be as they arc, is by us unex-
plicable and unaccountable. And,
III That it would be very unreasonable to oppose and object
dubious and uncertain things, against what is sure and plain,
and most certain. And,
IV. That it will be, especially, most unreasonable to op-
pose uncertain to certain things, when there are many consi-
derations capable of being alleged that will break the force of
such objections. But nothing can be alleged to shake the
certainty and firmness of the foresaid truths. Then it will be
most of all unreasonable.
Unto these four conclusions^ I shall reduce what I intend,
and what I think reasonable to be said to this matter.
I. That truth can never be opposite to truth : and that there-
fore, what things we are most certain of as true, they can lie in
no opposition to one another. But whatsoever of such ap-
pearance there may be, must be a false appearance. I in-
stance, here, in these two things, that we are concerned to re-
concile, — the perfection of the Divine Nature (comprehending
his justice) and — the sinful imperfection and pravity of the hu-
man nature. Tliese are both most certain truths; and, there-
fore, it is impossible they can be really opposite to one another.
1. The absolute perfection of the Divine Nature, compre-
hending his justice, which must be one great perfection be-
longing thereunto. It is that indeed which, by the ducture of
the text, we are principally concerned to vindicate, and so we
are, indeed, any divine perfection against wliich the doctrine
afterwards assctcd^^may seem to militate. Everyone will grant,
that acknowlcdgeth a God, that justice must be a perfection
LEc. XXXV.) All men dejn-aved — God viiidioaied. 481
belonging to his nature. And we may, these two ways, be
most absolutely ascertained hereof.
(1.) That whatsoever doth belong to God, belongs to him
essentially: his nature can receive no additions nor diminu-
tions, and consequently is immutably so; can no more cease
to be so, than he can lie, or do any ill thing; nor this, more
than he can cease to be ; because all perfection (and that of
justice among the rest) belongs unto him essentially. .So that he
can no more cease to be just, than cease to be God. And,
(2.) Of this we maybe ascertained further, thus, that where-
as, justice is a virtue inclining a person to give to every one
his due, that which is owing to him, rightly belongs to him,
God cannot be a debtor to his creature, otherwise tlian by vo-
luntary obligation that he takes upon himself. No one can be
a debtor to anotlier but one of these two ways; either natu-
rally, or by some other sort of contract. He is, indeed, natu-
rally a debtor who is possessed of somewhat (hat doth belong
to another, that was originally his, and to which he retains a
right : a man is in this case naturally a debtor to such a one by
the immediate law of nature, to give him his own, or a full equi-
valent that he shall be satisfied is so. But so it is altogether im-
possible that God can be a debtor to his creature, who, (as the
apostle speaks, upon another account, 17 Acts,) hath given to
all life and breath, and all things. They can be proprietors of
nothing, in opposition to him or against him, that are not mas-
ters of themselves, or of their own being. They owe iiim their
all; to them there can be owing nothing ; that is, not from
him, to whom they themselves owe their very all. It is a
just challenge, therefore, that is given to all the world by the
apostle; Rom. 11.35. ** Who hath first given to him, and
it shall be recompensed unto him again ?" Produce me the
man that can say, " God is a debtor, that he hath given him
this or that, for which he is owing to him, let any man pro-
duce his claim, and it shall be recompensed to him again."
So that, naturally, God cannot be a debtor to liis creatures.
And then, if we speak of the second way of his being a
debtor, God hath never obliged himself to keep sin out of the
creation, so as that he should break with his creatures, and do
them wrong, in not doing all that was possible to omnipotency
to make tliem impenable. Shew the obligation, produce the
bond. Where is it? If this were to be alleged. He broke with
his reasonable creatures at first, in making them free^ in infect-
ing liberty into their natures : why he never laid himself under
any obligation against this. And therefore, it is every way
most evident, that God must be immutably and ui^altcrably
VOL. VI [. 8 Q
482 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
just in aH his dispensations ; and. particularly in this, in not
hindering that sin should come into the world, and draw death
after it, and spread itself through the world, (as we find it hath
done,) still drawing on, and attracting death. And,
2. On tlie other hand, it is a n)ost clear and certain truth,
that as the nature of God is most absolutely and unalterably
perfect, including all perfection, and that of justice unalte-
rably among the rest ; so, the nature of man is, in this pre-
sent state, and from the very original of individual persons,
sinfully imperfect ; and they come into the world impure and
polluted creatures from the womb. The justice of God is not
to be solved that way, by denying that there is such a corrup-
tion and depravity of nature, transmitted even with the na-
ture of man itself from age to age, as therein is comprehended
both a negative part, a disinclination to all good; and a positive,
«n inclination to all evil. And that this also may be in our
minds as a certain trutli, 1 shall insist a little, and but a little,
upon it. It not being my design (as 1 said) to do what hath
been already done, to insist purposely upon the corruption of
human nature absolutely, but only relatively and comparatively,
according to what reference this matter may bear to the righ-
teousness of God's dealings with men. And to evince this,
(1.) It is the most plain and express language of the Scrip-
ture. And what ought to determine in such a case? what could
determine us but that ? There is not another tolerable sense to
be put on these v/ords, " 1 was shapen in iniquity, and in
sin did my mother conceive me." It is most unreasonable and
absurd, to pretend this to be only a particular acknowledg-
ment of David concerning himself: as if he had the most un-
happy procreation of all mankind; as if there were more cor-
rui)tion, or another way to convey corruption to him from his
l^arents, than was with all the rest of men. It can carry no mean-
ing, but that he doth involve his own in the common case, that
it was only with him, in this respect, as it is with all others,
that they are, (as the expression is in John 9. 31,) altogether
bom in sin, all unclean. And it was, therefore, impossible that
any thing clean should come out of them. " Who can bring a
clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." And you have the
same thing more expressly asserted in general terms, in the5S
psalm ; " The wicked are estranged from the womb, they go
astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies." And sure, every
man is wicked till he is converted, till he be regenerate and
turn to God. Therefore, it must be an affirmation concern-
ing all mankind, that they are estranged from the very womb,
.'.verse and disailected to every tiling that is good ; and pro-
LKC. XXXV.) All men depraved — God viiulkaled. 4-3
pense to that which is evil, as the following words si^MiIly :
they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies; uiade
up of falsehood, even from their original. And,
(2.) The Seripture doth, in multitudes of places, speak of
the universal actual sinfulness of the world: and whence should
that come ? In that 3 chapter of Romans, how often it is in-
culcated, 1 have proved (saith the apostle) Jews and Gentiles
to be all under sin : and they were all the world. And all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God ; (afterwards
in the same chapter 19,) and, that every mouth may he stop-
ped, and all the world become guilty before God. Now, this
being plainly asserted in the vrord of truth, how should this
actual sinfulness begin with every one, so as to be universal ?
If it were only by imitation and example, it is strange that all
•should imitate the sin, but none follow the better exaniples,
which, when renewing grace hath done its work, do come to
be extant and appear in view, so as that many do carry it
(through the grace of God) without visible scandalous enormi-
ties. But that which is so universally common, must have
some common cause. The reason of the thing speaks itself:
when there is not an instance to be found of any one that hath
lived without sin, how should this be, but that it hath and
must have sprung up with them ? must have come with their
nature, their very nature itself? for it is as common as their
nature. And we may,
(3.) Argue from experience, that such a corruption and pra-
vity as this, doth spring up with men and all human creatures,
that come into this world, the ordinary way : that is, we cannot
name the time when such are capable of acting elcctlvcly or
rationally, but they are of acting sinfully as soon. Doth not
every one's experience tell him so ? That there are disinclina-
tions to that which is good, and inclinations to that which is
evil, appearing most early ; peevishness, crossness, pride, strife,
falsehood, a disposition to lie, to be revengeful and vindictive ;
nothing is plainer; so that to deny tlie pravity of nature, even
from men's primordia, is all one, as to say there are not such
natures in being. And then,
(4.) We may argue, too, from the manifest subjection and
liableness of infants, even in their infancy, unto punitive
strokes; sickness, pains, and death itself. Wherein is this,
that the infant age is not exempt, if it be innocent, if it hath
nothing of impurity and pravity adhering to it ? If here it be
said by way of reply to ti)is, that " we tind the inferior crea-
tures, brute creatures are liable to the same thing; sick-
ness, and pain, and death, bat that doth not prove them to be
484 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
sinful, or that they have any sinfulness adhering to them;"
why the case is so manifestly different, that it is an easy matter
for the objector, if he please, (whosoever he be,) to answer
himself. It is plain, death was never a threatening to them :
it is plain that the brute creatures, as they grow up, do not
come to sin at last, they never sin, nor are ever capable of it.
And if, therefore, it should be said, that such infirmities, ails,
maladies and mortality itself, are afflictions only, and not pe-
nalties, I would fain know whether that do not equally reflect
upon the divine justice, (of which such do seem to be so ten-
der,) and a great deal more, to afflict a creature which is at the
same time asserted to be innocent, every way innocent ; doth
not carry a worse face, a worse aspect with it, than to assert
this creature to be nocent? And to say, these things are not
punitive, but afflictive, is but a notional difference; and the
notion doth neither do them good nor harm; neither makes the
affliction less or more. But sure, it is more honourable for
God to say, that, observing the impure and depraved state of
human nature, even from its very original, he animadverts
upon that impurity. As why should nut the holy God express
a displeasancy with every impurity wherever he finds it ? And
no man accuseth another of any injustice if he do destroy a '
creature as soon as it begins to live, that is known to be noxious,
hurtful and mischievous; as the crushing of serpents in the
very egg ; when this is so apparent, that there are so noxious
qualities, which there is nothing but want of opportunity and
time that hinders their exertion in noxious and hurtful acts.
To express a displeasancy towards the innate disposition, can
be no way unworthy of God. But that we shall have occasion
to speak of more liereafter.
In the mean time, this is the First Head proposed — that
truth cannot be opposite to truth. — And therefore, we being as-
certained of this twofold truth, that God is most perfectly and
unalterably just, and that man is sinfully imperfect and impure,
from his original, that is, the original of the individuals, these
two cannot be opposite to one another : one truth cannot de-
stroy another truth, or impart any repugnancy thereunto. And
therefore, if there be any appearance of contrariety between
these two, it must be but a false appearance. For of these
things we are most certain; they are undoubted truths. There-
fore, to solve the phoenomenon, we must look another way,
and there will be opportunity for that, in speaking to the fol-
lowing conclusions. In the meantime, let these two things
be inlaid deeply in our souls, th.at God is absolutely and every
way perfect, so as that, that perfection of his must include the
r.Kc. XXXV.) All men depraved — God vindicated. 435
most unalterable eternal righteousness and justice; but that
we for our parts are, from our original, impure and pol-
luted creatures, that there may be, accordingly, suitable
dispositions in us to acknowledge and adore his righteousness:
and to own and abhor our own impurities: to walk humbly in
the sense of them as long as we live, and to have so much the
more disposition to admire that grace, which hath its exercise
tovvards such creatures as we, when in point of justice there
was enough against us to have produced, for ever, all the ex-
ercises of such grace.
LECTURE XXXVL*
II. Now I go on to tlic next conclusion, which is the se-
cond in order, namely — That we may be most certain that
many things really are, when the manner how they are, or
how they came to be, is not understood by the most, or may
be of very difficult explication unto any — And to accommo-
date this to tlie present purpose I shall proceed by steps.
1. It is very plain that there is a cloud and darkness gene-
rally sitting upon, or a veil is generally drawn over the incep-
tions of things of whatsoever kind, as to how things of any
sort, do take their first beginnings. It is observable that, usu-
ally, a veil is drawn over those things. Look into all the pro-
ductions of nature, how things do take their first rise, it is ge-
nerally very inexplicable, and very unconceivable, at least as
to the generality. For such substantial beings as are most
sensible to us, as we see with our eyes, or touch with our
hands ; so that there can be no place or room for any doubt,
but that such things are ; yet how they came to be, who caa
give an account? We can none of us be in doubt but there
are really these heavens over our heads, which our eyes see
from day to day; and this earth underneath us, which we may
touch when we please. But if God had not given us a general
account of the Genesis, of the beginning of the heavens and
the earth, at what a loss would men have been every where?
And at what a loss generally are they, how man himself be-
gan to be in this world, where they have not the ducture of
Revelation in the case, to assist and help them ? To think
what ridiculous accounts, some of the wise and learned philo-
sophers of this world have given of the very inception of maa-
Pieached October 2/, 1694.
4^6 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
kind, it shews there is a veil, especially over the beginnings of
things, when of the things themselves, there is the greatest
certainty imaginable. As who can make any man doubt whe-
ther there be sucli heavens as we behold, or such an earth as
we walk upon, though we should never have known, if God
had not told us, how they began. And to go a little further,
2. We are most certain of many acts ; and abilities and dis-
positions thereunto ; which actions, how they are performed,
very few can give an account ; and where the dispositions
thereunto did arise, they can as little tell. We know that we
can see with our eyes, and that we can hear with our ears ; and
that such actions are performed by those very organs that are
used for these purposes. But how few can tell how this act of
vision is performed, or can give an account of the struc-
ture of that organ of the eye by which it is performed ? And
so, how the action of hearing is done, and of the aptitude of the
organ of the ear thereunto? But we certainly know that we
see, and that we hear; and that we see with our eyes, and not
with our hands; and hear with our ears, and not with our
feet.
And so, for acts of understanding ; we know that we do
know ; we know, and are certain that we do exert acts of rea-
son, that we use thoughts, but who can tell how a thought
arises in a man's mind, and how men come to have the seeing,
and hearing, and speaking, and reasoning power and faculty
transmitted from age to age, and from generation to genera-
tion ? That there should arise still from age to age such a
sort of creatures as have these faculties and powers belonging
to them, of that we can give as little account, as how grass,
and herbs, and flowers do spring up of their proper seeds upon
this earth, from year to year. But of the things themselves,
we have the greatest certainty that may be. And to proceed
further,
3. Concerning sinful acts and dispositions, we can be in as
little doubt that such things there really are, though there be
here a greater difficulty how they came to be. It is true, that
this question vexed some of the wisest, and most learned, and
most considering of mankind ; before Christianity took place
among them; since there was nothing but what was good at
first, how should there come to be any such thing as evil in
the world? iVnd indeed, the counsel given, was wise and whole-
some, rather to consider how sin may be got out of the world,
than how it came into it. But there is a necessity upon us, to
endeavour, to our utmost, the maintaining and keeping up hig h
and honourable thoughts of God, us that upon which all religion
LEC. XXXVI.) ^11 inen depraved — God vindicated, 4S7
depends, and without wliich, men will bave a pretence to let
it vanish out of the world ; yea, and endeavour to make it so
to do.
But whatsoever difficulty we may suppose in this case, the
matter of fact is plain and evident; that is, we do find that
there is such a generation of creatures, that do spring up in
the world, from age to age, that are together both rea'^onablc
and sinful, as they could not be the latter without being the
former. This is plain matter of fact, that a sort of creatures,
which do exercise reason, do also sin from age to age, and
universally : and that this, their disposition to sin, and their
actual sinning, must have a beginning : and it cannot have
beginning, but from some common and universal cause, being
itself universal ; so as that there are no instances to be found
where (if there be an opportunity) a disposition to sin, doth not
betray itself; so as that men are not more inclined to act
rationally, than they are to act irregularly. They act rationally
in many instances, they act irregulaily in greater instances,
and more important, and that constantly, in all times, and all
parts of the world. This is plain matter of fuct ; and men do,
therefore, fill their own souls, and fill the world, with confu-
sions and miseries.
This (I say) is all plain matter of fact. We cannot be more
certain of any thing, than we are of this ; that is, that men
have so much reason still remaining, and belonging to their
nature, as by which they are capable of knowing they were
not self-made, not self-originate, that they came from ano-
ther, that they owe thelF all to an infinitely perfect Being;
that must have all perfection in itself, and all being originally
in itself, and that their interests are someway or other involved
within one another. And they are, thereupon, capable of un-
derstanding their own obligation to love God above all; and to
love one another as themselves. Very plain It is, if men did
but act pursuantly to such apprehensions, whereof it is most ap-
parent their nature is capable, they would pass their days, here
in this world, in very great tranquillity and felicity, within them-
selves, and towards one another; and, that it is impossible that
those miseries, and those evils and confusions which fill men's
spirits, and fill the world, should arise from anything else but the
Inclination that is in them to do otherwise ; not to love God with
a supreme love, and not to love one another with co ordinate
love. So that this is as plain matter of fact, as that there Is a
world, or that there are reasonable creatures in It. This hath
always been a difliculty, how (as to some particular persons es-
pecially) sin should have its beginning, when that it hath its
488 TUJi PRINCIPLES OF THIS ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
continual being in the world proves itself to every one's sad
experience and observation, that doth but take notice of him-
self and the Vv'orld. But yet,
4. Though, how sin is transmitted to particular and indivi-
dual persons, from generation to generation, it cannot be so
easily told, yet it may, most certainly, be determined how it is
not (which most concerns us vvitii reference to our present pur-
pose, to vindicate the righteousness of God) that is, that it is
man's creature, and not God's. It is not he that hath infused
any thing of evil or malignity into the nature of man, w-hicli
was originally pure and perfect as it sprang from him, the Au-
thor of all nature. This is out of question, that he made man
upright, but they have sought and found many inventions,
Eccl. 7« 29. This appears, by what that great man, Moses,
saith to the people, over whom God had made him a leader
and a head, when he was now shortly to take his leave of
them ; in that much celebrated song whieh he begins witli this,
as the design of publishing the name of the Lord, " Because
I will publisli the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto
our God :" (that, w^e may take up and accommodate very fully
to our own, tliat is to the common case.) " He is the rock (this
is a part of that name of liis v/hich he designed to publisli in
that 32 Deut.) his work is perfect, and all his ways are judg-
ment, a God of truth and Vv'ithout iniquity, just and right is
he." But " they have corrupted themselves :" (as in the 4 and
5 verses of that chapter, and onward :) a self-corrupted genera-
tion of creatures they are. And concerning this, we may as-
sure our hearts ; and ought to do so.
When we are in this case to apologize for God, it is indeed
an awful thing that is undertaken ; but with the profoundest
reverence, and with the greatest veneration, and with a deep
resentment of the necessity that men should be so prone to ar-
raign the Almighty: and he be (as it were) put to plead his
cause at his own creatures' bar; as the apostle's reading of
the words doth imply; and as the former part, even of that
clause in the 4 verse of this psalm is understood to signify too :
That thou miglitest be justified when thou speakest ; when
thou speakest by way of apology for thyself. It ought to be
done with a sincere design, and with a joyful confidence, tiiat
he will always overcome and triumph when he judgeth himself,
and when men presume to judge him, and pass their censures
upon his ways and methods towards the world.
But it is a thing must be done, because there Is a proneness
In men's minds to admit of, and to have thoughts arise and
spring up in them which have a reflecting aspect and look, upon
LEC. XXXVI.) All men dep'uved — God vindicateiL 439
the Most High, and Most Righteous God. As you see, the
apostle, in the plaee wliere he quotes tliis text, (Romans 8. 4,
5.) o'ljects tills; "Is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance?"
when he was, in the foregoing and following chapters, proving
Jew and Gentile to be all under sin. " Is God unrighteous,
who taketh vengeance ? I speak as a man," humano more^
after the manner of meny which implies, so men are apt to
speak ; that is, to raise questions and doubts in their own
minds, " How will this or that stand with tlie righteousness of
God ?" Therefore, the apostle thought himself concerned to
vindicate God's righteousness ; and he doth it largely, even
there in that mentioned chapter, and afterwards in several
others of that epistle; and it ought to be done with a pleasant
CO Hdence that there will be an universal applause totherigh-
teoasness of God at last, by all his intelligent creatures ; that
all shall agree and conspire together, in saying, *' Holy and
true art thou O Lord ; just and righteous art thou Lord God
Almighty, thou King of nations and of saints."
This I thought fit to say, by way of introduction to what
I have further to say to this last m.entioned head, that while
we may be in some difficulty, how corrupt nature comes to be
propagated from man to man, and from age to age, we are yet
at a certainty how it is not done; that is, that sin is none of
God's creature, and that he never infuses a sinning disposition
into any creature whatsoever. The belief of this we ought to
establish and settle in our own hearts, as that by which we shall
but give God his due, and consult our own peace, and more
flourishing and prosperous state of religion in our own souls ;
that it may have no damps there, or nothing that may tend to
extinguish or deaden it in us. And therefore, this I shall evince
to you, by some plain considerations; though one would think,
indeed, the thing needed no eviction. As,
(1.) That the purity of God's nature cannot but abhor it:
it is impossible that a thing so repugnant as sin is to the pure
and holy nature of God, can spring from that pure and holy
nature. Nothing but what is good can come from the first,
the original, the essential, the most perfect Good. And,
(2.) That which he hath forbidden, it is impossible that he
sliould cause or procure ; that would be such a contradiction as
we could never suspect an honest man of, that he should for-
bid and procure the same thing.
(3.) Much less is it possible that he should cause that which
he punisheth, and punisheth with so terrible severity ; the pro-
per wages of sin being no less than eternal death. And,
(4.J it is impossible he should cause that which he hates ;
VOL. VII, y R
490 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OT GOD. (PART II,
" Do not the abominable thing which I hate, which my soul
hateth." Of that he can never be the Author and the Cause,
Andj
(5.) It can never he, that he should be the Cause or Author
of that, which is so highly injurious to him, which doth hinj
the greatest injury imaginable. For though, from the per-
fection of his own nature, it is impossible it should do him
any real harm ; yet it doth him the greatest wrong. What a
disorder hath it introduced into the creation of God ! how
hath it spoiled his workmanship, in a great master-piece of his
creation, the mind and soul of man made after his image !
What deformity hath it introduced in the room of so much
beauty and glory ! How manifest an attempt is it against his
throne, even in the very nature of it ! What a violation of
the sacred constitution of his government ! It is sin that hath
set his own creatures against him, disaffected it to him: that
is, in itself, in its rooted aversion from God, and hatred of
God. It is the most unconceivable thing in the world, that
God should make his own nature hate himself, disaffect him-
sel. It is sin that hath actually torn away so great and noble a
part of his creation from him, and plucked it from his obe-
dience and subjection ; even all the generations of men frorn
age to age, and so great a part of the heavenly host, and turn-
ed them all into rebels against their Maker and Rightful Lord,
It cannot be that he should cause so mischievous a thing.
And it is too faint a vindication of God, in this case, to say,
that therefore, he cannot cause, because it is a defect, and so
not a causable thing, or capable of any other but a deficient
cause. This is very true indeed, but very short, for that is no
more than to say, God caused it not, than to say, another caus-
ed it not ; as a tiling that cannot be caused, cannot indeed ad-
mit of positive causation. That is very true, but we do not
do God right if we do not assert also, that he could not bring
it about, that it should be any agency of his ; not in respect
of the object as being an uncausable thing, but in respect of
his own nature, as being repugnant to his holiness, and to his
sovereignty, and to the sacredness of his government. And
as tliat which he could not but abhor from, and hate, and hate
with utmost detestation. And I add to all this,
(6.) To evince that this transmission of sin, cannot be by
any direct hand that God hath in it, in that he hath provided
so costly a remedy against it, that \)e should cause that which
his own Son came down into oar world, and died to destroy.
That so wonderful a thing siiould be, as his descent into this
world of ours, " who was the brightness of his Father's glory, and
LEC. XXXVI.) All men depraved — God vindicated. 491
the express image of his person, and who upholds all things by
the word of his power, and by whom he made the worlds ;" tl at
he should come down and appear once before the end of time,
(or upon the declining of time from its fulness,) to put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself; (Heb. 9. 25.) that he who sent his
ow-n Son to put away sin upon so very expensive terms, by the
sacrifice of himself, to throw it out of the world, should have
a hand in bringing it into the world, is the most inconceiva-
ble thing that can be.
And it is that which all agree in, that however sin came into
the v/orld, God was not the Author of it. Every one abhors
that thought, men of all sorts, of all persuasions and religions:
pagans themselves, in all the descri])tions we tind in their writ-
ings concerning original evil, all agree in this, that God is
not the Original of it : all agree to discharge God in the case,
though they are put (some of them) upon most absurd imagi-
nations and devices to assoile the matter in themselves; and to
avoid one difficulty, run themselves into as great or greater.
Some talking, they know not what, of a certain ancient nature,
from whence evil must come: some positively asserting two
principles, as Manes and his manicheans did, an evil princi-
ple, and a good. But this, all have agreed in, by common con-
sent, that God could not be the Author of the sinful evils that
have, in so great measure, confounded the world, and spoiled
and corrupted the nature of man.
And that being so far clear, we may reckon, that a good step
is taken towards the mark that we are aiming at, the vindicat-
ing of God's righteousness in reference to this thing. There
is the greatest certainty imaginable of the thing itself, while
we are uncertain of the manner how sin comes to be transmit-
ted from age to age, or to take its beginning in particular per-
sons in a continual succession. Though there be (I say) a dif-
ficulty as to that, there is no difficulty as to the thing; and
there is no difficulty as to this, how it did not, though it re-
main still a difficulty, how it is. It'is not from God, sin is
none of his creature.
Then I should here subjoin, in the third place, that next
conclusion which I design to speak to, namely,
III. That it is the most unreasonable thing that can be, to
object uncertainty against certainty. It being certain, that
God is immutably holy and righteous, and that his nature is
absolutely perfect; it being certain that man's nature is now
become sinfully imperfect ; and it being again plain, that we
may be certain of very many thing?, when how they come to
be, is doubtful, and pcrhajjs, to many or the most inexplica»
492 THE PRIKCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTII.
ble : but as to this particular thing, we do not know how the
corruption of particular persons bef;:an, but we know how it
began not ; that is, that it is impossible to be any way imputa-
ble to God : we thence proceed to sliew, how unreasonable
a thing it is, to object the tilings about which we are uncer-
tain, against the things that are most certain, that carry the
greatest and plainest evidence with them. And of this we
may give you instances enough.
If we should argue against the existence of this world, be-
cause we have not a particular, distinct account how it took
its beginning, how absurd were it ? If ^we may be capable of
being puzzled with such questions as these, the great God put
to Job. (chapter 38. in several verses of it.) If he should bid
us gird up our loins like men, and say he would demand of
us, to answer, " Where were you when I laid the foundations
of the earth? declare, if you have understanding. Who hath
laid the measures thereof, if ye know? or who hath stretched out
the line upon them ?" If he should expostulate with us, touch-
ing our knowledge of the way, how the sea is shut up as within
bars and doors ; or how ice, and snow, and rain are generated,
and would put us upon giving an account of these things,
would it not be the absurdest thing in all the world to deriy
their being, because we cannot give a distinct account of
them ? If we cannot give a distinct account, (or it may be,)
a satisfactory one to ourselves, how matter was moved yet in
the unformed chaos, and when the measuring line was stretch-
ed forth of this world, and the foundations laid of this mighty
work; if we cannot give an account, how light and darkness
were severed; which was the parting place, the utmost boun-
dary of light and darkness; if we cannot give an account how
the waters of the sea came to be collected and gathered into one
place, and to be confined and shut up there, so as not to return
and overflow the earth ; if we cannot give an account how the
rain was generated by its father: '*Haih the rain a father ? (as
it follows here :) how ice and snow came to be condensed into
these several substances, wherein we find them ; therefore, to
say that none of these things are; to oppose the uncertainties
about the production of these things, to the manifest undoubted
certainty of their existence, is certainly such an absurdity as
we could never prevail upon ourselves to be guilty Of.
But (as hath been told you before) we cannot be more cer-
tain of any thing that we see with our eyes, or of any faculty
or power that belongs to ourselves, than we are, that there is a
continual transmission of sin in this world. We cannot be
more certain that man is a seeing creature, that he is a hear-
LEC. XXXVII.) All men depraved — God vindicated. 493
ing creature, that he is a reasoning creature, than we can,
that lie is a living creature. And it would therefore, be the
most absurd thing imaginable, to oppose and object that wiiicli
is uncertain, against that which is so philnl\^ and fully certain.
And I might tell you here, of a great many uncertainties,
which they must suppose and take for granted to be very great
certainties, who should form a disputation in this case, concern-
ing the production of the corrupt and sinful nature in man.
But that would be too large a theme to enter upon now. Yet,
all will resolve into this in general, that as to what difficulty
men do imagine in this case, it is only from their opposing
philosophical imcertainty, to theological verity; and till philo-
sophers be agreed, in other matters, we have very little rea-
son to regard problems, doubtful problems, that may refer to
this particular case; of which 1 may Instance at another time,
but sliall not now. But (I say) let them come to a certainty
in other matters first, before they expect to be much regarded
in reference to determinate, theological truth, which we
reckon, stands unshaken as the foundations of heaven and earth.
When they have brought themselves and the world to a cer-
tainty about such things as the ebbing and flowing of the sea,
the causes of the very centre of our world, the powers of the
loadstone ; whether it be the sun or the earth, and which it is
of these that moves the other about ; when they have brought
such things as these, and a hundred more that might be men-
tioned, to a certainty, then, ihey may, with more pretence, ex-
pect to be listened to, as to their determinations which maj
more directly respect this case,
LECTURE XXXVll.*
Under the opening of the third conclusion, proposed to be
spoken to, for the clearing of what I intended in the choice of
the text we are upon, namely, — that it is most unreasonable and
absurd, to oppose and object dark, and doubtful, and uncertain
things, against that which is most evident and certain ; — we
shewed that there are many uncertainties, that men of philoso-
phical minds, and geniuses, do commendably enough employ
their thoughts about, while they do not attempt or offer at such
a thing, as to oppose them to manifest, revealed truths. But
if they will do so, it is, in all reason, to be expected that they
should come to a more general certainty than they do, or are
ever like to do, about philosophical matters in general. I iu-
* Preached Nov. 6, l6g4.
494 TUB PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART U.
stanced in several, and told you, I would instance in four more
which do more directly concern this case, about which, here
lies the objected diiiiculty.
That tlie human soul cannot be propagated : to suppose it
can, would he to expose the doctrine of its iaimortalityj to
roanifest hazard. It must be supposed, that being immediately
created by God himself, it comes pure and sinless' out of his
Viands. The body itself, without tiie soul, cannot be the seat
and subject of sin, as no irrational thing can, which is most
evident. Therefore, many think there can be no such thing
as propagation of sin from age to age; for how should It be ?
It cannot be at iirst found in t!ie soul, which comes pure out
of the hand of God. It cannot be seated or subjected in thfe
body, vvhieh is not a subject capable of sin, or any mortality,
abstractly considered. Here (I say) men do but oppose
uncertainty to a certainty ; a great many uncertainties to one
plain and absolute certainty ; that is, that sin doth really de-
scend from age to age ; and it is manifest, and in view with
every one that observes, that men do not sooner begin to
act rationally, than they do begin to act irregularly. But
to oppose uncertainties to this plain and evident certainty,
is a most unreasonable thing ; equally unreasonable as th&t
sophistical reasoning was of the philosopher that would under-
take to prove, that there could be no such thing as a local
jBotion : and another undertook to refute him by walking up
and down before his eyes. There are too plain and sad proofs,
ia the walkings of men from age to age, that as soon as ever
they begin to move or act as men, they do act sinfully ; and so
that corruption dolh descend and is transmitted. This is cer-
tain and evident. But to make this a difficulty, there are a
great many uncertainties supposed and taken for granted, about
whicli it concerns ignorant creatures (as we all are) to pro-
nounce nothing one way or other.
It is uncertain when or what time human souls were created,
or were not createcl ; whether all at once and at first, or whe-
ther at some distance of time, before they become to be united
to human bodies. Not that the truth needs a determination
of these matters, th.at vvay that would seem more favourable to
it, as if it be not otherwise defended. But, in the mean time,
we ought not to make difficulties greater than they really are,
by supposing and t;iking for granted, that those things are cer-
tain, which really are not so.
It is, again, altogether uncertain, by vt-hat sort of Divine
Agency a human soul comes to be united to a human body, -or
whether they come into that union electively, yea or no 3 ox
LEC. xxxvii.) All men depraved — God vindicated. -iDS
whether by a certain sort of fatal necessity ; these are uncer-
tainties, and we are not to pronounce concerning them, as if
they were certain.
VVe do not know ; philosophy cannot, with certainty, deter-
mine the strict, precise limitative bounds, "between the sensi-
tive nature, and the rational. VVe can be at no certainty, what
dispositions there may be in the sensitive nature unto sin,thoujj:U
there can be no such thing as formal sin in it, abstractly con-
sidered ; so that whensoever a reasonable, intelligent spirit,
shall come to be united therewith, it will thereupon certainly
sin; if it act, it will not act more rationally, than disorderly
and irregularly. As if never so skilful a hand do play upon an
instrument out of tune, if it sound, it will sound amiss ; if
never so skilful a horseman ride a lame horse, if he move, he
will halt. We are altogether uncertain what of sensitive
nature may he propagated with such and such dispositions in it,
before the supervention of the reasonable soul.
We are uncertain what orders there are of created spirits, so
little do we know ; and we ought not to pretend to know of
the affairs of the invisible world, so that we ought, in justice, to
profess ignorance of sucii things as these, whether there be any
common spirit of nature endowed with a plastic power, tijat
rnay be immediately concerned about the union of human
bodies, and human souls with one another. -
These are things, though contraries, whereunto fur the most
part, men take upon them to determine as certainties ; and so
make objections against tl-e most certain and unquestionable
truths. And the most of the diiiiculties in this matter do but
arise from opposing, doubtful philosopliical problems, to un-
questionable theological verities. And whereas, there is a
very great uncertainty in most parts of philosophy, in natural
philosophy, more than In any other part, therefore, the pre-
sumptuous determinations of men, about th se things, are very
unfit to be brought into any competition with the most certain
divine truths; that is, to oppose things that are doubtful, that
can never be proved, one way or other,' unto things that are
either most evidently proved, or are in themselves so evident,
as to need no proof. And this is the case as to the most of
what appears difficult in this affair. But then,
IV. The last conclusion that I am to insist upon, is thi?,
that it is most of all, unreasonable and absurd, to oppose such
uncertainties to certainties, to object what is doubtful and dark,
against what is plain and evident, when (as hath been evinced
already) there is nothing can shake the asserted truth ; but
there are many considerations may be brought to break the
496 THE PRINCIPLES OK THH. ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
force of such objections, as are rai&ed against it ; then, it is
most specially absurd. And under this head it was, that 1
designed to produce and lay before you, the many considera-
tions which tend to break the force of any thing that can be
objected against the consistency and agreeableness of the
righteous aiid universal perfection of the Divine Nature, with
the continual transmisbion of the sinful imperfections of the
human nature.
The difficulty I need not remind you of, only, that it may
lie the more distinctly in your thoughts, it is reducible to two
heads ; jjartly somewhat on the part of God, and partly some-
what on the part of man. On man's part first ; because he is
first to be considered in every thing that is evil, whether it be
evil of sin, or evil of misery. And from what hath been said
it appears diPncult to be conceived, how man can be capable
of propagating a sinful soul to another, when the soul, as such,
is not propagated : and sin must reside there, inasmuch (as
hath been said) as the body cannot be the seat or subject of
sin, abstractly considered, and without the soul. On God's
part, how it should stand with his righteousness and other
perfections, continually to co-operite with second causes in
the transmission of a sinful nature frofn age to age among
men ; so as thereby to make this world a seedplot of wicked-
ness and misery, to all its inhabitants, from one generation to
another; upon which, many have thought themselves necessi-
tated to deny any such thing as the propagation of a corrupted
nature, from generation to generation ; and so to ascribe the
whole business of the continuance of sin from age to age, in
the world, only to imitation ; one generation learning to be
wicked, from another wicked generation, that did precede. But
now, I say, as nothing can shake, the truths that have been
asserted concerning God's righteousness ; and man's unrighte-
ousness continually descending, and transmitted from age to
age, so there are many things to be alleged, to break the force
of any such objections as these. And,
1 shall offer this to consideration, that in reference to
God's concern in this matter, (about whose name and honour
all our souls ought to be most tenderly and deeply concerned,)
there is nothing to be said or thought but this ; it were easy
for him to have prevented such a descent of sinfulness, from
age to age, in this world, by which also misery is continually
entailed upon the inhabitants of it. But now (1 say) consider
these things in reference hereunto.
1. Suppose that men should, hereupon ascribe the whole
business of the continued sinfulness of the world, from age to
LEC. xxxrii.) All men depraved — God vindicated. 497
age, to imitation only, tliis would no more solve the difficulty,
than what is ordinarily asserted ; for, even that also, how easy
were it for him, the great God, (as we may think,) to have pre-
vented this ; that is, to have prevented the descent of sin, from
age to ace, by imitation ? How easily might he have annihi-
lated this world, or annihilated his creature man, either by ex-
erting his power to this purpose, or indeed, by only withhold-
ing it! for then all must drop. Or, how easy had it been to
hih., to have made all perfectly good, and that they should
have continued such, from age to age ? and then there would
have been no bad example for any one's imitation. And we
do not know, but that the Divine Agency (such as it may be
for ought we can tell) may be as little concerned in transmit-
ting human nature in its corruption, from age to age, as it
would be, in sustaining sinful creatures that are corrupted, in
co-operating in sinful actions. And without the co-operating
influence of the First Cause, we are sure nothing can be done
by a sufficient influence ; that is, not done by an efficacious and
necessitating one. And therefore, it is in vain to allege that,
for the solving and expediting this difficulty, which doth itself
carry as much of difficulty in it. And again,
2. This is next to be considered, that it is very unreason-
able to have been expected from God, that he should annihi-
late an inielligent creature, upon the account of its having of-
fended iiim, or upon the account of its being likely to transmit
its likeness to those that shall proceed and spring from such a
progenitor. It was a most unreasonable thing (1 say) that God
should, hereupon, annihilate or reduce to nothing such a piece
of the work of his own hands; that, had neither been suitable to
the wisdom of God, nor his goodness : not to his wisdom, for
there had been a direct regression, that he should undo and
destroy his own work : because such a creature, the subject and
effect of his productive and creating influence, had transgressed
the law and rule of its own creation ; it was unreasonable that
he should, thereupon, reduce it to nothing. And it had beeu
(I say) very disagreeable to his wisdom, as if he were surprised
by the fall and lapse of his creature ; as if he had not foreseen,
as if he had not sagacity enough to apprehend such and such
consequences. It hath been always (as we find by the course
God hath held) reckoned by him, most worthy of him, and
most Godlike, to turn ill events to good ; but not to go back.
And we shall, in time, come to shew you, how he hath done
it in this case, to his own most transcendent glory, and to the
advantage of his creatures, such as do not, by their own faulty
opposition, stand in the way of his kind and gracious method
VOL. VII, 3 s
498 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORAOLES OP GOD. (PART I«
towards them. But, that he should annihilate or bring a crea-
ture to nothing, that was capable of obeying and serving him,
because he did disobey him, and because he is likely to trans-
mit sinful inclinations to those that come of him, or come after
him, this is never to be expected from the blessed God : it is a
thing disagreeable to his wisdom, that he should do and undo.
When he is said to have repented that he made man, as when
he brought the flood upon the world; (Gen. 6.) that, as is
plain in itself, and all do agree, is spoken more humano.
And though he did ( that he might give one proof of his just
displeasancy at the apostasy of the world) bring on that deluge,
yet you see he would riot destroy the kind, but resolved to con-
tinue that, in subserviency to iiis further great and glorious
designs.
And indeed, it could much less have consisted with his
goodness, to destroy the capacity which was in that order of
creatures, of so high and great things as he designed them to,
which should spring up of the human race. That he should
prevent himself of that wonderful exercise of his mercy, grace,
and good will towards men, of which we shall have occasion to
discourse in its proper place, and as the series of things shall
lead on. Therefore, that, I would have to be considered, that
it was a most unreasonable thing to expect that God should,
upon the transgression of his reasonable creatures, and lest
sin should be transmitted from age to age, annihilate the kind,
and reduce all to nothing. And,
3. It was as little to be expected, that God should at first
make all immutably good ; that he should have made all his
intelligent creatures immutably good at first, both angels in
heaven, and men on earth ; and so have provided and taken a
course that sin should always be kept out of his creation ; and
that it should be impossible, where there is a nature propagated
from age to age, there should be any thing of taint capable of
falling into that nature ; 1 say, that God should have done
this, was asliitle to be expected from him.
We may judge of things safely by the event ; for that is
judging after God; that is judging that to be becoming of
God, which he hath done ; that course to be most suitable to
him, most Godlike, which he hath chosen. And so far as
we can discern the reasonableness of the course which he
hath taken, we are to take notice of it, and avow it upon
all occasions. Now, from the course he hath taken, it ap-
pears most suitable to the excellencies of the Divine Being,
every way, that he should have made intelligent creatures at
first, mutable ; not to make them immutably good and happy.
LBx:. xxxvii.) ^11 men depraved — God vindicated. 490
which was to be their final state ; but that there sliould be a
preparatory, subservient state, introductive to that final sta'e.
This appears, upon all accounts, to have l)ccn most agreeable
to the Supreme Wisdom and Goodness, that his creatures
should not arrive to the highest perfection that they were capa-
ble of all at once, and at the very first j but that they should
undergo a trial, and in that case, (if they must do so,) they
must be left to their liberty at first, and being left so, there
would be still a possibility that sin should be; and being once,
that it should go on and be transmitted from age to age. And
therefore, I add,
4. That God's omnipotency, or what his absolute power
can do, is not the only measure (abstractly considered) ac-
cording to which it can be said God can do this or that. It Is
not fit or proper to say, that he can do whatsoever omnipo-
tency, abstractly considered and alone, could do; because
he is not a Being of power alone : power alone gives us but
an inadequate conception of God ; it dotli not give us an
iutire conception of hirn, as if he were nothing else but
power; for he is wisdom, and goodness, and holiness, and righ-
teousness, and truth, as well as power. And therefore, that
only is, in a true sense, possible to God, which is suitable to
all his glorious excellencies to do, conjunctly considered; and
not what is suitable to his power alone, and separately con-
sidered from the rest. When it is said, God caimot lie, and
God cannot deny himself, and the like, the meaning is not as
if there were a want of mere power to do any such natural act,
considered as a natural act; but it is Impossil)le to the divine
perfection, (consider him as a Being of universal perfection,
wherein all perfections do meet,) to do things so unlike him-
self, so unworthy of himself.
Therefore, it was never to have been expected from divine
power, or because he is onjnipotent, that, therefore, lie should
do all things which that, abstractly considered, could do ; as
to have put an end to the generations of men lest they should
sin on; or to have made all perfectly good at first, so as it
should be an impossibility that any such thing as sin should
be in the world, which only the possibility of its continuing in
the world could, in an ordinary course, be prevented. This
(I say) was never to be expected from the infinitely, absolutely,
and universally perfect Being, who hath other perfections be-
longing to his nature besides that of power. But those things
are only possii)le to him, which (all things considered) are
most worthy of him, and most suitable to him. And again,
5. We are further to consider, tljat the course of nature
500 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
in tlie universe, it is most observably fixed and settled; so as
(unless it be now and then in single instances) not to admit
of change ; that is, not to admit of change in an ordinary
course. We may observe, that the course of nature is very
rarely ever altered. But it were very unreasonable to expect, that
it should be statedly or often altered. We find alterations in
single instances ; as in reference to that great order of day and
night; when the sun stood still so long one time; and when it
went back so many degrees at another time. And so when the
sea did not hold its own course, or do agreeably to its property,
as a fluid thing, to overflow all that came within the compnbs of
it, but was bound up as to the Israelites that passed ihrough it.
And the fire, it acted not, according to its natural propertv, to
consume and burn what is combustible, in the case oi' the
three children, who were in the fiery furnace unharmed and
unhurt.
But we are never to think that the course of nature should
be ordinarily or often ahered. And that it is not, even be-
cause it is not, we ought in great reverence and humility to
apprehend there are mighty occult reasons for this. And it
should lay an awe upon our spirits, to behold the Author of
nature, the God of nature, acting it on, in so stated and unal-
tered a course, from age to age, through the succession of
many ages. If we understood no reason why it should be so,
yet our minds should be struck with great reverence when we
find, that ordinarily it is so. But we may apprehend very
great reason for it too, in reference to the stated course of na-
tural causes, as to what doth concern ourselves. What con-
fusion would it make in the world, if ordinarily, the sun should
vary its course, that no man could tell when it would rise, or
when it would set, or when to undertake such or such a busi-
ness ? If God's obstructing that course in a single instance or
two, should have been often repeated, so as to hold men's
minds in a continual suspense, the sad and dismal conse-
quences that would have ensued to this world (though this be
but a very minute, inconsiderable part of the universe, the
whole creation of God) are obvious to every one's view that
considers.
And as to the transmitting of the species of things, and the
preserving of the species of all sorts of things, in the world,
besides the decorum of it, and that admirable proof that there
is of divine wisdom and providence therein, the usefulness
thereof to ourselves, is most apparent to any one's notice and
view, that through so many thousands of years there should
be a preservation of the kinds of things. Go through the se-
LEC XXXVII.) All men depraued — God vindicated. 501
vcral orders of things : the ranks of things that come under
our own notice, is an admirable discovery of God's wisdom and
providence, and too little considered and reflected on ; that
the species of things should be unaltered, that what we find
was the property of this or that herb, or plant, or tree, con-
tinues so. These tilings have still tlie same properties that
they had. Look to the animals beneath us; we find the same
properties the horse to be described by, so many ages ago, arc
in the same creature still. There is an admirable discovery of
the power and wisdom of providence In this, which we ought
to contemplate with great admiration, and great reverence, and
have our spirits so much the more disposed to acknowledge
and adore God the Maker of this world, and the great Au-
thor of universal nature. It would do more to preserve a reli-
gious impression upon our spirits Godvvard, than is commonlv
apprehended, if we did, now and then, allow our thoughts
to fix in these contemplations, that wliereas there is such a
collision in this natural world, there are such antipathies, and
contrarieties in the natures of things, that yet their natures are
continued, preserved intire, from being confounded ; though
there is such a vast multiplicity, yet all preserved intire,
through so many thousands of years. But then, consider
further,
6. That it is most evident, that the course of nature is as
settled and constant, in reference to the production of men
from age to age, as of any other creature. This is obvious, to
wit, that there do spring up, from age to age, creatures of this
species, and of the same kind, as there do of any other crea-
tures of any other kind or species. And that, hereupon, we
must apprehend a fixedness in the course of nature, not to be
altered for a continuance, though it may in single instances,
here and there, in reference to this thing, as well as in refe-
rence to any thing else that falls under the regulation and mea-
sure of the law of nature. And,
7. It is a mighty confirmation of the natural descent of
sin with the nature of man, in the ordinary way, that when
God designed the incarnation of his own Son, to avoid that
corruption of nature descending to him, he there steps out of
the ordinary course ; a consideration that hath that weight
with it, that if any one allow himself to think, It must over-
ijear his mind in that matter, that sure there is some secret,
profound reason in the counsel of God, (whether obvious to
our view, or not obvious,) that the descent of corrupt nature was
in the ordinary way unavoidable : that when God had a design
to incarnate his own Son, when it was intended God should
502 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTll.
be maniiested in tlie flesh, to avoid that contagion and cor-
ruption wliich, in the ordinary course, is transmitted, he doth in
this single instance recede and go off from the ordinary natural
course : and so the production is by the Holy Ghost, separating
the very matter of the human body v/hich itself, indeed, was
not a capable subject of sin, as hath been said, and is plain
in iti^elf. But because the human nature had been corrupted,
if it had descended in the ordinary way, (and that was incon-
sistent with the design on which a Redeemer was to come
down from heaven into the world,) therefore, the ordinary
course of procreation is declined and avoided: a most preg-
nant demonstration, that, in the ordinary course, sin is always
natmally transmitted, in tl)at this must be done on purpose to
avoid that taint and contagion that otherwise would have been.
But I add, in the next place, and shall go no further now,
8. That men do make the difficulty in this matter greater
than they need, by not apprehending and considering aright,
wherein the production of a human creature lies. It is plain
it doth not lie, tliough a human creature be a creature of
a compounded nature, that hath a terrestrial and celestial
part, yet, I say, it doth not lie in tlie production of either of the
parts, but gnly in the uniting of them substantially with one
another. It neither lies in the production of the soul, nor
dofh it lie in the production of the matter of the body, for all
matter is generally apprehended to be ingenerable and incor-
rupiible. But it lies (as 1 said) in the bringing of these into
a substantial union with one another. And do but consider
to this purpose, " Wherein doth death lie ? wherein doth the
death of a man consist?" His death, you will easily appre-
liend, must stand in direct opposition to his procreation and
production. But death doth not lie either in the destruction
of the soul, or of the body; but as it is a matter of faith, that
the one remains, so it is a matter of sense, that the other re-
mains after death. The soul is gone, but not reduced to
nothing; the body remains, and will continue a considerable
time the same intire frame that it was, even when the soul is
gone. Death, therefore, doth neither lie in the destruction
of the soul, nor in the destruction of the body; but in their
disunion. So the procreation dotli not lie, either in the pro-
duction of the soul, or in the production of the body; (other-
wise than being so and so modified ;) biit in the union of those
two parts, bringing it about, that th.ey should be substantially
united witii one another.
And if that be duly considered, there is a great deal of
room and scope left to apprehend how such a thing may be
LEC. XXXVIII.) oilmen depraved — God vindicated. 505
very possible, (as we find it actual,) the continual descent of sin,
and yet the holiness, and purity, and universal rectitude of
the Divine Nature, not having any concern unbecoming it-
self, unsuitable to itself, hcreit\.
There are many more considerations bcliind, that will not he
without weight in this matter : only, now, let us consider
and bethink ourselves (as our assembly dissolves) of this one
thing ; how much more considerable a tlieme and subject we
have for our thoughts, in that whicii is common to all ages,
than can occur to us in what is peculiar to our own time ! We
are so amused and taken up about the little affairs (in compa-
rison) of our own time, that we do nor allow ourselves to con-
sider and look, as we should do, with just intention of mind,
upon those things that are great, and of common concern to all
time. And we wonder there should be any miscarriage in the
conduct of human affairs, and that the perversity of men,
here and there, breaks out in tliis or that instance, forgetting
there i« a corrupt, human nature still descending from age to
age, and from generation to generation, which naturally makes
this world a region of impurity, and consequent misery, and
gloominess and darkness. And we do not enough reflect upon
the intestine cause of all our evils. Every one would be a
great deal more ready to fall to self-accusation, than to the ac-
cusing of other men. " I have a corrupt nature in myself,
out of which nature spring all the confusions and disorders in
the world; all the dismal, tragical things that are any where to
be found and observed in it.'' It is very unreasonable to let our
minds be confined to the present, when v/e have such a vast
prospect before us, looking forward, looking backward, look-
ing inward, looking on this and that hand; to bind our
thoughts when we have so vast a compass of things to look
into, this is neither suitable to the reason of a man, nor so
suitable as it should be to the more large and concerned mind
of a christian, about the great things wherein the Christiao
Interest is, itself, concerned.
LECTURE XXXVIII.*
Now we shall go on to add further considerations for shew-
ing this fourth conclusion. And, thereupon, in the next
place,
9. We may further consider, that it is never thought a ble-
* Preaclieil Nov. 17, Wgi,
sot THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II,
mish to the justice of any government whatsoever, that chil-
dren should inherit the poverty and rags of their parents that
were either poor or profligate, or that had squandered or for-
feited all that they had. This was never thought to have been a
blemish to the government under which such persons may live,
that children are born poor, when their parents had nothing
to leave them ; and so they have rags and beggary for their
patrimony. This doth not use to be, or can be, with any
equity, imputed to the government under which such live, as
if that were to be blamed. And much less is it imputable in
this case; because human governors are debtors to the com-
munities which they govern, and do owe to them their utmost
care and providence for them. But God (as hath been for-
merly shewed you) can be no debtor to any of his creatures,
whether considered singly, or in communities, any otherwise
than as he hath by any promise made himself debtor. But he
never promised, never obliged himself by any promise, to keep
sin out of the world, from hurting creatures that can only
hurt themselves by it ; or from preventing it to descend, or
presently to throw it out of the world; though that he will
do fully in his own time, and in his own way. And again,
10- There can be no more obligation on the blessed God, to
prevent moral defects among his creatures, than natural ones.
If he be not obliged to prevent natural defects, he is as little
obliged to prevent moral ; because moral perfection must be
founded in natural ; as all morality hath its foundation in the
nature of the creatures who are the capable subjects thereof.
But plain it is, he can be under no obligation to prevent na-
tural defects, or that his creatures should be naturally perfect :
for in what sense will we suppose it requisite that he should
make them so ? Not with an absolute perfection, perfection
\i\ omni genere ; for that is above the condition of a crea-
ture; no creature is capable of being universally perfect.
Tha^ is the peculiar privilege and prerogative of the Original
aiid Uncreated Being, to be absolutely and universally perfect.
And therefore, to suppose him obliged to make all his crea-
tures every way perfect, it were to suppose him obliged to
have made them all gods ; or we must suppose him not obliged
to make any thing at all: because it is impossible that a made
thing- can be absolutely perfect. Or, should we suppose him
under an obh'gation to have made things perfect in any kind
above tiieir own ? That cannot be thought neither: for that
must suppose, t[)en, that there should have been no creatures
of any infV»ior kind, or that all must have been of equal
perfection, that every fly or worm raust have been a cherubim
LBC. xxxviii.) All men depraved — Gud vindicated. 505
or seraphim. Indeed, it is a most accurate discourse that 1
have taken notice of to this purpose, in a pagan writer, (as it is
more generally reckoned,) Plotinus, who saith, ihat '' to find
fault with the Author of nature because of such and such de-
fects, in such and such sorts of creatures, or in particular
creatures, it were to find fault that he hath made the world an
harmonious thing ; that there are such orders and gradations in
it; that he hath made some inanimate things, and endowed
some with a life of sense, and some below them with a life of
vegetation, and some above them with a life of reason, and
some above them with an angelical nature, and the like." All
these comely orders of things should not have been, but all
must have been of one order and kind. " And, (as he saith,)
it were the san)e thing as to blame a limner, that he hath not
in every thing dravvn light colours, without any foil ; or a co-
median, (the author of a comedy,) that he haih not made every
jierson that is to act a part, a king, or a hero; that there
should be any that doth sustain the part of mean and inferior
persons."
It is plain, and out of doubt, that God is not obliged to
make his creatures all, either absolutely perfect, or to give
them higher perfections than do belong to their own kind : or
(we may add) to give to every one of them those perfections
that that kind is capable of. For wefind that there are some
of greater health, some of less; some of greater strength, some
of less, in that order of creatures wherein they are. And we
find that there are such things as hereditary diseases, that do
descend, and generally are found every where through the hu-
man race. But (I say) God can no more be under obligation
to prevent moral than natural defects, among his creatures.
And again,
11. We are to consider further, that though the descent
and transmission of a sinful pravity with the nature of man
may appear to have a difficulty with it, yet it is not altogether
unaccountable, if we do but consider things as they are, with
that compass of thought which we ought. Nay, it is not or-
dinarily conceivable, how it should be otherwise, if we do but
admit into our thoughts, what a concurrence there is of several
things to this purpose. As, -«..'i!,{-'
(1.) The retirement of the Holy, Divine Spirit from tnan,
having once sinned. And it Is certain, that he did retire
thereupon, that he hath retired, otherwise than as according
to the Redeemer's method he is returned. There was an ante-
cedent retirement and withdrawing, and that, upon the sin of
man, upon sin's entering Into the world : for do but observe
VOL. VII, 3 T
506 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
that Gal. 3. 14, 15. " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the lawj by being made a curse for us; for cursed is every
one that hangeth on a tree ; that the blessing of Abraham
might come upon the Gentiles." (That, which was the bless-
ing of Abraham upon that account, might now be a more dif-
fused blessing, and reach the Gentiles too) For what ? That
they might receive the promise of the Spirit (or the promised
Spirit) through faith. Now consider what the blessing is, and
measure the opposite curse by that : the blessing, you see, is
the gift of the Spirit; what is the curse then, but the debasing
of the Spirit? And certainly then, that was the curse of the
law, the curse of the violated law. As soon as the law was
broken, the Divine, Holy Spirit was cursed away from the
nature of man ; or, man was cursed, so as that thereby this
Spirit should be withheld, should be kept off, otherwise than
as upon tiie Redeemer's account, and according to his methods,
it should be restored. And then,
(2.) Consider, hereupon, the nature and kind of that cor-
ruption that is conveyed and doth descend, and how the Scrip-
ture speaks of it, generally under the notion of carnality.
That which is born of tlie flesh is flesh, John 3. 6. That is,
now, where there is no divine birth, where nothing is born of
the Spirit, or where the work of regeneration hath not taken
place, the production is nothing else but flesh, the mere hu-
man nature; to wit, the denomination is taken from that which
governs: though a man be not all flesh, the denomination is
taken from that which prevails. What is the thing produced
when a human creature is born? A piece of flesh: as that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit, whenever that birth comes
to obtain and take place with any soul. That which is born of
the flesh is but flesh ; not as if the nature of man were nothing
but flesh, but because carnality is the prevailing thing in the
lapsed state of man, that carries the name, and now he is
called nothing but flesh. And,
(3.) This is to be considered, to facilitate our apprehension of
this matter, that the sensitive nature, (which only is capable of
being propagated,) though it cannot itself be the seat and sub-
ject of sin, yet it may he in very great disposition thereunto : or
things may be there, in that inferior region, in that disposi-
tion, that there cannot but be sinfulness as soon as the intel-
ligent mind and spirit supervene. All things will lie in the
sensitive nature, as it is transmitted and conveyed in that state,
that when the reasonable and intelligent spirit supervenes,
though the sensitive nature (as such) is not capable of sin, yet
supervening and coming into union, there cannot but a sinful-
ness ensue. And,
LEC. XXXVIII.) ^11 me?i depraved — God vindicated. 507
{'{.) We have furtlier to consider to this purpose, how ma-
nifest the power of imagination is, every where through the
world. And so, how supposable it is, that the power of paren-
tal imagination may he great. And we find it is so, very fre-
quently, to make an impression upon the grosser corporeal
bulk. There are signatures upon the foetus, as many unques-
tionahle histories do inform us, (hat speak of parental imagi-
nations. But much more may it be strong on the more fine
sort of vehicles, in which, we have very little reason to doubt,
the reasonable soul is lodged, and invested vvith, whenever it
comes into union with a terrestrial body. And it cannot be
ditficult, to apprehend what signatures parental imagination
may make there, when the soul comes to act in a body so
and so formed. I do not merely, now, speak of this corporeal
external hulk, but that finer indument, that is, that imme-
diate in wrapping of the soul in the body; and which, in all
likelihood, it carries away with it out of the body whensoever
it leaves it. What signatures may be there easily made by
parental imagination, it is not hard for us to apprehend, if we let
our thoughts work upon that subject, especially considering
wh.nt impressions have been made upon the grosser or more
corporeal bulk itself. And then consider,
(5.) The natural activity of the intelligent mind and spirit,
when it comes into union and supervenes, especially with re-
spect to its cogitativeness, i^'s thinkingness, its power to think ;
which how soon it doth exert, and put forth its power into act,
we do not know : but, to be sure, as soon as its organs are
capable, and as soon as it becomes, in its own nature, a cogi-
tative or a thinking thing, nothing is more essential to it than
a power of thought ; so that as soon as it can use thought, it
must: especially the organs that it depends upon, and is to act
by, being so and so disposed before, it cannot be but there
will be thinking amiss. And according to this course, as the
power of using thought grows riper, it will be more and more
irregular.
And here are the first ebullitions of corrupt nature. The
Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. As
soon as he thinks, he will think vainly ; he will think vanity.
Psalm 94. 11. — " And God saw that the imagination of the
thoughts of man's heart was only evil, and that continually,"
in that corrupt state of the world. Genesis 6. 5. And, " out
of the heart proceed evil thoughts." Where there is a corrupt
heart, the first ebullitions of it are in impure thoughts, vain
thoughts, sinful thoughts; that is, that such things, such kind
of phantasies are impressed, as do take their rise only from
508 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
a sensible world: towards an unknown God who is invisible,
there are no signatures that can have any power, because they
are buried and overwhelmed by such a supervening cloud of
sensitive images or imaginations ; thereupon, there must be
aversion from God, disaffection to him, disinclination towards
him, as an unknown, and an unsuitable, and an undesirable
Object. And so, here is the very root of all evil. So that
he may easily see how it comes to have place, even in the
corrupt nature of lapsed man. And then, again,
(6.) We are further to consider, how industrious we must
needs suppose the prince of the apostasy to be, for the continu-
ation of that sin in the world, which he introduced into it. And
that is a thing less considered in this matter than I think it
should be, and doth claim to be. Plain it is, that the whole
order of apostate men became apostate, by being accomplices
with this great prince of the air. And so sinful men are more
universally accomplices with hell, with the apostate prince of
the darkness of this world. Nothing is plainer: and do but con-
sider, hereupon, what the parentage of a sinner is, as a sinner;
" Ye are of your father the devil, and the works of your father
ye will do." John S. 44. They are the words of him wb-o is
truth itself, and who, therefore, cannot deceive us. Now, in
what respects do we think that the devil is called the father of
sinners ? Not in respect of their mere nature, not in resj)ect
of their naturals, the substance «^TBither of their souls, or of
their bodies, but only in respect of their morals, the sinful-
ness, the corruption, the impurity of them. But is he a
father in respect of this? Then, certainly, it must owe its be-
ginnings, in individuals, to him too; as cliildren do owe their
beginning, wherein they are children, to their parents.
And let but that context be observed, 1 John 5. 18, 19.
*' He that is born of God, keepeth himself, that the wicked
one toucheth him not." Therefore, this is a divine birth; there
is a self-preserving principle conveyed with that divine nature
which is new born, that the wicked one shall not touch him;
that is, mortally to touch him ; not touch him so as to kill
him ; but he hath touched mortally all the rest. And, there-
fore, the apostle adds in the very next words, "we are of God,"
to wit, new-born of God; an eliptical expression: the word
being born, having been before used, it was enough to say, we
are of God ; born of God. But how is the case with the
rest of the world ? They " all lie in wickedness," we read
it: in all likelihood, it should be read, " in that wicked one,"
spoken of before, in that foregoing word : that is, in the wicked
one, who can only touch those that are born of God; but
doth mortally touch the rest.
LEG. xxxvni.) All men dejiraved — Godvlndicaied. 509
And thereupon, we find that the common course of the un-
regenerate and unconverted world, it is said to he after " the
power of the prince of the air, that works in the children of
disobedience." Kphes. 2. 2. Whereupon, in the very nest
words, they are said to be chihlren of wrath too, by nature.
Observe how things lie connected ; "and arc by nature chil-
dren of wrath." By nature, how so? hiasmuch as there is a
corrupt and depraved nature continually descending and trans-
mitted ; wherein we are not to suppose him to be without his
advantage, cm- without his agency, who is '' the prince of the
darkness of this world," and who is also called " the God of
this world." 2 Cor. 4. 4.
And it is not, therefore, strange, that men should be, as
to all their concerns, so much subject to the diabolical power,
because they have been accomplices with him from the begin-
ning, even the first apostasy ; when nobody can suppose (that
considers matters equally) but that he must be continually in-
tent to keep his ground in this world ; and doth all that in hi»n
lies, to transmit impurity from age to age. And his advantage,
in order hereunto, upon the sensitive nature, cannot but be
great. Tbough he cannot immediately touch the raind and
spirit itself, without its own consent, without its own betray-
ing itself; yet, that power variously actuates the sensitive na-
ture; and thereby, the inferior appetite, and whatsoever is in
the lower region of the soul ; (this is no unapprehensible thing;)
to wit, to cherish sin, and to foment and cherish it the same
way, by the mediation of sense by which he first introduced
it. And, by sense, we are not to understand only the exter-
nal sense, but we are to understand, under that notion, what-
soever lies within the compass of sensitive nature, imagination
and appetite, as well as the external sense. And uhat signa-
tures he may make upon it, is more easy for \is to apprehend
as possible, than to conclude ascertain: but very likely it is,
that his power may go very far ; and we are not to doubt but
his malice will go as far as his power. And then, I add upon
all this,
12. That there being such a sinful pravity conveyed and de-
scending down with our nature, from age to age, this must, in
the beginning thereof, be matter of just displeasancy to the
blessed God. It cannot be, but there must be aversion in his
holy and pure nature, to a nature impure and unholy. And let
us but consider this, that we are said to he, (as was taken
notice of before,) " by nature, the children of wrath," lying
under the divine displeasure, under a vindicta, even by nature:
Ephes. 2. 2, 3. And pray, lei the reason of the thing he a
5l0 TMK PRINCIPLES OF THB ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 11.
little discussed and looked into. Consider whether that vari-
ous inclination and disposition, before actual sin, be not in
itself a hateful thing. And that nothing which is asserted,
among those that have inquired into, and do profess the truth
in this matter, may appear harsh and hard, let us but consider
how such matters used to be judged of by human measures,
by men ; sure, in things wherein they will not censure men,
we may think God more uncensurable. If men will allow
themselves the liberty of free thought, they cannot deny it.
But v^hereas, there is such a thing as human justice, pray do
but consider iiow it useth to have its exercise in matter of
punishment, and upon what ground. And whereas, all men
have some natural notions remaining with them of right and
wrong, and they have aversion or propension, according to
such notions, more or less, do but consider how these do work
among men, considered as men. Let me but set your thoughts
on wcrk on tiic hitter of these first : that is, take a virtuous per-
son, one that goes under that common estimate, by all that
know him, as a person of strict virtue. Will he not, as such,
disaffect an ill man, a vicious and wicked man ? And you
will say, he instinctively doth so ; that is, the wickedness he
sees in him. But then, I would inquire. What is it that such
a one disaffccts, in such another ? Is it, I say, any abstract
act he doth? That can never be; for that, abstracted or pre-
scinded from an evil inclination, is not the thing that he
hates or can hate; that any man can reasonably hate ; for an
act, an external act, that falls under the notice of another,
take it off from an evil inclination, it is but a casual thing;
and it is morally neither good nor evil; and therefore, can be
no object of a rational hatred. Therefore, whatsoever there is
of just hatred in the vilest and most profligate person's course,
What is the object of that just hatefulness ? Not the external
acts, abstractly considered, from a vicious inclination; but as
they proceed thence, or as they are supposed to proceed
thence. So that it is an ill habit of mind, of a vicious mind,
that is the object of hatred, every where, with virtuous
men.
And then, consider, what it is that human laws do punish,
in the next place. Who do they punish ? Do they punish the
external action abstractly, from the evil inclination or inten-
tion ? Never at all : for if it doth appear that there was an
action done against the rule of the law, that doth not proceed
from an ill inclination or intention, it is looked upon as a
casual thing, and not punishable. Therefore, the thing
that is punishable, is the ill intention and disposition, only
I.EC. XXXVIII.) All men depraved — God vindicated, 511
discovering Itself by such and such external acts. This is
plain in itself.
But now, whereas, we liave no way to know the inclina-
tions of men's minds, but by external indicia, the disposition
and habitude of every one He immediately open to the divine
inspection : there is all the difference. If then, there be a
just and reasonable ground to hate an ill disposition, an ill.
inclination, because it doth discover itself by external acts to
us, why is there not the same reason that it should be hated,
or that it should be matter of displeasure, whenever it appears,
unto him by whom things are immediately seen in themselves,
and as they lie without external discovery ? And therefore, a
sinful generation is called " a generation of vipers." You
have poison, you have malignity in your natures. This he
can see, that sees all things, and knows all things, before it
doth, se prodere, before it discovers itself in sinful actions;
before it appears to our view, before it can be discerned by us.
And therefore, consider further,
13. Which will be a further proof of the former, and con-
tribute further towards our common end, the clearing of diffi-
culties in this matter, that it is plain, that infants, as soon as
they come to partake of the human nature, they do need a
Redeemer, as much as others : for 1 hope there is none among
us that is such a t/?<7-ws infantum pater, so hard and harsh a
father of infants, but to admit, that many infants may be saved,
may become blessed creatures hereafter. Well, but how shall
they come to be so without a Redeemer, without a Christ ?
Is not he said to be " the Lamb of God that takes away the
sins of the world ?' Whatsoever sins of the world that are
taken away, they are taken away by him. But what ? are in-
fants no part of the world ? They are said to compost the
kingdom of God in this world ; that is, concur to tije com-
position. " Suffer little children to be brought unto me, for of
such is the kingdom of God." Those that were brought in
arms, that were carried, of them it is said, " of such is the
kingdom of God;" that kingdom whereof our Lord Jesus
Christ is the immediate King. He takes them into his king-
dom. They come under the government of the Redeemer ;
then they did need a Redeemer, and to be dealt with in a way
of grace, and not merely upon a natural point. They are a
part of that body which he gave himself to purchase and sanc-
tify. Epes. 5. 25, 26. And it Is plain,
14. That they do need to be regenerated; they need rege-
neration as well as redemption ; and which, indeed, hath its
foundation in redemption: '^ for that \vhirh is born of '.h.e
512 TiiK PRINCU'LEo OK THE ORACLES OF GOD. (yAlU ir.
^ flesh, is but flcsli," and no iriore ; but ** that vvhicli is born of
the Spirit is spirit," and that Spirit is the Spirit of Christ :
and if we have not the Spirit ()f Christ, we are none of his.
And therefore, 1 would subjoin to all these considerations, in
the last place,
15. That whatsover God tliought fit not to do, by way of
prevention of t!ie coining of sin into the world, and of its
being transtpitted in it, he hath done With more unspeakably
glorious advantage, by way of remedy. And the remedy for
setting things rigtit, where things were out of course, in the
apostate world, it is two ways. The one whereof doth more
directly respect us, and the other himself: that is, by re-
demption, and the penal judgment. These two things will
set all things right. I cannot now enlarge as I would : but
very true it is indeed, that it must mightily pose, nonplus all
our understandings, if there were to be continual descent of
our sinful generation one after another in this world eternally.
If things were to run on thus to all eternity, it were the most
unaccountable thing imaginable. But we find this is not to
be; there will be a period put to this course within awhile.
This world, and the wickedness of it, must come to an end :
and while sin is running on, from age to age, grace hath its
exercise too, which runs a parallel, from age to age. And
therefore, there is a far more glorious display of all the divine
perfections in the appointed means of remedy, than there
would have been in the prevention of those great disorders
that have been in the world, by sin's once entering into it,
and continuing a course in it so long.
LECTURE XXXIX.*
My design (as you have heard) in choosing the text I have
been upon for some time, was not to speak of the corruption of
hunum nature abstractly, and in itself, but to consider it here
as it stands in connection with the acknowledged justice and
righteousness of God ; and so to make that my business, to
vindicate God's justice in reference to this case, — a continual
transmission of a corrupt nature, in this world, from age to
age, that draws death and misery after it, and which God
permits lo run on in such a course ; though (as hath been told
you) if we did consider his omnipotency abstractly, and ab-
* Preached Nov. 24, lOy-i.
liEC. xxxix.) All men depraved — God vindicated. 513
solutely, it might be supposed easy forliim to have hindered it.
To this I have spoken at huge, and will repeat nothinij^ more,
than only to take notice of so much, as the sum of all, that
whatsoever is, with the most plausibleness, wont to he alleged
against the righteousness of the divine procedure in this mat-
ter, doth lie, for the most part, in men's taking such and such
things for granted, as if they were certainly so; which are
most uncertain, and whereof (whereas all men do all they
can) they must be, in a great measure, ignorant : If such had
but the modesty to confess the ignorance which they cannot
cure or remedy, the justice of God, in permitting all men to
come into the world with sinful natures, would appear in glori-
ous light and lustre before their eyes, darkened with no cloud ;
nor would these dash in the dark one against another, but be easily
conceived in their minds, without the least appearance of re-
pugnancy to one another. As we see lie in the Psalmist's, who,
in almost the same breathy confesseth the triumphant justice
and righteousness of God, and the corruption of that nature
that did descend to him, and doth descend from man to man,
and from age to age.
But now, it only remains to make Use of what hath been
said upon this very important subject. And herein, consider-
ing one of the things considered and asserted, by itself, to wit,
the corruption of the nature, which Is conveyed and transmitted,
down from parents to children. The first use that 1 shall
liereupon make will be this — To shew how greatly they are
concerned, who are parents, or who may be so, to their utter-
most to strive against this radical evil that is descending and
running down, from age to age, In tliis world which we inhabit,
and whereof we are tlie sinful inhabitants. This is a thing
which, in the notion, we generally acknowledge, that there is
such a descent of corruption and sinfulness, from age to age,
in this world. But even where this truth is admitted, it is a
truth hid and shut up in unrighteousness, while the hearts of
very few are in any measure suitably affected and influenced
to take that course, pursuant and agreeable to so plain and so
confessed a truth as this is. It is that which, where it is un-
derstood and acknowledged, and were It understood and ac-
knowledged all the world over, it ought universally to have
the same effect, ought to startle the world, to awaken mea
every where, as if there were an universal plague spread over
all towns, cities, countries, and kingdoms, at once. And
if that were the case, that any poor creature could not tell
whither to go, or where to set his foot, secure and free from
the danger of meeting such a shcift or arrow that ?]iould Im-
VOL. VII. 3 I
511 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PARTll.
mediately pierce his very heart, in what a cimdition were this
world, if thus it were with every one ? But there is a thousand-
fold worse mischief to be feared; and they that think of flying
from it, carry it abot^t them, and can no more fly from it than
they can fly from themselves, or run away from their own
nature. It is not considered, that they carry sin, and death,
and hell, about them, even from their very original ; things
complicated with their natures. Who would pretend to believe
so horrid a truth, a truth of so horrid and tremendous import,
and not be filled with horror about it ? Yet, every one goes on
unconcerned, as if there were no fear, no danger, no harm,
about them, or before them. But, I say.
First. All should understand, hence, that are, or may be,
parents, of how unspeakable concernment it is to them, to
counterstrive to the uttermost against this great mischief which
they are, or are like to be, instruments of; transmitting sin in
this world, and conveying it yet further down from this to
another generation in it. And this I take to be a head, upon
this occasion, fit to be enlarged upon : and therefore, I shall
spend this hour upon it. And therein shall shew you — Wherein
such as are, or may be, parents, should use their endeavour to
counterwork this radical evil : and then — Upon what consi-
derations they should be awakened and engaged effectually
hereunto.
1. Wherein they should endeavour against it, who are, ot
may be, parents. Why,
(I.) By endeavouring, out of hand, to become seriously
godly themselves, so that if ever God call them, or order
things so in reference to themselves, and that they become pa-
rents, as a corrupt seed will more or less spring from them,
they may be the means, also, of raising up a godly seed in this
world. The thing which God hath designed even in the first
founding of families upon this earth: that whereas, a cor-
rupt nature, if ever they come to be parents, will descend
from them, without their design, they may be also instru-
ments, in the hand of God, of conveyin<!' his image, his light,
Ills grace, with their own design, in subordination (as all in-
struments must be) to the Supreme Agent, that alone can
niake them capable of being effectual ones to such a blessed
end.
That, I say, must be their first care in order hereunto;
that is, out of hand, to endeavour to become godly them-
selves ; to do \yhat is possible for them to do in order thereun-
to: not content themselves that they have an empty, spiritless
form of godliness about them, that is never likely to be ac-
/
LEC. xsxix.) All men depraved — duty of pareyits. 515
tive to such a purpose : but that there be the life and power of
godlines"?, which will be active to the uttermost it is capable
of, in pursuance of so high and great a design. As, naturally,
men arc generally the devil's instruments, to promote his dark
and impure kingdom in this world ; so if ever God call me to
the state and condition of a parent, I will, through his grace,
be his instrument, as much as in me, to promote that holv
kingdom, which he hatli formed, and is intent to promote and
propagate in this world, as a counter-kingdom, against the
power of that wicked kingdom.
In order hereunto, under that manifestation God is pleased
to make of himself through Christ in the gospt;!, they ought
to surrender and give up themselves to God in Clirist : herein
becoming godly, doth first begin when, under the convictive
and operative light of influence and grace transmitted in the
gospel, persons do make a surrender of themselves to God
through Christ. '* Yield yourselves unto God," as the ex-
pression is, Rom. 6. 13. It is but a practical answer to God''^
claim and challenge — " Yield yourselves to God." He de-
mands his right ; he insists upon his interest in you, as you
are his creatures, and the work of his hands. And what ! will
you not yield, not yield him his own ? Will you withhold
from him what is his ? what he hath so indisputably a title
to, and interest in ? Or, can you ever have a design of help-
ing to raise up a godly seed in this world, if you will never
be godly yourself? but remain a continual fighter against
God, and a striver against him, under that gospel of peace
and grace, wherein he is continually bespeaking you to be his?
And then,
(2.) Let such as may be parents of children, lay the more
immediate foundation of such an endeavour, as I have been
speaking of, in marrying after a godly sort : in marrying holily,
whensoever any are called thereunto; that is, with a design
for God. He that is the Author, is to be the End of all
things. And whereas, that same state is his institution and ap-
pointment, it is a most insolent absurdity, for any to take upon
them, as if they were to please themselves, or to gratify an
inclination, or serve an interest of their own, with neglect of
God's great interest. They that enter, or think of entering,
into that state, are required to do it in the Lord, as an only
thing. ] Cor. 7- 39. iVnd it is a great deal of pity, that dis-
courses about such matters, and relating to this atfalr, are so
generally confined to a corner only, and that opportunity is not
given of speaking to assemblies upon so important a matter as
this is J that any undertaking or design, in this kind, is to be
old THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLfiS OP GOD. (PART H.
done in the Lord, and that as an only thing. Marry they may,
only in the Lord. But when they neglect this, they leave
out the only thing that can make a blessed marriage ; which
certainly must argue a very profane mind, when men and
women dare venture, and rush upon a matter of so great im-
portance as tiiat, and leave out the very only thing that con-
cerns tiiem in it. This doing of such a thing in the Lord
must import,
[1.] A doing it for him, with a design for him; to wit, as
one's principal end. And let it be considered, how great an
aberration here is from the proper scope, generally, in the
world, and even in the Christian world, as to this thing : that
the first thing commonly thougiit of, is some such mean mat-
ter as this, in comparison mean, I say in comparison; " I de-
sign to change my condition; well, let me think then, how I
can please my fancy ; let me contrive how 1 can best satisfy
my sensual Inclination; and how I can best serve my worldly
interest and advantage; where to have a great fortune; and
what may set me up into, and promote me in, the most
advantageous way of trade, and the like."
What the evangelist says, in another case, of our Lord's
animadversion upon the scribes and pharisees, that their re-
ligion stood in tlie tithing of mint, anise, and cummin, neg-
lecting the weightier matters of the law, — ^judgment,' mercy,
faith, and the love of God ; to wit, that those other things
they might and ought to have done, but not to iuve left the
other undone : the like may be said in this case. There is no
blame in looking after one suitable, in respect of comeliness,
or in respect of fortune, or the like. This may well enough
be done; but not to leave the great and most weighty matter
and importance : that is. Where shall I have a suitable help,
to promote religion in the world, and to plant religion in a
family, if it shall please God to make us the founders of a
family? one that may help to bear a part with me, in maintain-
ing and keeping up the interest of godliness, in opposition
to the common corruption of human nature, which is still de-
scending, from age to age, in this world ? How little is thought
of among us, so as hereby to design the business of marriage for
this in the Lord as the principal thing ? When that is not made
the principal thing, the very act is idolatry. To be the end
of all things is appropriate to Deity: and he must be your
^supreme End, even in this thing, or you make yourselves so :
and if so, you are an idol of jealousy, set up against God;
as if this world were made for you, and you were made for
yourself; and as if you might take upon yourself to do what
LEC. XXXIX.) All men depraved — duty of parents. 517
you please here, without reference to the Supreme Ruler and
Lord of all. Therefore, it is without question, that he and
his interest, in this attair, must he designed in the first
place.
[2.] That in suhserviency to it, whosoever deslc;ns to enter
Into that state, they must give themselves up, by solemn cove-
nant, to God in Christ first. That is to do this thing in the
Lord, which we are told is the only thing in this matter. And
that is a most unaccountable piece of presumption, that peo-
ple will take upon them, to dispose of themselves, give them-
selves, to one another, before they have ever given tliemsclvcs
to God through Christ, wlilch is the first and most fundamen-
tal relation. You all ought to know you are not your own, you
have nothing to do with yourselves, you have not yourselves
to dispose of otherwise, but from, and by, and under, God.
And therefore, give to him your own persons ; give yourself to
the Lord, in the first place, before you think of giving your-
self to another. You have not power over yourselves, nor can
dispose of yourselves. None have so much power over them-
selves, as that they ought to think of giving him, or her-
self, away without God; but for God : and therefore, the gift
must be made to himself first ; and that union with him be
made fundamental, to that other subsequent and inferior union,
much inferior.
But here it may be said. What then, may only godly per-
sons marry ? or those only that are in covenant with God in
Christ ?
To that I will only say in short, and the business will then
be clear enough. It is a question that will answer itself. You
ought to give up yourselves to God through Christ, every one,
the first thing you do, out of hand, without a moment's delay.
For till this be done, you are in a state of rebellion against
him ; he lays his claim to us all upon a natural right, and
upon the Redeemer's acquisition too, who died, and revived,
and rose again, that he might be Lord, Owner, and Ruler, of
the living and dead ; to wit, of all most absolutely.
Therefore, this is a thing not to be deferred a moment. So as
jf the question be. Hath a man sinned then, if he hath mar-
ried while he was yet ungodly? I say, his sin doth not lie in
what he hath done, but it lies in what he hath not done. It
doth not lie in this, that you have married; but it lies in this,
that you have not taken God for your God, and given up your-
selves to God through Christ, to be his : here lies the sin.
Marrying, abstractly, and alone, is not a sin ; nay, it is, in many
cases, a duty : but then, there is a prior duty, a superior duty:
513 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOB. (PART II.
therefore, none sin by marrying, barely, but bis sin lies in
not giving up himself to God, which he is under continual,
momentally obligation to do. So that you are in a rebellion
every moment you defer it : you keep from God his own right,
his own treasure, that he hath made, and that he should be
served by, as his own. And that is the case, which neither
deserves, nor needs any further answer. But,
(8.) Tiie design of religion to be, to our uttermost, kept up,
from age to age, in this world, is to be served, as much as is
possible, by those that have the prospect of being parents in
their agreed resolution with themselves, whenever God shall
give them posterity, to temper and qualify their complacency
herein, with that grief, sorrow, and concern, and fear, which
the case itself challengeth, lest there should be a transmitting
of corrupt and sinful nature, without a due subsequent endea-
vour to remedy what they could not prevent. There ought to.
be, I say, a joint agreement and resolution between such, if
ever God give them posterity, to qualify and temper the com-
placency commonly taken herein, v/ith that just mixture of
concern, grief, and fear ; that since there is a corrupt nature
conveyed, lest it should go alone, or remain alone ; and a
holy, divine nature not be communicated, too, through any
neglect on their part, when God doth give them opportunity
of treating and dealing with such, who shall have sprung
from them, in order to this end. There ought to be a great
and deep concern of mind and spirit to this purpose ; that,
whereas, commonly, when a child is born, all that is considered
in such a case, is, that now such a family is likely to be built
up; and they take great complacency in it, that tiiere is an
offspring arisen to them : but this complacency is without that
mixture and qualification, which the state of the case, as it is
in itself, doth challenge. For it ought to be considered, We
have been the instruments of bringing into the world a sinful
creature, an impure creature, a guilty creature ; one that is a
child of wrath by nature. The complacency that is taken in
having posterity, should not drown or swallow up such just
considerations as these are, which, being entertained, may
have their due effect, and proper influence, to excite to that
subsequent duty which will be incumbent upon such parents.
And,
(4.) Such parents ought to endeavour a most entire agree-
ment in, and understanding of, a solemn and early dedication
and devoting of such, their issue, to God. This ought to be
done understandingly, solemnly, and early. And the parents
ought to agree to give God his right in their child j that as it
JLEC. XXXIX.) All men depraved — duty of parents, 51^
is by nature a child of wrath, it may be, by grace, an heir of
mercy; they doing what in them is incumbent in order there-
unto; they taking hold of God's covenant, which is not a nul-
lity ; and it is profane to think it so. And, indeed, nothing
doth more betray the interest of God, and Christ, and Godli-
ness, and Christianity, in the world, than the slight and tri-
fling management of the important affairs of baptism ; tbat it
is so little understood; and that men play with it as they do;
and as they do also, with that of marriage, as if it were mat-
ter of sport, when it is one of the things of the greatest im-
portance in all the world. But it ought to be considered,
here is a creature corrupt and impure, it is true, but in which
God hath the first and proper right; it belongs to him, and
he can make this impure creature a holy creature. And I
offer it to him upon his own claim, and challenge, and the
engagement of his word, in order thereunto, that be may do
so. Herein parents should agree : " We dedicate to thee
what thou hast given us, more thine than ours. We have
had our contribution to the impurity of it: we can only
hope to have it made a pure and holy creature by thy holy,
gracious, and vital influences, in thine own way and time im-
parted, and communicated to it." And it is upon this ac-
count, that parents are sanctified to one another; though but
one should be a believer, that what springs from them should
be holy; that is, by a federal holiness, related to God, and
capable of being devoted to him. 1 Cor. ']. \\. And then,
(5.) Pursuantly to such a devoting of their little ones to
God, it ought to be a joint agreement between parents, that
their first care should be taken about their minds. " Now,
here is a little one to be brought up, to be educated:" this
should be said, as a fundamental resolution, by agreement and
consent of parents. " Our first care shall be about the mind
of this little one, if it live to be a capable subject of our edu-
cation and instruction ; that is it we will first be chiefly
concerned about For this is an intelligent and immortal
part; this is the seat of God's holy image, if ever it shall be
produced; and it is itself his natural image: for as it is a
mind, or hath a mind, so it is a spiritual and intelligent being,
and is like God naturally, and his very offspring, upon this
account, who is pleased to style himself, ' the Father of spirits,
and the God of the spirits of all flesh ;' of those spirits that
dwell so meanly as in flesh. And therefore, tliat ought to be
the agreed and resolved first care; tliat our piincipal concern-
ment be about the minds of our little ones." The care that is
commonly, most of all, taken, is about the outward man, and
520 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES Ot' GOD. (PART !!♦
the external concernments of our posterity : they love to see
them fair, comely, beautiful, healthful, strong, vigorous; wish to
see them have straight limbs, and the like ; but do not oare
how crooked dispositions they have. This is unaccountable,
and detestable, tliat it should be thus with a reasonable crea-
ture; those that are capable of understanding the differences
of things ; and of how much greater importance one thing is
than another. But this, I say, ought tojje the first care, and
should be the agreement between parents, (with dependanee
upon the grace of God,) about the minds of our little ones.
And,
(6".) In order hereunto, there ought to be a very diligent
observation made of them, to see what their natural temper is,
or is like to prove, which will discover itself to an observing^
eye, by early indications, one way or other: that is, whether
my child is likely to prove dull or docile ; whether it is likely
to prove mild and meek, or froward and peevish ; whether it
is nkely to prove tractable or intractable ; whether it is likely
to prove mean and low spirited, or great and high spirited.
These different dispositions will soon and early appear to ob*
serving eyes. Such notices should be taken by prudent pa-
rents, and must be by conscientious ones, who have a design
for the good of their families, that they may know how to ac-
quit themselves in aftertimes accordingly. Some children will
discover more of a natural timorousness ; others will discover
more boldness and venturousncss, and that very early. And
careful observation should be made of the temper as it doth
more Cdxly prodere sc, discover itself, offer itself to view and
observation, that there may be suitable measures taken, for
prudent applications afterwards, as the case shall require.
And then, again,
(7.) Resolution ought to be taken between parents, and es-
pecially the mothers, (whose part will be more about the child in
its more tender years,) to watch against any sinful inclinations,
one way or other, as they shall discover themselves. If there
be any appearance of falsehood, of wrathfulness, of envy, or
revengefulness; of pride, or haughtiness in children, to ani-
madvert upon these betimes. And especially of immoderate
desires after anything; only it ought to be distinguished, whe-
ther it be the desire of that which is necessary for it ; or a de-
sire only of that which curiosity may prompt to desire. That
whieh is necessary for it must be had; but not upon its first
sigtiiiieation of a desire ; that it may be made to understand
butimc?, dependanee and subjection. And that the less it hath
of understanding of its own, the more it is to be managed by
the parent's undcrstajjding; and the havings even of necessary
J
LEC. xxxix.) All men de2)ravcd — dv.ti/ of pareJits. frji
tilings, is not to be the reward of demanding them, or asking
for them.
But for unlawful inclinations, they are to be checked, with
all tiie care and industry imaginable, very early; any such as
I have instanced in, or whatsoever l)esides can be instanced in;
repress the beginnings of these things, as you would the be-
ginnings of a disease that may prove mortal to your child.
And it is this neglect, (especially in mothers,) that ripens such
evils as these, thus radicated in the very natures of children, till
they are incurable ; till they be past cure. And that makes
so many bills, as in a desperate case, to be sent in to us. It
is a far easier thing to send in a bill to a minister, when a child
is spoiled and ruined in its tender years, than it is constantly to
watch over them, and repress their ill inclinations betimes,
and make them understand government, and subjection, and
dependance, in their early da3's. But where the will of the
child is the law of the family, and must govern all, no won-
der if plagues and mischiefs, of this kind, are introduced and
brought into families by this means.
Divine wisdom hath taught us in such cases how to under-
stand the matter aright. " He that spares the rod hates his
son :" fond parents think it love; but divine wisdom calls it
hatred. And therefore, is the advice, in that same book,
Proverbs 19. 18. "Let not thy soul spare for his crying."
What I because he erics will you throw him into hell, will
you abandon hizn to destruction? Not that there needs much
of frequent severity, where tliere is a due prudence used in
reference to such cases. I have known children brought up
to men and women's estate, that never had a blow in their
lives; nor was it needful. It would not be needful, if there
were a steady awfulness in the deportment of parents towards
them, so that they might, upon any thing that were really a
miscarriage, understand a frown, a rebuke, a strange look. If
there were that prudence used, that might be used, there
would be little need of harshness and severity, unless upon very
ill temper indeed ; and they must be dealt with accordingly.
But where all the care is to indulge a humour, and please
tlie child; and wlierc there is a disposition in parents, many
times, to be proud of the 111 dispositions of their children, as
they appear in them, how many ill tempers are made worse ?
And how many good tempers are spoiled by this means ?
And the guilt and future miseries of the children will cry
against their parents, not only in this world, but, perhaps, in
the other too. And the truth i;, parents would shew a great
deal more mercy in that which is commonly reckoned liarsh-
TOL. vif, :". K
522 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES Or GOD. (PART 11.
ness and severity : nay, 1 say, they would not be reckoned so
cruel in breaking their childrens' limbs, in tearing their flesh,
in pulling out their eyes, as they commonly are, in indulging
their vicious, sinful dispositions and inclinations, in them,
without a timely endeavour of cure, wherein the seed of those
miseries are sown, and spring up so in this world, and in the
other too. Again,
(S.) They ought, in pursuance of the mentioned end, to
instill the principles of religion betimes. Teach them betimes
who made them, that great Supreme Being who is the Maker
and Author of all things ; teach them reverence and subjec-
tion to him: speak awfully before them, so as never to take that
great name in vain ; so as that your fear, your own fear, of
the great God, whose name you bear, may be exemplary to
them : as Jacob sware by the fear of his father, Isaac, when
the important solemnity of the occasion called for an oath.
Jacob had observed what Isaac's reverence of God was, and
so called him " my father's fear." O teach your childien to
know God as their parents' fear. And so the other great prin-
ciples of religion besides, which they are capable of under-
standing (if there be a due and diligent application) earlier
than is thought ; earlier than is commonly thought, at least:
but the sooner the better : *•' Train up a child in the way he
should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."
Labour to season him betimes : so the wickedness of a corrupt
nature is to be counterwrought. And then,
(9.) Pray much for them. You that are, or maybe, parents,
as you are so, or upon that prospect, let this be a matter of
great concern between God and you. Pour out your souls
in your closets, upon this account; especially such of you
to whom God hath given children. And be sure,
(10.) To set up and keep up family worship, family religion.
Let this be an agreed thing between you; that as holy, good
Joshua resolved, " 1 and my house will serve the Lord,
whatever others do, we will serve the Lord." As a corrupt
nature comes by birth, and wickedness springs up so, so it is
nourished and cherished, in great part, by the ungodliness of
parents. In families were there is no calling on the name of
the Lord, O how doth it thrive ! That wickedness that is na-
tural, how doth it grow and improve in an irreligious family,
a profane family ! So doth the wickedness of this world grow, -
the wickedness of England, the wickedness of London. And
the misery thereof is growing pu7'l passu, ivith an equal
fnice. And u dreadful calamities are coming upon us, com-
ing upon the land, coming upon this city, we have reason tp
jLEC. XL.) All meJi depraved — duty of imrent&i 523
apprehend here ?s the very source of all the mischief, even
family profaneness. God is banished out of the families of
the most: and what will this come to ?
I desire to bless God for it, that the ministers of this city,
such as are united, and are wont to meet weekly, about the
common concernments of their congregations, are awakened
int© a sense of this great and growing evil; and they hav^
resolved to use their utmost endeavours to awaken the people
of their several charges and congregations, about this very
thing. And (God willing) you will have more of it ere it be
long; that I believe there will be such a joint, agreed, com-
mon cry in London, against the wicked neglect of the wor-
ship of God in families, as hath not been for many an age
past. I hope there will. And know, it is an agreed thing,
that there shall, at some one time and, as near as may be, all
about the same time. And so will, I hope, the faithful ser-
vants of Christ (at least) deliver their own souls. Yea, I
hope God will bless this to be a means of great reformation in
this city.
For the evil as is feared (at least it is said to be matter of
observation with some, for my part, I know it not, but it is
matter of fear with many) is, that a great many professors of
religion make no conscience at all of any such thing, as
family duty; but prodigally throw away that time otherwise,
which should be spent in the solemn worship of God in their
families, with those of whom he hath committed the care
and charge to them. And if what is designed happen, and do
not produce a thorough and general reformation among us, it
will produce a vindication of that justice, of that severity,
which we are to expect. For God will not be dallied with
always ; and I doubt, not much longer. That which hath been
a seat of religion eminently in the world, in the 6ye of the
past times, that religion should languish and dwindle in it,
as it doth by the neglect of family government, even by per-
sons professing godliness, and who would be counted a godly
sort of people, is a very sad consideration.
LECTURE XL.*
Secondly. I would now add some considerations to enforce
what I have been pleading with you about. And,
* Preached Dec. S, 10'94.
524 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD, (PART II,
1. That which is obvious in the text — "Behold, I was
sliapen In iniquity ; and in sin did my mother conceive me."
Parents, they have transmitted a corrupt nature to their cliil-
dren. Into what agonies of spirit should it put us, to think
with ourselves, " I have been an instrument in producing
an lieir of wrath, and of a divine curse. O ! shall I use no
endeavour to draw it under a blessing, and make it the sub-
ject of blessedness, now that we live under that gospel, in
which we are called to blessedness ?" But that call must be
pursued; and God expects it should be so, in apt and suitable
methods and applications, by sucii as he makes use of as in-
struments, one way or another, whether in private or more
public stations, in order thereunto. And,
2. Consider God's original, supreme, and sovereign in-
terest in families, as he is the Founder of them, and as they
are his plantation. " He sets the solitary in families." Psalm
68. G. Consider this, together with the design of his forming
of them ; to wit, that he might have a godly seed still arising,
from age to age, as you may see in that Malachi 2. 15. It
was the very end and design of that fundamental relation in
families, and unto families, the conjugal relation : "■ Where-
fore did he make but one, when he had the residue of th(i
Spirit ? Why, that he might seek a godly seed." As if it had
been said. These plantations are mine. This,vlhe constitu-
tion of families, (in which tiie conjugal relation. Is the fun-
damental relation,) speaks, upon thcj first design of settling
such a constitution as this. There lay open (as we must but
be sure) to the foresight of the divine eye, what a general
apostasy and defection tliere would be; and that a corrupt na-
ture would be transmitted, from age to age, from generation
to generation. But God did determine with himself, not, there-
fore, to abandon all to one common ruin : as if he should have
said, *' I will have an interest in this world, notwithstanding."
And therefore, as this was the original design of tlie consti-
tution of families, that he might have a godly seed, though
the apostasy hath intervened, he will not quit his design : for
his interest is still the same in its own nature. And therefore,
this we must understand him continually to insist upon, as a
sacred right to himself; that he will have this design puisued
by all that will be subject to him, that will return into their
state of subjection, and be willing to serve him in the several
stations that he hath set them. Fie will have all endeavours
used for transmitting of religion, as well as corrupt and sinful
nature is transmitted, from age to age; though tiie one is done
by a natural, the other is done by instituted means, folio -A'cd
r.Kc. XL.) All men depraved — dutu oj parents. 32:i
with a blessing, and by influence iVoin above : he will have
this latter design carried on by the mutual and joint endea-
vours of parents, under the iufluenee of \\U gxwcc ; as well
as the former course Is carried on unavoidably. I5ut when no
care or concern Is had about this, the foundmlons of families
are laid In a curse. And then,
3. Consider, that It cannot but concern paicnts, such as
are such, or may be so, to express a natural aHiction, and to
endeavour to have that Improved, by haviiij^ it sjiirltuallzed,
and improved to a spiritual purpose, as well as they are the
means by which a natural corru])tion Is conveyed, and trans-
mitted to their posterity. " They have natural corruption
from me ; (they ought to think ;) and shall there be nothing
of natural affection ? And sliall i not labour to have that natu-
ral affection sublimated, and spiritualized, and iiiiproved, so
as to aim at their spiritual and supernatural good ? >5ha!l they
have nothing from me, but sin and de;ith ? or nothing besides
the human nature which they have iVom me ; nothing but what
shall corrupt and spoil, make It the subject and seed-plot of sin,
against God, and misery to themselves?" If there be any thing
of natural affection working downward with the descent of na-
tural corruption, that natural allectlon siiould aim at the true
good of them whom nature luuh so much endi;ared; and
should, upon that account, take In the mi.viUa, draw in the
aids and helps from heaven^ by v.'hich that natur;d aflcction
will become spiritualized; and so the more sincerely and en-
tirely aim at, and the more fervently pursue, a design for the
spiritual and eternal good of those who descended and sprung
from us. And,
A. It is to be considered, vvhat an honour tjiis doth de-
rive upon thiC persons themselves, that shall be Instrumental
in this design. A glorious thing it Is, to be a servant to God
in so great a work as tills ; to recover out of tlie state of apos-
tasy, those that come Into that state by our means ; to be an
instrument. In the hand of God, to promote liis kitigdom in
this world, in opposition to the dark kingdom of the Infernal
powers. How glorious a thing is It, to carry on a designed op-
position against the work of the devil in this world! that
when we know the aim and purpose of the great God, Is td
have, in all successions of time, a people for his name, I
should be instrumental In promoting it ! It is an iionourable
thing, a thing tiiat draws a glory upon the persons, and upon
the families, vv-here religion dotii thus couie to take place, to
take root, and is planted, and doth flourish. And again,
5. It speaks an agreement and sameness, in a gri.-.at mini-
526 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (PART II.
sure, of mind and design, with the Redeemer. For he is to
have his seed in this world, from which his word and Spirit are
never to depart; Isaiah 59, latter end. And the matter is
settled, hy everlasting covenant, as you find it there : "This is
my covenant, (saitii the Lord,) My Spirit that is upon thee,
and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not
depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed,
nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, from henceforth and
for ever." And so we know it hath been an agreed thing, as
the matter is stated, (Isaiah 53. 11,) between the Father and
him, that he shall see his seed, and the travail of his soul, and
be satisfied therein : and that, as a recompense for his having
undertaken the work of redemption, and accomplishing it,
upon tcrnis so painful, so expensive, so dolorous, so igno-
minious to himself. As if the Father had said to him, '* Thou
shalt have all this, this reward; thou shalt see thy seed, and
the travail of thy soul, and be satisfied therein." Upon this,
our, Lord Jesus Christ cannot but be most intent to see a
continual seed spring up to him, out of a seed of evil doers;
out of an apostate race of men. Now, if we be intent upon
this thing, it bespeaks a sameness of mind and design, be-
iwecn the Redeemer and us: which, how pleasant, how de-
lightful, how comfortable, should it be to our reflecting
thoughts ! And again,
6. It Is further to be considered, that if there be no such
design to promote godliness in families, that that may be trans-
mitted from age to age, (though in a distinct and diverse way,)
as the corrupt and sinful nature is transmitted, then, we can-
not but be doing our part to the promoting of ungodliness in
tlie world ourselves. We shall do that, and nothing besides,
nothing in opposition thereunto. For do but consider, as tlie
case stands between God and man, there can be no medium
between being for godliness, and being for ungodliness ; we
cannot be in an indifferencv. If we are not, according to the
uttermost of our power and capacity, for transmitting, and
continuing of godliness in the world, we must be for the
continuing of ungodliness. A horrid and fearful thought, if
any would but allow it to take place ! They can only be in an
indiffereney, in reference to any case whatsoever, that have no
real concern therein, one way or other. But here, every
one is concerned; and he must take a part: he must be for
the promoting of godliness, or promoting its contrary. And
therefore,
7. According to this state of things in the world, they that
do aim to contribute nothing to the transmitting of religion
LEC. XL.) All men depraved — address to children, 52)1
and godliness in the world, in opposition to the corruption of
nature, which is so generally spreading through it, they
are continually providing that there may be a war and reix-l-
lion continued and kept on foot, against lieaven, from age to
age, and from generation to generation. " He that is not
with me is against me," saith the Lord. If you will not take
God's side in this matter, you are fighting against him, and
labour to do all that you can, that the rebellion against him,
may not cease ; but tliat there may be still a succession of
new rebels, new enemies, from one age to another. And,
8. You will herein, too, be constant accomplices and
confederates with the prince of the apostasy; he that first fell
from God, and that made it his design to involve all the world
in tlie transgression, and in the consequent ruin ; you will be
continual accomplices with him. And this Is, indeed, the state
of every one's case, in these matters. Whoever will but con-
sider with himself, if he be come to the use of his under-
standing, and hath some prospect, (though uncertain,) of a
life's time to be run out in this world, he will find the world
divided between two great lords, two great masters, two great
fathers : that is, the true and Rightful Lord of all, he that
made all; and to whom all belong; and that usurping prince
of darkness, who is called, *' the god of this world," and
whose children and seed wicked men (as such) are said to be.
Why, every m a upon the prospect of entering upon the scene,
the stage of this world, is to think with himself, " I must, in
this case, either be with God, or against God. If 1 be not
with God, if I be against him, I am with that horrid, usurped
power, that is set up in opposition to him, with this world :
and 1 fall in with tlmt common destroyer, against the common
Maker and Preserver of all things." This will be the state of
your case, if you be not intent upon a design of counterwork-
ing this common corruption, which is descending in thi,9
world; you will be looked upon under no other notion but as
an accomplice of hell against heaven. And,
9. You will herein, falsify with God, after you have
solemnly vowed and covenanted by your Christian parents. You
have ordinarily been devoted and dedicated to God in baptism.
To deal falsely and treacherously with a man, against the tenor
of a covenant, is a horrid thing : but to break faith with
God, is much more horrid !
But you will say. You made no sucli vow ; and what your
parents did for you, how should that bind you ? Why,
(1.) It is very great ignorance to think, that parents cannot
bind their children to any thing. Those that have the nearest
528 THE FrirNClPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOB. (PART II,
natural interciit in you, and whose understandings and wills
are to he employed for you, when you have no understanding
and will to use of your own, do you think they, from whom
you sprang, have not a natural interest in you ? How unreason-
able and absurd a thought is that ! lu reference to all other
concerns besides, have parents no disjwsal of their children ?
And may they dispose of them, or do for, or witii them other-
wise, and may they not dispooo of them for their spiritual
good ? And again,
(2.) It is every where counted a very liorrld and barbarous
thing, to endeavour to rescind the lawful act of a parent, if it
were in my power, if 1 could do it. If I could alienate, or alter,
wliat he hath so and so disposed ; and if he have righteously
disposed of it for me, to come after and labour to rescind and
undo all that he hath done — ihis is barbarous and infamous, in
common estimate, among men. And,
(3.) It must needs be riiuch more so as to (lod, or if he be
concerned in the matter. As now for instance, Suppose a pious
person, with an honest mind and design, hath dedicated such
a part or portion of his estate to a pious use ; suppose it be not
mere charity, but a pious charity, that is, not designed for a
superstitious use, but for a use truly pious, and to serve the
interest of God and religion in tlie world ; and a son comes
after, and he laliours to undo all thi^ : you that would think it
horrid, to alienate a piece of earth, dedicated to God by your
parents, ought you not to« think it horrid, to alienate a soul
iVom God, which hath, as much as in them was, been dedicated
to God by them too ? 1 would not alienate a piece of earth,
dedicated to God ; but I would alienate myself, my soul, my
body, dedicated to him. This no man should (if he had power)
alienate. What was dedicated and sacred to u use truly pious,
may not be alienated; and if not a portion of his estate, much
less himself so dedicated, and given to God. But yet, fur-
ther,
(1.) It is to be said, that as this was not to be done, if it
were in his power, so he cannot have such a thing in his power,
to wit, in his rightful power : for every one was a debtor of his
whole life and being, his soul and body, and his ail, to God,
antecedently to any such dedication. And therefore, when
such a tender is made to God, it was but to tender and devote
to him, what was his own by a more early title. " All souls
are mine ;" so he lays his claim universally to all the souls of
men ; and therein to the whole of them ; for what are they
besides a ;;oul ? what that is valuable or considerable besides ?
" All souls are mine, as well as the soul of the father, as the
LEC. XL.) All men depraved — address to cJdldren 529
soul of the son." Ezeki'el 18. 4. He hath a nearer interest in
them than a parent could have, before anv such dedication:
for a parent was not tlie parent of their spirit. They are the
fathers of our flesh ; but lie himself is the Father of spirits ;
the principal and most considerable thing that we have about
us, or that belongs to our being. And therefore, when such
a dedication was made, there was only a tender made to God,
of v/hat was his before ; of what he claims an interest in origi-
nally. He is the Father of them, and they are his offspring.
And again, further,
(5.) This, in answer to that, is to be considered, that though
inclination to good do not descend, yet, obligation to it doth
descend, from fathers to children, and from the predecessors
in a family, unto their successors. Not only obligations of
justice and common right, but obligations of kindness and
friendship. As, how ordinary is it for friendships and amities
to descend from father to son, in families. And it is looked
upon as a rude kind of thing, to be uncivil to my father's
friend. And on which side, between families, among whom
hath been a friendship, it first begins to fail, it always lies as
an imputation upon that side. Great amity there was between
such and such families; but now it is at an end, since such
and such successors are sprung up there. On whose side the
failure is, there commonly lies a very ill character. And it is
a thing contrary to the dictates of common wisdom, — yea, and
of the divine wisdom. " Tiiine own friend^ and thy father's
friend, forsake not." Prov. 27. 10. But how much less then, thy
God, and thy father's God ? If it be an indecency, and uncomeli-
ness, and a very unfit thing, that is, contrary to the precept of
studying whatsoever is lovely, and thinking of those things, to
forsake my friend, and my father's friend, how much more
horrid must it be to forsake my God, and my father's God '
"My father's God shall not be my God !"
And therefore, it is not so light a matter, as is commonly
thought, to have the weight of that early dedication, lying
upon one's score as a violated thing; as having dealt falsely
in that covenant of God. Indeed, it is not only an evidence,
hut a cause of the languishment of religion in our days, that
this is a thing so little thought of among christians: " I was
devoted to God early, given up to him with great solemnity;
having these venerable names, — the name of the Father, the
name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Ghost, named
upon me, at my setting forth into the world." It speaks
an apprehension of that thing itself, as if it were trivially
done at first, if we make a trifle of it all our days afterward: ;
VOL. VII. H y
530 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORAOLES 07 GOJ>. (PART II.
as if such a solemn transaction between the great Lord of hea-
ven and earth, and his own dust, his own creatures, the works
of his hands, were to be so lightly made of. Therefore, take
%ve the weight of this upon our spirits. If v.e do not do, in
our several stations and capacities, our uttermost to counter-
work this descending evil in the world, we do falsify the sacred
covenant of God, in which we were early and preventingly
bound to him, by the vow of parents concerning us. And then,
10. It is the way, certainly, for us to lose all the comfort of
domestical relations, when we are not driving on this design
in our several stations: we lose by it, all the comforts of family
relations. For what comfort can I take in having such and
such relations, in a family, when, in the mean time, there is
a contrariety, and a war, maintained and kept up between God
and me ? So that I can never eat or drink in peace, or converse
in peace, or rise up, or lay down in peace; but still I have
wrath from heaven upon me ? This will infuse gall and gravel
into all my enjoyments whatsoever. I am not serving God's
design, for the promoting of godliness, in opposition to this
grov/ing and descending wickedness in the world : I do nothing
towards it. This very reflection is enough to embitter all my
comforts. And what are such and such relations to me, but
confederates against God ? They agree to sin together, and to
carry on an interest against God together. For there can be
no neutrality in such cases, as was said before. And then,
11. This is but an ill provision for a day of accounting,
which will come, whether we sleep, or whether we wakej
whether we forget all such considerations, or whether we con-
sider them. " Judgment lingereth not: and destruction slum-
bereth not." If 1 eat on, and drink on, and sleep on, judg-
ment comes on with never a whit the slower foot. O ! the
seriousness of that interwoven counsel, in the discourse of the
apostle, even with reference to this business of the matrimo-
nial state. ] Cor. 7- 29, 30. '^ But this 1 say, brethren, the
time is short : it remaineth, that both they that have wives be
as if they had none; and they that weep, as if they wept not;
and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they
that buy, as if they possessed not; and those that use this
world as not abusing it : for the fashion of tliis world passeth
away."
The time is short. That may have reference to families, and
tlie world: families that were spoken of before and after; and
the world, in the whole, wliich is spoken of there in express terms.
The fundamental relation in families, it is measured by a short
time; by a very short time. Where there hath been such a
LEC. XL.) All men depraved — address to cliildre?}. 531
union lately contracted, it will shortly be broken; time mea-
6ures it; and that time will have run to its period very speedily.
The time is short : it remains, therefore, that they that have
wives be as if they had none; and they that rejoice, as though
they rejoiced not. They rejoice in having neuly contracted
such a relation : it is reasonable to understand it so, consider-
ing it the subject of the apostle's foregoing discourse; that joy
will be as if it had not been, in respect of the grounds: and
it ought to be so, in the mean time, in respect of the degree.
That rejoicing, in having entered into such a relation, will
soon be turned into weeping, as having lost it, or it having
lost you, which comu^s all to one. And it is but a short time
that measures all this.
And do you think it strange, tliat tliat time v.'ould be count-
ed short, which measures the time of a family, as it is made
up of such and such persons now coexistent; or that measures
the relation of two such conjugal relatives ? Do you think it
strange, that that should be spoken of, and counted a short
time, when it is but a short time that measures the whole, and
measures the duration of the whole — the fashion of the world
passing away? As persons vanish, and families vanish, so is
the world vanishing, all will be gone ere long. As the apostle
John speaks in the like place, J John, 2. 17* "The world
passeth away, and the lust thereof: but lie that doeth the will
of God abidetli for ever."
Now while it is time, and but a short time, that measures
all our affairs, and all our enjoyments, and all our designs,
under the sun; time that will be soon done, and which will
end in a general dissolution of all this world; a day, a time,
" when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
the elements melt with fervent heat ; and the earth, and all
things therein, be burnt up and destroyed." I say, sure if this
is certain to be the last catastroj)he and end of all things, of
what concernment is it to us, to consider hovv we may make
a comfortable account when time expires, and when it is to be
received, and .with it, what I have been, and what 1 have done,
in such or such a state and relation, in which 1 was placed in
this world! There ought to be an account made daily: Hovv
can I lie down in peace at night, and not be capable of giving
some good account that I have been doing somewhat for God,
and for the interest of God, and religion, and godliness, in
my station that day ? But how shall 1 lie down in the grave,
when a life time is wasted, and spent, and thrown away^ and
nothing done for God ? I liave rather served the interest of
ungodliness, than religion, ail my lime in this world ; and
532 IHE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (pART II.
how shall 1 think of appearing before the tribunal of the Su-
preme Judge, when the end of all things cometh ; and when
I am beset with all the terrors of that day, — the heavens roll-
ing up, and all the powers of them shaken; the earth all on
fire, the elements all flaming round about me? And I have a
life's time to review and look back upon, spent away in sin and
vanity, with no design for'God,and for the Redeemer; though
I know that he had his design set on foot here in this world, with
which I co-operated not, to which I was not subservient — nay,
to which I have lived opposite in a stated course.
Let all these things be weighed and put together; and sure
we have a great deal to enforce this first instruction ; that since
corrupt nature is to lie certainly and constantly descending in
this world, we vi'ould, as we ought, in our several stations
and capacities, do our uttermost to counterwork that descend-
ing evil.
LECTURE XLL*
But now I shall carry the matter a little further; and as I
have been hitherto shewing what those that are, or shortly
may be, parents, ought to do themselves, in reference to their
next descendants, that is, those that shall more immediately
spring from themselves ; so, 1 will shew you, too, what may
and should be done, in order to a further descent, by those
that may have the authority to dispose of their children in the
conjugal state, with the expectation of a continual descent of
human nature by them further and further, — that so, that cor-
ruption and pravity which cannot be prevented, to descend
with it, may be, as much as is possible^ corrected, and redres-
sed in such an after descent.
This that I am now to speak to, will especially concern
such as have children to dispose of in the conjugal relation,
who are judged meet for that state. And, indeed, it will
equally concern such as are loco-parents, that have the paren-
tal trust devolved upon them, by the prudence of others, and
their own undertaking.
And as to such, I must still insist, that they are to observe
the same measures that have been given in reference to persons
who are, themselves, now entering the conjugal state, with the
prospect of an offspring, to which human nature, when it
^ Preached Dec, 15, IG94.
1
LEC. XLi.) Ml men depraved — advice to parents. 5S3
descends, will go accompanied wilh a sinful pravity. And
here, indeed, as to the case I am now to speak to, there are
on each side two parties ordinarily to concur, or two persons
in each party. There are the persons to be disposed of; and
there are the persons that dispose of tlicm. And 1 shall speak to
the part of these that are to he the disposers, parents or loco-
parents, guardians, trustees, who are to take care of settling
such in the world in the conjugal state, in reference whereto,
the things designed, in general, usually are, that mankind may
be continued upon the face of the earth ; and more especially,
more particularly, that such and such families therein, or
those that they are concerned or intrusted for, may be built
and preserved : and (as the Psalmist speaks) " their houses
may endure for ever; and their lands (if possible) still called
after their own names;" as in that psalm 49, 11. And this is
a thing that may prudently and justly be designed, in its due su-
bordination. If it be substituted in the room of the true and
great design of heaven, or carried on without reference to
God, and religion, and the transmission of a godly seed here,
upon earth, then you see the censure of the Holy Ghost,
upon this design, in the same context : "This their way is their
folly, though their posterity approve their sayings.'' Sayings
are doings here: the sayings of their minds and designs, toge-
gether with acting conformably and correspondently thereunto.
This their way is their folly ; yet one age approves the former
herein, and they that come after, run the same course.
Here I must, in reference to this, insist, that their measures
ought to be with consideration, that, with human nature, a sin-
ful pravity will descend, and that this may be (as much as is
possible) repressed: and so, as that God's design may be carried
on concurrently, which he had from the beginning, in settling
the conjugal state, and in planting families liere on earth ;
that is, that he might seek a godly seed. Wherefore one,
when he might have made many, having the residue of the
Spirit, but tliat he might seek a godly seed ? Mai. •^. 15. And
this design he hath no more quitted, than he hath disclaimed
his interest in this whole lower v/orld, or, saith, " It ceaseth to
he a part of my creation, or 1 cease to be the Lord and Owner of
it. But inasmuch as there lies under our present considera-
ration, the duty of such as have children to dispose of, with a
prospect that they will have children, and that so a care ought
to be extended as far as lies ordinarily within the compass of
human endeavour; there ought, indeed, a care extending so
far as the desire reacheth, and the main intention of the mind,
a great deal further. But so much as I speak to, comes com-
634 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF «OD. (PART II.
monly within the compass of actual endeavour. It is ordinary
for parents to survive unto the disposal of their childjen into
the conjugal state, with expectation of children from them ;
and therefore, it is the duty of such that I am now generally
to speak to.
And I will tell you, in general, wliat It is ; to wit, that as
much as in them is, to endeavour that religion be transmitted
and descend, and go down in their families, and in the fami-
lies for which they are concerned and intrusted. It is true, it
cannot descend the same way as human nature, and the sinful
pravity doth ; that is, not by propagation : but it is to descend
by pious education, as the means that God must be supplicated
to co-operate with, and bless, for the implantation of a better
principle, than could be propagated by nature. This sinful
pravity, it comes by nature : this superadded principle muit
come by grace. But then, there are means of grace in order
to the obtaining of that grace: and this is the first and the
readiest means; to wit, a pious education. And therefore, it
ought to be the care of such as have children to be disposed of
in the conjugal state. To speak a little more particularly,
1. To endeavour, as much as is possible, that they may see
them godly before they be married. As much, I say, as is
possible to endeavour that. It can be very little satisfaction to
the heart of a parent, (if it be so tender as the grace of God
in it should make it,) to dispose of a child into such a relation,
to a human creature, when, as yet, there is no appearance
that it is com.e into a relation to God, "My child hath now a
husband, or hath a wife, gotten for it ; but hath not a God,
not a Christ. This is a sad thought ! I have taken care that it
might have what is so unspeakably less necessary : but of that
which is most necessary, I have taken no care; that is, to see
that my child, my son, or daughter, was married to Christ :
to see, that before the conjugal covenant, there was the evan-
gelical covenant settled and established between God in Christ,
and this poor child of mine." And,
2. Their further care hereon ought to be, finding that there
&re some good appearances of pious inclinations, they do choose
out such for them as will fall in with them, in the design of
transmitting piety to their posterity : that I may have one for
my son, or my daughter, that 1 believe, in my conscience, will
make it their study and business, to educate their children in
the knowledge and fear of God ; that religion may run on in
the family, and that corrupt nature may not descend alone.
It is a very sad case when this is the very last part of the
concern ia such a matter as this : when the first thing thought
LEG. XLi^ ^11 men depraved — advice to parents. 535
of is, " Where shall I get a great fortune for my son ; or how
shall I marry my daughter into a great estate ?" When this is
the first care, is it like that precept of our Lord Christ —
''Seek first the kingdom of God?" Matt. G. 33. Tiiis is
looked upon as the umnn nccessarium, the one thing neces-
sary; a great fortune, an ample estate, a plentiful income:
and as for religion and sobriety, if that l)e considered, it is
considered on the by, collaterally, as if it were but a triile in
comparison. And so, accordingly, are bargains driven on, as
formal contracts, as for beasts in Smithfield ; even for the very
souls of young persons that have not judgment to choose for
themselves, and that, (it may be,) have a great deal of reve-
rence for those that are their guides, and have the disposal of
them. They think they must trust their care and judgment,
and do so. And they concern themselves only, how they may
do well in the world, without considering, at all, what shall
become of tiieir souls; or how they may be exposed and given
up for a prey ; or what shall become of those that sijall de-
scend from them.
This is so intolerable an evil under the sun, that we have
reason to wonder at the- divine patience, that it hath not, by
vindictive flames, animadverted on such wickedness long ago;
But we are to expect it will. And as it is the wickedness of
the world, which that final conflagration must animadvert
upon, and will, it can be upon no one thing more than this:
this way and means by which wickedness hath been propa-
gated in the world, from age to age, without any care or con-
cern, by those that should have driven on a counter-design, in
duty to the great Lord and Maker of this world ; as if he had
given it up to men only to sin in, and to indulge their sinful
lusts in, for a short life's time ; and then go down into the
dust and die. This is a thing so contrary to the reason of
mankind, (if that were attended to, and if men would com-
mune with themselves,) that we cannot but wonder that ven-
geance hath suffered men to live so long upon the face of this
earth, at such a rate : and we have no reason to wonder that
such a determination is set, that this world shall end, as we
are told it shall, by vindictive flames, consuming the inhabi-
tants of this earth from off it.
But [ shall here, first, answer a question which may arise
about this matter I have been speaking to; and then proceed
to enforce that charge or duty which, I liave said, doth belong
to such whose case and concern I have been speaking of. The
question is this : " VV hy, suppose I that am a parent, or a
guardian, do not discern in my child, (son or daughter,' now
536 THE PRINCIPLR.^ OF TUK ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
grown up, and of ulioui I have some thoughts of disposing
into the conjugal state; suppose I do not see in them any
thing of a pious inclination ; am 1 to endeavour to settle them,
in that relation, with such a one that is judged sincerely pious.
And to this 1 must say,
1. That none ought to be rash and liasty in their judgments
concerning others, who are pious, and who are not ; at least,
there ought to be a very careful abstaining from a positive
judgment concerning any, that they are ungodly. What judg-
ment we do pass, it is better, and safer, to err on the most fa-
vourable side. But we have a most express rule from our Lord
himself not to judge ; which is not to be understood, neither,
in a simple, but comparative sense. " Judge not, that ye
be not judged." We must not judge hastily, not judge rashly,
not judge positively, and concludingly, without very clear and
full evidence, that such a one is an ungodly man. But we
are told afterwards, in the same chapter, Matt. 7- 16. that men
are known by their fruits ; so that, as we are to be slow and
sparing in our judgment concerning others, especially on the
severer part, tiiat they are ungodly; so we ought to have,
when we do judge, that which may be very clearly evidential:
and then (as we do judge that there may be such evidence, as
upon which we cannot but conclude so) it is out of question ;
otherwise, we should not know how to carry it towards such as
are put under that mark, according as we are obliged to make
distinction ; and distinction even between them that have the
form of godliness, but appear not to have the power of it,
that vve may turn away from them. And if there are many other
things, mentioned in that context, that are inconsistent with
the power of godliness, but do very well agree only with the
form, the external form, we are to take our measures from
thence, and thereby to endeavour to guide ourselves, as to our
carriage and deportment, towards such: "Turn away from
them," as the apostle there directeth. And therefore, 1 say, if
matters do evidently appear, such and such do discover, by
an habitual stated course and practice, that there is not only no
serious godliness, but there is an enmity, a contrariety, an
opposition, to it, they cannot eomply with rules and ordinary
duties that do belong to it ; then, upon that, upon that suppo-
sition, I say,
2. That they, with whom any such are concerned in such a
treaty, will (as they ought to have) have such a design as you
ought to have, and therefore will decline you. They will
not have such a one for their son, or for their daughter : (if
they be such as make conscience of what th.cydot) and so
LBC. XLi.) All men depraved — advice to parents, 537
your question is answered. They will answer for you: "No,
1 will not have such a one come into my family, or for my
son, or daughter, tliat apjoears an enemy to godliness, a rebel
against Christ; that hath a fixed, habitual aversion to all seri-
ous religion. But,
3. If they sb.ould not do so, not make that choice, for
those whom they are concerned for, which they ought to make,
you, for your parts, ought to do as you would be done un,to ;
according to that general rule of our Lord, which carries so
much of equity, so visibly in the face of it, that even some
pagans have been fond of it : and one of the pagan emperors
would have had Christ owned for a God, purposely upon that
account, for that rule : Quod tibi non vis fieri, idler ne facias
what you would not that another sho7ild do to you, that
do not to him. Carefully observe that rule in this case ; " I
would be loath my family, being a godly family, to admit an
enemy to God and Christ into it ; why then should 1 endeavour
to thrust such a one deceitfully, and when the danger appears
not to them, as it doth to me, into a godly family ?"
It is true, that if such were married to one another, in that
case, this were not a thing that immediately concerns that
relation, it not lying against the essential vincuhan-, as the
apostle hath determined between christians and avowed infi-
dels : the nuptial bond holds, if it have been entered ; but if
it be to be made, it ought not to be made : for those that en-
ter into that relation, are to enter it with a design of being
" fellow-partakers of the grace of Christ, and helpers of one
another heaven-v/ard;" and such as can comfortably join in
prayer, and who are to carry matters so, as that their prayers
may not be hindered, and the like. And if I am not to eat
with a person visibly ungodly, much less an: I to fall into so
near a union, and converse with them : that is out of all doubt.
And therefore, as I cannot in duty and in prudence, for the
good of such as I am concerned for, suffer myself to be im-
posed upon, in such a case ; so I am not to impose upon
another. T would be loath to be so imposedupon, to have an
enemy to God and godliness brought into my family, or united
with my child: and I ought not to obtrude such a mischief as
that upon another person, and another family. But when any
thing in that kind is done, there must be so much the more
serious, subsequent endeavours for redress; there must he the
more earnest praying; and so much the more pressing advice
given; and so much the more solicitude and care used, that
such a one may be plucked out of the snare vvliich, by too
much unwariness, they have been betrayed into.
VOL. VII. 3 z
538 THE PRINCIPLES Ot THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART tt.
And thus, having answered that question, I will lay before
you some considerations that may be given to enforce all this.
And pray consider,
1. How little is to be alleged against it, against the carry-
ing on this professed and avowed design, in the disposal of
those I am concerned for, whether one's own children, or others
that are intrusted to our care; I say, to avow this, as our de-
sign, to promote and transmit religion, and the interest of
godliness in the world, consider how little is to be said against
it. All that can be pretended against it is, that the custom
and usage of the world is to look after a suitable match in
point of estate, in the first place. It is very true, it is so.
And so it is the custom of this world to forget God, and to
carry it towards him, as if he were not the Lord of this world j
and to cast his fear behind men's back; and to trample upon
his interest; and to count religion, (which is the main con-
cern of all men,) instead of their interest, their reproach and
dishonour. This is the custom of this world. But let such
things as these be put in the balance ; and so the other consi-
derations, which I intended, will fall in. As this, in the next
place,
2. That God doth manifestly insist upon this design still, of
propagating religion in the world. You find that he doth pro-
vide that such a design should go on through all the successions
of time. Our Lord Jesus Christ hath undertaken to be with
them that shall be engaged in carrying on this design, to the
end of the world. He hath set up an office on purpose; and
therefore, the design is not laid aside, nor ever will be laid
aside, of transmitting religion in the world. And how dutiful
a thing, and how glorious a thing is it, to offer one's self as
an instrument, within the compass of one's own sphere, to
serve such a design as this !
For let but conscience he appealed to in the case. Do we not
find, that God haih a design to keep religion in the world,
from age to age? What doth he continue this world for? Is it
only that it may continue in a rebellion against him, from
generation to generation, when it is impossible it should sub-
sist an age, or a moment, without his sustaining influence,
when we have so much assurance given us, that it is upon the
account of Clirist's interest, that this world is kept from dis-
solution all this while? It is by him that all things do subsist,
and consist.. Therefore, undoubtedly, God hath this design still.
What serves that gospel for, tiiat we live under, and the mi-
nistry and ordinances of it ? And when we know that God
hath such a design, shall not that which is his design, be our
lEC, XLi.) All men depraved — advice to parents, 539
principal design ? or shall we presume to disagree with him
about our principal end ?
Indeed, it is very true, if he had made a declaration from
heaven — *' I will have no more to do with this world; I will
save no more souls in it ; 1 will leave all to follow the in-
clination of their own hearts, and to walk and live in that
darkness which they love, and will have no more concern with
them :" if there had been, I say, such a declaration, then
all thoughts and care of this kind, that I am speaking of,
would have been superseded. For it is impossible for any
to act rationally, with despair. Where there is no hope, there
can be no design. But when we know that that is none of the
case, but God hath a design to continue religion and godliness
in this world, from age to age, I am a wretch, if I will not
make his design my principal design; or if any thing shall be
greater in mine eyes than that. And again, consider,
3. That if I do not do my utmost, within my sphere and
capacity, for the serving this design of God, I do certainly
make myself a party against him : for if there be a continual
descent of human nature, without a prospect of any means to
cultivate it, and correct the exorbitancies of it, in its further
descent, this is a continuation of the rebellion against God;
when there is only a provision made, that a rebellious nature
may descend, and no more ; nothing with it, no corrective
with it.
But what a monstrous thing is this ! vi^hen such care is taken
to correct the exorbitancies of nature in inferior kinds ; ve-
getative nature, sensitive nature. Men take care of their gar-
dens, of their flowers, of their trees: and (as the divine poet,
Herbert, saith) let weeds choke their sun. How monstrous
is this ! Into what a wilderness doth uncultivated and uncor-
rected nature grow ! You find it in inferior kinds. If nature be
not regulated, rectified, even vegetative nature, it will all be
over-run with weeds, and better plants grow wild. The pro-
tusions of nature, if no way regulated, they become very un-
grateful and uncomely. And when we find how the case is,
as to rational nature, what cultivation that needs, that it may
be susceptible of the implantation of such a better principle that
shall be governing, man becoming, without it, " as a wild
ass's colt," as the Scriptures speak. O ! who can endure the
thought, that so it should be with what descends from me ;
that what descends, shall have descending with it seeds of en-
mity, and rebellion, against the Majesty of heaven only; but
nothing concomitant towards the cure and the remedy of so
horrid an evil.
To have a nature poisoned with enmity, an envenomed na-
540 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
ture, even against heaven, running on, if I do not use my
utmost care and concern, that as there shall be a continual
descent of human nature, so that the correctives may accom-
pany it, and go along with it, I do make myself a party against
God and godliness. For I am sure that the uncultivated, and
impure corrupt nature will be continually carrying on that
war, and tumultuating in fresh rebellions, against heaven.
And so that makes me, by neglect, a party: [ betray the
interests of God in that matter. And,
4. Let it be considered too, what horrid cruelty this is to-
wards our own bowels, or such as I have otherwise undertaken
the care of, visibly to throw away their souls ; to seem not to
care what becomes of them ; whether they shall have any
lielps Godward, or heaven-ward, yea or no. No concern that
whatever they shall bring forth, in all probabiiity, and accord-
ing to visible appearance, is only brought forth for the de-
stroyer; all children of perdition only in view. And it is, in
the last place, to be added,
5. That if any such persons would allow themselves to con-
sider, that have such a concern upon them, or who are so in-
trusted with the disposal of young ones, either their own, or
others committed to them, that will finally be found most ojf
all cruel to their own souls. For how shall such, at last, lie
down in peace, when they come to make up their accounts
with God. " Such and such opportunities I had to serve the
God of my life in this world, which I have lost; and I have
thrown away such, whose souls I was concerned for, to have
taken care of, even as my own." For we are to love our
neighbours as ourselves : and much more those that are nearly
related. O ! the wounds and gall, and the terrors of spirit,
wherewith (if the matter be reflected on) such must lie down
at last. And the case is worse if it be not reflected on.
But then, there is somewhat to be said, too, to the other
sort of persons that are concerned in this same case ; and that
is, the persons to be disposed of. All that I have said hitherto,
refers to the disposers. But for them that are disposed of, it
is not fit they should come into such a relation as that,
till they can use some thoughts of their own, and so be capa-
ble of understanding vi^hat their duty is in such a case.
And,
1. It is manifestly their duty to be very flexible towards
parents and guardians, when they see they have a visible de-
sign of their spiritual and eternal welfare, in the first place;
and that which they are chiefly concerned for. And,
2. It is their duty to be inflexible, if t!iey find that such as
arc concerned for them, have a design to throw them away ;
LEC. XLI.) All men depraved — generalinfcrences. 541
that they do not care as to what concerns their souls, and their
spiritual estate, so as they may marry into an opulent condi-
tion in this world. In that case, 1 say, they ought to be in-
flexible : but dutifully and submissively, still. They ought to
carry it with decorum, and not to be insolent in their refusal
of those offers that are made them by parental authority, or in
opposition thereunto; but with modesty and humility, still to
dissent, still to disagree : " I will not so venture my soul upon
an ungodly person ; or where there is no hope I shall have
help Godward, or heavenward,"
LECTURE XLIL*
TTih'dly.f It may be of use to us, to let us see how reasona-
ble and righteous it is, that the conceptions and births of humaa
creatures should be ordinarily attended, from age to age, with
such dolours as we find they are. It is not to be repined at, that
when such conceptions and births are in sin and iniquity, they
should be also accompanied with terrors, with such pangs and
agonies, as are commonly experienced. For it ought to be
considered, what the productions are. What are the produc-
tions when a human creature is brought forth into this world ?
Why, a thing shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin. And
abstractly considered, and antecedently to supervening grace, it
is a monstrous production. Any such production, it is a mon-
strous thing. A reasonable, intelligent creature produced
into being, with a radical enmity against the infinite and su-
preme Good, the Fountain of all excellency and perfection.
Consider it, I say, antecedently to supervening grace, and every
human product is a monstrous one. As reason is yet but radi-
cal and seminal, so is corruption, so is malignity against God.
*' Estranged from the very womb," as that expression is,
psalm 58. 3.
Therefore, this lot is to be submitted to, with so much the
more equal mind, remembering that this was part of the first
sentence, when sin did first spring in the world, that concep-
tion and production should be in sorrow. That such sickness,
such pangs, such agonies, should so constantly attend human
conception and birth; we are not to repine at it, as if it were
an unreasonable, an unrighteous thing : but we are to consi-
* Preached Dec. 22, 16q^.
^Secondly, Should have been inserted at Lee. XLI, p. 532.
8*42 THE PRINCIPLES OP THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART 11.
der tlie reason of this and that ; God will have a continual me-
morandum kept on for tlie putting us in mind, from age to age,
what the nature is, that is descending and running dov/n in
this world, from age to age.
And that this should be the harder lot of that sex upon
which it falls, the apostle gives this account — that that was
the first deceived sex, first in the transgression, 1 Tim. 2.
latter end. And the indulgence that is superadded, ought t©
be so much the more gratefully acknowledged ; to wit, that there
is so particular discovery of grace with reference to that sex :
*' She shall be saved in child-bearing, if she continue in faith,
in holiness, in purity, in sobriety," and in love, the immediate
product of that faith; a heart united with God, by that "faith
which works by love." We read it, " charity," which com-
monly is understood to carry a reference especially unto a
fellow creature. But there is no reason for that restriction in
the native signification of the word itself. If she continue in
faith, and love, with holiness and sobriety, she is in a safe
stale, notwithstanding all the pangs and dolour, and agonies,
which, according to the original unreversed sentence, must b^
expected to be in the way. But again,
Fourthly. We may further learn, hence, by way of use, with
what patience, and meekness, and vi^isdom; and with what con-
sidering minds, parents should observe and bear the sickness
and death (when that case comes) of their children in their
younger and more tender age. It requires much grace, much
wisdom, a very serious and considering mind, to carry it
equally and aright, in reference to such cases when they fall
out : that a poor child that hath lately peeped into this
world, is presently struck with some distemper or another, as
soon as it breathes, it languishes, and, it may be, dies ;
which is, you know, a very common case: the far greater
part being hardly thought to outlive infancy, who are born
into this vvorld. These languishings end in death more com-
monly, than in recovery and consistency in health. What is
the reason of all this ?
Why humanly, indeed, they are apt to think it very strange,
who are short-sighted creatures, and measure all things by the
short line of time, and confine all those thoughts and appre-
hensions of things to this present world. But we are to con-
sider, that when such a creature appears first upon the stage,
it appears a creature tainted with sin ; so it brings death with
it, even from its very birth, into this world. *' Death pas-
seth over all men, inasmucli as all have sinned :" and sure,
iofants must be included ia that all 3 and so they must be un-
„,^.^ ^^t„ ^^o^raved — general inferences, 5 IS
derstood to be sinful creatures ; to wit, that this radical evil
hath tainted their natures, as soon as they have the human
nature.
This is a case, therefore, about which we are not to con-
tend, but which vve ought to set ourselves to improve, and
turn to gain. Is such a creature, as soon as it is born, a sin-
ful, impure creature ? Why, we must consider, that sin refers
to eternity. I pray mind, that every thing of sin against God,
it implies a reference to eternity, and to another world. Sin
never reacheth its end and term here in this world. They that
sin in this world, they are to give an account in the other :
and that obey, and do comply, and fall in with the terms of
the gospel, (the only prescription and relief in the case of
having sinned,) they are to have their reward in another world.
Sin, if it lie upon the sinner, turns fo a miserable eternity in
another world. Sin done away by expiation and by satisfac-
tion, turns to a blessed eternity in another world. Do not
think, therefore, that such creatures were finally made for th*is
world. It would be an accountable riddle, that infants should
but look into this world, and presently fall sick, and (as
commonly it doth) that sickness end in death, if human nature
were made for this world only. But this is to be considered,
when such a creature comes into being, here is a production
never to cease ; a thing lately come into being, never to go
out of being more : and that this world is only a vestibuluniy
an introduction into another world, which never dissolves,
and wherein, whether our state be good or bad, they never
change.
It ought hereupon to be considered, further, (that so such
a case as this may be improved unto advantage,) it is improved
to great advantage, if we consider what such a creature was
made for ; and considering it as a fallen creature, or sinner,
what this sin it hath about it, hath reference to. It hath refe-
rence to eternity. All sin hath that reference.
But it will be of further improvement, if it be also consi-
dered by parents, in such cases, as to what tendency they
usually have towards their children, when they are sick,
and with what solicitude and fear they used to be vexing
and disquieting their minds, lest they should die: yet they
ought to be instructed, hence, to have a tenderness in refe-
rence to their spiritual maladies, and a like concern and dread
of their dying eternally. Here would be a great improve-
ment. " O ! what a tenderness have I for my child when it is
sick. Why, this distemper doth but attack the flesh, frail,
mortal flesh, that was formed Qut of the dust so ne^#ly; and
544 THJE PRINCIPLES OF TtlE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
must, sooner or later, return to it again: but my child hath an
immortal spirit in it tooj and that is tainted with sin : it hath
its worst and most dangerous distemper within. O ! what
cries, what supplications, should I send up to the Father of
spirits, and Father of mercies, that he would cure these
spiritual maladies ?" And whereas, you are afraid that your
child will die; you are to be more afraid lest it should die
eternally.
And labour to consider aright, the grounds you have of rea-
sonable hope, in reference to this case. It is a case that pa-
rents ought not to consider with despair. Those that are them-
selves in covenant with God through Christ, the promise is to
them, and to their seed : and they have a great deal more reason
to hope, than they have to despair. And for ought I see, as
great reason to hope concerning their children dying in infancy
as they have to hope concerning themselves. The covenant of
God in Christ doth not signify nothing. And whereas, that
age is incapable of covenanting for itself, if such a one,
growing to maturity, do not disclaim, but stand to the cove-
nant of his or her parents, it holds firm and unalterable. And,
in the mean time, while there is no capacity, or possibility of
disclaimer, we have no reason to think there can be any fai-
lure on the other part, but, according to the tenour and consti-
tution of God's covenant, the infant, during its infant state, is
considered as a branch in the root ; and before it be capable of
treating and transacting for itself with God, it is treated for
acceptably and successfully by a holy and believing parent.
And therefore, such a case, when it falls out unto godly pa-
rents to have their children languishing, even in their infancy,
many times even unto death, they should consider what an ad-
mirable, strange thing it is : " This creature, as it came from
me, came into this world an impure thing, a polluted thing,
a child of wrath by nature ; now, how is it numbered among
the children of the Most High, and adjoined to the general
assembly, (when it is gone from hence,) to the innumerable
company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect !
What a change is this ! So impure a creature as it came from
me, is become now, all of a sudden, so glorious a creature!"
And it is further to that purpose, to be considered, What did
God make such a creature for ? Why, what do you think he
made it on purpose to please me ? If I be the parent, the
pleasure I take in it, is but a fcoUateral and secondary thing.
But do we yet need to be taught that God made all things for
himself? And that it may be good indeed, when such strokes
do befal families, children lopt oiF, one branch after another,
LBC. XL 1 1.) All men depraved — general inferences. 545
(it may be the single one,) to consider whatsoever a providence
may specially animadvert upon, and if there l>e any tliinj^
evident in view, it ought to be considered ; it ouglit to be well
considered and taken to heart. Yet, it is possible there may
be a vulgar error incurred in this matter too: that is, in think-
ing that the principal design of any such dispensation was, or
must be, the affliction and punishment of the holy parent.
That ought to be considered, where there is no notorious de-
linquency to be reflected upon. I say, it ought to be consi-
dered as some end, but not as that principal end, of such a
dispensation : for as the principal end of God's making sucli
a creature was not to please me; so the principal end of his
taking such a creature out of this world, was not to displease
me; but to glorify himself: and tliat end cannot be in this
world, for which he hath made such a creature.
And it ought to be considered, that his right in it, is more
than mine, infinitely. If any of you should put a child to
nurse, and it grows up under the nurse's care, and she is
pleased with it, takes complacency in it; and because she
doth do so, when you call for your child home, she will not
part with it, because it pleaseth her; surely, you would think
that your right and interest in the child are superior to her's:
and her's (whatever it is) is not to be considered in competi-
tion with your's; and, your's is far less to be considered in
competition with God's; your's is far more inferior. And
therefore, there ought to be a grateful j'esentment, not with-
out sense, not with stupidity; but with serious and apprehen-
sive minds, and having the state of the case lying in view be-
fore you as it is. And therefore, I add,
Fifthly. That the miseries of this world ought not to amaze
us. We are not to think it a strange thing, that this lower region
should be a region of so much wretchedness and carnality, as
it is found to be, from age to age : for is not every one that is
born into it, born a sinner ? And whereas, none can bring a
clean thing out of an unclean, who can hope to bring a quiet
thing out of an unclean ? Purity and peace, pollution and
disturbance go together. Every one brings into this world, not
only that which is troublesome to himself, but that which is
troublesome to others, too, with whom he hath to do. They
bring that with them into this world, which must make it an
unquiet, stormy region to them. Our greatest troubles (with
every one) are born with us. And this is the common case,
and cannot be otherwise, when we consider that sin, which
every one brings with iiim into this world, doth dissolve the
VOL. VII. 4 A
546 THK PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OP GOD. (pART H,
(inion between God and the soul, and breaks it off from God.
A sinner, as such, is loose from God. And therefore, this
would bring, from age to age, in a state of apostasy and se-
paration from God, that which we see to be the consequent
thereof, a universal confusion of our very nature within itself,
and of all men (as they fall into any kind of conversation
with one another) towards one another too. This cannot but
be, hereupon, a heap of confusion, a mere chaos.
How can it be otherwise with creatures fallen from God ?
If man that is born of a woman be an unclean thing, (as Job
14. 4.) then, (as the 14 chapter begins,) it is not at all strange,
that man that is born of a woman should be of few days, and
full of trouble. So many such creatures as are produced, and
brought forth into being in this world, so many fountains of
misery and wretciiedness are produced. Think of the vast
numbers of the inhabitants of this earth, and every one, even
from his very infancy, is a fountain both of impurity and mi-
sery. And therefore, it is not strange that so many foun-
tains should deluge this world, from age to age, both with
wickedness, so as that it may well be said to lie therein, and
(as that which is most connatural thereunto) with misery also.
And it is, hereupon, to be the result of our thoughts, wheri
we consider with ourselves, what a miserable region this world
is : this ought, I say, to be the result of our thoughts : it is all
natural, it is all most genuine; if we see early discords in
families, when a family is planted, young plants springing up
in it; if there are quarrellings, janglings, fallings out, perpetual
animosities, even among those nearer relatives in families;
as the poet observed long ago — Fratrum concordia rara,
seldom is there any agreement among brethren; those that
are branches of the same root. If we look further into larger
societies, cities, kingdoms, or nations, they are all continually
full of confusion, from age to age ; and it is from hence, that
the wretchedness of this world, which springs up from as many
fountains as there are men and women upon earth, and these
fountains, from their very infancy, are "like the troubled sea,
whose waters cast forth mire and dirt," as the prophet speaks :
" There is no peace saith my God to the wicked." That
wickedness which overflows the world, cannot but make it an
unquiet and gloomy region. And therefore, again,
Sixthlf/. We may further learn, how unreasonable and unac-
countable a thing it is, that men should be in love with this pre-
sent world. It is indeed, stupendous to think, that our minds
should so cleave to so horrid a thing as this world is; should be
LEC. XLii.) All men depraved-— -general inference s, 547
set upon it, that they will not run from it ; that here we think
of taking up our rest ! O ! think, wiiat we ourselves were, and
what the rest of mankind is ; "a generation of vipers," poison-
ous creatures, of an envenomed, malignant nature. If we
find that we have a design, any desire, any hope or prospect of
a better state, methinks, we should not affect to live among
such creatures, and continue ourselves when a cure is to be
hoped for ; when we understand the design of grace, that
it will make such as comply with its methods, pure, and
holy, and glorious creatures ere it be long : but not here, but
incohaiively and imperfectly only. When I consider this,
methinks we should be quite out of love with this world, and
say with ourselves, "This cannot be our rest, for it is polluted,"
as in that Micah 2. 10. O ! let us be up and begone as soon
as we can have a fair exit ; and make it our business while we
must stay here, as much as is possible for us, to keep from the
corruptions that are in this world, and to get, as much as in us
lies, this impure fountain of sin dried up; and to be waiting
with earnest, and most desirous expectation, for a translation
into that place where there shall be no more sin, but perfect
purity : nothing to interrupt and hinder the closest union, and
sweetest pleasures, and most delightful intercourse, between
God and us. " He that hath this hope purifieth himself as God
is pure :" the hope of being like God, and seeing him as he is,
1 John 3. 3. referred to the immediately foregoing ve'-se.
Which being made like God, and seeing him as he is, we
know this present state admits not of.
Seventhli/. Wq may further learn, hence, to admire the divine
patience towards this wretched world, that he hath spared it so
long, is so indulgent to it; while wickedness is so continually
propagating an enmity, rebellion, and war, against liimseif,
from one generation to another. We ought to consider the
divine patience in this, both as great and as wise. As great, to
look upon it abstractly, it is wonderful patience, that God
should bear with such a world, that is transmitting continual
wickedness and enmity against himself from age to age, when
lie hath it so perfectly in his power to put a stop and period to
all this, at his own pleasure. It is great patience. It is a
very great thing.
But we ought also to consider it, too, that it is the patience of
a God; and then it must be wise as well as great. Wise with
reference to somewhat else, as well as great in itself. It can-
not be, but that the reference of this patience must be to some-
what else, to some God-like design; otherwise, would he sus»
548 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
tain a sinful vvorlfl, and let sinners beget sinners, and propagate
a rebellion and war against himself, from age to age, if he had
not some great meaning in all this? Why, there will be glori-
ous results out of it, wiiieh, by how much the less our under-
standings are capable of comprehending it, with so much the
more patience, and resignation, we should wait for it. It will
be found at last a thing worthy of God, to have borne, with so
much patience, the wickedness of this world so long. But
then,
Eighthly. We are from hence to reckon, too, that this state
of things must not last always, when this is the constant course
and common case that, from age to age, impure creatures
are begotten of impure creatures, conceived in sin, shapen
in iniquity, we m.ay conclude upon it, that this course will
have an end. And we are not to think it strange, if it
should have such an end as the Scriptures of truth, tell us,
it will have; that is, that a day will come, "when the hea-
vens shall be rolled up as a scroll, and the elements melt with
fervent heat; and all things therein shall be consumed ancl
burnt up, as it is in that 2 Peter, 3. at large. We are not to
think this strange or unworthy of God, tliat he should design
such away, to put a period, at last, to the generations of men
on earth, when they are so continually, so long as they last,
handing down and transmitting wickedness and war against
heaven, from generation to generation. It is never to be
thought, that tliis can last always. Therefore, how much the
more wicked we observe the world to be, with so much the
more awe, tremliling, and dread we should consider what is
coming — that day of the perdition, and of the destruction of
ungodly men; this world being reserved unto lire against that
day. Ijut again,
Nintldj/. We arc further to learn, how admirable a thing it is,
that in the mean time, God should be raising up to himself a
divine offspring, out of an impure race of creatures; (Be they
as they are, and as they, from age to age, are born in sin, and
brought forth in iniquity, yet, saith God, ^' I will have my
part and share among them;") that he should have assigned
to a Redeemer his seed, (" He shall see his seed," Isaiah 53.
10,) even out of this corrupt seed, this seed of evil doers.
And whereas, according to the natural state of the case, (as
it is stated before,) man in his first apostasy being an accom-
plice with the devil, this world is entirely become the devil's
family: " You are of your father the devil." John 8. 44. So
men, morally considered, are. In respect of their naturals, (it
LEC. XLii.) All men depraved — generalinferences, 545
is true,) God is the Father of their spirits ; bi:t in respect of
their morals, lapsed, corrupted man, is the devil's seed, and
so, antecedently to grace, tliis world was become tlie devil's
family : but now, that God should raise up to himself a
family out of this family; that there should be a diverse and
contrary seed springing up, even amidst the other, and out of it,
opposite to the other, and having its particular and distinct
character, this is admirable! As the apostle tells us, "Herein
the children of God, and the children of the devil are mani-
fest." There is a manifest, discernible difference between
them. There is no doubt, they must needs differ, beyond all
that can be thought, who are of so vastly different parents.
But here is the wonder, — that God should design to raise
up to himself such a seed, out of such a world, out of such a
race! that he did not rather choose to abandon this (one) when
lie was gone off from him : and when he could, by a word,
have raised up another pure, holy, itmocent creature through-
out. No : but his design was to defeat the device and contri-
vance of the devil ; he thought to have this seed, all this race
of creatures entirely off from God: No, this shall not be; he
was resolved he would herein deceive the deceiver ; and (as to
this design of his) destroy the destroyer; — destroy him that
had the power of death, and make a fool of him.
This, (as I noted in the opening of the text to you) was a
course most eligible to the Supreme Wisdom, not to make a
direct regression of any of his works, by meeting with oppo-
sition and a design driven on against him. But he resolves to
proceed in the natural course that was laid out at first, and to
counterwork that arch-enemy, the first, the grand apostate;
and to carry on his own design, against his design ; and to turn
all to honour and glory at last : even into matter of the highest
triumph over the defeated and disappointed destroyer of souls.
And this is that which we should consider, with wonder and
reverence, that God should have such a design as this in hand,
and continually kept on foot, to raise to himself a pure, and
holy, and divine seed, (which shall at length be perfectly so,)
out of such an apostate degenerate race. And,
Tenthly. This lets us see the necessity of regeneration. Is
man such an impure creature, even from his very original, from
his conception and birth ? Then he must be new made. If any
thing shall be made of him to good purpose, he must be made
over again. This shews us of how absolute necessity it is,
that there should be not only in discourse, but in fact, that great
mystery of regeneration, belonging to our religion. Is maa
550 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ORACLES OF GOD. (PART II.
now, from the beginning, such an impure thing? (the great God
beholding this,) there is nothing to be made of this creature,
unless he be new mtide. Is he born such a thing? he must be
new-born. Born he is, of earthly parentage : but "he must be
born from above," as that word admits to be rendered, John
3. 5. But yet,
Eleventhly . It also shews the kindness, as well as the neces-
sity, of this regenerating work ; by how much the more neces-
sary, by so much the more kind. How admirable grace is there
in it ; that when the exigency of the case required that this crea-
ture should be made and horn over again: I say, when the case
required such a tiling, God should so graciously vouchsafe it?
This is admirable grace ! " We were sometimes foolish, diso-
bedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures;" slaves in our birth;
born slaves. " But when the kindness and love of God ap-
peared, not by works of righteousness which we had done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of rege-
neration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed
upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Tit. 3.
4, 5. Consider the grace of regeneration, how gracious a work
it is, that God, who had no need of such creatures, creatures
thai could add nothing to him, should condescend to such a
thing, to let that holy and pure Spirit of his, come, amidst
all their impurities, with his own holy light and influence,
upon creatures that he might have abhorred to touch with ;
that the holy and pure Spirit should shed his light and in-
fluences, (so pure things amidst so much impurity,) there to
regenerate, there to renew, there to form, there to reform —
O what grace is this ! And, lastly,
TiveJfthly. We may further coilect, hence, how glorious a
work regeneration or renovation must be, when that shall take
effect. " Behold, I make all things new." Rev. 21. 5. Who
would expect that such a state of things as this, should come out
of such a state as this world was degenerated into, when every
particular creature that inhabits it, was a fountain of impurity
and misery to itself, and to the rest ? That there should be
such a thing laid in the divine counsel — '^ Well, I will new
make this world ; there 'shall be such a thing as new heavens,
and a new earth, wherein righteousness shall dwell :" With
what wonder and transport should we think of this, that God will
have so glorious a world, out of a world so lost and sunk in
impurity and death, as this world is !
But thus far, we have been considering the state of the
apostate children of men — the fall of the first man--*
LEC. XLii.) All men depraved — general inferences, 551
THE FALLEN STATE OF MEN, and THE EQUITY AND RfGHTE-
OUSNESS OF THE DIVINE PROCEDURE IN ALL THIS. It re-
mains, in the next place, to come now to that which 1 last
observed, by way of" use, will lead us more directly to con-
sider j and that is, what hath been designed, and what
IS done, and is doing, in order to the recovery of
THIS impure, this LOST, AND LAPSED CREATURE.*
End of the Seventh Polume.
*To be continued in a Supplementary- V'olume.
Mason, Printer, Chichester.
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